Cherrygrove City wasn't very big, but it positively dwarfed New Bark Town.
"It's so big!" Lyra exclaimed, spinning around with her arms out. Larima followed her example but lost her balance and fell over.
Lyra picked her up and hugged her while laughing.
Ethan looked at Sobek and knelt down, "Sorry buddy, but until you're more used to people I'll have to return you while we're in cities okay." He said. Sobek looked at him cutely but Ethan shook his head, "Just until you've grown up a little more." He tapped the pokeball against Sobek's forehead and clipped it to his belt. He looked over and saw Travis doing the same with Cynder.
"He's a little too temperamental for people." Travis said when he saw Ethan's inquisitive look. Ethan responded with a nod.
"So, where's Mr. Pokemon's house?" Lyra asked.
"Just north of here, Route 30 on a side path." Ethan read the notes off his pokegear. Travis and Lyra nod.
"Let's get moving then." Travis said.
"Maybe we should call it a day, stay in Cherrygrove for a bit." Lyra said, "It might be good to plan out our route, they're two paths after all, and we don't wanna end up in Violet City."
"New trainers?" An old man asked, he had a wizened look, long white beard and bald head. He was wearing a blue kimono and a pair of shiny running shoes, "Let me give you a tour." He sped off, moving faster than someone of his age should've been able to.
The group shrugged and followed him. He led them to a large white building with a red roof. The pokemon center, he then showed them the pokemart, a place where trainers can buy pokeballs and other useful items.
The old man then led them to the beach on the western side of the town.
"Once there was a pokemon who stood on this beach, back before Cherrygrove had it's name. The lake was dying, all of the pokemon poisoned. When this pokemon, the legendary beast of water, stood on the lake the poison was gone, as if it has never been there." The old man said, "My father was there when it happened ya know." He continued, "Says that he saw the rainbow pokemon Ho-oh fly over the town right before the beast left."
"Ho-oh flew over?" Travis was shocked, "But Ho-oh is… it's just a legend isn't it?"
The old man smiled, "Legends all have truth to them boy." He then led the group to the entrance of Route 30, "This is the way to Violet City, I heard that there's a pokemon researcher on a side path too, but I've never found his house." The old man smiled, "There's a lot of rookie trainers up this way too, it's great for training."
Travis smirked, "Alright! I'll see ya later!" He waved, about to run off.
"STOP!" Lyra shouted, "We're going to buy some supplies and call out parents first, let them know that we got here okay."
"Fine." Travis crossed his arms, "Hey old man, thanks for the tour."
"Anytime." The old man then jogged off, presumably to his house.
"So, pokemon center it is." Ethan said, leading the way back to the red roofed building.
The inside of the pokecenter was incredible, with TV screens everywhere and multiple large table with people sitting at them. The very center of Nurse Joy's desk, to the left there was four video phones and to the right there was four strange looking computers.
The computers were touch screen, with a strange semi-circle indented in the middle of where the keyboard should be. A green haired trainer walked up to one of the strange computers and Ethan watched him take a pokeball from his belt.
"Well Nitro, it's time to switch you out." He placed the ball in the indent and it shimmered before disappearing. He then began poking at the screen, "And I'll grab Titus as a replacement." As soon as he pressed on another button a new ball materialized, this one was blue, with two red ridges on itm a greatball.
"WOW!" Travis exclaimed, "Those are PCs!" Travis ran over to the machines.
The green haired trainer turned to Travis, "First time seeing a PC?" He asked.
Travis looked at him, "Ya, we just left New Bark Town, there's no pokecenter there."
The trainer nodded, "Well good to meet you, name's Tyler. I'm just passing through because I heard that you can find Quagsire around here, then I'm going to challenge Jasmine."
Travis shook Tyler's hand as Ethan and Lyra walked up to them.
"I'm Travis." He said, "This here is Ethan, and this is Lyra." He introduced his friends, "All three of us are brand new trainers."
Tyler nodded at them, "Nice to meet you."
"Hey Tyler, you said you were training to face Jasmine right? Does that mean you're going for your sixth badge?" Travis asked.
"It's actually going to be my fifth. I haven't gone to Cianwood yet, my team isn't great against Fighting types except for Shyne, but she probably won't be ready by then." He said.
"Think we can meet your team?" Travis asked, " I know there's a battle area out back, there should be room out there."
Tyler smiled, "Sure why not." He led the way out to the back. It opened into a large, probably mile and a half long and mile wide, area of open dirt. There was one other trainer back there with a Charmeleon who was shooting small fireballs but they were on the other side of the field.
"Ok, I'll release them in the order that I got them." Tyler said, "First off, Criton!" He released a two foot tall round hedgehog like pokemon who was primarily green with quills on his back with two large ears on his head. He had a tuft of fur on his head and a long nose. "Criton here is my starter, he's a Quilladin, a species native to Kalos. My father bought him for me on my fourteenth birthday."
Criton jumped into the air, shooting out a flurry of small green orbs, the Bullet Seed attack.
"Calm down buddy." Tyler said. Criton landed and stood beside Tyler.
"Next is Snoopy, my Cubchoo. I caught him just outside of my home town of Mahogany in the icy cave." Tyler released a small white bear whose nose was dripping with a large, nearly foot long, string of icy snot. The little bear sniffed it's nose hard, pulling the snot back in and began to dance around. "I've been putting off evolving him for a bit, Beartic are supposed to be extremely aggressive and I don't want to put my team in danger yet."
Tyler returned Lumber and pulled out his greatball, "Come on out, Titus!" He shouted, releasing a large steel reptile. It's dark gray legs pawed the ground for a second as he looked around wearily. "No danger Titus." Tyler said, causing the monstrous pokemon to plop down on his stomach. "Titus here is a Lairon, and possibly my strongest team member, at least until Criton evolves." He said, patting both his pokemon, eliciting a cute growl from Criton and a large purring noise from Titus that sounded like two steel bars slamming against each other.
"He's huge. Most Lairon are only about five feet high, but Titus here has to be seven!" Travis ran around, looking at Titus with bewilderment.
Tyler laughed, "Ya, I found him while defending Ecruteak from a stampede of Rhyhorn. He was mixed in there, being attacks. Criton and Lumber were trying their hardest but I only had three badges at this point, and against multiple Rhyhorn I wasn't fairing well. Anyways I saw Titus and threw my greatball, knowing that he would take more than a regular pokeball to catch. Luckily he was caught first try, that's when Criton evolved actually." He patted his starter's head again, "So I got Criton to get Titus's ball and then Leader Morty showed up with three Gengar and a bunch of other Ghost types, he drove the Rhyhorn off and that was that."
"Wow." Lyra said, "I guess being a trainer really is dangerous work huh."
Tyler nodded, "It's definitely not easy." Tyler then brought out two more pokeballs, "I caught these two around the same time, Crex! Hiro! Let's go!" He threw two pokeballs out, revealing a tan pokemon with large boxing gloves on his hands and a large white sloth-like pokemon with a red tuft of fur, "Crex is a Hitmonchan and Hiro is a Vigoroth."
Crex nodded to the three rookie trainers and looked at Tyler, "I'm just introducing everyone, I needed you out in case Hiro loses it." Crex nodded and turned to watch the Vigoroth.
"Hiro has a bit of a mean streak." Tyler said, "He was an abused pokemon so he doesn't trust other humans very much." Tyler said.
The Vigoroth roared and glared at the trainers, his eyes locking on Ethan specifically and he sharpened his claws.
Tyler returned Hiro immediately. "Sorry about that."
"No worries, surprisingly it didn't scar me. I guess seeing Cyr and Quana every day kinda made me immune to scary pokemon." Ethan said.
Tyler's eyes widened, "You know the Beryls!" He asked, "I was trying to buy their Feraligatr's baby not too long ago but they said they were saving ti for their son."
Ethan nodded, "They're my parents." Ethan said, " I can introduce you to Sobek if you'd like."
Tyler nodded, "Please."
Ethan pulled out Sobek's ball, "Sobek, let's go!" Sobek stood at the ready in front of Ethan, "He's not too good with being touched yet." Ethan said as he saw Tyler walking up to the Totodile.
Sobek saw Tyler's pokemon and bared his teeth. "Sobek!" Ethan raised his voice, "Stand down."
Sobek took a couple steps back, standing directly beside Ethan.
"He looks strong." Tyler said, returning his three pokemon, "I have one last pokemon with me but she's shy so I'm not gonna call her out right now. She's a Kirlia named Shyne."
"Thanks." Travis said, "We should go give our parents a call now. I'll see you later."
"No problem, have a good one." Tyler said, walking back into the center.
An hour later Nurse Joy had looked at their pokemon and the three had all called their parents, as well as getting three rooms at the center for the night.
"I'm gonna go train with Sobek back on Route 29." Ethan said, "I'll see you guys later."
"Ok, I'll see you later Ethan, I'm gonna go down Route 30 and see if there are any other new trainers." Travis said, taking off.
"Have fun Ethan." Lyra said, "I'll be going with Larima to play in the water."
Ethan ran out, heading back to Route 30.
As he reached the forest and could no longer see Cherrygrove he released Sobek.
"Ok buddy, time to do some training." Ethan said, "I want you to power up your scratches and power up that Water Gun. Then we'll work on something else." Ethan said with a smirk, recalling his phone call with his parent's when his father told him that Sobek may have the ability to use one of Cyr's moves instinctively, and possibly one of Quana's too. His mother also told him that because of Quana's lineage -having multiple Dragonair and even a Haxorus- there was a chance that Sobek would evolve into a Dragon type when he reached his final stage.
Sobek proceeded to scratch at a tree, leaving shallow scratch marks. "Sobek, step back for a second." Ethan said, the little crocodile ran over to him and looked up happily. Ethan knelt down and looked at Sobek's nails, "Can you make them glow again, Scratch attack?" Ethan asked.
Sobek looked at his hands and his nails grew into shimmering blades, they were small, but that didn't mean they weren't dangerous.
Ethan smiled, "There we go, get that tree, I want you to take it down."
Sobek nodded and rushed forwards, moving faster than one would expect from such a stubby creature. He slashed wildly at the tree, his nails seeming to grow sharper and sharper every couple of times.
It took nearly two hours for Sobek to fell the tree, and he was panting by the end of it.
"Good job buddy." Ethan was proud of the little guy, the tree was easily five feet in diameter and Sobek hadn't given up once, "Let's take a little break and we'll work on your Water Gun." The two sat down, Ethan eating a sandwich and Sobek crunching on some berries.
After a half hour break Sobek jumped up and turned to a new tree, this one was seven feet wide and nearly ten times as tall.
"Let's find a smaller one buddy." Ethan said, but Sobek shook his head and pointed at the tree. Ethan sighed, "Ok, Water Gun."
Sobek grinned his funny little smile and blasted a torrent of water forwards, slamming it into the tree and leaving a small indent.
Suddenly Ethan grabbed Sobek and jumped to the ground as a blur shot past, and a small round owl with large eyes stood there, talon digging into the ground where Sobek was a second before. It was a Hoothoot.
"Guess we're battling buddy." Ethan said, jumping up and allowing Sobek to do the same. "Scratch!" Ethan ordered, and Sobek ran forwards, slashing at the Hoothoot, but the owl took off into the air, dodging the attack.
With a screech the Hoothoot flew down and slammed into Sobek, knocking him down.
"Try Water Gun!" Ethan shouted, slightly worried for his starter.
Sobek roared and shot a jet of water out, plowing into Hoothoot and knocking the owl to the ground. Ethan saw Sobek's eyes glow red as he charged the downed Flying type, nails extended nearly twice what he was regularly. He left three long gashes in the owl.
Ethan immediately took out a pokeball and threw it at the Hoothoot, "Calm down Sobek!" He shouted. But Sobek roared again, shooting a torrent of water into the air. Ethan heard the ball ping and went to pick it up, but Sobek looked at the ball and gathered water in his mouth before Ethan returned him.
"Well, I caught a Hoothoot I guess." Ethan picked up the ball and scanned his thumb on it, "I'll name you Terminus." He said to the ball, which he placed on his belt and began his trek back to town.
I'm back I guess. Got my writing mojo back after restarting this chapter about once a week since the last time I wrote this. Hope at least some of you are still interested. Can't promise when the next chapter will be out but I've already mostly started it. Definitely won't be a long one, just covering Travis and Lyra's going ons and having them all meet up. Expect a new member of each team though.