Murphy's Law: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
My trainer card came preloaded with 3000 bucks.
"Jeez," I said, staring at the balance displayed on the PC. Murphy, sitting by my feet, tugged at the hem of my pants leg as I gaped stupidly at the screen. That was a lot of money. It might not have been a lot of money to your average beginning trainer, but it was a lot to me. Where did all this money come from anyways? Whatever. Who cared, as long as it was mine.
I was going to be practical about this, I decided, shutting my mouth. Now that I was a licensed trainer, I could eat and sleep in Pokémon Centers most of the time, so I didn't have to worry about having a roof over my head like I did before. But I needed travel clothes, a bag, Pokéballs, healing supplies…
I looked back at the display. Suddenly it didn't seem as much as it had seemed before.
"Okay," I said, pulling my card out from the slot and pocketing it. "Uh, Murphy. We need to go shopping. I'll buy stuff for me, and then we'll go and buy stuff for you. Okay?"
Murphy blinked at me and yawned, tiny sharp teeth glinting in the light. I took it as a yes.
A good hour or two later, I'd ditched my worn clothes for a new, fresh set of traveling gear and my ragged shoes for a sturdy-looking pair of hiking boots. I also bought a jacket, quietly thanking Arceus that Hoenn was a warm region and I didn't need winter gear. And finally, as much as I'd wanted to limit my spending to only what was really necessary, I'd indulged myself in a really nice hat, for no other reason other than I'd always wanted a hat.
I examined myself in the changing room mirror critically. I wouldn't be winning any pageants, I concluded as I reached up to smooth down a wayward tuft of hair, but it would do.
"That should be good," I said, hefting my new backpack. It was refreshing to have a bag that wasn't full of holes. I'd let Murphy out of her Pokéball and she was lounging on the bench, staring at me. She seemed to be willing to follow me around some more, even if she didn't seem particularly attached to me yet. I turned towards her. "What do you think?"
Murphy stared at my new clothes, then turned and stared at the wall fixedly. I tried not to read too much into it.
Scowling, I recalled her into her Pokéball and paid for the clothes at the cash register. The cashier rang up my items but squinted at me somewhat suspiciously. She had a good reason to—I'd nicked a pair of socks from the store two weeks ago. I smiled at her as best as I could.
"Alright," I said, looking down at the Pokéball clutched in my hand. "Your turn."
The Pokémart was a large, glamorous building with a blue roof and flashing ticker signs that scrolled past my field of vision: THE ALL-NEW REPEAT BALL—WHY STOP AT ONE?…IMPORTED POFFINS FROM SINNOH NOW 10% OFF…BUY 10 POKÉBALLS, GET A PREMIER BALL FREE…
I released Murphy and the doors swished open as I entered the store, Murphy trailing behind me.
The tiled floors were sparkling clean; I could almost see my own reflection in them if I glanced down. The white shelves were lined with gleaming bottles of liquid, books, accessories, and strange gadgets. I picked up a shopping basket and quickly stuffed Murphy inside it when I saw her beginning to bat at a wobbly-looking display of vitamins. Walking through the aisles, I picked up a few Potions and threw them in the basket alongside Murphy. After a pause, I threw in a couple Antidotes.
In the center of the store was a bin of Pokéballs, divided into neat square compartments for different kinds. I picked out a few regular balls, setting them in my basket for Murphy to glare at suspiciously. Out of curiosity, I glanced at the other variants—Great, Repeat, Nest, Net, Dusk…whoa, those Ultra Balls cost more than my clothes had!
"You think we'll ever be rich enough to buy those in bulk?" I asked Murphy, jiggling the shopping basket. Murphy blinked at me, then reached over with one paw and knocked a row of Potions off a nearby shelf. "Hey!"
I paid for the items. While it felt nice not to have to sneak out of the store, this was counterbalanced by the feeling of my imaginary wallet slowly getting lighter.
"Bite!"
Murphy hissed and leapt towards the wild Zigzagoon, which nimbly dodged away. It slammed its striped tail into Murphy's stomach, knocking her back. Murphy yowled and staggered, stumbling to stay on her feet. I groaned.
"Never mind, come back!" I called. Murphy shot the Zigzagoon a quick glance and padded back to me. I pulled out a potion and began spraying it on the bruises that covered her body. The Zigzagoon barked at us triumphantly, then turned tail and disappeared into the tall grass.
Not again, I thought. It was the day after I had received my licence and I had taken Murphy out to Route 110 to see how well she fought. She had a few advantages over the Pokémon we found—she was fast, had a nice starting move in Fake Out, and was non-native to Hoenn—completely alien and strange to most of the wild Pokémon we came across. A lot of them didn't seem to know what to think when they first saw her. But the good things ended there. I had underestimated how badly Murphy's lack of claws would affect her. We had to rely on her fangs to score damage, which was easier said than done—Bite was a very close-range attack, and most of the wild Pokémon were able to dodge before Murphy could stick her face next to them and chomp down. So far, our first day of training had not been very fruitful.
"I think that's it for today," I said, running a hand over Murphy's head. She ignored me; while she had gotten the hang of obeying directions fairly quickly and seemed willing enough to listen to me in battle, she also didn't seem too attached to me yet. I was slightly annoyed, but I supposed that it would take time.
I recalled Murphy and turned to head back to Mauville, making my way down the dirt path. Only a few trainers lingered on the roadsides and grass. I spotted a man in a thin shirt and sunglasses jogging towards me. Pokéballs bounced at his belt and I veered off the path into the tall grass to avoid him. Murphy could only handle half of the wild Pokémon we saw. I doubted a trainer battle would go well and I didn't want to lose any money.
How, then, to solve the problem of Murphy's short range? I wasn't sure what long-range attacks that Meowth could learn. There was Pay Day, of course, but I was fairly certain that it would be a while before Murphy would learn it, and even going by the little I knew from reading (mostly old trainer books I'd dug up from the paper recycling) it didn't seem like a very strong move anyways. Of course, I could also just train her to be faster to compensate. But Murphy was fairly fast already—how much would that help? I groaned.
The electronic sliding doors that were the entrance to Mauville whooshed open as I stepped inside the city. The bright neon lights seemed obnoxious after the comparatively gentle daylight. I thought furiously as I walked, mind whirling with possibilities. I was so caught up that I slammed straight into Amelia, who had been walking towards me.
"Ow!" she yelped, stumbling back. "Watch it—oh, hey, Riley!"
"Hey," I greeted, giving her a half-hearted wave. My eyes flicked up to her Wingull, which was still perched on her head in a nest of her curly hair. It tilted its head and blinked at me, clacking its beak.
"You look tired," Amelia said, looking me over from head to toe. I slumped.
"I'm having problems with my starter," I admitted.
"That sucks," she commented. She reached up and patted the Wingull on her head proudly. "Beaky here battles like a boss. Who thought that water could be so deadly? Hey, about that—you never showed me your starter!"
I jolted out of my quiet horror over her Wingull's nickname. Beaky. Of all names to give a Pokémon, she had picked "Beaky." But back to the point—I'd forgotten all about the whole "avoid-Amelia-out-of-embarrassment" thing I had going on. I reached a hand towards Murphy's Pokéball and hesitated. Amelia noticed.
"Come on, spill!" she demanded eagerly, leaning forward. I groaned.
"Fine," I said. A burst of light, and Murphy appeared. She blinked up at Amelia, yawned, and padded up to rub against her pants.
"A Meowth?" Amelia said dubiously. Like me, she'd probably had to deal with her fair share of scavenging Meowth in the back alleys and it was clear that she was not impressed. This didn't deter Murphy, who purred and latched onto Amelia's pants leg.
"I ran out of options," I explained. "She followed me out of the alleys and got in the way when I was trying to catch a Linoone, and…" I shrugged helplessly, glancing down at Murphy. The small Meowth had gotten tired of Amelia's pants and was staring fixedly at Beaky, which was staring back with equal interest. "Oh yeah, and she doesn't have any claws," I added.
Amelia glanced at Murphy, then looked back at me. "Do you want my honest opinion?" she said.
"Not really," I said, trying not to sound too miserable and failing.
"Okay," Amelia said. She exhaled, a long deep sigh and closed her eyes briefly. "Well—"
I stumbled as a harried-looking man in a vest bumped into me. "Hey, you're in the middle of the road!" he shouted, elbowing past me and hurrying away. Then he tripped over Murphy and fell flat on his face.
"I think you can call that 'karma'," I said, scooping up Murphy in my arms. Amelia burst out laughing and we ducked into an alleyway, away from the bright street lights. The shade felt comforting.
"So," Amelia said, leaning against the wall. Beaky hopped off her shoulder and began pecking at some crumbs on the ground. "What are you going to do now?"
Murphy meowed and squirmed in my arms. I let go of her and she dropped to the ground gracefully, padding over to sniff suspiciously at Beaky.
"I'm not sure," I admitted. "To be honest, I didn't even think I was going to get this far."
"Neither did I," Amelia said.
We stared at the ground gloomily. It had taken only one afternoon for me to realize that being a trainer was a lot tougher than it looked. Not to mention that I had very little idea of what direction I wanted to go in now. What did most trainers do, anyways, beside beat each other up for money?
"There's always the Gym challenge," I said, trying to sound like I knew what I was talking about.
"Sounds like a great idea!" Cam said cheerily.
"Wait, what—Cam, when the hell did you get here?" I yelped, spinning around quickly. Beaky and Murphy glanced up at me and abandoned their cautious appraisal of each other. Amelia tensed. Cam was leaning casually against the wall, grinning lopsidedly at me and Amelia. His Beautifly was noticeably absent.
"When you two were busy moping," Cam said. At least he seemed happy enough. He had bought new clothes, like I had, and had even managed to take a shower and comb his hair. He didn't look like the Cam I knew, the Cam who I'd found sleeping in a dumpster once. He looked energetic, smart, prepared.
Amelia was staring at him, her whole body tensed up as if she was ready to bolt. "Where's your bug?" she said loudly.
"In here." Cam tapped a Pokéball hanging at his belt. "We're official trainers now, so we gotta do things the right way. Like keeping our Pokémon in Pokéballs." he glanced down at Beaky and Murphy, who had decided he wasn't a threat and had gone back to poking at the ground. "Are these two yours?"
"Yeah," I said. "These are Beaky and Murphy." Murphy looked up at the sound of her name, then back down again. Beaky ignored me entirely.
"I'm assuming," Cam said delicately, "that the Meowth is named Murphy, and the Wingull is named Beaky—otherwise, Riley, you would have a terrible knack for naming things. But then again—"
"Cut the crap!" Amelia suddenly snapped. She was glaring at him so intensely I was reminded of a Zigzagoon with its spiky fur puffed out and bristling. "What do you want?"
Cam shrugged, raising his hands defensively. "I heard you guys talking about the Gym challenge. There's a Gym in this city, you know. It'd be a good place to start."
"I know," I said. Mauville Gym, although all of us knew about it, was mostly off-limits for us. The pickpockets—and I mean the real pickpockets, the ones who stole money and Pokémon instead of sandwiches and socks—avoided it like the plague. Wattson seemed like a cheerful enough guy in the poster ads, but he had a very low tolerance for anybody who tried to mess with his trainers or his Gym.
"If it's such a great idea, you go first," I said.
"Nah, I'm not that dumb," Cam said levelly. "Beautifly are part flying-type. I'd get torn to pieces. In fact, so would…Beaky, here," he added, glancing at at the small Wingull. Amelia glared daggers at him. "So I'll come back later. I'm going south, maybe to Dewford—I heard the Gym there's full of fighting-types. If I decide to challenge it, it oughta be easier for us to pick up a win."
"Whoa, what a coincidence! I'm going north," Amelia said loudly. "We probably won't see each other very much. What a shame."
"Uh," I said, anxiety bubbling in my stomach. In all honesty, I hadn't really thought about where I was going to go. Cam was pretty good at planning ahead, but how did Amelia work out her next destination before I had? "Good for you."
There must have been something in my voice that clued them in, because Amelia and Cam stopped from their silent staring contest to glance at me.
"What about you?" Amelia said.
"Yeah, tell us your plan," Cam said. I groaned inwardly. Figures. The one time that both of them agreed on something, it happened to be the one thing that I didn't want to talk about.
"Oh, my plan," I said. The last thing I wanted to do was to look like an idiot in front of Cam. "Uh, yeah, I was going to take the Gym challenge. I decided yesterday."
"Oh, really?" Cam said, sounding mildly interested.
"Yeah, really?" Amelia said dubiously.
"Yes, really!" I snapped. "And I figured, uh, the best place to start would be—" Where was the closest gym? Rustboro? Lavaridge? A flash of inspiration struck me. "—Mauville!" I said triumphantly. "Yeah, I—I figured I might as well start here, since it's closest. And Murphy isn't weak against electric-types, so it should be okay. Yeah!" I stared at the two of them, trying to look as resolute as I could. Amelia, who'd been around to hear me gripe about my absolute cluenessness earlier, was looking highly doubtful of my impromptu plan. But it seemed to have fooled Cam, at least.
"Sounds alright!" he said cheerily. "Well, this has been really interesting. I guess I'll see you guys on the road sometime. We'll battle."
"Great," I said awkwardly.
"Whatever," Amelia said. She sounded like she would have been perfectly happy if she never saw him again. Cam glanced at her with a strange expression on his face, then turned back to me and grinned. He waved flippantly and strolled past us, out of the alleys and into the bustling street.
"See you on the road," he called over his shoulder. Amelia flipped him off when he wasn't looking, then turned to me. "He gives me the creeps," she hissed. "Him and his fucking Beautifly." Beaky waddled up to her and squawked. She picked it up and patted it on the head absently. "So, Mauville Gym, huh?"
Murphy sneezed. I glanced down, suddenly remembering our catastrophic attempts at battling wild Pokémon. A thrill of regret shot through me. Who was I kidding? A battle against an experienced trainer would be even worse.
I'm fucked, I thought. But what I said out loud was: "Yeah. Seemed as good as any."
Amelia looked at me carefully. "Uh," she said. "Can your Meowth even battle without claws?"
"Sort of," I said as convincingly as I could.
"You're fucked," Amelia concluded.
"Yeah."
"Electric types," I said to myself, quickly flipping through the pages of the battle guidebook in my hands. As it turned out, the Pokémon Center had a whole shelf full of handbooks and guides for beginning trainers, which were much better quality than the books I'd dug out of the recycling bins. "There aren't many ground-types around here," I continued, glancing down at the open atlas on the desk next to me. "I mean, there's the desert, but I think we should stay away from that…"
'We' referred to Murphy and I. A good few days had passed since Cam, Amelia, and I had gone our separate ways. Progress had been slow but sure. Murphy was getting quicker at landing Bites and was much, much better at responding to some of my more complicated commands. I still hadn't battled any trainers out of sheer nerves, but we were winning over most of the wild Pokémon at least. I glanced at Murphy, to where she was dozing on a stack full of books. Her whiskers twitched as she gazed at me through slitted eyes.
I'd taken to talking out loud to her a lot. I didn't know how much she understood—it had taken her a while to understand the more complex orders I gave her, but she now seemed to be able to obey them fairly accurately. On one hand, I doubted she really understood each word of my rambling. On the other hand, I felt sorry for keeping her cooped up in her Pokéball all the time and it beat talking to thin air.
"Something that resists electric then…let's see, rock, dragon, steel...maybe a grass-type?" I suggested. Murphy ignored me entirely. "Yeah!" I snapped the book shut. "Sure, that sounds good. Why not? We'll add a grass-type to our team. There've got to be plenty around here." I beamed, a little proud of my plan given that it'd taken me about ten seconds to come up with it. The only question now was what kind of grass-type I was going to catch. While combing through the shelf, I'd caught a glimpse of a book detailing the available species near Mauville, but it'd been an hour or so since I began reading and I thought that if I had to spend more time staring at a page I would scream.
We'd just wing it, then. "Come on," I said, getting up and pushing the stool back. Murphy meowed grumpily, seeming a little grumpy that I'd interrupted her doze, but got up willingly enough and followed me out the sliding doors.
We arrived on Route 117. Even though I'd headed west in an attempt to avoid the swam of biking trainers that travelled through Route 110 every morning, Route 117 was no less crowded with trainers. In a wide swatch of green grass by the side of the road, two of them were having an intense battle surrounded by a ring of onlookers. Suddenly curious, I made my way over to the battlefield to look, Murphy trailing behind me and occasionally pausing to pull up tufts of grass and chew on them.
The first trainer, an older boy with an orange jacket, was commanding a Swellow. The large bird Pokémon's glossy feathers gleamed in the sunlight as it dove and slashed through the air fiercely. The other trainer was younger, a girl with curly dark hair and glasses, but I couldn't recognize her Pokémon. It had pink and white silky fur and large blue eyes, and all around it strange ribbon-like appendages fluttered in the wind. Despite its fancy appearance, it was growling fiercely at the other Pokémon.
"Aerial Ace!" The boy called loudly, and the Swellow turned a series of quick loops in the air that dazzled my eyes. Then it dove down towards the pink-and-white Pokémon with a sudden burst of speed.
The girl wasn't fazed. "Quick Attack to dodge," she said calmly. "Then Moonblast!"
The smaller Pokémon darted out of the way with a speed that was almost impossible for me to follow, its dainty paws moving under its body in a blur. The Swellow barely missed it. Then it spun around and unleashed a glittering silver beam of light from its mouth. It was a direct hit and the Swellow faltered in its swoop, flapping its great wings rapidly to stay aloft. The crowd hollered. I had to admit, it was a really cool sight. Both Pokémon had a sleek, alert look to them, and their trainers clearly knew what they were doing. Then my heart sank slightly.
"You think we'll be like that one day?" I asked Murphy, glancing down by my feet.
Murphy was not there.
"Uh," I said, lifting my head and looking around quickly. The crowd of trainers and Pokémon around me did a great job of obscuring my vision. "Murphy?"
There was no answering meow. Not that I was really expecting it, since she only really responded to her name one out of four tries. I felt a frenzy of panic descend upon me. Did I just lose my only Pokémon in the first week of training? I had to be the worst trainer in the history of Hoenn. In the history of the world!
"Murphy!" I called, beginning to jog through the crowd, shoving people aside. "Hey, has anyone seen a Meowth? Hey!"
"Watch it!" someone snapped at me. I jostled past them, too busy panicking to apologize. Eventually I got through the crowd and stumbled into the tall grass, still frantically calling.
"Murphy!"
Then I saw her. She was standing on four paws, her back arched and spitting angrily. At her feet was a torn-off fragment of a small leaf. And across from her was a strange but angry-looking…plant? And then it moved, bringing one of the large flowers to face Murphy, and I realized it was a Pokémon.
Its skin was bright green and had a texture that reminded me of a flower stem. Large green leaves were draped over its body, revealing two short stubby legs. Two long stems protruded from its upper half, and on the end were two beautiful flowers, one red and one blue.
Murphy hissed again, her tail fluffed up and flicking from side to side. I glanced again at the leaf at Murphy's feet. It looked like a regular leaf, but it was the exact same shape and color as one of the leaves growing out of the plant Pokémon's side.
"Did you try to eat it?" I said loudly. Murphy completely ignored me; but the other Pokémon's spiky head swiveled toward me rapidly and it blinked at me with beady black eyes. I noticed that there were thin stalks growing from above its eyes, like eyelashes. It was unsettling, to say the least.
I stared at it. It stared back. There was a moment of sudden tension.
Then suddenly it exploded into motion. With a sharp, strange cry of: "Roselia!" It swept the red-colored flower towards Murphy. With a flick of its stem, a shower of tiny barbs shot out and flew towards her. Murphy leapt aside, her body arching upwards in an elegant display of agility, and then she was back on all fours and charging toward the Roselia (as I assumed it was called). She sprinted toward it and bit into its flank.
The Roselia screeched, a sound I didn't think it was capable of making. It flailed around desperately. Murphy leapt back when one of its large flowers came too close to her face. I watched, stupefied, before I realized that standing still with my mouth open was not exactly what I was supposed to do in a battle.
"Murphy!" I shouted. Murphy paused in the middle of another attack and turned towards me. "Uh, Fake Out!"
Murphy moved with impossible speed and slammed her front paws into the sides of the Roselia's head. It stumbled back, looking dizzy. "While it's stunned, get in close and use Bite!" I said, feeling slightly more confident. Murphy charged in again, jumping and chomping down on into the Roselia's head. But she released it quickly and backed away, spitting in apparent disgust and growling in pain.
The Roselia had recovered. It held its flowers in front of it and shook them. Green, glowing vines arched out from its body and wrapped around Murphy. I couldn't see what was wrong, really, but she yowled in pain and struggled to get away, flailing rapidly.
"Murphy! Bite the vines!" I called quickly, but Murphy was too frantic to listen; in retrospect, I would realize that she'd only known me for a week at this point, and her trust in me hadn't developed to the point where she would be willing to obey me in a more high-stakes situation. She hissed, her struggles getting weaker.
I panicked. Murphy wasn't responding, the Roselia somehow seemed healthier than it had before, and I couldn't see any way to get out of the situation. So I did something I'm not very proud of.
I picked up a rock and threw it at the Roselia. It missed. But the Roselia's head swiveled toward me again. I couldn't really tell what it was thinking (it was a plant after all), but for a second I thought it looked annoyed.
"Go away! You win already!" I threw another rock at it. That did the trick. It released Murphy, who slumped to the ground in exhaustion, and turned towards me. I never thought a plant could look menacing, but it pulled it off. Its flowers rotated towards me with a startling speed and it shot a swath of tiny barbs at me. I dove to the side, but I wasn't nearly as fast or graceful as Murphy had been and ended up stumbling to my knees. A cluster of barbs made it into my skin. They stung a little, but didn't really hurt. The Roselia, if anything, looked even more angry and pointed its large, colorful flower-arms directly at my face.
I panicked even more. The last thing I needed was for my face to be poked full of holes by a tiny murderous plant. I quickly tugged off my backpack and shoved it in front of me like a shield. Bam! The Roselia shot another wave of barbs and the fabric of my bag was bristling with the tiny white spikes. The zipper was open slightly and I tugged it down further, searching frantically until my hand came in contact with a smooth sphere.
I threw a Pokéball. It hit the Roselia in the face and opened in a burst of white light that sucked the plant Pokémon inside. The ball clattered to the ground, rolling and swaying in the grass, then cracked and burst open.
Wow. If I thought the Roselia had been mad before, now it looked completely pissed off. It whirled to face me, ready to turn me into a pincushion.
Out of pure instinct and also a very strong desire not to get killed, I threw another Pokéball. Another swooshing sound as the red-and-white sphere sucked it in. Another crack as the Roselia broke out, frantically scrabbling to get away.
Something in me snapped. I emptied the backpack, scattering Potions and other supplies all over the ground. There were quite a few more Pokéballs left and I started throwing them at the Roselia as quickly as I could. Swoosh. Crack. Swoosh. Crack. Swoosh.
Click. Ding.
What? I lowered my arm in a daze. The button in the center of the Pokéball emitted a red light for a brief second, then it faded.
"Oh my god," I said distantly. I was still on my hands and knees, staring dumbly at the Pokéball sitting in the grass. Murphy was slumped on the grass some feet away; she raised her head to look at me, groaned, and promptly passed out. Not that I really noticed; I was too busy staring at the Pokéball that now housed a Pokémon that almost certainly was going to try to kill me when I released it from its spherical prison. My legs still felt too shaky to stand, so I crawled over to the Pokéball and picked it up, half expecting it to burst open and the Roselia to strangle me with its vines. Nothing happened.
I picked up the Pokéball and clipped it to my belt. Almost on autopilot, I recalled Murphy, stumbled to my feet, and began to shove my items back into my bag. Then I set out back for Mauville, staying far away from the tall grass and the distant crowd of trainers, who were still watching the Pokémon battle. Two different Pokémon were brawling now, a Manectric (which I recognized from the numerous ads for the Mauville Gym floating around) and a strange, giant four-legged Pokémon with leafy wings. In the back of my mind (the part that wasn't busy screaming: what just happened? What the fuck just happened?) I hoped that the crowd had been preoccupied with the battle, and not too many of them had seen me embarrass myself.
It was a relief to be back in the Mauville streets and I made a beeline for the Pokémon Center. The nurse smiled sympathetically at me when she saw my slightly dazed expression. I handed Murphy's Pokéball to her without a word.
Then I spent the next few hours throwing up into the toilet because what do you know, Roselia were poisonous, and while the poison in its barbs wasn't enough to knock me out (like it had Murphy) it was still enough to keep me locked in the bathroom while other trainers banged on the door, complaining about how long I was taking.
I had my grass-type now. A Roselia that was probably going to poison me in my sleep.
And the worst part was, now I had to come up with another name.