The alarm buzzed loudly, piercing through the sleepy haze of the morning. A single tightly clenched shot into the air from a mess of blankets and pillows, slamming down onto the well-dented snooze button on the digital alarm clock. The round, Pokeball designed clock sputtered and silenced as it had every morning as the fist slowly retracted into the mess of blankets.
"Josie!" A female voice erupted from the stairs in the corner of the room. The mountain of blankets rustled.
"Josie! I hear your alarm going off! Ya better get up!" the voice called again.
Josie's eyes shot open. Her glare shot over to the Pokeball alarm clock, the dull green light flashing 10:51. She rolled onto her back, splayed out on top of her covers as she stared at the ceiling.
"Josie!"
"I frickin' hear you, mum!" Josie called out, her teeth clenched. She swung her feet over the edge of her bed, placing both feet next to a pair of brown boots, scratched and muddied from use. She stood up and immediately kicked the boots to the side in anger, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she stumbled toward the full-body mirror in her room.
She looked into the mirror, staring at her messy visage. She pulled and pushed at her thick, curly, dirty blonde hair to try to get it tamed, to no avail. She cursed under her breath, grabbing a white sun hat off the corner of the mirror to try to squeeze her hair down. After a full minute of failing to fit her hair underneath the hat she threw the headpiece, pursed her lips in anger and kicked the baseboard of the wall.
"Stupid hair…" Josie mumbled to herself, dragging herself to the sliding door of her closet. She flung it open, a small variety of clothes dangling on hangers swinging. Her fingers flitted through her collection of jackets before finding a properly oversized brown leather jacket, sliding it on over the shirt she wore to bed.
As she fit her second arm through the sleeve of her jacket, she began to smell the wafting aroma of slightly burned pancakes, carrying along with it the sweet sugary smell of syrup. Her least favorite breakfast, to be sure, but at least it was something to celebrate her 10th birthday.
For her entire life, Josie had longed for this pivotal birthday. She had longingly looked out her window to the one other residential house in Fresh Springs Town. Years ago, when Josie barely had memories, she remembered a kid next door who turned 10, got their Pokémon, and left on their journey. Its not that Josie ever missed that neighbor, they looked like an absolute chump, but it was the best way out of this hellhole, and the wanderlust had taken hold at a young age that she couldn't shake. All that would change today.
Josie kicked up a pair of wrinkled khaki shorts from the ground, catching them in one hand and bringing them to her nose. She sniffed the shorts, testing them if they were too dirty to wear, and after only recoiling a little she slipped those on as well.
After fitting into the boots she had kicked aside earlier, she followed her nose to the descending stairs, her heavy footsteps alerting the matronly figure on the first floor. Her eyes gravitated immediately to her mother, sitting at the table just finishing putting a bite of the edge of a pancake in her mouth. Her short, bobbed hair turned up at the base to mimic her wide smile that Josie had gotten so sick of.
"Hey Josie! You're finally up!" her mom smiled through chewing the bite of pancake. Josie's eyes floated down to the empty plate in front of her mother, and then searched for the plate of extra pancakes. She didn't see any other plate at the table nor on the counter behind her mom, and in the sink there was a pan being soaked with a bit of batter still clinging to its edges. Josie's insides began to burn with rage.
"Mom… where are my pancakes?" Josie asked through clenched teeth. Josie's mom looked around with wide eyes, then shrugged as she finished off her glass of juice.
"Last time I made pancakes for you you said you didn't like them," her mom said nonchalantly, gathering up her dishes and beginning to rinse them off.
A rage boiled from within Josie, her upper lip twitching, red hot blood rising up her neck and painting her crimson face.
"I STILL WOULD'VE LIKED TO HAVE FUCKING BREAKFAST ON MY 10TH BIRTHDAY OF ALL DAYS!" Josie shouted, stomping her way to the door. Before her mom could muster a response, Josie was outside, slamming the door behind her.
Josie stepped forward, her eyes closed as she tried to regain her serenity. She felt the sun warm her cheeks, the sunlight piercing through her eyelids. She began to calm a bit, hearing the breeze and the distant calls of Cackleburr in the trees.
In her closed eyes, she imagined the small town spreading before her. Town perhaps wasn't the right word for it, as it only consisted of her house, her stupid neighbors, and the Pokemon laboratory, only good for the Pokemon they handed out for the children of Dunder once they reached 10 years old.
She opened her eyes slowly after calming herself, a bright and smiling boy face a few inches from hers.
"AH!" Josie shouted in surprise, her hand instinctively shooting up in a balled fist, connecting with the boy's mouth. The boy recoiled in pain, his hands shooting up directly to his face to hold his now throbbing lip.
"Good morning to you too, Josie!" the boy laughed off his pain, pulling his hand away to see a small amount of blood drawn from his lip. He wiped it off on his pants before returning to his pearly smile.
"Rival…" Josie barely acknowledged the boy. The boy before her had been her neighbor for her entire life, though his insistent happiness and seemingly perfect home life had always gotten under Josie's skin. He was apparently dressed for adventure too, a pair of heavily pocketed cargo shorts only held onto his body by an over-tightened belt. He had on a green, collared outdoor shirt with sleeves rolled up nearly to the brown vest over the top. His dark brown hair tufted out from underneath his ballcap, the Pokeball pattern prominent on its front.
Josie began to walk off, her eyes piercing daggers into the ground in front of her, trying not to give Rival the time of day. It's not that Rival had given her a reason to hate him, really the opposite, but every time he came by her house with that cheery attitude or when she was just on a walk and he would show up with that stupid smile and a pep in his step she could always feel her rage boiling.
Rival matched Josie's step with a hop, his head craned upward into the beautiful clear sky. Josie glanced at his legs matching her pace, quickening her steps a touch, though Rival kept up without missing a beat.
"Have you thought about what Pokémon you're going to get from the professor?" Rival asked, his eyes flitting to Josie's face. She didn't respond.
"I was thinking I'd be pretty much happy with anything. Platybubble is super cute, did you know most people in other regions didn't even think Platybubble was a real Pokémon when people started to settle Dunder?"
Josie grunted. She hadn't thought about which Pokemon she was going to choose. One of her mother's long-winded stories had been about her first Pokemon and how she was so excited to go on her adventure, staying up for days on end before getting to choose her first Pokemon. Josie couldn't remember what her mother had chose for her Pokemon, but as far as she was concerned it didn't matter. She had always had a fondness of Pokemon, always seemed to relate with their feral nature more than other humans, so she wasn't concerned with picking the right starter, she knew it was all going to work out.
"Or I could go with Twiglet, they're also great!" Rival continued as they rounded one of the namesake springs of Fresh Springs Town. On the other side of the small pool was the professor's lab. Josie just had to survive this conversation until then.
"Twiglet looks like a flying type, but it actually keeps its mono-grass typing in all of its evolutions. They say the champion has a Bushtrich on his team to fit his bird theme, maybe that can be the first step to becoming a Pokemon master like you always wanted to be!"
Josie reached the door first, taking a few quick steps to place herself in front of Rival. Despite her getting to the door first, as she barely opened the door for herself Rival slipped into the doorway first with a wry smile and a "Thanks!" as he passed.
Josie gritted her teeth, opening the door wider as she now had no reason to open it just wide enough for herself, and entered the lab. The room was as tall as it was wide, with counters of laboratory equipment and Pokemon anatomical diagrams. An alleyway created by bookshelves ran through the center of the room, leading to the back of the lab, a portly bearded man in suspenders and a labcoat standing at the back wall.
She tunneled her vision as she walked to the rear of the building, ignoring the lab assistants working busily on the equipment to her sides even as they bid her hello. Josie approached the stocky man, someone she had grown to know as Professor Eucalyptus. Though he was the only neighbor other than Rival, she still never took a liking to him due to his focus on his research and his overall rosy nature. She mustered every ounce of her hospitality to walk forward, keeping her mind on getting her present.
"G'day Josie! I've heard someone special is here for her 10th birthday present! My, haven't you gotten big since last I saw you!" Eucalyptus bellowed as Josie approached, his arms extended for a hug. Josie blinked, rolling her eyes underneath her eyelids, before slowly moving into the hug, her arms stiff at her sides. Eucalyptus embraced Josie for a second before letting her go, his pleasant smell of cinnamon still lingering for a second, causing her to recoil. She looked to her side, seeing Rival standing over a counter with three Pokeballs sitting equidistant from each other.
Josie leapt to the counter, hip checking Rival out of the way as her eyes blazed with fire looking at each of the red and white spheres. Her hands hovered over the first Pokeball, her eyes floating to the small pictogram of a water droplet beneath it.
"Ah, you've taken a liking to Platybubble, then? An excellent choice…" Eucalyptus began, but before he could finish Josie had already stepped to the side to the next ball. The center sphere had the pictogram of a leaf underneath it, the ball seemed to wiggle slightly, inching itself to the left away from the last ball.
"More of a fan of Twigl…" Eucalyptus began again, but was caught off guard as Josie's eyes fixated on the last ball in the line. There was a small picture of a flame beneath the ball, but the ball itself was shaking erratically.
"What's wrong with this one?" Josie spoke for the first time in the lab, pointing at the fire Pokeball. Eucalyptus' eyes instantly looked tired as he ran his fingers through his hair.
"That one has been a bit of trouble," he said hesitantly. "That's Kindleroo, the fire type Pokémon. It's been in a rage ever since he came into the lab. It keeps struggling to break out of its ball to fight the poor Twiglet... I was planning to ship it off to the Kanto region, their professor is renowned for his expertise in Pokemon/human relationships."
"Mine." Josie's eyes lit up as she reached out for the Pokeball.
"Wait Josie!" Eucalyptus shouted, but it was too late as her fingers brushed the red top of the ball. The ball opened instantly, a bright white light emitting from the interior of the sphere. The light formed on the top of the counter in front of the ball, the light slowly dissipating to reveal the solid form of a small crimson kangaroo, bright yellow-green bars across its chest resembling a fireman's coat, flames in its eyes that burned under its furrowed brow.
The Kindleroo instantly threw a kick with its large feet at Twiglet's Pokeball, sending it flying. Rival's hands shot up, snagging the grass-type Pokeball out of the air before it could crash into a bookshelf and he held the trembling capsule close to his chest.
Kindleroo's attention quickly turned to Josie, his burning eyes meeting hers. A grin spread across Josie's face as she felt an instant connection to this Pokemon on the counter. She bent her knees a bit to get on the same level as the Pokemon's eyes, extending her hand for a fist bump.
"You really like kicking ass, don't you?" Josie asked, nodding to the Pokeball Kindleroo had kicked. The Kindleroo nodded cautiously, as no human had been this friendly toward it thus far. "I can relate, little man. I'm going to travel Dunder, and we're going to become the champion, if you'll come with me. We're going to kick so much ass."
Kindleroo's lip curled up into a smile, clenching its fist. As it did, its claws clicked together, igniting its entire fist in a ball of fire before connecting with Josie's outstretched fist bump.
"Well I'll be. He really took a liking to ya!" Eucalyptus said, shaking his head with a smile. He then turned to Rival, holding Twiglet's pokeball close to his chest. "And what about you? Are you happy with your choice?"
"I think he kind of chose me, in a way," Rival said, pressing the central button on the pokeball. A bright light emitted from the ball, forming into a small, bipedal bird akin to a baby ostrich hiding behind Rival's leg. Its spindly brown legs supported a bright, bushy green torso, a spotted head poking out of the shrubbery-like body with enormous eyes worriedly fixated on the Kindleroo on the counter.
"It's okay little guy, I'm your friend! I won't let anything bad happen, I promise," Rival consoled, crouching down to look the Twiglet in the eyes. Twiglet stopped trembling, bolstered by Rival's kind words, and nuzzled its head against his knee. Rival smiled, petting the leaves sprouting from the Pokemon's head before turning to leave the laboratory.
Before Rival could leave, however, a firm hand grasped him by the shoulder, spinning him around with a surprising amount of force. He turned to see Josie, a fire in her eyes that Rival knew she only got when she was raring for a fight.
"You're not getting out of here before we kick your ass!" Josie shouted. Rival sighed, taking solace in knowing he was right. He looked from Josie's Kindleroo, who had the exact same fire in its eyes as Josie, to his own Twiglett.
"What do you say Twiglet, do you trust me?" Rival asked to his Pokemon at his feet. The bird looked nervous for a second, but firmed itself and nodded, taking a step in front of the trainer. Josie smiled, nodding at Kindleroo.
"Kids, can't you take this outside of the lab? This is a workplace after all…" Eucalyptus began, but was interrupted as Josie shouted.
"Stomp it into oblivion!" Josie shouted. Kindleroo sprung into the air, its toe beans heating up to a red hot as it created a shadow over the grass type.
"Dodge it, Twiglet!" Rival said, the chick deftly moving aside as the kangaroo crashed into the ground, cracking the tile floor. "Counter with a scratch!"
Twiglet planted its right foot, raising its left with talons outstretched. It kicked itself forward, blitzing at the Kindleroo, dragging its claws along the marsupial's back. Kindleroo howled, a small amount of fire coming out of the corners of its mouth.
"C'mon Kindleroo, kick it in the dick!" Josie shouted, pointing at the bird.
"What's wrong with you?" Rival asked, concerned at her statement. Her command distracted him for a split second in the battle as Kindleroo pushed with its tail to slide across the floor, its feet outstretched. The kick connected with the Twiglet between the legs, launching the bird into a nearby bookshelf, knocking a few books onto the floor as it crashed.
"Twiglet!" Rival shouted, looking at the bird as it struggled to stand. Its wobbly legs steadied as it locked eyes with Rival, waiting on his response. Rival nodded, pointing at Josie's Pokemon.
"Use scratch one more time, I believe in you!" Rival said. Twiglet kicked off the ground high into the air and began to fall down toward the kangaroo.
"Dodge Kindleroo! Give it a taste of its own medicine!" Josie called out. Kindleroo's legs fired, prepping to kick away.
As Kindleroo extended its legs, however, it realized it was standing on a book the Twiglet had knocked loose. The book slipped out from underneath the kangaroo as it tried to jump away, unbalancing him and throwing him on his side as he hit the ground. Josie's eyes went wide as the Twiglet landed on her Kindleroo's head, scratching it across the head to deal a critical hit, dropping the Kindleroo with the blow.
Josie looked on in disbelief for nearly ten minutes as Rival and the lab assistants skittered around the destroyed front of the lab, reshelving the books and tidying up. Even the Twiglet was helping out, using its beak to pick up the lighter debris to carry to the trash cans in the corner of the room. Josie's eyes, however, were fixated on her Kindleroo still on the ground, her mind racing.
She had always wanted to be a trainer, it was her dream, her one way out of this town. And she lost in her first battle? She had failed. She had failed her Kindleroo, the first promise she made to a Pokemon and she had lost to the most annoying person in the town…
Josie clenched her fist, closing her eyes to try to center herself. She felt her heart racing, a rage boiling from inside of her. She had no one to blame but herself as a tear welled up in her eye. Maybe she wasn't cut out for her dream. Maybe she was destined for a mediocre life. Maybe…
A pain struck her thigh, causing Josie's eyes to shoot open. At her feet was her Kindleroo, its paw clenched in a fist, its other paw rubbing its sore head. Josie knelt to look the injured Pokemon in the eyes.
"I'm… sorry Kindleroo," Josie sputtered, her head downturned. "I'm sorry I couldn't win, you deserve better."
Kindleroo's paw reached up to Josie's chin, tilting her head upward. The fire Pokemon shook its head, using its fist to bang on its chest in a show of responsibility for the defeat.
"No, little buddy, you did your best," the hint of a sincere smile crossed Josie's lip, a face she found herself making less and less in recent time, but it came so easily around this Pokemon.
Kindleroo put his paw to Josie's sternum with a nod, before retracting it and holding it in front of him in an outheld fist. Josie understood her partner's intention. Though they both claimed the blame, together they could become the greatest force known in the Dunder region.
Josie nodded, extending her fist to bump Kindleroo's, a small explosion of fire erupting from between them and reigniting her passion.
"Alright Rival, you piece of shit, time for round two!" Josie shouted, coming out of her daze to look around the lab. She found herself in a perfectly back to normal lab, however, with Rival nowhere to be found. The lab assistants briefly looked up to the girl, but quickly resumed their work. She cursed under her breath, realizing that Rival had left a while ago, and looked to her companion.
"You ready to kick some ass, Kindleroo?" Josie asked. Kindleroo reached its paw up to ruffle the hair on its head to cover up the scratches and then nodded, a newfound fire in its eyes. An old smile crossed Josie's lips as she opened the door to the lab for their new adventure.