Chapter 7: The Official Start

For the second time today, Nate was standing at the counter of the pokemon center.

"I'm so sorry!" Bianca said for the umpteenth time. "Please let me make it up to you!"

Nate rolled his eyes, she'd been at this for a while. "It's not me you've gotta make it up to." He shrugged and gestured to the healing machine currently occupied by Micah. Unlike their counterparts from the games, these machines didn't work instantly, and also weren't 100% effective. Injured pokemon still required rest in order to get back to fighting strength, the machine just reduced that length of rest. Luckily, Micah was in surprisingly good shape after taking Frederick's tackle, so he would only need a quick blast from the healing machine and a few hours of rest before being back to tip-top shape.

"Okay, well how can I make it up to Micah, then? You've known him the longest, what does he like?"

Nate thought about all the experiences he's had with Micah over the past two days. Honestly, there weren't a lot. "Uhh, food? And sleep I guess? I haven't known him for very long."

"You're not helping... Ughhh, if only I hadn't given you that everstone earlier I could give it to you now as an apology... curse my bottomless generosity."

"Oh, right," Nate fished the aforementioned stone out of his backpack. "How do you use one of these, anyway?" "Micah can't hold it on his own, he doesn't exactly have fingers."

"For now, you don't need to worry about it too much. Just tap him with it once a week or so. Once he's more mature you should tie it to a leg or something. If you feel like splurging, you could even get it mounted on a band for him."

"Well, that's different." Nate pondered the instructions he was given. "Why would I need to tap him with the stone every once in a while." Nate voiced his confusion to Bianca.

"So, y'know how pokemon accumulate evolutionary energy as they mature, right?"

"Sure?"

Bianca kept going, despite Nate's confusion; "When a pokemon still has a ways to go before it evolves, an occasional tap with the everstone is enough to absorb any excess EE. It's only once the pokemon is close to evolution that you'll need prolonged contact to delay the evolution. Understand?"

"Not really," replied Nate.

"Okay, analogy time! Imagine Micah is a cup. Above Micup there's a faucet that drips evolutionary energy. Are you following me so far?" Nate nodded. "Good! So, when the cup fills Micah will evolve. The more mature the pokemon is, the faster the faucet drips. Everstones absorb evolutionary energy, so when the pokemon touches the everstone, it's like poking a hole in the bottom of the cup. Do you understand now?"

"I think so." said Nate, slightly more enlightened than before. "You said that as the pokemon matures, the faucet drips faster, right?"

"There's no literal faucet, but yes."

"So is it possible for the rate of flow to overcome the drainage from an everstone?"

"Yup. Honestly, everstone is a pretty big misnomer, since they actually just delay evolution." Nate's stomach dropped on hearing this revelation.

"What if I used multiple everstones? Could I just delay evolution indefinitely?"

Bianca made a complicated expression. "Not really, additional everstones give diminishing returns."

"Shit. Is the Paras line just doomed to die? If it doesn't evolve, the fungus eventually eats it from the inside out. If it does evolve, its brain gets hijacked and it becomes a zombie."

Bianca clearly saw Nate's inner turmoil all over his face. "Don't look so down, Nate. You couldn't call yourself a pokemon trainer if you didn't need to overcome a challenge or three!"

"Seems like a pretty big challenge..." Nate let out a deep sigh.

"Pshhh, brain eating fungus? That's nothing! Did you know when Ronin first evolved into a Samurott he chopped a house in half to test his new strength?" Nate wasn't sure if Bianca was trying to cheer him up with her own tales of misfortune, but it worked, and Nate ended up cracking a grin. "Luckily no one was home... and they had insurance... and no one saw us." Bianca muttered that last part to herself.

Suddenly, a ringing from Bianca's wrist startled both of them.

"Ah! Oh hey, it's the Professor." She pressed a button on the wrist-mounted device to accept the call. Suddenly, a video of the Professor projected up from the device. "Hi Professor, what's up?"

"Bianca, oh and Nate as well, excellent. Your paperwork went through faster than expected. It seems like even bureaucrats can get excited about a vagrant. I'll be up there tomorrow morning with everything. By the way," Juniper stared directly into Nate's eyes through the screen, "have you given any thought to my proposal?"

Nate returned Juniper's stare. "I could always take the easy road. Float along on my vagrant's stipend. Get another dead-end job..." Nate spared a glance at the healing machine Micah was currently in, and thought of Bianca's words. "Challenges, huh. Two double weaknesses? Brain eating fungus? Could I really call myself a pokemon fan if I let a little something like that get in the way of the biggest opportunity of my life?" Nate clenched his fists.

"Professor, I'd love to be a trainer."

Juniper smiled at Nate's response. "Wonderful, I'll bring everything you need to start your journey, see you tomorrow, Nate."

Bianca and Juniper had more to talk about, and Nate didn't want to eavesdrop, so he sat on a chair in the lobby and waited for them to finish. Eventually, Bianca hung up and excitedly ran over to him.

"Great news, Nate! The Professor and I came up with the perfect way to make it up to you and Micah!"

"That's not exactly what I was expecting. Honestly, I kinda wish she'd just forget about the whole thing. I always feel so awkward accepting apologies."

"Okay, so what's your plan?"

"It's a secret! You'll find out tomorrow." Bianca gave a smug grin, Nate rolled his eyes in response.

"Sounds great." Nate was about to sit back down when his name was called over the intercom. "Looks like Micah's ready." Bianca followed Nate to the counter where he picked up his pokemon.

"Got any plans for the rest of the day?" Bianca asked.

"I'll probably just wander around town for a bit, I still haven't gotten a proper look at a city in this... area." Nate had to catch himself. Even if Bianca already knew he was from another world, the pokemon center front desk wasn't exactly the best place to talk about sensitive information.

"Sounds like fun! I'll be down by the beach if you need me."


Time passed faster than Nate expected, and before he knew it, the sun had set, so he decided to call it a night. Soon enough, the red roof of the pokemon center came into view. He was planning on going straight to bed, but was distracted by the sounds of pokemon cries, and loud cheers. Nate circled around the center to the training fields out back, and was surprised at how busy they were. "I guess these are hobbyist battlers, then. The ones who have day jobs, and can only come to the fields when they're off work. One unspoken advantage of being a sponsored trainer, I guess."

Nate watched the battles for a while. The level of skill on display was overall disappointing. At this level of competition, it seemed like the raw power of the pokemon was far more important than skill or strategy. Most of the matches were simple slugfests, pokemon clashing with hooves, claws, teeth, and beaks. There were a few trainers who seemed to be a few cuts above the rabble, but it seemed if you won too much, the others would simply refuse your challenges. "The old smash bros conundrum: too good to play among casuals, not good enough to play competitively."

"Hey, you, with the stubble!" A voice called out, Nate scratched his chin, confirming that he did indeed need to shave. He searched around for the source of the voice. "Over here!" A teenaged boy Nate didn't recognize was waving to him. Nate walked over to see what they wanted.

"You a trainer?"

"What?" Nate couldn't grasp the intentions of the youth.

"You been standing around for a while, wanna go?" The teen fished a pokeball out of his pocket, holding it out for Nate to see. He thought about the offer, "It would be nice to have experience against a trainer that's closer to my level." The trainer currently challenging him wasn't one of the stand-outs, so it would probably be a reasonably even battle. "More even than Bianca, for sure."

"Sure, why not." Nate shrugged his shoulders.

"Great! Wait, you don't have any badges, do you?"

"Not a one." replied Nate.

"Phew, last time I challenged some rando, he turned out to be on his fourth badge. Totally handed my ass to me." The teen, who's name Nate still didn't know, walked with Nate to the nearest empty field.

"You ready?" Nate nodded at the question. "Alright, on three. One, two, three!"

Both trainers released their pokemon. Micah emerged from the pokeball, looking a bit worried that he was back on the practice field, but calmed a little seeing that his opponent was no longer Frederick. On the other side of the field, a Sandile stood at attention, ready for battle.

"Hey, what's that pokemon? I've never seen it before."

"This is Micah, he's a Paras, bug and grass type."

Nate's opponent groaned. "Ugh, that's like the hardest counter possible to Crocco." Nate could only shrug in response.

"That's how it goes sometimes, Micah, get in close, then sleep powder!" The strategy wasn't very complicated, but until Micah learned to aim his spores, combat options were limited to 'plan A: get in close' or 'Plan B:wait for the enemy to get in close.' Nate opted for plan A.

"Don't let him, Dig, Crocco!" The Sandile swam through the earth of the arena like a fish, out of Micah's line of attack.

"You can take the hit, Micah. Hold the spores for now, release them as soon as Sandile pops up." "Guess it's plan B, actually." Nate was fairly confident in Micah's ability to take a hit. Dig was double resisted, after all.

He turned out to be right. While Frederick's tackle sent him flying, Micah stayed rooted in place in the face of Crocco's dig, giving the ground type a facefull of sleep powder for its trouble. Sandile quickly fell asleep, and Nate's opponent conceded the match. The two met in the middle of the field to shake hands.

"Bad luck," said Nate.

"It happens." The teen shrugged. "At least you went with sleep instead of paralysis or poison. I can just wake Crocco up and we can get back to battling." The teen, who's name Nate never learned, gave a peace sign as he walked away.

"So, what'd you think of your first fair battle?" asked Nate to Micah. The bug pokemon looked up at Nate, his eyes glimmering with excitement. "Liked it, huh? Well, don't get too excited. They aren't all going to be that easy. Now, let's go get dinner." Micah looked even more excited at the prospect of food.


Nate's second night at the pokemon center went much the same as the first, and he woke up equally as disorientated as yesterday. "I should get in the habit of waking up earlier. Tomorrow." With a great effort of will, Nate got out of bed. Eventually.

Soon enough, Nate again found himself sitting in a conference room with Juniper and Bianca. The professor handed Nate two envelopes and an unlabeled cardboard box. Deciding to save the box for last, he opened the first envelope. Inside was a Unovan ID. "That's odd."

"Hey, Professor, why does this say I'm from Celadon City?"

"Cover. In my opinion, the fewer people who know you're a vagrant, the better," replied Juniper. "Pretending to be a foreigner will help hand-wave away any otherwise suspicious gaps in your knowledge."

"Makes sense, I guess, but is there any particular reason I should be hiding my extra-dimensionality?"

"Several. First, privacy. If word gets out that you're a vagrant, every news agency on the planet will start hounding you for an interview. Not to mention the tech giants who will do everything in their power to acquire that... What did you call it? Cell phone? Obviously, you're an adult and can make your own choices. If you value money more than your privacy, then by all means go public. But just a personal request from me, if you do choose to sell your tech, please wipe your data first." The Professor looked very serious when delivering that last request. "I guess she's still freaked out over the pokemon games. Can't say I blame her."

"Don't worry, Professor. I'm not exactly the kind of person who wants to stay in the limelight."

"What's limelight?" asked Bianca.

"Uhhh," Nate's brain took a few seconds to change gears at the unexpected question. "To be in the limelight is to be the center of attention, I guess. Before electric lighting was popular, theaters would use burning quicklime to illuminate the actors onstage, hence limelight. "

"But why not just use... Oh right, no pokemon."

"While that does sound horrifically unsafe, I think we should get back on track. The second reason for you to stay anonymous is safety. While the international police's faller division was officially disbanded several years ago, I have a strong suspicion that if word got around that you were a faller, you would very quickly find yourself recruited." The tone with which she said that last word made it clear that the recruitment wouldn't exactly be voluntary.

"But wait, I'm not a faller? Landorus made it clear that I didn't come here through an ultra-wormhole."

"And now we reach my final point." Juniper's face looked dire as she continued. "Nate, I need you to understand that I'm willing to admit something; I have absolutely zero idea how or why you're here. You could be a chosen hero, or it could be random coincidence, I'm willing to treat you like an ordinary human being. But imagine if some doomsday cult or criminal orginization discovered that you have been ripped through time and space by powers beyond our comprehension. At best you'd be made into a figurehead like N was. At worst? Probably sacrificed to appease Giratina."

"Oh." "Got it, my lips are sealed."

"Excellent, let's move on then."

The next envelope contained something like a debit card, linked to a bank account Nate now had, apparently. Nate shoved both new cards in his wallet. Finally, the mysterious box contained Nate's very own xtransciever. "That's a stupid name, I gonna just call it a phone." The wrist-mounted device turned out to be very user friendly, and Nate had it all set up in just a few minutes. "Finally, mobile internet access! I can finally start googling, er, poochling my dumb questions!"

"If you're done playing with your new toy, we still have business to get through."

"Oh, sorry." Nate sat up straight in his chair, giving the Professor his undivided attention. Juniper pulled a small device out from her bag and slid it over to Nate. Its shape reminded him of a smartphone from his old world, but the bright red color told him what it truly was. He wanted to take it for a spin and start scanning everything he could, but he kept his composure, for now.

"Now, we don't need to deal with much paperwork, but I would like to lay out what being a sponsored trainer would entail." Nate nodded for Juniper to continue. "Effectively, you will be an employee, whose job is to go on a journey and challenge the Unova league."

"Not to sound like I'm looking at a gift horse, er... Mudsdale in the mouth, but what do you get out of this?"

"It's all politics. The lab gets its funding from the Unova league. If I demonstrate my ability to recruit exceptional trainers, the league will be more likely to increase my funding." She pulled a clipboard out from her bag. "Here's the contract, read it carefully."

Compared to Nate's experience with other employee contracts, this one was quite open. The gist of it was 'Don't do anything to make Juniper look bad.' Finding nothing disagreeable, Nate signed on the dotted line. Juniper offered him a handshake, while Bianca went for a flying hug-tackle.

"Congratulations, Nate. I hope you don't mind, but Bianca and I got you a few presents to get you started."

"This day just keeps getting better."

The first gift made Nate nearly fall out of his chair. "Is that what I think it is?" Nate took the small messenger bag Juniper offered him, and tentatively stuck his fingers in, then the rest of his hand, then his forearm, stopping once he reached his shoulder. Judging by the manic grin on his face, the first present was a hit.

"This is gonna make camping so much easier." "Come to think of it, Brock kept a whole dining set with him in the anime. No reason for me to do otherwise."

"Speaking of camping, have you decided what route you're planning on taking?" asked Juniper.

"I've done a bit of research, but frankly this town isn't ideal for a journey's start. The nearest gyms are in Humilau City through the marine tube, or go northwest to Opelucid City, though from what I understand, neither of those gyms are newcomer friendly. Otherwise, I suppose I could take the long hike southwest towards Nimbasa, but there isn't much between here and there. Probably a bad idea hiking through so much wilderness with only Micah."

"Well, in that case my present is perfect!" Bianca rummaged through her bag, retrieving a small piece of paper and handing it to Nate. "Ta-da!"

Nate studied the offered paper. "A plane ticket?" Indeed a ticket from Lentimas Town airport to Castelia international airport, the flight scheduled a week from today.

"I figured if there's anyone in the whole region who could help Michah it'd be Burgh. Plus, he's always excited to see new bug types. I'll bet he didn't even know there were Paras living in White Forest," said Bianca.

"I see, that's actually very thoughtful..." Bianca was beaming, full of satisfaction that her gift was a success. "But, Lentimas Town? Really?"

"Yup, it's the closest airport to Undella Town," she said, smiling.

"Umm, Bianca? The route to Lentimas Town goes through Reversal Mountain, right?"

"Yup!"

"Which is an active volcano, crawling with fire types, right?"

"Uhh, yes?" Bianca didn't seem to know where Nate was going with this.

"And my only pokemon is an untrained bug-grass pokemon."

Bianca's eyes suddenly widened in revelation. "Oh! Ummm, ummmm..." Bianca started fidgeting. "Sorry, I, uhhh." Juniper, reeling from the secondhand embarrassment, stepped in to save her assistant.

"Bianca, please remind me what your next assignment was supposed to be?"

"Oh, yes, I was supposed to investigate if the demography of Dragonspiral tower had changed following the revival of Reshiram and Zekrom." Bianca seemed grateful for the change of subject.

"Well, scratch that. Your new assignment will be to investigate the rumors surrounding Cresselia sightings in the abandoned house outside Lentimas Town."

Bianca sighed in relief that her blunder was covered. "Thanks professor! So Nate, feel like going on a hike?"

"Sure?" Nate shrugged.

"Great. Once again, congratulations, Nate." Professor Juniper offered a hand to Nate, which he shook.

"Thanks, professor, for everything."

"Thank me by excelling. Now, you should prepare for your journey. The money's in your account already. Don't spend it wastfully, but you shouldn't be too frugal either. Farewell, Nate. Don't be afraid to call if you need advice." The Professor released her Gothitelle, and the two teleported away.

"Alright, shopping time! Nate, there are plenty of guides online for what you need to travel the various routes. Undella is fairly small, but you should still be able to find everything you need. Call me if you need any help, okay? We'll meet tomorrow morning in the lobby and start our trip, alright?"

"Got it." Nate spent the rest of the day walking around town, buying whatever might come in handy on a backpacking trip. After an all-day shopping spree, Nate returned to the Undella Town pokemon center for a final night's rest, his heart full of excitement for the real start to his pokemon journey.