AN: Since no one commented on last chapter, I didn't really know if people liked it or not- if it was cheesey or impactful. I also grew unsure if I should have waited for more build up before I dropped a huge scene like that.
Then I figured it was okay to drop something like that early because FMA shows Ed and Al trying to resurrect their dead mother early in all of the series.
Disclaimer: I don't own FMA or Pokemon. If I did, you'd probably see pokemon chimeras.
Edit 6-10-20: more details added due to minor plot change.
Chapter 3: The Start of a Journey
The Investigation of Laura's kidnapping only lasted six months. Robby personally wanted to go out and look for her immediately, but both his parents were too nervous to let him go after the incident. Then they wanted to wait until the investigation was at closed, so if he found the same lead he wouldn't get in their way.
Then he figured he might as well wait till the next send off season commenced so he could get an official starter.
Robby and Silver had both trained in their free time constantly, the eevee strengthening his body and the newbie sharpening his mind. Robby had read from the strategy book, one chapter a time and practiced each particular strategy or combination for about a week with the silver eevee before moving on to the next chapter. This happened for about a year, until Robby got a better understanding of basic strategy and move combinations. The book still had a whole section for complex strategy, but that would be explored later.
Al yawned and stretched, his back arching. Looking around he saw Resembool. Off in the distance, he could see the hill and tree the Elric brothers would always sit under. If he squinted he swore he could almost see an apparition of the human form of. . . Ed. Al stared harder, almost wishing that the mirage would be real.
It never was.
This had been happening for a while, ever since. . .
Screams. Blood. The crushed bodies of three children.
A red inferno becomes hauntingly indigo.
Five more bodies drop the the floor dead.
The silver eevee shuddered. Ever since that incident, Al could almost see Ed. Sometimes he could hear the angry shouts of him in the middle of a rant. Or hear his aggressive footsteps while he was in a different room. Whenever Al would go to investigate nothing would be there.
It had been a year and yet. . .
Al still couldn't figure out how his brother had done his Alchemy.
Al yawned once more before going to his paws. Wandering out to the porch, he looked up the sky, where he could see the tinted surroundings of the outside world.
Robby was quietly eating breakfast. Tomorrow would be when he started his official journey, though he would be getting his 'official' first pokemon today. Despite already having a pokemon, Silver was considered a pet since he waited another year before going on a journey.
Since he lived in Petalburg (He went to Rustboro for school because it had the best trainers program), he would be getting a pokemon from Norman. Most towns don't have a pokemon professor to give out the rare starter pokemon, so they rely on nearby gym leaders to give out the starter pokemon for their city and the neighboring towns.
Most gym leaders just catch starters from routes around their city or give away extra pokemon that they bred. Trainers can cast votes for a popular pokemon- usually a pokemon with egg moves or one that's a higher level than the others so they get a head start. Since Norman ran a normal gym there would most likely be normal types.
Robby sighed. Not that he had anything against normal types, but he had really wanted a rock type so he could do something against fire types. And Silver was the best normal type he could ever wish for.
Rob finished up his normal routine and headed outside, releasing Silver as he did so. Ever since the first week of non-stop vacuuming, the youngster's parents had only allowed the eevee outside his pokeball when he was outside. Silver looked up with a gleam in his abnormal red eyes before following Rob silently as they walked to the petalburg gym.
There was quite a crowd there, but not nearly as many as what he had expected. He heard that ever since the 'incident,' it was a lot harder to get into the accelerated program, so there were hardly people younger than he was.
Young boys chatted with each other, pushing their friends out of the line that had begun to form outside the gym doors. Several girls complained if they were bumped into by a boy. Older groups of friends were closer to the back of the line, clustered together, exchanging gossip.
Rob felt as though he was the only one here alone.
"At least I still have you, bud." Reaching a hand down, he tousled Silver's fur before returning the rare Eevee to his pokeball.
Approaching the line felt like walking into a new world. Maybe, maybe he could make friends, human friends. No, I have to stay focused. I'm not here to make friends. The line grew and he quickly took his own spot in line so he could get a good seat in the introduction of the pokemon.
There were two pokeleague employees stationed by the doors to prevent anyone from getting in before the correct time. The one on the right looked down at his Devon-watch, before nodding to the other one. She adjusted her hat, before getting out a keycard. Quickly swiping it through the card reader, she took one side of the double doors while the man took the other. Slowly they opened the doors, essentially opening the floodgates where the water is people instead of, well, water.
The more excited kids tried to push their way to the front of the line, while the more relaxed teens had to pick up the pace in order to not lose their spots. To put it simply, what was supposed to be a smaller trickle of people entering at a time, ended up being a stampede.
Supposedly this happens every year. One would think that they would do something to better prepare for the flood of people, but there really wasn't much they could do, or really would do.
The lights in the gym were dimmed. There were ushers guiding people to various seats, reminding Robby vaguely of a pokemon contest before it started. He never really liked them, but he had the chance to go to one for. . . for one of Laura's birthday parties.
Robby's teeth grit as he remembered how Laura's case had been practically abandoned after only six months of investigation. It wasn't fair that she was abandoned so easily like that. The League members looking into it had given some stupid excuse like all their leads were lost. They never really cared about her in the first place. It's not like the kidnapping of an unimportant school girl and her pokemon matters to them. I doubt any of their leads were good anyway.
The thought halted any other pleasant thoughts he might have had and put a frown on his countenance. His hand reached down to the pokeball on his belt and he stroked the round, metallic surface.
The stands were filling up now, and the once quiet murmur had gotten louder, grown to a rumble. It had grown warmer in the gym, though it wasn't anything the air conditioning couldn't handle yet. The lights were still dimmed, until, rather suddenly, they turned off completely.
Most of the talking had immediately stopped, though soft hushes echoed out to shush those who were a little slow on the uptake.
A spotlight turned on and shined brightly upon a solo figure standing in the middle of the stage. He was tall with sharp eyes. He was the newest gym leader, Norman Senri. Whispers of excitement erupted, but were just as quickly hushed. This was it. The opening ceremony.
"Welcome." His voice echoed out. It sounded stern and commanding, but rather plain. It wasn't a deep bass nor particularly falsetto. "Welcome to the world of Pokemon."
It was the same cheesy one liner that was spoken in the all opening ceremonies for new trainers, most of the time it was flamboyantly spoken. But Norman spoke it so casually, most of the audience were uncertain if he was finished speaking, or if they should cheer. A moment later, a few brave souls started cheering, leading to the whole crowd roaring in approval.
It died down a few seconds later when the gym leader cleared his throat to speak again. "Most of you here know me, but for those who don't, my name is Norman and I'm the Petalburg gym leader. However, all you need to know about is that right now I am your door. Your door to an adventure. To a partner. To freedom. To your future."
There was a pause, and it stayed silent (people were too anxious to hear what he said next), before he continued. "You will all face some sort of trial in your journey, whatever that may be. You may want to quit. But know that from here on out, every single one of you who leaves with a pokemon will leave with someone to share your struggles with. And now, I will show you the potential candidates for your future."
That statement caused a cheer to burst from the audience, filling the gym area with excited whoops and whistles.
Robby leaned back. He heard last year they had planned on putting a spotlight on every single pokemon as they came into the gym- like some sort of graduation ceremony, but there were way too many people to introduce every single one of them. There is still way too many people for that strategy to work, so Norman had instead posted on his website all of the different pokemon they had. It had each pokemon's basic information including level(4 or 5), moves, and gender.
When he checked the website, he hadn't expected any one of them to jump out at him. But he immediately decided which one was perfect for him.
The main lights in the gym flashed into existence, flooding into Rob's retna's. Then the pokemon came. They flooded through the doorways onto the main field, standing in groups with other pokemon of their same species.
There were Skitty, Taillow, Zigzagoon, Wingull, Wurmple. A group of Slakoth had flopped down- apparently one of them had a rare egg move. There were only three solitary pokemon: a ralts, a shroomish, and a baltoy.
Shroomish is a rare find in the Petalburg woods, and their evolution was desirable. People often don't account for its four-times weakness to flying types once it does evolve. It was a weakness that could be overcome if people payed attention to their team's typing, but people often didn't, so they would be stuck a Winona's gym, if they even made it past Flannery.
Ralts are rare, cute, and had a ton of potential. They were a psychic fairy type, and had two separate final evolutions- one was beautiful while the other was cool. It didn't have the problem Shroomish had with weaknesses, since it was only weak against ghost, poison, and steel.
Both pokemon are highly well liked and Rob had already heard murmurs of excitement as friends and family pointed the rare pokemon out to each other.
Baltoy aren't cute or cool or pretty. They aren't particularly rare -they can be found on route 111- and they don't have good attacking stats, which is prefered by younger trainers who actually know what a stat is. They are weak against a lot of types to: bug, grass, ice, water, ghost, and dark. They are immune to ground type moves, electric types, and they resist fighting, poison, psychic, and rock.
It was a perfect starter for Robby. Ground types are super effective against fire, which was just what he needed. All he needed to do was get in line, if there was a line, and hoped for the best.
. . .
There was no line. The longest line was behind the ralts. Second was behind the slakoth with the egg move. Then Shroomish. A few people, girls, had started a line for the various Skitty. There were also a few bug maniacs standing by the Wurmple.
But Robby was all alone by baltoy. It was hovering, spinning in the air, before it would touch the ground and float back up. Baltoy always spin, no one really knows why, but some people theorize it is the same reason why spoink don't stop bouncing. If they do, they die. Which is bullcrap, as spoink bounce to stimulate their heart, and there is no way spinning helps do that.
Rob shaked the thoughts from his head, once more observing the baltoy. How is he supposed to know that he got the pokemon's attention if he doesn't stop jumping or spinning?
"Hey, baltoy," Robby spoke. It didn't stop spinning, but it did stop jumping, now balancing on that single leg of its.
"Bal-oy?"
"My name's Robby, and I was wondering if you would accept me as your trainer." The baltoy did a movement that was far too slow to be a nod, but more equivalent to looking the school boy over.
"Baltoy-Bal." Then, much to Rob's confusion, the clay doll Pokemon jumped and spun over right above his head. Hovering and spinning, but not touching down. Which Rob was very grateful for since he had left his hat at home and that foot looked rather pointy. Also he wasn't sure if his neck could handle an extra fifty-ish pounds.
"I'm gonna take that as a yes."
It wasn't long till a League employee noticed the predicament. "Well, since baltoy seems to like you so much, and there doesn't seem to be anyone else in line for it, why don't I just go and fetch the paperwork?" She then left, leaving the schoolboy to stand there with baltoy hovering over him.
"I should probably give you a name."
"Baltoy."
"How 'bout Bal?"
" . . ."
"Toy?"
". . ."
This went on for a while. Robby knew he wasn't good at the whole naming thing. But it never really occurred to him how bad he was until baltoy rejected his best idea:
"What do ya mean you don't like Bart?!"
". . ."
"I'll have you know Bart is a wonderful name."
". . ."
"Whatever."
Apparently it took a long time to get paperwork, because baltoy had already rejected fifteen names. In fact, it was just as the employee was returning that baltoy had finally accepted a name.
"Does Balo sound good?"
"Baltoy. . . Ba-l-o. Balo."
The rustling of papers interrupted whatever Rob's response would have been to success. Whirling, he was met with the League employee from before. She was holding a clipboard with a pen attached along with a thin manilla folder containing Balo's papers. "I got the papers for you, all you need to do now is sign here and go over to the man at the front desk for your starter supply set, which contains three potions, five pokeballs, and a town map."
"There isn't a Pokedex provided?"
"No, the Pokedex is only handed out by Professor Birch. They are expensive to make, after all." The League employee sighed, wiping a stray blonde lock from her forehead. "We do have a QR code that lets you download a pokedex app on your phone or Devon-watch for free. It isn't nearly as good as the ones the Professor hands out, but it is helpful. You can also ask the front desk for the code, if you're interested."
"Thanks, I'll do that."
"And here's baltoy's pokeball." She pulled out the red and white sphere; it had one mark on it: a brown circle with six white circles inside, stacked up in a pyramid formation. It was the symbol for ground type. The League employee handed it to Rob, who took it and put it on his belt, right by the shrunken luxury ball.
Thanking her, Robby headed toward the direction of the front desk, pulling out Balo's paperwork as he did so.
Pokemon: Baltoy
Level: 5
Gender: Genderless
Nature: Serious
Moves: confusion, harden, rapid spin
Balo definitely needed to catch up to Silver in terms of levels, but that made sense since Rob had caught Silver about a year and a half ago. Putting the papers back into their folder, Rob looked up to see that he had made it to the front desk. There were three people working at it, and there was a short line for each of them. A few people with Zigzagoon and Taillow had beat him to it, but Robby liked to think he was patient enough to wait in a line.
He did get a few strange looks, probably because he had a baltoy floating over his head, but he didn't have to wait long to be called over by a male League employee behind the desk.
"Hello," He paused, glancing up to Balo, "it's good to see that baltoy found a trainer."
"Bal-o."
"Erm, yes. Right." The man disappeared behind the counter before popping back up with a small box. "This box has three potions, five pokeballs, and one Town Map of the Hoenn region. We don't have a Pokedex, but we do have a-"
"A QR code. Yeah, I know, someone told me." The man chuckled before reaching down to grab a laminated sheet with directions on it. Sliding across the table, the man continued, "Now you do need to create an account, but it is completely free. You probably know that it isn't as reliable as a real pokedex, but you can still check your pokemon's levels, natures, moves, and download basic knowledge of the pokemon you've seen. Just follow the directions on the sheet and you should be just fine."
Thanking the League employee, Rob took the code, before moving down the desk to show that there was an open spot. Folding back his sleeve to reveal his Devon-watch, he quickly scanned the QR code before clicking the link it led to. Quickly creating his account and saving it to his watch, he saw two menus: Pokemon he has seen and Pokemon he has caught.
Robby slid the sheet back to the League employee, before exiting the gym. Balo was no longer hovering over his head, but was instead doing the jump, spin, hover thing on the ground beside him. Going to the Pokemon he has caught menu, Rob pressed the scan button and pointed it at the baltoy. A green laser grid shined on it and the screen showed a processing bar. It flashed blue and a cheery voice chimed out 'processing complete, information on baltoy downloaded.'
A picture of Balo appeared and displayed his level, moves, and nature. Underneath those it showed its weight (47 lbs), height (1'08"), and typing (ground and psychic). Underneath that was a basic description:
Baltoy were discovered in ancient ruins. While moving, they constantly spin. Even when they are asleep, they stand on one foot. Baltoy evolve into Claydol.
With a faint smile, Rob was on the move, unclipping the luxury ball from his belt. With two clicks of the center button, Silver appeared in a flash of white light.
Al shook before peering up at the baltoy. So they always spin, huh? Might as well introduce himself. "Hi, my name's Silver. Have you been given a name yet?"
"Greetings, Silver. I have been given the name Balo, after rejecting fifteen terrible ones that Trainer Robby had attempted to give me."
Balo had a rather monotone voice, but it wasn't nearly as bad as that one time he had ran into a magnemite. At least the tone was soft and not screechy. "Wow, I knew Robby was bad at name giving, but I didn't know he was this bad."
"Trainer Robby is not bad at name giving. Simply inadequate."
Al snorted at the comment. Whether it was supposed to be a joke or not was lost on him, but he decided to consider it one. Suddenly, a green light flashed in Silver's eye, prompting him to shut it.
"Processing complete. Information on EEVEE downloaded. It appears your EEVEE has a unique color pigmentation. Would you like to save its profile picture?"
Rob spoke. "Yes."
"Image downloaded."
Silver looked over to Balo. "What was that?"
"It appeared to have been the Pokedex app that Trainer Robby had downloaded."
"Oh." Looking up to Robby, Al noticed a small smile on his face. Ever since the 'incident' it seemed to be getting rarer to see. Maybe this could become more than a plan to avenge.
Maybe this could help him, be good for him. Or it could end up hurting him even more.
Al could only hope for the best and make the best out of the worst.
Notes:
All I can say is please review. Maybe your thoughts on what Ed should evolve into.
Also, the starter selection was inspired from Uprising another Pokemon fanfic by A Wordsmith.
Next chapter we have some character introductions.
