I leaped out of the Pokémon Centers doors and gazed with amazement to the city I stood in. The cozy homes were scattered, and each had a roof with shingles neatly aligned. A few people wandered the streets paying no attention to me as I scanned the area. I gazed up to the clear beautiful sky and felt the burst of excitement inside. I was so proud of myself for all the progress I made, I was already in Violet City and it was still in the afternoon. Maybe by nighttime I'd be on my way to Azalea Town. I squirmed with excitement and took a few steps while I watched the ground, not paying attention to where I was going. A gust of gently wind made my light blue hair rise up, I fritted to fix it from my face and saw it. The Violet City Gym stood a few feet from me and my heart dropped. That's right, I wasn't prepared. I didn't have the adequate team to have a type advantage against the gym leader. I let out a deep sigh, then found an older man in front of me, I jumped alarmed, I didn't even notice him approach me.
"Is something wrong Miss?" he asked. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help but hear your outburst. You're here for the gym challenge, right?"
"Huh?" I let out embarrassed, unaware I had been letting my thoughts out and now I wanted the ground to eat me.
"It's okay Miss. A lot of new trainers come by here often." He chuckled. "You aren't the only one who struggles with Falkner. He only recently took over this gym, it use to belong to his father, and he used flying type too."
"Oh really? So it's like a family tradition to run the gym?" I asked curiously, I never met a gym leader before or knew how these things work. This little gossip was intriguing me.
"Ha, yes some gym leaders do pass down the torch to their children."
"That sounds lovely." I said then remembered my burden. "So, you don't know or have any tips for defeating this gym leader?"
"Of course I do. I lived in this city for so many years." The man chuckled then pointed to a stop sign that had two arrows on it. One said, "Route 32: Ruins of Alph" the other "Route 36". "You see those locations? They got some good Pokémon you can go catch."
"What are these Pokémon I can catch?"
"See, in Route 32, there use to be a ranch when my grandfather was a little boy. It's not there anymore, but the ranch owner's relatives left behind all these Mareep that just roam around now. People have now come up with the cheat to catch one of those Mareep and challenge the flying type gym leader." He explained as I opened up my Pokédex and typed in the name, showing me a cute blue sheep with yellow fleece. I was instantly in love. He laughed and said "Yep that's it right there. It's so funny since Falkner fumes when someone does the Mareep cheat." He boasted out and started laughing.
"I mean, it's not a cheat if the Mareep are just out there." I said nervously.
"You're right about that. Another thing, head out to Route 36 and catch a Growlithe." He advised as I once again typed the name into my Pokédex which showed me a cute smiling dog Pokémon. "You'll thank me when you get to Azalea Town. The gym leader Bugsy uses bug Pokémon. You can also use the Growlithe to help you beat the Sprout Tower challenge. You get a HM and your Pokémon get battle experience." He explained as I jotted down mental notes. So much advice, I wish I had a notepad to write everything down. I thanked him and made my way down to Route 32; I had my heart set on catching a Mareep.
XXXXXX
The air was humid and misty now. I was currently at the Ruins of Alph after catching both a Mareep and Growlithe. The Mareep was sleeping so peacefully and looked so adorable until I rudely awaken her with my Bayleef to catch her. The Growlithe on the other hand, was a feisty fellow who was running around attacking other Pokémon, I did them a favor taking away that Growlithe. I leaned back and stretched my body on the bench I was sitting on. I felt myself getting tired but didn't know if it was because I had awakened early that day or because of how muggy the area was in the ruins. My Pokemon played with the new additions to their team and I felt a breath of relief. I worried that they wouldn't get along and that I would have to act as mediator for them. They were all different, but I was excited to have them. Who would have thought that the shy bookworm would be on an adventure with Pokémon now. I laughed, then a bolt of remembrance shock through my body, making me leap up and startling my Pokémon who all looked at me simultaneously.
"Hey, everyone. Gather around." I called out as my Pokemon all turned to me and came running. Everyone sat so obediently in front of me, it excited me. "So, I know most of you guys weren't here when this happened, but Bayleef was." I began and Bayleef perked up boastfully and everyone else either glared or looked annoyed. "Someone known as Mr. Pokémon gave me these." I said pulling out the stone tablets and feeling the shards from the crystal rose I had received earlier that day. It tugged at my heart and made me feel guilty for breaking it, but I didn't know what else to do. It was broken. My Pokémon sniffed around at the stones and I continued. "I did find some more on my journey, but a majority of these he found here." Everyone looked at me and I felt a little nervous about the next part. "So, maybe we'll find more around here? Let's look around." I said as my Pokémon bolted in different directions. I guess that's one way of finding out everyone was a team player. I chuckled as everyone ran around searching, then gazed upon the stone tablets I had. I counted seven, then remembered the one I snagged from under that sleeping man earlier. It was an "S", I wondered if it was his and I felt a tinge of guilt for just taking it.
I heard the cooing of my Pidgey and looked up from my box as another tablet was dropped in. I thanked Pidgey then saw Bayleef sniffing around a pond. I thought maybe he was thirsty, then he walked right in and started swimming in the pond.
"Hey! Get out of there." I screamed, but Bayleef rolled his eyes at me and Pidgey landed on his head as he continued searching through the water. That's just lovely, messy already. My thoughts were interrupted by the bleating of my Mareep who came running towards me with Growlithe. "What's going on?" I asked and they pointed to a ruin with a man standing outside of it reading a pamphlet. That's right, what if instead of looking around the ruins I start looking inside them. I approached the entrance, then immediately changed directions when the man looked away from his pamphlet and ran past a trailer and into the entrance of other ruins.
Upon inside, it was cold and made me shiver. I look around and saw various people walking around, posing in front of writing as others took pictures, and saw people poking at the statues that were displayed. Everyone was just minding their own business having fun. My Pokémon silently followed behind me, to my relief. Good, everyone is still together. I gazed upon the walls of the ruins, I saw various symbols, even some that match the tablets I had already collected. None of the inscriptions on the walls made any words, well none I knew of. I scanned the floors and found no stone tablets, nor did I find any in the walls. The loud screeching of children running by and an adult with their hair tangled yelling at them interrupted my observation. I'm guessing if there were some here, they must be long gone by now. There were just so many people here, it was crowded and so loud. It made me feel aggravated, I would have expected this place to have been quiet as a library, but it was rowdy like a party.
"Look mommy." Said a little boy as I turned around to see him pet my Growlithe who growled. I rushed over and apologized, my Growlithe wasn't used to being around other people yet. I returned him to his Pokeball then recalled the rest of my party who were wandering around nearby. I didn't want to risk any of them harming anyone. I finally decided to leave the ruins after repeated strolls, I found nothing. Outside, I noticed the man was gone. So I could finally enter the ruins without fear of someone stopping to speak with me. I quietly entered and came face to face with a slender woman wearing all blue with a matching hat.
"Welcome to the Ruins of Alph." She said with a big smile and grabbed my hand and pulled me to the center of the room towards a table. "We have a touching display." She began as she took my hands and dragged them through the sand while I nervously laughed, hoping she would stop. "Have fun moving the puzzles. Be sure to come to me with any questions." She said as she went back to the entrance to stand like a statue. She looked back at me smiling and I looked away back to the table. It was sleek and had a few cracks here and there. I fiddled with the puzzle pieces on the table as the sand that they stood in swooshed away. How odd, these puzzle pieces sort of look like the stones I had been collecting. I looked up and saw at the end of the room stood a man in a lab coat slouched over with a notepad copying the images in the back. They resembled the writing on the stones. There was a research facility at the ruins, wasn't there? I thought. Ugh, is it going to be the right thing to turn these stones to these people so they can properly research them? I felt a slight ache in my chest as I reached for it and felt the rose head I had placed on my bow earlier. I can't give these stones away. I was entrusted with them and I already ruined that crystal rose I received earlier. Am I just going to be an errand runner and receive things only to give them to someone else? Or receiving things just to destroy them later? All these thoughts just swirled our in my mind and clouded me. I felt like the walls of the ruins were coming towards me as I continued moving around the puzzle pieces not paying attention until finally, a picture was made. The picture just came to me, it was something that was dome shaped I was trying to form. For a brief second I looked down at the picture I created then heard a loud booming and the floor collapse, I fell with it. Gazing up I saw everyone run around frantically as I fell to the floor and once again I was in the ruins from earlier. There were no children running around anymore, not even the people who were posing in front of the symbols on the walls. Oh no, did I once again ruin something?
Screeching made me jerk my head up still sitting on the floor. It came from a black Pokémon with a big white eye in the middle of its body. More gathered and dance around me until I was completely surrounded. I felt my heart drop and thought of all those mystery novels where someone destroys something end up cursed. That's just great, my first day on my adventure and I released something. I let out a loud scream scaring all the Pokémon away and zipped past all the displays. I just wanted to get out of there, I saw the entrance coming close and felt a sigh of relief and ran out only to have my hand pulled. I saw that it was the man from earlier who had been reading the pamphlet.
"What's going on? Why did you just bolt out?" He asked not letting go on my hand as I nervously tried to pull away. "Answer me." He demanded.
"Well you see, there's these weird eyeball Pokémon." I answered nervously hoping he would let go of my hand.
"I see, come with me." He responded as he jerked me towards the trailer I saw earlier. Oh great, once again I have to go somewhere I didn't want to. Inside the facility it smelled of dusty old books with the faint smell of coffee. There were papers scattered everywhere on the floor and ramen cups thrown everywhere, making me gag thinking of the high concentration of sodium someone must have been consuming. "Don't mind the mess." He laughed and went to a shelf to retrieve a book then returned to me. He opened the book that was faded from the years and showed me images of Pokémon that looked similar to the ones that surrounded me earlier. "Did it look like this?" he asked.
"Uh, sort of, different shape though." I answered nervously.
"Those are Unown. They're a Pokémon that have been absent from the ruins for some time now. We feared they may have gone extinct; we were attempting to find remains like fossils." He explained as I continued feeling uncomfortable. The whole place was messy and everywhere I looked I saw nothing, but trash or books thrown around. "Ignore the mess." He said.
"Thank you for this knowledge. I have to go though." I finally said. He frowned and I could tell he was aggravated, but I didn't want anything to do with this. I knew at some point the stones would get taken from me for whatever this cause was. I walked right out the door and remember I had a gym battle I needed to get to. I think this was enough of being side tracked. I felt one of my Pokéballs come out, there stood my Bayleef. He looked angry at me.
"What? I'm sorry no. Too many people need me to do stuff for them. My main priority is what my mom wants me to do." He rolled his eyes then walked away. I followed after him shouting, but he didn't turn back. He approached a pond and on the other side I saw another set of ruins in the distance. Maybe he wants to go there I thought. Bayleef entered the water slowly until half of his lower body was submerged in water. How am I going to get across though? I don't want to end up getting wet I thought as a loud thud interrupted and Bayleef screamed out. Only part of his head was sticking from the water as he cried out. Oh no, I wasn't paying attention. I didn't know exactly what happened, but my Bayleef was now struggling in the water. "Hand me one of your vines and I'll pull you out." I screamed out, but as I took one, I realized that I, a child, could not pull out a large Pokémon. I felt my heartbeat faster making me feel so small and pathetic. A Blastoise jumped into the pond and lifted Bayleef out. It swam to shore and set my Bayleef on the land. Before I could process what happened, I felt something touch my shoulder and saw the man from earlier there.
"Good thing I followed you." He chuckled. "You left in such a rush. Is something the matter?" he asked.
"Nothings wrong." I answered nervously then felt a sharp pain, I looked down and saw I got hit by Bayleef's vines. He looked at me, his entire face red with either anger or embarrassment. "That hurt." I yelled out and pulled out my Pokéball to return him. I didn't know whether if I myself should be angry or embarrassed that happened.
"Well, that was quite scary." He said as the Blastoise approached him and he patted his head. "You're lucky I have a Blastoise who's awfully strong."
"I don't think either of use thought that would happen."
"Why would your Bayleef just walk into the water like that?"
"We're looking for stuff I'm collecting. I don't have any water types." I mumbled.
"I see." He chuckled then handed me a stone. It felt cool to the touch and as I turned it over, it revealed the same imprints as the others with the letter "V" on it. "I remember when I first started my journey with a Squirtle. I was collecting different berries so I could plant them in the family farm. Squirtle was perfect for me because it could water all the trees after my journey ended." He began as his Blastoise smiled. "I actually picked this stone up when I first arrived earlier this day. I'm guessing these are what you were collecting?"
"How did you know?" I question as I felt my entire face began to turn red. Had I been talking out loud again?
"I overheard you explaining to your Pokémon earlier." He responded then I realized how much of an idiot I was for not paying attention to my surroundings. "That's why I went to show you that book. I felt like the symbol matched an Unown pattern."
"Oh really? Do you think they're connected?" I asked curiously, I could feel myself trusting him more. I don't think he wants to take away my collection.
"Maybe. Maybe not." He answered then his smile became a frown. "We were tasked to uncover remains of the Unown, but now the Unown have come out again." He looked up at the sky as it was beginning to gray. I didn't smell the musty stench of rain, but it wasn't that late yet either. "We're probably going to receive a new assignment soon."
"You don't think you'll need these stones?" I asked.
"Of course not." He chuckled. "We only wanted to retrieved DNA samples so we could bring them back to life."
"How do you bring them back to life?"
"We have this device where we insert a Pokémon remains and clone it. It's done with fossil Pokémon like these." He explained as he pulled out the pamphlet he had from earlier and showed me two Pokémon; a dome shaped one with bright red eyes and one with a helix pattern shell.
"This dome shaped one looks like the picture from that sand display I was playing with earlier." I pointed out. He smiled once again and flipped the page showing an old painting of more Pokémon in a beach like area.
"It's because these Unown must have been around the same time fossil Pokémon were roaming the world. We have uncovered more art pieces with pictures of other fossil Pokémon."
"So can Unown count as fossil Pokémon?"
"If we can find their remains fossilized in things such as a rock."
"Oh." I said then paused. I had literally been avoiding this person, yet he was kind enough to save my Pokémon, give me an imprinted stone, and educate me on the project they were working on. I felt so guilty, he had been nothing but helpful to me and he barely knew me. "I'm sorry I avoided you earlier." I finally let out after a long moment of silence.
"It's alright." He chuckled. "I am a stranger after all. You shouldn't just trust people, I'm sure your parents raised you to be mindful and cautious."
"My mom's quite chatty and talks to whoever." I replied remembering all the times I'd return from the library and someone new would be at the house.
"It's good to be social. You learn new things." He said and pulled out another pamphlet he had in his rucksack. "Here, I want you to have this." He said as he handed me the pamphlet that had a bookmark in it, the page marked was the Sprout Tower. I then remembered how I was advised to take the challenge earlier. "You were going to take the challenge there, weren't you? I was just over there earlier. Seemed like fun."
"Did you take it?"
"I'd considered it. My trainer days are over." He said as the smile on his Blastoise's face disappeared. They must have wanted to. Before I could ask, he added "I research now and do projects. I feel like that suits me more than being a trainer."
"So you just went to do the league challenge, but didn't want to do it?"
"That was someone else's dream, not mine." He said, I remembered what my mother and I spoke of. That's what she wanted to do, but was it what I wanted to do? "You should get going, it's kind of getting late." He said, I bid him and his Blastoise farewell to return to Violet City. "Come back after you collect more of those stones." He called out, then I was gone. The thoughts kept running back in front through my mind. Is being a trainer something I wanted to do?