All of his gadgets, gizmos, and bits of homemade technology were missing. Every last piece of machinery he had was gone with the wind.
Arthur had just woken up. Immediately snapping his eyes open due to sensing something was wrong, found that all of his stuff - his PC, his reverse-engineered Styler, his attempts at making a PokeCenter Healing Machine, his failed jetpack prototypes, his stupidly intricate clock, etc. - was missing.
It took him about a minute to process this.
Then he barreled down the stairs because he knew who was behind this.
'You don't have to go on your journey,' his butt!
"Mom… why did you take all of my stuff?" Arthur asked in clipped but nervous tones as he spotted her at the breakfast table.
His mother smirked at him behind a cup of coffee. "Well, Arthur, I've been thinking. It really isn't all that fair that you stay behind while all of the other kids get to go on their adventures today."
Arthur began to plead, something he never thought he'd do. "Mom, no! I… I thought we agreed that I wasn't ready!"
His mother raised an eyebrow. "Really? You, not ready? You placed high in all of the practicals in school, and you passed the mental health exam as well."
Arthur fumed. "I placed high because I knew you would give me a hard time if I didn't!"
"I pushed you because you have the ability, Arthur. Don't lie to me - you're perfectly capable of going on an adventure. It's time for you to grow up. You've been ten for fourteen days now, but you still act like you're seven."
Arthur began to mumble incoherently, then suddenly smirked. "You can't make me leave, Mom," he crowed, "All I'll have to do is check in with a PokeCenter every month or so, and the League won't do anything about it. I can just stay here like usual and have to do nothing."
His mother nodded. "Yes, but… I'm kicking you out."
Arthur's mouth dropped open.
"Yep. You know how to be self-sufficient, so you can stay in the wilderness for at least a couple of months. You'll be fine." Suddenly, Arthur found himself with a backpack hoisted on his shoulders. "Call me when you get to Littleroot or Petalburg or wherever. Bye, honey!"
As she spoke, Arthur's mother slowly pushed Arthur out of the door against his struggles. She pushed him out of the threshold, winked, and shut the door on him.
Arthur fell on his butt and just stared at the closed door.
"... so then, I decided, 'Well, shoot, guess I'm stuck out here now. I decided to come over here to stay with you, Old Man."
Old Man Walter chuckled. "Gee, kid. Mom's kicked you out of the house, except instead of a couple of hours, it's a couple of months."
Arthur put his head in his hands. "Don't remind me," he whined. "I'm going to have to wait for months to get all of my stuff back. I mean, I'll be able to access some of my files from anywhere that has PokeNet, but still… I had so much cool stuff! I had a program that could tell me my birthday to the exact minute using nothing but some cells and a program that could automatically find the most embarrassing things about Kyle and… and… "
Old Man Walter shrugged. "Well, you can always rebuild your stuff. You'll have plenty of spare time, now that you can skip school for a year."
"Well, at least there's a silver lining…" Arthur grumbled. "Anyway, where will I be sleeping?"
"Sleeping?"
Arthur looked at Old Man Walter, confused. "Well, yeah? I mean, I'm going to have to stay here, right? None of my relatives live in Oldale Town, and I don't really have any friends except for you, so I'll have to stay here."
"In this old junkyard? Not a chance." Old Man Walter gestured to Oldale Dump. "I've been running this thing for years by myself. I let you hang around 'cause you aren't bad company, but staying here? For months? Don't make me laugh."
Arthur's face fell. "But then what am I going to do? I can't exactly hack into the League's computers - well, not now, at any rate." He groaned. "I still can't believe Mom went behind my back like that. I didn't think she had it in her to just break the promise she made to me. She never breaks her promises."
"Well, she probably decided that this promise wasn't worth keeping or something. Heck if I know."
Arthur began to ponder the possibility of escaping predicament. "Could I… no, no one would fall for it. Maybe… Aargh…" He put his face in his hands and turned to Old Man Walter. "The best I can think of is to build my own house in the wilderness and wait out the months with the bare minimum."
Old Man Walter stared at Arthur. "Are you really that desperate to get out of this?"
Arthur snorted. "Me? Absolutely." He dismissed Old Man Walter's suggestions and continued to plot.
Old Man Walter decided that it was time he listened to a radio show and leave Arthur to his machinations.
(Twenty Minutes and a lot of Dumb Ideas Later)
"... you could go on an adventure?"
"No! I'm not going on an adventure!" Arthur denied, making an 'X' with his arms to emphasize his rejection. "There are a million and a half better things I can do with my time!"
"You suggested a machine to make you hibernate, Arthur. That would be a ludicrous waste of time."
Arthur huffed. "It's just… I don't want Mom to win. She's taken all of my stuff and kicked me out of the house - I'm not going to do what she says!" He then went on his knees. "Please, Old Man! Please let me stay here for the next couple of months!"
"No."
Tears began to form in Arthur's eyes.
"Arthur, grow up!" The old man was at the end of his tether. "You're pride isn't worth you starving to death. Just accept that you'll have to go on an adventure - your school prepared you for it, and I know you're mature enough to take care of yourself."
Old Man Walter upended the backpack as Arthur grudgingly wiped away his tears. "Your mother packed you a couple of canteens, some sandwiches, your Trainer ID…"
"Can't believe she'd do that," Arthur mumbled as he wiped his face with his sleeve.
"... a tent, a sleeping bag, some toiletries, a pillow, a flashlight, some changes of clothes, a few Pokeballs and Potions, a Repel, a Map of Hoenn, and 3000 in Poke. I know for a fact that you passed your practicals in Adventure Survival in school, and you're smart enough to take care of yourself.
"There's nothing stopping you from this adventure but yourself, Arthur."
"... starter…" Arthur mumbled.
"What? Come on, kid, you know my ears ain't all that great." Old Man Walter gesticulated, sticking a knobbly finger in his ears and bringing it out covered in wax. He wiped the wax on his faded jeans as Arthur spoke.
"Well, I'll need a starter, right? The League doesn't provide them to trainers, says that it's their job to get their first Pokemon. Everyone else has gotten their starter already as well - the Fair finished yesterday, so no one is selling any more Pokemon to inexperienced trainers.
"There are no legal methods I could use to get a starter. The only place I could get one from is either from a friend who's willing to lend me one so I could catch one myself or something along those lines."
The arid junkyard was silent for a short time. While Arthur was dejectedly staring off into the dusty piles of scrap, Old Man Walter was deep in thought.
Finally, though, he clapped his hands. "Well, there is a solution to your problem."
"What - me catching one by myself? No thanks. If it manages to break free, I probably won't get a second chance, as I'll be dead by then. That's assuming I could get one in the first place."
Old Man Walter scoffed. "No, of course not. It's not a solution you have to work for." Old Man Walter had captivated Arthur's full attention at this point. Not having to work was the siren's call for Arthur.
"What is it?" At this point, Arthur had resignedly committed himself to the journey - there seemed to be no way he could feasibly get out of it, at any rate.
"Wait here." Old Man Walter went around to his shack for a minute, then pulled out what looked like a dirty Pokeball. "Here's your starter." He tossed Arthur the ball.
Arthur caught it with his hands and inspected it. There were small patches of dirt smeared on the Ball. He took the Ball in one hand and cleaned it with the back of his pants - there would be no chance of a misfire since he still had to register it with his ID for him to be able to open it.
As he wiped, he began to question Old Man Walter. "Where did you get this? I thought you only owned Net."
"Yeah, well, Net was my only Pokemon, up until last night. Some Magnemite had been snooping around this yard, so Net put a stop to him. I caught it in a Ball to give to my grand-niece for next year - she's turning ten in a couple of months, you know, only a little younger than you."
Arthur didn't know that Old Man Walter had any family, and was momentarily intrigued before he remembered that there were more important things to be worried about.
"Anyway, you need that Magnemite a whole lot more than she does. So I'll find something else for her.
"Thanks," Arthur replied. Magnemite were generally easy to take care of - as long as you let them feed at a Power Plant every couple of months, they would be fine. Granted, a constant source of electricity would be better, but he wasn't going to complain.
Magnemite left no droppings, either, so he managed to avoid poop-scooping as well.
Arthur and Old Man Walter then began the lengthy process of registering the Magnemite to Arthur. It wasn't that hard, though - it was just inputting his ID into a special bar in the back of the Pokeball so that it would recognize Arthur's ID as well as Old Man Walter's.
Why was it a lengthy process? Well, the inputting of the ID took a long time to install, at only fifteen minutes. It could have been magnitudes shorter, as short as a few seconds, but the League mandated that it should take at least fifteen minutes to register, to prevent stolen Pokemon from immediately being turned against their trainer.
Because of this, Trainers guarded their IDs with their lives. Even though you could easily get a replacement, any old schmuck could use your Pokemon against you if they stole your Trainer ID as well. It didn't matter if the Pokemon didn't want to fight the Trainer - the Pokeball would force the Pokemon to obey the holder of the ID.
Of course, taking a Trainer's ID was taboo, even among hardened criminals. No one would trust you after that - no one.
Arthur and Old Man Walter finished setting up the Pokeball. Finally, the Pokeball was registered with Arthur's ID.
Arthur took a deep breath, then, with a nervousness he hadn't felt before, threw the Pokeball.
"Release."
The Pokeball flew open, releasing a torrent of sparkling red energy, which slowly began to take form. Arthur caught the Pokeball as it flew back toward him as he studied the Magnemite.
Truth be told, it was...just like any average Magnemite one would see in pictures. Other than some scrapes and scratches, it looked as though he had dragged the Magnemite in his old textbooks into the real word.
"Well, what do you think?" Old Man Walter casually leaned forward. "It's certainly not a prime specimen or anything, but I think it'll get the job done for you."
Arthur let out a smile. "Yeah, it's okay." The Magnemite simply stared blankly at Arthur. "Let's get the introductions out of the way, then."
Arthur pointed to himself. "I'm Arthur - your new trainer." Magnemite just continued to float. "Tomorrow, we'll start an adventure together. You're going to do what I say, okay?"
Arthur's voice began to crack. This was the first time he had honestly handled a Pokemon beyond looking at it - his mother's Pokemon died of illness a long time ago. He had no friends, so he couldn't play with their Pokemon. The only Pokemon he had ever seen were the ones they brought in to demonstrate the power of Pokemon every so often at school, and he wasn't one o the few allowed to command them.
It didn't help that he was mostly a shut-in, with the exception of him regularly traveling to the Oldale Dump.
The Magnemite just continued to stare blankly at Arthur. Arthur wondered if the Magnemite could actually understand him.
"Uh… Nod if you understand." Arthur could hit himself. Nod? Could Magnemites even nod?
The Magnemite nodded, though, answering the question succinctly (Well, Arthur thought it was a nod, at least - the Magnemite jerked its whole body forward and tilted it, so it was the closest thing to a Magnemite nod Arthur could think of).
"Okay! Do you… want a name?"
The Magnemite simply continued to stare blankly at him.
Old Man Walter began to laugh as Arthur's cheeks colored. Arthur glared at Old Man Walter as Old Man Walter finally calmed down enough to speak.
"Ha… ha… Arthur, Magnemites don't respond to questions. Unlike us, they don't have the innate desire to share information."
What Old Man Walter said jogged something in Arthur's memory. "Right… they'll just do what their trainer tells them to do, right? They won't do anything else?"
Old Man Walter nodded. "If the trainer can steadily supply electricity, the Magnemite will do whatever their trainer tells them to. They can bond, of course, but that'll take much more time than a more emotional Pokemon."
Arthur, meanwhile, was trying to figure out what to do. While the reassurance of Magnemite's obedience was nice, it still didn't help him deal Magnemite's name.
Then it hit him.
"Magnemite, from now on when I ask a question you will be required to answer," Arthur ordered.
Old Man Walter chuckled a little bit. "Glad to see you have that figured out. Although, I've learned from experience that they can lie, so tell Magnemite that it must tell you the entire truth when it answers your questions."
Arthur was a little confused. "The entire truth? Why not just tell it not to lie?"
"Because if you two ever develop a bond, Magnemite might lie to you to protect you. That generally doesn't end well, so make sure that Magnemite will tell you the complete truth." Old Man Walter adopted a pensive look, then corrected himself. "Well, not the complete truth. You don't want Magnemite to tell you everything, after all - its life story would take forever to tell."
Arthur nodded, then faced Magnemite with a serious look etched on his face. "Magnemite, when I ask you a question, you will tell me the complete - I mean, the relevant truth. Nod if you understand." Magnemite nodded again.
"Alright, go ahead and ask your questions now - he'll answer them." Old Man Walter supplied.
"Sure," Arthur agreed, "I'll ask." He cleared his throat. "Magnemite. Would you like a nickname?"
Magnemite's eye narrowed, and it began to whir his magnets.
Upon Arthur's questioning gaze, Old Man Walter explained. "Magnemite don't have names or know their purpose - they don't really obtain any advantages from knowing others, being fairly antisocial."
"Ugh, why is this so hard?" Arthur whined. When Old Man Walter didn't answer, Arthur huffed. "Fine." He turned around to face Magnemite. "Magnemite, names are used to tell each other apart. It allows me to tell you from other Magnemite, so I don't call for them when I call for you."
Magnemite adopted a curious look on its face for a few seconds, before whirring again.
"It understands." Old Man Walter told Arthur. "Ask your question again."
Arthur sighed, then turned to his Pokemon. "Would you like a nickname? Nod if you say yes."
Magnemite nodded.
Arthur's body sagged, relief flooding through him. "Finally! That took forever - I thought it would never make up its mind."
Old Man Walter sighed, then shook his head. "Look, Arthur, that was easy. In fact, Magnemite, as a species, is easy to train, as they rarely disobey. If you thought that was hard, well…" He trailed off somewhat ominously.
Arthur decided to ignore it and began to continue to talk to Magnemite. "Well, Magnemite, what kind of name do you want?"
Old Man Walter smacked his face, sighing in frustration as Magnemite whirred confusingly. He groaned as Arthur shot him a bemused look. "Arthur, Magnemite doesn't have any preferences yet. It took a while for Net to develop his own preferences, and he still is ambivalent about most things. You'll be the one who has to give the name to it."
Arthur let out a breath. "Alright…," he said with a grimace on his face.
He then considered Magnemite. What would be a good name for him? He barely knew Magnemite, so he felt that any creative name he could make would be a bit of a wash.
He decided to consult Old Man Walter. "Old Man Walter, how did you come up with Net's name".
Old Man Walter chortled. "Oh, that? I caught Net in a trap before throwing a Pokeball at him, so if he escaped the ball I could try again. I named him what I caught him in."
While the anecdote was slightly amusing to Arthur, it didn't really help him that much. Frustrated, he started looking around the junkyard to charge his creativity. Old Man Walter pulled out a book titled The Building of the Entralink.
Arthur looked at the decaying pieces of scrap around him, hoping that at least one of them would able to charge his creativity. Unfortunately, junk was not the most inspiring of muses, and he began to feel frustrated. He began to push his mind to think of a name, but he couldn't come up with anything that didn't sound stupid immediately.
His mind kept revolving around Net, Old Man Walter's Magneton. Net was named after an object - a net - so perhaps naming Magnemite after an object would work as well.
What object did he most associate with Magnemite? He just met it, so he didn't have any experiences with it beyond the confusion with the naming debacle.
Maybe Magnemite could help him - it was better than nothing, at least.
"Magnemite, help me…" Arthur trailed off. Magnemite had decided to wander off while Arthur was thinking, and had buried itself in a pile of scrap. Upon emerging at Arthur's call, a metal spring had gotten stuck on Magnemite's screw, vibrating as Magnemite regarded him.
A smile covered Arthur's face. "Never mind - I've figured it out." Old Man Walter looked up at this, putting away his book.
"Well, spit it out."
Arthur walked to Magnemite, who was levitating in place. With a deft movement, Arthur lifted the spring from Magnemite's screw and clenched it.
"I'll call you Spring." The newly christened Spring regarded Arthur with bewilderment but didn't make any other reactions. "Understand?"
Spring nodded, sealing it. Old Man Walter got up and stretched.
"Well, what now?"
"Uh…" Arthur had yet to think that far ahead. To tell the truth, even though he knew what would be the ideal path in this scenario - travel through Hoenn, get stronger, beat other trainers, obtain Gym badges - he didn't think he was the type of person to do that.
He wasn't much of an adventurer, more of a 'sit down' kind of guy. But he didn't have much choice - out of morbid curiosity, he had once researched how many adventurers setting out at the age of ten actually made training Pokemon into their career.
The answer was...not many. Even discounting those that died after heading out into the wild (those tended to be the people who scored on the lower end of the trainer qualification exam), many adventurers didn't make it past a couple of days before returning home.
Adventuring wasn't all fun and games, after all. Not many people were willing to leave the safety of the towns for the rugged wilderness, at least without transport. Part of the reason why he didn't want to go on a journey in the first place was that of the obscene amount of work he would have to invest in simply surviving.
What was more, it was hard to make much of a profit in the wilderness. Those that managed to survive would prey off any starting trainers, taking away their legal winnings as well. They trained to the point that they would be able to cream any starting trainer, but not much more, as training was difficult and often time-wasting.
That predation on emerging trainers made it hard for the newcomers to really get going.
Arthur wanted none of that. He would have to go off-road most of the time if he wanted to have any chance of surviving for the next few months with any form of money. The problem was that otherwise, he would have no income.
Gym Leaders were also a waste of time. While the first one or two could be handled by an average trainer, they ramped up the difficulty for the third Gym on, so that the Gym would only give a badge to thirty trainers a month or so.
As the Gyms got progressively harder, the number of trainers getting badges decreased. There were only a hundred or so trainers that managed to get to the League. The chances of him being one of them…
Arthur proceeded to tell Old Man Walter just that, and the old man got a pensive look.
Finally, he sighed. "I see your point - it would be difficult to go through the traditional route. You could be a Gym Trainer, perhaps, but that isn't a paid job, so it won't help you beyond strengthening your Pokemon through battles."
While Gyms were public property, they were manned by volunteers. Even the Gym Leaders weren't paid, making them have to supplement their incomes in various ways - modeling, art, etc. They often structured their jobs around the Gym because of this.
Suddenly, Old Man Walter's face brightened. "I have an idea!" Then it brightened even more. "Now I have an even better idea."
"Really?"
Old Man Walter nodded. "Yeah. You probably don't know this, but I have connections." He winked at Arthur, who was feeling moderately calmer. "I know Professor Birch personally, and he can hook you up with something."
Arthur's eyes widened. Professor Birch was the leading Professor of the region, publishing large theses more often than every other Professor in Hoenn combined.
"You know Professor Birch?" Arthur asked, astounded.
"Yep - I've lent him a couple of tools that help him in his research - give him an edge, you know?" Old Man Walter buffed his chest with his fist, looking rather smug.
An inkling of what Old Man Walter was saying was appearing in his mind. "You want me to be his… research assistant?"
Old Man Walter laughed. "Oh no, he has enough of those. No, I'll write a letter you can give to him, and he'll help you on your journey."
"He'll give me funding?"
Old Man Walter shook his head. "No, he only does that for his research assistants, so I doubt he'll lend you money. No, I think he'll help you in another way."
Arthur was annoyed. "Okay, so he helps me. Then what?"
"I'll get it ready for you when you return from Littleroot. For now, just go there."
Arthur nodded and hefted the backpack his mom gave him.
"Sure. Write the letter and I'll leave."
Old Man Walter gave him an odd look. "Not today, of course. It's late afternoon and it'll take a day for you to get to Littleroot."
"Then what do I do?"
"Have some fun today, bond with Spring, and I'll give you the letter. Sleep in the PokeCenter tonight, they'll let you stay in once or twice, then leave for Littleroot tomorrow."
Arthur considered this, then nodded, beckoning Spring over.
"Okay, Spring, let's go to the PokeCenter."
Old Man Walter raised his eyebrows. "Didn't you hear what I just said? I said you should have some fun with Spring and get to know him a little better - why are you going straight for the Pokecenter?"
Arthur grinned. "I know, but I want to know as much about Spring as possible. Since I don't own a Pokedex or anything like that, I'll need a PC to find out more about Spring. After I know more about him I'll bond with him."
"Oh, alright then. If you want to go to the PokeCenter right away, I'll give you the letter. Wait here for a minute."
A few minutes and some speed-writing later, Old Man Walter came out of his shack with an envelope clutched in his hands. He handed the envelope over to Arthur, who put it carefully in his backpack.
"Come back once you go to Littleroot, Arthur. I'm going to prepare something for your journey when you return."
Arthur nodded. "Will do." He then walked out of Oldale Dump, Spring stoically following him.
However, right as he was about to step out he turned to Old Man Walter and smiled. "Thank you, Old Man Walter. You've been really helpful."
Old Man Walter stretched. "Nah, you bring some life to this old place. It was about time I cashed in on some of these checks, anyway." He then made a shooing motion. "Now go - I'll see you in three days or so if you make good time."
Arthur waved and then was off on his journey.