Despite how ordinary she looked, the girl Joseph was standing in front of was one of the biggest upcoming talents of Kanto and Johto. He wondered when the best trainers in the region started to look so ordinary rather than amazing like Lance did.
"You've grown a lot, I almost didn't recognize you!" Lyra said while she opened her briefcase, then showing the poke-balls to the trainers. "But back to what concerns us, these are the pokemon that haven't been chosen yet."
The young professor chose to open the remaining poke-balls one by one. From the first one came out a chikorita, while from the second one a rowlett was released. From the third one, the pokemon to come out was a froakie, which was followed by an oshawott.
The blonde boy that crashed with Lyra was surprised at the sight of the four remaining starter pokemon. He thought they were too good to be left as last, but maybe their popularity wasn't as much as he thought. The only one he could really understand was chikorita, as its line never was really that good and Gold's recent defeat only decreased its popularity even more.
However, as he was about to pick a starter, he found Green cuddling the rowlett, Joseph patting chikorita and Trent playing with froakie. He sighed as he turned to look at the lonely oshawott, which seemed sad about being the last. He crouched and offered the pokemon a treat—a small cookie made of berries. Oshawott happily accepted and cheered up a bit, especially when the blonde boy pet it.
"Seems like you've already found your partners, that's great!" Lyra said while handing out the poke-balls to their respective trainer. "Take good care of the little guys and have a good time in your journeys, I'd be proud to see you in the qualifiers for the league!"
The four trainers bowed and waved once they stood up straight. She beckoned them that it wasn't necessary, but she still had a big smile on her face and thanked the teenagers for being so kind.
However, the professor didn't have much more time, and for such she soon said goodbye. She took out her Noctowl, that was slightly taller than her, and it took her up to the skies, from where she left.
"Isn't it a great start to have two pokemon?" Trent asked as he gave the black-haired boy a fist bump.
"It is, can't wait to start training!" Joseph replied with a voice similarly loud to his newly made friend.
The young trainer of the green scarf raised one eyebrow, wondering what he meant by that, and the only answer the pair could give her was a nervous chuckle. They would deny it if they were asked about it, but they felt slightly intimidated by the girl's presence.
"It's expected from less talented trainers, nothing new." The blonde boy explained as he extended his hand to Green, who shook hands with him. "I was offered to take an extra pokemon, but I wanted to catch and raise my own as a proper trainer should."
Is this the same dude that just crashed against the professor? Joseph cringed at the sudden change on the blonde boy.
What the hell? Was all Trent could say in his mind, observing what was happening.
"I guess, but I don't really care." Green shrugged, turning to the pair of boys as she continued to speak. "It's a smart move, I'm admitting that."
"Far from smart, it shows incapability." The blonde said with a calm and arrogant tone, which made Trent want to punch him.
"Whatever." The girl of the brown hair forced a change of subject. "Where are you heading from here?"
"I'm not sure actually, I guess I'll go train a bit before challenging the gym here." Trent answered as he scratched his chin.
A small moment of silence followed, before Joseph spoke up. "I'd planned on going to the Ilex Forest, actually. So if you want to join, go ahead."
"Sounds good, yeah, I'll join you!" Answered Trent with a smile on his face.
"Guess I don't have much more to do, so might as well go and catch some pokemon." Green followed with her own reply, enthusiastically so since she wasn't sure where exactly to start training.
"The Ilex Forest is actually the ideal place to go, I guess you're lucky to have chosen that place." Lars explained, with a tone and eloquence that made the other three trainers keep wondering if that was really the boy who fell on the professor just a couple of minutes prior.
A good first impression would rarely be given by the Ilex Forest, since a humid forest whose trees blocked most of the natural light wouldn't be that popular between younger trainers. However, this did make the perfect habitat for bug-type pokemon, and that's mainly the reason why the forest is filled with them. From the small and cute caterpies, weedles and joltiks; to the way bigger heracross and scythers inhabited it.
There was also the presence of some lakes, as well, where other water-type species and mixed bug-water types thrived. Though this lakes were usually covered and protected by vegetation, normally filled with bug-type pokemon. This made it more difficult to access the water-type pokemon from the lakes, and therefore made the ones living there rarer.
From the gates that divided the forest from the city, the four teenagers entered. The reactions were divided, as mostly they weren't exactly amazed by what they were seeing, but Trent still was left captivated by the life that thrived.
Lars walked two steps further from the rest, and then turned around to face the trio. "Well, what's your plan? Or do you even have a plan?"
The boy of the curly hair rolled his eyes. "Piss off." He walked past the blonde boy. "Come with me, Joseph."
The brown-haired boy nodded and followed him, to the inner annoyance of Lars.
"What about you? Will you go with them or with me?" He asked, though as the girl of the turtleneck sweater gave it a thought, he remembered something. "Oh, my bad, of course. My name is Lars, grandson of the ex-gym leader Pryce and upcoming star in the pokemon training world, it's an honor to meet you, Green."
"How do you know me?" She asked as she shook hands with him.
"First of all, I heard your conversation with the professor, and second I think we all saw that TV program with Red." He explained himself with his hands in his pockets. "From then, I always wanted to start my journey alongside you. Doesn't hurt having a competent rival, after all."
"Alright, it really doesn't hurt."
"I still don't get why you would come all the way from Lavender."
Trent shrugged as he walked past a tree. Joseph stopped walking, however, since he wanted an answer. Around them, several caterpie and weedle moved around while combees flew from one flower to the other.
He didn't turn around to reply, leaving the other trainer talking to his back. "I mean, choosing from such a variety of starter pokemon is something you have to be interested in, and they weren't giving them away in Kanto."
Joseph scratched his chin, taking advantage of the absence of his scarf. "Is that really it? You already had a pokemon, didn't you?"
"Yeah I have a female nidoran, a gift from my grandpa." He thought about taking her out of her poke-ball, but decided not to as they could risk getting attacked.
The boy of the green hoodie shrugged and then shook his head. He guessed that the explanation made sense, and maybe it wasn't the nicest move to stress the subject. And anyways, they needed to focus on the forest.
Noticing that Trent remained silent, he decided to continue walking, and when he went past the other boy, he snapped out of whatever thoughts he was having. Trent nodded in response to Joseph's concerned look, and followed.
"Heracross is quite a rare one, right?" Asked the boy of the red hoodie.
"Yep, but when I get it, it'll be a great addition to the team!"
Trent wondered what would be useful for him, seeing how confident his companion was about the pokemon he wanted to catch. Sure, Heracross was probably the best option for Goldenrod's gym, but there were other interesting species. He looked around him. Caterpies, weedles, not too useful for now. Though a female combee could be useful, since his grandpa told him only females could evolve. But what about...
The two young boys were distracted by what seemed to be a girl screaming. Not too far from them, a group of machokes were grabbing a girl, as well as a treecko and a scyther, by the neck.
When the adrenaline rushed through their veins, they took the decision to go and try to help. They took their pokemon out and pointed at the objective.
"Chimchar, ember against that machoke!" Joseph ordered as the two of them ran towards the pokemon that was holding the treecko.
"Nidoran, poison sting to that one!" Trent pointed at the machoke that held the girl.
Both pokemon attempted their attacks, but they proved useless against the bigger opposing pokemon. For such, they were easily repelled by a single punch from each other. However, this forced them to let go of the girl and the treecko.
She immediately reacted and took her pokemon back to their respective poke-balls, which also saved the scyther from the grip of the machoke. She tried to run away, but she was intercepted by a man, wearing a dark coat with a familiar symbol on it.
"Don't you think you'll just go without any consequences." He looked down at the girl as she hid her face under her hair and her jacket.
Another man walked forward, though he wore the same color of clothing, he didn't have the same black coat. "And you kids, leave, this doesn't concern you."
"Why would you treat her like that?!" Joseph asked, with his voice firm, though his legs shaking.
"I'll warn you one more time, leave!"
Trent pointed directly at the man, about to make a desperate attempt to liberate her and give them time to escape as well. However, this wasn't necessary.
A bigger scyther than the one of the girl attacked one of the machokes from behind, while a scizor finished off the remaining two. Not only the men, but the teenagers were shocked as well.
"Answer the kids question." From the same place the bug type pokemon came, a purple-haired man appeared, holding a net on his shoulder. "Or I'll have to take care of you."
The men of the black coat didn't know what to say, and his nerves were evident, since he couldn't even face the purple-haired man directly. However, his partner had to step up for him.
"Ah, gym leader Bugsy, what an honor." He bowed. "You see, this girl intervened in our program of pokemon recovery and liberation by catching the recently recovered scyther we were freeing back into its natural habitat. And she was warned that the pokemon wasn't ready for training yet!"
The purple-haired man turned to look at the girl, who still remained in fetal position. He sighed and shook his head.
"But was there really a need to scare her like that?"
"I must agree that our methods perhaps weren't the ideal, but we feared being attacked by her pokemon."
"Alright then," The man of the green shorts approached the girl and put one of his hands on her back. "Free the scyther, please, it isn't ready to fight yet."
The girl moved slightly, to get closer to him. And she whispered something to him. His eyes widened slightly, a gesture that went unnoticed by the men. Whatever she said, didn't change what she had to do, and she still handed the poke-ball to the gym leader.
"Well, I decided to take care of this scyther by myself, since in the end I'm an expert! And setting him free anyways could provoke it to get caught again." He smiled at the men, who nodded in response.
"That seems like a fair resolution, sorry for wasting your time."
Bugsy gave them a thumbs up before they took their machokes back and left. Once they were gone, the purple-haired man helped the girl stand up and gave her the poke-ball back, which confused the two boys.
Trent raised his eyebrow. He assumed that whatever the girl whispered, it changed his opinion, though he still wondered what it could be. He noticed his friend took his chimchar back into its poke-ball, and so he did the same with his nidoran.
"Why did you give her the poke-ball back?"
"Ah, I'd forgotten about you, thanks for helping her out!" Bugsy replied, turning around to face the boys. "And I gave it back because she caught it before she'd even seen them."
"So they lied?" Joseph asked, getting a nod in response.
"Judging by the 'S' on their uniform, they probably were from team State, but they are confusing, you know?" He noticed that the boys didn't understand, and neither did the girl, so he went on to explain himself. "Some people report they've had trouble with them, but some others tell us that they are amazing people and that they help them with something the needed. But I guess they haven't been really dangerous, like Rocket was back then."
"Wouldn't this be considered dangerous, though?" Trent questioned, being pretty sure himself it was dangerous behavior.
"It can be catalogued as just another pokemon battle, so I'm not sure, we'd need something worse," Bugsy scratched his chin as he put his net on the floor. "And anyways, I've been told that they help people with stuff like food and houses, we aren't even sure if they're the same people."
The girl finally stood up, revealing the green eyes she'd been hiding under her ginger hair. "I-I've seen them before, they helped me get to Goldenrod on time."
"Ugh, you see? It's weird."
"I also remember that guy from the train, he had a similar 'S' symbol on his sweater." Joseph added as he tried to recall any other detail that could be useful, but he failed to do so.
"We'll have to keep an eye on them, I guess, but I don't really have anything to convince the league yet." Bugsy said, finally taking his net back and getting ready to keep on patrolling the forest. "Oh, and before I leave, could you please help her get to Goldenrod's pokemon center? All of her pokemon can't fight."
Trent nodded while Joseph gave him a thumbs up, and he smiled in return. It was nice to see how young trainers were still as cooperative as back when he was a beginner. Though as he remembered how long ago that was, he nearly cried because he thought he was too old. And soon enough, he'd left the place.
"Thank you for helping me." She said as she approached the boys, who had been distracted seeing the gym leader walk away. "My name is Janet."
"Ah, no problem!" Trent smiled and shook hands with the girl. "The name's Trent!"
"We were kinda useless, but I guess we bought time for Bugsy to smash them." He didn't plan on shaking hands with her until she extended her hand towards him, which forced him to do so. "I am Joseph, nice to meet you."
