First piece of work I've got on a developing story. If anyone actually reads this and wants more, let me know if the chapters are too short. I can fix that. I obviously don't own any of the Pokemon franchise; GameFreak gets all that glory and whatnot. Thanks for reading!

Spring had risen in the beautiful city of Violet. The sunrise painted the roofs colored by the city's name a deep golden hue. Even the seemingly unfaltering Sprout Tower far to the north was colored by the sun. The morning had an air about it that suggested the city itself was having a fresh start to something.

Drexel had heard stories of children sleeping late on this special day and missing their opportunity, so he had set two alarms for 6:30 sharp. Within a few seconds of the bells waking up the whole house, he was up, throwing on his blue T-shirt and jeans, and getting ready for action.

Today, Drexel would start working at the Violet City Pokémon Gym.

Yesterday was his 18th birthday and he wasted no time filling out the job application. Drex had grown up learning from Faulkner all his life, so the application was more of a formality than anything else; his parents were finally going to let him battle now that he was 18. Before now, he wasn't even allowed his own Pokémon.

Grabbing a handful of pecha berries and bolting out the door, the excited young man hopped on his bike and took off with a visible glimmer of ambition in his eye.

As he weaved through the still waking streets, he passed the town flower shop, "Violets are Blue," and saw the owner's daughter, Abbi, up early, bow neatly tied in her hair, training her still young caterpie.

"Drex! Watch Cappie work," she yelled across the street. Drex had gotten ready early and could spare the time. The little girl then put her shiny metal bowl before the caterpie. "Cappie, String Shot!"

A determined new look on his face, the caterpie sprung itself up onto Abbi's shoulder, looking down at the bowl, and started releasing bursts of the coarse, webby string in crosshatch patterns into it. After a few minutes of this, the entire bowl had been lined with vertical and horizontal string shots, effectively filling the mold to make one of the shop's famous string shot flower baskets. The breathability and strength of the string make it ideal to place and water soil in.

The look on Abbi's face was beyond any excitement Drex had ever seen. "You did it, Cappie!" Instantly she reached for the bowl and flipped it upside-down. "Let's see it!" But instead of letting out a solid web-basket, a misshapen clump of gooey string fell out and hit the ground with a disappointing "plop."

"No!" Yelled Abbi. "I forgot to let the basket set! I'm so dumb! The one time we get it right..."

"Hey now," Drex said, taking a knee to get on the child's level. "It was a simple mistake; easy to fix next time. The important thing is that you knew what went wrong. When Cappie gets his PP back up, you'll try it again and it'll turn out great!" Drex turned to the caterpie on her shoulder, who had developed a disappointed look on his face. "The important think is to congratulate this little guy on his hard work. He filled the mold perfectly. I can tell his hard work has been paying off."

A smile came across Abbi's face as she took her caterpie off her shoulder and lifted it in front of her. "You're right, Drex. Cappie, that was awesome! You're so small and you can already make great flower baskets just like your mommy and daddy Butterfree!"

The caterpie made a squeal of joy, and the same grin fell upon Drex's face. "Don't act so shocked, Abbi. Cappie's size doesn't mean anything. Even the weakest-looking Pokémon has something special to offer to the world. Never forget that."

"I won't! I gotta go find one of Daddy's Ethers now, Cappie and I have a lot of work to do. Thanks, Drex!"

The child scurried into the shop with Cappie in her hands, and Drex got back on his bike, making his way to the first step of his exciting new job.