The next thing the man knew, he was on a bus that stopped in Sandgem Town. Getting off, he looked around taking everything in. Even for his VR set, this was pretty good and it seemed completely real. As he moved around and explored a bit he discovered a postcard, a map to the professor's lab, and pictures of the three starter Pokémon of the region. Excitedly, he followed the map and started towards the lab where he was greeted by the staff and was shown inside to the professor before being shown all the starters: turtwig, chimchar, and piplup.
"Hmm…who to choose?" Leon asks himself as looks between all of them as they all give off actions of saying 'pick me'. 'This is so lifelike. They all are giving off their own actions without repeats.' Leon thinks before smiling and picks up chimchar for some reason, feeling influenced by something.
"Oh, so you go with chimchar? Very well. Here are some pokeballs and our pokedex. Take care of her," Professor Rowan says.
"Thanks. Now let's see," Leon says using the pokedex on chimchar and starts to scan the pokemon. 'Okay. That's how.' Leon hums as it finishes scanning and he became surprised. "You're a…girl?" he asks, knowing the starters would be male most of the time.
"Chim," she says smiling.
"In that case, I will call you Amber," Leon says petting her.
"Chim," Amber purrs smiling as she nuzzles his hand.
"Shall we go?" Leon asks heading out with everything after thanking the professor.
"Chim!" Amber cheers as she raises a hand.
"So you only know scratch and leer, huh? We can work with that," Leon says walking around as Amber moved out of his hands and climbs on him.
"Chim?" Amber asks looking down at the pokedex in his hands.
"Yeah. That is you," Leon says showing Amber the picture.
"Chim," Amber says smiling as she leans closer and takes the pokedex and looks it over.
"Now, which one do you want?" Leon asks showing her the six pokeballs.
Amber taps her chin to his amusement before she dives and touches a ball and picks it up for him.
"Alright, this will be yours. Go and rest for now, ok?" he asks before enlarging it by pushing the center and taps it to her.
"Char," Amber cheers as she is turned into red energy and gets sucked into the pokeball and it shrinks for him.
"Now how do I secure these?" he asks before trying to figure it out before he continued on walking before trying something with no one around. "Alright. Let's take a break," Leon says before trying to pause the game and bring up the menu but nothing happened.
"What the…?" Leon asks confused as he tries to keep bringing up the menu through various motions. "Come on you stupid thing. Work damn you…emergency shutdown," he then says but nothing happened, making him start to panic. But for some reason, the panic faded just as it came.
'Is this a glitch?' Leon thinks before stopping and an excited feeling rose to the surface incredibly fast as he had spotted a wild pokemon.
"Meep," a mareep calls out as it chews on some grass before picking up its head and seeing the human.
Leon wordlessly gets his pokedex and scans the pokemon. "Mareep, the Wool Pokémon. Mareep stores static electricity in their wooly coat. They avoid battle and have mild dispositions."
"Mild dispositions? That's something you don't hear every day," Leon says shrugging as he looks back to the mareep as it seems to get the idea that he wants to battle it. "Alright then. Amber, let's go," Leon says tossing her pokeball and out comes Amber, looking a bit confused that she was let out so early.
"Chim?" Amber asks looking at him.
"Amber, I want you to battle that mareep over there after I do something," Leon says walking past Amber to it and looks at it in the eye.
The mareep blinks confused at the human walking up to it and try to figure it out before seeing him open his arms to it. The mareep sweat drops almost amused as this isn't the first some first time trainers wanted a hug from the fluffy coat.
"Well…?" Leon asks still holding open his arms to it.
The mareep stares at the human and leans over to see Amber doing the same thing behind him before shrugging and snuggling up to the human, wanting to feel the pets on its coat.
"Wow. It is fluffy," Leon says happily before he hears static popping. "Eh?" he asks looking to see mareep shocking it's fluffy coat and sweat drops. "Oh dear."
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Amber watches confused still as her trainer was shocked and the mareep snickers as it jumps out of his arms and saunters off proudly.
"Amber…attack," Leon manages to get out as he sparked a bit on the ground.
Amber walks up to him before patting his head smiling. "Chim," she says before turning serious and turns to mareep as it seems to have gotten the message that it is time for battling.
"Scratch…it…up," Leon says.
"Chim," Amber acknowledges and runs at the mareep before trying to scratch at it and makes it quickly move back as a few lands on its head before it charges forward with a tackle attack.
Leon tries to get up as Amber flies back near him. "Come on Amber. Up and at em…ow," Leon groans as shocks kept running over his body.
"This…is a little sad," a female voice says as Amber got back up and charged.
"What?" Leon groans as he picks up his head looks to see a red-headed girl that looks familiar to him.
"Let me guess. You are new at this, huh?" she asks bending down to him.
"Kinda…" Leon huffs as he still tries to stand. 'Wait…this hurts?' Leon thinks alarmed.
"You get zapped by the wild pokemon I'm guessing," she observes.
"Yeah…I hugged it," Leon groans as he tries to stand.
"You hugged it," she says nearly laughing.
"It looked so fluffy," Leon tries to defend.
"Ok…so how are you doing?" she asks watching the battle as Amber tried her best to fight the mareep.
"New to this," Leon says trying to wipe down the static.
"Alright, here is a tip, try to give your pokemon a little more direction," she says.
"I'm trying to think of a plan…um…what's your name?" Leon asks frowning.
"Zoey. So what can your pokemon do?" Zoey asks, trying to be helpful by making him think.
"Scratch and leer," Leon says getting up and shaking himself.
"And how can you use them?" she asks probing while thinking. 'Did he just get his first pokemon?'
"Just using scratch. Should take it down soon," Leon says looking to how the battle is going.
Zoey facepalms and shakes her head hearing that. "Wouldn't it be better to weaken its defenses first?"
Leon blinks and looks up as Amber is knocked back by another tackle. "Amber, leer!"
Amber, hearing that, soon started doing that. It's eyes turning red as it did, creating a red outline on Mareep as it did.
'So it is somewhat useful,' Leon thinks as he sees mareep looking a bit fearful before Amber attacked again, it's scratching seemed more effective now.
"You know, this may be the right time to throw a pokeball," Zoey advises.
Leon blinks and fumbles around with his pokeballs before he expands it and aims and throws. Zoey snarks as the pokeball went flying into the forest and miss mareep by a long mile. "I can do this," Leon says annoyed as he gets another.
'This is funnier than I thought it would be,' Zoey thinks continuing to watch.
Leon reels back his arm and throws. This time Amber laughs as the pokeball misses again.
"Ok, here," Zoey says smiling before showing him how to throw them as she takes his own pokeballs and throws one and catches mareep. "That's how it's done," Zoey says, not seeing his face looking a little dejected as Amber gathers up the two pokeballs that missed badly.
"Thanks…I guess," Leon says as Zoey caught on which way his mood went.
"Oh…don't worry. This one is still your catch," Zoey says trying to smile as she holds the pokeball out to him.
Leon takes the pokeball as Amber returns with both pokeballs. "So just started today I am guessing," Zoey inquires.
"I don't think I need to answer that one," Leon says.
"No. No, you don't," Zoey says giving him the pokeball as Amber holds the thrown ones to him and he takes them.
"Not the best first attempt," Leon mumbles to himself as he picks Amber up.
"Chim," Amber says patting his arm comfortingly.
"I can tell just by looking at you. You need help. Big time," Zoey says sweatdropping.
"Don't I know it," Leon says sighing.
"What do you think glameow?" Zoey asks looking at her pokemon.
"Meow," Glameow purrs as she licks her paws.
"You think so too?" Zoey asks.
Glameow nods as she raises an eyebrow at him.
"Hey. How about you come with me so I can teach you a few things?" Zoey offers.
"Really? After all that?" Leon asks a bit nervous and embarrassed now.
"I would feel bad leaving you here on your own. You might try hugging another mareep if you can find one," Zoey jokes.
"They do have fluffy coats," Leon says thinking about it.
"So what do you say?" Zoey repeats.
"Um…sure. Thanks for the help," Leon says a bit embarrassed.
"Come on now," Zoey says motioning him along as Leon was racking his brain.
'Zoey…where have I seen you before?' Leon thinks as Amber smiles and pulls on his leg to follow.
"So…what are you from?" Zoey asks as they kept walking.
"Oh, I am…from the east coastline," Leon says after a pause as the info flooded into his mind.
"Oh. So how is it there? You surf at least?" Zoey asks smiling.
"Yes," Leon answers before Amber's stomach growls at them.
"Were you able to stock up on food at least?" Zoey asks smiling as she digs into her backpack.
Leon says nothing as he blushes. Before getting into his bag and starts checking, hoping for something.
Amber climbs onto his head and shakes her head at Zoey.
"Here," Leon says offering Amber a fruit from the backpack.
Amber gives a sly smirk to Zoey as she takes it and chews it up.
"So what do you aim to be?" Zoey asks as they sit around a fire.
"Oh…uh…I don't know, I have decided between trainer or coordinator," Leon says before something clicked. 'Zoey…coordinator…Dawn's strongest rival from the anime!? Whoa. Talk about chances,' Leon thinks remembering who she was.
"Well, maybe you can try the first gym and contest and then you can decide," Zoey offers.
"Well…that doesn't sound like a bad idea, but…I don't think it would go well as you saw with puffball here," Leon says looking to the mareep laying on the ground.
Zoey giggles. "You shouldn't feel so bad. Most trainers sometimes make the same mistake."
"Well, at least we will have something soft to sleep against," Leon says.
"As long as you have a rubber blanket," Zoey adds.
"Oh, don't worry. Mareep has learned his lesson, haven't you?" Leon asks.
Mareep smirks and sparks his coat as Zoey giggles.
"You want to go back into the pokeball?" Leon asks frowning.
Mareep snickers as he ends the sparking.
"You caught a troublemaker," Zoey says smirking.
"Yeah…got that," Leon says frowning.
"So anything you want to talk about or ask?" Zoey asks.
Leon sighs. "Well…I do wonder if I can go home right now."
"It's still there," Zoey says trying to encourage.
"…yeah…" Leon mutters as he curls up his legs and lays his head on his knees.
"Hey, come on. Look on the bright side. You are here on a pokemon journey," Zoey says.
"Yeah. That is a plus," Leon says scratching Amber behind the ears and she leans her head more to let him scratch more.
"Best get some sleep. Tomorrow, I will start teaching you how to train your pokemon," Zoey informs.
"That would be nice," Leon says laying his head down on mareep's coat and tries to get comfortable. "And no thunder wave," Leon adds pointing at mareep's face.
Mareep sticks his tongue out and lays his head down to sleep.
The next day, Zoey went to work teaching Leon many different things about being a trainer, mostly around battling and how to throw a pokeball correctly until lunch when they started heading out again.
"And that how some of those attacks works," Zoey says pointing to a list of moves Amber can try to learn on her pokedex.
"So what do you think Amber?" Leon asks as they walked with Zoey.
Amber smiles as she gives a few air punches.
"Now let's try another pokemon battle," Zoey says as Glameow was let out of her pokeball.
Amber grins and jumps up. "Chim!" she yells getting ready.
"Glameow, let's teach them," Zoey says before her pokemon started to attack.
"Amber, move out of the way and use leer," Leon orders.
Amber called out before jumping into the tree and using it, making Glameow gain a red outlining.
Leon smiles as that move worked before thinking of whether it can be stacked. "Leer again," he calls out to test it.
'What is he up to?' Zoey thinks watching as the outline becomes more intense.
"And again," Leon says as Amber jumps away from a shadow claw that destroyed the branch she was sitting on. "Now scratch," Leon calls, making Amber jump at Glameow and hits her with obviously more force than Zoey was expecting.
"Glam!" Glameow yells out as she was knocked before getting up growling at Amber.
'Uh oh. That didn't do as much damage as I had hoped,' Leon thinks before Zoey called out, "Ok. That's enough Glameow."
"Glam," Glameow acknowledges as Amber calms down and walks back to Leon.
"Now that was using your head," Zoey says smiling at the progress that was made.
Leon smiles. "Thanks. Figures it had to do something."
"Now you just need to work more with fluff ball over THERE!" Zoey cries out when she sees mareep going through her bag.
"Mareep! Out of the bag! Now!" Leon scolds.
"Ma," mareep says, moving its head around with the bag on it, obviously stuck or being held onto by his teeth.
"Ugh…Amber…help him," Leon says dejectedly as he facepalmed.
"Chim," Amber says jumping off to go help.
"Yeah…this happens," Zoey says trying to smile for him.
"To you or in general?" Leon asks.
"Both," Zoey says hanging her head.
Leon, seeing this, pats her shoulder.
Zoey sighs and walks towards the panicked pokemon. "Come on. Better help him."
"Fluffball, hold still," Leon says grabbing him by the wool as Zoey removed her backpack.
Zoey blinks as she pulls her backpack off. "Fluffball?"
"I call him that whenever I want him to listen to me. It's not his name. I am still thinking on that," Leon explains.
"Better work on it though," Zoey says seeing the smirking mareep.
"You use thunder wave, I will put you back in the ball," Leon informs letting go.
"Meep," mareep says grinning.
"Alright. Back to the lessons," Zoey says.
"Which part?" Leon asks watching mareep carefully.
"You do know some basic food gathering skills, right?" Zoey asks.
"Uh…" Leon drones out.
"Ok, there is my answer," Zoey says trying to smile as she sweatdropped.
"Sorry…still new at all of this," Leon says shrugging.