I opened my eyes and stretched luxuriously. The bedside clock read 11.30am. That was better, yeah!
I reached for my phone to check the interwebs as I did every morning at home... Nope, phone wasn't there. I let my eyes scan over the scabby old hotel room.
Something was wrong, but I couldn't quite place my finger on it… Get a grip, Ari.
I gasped when it hit me. Where were my pokemon? Where was my bag?
"Kitty!" I called, probably a bit too concerned for my own liking.
I hauled myself out of bed. At the very least, my clothes were still on the chair, so I wouldn't have to walk around looking like a hobo in my ratty five year old PJs. (For all her extravagant wealth, Auntie always preferred to splash out on diversified investments, rather than spoil me or herself with non-durable consumer goods).
"Kitty!" I yelled again, turning my head from side to side to look down the dingy corridors.
After receiving no response, I hurried down to reception. Bamb'o was gonna rip my limbs off me if he found out I lost my starter pokemon.
"Hey," I said, pulling up at the counter… But there was no nurse. What the hell?!
I turned to the automatic doors and continued the jog outside, wheezing.
There, over by the gym! A commotion! I supported myself on a lamp-post and vowed to start an exercise regime.
"Stand down!" The gym leader, Maria, was talking. Someone else was beside her, with long black hair. I thought they were a man, but I wasn't sure. I smirked to myself.
A crowd was gathering, and people were exclaiming, "My pokemon! My _!" and surging forward. I craned my neck, struggling to get a glimpse.
No use. I would have to push forward.
"Scuse me!" I yelled, shouldering my way through the crowd. This was no easy feat. I was buffeted around like an electron trying to make its way through a resistor. I was getting hot and sweaty.
At long last, after ducking underneath someone's mangy armpit, I reached the front of the crowd and gasped.
Surrounding a masked figure up on the steps of the gym were at least fifty pokemon of various species. I recognised some from the earlier routes, and some I had never seen before.
"Kitty!" I gasped again, catching sight of it in the middle of the melee. "Kitty, come here!"
But it didn't seen to be able to hear me. The pokemon were all huddled tightly around their new leader, locked into what appeared to be battle stances. I groaned. What was this, a scene out of Divergent?
"Stand down!" Maria ordered again. The masked figure was like a statue, they seemed to be communicating to the pokemon via brainwaves or something.
"All right, that's it! Everyone get back!" Maria's companion said, removing a pokeball from their pocket.
The crowd shrank back like gums from gingivitis. I didn't like what was going down. I crept forward to retrieve my kitty while everyone was distracted.
A blast of light from the pokeball, a hollow rattling cry from the emerged specimen, and I was knocked to the ground… What ground? I was falling through space, at an extremely wicked speed.
Yikes! I grasped at a rock floating down beside me but my hand passed right through. I was gaining speed. The backdrop of stars glittered and flashed, blinding me. Under gaming circumstance this would've been awesome, but this felt too real to be computer-based.
"Hey. Hey, wake up," something was pinching my twiggy arms.
"Are you okay?"
I opened my eyes. I was lying on the solid ground, in front of the gym of Nowtoch City, Nowtoch. Maria was leaning over me, concerned. Her partner was beside her.
I looked around. The masked figure was being handcuffed by rangers, and people were reclaiming their pokemon. I heard a meow and kitty rubbed against my head.
"They're okay," Maria said. "Man, that was close. We did tell everyone to get back, what were you thinking?"
"Sorry fam," I said, reaching up to feel my face. Everything in place. "What happened anyway?"
"We attacked the thief with Psychic," Maria answered. "You got hit as well."
I looked over to see the person staggering away after the rangers. They were actually wearing a ranger uniform as well, albeit in slightly weird colours.
"They're a ranger? That's screwed up."
Maria shrugged. "Only rangers have the ability to round up pokemon like that, with their capture styluses. It shouldn't work on trainer pokemon though…"
She got up to chat with her partner, who gave me a wave and an apology before flying away on a large green thing with a flower on its tail.
Maria helped me up, and I wobbled a bit on my feet before straightening up. "Thanks," I said.
Kitty wrapped itself around my ankles. Well the little traitor was back in home camp then. Where was my Barewl? Ah, there it was, riding on kitty's back, hiding in its fur. So much for a brave nature. I looked on enviously.
"If you're still feeling up to it, I'll open up the gym now," Maria said.
"Yup, I'm in," I said, my head pounding. I never backed down from a challenge. Where in hell's name was Theo? I was getting radiation burns from too many pokepods in my pocket.
The innards of the gym looked a bit like an aircraft hangar without any aircraft. Just a big old open space and a few trainers scattered around, battling away.
"C'mon guys," I nudged kitty with my foot. The layabout had fallen asleep on the floor, probably tired by its ordeal with the ranger. "I know the feels."
The pokemon here all looked pretty low level. Kitty and pyrite (Barewl had to have a suitable nickname) were up to level 13 by now, and they were actual walls, so I figured they'd be fine even if they had to nap during the battle.
"What's up, kiddo!" a boisterous voice greeted me from the left. What was this Theo spirit everyone except me seemed to have?!
"Welcome to your first gym challenge!" he said, looking down at a laptop he was typing into. "Can I take your name and trainer ID?"
I looked at him suspiciously. I had almost become an anarchist last year, and I still wasn't too keen on the pilfering of citizens' personal information by bodies of authority.
"Err…" I said.
"Come on, it's just for the server so we can keep track of who has what badges. There's been a lot of counterfeiting recently." He pushed tiredly at his glasses. "We don't even need contact information."
"Fine." I pulled out my trainer card and he took it for a couple of seconds.
"Thanks Ari," he said, filling in my ID (33539) into the computer. "Good luck."
I dragged my profusely protesting team forwards. Kitty hung onto my ankles meowing piteously at the prospect of doing some work.
I swept my way through the line of training battles with kids from the local school. I hoped they got paid for the repeated thrashing they must get in here. They didn't seem too fussed by losing and wished me luck, so I figured the paychecks must be quite sufficient.
"Okay, let's break for lunch!" Maria called out from the far end of the building during a lull in the battling. Kitty reacted with the most ebullience of all the living souls in the room. It lay down in front of me, paws in the air, tongue out, ready for a belly scritchies and fattening meal.
I ate lunch with Maria, because we seemed to be the only people without friends in here. She didn't talk about the weird person I'd met this morning with the Psychic pokemon, but we did chat about my journey so far. She knew of Bamb'o.
"So steel, huh? We'll put up a fight, but you're probably going to win, Ari."
I smirked. "Oh yeah? I figured."
Maria smiled back. "I might as well just give you the badge now. But we'll go through the formalities. Don't get too cocky though. Starting from the third gym, you're not going to have such a good time if you don't diversify."
I yawned. "You sound like my Auntie with her investment portfolio."
"Then your Auntie sounds like a wise person. You should listen to her."
Whatever! I didn't want no pesky bird pokemon, or feral bugs or dogs or whatever. I might be keen on some psychic types after what I'd seen this morning, but I didn't think there'd be any this early on in my journey. Don't want the kids to get too OP after all, I thought with a grin.
The battle began after lunch. I sent out pyrite first to take a beating, and kitty was happy with that.
"Go, Owten!" Maria said, sending out her first pokemon.
"Pyrite, use Headbutt," I ordered. Something I was used to by now, the enemy Owten attacked first and pyrite stone walled all attempts to get to it. Maria lifted her shoulders and grinned. "I told you so."
Maria withdrew Owten after a couple rounds of pain to give it a break, and sent out Feleng. Meow! Oh, cute! Kitty seemed curious and wandered over to say hi, but the Feleng growled and hissed in response. Harsh.
In the end, I didn't even have to send kitty into battle. Despite Feleng and Felunge's attempts at yawning on pyrite, they were unable to do enough damage to even put a decent chip in pyrite's HP, and Headbutt slowly and surely took all of Maria's pokemon out.
We actually chatted during the battle as the pokemon did their thing. Maria had already accepted she couldn't beat my team with her typing, so we laughed about it.
I left the gym on good terms, feeling like I'd made a friend. I'd probably never see Maria again after this though, so time to sever all feelings of affection so I wouldn't be sad and miss her. I looked down at the shiny new badge on my chest and thought about my meeting with Kellyn. I both dreaded it and looked forward to terrifying him with my newfound power.