Pokemon Viridus – Chapter 1
A Surprise at the Festival!
The tweens of Viridus Town were very excited on the morning of Ostara, for every year this holiday became the opportunity for many of them to receive their first pokemon during the Ostara festival and begin their very own pokemon adventure. The festival was always held in the town square, and this year would be no different. In one of the many town stores that stood along the town square, two girls, Amber and Miri, were walking around the aisles that were neatly showing off the newest pokemon dolls. Miri had stars in her eyes as she gazed at the Chansey dolls sitting on their shelf. She reached out her hands and touched them longingly. Beside her, Amber kept looking out of the window onto the growing amount of people gathering at the square.
"Miri... I think we should go, everybody seems to be gathering at the square now." Amber prodded her friend, but Miri simply ignored her concerns and continued to gaze at the dolls.
The store clerk suddenly appeared next to them, "I'm afraid that we will be closing the store now, so you girls need to leave."
Miri's face tightened into a frown, "Why are you closing this early?"
"The festival is going to start in about fifteen minutes, and we wouldn't want our customers to miss out on it, especially you girls! Will this be your first time getting pokemon? It will be my young son's first time, too."
Miri smiled and she and Amber both nodded, "Well, we'd best be going now."
They both left the store and did their best squirming their way through the crowd of town people. At the center of the square was a risen stage made of wood. That was where every year, Professor Mahogony and his team of researchers would give away one pokemon to all the town children who were of age to receive one. This year Amber and Miri would get their chance to get a pokemon of their own.
The girls were somehow lucky enough to push their way through to the very front of the crowd, right in front of the stage. There was a band playing folk music already on the stage, and Amber gasped delightedly when she spotted Professor Mahogony and a few other researchers on one end of the stage. The professor was instructing them as the two researchers each pulled onto the stage a medium sized brown potato sack onto the center of the stage.
"We better not be getting potatos instead of pokemon..." Miri laughed.
The girls waited patiently as the professor and his team talked with some other festival organizers on stage while waiting for the right time to start the festival. Finally, the band on stage stopped playing music and the professor and her team took their place next to the potato sacks sitting on a table at the center of the stage. The host of the festival, an elderly man with a black, formal suit and purple tie, took a microphone and began to speak to the crowd.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! People of Viridus Town! I am pleased to announce the beginning of Viridus Town's annual Ostara Festival!"
The crowd began to cheer and clap, as did Amber and Miri. They watched as the host gave the microphone to Professor Mahogany, and she began to address the crowd, "I know you do not wish to wait any longer, so, we will begin calling up all our new, young trainers to receive their very first pokemon!"
The crowd cheered again, this time it was mainly the young one's who cheered as they were very eager to get their pokemon. They quieted down on Professor Mahogony's signal, and listened to what else she had to say.
"We will begin by calling everybody's name, one at a time, and they will have to come up here onto the stage and pick one bag to choose a pokeball from. So, we will begin now," she said, pulling out a folded piece of paper from her lab coat pocket and unfolding it, "with our first name, and that is... Ms. Marianne Albeck!"
Amber and Miri watched as one of their own friends was called up onto the stage to receive her first pokemon.
"They are calling out names alphabetically..." Miri said matter-of-factely. Amber nodded and watched as Marianne dug her hand deep into the right side bag and pulled out a pokeball, her face beaming with pride. She then pressed the middle button on the pokeball, making it expand, then quickly pressed it again to have the pokemon inside it revealed. The pokeball opened in a bright flash of light that bounced from inside the pokeball and onto the stage. After a few seconds, the light disappeared and in its place an aipom appeared. Amber and Miri clapped along with the rest of the crowd as Marianne greeted her new friend and she and the Aipom went off the stage.
"Congratulations on your new aipom, Marianne!" Professor Mahogony cheered, "Next up, we have... Justin Hubbard!"
As the blonde boy made his way through the crowd and onto the stage, the crowd cheered slightly, but Amber and Miri did not cheer at all. Justin was the meanest, snobbiest boy in town, and as they watched him grin all the way across the stage, they secretly hoped he recieved an undesirable pokemon for his liking. Justin reached shallowly into the bag and seemed to have chosen the first pokeball his fingers touched. He took the ball out of the bag and held it high in front of him for the whole crowd to see, then pushed the button on the middle to release the pokemon inside. As the flash of light cleared, a human-like figure formed.
"Alright!" Justin exclaimed, as his new tyrogue jabbed at the air to try and improve his entrance. Amber sighed and Miri tapped her shoulder, "What is that thing?" Miri whispered. Amber replied, "A tyrogue... it's a fighting type pokemon, you know, the one that can evolve into hitmonchan, hitmonlee, or hitmontop?"
"Oh..." Miri murmered trying to sound as if she understood.
Both girls continued to watch and occasionally cheer for the other kids who went up on stage, until they called out Rose Jensen's name. Amber had always tried to be friends with Rose, but Rose was so competitive that it was nearly impossibly to like her from one day to the next. She almost held her breath as Rose walked up to the middle of the stage and took her time to select a pokeball. Finally, after a couple minutes, and with coaxing from Professor Mahogony's impatient foot tapping, Rose selected a pokeball and took it out of the bag. She pushed the button in the middle and it burst with light...
Amber let out a laugh, "A weedle?!"
From the stage, Rose heard Amber's comment and glared at her, "We'll see what great of a pokemon you get, Amber!"
Amber turned a little red when she realized Rose had heard her and quickly stopped her laughter. After Rose got off the stage, Professor Mahogony looked at her list again. "Next up, we have... Miss Miriel Oberst!"
Amber quickly cheered and turned to Miri as she gave a big grin and began to make her way onto the stage. Miri nervously held her arms to her sides until she reached the nearest bag, but before she reached in, she looked at Amber for a moment. Amber nodded for her to continue. With a deep breath, Miri closed her eyes and turned her body half away from the bag, only leaving one arm inside the bag. After circling around the bag for a few seconds, she selected a pokeball and took it out. Miri looked at her selection and hoped it had been a good one. She pushed the button on its center and was blinded slightly by the light. When the light faded, a tiny, round brown pokemon seemed to stand on one foot right next to Miri. It looked up at Miri with big round, red eyes and gave a hoot. "Hoothoot!" It said, and Miri smiled in glee.
Amber and the rest of the crowd cheered as Miri took her new hoothoot in her arms and carried it back into the crowd.
"Wow, what a cutie!" Amber said as Miri took her place next to her. The hoothoot smiled and wiggled a bit in Miri's arms. "Yeah," Miri agreed, "I didnt think my first pokemon would be so cute!"
A couple more kids were called up after Miri, then finally, Amber heard her own name called and her heart skipped a beat. "Go Amber! That's you!" She heard Miri exclaim, and she felt Miri push her towards the stage. Amber composed herself and tried to stay calm, regardless of the butterflies she was getting in her stomach. She bravely walked up onto the stage, but her nerves blocked out the cheering of the crowd and the smiling faces of the researchers beside Professor Mahogony. Her mind was intently focused on the brown potato sack nearest to her. Her hand quivered as she neared the bag. She sunk her hand in deep into it and moved around the pokeballs before she decided on one that she thought felt right. She pulled it out, her heart racing at a million miles an hour. When she got it out, she stood looking at it for a few seconds and hoped her pokemon would be a good companion. Holding her breath, she pushed the middle button and watched the flash of light form into a pokemon.
At first, she thought her pokemon might be an ekans, as its body was curved in that form. But then she noticed it was a little more plumper than an ekans, and remained clueless on what it was until the light finally cleared off completely. The crowd, as well as Amber, gave a gasp of surprise. The whole town seemed to have gone silent as they stared at Amber's pokemon. Even Professor Mohagony and her team seemed confused. The professor took a step toward the pokemon in amazement, "A... a dratini? But how?"
Amber couldn't believe her luck. Her first pokemon was incredibly rare! She broke out into a grin as the crowd broke into the loudest cheer of the entire festival.
"Well..." the professor said, smiling at Amber, "You are one lucky trainer! You better take good care of this dratini!"
"Oh, I will! Don't worry about that!" Amber grinned back, and after petting her new pokemon and giving it a hug, she safely returned it to its pokeball and left the stage to stand next to an amazed Miri and watched the rest of the festival and the remaining kids get their pokemon.
To be continued...