Cobalt & Mauve:
"A Trainer In The Making (Pilot)"
"Fire-types are weak against Water, Rock, and Ground. Fire-types are strong against Grass, Bug, Ice, and..."
A seventeen-year-old boy with messy black hair and cool blue eyes was typing notes on his PC. His name was Cobalt, as in the shade of blue. He never realized why his mother would ever choose such a strange name for her son, though he assumed it was because of his eye color.
He sat there wearing a red T-shirt with black outlines of Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard, a pair of blue athletic shorts and white short socks.
Tomorrow was the day he would leave for Celadon University, a school for kids like him to study Pokémon rather than train and battle them. The one trouble was how far the school was from his home.
Cobalt lived on the island of Hajimari; one of the ten islands of the Taiyō no Shima, an archepiligo off the coast of the Kalos region.
He never thought of being the Trainer type. Knowing strategy and quite a bit of Pokémon themselves, training them to be an elite team was a different story for him. The very thought of losing a Pokémon battle was a nightmare that haunted the back of his mind.
A small Growlithe entered the room and barked up at Cobalt.
He turned in his chair and scratched the Pokémon's head,
"Hey buddy."
Chūsei, (the Growlithe) was the only Pokémon Cobalt had ever owned. Chūsei was hatched from an egg from the Arcanine owned by Cobalt's father the day before Cobalt was born and the two had been inspeperable ever since.
Cobalt's father was once a great Trainer until his untimely end before Cobalt was born. His mother would often say how much Cobalt looked like his father.
Despite their loss, Cobalt and his mother moved on with their lives. His mother had gotten a job at the Pokémon Center in his hometown and Cobalt went on to study Pokémon and had dreams of being...
It was only then that Cobalt realized that he didn't know what to do with his life after Celadon U.
"Cobalt, it's time for bed!"
"Okay mom!"
Cobalt went back to typing his notes. It didn't take long before he finished and printed the rest off in small sheets to place in a black, pocket-sized binder with his name on it in golden letters as Chūsei brought Cobalt his green backpack. Stuffing the rest of his things in his backpack he had it hung on the back of the chair in front of his desk and flung himself into his bed after throwing away his shirt and kicking off his socks with Chūsei snuggling up to the end of the bed like he always would.
Cobalt laid there in his bed, barely asleep, wondering what the school would be like. Would he make a lot of friends? What all would he learn?
He knew more than anything that he wanted to study Fire-type Pokémon. Fire-types were his favorite.
He decided to let this rest and with that, he was out like a light.
"RING RING RING!"
Cobalt's eyes shot open as Chūsei started barking. He slammed down hard on his Pidgey alarm clock; the ringing stopped soon after. Cobalt already began to smell breakfast in the kitchen downstairs. The plate of waffles, eggs, and bacon popped into his head and quickly jumped out of bed with his Growlithe following closely behind.
"Morning honey." His mother greeted him as he walked in the kitchen.
"Morning."
Cobalt sat down and ate while his mother was cleaning the dishes.
"Today's the day." His mother said.
"Yeah."
His mother had finished cleaning the dishes,
"So is it really necessary that you need a Pokémon to take with you?"
"I'm not sure it is. They might provide me one if I don't have any."
"Why don't you take Chūsei with you?"
"I didn't want you to get lonely. Besides I don't think he'd like it there."
Cobalt looked down at Chūsei, whose determined eyes told his master that he wished to stay with him.
"You want to come with me buddy?"
The Growlithe barked in what Cobalt assumed was agreement.
"Well then I guess that's settled."
After finishing his breakfast, Cobalt then looked at the clock and saw that if he was going to make it to the train that left for the next island, then he would have to start walking soon,
"Aw man Chūsei, we gotta go!"
The two ran back up to Cobalt's room to make sure he had everything packed: a extra change of clothes, his pocket-sized binder of notes, a couple of books on Pokémon, a permanent black marker, a case of pencils, a Town Map, and three different colored notebooks.
Following Chūsei, Cobalt came down in a different outfit: a plain black T-shirt under an emerald colored jacket with white going down the torso and around the wrists. He was also wearing a pair of dark blue jeans, long black socks (which the jeans covered), and a pair of black Running Shoes.
The two were about to leave when Cobalt's mother stopped him,
"Cobalt, wait!"
He turned to see his teary-eyed mother, holding what he recognized as a Pokéball, and not just any ordinary Pokéball, Chūsei's Pokéball.
Cobalt took the ball from his mother's hands and placed it in his pocket once miniaturized into the size of a Ping-Pong ball.
His mother gave him a hug goodbye,
"Take care of yourself. And Chūsei too."
"I will."
Cobalt walked out the door and took a few steps from the house before saying to his Growlithe,
"Well, it looks like it's just you and me now buddy."
The Growlithe barked in excitement as he and his owner began their journey.
On another side of the island, a young girl with straight blonde hair was riding her turquoise bicycle to the top of a ledge that led to her private fishing spot. Her name was Mauve.
She wore a magenta colored T-shirt with an oval on the upper torso colored a softer shade. She wore a pair of light blue capris and white Running Shoes.
Mauve and her family had recently moved to the island from Celadon City to get away from the craze of the city life and settle down in a more peaceful environment.
She had at first protested to the thought of moving, but the lush environment and abundance of Pokémon had won her over. What's more was that she was starting her journey as a Pokémon Trainer to accept the Taiyō no Shima Gym Challenge, which was perfect seeing is how today was her sixteenth birthday. There was however just one problem:
She didn't own a Pokémon.
Not only that but she didn't have anything to catch one with. How was she to compete if she couldn't battle?
And so she sat there on a ledge five feet above the sea, fishing pole in one hand and eyes wandering around. She had "borrowed" the Super Rod fishing pole from her Fishing Guru father when the only Pokémon she could catch with the "pole" her father had gotten her were Tentacool and Magikarp.
Mauve started to drift into sleep when the pole started to tug on her grasp. She jumped up in excitement and did what her father taught her:
"Let it take the bait, reel it in a little, let it follow you and if it keeps tugging, yank it as hard as you can!"
With one final yank,
"SNAP!"
Mauve stopped, her eyes moved over when she saw that the Super Rod had completely snapped in half. She started worrying; her father wouldn't like it when he found out this had happened.
But then again,
"Did I catch something this time?"
She peered down to the water but didn't see anything at first, leading her to sink her head in disappointment. That was until something nudged her head. Something big.
Mauve slowly looked up and was startled at first when she saw a Lapras was peeking over the cliff.
"Oh...sorry about that, you scared me."
The Lapras made what Mauve interpreted as laughter.
Mauve got up, taking out one of the many Pokéballs she had in her bag,
"Okay, I guess now I have to catch you! And...GO!"
The ball went hurtling at Lapras before hitting Lapras' head, and was sucked into the ball in a flash of blue. It shook at least four or five times before it finally stopped.
"Yes! Finally I got a Lapras!"
Now the only thing was to explain the snapped Super Rod to her father.
She stuffed her new Lapras into her bag and rode her bike all the way home.
Once there, she stuffed away the fishing rod in her father's closet where he normally kept it, making it appear that she hadn't stolen it.
"Mauve?"
She quickly spun around to see her father standing in the doorway. A confused look was on his face,
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"Nothing...just thought I'd-"
She noticed she still had her Old Rod with her,
"Put my Rod back where you kept it..."
"Did you catch anything?"
Mauve hesitated. How could she lie to her father? Well, maybe instead of lying she could "stretch the truth" a little.
"I...sorta caught a Lapras..."
Her father had flipped,
"A Lapras?! That's amazing! And with an Old Rod too? How did you catch a it?"
"Well it just sort of swam up to me while I was fishing and I just...caught it. It didn't really put up much of a fight."
"Well I hope you like it hun. And since I know you're planning on leaving today, I got you this as another birthday present."
Her father pulled out a brand new blue backpack. She took it from her father and immediately noticed that it was heavy.
"Mom went ahead and got you some supplies before you leave. Happy Birthday, Hun."
Mauve started getting teary-eyed, and hugged her father,
"Oh, Daddy."
Her father then did a double take at the Super Rod barely hidden in the closet; something wasn't right. He let go of Mauve and walked over to it to inspect his pole.
He was horrified to find it snapped in half.
Good thing Mauve had already left on her bike as her father cried out,
"MAUVE!"
"Woo, let's take a minute to stop for a bit Chūsei."
Cobalt and Chūsei had stopped for the moment under a large oak tree to rest before heading to the docks which were still a little ways away.
"Now, if I look at the map right," Cobalt said taking out the map and reading it thoroughly, "the docks are still a couple miles away. If we keep going at the rate we are now, we should be able to reach it in about an hour."
Chūsei barked in excitement before stopping suddenly in mid-bark. Something ruslted in the bushes and out came a couple of Sandshrew and Sandslash.
"Ah cool!" Cobalt took out a small but thick, black book and flipped the pages to find the Pokémon they were encountering and read it out loud,
"The Sandshrew family: The Mouse Pokémon. Ground types. They dig burrows at astounding velocities with the ability to regenerate their claws and spikes if they are ever broken off. They dislike water and prefer to live in the dark or in arid deserts which they can survive by perserving the water in their body. They also like to roll up into balls which shield them from most attacks and falling from great heights."
It looked as though they were a family. One of the smaller ones looked as though it had hatched not three days ago at most.
Cobalt reached up to a nearby Berry tree one of the Sandslash were trying to get and pulled down a Sitrus Berry and gave to Sandlash.
It nodded its head while making a sound that said it was grateful.
Then there came a rustle in the trees. Cobalt slowly looked up to see a horde of Mankey and one Primeape. That must have been their leader. None of them looked happy.
Cobalt whipped out his book again and searched for Mankey and Primeape's information.
"Mankey and Primeape: The Pig Monkey Pokémon. Fighting types. Very easy to agitate and known for being light on their feet and extremely hostile. A sure sign if their rage is when their breathing becomes rough and it is nearly impossible to escape their fury. If one Mankey becomes upset then the rest of the colony will go ballistic for no reason. One can easily anger a Primeape just by looking at; once enraged the circulation of its blood causes its muscles to become stronger where at the same time it becomes less intellegent. Never look a Primeape in the eyes or it will never stop chasing you."
"Oh, are you brutes ever happy?" Cobalt remarked.
This only made it worse. Now they started growling, their eyes not taking off of Cobalt.
"Oh I get it now, the Berry tree was part of your territory and I went and plucked from it...sorry?"
The other Pokémon had already scurried away nervously, giving Cobalt a bad feeling about what was going to happen next.
They all leaped down from the tree and surrounded Cobalt and Chūsei. Perhaps they were simply trying to intimidate the pair?
It wasn't until one of the Mankey tried charging up at Cobalt that he knew the fight was on. But before Mankey could reach Cobalt's face, Chūsei had bit down hard on the Mankey's tail while it was in midair and slammed it into the ground. Chūsei coninued to growl and snarl at the colony, who were even to become a bit uneased.
Primeape however wasn't pleased and charged.
"Okay buddy you've made your point; I think it's time to go!"
The two ran off with Primeape and the rest of the colony following closely behind.
Mauve was now riding her bicycle through an open path in a corn field, feeling very excited about her starting journey. She wondered who the first Gym Leader would be and what type the specialized in. Instead of there being the traditional eight, there was instead ten! With one of the islands holding the Taiyō no Shima Tournament. It was all just so thrilling.
All of a sudden she heard someone yelling.
There was a rustling in the corn field and out popped a little Growlithe.
Mauve almost fell off her bike,
"Oh my Arceus! You have to be the cutest-!"
She was cut off by someone who ran into her when she was going on about Growlithe. She looked to see a boy, about her age, with a nervous look on his face,
"What are you doing?! RUN!"
Cobalt had led the chase into a nearby cornfield where he'd thought he and Chūsei would lose the colony.
Unfortunately, they were wrong. The pair had run into a girl on her bike, and now the fight was between Cobalt, Chūsei and this stranger.
All three of them were now running out of the cornfield and into an open short grass plain.
"Hurry, they're gaining!" Cobalt said.
"Why don't you use your Growlithe to fight them?!"
"I don't battle Pokémon, I study them!"
"You what?!"
The girl stopped running,
"I didn't just start my journey just to run from you jerks! Come on Lapras, let's show them what we're made of!"
She tossed a Pokéball into the air, and out in a flash of blue light came a Lapras.
Cobalt and Chūsei had stopped as well to see what the girl would do.
"Lapras, use-"
"How could I have been so stupid?!" she thought.
This was something Mauve had completely forgotten about: Lapras' attacks. She never even bothered to check.
"Great. Now me, this kid and his Growlithe are all going to die."
Lapras, however, had another idea.
A small ring of water began to form in it's mouth. It got larger and larger until it was large enough to fit Mauve inside, and fired it directly at one of the Mankey.
Upon impact, the small pig nosed Pokémon went flying, much to Mauve's amazement as well as the boy and his Pokémon. This gave Lapras a smirk.
Another Water Pulse took out a whole half of the colony, and another to the last half, leaving Primeape a sitting Psyduck, but it wouldn't go without a fight. It said so by landing a formidable Focus Punch on Lapras.
But Lapras wasn't one to give up so easily either.
This time when water began forming in Lapras' mouth, it came out as a straight and powerful stream of water, leaving Primeape dizzy-eyed with the rest of his crew.
Mauve was ecstatic,
"Oh my Arceus, Lapras you did it!"
"I will say that was pretty impressive."
Mauve and Lapras both turned to the boy and his Growlithe.
"Water Pulse and Water Gun. Didn't think a little Lapras had it in him."
"Thanks and all, but how do you know it's a boy?"
"Oh I don't. Lapras are gender less. No one can tell, I was simply guessing."
"You weren't kidding about the whole "studying" thing were you?"
"Nope. That's why I'm heading to Celadon University. I want to study Pokémon instead of battling them."
"Oh! I used to live in Celadon! But why don't you like battling? They're so much fun! You could actually learn a lot from battle too."
"I just...don't know if if I have it in me."
"How do you know?"
"I just don't I guess."
The boy looked down at Growlithe,
"Besides, if anything were to happen to Chūsei, I would never forgive myself."
Mauve went and knelt down to Chūsei's level and scratched his head,
"You really care about him don't you?"
"He's my best friend. Been that way since day one."
He looked up at Lapras,
"And I can see that this is day one with your Lapras, isn't it?"
Mauve had gotten slightly embarrassed,
"Yeah. Kind of weak, isn't it?"
"Not at all. If you're a beginning Trainer it doesn't matter to me. At least it likes you."
"Yeah."
Mauve stood up to face the boy,
"I'm Mauve."
"Cobalt."
"Ha! I get it like the shade of blue right?"
"It's actually because of my eyes, but it's all the same. Mauve's actually soft a shade of violet."
"Huh. I thought my folks just named me that because it sounded pretty."
Cobalt then started looking worried again, and quickly looked down at his PokéGear,
"Shit! We're gonna be late!"
He turned to Chūsei,
"I know you hate being in your Pokéball buddy, but we have to go!"
He quickly returned his Growlithe to it's Pokéball and checked his PokéGear again,
"Ugh! Even if we walk there's not enough time. Unless..."
Cobalt's eyes had wandered down to Mauve's bike.
Mauve had caught on immediately after this,
"Oh don't even think-"
Cobalt quickly grabbed Mauve's bicycle and was already a yard ahead of her before she could stop him.
"Hey stop, that's mine!"
"I'm sorry! I'm going to be late if I don't! I'll leave it by the docks for yoooouuu!"
He had left Mauve's sight.
As angry as she was, she quickly returned Lapras to its Pokéball and ran after Cobalt at top speed.
After finally reaching the docks, Cobalt and Chūsei searched frantically for the ship they were to board.
Of course, riding a bicycle in the middle of a crowded dock was a very good way to run into someone-
"Hey you! Watch where you're goin'!"
Cobalt stopped when he had accidently ran over someone's foot.
He looked over to see that the foot's owner was either a tall human being or a small Ursaring. The person had messy dirty blonde hair and must have stood over six feet tall; you could just barely see his small brown eyes that spoke that he was just asking for trouble.
"I'm sorry, I was in a hurry. Hey could you tell me where Port 7 is? I'm looking for the ship going to Vermillion City, Kanto?"
"What do I look like to you, a map? Look for it yourself! Least you could do is say you're sorry."
"I just did, what are you deaf?"
"Oh, so you're calling me, Dwayne, "deaf" now are ya smartass?!"
Cobalt was unfazed by this brute, but this had left Chūsei growling. Chūsei would only ever growl at someone he didn't like or have a good feeling about.
"No, I'm calling deaf because you obviously have selective hearing and like to hear yourself talk."
The people of the crowd began moving out of the way; this was about to get serious.
"That's it! Time to teach this kid a lesson in pain, Tazer!"
Dwayne took out an Ultra Ball, and unleashed a furry, yellow creature: Electabuzz.
"Thunderbolt!"
Electabuzz charged up and fired a large lightning bolt at Cobalt who was fortunate enough to leap off of the bike before the attack hit, but it fried the bicycle.
The people began to scramble away in fear of getting attacked by mistake.
"What the hell was that for?! That wasn't even mine! You could have gotten me killed!"
"Someone needs to teach you how to respect people, and I think that'll be me! Thunderbolt again!"
One after the other, the Electric attacks were getting closer to hitting Cobalt or Chūsei; when would someone stop this? Or would he have to take matters into his own hands?
"Why don't you fight like a real Trainer ya little wuss?!"
"Because unlike you, even if I did fight, I wouldn't be brash, overbearing and attack haphazardly! Some Trainer you think you are; a person like you doesn't deserve to be called "Trainer"!"
"I'M GONNA FRY OFF THAT BIG MOUTH A YOURS! TAZER, THUNDER -!"
"Water Pulse!"
A large ring of water came from behind Cobalt who ducked out of its way and turned back to face his oppponents be soaked in water.
"Gah, what the hell-?!"
Mauve was standing behind Cobalt along with Lapras. She walked up to face Dwayne at Cobalt's side,
"It's what you get for trying to hurt innocent people! You don't deserve to call yourself a Trainer, you're just a bully!"
Dwayne then saw Mauve after brushing his eyes out from the water,
"Ohoho, I didn't know I was having it out with a cute little Fennekin like you! How's about you and I ditch this loser instead and go and get a soda or somethin'?"
Mauve actually started to get an eager look in her eyes,
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea!"
She turned for a second before,
"Let me just-"
*PUNCH*
Dwayne fell down quickly with a loud "thud".
Tazer was still able, and didn't take his master falling at the hands of some girl well.
Electricity crackled off its fur, but before it could strike, Tazer was engulfed in flames.
Cobalt looked over and saw that Chūsei had caused the attack. He still eyed Tazer the Electabuzz with a death glare and snarls warning to strike again if it got up.
After turning back to Cobalt however, Chūsei went from being an aggressive to the happiest Growlithe this side of the island.
"Good boy Chūsei. Good boy." Cobalt said while scratching behind Chūsei's ears.
"Ugh..."
Dwayne had slowly risen, though he still looked dizzy from the blow to his head; blood was flooding from his lip. He still glared at Mauve and Cobalt before saying,
"You got lucky this time around here kid. But someday I will battle you."
He returned the fallen Electabuzz to its Pokéball before getting on a motorcycle,
"But next time, don't expect your girlfriend here to bail you out!" he said as he rode off from the docks.
"I'm/She's not his/my girlfriend!"
The two were quiet for a minute before Cobalt spoke up,
"Thanks for helping me out there."
"No problem. What a piece a work that guy is, right?"
"You said it before me."
He turned back to Chūsei,
"Come on buddy we gotta go before-"
"Port Seven, now leaving the area." the PDA sounded.
The blood had drained from Cobalt's face as he fell to his knees.
"We...didn't make it?"
Mauve came to his side,
"Oh, Cobalt I'm really sorry."
Cobalt went and sat at the end of the pier,
"Now I'm gonna have to wait until the next ship leaves for Kanto in a whole month."
Chūsei went to give Cobalt support but to no avail.
"Maybe I could let you ride with me on Lapras and we could catch up-"
"Impossible. That ship must be going about 40 knots by now."
"Um, I'm pretty sure that Lapras can keep up-"
"That's nearly 50 miles per hour Mauve! And besides that ship was going to take me all the way to the port in Vermillion! Do you have any idea how far that is from the island? Lapras isn't that strong yet. By the looks of it, he's still quite young anyway."
"Okay, one: 50 miles per hour is a little fast don't you think? Two: how do you know how young-know what, nevermind."
"It's basically a large speedboat only taking a few people. I know a lot on Pokémon, like I said before."
He sighed depressingly, looking out to the horizon as the Sun set halfway.
Mauve did actually feel bad for Cobalt. She knew how badly he wanted this and now he had missed his chance.
That was when the idea had popped into her head,
"Cobalt, get your sorry ass up."
Cobalt and Chūsei turned to her to give her an odd look.
"I have a better idea for you so quit sulking! You need to hear this!"
He got up,
"What?"
"You're going to Celadon U, right?"
"Yeah, why? Need my acceptance letter?"
"No, no, no. Look, you go there to study Pokémon, right?"
"Yeah, what are you getting at?"
"I'm saying, why not come with me on my journey to compete in the Taiyō no Shima Gym Challenge and document the whole thing!"
Cobalt's eyes widended,
"Holy Mew, that's gotta be the greatest idea I've ever heard!"
"Now Cobalt, look my in the eyes." Mauve said in a sudden serious tone.
Cobalt did look into her soft purple eyes.
"Will you, Cobalt, come with me on my journey and assist me when I'm in need of help?"
"...Yes."
Mauve jumped for joy,
"Yay! Then it's settled. We start in the morning, the greatest journey of all time!"
The Sun dipped into the sea; the stars and Moon had began to come out. It looked like it was going to be a pretty clear night.
As they were walking however,
"Hey Cobalt?"
"Yeah?"
"Where's my bike?"
After receiving many injuries from Mauve, Cobalt was at the desk of his conjoining room to Mauve's with Chūsei on the end of the bed asleep as wrote in one of his notebooks (red),
"DAY ONE: March 27, 2014 9:53 P.M.
I have decided in my quest for knowledge on Pokémon that I shall join a new friend of mine, Mauve, on her journey to compete in the local Gym Challenge. Her Lapras appears to be very well adjusted to her command despite being so young. In any case however, I'm proud to say that I'm glad that I accepted Mauve's offer. My name is Cobalt, and I'm on a journey to document the journey of a Pokémon Trainer in the making."
