They don't know anything about Pokemon, but they were English teachers and say my writing is good. So I have that going for me.
The first thing I saw after walking through the sliding doors at the front of the Pokecenter was a young man, likely between eighteen and twenty, with bright pink hair and soft features. He was standing behind the counter that blocked off half the bottom floor from customers, though the door centered in the wall behind him indicated that there was more to this floor than I could see. The bottom floor, as I could see it, was a square of around 400 square feet (122 square meters) with the sides being 20 feet (6 meters) long and had vaulted ceilings.
On his side of the counter there were numerous different machines and gadgets that I assumed were useful when healing people and pokemon. Against each wall, a computer sat on top of the counter with a chair available to sit at each. Another two were on the counter with ten feet (three meters) between them and the wall. On my side of the counter there were chairs lining each wall and two, six person tables centered between the walls and the counter. Glancing behind me, I saw that a pair of staircases ran, mirrored, along the wall to my back and met above the door.
“Hi there! Welcome to the Clearsky Town Pokecenter. My name is Terry, how can I help you?” A wide smile covered his face as he nearly bounced in place. Before I had a chance to answer, he looked at the tauros ahead of me and spoke. “Hi Crash. How is Officer Ted doing this evening?”
Crash gave a grunt and shook himself before turning to leave. Terry responded as the pokemon walked to the door. “Thanks for stopping by, and tell him I said hi.” A snort was the only acknowledgement he received before Crash left the building.
“Sorry about that. What can I do for you sir?” The healer trainee turned back to me, a smile still on his face. His hands were bouncing all over the counter between us and he tilted from side to side.
“Hi Terry, my name is Ben. I just arrived in town and was hoping to rent a room and get my pokemon healed overnight.” As I spoke, I walked up to the counter and set down the items I was carrying in my arms.
“That will depend on your trainer level. The base price will be P$200 for the room and P$100 per pokemon you want healed. If you’re registered as a challenger you will receive a discount based on your rank. Are you registered on the Pokenet?”
“I am not. This is the first town I’ve been to since I got my first pokemon, so I haven’t even been able to. Can you explain to me what these ranks are and how to register for them?”
“Sure. Let me tell you about the types of trainer you could register as and help you sign up once you’ve decided what you want to be. The ranks of trainers are the unregistered, the casual, the hobbyist, the professional, and the challenger.
“Unregistered trainers fall into two categories: criminals and transitionals. Criminals are those who refuse to register one or more of their pokemon in the system. You are a transitional, someone who caught one or more pokemon in the wild and have not yet had the chance to register them.
“Casual trainers are people who catch and train pokemon to be purely used in self defense. This is considered to be tied with hobbyists for the lowest level of trainer. You pay the base price on any goods and services related to pokemon and are under no legal obligation to assist with their pokemon when trainer assistance is called for.
“Hobbyists are those who hunt for pokemon that fall into well defined parameters. Some search only for pokemon that look like dragons, and some exclusively catch and train canine pokemon. Heck, a few people in this category spend every day searching for variant pokemon. Just like with casual trainers, they pay the base price and are under no legal obligations to help fellow trainers in emergencies.
“Professional trainers are considered middle of the totem pole, at least by trainer standards. They are the people who actively use their pokemon in whatever job they have. Scientists with psychic pokemon, bodyguards with bulky pokemon, and medics with healing pokemon all fall into this category. They receive a 50% discount at Pokecenters and are required to assist to the best of their ability when called to deal with a problem, be it a poketide, a bandit group or a natural disaster.”
“Excuse me, but what is a poketide?” I interrupted him before he could go on. The information I received on this world did not contain the word poketide.
“Ah, I forgot you were a newbie. Since you don’t know what a poketide is, I assume you come from one of the big cities. A poketide is when massive numbers of pokemon rush toward a settlement. They are incredibly dangerous and always cause casualties when they occur. Luckily, poketides only happen every ten years. The last one happened nearly nine years ago, so I’d suggest staying cautious and keeping an ear out for news about the next one.
“Going back to the types of trainers there is only one type left. Challengers are the final type of trainer and are essentially professional trainers whose job is to challenge the gyms and elite four with the aim to be named the champion. They have the same responsibilities and benefits as professional trainers while also having the chance to gain sponsors.
“Challengers come in many different levels and are usually differentiated by the number of gym badges they have collected. Each badge earned corresponds to a gym defeated. Ten is the general level of pokemon used by a gym leader on a badgeless challenger, with gym leaders increasing their pokemon’s levels by fifteen for every badge you have. In addition, the first two gym leaders you challenge will only use three pokemon, the middle two will use four pokemon and the last two will use five pokemon. Because of this, challengers with two or fewer badges are considered worse than professional trainers. Three or four badges will make you about equal to a nameless professional trainer while five or six badges lets you rub shoulders with the big name professionals.
“After badged challengers there are three more levels: elite, champion, and legendary. Elite trainers belong to four sublevels, each equating to a victory over an Elite Four member who used a full team of six level 99 pokemon. Champion trainers are those who beat the reigning champion and their six level 100 pokemon. Legendary trainers are a league or their own.”
