We followed the professor to the previous huge room with many scientific devices. Douchebag went near his granddad and looked really amazed from what will happen now, beginning young trainers are not always so amazed as he was at that moment.
"This is not usual thing, you know." The professor said. "Trainers start their journey here at 18 years, not 25 like you."
"I heard some other region let children become trainers at 10 years..." Douchebag replied.
"Other regions – maybe, but not us. Would you trust a dangerous fire-breathing creature to a 10-year-old twerp?" Professor`s answer was really straight. And so right. "As look at you… I wouldn`t trust it to you too."
"Thanks a lot, gramps. Now go and get me a pokemon that will be the champion!" Douchebag opened a door before professor, letting him in and closing it right before my face. What a real douchebag.
I followed them into the room. As Professor Oak appeared in my eyesight, he was already taking the long metal box from shelf. He turned to us and with a pride shook the box, signaling for us to come closer, and we did. He put all pokeballs on a table for us to see.
"These guys will be your partners from now on."
"You meant "partner", right? I can`t take all of them?" I corrected him.
"Yeah, right. One of these guys will be your partner from now on. Make your choice carefully."
"Oh, I made my choice a long time ago."
I took the middle pokeball and looked over it. It was unusually warm, so there definitely was life inside.
"I choose Charmander!" I said to professor and raised pokeball high above.
"Erm… This is Bulbasaur."
"What? But… I thought… In National Pokedex it is between these two, so… Nevermind, where is my Charmander?"
"The left one". Professor answered with a suspicious smile and nodded in correct pokeball`s side. He definitely changed pokeballs for me to look stupid. Bad, bad professor. I put the Bulbasaur`s pokeball on its place and took Charmander`s.
"Why did he chose first, Gramps?" Douchebag shouted.
"Because you didn't." Oak`s smile grew with these words. He really liked to mock both of us. Really bad professor.
"Grrr, whatever… Now I can take a pokemon that will be stronger that yours! And that will be… Squirtle!"
"Of course you will choose Squirtle, 63% of rivals have to choose Squirtle." Professor grumbled quietly.
"What?"
"It`s nothing, nothing. Good choice, boy." Professor suddenly clapped. "I hope you will get a great experience with your new friends and find what you are looking for." After saying that old man put the last pokeball back into the box and returned the container to its place.
"I think I know who I will give you to…" He whispered secretly. But we heard him. And didn`t care at all.
I looked at my pokeball. Some strange feelings filled my mind... This was very unfamiliar to me. I`ve never trusted a pokemon… I`ve never trusted anyone. I lived among people that are fond of pokemon, like the whole world, and in this meaning I was different. But now… Now I must realise why everyone on this Planet is so obsessed with them.
"Okay, Charmander, come out!" I shouted and threw a pokeball high up. It flew right into the lamp, smashing it into pieces and after that lowered and opened to beam the pokemon out. Somehow the capsule returned to my hand. The pokemon landed on the floor and cheerfully looked at me, but I had to interrupt this touching moment, because the glass shards from the lamp were falling right on him. And the best idea I had in mind by that moment is to grab him by tail and pull out the danger zone. That was a very stupid idea, because I`ve noticed the flame on his tail right after it burned my hand. And even through all the pain I managed to save him.
He was really surprised by this strange act and after getting to safe place – on my knees - he threw some embers right into my face. Damn it was hurt… And it was just a little Charmander. I couldn`t even think about what will be when he will be a big and strong Charizard. With a Flamethrower. The whole idea of pokemon training momentarily became not so good. But the idea of turning Team Rocket`s pokemon against them did.
Charmander looked angry at me for pulling his tail. But when he looked back and realized that I saved him, he suddenly changed to cheerful and glad pokemon. That really made me smile and returned to positive thoughts.
"So… Are you a boy or a girl?" I asked him. He replied to me with another Ember. Another hurtful ember! At least, it was not so strong, as the first one.
"Okay, I see. Definitely a boy." I tried to stood up, and Charmander had to jump off my knees. Just after that I noticed that Douchebag was laughing at me all this time.
"Oh my god… That was really fun, thanks. Now I know that you will not endanger my champion title…" He threw his pokeball up, but without any accidents. His Squirtle came out and landed right near him. Charmander frowned at the sight of Squirtle.
"I guess this means something, kids. These two always were rivals." Professor said.
"So, let`s give them a chance to solve this problem!" Douchebag shouted. "With a pokemon battle!"
"No-no-no!" Professor shouted at him in reply. "Get out of my lab, outside! No battles inside the laboratory!"
"Too late. Squirtle, use Tackle!"
Squirtle looked as he was waiting this command and immediately rushed toward my Charmander. The last one was caught off guard, not expecting such a turn of events, and this tackle attack was successful.
"Hey, I don`t want to battle right now!" I tried to stop him, but Douchebag was unstoppable. So I looked at the professor, asking with my eyes, is it right to start battle at this moment.
"I do not care, just get the hell out of here! We have very expensive installations here!" Professor shouted at me in reply.
"You are a trainer now! You can never say no to a battle!" Douchebag cried to me. Well, if it is so… He will get a battle. Charmander stood up after being hit and was ready to my next command.
"Okay, Charmander… Use tackle too!"
But pokemon looked at me with a misunderstanding.
"He knows Scratch, not Tackle, you dumb!" Douchebag shouted.
"Yeah, I know, I know… Use Scratch of whatever you can..."
My pokemon sped up and rushed to Squirtle, but it jumped to the right, dodging the hit. Charmander couldn`t stop and crashed into a shelf, some books fell down from the other side. I looked at the professor – and he looked very worried. I don`t know, if he was more worried about the integrity of his lab or the pokemon.
"Okay, let`s finish this with Water gun!" Douchebag shouted. Now it was the moment for Squirtle to stop and turn back to his trainer with the same confused face as my Charmander had a while ago.
"What? You don`t know Water gun?" Douchebag sounded really surprised. Pokemon responded in a negative nod. "But you must be strong… Wait. Maybe, you already know Bubble?" And after that Squirtle nodded positively and smiled mischievously. "That`s even better! Use Bubble!"
Pokemon turned back to his opponent and made a deep breath to make his next move. At this moment everything looked very bad for Charmander, sitting in rubble of shelf and trying to make his way out.
"Come on, get out, get out!" I shouted to him. And at the moment Squirtle sent his bubble pack to my Charmander, he managed to escape his wooden prison and jump at side. Bubble exploded right near to him and showered him with some drops of water. Even if he freed himself, I still had a great disadvantage – the strongest fire-type moves he knows are not good against water-types. And in the same time one or two successful Bubble will be enough to finish him. I did know some things about pokemon. And right now I need a strategy.
"Wait for a moment. Use Scratch when I say." Charmander nodded and prepared for the command.
"Bubble, go!" Another command from Douchebag reached Squirtle and the pokemon made another deep breath for his next move.
"Evade it..." I whispered to Charmander so Douchebag couldn`t hear it.
Squirtle made his next bubble and sent it flying towards Charmander. In the last moment he managed to evade it.
"Really? You can`t just evade my attacks, you have to attack too sometimes. Bubble him!"
"Do it now!"
A perfect moment – when he charges his attack with a deep breath and can`t do anything else. Charmander rushed towards Squirtle. But something happened to him – his running was very strange, looks like he`s gonna slip on the floor. Is that the effect of Bubble?
So, Squirtle was faster than Charmander and managed to send another bubble at him.
"Don`t slow down, run through it!" I commanded.
Charmander lowered his head and run through bubble, exploding it with its body. That looked hurtful for him, but he was really close to Squirtle to launch a good tackle attack.
"Close-range Tackle, Squirtle!"
And now I realized my mistake. My opponent was no more busy charhing his next attack, so he used my chance to attack to launch his one. They hit each other at one time, but that was the last damage Charmander could take, he bounced back and fell on floor, fainted.
"And THAT`S how we will make it real!" Douchebag started to make vulgar signs to my direction, and Squirtle tried to repeat them.
I took Charmander and shook a little. He opened his eyes and looked at me with big sorry eyes. I felt really guilty for myself.
"Don`t worry. You need to lose sometimes to understand the true price of victory." I put him on the floor and started to look for professor. Poor old man sat in the corner in shock. When our eyes met, he stood up and walked to us.
"As much I hate idiots that crush my lab, so I do like a good battle. Both of you will be a good trainers. But awful persons."
"He needs treatment now, what should I do? I heard there are potions or something for such situations." I asked professor.
"You are right, there are. Also there are revives to restore pokemon right in battle. And much other things that can help you. Here, I`ve got some for you." Professor took a strange spray-like bottle from the inside pocket of his coat and handed it to me. "It`s a potion. Spray it on the wounds, and it will heal your pokemon very quickly."
I took potion from professor and sprayed some on the Charmander. And this worked really fast, the bruises disappeared at once.
"Hey, why did you give him a potion and not me?" Douchebag yelled from background.
"Because he needs it more!" Professor yelled in reply. "That`s it, he looks fine. But remember – the stronger he becomes, the stronger medicine he needs."
"Thanks, professor. I`ll remember that." I shook the potion bottle to make sure there`s nothing left, and put it on the table.
"Oh, by the way… A good trainer must always think about bonds between him and his pokemon. And nothing makes a stronger bond than a personal name."
"A nickname, huh?" Douchebag looked at his Squirtle. "I think I have a perfect name for you, Quartz."
"And what is it?" Professor asked.
A silence fall on the lab. That was a bad joke.
"Okay, now get out on your damn adventure. I have to make cleaning after you." Disappointed professor pointed at the door.
"A`right, gramps, see you! Smell ya later, loser!" Douchebag waved at me and run away from the lab. I wasn`t in a hurry, and had some questions to the professor.
"Thanks for your help, professor. I really needed it."
"Oh, don`t mention it. The Pokemon League pays me a lot for every dumb trainer that come to entertain them. So go and don`t disappoint old greedy professor Oak."
"Really, I have some questions. You know… I don`t know a lot about pokemon. Their types, strong points, weak points, all that. Just basic stuff. Maybe you have some book about it?"
"Do you really think one book is enough?" Professor sounded angry. "A BOOK?! Look at this! A whole laboratory full of information about pokemon. A whole my life I study them and still every day I know something new. A LIBRARY of books is needed to know about pokemon!"
He calmed down a little after that. I made him really angry. But he took one journal from the shelf and handed over to me.
"Take this, you uneducated barbarian. This will give you some basics. And also this…" He took some strange device from his another inside pocket. "This is PokeDex. It will store data about every pokemon you encounter. It is empty now, but when you meet a pokemon, it will add it to the system. We have a server that collects data about pokemon, so you should check everything you see. Who knows, maybe you will meet something even we don`t have."
I rolled the journal and put it together with PokeDex in my coat pocket.
"Where should I start my training?"
"Well, usually trainers travel from gym to gym, training in the process. This could be a very good for you too."
"And where is the nearest gym?"
"Let`s think… As I remember, the nearest is in Veridian City. But it is ground-type, which is not so good for your fire-type Charmander, so… Well, the next one… is rock-type, not a very good thing too. Hmmm… Maybe, Cerulean city could be… No, it`s gym is water-type. Well, Charizard-lovers always have a hard time in the beginning of our League."
"Thanks again, professor, I`ll think something. I`ll try to gather some data for you in the way." I headed to the exit.
"You owe me after what you two made in my lab. I`m waiting for all this data."
I replied nothing and just left the lab. Charmander followed me on the street and smelled the fresh air, when outside.
"Here we are. At the beginning. Are you amazed, friend?" I asked Charmander. He gladly roared at me.
"I really need to give you a name. Something that will characterizes you fully. Something like… Dumpling!"
"Char?" He asked confusedly.
"Yes. Dumpling. Fiery. Hot. Dumpling. Just as I like. Do you like it?"
Dumpling made a deep-thought face for a moment. He really thought over this in his head. But after some time he smiled and nodded in agreement.
"Then it`s settled! Welcome to the team, Dumpling!"
I gave him a high-five and took my pokeball.
"Now have some rest."
I beamed Dumpling inside the pokeball and put the capsule in my pocket.
"I think now I can head to Veridian City and do some training on my way."
With that in mind I followed to the road from Pallet Town. Straight to Route 1.