I walked up to the door that read 'ROOM 214'. I pulled out the card, but hesitated to swipe the card. I suddenly started getting thoughts to what kind of people I'd be sharing a room with. I quickly brushed the thought aside and swiped the card in the slot, and the door unlocked.

I walked in and was immediately greeted with a black hand with claws being thrust towards me. I quickly closed my eyes and jumped back, startled, until I opened my eyes and realized the claws had stopped an inch from my face. Behind the hand was a Zoroark staring me down.

"Zzrghhhh…." The Zoroark growled. I stood there nervously, afraid that if I moved it could easily take my head off.

"Vigil!" I heard a voice shout. I saw a figure appear behind the Zoroark. "Stand down!"

The Zoroark lowered its claws and started backing away, but it kept glaring at me. The figure approached me, and I got a better look at the person. He had jet black hair, was pretty tall and well built. He also looked to be in his early twenties.

"Sorry about that, Vigil is pretty territorial and usually hops out of his ball when I'm not looking." He pulled out a green and black Pokéball, and the Zoroark retreated into it after a flash of red.

"It's alright," I sheepishly replied. "I'll just keep away from your Zoroark from now on."

"He's actually pretty friendly once you get to know him. He's just protective of his trainer, y'know?" He held out his hand. "Names Nathan. I assume you're our third inmate?" he chuckled. I shook his hand and replied, "Guess I am. Who's the third person?"

"Oh, there isn't a third person." He nonchalantly replied. I looked at him slightly confused. "I thought this was a triple room?"

"It is. Here's the thing: The triple rooms are always bigger, so I kind of trick the Nurse Joy at Centers by using my Zoroark's illusion ability by making it disguise as another person." He seemed rather proud of this, and I had to admit, it was pretty smart.

"That's… Kind of genius actually." I was pretty impressed. I guess you could get away with quite a few things if you had a Zoroark.

"I know it is! Anyway, you can choose whatever room you want, they're all pretty much the same size. Kitchen has quite a bit of food and refreshments too." Nathan explained. I heard a small purring noise, and looked down at Nathan's feet to see an Espeon. "Oh yeah, this is my starter Pokémon, Moonshine."

I have always had a deep love for the Eevee line of evolutions, and was happy to see my favorite among them. The Espeon looked up at Nathan, and there was a brief moment of silence. Suddenly Nathan spoke. "No you can't. We barely know him." Before I had any time to ask what he meant, I heard a voice.

"What is your purpose here?" The voice was calm and echoey. I noticed the Espeon was staring directly at me. I stood there flabbergasted.

"Did… Did your Espeon just talk to me?"

"Yes I did, human."

I jumped back in surprise. I looked up at Nathan who was grinning and stifling a laugh.

"If Psychic Pokémon have enough energy to do so, they can talk to humans using telepathy." Said Nathan. "Moonshine just spoke to you, am I correct?"

I slowly nodded, then turned my attention to the Espeon who climbed some furniture to get closer to my face.

"Your purpose, human."

I gulped, and sheepishly said, "My… Purpose?"

"Why are you in this room? In this building? In this city? In this region?" It demanded. It got louder as it listed each location. I was honestly intimidated by the small purple feline.

"I… I wanted to become a Pokémon trainer. I came to this region to become a Pokémon trainer. I'm stopping by in this city as I head to Floraroma Town…"

The Espeon seemed to glare at me. "I sense something about you." Suddenly, a loud ringing sensation filled my ears, and then it was gone almost immediately. The Espeon then walked away from the both of us.

"What did he say to you?" Nathan questioned.

"He asked me what my purpose was here… Any clue what he means by that?"

"No clue. Moonshine always likes to speak so that you're always left confused. Anyway, it is getting pretty late. We should probably get going to sleep." Nathan said. I was feeling pretty tired, so I agreed with him on that front.

…

I changed out of my regular clothes into my pajamas. Day two of being a trainer under my belt. I was about to head to bed before I remembered my Gligar. I pulled the Pokéball from my bag. Did Pokémon sleep in their Pokéballs? I suppose I could let out my Gligar so it could sleep outside. I feel like I haven't been letting it out enough.

After the light faded, the Gligar was standing before me. It stuck it's tongue out, and began to observe the surrounding area. I think it realized it was in a bedroom, as it got comfortable on the bed.

"Hey, I need to sleep there!" I called to it. I pulled off two pillows from the bed and placed them on the floor. "You can sleep on that!"

The Gligar looked at me, before reluctantly gliding down to the sad little pillow bed. It got comfortable on that and simply laid down. I laid down on my bed staring at the ceiling.

"Tomorrow, we're gonna be traveling to Floraroma Town, so I'll let you out all day tomorrow, okay?" I said to the dark ceiling.

"Gli-gar…" it replied sleepily.

"Yeah, same." I pretended to understand it. I slowly drifted to sleep soon after.

…

I was floating. I found myself floating in mid air. I started to examine my surroundings, and noticed the world around me was surrounded by dark purple clouds. An infinite space of dark purple clouds. I tried moving, but I felt no weight in my body.

Suddenly, a platform appeared underneath me. I was pulled towards the platform, and it felt weird to actually stand on solid ground again. Nothing else in the dark purple world happened. I was just left to stand on the singular platform. To wait. But nothing happened.

Then I noticed it was slowly getting hard to breathe. I started gasping for air, and felt something heavy on my face.

…

My eyes shot open, but I couldn't see a thing. I still couldn't breathe, and my face was heavy. I then realized the Gligar on my face.

I managed to pry him off, and started desperately gasping for air.

"Is that your sick way of waking me up!?" I snapped. It floated down to my side.

"Gli-gli!" It pointed it's pincers in the air.

"I really wish I knew what you were saying," I replied. I know Pokémon translators existed, but they were very expensive.

I wanted to roll back into the blankets and fall back asleep. I glanced up at the clock.

'10:21' it read. I slowly closed my eyes and wrapped myself in the blankets again.

Then I remembered about breakfast.

I immediately shot out of bed and frantically started throwing on some clothes. I was starving, and didn't want to miss out on breakfast. I rushed out the door, but was immediately stopped by a Nathan in my way.

"Oh, you're up?" he asked.

"I need to go down and get breakfast, no time to talk!" I said. He laughed and held out a styrofoam container.

"You were sleeping in pretty late, so I decided to pick you up some breakfast in case you missed it. Here, didn't know what you liked so I kinda got you a bit of everything."

I looked down and took the container. "Th-thanks…" I said, kind of surprised. I walked over to a table and opened the container, and I could feel my face light up with what I saw.

Oran Berry pancakes, a cheese omelette, bacon strips, and hash browns. I started popping hash browns into my mouth one after the other, and I heard Nathan chuckle behind me.

"Hungry I assume?"

"Mmph- very-" I said with a moth fill of hash brown. I started digging into the the pancakes before I heard something land next to me on the table.

"Gli-gar gar!" Gligar whined.

I picked up a piece of bacon and held it out to it. "You want some bacon Dirt Wing?"

"Dirt Wing?" I heard Nathan ask. I had just realized what I said.

"I mean- Gligar! Dirt Wing is a dumb nickname someone made up the other day…" I tried to recover. The nickname was starting to be implanted into my mind.

"I think it's suiting, bring a flying ground type and all. But that's just me," he shrugged. Nathan sat down across from me and attempted to steal some of my food, but I hissed at him like a Purloin.

"Gligar your only Pokémon?" he questioned.

"Mmmhmm," I nodded. "Just started two days ago."

"Ah, gotcha. I remember my first two days. I had nearly died on three separate occasions."

"Three? Jesus. What happened?"

"The first one is when I encountered a rogue Electabuzz, the second involved a Whirlipede, and the third time I nearly fell off a cliff edge." He calmly pointed out.

"If I asked you how many times you've nearly died on your entire journey, how much would that total?"

"More than a hundred, that's for sure." He managed to snatch a piece of bacon from my food.

"So, what kind of trainer are you? Another badge collector I assume?" I asked. I discovered some fries underneath the omelette and started eating those.

Nathan seemed to think for a moment before responding. "I just like training Pokémon for the fun of it, y'know? I don't collect badges, I just want to have a good time. I do travel across multiple regions collecting various Pokémon, and I'm actually here in Sinnoh to do some research on the Great Marsh in Pastoria City."

I was interested in what he had to say. "So, you're like, what, a researcher?" I was curious.

"You can say that. I just work with people who help me get a better understanding for Pokémon. So, yes, I guess you could call me a researcher." He smiled and we continued to discuss things about each other and what we want to do in our futures.

Nathan's been a trainer for nearly ten years now, and has more Pokémon than he's legally allowed to carry with him, as the limit is six. He has his Espeon and Zoroark, his right and left hand partners, a Flygon which he uses to get around, a Stoutland which was originally his household pet, and many others which included a Heracross, something called a Kingdra, and a Pokémon called Altaria. Nathan was a pretty interesting guy.

"Hey, listen, I have to get going and meet with a friend. It was cool talking to you… I just realized I don't even know your name." Nathan said as he threw on his bag.

"Oh! Right! I completely forgot!" I held out my hand, "I'm Marcel!" He shook my hand.

"Hopefully we run into each other again. I'm staying in Pastoria City for quite a while to work on my research. Come by and drop in to say hi when you get there." Nathan said with a smile.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind. I'm headed to Floraroma…" I had just suddenly remembered something. "Town! Shit- crap- Elena! I forgot about her!" I panicked, and j scrambled to get my stuff together. I heard Nathan laugh from the doorframe he was standing in.

"See ya around little man." And he walked out.

…