The following morning me and officer Jenny left early for professor Juniper’s house.

 

Her plan involved going all the way to Nuvema town because public computers shouldn’t be used to talk about sensitive information. Once there I’d share my erudition with a few researchers and in turn they would guard my privacy. According to Jenny I might even eke out a sponsorship if I impressed the professor enough.

 

The road to Nuvema was arduous though we had to pass through both Striaton city and Accumula town, not to mention both route 2 and 1. On foot that would take days that’s why Jenny was giving me a lift using her police scooter.

 

“Are you ready yet?”

 

“Just a sec Alec, I have to fill up Herdier’s bowl”

 

I was standing in front of the police station that also doubled as her home. Chelmsford was such a sparsely populated town that almost nothing of note ever happened. That’s why she could afford to spend so much of her time and energy on my person.

 

She was a looker though and great with kids too. I gave myself a quick once over and sighed.

Too bad this body needs to marinate for at least another 8 years.

 

“Okay I am done let’s go”

 

We got on top of her scooter she in front while I clung to her from behind. Cottonee tucked herself into my jacket. Not having a Pokéball for her was starting to get inconvenient, but one Pokéball costs 200 Pokédollars and it hadn’t been a priority so far.

 

We made our way to Striaton city first. The way there was largely uneventful aside from a flock of Pidove racing along the scooter. Pidove are interesting Pokémon, they suffer from chronic short term memory lapses, and are the Pokémon most friendly to humans. They like to follow around random passerby’s, forget how long they’ve followed the individual in question and decide to keep following them some more. The only way to distract them for long enough to get away is to throw out some Pokémon food and make a run for it.

 

Most Unovans always have some kibble in their pockets for just this reason and I wasn’t surprised seeing Jenny pull some out of her scooter’s glove compartment and throw it at them before we entered Striaton city.

 

Striaton was a mid-sized city for Unovan standards. There are a wide variety of facilities for the populace to make use of. There was the local trainer’s school, a national park, a research lab where they study the use of a substance called dream mist for the purposes of finding an alternative energy source, the Striaton city gym and a wide array of various restaurants. You could eat from any national kitchen here, from Kanto’s Pewter crunchies to Alola’s Big Malasada’s.

 

My first impression of Striaton was amazement for how clean it was. I couldn’t see litter anywhere.

My second impression was one of amusement after seeing the traffic signs.

 

No Pokémon over 880 lbs. / 400.0 kg may use this road.

The sign itself had the image of a crossed out Onix.

 

No Pokémon with the ability magma armor or flame body are allowed outside their pokeballs

This sign had the image of a crossed out Slugma.

 

We passed by a large school building surrounded by battle fields I figured this must be the trainer’s school. Past the railing teens were having a good time doing practice matches with their Pokémon.

Most of the teenagers were using your standard fare Pokémon like Purrloin and Lillipup, but I did see a boy wearing a cap putting in some work with his Rufflet.

 

Trainer’s school was where you could elect to go to after primary education if you had the inclination to become a Pokémon trainer. They teach you all sorts of stuff like wilderness survival which Pokémon were best avoided in the wild, battling basics, trainer etiquette. At the end of your coursework the 3 students who had the best grades overall could get a starter Pokémon from professor Juniper. Aspiring trainers who didn’t make the cut could get their parents to buy them a starter or petition the local gym leaders to catch them their first Pokémon. In case of the latter, you had no control over what Pokémon you would be receiving. Gym leaders tended to favor their own type specialty. So, in the case of the Striaton gym you would either be receiving a fire type from Chili, a grass type from Cilan or a water type from Cress. This option was popular for trainers who came from low-income households.

Wanting to see how me and Cottonee stacked up against other rookie trainers I started to get interested in doing a year of trainer’s school. It was within walking distance from the daycare. And it would feel relaxing not being the one doing all the lectures for once.

We made it past Striaton and entered route 2. Route 2 was mostly one long pastoral road. I spotted a lot of youngsters hiking, having mock battles and going on exploration within the tall grass.

While pointing at the kids in the tall grass I asked a question

“Miss Jenny isn’t that dangerous?”

“Not so much really, Route 2 is known for being the safest to travel for kids. The wilds around here only contain docile Pokémon. After playing with the kids for this many years the Pokémon actually get more rowdy on school days when there aren’t as many children around.”

After a while we reached Accumula town it was a quaint town even smaller than Chelmsford. I would be surprised if there were more than 30 residents living here. It did have a Pokémart and Pokémon center though leading me to believe that there is still a lot of foot traffic running through this place.  

Leaving Accumula town we entered route 1. This was the first time I saw the ocean in this world. Route 1 is an environment where freshwater rivers meet the sea, creating an estuary. Technically speaking you could encounter any ocean inhabiting Pokémon here if you looked long enough. Some Pokémon preferred brackish water to lay their eggs (brackish water is a mix between salt and fresh water). I already pictured myself spending hours upon hours here with a fishing rod just anticipating what I could pull up next.

‘’Miss Jenny, can we take a short break here? I am starting to get saddle sores.”

 

“Fine but only for an hour”

‘’We set up near a spot where the riverbank was clumped with a plant similar to water lettuce.

I fished a plastic baggy out of my pocket containing two crumped up sandwiches Granny packed for me before we left the house.

 

“Oran slices on toast again…”

 

Making my way near the riverbed I scout the area for wild Basculin.

Deeming it safe enough between the floating plants

I take off my socks and shoes and dip my sore feet in the water.

 

“Ahh that’s better”

“You want some of my oran slices bestie?”

 

“Nnee”

 

Cottonee pops out of my collar and starts munching on the blue Oran slices. These were not her favorite either. We made a pact that we would finish them together each time Granny packed them for us. It was still important to show our appreciation after all.

 

Jenny took out her own lunch and released her Pokémon, a swan-like creature with primarily white plumage. Its beak is long and yellow topped with a black cere, and it has several white feathery features adorning its head.

The Swanna materialized near the water’s edge and immediately started preening his/her feathers.

 

Jenny’s Swanna has the keen eye ability not only is it useful in finding missing items and persons, but it also lowers the chance of wild Pokémon sneaking up on us.

 

“Your Swanna is really pretty Miss Jenny.”

 

“Why thank you Alec.”

 

The Swanna in question was now looking at me with this pompous look. It puffed itself up and started preening its feathers even more vigorously. If I didn’t know any better, I would say it just used the move swagger.

 

As we were all relaxing at the river’s edge, I suddenly felt a mouth close around my toes. The sound that came out of my mouth afterwards cannot be described as manly in any way.

 

 “Eeeeeeeek!”

Jenny, Cottonee and Swanna all got startled and then started laughing it up after noticing I wasn’t in danger.

The perpetrator behind my sudden outburst of unmanliness let go of my toes during the commotion and surfaced out of the water.

What came into our view was the most unhealthy and decrepit looking Pokémon imaginable.

a shabby, old-looking, fishlike Pokémon with a light brown body covered in dark, irregular spots. It has large, deep-set eyes and big, pink lips. The tail and pectoral fins dull blue and tattered in appearance. The dorsal fin is triangular with a hole in the middle.

I recognized the Feebas immediately. The fish was staring at me with an unreadable facial expression. If any Pokemon could pull off the perfect poker face, then it was this variety.

But unlike the void that was its countenance its emotions were plain as daylight for me to perceive.

Giddy, Pride

 

“Oh, so you think that is funny huh?”

 

I quickly take off my shirt, pants and socks leaving me in my underwear. After undressing I dove into the water. In this life I had no swimming experience at all, but in my previous one I earned all my certifications and even made it to regionals with my water polo team.

 

“Your flippers, hand them over!”

 

Jenny was on the riverside trying to get me

 

“Get out of the water Alec you’ll catch a cold!”

 

Ignoring the well-meaning constable, I reached out to grab Feebas’ pectoral fin, but the fish dived down before I could grab it. Drawing as much air in trough my nose a possible I dive deep down between the foliage of the underwater aquatic plants. Luckily the riverbank was shallow only a little bit of light came trough the surface greens, but it was enough to make out the stunning underwater view. The bank was dyed in green light, and I spotted several more Feebas it seems the little bugger was part of a larger school. Now normally a person would give up at this point, but I could still sense waves of Glee radiating out somewhere in this riverbank.

 

Looking around I managed to spot the Feebas’ tail fin behind some driftwood. The fish probably thought it was being clever hiding in the crowd. Time to prove it wrong.

 

Slowly I swam up to it and before Feebas knew what was happening I had its dorsal fin in my hands. Feebas tried to break free but to no avail. Now usually it would be a bad idea to go toe to toe with a wild Pokémon even the weakest of Rattata can rough up a regular human without much effort. But this species of Pokémon only learns the move Splash in the wild.

Wild Feebas needed a trainer to learn all the moves they are capable of performing.

 

I swim back up towards the river’s edge with the struggling Feebas in my hands and present my prize catch to the gang.

 

Cottonee time to exact our retribution use tickle on Feebas’ fins!

 

“Nnee!”

 

Cottonee catches a breeze and floats towards the caught Feebas in my hands. Then uses her leafy appendages to induce a fit of spasms, but instead of happy noises Feebas could only produce labored breaths.

 

Chirpy

 

I started feeling sorry for Feebas being stuck in a body which is unable to express its real emotions.

Having made up my mind I asked Feebas the following question.

 

“Hey Feebas, do you want to come with us?”

 

“Nnee!?”

“What!?”

 

Both Cottonee and Jenny have surprised reactions on their faces.

 

“Other people might not be able to tell, but I know you are really passionate. And we could use that energy on our team. I’ll make sure you evolve if you choose me to be your trainer.”

 

Hopeful

 

Feebas got energetic and used its pectoral fin to repeatedly tap me on my arm.

 

Now at this point I ran into a problem. Having no available pokeballs I could hardly lug around Feebas in my arms until we got back to the daycare. This fish was big almost a meter in length It dwarfed the others in the river by a good chunk. I am pretty sure my prepubescent arms couldn’t hold out that long.

 

“Miss Jenny, Feebas wants to come with us, but I don’t have a Pokéball to catch him with.

Can we return to this place on the way back? I’ll ask professor Juniper if she can maybe lend me one.”

 

 

Jenny rifles through her utility belt as an officer of the law she had all kinds of items attached to it. A pair of handcuffs, a holster with a handgun in it, pepperspray, an Xtransceiver this version of a cellphone was very popular in Unova and finally she finds what she is looking for and pulls out a spare Pokéball.

 

“Here you can use this for now. It’s registered to me, but we can change that when we arrive at the lab.”

 

“Thanks, miss Jenny”

 

This wasn’t my first time holding a Pokéball, we had a couple of them at the daycare. The round button in the middle was to change its size so it could more easily be clipped on your trainer’s belt. Pokéballs also have a recall button on the side, and when that button is held for longer than 10 seconds the next time you call out your Pokémon it is released instead.

 

My attention shifted back to my soon to be new team member.

 

“Nice to have you on board Feebas.”

 

I boop Feebas’ head with the Pokéball and a red beam digitizes the fish Pokemon. Without struggling the Pokéball confirmed the capture with a nostalgic click sound.

 

I twirl around and lift my arm holding the Pokéball

 

“Yeah! I caught a Feebas!”

“Nnee…!”

 

“What are you doing striking that embarrassing pose? You are lucky no one else is around to watch you do that.”

 

Jenny chides me for my display

 

“I saw a trainer doing this a long time ago and I’ve always wanted to try it out”

 

“Never mind, first we have to dry you off you are still wet from your dip in the river.”

 

“Swanna use gust to dry him off”

 

Getting kinda scared of taking on a Pokemon attack I brace myself for the coming impact, but contrary to my expectations Swanna knew what it was doing and only used enough force get the water droplets off my body and not blow me away.

 

After getting dried off by her Swanna she recalled her Pokémon and I put on my clothes. We hopped back on her scooter and made our way towards Nuvema town to see the Professor.