Chapter Two: Starters and Route 101
Sorry this has taken me so long to get out. :3 And sorry it's short, too. xD But here it is!
Shadow seemed the most surprised from the man who had jumped out at them. He regarded Professor Birch with his maroon eyes, and cocked his head a tiny bit. Wally, too, looked a bit taken aback. Professor Birch wasn't usually thought of to be this… hyperactive? He only acted that way around people he'd known forever: i.e. Reina. She gave the professor a tight smile.
"Hey Professor."
"Hello, sir!" came Wally's voice.
"I was absolutely delighted to get your father's call! I knew someday you'd realize your true calling, Reina!"
She nodded a tiny bit. It was best to just agree with him, even if he had all the facts wrong.
"So, why don't you two come on in and you can choose your new best friends!" Professor Birch suddenly saw Shadow. He looked confused.
"Oh, this is Shadow," Reina said. "He… he's traveling with us." She wasn't sure if she should call him hers or not.
"Lovely! Absols are wonderful!" He scratched Shadow's head and the Absol gave his doggy grin. "Now, would you two like to come choose your Pokemon?"
"Definitely!" Wally grinned. "Oh, I'm so excited. Which ones do you have? Oh, but don't tell me."
Reina followed the two energetic males into the lab. They made their way to one of the tables, on which three Pokeballs rested.
"Now, choose between these three!"
Wally became busy looking at the different information in front of the three, and hopping around happily. Reina stood there with Shadow, watching him.
"Oh! Fire! Oh, but then there's water! And grass! And grass!"
Professor Birch clapped his hands. "I know! Aren't they wonderful? Reina, go take a look!"
She moved forward a tiny bit and peered over at the information typed in front of them.
Torchic, fire Pokemon.
She could never choose between water, fire, and grass before. That was one of the reasons Norman had caught her Sprinkles, because it was normal. Which one would she choose?
Treecko, grass Pokemon.
Grass? There didn't seem to be that many strong grass attacks, though certain ones were very strong against many types, especially water and rock. But then there were strong fire and flying attacks too…
She was still wondering, about to move onto the next one, when the door to the back room of the lab opened and Professor Birch's son walked out.
He had silver hair and was wearing black shorts, a green and black shirt, and green and black shoes. He carried a tray of large, colorful eggs carefully, but his face lit up when he saw Reina. He put down the tray gently and then made his way over to them.
"Reina!" he exclaimed. "You're finally going out on an adventure?"
Reina glared at him. Brendan could be nice at times, and was one of her oldest friends. They had played together as little kids, when they both had the same dream as everyone else. But once they had started middle school and each had become awkward and pimply, they had kind of grown apart. They had reconnected in high school, but things were still kind of weird between them, mainly because Brendan had gone out with Reina's best friend Sara, and he'd recently dumped her. Soon, Sara had gone off on her own adventure, desperate to forget about him.
"Yeah, I guess," she replied. "It's a long story."
"Hey, you already got yourself a Pokemon?" Brendan kneeled down and pet Shadow.
"Sort of. That's Shadow."
"Wow, that's so great! Hey, can I come with you?"
Reina studied him suspiciously. "Why?"
"Well, I've been wanting to do fieldwork. My dad said that he needs someone to go and catalogue different species, and I've been waiting until someone came along that I could go with."
Professor Birch popped up startlingly. "Brendan! You want to go with them? Okay! Remember to take clean clothes and all your things you need!"
Reina blinked. "He seems easygoing about the whole thing."
"I already told him that the next time any of my friends go somewhere, I'll be leaving too."
There was an awkward silence between them. Were they really friends now? Sara hated him, and she was Reina's best friend, after all.
"So, can I go with you?" Brendan asked.
"Uh…"
"Reina, look!" Wally appeared at her side. "I got one! I got one!" He cradled a Pokeball in his hands.
"Hey, who are you?" Brendan asked. "Oh, are you coming with us too?"
Wally nodded. "I mean… are you?"
Brendan nodded, smiling. "I mean… uh, I think so." He looked back to Reina. "Anyway, I'm Brendan."
"I'm Wally!"
"Which one did you pick?"
Wally smiled. "Treecko!"
"Good choice," he said. "Hey, I should get one too, right Dad?"
The professor nodded. "Yes, yes, by all means!"
Brendan walked to the table and picked up the first one. "Okay, I got my favorite… Torchic!"
"Reina, your turn. That leaves…"
Reina walked over, Shadow following her, and looked down at the last paper. She hadn't even read anything about this one yet. "Mudkip?" she read out loud.
"Yeah! The water one!" Wally smiled.
Shadow nudged her arm, and Reina picked up the Pokeball. "Okay, then…" She shrugged at Shadow. He blinked back, then his tongue came lolling out of his mouth.
"Reina, you should go get your things," the professor said.
"Oh, right!" Reina hurried out, and Shadow loped after her. "You wanna come with me?" she asked. "Well, okay." She still held the Mudkip in her hand, whatever a Mudkip even was.
She raced to her house and threw open the door. Her mother stared at her, startled for a moment, from her seat in the living room. She was watching something on TV where trainers were being interviewed.
"Reina, honey, I just got your dad's call. I'm so proud of you!"
Ugh. There went the idea of getting out of it somehow.
Suddenly her mom spotted Shadow. "Uh… hello? Reina, is this the starter you chose?"
She shook her head. "No, uh… this is Shadow. He… found us. My starter is… Mudkip. I'm actually not sure what that is."
"Shadow, oh, how cute! Did you name him after the Umbreon you always wanted?"
Reina's face grew red. "Wh-what? Mom, why do you even still remember that?"
Her mom shrugged. "You were obsessed with Shadow the Umbreon for five years."
Reina sighed. "I'm gonna go pack. Unless, for some reason, you don't want me going?" She was still hopeful. Shadow looked up at Reina with a confused look, but she didn't look back.
Her mother frowned. "Now why wouldn't I want you going?"
Reina bit her lip. "Uh, I don't know. There's lots of… dangers, and stuff. And you're against fighting! I'll have to fight a lot."
Her mom dismissed this with a wave of her hand. "Nonsense. Your father's against fighting too, but that never stopped him from battling."
Reina felt hopeless but tried to play to her mother's soft side. "Mom! I'll have to like… enslave poor, defenseless creatures and force them to do my bidding. Isn't that kind of… horrible?"
"I always thought of Pokemon as being more like partners. You know, like you're all a family that helps each other." Her mother gave her an innocent smile.
"Ugh! Fine!" Reina stomped upstairs, Shadow's claws clicking behind her.
She packed quickly, throwing the things she needed into her kelly-green messenger bag. She placed the Pokeball in the small compartment specially made for them (though she'd always used that section as a place to store her makeup). Digging her phone out from her pocket, she was about to stuff it into the cell phone holder in her bag when she saw she had a missed call: from Sara.
Reina sighed, relieved. Finally, someone who would understand! Maybe. After all, Sara had wanted to go off and have an adventure, but she always commiserated with her. Reina begin dialing the well-known number on her phone, then stopped suddenly. She had forgotten that Brendan was going with them. Sara would definitely not like to hear that.
Annoyed, Reina shoved her phone into her bag, rolled up her dark green blanket and squeezed it into her bag. Then she took one last look around her room, gave a desperate look to Shadow, and marched downstairs disparagingly.
"Mom, I'm leaving," she said.
"Bye, honey! Remember to call me, and come visit whenever you want!"
Reina sighed and left her house. She'd always liked that her parents were laid-back and pretty much let her do whatever she wanted before, but now that they weren't putting up a fight for her to stay home, she'd rather them be strict and overprotective. Sort of.
"I guess we're actually going, Shadow," she muttered as they walked back to the lab.
"Ab."
"My life is officially over."
"Sol?"
She looked at him. "Well, you know I don't want to go. I'm not like everyone else. I don't have the same stupid dreams as them."
Shadow narrowed his eyes. For a moment Reina thought he might bite her or be angry that she thought something to do with him was stupid. But soon after, he licked her hand.
She smiled a tiny bit and opened the door to the lab. Wally, Brendan, and the professor were waiting for her.
"Ready to go?" Brendan asked.
Reina looked down. "I guess."
"Yay! Let's go!" Wally cried happily.
-x-
They had reached the grass where Shadow had fought the Zigzagoon, and Wally ran ahead. "I wanna train and catch Pokemon!" he cried, excited.
"We should nickname the ones we have now," said Brendan, releasing his new Torchic. "Come on out, Torchic!"
A tiny fiery-looking bird was standing there, staring at him. Once it saw him, the Torchic leapt onto him and wrapped herself around his leg. "Tor-tor!"
"Woah, nice to meet you too," he laughed.
"Go, Treecko!" Wally exclaimed, releasing a gecko-like creature with a large dark tail.
"Tree-cko," she said wisely, giving Wally a curt nod. Wally laughed. "Lookit her!"
"Your turn, Reina… Send out Mudkip!" Brendan told her.
"Okay… uh… Mudkip?" she said lamely, throwing down the Pokeball and releasing a small blue Pokemon with orange star-shaped points on her cheeks.
"Mud…kip?"
"Hi, Mudkip," Reina said. Shadow nodded in a greeting.
"What should we name them?" Brendan asked.
"I'll name Treecko… Ivy! Isn't that a pretty name for her?"
"Tree!" cried the Pokemon, approving the name.
"Uh… Blaze!" said Brendan. "My Torchic is now Blaze. Okay?"
Blaze stared up at him and smiled happily. "Tor!"
"What about your Mudkip?" asked Brendan.
"I'm thinking," Reina growled.
"How about Misty, after the water Gym Leader in Kanto?"
"No."
"Muddy?"
"No."
"Current?" Brendan suggested.
"What kind of name is Current?"
He shrugged. "How about Doesn't Like Electricity?"
Reina whacked him over the head with a mallet. "SHUT UP!"
"I think you should name her Bubble," Wally said.
"Bubble? No, that's way too cutesy," Reina scoffed.
"Mud!"
Reina looked down to see her Mudkip, her eyes large and expression pleading.
"What, you want to be Bubble?"
The Mudkip nodded. "Kiiiip!"
"Wouldn't you rather have a name like – "
She shook her head.
"People aren't going to take you seriously with a name like – "
"Mudkip!" she begged.
"Oh… fine," Reina sighed. "Bubble. There go my chances of being a real trainer. Now I'll just be the loser who baby-sits Wally and has a Mudkip named Bubble."
Shadow's head tilted. "Ab?"
"Mudkip!" Bubble glared at Reina, then tackled her.
"Ahh!" Reina fell over. "Ugh! What was that for?"
"I think Bubble likes her name," Brendan laughed.
"Oh, shut up," Reina scowled, picking herself up and glaring at Brendan.
"Okay! Should we train our Pokemon?" Wally asked, excited.
"Yeah, and I wanna catch some!" Brendan agreed.
"I'll just… sit over here," Reina told them, rolling her eyes. "Tell me when you guys are done."
"No! You have to train too!" Wally gasped. "You have to raise your Pokemon in a balanced way!"
Reina sighed. "Fine. Shadow, you want to train?"
"Oh, no! Shadow doesn't need to train right now. He's not from this area, so he's already at level 23. You won't have to train him for a long time. Bubble's only at level 5."
"Fine," Reina sighed. "Bubble, let's go train."
"Mud!" Bubble smiled.
"But we're going up there," Reina said, scowling at the others. She hiked up north along the trail, with her Pokemon following and somehow conversing.
Suddenly, a dark shape leapt out at them. It was a grey puppy looking Pokemon, with sharp teeth, a black muzzle, and black paws. Its eyes were golden and red as it glared at her.
Bubble jumped in front of Reina, with a happy smile on her face. "Mud-mud!"
"Poochyena, huh?" Reina smirked. "Okay, we can beat this thing." Shadow sat by her heels, watching intently.
Referring to her Pokedex, Reina read Bubble's attacks: Tackle and Growl. Annoyed, she saw they were both Normal attacks. But Poochyena, especially at level 2, probably didn't have any good attacks either.
"Bubble, Tackle!" she ordered.
The Mudkip leapt at the Poochyena, tackling it backwards. The puppy steadied itself, and, glaring at Bubble, tackled her right back. It did less damage to the higher-leveled Pokemon, and Reina snorted. "This is too easy," she said. "Bubble, use Growl!"
Bubble growled at Poochyena. It was evident that the dog's attack had fallen when it rammed into Bubble, with barely any effect at all.
"Tackle it again," Reina said, rather bored. She examined her nails.
Bubble obeyed, and Poochyena's HP was again cut down. The weak Pokemon was now tired, and tried to retaliate with a strong attack, but again Bubble wasn't hurt much.
"And… Tackle again," Reina said. Bubble did one last attack, and Poochyena fainted.
"Well, that was kind of disappointing," she scowled. "You'd think that this whole Pokemon thing would actually be challenging."
"Sol?" Shadow said, staring up at her.
Bubble bounded over with a happy expression on her face. "Mudkip! Mudkip!"
"Yep, good job," Reina offered, slightly uninterested. "Okay, anyone else around here to fight?"
As if answering her question, a reluctant looking Wurmple appeared out of nowhere. It was a light reddish color, with a caterpillar-like appearance. There were two yellow spikes on its tail and one on its head, and its underbelly was a cream color.
Reina made a face. An extremely weak Wurmple had been the first Pokemon her friend Ellie had caught on her adventure, and it had evolved into a weird moth creature called a Dustox. Now her Dustox liked to fly around crazily and hide Ellie's things, which her friend bemoaned to her over the phone when they talked.
Reina, of course, had no intention of catching such a weak Pokemon and having it evolve into such an annoying one. But she'd fight it. It'd probably go down on the first attack, anyway. Checking its level, she found out it was actually a level 5, but that didn't change much.
"Use Tackle!" Reina instructed Bubble, and the Mudkip tackled it.
Wurmple was hit, but not hard, and it jumped back. A group of thin strings shot out of its mouth at Bubble, surrounding her. Reina, confused, saw that this didn't hurt Bubble. "Okay, use Tackle again!"
Bubble tried to jump quickly like before, but she was now a bit slower in moving, and the Wurmple attacked first. It raised its tail in the air and whacked it down on Bubble. The Mudkip made a face as it became poisoned.
"Ugh, tackle it!"
Bubble finally managed to jump and tackle the Wurmple again, but the little bug held on, then tackled the Mudkip back. After a few more rounds, both tackling each other, both Pokemon seemed tired – but Bubble was worse off. When Wurmple tackled her again, she fell over, struggling to get back up, but she couldn't. She hadn't fainted yet, but Reina knew she would soon.
Disgusted, Reina held out Bubble's Pokeball and recalled her, glaring at the red and white sphere she held in her hand. "I can't believe that stupid little worm beat you," she muttered, then looked at Shadow. "Think you can finish it off?"
Shadow raised an eyebrow at her and jumped in. She looked at his attacks: Taunt, Razor Wind, Quick Attack, and Bite. She wasn't sure exactly what to use, but finally decided. "Shadow, use Bite!"
Shadow sprang at the Wurmple and used Bite. The much higher level Pokemon obviously knocked out the caterpillar Pokemon, which divided the experience points between both Shadow and Bubble. Soon, though, as Reina walked down towards the others, Bubble fainted.
Brendan and Wally were both battling with Blaze and Ivy. Brendan and Blaze fought a Wurmple as well – they had a type advantage, Reina thought – and Wally and Ivy were battling a Zigzagoon.
Feeling morose, she watched them, wondering why her Pokemon had been the only one to faint so quickly. Both Blaze and Ivy seemed to still be fighting well, and they looked like they were growing stronger. Neither of their enthusiastic trainers recognized Reina until Brendan's Torchic beat the Wurmple and both of them did a happy dance, to her annoyance.
"Oh! Reina!" Brendan exclaimed. "Did you see? Blaze's beaten three Wurmples already!"
"Tor-tor!" chimed in Torchic.
"Well, that's nice," Reina sighed. "Can we keep going now? My Mudkip fainted."
Wally looked up from his battle, worried. "Bubble fainted? Oh no!"
"It's probably because of her nickname," Reina growled. "I'm changing it right now, okay? To something that doesn't make kittens mock me."
"You can't change it now," Brendan said. "Only the Name Raters can change it."
Reina shot daggers at him with her eyes. "WHAT?"
Wally looked back at his battle, avoiding the situation. "Ivy, use Absorb!"
Reina stared at Ivy as it absorbed energy from the Zigzagoon. "And how did you learn an attack like that already?"
Wally shrugged. "Ivy's getting stronger!"
Brendan looked relieved at the change of subject, but Reina glared back at him. "I'm not done with you yet. What are the Name Raters?"
"Uh, people who rate the names of Pokemon. They're the only ones who can change a Pokemon's nickname after you've given them one for the first time."
Reina shut her eyes. "Ugghhhhh…. You mean I'm stuck with Bubble?"
"Yeah, I guess," Brendan said, uncomfortable. He knew what Reina was like when she got mad. This was her practically acting civil. "So, uh, wanna keep walking? We can go heal Bub – er, your Mudkip!"
Shadow nodded, and Reina sighed. "Fine, whatever. Hurry up, Wally."
"Use Pound!" Wally said. Ivy whacked the Zigzagoon with her tail, and it fainted. "Great job, Ivy! Return!" With a flash of light, Ivy vanished into her Pokeball.
"You'd better come back too, Blaze! Nice job!" Brendan smiled and recalled the proud Blaze.
"Well, I'm so glad everyone has bonded so wonderfully with their new Pokemon," Reina said dryly, as she stomped up the path.
"Me too!" Wally cried sincerely. "Oh, Ivy's going to be my new best friend!" He blinked. "Oh, besides you guys, of course!"
"Whew, Wally. For a moment I thought you'd forgotten what great pals we are."
"No, of course not! I never ever forget any of my friends!"
Brendan just walked besides Wally, an awkward smile on his face. He tried changing the subject. "Hey, Reins, have you heard from any of your friends lately?"
Reina stopped short as she walked, and Shadow looked up at her. "Absol?"
"What. Did. You. Just. Call. Me?" Reina snapped.
"Uh, Reins? Remember, that's what I used to call you? And you called me Brenny?"
"Used to," Reina repeated. "Used to. I swear, if you ever call me that again, I will go completely Scyther on your a – "
"OKAY!" cut in Brendan, laughing nervously and patting Wally on the head. "Wally, a good rule? Plug your ears when Reina gets mad?"
"Oh, this is not me being mad," she glowered. "This is me acting appropriately for everything I've just had to go through." She whirled around, making Brendan jump, and Wally blink. "I've been forced out of my house and my job and my life. I have to baby-sit this little dweeb. I get the weakest Pokemon out of the bunch, and have to travel with not only the pitiful little sick child, but also the most annoying guy on the planet – oh, by the way, they're still better at battling than me. Nobody cares an inkling how I feel, not even my own parents. And then what happens? I get called Reins. Reins!"
Wally looked sad. "I'm sorry!" he apologized. "I didn't know you didn't want to come with me! I thought you wanted to go on an adventure! Please don't be mad!"
"Reina, stop being so dramatic," Brendan frowned. "And don't blame this on Wally, of all people. You can't be mad at him. Is that even possible? I mean, look at him."
"Oh, don't make me into some evil creature here. I was forced to go on this stupid thing, I was forced to watch him, and nobody, not even my freaking parents, cares at all, not even an inkling, how I feel."
"I care!" Wally cried. "I really do! If you don't want to come with me, it's okay! We can all just go back to Petalburg and tell our parents, okay? It's fine, really. At least I got to meet a Pokemon, and battle a little. Really! It was fun! So I won't mind if we go back!"
Reina crossed her arms. How could she agree to something like that? Wally was so little and cute and sickly that she couldn't just make him give up all his dreams. Just because she'd given up on having dreams, and everyone had given up on her, didn't mean she could force him to have his dreams obliterated. "Oh, fine, we can keep going," she muttered. Then she glared at Brendan. "You told him, didn't you? You told him I can never resist that puppy dog eye thing that people do. Well, good job. You have succeeded into making me feel extremely guilty."
Brendan shook his head, but she didn't care.
"Really? We can keep going?" Wally's face lit up. "Oh, thank you!" He ran and hugged Reina, who stood there, stoic as a statue. Shadow snickered, and she shot him a glare. "Don't you dare say a word."
"All right, should we keep going?" Brendan asked, obviously amused.
"Yeah, yeah." Reina turned and began to walk again when Wally released her. Brendan caught up to them, and the four walked beside each other.
"As soon as we get into town, let's go heal our Pokemon!" Wally suggested.
"Okay. Then we can eat, right?" This was Brendan, and Reina recalled he had a bottomless pit for a stomach.
"Fine," Reina said, trying to decide what they should do after that. The others looked at her, expectantly.
"What do you want to do, Reina?" Wally finally prompted her.
"Uh… I'm not sure."
"Rob an orphanage? Bomb a hospital?" Brendan cracked. "Perhaps mangle a few old ladies?"
Reina glared at him. "Shut up before I mangle you."
"Well, I guess we have to decide later," Wally said. "Cause here we are!"
The town loomed in front of them.
Pretty short, huh? Oh well. The next one will be better/longer. Please review:D