Prologue

Celestic Town

"Gengar use shadow ball," ordered a trainer as the ghost pokemon shot a dark sphere of energy at the opposing pokemon.

"Not so fast, Nidorino use thunderbolt," responded the opponent, whose horn pokemon responded with a powerful surge of electricity. The moves clashed in the middle of the stadium, a large cloud of smoke covering both pokemon. The trainers clenched their fists, unsure of who had gained the upper hand. Mere seconds felt like hours as everyone held their breath waiting for the smoke to clear. Bit by bit, the battlefield returned to view, revealing a damaged Gengar barely standing over a fallen Nidorino.

"I can't believe it," yelled the announcer, "the winner of this match is Gengar and his trainer, Dennis!." Gengar jumped into it's trainers arms, both celebrating their victory, not hearing the intense cheers of the audience. "As the winner of this match, Diamond has earned the right to challenge the Sinnoh league champion, Ezekial!"

The match was currently airing live on the TV, a young girl in blond hair watching without letting her eyes leave the screen for a second. "That's going to be me someday," she told herself.

"Cynthia, dinner's ready," yelled Professor Caroline, setting out plates. She put her hands on her hips when there was a lack of response from her granddaughter.

"I choose you, Rayquaza, use dragon pulse," said Cynthia to herself, holding up a rayquaza plushie next to a Deoxys. "Great, now finish it with hyper beam," she yelled with extra sound effects as she hit her plushie opponent with Rayquaza. "The winner of the match is Cynthia, Cynthia is the champion," she cheered. "And the crowd goes wild, Cynthia, Cynthia, Cynthia." She began to celebrate her would be victory before being interrupted by a quiet cough.

"Ahem, interrupting an important match am I," her grandmother asked?

"No grandma, I just became the champion thanks to Rayquaza here," she said, holding up her 'partner.'

The professor smiled at her granddaughter, "well then, can the new champion join me for dinner after cleaning up?"

"Yes ma'am."

Cynthia joined her grandmother for dinner, wasting little time in digging into the feast. "This is delicious grandma."

"Thanks dear," Professor Caroline replied. She looked across the table to see her granddaughter still clutching her favorite Rayquaza plushie. Despite Cynthia's 13th birthday being right around the corner, there was still no sign of her receiving her first pokemon. Celestic Town was by no means a prosperious town. The people worked hard to scrape by, losing many luxuries of other towns. Even Caroline's lab was nothing more than a garage compared to the ones in places like Twinleaf Town, not even having starter pokemon to provide young trainers. It was not a place meant to inspire dreams, especially as large as the ones held by her granddaughter.

"I can't wait till I turn 13 and can finally start my journey," Cynthia said gleefully into her stew. "I'm going to be the greatest trainer in Sinnoh, maybe even the world."

"That sounds nice dear," Caroline replied, unsure of how to tell her granddaughter the truth.

"So what kind of starter should I get? I've heard Piplup is strong, but I love how fun Chimchars are. But then again Turtwig is very reliable," Cynthia rambled.

"Cynthia… Do you have to be a trainer already? There are plenty of things that you can do without running off into the world at such a young age. You could work at my lab and study pokemon, or even write articles on those battles you love watching so much."

Cynthia shook her head, "no grandma, I want to be a trainer, I am going to be the champion," she announced.

"Cynthia, as you know, we are understaffed and underfunded at my lab, there's no pokemon that we can provide for you."

"Then I'll go to another lab and get one there," she said determinedly.

"The nearest lab is in Twinleaf Town, basically the other side of Sinnoh."

"Then what about a gift from one of the villagers here, maybe they can give me a Starly or something," Cynthia said, beginning to notice what her grandma was hinting at.

"There are no more trainers in our village, dear."

"Then I'll find some trainers that pass by to help me" Cynthia was starting to get overwhelmed.

"Cynthia, you can't be a trainer, at least not yet. I'm afraid you'll have to start some other year."

"No no no," Cynthia kept repeating to herself, clutching her plushie closely.

Caroline reached out in an attempt to comfort her granddaughter, "I'm sorry Cynthia, I am so sorry." Caroline watched Cynthia, trying to find a way to cheer her up. "Listen Cynthia, even if I can't give you a pokemon, that doesn't mean your dreams are over. Maybe it just means your partner is somewhere else out there, waiting for you to find them."

"Really," Cynthia sniffled out, "you think it's possible?"

"Anything is possible, just be patient."

"Alright grandma, I'll try."

"Thanks, now finish up your supper before it gets cold."

"Yes ma'am."

The Next Morning

"Cynthia, Cynthia, time to get up for breakfast," Caroline called out. Hearing nothing, she assumed her granddaughter was fast asleep as she began looking inside the child's room. However, the bed and the room were completely empty. "Cynthia, CYNTHIA!" Caroline began frantically looking around the small house but could find no sign anywhere of her granddaughter. She was beginning to call Officer Jenny when she saw a piece of paper lying on the table she didn't recognize. She inspected it and realized it was a note from Cynthia.

Dear grandma, I have decided to take your advice and find my partner. I'll return as soon as I find them, or get hungry, whichever happens first. Sincerely, your granddaughter Cynthia.

Now Caroline was definitely going to call Officer Jenny.

Somewhere along Route 211

Cynthia, unfortunately, was lost. In her hurry to begin her search, she had forgotten to grab a map of the route. Just as her grandmother had warned, there were no trainers anywhere, no people at all. None of that mattered to Cynthia, however, as she found herself entranced by more Pokemon than she had seen before in her small town. She kept jumping from patch to patch, seeing Pokemon she'd only seen from on TV or in books before.

"I think that's a Bidoof, and that must be a Geodude, ooh and that is a Meditite," Cynthia gleefully exclaimed! "Which one of you want to be my partner," she kept on asking? Much to her dismay, none of the Pokemon seemed to want to join her on her quest. Normally, you'd have to battle wild Pokemon to catch them, but without one of her own, the task seemed daunting.

She was trying to think of a way to convince them when she heard a loud noise from behind some trees nearby. She began running to find out what caused the commotion and saw a group of Machop all beating up on a smaller Pokemon. It was very wounded from what Cynthia could see between the constant attacks from the group of Machops. Forgetting her quest, Cynthia looked at the scene in front of her in disgust. She loved Pokemon battles, but knew it was not ok to take a battle so far. "Hey leave him alone," she declared running between the Machops and the injured Pokemon.

The Machops looked at each other in confusion at the sight of a human, who was slightly larger than them. Cynthia made her best attempt at a menacing face, but the Machops could see straight through her tough act. One charged right at the Pokemon behind Cynthia with a Karate Chop but Cynthia would not sit aside, lunging to block the attack with her own body. The force knocked her off her feet and tumbled her to the ground next to the mystery Pokemon. She had never felt a Pokemon attack head on before, unsure of how many she could take. She looked up at the Pokemon she was protecting. It was smaller than the Machops with a more compressed look and fins on its head like a shark. As the two made eye contact for a split second, Cynthia smiled saying, "it'll be ok," as she got back up to her feet. "I won't let you hurt it anymore," she redeclared to the group of Machop. The wild Pokemon still seemed weary but continued their pursuit, one of them charging a Karate Chop once again at the fallen Pokemon. Cynthia moved again, falling after taking the attack, but refused to give up and returned to her feet, ignoring the pain she felt in her body. Again and again this continued, eventually causing the Machops to grow almost as tired as Cynthia. "Had enough yet," she taunted? This made the Machops very angry. Their attacks resumed, ignoring the Pokemon behind her and focused their attacks solely on Cynthia. The trio of Machops all hit her at the same time with a Karate Chop, knocking Cynthia to the ground. However, this time, she did not get up. Her spirit was still fighting, but her body had reached its limit. Still remembering the taunt, the Machops attempted to attack the now defenseless Cynthia. She couldn't look, closing herself into a ball to protect herself. She awaited a pain that never came.

When Cynthia opened her eyes, the Machops were the ones on the ground, sand blowing all around them as the Pokemon formerly being defended by Cynthia was now standing to defend her. She smiled at the Pokemon, "would you like to be my partner?"

"Gible," it responded, giving an affirmative nod. Cynthia smiled widely, satisfied with her first Pokemon. Despite wanting to do nothing more than jump in joy, Cynthia could no longer move. Instead she felt tired, her eyes forcing themselves closed.

"-nthia, Cynthia, where are you?" A voice startled Cynthia out of her slumber. She opened her still weary eyes to it was already dark outside. She looked around, still having trouble moving her very sore body to try to find the source of the voices. Cynthia could see lights in the distance and weakly called out, "I'm over here." There was no response, so Cynthia called again and again. The lights were slowly fading into the distance. Cynthia didn't know how to get their attention. Her calls began to get more and more desperate before she eventually gave up. She looked around again to see where she had fallen. The memories of the prior events were slowly returning to Cynthia. Unfortunately, there were no nearby Pokemon, the Machops and mystery Pokemon had disappeared. She grimaced slightly at her predicament, trying to figure out what she could do to get out of this mess.

"Gible?" Cynthia turned her head to see the mystery Pokemon holding berries near her.

"Are those for me?"

"Gible," it responded, putting the berries closer to her.

"Thanks, but I don't think humans are supposed to eat these." Cynthia could still barely see the lights in the distance when she got an idea. "Hey, can you help me?"

"Gible," the Pokemon responded, nodding.

Cynthia smiled, "do you see those lights over there," she said pointing. "Can you let those people know where I am?"

It had been hours of searching and still no luck finding Cynthia. Caroline and the rest of the search party were beginning to fear the worst. "I'm sorry Professor Caroline," Officer Jenny said, "but I think it is time we start heading back."

"No, we can't go back now, we haven't found Cynthia yet."

"I understand how you feel, but it is getting dark and I don't want to risk more people getting lost while looking for your granddaughter."

"No, she must be nearby, I can feel it," Caroline pleaded.

"Look, there's no guarantee your granddaughter is even out here. She could have just been playing in town. I bet if we go back- wait what was that?" Officer Jenny stopped moving and began looking intensely at some nearby bushes.

"What's going on, is it my Cynthia?"

"I'm not sure, but I'm sure I heard something," Officer Jenny replied, still on high alert. She inched closer and closer to the bush, "Cynthia, is that you?"

Rather than a little girl, a little Pokemon walked out from the bushes. "Gib Gible," it declared, staring at the search party.

"What the heck is that Pokemon," asked Officer Jenny aloud.

"I think that must be a Gible," responded Professor Caroline. "But this makes no sense, these Pokemon should only be found in the Cave on Route 206. What is one doing all the way over here?"

The landshark Pokemon began pointing at the direction it had come from. "Gible Gib," it pleaded with the search party.

"I think it wants us to follow it," Officer Jenny told the professor.

"Do you know where my granddaughter is?"

"Gib Gib," it responded, leading the way as the others followed it.

"Cynthia, Cynthia, where are you," the party resumed.

Finally, they were able to hear what they were waiting for, "I'm over here grandma." Professor Caroline began running towards the source of the sound, ignoring Officer Jenny's warnings.

"Cynthia, Cynthia," she yelled, seeing her granddaughter on the ground. She picked up Cynthia and held her tightly. "Thank goodness you are alright. Don't you ever do something that stupid again," she chastised.

"I'm sorry grandma, but look, I found my partner for my journey," she said pointing at the Gible.

Professor Caroline looked back down at the Gible, still remaining close to Cynthia, "thank you for protecting my granddaughter."

"So does that mean I can become a Pokemon trainer," Cynthia asked, not missing a beat.

"We can talk about that later, for now let's get you home. I'll get you a warm bath and a lecture as soon as we get back." The two started walking back in town, the Gible close behind its chosen partner.

Two Weeks Later

"Cynthia, Gible, time to wake up, you don't want to start your journey late," yelled the professor.

Cynthia began rubbing her eyes, perking up once she realized what day it was, "let's do this Gible!"

"Gible," the landshark Pokemon responded in the same excited tone. The two ran down as quickly as possible, gathering the supplies they needed to start their journey. Despite Professor Caroline's harsh words when Cynthia got Gible, she has since accepted the dreams of her granddaughter.

"Do you have your pokeballs, your potions, what about antidotes," Caroline asked her granddaughter? Although it wasn't much, Professor Caroline tried her best to secure as many supplies for Cynthia as possible, and was even able to get a Pokedex for her to identify new Pokemon.

"Yeah grandma, I have everything I need," Cynthia responded. She was wearing jeans and a black shirt, simple but effective. Her shoulder length hair was tied in a ponytail to prevent her hair from blocking her vision. The two exchanged a tender hug, "I promise to write whenever I get the chance," Cynthia said.

"You had better, and make sure you are careful. Life outside the town will be very different."

"Don't worry, I will have Gible here to keep me safe, isn't that right?"

"Gib Gib," it responded with a nod.

Professor Caroline smiled at the two, "very well. Now, do you still know the plan, you two?"

"Yep, first stop Eterna City Gym," Cynthia responded.

"Good, I will be waiting here to hear all about your journey."

"Of course. Now then, ready Gible," she asked her partner?

"Gib Gib," it responded. The two began their journey, heading straight to Route 211 where their adventure awaited.

Cynthia Status

Pokemon: Gible lvl 7

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