Episode 3: Journey to Nuvema Town (Part 2)

Niko, Warren, and their three pokémon left Nacrene City the afternoon after reaching the city, and shortly after visiting the local museum. After grabbing some supplies, they were off towards their next destination, Striaton City, which they estimated would take a couple of days to traverse at most.

Route 3—the connecting path between the cities, was not necessarily an open valley, like Niko noticed in Sinnoh, but it was nevertheless more open and less forested than most paths. The grass was taller, however, and ponds littered the paths around them. At one point, Niko nearly stepped on a small pokémon. He didn't recognize it, and broke into a run with snivy once they realized the unfamiliar pokémon wasn't too happy with him.

Warren provided occasional good conversation along the way, which Niko found oddly impressive. He never knew Warren to be the kind of person to work a room, but his roommate was nevertheless a conversationalist in his own way. Niko—who since leaving Pallet Town had taken the reserved nature that characterized his childhood—was not used to as much talking, and often found himself having to drink something so his throat didn't dry up.

That evening, the group found a small area next to a pond to rest for the night. Warren in particular was excited, as he hadn't yet travelled through the night. Niko felt at ease, due to his rather lengthy experience in this area. However, it unsettled him how they had no major source of fire. That was something Niko had constantly relied on in his past journeys, and seemed to take it for granted.

"This is great, Niko." Warren said as he looked up at the sky, the millions of stars shining throughout space above. "I mean it, too. I always wanted to go on adventures, but I just never got the chance. My parents would never let me. They were worried that something might happen to me."

"Yeah, I hear ya." Niko said curtly.

"You do? Is that why you've never gone out and travelled?" Warren asked, looking over at Niko, the small lantern illuminating parts of his face.

"Yeah, basically. I also just didn't want to. I…never heard good things about travelling."

"Like what?"

"Like…it's dangerous, for starters. And what's the point of it? What does one gain from seeing the world anyways? Sure, it's beautiful, and it's nice to look at, but what do I get from walking around aimlessly?"

"Well, you don't have to 'walk around aimlessly!' A lot of people participate in gym challenges, or contests. Have you heard of those before?"

"Yep." Niko said. "Definitely heard of them. Unova has them, right?"

"We do. I watch the Vertress Conference every year. That's where the Pokémon League is usually held—Vertress City up in the north, somewhere past Humilau City. It's a lot of fun to watch. Have you ever seen a Pokémon League?"

"Yeah, I once went to the Indigo League. To watch, though, not to battle."

"I know. How was it? That sounds really exciting!"

"It was alright. My friend was participating. He made it to the quarterfinals." Niko said, thinking of Fay this time.

"That's really good! How many usually participate, like a hundred?"

"Something like that, yeah. And he did alright. He later went to Mt. Silver and participated in Johto's conference, and didn't do any better."

"I can imagine it's hard to improve if you keep doing those. Especially when you get to quarterfinals. The trainers just keep getting more difficult to beat."

"You have no idea…" Niko said, wincing slightly as he stared down at the lantern, and then at the sleeping snivy, who was curled up in a ball.

"Say, Niko, what is it that you want to do? You've talked a lot about finding work after being a dishwasher, but what do you actually want to do?"

Niko sat there for a moment in silence. If he was being honest with himself, part of him still wanted to travel the world and be a better trainer. But that wasn't who he was anymore—he wasn't a trainer, and he couldn't envision any scenarios where he would become one again. After a while, he answered. "I don't know yet. I haven't given it much thought, actually. But I definitely don't want to be washing dishes for the rest of my life."

"I getcha." Warren said with a laugh.

"What do you want to be?" Niko asked.

"I'd ideally like to be a writer, and maybe teach literature on the side. Castelia University has a program that will ease me into teaching at the college level, and so I might apply to that next year." Warren said, gazing down at sewaddle and poliwag. The former was curled up in a ball like snivy, and poliwag was resting against Warren's bag.

"That'd be cool. I actually think that maybe you should go travel for a bit. You could take Sydney, too." Niko suggested.

"Yeah, I've thought about maybe taking some time off of work to do that. The problem is Sydney might not be able to do the same." Warren turned to Niko. "Maybe we could go on a journey, you know?" Niko shook his head. "Why not? It'd be fun!"

"I'm not really interested…" Niko said. "I mean, in the idea of leaving and all. I'd prefer to stay in Castelia City and work."

"You don't seem happy with your job, though. Every night you come home tired and sometimes irritable."

"I'm just done dealing with people at that point, though. I don't mind the work. It's repetitive, sure, but it isn't terribly difficult." Niko explained. "Plus, it's not like I'll be there forever."

"I know. I'm just saying. So far we're doing alright! We should think about going on another journey one day!"

"Alright, fine. One day…" Niko said, pointing his finger at Warren. "Anyways, I'm off to bed. Night."

"G'night, Niko." Warren said, laying down next to his pokémon.

The following day was largely the same: more walking and talking. After living with Warren for months now, Niko knew most of his roommate's background, as well as a litany of stories from his childhood, school, and with Sydney. Warren would occasionally ask Niko the same, but he wouldn't get very detailed answers because, again, Niko was hesitant to talk about himself. Meanwhile snivy, poliwag, and sewaddle were all listening to the discussion intently, eager to learn about their human companions.

By nightfall, like with Nacrene City, the two made it to Striaton City. It was large—and reminded Niko of cities roughly the same size as Viridian City. As they made their way through the lamp-lit town, the two observed a massive garden to their right, filled with large ponds with wooden bridges running over them in an archlike shape. Finding the Pokémon Center didn't take long, and before they realized it, they were already off to bed.

The following morning went largely the same as it did in Nacrene—Niko woke up earlier than Warren, and sat in a booth in the Pokémon Center lobby, playing with his food while snivy observed him.

Over the journey, he had grown to like snivy more than he had thought. The Grass Snake pokémon was quiet and seemed to enjoy the company of the group. On the way to Striaton City the previous day, Niko watched snivy interact with poliwag and sewaddle. It was a nice sight to see, and made it clear to Niko that snivy hardly had any social interaction with others before Niko found her in a dumpster. Then a thought came to mind.

"Hey snivy, I have a question." The Grass Snake looked up at him as they locked eyes. "Did you have a trainer before meeting me?"

Snivy shook her head.

"Ah, alright. Just checking. I used to have a pokémon that belonged to a trainer before I caught him." When snivy gave him a curious look, he sighed, and then continued. "Yeah, I used to be a pokémon trainer. I'll admit it. But don't say anything to Warren or his pokémon. Not that you could to Warren, but you get my point."

Snivy nodded, smirking a little, as if she had known it all along. Niko shook his head, finding snivy's smugness funny.

A few minutes later, Warren and his pokémon showed up and had breakfast with Niko and snivy. After a while, they decided to check out Striaton City while they were at it. Warren noted that there was a Trainer's School and a high-class Striaton Restaurant that they should go to before leaving. The restaurant, Warren noted, used to be a Pokémon Gym, and instead it's now just a place to eat and watch pokémon dance and entertain.

The Trainer's School was, understandably, not open to Niko and Warren, but they did get a chance to watch some of the practice battles in the yard from a distance. Niko held snivy in his arms as they watched a black cat pokémon fight a terrier dog-like pokémon. The cat ultimately won out, and its trainer was acting smug as he gloated his victory.

They also got a chance to watch a snivy fight a fire pig pokémon. Both were impressive battlers, with the snivy conjuring a storm of leaves from its tail, and the pig using ember constantly. But ultimately the pig won out, defeating the snivy before it too fell in exhaustion.

"That snivy must have been trained really well." Niko noted, looking down at snivy. "Did you see that move it used? What was that?"

"I think it's called leaf tornado." Warren asked. "Guess your snivy will be able to learn that move, too."

"It's not my snivy." Niko said, correcting his friend.

"Whatever you say." Warren said with a wink before turning around. "C'mon, let's go check out that restaurant and be on our way!"

The restaurant was a two-story building with a red carpet leading up the front stairs to the front door. As Niko and Warren walked in, a man with bright green hair approached them.

"Welcome to the Striaton Restaurant! I am Cilan, and I'll be your server today. How are you both?" He asked in a kind, cordial voice as he led the two to their seats.

"Doing great!" Warren said. "How about you?"

"Ah, I'm doing well. Is this your first time here?"

"Yes, we're just passing through Striaton City right now." Warren replied.

"Oh? And for what purpose?" Cilan asked. Warren then explained their mission in going to Nuvema Town and reuniting snivy with her home. "How very nice of you two, taking a pokémon back to where they're from. I once went on a journey as well, with a dragon trainer and a young boy from Pallet Town. That was…one of the best experiences of my life. Enjoy it while you can!"

"How was it? Where did you go?"

"We went throughout Unova mainly. I could talk for days about our adventures, but I don't want to bore you. Oh…" He looked at poliwag. "That is a wonderful poliwag you've got there."

"Thanks, I've had him for a while now."

"I may be a waiter, but I'm actually a Pokémon Connoisseur." When Niko and Warren both gave him curious looks, Cilan continued. "It's essentially a person who specializes in identifying the compatibility between Pokémon Trainer's and their pokémon." He crouched down to poliwag's level and looked at it. "From a very basic examination," He said after a couple minutes, "I can say that your poliwag is very content with you. You have a strong bond."

"Makes sense." Warren smiled, looking down at poliwag. "Hey, can you take a look at that snivy?" He asked, much to Niko's objection, as the latter say what Warren was doing.

"Ah, but that snivy isn't yours, is it?" Cilan asked. Niko nodded, not feeling completely comfortable with it. Cilan looked down at snivy, and after a few minutes smiled. "That snivy seems happy with you, sir. I can tell in its eyes that it wants to get stronger. It's ambitious."

"I see…" Niko looked down at snivy. Cilan was right—if he looked directly at the Grass Snake's eyes, he could see a small fire within them.

"Anyways, what will you be having today?" Cilan asked. Niko and Warren placed their orders, and as Cilan walked away, Warren turned to his friend.

"Okay, why was that necessary?" Niko asked as he put snivy down.

"Because it's clear snivy wants a trainer. Maybe you can be that trainer." Warren said.

"I'm not going to be a trainer!" Niko said, raising his voice a little. When he realized other people were watching, he sat back in his chair and shut up.

During their meal, they got a chance to watch pokémon perform on a stage in the back of the room. They were three monkey-like pokémon that Warren claimed were called pansage, pansear, and panpour. Then, Cilan and two of the other waiters appeared on the stage.

"May I have your attention?" They asked to the audience. "We would like to invite a trainer onto the stage for an after-lunch battle. Who would like to volunteer?"

Niko tried to not make eye contact with Warren. But it turned out he didn't need to. Snivy tugged on his pant leg. Looking down, Niko sighed. "You want to battle?"

Snivy nodded.

"Fine…" Niko raised his hand. "I volunteer."

"Excellent!" The waiter with fiery red hair—Chili—responded. "Please come up here." Niko walked up to the stage with snivy following closely behind. He introduced himself to Chili, Cilan, and the third waiter, Cress. "Alright, so as you all may know, this used to be the Striaton City Gym, and we were the gym leaders. Generally, we like to offer battles to guests. Now, Niko right? Who would you like to battle?"

Niko eyed each of the trainers, trying to figure out who might be easier to battle. "Cress." He finally said.

"Very well." Cress said as Chili and Cilan both left the stage, and he took several steps back to create distance between him and Niko. He then pulled out a pokéball. "Panpour, I choose you!"

"Snivy, let's go." Niko said, turning to the Grass Snake. "I think this is a water type, so we should be just fine." He then thought about it for a moment, and realized he had no idea what moves snivy knew. "Err…use tackle?"

Snivy charged forward at panpour, who quickly retaliated by shifting to its left and releasing a burst of water from its mouth, hitting snivy and knocking her to the ground.

"Snivy, use tackle again!" Niko shouted. This time, panpour duplicated itself in a move that Niko recognized as double team. "Agh…alright, then. Snivy, use whatever move you can!"

Niko observed as green vines erupted out of snivy's neck, frantically whipping around as they hit the panpour copies, leaving the original unharmed. Snivy then dodged a water gun and charged forward at panpour, who responded with a scratch attack, slashing its paw against snivy and knocking her to the ground.

"Now, scald!" Cress commanded. Panpour shot out another burst of water, but this time it looked like it was steaming. Snivy cried out as the hot water contacted her body. She tried to retaliate with another vine whip, but panpour evaded with double team and then proceeded to use scratch on her with enough force to knock her off the stage.

"Snivy!" Niko said, leaping off of the stage to grab the Grass Snake pokémon. "Are you alright?"

The Grass Snake nodded as Cilan declared the victory for Cress and his panpour.

"Well, you did good. I can see what Cilan means by being ambitious. You want to grow stronger, don't you?" When snivy nodded, Niko smiled in return. "Well, I hope you find a trainer that can do that for you."

When they got back to their table, Warren had nothing but a smile on his face.

"You two did well." He said observantly.

"Not really. Snivy did more than I did." He looked down at an exhausted snivy. "But she definitely deserves a good trainer to help her get stronger."

"Yeah, she does." Warren said, watching as poliwag comforted snivy. The group finished their lunch and, after thanking the trio of waiters, left the restaurant and Striaton City.

The road to their next destination—Accumula Town—took less than a day, with the group arriving the morning following their adventures in Striaton City. During that time, Niko and Warren continued to talk, with the latter casually trying to convince Niko to take snivy and become a pokémon trainer, and Niko denying it every time. By the time they made it to Accumula Town, Niko had silenced any discussion on the topic, and refused to answer each time.

Accumula Town was smaller than Nacrene and Striaton City, by far, but it was still a sizeable community. It was situated on several different hills, with sets of stairs leading up and down to different buildings. All in all, it didn't have much to offer from Niko's perspective, and when he and Warren made it to the Pokémon Center, they didn't waste too much time in grabbing a bite to eat and leaving the town right after.

"So, we should probably make it to Nuvema Town tomorrow morning or early afternoon." Niko said as he and Warren were leaving the town limits of Accumula Town.

"Got it. Almost done!" Warren said excitedly.