Best ship, by the way.
If you feel that this story seems familiar... maybe it is.
Ah well, enjoy!
We start things off on a train leaving the small town of Wedgehurst. Here we see two boys on their Rotom Phones, chatting about a place called the Wild Area. One is named Victor. He is with his best friend, Hop.
After receiving their partner Pokémon, and a letter of recommendation from Hop's older brother, and Champion, Leon, the two are headed to Motostoke to get signed up for the Gym Challenge. They hope to survive it and eventually face Leon, for his title of Champion. They aren't alone for very long.
"Urara!"
Both boys are surprised to look down and see a small rodent Pokémon approach them. Hop tilts his head, "A Pikachu? No wait, that's a Morpeko!" Said Pokémon seems drawn to Victor's bag. Staring at the bag, their visitor then hugs it, a heart-shaped icon floats above its head as it lets out a content "Urara..."
"Morpeko! Don't run off like that!" They are then joined by a girl. She seems to be rocking a style that is a mix between tough and cute, black and pink all over. The girl then apologizes for what must be her Pokémon, "Sorry 'bout that, Morpeko usually doesn't act like that." Looking down, she scolded her Pokémon, "Why are you so obsessed with that bag?"
Hop then spoke up, "Oh, that's Victor's bag, maybe your Pokémon likes the smell of his Camping Gear?" Morpeko let a chirp of agreement, making the girl shake her head. It was the scent of food that attracted the Pokémon.
The girl sighed, shaking her head. "Sorry again. The name's Marnie." The boys introduce themselves as well. Wanting to not bother them anymore, Marnie then has to pull Morpeko away from Victor's bag, her Pokémon's appearance shifts as it changes forms.
Marnie drags the hangry Pokémon away, as Hop laughs, "Those two are almost comedians aren't they, Victor? ...Victor?" The boy has been watching Marnie go for some time now. Hop calls him out on it. "What's wrong with you, mate? Never seen you so quiet around someone before."
"Oh," Victor laughs sheepishly, "N-nothing..."
Later
There's been a slight hiccup in the boys plans. The train they are in had to make an unexpected stop at the Wild Area station.
Looking around and seeing the other passengers murmuring, Hop asks, "What's going on?" Getting up, the two boys run into Marnie again, and the trio leave the train, heading out onto the station they've arrived at.
The Station Master explains that the train has been halted from reaching its destination to Motostoke due to a flock of Wooloo on the tracks. Not to be derailed, Hop is excited because the area outside the Wild Area station is full of Pokémon to battle, catch, and train with.
Marnie's pretty indifferent, she doesn't mind the walk. She then starts to leave the two boys, "Well, bye."
"Wait!"
Victor and Marnie are surprised to hear Hop's outburst. Turning back, Marnie asks, "What is it?"
Hop grins, "You're competing in the Gym Challenge, right?" Marnie nodded in agreement. Hop continues, "Then that makes us all rivals." Gripping a PokéBall tightly in his hand, he extends a challenge to Marnie: "How about I see what my competition will be like?"
"A battle?" Marnie is considering it, especially since Hop looks a lot like one certain man that she's been thinking about. But then Hop ruins it for himself.
"Yeah! I might've lost against Victor, but the more rivals I face, the more I'll grow!"
Well now, that stoked Marnie's curiosity. She turns to Victor, who's been mostly quiet this whole time, "Wait, you're the stronger one?"
Trying to spare Hop's feelings, Victor answers, "Well, they were close matches, but..."
"Right then," Marnie nods, "Then I'll face you." Victor agrees, he's very curious about her as well.
Hop slumps over, disappointed, "I challenged you first..."
Ignoring him, Victor and Marnie decide to have their battle right here in the station. Taking their positions opposite from each other, both Trainers call out their partner Pokémon; Victor with Sobble, and Marnie with Morpeko.
"I feel like I might be at a disadvantage here..." Victor's Water lizard vs Marnie's Electric hamster doesn't inspire confidence in the young Trainer. Victor now knows what Hop was probably going through in their battles. But not letting this get to him, Victor is determined to give it his best shot.
However, it's not long before Sobble is low on health and Paralyzed. But Victor's more concerned about something else. Despite having just acquired Sobble the other day, the two have quickly bonded. It's surprising that Sobble seems to be so determined to win this battle. Sobble's are known to be cautious and timid, so for Victor's to be so different is odd. Pokémon are said to take on the personalities of their Trainers, so this battle is distracting Victor as he pauses to wonder if Sobble hating to lose reflects Victor himself. There are even points in the battle where Sobble even seems to be acting on its own.
"Let's finish this."
Victor snaps out of his train of thought, in response to Marnie's words. Time seems to slow down, as Victor has the option to surrender. But the words never come out in enough time. Sensing Victor's hesitation, Sobble struggles against its paralysis, to fire off one last Water Gun. Morpeko jumped into the air, ready to end this with Thunder Shock.
Said shock... misses?
The Thunder Shock seemed to have struck Sobble. But when it did, the 'Sobble' there twisted and distorted from the bolt of lightning, before vanishing. Marnie realized that Sobble had managed to pull off a bit of trickery, using the water in the area to camouflage itself, and setting up a decoy. Then he had turned invisible, and was lying in wait for the right moment, which was right now.
"Which means..." Seeing Morpeko land on the ground and look around confused, Marnie realized what was going on. "Morpeko, above you!" Morpeko looks up to see that the two Pokémon have switched positions. Sobble now has the high ground, ready to end this with one last attack. "Dodge!" Marnie calls out to Morpeko, but when her partner tries to, Morpeko is suddenly too fatigued to do so. It then dawns on Marnie that this protracted battle, coupled with Morpeko not having eaten in a while means that she's running on empty. And vulnerable. Morpeko does try putting all her energy into one last ditch attack, but the best that can be hoped for on Marnie's side is that Sobble gets taken out after blasting Morpeko.
But while words fail him, actions won't. Victor gets between Sobble and Morpeko, "Stop!"
Marnie's eyes go wide, seeing Victor putting himself in harm's way. Quickly she called out, "Morpeko! Redirect!" Her starter sends its electric move away from Victor, striking a nearby wall, sparing Marnie's opponent.
Victor doesn't get off completely, free though, taking a blast of water from his own teammate. But for Victor, it's a small price to pay. He catches Sobble, who falls from midair, into his arms. Smiling weakly, "Sorry about that buddy, you really wanted to win, huh?" Sobble's completely spent and can barely reply with a weak croak.
Marnie's baffled. This whole time, she thought that the lack of verbal communication that Victor and Sobble had at times, but still able to keep up with her and Morpeko, was the two of them been on the same wavelength, them being so in tune with each other that they were able to silently work together. Suffice to say, Marnie envied that idea. But it turned out not to be what she had imagined.
Victor then apologized to Marnie, returning Sobble to his ball. Victor offered Marnie her prize winnings, considering this a loss on his side. But Marnie shook her head, as she felt that things had ended in a draw. Besides, Marnie could tell that Victor seemed to be going through some kind of inner struggle. No need to take his Poké as well. "What an interesting Trainer..."
"Ah man, what a battle!" The two Trainers are surprised to hear Hop's loud voice. They were so busy with each other that they had forgotten that Hop was on the sidelines watching things. Hop then joined them. "Close one, mate!" But Victor didn't have anything to say, weary from things. Hop then turned to Marnie, "I guess you're good too?" She nodded. Carrying Morpeko, Marnie looked down at her star with concern, not wanting to get her injured. "Ah well..." Hop's disappointment didn't last too long, as he slapped his hands on the sides of his face with determination, "All right, time to take on the Wild Area, and get stronger!" With that, Hop ran out of the station, leaving his two rivals behind.
Victor watched his best friend disappear, before going back to replaying the current events back in his head. Marnie had been watching Victor. She was about to reach out, and say something, but then shook her head. No point in getting involved with a stranger. She then says goodbye as well, before leaving.
That snaps Victor's attention back to reality. Not feeling that he can let things go between him and Marnie, Victor chases after her. "Oi, hold up!"
There we go!
This will be a long story, with many chapters, one for just about every Route and Town, plus a few extra chapters of things Victor and Marnie do together.
Stay tuned for more!