Chapter 4
A sea of black.
That was all John could see. He seemed to be floating in this eternal void, as far as he could tell, anyway.
"Hello!" he called. "What is this? Where am I?"
The void did not reply. Instead, he felt as if his very existence was draining out of his body and into this void he was in.
"Hello! Anyone… What's going on…" He quickly began to lose consciousness as the darkness continued to draw from his soul. He felt himself slip away as he continued to try calling out to the void.
"Wait…"
"Piplup…"
"Be careful, Penguin. You don't to frighten him out of sleep, do you?"
"Pip… Piplup…"
His eyes opened groggily, barely opening at all at first. He could see a little blue penguin Pokémon slightly nudging his left arm from the floor next to his cot. She seemed genuinely concerned that he wasn't awake yet.
"Well, good morning, you…" As John rose slowly upright in his cot, the little Pokémon grinned in triumph.
"Piplup." While the Piplup waddled back to her trainer, John took the time to recall the events of yesterday. He had applied for his professor's pass online, and within 5 minutes, a light blue card was spat out of a machine next to it, showing the picture he had submitted as well as his personal information. Pulling it out of his pocket, he glanced at the Poke Ball on the upper right corner of the card, his proof that he had a professor's pass, which granted him full access to the Pokémon Storage network and full party Pokémon capabilities. After this was done, he had decided to contact his mom.
"You got a Pokedex?! That's fantastic, John!"
"Thanks, Mom. I'll probably be heading out to Jublife tomorrow morning."
"Before you go, though, I have something to give you. Can you wait for me?"
"Not a problem, Mom. See you tomorrow!"
He had taken a makeshift bed in one of the Trainer rest floors, where each and every Pokémon Center provides free, temporary, apartment-like service to all Trainers who are passing by. His little Chimchar had taken to sleeping right next to him in the bed, but he had to be returned to his Poke Ball after he had almost set the bed on fire. He pulled out the Poke Ball and tossed it onto the ground.
Inferno had still been sleeping as well, and was found continuing his sleep when he came out of the capsule. Noticing this, the Piplup sighed.
"Pip, pip…" She slowly went over and began nudging him into alertness as Rebecca handed him his bag.
"Good morning, sleepy."
"Morning."
"I think your mom's downstairs already. I think she has a change of clothes for you."
"Good. I need them…"
As he rode down the escalator, he couldn't help but sort through his thoughts.
What on Earth was that dream about? Nothing happened, really, but that's what worries me the most. Not like I can figure this out right now, though, so let's worry about the major things right now. I'll figure this out later. Reaching the first floor, he saw his mom in a chair on the opposite end of the room. She got up from the chair, holding a stack of clothes and two objects John couldn't recognize.
"John! You're finally awake! Congrats on the Pokedex!"
"Thanks, Mom." After a brief hug, he carefully put the clothes in his big pocket in his backpack. "What are these blue things?"
"These," she answered proudly, "are the latest versions of the Town Map that was released. Go ahead, pull the two handles apart!"
Doing as instructed with one of them, they revealed a thin computer screen unrolling in between them. On the screen was a real-time map of the Sinnoh region, with a red dot blinking over a town to the west labeled as Sandgem.
"That's really cool," Rebecca remarked. "Mine's still paper."
"This is fantastic, but why do I have two?" he asked.
"Well, Barry was supposed to get one from his mom as well," she admitted, "but he hasn't called yet, so we were hoping you could find him faster."
He sighed silently to himself.
"I'll do what I can." She sighed as well.
"Well, have fun, John! See the world for me."
She began walking out the door, but not before taking one more glance at her only son, who was silently waving. He continued to stare at the door as Rebecca returned from the front desk holding a couple of granola bars.
"For the trip," she said. "We should stop by the Poke Mart next door before we leave. I don't think you have any Poke Balls, do you?"
"Nope. It would be nice to have some, though."
A few minutes later, John walked out of the blue building, sun well above the horizon, holding several miniature Poke Balls. As he placed them in his bag, he glanced at his Chimchar, who returned his gaze with silent eyes.
"Let's get going," he announced. "Don't want to burn anymore daylight."
And so they began. Two trainers and their Pokémon set out to the north of Sandgem, heading into the journey that would change their lives forever.
The trail seemed to wind around and around, taking up as much space as it possible could. After about 15 minutes, they stopped to take a break, mainly because Penguin was beginning to fall behind.
"Pip… Pip…" she moaned, waddling over to Rebecca's feet and plopping its butt down quickly.
"Come on, Penguin…" her Trainer replied, a small grin on her face as she watched her Pokémon sit down. "You're doing great…"
"Piplup…"
Looking around, all John could see was the dense row of trees on either side of them. Luckily, his new map showed that they were heading the right way, and showed that the trip to Jublife was halfway over. Eventually, he noticed an alcove in the trees, and he thought he could hear movement in the grass that covered it.
"Hey, Rebecca… I think we have some company." Following his gaze, she saw what he was looking at.
"Nice find, John. Good eyes there." She glanced at her exhausted Pokémon. "Tell you what: how about you get the first shot at it? I think Penguin here needs a little more time to rest."
"Agreed." He looked his Pokémon, who was already psyching himself for action. "You ready for this?"
"Chim. Chimchar!"
"Let's do this." The little chimp stood next to him, paws raised and ready to fight. John glanced at the rustling grass.
Hm… It's not much… Not a big Pokémon, all right. From the pattern, it's probably a bird. In these parts, that could only mean… "Inferno, try to draw that Pokémon out of the grass."
The little chimp ran into the grass. "Chim, chim." After a few seconds, a screech could be heard as the Pokémon in question leapt out of the grass.
"Star!"
"Chim!" the chimp cried, scared out of his mind. "Chimchar!'
What the… Glancing at the Starly who was attacking him, his face paled. Oh, crap, look who we found. Scars and all, this Starly was the same one that had attacked him the other day. That's not good. What to do… We need to stop it from buzzing around his head all day. "Inferno, knock it down!"
"Chim?"
"Try climbing the tree and jumping it!"
"Chim!" Recovering from the initial shock of the encounter, Inferno quickly scaled the nearest tree, and the Starly fought hard to plow through the foliage to strike the chimp. Luckily, the little bird was unable to, and Inferno wasted no time in leaping out of the tree and grabbing hold of the Starly.
"Star…" It didn't take long for the bird to collapse under the weight, the two Pokémon tumbling to the ground. Inferno rose to his feet quicker.
"Remember: aim for the scars, but don't hit so hard this time."
"Chim." Wasting no time, the Pokémon landed a few scratches on the bird's body, right in the same spot as before. Unfortunately, the little bird wasn't please by the same kind of injury.
"Starly!" The little bird reared its head and slammed into the chimp before he could land another hit.
"Chim!"
Crap, this is happening so fast… Gotta make a move quickly... "Inferno, pin it down!"
Inferno quickly grabbed the Starly's head with both hands, trying to drive it to the ground. The bird wasn't letting up, though, and it looked like Inferno was going to lose the struggle. However, the little chimp had other plans.
"Chimchar!" The Pokémon reared its head and blew at the little Starly. However, instead of air, a few bursts of fire erupted on the bird's face.
"Yeah!"
"Ember attack!" Rebecca exclaimed. "Looks like Chimchar's growing stronger already…"
Starly recoiled backwards, eyes beginning to glaze over in pain. Noticing this, John seized the opportunity. Reaching into his belt, he pulled out one of his new Poke Balls.
"Inferno, move!" As the chimp let go of the bird, he twirled away from one of the bird's Tackles, and John threw the ball at the Starly, who was absorbed into the capsule with a flash of blue light. The ball closed shut, and fell to the ground. It began to twitch. Once… Twice… Thrice… Click!
"We did it! We caught a Pokémon, Inferno!"
"Chim!" With a victorious high-five, the duo rejoiced in their successful capture. Walking over, he picked up the Poke Ball containing his new companion.
"Welcome to the team…Raptor."