III: Route 29 and Cherrygrove City
Author's Note: Andddddd this chapter was so late XDD BUT I HAVE REASONS
One: I have lost my USB in which I have unfortunately dropped in a sewer, causing the loss of all my fanfictions. Legit, I placed it on the hole-surface-thingy-cover and when I pulled my keys out, it got stuck, causing it to fall. GREAT! This caused me to create a new chapter from scratch, so I hope you forgive me.
Two: school has also been really difficult for me to work my way around, especially finding time to make and continue chapters. So, it may be possible that my next chapter may (or may not, you never know) be late.
In response to FuyuMii, thank you for the nice review. And yes, I hope I can update soon. To answer your question, yes this is based off from the games. This is after the events of the latest games, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, six years after. However, I do try to stick to one region and to use only the Pokémon used in that one region, rather than the other regions.
Hope y'all enjoy!
'It definitely feels weird to leave New Bark Town,' Hannah contemplates, walking aimlessly down the road, 'but…where do I go after this?'
After receiving their first Pokémon (well, second for Hannah), they walked down the lively, yet calm road of Route 29. The grass was full of Pokémon that was full of life; full of serenity. Pidgies flew high above, seeing more of the world rather than at ground-level; Hannah kept on reminding herself that she too would be flying around at that height sometime—eventually. She had to hold down her beret a few times until Lukas placed a hand on top of her head to spare her the trouble.
Hannah at one point had a bit of a crush on Lukas, but he was 'completely out of her league', since he was in his own group of 'popularised' people, and Hannah was living the average life. It pained her a few times, but she embraced her normality.
Hoppips jump around the path, not seeming to mind as the two trainers and non-wild Pokémon walk past. The Hoppips dance like ballerinas in suspension of the moon's gravity.
"By the way," Lukas states, "what do you have in your bag?" Snapping Hannah of her thoughts, she answers the question, but not in the way that she was expecting her response to come out.
"U-Uh, er…Just m-mainly food…" she stammers. "I also brought myself some clothes."
"Mm…" the latter mumbles as he notices Eevee flailing playfully on the grass, feeling the soft, green blades running through his fur. "Wait, food?"
"Yeah…" the female answers, halting her movements in a slow manner. Her stomach growls a low, rumbling sound, which made Hannah wrap her arms around her lower torso in an embarrassing manner. She can feel the 'aftermath' embrace her abdomen as it aches in hunger.
"Uwah…" she painfully groans, quickly pulling the container full of precious, temporary goodness that could pull her away from her hunger out of her bag.
Lukas scoffs. "We're not even at Cherrygrove City yet—" he sits down next to her on the grass as she quickly prepares her food in an informal matter, "—but you're dying of hunger?"
"Well, it's not my fault!" she defends, holding a plastic spoon that her mother sneakily placed in her bag before she left. "I was in a bit of a rush." Eevee runs over to the two trainers, inhaling the aroma of the rice and meat that tingled his senses.
"Objection," he mocks as if they were in the court, "you should've woken up earlier, then that way, you wouldn't be in this situation." It was a valid point he brought up, but she didn't really care at the given moment. Scooping up food generously in her utensil, she ends up eating—however, she eats just a little too fast.
"Oh, my Arceus, I got indigestion…" Eevee leaps up from the ground and lands on her shoulder, giving the signal that he wants some. "Here," she said, holding a spoon of warm fried rice, "eat up." The Pokémon eats up every grain of rice on the spoon, earning a happy cry.
"Say…" Lukas has an idea in his mind, so he voices it to his accompaniment. "Why don't we try out those Poké Balls that we got from Elm? It could help us a lot." A pack of joyed Sentrets jump near the three as they wander into the trees. Hannah looks up at him whilst finishing the last spoonful of food, her eyebrow cocking up.
"Right now, I wanna explore more," she states, Eevee jumping into her lap, closing its eyes with a small smile, "but you can—"
Lukas cuts her off, placing a finger on her lips. "No, no, I meant the starters," he elaborates, combing his wavy hair with his hand as the wind passes by, giving him that 'model' look, "not those spare Poké Balls."
"Oh," she sighs, extending the syllable and realising what he meant, "alright. I think my Chikorita will beat your Cyndaquil any day."
The other smiles, his eyes shooting up at the beautifully-clear skies. "If you learnt from your education," says Lukas with a mischievous look attached to his face, "you should know that grass is weak against f—"
"Objection!" Hannah interrupts loudly, slamming the grass with her fist. Eevee opens up one eye to see what' happening, then goes back to napping. Hannah suppresses a smile, dealing with the fact that she copied a small piece of his speech's mannerisms, yet using it against him. "Starter Pokémon do not have an elemental type attack as soon as they are given to the trainer." Hannah crosses her arms, contradicting his fact.
"My, my," Lukas says, "since when did you copy the way I say things? Do you really pay attention to every little word that comes out?" he flirts, in return earning a tomato-faced Hannah.
"S-Shut up..." she quietly retaliates, rubbing Eevee's fur continuously, which made the Pokémon happy in an instant. "Let's just start." Hannah gets up, walking a few meters away with her bag whilst putting the container away neatly.
"Alright, Hannie," he mocks, causing her to become angry in as fast as a flash.
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!"
Lukas cracks it, falling over backwards onto the grass. A moment passes, and a tear sticks to the side of his eye. He proceeds to get up from his spot, walking in the direction opposing Hannah by another few small lengths. 'Hannie' is definitely one name that Hannah is not fond of. A few of her best friends call her that for the sake of pissing her off, but if anyone else decides to call her that…they've got a literal death wish.
The field is silent except for the sound of grass rustling in the grass and the wind blowing gently around their bodies. Eevee sits next to a standing Hannah. Both trainers are ready to battle, their desired Pokémon in their hand. Hannah is a little anxious, yet she's excited to have her first Pokémon battle.
"Go Chikorita!" Hannah exclaims, throwing the capsule.
"Go Cyndaquil!"
The two Pokémon appear at the same time with an enveloped flash that covers the two like they'd just dipped themselves in a liquefied form of light. Both capsules empty, they are repelled back. Hannah and Lukas catch their Poké Balls.
"You remember how to check one's moves and information, yes?" Lukas asks as if he were the tutor.
"Of course. The Pokédex," Hannah answers as the two grab their Pokédex at the same time and proceed to open their phone-thin devices. The Pokédexes turns on automatically, and Hannah's is the first to analyse the Chikorita that she owns.
"Chikorita, the leaf Pokémon. The leaf on its head determines the humidity and temperature. It is docile, and loves to sunbathe."
Lukas' Pokédex also analyses his Cyndaquil.
"Cyndaquil, the Fire Mouse Pokémon. Timid-natured, it will shoot flames from the behind of its back once it is attacked or startled, or burn more intensely."
"Waa!" Lukas gasps, a jolly smile stitched onto his mouth. "You may go first. After all, they say 'ladies should always go first.'" From this statement, Hannah feels embarrassed, yet at ease. A faint glow of pink paints her cheeks.
"Uh—err…right!" stammers the trainer, earning a light chuckle from the other. "Let's see…" Hannah checks her Pokédex to see what moves her Chikorita has. "Ah…Tackle and Growl…alright, that should be fine."
The battle begins.
"Chikorita, use Growl!" Hannah commands. Chikorita emits a pleasant roar that startles the opposing Cyndaquil.
'Attack lowered by one stage,' Lukas' Pokédex reminds him in a monotone, robotic, yet near-human-like voice.
Hannah can feel the excitement of her first real Pokémon battle, the adrenaline pulsing through her veins and arteries, making her heart beat faster than usual. Even though she is a rookie, it is definitely one battle that she is going to be serious in.
Lukas tells his Cyndaquil to use Tackle. The bipedal Pokémon rushes forward against Chikorita's direction and slams right into the Pokémon. The gauge shown on the screen in her Pokédex has decreased by 25%.
"Damn," Hannah curses under her breath, "I need to start attacking."
Commanding Chikorita to use Tackle, Hannah does a little more damage than Cyndaquil, which is quite fortunate. 'Damage, 30%.'
The battle went on until it was Lukas' turn after several consecutive moves between the two.
"Tackle!" Cyndaquil lunges himself against Chikorita, the rest of the opposing Pokémon's health depleted.
'Chikorita has fainted. You have lost the battle.'
Closing her Pokédex, Hannah sighs in frustration, but can't help not being mad at her Pokémon for some reason. Both trainers return their Pokémon to their capsules. Frustration floods her thoughts, yet she is happy and forgiving.
"Good match," Lukas compliments, coursing his hand through his smooth black hair.
"Yeah, good match," Hannah replies, Eevee prancing around happily. He jumps up onto her shoulder, nuzzling his fur between her jawline and cheeks.
"We should go ahead to Cherrygrove City," Lukas adds as he walks over to Hannah, flicking a finger against her forehead. The flick was painful and mind-crushing. Hannah could feel a thousand volts of electricity rampaging around her nerves everywhere in her head. Yelping, she falls knees-first into the ground, cupping the area of pain with both hands.
"R-Right…" she whines.
*At Cherrygrove City*
'Cherrygrove City is nice,' Hannah considers, the lively chatter of citizens reverbing around the area as they walk in. There aren't many large buildings in the vicinity even though the area is classified as a city. There also weren't many people, so the place could be very much be mistaken as a small town.
"You know what this city's motto is?" Lukas asks Hannah. She swings her head sideways in response. "The city with a waft of beautiful, aromatic flowers," he says, swinging his left arm over Hannah's shoulders. The weight of his arm makes her balance confused, but luckily she regains her momentum. "But, they aren't as beautiful as you," flirts the boy, the other in a state of fluster and embarrassment. Her cheeks became a pure pinkish-red, and she smacks the arm leaning on her shoulder, making Lukas nearly fall to the ground before he swiftly lands a foot in front of him. Eevee rolls his eyed and keeps walking on, and so does Hannah. Lukas trails behind the two, pacing themselves into the city.
Citizens walk either to work, to shop or to just go somewhere in general. The small shops that line the sidewalk have customers buying various retail items, or even souvenirs in the form of Pokémon plushies, keychains and other accessories. In one of the stores, there is something that diverts most of Hannah's attention:
A shop that specifically sells Pokémon jewellery.
Entranced – or rather, manipulated – she walks into the store, charmed and fascinated by the various jewellery inside of the open store. Small oval Pokémon faces attached to a metal beaded chain, and even flexible leather chains of the sorts line the racks attached to the walls of the store. Rings, either a whole Pokémon body that can easily surround a finger or a metal ring that is attached to an actual shape of a Pokémon adorn several racks and glass boxes.
Hannah's eyes sparkle like the jewellery behind the clear, shiny glass, whilst Lukas and Eevee sigh in unison, dragging themselves into the store to look inside.
"Welcome!" the cashier greets the three as they also do their salutations. "What would you like to buy today?" Pretty much all cashiers that trainers would see at a Poké Mart or a different store look very similar: the typical sky-blue apron, brown trousers and spiked chestnut-brown haircut. They could be the type of people looking as if they were promoting a product out on the streets.
Hannah glances around the store, trying to figure out what catches her eye. Inside one of the display glasses, she spots a necklace with a gold, beaded metal chain, a Ho-oh on the top of the pendant and a Lugia on the bottom forming little-large semi-spherical space between the two. The two Pokémon are both grey. To Hannah, it seems to be sacred, the two figures wanting to hold something in that space.
"That's a precious amulet," the cashier says, leaning against the display glass next to her with his forearms. "I think it will help you a lot during your journey."
Hannah stares in awe, her mouth half-open at the aesthetic appeal that the pendant pours out. "It's beautiful," she compliments. Lukas and Eevee walk over to the same display box that the other two are at. "How much is it?" she asks, the cashier walking over to the counter to grab a large ring full of keys from a cabinet from underneath.
"You guys are trainers, right?" the cashier says, now with a brass key in his hand. The other three nod in agreement. "Well, Cherrygrove city is known to be very humble to starter trainers," he explains, "so I'll give one accessory of your choice for free." Lukas and Hannah exchange looks and back to the cashier, fearing that they will go crazy and buy things from out of the blue.
"Thank you," Lukas simply replies, staring and analysing the rest of the jewellery in that one specific glass box.
"Those necklaces and rings and other pieces," says the cashier, "are for holding Mega Stones. We just got them in stock today for the first time, so it's pretty much your lucky day."
"Well, since you say that," Lukas points at a different necklace, which contains a space for a Mega Stone with the same chain type of chain, only this time, the space is surrounded by three lion-like Pokémon that circle that one specific place.
"Those're the Legendary Beasts," says the cashier. "Entei, Suicune and Raikou." The cashier's eyes trail down to the little Pokémon of Hannah's that resides outside of its Poké Ball. "You know, your little Eevee may want something from here," he suggest, "perhaps an anklet over here?" He walks over to the jewellery display box nearest to the entrance full of gold bracelets, anklets and the like. Hurriedly fiddling with the keys, he unlocks the display box, showing a small golden anklet with a trillion-cut transparent gem in the middle.
"This anklet is special for your Eevee, because it will change colour depending on your Pokémon's type. For example, if the type is dark, the gem will turn black, etcetera. But if your Eevee were to have two types – for example, like Electric and Water – one half of the gem will turn blue and the other yellow," the cashier explains. "It's quite a popular item here."
Hannah is given the anklet, and she hoists Eevee up onto the top of the glass surface. She clicks the anklet open, and closes it shut as soon as it's gently placed around her Pokémon's ankle. The jewellery glows a bright white, and them dims down back to its original transparent colour.
"Thank you." Lukas walks out the store and waits outside whilst looking into the store for Hannah and Eevee.
"Are you sure this is alright?" Hannah tugs softly at the necklace, Eevee landing on the ground gracefully as he runs around in an invisible circle around Lukas.
"Of course," the cashier replies, leaning back onto the wall that contains an abundance of gold, silver, brass and of the latter. "Besides, it's a little tradition we always do to first-time customers and trainers."
Hannah sighs in a fit of guilt, walking out of the store. "Thank you so much!"
She waves at the cashier, who waves back and says, "Come again next time!"
The three walk deeper into the small city, the scent of flowers lingering in the air like duck to water.
Other than the aroma of fragrant flowers that they could inhale through their noses, the musky scent of the sea intensifies little by little until they realise that they are standing on a thin layer of sand.
A man stands just a couple dozen steps away from the trio, wearing a plaid blue and white dress shirt, denim shorts that showed his young yet tough-looking legs, with spiked-up dirty blonde hair and flip-flops that could probably flick the thin sand to bystanders behind. He turns around and gives a questionable look to the three, not knowing who they are.
"Are you guys new trainers?"
He is definitely young-looking, at around Lukas' height and age. His hair glitters like the sea behind him under the sun which distorts the light above into aesthetic and cool art. He has no facial hair at all; just his emerald-green eyes, which easily mixes the colour of the blue sky above in a hue of blue-green and cyan.
"Yeah, we are. How did you know?" Hannah asks, tilting her head to the side.
"It's obvious." The man points to the three. "Your clothing is definitely in the 'newbie Pokémon Trainer' category. But anyways, you guys don't know much of every main building, right?"
Lukas and Hannah exchange looks, trying to figure out if at least one of them knew what he is talking about.
"No," the two trainers say, as Eevee rolls around in the sand.
"Well, I'll show you around the places," he favours, walking towards Hannah as he holds out his hand. "The name's Jordan."
Hannah falters a little, her hand twitching back and forward until it stopped once they shook hands. The grip on his hand was quite hard, aching her wrists, fingers and knuckles soon after. "Hannah," she says, introducing herself, "and this is Eevee." She holds up the evolution Pokémon with two hands close to herself, the Pokémon scratching his own ear with a limb.
Jordan shifts towards Lukas' side, holding out his hand as well. Their grip seems to be equal, neither showing signs of pain. "Lukas," Hannah's accompaniment introducing himself, pulling away from the handshake soon after.
"All right," Jordan says, pointing to an average-sized building that bears a white Poké Ball logo and has an orange rooftop. It has a more modern architecture design than the rest of the taller buildings in the city. The other three look in the direction in which the finger in pointing. "That over there is a Pokémon Centre, a hospital for Pokémon."
Jordan drifts his finger to the building opposite from the Pokémon Centre with the same architectural shape, only with an intense dark-blue rooftop. "Now, that there," he says, the three pivoting their heads over to the other side, "is the Poké Mart. You can buy your medicines, items and any other consumables for your journey ahead. One thing you should now about Poké Marts is that they will offer more 'advanced' stock and supplies as you gradually obtain more and more badges."
"Ah, alright," Hannah sighs, "is that all?"
"That's pretty much it. The end of Cherrygrove City is right at that fork in the road, leading to Route 30. You know," Jordan adds, "you remind me of these two trainers that came here once, quite a long time ago. I can't really remember their names, but they listed my dad in as the Kind Old Man. It's a shame that he isn't here now, but I'm sure that he would be so delighted to have seen you guys start your journey."
The conversation between the four becomes silent.
"Oh…" Hannah palms her cheek softly, rubbing the temple with her middle finger, "I'm sorry to hear that."
Jordan waves off the remark. "No, it's fine. The three of you should go out there, and there is bound to be some trainers there who would love to battle you. Take care!" He walks in the opposite direction as to where the three are walking, waving back at them.
Hannah does the same, though Lukas does not. "We should go."
"Ah, right," she says, the three walking over to Route 30.
*On the rooftop of one of the taller buildings*
"Is it ready?" a figure cloaked in black says, walking up to another black-cloaked person. Both of the figures have a wonky red 'E' embossed on their shirts' chests. However, the latter is typing at an extreme speed on what seems to be bulky laptop in black. The keys beneath the person's hands glow with every press.
"Almost."
Endless beeping noises of various types emit from the satellite dish just metres away from them. Eventually, the typing cloaked figure finishes its task, closing the laptop afterwards.
"Finished. Now we move onto the next."
"What does this thing really do?" the standing figure asks, lightly knocking on the circumference of the large dish, creating a metallic echoing sound.
"It's one part of many to help control Johto. That's all that the Commander said though. Hey, do you remember Team Rocket?" The other nods. "Well, they did such a shitty job at reaching their objective in capturing all Pokémon in the world, so we're sort of the better team. I don't know how else to explain it. There were these two trainers named Ethan and Lyra or something that stopped Team Rocket."
"Fair enough. Team Epsilon will definitely control Johto."
The two leave the area, the satellite looming still as a building.
ANDDDDDDDDD finally I have finished this chapter! Hope you have enjoyed this so far. Reviews are welcome, and see you all later!
*walks away eating popcorn and procrastinates*
Editorial Note: Hello all! I don't believe we've met (though I could be wrong. Curse my short memory). My name is Bellicia, and I am Cyber's editor for this Pokémon series. Ah…so when Cyber said that there were complications in getting up this chapter, I regret to inform you all that I am one of the reasons as to why this is late. Basically, I've been procrastinating in editing this, and then difficulties concerning my laptop arose, so I couldn't actually get it to him as soon as I would have liked. However! I am here now and I intend to not procrastinate as much!
So, like I said, my name is Bellicia, and I am Cyber's editor and somewhat mentor. Even though he is older than me by one year – and although this sounds quite egotistical of me, it's the truth – I am more experienced in writing and editing than he is, so I have decided to help him by editing this series of his as well as giving him grammatical tips. I am an avid (not necessarily) fan-fiction writer who writes for the Axis Powers: Hetalia fandom, most of which are reader inserts. Please hop onto my DeviantART account to read these fan-fictions! My user is MizukiNakamura24, so please say hi and drop me a visit! Much appreciated!