The twins managed to get a good night's rest at the pokemon center. By dawn, Jason was already up and about while Kristine was still sleeping.
Jason grabbed his jacket and gloves, fully geared and ready to head out. He pulled out Eevee's pokeball.
"Okay, Eevee," he said. "Time to get us a pokemon!"
After grabbing his backpack, Jason headed out the door of the pokemon center. From there, he determined which direction to go and headed into the woods on his right.
The tall trees slightly dimmed the morning sun. All Jason could think of was what kind of pokemon he should catch.
"I could catch a bug type around here," he spoke out loud to himself. "But there are plenty of flying types to go about. I think a flying type will be better in the long run."
Just then, Jason spotted a weedle climbing up a tree in front of him.
"Or I can catch this fellow!" Jason spoke as he pulled out an empty pokeball.
Just then, a flying pokemon swooped over Jason's head, catching him off guard and scaring weedle away.
"What the," Jason looked up. He saw a small, flying pokemon soaring at low altitude. He ran after it.
Jason trekked through the woods and out into a nearby field, running after the pokemon.
"Eevee, let's go!" Jason pulled out Eevee's pokeball and threw it.
Eevee emerged from the ball, eager for action.
"I know who that pokemon is," Jason said to himself. "Taillow, the Tiny Swallow Pokemon. Taillow are gutsy. This one won't back down from a challenge."
And Jason was right. The pokemon turned itself around, knowing that Jason and Eevee were challenging it.
Taillow had dark blue feathers with a white underside, a red face, and a short yellow beak. The species were known for its superior speed compared to many other pokemon. Jason figured it might be even faster than Eevee, but he was determined to catch this pokemon nonetheless.
"Eevee, Tackle head-on!" Jason commanded.
As Taillow went straight for Eevee, Eevee ran at it. At the last second, Taillow pulled up and flew right over Eevee.
Eevee stopped himself right at his tracks and turned around. Jason saw that Taillow was making another pass.
"We need to stop it somehow," Jason observed. He then had an idea.
Taillow swooped down to begin another pass.
"Eevee, Sand Attack!" Jason ordered.
Eevee used both of his front paws to kick up the dirt before him. The soil got into Taillow's eyes, losing its focus on Eevee.
"Eevee, Tackle!" Jason declared.
Before Taillow was able to pull up, Eevee leaped into the air and took Taillow down. Taillow slammed right into the ground. Taillow got up, however, and shook the dirt off its face. Its beak then shined as it started pecking at Eevee.
"Eevee, watch out!" Jason yelled. "It's using Peck!"
Eevee dodged Taillow's pecks left and right. Then, the unexpected occurred for Jason. Eevee successfully made a decoy image of itself – the predecessor of the move Double Team.
"He's learning Double Team…." Jason muttered to himself. He knew the move very well from watching hours upon hours of pokemon battles. Even some of Ash's pokemon have used the move before. Pokemon who used double team would create multiple projections of themselves to throw off the opponent, whether for offensive or defensive purposes.
Taillow went and pecked at Eevee's decoy. The decoy disappeared, leaving the pokemon clueless.
"Eevee, tackle!" Jason commanded once more.
Eevee was right at Taillow's side and took it down once more with Tackle. This time, Taillow was slow to get up.
"Alright, now's my chance!" Jason said as he pulled out an empty pokeball. He then threw it at Taillow.
Jason could feel his heart beating rapidly. He was feeling the adrenaline kick in; this was his moment. This was going to be his first catch.
The pokeball tapped Taillow before opening. When it did, it released a harmless red beam that transported Taillow right inside it. The ball moved around as Taillow struggled to break free. Jason stood there, hoping that this would be it.
Then, the ball stopped wiggling around. A red pulse lit the center of the ball briefly, signaling that Taillow became bound to the ball.
"Yes!" Jason cheered. "Great job, Eevee! Now we got ourselves Taillow!"
Eevee ran over to congratulate Jason.
Jason patted him on the head. "You did great!" he said. "Now, let's go meet our new friend."
Jason threw Taillow's pokeball, summoning him.
"Hello, Taillow," Jason waved.
Taillow stood there, looking right at Jason and Eevee. It then tilted its head towards both, bowing in respect. It then flew right on Jason's shoulder.
"It's nice to meet you too!" Jason smiled. "Now, let's see what you know…."
Jason pulled out his pokedex and examined Taillow. Not only could the pokedex analyze what Taillow's species is, but it can also analyze certain traits and characteristics the pokemon may possess. While it was usually accurate, it could only detect traits they naturally learned or in their gene pool. If Taillow were to know something uncharacteristic to its species, the only way to find out is if Taillow were to use the move somewhere down the road.
"Peck, Quick attack, and Focus Energy…." Jason continued. "Hey, Taillow, maybe we can train you to use Wing Attack, huh?"
"Taillow!" Taillow nodded in agreement.
"Aren't you ready to go?" Jason chuckled.
"So you caught your first pokemon, huh?" Jason heard a voice behind him.
Jason turned around to see who it was. It was a boy his age, with short brown hair, almost to a buzz.
Taillow and Eevee also looked right at the boy.
"Yep," Jason was proud to admit. "Name's Jason."
The boy smirked. "That weedle you passed on. He's my second catch."
He pulled out two pokeballs from his belt and tossed him forward. "Come on out."
Two pokemon materialized from the pokeballs. One was a chimchar, a fire-type chimp pokemon. The other was a panpour, another monkey-species pokemon, only a water type.
Jason pulled out his pokedex to examine Panpour.
"Panpour, the Spray Pokemon," The pokedex explained. "And one of three elemental monkeys. Panpour lived in forests long ago but evolved from the Pan family to live near water. It can store water in the tufts on its head."
"That's cool," Jason said. "Where did you get 'em?"
"Hmmph," the boy crossed his arms. "I'm not telling you."
"Okay then," Jason stopped being friendly. "I guess I'll be on my way then."
"Stop," the boy demanded. "My chimchar against your eevee. Let's go."
Eevee stepped forward, accepting the challenge.
"Fine by me," Jason nodded, not wanting to reject a challenge.
Chimchar also stepped forward. "Chimchar!" he pounded his chest.
"Okay, so who goes –" Jason wanted to declare who would make their move first.
"Chimchar, Ember!" the boy promptly commanded, interrupting Jason. Chimchar spat a ball of flame out of his mouth, the projectile firing towards Eevee.
"Eevee, dodge!" Jason had to react in a split second. Eevee jumped out of the way to dodge the incoming Ember. The ball of flame flew right past him and fizzled in midair.
"Double Team!" Jason commanded. Eevee swiftly moved around, projecting two copies of himself.
"Double Team…" the boy muttered to himself.
"Tackle!" Jason followed up, seeing that Chimchar was confused about the projections.
Eevee ran forward and tackled Chimchar to the ground.
"Chimchar, Scratch!" the boy commanded. Chimchar used his claws to scratch Eevee's face, successfully getting his opponent off of him.
Chimchar got up as he and Eevee stood directly across from each other.
"Chimchar, use Leer," the boy commanded.
Chimchar stared down at Eevee with a stern look. Eevee took two steps back.
"Taunt 'em," the boy followed up. Chimchar then signaled Eevee to come at him while talking in a rhythm. "Chim-char! Chim-char! Chim-char!"
This prompted Eevee to step forward, growling at Chimchar.
"Eevee, use Double Team and –" Jason ordered, but Eevee ignored him. Instead, Eevee ran at Chimchar head-on.
"Chimchar, Ember!" the boy declared, knowing that Eevee fell into his trap.
Chimchar spat out another ball of flame. This time, it struck Eevee, knocking him back.
"Now follow up with Scratch!" the boy commanded.
Chimchar went on the offensive and struck Eevee with its claws. Eevee managed to Headbutt Chimchar to get the chimp away from him.
"Headbutt…" Jason observed. He was happy to see that Eevee managed to learn two moves today.
Chimchar backed away, but he looked ready to go again. Eevee, however, looked fatigued and was struggling to stand up.
"Hang in there, Eevee," Jason said. Even Taillow was cheering Eevee on.
Then suddenly, Eevee fell.
The boy smirked. Chimchar celebrated and pounded his chest once before coming back to his trainer. Chimchar exchanged a high five with Panpour.
"You did great out there, Eevee," Jason encouraged his pokemon. "I guess your run-in with Taillow wore you out a bit." He then recalled Eevee into the pokeball. "We'll get you some rest."
The boy snorted. "Great? Whatever." He then recalled Chimchar and Panpour before walking away.
"What do you mean, whatever?" Jason stepped forward, demanding a response. "Huh!?"
"He's not worth it," Jason heard another voice behind him. He and Taillow turned around to see it was another boy. He had brown skin and buzzed black hair.
"Name's Julian," the boy introduced himself. "The jerk you ran into is Alex. We got our starter pokemon in the same town. He chose Chimchar, and I chose this guy."
Julian released a Pokemon right out of a pokeball. It was a turtwig, the Tiny Leaf Pokemon.
"Turtwig!" the pokemon confidently introduced himself.
"He's a stubborn little guy, but I like it," Julian continued.
"Awesome," Jason replied. "I'm Jason. Eevee was my starter. And I just caught Taillow right here."
"Taillow!" Taillow introduced itself.
"Congrats," Julian seemed impressed. "I've yet to catch one myself. I'm trying to pick a good team of three."
"Unlike Alex, apparently," Jason mentioned. "He already has three."
"He caught Panpour at a lake on the same day we got our first pokemon," Julian said. "I think he's just looking for agile diversity."
"He just caught Weedle," Jason added.
"Going for Beedrill," Julian assumed. "You need diversity to handle even a single gym in Inventum. Not like the many leaders in other regions who specialize in single types."
"Right," Jason agreed.
"Well, I gotta stop by the pokemon center and relax for a bit," Julian continued. "You wanna tag along?"
"Sure," Jason replied. "My twin sister is recovering there right now. She sprained her foot real bad a couple of days ago."
"Twin sister, huh?" Julian seemed intrigued. "Traveling together, I take it."
Jason gave a nod. "Of course."
"Let's head back, shall we?" Julian walked forward while Jason kept up with him.
Kristine managed to get up from her wheelchair back at the pokemon center, though she was still wearing a brace on her foot and ankle. She seemed to be walking around with little trouble, with Nurse Joy observing her.
Nurse Joy smiled. "With a good night's rest, I think you're ready to go tomorrow."
Kristine was relieved. "That's good news."
"You still need to keep that brace on at all times," Nurse Joy continued. "Though when you shower, you can scrub the inside to keep your foot clean."
"I'm just happy I can walk again," Kristine smiled, walking around the main lobby of the center.
Just then, a girl Kristine's age walked into the pokemon center. She had short red hair and appeared to be holding her right arm.
"Oh my!" Nurse Joy was alerted and walked over to the girl.
"I'm okay," the girl spoke confidently, but it was apparent she was in a lot of pain.
"Okay?" Nurse Joy didn't buy it. "I think you broke your arm. Let's get you checked out ASAP."
Nurse Joy had her arms over the girl as she helped her into a nearby room.
"Well then," Kristine looked on, muttering to herself. Then she heard the doors open again. She turned around to see her brother and another boy standing beside him.
"We saw that girl walk right in," Julian observed. "Think she broke her arm or something."
"Yeah," Kristine replied. "Nurse Joy is helping her right now."
"Hey," Jason noticed Kristine was standing. "I see you're doing a whole lot better today."
Kristine smiled and nodded. "With a good night's rest, we can get moving tomorrow morning."
"Awesome!" Jason was excited to hear the news. "Oh, and this is Julian. We kinda bumped into each other not too long ago."
"Nice to meet you," Julian acknowledged.
"Likewise. Name's Kristine," Kristine gave a nod.
"I also have someone you should meet," Jason had a smirk and held a pokeball.
"You caught a pokemon?" Kristine seemed happy for her brother.
"Come on out, Taillow!" Jason tossed the pokeball, summoning Taillow. "Go say hi to my sister."
"Taillow!" Taillow happily chirped and landed on top of Kristine's right shoulder.
"Well, it's nice to meet you too," Kristine chuckled. "That means I gotta go find you a friend now, huh?"
"Taillow!" Taillow agreed.
"I find it fascinating that you're both twins," Julian remarked.
Jason and Kristine were both curious about that comment.
"What do you mean?" Jason asked.
"Well, for one thing, you're sticking together," Julian explained. "There's a sense of rivalry going on, which is natural. Both of you will demand each other to be at their best, which makes it great for competition. You've known each other your whole lives. Soon you will be competing with each other and against each other. You're only going to get stronger out of it, which means that I need to be on my toes for the both of you."
Jason and Kristine glanced at each other with light smiles.
"Now, I think I'm gonna get some rest," Julian continued as he headed into the guest rooms.
"Your new friend, huh?" Kristine smirked at Jason.
"Or rival?" Jason contemplated.
"Why not both?"
Jason shrugged. "I guess we do have new friend-rivals, huh? There was another guy who started alongside Julian named Alex. He had a chimchar, and he fought my eevee. He's definitely a rival."
"Did you beat him?"
Jason looked down briefly. "Not really."
At that moment, Taillow flew on Jason's shoulder to cheer him up.
Jason patted Taillow as he continued. "Julian has a turtwig."
"The girl who is in the patient's room with Nurse Joy," Kristine said. "I wonder if she's the girl Amanda mentioned to me yesterday. Amanda started with two others, another girl and a boy. If so, that is the girl with the charmander."
"It is the girl with the charmander," the girl said as she walked out with a cast and drape on her arm. Nurse Joy stood behind her.
"Wow, that was fast," Kristine was nearly in awe.
"No kidding," Jason added.
"You know, it's kinda ironic," the girl replied with a snicker. "There's been so many advances in medicine for healing pokemon that because of it, there have been breakthroughs in human medicine too."
"All that's needed to mend broken bones is the same potions used on Pokemon," Nurse Joy added. "Liz still needs time to heal, but she can move her arm again in a few days.
"Still can't believe I fell down that blasted hill…" the girl was nearly embarrassed to admit.
Kristine pointed down to her foot brace. "That's how I sprained my foot."
"Ouch," the girl cringed. "Name's Liz, in case you missed it."
"I'm Kristine," Kristine introduced herself. "And this is my twin brother Jason."
Jason waved.
"Twins, huh?" Liz seemed intrigued. "And the other one? Was he with you?"
"Julian? No," Jason replied. "He's our new friend-rival."
Liz chuckled. "Then consider me your new friend-rival. Twins. Heh, I got that to look forward to in the future. Means I gotta compete against more than one of ya."
"Well, we look forward to it," Kristine spoke with some competitive spirit.
"Anyways, time to go check on Charmander," Liz continued. "He's pretty wiped."
"Nice meeting you, Liz," Kristine replied.
"Likewise," Liz gave a nod before leaving. Nurse Joy also left the room.
"Well, Jason," Kristine spoke. "I think we are going to need to train with each other every single day and grow with our pokemon if we're going to beat our friend-rivals."
"Then that just leaves the two of us," Jason added with a smirk.
Kristine smirked back. "As it should be. Me and you in the Inventum Cup Finals."
"I look forward to it. First, we should build our teams and get those badges."
"Agreed. But even before that, we should resupply. I checked out our handbook. Between here and Fort Lexing lies some obstacles. The Rugged Pass is less than a day's journey away but could take as much as a week to get through it. Then there's Cheron Forest, which is very easy to get lost in if you're not careful."
"For now on, you hold onto that handbook," Jason suggested.
"Very well," Kristine acknowledged.
Both Jason and Kristine had a good night's rest at the pokemon center. They discovered that Julian had already left by dawn, and Liz was nowhere to be seen, likely out training with her charmander. After resupplying and packing the essentials they needed for camping, the twins finally moved again, while Kristine still had a foot brace.
"First thing's first," Kristine declared. "I'm getting myself a pokemon!"
