It was midday and the sun was blazing brightly in the sky. Jace was already on route 202, making his way towards Jubilife city.
"Jeez, the games don't do the routes justice. It's going to take me at least two days until I arrive at Jubilife and three if I take my sweet time, which I probably will," he mumbled, looking up into the sky and wiping the sweat from his brow. He moved his gaze infront of him again.
Route 202 was wide. It was a simple dirt path surounded by forest. Smaller paths were branching from the main one, leading into the forest.
He then looked down to his feet. "Heh, you're a stubborn one, aren't you?" Frigibax was beside him, walking with him since they had entered the route.
Frigibax looked exhausted. Jace decided it would benefit Frigibax if he walked with him; he thought it was great for building up his stamina.
They were already walking for six hours and he had, at one point, offered to return Frigibax to his pokeball, but he declined and stubbornly walked beside Jace, determined on finishing the task his trainer had given him. Jace was honestly surprised.
'Well, duh, he is a pseudo-legend afterall,' he thought. Surprisingly that was an official term used here.
'Pseudo-legends are actually alot more rare than the games depicted them to be. Only a few trainers officialy have one registered as a part of there team. Sinnoh's champion, Cynthia, being one of them.'
That made him scratch his head and made him think of something else. 'Which raises even more questions on how my parents got the money to buy one.'
He raised his shoulders and put up his hands. 'Guess we'll never know, but I should thank them somehow, someday.'
He then slid his hands into his pockets, feeling a round object inside his right pocket. 'Right, I also have this,' he sighed, looking back down towards Frigibax.
"Hey buddy, let's go down towards one of the branching paths and look for a nice resting spot. After we have rested, we can look at the new member of our team, what do you say?" Frigibax, staring curiously at one of the trees, looked back at him and nodded.
They then proceeded towards a branching path on the left side of Route 202. The route now behind them as they entered the forest.
Jace pulled the round object out of his pocket and looked at it. It was a pokeball, he didn't know if should be excited or anxious.
'Well, I should just get it over and done with.'
"Huh?" Jace stared in bewilderment at the professor.
He didn't expect that! He was just here to get a trainer's license, but now he was standing here, being offered a sponsorship.
"Yes, I would like to sponsor you," Professor Rowan confirmed, lookin in amusement at Jace's bewildered face.
That brought Jace back from his thoughts and he looked questioningly at Professor Rowan. "Why?" he asked.
"Why? Because I see great potential in you. You executed that fight perfectly, working with your pokemon's strengths and weaknesses. I can also see you already have a good enough bond with your pokemon. So why not?" Professor Rowan answered.
Jace stood there for a while, thinking the offer over. Listing all the positives and negatives, though the negatives were very few to none, so the answer was obvious.
"I don't see why not. Sure! That would be greatly appreciated. Though, I would like to know the details of this sponsorship." Jace said, nodding his head.
"Sure." Professor Rowan took out a pen and paper. "You will be paid a monthly salary based on your performance. You will also be required to write monthly reports on your team. There are other smaller things, but they aren't important." He then handed the pen and paper to Jace.
Jace took the pen and paper and looked through the now identified contract. Upon seeing nothing wrong with it, he signed it and gave it back to the Professor.
"I will also give you a pokemon, as that is the official confirmation of my sponsorship." Professor Rowan said as he looked the paper over and stashed it away.
Jace couldn't believe what he had just heard. 'An extra pokemon this early!' He excitedly nodded his head.
Professor Rowan smirked and waved for Jace to follow.
They then walked back to his office and talked about mundane stuff. Jace found out that Rowan also sponsored one other trainer. His name is Lucas. Great. He is apparantly already on his way to challenge the elite four.
'I have a lot of catching up to do,' Jace thought, rubbing his face.
"Right. The extra pokemon. Let me go get it quickly." Professor Rowan stood up and walked out of the office. A few minutes later, he returned with a pokeball in his hand.
"Now, before I give this to you, there's some things you must know. This isn't your average pokemon." Professor Rowan said, that signature stern look on his face.
"A very good friend of mine is a pokemon breeder. I helped him with something a while back, and he offered me this pokemon as repayment," he said.
"I did want to use this pokemon for my research, but it wanted more; it wanted an adventure. It had a desire for power. And who am I to refuse such dreams?" Professor Rowan stared at Jace, looking for a reaction.
"So Jace, do you accept this pokemon's wishes? Are you going to satisfy this pokemon's desires?" he asked, his eyes penetrating Jace's very being.
"Don't worry Professor, I will do anything within my power to grant this pokemon's wishes and make it as strong as it can be," Jace said confidently, staring straight back at Professor Rowan.
Professor Rowan smirked and nodded, handing the ball to Jace.
Jace swung his bag off his shoulder and plopped down against a tree. He had found a great spot to rest for the moment. It was an open field surrounded by trees. There was also a huge pond in the middle of it.
Frigibax was at the edge of the pond staring at his own reflection in awe. Jace smiled and shook his head. "Hey buddy! Come over here! We are going to meet our new teammate!"
Frigibax looked back at his trainer and made an affirmative growl and made his way towards Jace. Once Frigibax arrived beside him, Jace sighed and reached into his pocket.
'I guess it's now or never,' he thought as he fetched the pokeball from his pocket. He held it for a moment and then pressed the release button.
The ball cracked open and released a red beam that shot toward the ground. The beam of red energy quickly coalesced into a silhouette of a pokemon and then gave off a burst of white light.
Jace quickly closed his eyes and after a moment opened them again, staring at the culprit, which made his eyes widen. 'I must really be the favourite child of Arceus or something.' Jace couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Standing infront of him was a small dark orange pokemon. It had black stripes running across his back and legs. It's tail looked like a rocky cloud and its eyes and neck was covered in rock-like fur.
It looked up at Jace with curiousness, or atleast, that was what Jace thought it was.
'A Hisuian Growlithe!? No way!' Jace rubbed his eyes and looked at Growlithe again; it had now turned his head slightly in confusion. 'Right, calm down, introduce yourself.'
"Hey there bud! I'm Jace! It's nice to meet you." Jace smiled and waved at Growlithe.
"You are probably confused right now, but don't worry you're in good hands! My dream is to become the strongest, and I want loyal and strong partners by my side! You think you can handle that?"
There was a moment of silence as Growlithe just stared at Jace, but after a moment Growlithe gave a little bark and jumped towards Jace, knocking him to ground.
"Hahaha! I'll take that as a yes." Jace laughed as he tried getting Growlithe off him.
Frigibax let out an annoyed sound, which made Growlithe turn his attention towards him. Frigibax's eyes widened as Growlithe jumped off of Jace and sprinted towards him. Frigibax tried to step out of the way, but Growlithe was far too quick, pouncing on him in the blink of an eye.
Frigibax yelped, frantically waving his arms as Growlithe started licking him too. Jace laughed at his predicament and after awhile sepperated the two.
Frigibax gave the stink eye towards Growlithe, but Growlithe was blissfuly unaware. Jace gave another good look toward Growlithe. 'Huh, I thought he would be more serious. I guess Professor Rowan's description was a little off,' he thought, scratching his head.
'But it isn't a bad thing, Growlithe's attitude will brighten up the adventure,' Jace nodded, fetching his pokedex from his backpack.
Switching it on, he began scanning Growlithe. Growlithe got startled by the light coming from the pokedex, but quickly calmed down after seeing it did no harm.
"Huh, so you are also a male. Ember, Bite and Morning Sun? Pretty solid, I will need to see your proficiency with these moves though. And your ability is Justified. Nice, I will definitely be able to work with this."
Jace looked up from his pokedex and motioned for Growlithe to face a tree. Growlithe complied and walked towards one nearby, facing it.
Meanwhile, Frigibax poked Jace's leg. Jace looked down at Frigibax. "You need something, buddy?" Frigibax nodded and pointed towards the pokeballs hooked on Jace's belt.
"Oh, you want to rest? Alright, get all the rest you need, bud." He unhooked Frigibax's pokeball and recalled him, hooking the pokeball again.
Moving his attention back to Growlithe, he gave him an order. "Alright, use Ember."
Growlithe lowered his stance and took a deep breath. Puffing his chest up, he began gathering Fire Type Energy in the back of his throat until he couldn't hold it any more. Releasing the energy, small tennis ball-sized embers began shooting from his mouth. Whistling through the air as they flew towards their target.
bam* *bam* *bam*
One after the other slammed against the bark of the tree, chipping away at it. After the last one hit it's mark, a huge chunk of the bark was destroyed.
'Alright, not bad, does decent damage and can be improved on, especially on the charge up. Next is Bite, Morning Sun will have to be tested in a battle, as it is a healing move.'
"Alright, next. Use Bite."
Growlithe barked, again lowering his stance. Blasting of from his lowered stance he sprinted towards the tree. Dark TE began gathering in his jaw, covering his teeth. Dark TE then flowed out to sides of his jaw as he ran faster towards his target.
Giving one leap, he opened his mouth and crunched down on the remaining bark of the tree, sinking his teeth deep into the bark. Twisting his head, he ripped out a sizeable chunk of the remaining trunk.
'Wow, that was pretty good, he used the move quickly, and it did alot of damage,' Jace thought scratching his chin.
"That was awesome Growlithe! Now, come back, we are ready to walk again!" Growlithe gave a happy bark at the praise and began jogging back to his trainer.
Suddenly a loud crack could be heard. Both trainer and pokemon looked toward the tree as it began to fall. Growlithe yelped as he sprinted out of the falling tree's path.
*BOOM*
As the tree slammed against the ground, dust flew everywhere, blocking everything from view.
Jace coughed and waved his hand through the air. "Hey! Growlithe! You alright buddy?!" A bark could be heard from somewhere in the dust, instantly relieving Jace's worries.
After a short silence Growlithe began barking again, calling Jace over. "Alright, alright, I'm coming, hold on."
Jace walked through the dust towards Growlithe's barking, the sound getting closer each second.
What he saw when he reached Growlithe, wasn't something he expected. An unconcious Weedle was lying on the ground and Growlithe was standing next to it, watching over it.
"Shit, I didn't think about the possibility of a pokemon being in the tree." He crouched beside the Weedle, looking it over. 'It doesn't seem badly injured, but I can't leave it here'
He grabbed Growlithe's pokeball and recalled him. He then picked up Weedle, being careful not to touch its spikes. The dust had mostly settled, so he walked back to his backpack relatively easy.
He sat Weedle down gently, and began rummaging through his backpack. He pulled out a potion that Professor Rowan gave him and sprayed Weedle with it. He then pulled out a pokeball, one of five that was also given to him, and tapped Weedle with it, sucking weedle into the ball. The ball instantly dinged, and Weedle was captured.
'Geez, what an eventful first day. I think I'll set camp here and begin moving toward Jubilife tomorrow, I am way too tired,' Jace sighed, hooking Weedle's pokeball to his belt.
Jace was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling of his tent. Growlithe was laying on his back at Jace's feet and Frigibax was curled beside Jace. Surprisingly, he wasn't cold.
Jace smiled, 'Heh, today wasn't bad, I woke up in this world, met Frigibax, got a sponsorship, and met Growlithe. I hope tomorrow is just as fun as today.'
'I will also have to check on Weedle tomorrow, hopefully it's okay,' Jace thought worriedly.
Jace sighed, 'I better get some sleep, if I want to get up early and travel toward Jubilife.'
Zipping his tent closed, he scratched Frigibax and Growlithe and then closed his eyes.
