Venusaur: The Seed Pokemon.
Usually two meters in height and four feet in width, some Venusaur can grow to the size of small buildings. The symbiotic plant on its back has bloomed and sprouted in comparison to its Ivysaur devolution, and has become part contributor to the omnivore diet.
Found rarely in the wild, Venusaur pods are observed mainly in intensely remote and secluded grasslands. Where they meet, it is not unexpected to observe secondary succession plants growing. Their regenerative effects on local fauna is best noted in restimulating forested environments where fires have previously devastated the area.
The symbiote on Venusaur's back is an interesting phenomenon, by abiding by the Pokemon's will it can perform tasks like gathering solar energy for [Synthesis] or [Solar Beam], or releasing scents and spores for the use of attacks like [Sweet Scent], [Poison Powder], or [Sleep Powder].
Venusaur have been considered as potential sources of solar power within the last several decades; Its generally docile disposition, low disruption value to rural areas, and seemingly efficient generator have enabled it to be a candidate to several startup research projects. However, the rarity of the Pokemon in itself has found itself to be a major roadblock in any commercial power scheme until ways to faster evolve Ivysaur are found.
It was deep into the night did we arrive at Pallet, stars glittering stagnantly above the rural village. A sight less deep and mysterious than usual, as light pollution from Viridian seeped into the forest and met the two stolid gas lamps by the Route 1 entrance. Not much had changed after that; the country houses sprawled along the wayside, albeit one or two more than usual, and the towering Oak laboratory overlooking the waterfront. Herds of Pokemon could be seen nestling along the tree line in the moonlight, and several bleated in fear as the shadow of a large, flying predator swept above.
"...Land, Charizard."
The beast grunted, smoke puffing out of his nostrils and streaming behind him… onto me. Without nary a sound (excluding strangled choking), we dropped altitude alarmingly, Charizard folding his great wings and diving towards the ground. 500 meters.. 300 meters... 50 meters… 5 meters…! Jolting backwards, he extended with extenuous strain to unfold and halt, flapping precariously on the ground to lessen the assault that washed over us, both of nausea and inertia. Oi. Stop that. Every time you do that, I lose a year of my life, you know?
We landed on the main road of Pallet, the warm gravel unstable beneath our toes. It seemed that Pikachu was in an especially good condition tonight, managing to get up faster than I had after Charizard's antics. Blue passed by above, his Pidgeot touching down elegantly, a good distance away from my giant carnivorous reptile.
Returning our carriers in a gleam of red, Blue picked up the corpse sleeping kidnapee and we stealthily crept over to our house. The windows were dark, and despite the fact that the next house was over a hundred meters away, the neighbor had a startlingly good ear and would wake the town up in a rancor if he heard a peep from the lawn. Our lawn.
I tried the door, varnished in a new coat of gray -it matched the window frames- and rummaged in my black hole of a bag for the spare keys. As a trainer, or as a survivalist, you either go with nothing or everything, and honestly it's better to go with everything.
Hyper potion. Nope
Ultra balls. Nope.
Escape rope. Nope.
"Heeeyyy, this body is getting heavy….", Blue whispered.
"Shaddup, if the coppers hear you, you're good as dead. Lay him against the floor. No, not the porch, on the dirt, it creaks like crazy."
I actually spent a day, oh so many years ago, testing which floorboards in the house -the whole freaking house- creak on a level of one to ten. Ah, memories…. I was so bored back then.
Revival herb. Nope.
Eon flute. Nope.
Destiny knot. Nope.
Town map. Nope.
Uber foldable bike. Nope.
Wait, that's awesome. Why don't I use that more? Oh wait, I was stuck on a mountain…
Reaching further into the supposedly Key Items part of the christened 'black hole bag', I brushed against some lint, and a gaping hole.
"..."
"..What?"
"Lost it."
We both turned a shade more pallid.
"...Now what do we do."
"...Window."
"Are you serious?"
"It's summer. Mother always keeps at least one window slightly open to let the air flow in."
Thus began our second operation: "Window Break". Getting a rusty window to open was actually much harder than it looks, and after about fifteen minutes of fiddling and jarring and silent cursing we managed to lift the thing open. Pikachu went in first, jumping in incredible acrobatics and rushing upstairs… hey, don't leave us down here. Open the door!
I went in next, and with a good deal of grunting and Blue shoving from behind, toppled in -silently- onto the floor. I unlocked the back door and Blue came in hauling the corpse body. We went upstairs, where a sleeping Pikachu was relaxing the bed, and dumped Gold on him. After settling my pack and checking to see if Mother's room was silent, I showed Blue out the door - after he already freaking raided my coffee and chips from the kitchen. So it's not just limited to my house huh, but my parent's house? I'll make sure Oak hears about this…
I changed my clothes to a more settling corduroy brown, and after tucking both the rat and the kid in, I laid on the couch to nod off.
I woke up at about six in the morning, the soft flashing of the Pokedex light hitting my face point blank (otherwise, how do I wake up?). Yawning, I shrugged off the dredges of sleep and making a cup of herbal tea. It was only until dawn did Mother descended downstairs. We yawned, she made some coffee, sat down with me, and we drank for a good while.
It was only until twenty minutes later did she realize the gravity of the situation, and with a "Oh, Red? Glad to see you've come home, darling." I grunted, like the serious father reading the newspaper (although Pallet didn't run a local newspaper; everyone knew each other's affairs like the back of their hand).
...This is no good. I can't even have a normal conversation with my mother? What do I talk to her about? 'How is the weather?' 'Oh, the championships were an easy snitch, all of my pokemon are a-ok!' 'Geez, sorry for not coming back for years to train in one of the harshest places of the world?' I'm screwed. If I can't do this, how do I face society?!
While I was in the midst of a self-imposed soliloquy, Mother rose up and ruffled my hair gently. Rising out of my stupor, she said, "Red, I know you've been busy training. Oak sometimes comes over with letters sent from the Mount Silver Pokemon Center, trying to decipher the chicken scratch that is your writing."
Ah, I forgot about that. You know, seclusion is very lonely, even for an introvert like me. Sometimes I just feel the urge to get in touch with others. So I 'pen' letters. Good ole Farfetch'd feathers dipped in Octillery ink letters. Not that I imagined it'd go anywhere, though. The Nurse Joy at the Pokemon Center, she nods and smiles when she take my mail, but I know she probably throws it out in the back. Everybody does. Wait, did she just leak an insult at the end of that speech?
I have a Pokedex that can video call others? Hahaha. Do I have to bang it through your thick skull that I live on a mountain? What reception? The thing is literally a scrap piece of metal I'd feed to the fireplace as fuel if not for the precious research info inside.
"But now that you're finally home, will you be staying a while before traveling again?"
"...yes, Mother."
It was at that moment Gold walked downstairs into the kitchen, yawning. I gave him some coffee, he sat down, we drank like three old people. Ah, retirement…
"So this one is…"
"Gold. Sorry to intrude on your home, Red's mother."
"Ah, nice to meet you, Gold."
I'm really at a loss here, but I'll go along with it. It's less of a struggle to just go with the flow, anyhow. I stood up, stretching my back, before going back up into my used room, the bed sheets ruffled up and thrown back. As much as it is disorienting for one to wake up in a foreign environment -I should know, I was once carried off by a group of Clefairy in Mount Moon while sleeping, leading to a two month detour in the maze of mines that network underneath the blasted rock- I'll probably just let him sit there before I finish my errand.
He won't be mad when he realizes he's in a different region, will he? Picking up the heavy knapsack, I roughly shoved the prone form of Pikachu, snoring on the bed. Hey, you've been hibernating all year in the mountains, are you still going to be lazy?
As I went back down the stairs, the footsteps were subtly louder than I remember it. I haven't gained a lot of weight, have I?
Opening the front door, I said, "...I have something to do right now, I'll be back around lunch, I guess."
"Ok, dear."
"Aight."
It was only until I left the house and was a good twenty meters away did a resounding, "HEYY! Don't leave me behind!" echo from the house.
"..."
I left about ten minutes later with Gold in tow.
Professor Oak's laboratory, also known to the young scamps of yore as 'Old Man's Bluff, was on the south side of Pallet, arching up over the sleepy town. With its whitewashed walls and sleek metal finishing, the research facility was quite conspicuously out of place from the rural farmland, short grasslands and verdant forests. Suspicious… Looking back at it, I'm starting to think this was all a real estate conspiracy… I bet Old Man Oak can sell the thing off for a good deal of pokedollars..
Aside from the costly value of the land Oak used for his laboratory studies, he owned a lot of space in general, just for raising and nurturing the captures sent to him by his Pokedex holders. Habitats were specially construed that was even more bizarre than the lab: artificial hills with underground tunnels and rock formations, used to shelter Graveler and Zubat, Whismur and Cleffa, a giant magnet within an old hut, which attracted Magnemite and other electric-type pokemon daily, and even a manmade coral reef by the water's edge, with specially portioned and dammed sections for freshwater and saltwater habitats. Hey, with all that money you spent on this, are you secretly a very powerful person, professor?
During the whole walk over, Gold became increasingly excitable as we neared the pokemon habitats laid before the research facility. All the common pokemon found in Kanto, was like a complete alien species to him… well, it probably is. But he went so far to almost jump the fence into one of the pokemon habitats for Rhyhorn… I doubted his sanity after nearly getting gored in the shoulder hauling him out. Dangerous places aren't for children, you know? We settled his sulky attitude by giving him Pikachu to pet, much to the annoyance of the little rodent, ultimately ending up to pulled cheeked and electrocution. Hey, it was his fault this time.
We found the professor at the ranch, where Miltank and Tauros roamed around grassy, expansive pens. He bent down abnormally, head almost touching his brown corduroy sneakers, back stuck out in an awkward jut. Almost like a Dodrio with its head stuck into the ground. Almost. He noticed the footsteps behind him, and wrung his hands helplessly, a meek look plastered on his upside-down face.
"Ah, hello you two, would you mind helping an old man out…"
"..."
"..."
After we pushed down the old man laid the professor down on the ground to pound half an hour's work into his solid iron back muscles -do you spend your life bent down like that, just staring at the ground?- we finally managed to uncurl old man Oak. He thanked us, and brought us to the laboratory.
Among the subtle whirring of machines, scurrying lab assistants measuring and collecting species data, and brightly lit rooms full of shelves of pokeballs -this guy is a monster, he has enough pokemon to commit to a war, wait, isn't that my fault?- we arrived at his office, consisting of a black obsidian table, two squares meant as chairs, a laptop, and a plaque above Oak's seat that said: "Professor Oak, Ph.D. in Pokemon Philosophy, Mechanics, Environmental Systems, Biology. Certified by the National Kanto Pokemon Research Committee."
Yeah. It was a long plaque. Besides an obvious lack of interest in furnishing/ or a complete interest in minimalism, and that the room looked either like a prison cell or psychiatric ward, the professor's attire matched similarly, dressed in an opened white labcoat over a red flannel shirt.
So Oak sat down behind the desk -It was easy to see that the chair was the source of all his back problems so please, get an ergonomic chair for yourself, you rich old man!- and Gold sat in the opposite, while I just leaned against the corner, trying to look as casual as I could and not like a hired Rocket goon. The professor looked at the two of us with purveying eyes, and placed his hands on the tabletop, worn out with years of handling and fieldwork.
"Hello! Sorry to keep you waiting! Welcome to the world of Pokémon! My name is Oak. People call me Pokémon Prof. This world is inhabited by creatures that we call Pokémon. People and Pokémon live together by supporting each other. Some people play withPokémon, some battle with them. But we don't know everything about Pokémon yet. There are still many mysteries to solve. That's why I study Pokémon every day. Now, what did you sa-"
Pikachu interrupted with a well-timed thundershock to the forehead. Old man Oak, for he was old enough for Alzheimer's to set in and forget who I was, and thusly should be named Great-gramps Oak, fell out of his square of a chair, stunned.
"...Oi. Gramps. Who am I, again?"
"Hahahaha… It's been a long while since I've been hit so rudely in the middle of a discussion like that, you know? But that brings up good memories… Pikachu, it's been awhile, hasn't it? Now who is your trainer now, was it Bread or something?"
I was *this* close to dropping a Snorlax in the building, while Gold was laughing mirthlessly, but then Blue busted in -without knocking, as per ritual- and proclaimed, "Yo, old man! Red is here!", like we were in the middle of a stand-up comedy.
"Ah, Red, was it! It's been so long, I forgot, hahahaha! You've always been a silent character, my boy, so I never really had much of an impression of you…"
"...!"
I'll throw him off a cliff, dammit! Lemme at 'im!
"Enough with the pleasantries. Spit it out, old man. Why did you call me here?" I abandoned all vestiges of courtesy, and Oak grimaced as he was reminded of his age.
"Ah, well, there is a certain project I want you to participate in for me, so….-well, first, let's meet our young fellow right here! What's your name, laddie?"
Now being noticed again, Gold perked up, sweltering a bit between the tense atmosphere between a Zangoose and a Seviper, and a lax Spinda, looking the other way like his interruption hadn't just happened.
"My name is Gold, and I am the current Champion of Johto!"
"Oh, is that so? That's good for you. I remember when Red faced off against Blue at the Indigo Championships six years ago, that was a memorable event, with the ceiling having holes melted through it, and the stands flooded with water to the entrances…. hahaha….haha…ha. *cough* Well, anyway, I don't participate in watching matches so much now in my older years, being too busy in my work (and too lazy to go downstairs to watch the TV)..."
Casually brushed aside in Oak's digression, Gold was cowed.
"...Where was I again? Ah yes, Gold, if you are a champion, would you like to participate in this 'experiment', too?"
I butted in. "First of all, speak plainly about what this 'experiment' is. I rather not get involved like a lab rat without any legal contracts, per se."
"Geez, I managed to rope Blue into doing it though through the same method, I was sure it would work this time…"
"Huh? What did you just say?"
"Nothing." "Shaddup."
The professor wryly grinned, holding up his palms as if in surrender. "What I want for you two is to participate is to travel to a new region, and participate in its Pokemon World Tournament. It will be held in Unova," He flipped around the laptop, exposing a map of a place unfamiliar to me. "In the city of Driftveil."
"This should be a good thing for Red, who wants to meet stronger and more diversified matches but has been unable to in isolated Mt. Silver, and Gold, who wants to hold onto his Champion position. If I remember correctly, the Johto League preliminaries are held next year, every two years?"
"Yes, that's right. I want to become stronger to hold onto this position I've recently been granted."
I was not as impressed. "What's in it for you, professor? I doubt that you'd give us this opportunity from the goodness in your heart."
"Quick to catch on, as always, Red. Blue, did you bring the devices?"
"Yup. Straight from the programmers." Blue took out two red gadgets from his back pocket, tossing them to Oak in one movement. There was a mad scrabbling by the arthritic old man, as he tried to catch the objects, and when he rose up from the ground, panting, he glared at his grandson with a look that could kill.
"If you try that again, your body will be hung outside Cerulean Cape where nobody will ever find you." Woah. You were speaking pretty seriously there for a moment, professor. I almost thought you wanted to kill him.
He sighed, and put it in our hands gingerly. "What is in it for me, is that you two can help collect data on Unovan pokemon with these new version pokedexes. They cost a fortune, so Red," He looked into my soul, and my soul quavered back at him. "If Pikachu or another pokemon fries it again beyond repair, my spirit will haunt you like a Ghastly until you die."
While messing around with the power button, Gold said, "Unova pokemon… hey, didn't you skip a couple regions right there? Sinnoh, Hoenn, aren't those two pretty important?"
The Professor cleared his throat. "I have those bases already covered. Two kind trainers, Lucas and Dawn, are under Professor Rowan's authority and are collecting data right now, and Brendan under Birch is scouring Hoenn. All is left is Unova and Kalos; Kalos of which is currently inaccessible at the moment due to region hostility, although it is currently in interregional negotiations with the other regions to allow travel for commercial traders."
"...So when is it held? How do you know there is a challenge waiting for me there? Do I get any monetary recompense" -I rubbed my index finger and my thumb at this moment- "for traveling expenses?"
I'm quite broke at the moment, spending hundreds of thousands of poké on revives, full restores, hyper potions, escape ropes, and full heals during my training. Income from battling was meager, if at all, since barely anybody gets to me anyway. That might've been a downside to hiding a hut in the side of a mountain…
"Hmm? Are you still a dependency? Don't you have a mother?"
"Did you think Mother even gave me money at the start of my journey, nine years ago? Just a pat on the back and a 'good luck'. Sir, welcome to Sparta. Now, the money. This is a business negotiation, not a road trip."
Blue laughed, and held out his hand as well. "Good thinking, mate. Gramps, I need money too…"
"Shut up. I wouldn't give any money to a unfrugal kid like you until I die. I made sure I left out your inheritance in the will anyway, you bottomfeeder. The last time I checked your balance, the entire college fund was shelled off to dinner for forty! You scamp, you rapscallion!" Cut off at the hip! Medic, we've got a frothing man over here!
"Red, I'll wire you the money through the PC when you get to Unova and pay for the plane tickets. But I only want you to hold onto it, I don't trust" -he pointed at Blue, who was keeled out on the floor- "that guy."
K.O.! Ouch, the hate ran deep. What did you do to deserve that, Blue? Buy a car or two for your girl?
"...And the other questions?"
"The competition starts in a month, and for your second question…"
"What?"
"Ah, yes. All the region gym leaders, short of Kalos's, and the current and former champions of each region will be participating. This is a really big tournament, you know?"
Gym Leaders? Champions? Sounds like a match made for me.
"... I'm in."
"Let us see you trounce the rivals, Red."
We shook hands, I signed a written contract, and we decided to leave by the end of the week. I might be a lab rat for something ludicrous again, but it seemed that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages by a long shot.
As I stood at the front door, I suddenly remembered something urgent.
Wait. Didn't I just promised my mother earlier that I'd be staying a while? Oh crap.
I'm so dead.