As the morning of the Trials dawned, all of the prospective trainers gathered in front of the Gym, where Clyde met us along with three other trainers, looking more serious than I'd ever seen him. Considering what I knew of his usual disposition, that was saying something. The six of us were standing almost at attention as he began speaking.
"Aspertia City has four gates, one at each of the cardinal directions. Our city rests right against the edge of a mountain. The west gate opens directly into the mountain. To the north and south, you will find forest and parts of the mountain range. East leads to more forest, but if you keep going for a few miles, you'll find the ocean. A few miles northeast are the remains of what used to be a town, Floccesy. This," Clyde held up his left arm, where a device that looked similar to a watch was strapped, "is an Xtranceiver. Each of you will be receiving one of these before you go out. It is programmed with a map, my number, and, of course, the time. They are each capable of making and receiving video calls once they're registered to you, which won't until you've succeeded in your Trial." He opened the bag on his shoulder and began to distribute them. I received a light purple one, while the pink and teal ones went to the other two girls. The red, black, and dark blue ones were given to the boys.
"Once you're out there, you will be allowed to return every night. But you will have to go back out every morning until you either come back with a captured pokemon or don't come back at all. It is suggested that you don't stick together. When you try to capture your first pokemon, they will know that you are inexperienced. If, on top of that, they think you needed to rely on the help of someone else to capture them, they will never respect you. This is a well documented fact. Also, should you catch a pokemon that you are unable to control, that pokemon will be put down, and you will have to repeat your Trial." He motioned at the other trainers present, who began to pass out bags to us. "Each of these bags contain three pokeballs, one bottle of repel, three potions, one antidote, one paralyze heal, three bottles of water, a several granola bars, dried berries, and bags of beef jerky, a compass, a matchbook, and rope. Those who are going North, follow James. East, follow Sarah. South, Graham. If your going west, follow me." Damon and Sandra went with Clyde. Linda went South, while Zach went East. Joseph and I followed James to the North gate.
"So I hear you volunteered," James said, glancing at me as we made our way to the gate. He had light blond hair, tan skin, and sea green eyes. As far as I could tell, he was in his late teens. Joseph's shoulders were stiff as he walked next to me.
"Yeah," I agreed, keeping my eyes trained ahead. There was a pause.
"That's a pretty brave move," he prompted.
"Thanks," I said noncommittally, silently willing him to drop the subject.
"How long have you been a trainer?" Joseph chimed in, giving James a narrow eyed look. I could feel the older teenager looking at me, but he allowed the change in subject.
"Two years," he said. "My name was drawn when I was fourteen. I'm a B class trainer now." I tilted my head slightly at the information.
"If you don't mind my asking, what was your first pokemon?" This question caused him to smile fondly.
"I don't mind. My first catch was a Snivy. I went out this same gate and caught her on the first day." His smile was replaced by a slight frown. "I was lucky. Out of the twelve trainers in my year, four of them never came back. And all of the others took more than one day to catch their pokemon."
"You got any last minute advice?" Joseph asked tensely as we reached the gate. James tapped his upper lip thoughtfully.
"Clyde has already covered most of it," he told us. "Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott are fairly common and generally easy to catch, and they all evolve into strong pokemon, which is why they were common starter pokemon before the Cataclysm. Umm, when you see grass and bug type pokemon, you need to watch out for poison. Oh, yeah," he said as he motioned at the trainers at the gate to open it up. "Don't try to catch evolved pokemon. Not only will they break free of the pokeball, but it is generally recommended to catch the unevolved forms because they're easier to bond with." He motioned at the open gate. "Time to go. Good luck," he said, squeezing Joseph's shoulder with a halfhearted smile and sending a wink in my direction. Joseph and I both stepped through the gate, and it immediately shut behind us. We simultaneously turned to face each other.
"I'm heading northeast," I told him, with a nod in the appropriate direction.
He gave me a terse grin in return. "Guess that means I'm headed northwest. " He started to turn away, but I grabbed his wrist, stopping him. Even though we hadn't really spoken much, I was still worried. This might be the last time I ever saw, either because he didn't return, or I didn't. I wanted to leave it on a good note.
"Good luck, Joseph," is all I managed to get out, though. He covered my hand on his wrist with his own, delaying the inevitable by lingering for a few seconds.
"You too. And call me Joey. I hate my full name." He said in a rough voice, before stepping away. I let my hand drop back to my side. "See you on the other side," he promised. Then he turned and walked away. I stared at his back for a few minutes before doing the same.
As I made my way through the forest, it was hard not to jump at every shadow, knowing that there could be pokemon lurking in every tree. I tried to limit my reaction to the tightening of my grip on my staff, and wished I could be more excited about my first time going outside the city.
Ten minutes in I let out a muffled screech when a pokemon dropped on my head. I immediately shook it off, panic and adrenaline fueling me as I swung my staff at it again an again, until I was sure it was dead. I was panting and shaking by the end of it, but I had been fortunate. The pokemon that I now recognized to be a Sewaddle was probably very young and hadn't developed a tough hide yet. Otherwise I likely wouldn't have been able to kill it. I got away from it as quickly as possible in order to avoid any other pokemon that might have been attracted by the scent of its blood.
Another twenty minutes later I stopped to check my bearings on the compass and take a sip of water from one of my bottles. My plan was to head northeast, past Floccesy Town to reach the abandoned Flocessy Ranch. I'd read in my research that prior to the Cataclysm, young Riolu had been known to stay there. According to the databases I'd searched, this was because before Riolu evolved, they sought out peaceful areas with easy access to food and water, where they could train until they were strong enough to evolve. Floccesy Ranch fit that description nicely, with its berry orchards and ponds. Once the Riolu were stronger, they migrated to the mountains for heavier training to become Lucario.
The upsides to my plan were that there weren't very many strong pokemon documented at the ranch and Riolu were rare, coveted pokemon, known to be highly intelligent. When in the hands of a trainer they approved of, their empathetic abilities made them one the easier species to train. It was my hope that I would be lucky enough to find one of them, and that it would eventually grow to respect me. I did have a backup plan, though, since there was no guarantee that Riolu still lived at the ranch, or that I would find one if they did.
One of the downsides to my plan was that the ranch was so far away from Aspertia that I wouldn't be able to go back to the city for the night. I wouldn't even reach the ranch until the next day, and if you added the amount of time it would take to find a Riolu and the time needed for the return trip, I was going to be out there for a while. Altogether, I probably wouldn't be able to return to the city for four days at least, probably more.
By the time night fell, I had been chased by a Lillipup, had only narrowly avoided a Whirlipede as it rolled past at high speeds, and had also seen an Audino in the distance, though luckily it hadn't seen me. I decided to spend the night in an indention I found between the roots of a large tree. I would be mostly hidden from sight, and I also sprayed some repel around the area for good measure, before settling down to sleep.
I was awake before the sun the next morning, still tired, but too restless to sleep. My paranoia had woken me several times throughout the night at the slightest of noises, and I was eager to get moving. I ate granola bar and washed it down with a few sips of water before packing up and moving on.
I made pretty good time despite a couple of close calls with a group of Patrats, until a terrifying encounter with a Watchdog, the evolved form of Patrat, that had been too fast for me to get away from. It had left me with several bleeding scratches and uncontrollably shaking hands after I finally managed to dissuade it with my metal staff. That close call had really driven home the fact that I could die at any moment if I took a wrong step in this forest.
The sun was high in the sky when I finally stumbled on to the ranch. I'd finally spotted the walls of Floccesy Town from a distance about fifteen minutes back, and had been scoping out the surrounding woods. The Flocessy Ranch looked like it was teeming with pokemon, so I was hopeful that all my hard work wouldn't come to nothing. If my plan to find a Riolu didn't bear fruit, I was prepared to catch whatever else caught my eye, but I hoped it didn't come to that.
The old ranch house was in shambles. One of the walls was completely destroyed, and the fences were in various states of disrepair. I wandered around back and found the orchard. It was overgrown and wild, spotted with weeds, but there were berries everywhere. I picked berries as I went, eating some but putting most of them in a compartment of my bag. I was careful to keep an eye out for pokemon, but I only saw a few Pidoves and another Patrat. Fortunately, all of their attention was on the fallen berries, and they didn't seem to notice me as I sneaked past.
Soon enough, I couldn't fit anymore berries in without crushing them or impeding my ability to retrieve objects from my bag. I left the orchard and came across a small clearing with a small brook running through it. I let my bag drop to the ground and knelt down to wash my face. I felt filthy, and didn't want to imagine what I'd see if I had a mirror.
Out of the blue, something crashed painfully into my side, sending me skidding a several feet, and causing my staff to tumble out of my grasp. In some bizarre twist of fate, a small, blue creature that looked like a masked dog stood in the spot I had just been forcefully removed from, positioned in an upright fighting stance. It was a Riolu. Seeing this, I rolled over to my staff and grabbed it, just in time to see the small blue creature bolting toward me. I swept the staff at when it was almost on me, barely managing to push it off course, then used the time it took to recover to scramble to my feet. It then came at me with a quick attack that was too fast for me to react to. It rammed in to my midriff, causing me to stumble back a few steps and my breathe to leave me with an audible 'whoosh.' I was able to catch myself on my staff in a turn of luck, but I couldn't seem to breathe for several precious seconds.
Stumbling to the side like drunk to avoid a tackle, I blindly waved my staff around, and miraculously managed to score a glancing blow off the side of the Riolu's head. It stumble a little, then I immediately had to jump back to avoid another quick attack. I didn't manage to avoid the next one though, and it sent me tumbling to the ground again. In a stroke of luck, I fell directly next to my bag. I smacked the Riolu away again and fumbled around in my bag as it regained its bearings. My questing fingers met the spherical form of a pokeball just as the pokemon came at again. This time, when it hit me in the chest as I struggled to my feet, I grabbed it before it could dart away. As it struggled against me to escape, I carefully maneuvered my arm to tap expanded pokeball in my hand against the Riolu's side. It was sucked into the pokeball in a red beam of light, which rocked once, twice, then three times before stilling in my hand.
My heart was beating out a fast rhythm in my ears, and I let out a gusty sigh, before sinking to the ground in a heap, panting. I was almost completely covered in mud from the stream's bank, and my entire body ached, particularly my ribs. When I rolled my shirt up to check them, I found that they were already bruising, as were my chest and shoulders. There was a lump on the back of my head that I didn't remember receiving, and I had a fair few cuts and scrapes, but by some miracle, all of my injuries seemed to be superficial.
I warily picked up the pokeball and secured it in my bag before crawling over to the stream again to wash some of the mud off, keeping my weapon close at hand. I didn't linger long, memories of fighting for my life fresh in my mind. I sipped a little bit of potion, ate a few berries and some jerky, then moved my remaining pokeballs into my pant pockets, not wanting another repeat of being separated from my bag. Quickly scouting out a good nook to sleep in, I dropped to the ground and laid my head on my bag. Even though the sun had just begun to set, I was exhausted. I curled up and dropped straight to sleep.
The next morning, I woke to the sun shining on my eyelids and something wet moving over my hand. Holding completely still, I cautiously opened my eyes, and orange and black immediately filled my vision. The Growlithe didn't notice that I was awake and continued to nose and paw at my bag. I slowly moved my hand to the pocket I had placed my pokeballs in, but the Growlithe saw it and snapped its attention to my face, growling menacingly.
I rolled away, disentangling from my bag as I went and was about to toss it away from me when I paused. The Growlithe's eyes were glued to the bag even as it growled, and it was sniffing the air. I finagled my hand into the bag to grab a few berries. Its eyes were trained intently on my hand as I waved the berries around and its fierce growl grew louder as it took a step toward me. I quickly tossed one in the Growlithe's direction and it snapped the berry out of the air. When I threw the next one high, so that it would land behind it, the pokemon raced after it and I slipped a pokeball out of my pocket while it was distracted.
Priming the pokeball behind my back, I threw the last berry in my hand past it in the same manner as soon as it seemed to be turning its attention back to me. The instant the pokemon's focus was on the berry, I threw the pokeball. It just barely hit the Growlithe on one of its legs, absorbing it in a stream of red light and immediately starting to rock furiously. I took my last empty ball as a precaution. It was a very good thing I had done so, because the Growlithe burst out of the ball, snarling and lunging. I desperately primed the last ball and tossed it in quick succession, which sucked the puppy pokemon in again. As it rocked back and forth, I readied my weapon. Luckily, this time the pokeball worked, and it stopped rocking with a light 'ding.'
I slumped down against a tree with tears in my eyes, and pressed the palm of my shaking hand against my forehead in self-recrimination. I had forgotten to spray repel last night in my exhausted state, and the smell of the berries in my bag must have attracted the Growlithe. There had been too many instances in the past couple of days that I had survived purely by luck. By all rights, I should have been dead several times over, and it was all I could do not to break down and cry.
I hadn't survived this far only to drop my guard in the middle of this deadly forest after victory was already in my grasp, though. Taking a deep, calming breathe, I stood up with a faint sniffle, and gathered up my belongings. I needed to get a move on. The sun was already halfway up the sky. I picked a few more berries from the orchard to refill my supply before heading out.
I made good time, keeping up a brisk pace even though I was sore, and my bruises were black and throbbing by that point. The small run-ins I had with the wild pokemon on my way seemed mild in comparison to what I had been through with the Riolu, and the Growlithe. Now that I had a little more experience, they seemed fairly easy to fend off considering they were all fairly low level. I could only pray that I was able to escape notice from any higher level pokemon for the rest of my journey.
The next time I stopped for the night was about a half day's travel from Aspertia. I also very carefully sprayed the area with repel. It may have been for the best that I had forgotten to spray repel the previous night, because the bottle sputtered out as I just as I finished covering the area. At least I would be protected for my last night out, and I had gotten a second pokemon out of deal. I ate a few of the fresh berries I had picked and my last granola bar before curling up with my bag and closing my eyes.
When I reached the gates of Aspertia City in the early afternoon the next day, I was dirty, aching, and thirsty. I'd run out of water early in the morning, and I was starting to sincerely consider that I might have cracked a rib. As soon as I broke from the tree line, I heard calls to open the gate coming from the trainers on guard duty. I was quickly ushered into the Pokemon Center through a set of doors I had never noticed before, that were just past the lounge area. The sign above the doors read 'Infirmary.' A nurse came in and checked my bruises and all the cuts and scrapes I'd acquired over the course of my Trial. It had stung when she disinfected the cuts, but she been able to tell me that none of my ribs were cracked after all. Clyde caught me by surprise when he burst through the doors.
He came to an abrupt halt just inside the door, taking in my state of dishevelment. "We thought for sure we wouldn't be seeing you again. You caught us all by surprise." He said gravely, before handing me a compact, rectangular device. Like my Xtrantranceiver, it was pale purple. I was beginning to sense a theme. "That's a pokedex. It's able to identify any pokemon you scan with it, and if you scan a pokeball that contains a pokemon, it will tell you all of its information. It also has net capabilities within the city. Now," he clapped his hands. "Let's register this pokemon to you."
I handed him Riolu's pokeball. He took it and placed it in a semicircle shaped dip on the lower half of the device, where it fit perfectly. A laser shot up and scanned the pokeball. "Registering pokeball to Dahlia Moore, E class trainer. Processing... Riolu - the emination pokemon. It has the peculiar power of being able to see emotions such as joy and rage in the form of waves, and uses the shapes of auras, which change according to emotion, to communicate with others. This Riolu is male and has the ability 'inner focus.' Riolu knows the moves: quick attack, endure, foresight, counter, and feint."
Clyde's eyebrows raise in surprise. "A Riolu. Never seen one of those for a starter before. No wonder you took your time getting back here." He gave me a considering look. "The pokedex is also able to rejuvenate a pokemon if you put a pokeball in the slot, like I just showed you, and select the function. You should always go to Nurse Joy for any serious injuries though, and take your pokemon to her regularly for checkups." He handed the pokedex to me. "Congratulations. You are officially an E class trainer. As an E class trainer, you are allowed one pokemon. Any other pokemon you capture will have to be put in stasis until you reach D rank. We also don't allow E class trainers to take jobs posted on the Aspertia trainer website or in the trainer lounge, but it's easy enough to pass the D rank test. Once you are able to take jobs, you can always take jobs that are your rank, and jobs one rank higher than you so long as you also have a trainer of appropriate rank with you. Any questions?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I caught another pokemon out on my Trial after Riolu, a Growlithe that attacked me. How do I put it in stasis?"
Clyde nodded thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. "It's not exactly common for a trainer to catch two pokemon on their Trial, though it has happened before. What you need to do is register Growlithe's ball with your pokedex the same way I showed you with your Riolu. After it gives you Growlithe's information, it'll automatically send it into a PC box until you're authorized to take it out." I nodded and did as he said.
"Growlithe – the puppy pokemon. It is very protective of its territory. It will bark and bite to repel intruders from its space. This Growlithe is male and has the ability 'intimidate.' Growlithe knows the moves: roar, ember, leer, odor sleuth, and helping hand." The pokedex fell silent, and with that, Growlithe's pokeball disappered in a flash of light.
"It's best to feed and interact with all of your pokemon that aren't in stasis daily," Clyde informed me. "If you can't afford any food yet, you can always take your pokemon outside the gates to hunt. It would be best for you to take the D rank trainer test as soon as you're able to make your pokemon obedient to you, so you can get a handle on your Growlithe. But that can wait for another day. It's almost dark. You've been cleared to head on up to your room. You can keep the knife, but if you want to keep that hunk of metal you picked out, you'll have to arrange to keep it on loan from the Gym until you can pay it off," he said raising an eyebrow.
I nodded in reply. "I would like to keep it, please."
"I'll get the paperwork ready, then." He rubbed his mouth wearily as he left the room.
I decided to do as Clyde suggested after he left the infirmary. With a final word of thanks and a goodbye to Nurse Joy, I gathered up my bag and staff, heading up to my room. After a nice hot shower, with copious amounts of soap, and a change of clothes, I collapsed onto the soft bed and was out like a light.