As the sun rose in Maloni, a hot breeze blew through Litoire Town, which was typical summer weather in the region. In Professor Waratah's laboratory, she awoke with the realisation that the three starter Pokémon would be taken by three kids—a girl named Jaiden, a boy named Matthew and another boy named Jay. Jay was known for being the son of Vincent, the founder of the Foundation for the Protection of Pokémon Outside of Battle.

This organisation was founded on the principle of Pokémon protection and conservation, and most of Jay's family supported this principle. But one person disagreed with this—Pat, Vincent's younger brother. Instead, he was more into the mistreatment of Pokémon, especially the Ice types. This was because Ice type Pokémon seemed to be rare in Maloni. Two of these were the legendary Pokémon Exitimu and Prasidimu. Both were related somehow, and according to Maloni myth both were created by an unknown Pokémon. Pat's daughter, who people referred to as simply 'the interesting one', or Tio, shared the same opinion as him. She had grown so used to that name that she adopted that as her actual name.

Jay and his mother had moved to Litorie Town some weeks before. Originally, they had lived in Ningrey City, a city in southeastern Maloni. However, they were required to move because Vincent had caught a dangerous disease, which required him to stay in with doctors. It was unknown how and why he got this illness, but he could not head the foundation because of it. Instead, he made the worst decision in his entire life. He let Pat lead the foundation. "I'm gonna regret this," sighed Vincent. "But Jay's too young and I'm too ill."

"You won't," Pat snarled. "I'm gonna make you proud."

Meanwhile, Jaiden was awoken by a shout. "Jaiden, time to get up!" shouted her mum. "You know today is the day when your journey starts!" Jaiden walked down the stairs and yawned. Being not much of a talker, she simply nodded. "Also, you'll need to get ready," she added. "I'll get your bag from the kitchen, but you'll need to get everything else. Your flask and all the other things you need are in your bag."

Jaiden quickly ran back upstairs and into the bathroom, then washed her face. She ran her comb through her black hair, then brushed her teeth. She ran downstairs and grabbed a Poffin from the cupboard. Next, she placed it carefully in her bag. A second later there was a knock at the door. "Hullo!" said a boy, once the door was opened. "I'm Jay."

"Hi," said Mum. "Jaiden, this is Jay." Jaiden waved, though she wasn't exactly paying attention because she was looking in the pantry for more Moomoo Milk as there was none in the fridge.

Next, Matthew left his house, en route to Ecinca Town, a little town just across from his home. "Oh! Hello!" exclaimed Matthew, noticing Jay at Jaiden's door. "I know you from somewhere."

"What?" said Jay.

"Oh! I'm not trying to be creepy," he said. "I just know you 'cause of your dad."

"I'm not exactly surprised," he chuckled.

Professor Waratah arrived at the house at that moment. "Hello," she greeted. "Are Jay, Jaiden and Matthew in here?"

"Yep!" shouted Matthew. "I was wondering where you were!"

"Well, I'm here now," she said. "All of you are starting your Pokémon journey today, correct?" Jaiden nodded.

"You'll need to come to my laboratory, then," Waratah added. "You'll make the important decision in your life there."

Five minutes later, all three kids had gathered in the lab. Professor Waratah pointed to three Poké Balls that were on a counter. "Each Pokémon contains one Pokémon," she stated. "Punicin, the Grass type, is in the one on the left. Slithurn, the Fire type, is in the one in the middle. Splashalf, the Water type, is in the one on the right. Choose wisely."

Jaiden was the first to go up. After some thought, she chose Splashalf. "Good choice! The Baby Water Elephant Pokémon." Jay went up next. He chose Punicin. "Nice, the The Flower Penguin Pokémon." Finally, Matthew chose his Pokémon, Slithurn. "Cool! The Burning Adder Pokémon."

Once everyone had obtained their starters, the professor handed them all a small device. "The Pokédex, right?" asked Matthew.

"Yes," she replied. "This may look small, but it is very important. Every time you catch a Pokémon, it automatically records their data. Every Pokémon has a Pokédex entry, too. I want you to fill this up with as much information as possible."

"Okay," said Jay.

"Try it out!"

The three sent their Pokémon out of their Poké Balls, then Jaiden touched the screen and the Pokédex turned on. He put the Pokédex in front of Splashalf and it scanned it immediately. '#007. Splashalf, the Baby Water Elephant Pokémon,' it read, 'Splashalf is very lightweight for an elephant. It is also the only one in its evolutionary line that can breathe and swim underwater.' Jay went next, scanning his Punicin. It read, '#001. Punicin, the Flower Penguin Pokémon. The first Punicin was created after a Piplup accidentally travelled from the Antarctic regions south of Maloni to the lush pomegranate forests nearby. It ate one and transformed into Punicin as it wasn't used to it.' Matthew scanned Slithurn. '#004. Slithurn, the Burning Adder Pokémon. Slithurn is very clumsy and will often accidentally set other Pokémon on fire using hypnosis. It will often refuse to hypnotise Pokémon when told to, though.'

"Nice! I wanna go outside and train immediately!"

"Do you know the basics of Pokémon training and catching, yet?" asked the professor.

"Well, not exactly."

"I'll meet you on Route 1 and I'll introduce you to it. You can battle, but I'm unsure if you know how," stated Professor Waratah.

"We'll play it on the safe side," said Jay. "I don't want my Pokémon hurt this early in the journey." The others agreed and left the lab. Jay left after.

"Walnaby, get ready," muttered the professor. "We're catching a Pokémon." She grabbed a Poké Ball from her desk and ran outside.

Meanwhile, all three novice Trainers went back to their house. "That's a nice Pokémon you've got there," said Jaiden's mum, who was looking at his Pokédex while Jay packed the Poké Ball in his bag. "Splashalf." At Jay's house, his mum was a little surprised.

"Grass is kinda weak, you know," she murmured.

"Don't say that," exclaimed Jay. "I'll be able to train it quickly." Matthew's dad was pleased.

"Slithurn! My best friend had one when I was your age. He used to say it was the best Pokémon ever!" he chortled. "Its evolution seemed to be very strong, too."

"Dad, I know. That's why I chose it."

"Ready?" Professor Waratah questioned once everyone was on the route.

"Yep!" they shouted (except for Jaiden, who made an OK sign with her left hand). She walked into the grass and a Pokémon jumped out of it almost immediately. "Punctunny!" noted Matthew.

"Yes!" she replied. "Anyway, the first thing you need to do is weaken the Pokémon. Go, Walnaby! Use Bite!" It weakened Punctunny, however it was not enough to catch it. The Punctunny used Growl. "Now, use Tackle!" Punctunny's HP was lowered. "Now throw a Poké Ball!" A Poké Ball was thrown at Punctunny. The ball vibrated twice, then the Poké Ball closed. Punctunny had been caught.

"Wow! That's amazing!" cried Matthew.

"Now I want you to do the same. There's more than a hundred Pokémon in this region alone," said Professor Waratah. "There's another town across this route—Ecinca Town. If you need to heal, there's a Pokémon Centre in the town. And before I forget, here are five Poké Balls. Use these to catch your own Pokémon."

"Okay!" said Jay. "Hey, do you guys wanna battle?"

"Sure!" Matthew agreed. Jaiden nodded.

"I'm gonna battle Jaiden first!" shouted Jay.

The two sent out their starter Pokémon. "Use Tackle!" shouted Jay. Splashalf received five HP of damage, however this was not enough t0 hurt it much. Jaiden used her Pokédex to tell Punicin to use Water Gun. It wasn't very effective, however it somehow damaged it more than Punicin's Tackle. On the next turn, Splashalf outsped Jay's Punicin and it used Water Gun again; strangely, it almost KO'd Punicin. On the next turn, both trainers told their Pokémon to hit at the exact same time, and whichever Pokémon would respond faster would win. However, both Pokémon used their move in unison. Had Splashalf been slower, Punicin would have won. Splashalf noticed this and dodged out of the way of the opposing Pokémon's attack, then hit a Tackle at Slithurn. Jay had won.

"It is a custom for Trainers to hand out money to the winner of the battle if they have lost, so here," said Jay. She handed Jay one hundred Pokémon Dollars.

"Woah!" cried Professor Waratah, who was about to go back to her laboratory before the battle commenced. "You knocked out a Grass type with a Water type! Water is weak to Grass!"

"Can I heal your Pokémon?" asked Matthew. They nodded and Matthew sprayed a Potion on Splashalf, then walked over to Punicin and used a Revive and a Potion on it.

"Thank you," said Jay.

"I don't want to fight you," sighed Matthew. "I don't want to put anymore pressure on Punicin." Jaiden mouthed 'that's fine'.

"We need to get every Gym Badge in Maloni. The nearest one to Litoire Town is in Bilbemu City," said Jay.

"Isn't the leader Pierre?" questioned Matthew.

"Yeah. He specialises in Rock types. If you wanna defeat him or any of the Gym's trainers, a Steel, Fighting or Ground type is a good choice," explained Jay. "Grass and Water are also super effective, but you'll probably need to train your starters until they're at least level 10."

"There's also quite a few Seedlinos in Route 1 and 2. I'd say get one and evolve it into Saplino. It levels up quite fast," said Professor Waratah. "Also, there's not really any point of being in the town anymore."

"Okay, let's go our separate ways. I'm going to get a few more Pokémon for my team, but you can do whatever you like," said Jay.

"Ditto," said Matthew.

The three walked away from each other. Though they went to different places, the first place they went was Route 1—Jay walked into the grass, Matthew searched for items and Jaiden dashed through the grass as quick as she could. She very quickly ran into a Pokémon; a male Wrentric. Splashalf used a Water Gun, then Jaiden threw a Poké Ball at it. It caught it and the Pokédex scanned it. '#019. Wrentric, the Forest Bird Pokémon. Wrentrics are easy to find as their nests are made from scorched twigs and leaves. When they are found, they may attack.' Jaiden picked up the Poké Ball and put it in her bag. She then quickly glanced at the forest on the right side of the route, and a couple of Pokémon. She smiled very slightly, then ran to Ecinca Town.