Pokemon Rebel prt.2
Chapter Forty-Four: An Adventure in Hoenn
Hoenn was a tropical paradise. An archipelago near the Equator in the warm south seas, the region was made up of a large island surrounded by dozens of smaller pieces of land that surrounded the mainland like planets orbit a star. The central island contained warm temperate forests that shifted into lush jungles and rocky cliffs. A desert blew its sandy winds in the north and the billowing smoke from Mount Chimney, the region's largest and most active volcano, was visible from any part of the region. The smoke was the first telltale sign to the eager vacationer that their cruise ship would be soon arriving to any of the area's amazing beaches. For many from around the world, the luxurious warm weather, magnificent views and beckoning activities meant Hoenn was one of the best places to vacation in the world. But for an entirely different kind of people, Hoenn's draw could be considered far more amazing than a simple destination for a holiday. Like many other island groups that called the Pacific Ocean home, Hoenn was home to Pokemon.
Pokemon, the remarkable creatures with mysterious powers. No one quite knew where they came from, or how long they had been there, but for regions like Kanto, Sinnoh and Hoenn these creatures had affected the economy, culture, government and lifestyle of every citizen lucky to call these areas home. For those who had the knowledge, the strength and the heart, had the power to capture and tame these creatures for themselves. While many kept Pokemon as pets and companions, people, known as Trainers would brave the wilderness and the elements to seek out the most powerful of these creatures and challenge each other on the field of battle. The most honored and respected of these Trainers were the Champions. People would travel across the regions, going from city to city to collect badges from certified Pokemon Gyms, face the toughest Trainers known the Elite Four and defeat the current Champion to claim the honor. For most, the glory of even facing, let alone defeating, one Champion would be enough for a lifetime. But for some, one Championship title was only the beginning.
The cries of real seagulls mixed with the caws of the water-and-flying type Pokemon called Wingull as a tiny ferry glided through the jewel-toned waters as it approached Hoenn. Leaned over the railing on the front of the small ship was a young man taking in the sights and sounds of the approaching land. The warm sea winds blew through his loosely gelled, fire-engine red Mohawk and gently shifted the few strands of long black hair that crowned the edge of his otherwise closely shaven scalp. He had a long square face with a stubborn, clenched jaw, a wide mouth with stainless steel hoops at either corner and a short, flat nose. His brown eyes could easily shift from gentle and caring to grim and hard at any moment and were framed with thick, brown eyebrows pierced with at least half a dozen holes apiece, and filled with more hoops and bars like his mouth. His ears were framed with even more piercings, finished with half-inch plugs in his lobes. His bare arms, tanned from travel, bore two sets of black tattoos. His left arm had stylized a Pokeball, Great Ball, Ultra Ball and Masterball linked together with bold calligraphy lines. His right arm was home to a frozen battle between a skeletized Aerodactyl and Kabutops, two Pokemon long since thought extinct. He was a fairly small young man, but his deceptive stature masked his fighter's body: lean, wiry muscles on his legs and arms and a short, dense torso like a boxer. To complete his intimidating image he wore a white t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off under a military style vest with lots of pockets, several belts, baggy pants and shiny black, steel-toed boots that he crossed at the ankles as he watched the bobbing horizon.
At first glance to anyone who would pass by, the young man looked like a troublemaker, and had they had that thought a year ago, their assumption would be completely correct. This boy had been a gang member, spending most of his free time defacing property, harassing ordinary citizens and getting into vicious street brawls. He had spent two stints in juvenile hall with a third possible term in his future had his parents not sent him to live with his older brother. But if anyone took a second glance, they would notice that as the teen boy slipped potato chips from the plastic and foil bag in hand to his mouth, they would have seen that every few chips he would offer to the small animal on his shoulder. The creature on his shoulder was an Eevee, a particularly rare kind of Pokemon that had the power to evolve into over half a dozen other creatures. This Eevee, however, could not.
It was because of this creature and its lack of its inherent ability that the tough-looking boy with intimidating clothing and features transformed from a juvenile delinquent with a grim future into the Champion of Sinnoh. When the boy, Lucas, was young, his entire life's goal was to become a Pokemon Trainer, a dream dashed by his older brother John. John had gotten the lion's share of talent and attention from his family and community, leaving Lucas in his shadow. But on John's tenth birthday he had claimed the only love his little brother had and became multi-region Pokemon Champion, seemingly dooming his younger sibling to be the failure forever. In response Lucas had become as unlike his glory-hound brother as he could, turning to a life of crime and hopelessness until his behavior forced his parents to outsource their problem to his sibling. On the way to John's Sinnoh home, Lucas had discovered a dying Eevee, abandoned by his original Trainer because he could not evolve. With this faithful meeting Lucas' life was transformed.
With the urging of Pokemon expert Professor Oak, the teen reclaimed his dream to be a Trainer and made a promise to his brother to escape his ghost by becoming a more accomplished Champion than John ever was. Over the months Lucas met this goal by traversing Sinnoh, collecting a team of Pokemon whose loyalty and love never wavered, and gained admiration and respect from the Gym Leaders and Trainers he defeated. And in time the Sinnoh Championship was his. Now he was on his way to Hoenn to claim his next Championship title and keep the promise he made to his brother: to gain four Championships from the four Pokemon League regions and return to Sinnoh to defeat his brother in battle with the Eevee that he discovered sick in the woods. During the several day journey on the ferry from Sinnoh to Hoenn, Lucas had celebrated his seventeenth birthday. It was a quiet affair with no calls or messages, and the only party was splitting a pack of vending machine donuts with his Pokemon Team. For the boy, it felt like the best birthday he had ever had.
The horn of the ferry blew three times, announcing that the ship would soon be pulling into the harbor of Slateport City. Lucas wadded up the now empty chip bag and tossed it into a nearby garbage can before picking up the army-green duffel bag he had leaned against a cabin wall and shuffled towards the other passengers that readied themselves to leave the ship. He gathered in the line of fidgety Trainers and tourists, antsy from a combination of cabin fever and excitement from arriving as the familiar mechanics of a port city came into view. The main city and its resources were still several hundred feet away, even with the ferry now fully pulled into its dock. Trade ships and cruise liners buzzed with activity and the business of loading and unloading their cargo. Also visible from the dock was a giant, luxurious beach—the kind that made Hoenn as popular as it was. When one of the crew members lifted the rope and told the passengers to watch their step as they set foot on the dock, the jittery passengers stampeded forward like horses at the starting gate of a race. Lucas stayed on the docks with a few others as most headed towards the city or the beach to begin their trips of non-stop fun and excitement.
The trip from Sinnoh to Hoenn had taken several days, but for the teen Trainer with the Eevee, his journey had just begun. Slateport was only a pit stop for the young man's final destination. That suited Lucas just fine. On his Journey, the teen learned the enjoy the unpredictability and zen-like calms that came with traveling. Lucas waited silently with the few other stragglers of the ferry as they waited for a second ferry that would take these like-minded individuals to take them to their next stop towards their final goal: Petalburg City before heading on foot to Littleroot Town.
After Lucas had defeated the Sinnoh Champion, Dawn, a young but extremely talented Trainer whose love and wonder for Pokemon matched the teen's, he had a lunch with his mentor and sponsor, Professor Oak. The teen was grateful for the meeting not only as a way to avoid the overwhelming interviews and conferences with the excited press, but it gave him a chance to sit down and catch up with the first person to believe in him since he was a small child. During their meal the professor analyzed Lucas' Pokedex and listened to the boy's adventures about getting his badges and catching his Pokemon. And afterward he explained what Lucas would need to do to get his next Championship. In order for Lucas to legally start catching Pokemon and compete for Gym Badges he would first need to register for the Hoenn League by getting his Trainer ID updated by a certain League representative. The League representative that the teen needed to see was Professor Oak's old acquaintance, Professor Birch. Like Oak, Birch was a Pokemon researcher, one who specialized and investigated Pokemon evolution and the effect environment had on Pokemon development and variation. And like most professors, the researcher preferred to have his lab in a small town away from the distraction and bustle of a large city. And so to get to Professor Birch and register for the League, Lucas would have to travel Littleroot Town.
Additionally Professor Oak talked about his curiosity towards one of the teen's Pokemon: Sparky, a dippy, happy-go-lucky Rotom that while obedient, preferred exploring to fighting. After the teen had caught it in an abandoned mansion, the professor suspected that Lucas' Rotom was the first Rotom ever created. And as a favor the older man asked the Trainer if he would leave the Pokemon with him while he was exploring in Hoenn so that the professor could study it. Though at first the teen was reluctant to leave behind a valuable member of his team that had been one of his first Pokemon, it eventually inspired him to do something. When he would be exploring Hoenn, he would use a new team of Pokemon that he wasn't as close to, and try to use more of the local Pokemon to fight towards his next Championship.
The second ferry finally arrived and the Trainers packed on board to head to Petalburg City. This second trip was much shorter than the several day trek from Sinnoh, and within fifteen minutes the boat arrived, but during that time Lucas got to appreciate his new environment. Hoenn was much more water-based than Sinnoh. Aside from the few streams and the three grand lakes, bodies of water were few and far between in the mountainous region. But travel in Hoenn seemed largely tied to rivers, streams and the ocean than ran between the islands. The teen would end up using Surf far more often in this area than he had before. Experience had taught the teen with the Eevee that paying attention and learning as much about an area and its culture was vital to Pokemon training. Lucas had known almost nothing about Sinnoh and its Leaders and time after time it had put him in a great disadvantage. He avoided making the same mistakes twice, so before leaving Petalburg City to head to Oldale and then Littleroot, the teen bought a guide about the region.
The rest of the trip was largely uneventful as Lucas set his mind on the business of getting registered. Oldale was tiny and nondescript with no shops, businesses or resources that could make it stand out. The only two things that captured his attention were the prickling, increasing humidity as he headed further and further away from the shore and deeper into the lush forests, as well as the warning fliers that were posted on almost every building and sign board from Petalburg to Littleroot. Lucas was sure to read the fliers right away. When he had ignored previous similar postings back in Oreburg City, he had ended up being falsely arrested for 'looking suspicious'. Luckily the posters described an assailant he couldn't possibly be mistaken for, the fliers were warning residents of a roving gang of Pokemon called Poochyena that had been attacking people.
Finally the teen Trainer arrived at his destination of Littleroot Town. Like Sandgem Town, where Sinnoh expert Professor Rowan had his lab, Littleroot was a tiny village with only a few houses. The burg was so small it didn't even have a Pokemon Center. The lab was easy to spot as it was the biggest building in town, and after the long trip and seeing all the potential for catching Pokemon, Lucas was glad to finally arrive so that he could officially start the next leg of his adventure. Like Rowan's lab, the Littleroot facility was unlocked and bustling with activity. Even though the two labs were largely identical in their organized division of lab, observation and research departments, the former delinquent still was in awe of anyone who could break down and decipher the mysteries of nature and the universe and still found the layout fascinating. The Trainer was mostly ignored as the assistants busily did their work. Lucas did his best not to disturb them, and headed straight for Professor Birch's office, marked at the end of the hall.
The teen knocked several times on the door with no answer. Based off of his experience with previous researchers and their often spacey ways, Lucas opened the door to look inside. No one was around the chaotic room with its stacks of disheveled papers, open books and randomly scattered pens. Upon seeing the workspace the Trainer started to wonder what kind of man Birch was. As Lucas turned around to look for someone to talk to, an assistant with a box of files passed him and noted the confusion on his face.
The man shifted his box to get a better grip and called out to the lost-looking visitor, "If you're looking for the Prof he's not here. He left for a field experiment this morning and hasn't been back since,"
"You got any idea when he'll be back?" the teen asked, relieved to have found assistance so quickly.
The man in the lab coat responded with a jovial shrug, "Your guess is as good as mine. Professor Birch is kind of a free spirit. It isn't very easy to schedule anything with him or make any kind of concrete plans. If you're in a hurry your best bet is to just go after him rather than waiting here. He went up Route 103, that's just a little north of Oldale Town. I'm sure you'll find him still there,"
"Uh, I just came from there," Lucas sighed, "But thanks for the info, I'll go find him,"
"Good luck," the man said as his shifted his heavy box a final time and walked away.
Though it was inconvenient to backtrack from a town he had just come from, the distance back wasn't far. Even as exhausted as the Trainer was becoming, he just couldn't contain his excitement of starting the new league any longer. Route 103 proved to be a small road that ended with a river that split between one half of the route and the other side where Lucas could see a cave. At first the teen with the Eevee thought he had missed the professor, or that he was further down the path and across the river already, but just as he was about to summon a Pokemon to go on the water after him, Lucas heard vicious snarling and barking coming from a small grove of trees.
The teen ran over to see dozens of small, canine-like Pokemon with black fur all surrounding a single tree. In the tree Lucas saw a heavy-set man with brown hair, a short beard, cargo pants and a lab coat clinging to dear life on one of the higher branches. Some of the small Pokemon tried to jump up and snap at the man's dangling legs while others curiously sniffed a rucksack that lied limply at the foot of the tree. The man had a concentrated look as he was obviously trying to figure out a way of his situation when he noticed the tattooed teen with the Eevee on his shoulder. As soon as he spotted the boy he started smiling and waving frantically as he called out to Lucas, "Hi there! I'm Professor Birch! It looks like you're a Trainer, so do you mind helping me out?"