As Dan walked past the opening between the white pickett fence and he entered Cherrygrove City, he was hit by a strong smell of flowers lining the path's border. As Dan continued down the path, he immediately noticed an old man waiting by the entrance. Dan thought he seemed harmless enough, and if he did do something weird, Dan could easily outrun the old man. As Dan continued down the path, ready to walk North towards Professor Pokémon's house, the old man stopped him in his tracks. This piqued Dan's curiosity, so he decided to stay and listen to what the man had to say to him.
"Hi, My name's Jim" The old man introduced. "You're a rookie trainer, aren't you?" Jim questioned. Before Dan could reply, Jim interupted. "Of course you are, you have a Pokémon with you." At this comment, Aqua jumped up and down, loving how he got noticed. "That's O.K." Jim continued, "Everyone is a rookie at some point. If you'd like, I can teach you a few things."
"Wow" Dan stated. As Dan thought about the conversation, he realised he didn't know a lot about how to actually look after a Pokémon. If Jim could teach him a few things, it certainly wouldn't be a bad thing. "Alright then," Dan replied.
"O.K. then" Jim exclaimed, with an obviously pleased look on his face. "Follow me!"
Jim zoomed off, kicking up small clouds of dust leaving Dan behind. Realising that Dan hadn't followed, Jim stopped near a building Dan had never really noticed. After a quick spin, Jim raced back towards Dan, who had been dumbstruck at Jim's speed.
"Ohh...I'm sorry" Jim started to apologise. "I forgot you weren't wearing the running shoes! I'll try to go as slow as possible, so try keeping up!" Dan had seen the running shoes advertised on T.V. before. They were a pair of super light-weight trainers with retractable running spikes and a spring hidden in the sole that were designed to increase the running speed of anyone. Unfortunately, they had a small setback. Using the trainers in areas heavily populated by Pokémon, seemed to attract more Pokémon than normal. As Jim began running as slow as he could, Dan still had trouble keeping up and Aqua was having trouble keeping up with Dan as he had such smaller legs.
"This is a Pokémon Centre" Jim stated, stopping in front of a large building. The Pokémon Centre had an orange roof with a white Pokéball on an orange background. The top floor was covered in windows, while the bottom floor had two white walls and a sliding glass door that jutted out from the rest of the building. "They heal your Pokémon in no time at all. You'll be relying on them a lot, so you better learn about them." Jim finished. As he did, he rushed towards another unfamiliar building. This time, the building had a large, spinning blue sign with another white Pokéball on both sides. The building itself was only small. It had a large blue door and a small window on the front. The roof was black with a blue rim that had a single yellow stripe running through the centre.
"This is a Pokémart" Jim stated as he turned towards the building. "They sell Pokéballs for catching wild Pokémon and other useful items." This time, Jim headed towards the edge of town, waiting at the Northern entrance.
"Route 30 is out this way" he exclaimed, again, turning towards the route itself. "Trainers will be battling their Pokémon there. If you go a little further, you'll see Mr Pokémon's house." After he finished that sentence, he headed South. As Dan followed, he noticed that the grass had started to turn into sand and he could smell salt in the air. As he got closer to where Jim had stopped, he could hear the waves lapping on the sandy beach.
"This is the sea, as you can see" Jim pointed out. "Some Pokémon are only found in bodies of water, like this." This caused Aqua to grin, showing his sharp teeth. Because Aqua was a Water type pokémon, he loved the beach and the ocean. After he showed Dan, he made a quick U-Turn and ran in the opposite direction to where he was facing. Their next destination was so far away, Jim had to stop to let Dan and Aqua catch up, before heading to the actual destination.
"Here..." Jim paused, a slight blush appearing on his face. "it's my house. For your effort keeping up with me, i'll give you my running shoes. They're still warm." As Jim handed a pair of shoes to Dan, Dan reluctantly took them, having no intention to wear a pair of shoes an old man had just been running around town in."Got you" Jim blurted out, a smile creeping up on his face. "Don't worry, these shoes are actually brand new, never been used before."
"Whew" Dan sighed, relieved he didn't have to wear Jim's shoes. "Thank you very much Jim" Dan replied with a grin on his face as he slipped on the new shoes suprisingly, they fit perfectly. As Dan looked up again, he saw the door to the man's house shut close, and assumed he had walked in.
"Well Aqua," Dan started, as he turned around to his partner. "Think you can keep up?" Dan asked, with a slight grin on his face.
"Toto-Totodile" Aqua defiantly stated, placing a fist on his puffed out chest, ready to run behind Dan.
"O.K. buddy" Dan slightly chuckled. "I'll go slow, just for you." After Dan had put on his new trainers, he started to head towards the northern entrance of Cherrygrove City. As he did, he noticed, even while going slowly, there was a noticeable difference between his speed now and his speed without the shoes. The houses, grass and flowers seemed to race past. Just before he reached the next route, Dan heard a familiar call. As he stopped, he turned around and saw Jim running towards him.
As Jim approached, he was huffing and puffing, clearly exhausted by a run Dan had managed to do with ease.
"Phew" Jim gasped as he attempted to get his breath back. "I made it. You left before I could give you this" Jim pulled out a small SD card and presented it to Dan. "This is another token from me. Let me just load this into your Pokégear." Since Jim had not done anything bad so far, Dan, still being cautious, handed over his Pokégear. Once Jim had it in his hands, he inserted the SD card into a small slot onto the side. Then, after a few minutes of loading, Jim handed the Pokégear straight back to Dan.
"There" Jim exclaimed. "I just loaded the Map Card into your Pokégear. It'll show a map of any region you are currently in, whether it's Johto, Kanto or even as far away as Kalos."
"Thanks Jim" Dan replied, before Jim started to walk back home without a single word. With this, Dan shrugged his shoulders and continued onto Route 30. Route 30 ran North to South with only two entrances/exits. It was covered in areas of dense woods, with lots of ledges and a few small ponds populated by water-type Pokémon, and large areas of tall grass. As Dan walked along the ledge, he encountered a green, banana shaped Pokémon with eyes and some small spikes that jutted out of its head. As a battle began, the Pokémon rumbled 'Metapod' before Dan sent out Aqua to battle.
"Alright Aqua" Dan defiantly said, "Use Water Gun". As Aqua started his Water Gun attack, the Metapod just seemed to stand perfectly still, letting the attack hit him straignt on. Afterwards, the Metapod seemed to tense up his muscles, increasing the strength of his hard shell.
"Not Harden" Dan mumbled quietly to himself. Harden was the only move a wild Metapod knew, and it can sometimes raise its defense to annoyingly high levels. "Aqua, keep using Water Gun until he faints"
It took Aqua two more Water Gun's to take down the Metapod because it kept using Harden to strengthen its defense. Once the Metapod had fainted, Dan continued to walk down Route 30. As he continued, he noticed a small object glinting in the sunlight, just ahead of where Dan was standing. As he approached, he ran into a small Pokémon that looked a lot like a caterpillar, with green skin, a big black eye and yellow rings running down the side of its segmented body. The main difference was the single, double-ended antenna instead of two single antenna on the top of his head. As it lifted its head up, standing on the back set of legs, it let out a little squeaky 'Caterpie'.
"Alright Aqua, Let's try your Water Gun attack on him." Dan commanded. As Aqua fired his Water Gun Attack, there was a special white glow surrounding the blast of water. As the water hit the Caterpie, there was a small explosion which resulted in the Caterpie instantly fainting.
"Whoa, was that a critical hit?" Dan questioned as he looked on in shock and awe. Aqua was shocked as much as Dan was, but he was soon beaming with pride from hi first critical attack AND his first One-Hit K.O. Once the Caterpie, Dan went to examine the shining item. As he got closer, he realised it was a Potion that someone had accidently dropped.
"Well, no-one's here, and no-one else picked it up so I guess it's finders keepers." Dan reasoned as he leaned down and picked up the vial filled with the purple liquid. As Dan walked up a set of stairs that had been carved into the side of a ledge, he saw a lone house with a small tree planted in the front. Having never been this far before, Dan assumed that it must have belonged to Mr. Pokémon. As Dan knocked on the door, a man's voice shouted 'Come in'. Dan pushed the door open and saw a middle-aged man sitting on a chair by his table. As Dan walked in, the man seemed extremely happy.
"Hi,"the man introduced himself. "My name's Alex. People usually come to my house looking for Mr. Pokémon's house. You did mean to visit my house right?" Alex asked. Not wanting to upset the Alex, Dan lied and said he had definitely meant to come to his house.
"How kind of you!"Alex exclaimed with a massive grin plastered across his face. "Do you...have any apricorns?" Alex asked. Dan had no idea what Apricorns were, so Dan just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head from side to side.
Alex started to explain. "Apricorn trees bear fruit once per day. I have one out front if you want to take it. Apricorns are really useful, you can even make Pokéballs out of them, if you're skilled enough. They can be used for other things but my memory is not what it used to be. I have a feeling that our meeting was meant to be. I'm so happy, i'll give you this. It's an Apricorn box for you to store all of your Apricorns in. It can store as many Apricorns inside of it as you want. I bet you'll be an excellent Apricorn collecter." Once Dan had been given the Apricorn box, he decided to leave as quickly as he could to avoid the awkward situation he was in. However, he decided to take the Apricorn from the tree outside Alex's house. He had just been given permission from Alex to take it, and he didn't want to disapoint him. As he shook the tree, the small, green berry that was slightly poking out of the top, jumped into the air, right before Dan managed to capture the Apricorn. As Dan walked past Alex's house, he noticed another discarded item on the ground.
"Who keeps dropping these things?" Dan questioned to himself, puzzled that someone had carelessly left items on the ground. As he walked closer, he noticed that the bottle was a different shape and the liquid inside the bottle was a different colour.
"I'll save this for later, who knows when you might get poisoned." Dan finished as he looked down towards Aqua, who had an upset look on his face, not wanting to think about being poisoned. As he continued North on Route 30, he noticed a pair of young trainers, maybe 10 or 11 years old, battling Pidgey and a small, purple, quadrupedal rodent with two large, front teeth and a cream underbelly. Once the Pidgey had attacked the small rodent, it let out a shrill 'Rattata' before it recovered. Not wanting to intervene, Dan continued heading North down the path on the right, hoping that it was the correct way to Mr. Pokémon's house.
After another couple of minutes and some more Pokémon encounters, Dan reached another lone house. As he approached, Dan noticed another Apricorn tree outside the house. After picking it up, he headed towards the door. Before Dan could knock, the door opened from the inside and Dan was greeted by another elderly man.
"You must be Dan," The elderly man stated. "It was I who sent the E-Mail to Professor Elm earlier. Come on in, take a seat."
"Thank you sir, but I don't plan on staying." Dan formally declined. However, Professor Pokémon insisted, and led Dan inside onto his seat, just opposite from another older gentleman in a lab coat, before rushing towards his bookcase, pulling out a glass case before carefully walking towards Dan.
"This is what I want Professor Elm to examine." Professor Pokémon whispered, just loud enough for Dan to hear, before showing Dan what was inside the glass case. "It's an Egg i've never seen before. A friend of mine from Ecruteak City gave it to me. I bet you can't find this kind of egg anywhere else in Johto. I thought Professor Elm might be able to tell what this is. 'He's the best when it comes to the research of Pokémon evolution'. That's a quote from the famous Professor Oak. You are returning to Professor Elm? Here, your Pokémon should have some rest."
"And with that" The other man in the lab coat stood up and started to walk towards Dan. "I'm Professor Oak, a Pokémon researcher." He introduced himself. "So you're Dan. I was just visiting my friend, Mr Pokémon and I heard you were running an errand for Professor Elm, so I waited here." As he finished, he looked towards Aqua who was sitting down patiently. "Oh! What's this? A rare Pokémon! I see. You must be helping Professor Elm's research. I think I understand why Professor Elm gave you that Pokémon. You will treat your Pokémon with love and care, it seems." He finished as he looked towards Dan. "Ah! You seem to be dependable. How would you like to help me out? See this? This is the latest version of the Pokédex." Professor Oak explained as he pulled out a small, red, electronic device. "It automatically records data on Pokémon you've seen or caught. It's a high tech encyclopedia! I'd like you to have it."
"Thank you Professor" Dan exclaimed as he accepted the Pokédex from Professor Oak.
"Now, go meet many kinds of Pokémon and complete that Pokédex! But i've stayed too long. I have to get to Goldenrod for my usual radio show. Dan, I have a feeling that this is not the last time we'll meet. Let's exchange phone numbers just to be on the safe side." After Dan and Professor Oak had exchanged phone numbers, The Professor left. Seeing as Dan had been handed the Egg, he waved a quick goodbye to Mr. Pokémon before he also left the house. As soon as he left, his Pokégear started to ring. The caller I.D. on the front showed that it was Professor Elm calling, so Dan picked it up, with the intention of telling the Professor what had just happened.
"H-Hello? Dan?" The Professor's voice quivered on the other end. "It's a disaster! Uh, um, it's just terrible! What should I do? It...Oh, no...Please get back here now!" The Professor almost screamed through the Pokégear, causing Dan to panic before hanging up.
"Well, sounds like we better hurry." Dan defiantly stated, before running back to Professor Elm.