Ben Gold:

I knew calling out Natalia's name wasn't going to help, but I did it anyways just to feel better. Someone "high-profile" enough to have a badge with the letter "S" on it should be good at what they do, what I thought was kidnapping and hiding people. …Or was it just a Gym Badge? What did "S" stand for? Slowpoke? Sentret? Stupid? The more I thought about it, the more I just wanted Natalia to pop out of nowhere and tell me to forget about it.

I was navigating myself through Route 30. Wait. Rephrase: I was wandering helplessly lost through Route 30. There were thick trees lined on both sides of me that made me think that this place would become a forest if there was room for one more tree. Luckily, no wild Pokemon were jumping out at me, due to the fact that I was yelling loud enough for them to run away.

It was up until I saw a small house in the distance when one wild Pokemon had enough. I ran towards the house, but stopped by an angry Hoothoot who looked like it had just been woken up. Its foot was stretched out as far as it can, ready to take off and attack if I yelled one more time.

"Heh…Sorry…" I said, trying to make the Hoothoot fly away. "Oh! I almost forgot!" I said to the Hoothoot, who didn't budge, but was now putting on a confused look.

I got out my Pokedex, which scanned Hoothoot and said: "Hoothoot: The Owl Pokemon. With an extremely sharp sense of time, this Pokemon can easily replace alarm clocks and metronomes."

"Not bad!" I smiled. "Go, Totodile!" I released Totodile, who put on his game face and was ready to fight. "Start out with Bite!"

Totodile charged and put his jaws around the slow-escaping Hoothoot, which tripped and fell face down in a pile of leaves. The Hoothoot regained himself and tackled Totodile, making him stumble backwards.

Throughout the short brawl, I readied one of my Pokeballs and threw it once Hoothoot was done attacking Totodile. It shook once…twice…and broke out. I told Totodile to scratch Hoothoot, who did so and got another tackle in return. I threw another Pokeball, which caught it this time.

"Sweet!" I said to Totodile. "We caught Hoothoot!"

Totodile put on a face that was a mixture of a smirk and relief. He perked up and pointed at the house with a questioned, "Dile?"

"No, Totodile," I answered. "It's rude to knock on people's doors and ask them for stuff. The only time I'd do that if it were a real emergency."

Before we could leave though, we heard a door open and a voice yell, "Young man! Was that a Pokedex you had there?"

I turned around and found the owner of the house standing in front of it. He looked at least seventy or eighty. He wore a plaid suit coat with a black top hat and a cane at his side. This guy totally screamed "Gentleman". "Yeah, it is," I answered back.

"…And you have a Totodile?" he asked, leaning against his cane in wonder.

"Yes, sir."

The old man paused for a moment. He stared right at me, even though he just questioned about my Totodile. "Young man, why don't you come in? I have a few things for you on your Pokemon journey."

"…Or they could just ask us to come in and take their stuff…" I quietly said to Totodile as we made our way to the house. "Even though that is still rude. But hey, if they offer, then it's not bad to say yes."

I walked into the house, which wasn't very big. The kitchen was small, the living room was tiny, and the bathrooms were petite. Strangely, the biggest room there was the study, which the old man guided me to. There was a large desk on the right with papers strewn all over it. On the farthest wall was a showcase full of various and rare Pokemon-made items. The rest of the room had nothing.

"By the way, my name is Mr. Pokemon," the old man introduced. "I invited you in here to ask you what your motive for your Pokemon journey is. Surely it can't ALL be filling out the Pokedex. That just seems boring. Did your parents do it and you just wanted to take after them?"

"That's a little bit of my motive," I answered. "There are two other things. The Gym Leader in Cianwood City is my girlfriend, and I'm going on this journey to see her again. The other reason is because my sister has been kidnapped and I need to find her."

"Oh dear," Mr. Pokemon said. "You remind me of this boy I met thirty years ago. He didn't have the same motives you did, but you still remind me of him. His name was Ethan. Now, do you know who kidnapped your sister?"

My ears perked up. "I don't know, but they had a badge that had the letter 'S' on it."

"Hm," Mr. Pokemon hummed. "There are two different organizations that have the 'S' badge. Sit down, and I'll tell you about it. Ethan is part of this too, if you're interested."

I sat down, ready to listen to what he had to say.