Running Down Route 101

There was only just enough room at Emerald's grandmother's table for the eight teens. Kai had the misfortune of being sandwiched between Tyson and Daichi, Hilary sat at the end of the table next to Tyson and Mari, who had to rub elbows with Max, who sat next to Ray. Emerald's grandmother sat at the other end of the table with her grandson, wearing an orange dress and a white cardigan thrown over her shoulders. She was a delightful and generous woman with dark brown hair that was more grey than brown at this stage in her life. She'd hardly seemed astonished at all when seven teenagers appeared at her doorstep asking for lunch and invited them all in happily. In fact, Emerald's forewarning had just given her enough time to set up the table and bring down more chairs from upstairs. She even had Pokémon food for all of their new Pokémon. Tyson and Daichi devoured the lunch spread with unprecedented gusto, as usual, while everyone else gathered what they could onto their plates before those two ate it all.

"Are you sure this is alright for you?" Ray asked. "There's a lot of us and I feel kind of bad about eating all of your food without giving you something in return."

"Oh, don't worry about it at all!" the old woman beamed. "Friends of my grandson are always welcome. And you're all going on your first Pokémon adventure, that's marvellous! I remember when my son left on his first adventure. The road can be quite tough for up and coming trainers. All set for your journey?"

"We got a whole bunch of things from Professor Birch, if that's what you mean," Max replied. "He gave us all the Pokéballs we'll need and some first aid stuff. We were planning on looking around town for some camping gear and food supplies. Mari and Emerald said we'll definitely need that."

"Oh dear! That won't do at all! Look, don't worry. I had a feeling you wouldn't be quite prepared," she said, suddenly standing up and going around the table to the stairs.

"Um, we are totally prepared," Max said.

"We've got this under control, you really don't need to do more," Ray added.

"Pish-posh! It's nothing, really. Just come upstairs when you're done eating, I have a few things that I think you will find useful for your travels." With that, Emerald's grandmother disappeared to the second storey of the house. The whole group stared at her in bewilderment and then turned to Emerald, who just shrugged sheepishly.

After they'd finished lunch the group decided to go up and look for Emerald's grandmother. She hadn't come back down the entire time and nobody thought it would be exactly polite to just leave without thanking her in person. When they got to the hallway upstairs they all stopped and gawked. They couldn't move past the top of the stairs because the entire hall was filled up with an assortment of things. It all looked like… camping gear. Emerald's grandmother was at the other end of the hall rifling through a cupboard. She pulled her head out and turned to them with two armfuls of pots and pans and a camp stove.

"About time you got here!"

"Er, grandma, what is this?" Emerald asked.

"Oh, nothing, nothing! Just thought I could help you poor kids out a bit. My son used to be a big-time trainer and traveller, you see. He would somehow collect all of these things and they just ended up in storage around here. My, even I wasn't aware of how many things were actually here. Anyway, take your pick. There's sleeping bags, washing lines, rubber gloves—oh drat! There's one thing – before you leave, don't forget to drop by the store and pick up some fresh pairs of underwear. It's important that you change your underwear every day."

"Um… sure," Tyson muttered, feeling just as embarrassed as everyone else about that.

"I'm not sure if I'm alright with just taking this stuff," Max said.

"It's fine! It's fine! Brendan doesn't use this stuff anymore and he isn't going to miss it. Might as well make use of it while it's here and still in good condition."

"That's so sweet of you, Mrs Birch," said Hilary.

"Don't mention it at all. Pokémon adventures are a wonderful part of life." Emerald's grandmother sighed. "I remember what it was like to be a young adventurer too. So take what you need, it doesn't bother me at all, really."

"Seriously?" Kai snapped. The whole group turned to him in shock. He was frowning at Emerald's grandmother intensely. "You're just giving this all to us? And you don't want it back or want us to give you anything in return?"

"I just want you to have a safe journey that you're well-prepared for," Emerald's grandmother explained, quite taken aback by the sudden outburst.

"Kai, what gives?" Tyson said with an annoyed tone. "She's just being nice to us."

"Did you even think for a moment that this is a little weird?" Kai questioned, turning his sharp glare to Tyson. "She barely knows our names."

"You accusing my grandma of something?" Emerald growled at him.

"You're being a grouch," Max added, crouching down to rifle through a pile of rolled up sleeping bags. "It's not weird that some people are nice, Kai. And think about it, her son doesn't live here anymore but all of his junk is still lying around. We'd be doing her a huge favour by taking it off her hands for good. Is that enough of a motive for you?"

"Hey, hey," Mari interrupted. "Don't be like that. Mrs Birch is a good person and you can trust her, I can vouch for that. Nothing wrong with trusting people. It's something you have to do when you're on your own a lot. That's one of the biggest lessons I've learned by travelling alone."

"Funny. I'm of the opposite opinion," Kai muttered. He turned on his heel with a flutter of his scarf and headed back downstairs.

"Hey!" Tyson yelled at him. "You don't get to say stuff like that and just walk away!"

"Let him go, Tyson," Ray sighed. "You can't change his mind… or his attitude. If you chase him now you'll just start a fight."

"Maybe I should follow him and make sure he doesn't go into the woods by himself again," Mari suggested.

"Who cares? He has Pokémon now, so he should be safe, right?" said Daichi.

"A Togepi and a Magikarp," Mari reminded him with a deadpan.

"Oh, yeah. They're useless," Daichi muttered.

"Wouldn't help if he wandered off somewhere and we had to look for him again," Mari said. "You guys just worry about getting set up. Meet me later at Route 101, okay? Emerald can tell you where that is."

Mari jogged down the stairs to catch up to Kai before he disappeared somewhere.

"I guess this means we have to set up a pack for Kai too," Hilary said.

"Hey Max, see if you can find a super girly sleeping bag in that pile. We'll put it in Kai's pack," Tyson said. They both sniggered and Max started sorting through the sleeping bags more enthusiastically.

In the end, Emerald's grandmother also insisted on going to the store with them to help them shop for the extra items they would need. After that she finally let them go, telling them to take care on the road. Emerald gave them directions to Route 101 and sure enough, when they got there, Mari and Kai were already waiting for them with Togepi reclined in the crook of Kai's arm like a baby. If Kai noticed them at all he didn't show it but as soon as Mari saw them coming she perked up and gave them a big wave. The road out of town wasn't embellished with any sort of fanfare. There was just a simple sign, welcoming people to Littleroot Town. A few steps down the road there was a simple road sign with the title "Route 101" and an arrow pointing directions to "Oldale Town".

Tyson threw a blue backpack at Kai, who caught it easily with one hand. That made Tyson grumble. They couldn't find anything super girly among a collection of a boy's things so the group settled on getting their revenge by loading Kai's pack with all of the heaviest items they needed (it was Ray's suggestion, actually). However, the stoic blunette just shrugged the straps onto his shoulders without a word. Brendan had owned a surprising variety of different styles of bags. Daichi also got a double-strap backpack, Tyson and Max had gotten single-strap backpacks, Hilary's bag fastened like a belt around her waist and the only bag left for Ray was something like a cross between a duffel bag and a messenger bag.

When they were all ready to go, they joined Mari, standing at the wooden sign saying "WELCOME TO LITTLEROOT TOWN". She gazed at the road ahead of them wistfully. This really brought back memories. This was the second time she was stepping out onto this road on the way to the Hoenn Pokémon League and even though she'd already made the journey once, it felt like she was there for the first time. She knew how all of the others must be feeling. However, it was only possible for Mari to know half of it. The forest in front of them seemed serene and harmless but that road looked daunting. Hilary and the bladers all realised that stepping onto that road was a giant leap into something completely unknown to any of them.

Mari took a deep breath. Even with her experience, this was still going to take courage. "Well, this is it. The beginning of an adventure. Are you guys ready?"

She glanced at everyone in the party in turn. They all glanced at each other. All of a sudden the whole situation felt completely surreal. Well, it was surreal from the beginning but now they were about embark on a journey – possibly an entire year long – to a world that they knew essentially nothing about with bizarre creatures in their pockets. It felt like it should have been a dream. The bladers and Hilary looked ahead of them at the road stretching into the forest. It rounded a corner somewhere far up ahead and they couldn't see the end of it. Almost all at the same time they began to smile, feeling that first itch of excitement.

"Ok, let's go!" Mari suddenly cried out. "Woohoo!"

She jumped out ahead of everyone and took off running. The rest of the group started at her sudden outburst but when they realised that she was getting ahead of them, they took off running after her. They ran full pelt down the road. Littleroot Town got smaller behind them and eventually disappeared when they rounded the corner, still at a run but they didn't even think about looking back. Up ahead of the group, Mari kept her eyes forward, running down this familiar road. She didn't stop until the canopy opened up and she was on the stretch of road where she'd first met her strange new companions.

She gradually slowed to a stop and leaned on her knees to catch her breath. The rest of the group slowly caught up, starting with Max and Ray, followed closely by Tyson, then Daichi with Hilary and Kai bringing up the rear. They all took a pause to catch their breaths as well and then Tyson rounded on Mari.

"What the heck was that all about?" he exclaimed.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Mari laughed, looking down the slope she had been lying on in despair earlier that day. The slope ran down to a field that stretched away in an unbroken expanse of green to the edge of more forest.

"You just had us chasing you flat out for, like, twenty minutes!" Max complained.

"Best way to start these things is to dive in head first; kick off running," Mari said with a huge smile. "How does it all feel? You've now officially started a journey."

If anyone was going to say anything else, it died away before leaving their lips. The group sat in silence for a moment and turned to the field in front of them. Even things as common as grass and trees felt alien to them. The breeze blew through the field, making the tall grass sway.

"It feels like we have a really, really long way to go," Hilary piped up.

"I wonder what we'll get to see," Daichi muttered.

Tyson sighed and smacked himself in the forehead. "Guys! Don't forget, we're only doing this so that we can find that Pokémon that can take us back home."

"Oh? Then why did you accept a badge case from Professor Birch?" Ray asked slyly.

Tyson's face went bright red. "B-b-because," he spluttered. "You guys accepted them too!"

"Yeah, because we want to do the Gym Challenge," Max replied. "Just admit it, you want to be a Pokémon trainer and join the competition."

"The only competition I want to see is in the beydish!"

"Oh, here we go," Hilary teased.

"You guys can argue and bey-fight or whatever later when we make our first camp," Mari interrupted. "We should get going. We don't have all that much time left before it gets dark and I want to show you the place where I made my first camp in Hoenn. So let's go!"

Mari took off running again.

"Hey! Wait! Why do we have to run?" Tyson yelled after her. The whole party groaned.

The light was already starting to fade when Hilary and the bladers finally managed to catch up to Mari. She had stopped in front of a large, old tree with flaky bark covered in moss. Vines hung from the branches and the canopy was thinning out but it stood alone in the forest. There was enough space around it to set up a campsite without blocking off the path. There was something else about the tree though; something grand that nobody could put their finger on. It seemed to exude some sort of magic or perhaps they were just awestruck by it.

"Wow, that tree looks really old," Ray said, looking up at the high branches. "It must be nearing the end of its life."

"Maybe," Mari replied with a shrug. "Don't know anything about it. First time I came through here I thought this tree was one of the coolest things ever. I left early in the morning, so I could have gone further but I wanted to stay next to it for a while."

"I am in favour of staying next to it right now," Hilary said, still breathing a bit heavily from the running.

"We don't really have a choice," Max pointed out. "The sun's already going down so we should set up camp now."

The others agreed and settled down beside the old tree. By the time they'd finished setting up the camp there wasn't enough light left to see by. Max and Daichi dumped a heap of firewood on a patch of ground tinted grey by previous ashes.

"Hey, do you guys have any matches?" Max asked, patting down all of his pockets as if he might have had them.

The rest of the party looked at each other. Ray smacked himself in the forehead. "Of all the things, how did we forget matches?!"

"What do we need matches for?" Mari said. "We have Pokémon, right?"

She took a Pokéball out of her pocket and released the creature inside. What came out was a tiger-striped dog-like Pokémon. "Okay, Woofy, use Ember," Mari ordered, pointing at the bundle of sticks and branches.

The Pokémon barked and fired a few small fireballs from its mouth. The firewood caught alight easily. The rest of the party gawked at it with their mouths hanging open, except for Kai. Tyson caught the impassive expression on Kai's face and stared at him incredulously.

"Why are you so calm!? Didn't you see what it just did?!"

"It just breathed fire!" Max exclaimed.

"Of course he did. Woofy is a fire-type Pokémon," Mari replied with a snicker.

"There's a kind of Pokémon called a 'Woofy'?" Ray said quizzically.

"No! That's just a nickname!" Mari snapped back.

Kai pulled his Pokédex out of his pocket and aimed the camera at the new creature. Togepi leaned forward in his arms to get a better look at the words scrolling down the screen as the entry came up. "Growlithe, the puppy Pokémon. It is known for being extremely loyal to its trainer. It will fiercely stand up to foes much bigger and larger than itself. It also has a superb sense of smell."

"That's cool, but nothing out of that said anything about it being 'fire-type'. What does that mean?" Hilary questioned.

"Fire is Growlithe's element," Mari answered. "There are eighteen different type elements that a Pokémon can have and they can determine what kind of weaknesses and strengths the Pokémon has in a general sense. For example, Woofy here is a fire-type. So naturally, he's weak against water. You have to be very careful around water with fire-types, especially since some are especially sensitive."

"Sensitive in what way?" said Ray.

"Well, Growlithes are okay," Mari replied. "But a Pokémon like Charizard shouldn't be getting anywhere near water if you can help it. I'll show you why."

Mari pulled another Pokéball out of her pocket and released a big, orange dragon with blue wings and a bright flame on the tip of its tail. Its piercing eyes scanned the campsite and took in the six new faces. It snarled menacingly. The bladers and Hilary backed a couple of feet away from it in a hurry. Mari jumped in front of it and patted its chest as she attempted to placate it.

"Whoa! Whoa! Chill, Charmy. They're new friends."

Kai's Pokédex once again provided the information: "Charizard, the flame Pokémon. Its wings can carry this Pokémon close to an altitude of 4,600 feet. It breathes intense flames that can melt anything. If it becomes furious, the flame at the tip of its tail flares up in a light blue shade."

"That sounds terrifying! Why would you want to carry something like that around with you?" Hilary cried.

"I think it sounds awesome!" Tyson and Daichi exclaimed in unison, admiring Charmy with shiny-eyed awe.

"I agree with Hilary, this one sounds dangerous," Max said. "How is it even legal to own it?"

"Why should it be illegal?" Mari said, turning to face the party and putting her hands behind her head in a relaxed posture. "Charizards are known to be temperamental but once you get a good bond going they can be your best friends. Charmy and I have been together since my first day on the road. One of the best Pokémon I've ever had. No other could ever replace her."

Charmy made a noise that sounded like embarrassment and lowered her head to cover her face with her clawed hands. Her face was looking a significantly darker shade of orange than before.

"Anyway, point of introducing you to Charmy was to show you how—"

"The flame on its tail has to be lit constantly," Kai interrupted, reading his Pokédex. "The flame is connected to its life and if it goes out it's a sure sign that it's dying or dead. I take it that's one of the things you meant when you said that some fire-type Pokémon are especially sensitive to water."

"Hey, let the person who actually knows stuff about Pokémon explain about Pokémon," Daichi snapped. "And seriously, why do you not looked surprised at all of this crazy stuff? That little dog breathed fire! There is a dragon standing right in front of you!"

"I can see that," Kai retorted. "Emerald's Pokémon were weirder and just looking at the ones we already have tells me that we should be expecting some pretty bizarre stuff."

"That's right, Emerald mentioned over lunch that he lent you his Sableye to catch Magikarp," Mari remembered. "Even done a bit of battling then. Wow, you really are ahead of everyone else!"

"Yeah, yeah, stop reminding us," Tyson pouted. "Kai has more Pokémon than anyone else. Hey, wait… Kai, why are you still carrying your Togepi around now that you have more Pokéballs?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Max piped up, suddenly realising the same thing. "You shouldn't have to carry it now. Why didn't you put it away?"

Kai looked down at his little baby Pokémon. Togepi looked up at him, smiled and chirped happily. "Do I have to?"

The rest of the blading group stared at him blankly, trying to work out if that little four-word sentence meant what they thought it meant. Mari just smiled, oblivious to the unusualness of the situation.

"You don't have to," she said, "so long as your Pokémon is registered, which you did at the lab, but it would make it easier. Don't your arms get tired if you have to carry it all day?"

"I'm fine," Kai replied with a tone of finality.

"Suppose it's good training?" Mari said with a nervous laugh. "Speaking of which, you guys are really going to have to start seriously thinking about training up your Pokémon. First Gym along the way is in Petalburg City, which isn't really that far from here. Last time I was there, there was a three-Pokémon minimum rule too."

"Man, we're going to be pretty busy," Max groaned. "Hey Kai, how hard is it to catch a Pokémon?" Kai just shrugged nonchalantly. "That's not a helpful answer!"

"Depends on the Pokémon," Mari said. "Both your Pokémon and the one you're trying to catch. Training is the hard part. Wild Pokémon won't like you right away just because you caught them. You need to gain their trust. Of course you need to make them stronger so that they can win battles too."

"How do you train Pokémon?" Ray asked. "Is it the same as training for beyblades?"

"Don't know how to train for beyblades but anything can be considered training, I guess. Even something simple like lighting this fire is good for practising moves. I'm carrying Woofy at the moment because I want to train him up so we'll all be learning together… kind of."

"How do we know what moves our Pokémon can do?" said Kai, making his friends turn to him in surprise. After his earlier display they just assumed he would slink off and try to do everything himself like he always did.

"Ah, recently the Pokédex has featured an app called—"

"The Attackdex," Kai interrupted. "I know, I found it. I was asking how we can find out what moves our new Pokémon know right now. I don't want to hear anything I can just get out of the Pokédex."

Woofy barked and Charmy roared at him but both got a calming pat from their trainer. Hilary grumbled. "You don't need to be so rude, you know!"

"Yeah! We haven't all worked out how to use that thingy yet!" Daichi barked.

Kai just shot Daichi a dirty look and muttered: "che!"

"Well sorry that I got a little carried away with explaining things there," Mari retorted, placing her arms akimbo and looking annoyed. "All the registered Pokémon you carry with you have their information stored on your 'dex. Up to you to keep it up to date but the Pokémon you got from the lab should already have a list of moves they've already been trained to use. Wild Pokémon you've caught, even when registered, won't have any information on their moves. Even if they can do something that's recognisable as a move, you'll still have to train them to understand your commands. Attackdex is useful for identifying what moves your Pokémon can do and also finding out what moves it can learn. Anyway, don't worry about it now. It's dark so let's just get all of our Pokémon out and eat something before bedtime."

"Sounds good to me!" Tyson suddenly piped up, sitting up energetically. He had been lying on top of his sleeping bag lazily, stargazing and not actively listening to the conversation.

The campsite became active again as the party started to move around to prepare dinner and release Pokémon from their Pokéballs. Hilary released Ralts and she immediately looked over to where Mari was now crouched some way away from the rest of the party, releasing a pink, child-like Pokémon with short blonde hair. Ralts made a small noise that sounded concerned to Hilary. She turned to where she was looking and noticed the gloomy aura around the trainer. Hilary and Ralts exchanged a glance before deciding to walk over to their new friend. Hilary put a smile on her face as she crouched down to Mari and the little Pokémon's level.

"Oh, hey, what's this little guy called?" she said, giggling at the way its head rocked back and forth like it was trying to kiss something. "He's really cute too!"

"A Smoochum and she's a girl," Mari replied dryly, releasing Mawi next. "All Smoochums are girls but that's something you could have found in the Pokédex too."

"Well, yeah but…" Hilary said kindly, leaning forward to kneel instead. "Look, Kai's just really bad at people skills so don't worry about the things that he says. I don't care that I could have heard it from a talking robot notebook, your explanation is just as good. And when you're saying it I kind of feel less lost about everything, if you know what I mean. Like, there's someone here who knows what they're doing and I can rely on them. I wouldn't get that from the Pokédex."

Mari smiled at the kind words.

"But, aside from what it's actually called, I wanted to know what you named it. Do you give all of your Pokémon nicknames like 'Woofy' and 'Charmy'?"

"Yeah… yeah, I do," Mari said, brightening up a lot. "Having those personal names for them makes me feel closer to them in a way. This girl here is Smoochy and you've met Mawi already. Mawi is a nickname too, I forgot to explain. The actual name of the Pokémon is Mawile."

"Ah, okay," Hilary nodded. She took her Pokédex out of her pocket and opened it up. "Well, I suppose I ought to follow Kai's example and start learning how to use all the features of this thing."

The camera caught both Pokémon in the lens and brought up the articles for them one after the other: "Smoochum, the kiss Pokémon. This energetic Pokémon actively runs about but often falls. When it does fall, it compulsively checks a reflective surface to make sure its face isn't dirty. It lips are the most sensitive part of its body. It uses its lips to examine things first."

"Mawile, the deceiver Pokémon. The jaws on its head evolved from steel horns this Pokémon used to have and are powerful enough to chomp through iron beams. It uses its docile-looking front appearance to lull foes and prey into complacency, then turns around and bites."

"Whoa…" Hilary muttered, looking at Mawi with new eyes. "You're adorable but you pack quite a punch, eh?"

Mawi covered its mouth and giggled. It looked so cute doing that but this time Hilary's attention was on the massive jaws.

"Don't get nervous around her now just because of what the Pokédex said," Mari told her. "Mawi would never hurt a friend."

There was a clash and clatter behind them. Hilary sighed exasperatedly and stood up, brushing off her knees. "We should go and make sure those boys aren't making a total mess of everything."

Mari chuckled. Her expression had brightened up completely. She stood up too and released the rest of her Pokémon before heading back to the middle of the campsite with Hilary.

A/N: it needs to be mentioned that "Attackdex" is actually an invention of the site Serebii (go google it), not an official Pokémon thing. It's just a list and description of Pokémon moves, their base stats and which Pokémon can use them. I also should mention that Serebii also helps me out with the 'dex entries too. Thanks, Serebii!