This diary business is strangely enjoyable. I thought it was only for popular girls to write all of the school gossip down, but I guess that this thing has a place for me too. To me, what's the most unexpected is that I don't even have a crush yet, but I've already written like maybe, two pages. I can feel my previously hidden writing skills already progressing!
Anyways.
I started the day by heading to Cherrygrove City. From there, I had to go south (or maybe west?)to get to Mr. Pokémon's house. I actually kind of forgot, but then I figured that I may as well wing it anyways. If anything happens, I can always call the police.
When I arrived at Cherrygrove City, this old guy at the gate thought I was a rookie and started to show me around. It was completely unnecessary. The PokéMart and the Pokémon Center both had the huge picture of a Pokéball on them, so it would be pretty hard to mistake them for the regular reststop bathroom. The guide himself would've been horrible if I actually needed help, because he kept sprinting all over the place like he was an aspiring Olympian. My shouts to slow down and protests that I didn't need a tour of the small little town fell on old, deaf ears.
I guess he pitied me, so he randomly gave me a pair of running shoes after the tour. It was really weird. Then he told me they were brand new, which made me even more suspicious. Still, he seemed to be a horrible liar, and they seemed better to wear than my regular stuff, so I just got them on and told myself to not feel guilty.
I looked around Cherrygrove City, but I wasn't lying when I wrote before that it was a small little town and was a poor excuse for a city. There is like, only three or four houses in the entire place. It wasn't much better than New Bark Town. I got bored of it quick so after taking Cinder to the Pokémon Center I got the hell out of there.
"Wait!"
The old guy from earlier ran up to me. For somebody who apparently runs on a typical basis, he seemed pretty bent of shape when he finally came up to me. He hurriedly asked for my Pokégear. I gave it to him with a sigh. I don't really care too much about the damn thing, but I don't really want it to be crowded with phone numbers by the time I come back to New Bark.
It turns out that what he did was install the Town map app. The old man explained how to use it, then wished me luck and ran off before I could mumble a "thanks." I wonder why he's always rushing around like he needs to use the bathroom.
Well, whatever. Onward I went.
Route 30 felt great. By then, it was evening. The sunset made everything look orange and nice, and made me somehow cheerful to get back on the hike. Cinder seemed to be get pretty excited too. It's hard to tell, but I believe that coughing out flames signals happiness in that one.
I turned to him. "So, Cinder! How are you doing?"
He hopped in utter happiness. It wasn't as obnoxious like Marill's, either. Then he walked in front of me.
I shook my head. "Just get back in line. You can't lead. You're too short, so I'll trip on you."
Cinder seemed pretty disappointed, but he obeyed me. My common sense rules even in his little mind.
Then a small brown birdie jumped out of the tall grass. It was super annoying. Cinder's tackle attacks kept missing, which plain wasn't fair since tackle was the only attacking move he knew. Whenever Cinder actually got his aiming right, the damage was minimal.
I knew that there had to be a different strategy to use to win, so I had did the only thing I could do. I had Cinder glare at the bird so hard, the bird pooped in the grass and had its defense lowered from sheer, patronizing fear. Cinder did it a bunch of times, and then finally launched a single attack that KO'd the stupid bird. I was so proud of Cinder I gave him a potion (although I guess I kind of had to, since he seemed close to collapsing). He made a face from swallowing it down for the first time, but I explained that they were in only in grape flavor and he had no other choices.
I came by a house on the way. There was a weird little tree with a light green ball in it. It seemed like some rude person threw it there and never took it out, so I went inside the guy's house to tell him about it. I probably should've knocked, but I kind of forgot to after being away from society so long during the summer.
Not that the guy who lived there cared at all.
"People usually come here looking for Mr. Pokémon's house," he said. "You did mean to visit my house, right?'
"Uh, yeah."
I thought that the guy was about to throw a party at that answer. He started to tell me all about Apricorn trees, and Apricorns, and I was like, "what?"
Then he mentioned that you could make Pokéballs out of them and I was like, "ahh…"
Homemade Pokéballs sounded awesome, so I got really happy when the guy gave me an Apricorn Box to collect Apricorns in. I thanked him, then went outside to collect one from the tree. Turns out that the ball I thought was for playing was made by nature.
I shook the tree, and the ball just popped right out from the top of the tree. It was weird, but I catched it into my new Apricorn Box and thought that it was the most awesomest thing I've done all day. Or month. I've spent most of last month napping and watching crappy T.V. shows.
By then it was getting dark, so I knew I had to hurry. The very second I stepped onto the tall grass I was approached by a Pokémon.
It only knew one move-Harden. It had no stomach for fighting, and kept curling up in a ball to increase defense instead. Pathetic.
It was a very uninteresting fight. I didn't even care to try to order Cinder to do anything but tackle, and he seemed really bored at the end. When we defeated it, he cheered.
Moving on.
We went on to defeat caterpillars, more living cocoons, and purple rats. Cinder got poisoned by one nasty thing, and while I had the antidote for it (I stocked up at Cherrygrove) that medicine apparently tasted really bad too. In fact, the look on Cinder's face had so much disgust, I took the antidote back out and looked at the flavor. Then I shivered. The flavor was even worse than grape.
Orange.
I stuffed my other, unused antidote really hard into my bag. Cinder and I moved on, then I found a Pokéball.
I'm not really sure who would leave things like a broken Pokéball, put something in it, and then leave it in somewhere random. It doesn't make sense, but I had thoughts that maybe it was like geocaching. So I picked it up and cracked open the Pokéball, ready to solve a code.
In it was more antidote.
Cinder, not having seen it, looked up at me hopefully. I shook my head, then shoved the antidote inside my bag before he saw it. Let him still have hope in the world, while he's still so young and innocent.
It wasn't too far from there where I saw my first Pokémon battle.
These two kids in identical gear were facing each other with their Pokémon out of their Pokéballs. One of them and his purple rat Pokémon was doing so bad, I thought he would cry but instead he tried to act like he actually had a chance and kept spamming potions and ordering tackle. The other guy was the cocky type, and seemed perfectly at ease in this battle.
I came up next to the rat trainer. Not that I could have been next to the other one, because they were battling in between a narrow path that was otherwise blocked by a ditch. Nice way to make things convenient for everybody else, fellas.
"Go, Rattata! Tackle!"
The other Pokémon dodged the attack. Sucker.
I snickered, probably too loudly. The rat trainer looked at me in annoyance.
"What? This is a big battle! Leave me alone!"
He turned back to the battle, and I figured that it was a cue for me to hurry on.
"Okay, Cinder, let's go!" I hollered. Cinder seemed to have to force himself to keep moving, but he followed me anyway. I like him.
I considered stopping for a break, just for Cinder, but then I saw a sign that said "Mr. Pokémon's House Straight Ahead!" and I figured that it couldn't be too far off from there.
It wasn't. I soon came by a house with a mailbox that said "Mr. Pokémon's House."
Even the postal office considered him as Mr. Pokémon. It had to be his official name, then, or mailing would get too confusing.
Briefly, I considered that having the last name of "Pokémon" is such a weird thing to have, and what kind of luck he had to have to get parents with a last name like that. Then I realized that he probably got it the normal way names are changed; court, lawyers, and the fifth amendment.
I knocked on the door, but nobody answered so I got impatient and invited myself in.
An old man with a brown hat and brown clothes came to greet me.
"You must be Lyra," he said gravely.
I looked at him in surprise. "How the hell do you know? I've never seen you before in my life."
"It was I who sent Professor Elm the email."
I nodded and sat on a chair in the living room. Mr. Pokémon ran to a device he had at the corner of his living room, and picked up something. It was too small for me to see what it was at that moment. He then went back to me, walking very, very slowly. It was almost like I was something dreadful he has to face despite his personal interest.
Then he held out the object in his hands, and I knew why.
"This is what I want Professor Elm to examine."
An egg.
Mr. Pokémon explained the story. So, he had a friend from Ecruteak give it to him. He doesn't know what's in it, so he's asking Professor Elm.
I don't know why he didn't ask the friend he got it from what's in it, but whatever. I'll take it.
Mr. Pokémon kindly had Cinder rest, and the poor guy took a nap right next to me on the wooden floor. I smiled, and then a random guy came up to me. I squinted at him. I honestly hadn't paid attention to him before, but when he was right before me he seemed familiar. Like he was a celebrity or something.
"I'm Professor Oak, a Pokémon researcher!"
Whoa! The lame guy I saw on T.V. earlier!
"I just came to visit my friend, Mr. Pokémon. I waited here when I heard you were running an errand from Professor Elm."
He examined Cinder. "A rare Pokémon? You have to be helping with Professor Elm's research!"
Now, let's not jump to conclusions here.
I deliver the egg, and I'm done. Maybe return Cinder.
Then I looked down at my Cyndaquil and my decision wavered. Well, maybe I'll keep him…
Oak muttered some stuff about "friendship" and "caring." Those are obscure subjects to me and not worth my notice very much. He walked back to me and our eyes met.
"I'd just met you, but you seem to be a very reliable person. Would you like to help me out with my research?"
I hesitated. "Well…"
He took out a red device that seemed almost like a handheld console. "See, this is the latest Pokédex. It records data on Pokémon you've seen, or caught."
I nodded. "Sounds cool."
I had this nagging feeling, maybe from my lazy summer days of T.V., that I've heard of one before. Maybe it was the news, when they were describing some kid from Pallet Town with it. Maybe I read about it. I don't know.
"I'd like you to have it!"
"What!"
"Go meet many kinds of Pokémon and complete that Pokédex!"
Reluctantly, I took it. I watched Oak with hesitation, waiting for him to take it back.
He never did.
Oak left right after that. Apparently he had some radio show in a Golden City or something. I got his phone number, though.
...And then, I was on the road again.
The second I was out of the door, got a frantic phone call from Professor Elm. Poor guy, he lost all his wits. I didn't even gather what all the stutters and shouting were about.
Unfortunately, I was too far off to actually be of any help, so I didn't exactly hurry to the rescue.
First, I picked up a pink apricorn from Mr. Pokémon's apricorn tree.
Second, I made myself a snack.
Third, I took a nap on the grass.
By the time I woke up, it was already the afternoon so I decided that it was about time to get moving.
I was just about to leave Cherrygrove when the stalker from earlier crossed my path.
"Hi…" I said.
He had no answer. How rude!
Then he said, "You got a Pokémon from the lab. What a waste."
Rude. RUUUUUUDE.
"At least I don't stalk people like a serial killer," I answered. "I get things the right way."
He seemed to get pretty angry. "That's a Pokémon too good for a damn wimp like you!"
"Shut up. Unlike you, I have actual social skills, and you know it. Don't start with this jealous loser business."
He couldn't think of anything witty to say to that. He just stared at me, until he finally said, "Don't you get what I'm saying?"
Cinder growled.
This was the final straw for the Passerby Stalker. "Well, I too have a good Pokémon. I'll show you what I mean!"
He then flashed his Trainer Card in my face. He had one of those really old fashioned ones. The only words I was able to make out were "Silver Badges," "Time playing," and "Pikachu."
Well, no wonder he was so resentful. It must be so awful to be Silver, when Gold is the best.
Then he took out a Totodile. I remembered it from the lab, as the dangerous Pokémon that seemed to enjoy biting people. So I said, "Yeah, your Pokémon is good. Take it back."
"What?"
"Take it back."
"Why?"
"Why not?"
"We're battling."
"I never agreed to."
"But you took out your Cyndaquil."
"He's always out." I was getting annoyed at this point. "Are you stupid or what? He was out the whole damn time. You even looked at him and made a comment."
The boy looked confused. "What?"
"What?"
"What's your problem?"
"You are so stupid."
"What did I do that's stupid, loser? You're the one who's delaying the battle."
"You don't even make any sense. All you did was say that you'll show me your Pokémon, so you took it out, and I was like, 'yeah, looks nice, take it back' and now what do you want to do?"
"Show you who's better at battle!"
"My Pokémon has already been trained in the tall grass and everything while you just got yours. Obviously mine are better."
He had to think of a while to combat that. Finally he said, "My tactics are better."
"Look, your only Pokémon knows only two moves. Do you really want to battle and make a fool of yourself, or train and get better and then we'll talk then?"
He thought, and then said, "Okay. I'll get your number and we can battle later once I get my team started up."
Finally, some logical thinking! I even clapped.
We were about to exchange Pokégears when something happened.
Apparently while we were talking, Totodile was making faces at Cinder. Now, outraged, Cinder leaped up and tackled Totodile to the ground. Totodile dodged the attack and countered with a scratch. Although Cinder barely got hurt, he fumed and his fire expanded by a tenfold. Passerby Boy shouted at Totodile to stop attacking. The water Pokémon snidely obeyed his trainer's order, and instead started leering at Cinder. Insulted, Cinder went ahead to tackle him to the ground. Totodile soon became unconscious, and lied limp on the ground.
"Are you happy you won?!" the boy shouted.
I shrugged, and turned to Cinder, who was beaming. I shook my head. "That was bad, Cinder. Very bad." Cinder whimpered. Then I turned back to the other trainer.
"I get paid for being the winner, right?" I asked brightly.
I thought he was going to cry, but he slammed 500 Pokédollars down my hand.
"Thanks," I said. He stared at me hard and didn't reply.
"Do you want to know who I am?" he asked.
"No really."
"I'm going to be the world's greatest Pokémon Trainer. You'll know my name then."
Then he just walked away. I could tell he was trying to act all cool and swag his pants, but his Trainer Card fell out of his pants so it was pretty pathetic. I picked up.
He patted his pocket, then panicked. He looked back.
Running over, he shouted, "Hey! That's my Trainer Card!"
I gave it back to him.
To my surprise, his face was full of horror. "Shit! You saw my goddamn name!"
Then he walked away.
Um, okay.
But if his name is what I think it was, no wonder he was so embarrassed.
I headed back to Route 29, but can you believe? It was dark! Mom and Elm couldn't have been much happy with me.
How do these summer days go by so fast? Either that, or my conversation with the stalker took us three hours to get through.
Overall, I was pretty relieved to get back at New Bark.
I headed to the lab first, and there was a police officer over there.
"Whoa, what happened?" I asked Elm, who seemed to have been panicking. I'll like to think he called the police because of my disappearance, but I feared that wasn't the case. I find that people are rarely interested in my well-being.
"We're investigating the case of the missing Pokémon here," the police officer explained. Then he recited some dumb rule that said that the person who did would come back to the crime scene, and accused me of doing it.
First of all, it's stupid to go back to a place you stolen from, so I doubt that often happens. Second of all, the fact that somebody who came to a crime site has to be a suspect is just a dumb rule, and I was like, ten miles away from the site of the crime. Call Mr. Pokémon, if you don't believe me. Third of all, I'm interested to see how that Pokémon got stolen anyways. Isn't Professor Elm always here?
All of a sudden, Ethan ran up and decided to play lawyer (thankfully, no Maril was present).
"She's innocent!" he yelled.
I sighed. I was thinking something like, dude, calm down, I've got this. I know my fifth amendment and everything. I even have logic on my side. That's more than the police officer can say.
"I saw it," Ethan said. "There was a red-haired guy looking into the building! Like, for the entire day!"
"Yeah, I battled him," I mentioned. If it's the water type Pokémon that was stolen, it was him alright. If it was the grass one, then me and Ethan are going to go to court for lying, which is no fair. Ethan got me into it.
The police officer turned to me. "What was his name?"
I shrugged. "IDK for sure."
The police officer nodded. "What names could that possibly stand for...?"
"No! I meant, 'I don't know!' God, keep up with the times!"
"Well, what do you think his name is?" Ethan said.
"Pikachu."
Silence.
Ethan said, "What?"
The police officer nodded. "It will be known as 'Case of the Pikachu Boy,' then. Thank you for your cooperation. I'll now search for this red-haired individual."
He left the lab, and I wasn't too sorry to see him go.
"I'm glad they realized you're innocent!" Ethan said. "See ya!"
Again, I feel like that entire thing could have been solved by myself, but whatever. I give Ethan a nod and watched him leave.
Now for Elm.
He was practically tearing his hair out about the missing Pokémon. I tried to comfort him by saying nothing, deciding not to say that all he had to do was breed another one and he'll be all set. Feeling attachment to that weird croc Pokémon was just beyond me, but I guess that I shouldn't expect that kind of visual hostility from others.
Elm took the egg I got back from Mr. Pokémon while I mentioned that I saw Oak earlier.
I took out the Pokédex Oak gave me. "See? He even gave me this thing and everything."
Elm jumped. "Is that true? Th-that's incredible!"
"Really?" I said mildly. Elm looked like he wanted to slap me for my casual nature.
"Yes! He is superb at seeing the potential of people as trainers."
Oh. So basically, Elm is so surprised that I got a Pokédex instead of the "model" Pokémon lover, Ethan. I've lived next door for such a long time, and my neighbor thinks I'm an idiot. Well, some things can't be helped.
"Things are going to get fun!" Elm gushed, getting all excited. "Well, Cinder seems to like you, so...why don't you take the Pokémon Gym challenge?"
"Hell's that?" I started, but Elm interrupted me in all his excited rambling. I managed to gather that gyms are scattered all over Johto, and after beating them I can battle the Champion of All Things On Johto Pokémon. It all sounded really awesome, so when I went back home I told my mom all about it.
"So, you're leaving on an adventure…"
"Yeah pretty much."
"Hmm...what can I do for you…?" Then her eyes brightened. "I know what to do!"
I shifted my feet around in discomfort. "Yeah?"
"Every time you receive prize money, I'll save some of it for you. Money's important on a long journey."
"Okay…"
She nodded, then paused. "Be careful out there, Lyra."
"I will. I promise."
"Pokémon are your friends. When you work as a team, you can accomplish anything!" I smiled weakly at that.
My mom pushed me lightly, tears in her eyes. "Now, go on!"
I nodded. Then I headed back to bed because it was nighttime.
