Author's note: Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing wonderful and being kind to yourselves because you deserve it. So, many people including myself are of the opinion that Black and White are the best games in the Pokémon series, and so here's a novelisation of my White playthrough. I'll be introducing some OCs and whatnot, and there's some changes to a few canon characters and plot elements that I won't reveal because spoilers. Anyways, thanks for reading, promise I'll keep my author's notes more brief in the future. (And they'll probably be absent from most chapters from here on out, unless I feel certain content warnings or specific updates are needed.) Hope you enjoy the story!
Chapter 1: New Girl in Town
Something was pounding on the door. A determined, solid, heavy knock that roused me from a profound desire to sleep for another week and a half.
"Anna! You've got to wake up!" My mum's voice came from the other side of the door. I groaned and literally rolled out of bed. Which was a mistake, as I fell onto the floor with a thud, the impact causing several precariously stacked moving boxes to unstack themselves in a rapid and disorganized fashion, the cardboard tower collapsing into a pile around and on top of me.
"Everything okay in there?" Mum asked, having heard the elegant way I'd gotten out of bed.
"It was until I woke up." I said in an annoyed tone, picking myself up off the the floor and grabbing my phone off its charger. I opened the door to the bedroom and saw my mum standing, dressed up in a long black skirt, plain blue button down shirt with several pens in the pocket, and a long lab coat. She wore red framed glasses like me, though mine were currently folded in their case sitting on the windowsill.
"Good morning sunshine. I see you haven't finished unpacking." She said, her tone making it difficult to judge whether she was making a light-hearted joke or criticizing me for being irresponsible.
"You forget what today is?" She asked. I thought for a moment and my eyes widened. Had the day seriously come already? I looked at my phone checking the time and my eyes went wide.
"Oh no! I'm going to make us late!" I said, slamming the door and tearing open boxes looking through them for the first reasonable outfit I could find. What I ended up wearing consisted of a knee length blue pleated skirt, and a black tee shirt with the words "Master of Espeon-age" printed on it in a garish purple font.
I grabbed my purse, tried to brush my messy red hair into something resembling order, threw my glasses and a pair of shoes on, and reopened the door. Mum chuckled.
"I thought you hated that shirt." she said, leading me downstairs and through the living room where our pet Yamper named Potato was sleeping soundly on the sofa.
"I love this shirt, you're the one who hates it." I said as we went out the front door. We walked through Nuvema Town together, and I spent the time looking around at the scenery of my new home. The sky was the clear blue of mid spring, and while it wasn't really uncomfortably hot, it was considerably warmer than the relative cool I was used to coming from Circhester in the Galar Region.
Mum took a deep breath in through her nose and sighed.
"It feels good to be back here. I remember walking down this street with Aunt Aurea. Have I told you the story of how she threw an ice cream cone at me on a dare from one of her friends?" She asked. She wasn't from Galar like my father had been, she was born right here in Unova. She'd met Dad when she was on vacation to Motostoke and saw him undertaking the gym challenge.
"Yes Mum, you've told me." I said absentmindedly. My brain was elsewhere, lost in nostalgia. I thought of riding around on Dad's Mudsdale, I thought of the way he always made bread and butter pudding to mark every new year. I thought about how he'd not done that the year he-
No. I thought, tears starting to well in my eyes.
You're not going to think about that. Not today, today's supposed to be a good day. You're not going to fuck it up for yourself like this. I firmly told myself. Mum had gone silent. She must've noticed my change in demeanor, the way she always seemed able to.
She stopped walking and put a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at her and saw her do her best to give me a reassuring smile, though I could see the pain she was feeling deep in her eyes. She wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a hug. She simply held me for a while, laying her head on top of mine, while I tried my best to stop the tears from flowing. They of course flowed anyway. I couldn't stop them anymore than I could stop the wind from blowing.
We stayed like that for a while until I managed to get a hold of myself. I pulled away from the hug first, wiping my eyes with my hand.
"I love you more than anything Anna. And we'll always have each other, okay? Now let's go, it's a big day for you." She said giving me a reassuring smile. I tried to smile back, though even without a mirror I knew it looked as forced as it felt.
"Love you too Mum." I said, wiping my eyes. We kept walking in silence until we came to a large building with a sign outside reading 'Juniper Pokémon Research Lab.' Mum walked me up, scanned her ID badge to get inside, and together we walked into the main lobby of my aunt's lab.
It looked like a combination of a university pokémon studies classroom, a library, and an evil scientist's lair. Bookshelves lined the walls, whiteboards covered in notes stood next to wheeled carts full of scattered papers, PokeBalls, and even a large spotted egg in some incubation device. My mother's sister, Professor Aurea Juniper, stood talking to a boy, whom I judged to be between fifteen and sixteen, about the same age as me.
He was taller than me, had dark hair, a pair of glasses and a blue jacket. He was talking to my aunt as we entered until the pair of them noticed us.
"Ah, Emma, good you're here. Cheren, this is my sister Emma and my niece Anna. My sister is going to be working as my assistant. Anna, this is Cheren, he's also going to help me with this project I've been working on." She said smiling.
"Nice to meet you." I said to the boy.
"Likewise." He said, holding out his hand. I shook it, his grip was firm but not too tight. He looked at the watch on his wrist and sighed.
"Professor, do you know what's keeping Bianca? I swear she can be so forgetful." He said, looking exasperated. As if on cue, there was a knock on the door of the lab. Professor Juniper opened it, and waved a girl, who seemed about the same age as Cheren and I, inside. She wore a big green hat, and an orange vest over a plain white dress. Judging by the bags under her eyes she'd clearly not gotten much sleep.
"Hi, I'm so sorry I'm late." She said, lowering her head apologetically.
"Honestly Bianca, I've known for years you have no sense of time but today of all days?" Cheren said annoyed. Bianca shrank under his criticism, but a pat on the shoulder and a smile from my aunt seemed to help get her spirits back up. After some brief introductions, the professor sent Mum into the other room to get some work done, cleared her throat, and started speaking in a formal tone.
"Now, you three, the reason I've called you all here today, I have a proposition for you." She grabbed a box from her desk and opened it, revealing three things that looked almost like smartphones, and a long thin case with a clear lid that showed three pokeballs within it. My heart pounded in excitement as she handed Bianca, Cheren, and finally me one of the devices.
"This, is a pokedex. It's a project I've been working on. It will automatically record the data of any pokemon you encounter." She said. She took the case and pressed a green button on it to open it and pulled the balls from inside, tossing them into the air. Beams of blue-white shot from the spheres and coalesced into the forms of three pokemon.
There was a grass type with a smug look, arms folded and a leaf at the end of his tail, a fire type with a large nose, ears, and curled tail down on all fours, and a happy looking water type with a shell on her stomach.
"These are Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott. I'm going to give each of you one of them. In return, I ask you go on a journey to try to encounter every pokemon in the Unova Region, to complete the Pokédex I've given you." My aunt said, speaking formally, like she'd rehearsed this speech a dozen times.
"So, make your pick. Think hard, this will be your friend and companion for a long time to come." She said.
"I think we let Anna pick first. She's new around here, give her a warm welcome." Bianca said. Cheren nodded in agreement and gestured me forward. I took a deep breath and stepped towards them, crouching to get close to eye level with the pokemon.
"Um hi. I'm Anna. I hope one of you wants me as your friend." I said giving them a smile. My heart pounded and dozens of anxious thoughts ran through my head. What if none of them wanted me? What if I wasn't able to care for them properly? What if I messed up and got them badly hurt? I tried to shove those thoughts aside and held out my hand.
The pokemon each looked at it curiously, except Snivy who seemed to look at it with something like condescension. The grass type seemed thoughtful for a moment and looked up into my eyes. He seemed to be trying to judge me. After a long moment, my anxiety mounting, he reached out his hand and put it on mine. I smiled and he gave a small one in return. I could almost hear what he was thinking.
Yes, I suppose you'll do. He seemed to be saying. I picked him up and set him on my shoulder. He sat up, holding his little head high like a monarch upon a throne. I took his pokeball and put it in my purse before reaching to scratch under his chin. The action seemed to please him.
"Okay!" Bianca said excited. She came forward and picked up the Oshawott, giving her a pat on the head.
"Cheren, I guess that leaves you with Tepig." I said. He nodded and leaned down to study the fire type. Tepig seemed too playful for the boy, but I guess if I'm lucky that'll help him lighten up a little. Cheren smiled softly and picked up the little one in his arms after putting the pokeball in his pocket.
"Perfect! They all seem to like you." Aunt Aurea said smiling.
"Would any of you like to give them nicknames?" She asked. I thought for a long moment and looked at the Snivy on my shoulder, who was looking down at the people and pokemon around, trying to look detached and uninterested, like such things were beneath him.
"Well, how about I call you King. you certainly seem to think you're one." I said, getting a chuckle from Bianca. The pokemon seemed thoughtful for a moment, then nodded.
"I think he likes it." Aunt Aurea said.
"I'm not sure he likes anything. But, he seems to find it tolerable." I said. That got a laugh from everyone around, even Cheren, who at this point I wasn't sure had a sense of humor. King looked down at the childish display of laughter with an expressionless face before laying down on my shoulder and closing his eyes, uninterested in what was going on around him.
"Bianca, Cheren, how about you two? Have any name ideas?" The pair of them looked at their pokemon for a moment.
"How about Shellby?" Bianca said.
"Really? That's terrible. I love it." I said. Bianca and I laughed together at the pun while Cheren and the professor looked at us unamused. Shellby also seemed to be laughing at it, and the sound of the small creature laughing made my laugh even harder because of her funny little voice. After a moment we got control of ourselves, and then Cheren spoke up.
"I think I'll call mine Vulcan. I can tell he's going to be strong, so he needs an appropriately strong name." In response, Vulcan sneezed and a tiny puff of hot embers came from his snout.
We spent the next few hours just hanging out and getting to know our pokemon. King acted mostly like his namesake, regal and self important, and I hoped that wouldn't be an issue with any other Pokémon I caught later down the line. Still, he seemed to enjoy my company more than he did the others around. When Vulcan had run up to him all excited to play, King had simply scoffed and turned the other way, earning a little bit of scolding from me, which he ignored. I'm not entirely sure he understands who's the trainer in this relationship. But he's cute, so he gets a pass for now.
After some time, Mum came out from where she was working to the main room with everyone else. The pokemon had all tired themselves out playing and were sleeping on the floor, cuddled up with one another in a small pile.
"Aww aren't they all just adorable." She said as she came into the room. She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of the sleeping pokemon, then smiled.
"Come on you three, huddle up, I want a picture of Anna with her new friends." She said. I opened my mouth to protest but before I could Cheren and I had been dragged in front of my mum by Bianca, who wrapped one arm around my shoulder and smiled at the Camera broadly.
I heard the click from Mum's phone as she took the photo of Cheren, Bianca, and I. Mum smiled and turned the camera to show us the photo. Bianca looked great, her green eyes practically sparkling, and a perfect smile. Cheren, who'd been on the other side of the blonde girl, also looked great, the light shining off his glasses and his cool, confident expression.
I, by contrast, looked like a wreck. I hadn't had time to prepare myself for the day so my red hair was still kind of in a mess, my green eyes had large bags underneath, and my mouth was agape in an undignified way. I groaned while Mum laughed. We spend the rest of the morning at the office, eating a lunch Aunt Aurea made for everyone. After a while of just hanging out and getting to know one another Bianca spoke up.
"I know, what if we had a pokemon battle!" She said, her eyes sparkling. Cheren and I agreed to the idea and we drew straws to see who'd battle first.
"Bianca and Shelly versus Anna and King." Mum said, looking at the result. She was going to supervise outside and heal up the pokemon between battles. She led us to a space behind the office. A plain grassy lawn sat before us, a safe distance from any research equipment that might get damaged. I stood on one edge of the rectangular space that made up the arena for my first battle and Bianca stood on the opposite side.
We sent our pokemon out and they stood determined facing their opponents. My heart pounded in my chest. Even if this was just a casual match for fun, this battle marked the start of my journey. This battle would the one I'd look back on for years to come as the one that started it all. I took a deep breath, and then from the sidelines, I heard Cheren yell.
"Begin!"