About Fifty years ago a new landmass appeared, at first it were just some rocks, emerging from the ocean's floor. A few days later however, the small rocks had formed a plateau the size of a stadium. Time passed and the rock structure grew in size as more and more of the oceans floor was lifted and a mountain became its epicenter. After a month of growth in width and length of both the mountain and the new island, now nearing the size of an entire region. It wasn't until the top of the mountain came crumbling down, that researchers and tourist from everywhere of the world started deserting the new found mass, together with the Pokémon who had made it their temporary habitat. A volcano was revealed, with an inner crater the size competing to cover a quarter of the entire landmass. The day soon came for it to erupt, all Pokémon and humans had fled the space around and on the land. The eruption caused earthquakes in several regions, tidal waves crashed down onto the beaches and into the mainland's. Gigantic rocks got launched into the air, burning away the air around them before crashing onto the landmass or the ocean. Lava streamed down the cracks and covered large areas around the center. A big amount of dust was shot into the air, together with all kind of other gasses. The total eruption lasted a few hours, the aftermath lasted several years. At the end, the volcano had crumbled in on itself, creating a crater a few hundred meters above sea level. The dust clouds covered parts of the regions map, making sure no sunlight could touch the ground for another three months, resulting in a heavy loss in vegetation and certain Pokémon. The tidal waves had destroyed coastlines and launched large amounts of water Pokémon onto the dry lands, unprepared humans and Pokémon had been swallowed up by the waves and a lot were never found again. The price tag for repairs were not laughable, the tidal waves had done a lot of damage, but the earthquakes had caved in mines, brought down several sky scrapers, leveled large parts of forests and much more.
A few years passed and life returned to normal in the regions, the doom mass of land in the middle of the ocean was announced taboo for every human, they would not speak of it, nor visit it any time soon. Something peculiar happened by the end of the fifth year though, several people observed small groups of fire type Pokémon coming out of their holes and homes, making their way across the sea, from various regions. They were not all fire types, rock, poison, dark, steel, dragon and a few other types mixed themselves in and made the journey as well, much to the surprise of the humans as they did not know how they did it. Scientists observed, but could not find a reason for the exodus, what was later called the first immigration wave towards the landmass. The Pokémon on the other hand, felt at home on the warm rocky region. Food was scarce but they seemingly didn't mind, they survived. At the end, a few months after the sighting of the first groups, no researcher could estimate how many had made the cross, nor the variety in species.
The landscape was a rough one, but here and there plant began to grow, trees, bushes, grass, flowers and small rivers and lakes began to form. And after another year had passed a new wave got set into motion, grass types, bugs, water, electric and several others made their way to the land deserted of human activity. The trees had grown fast, covering parts of the land in big forests, grass had covered the rest of the surface mostly, a few areas remained where there wasn't enough ground to grow on. Eventually the rivers didn't seem to run empty anymore, the lakes having gathered enough rainfall to keep everything from drying up. The first inhabitants had already settled in, the crater having the highest density. This didn't matter to the newly installed neighbors, as they were more than happy with the rest of the available surface. Everyone had space and food in more than sufficient amounts and the population flourished.
Ten years had passed since the first rock came out of the ocean and a third wave had gone by, a lot of Pokémon crossed the ocean, not a single type being less represented than the other. This time a handful of humans, researchers and a few settlers had made their way over as well. The first town was built slowly and became the port into the new frontier. The land had a lot of fertile soil, a clean uncut nature and none of the bad memories some humans had left behind in their original region, it was a new start for them.
Five more years passed, Pokémon had stopped risking the trip, but humans began colonizing the land, spreading out over the round region, cutting away forest and clearing unregularly grounds for construction. Most of these cleared out spots, remained small, as only little towns grew in them. Just a single real city was stamped out of the ground, in the east section of the crater. It seemed the most stable of all the soil and was ideal for building skyscrapers on, as it was a natural support for the heavy buildings. The region had quickly become as populated as the others and human found it a shame it hadn't been named yet. After a lot of arguing, they couldn't come up with a proper name, several groups had proposed something, but every poll ended in a draw. The names chosen were to influenced by origin and as luck would have it, there were always as many people for as against a new name's proposal. Eventually a child decided, as the grown-ups didn't come to an agreement, a child came up with the name Volcah. At first people were against it, but as more and more people began using it, it officially became the name of the new region.
A year ago, the humans living on Volcah founded their own league. They found enough persons had decided to become trainers, for it to be manageable and healthily competitive. Several gyms got raised in record time, eight in total. The towns decided to house them had been strategically chosen as to make sure every wind direction had a gym and in-between the main directions would be one as well, in the end only seven towns made the cut, so the last gym was constructed in the middle of a forest. After the dust had settled from their construction, a tournament was held to decide who would be the leaders. After a month worth of fighting, spanning the entire region, eight people got elected and had their job start immediately. The first champion got elected this year, having defeated all his opponents one by one. And so began his time as champion, waiting for a next challenger worthy and strong enough to be able to beat him.
Sabia town was a small settlement near the south sea of Volcah region. In total only a couple hundred humans lived in it, even though it was a small community everyone managed fine and they were known for their glass works, made of their white beach sand. Not everyone had this as profession though, some were fisherman, farmers, woodcutters and so on. There was one person with the most unique occupation of them all though. As he owned and exploited a small fitness gym at the outer edge of the town.
"Give him some more punches, come on he can take it! You're 19 already, you should be able to punch harder than that!" He shouted to his son, who was practicing against their machamp.
The father was wearing his coaching outfit, a black stretchable pants, a T-shirt barely covering his bulging stomach and a cap. Aiden, the son, was dressed in a casual fighting outfit, a loose white pants and a loose white jacket, he didn't have a specially colored belt, as his father didn't believe in those gradations. He was sweating a lot and breathing heavily, as he had been punching and kicking into the protection cushions the machamp was holding in his four hands all morning already. Before that he had done a couple hundred pushups, ran around the town and only eaten breakfast. His father had had the idea of showing the human potential against Pokémon, so he had started training his son as soon as he was old enough. He would have loved to do it himself, but he had gotten too old for it, which Aiden had been reminded of nearly weekly. The machamp was sweating as well, the kicks and punches had carried a lot of weight with them and his owner had made him run faster than Aiden during this morning's run, to keep Aiden focused on improving.
"Keep at it, don't slow down, one more minute and you're both done!" The father said, as he saw both of them getting too exhausted to continue his desired tempo and pulled up a watch to set the timer.
Aiden kept hitting the cushions, counting away every second remaining and trying to keep himself from missing, as a miss meant more work before lunch. Luckily he managed to hit every kick and punch he threw, machamp also helping by trying to catch them all.
"Alright, time's up, do a few laps around the gym to calm down a bit and then we'll have some food. Machamp you run with him. Also loosen your arms up a bit as well, if you stretch them while running that should do. I'm off to the kitchen." He said, as he left the two hundred by a hundred meter room.
"Thanks for catching the punches that were about to miss, it wouldn't have been you that would get punished anyways." Aiden said, to the machamp running next to him.
He nodded and Aiden smiled back. The running lasted for another five minutes, before Aiden came to a halt and left the room, followed suit by the Pokémon. His father hadn't finished preparing the food yet, but he took place at the table in the kitchen nonetheless. Sniffing around, he could only smell his own sweat, instead of the food his father was cooking. Speaking of sweat, it was dripping down quite heavily.
"You do still remember I'm going to be leaving in an hour right?" Aiden asked, as his father hurried all kinds of things together and he himself quickly drank some water to keep himself hydrated.
"With that Coby kid from a few houses to the center of town, right? You still remember your promise as well?" His father asked in return.
"Bring back some souvenirs." Aiden answered, with a smile, as he thought that to be a good idea.
"Keep up training and don't show of, last thing I want is you joining a moving circus with an act titled 'strongest kid in the world' " He continued.
"That'd be a neat show wouldn't it? Still I promise I'll keep practicing, just make sure you go jogging some times, don't want you having machamp here doing all the running for you, getting groceries and stuff. Maybe you'll lose some weight." Aiden said, as he patted machamp, who had went to sit next to him.
"Be careful what you say, or it'll be just bread and water for you." He said in return, placing some trays with food on the table.
"I've already had half of that." Aiden said, smiling a bit more, or rather grinning towards his father.
The meal tasted good, Aiden found his father having done his best to give him a last meal before going away for a couple of months. After an hour, Aiden had found himself washing the dishes, preparing his backpack, taking a shower and making sure he had enough money to last for a few weeks. The doorbell went, Aiden was still busy in his room, so his father went to open it for him. Although a bit grumpy, as usually Aiden was the one opening the door for just about anything.
"Hi there sir, is Aiden ready yet, I still need to go visit prof Lime. From what I've heard she's still at her lab, studying some sent over fossils. She said she wanted me to do something for her, while on this trip." Coby said, as he didn't see Aiden running around in the back.
"He'll be here soon. So how's your mother doing?" He asked, trying his best to smile and hiding some blush on his cheeks by faking a yawn.
"Fine, she'd like it if you'd stop sending all those gifts and stalk her during groceries to get to the checkout at the same time." Coby answered, a bit to honestly maybe and annoyed at the nagging his mother is giving him about it.
"You're a man yourself, right? You know your mother is a beautiful woman and it gets kind of lonely here." He replied, hoping to get a better response this time.
"Sorry, but going after the mother of your child's best friend, isn't the best way to introduce yourself to a woman." Coby said, as he remembered the first time they had met each other.
"Coby, stop chitchatting with that old geezer and start walking. Lime doesn't have all day." Aiden said, as he stormed down the hallway, his backpack swinging to all sides and giving his father a slap on the back.
"Call me father at least, before you leave for an unset amount of time." He said, as Aiden passed by, rubbing the point of impact.
"Right, I'll try and call you as often as possible, but I need to spare the batteries of the phone a bit, I can't recharge it every day. Anyways, take good care of the house for me, see you later dad!" Aiden shouted, as he kept running.
"Wait for me!" Coby shouted, as he went after Aiden, still saying a small goodbye to his friend's father out of politeness as well though..
"You could have taken some more time you know? Lime isn't going to die or leave." Coby said, having caught up with Aiden, who was now walking and humming.
"I've been with him every day and if I would have taken my time, he might have changed his mind, me as well to be honest." Aiden said, as he turned to face his friend, with a weird expression, just between joy and guilt.
"Guess you know what's for the best. Anyways, look there's Lime's lab." Coby said, as he pointed towards a grey building appearing through the leaves of the trees, surprised at how fast they had gotten there.
The lab wasn't very big, but when only seeing the front you'd doubt that, it went up four stories and went several tens of meters to the sides, though that was only for show, as the building didn't have much of a depth behind it. Lime was standing behind one of the front windows, a cup of coffee in one hand and a remote in the other, as she watched the two young adults get closer, she took a small sip. They both had noticed her as well, but for good measures went to the front door anyways to ring the bell, upon which Lime only had to press a button and it opened itself.
"Welcome, if you don't mind waiting a bit, I'll go and get you your starter choice." Lime said, as the two entered the room she was in.
Upon entering Aiden and Coby saw another person standing in the room, seemingly the same age as them but not of the same gender.
"Hi, we haven't met before, but I heard from Lime you two would be starting as trainers as well." She said, as she smiled.
"He is going to do the training thing, I'm just along for the trip." Aiden said, the second he had processed her sentence.
"Then you're leaving yourself in the protection of your friend? You two must be quite close, to have so much trust in each other." She said, with a small wink and smirk.
"That might be overthinking it a bit. I'll be fine by myself, but let's introduce ourselves a bit shall we? My name is Aiden, the one who'll be doing all the trainer stuff is called Coby." Aiden said, as he presented Coby by waving his arms towards him.
"My name is Cara, don't worry, never thought you two were more than friends. Anyways I'll leave you the first choice Coby, I don't mind taking any." She said, as she sat down on a nearby chair.
A few minutes passed, as total silence entered the room and left again, when Lime entered kicking the door away and carrying a whole of nine pokeballs, messily thrown in her arms. One barely not falling from the stack.
"Sorry, to keep you waiting, here are all the starters you can choose from. Do open them before picking, I can't remember which Pokémon was in which ball again. They're send from various regions by the professors over there, that's why you've got this amount of choice. Also here's a pokédex for each of you, we're still trying to find out how many species are exactly on Vulcah, so every time you see a Pokémon do scan them." Lime said, as she put all the balls on the table in the middle of the room and crashes down onto a chair, sweating a bit.
"I'll choose this one." Coby said, as he picked a ball and opened it.
The normal white light came out and left a form behind. A small Pokémon appeared, a green back, green arms, green head, a leaf at the end of its tail, a whitish colored front and legs. In short a snivy was released out of the ball. It immediately began looking around, it seemingly felt as if it was better than the ones still in the balls, as he gave them no attention and immediately walked over to Coby.
"If you're going to pick whatever comes out in the first pick, maybe I should try that to." Cara said, as she too picked a ball and made the Pokémon come out a second later.
A blue Pokémon was left behind this time, with a fin as a tail and on its head, orange cheeks and a light blue belly. The mudkip immediately jumped towards Cara, who eagerly picked him up and hugged.
"Your turn now Aiden." Lime suddenly said.
"You're mistaking, I'm just travelling with Coby." Aiden said, as he stood up.
"That may be, but I can't allow you to go undefended. And I know you probably are able to fend of wild encounters without one, but see it as a companion. If you don't want to fight with it, train it, I'm okay with that. But at least get yourself an additional friend instead of him over there." Lime said, as she pointed at Coby who seemingly was daydreaming together with his snivy about victories to come.
"Alright, if you put it that way." Aiden said, as he picked a ball from the stack without looking.
"Go on, open it." Lime said, as she smiled and nodded.
A flash of white was seen and left a small dog like Pokémon behind. It had a yellow fur all over its body, except for the red tip on the tail and the fur sprouting at its ears. It seemingly also had some white at his muzzle, the Fennekin looked around eagerly trying to spot her new master, but soon was a bit disappointed to see him not looking at her in awe, though still with a bit of interest.
"I don't mind keeping you, so how does this work, does she go back in the ball right away or does she walk alongside?" Aiden asked Lime, who had to subdue a chuckle.
"That's your personal choice really." Lime replied, as she started opening the remainders and noted down whichever one came out. "Though a Pokémon will form a bond with its trainer faster when they have more contact."
Aiden nodded at that, figuring he had pretty much formed a bond with his father's machamp with all the crazy stuff they had gone through because of one person's dreams. Coby and Cara didn't have that, but they agreed either way.
"So since Aiden, that's his name right? Isn't into the trainer stuff…how about we have a small battle before I leave?" Cara asked, looking at Coby and holding her mudkip up in her arms.
"Sure. Though best if we do it outside. Wouldn't want to destroy this room." Coby said, making Lime laugh. 'As if they're strong enough to do that yet' was her thought, after opening the window door to the backyard.
Not a second later the two of them stood outside, both taking a few steps back as to give their Pokémon enough space to fight. A small smile was shared and both felt the adrenaline starting to pomp through them, heartbeat in their throat they we're more excited about the fact of their first battle than the battle itself. Finally Cara managed to make the first move though.
"Mudkip!...tackle the lizard!" She shouts, pushing the air out of her chest. The blue Pokémon starting to dash towards Coby's snivy. "Dodge it!..." Coby yells in response, his snivy rolling its eyes as it didn't need a command for something that obvious. It still waited for its trainer after successfully dodging though, feeling insecure about what to do next.
"Look at them go." Lime said, as she wiped away some stress sweat and smiled. "Not going to join in?"
"I'll pass, seems as they won't have the energy left for a second match anyways. Both the Pokémon as well as the trainers." Aiden answered, feeling somewhat embarrassed at all the shouting and heavy breathing of the two human battlers.
The two Pokémon seemed evenly matched, the snivy not knowing any grass type moves didn't have an advantage over the mudkip yet. Partially because of this the two of them just kept dodging. Until a factor of fatigue became apparent. Both trainers catching wind of this shouted out one last time.
"Tackle!" The two trainers shout out in unison, their counterparts reacting instantly and bashing their heads together. All four of them gritted their teeth, but soon enough both Pokémon fell to the ground. Quickly followed by their trainers landing on their backs as well, still feeling the heat of the relative simple battle., while lying in the grass.
"You guys done? I'm getting bored." Aiden said, sitting down on the ground since halfway through the battle, his fenniken laying on his lap. "Also the longer you stay there…the more chance I'm spending the night here."
"Don't spoil the moment like that." Lime snapped at him, though just a bit. "You'll feel the same at your first battle. Ah… how nice it is, to see people get so excited about something."
It took a while before Cara and Coby got up again, smiling quite happily at each other. Their Pokémon seemingly as if on cue also rose up, shaking themselves a bit feeling some minor aches here and there by doing so. They seemed rested but not in top condition, they'd need some more care before being able to do an all-out battle, or at least for the near future. Lime luckily had some potions laying around for emergencies, which quickly healed up the somewhat wounded starters.
"We'll be heading over to Springtown. It's closest so ideal for starting off with on the journey." Coby said to both Lime and Cara after things had calmed down. "Also it has a gym so I'll be able to get my first badge there."
"Good luck with that, I'm going to head off in the opposite direction." Cara replied with a polite smile.
The town towards that direction also had a gym, but it was a lot further away. Though even with that being the case, there were a few houses along the road as well as other establishments. Still it took another ten minutes before they all went their way, Cara heading east, The two best friends heading west and Lime going back into her lab continuing her daily tasks and research. It had been an eventful day, but more were to come for them.