Nemona and I walked into Mesagoza. I was pretty sure that this was where the game was supposed to get going, because so far things had been kind of slow. The town was a bit of a gated community, so I kind of assumed that everyone at the school was rich. I still didn't know how much money my family was supposed to have. Fortunately, it was easy to enter. All we had to do was push a button and the doors opened. That was probably a good thing because they looked too heavy for either of us to push open.
"Wait." Nemona responded. "How about we battle again before we go inside?"
"I guess so." I responded. I didn't understand why we needed to battle again so soon after our last battle, but I supposed that was Nemona's way of flirting.
"Alright, I'm not going to show you any mercy." Nemona responded. She then threw out her Pokeball. "Let's go Quaxly."
The small duck came out again.
"Go Sprigatito." I remarked. "Use Leafage."
It really wasn't that difficult to take out Quaxly. I didn't really expect it to be after all. It was still an early game battle after all.
"I thought you might have an easy time there so I got another Pokemon. Go Pawmi." Nemona declared. A small…well to be honest I wasn't entirely sure what kind of animal it was…came out. "I'm about show you something that you've never seen before. Pawmi, Terastalize now!"
I had seen this part from the trailer and Pawmi started to glow and gained a hat with a light bulb on it.
To be honest, it still wasn't a very tough bad. Sprigatito still resisted the attacks and it didn't seem like her Pokemon was a very high level. I was pretty sure that she was playing to my skill level because if she was a Champion, she could probably bulldoze me if she wanted to.
"You're already getting so good at this." She remarked. I was pretty sure that she was also trying to build up my confidence a little. "You beat a terastalized Pokemon without any actual. Wait. You can't terastalize your own Pokemon, can you? I'll have to help you with that when we get inside. Now let's go see Mesagoza."
I walked inside and I couldn't help but notice that this place had a lot hills and stairs. It didn't seem like it was the most handicap-accessible place, but they probably had some Pokemon that could help with that. There were also a ton of shops all around. I was a bit overwhelmed because I didn't know entirely where to go. I then saw a giant building and I figured that was the school. I couldn't help but wonder how many students attended there.
"Wow." I commented. I had never been to Europe, so I had never seen anything like this before.
"Yup, this is Mesagoza, the biggest city in Paldea. It's a little bit awe-inspiring. It's been a big trade hub since a long time ago. You see lot's people come to learn about advances in technology. There's a hair salon where I got my highlights done and there are several restaurants all sorts of dishes." She explained. "So I have to go and get a few things. Do you think that you'll be okay exploring the city by yourself?"
"Sure." I answered. I was pretty sure that I didn't really have a choice anyway.
"Great. You can get a little dessert or get some accessories to spice up your uniform. However, I personally recommend going to Delibird Presents. They sell plenty of items for your Pokemon to use in battle." She suggested. "Once you're ready, we can go meet at the school. But I should warn you. Those stairs are no joke."
I started to look around. I kind of felt a little bit overwhelmed. I knew that I wasn't supposed to go straight to school because I needed to give Nemona time to do her things and I would have to deal with actual passage of time. I couldn't help but wonder how long it would take. I went to the first snack place that I could find which happened to be an ice cream mart.
"Hola. Can I interest you in some ice cream?" The vendor asked. "We have strawberry, mint chocolate chip, fizzy-pop, mango, Nacli salt, and teriyaki. All of them are delicious.
Teriyaki ice cream? Was that an actual ice cream flavor. I didn't know if those would work well together at all.
"I think I'll have strawberry." I replied.
"Alright, here's one for you and one for your Pokemon." He explained as he gave me two bowls. I then called out Sprigatito, Fletchling and Fidough. They seemed to appreciate the sweet taste.
From there, I decided to go to the accessory store. I had no idea how to shop for accessories since I wasn't usually a girl. I was mainly doing it to kill some time. I then figured with all of the time that I spent walking around that enough time had passed for Nemona to do what she needed to do and started to head up the stairs to the school. There had to be at least a hundred of them.
Then I realized that there were more shops after I got done with the first set of stairs. I was pretty sure that they were banking on people being tired after climbing the stairs, and I was a little tired, but I would keep going.
I kind of wished that I had brought some water because I was starting to feel a little bit exhausted. It was then that I got to the second stop and I couldn't help but notice that there were some people wearing helmets and sunglasses and they seemed to be a girl with red and blue hair wearing glasses and an Eevee backpack. I went over and began to eavesdrop on them.
"Don't you get it if you join Team Star, you'll be able to shine bright as anyone." The girl said. Team Star? Was that the new evil team? I just hoped that they were better than Team Yell. The girl in the hoodie remained quiet.
"Seriously? What's with you? Don't you wanna burn brighter than everyone else?" The boy asked.
"Not really." The hoodie girl admitted.
"Look, we've got a quota to fill for new members, so just sign up already." The female grunt ordered.
"Yeah no thanks." The other girl responded. This looked like it was going to be a problem.
"Hey, who are you eavesdropping on us?" The boy asked as I realized that I had been spotted. "This is nothing that you need to worry about unless you want to sign up for Team Star as well."
I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to. I also couldn't help but wonder what made them evil. They did seem like they were bullies, but I didn't know if they were evil. They were still wearing the school uniforms, so they seemed to be students at the school. I was beginning to wonder how evil they were.
"We're Team Star, kid. We burn so bright that it hurts to look at us, but I assume you already knew that." The female grunt replied.
"No. Who's Team Star?" I questioned.
"Who do you think you are you little bitch?" She questioned. Okay, I was not expecting her to say that. I supposed actually being in the world of the game you didn't have to be rated E for everyone.
"Now you've made us mad. The honor of our team is on the line, so we have no choice but to battle." The male grunt replied. Were we allowed to battle in the city?
"Okay, you can an eye on the nerd and I'll take care of this bitch." The female stated. The girl then moved her arms so they formed a star shape. "Go Shroodle."
"Go Fletchling." I responded as I threw my bird out. It turned out that I didn't have to go with the Pokemon that was first in my party. "Use Flame Charge."
Fletchling started to move quickly and a little bit of fire came out of it. It didn't take very long to knock the little Shroodle out. It then flew back over to me. That seemed to be the only Pokemon we had to battle.
"How can you be so good at battling?" The grunt asked in frustration. "Frank, back me up."
"No I don't want to mess with this chick." Frank replied.
"What's going on here?" Nemona interrupted. "You're not supposed to be battling on the steps."
"Uh oh it's the president. She's going to report us." Frank remarked before the two of them ran off.
"I probably should have told you about the rules. Just know that you don't have to worry about battle people other than me." Nemona declared with a smile.
"She was the one who sent out her Pokemon on me." I declared. "I was just defending myself."
"Well I suppose you didn't do anything wrong then, but you really should try to avoid confrontations." Nemona stated. "I heard that they were trying to bully people into joining them. Anyway I came here to give you a gift."
She handed me a special Pokeball.
"What is it?" I asked.
"This is a Tera Orb. It also your Pokemon to terastalize in battle. Most Pokemon usually have the same tera type as one of their types, but a few of them can become whole new types." Nemona explained. "So now let's take you up to the school. You must be tired from all of these stairs and you might just want to take a nap. I feel tired sometimes after climbing them and I've done it a lot more than you have.
"Wait. Who's Team Star?" I questioned.
"They're basically a group of students that like to cause trouble around the school." She remarked. "They rarely come to class and whenever they're in groups together they are a real pain in the ass. You don't want to get involved in something like that. They have so much wasted potential."
"Um excuse me." The girl from before interrupted. Oh, I didn't even know that she was still there. "Thank you for saving me. Well…bye."
She then walked away. You know she probably made it even more awkward than if she had just walked away without saying anything.
"You know you're a little bit of a hero." Nemona teased. "Though, I don't think I know who that girl is. Maybe she's a new student like you. I have to admit that I love her backpack. I want to know where she got it. Now get ready to climb the worst staircase in the world."
"You're kidding, right?" I asked with a nervous laugh. She chuckled a little.
"No." She responded before we headed up the stairs.
She was not kidding. I was exhausted after climbing those stairs. This made think what it would be like to be in an even harder video game, like those Jumanji movies. Once I was able to catch my breath, the two of us went inside and the first thing that I saw was a Psyduck at the reception desk. Of course, there were also a few people there.
"This is it: Naranja Academy." Nemona introduced. "I should probably tell you the most important rule. Battling is forbidden on school grounds outside of the dedicated battlefield out back.
"Hello, Srta. Lucia, Srta. Nemona." Director Clavell greeted us. "I'm glad that you two were able to make it here on your own. Thank you for bringing our new student here, Srta. Nemona."
"De nada, Director." Nemona remarked. "By the way, we saw some Team Star kids on the steps trying to bully someone in the joining and get people to battle where they are not supposed to."
"Team Star? Where?" He asked.
"They were on the steps. They were picking on some kid with an Eevee backpack." Nemona explained.
"I will look into this." He promised. I didn't think that he would be able to do anything. I imagined beating them was going to be something that I had to do. "Hmm a child with an Eevee backpack. I think that might have been Penny Sandoval. I'm relieved here that she's been coming to class more lately. Anyway, if you see anymore Team Star hooligans, make sure to report them to Mr. Jacq or another member of the staff."
"Yes, Director." Nemona agreed as she nodded her head.
"Now you should be heading to class." Clavell remarked. Were they not going to give me any time to settle in before going to class? I also couldn't help but wonder what the classes would be about.
"Oh right. I forgot that there's a class right now. I hope you're not too tired Lucia. This is going to be so much fun." Nemona declared. She then came and grabbed my hand and basically dragged me to the classroom.
"Ah here we are. Class, we have a new student joining us today. Please welcome Senorita Lucia Martinez." The teacher responded. He had a French accent, so I assumed that he was Jacq.
"Hola." I replied with a blush.
"Can I trouble to introduce yourself in a few words?" Jacq requested.
"Um…my name is…Lucia and I like…Pokemon." I remarked. God, I felt like such a dork saying that.
"Alright, does anyone having an questions?" Jacq asked.
"What's your favorite thing about Pokemon?" Some kid questioned.
"I just like everything about Pokemon." I declared. I didn't know if I would know how to answer that if I wasn't in a world where Pokemon existed.
"I have a question." Nemona said from beside me. "What is your dream?"
"I don't really know yet." I admitted.
"That's okay. I'll help you out. I know that you'll be a strong trainer just like I am." Nemona replied. I still didn't know if she had a crush on me or if she was just like that with everyone.
"Alright, both of you should take a seat." Jacq declared.
He then began his lesson and I started to take some notes. It seemed like they was a lot about Pokemon that I just didn't know and I was eager to learn but I was still very tired from climbing all of those stairs. Did they not think to install an elevator or something? Would I be able to ride Koraidon to the top later?
"So there's something that I need to tell you. In order to become a strong trainer like me, you are going to need to defeat all of the gyms. There are eight different gyms and each of them is controlled by a gym leader. If you defeat the leader, you will get a badge and once you have an all badges, you are eligible to sign up for the champion's test." Nemona explained. "Judging by the way that you battled, I don't think you will have any trouble with that. We call this course of study Victory Road."
I then headed to the Cafeteria. It was there that I saw Arven. I also noticed that there were two Combees flying around. They seemed to be male. It took me a while to figure out that the female ones had a red dot in their centers.
"Hey, it's you. You're Lucia, right?" He asked. "My name is Arven and I'm sorry that I was such a grouch earlier. I was thinking that since I gave you Koraidon, maybe you should help me with a favor."
"I guess I can do that." I replied because I knew that I wouldn't be able to say no.
"I just want some help making my dream a reality." He stated.
"What dream?" I asked.
"Well you see I've been researching some new recipes to make Pokemon feel better. There's a legend of a species of plant called Herba Mystica that have healing properties better than any potion and may even be able to heal seemingly permanent injuries." He declared. "I've also heard that they are some ancient Pokemon in Area Zero, but I don't know if it we should even attempt going there. The last time the school went there, someone was killed.
I then noticed that I received a random text message from someone named Cassiopea. I didn't know who it was, but apparently this person managed to hack my phone and they wanted my help with taking down Team Star. I didn't think that I would be able to say no to that either,. I was right that I was going to have to be the one to take them down. Apparently I didn't need to reply right away so I would at least have some time to think about it.
"Hello Srta. Lucia, how is your first day of school going for you?" Clavell interrupted. "Can you come to my office with me?"
Once there, I got a video from Professor Sada. Okay, now she was the hot professor. Her dress also showed off a lot of her cleavage. She told me that she was in Area Zero doing some research. She also wanted to see Koraidon, so I let it out and it smiled at her. She basically said that I could keep Koraidon.
"Could this Pokemon have origin in Area Zero?" Clavell mused. "At any rate, you should probably put it away right now. Now I believe Nemona wanted to take you to your dorm."
Nemona then took me to the room. It not only had a better, but also a kitchen. I was kind of impressed by it.
"So your room is right across from mine, so maybe we could just hang out some time." She remarked. I couldn't help but wonder if she had arranged that. "But you're probably tired from your long day. I'll let you get some rest. There's some pajamas that you can wear in the dresser."
I went over to the dresser, wondering I was going to have some other clothes as well. Once she was gone, I did change into the purple pajamas after looking at myself in the mirror first. I didn't have a lot of time because I was tired and got into bed to go to sleep.
So Lucia finally made it to the school and she met Penny and Team Star. Penny is played by Emily Osment. The next chapter she will finally go out on her quest in the Pokemon world. Please don't forget to review.