Gary was in a bit of a pinch at this moment. Though he had said to Aeris that he had already decided which pokemon he was picking, Gary was getting increasingly confused by the second when he inspected the three starter pokemons.
Finally, he groaned out loud before shaking his head and picking a pokeball.
"I pick Squirtle!"
The Professor of Pallet smiled at his grandson, as impartial as he was in his job, it didn't go by that he was indeed a little excited about his grandson receiving a pokemon.
"Very well then," the Professor said before returning Squirtle back to its pokeball and giving it to Gary. "Here's Squirtle's pokeball. Harry will be there to give you your pokedex and additional pokeballs.
"Thanks gramps," Gary grinned and said before quickly dashing towards where Harry was standing patiently with an equally as kind as the Professor's smile on his face.
"Next up is-" the Professor revealed his notepad before calling out a name. "Sylvia Felicity."
"Here, here."
The silverhead came to the front and before Professor Oak could ask her to chose from one of the three given pokemons, Sylvia quickly pulled out a pokeball from her pockets and presented it to Professor Oak.
"Professor Oak, I have my own starter pokemon. It's from Kalos. Mum gave it to me."
"Oh! A pokemon from a different region. Now that is exciting, isn't it?" Oak said as he inspected the pokeball before handing it back to Sylvia. "Again, Harry should be able to register it, although I must tell you that the Pokedex is not upgraded enough to record the data of your Kalosian pokemon."
"It's fine Professor," Sylvia smiled and said before skipping towards where Harry was sitting.
Professor Oak called a few more names to the front. A lot of people were confused but did end choosing a pokemon in the end.
Meredith chose the fire type Charmander as a starter, and Stephan chose the Grass type Bulbasaur as his partner.
Soon enough, it was Aeris's turn to chose a pokemon.
"Here you go Aeris," the Professor said, presenting the three pokemons in front of him. "Chose wisely."
Aeris crossed his arms and closely inspected the three pokemons.
Aeris noted how Bulbasaur was a Naughty natured pokemon, how Charmander was a Docile one, and how Squirtle was Bold natured. He had read that pokemon natures could their growth rate and their ability to grow stronger.
It made everything all the more difficult as Aeris had to question himself a thousand times before selecting one of the pokemons.
After what looked like hours of thinking, Aeris finally sighed and shook his head before reaching for a pokeball.
But before he could touch his desired pokeball, a small electric current passed through his hand and gave him a mild shock.
"Ouch," Aeris yelped in pain and started shaking his hand before turning to look at the one who shocked him.
To his surprise, it was Pikachu with a pokeball in its hand. Aeris noticed how that pokeball had a thunderbolt marker above its button.
"Huh? Pikachu?"
"Well, well, what do you know?" the Professor Oak said suddenly and took the pokeball from Pikachu before handing it to Aeris. "It seems like Pikachu wamts you to be its trainer, Aeris."
"Huh? You do?" Aeris asked Pikachu.
He was expecting a nod or a cheery 'pika'. But instead, what he got was a 1000 volt of shock from Pikachu.
"Pikachu!"
After Pikachu ended its attack, Aeris was covered in soot and his hair had stood straight up because of the electricity.
"I-I get it. It's your way of saying yes, isn't it?"
Pikachu's hands went to its hips, and it nodded before huffing at Aeris.
"Pika pikachu."
"Alright then everyone, since you all have got your first pokemon, it's time to hold a test for you all," Professor Oak announced all of a sudden and a commotion was spreading around quickly enough.
"A week from now, in your graduation ceremony, all trainers will be paired up and would have to battle against each other in a pokemon battle. Since most of you kids will be leaving Pallet Town for your Pokemon journey, it will be a great way to make some memories."
"Memories, huh?" Gary muttered before turning to Aeris. "Hey Aeris, remember our promise?"
Aeris scoffed at him. "Of course I do, there's no way I'd forget. The first one to become Champion wins right?"
"Bull's-eye! So, we both will aim to collect the eight gym badges and then compete with each other in the Indigo League. Make sure you don't fall behind, Ar."
"No need to worry," Aeris told him. "After all, I have Pikachu with me. We'll become really strong and beat you together one day. Ain't that right, Pikachu?"
Pikachu looked up to its trainer from where it was standing on the ground before nodding and puffing its cheeks where small sparks emitted from its electric sacs.
"Heh. I'll be waiting then."
As soon as that was done, Gary stuffed his hands in his pocket before marching out of the Professor's laboratory. Looking around, Aeris spotted that most of the students had already gone home and only a handful of them were left.
"I guess we should get going, come on Pikachu," Aeris said and pulled out Pikachu's pokeball before aiming the red light at Pikachu.
To his shock though, instead of letting the light touch it, Pikachu moved away from it and jumped on top of Aeris's head before puffing its cheek and discharging electricity from its sacs.
Obviously, Aeris was the victim of the attack since Pikachu was sitting on top of him.
"Ouch! Ouch! Okay, okay! I get it, Pikachu. You don't want to be in the pokeball, is that it?"
"Pika." Pikachu nods before climbing down from Aeris's head and onto his shoulder.
"Well, I guess my shoulder works as a pokeball too."
"This is it," Aeris exclaimed, opening the door of his house. "This is my house Pikachu. Feel free to roam around, but make sure not to mess anything."
"Pika."
"In the meantime, let me make you some food."
As Aeris went towards the kitchen, Pikachu found it pretty that he was the one who would do the cooking. Regardless, he shrugged it off and took a brief walk around the house.
Aeris's house looked pretty plain, to be honest. And there wasn't much show pieces. However, what caught Pikachu's eyes was a picture in the living room of a man and woman with a child in their hand.
Since the child had messy black hair and grey eyes, Pikachu quickly deduced that it was Aeris's parents.
However, he tilted his head in confusion as even though he had looked around the whole house, there was nobody in sight except of Aeris of course.
Meanwhile, Aeris had finished preparing the food and was about to call Pikachu when he saw it standing on the living room and observing the picture of his parents.
"Oh! You must surprised, huh?" Aeris asked and wiped his hands with a towel before walking towards Pikachu and bending down to scratch its chin.
"In this house, I'm the only one living. My parents died in car crash. I guess you expected people to be here since I'm just 14 years old. Oh well..."
"Pika."
Pikachu was now starting to feel bad about it. Even though there wasn't really anybody's fault, he realized that he shouldn't have touched that subject.
"Here," Aeris said, presenting a bowl of pokemon food in front of Pikachu. "Eat up now, kay?"
Pikachu quietly started nibbling on its food and Aeris stood up and sat at a nearby chair.
"Oh, before I forget..."
Aeris suddenly remembered something and quickly pulled out his pokedex before pointing it at Pikachu who was looking at him with confused eyes.
Aeris had realized that he didn't check up on Pikachu with the pokedex, and decided to do it now.
"Pikachu, the Mouse pokemon. An electric type.
Pikachu can generate 100,000 volts of electricity through the electric sacs on its cheeks. When enraged, it is often seen discharging electricity to electrocute the enrager."
Aeris presses a button take a view at Pikachu's moveset.
"Quick Attack and Thundershock, huh? You have some decent moves."
"Pika Pikachu!"
"Say, do you wanna start training from tomorrow?" Aeris asks Pikachu while petting its head. "There's an open field there in the woodlands. I'm sure we can try out those moves there. How about it Pikachu, you up for it?"
Pikachu suddenly fired up in excitement and it nodded at its trainer. "Pika Pikachu!"
As Aeris had said, Pallet Woodlands was indeed a lush forest beside Pallet Town. The waft scent of the air, the beaming sunlight, everything was beautiful and sunlit.
Pikachu inhaled a deep breath before breathing out the intake of air.
"Pikaaaa!"
"This is nice, isn't it, Pikachu?" Aeris smiled down at his electric type pokemon.
"Pika pikachu!" Pikachu responds with a nod and a smile.
"Let's start the training then."
"Pikka."
"First off Pikachu, let's try out Quick Attack."
"Pikka!"
Pikachu put its forearms on the ground and got a good grip of itself before it straightened its tail and launched itself forward in great speed.
Aeris was really impressed by Pikachu's performance and clapped his hands in appreciation.
"Awesome Pikachu, it seems like your effort values are mostly Speed."
Pikachu tilted its head in confusion. 'Effort Values'? What was its trainer talking about?
"Oh, right, you probably don't know about EVs," Aeris realized before pulling out his pokedex and pressing some buttons before presenting it to Pikachu. "Here."
"Effort Values are attributes which give bonuses to an individual Pokémon's stats and improve differently depending which Pokémon they defeat."
After hearing the Pokedex speaking, Pikachu nodded in understanding.
"You get it now? When I said that your Effort Values are mostly based on Speed, I meant that you've been battling other pokemons that have high speed."
"Pika Pikachu."
"Anyways, since it looks like your dominant EV is Speed, I think you could learn a new move," Aeris suggested. "In the long shot, I think this move would work."
Again, Aeris pressed some buttons on his Pokedex before bending down and showing it Pikachu.
"Electro Ball, an Electric type move. The user forms a ball of electricity before aiming it at the opponent. The power varies on how fast the user is then the opponent."
"See Pikachu, the more faster you are, the more powerful this attack would be. And most of all, it's easy to learn."
Pikachu nods at Aeris before sparking its cheeks. "Pika Pikachu."
"Let's get on to it then, how about first you try to gather some electricity on your tail."
"Pikka." Pikachu nodded in understanding before straightening its tail and making electricity circulating around it. At first, when the electricity was concentrated, large sparks came out and it failed, causing an explosion that engulfed both Aeris and Pikachu in soot.
Aeris coughed before giving Pikachu a thumbs up. "It's okay Pikachu, keep trying. Just think of it as if you are forming a ball."
"Pikka." Pikachu nodded before trying hard yet again.
For the first few attempts, Pikachu failed to produce anything close to a sphere of electricity. However, on the 18th try, Pikachu managed to create a very small ball of electricty on top of its tail.
"That's it Pikachu. You're doing good. Now try to put more electricity into it."
"Pikka."
Pikachu closes its eyes and tries to concentrate harder. As it did, the sphere on its tail grew larger and larger. However, when it was about to reach the size of a softball, the sphere exploded into smoke and combustions.
"*cough* *cough* It was a good try Pikachu. I think that's enough for today. Look, it's already sunset," Aeris pointed out and Pikachu looked up to notice that the sun had begun to sink down on the West.
"Pika Pikachu."
Feeling disheartened, Pikachu put his head down. Its trainer had put so much hope in it, yet it had failed to meet his expections.
When Aeris realized that Pikachu was feeling disappointed, he managed to cheer him up by smiling and patting its head.
"Hey now, it's fine Pikachu. Don't worry. Besides, it's only been a day. We still have a week left. I'm sure you'll be able to master Electro Ball by then. I believe you."
"Pika." Pikachu slowly nodded. Aeris was right. It had only been a day. There was still a lot of time left. Maybe, tomorrow would be the day.
For the next 4 days, Aeris and Pikachu's time was spent in mastering the Electro Ball.
At one point, Pikachu managed to produce a perfectly spherical ball of electricity and Aeris became pumped up when he saw it.
"Amazing Pikachu! You did it!" Aeris exclaimed before raising his hand pointing towards a tree. "Now, try to aim it at that tree."
"Pikka." Pikachu nodded. The result of its hardwork had come fruitful and although it was covered in sweats, its effort had paid off in the form of the Electro Ball floating on its tail.
"Pika pika!" Pikachu jumped up and did an aerial soumersalt before flicking its tail and releasing the Electro Ball. Unfortunately though, the Electro Ball fell a few feet short from the tree Aeris had pointed and ended up hitting the ground.
Pikachu landed on the ground and became sad again when it realized how off its target was.
"Uh, huh... It looks like there's still a bit to do about the aim. Come on, let's try again."
"Pi pikachu!"
Since then, 2 days had passed. And although Pikachu had succeeded in producing the Electro Ball, it still lacked in the aiming department. Aeris was deep in though at night when instead of sleeping, he was wide awake on his bed with its arms behind his head and Pikachu snoring softly on a pillow beside him.
"What should I do?" he muttered to himself. "At this rate, it'll be the day of the battle and Pikachu still won't be able to aim properly."
A lot of time and thinking later, Aeris sighed and ultimately gave on the though. "I guess we'll just have to think up some other tacti-"
Suddenly, his eyes fell on an object on top of his table. It was his old ball that he used to play with. When Aeris was little, he used to play dodgeball with his father. After his parents died, he made sure to keep it as a memory.
"That's it," he exclaimed loudly, making Pikachu stir in its sleep. Aeris picked up Pikachu by the shoulders and shook it awake before yelling loudly at its face. "I know what to do now. I've found a way of how you can master your Electro Ball, Pikachu."
"PIKKA!"
Aeris was late to realize that he had actually awoken a sleeping Pikachu from its sleep. When Aeris saw the frustration and anger in Pikachu's eyes, he immediately realized that he was in trouble.
"Pikachu!"
And there goes the 1,000 volts of electricity.
On the day of the graduation...
"Fennikin, let's go!"
Sylvia did a 360 degree turn and revealed her pokeball before throwing it high up in the air.
The pokeball opened to showcast a small and cute fox-like pokemon. It's body was mostly orange except on the tip of its tail and ears were its fur was blazen red.
"Go, go, Charmander!" Meredith exclaimed and threw her pokeball to summon the Fire type lizard pokemon on the field.
From the crowd, Aeris took out his Pokedex to examine Meredith's pokemon. He didn't point it at Sylvia's Fennikin as he knew that the Kanto Pokedex wouldn't be able to take its readings.
"Charmander, the Lizard pokemon. A Fire type.
Charmanders are generally reserved pokemon. However, when alarmed, it can release powerful breathes of fire from its mouth that could melt even steel. It is said that a Charmander's life is determined by the fire burning on its tail."
"Okay Charmander, let's start with Ember," Meredith commanded and Charmander chanted a loud 'Char' before opening its mouth and releasing a small breathe of fire from its mouth.
It was weird to everyone that Sylvia didn't gave any comman and instead let the Ember attack hit Fennikin. However, much to everyone's surprise, Fennikin merely shook its head and shrugged the fire off its body.
"That won't do anything to my pokemon, Meredith. You see, Fennikin is actually a Fire type too."
The crowd marvelled at the small and cute pokemon. Professor Oak was quick to take notes of the battle.
"It's our turn to attack!" Sylvia yelled and flicked her wrists. "Go Fennikin, use Psybeam!"
"Fenne!" Fennikin growled at Charmander before opening its mouth and shooting a pink beam from its mouth. The Psybeam went on to hit Charmander and knock it unconscious.
"Charmander is unable to battle," the Professor's assistant, Harry, made the call. "Fennikin is the winner."
"Yes Fennikin, we did it!" Sylvia cheered and high-fived her partner pokemon.
"Oh, damn! Maybe next time, Charmander. You did good," Meredith said and recalled her pokemon before putting aside her pokeball.
Walking to Sylvia, she put her hands behind her and pouted at the silverhead. "Aw man Sylvia! You're really good."
"Thanks," Sylvia said. "I'm aiming to win the Grand Contest. So I'm trying to get as much battling experience as I can muster."
"That's awesome!"
"Hey, nice battle Sylvia," Stephan entered the scene and praised her. "You're Fennikin was awesome too."
"Fenne!"
"Thanks Stephan. I'm sure you'll do good too."
"Of course I will," Stephan told her. "After all, if I don't, then you'll get ahead of me."
"We'll see about."
"Now, that was a very fine battle everyone," Professor Oak tells and checks his notepad before turning his attention to the next. "Up next is Stephan Goldberg and Aeris Blackwood."
"Eh? You're with the gloomy kid?" Meredith frowns and glances at Aeris who was discussing something with Gary.
"Well, I didn't want such an easy opponent, but," Stephan sighs before accepting his fate. What is done is done. "Oh well. I guess I could just give my best..."
"Yup," Sylvia agreed with him. "Do your best."
"You can count on me," Stephan said and waved at her before marching towards his position to the battlefield, as some of his fangirls kept cheering him on.
"Alright then you two. Bring out your pokemon," Harry asked them and the two obliged before Pikachu jumped from Aeris's head and on the battleground while Stephan brought out his Bulbasaur. "Alright then, Battle Begin!"
"Razor Leaf, Bulbasaur," Stephan yelled as soon as the battle had begun.
"Bulba." Bulbasaur roared before tightening its grip on the ground and aiming razor like leaves at Pikachu.
Aeris narrowed his eyes at the leaves before flicking his wrist. "Dodge it, Pikachu."
"Pikka." With a quick movement, Pikachu jumped to its left and successfully dodged the attack.
"Now, use Quick Attack."
"Pikka."
Pikachu stood on its forelegs and got a firm grip on the ground before firing itself at Bulbasaur.
The attack was so fast that Stephan didn't anticipate it and Pikachu ended up banging its head with Bulbasaur, making the latter fling out towards its trainer's side. Bulbasaur stood up back on its forelegs and shook its head before glaring at its opponent.
"You okay, Bulbasaur?" Stephan asked it, and Bulbasaur nodded before replying with a 'Bulba'. "Okay then, let's go with Tackle."
"Don't let it Pikachu," Aeris countered. "Use Quick Attack to dodge it."
"Pikka." Instead of jumping, Pikachu instead used Quick Attack and dodged the attack by outrunning its opponent.
"Great, now use Thundershock!"
"Pika pika pika pika!" Pikachu jumped up and electricity flared at its cheeks. "Pikachu!"
Pikachu released the great bit of electricity. The thunder crackled towards Bulbasaur and covered the grass type pokemon in crackling electricity.
"No, Bulbasaur!" Stephan cried out in desperation. Bulbasaur had taken a huge amount of damage and it didn't look like it would survive much longer.
Everyone was pretty shocked at how well Aeris's Pikachu was doing. All of Pikachu's attacks had managed to land on Bulbasaur while none of Bulbasaur's attacks had hit its marker.
"Nice job Pikachu," Aeris called out to it. "Keep it up."
"Pikka." Pikachu nodded back its trainer before looking forward towards the wounded Bulbasaur.
"Oh my, it looks like Bulbasaur is in a tight spot," Sylvia told Meredith.
"You're right. I never expected the gloomy kid to be this good. He's on a whole another level."
Professor Oak was also there to make some genius remarks about the battle.
"Aeris is actually one of the most potential candidates of a pokemon trainer. Most people wouldn't expect it, but his understanding, his concept, and his tactics are far better then the average teenager's. I guess its to be expected that he's doing so well."
Gary sighed in relief when he saw how well Pikachu and Aeris were performing. He furthermore scoffed at his own dismay. "Heh. I was worrying over no reason."
Everyone pretty much expected Pikachu to win at this moment. However, much to their shock, a green glow suddenly started emitting from Bulbasaur.
"What the-" Gary became really surprised as even though he had an idea of what it was, there was no way he had predicted that to happen.
"Bubla!" Bulbasaur yelled, and the green glow disappeared. Notably, the bulb on Bulbasaur's bulb seemed to have opened up a little.
"So it activated it's Overgrow, huh?" Aeris spoke to himself, though everyone pretty much heard him.
"Overgrow, what's that?" Meredith asks Sylvia.
"It's Bulbasaur's ability. When grass pokemons are in a pinch and they don't have much left to go on, they activate this ability. Overgrow increases the effectives of grass type attacks by 200%."
"Awesome! I think Bulbasaur can make a comeback now!"
Contrary to before, Stephan was actually smirking right now. He was sweating crazy when he realized that he was on the losing spot. However, the tide might have just turned to his direction.
"Let's finish this quickly Bulbasaur, use Razor Leaf."
Bulbasaur growled yet again before shooting the Razor Leaf. However, unlike before, this time the leaves were bigger and more sharper.
The attack was also faster as Pikachu wasn't able to dodge it, resulting in the Razor Leaf doing critical damage as Pikachu yelped in pain.
"Pikka!"
"Pikachu!" Aeris cried out in despair. "Come on buddy, hang in there."
"Pikka. Pikachu!" Slowly and slowly, Pikachu picked itself up and got back on its four feet.
"Alright then Pikachu, let's try out that new move. Use Electro Ball."
"Huh? What?" Stephan was utterly confused when he saw Pikachu jump high in the before spinning and releasing a sphere of electricity aimed towards Bulbasaur.
"Bulba!" Bulbasaur cried out in pain. The Electro Ball hit straight on and was able to deal damage to Bulbasaur.
"Alright Pikachu," Aeris yelled in delight. "That training paid off."
Flashback...
In the morning at Pallet Woodlands, Aeris had managed to baffle Pikachu by presenting a softball to him.
The utterly confused Pikachu tilted its head in confusion as it had no idea what it was for.
"Listen Pikachu. For now, trying throwing this softball using your tail. If you manage to do this, then I'm sure that you'll be able to aim Electro Ball."
"Pikka." Finally it dawned on him. By using the softball as a replacement of Electro Ball, Pikachu could learn how to aim. A brilliant idea indeed.
So for the next few hours, Aeris and Pikachu worked their butt off to improve their aim. At first, it was difficult for Pikachu to hit its marker. However, after attempts after attempts, Pikachu managed to hit the bull's-eye with the softball.
"Alright Pikachu. Now I'm sure that you can use Electro Ball to aim properly."
"Pi Pikachu!"
Flashback ends.
"Hey Bulbasaur, can you stand up?"
"Bulba. Bulbasaur."
"Don't let them Pikachu. Wrap it up using Thundershock."
"Pikka!" Pikachu jumped and like before, electricity flared at its cheeks, forming radical spheres. "Chuuuuu!"
With one great roar, Pikachu released all of the electricty from its body.
Bulbasaur was absolutely electrocuted by the attack. Dealing a huge amount of damage, Bulbasaur finally gave up to unconsciousness as it fell on the ground with swirls in its eyes.
"Bulbasaur is unable to battle," Harry declared. "Pikachu wins."
"Alright Pikachu, we won!" Aeris shouted and jumped in victory.
"Pika pikachu!"
Aeris took a deep breath. He recalled all the memories he had made in this quiet little town before looking from over the hills at Pallet Town.
"This is it, Pikachu. We'll be leaving Pallet Town now."
"Pika. Pikachu!" Pikachu saddened at the thought of not seeing the little place again. The pokemons, the Professor, everyone. However, the excitement of new adventure didn't fail to pump its heart.
"Let's go Pikachu," Aeris suggested, and Pikachu nodded before jumping on Aeris's shoulder as the duo took their leave from Pallet Town.
"Hey, Sylvia, wait up!" Meredith yelled over her shoulders as she tried desperately to catch up to the silverhead who was way ahead of her. "Wait for me, would you?"
Sylvia stopped and turned around to look at whoever was calling her. "Huh? Meredith? What are you doing?"
Meredith stopped in her tracks and panted some breathes before grinning at Sylvia. "I have a plan," she says. "Let's travel together."
"Huh?"
"Come on now, Sylvia," Meredith said as she hooked her arms with Sylvia's. "It's the more the merrier."
"O-okay," Sylvia reluctantly agrees, although- "Well, travelling with friends does seem fun."
"Right?"