Quick note: I do not own Pokémon. All I own are the characters Jason and his parents, as well as future characters I will mention as they are introduced. On that note, let's begin!
"I can not thank you enough for bringing me my briefcase." professor Rowan said to me. I took a bite of my sandwich, as Chimchar was eating on my shoulder.
"As for this Chimchar. I've been watching the two of you, and I think you should keep him. Consider him a gift for your hard work." I smiled, as so did Chimchar.
"I'm going to call you Heath. Would you like that?" I asked Chimchar. Chimchar smiled and hopped around happily. Soad looked at his new friend, and sung a happy song.
"Now, we must return to our lab in Sandgem Town, but stop by whenever you have the time." professor Rowan said, and he and Lucas left the restaurant.
I was walking back to the boat, and saw I still had an hour to kill before the boat arrived, and even more before it left. So I decided to go to the local Pokémart. As I entered the blue roofed building, I could see shelves filled with all kinds of items. From potions, to pokéballs. This store had everything a beginning trainer would need.
"Can I help you?" a man asked. He was wearing a polo shirt with the emblem of a pokéball on it.
"I'm just looking around. It's my first time off of Iron Islands, so everything is pretty new to me." I said. The store clerk smiled and showed me everything they had, and explained what it did.
After about half an hour, I walked back to the boat, and there it was. I quickly got on board, and returned home.
"Well, that was fast. You were only gone for a day. How was it?" my mom asked. Heath jumped off of my shoulder and ran around the café.
"I see professor Rowan gave you a Pokémon." my dad said.
"Yep, this is Heath." Heath jumped around happily.
A few days had passed, I had my hands full, keeping Heath from destroying everything as soon as he got in the kitchen. My father was mostly busy in the kitchen, where Soad helped him with the spices, together with Garreth, my father's Kricketune, and Leana, my mother's Loudred. When my dad wasn't busy in the kitchen, he was busy with something else. I was in the bathroom, grooming Heath, and giving Soad a bath. Dad came in, together with mom.
"Jason, your mother and I have been talking. And we've decided to finally let you on your well earned journey." dad said. He gave me a tin box, 20 pure white pokéballs, and painting supplies.
"So if you catch new Pokémon, you can paint their pokéballs. We both know you'll forget which pokéball is for who." mom said. I jumped up and hugged mom and dad. Mom gave me a thick brown leather jacket, with woolen insides. A set of winter clothes, a set of summer clothes, and a backpack to store it all in.
"Now get packing, we bought you a ticket for next boat to Cormona City." dad and I began packing everything I might need.
After a boat trip, I arrived on the docks of Cormona City, a city north of Eterna City, in the late morning. I could see sailors everywhere, lifting heavy crates together with their Pokémon. With Heath on my shoulder, Soad on my other shoulder and the egg in my arms, I walked around, taking it all in. My stomach growled, so I walked to a restaurant.
"Hi there sweetie, what can I get you?" a waitress asked.
"Can I still get the bacon and eggs with fresh orange juice?" I asked. She nodded.
"Of course, and for your Pokémon?"
"A small berry mix for my Chimchar, and some bug-nibbles for Kricketot." I said. The waitress nodded and left. After a few minutes, a woman walked around, and gave everyone flyers.
"grand re-opening. Weight gym. Challenge! If you dare!" a tall, big sailor was on the front, with a wide grin and his thumb up. I looked at Heath and Soad, now happily nibbling on their food.
"Hey guys, how about we begin our journey by challenging this Weight gym?" I asked. Soad whistled happy as he was chewing on a bug-nibble. Heath on the other hand was busy stuffing his face with berries.
After we ate, and I paid, we set foot to find the gym. A tall sailor was working in the harbor, lifting crates together with a Snorlax and a Bibarel. I tapped his back to get his attention.
"what do you want, kid?" the man said.
"I would like to challenge your gym." I replied. The man began laughing, but then saw my serious look. The man smirked.
"Okay, but I'm warning you. My team is pretty strong." he said.
We entered a large gym. You could see it was renovated recently. The sand covering the arena was reeked pretty recently, and was still looking clean. As I looked around at all the visitors, excited to see a gym battle from the little kid versus the big sailor.
"Alright everybody. Today, the first official match in the Weight gym! Newcomer to the gym challenge, Jason!" the referee said. I could hear people cheer around me, which made me a little nervous.
"He is challenging the one and only, Al the Weight gym leader!" the whole crowd went insane.
"This is a 2 versus 2 single battle match, only one Pokémon at a time in the ring. Good luck." the referee said.
"I choose you, Soad!" I said as Soad hopped off of my shoulder and got into the ring.
"Bibarel, let's show him!" Al said as his Bibarel walked into the ring.
"Soad, attack!" I said, not very experienced with the ways of a gym battle. Soad ran towards the opponent's Bibarel and headbutted him, only to bounce off.
"What the- continue, Soad!" I said. Soad kept headbutting the opponent's Bibarel, with no effect.
"Bibarel." Al said uninterested. The opponent's Bibarel turned around and swung his tail at Soad, sending him flying towards me. I took a small sprint and jumped to catch him. I could hear people laugh in the audience, while others yelled in awe. I held Soad in my arms, and saw he was down for the count.
"Take a rest, Soad." I said.
"Heath, your turn. Show him strength." I said. Heath hopped into the ring.
"Kid, you can always quit, you don't have to humiliate yourself." Al said. I ignored him.
"Heath, use Scratch!" I said. Heath ran towards the opponent's Bibarel as fast as he could, and aimed for a Scratch, while the opponent's just took it, not showing any damage. Garen sighted before giving his Bibarel a single command
"Water Gun, Bibarel!" he said. The attack hit Heath, and he was sent straight into my arms. I slid back a few centimeters, and could see Heath was out as well.
I fell to my knees. I could hear people laughing and cheering as they left, while I stayed put, not moving an inch. After the last person from the audience left, Al looked me in my eyes, before shaking his head. I slowly got up and went through my bag, looking for some potions. I found one, and shared it on my two wounded Pokémon. They got up just enough to hold on to me as we exited the gym.
I found an abandoned part of the harbor, and saw a couple of steel crates. I walked towards the first one I saw and began kicking and punching it.
"You stupid! *Bang* childish! *Clunk* piece of idiot! *Bam*" I began. My hands hurt from punching the steel frame, but I couldn't care less. I was at it for a while, before I heard a man walk towards me.
"Are you done?" I could hear Al say behind me. "because if you are, I might have some tips for you."
"Listen well kid, I'm only going to tell you this once. To train your Pokémon, you'll have to train yourself. You will never be as strong as a Machamp, or as fast as a Staraptor, but if you show your Pokemon something to respect, they will know what to do." Al said.
"Now, I want you to help me one day in the harbor. And I mean lifting, lifting and more lifting. I want to see you sweat, you and your Pokémon!" he added. I nodded respectfully.
"Go and eat, then sleep. I want you at the harbor at 8 am sharp!" Al said.
"I'll be there, thank you!"
And this concludes the second chapter of my story. I want to thank everyone who read this so far, and St. Elmo's Fire, who gave me some tips to work on. Unfortunately, as English is not my primary language, I cannot promise that ever chapter from now on will be perfect, but I will try my hardest to write the chapters to the best of my abilities. Anyway, see you all in the next chapter. Bye