Chapter 001 - Twinleaf Town

AUTHOR NOTE: So, I cheated a little and included in-game dialogue into these chapters (please don't sue me Nintendo!). My own dialogue consists of things like 'HP' and 'EV' which I know isn't necessarily manga/anime canon, but this story is based on the RPG games. So... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

"Muffy!" I called up to the highest window of my neighbor's house, "C'mon! The caravan is here!"

"What's the point? He won't have any good pokémon for sale," Muffy was my best friend, but he could be a little headstrong at times. The pair of us both identified as Poké Maniacs, but possessed no pokémon of our own. My journey failed to launch by a year, but Muffy was almost two years behind! As you can imagine, the delay soured him, "I'm just going to wait for my dad to come home," he stuck his head out his window revealing his fluffy blonde hair. I think his real name was Barry, but everyone just called him Muffy, "He said he was going to give me his Milotic to use as my starter."

"Don't lie!" I pouted, a little jealous of the prospect, "That pokémon is at like level a million! It would never listen to you! And besides, it's against the Pokémon League rules!"

"I can handle it!"

"Would you just get down here?"

Mr. Fantastic returned to town, what I later learned, for his last visit. I prayed he bred some more Flamewheel Ratattas because I saved up 1000 Poké Dollars to buy one. I dragged Muffy by the arm towards the main courtyard of Twinleaf Town where a striped, purple tent top stood vibrantly. Unfortunately, when we neared the stage, we could tell by the faces of the deflated crowd that Mr. Fantastic failed to deliver.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I must apologize," he tried to explain while standing on a barren stage, "It seems I have nothing to offer you but a few leftover Revives-at a discounted price, of course."

"See?" Muffy pouted, turning to walk back home, "Told you."

"Hold on," I looked up at our charismatic visitor, "Could you tell us where your pokémon have gone?"

"Well... to other trainers of course!" he replied back with a big, faux smile.

"Which trainers? How many are there? What's the name of their town?"

"Jubilife City. A Pokémon Trainers School opened up there a few months ago. I had almost sold out of everything when I came to visit-."

"What!" Muffy shouted annoyed, "Those rich snobs! They're probably the ones who've been buying up all our pokémon! They leave us with nothing! What gives them the right?"

"You couldn't even save us a few pokémon?" I asked broken, "We have no other way of getting them in this town."

"Oh, come now!" Mr. Fantastic rolled his eyes, "There are plenty of pokémon here! Why I passed by a least twenty Bidoof on my way down here."

"Psh! Who wants a lame Bidoof when you can have a Gible or an Elekid or a shiny Ponyta?" Muffy dismissed, "My dad's first pokémon was a Rhyhorn! His second was a Dragonair!"

"Yeah! My dad's first pokémon was a fully evolved Slaking!" I chimed, "It had a thorn in its paw and when my dad took it to the PokéCenter and left with Slaking and a new Chansey!"

"Ah ha..." our host grimaced, "I see the problem. My stage show has made quite the impression on you kids. I see this a lot nowadays. Young trainers have such high expectations for their starter partner, but there are many great trainers in the world that start off with far more common pokémon."

"Even the trainers you've sold pokémon to?" I asked making Mr. Fantastic stammer a bit.

"Well, uh... there are exceptions, of course."

"Why can't we be the exceptions? My dad's a Frontier Brain!" Muffy replied cocky, "He battles great trainers every day and they all have super strong, rare pokémon like Magmortar or Blastoise."

"Yes, but you're supposed to catch those pokémon on your own," our host implored unironically, "You're meant to journey to far off, uncharted lands to track down and train up your own rarities, not buy them."

"And how exactly am I supposed to catch a Dragonite with a Bidoof?" my friend asked rather blunt.

Mr. Fantastic bowed his head in defeat, "Such a stubborn pair... I had no idea the expectations you had for my caravan," the crowd began to whisper in accusation causing our fine host to sweat under the pressure. Maybe we took it too far? Usually, Mr. Fantastic was so good with entertaining his audience, but never had he been in such a demand to perform. The entertainer loosened his collar and tried to think of a way to please his audience, "Uhh... surely you could go to the Trainers School yourselves? Upon graduation, all students are guaranteed a pokémon of their own."

"No way!" Muffy rebuffed, "Those schools are for rich kids."

"I don't really want to go," I admitted, "I don't want to be associated with an organization that steals other people's pokémon, and what could they teach us, anyway?"

"Yeah!" Muffy seconded, "What else was there to do in such a boring town but study? We've read every book there is on pokémon, even my dad's Smogon University textbooks. We know everything there is to know about pokémon!"

"I see," Mr. Fantastic found a way to save face, "Well... let's say we test your knowledge?" he looked to the crowd and dramatically flipped his purple cape open, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I give these two young children a riddle! The first to guess the correct answer will win a rare and valuable gift!"

"A pokémon?" Muffy and I nearly jumped out of our skins in excitement.

"Something even better. Something that no other human possesses. Now," he knelt down towards us, "The riddle is about a pokémon. Guess the correct one and you get the prize. The riddle is in the form of a haiku, so listen carefully," he cleared his throat and slowly spoke the riddle, "Naturally shy/ through its mother's loving gift/you can see its eyes. Now tell me, which pokémon am I speaking of?"

I didn't get it and neither did Muffy, but he went ahead and dug through his mind, listing off every species he knew, "It's uhh... a Buneary! No.. ah... uhh... Buizel, no Shellos! Snover!"

I kept quiet and actually gave the riddle some thought, "Mr. Fantastic is from the Kanto region, so he must be talking about a pokémon that could be found there..." I thought back to the hundreds of pokémon picture books, plushies, and memorabilia scattered around my room, "There's Kangaskhan, the Parent Pokémon, who carries its young in its pouch, but is that a gift? What about Jigglypuff? It can sing and that's a gift but from its mother?" I eventually gave in to Muffy's technique and just spouted off a list of names, "Pikachu, Pidgey, Poliwhirl... all start with 'p' like 'present?'"

"DUSKULL!" Muffy yelled out with such authority he had to be right, but Mr. Fantastic just smiled and shook his head no, "Oh c'mon!" my blonde friend pounded his skull as if of knock lose the answer.

"Duskull?" I thought, "Muffy's skull... oh wait!" a thought struck me. A lonely, even shy pokémon, "CUBONE!"

"Huh? AHA!" Mr. Fantastic cheered, "We have a winner! Cubone wears the skull of its mother in order to hide its face! And for you, my dear, I have the gift from a Cubone's mother," He tapped the stage with his foot and up rose a small platform, propping up a rather large looking skull, "While visiting Lavender town a few years back, I came across a small Cubone whose skull was too big. So big in fact, you could fit it on a small child's head. I asked the Cubone for its skull and in return, I would hollow out a rock for it in exchange. To my delight, the creature agreed and I carved him a replacement from a rock. The two of us became very good friends! I now forever treat this Cubone skull as a good luck charm that will always help you find a friend, no matter where you are. Now... I give it to you, young lady," he picked up the skull and gently slid it over my head like a hat.

"A perfect fit," he smiled, thankful to my small head. The skull slipped down over my face, but I the two large eye sockets allowed me to see.

"That's so awesome!" Muffy cheered and bounced over to me, "You totally look like a Cubone!" he later gave me the nickname 'Awesome' on account of the skull. He vowed to find an even better one, like a Charizard skull, just to outdo me. When I asked him why he would do such a thing, he explained that we were now rivals, "When we get our first pokémon, we will be up against each other. Not just on the battlefield, but in our accomplishments as well. We will always have to one-up each other and prove ourselves to be the better pokémon trainer."

"But why? I thought we were friends," I complained.

"We are, and we will be, but how do you expect to do better? Having a rival means you always need to do your best and that's good. You getting that Cubone skull is just the start. Mr. Fantastic quizzing just the two of us is proof that we are meant to be rivals. We will help each other to be the best we can be," I had the book smarts, but Muffy was older and had the street smarts, "So no matter what happens, you always have to do better than me and I always have to be better than you. I'll be the better trainer and I'll have the better skull."

"You wish!"

A few mornings later, while the dull heat of early spring melted the snow, I sat on the floor of my room, surrounded by hundreds of pages of detailed spreadsheets, type-advantage charts, EV lists and reference guides. My bed laid covered in the trash of a parcel from my pen pal who gifted me a berry. I skimmed through what I dubbed my 'Master List' of my dream pokémon team, looking for the best candidate to hold my new berry. My mother's Glameow lounged on top of one of my binders, darting her eyes between the various numbers and charts, scowling her disapproval at them.

"What do you think?" I asked her holding up a small bluish fruit, "If I were to give a Snorlax this Oran berry to hold, I could pair it with Recycle to double the healing efficiency, but..." I checked my pamphlet, "Snorlax has an obscenely high amount of HP. I don't think healing 20 HP would do it any good... Maybe I should give it to Porygon and let my Snorlax hold a Lum Berry instead!" the catty pokémon blinked uninterested in the conversation, but I rambled on, "That way when it uses Rest, it'll wake up the following, use Recycle to Recover the berry and use Rest all over again!"

"NOM!" Glameow answered my eureka moment by eating the berry straight out of my hand.

"Wha... MOM! Your beast ate my berry!"

"Serves you right, dear!" my mother answered exasperated from downstairs, "She's trying to tell you something, Asher. You're wasting your time obsessing over your silly little lists!"

"They're not 'silly!'" I argued, shooing the horrible feline out of my room, "They are key to winning master trainer battles!" I stomped downstairs and prepared to defend my obsession, "Top trainers have to build perfectly calibrated teams in order win top duels! That means, meticulously hunting down every weakness in a team line-up, down to EV distribution!" but my mother's interest remained focused on Contest Digest playing on the TV. I had the mind to tell her to stop obsessing over her 'little contests', but knew better than to anger her.

"Oh!" a thought struck her, "Muffy came by earlier looking for you. He looked a little gloom. Is anything the matter?"

"Huh? I have no idea," I headed for the door, "I'll go check on him."

"Stay out of the tall grass!" she warned, lazily waving her hand.

I made it a habit to equipped my Cubone skull whenever I visited my rival, not only as an attempt at fashion but because it made Muffy's ears turn bright red with jealousy. Usually, he would bounce circles around me claiming he had insider knowledge the location of a Rhydon or Aerodactyl skull, but on this day he stood still, ears their normal pale peach. Even more strange, he wasn't in his normal talkative mood.

"Hey, Muffy... what's wrong?" I greeted him in the courtyard.

He refused to make eye contact with me, "...My, my dad called me this morning."

"Oh yeah! Is he coming to visit?"

"No... he called to say... he was disappointed in me," he kicked at some snow on the ground, "He said that it's taken too long for me to catch a pokémon. He's tired of waiting, so he's sending me to the Pokémon Trainers School in Jubilife next month."

"What!? But you can't go there. That place is full of snobs!"

"I know!" he whimpered, "I don't want to go, but he wouldn't listen to me! He said with all the studying I've been doing, I could graduate early, so it shouldn't be a big deal."

"Really? Well then," I mumbled weakly, "That's good then... because... you can get your pokémon... and start your journey..."

"What! Don't say that!" for some reason, my answer upset him, "I can't get my pokémon before you! We have to get one at the same time! How are you going to be my rival when you don't even have your own pokémon, huh?"

"But my mom can't afford to send me to Jubilife."

"Then... we'll just catch a pokémon here before next month! Then my dad won't have to send me to the Trainers School!

"You mean, like a Starly?"

"No! It has to be really good pokémon. That way I can really impress my dad and prove that I can become a trainer on my own!"

"Okay, but," I had my doubts, "If there were any good pokémon around here, we would've caught them already."

"Uh! Uhh..." Muffy took a moment to think, "Well, then... we'll look elsewhere. Like at Lake Verity. We can catch the legendary pokémon that sleeps there!"

According to legend, some kind of super powerful pokémon slept on a small island located in the center of Verity Lake. We concocted a plan wait for the creature to wake, lure it to shore by tricking it with my Cubone skull, then pelt it with snowballs to lower its HP. I would use Glameow's favorite contest accessory, a sash covered in silver sequence, to blind it with Flash, while Muffy tossed pokéballs. I foolproof plan!

"How many do you have?" between the two of us, we had 5 balls, "I got two regular pokéballs and this cool reverse colored one."

"I have this regular one and a weird pink one I got from my mom," I handed my collection over, "This should be enough to catch a legendary, right?"

The following weeks, Muffy and I headed out every morning to the lake to wait for the legendary pokémon to appear. To be honest, I never believed the tales of Lake Verity. I was definitely a legendary pokémon denier at heart. If a creature didn't show up in my hundreds of reference books, then it probably didn't exist at all. Besides, with the number of trainers in the world, I doubted there were any legendaries left to catch. At least the gentle sloshing of the lake's waters helped pass the time as we waited in vain for something to happen.

"Mmm... dragon-grass?" Muffy and I often quizzed each other on type advantages while out by the lake.

"Weak to Ice. Times four," he answered while lying in a dry patch of short grass, "How about... poison-steel?"

"Uh... double damage from fire, but quadruple damage from ground."

"UGHH! This is taking forever!" he jumped abruptly to his feet, "I only have one day left until I have to leave!" he grabbed a snowball and tossed it towards the island, "Wake up!" he threw the snow with all his strength, but it landed in the water and melted instantly. He once boasted about how he practiced throwing pokéballs by tossing snowballs every day and he developed excellent aim, but not enough muscle to reach the island.

"Maybe the pokémon lives in the water?" I suggested and we tossed snowballs into the lake. When we ran out of snow, we threw rocks, but nothing ever appeared. When out of ammo, we debated over what kind of pokémon slept at the lake. Muffy suggested a possible water-psychic combination, while I argued for a ghost-dark combination.

"That way it would be immune to all types. I'll call it, Rogue!" I joked.

"I don't think we should give it a nickname," Muffy said, "Only girls give pokémon nicknames."

"Hey! I am a girl and I'm the one who's going to capture it!" I rebutted back in his face.

"No way! I'm gonna catch it. I'm the one doing the attacking."

"Well, I'm the one getting it close enough for you to attack!"

"Then... it'll both be ours!" Muffy determined in an affirmative voice, "We will just have to share it. I raise it up a level, and then you can raise it up a level. But we won't be giving it a nickname."

"How is that going to work?" I ask, "How can two people raise the same pokémon? Is that how rivals work?"

"Uh... no," Muffy realized something, "Someone needs to keep it as their starter. I need it to show off to my dad, but you need it so you can be my rival."

"And if one of us has a legendary pokémon, then we both need one, so it's fair."

"Then that means... we can't catch it," quite a bizarre conclusion to our misadventure. Instead of raising up a couple of young Bidoof, we wasted weeks hunting down a creature that I was sure never even existed. Now out of time and out of solutions, we stood defeated in our ignorance.

"I guess..." he replied after a long, quiet moment, "...I should just go home and pack."

The morning of Muffy's move, I refused to go to his house to say goodbye. The thought of him leaving town upset me to the point of tears, so I stayed in my room and watched TV. A new program aired that day called 'Ask Professor Rowan'. Rowan returned from a four-year hiatus in the Kanto region and enlightened Sinnoh viewers with all he discovered. Any other day, I would be frantically taking notes, but this day, I failed to pay attention to much of anything he shared.

"Maybe if I sell off Glameow, I'll have enough money to enroll in the Trainer's School, too?" I thought to myself as my mother's pokémon carelessly slept on top of my spreadsheets, wrinkling them without a care.

THUDD!

A blonde smear burst through my door with a low kick, "There you are!" both Glameow and I launched from our seats in surprise, but Muffy seemed oblivious to our shouting, "Hey, Asher! Did you just see the TV? Sure you did! Professor Rowan is that really important guy who studies pokémon, right? That means he has lots and lots of pokémon. So, if we ask him, I bet he'd give us some pokémon!" he bounced around my room, taking my hands and dancing with me and even attempted to dance with Glameow, "We're going to go see Professor Rowan and get some pokémon. I'll be waiting outside. OK, Asher? If you're late, I'm fining you 10 million Poké Dollars!"

"You Seedot!" I snapped, taking my mother's moody feline out of his arms, "We're not supposed to get pokémon from adults. They're too strong and we're supposed to catch them ourselves."

"Aw, don't worry about it, Awesome! My mom said that lots of trainers get their pokémon from professors. My dad even got his first pokémon from a guy named Professor Oak, and it's not against the rules because the Pokémon League says it isn't. So calm down," he took a second to smile, "My mom says that Professor Rowan may even own some really rare pokémon! And we have to get them first before anyone else does!" he turned and sprinted out of my room leaving me momentarily stupefied.

"Asher!" mom called from the living room, "What was that about? I thought Muffy was moving today!"

My heart started racing when her words finally sunk in, "He's not leaving!"

Sure, asking a Professor for his pokémon is about as ridiculous as trying catch a legendary with snowballs, but it was another chance for Muffy and me to start our journey together. Not only that, but my inability to shake the want for a rare and powerful pokémon still plagued me. It was worth a shot.

I rushed out the door, over to Muffy's house, almost forgetting to greet his mother before barging into his room. My absent-minded rival packed away his bag, despite being given ample time to do so earlier. He also had binders full of spreadsheets, hole punched pamphlets and intricate notes. His Master List lacked the padding of mine since his plan comprised of only training six pokémon. He figured focusing his energy on a small roster would help him join his father in the Battle Frontier more quickly. I had bigger ambitions, such as training up 35 pokémon and becoming a Pokémon Master, but not before also becoming a Contest Master like my mother, thus, my need for a thicker binder.

"Oh, hey, Asher! I'll be waiting on the road!"

"Wait! You're serious about this?"

"Yeah! It's a 10 million PokéDollar fine if you're late!"

I chased after Muffy as he ran north to Route 201, "Too slow!" Muffy berated, acting as if was late for an appointment, "All right! Let's get moving to Prof. Rowan's lab..." we turned to the East and felt the blades of grass tickle against our noses. The reason why we never left town was the thick brush of grass that grew down Route 201. Our mother's always warned us about touching the stuff and when Muffy attempted to stick his foot in when I pulled him back, "What? Don't go into the tall grass, right?" he replied a little annoyed.

"We've never been down Route 201. What if the pokémon here are more powerful than at Lake Verity? We don't have any way of defending ourselves."

"No worries! No problem! It doesn't matter that we don't have any pokémon. Trust me on this one. I've got an idea! Now listen. You know how wild pokémon jump out when you go into tall grass?" he took me by the shoulders, "So, what you do is, scoot over to the next patch of grass before any wild pokémon can appear!"

"... that's not how that works."

"If we just keep dashing, we can get to Sandgem Town without running into wild Pokémon! OK, stick we me!" he positioned himself down the middle of the pathway, and squatted down like a sprinter, "OK, here goes!" "On your marks..."

"HOLD IT!" a voice thundered from behind. We turned and greeted the dour face of an old man in a white overcoat. He stormed up and towered over us with a haunting glare, "You two don't seem to have any pokémon between you? Then, what is the meaning of going into the tall grass?"

"Well, uh..." Muffy trembled and then blinked a few times, "Wait... You're Professor Rowan... You're Professor Rowan!" he grabbed the old man by the front of his lab coat, "Please, please! We wanted to ask you something. Can you please give us your pokémon?"

"Uh-err... I beg your pardon?" Rowan pushed Muffy off, causing the boy to spill his hundreds of pamphlets and notes out of his bag,"That is quite presumptuous of you!" the professor scolded.

"I'm sorry!" my rival squealed, "We just really want a pokémon! You don't know what it's like being trapped in this stupid town. We don't have a chance to catch any real pokémon, like the kinds in your TV show."

The old man stepped back a moment, his foot slipping on some paper and picked a pamphlet off the ground. The front heavily wrinkled front was an image of a smiling Houndoom and the words Proper Dental Hygiene: How to Brush your Pokémon's Teeth. He recognized the pamphlet as one of the many free brochures found at every Pokémon Center. Muffy tagged the inside with random doodles, scribbled notes with highlighted and circled information, like how hard berries are good for fighting plaque. Based on the faded ink of the page and the number of deep creases, Rowan determines that someone has been carrying this in his pocket for years.

The surly professor gathered his thoughts and muttered to himself, "They tried to get into the tall grass because they wanted pokémon... Hmm... what to do? Their world would surely change if they were to meet pokémon... Is it right for me to put them on that path...?" he returned brochure, noted my Cubone skull and Muffy's pokéball themed bag and asked us, in a rather stern voice, "You two. You truly love pokémon, don't you?"

"YES!" I blurted.

"Me, too! I love pokémon, too!" Muffy blurted even louder, "You can ask us a hundred times! The answer will never change! We'll both answer a hundred times, we love pokémon!"

"...A pair of reckless kids who foolishly try to enter tall grass without pokémon of their own...? It worries me what people like that would do with pokémon."

"...Uh...Well, I uh..." Muffy faltered, "Well, then forget about me, but give a pokémon to my friend here!" he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, "I mean, it was me who tried to go into the tall grass and all..."

The professor was taken aback, "How big of you..." then his mustache bent with a little smile, "Very well, then! I will entrust you two with pokémon!"

"Really?" we answered in unison.

The Professor nodded, "I apologize for putting you through that exercise. However!" and then warned, "You must promise me that you will never recklessly endanger yourselves again. Now, then... Hm? Now, where...?" he began patting around in his white overcoat as if looking for a pen.

"Professor Rowan!" a young boy about my age called from down the path, "You left your briefcase behind at the lake," he sat down the bag and looked up at us, "Is something wrong here?"

"Ah! There it is! Lucas, nice work? What I was about to do was to entrust these two with their own pokémon."

"Wha...!?" Lucas took off his red cap and wiped off a bit of sweat. He looked down at the briefcase and then back up at the Professor and frowned, "Those pokémon are crucial. You're giving them away?" despite Rowan's stern personality, Lucas was not afraid to be bold with him.

"Hm! We exist side by side with pokémon. There comes a time when people should meet pokémon. There is a world that should be explored together. For them," the Professor gestured towards us, "Today is that time. The place, right here. Go on! Open the briefcase and choose a pokémon!"

"Really?! Prof. Rowan! I can't believe it! I'm so happy now that I can't keep a straight face! Hey, Asher. You can choose first," he crossed his arms to look confident when I questioned his intentions, "Hey, I'm practically a grown-up. I have to show some class here," my heart pounded so loud I could barely hear him try to act mature, "You know, like. I'm gonna be a man about it. Yeah, I'm slick."

My sweaty hands slipped on the briefcase latches, so Lucas helped me, although he didn't seem too happy about it.

"Look! Pokéballs! There's a pokémon in each one!" Professor Rowan explained. Inside the case rested three perfectly polished red and white capsules. I picked up the first one and felt a chill against my palm. I picked up the second and smelled the hint of a light flowery scent. The third ball was pleasantly warm so I chose it.

"Then, I choose you!" Muffy grabbed the ball closest to him without even inspecting it.

"Ah, Piplup." The Professor corrected.

"I'm picking this Piplup!" Muffy exclaimed.

"Very well! Both of you have chosen a good pokémon, it seems," Professor Rowan smiled politely and welcomed us to our pokémon journey, "Now, listen well! The pokémon you have been entrusted with are unfamiliar with the world. In that regard, they're much like you. As fellow newcomers to the world, I hope you'll do well together. If you have any trouble, come see me at my lab in Sandgem Town. And now, we'll be on our way," and he departed East through the tall grass without another word.

Lucas continued to frown and stare at our pokéballs. I had the sinking feeling that he secretly wanted the pokémon we chose. His staring felt... awkward, but he couldn't stare for long, "Ah! Professor! Wait for me!" he bid farewell, "Uh, sorry, folks."

We watched as Rowan's white lab coat fade into the green grass, "How do you like that? Prof. Rowan's really nice. On TV, he seems so stern and scary," Muffy did a happy dance, overcome with excitement, "Heheh, Asher! We've both got pokémon now. Can you believe it? There's only one thing to do, right? Are you up for this?"

"Yes...?"

He gave me a biggest, toothiest grin, "I've always wanted to say this... The time has finally come!" he held out his pokéball in his fist, "Asher! I challenge you to a battle!"