"Okay", Diamond said. "I think we should visit your mom first. My mom's gone to Veilstone for a business trip.
"My mom's on a date, though", Pearl said. "She'll be back in an hour or so."
"Well, I should probably go see my dad before leaving, then", Diamond said. "I haven't trained today, anyway."
"Okay, then", Pearl said. "I guess I'll get to know my Human better."
a
Pearl stared at the Psi. The Psi stared back.
The two of them were sitting on two couches in Pearl's house. Neither of them had spoken.
The Psi got up and grabbed a deck of cards from the counter before sitting back down. It handed five cards to Pearl, picked up five cards, and placed the rest of the deck down.
"You want to play something?" The Psi nodded.
"Poker? War? Go Mermaid?" The Psi nodded at the last option.
"Okay, well… do you have a 5?" It shook its head. "Psi?"
"Sorry, what?"
"Psi?"
"I have no clue what you're saying."
The Psi placed its hand on the table.
"Psi."
"Yeah, I was getting bored, too", Pearl said. "Ummm… do you have a nickname?"
"Psi", it shook its head.
"I guess I'll nickname you, then. How do you like… Psycher?"
"Psi", it shook its head.
"Tate?" It shook its head. "Liza?" It shook its head. "Sabrina?" It shook its head.
"Alchemist? No, actually, that's a ridiculous name. *:)? No, that's hard to pronounce. How about Spiral?" The Psi nodded. "Okay, awesome. Spiral it is. Hold on…"
Pearl took out her Humodex. "Okay, I'll register your nickname in the 'Dex. Hold on… Okay, so let's see… Huh?"
"Psi?"
"It's not working…"
"Psi…"
"Let's go and ask my dad if he can fix it."
"Psi?"
a
"Hmmm…" Pearl read the note on the lab door. "Sorry, I'm not here at the moment. I've gone to Lake Verity for a few days. Please walk over if it's urgent."
"Psi."
"Well, it isn't urgent… I think we should go train instead."
"Psi."
a
A young Machoke walked into his family's dojo. Diamond couldn't talk to his mom at the moment (why had the Professor said mom specifically?), but he'd still wish his dad good-bye. He walked three steps and, noticing that nobody was in the dojo, he closed his eyes and concentrated. Feeling more than seeing the oncoming Bullet Punch, he turned toward it with his hands open, facing the attacker.
He caught the fist in his hands.
Once he took the admittedly weak punch (he noticed that it had been pulled at the last second), he tackled the low-level Human to the ground.
"Good, good. Son, I think it's time."
Diamond turned to his father, releasing the Human after it realized that it had lost. "Time?"
"Yes, it's time. I want you to finish your training before you leave. I want you", here, the old Conkeldurr paused, as if to be dramatic for some invisible, fictional audience, "to become a Master of the No Guard School of Fighting!"
"So you basically want me to punch you until you bleed?"
"No, I want you to start learning", another pause, "the advanced style!" Seeing his son's confused look, he added, "You have to start training your Human", pause, "and training with your Human!"
"That sounds simple enough." Diamond released his Psi. It looked around, confused, and he realized he hadn't actually met it yet.
"Okay", his father posed dramatically, "let the training…" Another pause and pose, "Begin!"
a
Pearl walked out onto Route 201.
"Okay", she said, "I've got an idea for your training. You'll be a glass cannon when you're fully evolved, in everything other than avoiding status effects. With your stupidly high willpower stat, you'll probably be able to take any type of status. I'm going to have you training for Speed and Special Attack, because training you for Willpower probably won't increase it much more than what you'll have." The Psi nodded. "Over here, there's a lot of Aeros – they're flying types, by the way, you can see them landing when they're searching for food; I thought I'd let you know their typing in case you knew about the type chart." The Psi nodded. "They're pretty common throughout the region, so on top of getting Speed EVs, you'll learn how to fight a common foe." The Psi nodded again. "However, you'll have to weaken and not knock out the Aeros if I ask you to. It would be a bit difficult to win the Tournament with one Human, especially since Ubers are banned. Aeros eventually evolve into Aerodynamkicks, and those are good physical sweepers with good coverage on their STABs."
Pearl's stomach growled. "Actually, I'm going to go make lunch. I want you to knock out Aeros and bring them to my house so I can scan them for IVs and natures. Attack as many Aeros or other weak Humans as you want, but only knock out exactly 170. If you get hurt, there's a healing machine in dad's lab. If you feel sick, go check with dad to see if it's Humorus. Do you know what Humorus is?"
"Psi."
"That's funny – I guess I'll have to teach you about the metagame later. In the meantime, avoid Trainers, evolved Humans, and roaming Legendaries. If worst comes to worst, here's my Humodex. Call my home phone if you're in trouble. I'll make some food for you too."
The Psi nodded in agreement.
"Is that all you can do? Nod?"
The Psi shook its head.
"Okay, never mind. What do you want to eat?"
"Psi!", it nodded.
"I have no clue what you're saying. I hope you get Telepathy soon." Pearl wondered if those Human translators she had heard about were available commercially yet. She then wondered if one would be worth the investment if she had a Psychic type that would evolve soon anyway.
"Psi!"
"Sigh… I'll go make pasta now."
"Psi!"
a
I looked around, confused. I was summoned by a pokemon? I was under the impression that the older one – the Professor – had been saving me to give to someone special.
"Okay, let the training begin!"
Training? I was going to train before being given to the child that would take me? I had thought that each Trainer trained their own Humans.
I looked around the building, wondering how I was going to train. I saw two pokemon near me. Both were rather large and muscular-looking, which meant two things:
1) They were likely to be the ones training me, although not likely to be Trainers – Trainers, as far as I had heard, were not used to training themselves.
2) Neither was the Professor, so I obviously wasn't being trained by the Professor. Perhaps he ran out of ideas to train, or perhaps he simply wasn't here at the moment?
3) I was going to have to stretch before training.
I bent down to touch my toes and heard the strange summoning noise. When I looked up, the smaller pokemon was being attacked by the larger one and by six Humans.
Well, that simply wasn't an honorable way to fight, even if it was training. I decided I'd have to even the odds.
I waited in the tall grasses. Mistress – I assumed the pokemon was a girl, although I was not certain – had been rather vague with her (his?) instructions. She gave me a certain amount of leeway with my task.
I had observed the Professor when he was teaching the Humodexes how to scan, and knew what to look for.
A low-flying Aero passed by me, close enough to the ground that I could easily attack him. I didn't, though. Instead, I asked, in its strange touch language, the Humodex to scan him. It scanned a bit more quickly and eagerly than I had expected it to, and its results were clear. Between 0 and 5 for all stats, I thought. I could knock this one out.
Standing up, I grabbed a stick off the ground nearby and plunged it into the earth. Calm, relaxed, but focused, I Teleported.
The Aero, presumably, did not know why I was standing on his back. Presumably, he also did not know why a stick had pierced his vital organs.
What would I do with the body, then? I could obviously Teleport with it to a river for a proper burial, but then a Trainer could see me. I could leave the body for scavengers, but they could be high–level and see me.
My stomach grumbled. Well, I thought, looking at the body, it would be better to use the food Mistress is making me as bait for a wild Aero.
a
Platinum woke up near a lake. She tried to remember why, but she failed.
"Oh, good, you're awake." The voice sounded friendly, and somewhat familiar. "How are you?"
Platinum glanced around, but she couldn't see anyone. Perhaps it was because she was on the floor, or perhaps it was because of the tall grass in her face, or perhaps it was just because of her pounding headache?
She wasn't sure, but she got up anyway. Near her was a mon. He didn't stare at her, but he did look curious. And familiar. "I… I'm fine. Who are you?"
"My name is Professor Pine. How are you? Do you know where you are?"
"I'm at Lake Acuity, right?"
"You are at Lake Verity?" Verity? "Do you who I am? Who you are?"
"I don't know who you are. As for me, I'm… Platinum. I'm a Human trainer. I was on a journey when I was attacked."
Pine looked at the Dusclops kindly, as if he felt sorry for her. "I am sorry for you, for you have suffered much, but by the Darkness, you will suffer more, for you are already dead."
a
I shall tell of adventures, marvelous and terrible, for that is what life is. Every Human and pokemon is their own hero, their own villain, their own world, and in this interaction of worlds, events become stories, and stories become Legends.
This… is my story, my Legend, and the Legend of that pokemon who I served. This is the story of companionship, of hope, of sorrows, of Darknesses and Beings completely Alien and of Existence Itself, of Abominations and no Reasons of Being and no Hopes of the farthest future, of Mastery of an Art and a fight for Peace. This, like any other story, will begin with this beginning, and never end.
-Legends, by Petrarch, the first Human writer in all of written pokemon history