Chapter 1
[Blake Nacht]
He washed his face, rubbing the cool water on it as the sleep left him.
Looking up, he saw his reflection on the mirror as he dragged his hands over his face. He ran his fingers through his short, sandy blonde hair, his eyes darting to the small scar running down the edge of his right eyebrow and the other across his nose. As he did that, he smiled, because it was all leading right where he wanted.
Countless sleepless nights reading books.
Many wild and painful Pokemon encounters.
Struggling to make time for a part time job.
All of it led him to that very day, and it had all finally come together perfectly. With a grin on his face, Blake made his way out of the bathroom and down to the kitchen, where his parents already were. His father was sitting at the head of the table as usual, watching TV. The man couldn't have been paying less attention to his surroundings if he'd been stereotypically reading the newspaper. As for Blake's mother…
"Was about time," the woman said, clearly less than pleased. "You have to be at Rachel's place in half an hour, she asked for help with-"
"Pass," he interrupted, stabbing some bacon from the plate at the center of the table with his fork. Then he brought it to his mouth while grabbing a piece of toast from another plate. "I have plans."
"Well, I'm sorry, but-" his mother said, glaring at him and clearly sounding not at all apologetic. "-Rachel asked for a favor and you'll be helping her-"
"I said pass," Blake interrupted yet again, giving his mother a grin. Then he continued chewing as he turned to leave the house, picking up the backpack he'd left ready at the door.
"Where do you think you are going, Blake Nacht!" his mother shouted from behind him. "Come back here this inst-"
"No," he said, firmly turning around. The smile was nowhere on his face this time as he stared down at his mother. 'Was she always this tiny?' he wondered idly. "I'm leaving and I don't think I'm coming back. You'll have to look for someone else to pawn to your friends so that you can be the "best neighbor" around, mom. Sorry about that."
"Who do you think-?"
"I think I'm Blake Nacht, Pokemon trainer in about an hour or two, when I get my starter that was confirmed last week after I got my results for the Trainer License test," he answered preemptively. "And I also think I'm not your employee, or your servant. So, look for someone else to bother, yeah? Because clearly I'm done with you and clearly dad is too, because he's been cheating on you. So… see you around, or not, hopefully."
With his piece said, he gave the woman a smile and then closed the door on her face.
He'd barely reached the pavement when he heard his mother's screech, probably going off at his father. 'Couldn't happen to nicer people,' he thought to himself, speeding up so that his mother didn't have time to realize that he was going away. That was partly why he'd snitched on his dad. Another was because… Well, fuck the two of them, honestly.
Blake was very done with them.
He had other things, much more important things, to think about. Like getting to the Pokemon Center so he could get his starter, for example. 'I really hope I'll get one of my wish Pokemon,' he thought to himself, taking a deep breath in.
He was sure he'd done very well in the test for his License, so he should be getting one of the Pokemon he'd put in his starter wishlist when he registered himself. Then again, with the Pokemon he'd written there, he wouldn't be too surprised if they decided not to go through with it. He hadn't precisely listed good starter options as far as the general public went.
Then again, considering the Elite Four…
He'd never been more grateful for living in Ever Grande. Otherwise he'd have been subjected to the whims of the Gym Leaders for his starter. Considering every single Gym Leader, Elite Four member and even Champions were notorious for giving starters of their type of choice, then his best chance of getting what he wanted was being exactly where he was. Now, it all depended on his results and luck being good enough.
Either way, his days as a trainer were about to begin, and even if he didn't get the starter he'd like, Blake was a happy camper all the same. It wasn't like there weren't specialists that had a Pokemon or two that weren't from their type of choice. It'd be fine either way and he was finally free, which was the important part.
He was free to go wherever without having to worry about opinions that weren't his. He was free to do as he wished at any moment. There wouldn't be any disappointed glares or endless scolding. There wouldn't be any looking over his shoulder so that none of the nosy neighbors could rat him out. There wouldn't be any sneaking around or hiding things so that his efforts weren't wasted.
That was all in the past now.
The future was waiting for him.
'Look out, world,' Blake thought to himself, adjusting the strap of his backpack. 'It's time for me to start my journey,' he added resolutely. Maybe it was arrogant of him, or pretentious, or something else, but fuck it. He hadn't spent years and years preparing for his journey just to be average.
Hell, he'd gotten into the Youngster program, even if only by a year at seventeen.
And that was only the beginning.
He had plans, many of them. He had prepared endlessly, tirelessly. He wouldn't be a run of the mill trainer. He refused. He hadn't gotten through all that he had just to be average.
No. Blake would be great, or he'd die trying.
[}-o-{]
[Aster Ribera]
The automatic door slid itself close behind him, leaving Aster exposed to the bright morning sun of Hoenn. The heat of summer was increased by the rather thick humidity characteristic of the region. It did help that Ever Grande was right by the sea, so the rather unpleasant feeling was washed away by the occasional fresh winds from the east. He could even spot the ocean occasionally even through the hills and forests that surrounded the city and the airport where he found himself at.
"Well, I guess this is it," he said to himself and his one companion who had been stored inside her Pokeball already. Generally, one couldn't take Pokemons out at airports, after all. "We made it to Hoenn," he continued as he walked forward to grab a cab somewhere else. He could already see quite a crowd looking for one at the entrance of the airport, so he would rather try his luck somewhere else. If not, he would walk, it wasn't like the main part of the city was that far away, and he could ask for directions to the League's registration building from there.
The ball wiggled in his hand.
With a pleasant hum, he stretched himself. A satisfying pop escaped from his back as he continued his walk and let out a sigh of contentment. It had been a long trip from Mesagoza to Ever Grande. After almost 17 hours of sitting on a small seat of a plane, with a crying baby nearby and a snoring man next to him, he was here at last.
The ball wiggled once more.
"I know, I know, you want to come out and see. Just give me a moment to get us a cab or get out of the airport area first," he said with a sigh, quickening his walk.
Soon enough he found himself walking to the side of the road that led towards the main city. Many would have just preferred to take a cab and spare themselves the walk and the humid heat, but he was a Paldean through and through so the latter didn't affect him as much. As for the former… Well, all it took was a glimpse at how much they wanted to charge him to realize he had perfectly functioning legs.
Besides, if he wanted to be a trainer, then it was only natural that he built some good resistance to long walks after all. The way there was part of the experience, as his mother would say. Just hopping in a car and going from gym to gym was simply not the tradition when it came to the circuits, though it wasn't necessarily prohibited either.
It was fifteen minutes later and just as many wiggles that he stopped and looked around. There was just a road with the occasional car – mostly taxis – passing by him, going or coming from the airport. A lampost stood some distance away, and the hill and forest scenery partially covered his view of Ever Grande and the sea.
"Well, I guess this is good enough. Time to come out, Tink." He threw the ball up and forward before it opened with a hiss. A beam of light came out of it erratically shooting to the floor and slowly gaining form.
The figure that appeared reached his shin. Or his knee, if he was being generous and counted the tied-up peach-colored hair. Her skin was also pink, though of a darker coloration, with stubby legs and arms and a head a little too big for her body. A squeak escaped her tiny, oddly shaped mouth as she looked at him in distress.
"Haugyaa," she said in greeting waving her little misshapen hammer around. The voice sounded like an odd combination of small jingle bells and a forge. It was rather cute, in a strange way.
"Hey there, Tink," Aster greeted back with a wave of his hand as he crouched as far as he could to her level. She had gotten a bit better, but she still got rather scared when people were too tall for her, which in turn devolved into either wailing or starting to smack things with her hammer before she ran away. It was rather hard to predict which one she would go for at any given moment, but he would rather avoid both if he could help it. "Like I was saying we made it to Ho-"
"Guaah!" Tinkatink screamed, already losing focus on his words and waddling as fast as her stubby legs could take her toward the street lamp. It had gone better than Aster expected, really. At least he finished greeting her this time before she waddled somewhere.
Metal met metal as her hammer struck true against it, which generated a rather loud resounding clank. The whole thing shook and rang for a few moments. The light flickered precariously before going back to normal, much to his relief.
"Gya!" she said, waving her hammer at him with a proud expression and signaling towards the target of her rather small fury trying to see if Aster was watching what she just did.
"It was really awesome, Tink. You sure showed that lamp who is the boss lady."
"Gah!" she said bashfully while looking down and kicking some dirt. She seemed to be very happy at his praise.
"Incredible, yes… We better get out of here though, before I get charged for vandalism not an hour into Hoenn, shall we?" the olive-skinned young man asked with a sigh. He felt he had been doing that a lot since he was paired with his partner.
"Hauuuuu," she eloquently responded as she waddled her way back towards him, stretching her words all the while.
Aster, in turn, rose to his feet and checked the time. It was still quite early and he rather doubted the League inscription would close any time soon. This year's circuit had just started, and they would accept new people all the way up to the next month. Still, as a foreigner, he would rather get any paperwork out of the way as quickly as possible, just to be on the side of caution.
'Tink is gonna slow the walk down a bit, but it's only fair she gets some fresh air after so many hours in the Pokeball. We should still make it for a late lunch though, so it won't be much of a problem if I let her set the pace instead of carrying her-'
His thoughts were interrupted by something hitting his leg.
"You motherf-!" Aster swallowed back a curse as he crouched down in pain to rub his shin, which had just received a rather painful smack courtesy of a metal hammer from the little pink midget he called his starter. "Again?! I told you to stop that already!"
"Gyaa!" she responded, waving her hammer in victory. He wasn't sure if she had even heard him, but he doubted she cared or understood. Fairy types' minds weren't particularly known for following logical thought processes after all… or paying attention for more than a handful of seconds.
"Well, I gue-" he said before stopping and crouching down to take hold of Tink, who was now running in the direction of the trees. Probably considering them as worthy targets to test her hammer against. He would rather not lose sight of her if possible.
"Hua?" The little pink Pokemon threw her head back to look back at him.
"I guess I will have to carry you for now." He could feel the migraine already coming.
His only answer was a rumbling metallic sound from her, that he interpreted as a hum of agreement. The Tinkatink immediately lost her focus again and tried to smack some bug that flew around while he held her close to his chest. Aster sighed yet again. He still felt like he was doing this too much since he got his new partner. He wouldn't change her for anything though. For better or for worse, they were stuck together.
As such, the Paldean young man walked forward with a rather numb leg and a mumbling Tinkatink in his hands. He was already here and he wouldn't turn back. No matter what, he would see this through. He would complete the league and nothing would stop him.
That was the path of a Steel-Type specialist, after all.
[}-o-{]
[Blake Nacht]
He impatiently tapped his foot on the floor, his eyes fixed on the counter where the secretary called for them one by one.
Blake had his arm crossed in front of his chest and his leg over the other. He'd been there for an entire hour already and he could only be grateful that he'd chosen to register in a Pokemon Center that wasn't the closest to his parent's place. Otherwise, he was sure his mother would have already dropped by the screech at him and made a scene.
Alas, she was not that lucky.
Neither was he so that he could start his journey already though.
"Blake Nacht," the woman behind the counter called him then, making him grin and all but jump up.
"That's me," he replied once he reached her, already passing her his ID before she could ask. He'd already witnessed the process a bunch of times with those that had been before him anyway.
"Someone's eager," she – Carol, he read in the tag over her uniform – commented, apparently amused. He couldn't give a fuck about looking silly if he tried though. Instead, he just grinned even wider at her.
"Like you wouldn't believe," he said, looking intently at the file and the Pokeball that she'd set apart while he waited for her to check his information. It took a lot of effort to not start tapping his foot once more or try to reach for the file at the very least. He didn't want to get in trouble though. No, he had to be careful.
"Everything's in order, Mr. Nacht. Good luck on your journey," Carol told him, giving him a professional wide smile and passing him his ID, the file and the Pokeball.
Immediately, he took the paper with the information on his Pokemon and…
"... Have a great day, yeah? You've certainly made mine right now," he said, and he didn't think it'd be physically possible for him to grin wider. 'I did get a Pokemon from my wishlist,' he thought, almost laughing out loud. 'And it's not even one from this region, holy fuck.'
After passing the Trainer License exam, everyone got a form to fill. One of the sections in that was the starter wishlist, where people could list Pokemon that they wanted to get as starters… obviously. Those lists would be checked by the starter provider (usually local figures like Professors Gym Leaders, Elite Four, Champions) and if you were given one of those would depend on… Well, if the person felt like granting you the privilege, mostly, but also the results one got in their Trainer License test and how reasonable the wished Pokemon were.
He knew he'd done well in his own exam, but he'd still had plenty of doubts, considering the Pokemon he'd put in his list.
"The introductory course will be held in half an hour, Mr. Nacht. Remember that it's obligatory," Carol called behind him before he could rush towards the back of the Pokemon Center to release his Pokemon and meet it- her.
"Sure thing, Carol. Thank you again!" he replied without turning, speed walking already. He already knew what the introductory course was all about anyway. It had come up repeatedly in his studies for his journey, after all.
Once he was outside, he saw several people around that evidently had more or less the same idea as him. He didn't see anyone with a Pokemon that wasn't from Hoenn though, except the one guy off to the side that seemed to have some trouble keeping his… Blake didn't remember the name of it, but it was a pink fairy and steel type, he was pretty sure. 'From Galar? Paldea? I don't remember either.'
'Who cares?' he wondered as he found a clear enough spot to release his own Pokemon. Which he did without hesitation, letting the pokeball expand, open and shoot the beam out. A second later, he found the small, bipedal feline Pokemon standing before him. He took her in, with her dark fur and the bright red feathers. The sharp claws on her hands and piercing eyes…
"God, you look beautiful," was the first thing he said, crouching down to take her in. She seemed healthy, from what he knew. She also seemed… Like what one would expect from a Dark and Ice Type.
In response to his words, the Sneasel simply gave him a look and a huff that said "of course I do".
"I'm Blake Nacht. I'm looking forward to working with you," he introduced himself then with a smile. No teeth, just in case. The Sneasel replied to that with a dismissing meow while she looked around. "Yeah, I get it. I gotta prove myself, right? I know. In the meantime, you can take a good look at the others. You'll probably kick one of their asses before we get to our journey."
After he said that, Sneasel turned towards him and gave him a sharp grin. Well, she liked the sound of that, it seemed. Which was great, because he did too. Nothing like starting their journey with a bang, after all.
"I have a feeling that I'll love to have you on my team," he commented.
In response, Sneasel gave him another huff that said "of course you will" before looking him up and down.
Then she gave him a half nod.
"Not bad, huh? I'll take that."
[}-o-{]
[Aster Ribera]
'So, a day-long course with rangers to get them through the basics, huh?' Aster thought to himself as he continued reading through the pamphlet he had been given at the immigration center and finishing his credentials to be able to count as a trainer for the Hoenn League's year.
It seemed that things were a bit different than in Paldea, given that all of this was already covered in the Academy. However, as the rather nice lady at the reception said, this was mandatory. If Aster had to guess, it was more about hammering the very basics into the newbies before they went into the wilderness and did something dumb. He doubted that anyone who even dared to call themselves a trainer, hopeful or not, would not know how to set up a tent on their own or that using a Pokemon attack that could collapse the roof of the cave you were in was not a good idea, generally.
Or at least he would hope that was the case.
If not, he would be rather disappointed in Hoenn's League as a whole.
His gaze cast down to read the last part of the schedule though, which called his attention a bit more. There would be some spars paired with treatments to baptize people who just got their first Pokemon. Better for newbies to freeze and panic now, than against a wild Pokemon, which would be ready to cause some serious harm, he supposed.
Aster would have continued reading if it wasn't that he had to change position every once in a while. His deceptively heavy Tinkatink continued clutching onto him while he held her against his chest and it was… something. The pink Pokemon who was scared out of her mind, hid her face in the crook of his neck and shook a lot, which continuously had him shifting to accommodate for her weight. She was rather shy and spooked now that there were so many Pokemons around and about. The boisterous kneebreaker was thus reduced to a whimpering baby as she clutched onto him like a safety line.
He guessed it was part of her nature to be like this. Tinkatinks weren't exactly known to be the bravest of Pokemon, after all. Especially the youngest ones who had not managed to perfect their hammers just yet and gain some confidence. In her defense though, she had attempted to make friends. Which had ended in her wailing and screaming when the rather snappy Zigzagoon she had approached tried to… Well, snap at her.
The trainer had come to apologize as he tried to keep the angry creature in check, which helped soothe his feathers a little bit and let the matter go. Aster was still hoping that the guy became his sparring partner so he could crush that stupid raccoon into the ground, though. No hard feelings.
Honest.
It didn't take long to calm his Pokemon down, thankfully, usually distracting her by pointing out some things that could grab the attention of the pink Fairy Type. Her droopy, watery eyes shone with interest before her hyperactive mind focused on the next colorful thing in her field of vision. It was like dealing with a baby with muscles like steel that didn't seem to be able to decide between being shy or in a chaotic sugar rush mood. Usually, she alternated between the two at random.
He wondered if all other Pokemon with opposing typings had these problems, or if it was just a Tinkatink thing.
Either way, the course had come and gone rather easily after getting Tinkatink to calm down and actually help him, or at least not get in the way. Her favorite activity was hammering the tent stakes to the ground with her very own hammer. It was an action she repeated multiple times, by removing the already buried stakes and hammering them again, erasing all his progress while at it. After a few failed attempts to tell her not to do that, Aster surrendered and gave her a spare set of stakes to play with while he continued working.
Like he said, she wasn't getting in the way anymore.
Noon soon became afternoon and the blue sky started to darken. It was then that they started to be grouped together for their spars. The Rangers who were hired for the job of babysitting them ushered them towards a prepared flat field with enough space for all of them. Some of the new trainers had already paired within themselves and were talking to each other rather amicably, probably made before or during the course.
He tried to spot the Zigzagoon guy, but, much to his chagrin, the guy had already paired up with a girl at the other end of the field. It seemed that the stupid raccoon would live to see another day. Lucky it.
Really lucky.
That still left him with the problem of not having a partner though. As things were, the number of people steadily decreased. He had to move fast, it seemed. He was not picky given that most of these Pokemon were rather new and interesting to him, but he would rather not be stuck fighting the equivalent of Skwovets if he could avoid it.
"Hey there," a voice called, making Aster turn to see a man – who looked slightly younger than him, but he wasn't too sure – approaching him. "Don't have a partner for the exercise?" he asked.
"Hey there," he answered in turn, waving his hand. Which in turn prompted Tinkatink to wave her little hammer at the trainer. "Not yet. I assume you are free too, then?" he asked, already guessing the reason for the guy's approach.
His eyes traveled towards the Pokemon at the guy's right. A small feline with long claws and a red feather for an ear. 'A Sneasel, huh? Well, that should be interesting,' Aster thought to himself before directing a smile to the man.
"Yep," the guy answered with a grin. "Blake Nacht."
"Aster Ribera," he returned and took his position across the tiny circle they had been given for the spars. It wasn't a proper match field, but it would do either way. "Well then, ready to start?" Tinkatink couldn't decide if to be scared of the Dark Type Pokemon or excited to have the green light to smash something with her hammer. As such, she entered the field with an odd combination of fear and eagerness.
"Ready when you are," Blake replied, his Sneasel stepping forward already.
[} Chapter End {]
Adrian: Two new characters, two new journeys… Literally this time, considering the whole Pokemon thing. Let's see where these two specialists go and how they manage in Hoenn, yeah? Here's hoping this chapter did a good enough job introducing them and catching you guys' attention.
Arc: We took our liberties with the world ahead, making it a mix between the games, the anime, and our twist for certain things. So expect a few AU elements here and there.
Adrian: I mean, if you don't, Pokemon is kind of… a mess.
Arc: Flashback to Onix being beaten by sprinklers.
Adrian: Yeah… as I said, questionable at best. Anyway, hope you guys liked the chapter and please do leave a review commenting on it. We are always on the lookout for those to know if people like a Fable or not.
Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ