Becoming a Hero
Chapter 1: Not a Normal Day
By: HikariofDarkRose
A/N: Hi everybody, Hikari here. Just wanted to add a note that this story is loosely based off my team run of Pokémon black but the ending and journey will be somewhat different. For anyone interested a team run is where you get someone to transfer 6 eggs into your game, when they hatch those are the Pokémon you use for the game and no others though you can catch others. The challenge ends when the credits roll, this works best in Black or White unless you make sure you have Pokémon who can use the necessary HMs . Well now that I've left my note, on with the story.
My name is Alymere, please call me Ally most everyone does. I am a Pokémon trainer. I get to battle other people and I, among others, fight to protect the world from Team Plasma… who are they? Well it's a long story. But isn't that why you're here? Well if you will forgive me I can start at the beginning.
See, I wasn't always the trainer I am today. I started just like any other trainer. I lived in Castelia City, the youngest daughter of a family of bakers who had been in business so long our last name actually was Baker. Like most trainers I started my journey on my 10th birthday, why 10? I don't know. But like any other kid that age I wanted to be a Pokémon trainer, I never even went anywhere without my softball and catchers glove that way I could build up the muscles I would need to handle Pokéballs.
It was just past 3am in Castelia City. The City was as quiet as things ever got, with little traffic on the roads and although there were people in the buildings working overnight, most of the city was dreaming away and content to stay that way until dawn. However in one home on the 2nd floor of 48 Park Drive someone's day was just beginning.
An abused brass alarm clock began beating out its morning call, a slight twanging groan in its cries stood testament to many years of service. At first nothing stirred in the room, no shadows moved on the pink walls mostly covered with posters of Pokémon. Then a hand shot out from under a mound of blue blankets and lacy yellow bedspread a top the mattress of an old brass bed. The small hand lifted and then fell heavily in an attempt to silence the clock but missed, eliciting a yelp from its owner. Two more missed smacks did not improve the former sleeper's temper and finally she bolted up right and lunged at the clock, holding the mechanism still until the offending noise stopped.
Slowly the sleeper looked around the room and blinked sleepily, the bangs of her pale lavender hair fell in front of her eyes like the forelock of a Shetland pony. Dressed in only her long white nightgown the girl left the room to get dressed her bare feet navigated the green carpet and avoided the toys and yesterday's clothes that had been left on the floor. Minutes later she came back dressed in dark grey jeans and a purple tunic, with silver lines of trim at the neck and hemlines, two lines of trim on each sleeve one above and below each elbow. As she walked back to the bed the tunic started to slip down one shoulder as it was far too big, the bottom hem actually hanging past her knees brushing the top of her mid-calf boots.
The girl returned to the bed and grabbed a long thick leather belt off one of the posts before she wrapped it twice around her waist and adjusted the slack of the tunic. Sitting on the edge of the bed the girl began to hum quietly as she brushed and plaited her hair into a long braid and just as she finished the door to her room creaked open a couple inches and a pair of crystal blue eyes peeked inside.
"Audino?" A pink and white Pokémon entered the room and began tugging hard on the girl's tunic, this Audino was a child of a pair of Audino belonging to her siblings. It didn't belong to anyone but found life in the bakery pleasant enough to stay. "Aud, di Aud no!"
"Don't worry, 5 minutes late won't matter much" Alymere told the Audino as she patted it on the head. For some reason the little creature had become attached to her and it tried to follow her everywhere she went. The girl got up from the bed as the Pokémon continued urge her to hurry and grabbed a worn catcher's mitt on her way out of the room.
Alymere and the Audino made their way through the dark bakery, sounds of the family's other Pokémon waking up echoed through the room. Outside was a shed with an old Bouffalant dozing in a stall.
"Good morning Taurine." Alymere said softly patting the animal's head, ruffling the curly afro which caused the Bouffalant to make a sleepy grumbling noise in response. Going over to a wall Alymere retrieved a pair of large saddlebags and a halter which she fitted to the large Pokémon. "Come on, lets get this show on the road, or no one will have fresh bread this morning." Gently she tugged on the halter and the elderly Pokémon followed amiably.
Ah yes, that day when I turned 10 started out like any other day, You see to earn money for my Pokémon journey I helped my parents and siblings by getting up at 'way-to-early-in-the-morning' or as normal people call it, 3am. All to fetch fresh ingredients mostly milk and honey from Driftveil City… yes that's right, Castelia to Driftveil, both ways, in the dark… I got a lot of use out of my pedometer and my town map. But it was halfway to Driftveil that things started to get a little weird that day…
Ally and the Bouffalant made their way through the city of Nimbassa, the streets were dark and the only light was coming from the Pokémon Musical up ahead. As usual Ally stopped there, letting Bouffalant graze next to the building as she took a minute to study several posters on the walls looking for Pokémon she had never seen before.
"Ready to go, Taurine?" The girl asked walking back to the Pokémon who helped her on her daily route. Taurine actually belonged to her father, but Ally could pretend he was hers and hoped one day soon to have a partner of her own. She was ten after all, a fact Alymere had brought up at dinner the night before. No one had said anything in response, not her parents or her two older siblings, who had all gone on adventures of their own. Taurine bumped the girl's side gently causing her to ruffle his mane again and started walking; he knew the route just as well as she did and he knew it was time for them to get moving. Ally sighed; she supposed she would just keep working and bring it up daily until they were ready to discuss the subject. Alymere pulled a softball out of one of the saddle bags, needing to move her train of thought off her family's lack of enthusiasm for her journey she put on her mitt and began to play catch as they walked.
Neither the Pokémon or the girl was expecting what happened next though, as Ally tossed her ball high a man with thick glasses and a white lab coat came running out of the woods right in front of them. The ball hit him and the man screamed, jumping away and blinking at the girl and her Pokémon as the ball rolled to a stop near his feet.
"You… you're not… one of them?" The man gasped as he caught his breath and his head cleared. "Of course you're not!" He laughed slightly making Ally a little nervous, causing her grip to tighten on Taurine. "Oh! Please, don't be frightened. Here, hold out your hand and you can have your ball back." The scientist picked the ball off the ground and plunked it heavily into her mitt. Ally was in a bit of shock and she didn't notice right away that the weight he placed in her mitt was far too heavy for the ball alone. "Now I'm just going to go this way, don't tell anyone we had this talk, oh! And please take good care of it." With that the man was gone.
"Take good care… of what?" Ally asked herself out loud. She didn't get an answer, at least not yet, but soon found out what the man was running from as three people in white sleeveless tunics over silver armour came running from the forest.
"How could we have let him escape?" One growled angrily looking around, for the missing scientist. "Lord Bronius wanted the entire facility under our command, he will be furious."
"We have freed the Deerling being held there," Another pointed out, "That alone should put young Lord N's mind at ease for a while."
"Besides," The third said, pointing to Alymere and Taurine, "I believe we can make the loss up to him."
Ally clung to Taurine's halter… Who were these people? What did they want with her? The trio of people advanced on the girl, each releasing a Pokémon from a ball on their waists. One looked like a bag of Garbage that had split open, and smelled just as foul as it loomed over the girl. The next wasn't tall, but long, it looked like a fusion of ant and robot. It gnashed it's mandibles at its opponents, eyes glowing red with a hunger for battle. The last was possibly the least threatening but something in its eyes made the young girl shudder, it was only about two feet tall with a gray shrimp like body that seemed to be made of layers of pulsing membranes held in place by a multitude of insectile legs. Atop this column were to muscular arms supporting a yellow head with a spiralled protrusion in back and red stripes down the front.
Taurine stood there eying the three Pokémon with a withering glare. HE had trained with his human on a long journey. HE had practically carried his trainer through the Unova league, and most important of all HE had been entrusted to protect his trainer's child. Taurine turned his head back and pulled at the straps of his pack until Alymere got the message, put her glove away and removed both the bags and the halter. The Bouffalant stepped forward, shaking himself and getting into a battle stance. There was no way he would let these hooligans hurt his little charge not while he still stood, with a ferocious bellow the bull charged forward ramming into the Garbodor with no mercy giving the opposing trainer no time to command the refuse.
"Use Sand Attack Durant!" The next opponent was faster and following the instructions the Durant then kicked up a sand cloud to blind the Bouffalant then skittered away from it. Taurine bellowed again and smoke began pluming from its nostrils soon joined by glowing embers, suddenly the attacking Bouffalant erupted into a fiery aura before trampling the Durant under its hooves with flame charge making this the 2nd aggressive Pokémon defeated.
"You'll pay for this!" Shouted the remaining enemy "Accelgor, beat them with your Acid Spray!" The creature in question fired a massive spray of purple liquid and the whole air filled with a bitter smell. Even though Taurine was hit by the spray the high level he was at plus his relatively weak opponent made the attack almost ineffective. With another murderous roar the Bouffalant rushed in and used an attack called Giga Impact, charging at the Accelgor with every bit of its remaining power.
The strange trainers stared at the Pokémon that was willing to defend a girl who obviously couldn't be its trainer; they gathered their Pokémon and the leader looked to the girl.
"Team Plasma will free all Pokémon from trainers who exploit them" As the knights retreated he glared daggers at both the child and the Pokémon who stood beside her." Enjoy your time together, for it will be brief" and then as quickly as they had appeared, they were gone. Taurine growled under his breath then his eyes rolled back in his head as the Bouffalant fainted, it had been well over ten years since he had last battled and the strain took its toll.
"Taurine!" Alymere cried as she rushed forward, catching the creature's head before it hit the ground. Normally she wasn't one to cry but as she clung to her protector Alymere began sobbing into Taurine's mane. After a minute or two Alymere calmed down reaching to her belt, she activated the ball returning the mighty monster to its resting place before shouldering the bags and continuing the trek on foot. Alymere knew the way in the dark and her only thought was that Driftveil had a working Pokémon Center. She barely even noticed that she had made it to the bridge, and was almost all the way across it before she heard a voice calling her name.
"Alley! Alley Baker!" A loud booming Voice with a south-western accent called from the far side. The owner of the voice carried a lamp and Alymere focused on the glow as she began to run toward the voice.
"Mr. Clay!" the girl called as she ran her feet clanging heavily on the bridge, sending flocks of roosting ducklet flying in panic from the reverberation. Had this been a normal day the drip home would have included Alymere stopping to gather fallen feathers… but not today.
"Omphf!" Clay Dalton had long been a friend of the Baker family, ever since he had become gym leader and Alley's mother Anise had been his right hand trainer and assistant. From Clay she had learned how to run a business and when she had married Theodore she had used that knowledge to expand his Family's bakery into the # 1 in Castellia. He had watched all three children grow and was eager to see what sort of trainer Alymere would be, in fact when the youngest of the Baker children failed to show up on time Clay had hauled himself from bed and gone searching. Of all the things he was surprised to see the normally strong willed and level headed girl near tears again as she stumbled into him in the dark, He put his hands on the girl's shoulder and braced her as she told him what had happed. "Easy on there. You say Taurine tuckered himself out after chasin off some varmints? Come on then, I'll raise the bridge then walk you to the Center myself."
Driftveil Pokécenter
Nurse Joy was as surprised as Clay had been, Alymere had always been so responsible having her come in with Taurine in such a state was a shock. As Taurine was being treated Clay left to go inspect the laboratory on the next route. Alymere paced the entire time thoughts swirling in her head. Who were Team Plasma? Why were they saying people exploited Pokémon? Nurse Joy came back soon though giving Alley no more time to think.
"Taurine is just fine now Alley." The Pokémon Nurse smiled when she saw the young girl's face light up. "Just try to keep him out of strenuous battles. He is getting a bit on in years" Joy wondered if Alymere even heard her as the girl grabbed the Pokéball, releasing Taurine and nuzzling his head.
"Taurine! I'm so sorry!" Alymere whispered to her friend as she held the large head close. Taurine rolled his eyes and licked the girl to tell her he was ok. He had done his duty and protected her, and now was ready for work again... they had a delivery to do. The Bouffalant reached his head down, lifting the bags and nudging the girl.
" Thank you Nurse Joy, we really have to go now" Alley said as she took the bags and put them back on her Pokémon, before leading Taurine to the market. Apparently word of the incident had gotten around and all the merchants were worried about their favourite frequent customer, all the fuss was a little embarrassing to Alymere but she took it all in stride. It had happened and today's attack was one more reason to get Pokémon of her own in her mind.
"Hello, what's this?" the dairymaid said as she opened one of the bags to fill it with milk. "Alley is this going to be your starting Pokémon?" Alley turned and looked at the woman with a confused expression, in the woman's hands Alymere's mitt but tucked inside next to the softball, was a gray egg with red and black speckling. Slowly the ten year old took the egg and held it in her hands... a Pokémon egg... it must have come from the man with the lab coat.
"Yeah..." Alymere stared at the egg a small smile appearing on her face as she realized just what she held "I guess it is"