'Ok, smile.' The woman (her name tag read Janet) with the no nonsense face told me monotonously. I managed an awkward half smile before the camera's flash went off. Really, how does anyone smile to that voice and tone. No wonder everyone's ID photo is always bad. (I've seen Ariel's trainer ID HAH they even manage to make her look bad). Janet tapped out a few commands on her computer and the machine gave a whirring sound before churning out my trainer ID card. 'Ok done. You can go and catch Pokemon now huzzah and all that. Next.'

I met up with Mari in the lobby. We both passed the Pokemon trainer's evaluation and had gotten back to back appointments for getting our trainer IDs and Pokedex. Grinning, Marina took out Jupiter's Pokeball and scanned with her Pokedex. I did the same, whipping out Bagon's Pokeball, which was engraved with my initials C.R.Y. (probably Ben's idea it could've easily been CARA or CY). That morning before I left for my appointment, my parents presented me with a few gifts that the family have pooled together and bought (Ariel was back at lab and Ben was in school). The first was 6 Pokeballs, one engraved elegantly (Ariel probably chose the font) with my initials (Ben). Then Ben had gotten me a stylish magnetic strip that could be attached anywhere (Ben's idea but probably Ariel chose it too). Lastly, with the help of Ariel's connections, they procured me the best gift of all, a Pokemon translator. And it wasn't some lousy model. It was top of the line, just recently released into the market. Unlike Bullet's old chunky chain, this sleek device was barely half a millimeter thin, about 1cm across and half a centimeter tall. There was no need for a chain because this device utilizes nanopore technology that fuse with the Pokemon when attached. It's a painless procedure and extremely fast, requiring Pokemon to only sit still for 30 secs. I had no words to thank them for their generous gift though, which was just as well because I was running late for the appointment. I only had time to attach the magnetic strip onto a compartment of my bag within easy reach, coax Lexy into being captured (I didn't want to chance throwing a Pokeball on an unsuspecting Lexy and having it pop out, thereby wasting the pretty engraving), clip the Pokeball and grab the bag before running out of the house to catch the bus.

'Hey so your starter is that Bagon?' Mari asked, trying to peer over my shoulder.

I snapped out of my surprise at the screen. It seems I have a level 12 male Bagon. I was briefly shocked at the level. But more than that, I have a male Bagon named Lexy. I was mortified – isn't Lexy a girl's name? But there's nothing to be done now. I doubt he would response to anything else. Instead I told Mari 'Let's go out! I'll show you!'

We came to a clearing just off the entrance of the main path of Route 101 and I released Lexy. He seemed a bit disorientated, before noticing me and started whining and pawing at my leg. It looked kind of weird, seeing as he is now as tall as my waist, but I guess he was just a baby, and it's his first time inside a Pokeball. I supposed in the wild Pokemon parents will pass down knowledge to their children, but he seemed to be missing his parents.

'Hey Lexy, sorry I forgot to explain to you,' I grimaced. 'You remember when I asked you to be my partner? And we will train to be the best? Yeah we kinda just started on that journey and Pokemon are captured by these things called Pokeballs. Sometimes, Pokemon stay inside the ball because they are tired, injured or the buildings don't allow them.' I wasn't sure how much of that Lexy understood but he was already done with my speech. He turned to Mari, who squeaked a hi, her hand unconsciously going to her hair. Right, the last time Mari saw Lexy was when he accidentally land on top of her instead of me. Also, Lexy had grown almost 20 cm, his muscles from training now clearly visible with each motion.

'Lexy, that's Marina, or Mari. We are going to be travelling together for a while. Please be nice and say hi to her Pokemon.' He seemed to calm down the instant my hand touched his head.

'Hi Lexy. Say hi, Jupiter,' Mari tentatively let Jupiter out.

'Actually his name is Galaxy, but that's just too long to call in battle.' I told Mari.

'Yeah, I know right. I call Jupiter Ju,' Mari responded.

'That's so –' Lexy didn't let me finish saying 'cute' before launching itself at Jupiter. ' No Lexy!'

Lexy's scaly body slipped through my fingers and I could only watch in horror as Lexy unhinged his jaw. Luckily Jupiter was ready for battle straight out of the Pokeball and he promptly zap Lexy with a Thundershock. While not really hurt by it, Lexy stumbled slightly, giving me time to grab him properly.

'Lexy no! This sheep is a friend.' I told him firmly. Luckily, he didn't seem inclined to take my arm off, only squirming and whining in my arms.

Jupiter gave Lexy a harrumph, which seemed to only incense Lexy.

'How about we break for lunch? Then we have a battle?' Mari suggested. I reluctantly agreed. We had wanted to have our first battle right after we get our trainer's license, but judging by Lexy's first reaction, it's probably best to have lunch first. It was already 1pm in the afternoon after all.

'Come on, Lexy, lunch,' I firmly tucked him under one arm and pulled out roasted Pidgey from a paper bag. We took away lunch from a diner in Littleroot Town right before we left as we refused to settle into travelling food (ramen) so quickly. After I'm satisfied that Lexy was not going to attack any of us in the distance, I took out my own box of cream pasta with grilled Pidgey. Mari had Krabby pasta with tomato sauce and an assortment of Berry cakes for Jupiter.

'Isn't that dessert?' I eyed the cakes that Jupiter was inhaling.

'Didn't you once eat an entire s'more tart as dinner?' Mari rolled her eyes

'Point taken,' I grimaced. 'Just don't let Lexy know.'

Lexy looked up from his third Roasted Pidgey at the sound of his name. That's when it hit me that I have not put the translator on him. I mentally smacked my head. He had, on a very rare occasion, sat still for more than 5mins. Groaning, I sat down my half eaten pasta and took out the box from my bag. I eyed Lexy out of the corner of my eye as I scanned through the instructions on the manual. It seemed pretty simple, I just have to activate it by pressing a tiny button and get Lexy to be still for 30 seconds. The device will automatically charge itself via the Pokemon's body current or some complicated technological terms I did not understand. Lexy was now sniffing the pasta and looking at me expectantly. Sighing, I mentally noted that feeding it was going to be a problem.

'Lexy, if you sit still, I will let you eat the pasta ok?' I took the pasta away from him. As he reached out for the pasta I pushed him back, at the same time, I lightly pasted the thin slip of metal onto the base of his neck, where the instruction manual said. As he reared back and try to claw at the metal, albeit unsuccessfully, his short arms unable to reach the spot. Before he could do something dumb like dislodge it, I grabbed his claws (dumb move I know), while shoving the pasta in his face. In between him slicing my fingers open and his indecision, 30 seconds passed and a tiny green light blinked twice, before it started turning the dark blue, with a green tinge, of his scales.

'What's that?' Mari came over, curious.

As I waited anxiously to see if it works, I explained to Mari my family's gifts. We both peered at Lexy expectantly, but he only continued to scarf down my pasta. Jupiter seemed annoyed at the attention Lexy was given though. He came over to Mari and bleated, nuzzling her. Mari reached out to scratch Jupiter behind his horns. Just then, Lexy let out a burp and poked the container.

'Me hungry,' He pouted.

'You're hungry? After all the food?' I asked, too incredulous by his comment to be amazed by the fact that we could communicate.

'Trainer hear me?' Lexy turned to me in astonishment.

'Yes, it's because of this thing you're wearing. That's why I can understand you. Do not spoil it, ok?' I told Lexy, tapping at the translator.

'Ok, black square good.' Lexy nodded enthusiastically.

Just as I was about to point out it's more like a rectangle, Mari came over with her left over pasta, offering it to Lexy.

'Mari! Don't just give him your food! You're going to spoil him!' I chastised.

However, Bagon just pushed it away. 'Me hungry. Trainer no hear!' Lexy stomped his feet with a whine.

Understanding dawn on me then (I blame it on all the babysitting I had to do during summer to earn money). I sighed, pulling out one of my chocolate bar. I broke off a square and gave it to Lexy.

'Only this once, ok? Too much chocolate is bad for you. And you are not really hungry, you just crave dessert.' I told him firmly before handing over the piece of chocolate.

'Me wants chocolate!' Lexy whined after gulping down the chocolate in one bite.

'If you behave,' I eyed him, unsure if all baby Pokemons were like this or if he was just a spoilt brat. Or more likely, Ariel spoilt him in the first week I got him, giving him anything he wanted (as Soren watched in digust).

Lexy's attention span was short though and he took to chasing the Zigzagoons in the area. Despite Zigzagoons running in well, a zig zag manner, they still managed to stay ahead of Lexy. Though unsure of whether he was just frolicking, I added a mental note to make short sprints training a main priority. We are going to be in trouble if he is going to eat so much, yet unable to catch his own food.

After the food coma wore off, Mari and I had our first Pokemon battle. Our first battle was pretty disappointing. It was nothing like the heart racing battles we watched on tv, nor was it like the fingernail biting suspense we saw in real life exhibition matches. Lexy was hopeless in his sprints, his maneuverability was terrible. Despite Jupiter being slower than a bipedal dinosaur, he only had to take a step to his side and shock Lexy whenever he missed his Bite attacks. However, Jupiter's electrical attacks doesn't seem to be affecting Lexy a lot. All in all it was pretty frustrating, on both mine and Mari's part, until Lexy had enough and let lose a devasting Twister that knocked Jupiter out in one move (he was not able to use Twister on command despite Sandstorm's instructions).

'Wow, Lexy's freaking strong. How did you even get him to obey you?' Mari asked as she gave Jupiter (who had woken up) a berry, which seemed to perk it up.

'I think he's just a baby. He can't seem to control that Twister,' I shrugged. Now that I thought about it, he can't seem to control his turning while sprinting as well, having only one direction in mind. I made a mental note to add change in direction on top of sprints.