Chapter One – One Who Thinks to Travel
Well, I can't go back now.
It was before ten in the morning, and the Pokémon Centre was near-deserted. The sky outside was just clouding over and most of the trainers that had stayed the night had already headed west towards Violet City. The Pokémon Centre was relatively small, still too big, really, for the quiet trails east of Route 30. A traveller could easily walk from sunrise to sunset between Mulberry and Route 30 and meet no-one. Josh had barely spoken to anyone in four days. It might have been lonely – perhaps it was lonely – but it wasn't like he was inundated with friends back home.
Josh leaned against the front desk, vaguely wondering how you were supposed to feel, out on the road with pokémon for the first time. He'd hardly bounced out of bed on his tenth birthday with dreams of Championship stardom.
"Yo. What d'you get?" someone said.
Josh gave him a startled look. It felt a bit odd for someone to address him unprompted. The kid was unnecessarily wearing a large pair of opaque sunglasses and a scruffy teenage attempt at a goatee. A battery of cheap rings perforated one ear. He probably hadn't bounced out of bed either.
"Sorry, what?" Josh said.
"Your pokémon. What starter did you get?"
"Oh. Bulbasaur."
"Cyndaquil. Got to be, yeah? Typhlosion's just brütal."
Why does he pronounce it with an umlaut?
"Wait, bulbasaur's not a Johto starter. You from Kanto?"
"No. My dad knows a Kantonian breeder."
He remembered the day Dad brought his starter home. He'd come in cradling a pokémon, a tiny little thing, that he deposited gently on the living room carpet. Back then Bulbasaur was scarcely more than five inches tall at the shoulder. He took a couple of uncertain little steps, blinking up at him with innocent eyes that looked too big for his face. Appearing to come to a decision, he clambered into Josh's lap and promptly went to sleep.
It wouldn't be the last time the infant Bulbasaur did something like that. Apparently he'd decided to imprint on Josh, for want of a better term. No-one knew why. Eventually, to make him Bulbasaur's de jure owner, they'd re-registered his Poké Ball to Josh's Trainer Card.
"Joshua Cook? Your bulbasaur is ready."
"What dun ye be a-saying? I mean," he said, realising his accent had slipped out. "Sorry, Nurse Joy, what did you say?"
"I've finished examining your bulbasaur," Joy repeated patiently. "Fundamentally he's healthy – very healthy, for a house pokémon, actually. If he's going to be battling, he'll need a lifestyle change. Plenty of light exercise, and as the weather gets warmer he should be getting most of his food by basking."
Josh nodded dutifully, beginning to think he ought to be taking notes on this. His thoughts turned again to the worry that training a pokémon would be a lot harder than merely raising one. The last thing he wanted to do was to call it quits and go home. One way or another his colours were nailed high up to the mast.
Later that morning, Josh swung his bag over his shoulders and left the Pokémon Centre. The sky had turned into a flat grey blanket, feigning innocence, as if Johto was above throwing down a surprise hailstorm in March. The map told him the closest Pokémon Gym was in Violet City, an easy three or four day's walk from here, but he didn't quite feel ready for Violet yet. Josh didn't like cities very much. He always felt more at home around trees and woodland.
This half-forgotten trainer's trail east of Route 30 was a refreshing change from Mulberry Town, in that particular. On the left-hand side was a wood of smooth-limbed beeches, their naked branches full of pidgey that fluttered down to scratch about in the dirt; on the right stood a long colonnade of rowans, probably planted by some well-meaning local authority. Josh was much less fond of rowan, in spite of its talismanic nature. By early summer it would put forth scuds of semen-white flowers, their sickly-sweet smell wafting on the wind. He favoured glossy, prickly, defiant holly as a talisman tree.
Spring was gathering pace – Josh could practically feel the earth awakening beneath his boots. Bulbasaur probably felt it too, stoically trundling alongside in deference to Nurse Joy's advice about exercise. It was a good day for walking, especially with the outfit he'd developed after years of long walks.
Good, sturdy boots, the kind that could withstand a geodude being dropped on them, he wouldn't compromise on that. Sturdy jeans too, black as an irrelevant preference. Like many trainers, he intended to carry his occupied Poké Balls on his belt. He adjusted the backpack on his shoulders. It was handmade from hazel and wickerwork, with a fabric lining for waterproofing. A parting gift from Mum, and an easy construction for her. The March weather was still a bit chilly, and Josh was glad of his Mulberryshire wool jumper. Black, like his jeans. Or at least, it was supposed to be – long wear had turned it iron-grey. Over the top of it he wore an old brown jacket, partly to keep the wind out, but also to keep his maps, firesteel and knife on hand.
The sound of something charging through the wood broke his reverie. Up ahead the path veered off to the left, round the foot of a hill that sloped up towards the south. Josh stopped up short, and listened. The typically sparse beech undergrowth muffled the noise, but he could pick out two sets of sounds – a faint, frantic scurrying and someone running flat-out. A pack of rattata burst from the treeline, desperately trying to carry a backpack between them. Hardly a moment later a furious girl followed, trying to pull something from her pocket – a Poké Ball, maybe.
"Drop it or I pull your tails off!" she screamed. Josh seized a rock and hurled it at the gang, by sheer luck clobbering one clean in the face. The rattata promptly scattered like little purple comets. The girl retrieved her backpack with a mixture of triumph and embarrassment, shyly throwing him a grateful look. She was somewhere in her early twenties, a little taller than him, with a willowy figure. She was wearing a burgundy coat with coffee brown trousers, a battery of pouches on her belt, and hiking boots on her feet.
"Oh gods, I can't believe they actually managed to steal my backpack," she said, still acutely embarrassed. "Who knew wild rattata could work together so well?"
"Damn rattata," Josh agreed, distracted.
"Why are you looking at me like that," she said resignedly.
"Your surname isn't Joy, by any chance, is it?"
And there it was. For though her dress sense and temper were nothing like the nurses who so diligently ran Pokémon Centres everywhere, this girl looked exactly like a young Joy. The same bright blue eyes, the same shape of the face, the same hairstyle and colour. Her expression, however, was now of annoyance.
"Yes, I am a Joy, no I'm not in a Pokémon Centre, yes I am aware it's unusual," she sighed. "Any questions?" she added sarcastically.
"Not at this time, m'lady," Josh said, deadpan.
The young Joy stood and glared at him, hands on hips. Then she noticed Bulbasaur sat beside him. "Hey, you have a pokémon! Why didn't you just battle the rattata instead of blindly throwing rocks?"
"I … don't know," Josh confessed. "It didn't occur to me to battle with Bulbasaur."
Joy regarded him crossly for a moment. "You are a strange trainer," she said matter-of-factly. "I suppose the least I can do is share some of my supplies."
Well, making new friends was supposed to be one of the joys of adventure. And here he was, making new friends with a Joy, apparently. Seated on the tussocky grass at the edge of the wood, Josh was beginning to notice something else distracting about this strange Joy. A good-natured observer might call her eating 'enthusiastic'. Josh watched with a kind of vague annoyance as she tore apart a cheese sandwich like she hadn't eaten in days. By sharp contrast he just chewed indifferently on a granola bar.
It felt appropriate, at least, to start this journey in the green and gallant spring. It reminded him of a poem, something read in sixth form.
"Bearwas blostmum nimað, byrig fægriað,
wongas wlitigað, woruld onetteð;
ealle þa gemoniað modes fusne
sefan to siþe, þam þe swa þenceð," he recited aloud.
"What?"
"Oh. Sorry," Josh said, realising his attention had seriously wandered. "I haven't really talked to anyone in a few days. I think I'm developing odd habits."
Evelina giggled, though not unkindly. "You never told me your name. Here. Have some fruit."
"I'm fine, really. Cook, Joshua Cook, from Mulberry Town."
"Don't be silly. You helped save this fruit," Joy said between mouthfuls of cheese. "Mulberry Town, that's not a big place, is it?"
It is a big place, just not an important place, Josh thought, quite impressed that she managed to get such a coherent sentence out while simultaneously finishing what was left of her lunch. "I only know half of your name. What do I call you?"
"Evelina. Evelina Joy. Tea, at least?"
"I have my own, thanks. So what takes a Joy away from the Pokémon Centre?"
Evelina sipped at her tea and said nothing, giving him a piercing look.
"I'm taking the Gym challenge," she said defensively. "It's not that I don't like looking after pokémon, I just don't want to be in a Pokémon Centre all my life!"
Josh shrugged indifferently, and watched Evelina defuse. "Well, technically I'm taking the Gym challenge too," he said. "But it's not something I've been dreaming to do. Bulbasaur and I, we're just going to see where it takes us. So we're on the way to Azalea Town, I think. I heard there was a Gym there, and it's near to the forest. It sounds like as good a place as any to earn our first Badge."
"Uh-huh. How about a battle then? One-on-one, no time limit," Evelina said, drawing a Poké Ball from a pocket.
Josh automatically hesitated. True, Nurse Joy did say Bulbasaur was in good health, but his only real offensive move was Tackle. He wasn't sure if that was enough for a battle. "I don't know. I know a little battle theory, but honestly I'm a novice."
"So you'll want a lot of practice, right?" Evelina said brightly.
That was a familiar refrain, although this time delivered from a pretty mouth. Blast it, Josh thought. She's not wrong.
"Alright," he said. "Alright, let's battle."
"Yay!" Evelina cried, jumping up and putting some distance between them to form an impromptu battlefield.
"Come on Bulbasaur," Josh said, waving his pokémon forward. "Battle's on!"
"Go Ledyba!" Evelina called. The five star pokémon hovered in front of Bulbasaur, waving her arms aggressively. Bulbasaur growled back at her and thumped the ground with a foot.
"How did you get a ledyba to battle away from the swarm?" Josh asked.
"Wouldn't you like to know," Evelina said. "Ledyba, Comet Punch!"
"Out of the way!" Josh yelled on impulse. Bulbasaur leapt aside as Ledyba buzzed by, throwing up dust in her wake. He charged, trying to Tackle her, but she was too quick for that and climbed out of reach.
"Swift! Swift!" Evelina ordered. Ledyba spun back round and squirted down a glowing stream of star-shaped rays – Bulbasaur yelled and tried unsuccessfully to dart from under the attack. Damnit! Nothing I can do about that, Josh thought with a growing swell of impotent frustration.
"Now Comet Punch!"
"Uh, Leech Seed!" Josh ordered in an attempt to change strategy. Ledyba plunged down at Bulbasaur and hastily swerved aside as the Leech Seed nearly struck her wing case. "Start moving, don't let Ledyba have it all her own way!"
Bulbasaur shuffled round in a circle, trying to keep his opponent in view. He came to a halt near to where his Leech Seed had landed, just as Ledyba attempted a third attack run. She came in fast and low; this time Bulbasaur stood his ground.
The quiescent Leech Seed suddenly snapped up, flailing tendrils groping madly. Ledyba panicked and threw herself into reverse. She buzzed something at her trainer in complaint.
"Hm. Quite cunning," Evelina said. "Ok, Ledyba, show them your Supersonic!"
Ledyba opened her mouth wide, and a piercing ringing noise washed over Bulbasaur. Josh could just hear it too, a discordant squeal that set his teeth on edge. Ok, ok, I can figure this out.
"String Shot! Bind it tight!"
Bulbasaur launched a pair of thin, cord-like vines from the base of his bulb with a whistling whip-snap, the String Shots whirling off into empty air.
"What's the matter with you?" Josh called. Oh, no. Supersonic. "Again, come on, concentrate!"
Whip-snap. Whip-snap. The String Shots dropped into the grass with paired thumps.
"This is our chance! Finish this with Comet Punch!" Evelina ordered in triumph. Her pokémon crashed into Bulbasaur with a barrage of punches from all six fists. Dazed from the attack, Bulbasaur could only retreat and try to turn away from the worst of the blows.
"That's enough, Ledyba. We've won," Joy said. "I don't want to hurt Bulbasaur more than I need to."
Josh sighed heavily and recalled his pokémon in a flash of pale red light. Easily defeated. Ledyba settled herself down on her trainer's head.
"That's a pretty crisp String Shot. Look what it did to that tree!" Evelina said cheerfully, offering her hand. Josh took it without a smile. A one-sided battle wasn't at all what he'd had in mind, but she had won fair and square. Evelina gave him a strangely shrewd look, still holding on to his hand.
"The woods take on blossoms, the towns become fair,
fields grow beautiful, the world hastens on;
all these things urge on the eager mind,
the spirit to the journey, in one who thinks to travel," she replied.