New and exciting adventures! Crystal raced across the water, running alongside the legendary Suicune. Although they rushed across the waves, Crystal never once felt fear of sinking, she was going far too fast, almost faster than Suicune. She raced ahead of him. The Pokémon opened its mouth to speak to Crystal, and an annoying beep came out of its mouth.
Crystal turned over in bed. The alarm clock read eight AM. She was not ready to start the day. She had spent all night getting too excited, and couldn't fall asleep, but now she just wanted to nap.
New and exciting adventures! Crystal flew above the clouds, flying alongside-
"Crystal, you overslept!"
Crystal groaned. Her mother was right. She pulled her thick comforter over her head, gripping it in her hands like a vice as her mother struggled to pull the blankets off and Crystal out.
"Crystal! You're 10 now, you can't be acting like a 3-year old every morning."
Crystal snuggled closer into her pillows, mumbling, "Can your birthday gift to me be an hour more sleep?"
"No! I already bought your gift. If you hurry and get ready this morning, you can open it up before you have to go over to Professor Elm's."
Crystal scrunched her face and peered over the comforter, "Why do I have to go to the lab?"
"You promised to run an errand!"
Crystal remembered. It wasn't really a promise, though, "Mom, you volunteered me…"
"Well, it builds community spirit. Besides, he's giving you your first Pokémon today. It's only polite that you do something for him in return."
Crystal grumbled, "Gold didn't have to do anything on his birthday…"
"Young lady, you better rush out of bed and downstairs right now! Otherwise I may have to resort to a glass of ice to wake you up."
Crystal rolled out of bed and her mother left. She got dressed for the day, and found her hat and backpack. Sometimes when her mom made her run errands for people around New Bark, she had to go all the way to Cherrygrove. It wasn't far, but she had to take the long way around to avoid any wild Pokémon. So, she needed her backpack to fit in a lunch, and a couple of snacks.
Crystal ate some eggs, yogurt, and toast with her mom for breakfast. Only then could she open her birthday gift. Her present was wrapped in bright yellow paper with a dark blue bow. The package was a distinctive shape. She tore it open quickly, and received her first PokéGear. She could call her friend at any time of the day. It had access to all of the top radio stations in Johto. It was perfect!
Crystal hugged her mom, and then checked the clock. It was still only 8:47, she still had plenty of time, about 13 minutes, before she had to go over to the lab.
Crystal headed back up to her room. She relaxed on her bed, pulling out a Pokémon magazine from underneath a pillow. She flipped through the pages. A Squirtle, a Yanma, an Onix… or maybe she'd get a Marill like Gold did?
"Marill!"
Crystal jumped, and looked at her window. Gold's Marill was sitting on the sill, and she hopped onto Crystal's bed. The Marill nuzzled Crystal's arm. Crystal sat up, and she pet the Pokémon absentmindedly. With the warm summer weather, she had left the window open overnight on accident. It was a good thing that it was Gold's Marill that hopped through, and not some wild Zubat or Hoothoot!
Gold appeared on her windowsill. "Aha!" He pointed at Marill, who looked sheepish.
"GAH!" Crystal shouted, startling Marill. Marill ran back to Gold, hopping into his arms for a hug. "Gold, what are you doing!?"
"Marill and I were playing hide and seek! Sorry about this, I didn't expect her to come hopping into your room."
"That's probably why she wanted to hide here," said Crystal, sighing. "But still! You can't come crawling into girls' windows in the middle of the morning! People would talk." Crystal put her hands on her hips.
"Talk about what?"
"I don't know! But mom always says things like that."
"Oh, okay. Well, I don't want your mom mad at me." Gold began crawling back out the window, "I've got to go, though, I'll see you later."
"Wait!"
"What?"
"You're on the second floor!"
Gold looked down, and then rushed into Crystal's room.
"How did you get up here to begin with?"
Gold took off his hat and scratched the back of his head "I just spotted Marill and started climbing. I wasn't really paying attention to the height." He grinned and put his hat back on, adjusting it carefully so that it was backwards.
"Well, you can go out the door like a normal person."
Crystal got up, and dragged Gold by the back of his jacket down the stairs and out the front door. She smoothed out her clothes. Crystal started walking to the lab, Gold directly behind her.
"Why are you following me?" asked Crystal, "Didn't you say you had something to do?"
"Yeah," said Gold, "My mom told me to go run some errands for Professor Elm."
Crystal stopped outside the front doors of the lab and frowned, miserable.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, you just took away all the fuel I had for 'negotiations' with my mom."
"Oh, you two were fighting again?"
Crystal crossed her arms and leaned against the wall of the lab. She sighed pathetically.
Gold's eyes went wide, sensing an oncoming storm of whining, "Well, I better go see what the Professor wanted!" He rushed inside.
Crystal grinned, looking past him as he went inside. But out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of red, just behind the lab. She walked over to the side, and saw a kid with bright red hair crouched down, peeking through a window intently. He had a glare and a frown plastered on his face.
Crystal didn't know any kids around here who looked like that. In fact, the only other kid in New Bark, Professor Elm's kid, was barely six. But this kid couldn't be more than one or two years older than Crystal, and was probably about her age. Crystal walked up to him.
"So this is the famous Elm Pokémon Lab…" the boy muttered.
Crystal tapped him on the shoulder. He turned, shocked, and pushed her onto the ground. "Hey!" cried Crystal.
"What are you looking at? Mind your own business!" The boy ran off.
Crystal rubbed her hurt shoulder, then got up, pouting. She walked back to the front of the lab and went in, opening the door roughly.
Professor Elm's assistant peered up from his work at the young girl's muted tantrum. He was sorting some files into the lower shelves of the bookcase. He smiled gently at the girl, and Crystal stopped and waved back. Further back in the lab, Gold was standing a few feet behind Professor Elm. Crystal went to join him.
Professor Elm was examining one of the local Sentrets.
"I'm just going to take your arm now…" the man coaxed. The Sentret hesitantly allowed the Professor to examine his arm. It had a bad gash in it. "And now I'm just going to apply this potion."
As the Professor brought up the spray bottle with the potion, the Sentret screeched, swiping at his hand.
"Gah!" The Professor clutched his scratched hand. "Now, calm down, little one, this won't hurt you at all." The Professor slowly brought the spray bottle up to the Sentret. The Sentret paused for a good ten seconds, and then finally held his arm up for the Professor to spray. The wound healed, and the Sentret squeaked happily. "All better now, you see?"
Professor Elm scribbled some notes on a clipboard. He picked it up and turned around, almost tripping over Gold and Crystal.
"Gah!" He dropped the clipboard of notes and the empty potion.
The wild Sentret, startled, ran out through an open window in the lab. The Professor sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry, kids, I completely forgot about our appointment. I just got too caught up in work…"
"It's okay, professor!" Gold smiled, and nodded, used to Professor Elm's vapid work ethic.
"Yeah," said Crystal, "School's out now, so we got plenty of time."
"Oh, but today you'll need quite a bit of time!" said the Professor, "I'll be sending you two past Cherrygrove."
Crystal had never gone past Cherrygrove before. However, she knew that Gold went past it every other summer with his parents to visit his grandparents, all the way at Goldenrod City.
"How far are we going?" asked Gold.
"Oh, it's just to a little bit along Route 30. You see, an associate of mine, by the name of Mr. Pokémon, has sent me an email saying that he has made a new discovery. This discovery is probably unique and rare, a complete benefit to science and Pokémon!"
"What does it do?" asked Crystal.
"Eh, probably nothing. His discoveries are usually completely useless. But! It's still a scientific curiosity. So, I'd like you two to get started right away."
Professor Elm smiled, looking at the children with faith and almost a bit of pride. After a moment, he frowned, "Um, did you two need something from me?"
"Well," said Crystal, "It's my tenth birthday-"
"Oh! Oh my, Crystal, I'm so sorry I forgot, happy birthday!"
They smiled at each other for a little longer. Marill chirped happily in Gold's arms.
"Oh! You need a Pokémon!"
"Yes, Professor."
"Of course, of course! Now let's see." Professor Elm walked over to a crowded shelf and selected three PokéBalls. "Now, you probably know all of this from Gold, but I'm going to tell you anyways! One of the things I've been researching recently is how trainers travel with and interact with their Pokémon. Most people, especially trainers, travel with their Pokémon in PokéBalls. It's easier to keep track of larger teams that way, and it's a lot safer for injured Pokémon. Now, we didn't always have PokéBalls, but we always had Pokémon. So, my hypothesis is that there may be some benefits to walking with your Pokémon. With the constant attention and communication, you may develop a deeper bond."
Professor Elm walked over to Gold and Marill, scratching the Pokémon's head affectionately. "I've already observed this little one's bond. Marill was always one of the calmer Pokémon, so I knew she wouldn't run off and get into too much trouble outside of her ball. But we can see she's developed such a deep bond with Gold over the past month, that she's picked up some of the young boy's reckless traits!"
Gold grimaced, "Hey, I'm standing right here, you know!"
"Well, she's picked up much of your friendly personality, too, Gold, so don't worry too much."
"I wasn't worried! Marill's the greatest!" Gold set down Marill, and then crossed his arms defiantly. Marill copied the same, and then giggled. "See?"
"Now, Crystal, I have three Pokémon I'd like you to choose from. Select one that has a complementary personality to yours!"
Crystal looked puzzled. "Can't I just choose the one I like the best?"
"Well, that's what I meant…" Professor Elm released the Pokémon into the lab.
The first Pokémon was Chikorita. Chikorita instantly jumped around at all the people in the lab. She spotted her old friend, Marill, and then tackled her. They happily began chirping and growling at each other.
The next Pokémon was Totodile. He looked around disinterestedly at everyone in the lab, and then wandered over to the Professor's desk as Elm was releasing the third Pokémon. He crawled up on it, waddling around by the potions, papers, and pencils. He began chewing on a stray apple.
"Hey!" Professor Elm struggled with Totodile, trying to wrest the Pokémon away from his now half-eaten lunch. The third Pokémon, Cyndaquil, shyly peeked around at Gold and Crystal from behind the Professor's legs. "That doesn't belong to you!"
Professor Elm finally pulled a laughing Totodile off of his desk. The Pokémon struggled in his grasp as he continued to speak to the two children, "Now then, have you decided?"
"I want Tototdile!" exclaimed Crystal. Totodile barked happily. Professor Elm set Totodile down and handed the Pokémon's ball to Crystal. He then returned the other two Pokémon to their own PokéBalls.
"Remember Crystal, he'll have to be outside of his ball as much as possible," said Professor Elm.
"Of course!" Crystal beamed down at the Totodile, "I think I'll call him TD!"
TD stared blankly up at Crystal.
"What, don't you like that name?"
TD shrugged, then began to nip at Crystal's feet.
"It's a perfect name," said Crystal.
Professor Elm chuckled. "Well then, it looks like you two are ready to go. Oh! Crystal, did you get a PokéGear from your mom?"
"Yes! How did you know?"
"Here, let me put my phone number into it."
Crystal frowned. Responsibility had a way to weasel its way into everything.
"Oh!" said Gold, "Professor, could you put my number in, too?"
"Of course! Here you are, Crystal, you're all set."
Crystal smiled at them. She gave her own number to Gold, and then the two trainers and two Pokémon headed out to Route 29 to begin their journey.
Teams and Levels:
Crystal: Totodile 5
Gold: Marill 8
Silver: None