The next morning, Dan was awake and dressed quicker than he'd ever been before. This was one of the most exciting days of his life. Every person dreams of going on their own, unique journey to accomplish their own, unique goals, but not a lot of people manage to be successful. As Dan grabbed his backpack he and his mum filled last night, he rushed downstairs to see Aqua. Aqua didn't notice Dan had appeared as he was too busy eating his breakfast. However, Dan's mum had heard his heavy footsteps from downstairs and was already getting his breakfast ready.
"Big day today," Dan's mum said as she and Dan had started to eat their breakfast, Dan having chocolate spread on lightly cooked toast while his mum had a bowl of cereal. "Setting out for your own journey, travelling all over Johto. Now, I know you probably don't want to hear this," Dan's mum paused to take another mouthful of cereal before carrying on, "But I do want you to follow some rules." Once she finished her sentence, she put her spoon down and looked straight at Dan with a very serious look on her face. "First," she started to explain, "I want you to call me everyday. Second, make sure you change your pants and socks every day. We packed all of your clothes so you should be able to last a good couple of weeks. Third, keep your dirty clothes and your clean clothes separate. Otherwise," her serious look changing to a small smile, "have fun." She ended, continuing to eat her cereal. Once Dan had finished his mouthful, he replied.
"Sure will Mum," before looking down at Aqua, "and you can remind me, right buddy?" Dan playfully asked his small blue friend. Realising that he was being asked a question, Aqua gulped down the food in his mouth before placing a fist on his chest and letting out a defiant 'Toto' and finishing the last pieces of his breakfast.
As soon as Dan and Aqua had finished, he gave his mum a quick hug goodbye before walking out the door, officially starting his journey. Remembering what the professor had told him yesterday, he decided to head towards Violet city. Pulling out his Pokégear, he opened up the map and noticed that Violet City was just past Mr. Pokémon's house.
"Right," He quietly said before looking down at Aqua. "Come on Aqua, I know just where we need to go." Once Dan had shown the map to Aqua, he started to run out of town towards Route 29, he noticed Lyra and Marill were playing together. Marill was excitedly running circles around Lyra which caused Lyra to turn around. As soon as she had, she noticed Dan standing still with Aqua by his side. Lyra's kind and playful nature caused her to beckon Dan over.
"There you are!" Lyra called out to Dan, "We've been waiting for you. Seeing as your going out on a journey, I thought I'd show you how to catch wild Pokémon. It's not like you can do everything with just one Pokémon," Lyra stopped to look down at Aqua, who had a slight scowl on his face after Lyra's last comment. "Even if he is super cute and super tough!" Aqua realised this was Lyra's apology, and his small scowl changed into a giant grin. Smiling back at Aqua, Lyra looked back towards Dan who had just been observing. "Follow me, I'll show you just what to do." As soon as Lyra finished, she spun around and walked further down the route. As Dan followed close behind, a small, purple rat with red eyes, cream whiskers and a long tail jumped out, with a fearsome little 'Rattata'.
"Alright Dan," Lyra started, with a slight grin on her face, "watch and learn. Go Marill!" Lyra commanded, pointing at the Rattata before Marill jumped out in front. "Marill, use Tackle." As soon as Marill heard Lyra shout 'Tackle', she charged into the Rattata as fast as she could, slamming into him with all her might. This seemed to cause the Rattata to stumble, but not cause any visible damage. As soon as it recovered, the Rattata turned around and started to swing its tail back and forth, mesmerising Lyra's Marill.
"O.K. Dan," Lyra started to speak, " We lowered its health, so now we can throw a Pokéball at it." Lyra stuck a hand in her bag, rummaging around for a Pokéball. As soon as her hand brushed up against the small, metallic sphere, she firmly grasped it, yanking it out of her bag. As she took aim, she pulled her arm back, before throwing the ball at Rattata with all her might. Before the Rattata could react, the Pokéball smacked him in the head, before opening up and engulfing him in a bright red light. After a few seconds, the red light was drawn into the Pokéball, immediately sealing shut before landing on the ground. As Dan, Lyra, Aqua and Marill all watched on in silence, the Pokéball rocked back and forth once...twice...thrice, before hearing a small *click* sound, confirming that the Rattata had been freely Lyra walked up to the Pokéball, she continued her explanation.
"And that's how it's done." she boasted. "Although, you really should lower its health more than I did, or make it go to sleep or something. I guess we just got lucky, right Marill?" As she looked down at her partner, Marill beamed back up, excited that she may get to have a new friend to play with. As Lyra looked back at Dan, she opened up her bag to have a look inside. "Here, you can have these to start off with" Lyra insisted as she pulled out five Pokéballs. "They are all empty, so you can catch your own Pokémon with them. Anyway, I got to go see my Grandparents. They run a Pokémon Daycare on Route 34, just South of Goldenrod City. I left a Pokémon there and I said I'd pick it up later today. See ya!" she waved as Lyra and Marill both headed to Route 34. As soon as Lyra had walked out of earshot, Dan looked down at Aqua, as Aqua looked back up at Dan.
"O.K. buddy, let's keep going." Dan encouraged, before jogging down Route 29. Dan and Aqua ran into many Pokémon along the way, but Dan and Aqua had seen them all before. Even though Dan could capture them, he thought they would be too weak as Aqua had already defeated them numerous times before. However, Dan decided to take a little detour. He hadn't used it on his way to Mr. Pokémon's because it headed in the direction of New Bark Town and he hadn't used it when he was rushing back because he was in a hurry, but now that he had started his journey, he decided to explore. As he headed along, he noticed that someone had dropped something on the floor. As Dan got closer, he realised it was another full Potion that someone seemed to have dropped.
"Yoink." Dan muttered as he picked up the small bottle. before turning around and heading back towards Cherrygrove City, running into even more Pokémon. Along the way, he noticed a lone Apricorn tree he hadn't seen before. Intrigued, he walked up and decided to pluck the green Apricorn, slightly sticking out from the top of the small tree, before rushing into Cherrygrove City. Instead of just charging through, Dan decided Aqua should get some rest at the Pokémon Centre after the numerous battles he had been through. As he walked up to the desk, he was greeted by a tall woman standing behind the desk with fair skin, blue eyes and pink hair with a curled fringe and tied in two large loops at the back of her head. She was wearing a short, pink, collared dress, White pinafore with a giant bow tied at the back, white dolly shoes with white straps and a Nurse hat with a small red cross in the centre.
"Hello," she greeted, with a sweet, but professional voice. "Welcome to the Pokémon Centre. My name is Nurse Joy. We restore your tired or fainted Pokémon to full strength. Would you like to heal your Pokémon?" Nurse Joy asked, with a sweet smile, waiting for a response.
Dan simply nodded his head in response, before Aqua jumped up onto the desk. Dan simply pulled out Aqua's Pokéball and returned Aqua inside, the red beam of light engulfing Aqua's body before being sucked into the Pokéball. As soon as the Pokéball snapped shut, Dan handed the capsule over to Nurse Joy, who placed the capsule in a small indentation on a large machine to left of where she was standing. As soon as it was in place, Nurse Joy switched on the machine. The machine immediately started to whirr, causing Aqua's Pokéball to glow with a faint, yellow energy. This only lasted for a few seconds before the machine switched off. As soon as the machine stopped, Nurse Joy grabbed Aqua's Pokéball and handed it to Dan, who immediately released Aqua. Aqua seemed fully restored and bursting with energy, ready to battle the next Pokémon he saw.
"Your Pokémon has been fully restored." Nurse Joy explained, that sweet smile appearing on her face. "Please feel free to come back any time your Pokémon are injured or tired." Dan simply nodded in response before waving goodbye and heading outside with Aqua close in tow. As soon as they were outside, they rushed up Route 30. After battling a few more wild Pokémon and picking another Apricorn, Dan noticed the two kids he saw having a Pokémon battle had returned, except they weren't battling this time. One of the kids was searching through an area of long grass while the other was waiting just past the small ledge. As he attempted to walk past, the boy searching through the grass had seen him.
"Hey!" the small boy shouted "I'm Joey. I lost a fight yesterday, so I'm trying to find more Pokémon to help me. Could you help me train my Rattata?" Joey asked. "I want to see how strong he is now." Dan accepted the boy's challenge, deciding it would be a good chance to see how strong Aqua had gotten in the process. As Joey sent out his Rattata, Dan sent out Aqua to battle.
"Alright Aqua," Dan calmly ordered, "Use Water Gun." As soon as Aqua heard which move Dan wanted him to use, Aqua reared back, storing as much water as possible before unleashing the mighty stream at Joey's Rattata. Aqua had used this move so many times, it was almost second nature, and it was executed almost instantly. Although it may have been enough to defeat a wild Pokémon, the trained Rattata withstood the attack.
"O.K. Rattata," Joey started to command. "Tackle him"
As soon as Rattata heard his trainers command, he charged straight into Aqua. Compared to Aqua, the Rattata was just slower than Aqua, but compared to other, weaker Pokémon, the Rattata was extremely fast. Rattata rammed right into Aqua's chest, trying to damage Aqua as much as possible. However, the attack barely moved Aqua, causing minimal damage.
"Aqua," Dan slightly raised his voice, trying to show the urgency in his voice, "Scratch him while he's close." Understanding Dan's command perfectly, Aqua's claw glowed white, before swiping across the purple rodent's back. This caused the Rattata to collapse on the ground at Aqua's feet.
"Noo!" Joey shouted. "Rattata, return." Joey stated, holding out Rattata's Pokéball, the red energy, engulfing the fainted Pokémon before drawing him back into the Pokéball. "Guess we need more training." Joey mumbled, looking at Rattata's Pokéball with a sad look in his eyes.
Not wanting to upset the boy any further, Dan and Aqua continued onwards up Route 30, battling more trainers and wild Pokémon. They battled the other young boy, Mikey, who used a Pidgey and a Rattata and a Bug Catcher named Don who used two Caterpie in battle. Dan and Aqua managed to defeat them all with ease as Aqua grew stronger with each victory. As Dan and Aqua continued along the new part of Route 30, they noticed a dark cave and an item just to the left. Dan's collective nature drove him to pick up the item first, which turned out to be another Potion someone had dropped.
"Who keeps dropping all these?" Dan wondered, picking up the small bottle of purple liquid and storing it in his backpack with all his other potions Will had given him the day before. Once he put the potion away, Dan and Aqua walked towards the entrance to the cave, trying to take a look inside. Unfortunately, the Cave was pitch black, preventing Dan or Aqua to see past the faint light the sun was emitting through the small entrance.
"Well, let's go." Dan nervously stated. "Who knows what's in there." Dan nonchalantly stated to himself and Aqua, unknowing that inside, he would find his newest partner.