I quickly learned that day that trainers tended to have very poor perceptions of personal space. It all began not more than fifteen minutes after my battle with that bratty kid. From that point on, I spent the day goaded, bullied, insulted, taunted, humiliated, "served", pushed around, and ridiculed by numerous trainers. There were a few that let me pass, but I just couldn't stay out of sight. I didn't want to risk moving through the thick vegetation and getting lost or encountering a wild Pokémon.
For the most part, the trainers I encountered on Route 29 seemed highly self-centered. They put their interests in battle before my own pressing needs, and refused to let me pass them without accepting their challenges. Many of them came off as abrasive and rude, and it reminded me of all the friends I'd lost in the past - many of whom had taken on similar character traits after becoming trainers.
It wasn't even like I was expecting the worst. At first, I actually didn't mind battling again, since I was feeling pretty confident from my first victory against that kid. That Hoppip hadn't even scratched us, so what was there to worry?
…I got a very rude awakening as soon as I began my second battle.
"Come on out, Ledyba!" The Bug-type Pokémon appeared before me, awake and ready for battle. "I need to warn you though," I told my opponent, another young boy maybe a few years older than the first who'd also relentlessly goaded me into a fight. "This thing won a battle against a Flying type by just using Tackle. So don't act like you've already won or anything." I crossed my arms, feeling more comfortable with the process than I had before. This stuff wasn't hard. No wonder it was popular with stupid kids.
The boy across the field didn't respond, but from my distance, I thought I could make out a smirk. "Go, Pidgey!" A small, brown bird appeared on the ground. Like the Hoppip I'd already battled, it didn't look very intimidating. In fact, it practically looked smaller than Ledyba!
Wanting to get things over with, I ordered an attack: the only one I knew, or cared to know. "Ledyba! Tackle!"
"Use Gust, Pidgey!" I was nearly interrupted by the commanding voice of my adversary. Ledyba barely moved an inch before the Pidgey was right up in its face, beating its wings like crazy. It seemed like an instant as a small cyclone of wind formed around poor Ledyba, tossing it around like a ragdoll. Ledyba landed on the ground, and it looked hurt, but it still looked like it could fight. I was nonetheless mortified.
The trainer chuckled a bit, pointing at me like I was some sort of loser. "Lol, git gud noob," he jeered, "Bug types can't beat Flying types!"
Cursing under my breath, I ordered it to use Tackle again. Or at least, I got about halfway through my command before being interrupted again.
"Quick Attack!" And that was it. Just two words, and in a split second, the tiny bird dove at the weakened Ledyba, hitting it dead-on. Ledyba struggled to stand up, and collapsed on the ground. My stomach sank.
It took careful administration of a potion, something I'd no experience with, to get Ledyba back on its feet. That was my first thought and priority. It was several minutes before the trainer I'd just lost to finally spoke up, after shadowing me in silence.
"Ya got my prize money, scrub?"
I retrieved my wallet and handed him some bills. "You know, for the record, I'm not even a trainer, so..."
He wasn't buying it. "Lol, whatever. Get wrecked, man."
As he walked off, I looked down at Ledyba. It seemed to be back in tip-top shape. Instinctively, I picked it up. "You dumb little bug," I told it, as it stared up at me with those gigantic eyes. "Look at all the trouble this joke's caused. If you'd never shown up, you wouldn't have gotten hurt from that." I looked across my shoulder at the trainer walking away, his Pidgey perched on his shoulder. "Or maybe," I added, "you would've just gotten eaten by that thing if you'd stayed in the wild." Did Pokémon usually eat other Pokémon? That was obvious. But I wondered how the rules worked when trained Pokémon came into the equation. Could a trained Pokémon eat a wild one? Was that legal?
Regardless of my mental ramblings, my confidence had been shot. Like I had told the kid I battled before, it was all dumb luck. And we got unlucky that time, going up against something that actually had a powerful Flying attack. Well, I wasn't going to risk it again. From that point on, I was dead-set on ignoring any and all requests to battle from travelling trainers.
And of course, over the next several hours, that poor Ledyba was smashed, thrashed, and trashed like an old sack of garbage. Why did so many trainers in that area have to use bird Pokémon? The youngsters with their brand new Cyndaquil were also a struggle, if they were competent enough to know what to make them do. It turned out that bugs were pretty much allergic to Fire-type moves, too. Why did Ledyba seem to be weak to so many kinds of attacks, while I couldn't find a single Pokémon its own attacks looked to be effective against?
It was starting to get dark, and I hadn't yet reached Cherrygrove. The woods seemed to stretch on for another mile or two, and I was too exhausted, more so from stress than the actual walk, to go on for the time being. I sat down on a rock on the side of the road, and unpacked my backpack, undoing the tent I'd been carrying.
"Damn kids keeping me busy. This is going to be hell if this is what the entire walk to Azalea's going to be like." I began talking to myself as I pitched the tent and set it up. "Stupid Gramps," I whined, nearly slipping in a small puddle of mud. "Stupid Ledyba. Stupid...nature. Stupid trainers, too. Battling is so dumb. I hate this stupid sport." I almost considered just returning back home and figuring out another option for myself. Already, I was ready to call it quits.
And then I instinctively shook my head. "But if you go back," I told myself, "you'll be quitting another mission you set out to accomplish. You've already invested in it, so stop being a baby and just tough it out." I just loved all of the lengthy, internal arguments I had with myself. After all, they'd gotten me where I was now. I should've just stuck to my gut and stayed in school...
Forget it. It was too late for that kind of moping now. Literally. As the sun started setting, it being early in the summertime, I realized just how long I'd been out. It must've taken hours to get past all of those trainers. I couldn't tell how close I was to Cherrygrove, but I knew I wouldn't be able to make it back home before dark even I started back right that moment. With no small amount of reluctance, I somehow convinced myself I'd have to keep at it. After all, that was how I should have treated my education, wasn't it?
As I bent down to pitch down the final peg, I felt the weight of the Poké Ball in my right jeans pocket. I wondered how the Ledyba had felt, being smacked around for several hours straight. I mean, it had actually won some battles, but with how many potions I had to use to keep it going, it was probably loopy on medication at the moment. I'd been so confused as to why Gramps would punish me with the damn thing, but I realized how bad it must have been for the Ledyba, too. It was just so unlike my grandfather to put anyone - person or Pokémon - into danger like that. To be fair, he probably didn't think I'd actually try to battle with it. At least I hoped not.
When I got into the tent, I got down and tried to fall asleep. You often heard about noise pollution - "white noise" - in urban environments, but being out in nature was no symphony of silence either. Chirping birds, buzzing bugs, rustling vegetation...it was rather hard to get to sleep.
I had Ledyba stored inside of its Poké Ball still, and I held the ball close to my chest, not wanting to misplace it, or worse yet, make it easily pilfered. I heard the howls of some type of Pokémon in the distance, and it made the hairs on my body stand on end. I imagined scenarios of a whole pack of feral Growlithe setting fire to my tent and then rummaging through my backpack after I'd been burned alive. For a moment, I considered releasing Ledyba just for the off-chance it'd be able to help defend me from such an attack, but after its performance that day, I didn't consider it likely, and besides, I was the one supposed to be protecting it. I decided to use my Walkmon to ease me to sleep. It did take a while to finally doze off, but when I did, I slept well enough.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I woke up with the sun the next morning. I checked my low-battery phone: six a.m., and bright as the brightest midday. I groaned. "That wasn't even a sunrise," I whined internally. It just went from nighttime to daylight.
As I turned on my right side to hoist myself up, I was prodded by the Poké Ball in my pocket. I guessed I must've put it there before falling asleep. Probably not the safest place to keep it, in retrospect. What if I'd rolled over in the middle of the night and released Ledyba, and squashed it? Still, I didn't have anywhere else to keep it. My backpack was bursting with supplies and I didn't trust it to safely hold the Poké Ball either. I just had to be more careful.
I got up and went outside the tent. The early morning sun was pretty brutal, so I grabbed a water bottle from my backpack and took a swig. As I was walking around, multitasking, I got frustrated with my limited pocket space and angrily tossed the Poké Ball onto the ground, releasing Ledyba. I'd wanted to keep it inside its ball as much as possible for its protection (and my sanity), but I spent the entire day prior releasing and recalling it over and over again, and if this day was going to be any similar, I wanted to cut that step from my routine, if possible.
As I worked, I began talking to it. "Stretch your legs and get some fresh air if you want," I told it. "Just make sure you don't wander too far. We have to get moving soon." It yawned.
I began picking up everything inside the tent and placing it beside my backpack, but I bent down to pick up my water bottle again. I looked down the road ahead as I kept drinking. It wouldn't be too far now. I was hoping to get a quick head start over the trainers in the area and rush my way into town before anyone could even say the word "battle", but I wasn't expecting anything. I turned to face the tent again, and noticed that Ledyba was gone.
"Ledyba?" I was panicking far too early, but Ledyba could fly. It could have flown away! How dumb did I have to be to not expect something like that? I was fortunate enough to calm my nerves by diving into the tent to find the Pokémon nestled inside, happily buzzing next to my music player.
"Hey! My Walkmon!" I bent down to see that it was turned on. Must've forgotten to turn it off the night before. Humorously, from the way it was positioned, the Ledyba seemed to be enjoying the sound. It would've made for a cute video.
"Heh, you like what you're hearing?" I was joking, of course, but upon closer inspection, and much to my surprise, it did appear that the Pokémon was actually trying to get close to my earbuds to hear the music coming from the player. Curious, I carefully picked up the device, being mindful to not disturb the Ledyba or move the output.
I chuckled. It was one of my old rocksteady cassettes. The armchair history geek that I'd fashioned myself as, I'd always been into older tunes. The song was a classic groove - "In the Morning" - appropriate enough given the time of day.
"So you like that old compilation stuff?" I jokingly asked it. "Me too."
"Ba! Ledy!" The Bug Pokémon seemed to understand, and it was obviously happy. I didn't need to be an expert to see that. It buzzed and vibrated its wings in response. I had to admit, even bugs could be cute sometimes.
"That song's called 'In the Morning'," I explained, sitting down next to the Pokémon. "I'm not surprised you like it. You obviously enjoy mornings, don't you? You've been kind of a headache to me because of that. I'm more of a night Noctowl myself. You're not like me at all. I'm all, you know, quiet and keep to myself, but you've got a bit of liveliness to you." As I blabbered, the Ledyba appeared to ignore me, content to stay lying there near the source of the music, doing its best job to show that it could, in fact, be quiet and keep to itself.
Somehow, the Pokémon's indifference to what I was saying made it easier for me to keep talking at it. "I guess we're not total opposites. We both sleep a lot, I guess. Though, when you're awake, you're a ball of energy. Always sunny and energetic." Surprising me, it buzzed in agreement. I couldn't tell if it was actually listening to me or just enjoying the music. Still, I smiled, but I couldn't help but wonder why it was so friendly with me, considering how much I had let it get knocked out in battle the day before. I knew from many of my friends - not that common sense wasn't an indicator - that Pokémon often grew to dislike their trainers if they allowed them to get hurt all the time. I was relieved to know that I hadn't failed my mission yet, as Ledyba still seemed to be in a good mood and doing well.
Looking down at the chipper little bug, it smiled up at me.
"You definitely have a personality, there's no denying that, Ledyba. Huh." I paused for a second, thinking of how silly it was to always call it 'Ledyba'. That'd be like calling one's son 'Boy'. I had no problem with the choice to not personify Pokémon, but just calling them by their species name seemed kind of lazy - uncreative, even. Of the battles I'd had the day before, most trainers I faced, even the obvious novices, had named their Pokémon. While Ledyba wasn't technically my Pokémon, it felt weird to not give it a title to address it by.
"I think you need a name," I finally said, having thought about it. "A name that suits you well." And it needed to be a male name, too, or at least a unisex one. I hadn't really thought about it until then, but the Ledyba was indeed a male. I'd just been thinking of him as an 'it', but I did realize its gender when I read how males had longer antennae than females.
After considering unisex names, it came to me rather quickly. It seemed perfect. I spoke clearly, hoping the Pokémon could understand me somehow. "Since you're so bright and sunny, and you like mornings, how about I call you 'Sunny'? Would you be okay with that?" I looked down at the Ledyba for its approval. It seemed to understand well enough - or I told myself that, anyway - and it smiled, buzzing in agreement. "Alright then, I'll call you Sunny. That's easy to remember. Rolls off the tongue better too."
And so, as a rarity in my life experience, and despite the actual hurdles I was anticipating as soon as I resumed my quest, I managed to eke out a sunrise from that day, and that sunrise was the naming of my grandfather's oh-so-precious gift.
Sunny. Sure, it was a little saccharine, but what more appropriate than for such an early-bird Pokémon? The name fit Ledyba like a glove. Of course, I was fully aware of the old wisdom: Name something, and you get attached to it. But that was all part of the plan, as I told myself. Something I was more closely attached to would be easier to care for, and since I'd likely be stuck with Sunny for a while, I wanted to make sure I didn't begin to lose interest in the original mission. That was my logic, anyway. It made sense at the time.
Sunny and I set out on the road through Route 29 yet again. I concluded that he was attached enough to the point where he wouldn't try to fly away, and I figured if I was going to be pestered for battles anyway, I might as well have my single Pokémon out and ready. Besides, he seemed to understand well enough the concept of ownership, and for all intents and purposes at the time, I was his owner. He seemed to get the fact that he had been caught and was now subject to my authority and caretaking, because, for reasons entirely logical, I was the one who controlled the magical ball.
Yeah, it didn't make sense to me, but whatever. It wasn't like it made a difference as far as Sunny was concerned. Considering how placid the Ledyba normally was, he probably saw it as a "free ride" sort of deal - perhaps at the cost of getting beaten down in battle on a regular basis. At the very least, the fact that he was a captive forced to battle against other Pokémon and follow me wherever I went didn't seem to bother him at all. I liked it, to an extent. It made my job a whole lot easier. On the other hand, it made the emotional turmoil brought about by worrying over my possible failure that much more intense.
What certainly didn't make my job easier was the fact that Sunny didn't battle so well. We got into a few more skirmishes that morning, and he got beat up pretty badly. I was down to my last potion when a trainer sent out a Metapod, which, like Hoppip, didn't seem to have any attacking moves. It took a long time, but Sunny eventually took it down with a bevy of Tackles.
As luck would have it, that ended up being my last encounter with a trainer before finally seeing the outer limits of Cherrygrove City. I had called Sunny back to give him some rest, and as I walked through the town gate, I couldn't help but feel a sense of relief and accomplishment. It was my first real step taken to Azalea, though it was a small one. While Sunny was, by my own judgment, in rather fair condition, I decided the first thing I'd need to do was locate the town's obligatory Pokémon Center, to make sure he was absolutely fine.
It didn't take long to find it, and since I'd been into Centers before with friends, I knew the gist of how they worked. Sunny was just fine, but they gave him a routine healing just to be safe. It took no time at all, and so after charging my phone for a while, I quickly left the Center with my sights set on finding the closest store so I could buy more potions. I was still intent on avoiding battles at all costs, but I was now wisened to the extent my optimism could effectively reach. I knew that if the journey ahead had as many eager trainers as I'd already faced, I'd be in for a bad time if I wasn't prepared.
It took most of what I had on me. I'd lost a lot of money battling trainers on Route 29, and without income, I didn't have much funding to begin with. My wallet was barren, but I managed to secure a dozen or so potions. I assumed they'd at least be enough to get me to Violet City, where I could hopefully stop to buy more. I wasn't sure how I'd be able to scrounge up the cash before then, but I decided I'd cross that bridge when I came to it.
As fate would have it, as I exited the market, which rested near the northern exit to Route 30, I noticed an odd commotion near the shore just a short sprint away.
As I ran on over to the town's tiny beach to investigate, I noticed how barren and empty the streets and buildings were. When I stepped foot on the sand, the raucous crowd assembled there suggested to me that a good portion of the town's small population was gathered together. As the several dozen or so people crowded the sand, I craned my neck to see what they were all huddled around. There seemed to be...people? There were definitely a few people standing on the shore, and they seemed to be a bit taller than everyone else, so I could see two or three of the tops of their heads. Looking farther offshore, a dead giveaway: a sizable ship. It all came together for me. The text on its hull gave it away clearly. It was a navy ship.
I still didn't understand what all of the commotion was about. Everyone near me was too fixated to answer my questions, so I politely made my way to the inner ring of the crowd. Most of the children were up at the front, excited and cheering.
"...But I thank you for all your welcomes," I finally heard the loud, resonating voice of one man in the center say. There were three such men, and sure enough, they were dressed in naval uniforms. They seemed to be sailors. I watched intently as the man continued. "The people of Cherrygrove always give us a warm welcome, and we appreciate it every time. However, I must ask you to not make too big of a scene. We won't be here for long. We've just come into town to grab some supplies and perform some maintenance on our ship before we depart for Olivine. If any of the kids have questions, of course, we will try to make time to answer them while we're here." At the sound of that, all of the children cried in unison. Several dozen deafening shouts of "Over here!" and "Pick me!" seemed to radiate from so many more sources than they really did.
It seemed that I had missed the beginning of the "show", so I was still very confused. The crowd began to break apart slightly as parents waited around with their screaming children and some of the adult audience began to clear away. Whoever these men were, the children sure seemed to love them, particularly the man in the center that had been speaking. Children flocked all around him, pestering him with questions. I stood there and watched in curiosity. After the last child had been tugged away by his mother, the three men, appearing exhausted, nodded to each other and began walking up the beach into town. I decided to approach them myself and ask about what on Earth I had just witnessed.
"Um, excuse me." I approached them by cutting them off in their tracks. "Sorry. Um...who are you guys, and what was with that commotion? I just came into town, so I was really confused when I saw all of the screaming kids."
The trio of sailors looked at each other and laughed. The man who'd been speaking smiled and gestured to his crewmates, and the two walked off together in the direction of the market.
The one remaining sailor laughed. "Ah, it's nothing. We're just on a brief shore leave. We stop by in Cherrygrove from time to time, and the townspeople – the kids especially – really seem to like us. Not completely sure what it's all about myself. But the kids are really interested in sailing, seems like. Always have questions for us when we come into town. We usually don't stay too long. Not much to do here, and we're pretty much always on the clock.
"Oh." I wasn't sure of how else to respond. That seemed like a clear enough answer.
The sailor smiled. "But you said you're not from around here? Where are you from, buddy?"
"Oh, I come from New Bark Town. It's a few miles east from here."
He seemed interested upon hearing this. "Hm. Heard of it. Aware of it. Never actually been there. How fun is it?"
Fun? Hah! "Not at all. It's the boonies."
"Ha ha!" he laughed. And man, he had a powerful laugh. It wasn't distinctive or memorable, but it was very hearty and genuine. He stiffly stuck out his muscled arm for me to grab his hand, face becoming stern. "My name's Luther. Petty Officer Third Class, Unovan Navy." I quickly extended my own arm to shake, and he wasted no time in drawing it out. He repealed his arm, gave a quick, rehearsed salute gesture, and then bowed to act within Johtonian custom.
It was of no surprise to me that this Luther character was Unovan. His appearance, mannerisms, and speech pattern gave it away quite easily. However, I'd never met a Unovan that wasn't a tourist before, let alone held a conversation with one.
"Hi, I'm Jason," I explained, perhaps a little shyly. I wasn't quite sure how to interact with the type of person Luther was. He seemed friendly and genuine, though, so I put aside my uneasiness to ask another question - or two, really. "Do you travel a lot? Do you come to Johto often?"
He laughed. "Do I travel? Of course I travel! I've been to so many places in the world, you wouldn't believe. Man, I got so many stories I could be telling you! I've seen the white beaches of Hoenn, the olympic mountains of Sinnoh – Hoenn's my favorite, though; love those women! I've been all over. You haven't lived until you've seen beautiful places like that!" He put a lot of emphasis on his last sentence, gesturing with two fists raised. He was quite the animated character. It was a Unovan stereotype that seemed to ring true: Luther was loud and passionate, but quite friendly.
He calmed down, and continued. "Nah, but, you know, I'm in the navy, so, right now I'm stationed here. Our countries have a buddy-buddy relationship, so we keep a lot of our troops stationed out here, you know what I'm sayin'? I've been in the service almost two years now. Most of it's patrol, and we get a lot of shore leave time. It's just that our leaves are always short. Right now I'm actually stationed on Cianwood, but I've been out at sea the last few days. We just docked here in Cherrygrove, but we'll be on our way out soon, heading out to Olivine next. Not much to do here, ya know? Nice people, but it's a crusty old harbor town. We're out at sea sometimes weeks at a time, so when we make shore, we try to party it up, you dig?" With that, he elbowed me in the shoulder, laughing. "This guy knows what I'm talkin' about! Don'tcha? But hey, enough about me! You said you're not from around here, so what're you doin' here anyway, kid?"
I found it odd he'd call me 'kid', considering he didn't look more than a few years older than me at most. Regardless, I told Luther about my predicament. I told him about my grandpa's dumb joke, and Sunny, and how I'd been having trouble with wandering trainers in my effort to get to Azalea Town to sort the whole mess out.
"Wow, that's a big old mess right there," he concluded once I had finished. Talking at a slightly accelerated pace while still speaking clearly seemed to be his quirk. "Pretty exciting stuff, though, walking across the Southeast of Johto with a Pokémon you don't even want. I'm a seaman – I've fought Tentacruel with my bare hands - but even that sounds like a good time to me. Your whole story kinda sounds like the beginning of a novel, or a book or something, you dig what I mean?"
Not amused to know that my situation sounded cliché to others as well, I nonetheless humored him. "Yeah, it's...pretty funny. Kind of like all of those Pokéwood movies your region's always sending over here."
Luther laughed again, cracking up this time. "Haha! No, but you're right! You're actually right, man. That's so true! It's like one of those silly little movies!" He could barely contain his enthusiasm, but somehow he managed. "But hey, you've got a cool story behind you, and you seem alright. You come off as the curious type. I like that, I respect that. You don't see that too much in people nowadays. You ever consider bein' an officer? We could use more sign-ups like you. 'Course, you'd have to work on that scrawny body of yours first!" He seemed to go for another elbow to the shoulder, but stopped himself.
Sighing, Luther offered me his hand again, and held the union a bit longer that time. "Hey, you're alright man. I like you. I think you're gonna do cool things. If you walk around as much as you say you're doin', maybe we'll meet up again. It's not too big of a region, after all. You travel, I travel. Maybe we'll cross each other again sometime. I don't just think we might, I think we will." He stopped to look past my shoulder. I turned to see his crewmates behind me, signalling to him. "Alright man, I gotta go. See you around, and nice meeting you." And like that, he marched off to meet with his buddies. My questions answered, I saw no real reason to remain in Cherrygrove, so I headed on off to Route 30.
"What a nice Unovan guy," I thought to myself, heading up the hilly road that started my journey out of town. "A little forceful, though," I muttered, my hand throbbing a bit from the remnant of his tight grip. I wondered what it was like to serve in the naval forces, particularly one of a foreign region like Unova.
Realistically, it was probably a lot more toil and stress than I had the faculty for. No need to muse about something like that when I already had enough of a goal ahead of me. Reaching Violet City would be the next step to its completion.