I stopped and stared. Callie let out an annoyed “Sa” from where she rested on my shoulders. My steady walking pace had almost lulled her to sleep until my sudden stop. Her honey soaked paws gripped onto my head to keep her balance, yet I kept staring.
It was a billboard with a fat man that seemed to be dancing in front of a school. The billboard asked the timeless question ‘Want to be a winner is you?’.
A billboard felt out of place. This was the first one I had seen since setting out from Mr.P’s. The pokemon world didn’t have highways everywhere and lacked the many billboards I was accustomed to. Vehicles generated a lot of noise that would agitate wild pokemon. It was much easier and cheaper to travel by pokemon. That’s not even getting into the disruption just making a highway would be. Rural roads were the norm in most regions. Speaking of which, the road changed at the billboard; it was no longer the dirt and gravel country roads I had traveled but pavement.
That pavement led up to a city on a hill that gleamed in the afternoon sun. Violet City seemed like it was more forest than city. Most of the buildings were hidden beneath the treeline. However, here and there buildings would rise up and tower above. Bird pokemon could just be made out taking off from and landing at the buildings constantly.
Violet City was the crossroads of Johto. To its north mountains and forests stretched as far as the eye could see. A couple days to the west of the city was the National park, if you kept going along the route you’d eventually reach Goldenrod the economic center of Johto. However if you went north before the park you’d reach Ecutreak, the cultural heart of Johoto. To the south was Azalea Town and to the east from where I came was Cherrygrove and the route to Kanto.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to just how different some things were. In the games there were maybe half a dozen buildings here. Besides the gym, there was the Sprout Tower. Which was on my list of sights to visit while I was in Violet. I focused on the billboard and that was another thing…
I knew that fat man.
Well, not personally.
The man on the billboard wore a suit, a bow tie and had an impressive mustache (not as good as Mr.P’s). He ran the local trainer school. Earl Dervish, was rather odd even for the pokemon world. In the mainline games he spoke like Yoda but did a poor job of it, and greeted you in french. He also spun and danced around while doing so like his namesake.
The weirdest thing of all was that we knew his first and last name. Most of the time you either only had the first name or the last name of a character. Full names were for characters like professors or protagonists. Not even the bad guys got last names except for N and Ghestis. Sometimes you could stitch stuff together and take last names from the manga, like Gabena for Serena or Berlitz for Dawn. There were maybe a dozen characters in all of pokemon we knew the full names of and Earl was one of them.
He didn’t even have a large role in any of the main line games yet to some of the fanbase he held a very special place in their hearts.
He helped them git gud.
In Pokemon Stadium 2 Earl had an entire course with tests, lectures, and mock battles for people to go through. It was a more in depth introduction to battling than in any other game and still was over twenty years later.
I nodded and a decision was made. I had to swing by the school as well. If not to see what a trainer school actually taught then just to see if Earl was as colorful as his game counterpart. My expectation was that I’d be in Violet at least a week before I got my fight with Falkner.
A tug on my ear from Callie got my attention, she pointed at her paw and its current lack of honey and pouted.
“I know we’ll get you some more. Gotta get Dunsparce a grooming kit as well.” Bringing a hand up to my hair I felt the honey now stuck in it. I held back a sigh, “And I need a shower and maybe a hat.”
With a few steps I was on the pavement and in the city.
After a quick stop at a pokemart for supplies and directions, I finally started making my way to a pokemon center. My pace slowed considerably as I got closer to it. The sidewalks were crowded and the street had a steady flow of people riding pokemon. Twice I found my way blocked by crowds watching battles taking place in the street.. Rotomdrones flew above them streaming the battles while trying to avoid the many flying types that called the city home.
A low growl and a grip just a bit too tight on my shoulder and I had to return Callie to her ball. There were just too many people and too much happening at once for a bear from the woods. This was nearly two weeks into the season and it was still packed. Over time everyone would get spread out as they took time to train or took different routes. But for now people, lots of people.
Eventually I made it to the nearest pokemon center just as the street lights were starting to come on with the setting sun. It was one of five in the city. In front of it was a plaza filled with stalls, like one giant flea market that was just closing up.
There was even a TV crew with a man dressed like a gym teacher. I caught just a bit of their sign off as I passed.“... another installment of The Poke Dude show. But stay tuned dudes and dudettes. Our friends in Sinnoh have a new episode of Ketch Appy coming up. Will our fearless detective discover the secret of the Collapse of Cerulean Cave?”
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“So you’re fully booked? All five of the centers?”
The very tired looking Nurse Joy nodded in response, “We’re currently at full capacity.”
“What are my options then?” I was starting to get used to camping but a bed would have been really nice.
“You can camp for the night on the center training fields. During the off hours trainers can set up camp and our center’s indoor facilities are open twenty four seven. The other option is the city park. You could leave your camp up there but only for a week at a time.”
“Thank you, Nurse Joy.” I would set up on the fields. Having the center so close was a benefit and with so many trainers around I was sure I could get some battles in. “Can I get a check up and a scan for my team? I have some new members.”
“Of course I just need to see your trainer ID.”
I caught myself before I just handed it to her. Instead, I held it with both hands and presented it with a small bow.
She bowed as she accepted reading it and smiled, “Thank you Trainer Grayson. If you’ll place your team on the tray we’ll get them taken care of. It should be about forty five minutes. Our facilities are open for use. The cafeteria will be serving dinner shortly.”
With my team taken care of a few minutes later I was trying to use up all the hot water in the pokemon center. A proper shower after a week on the road felt like heaven. The dirt and dust of the roads got everywhere. Then there was the honey. Teddiursas kept honey in the fur of their paws and sucked on it constantly like a pacifier. Callie was no different so whenever she touched me or I picked her up I’d often get bits of honey on my clothes. My arms were the worst off. Small spots of dried honey mixed with the dirt and dust of the road. I could only carry so much water with me and using it all on washing away honey was a quick way to run out of it.
A water type move joined my wishlist of things to get. If not for battle then just to make my life easier on the road.
Then there was my hair. I had kept Callie out of her ball today to get time to bond. However, she was the size of a teddy bear and just couldn’t match the length of my strides. So I had taken to giving her shoulder rides like I had done for my cousins when they were young. That left my head as the thing to grip on to. The hot water seemed to do the trick though and my hair was honey free before long and I added another item to the list.
A water move might be worth splurging on a TM for. A hat however would be immediately useful and much cheaper.
After taking care of myself I headed to the cafeteria and joined the line. A hot meal that someone else cooked was hard to pass up. I idly watched the TVs they had set up around the cafeteria. It was a show about a kid detective wandering around a cave. She had all these gadgets but kept using them wrong. I just caught the tail end of it as the station switched to the news and the weather. After grabbing a meal of rice, vegetables and magikarp I was met with my next challenge finding a spot to actually sit and eat.
“Hey Unovan!”
It was kind of rude for someone to shout in here. I turned towards the noise. A blonde man around my age was waving. Two people that I assume were his friends glared at him. I shrugged and turned back to my search.
“Yes, you. The tall trainer. You’re Unovan right?”
People were starting to look now. But… they weren’t looking at him, they were looking at me. Ah, I’m the Unovan in the room. I hold back the urge to faceplam. I really was doing a great job of keeping up that backstory. I headed over before he could shout even more.
Blondie introduced himself, “Hey, I’m Chaz. Are you from Nimbasa?”
“Technically, I was raised in Ecruteak though.” I replied. Nimbasa was listed on the birth certificate the cult had put together for me. It was the largest city in Unova, also known as pokemon America. If this world had been a game of Civilization then Unova would be going for a cultural victory. The best comparison for Nimbasa might be something like Los Angeles mixed with Disneyland with how big the entertainment and leisure industry was there. Although with the region being based on New York City maybe something like Coney Island and Broadway would be more fitting.
“Aw damn it.”
“Chaz.” His friend glared at him. “Sorry about him. I’m Liam.”
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“Damien.” I introduced myself.
“Conner.” The other friend introduced themself and pointed at the free seat, “You’re welcome to join us.”
After a quick glance around and seeing no other spots I joined them. I turned to Chaz as I ate. “So why exactly Nimbasa?”
“Music, I need new contest music.” Chaz ground out.
“Cherry Grove was stacked with competition. I don’t think new music is what you need.” Conner spoke up.
I raised an eyebrow as I questioned Chaz, “So… because I’m a Unovan I should have music you can use?”
Was this some sort of stereotype I wasn’t aware of?
“No, not like that. It’s still pretty uncommon to see someone from the other regions…” Chaz trailed off. Unova was an entire ocean away. “Anyway I thought you might have some sort of inside scoop on what’s popular over there. For example look at Elesa. She’s so elegant and her shows are great. However, she can’t compare to my fated rival of course.”
Elesa was the gym leader of Nimbasa and was a supermodel in her off time. The actual gym battle in BW2 took place on a catwalk. Honestly, it wasn't the worst place to take inspiration from for a contest routine. BW2 even had unique music themes for each gym. Did that translate over into Unova's music industry being just that good?
“Why not just check stuff out on the pokenet?” I asked.
Chaz tried and failed to hold back a laugh, “Because half the pokenet are just Porygons posting. I wanted an actual person’s opinion.”
I looked at his friends, they just shrugged. Was that the pokeworld version of dead internet theory? Just tons of porygons acting like bots? I shook my head and tried to make conversation as I ate. “So you’re all contest trainers then?”
Pokemon contests in my old world were side content in a few of the games. Pokemon would enter under one of five different categories like cute, cool or tough. Pokemon would be judged and the winners would move onto the appeal stage. In that stage pokemon would use moves to appeal to the audience and judges.
Contests worked a bit differently from the games here and more in line with the anime. They started with an appeal stage where trainer and pokemon would do a routine showing off the health, beauty, and skill of the pokemon. The second stage was a battle stage with a point system. Knocking out your opponent would still advance you. However battles were on a five minute time limit. If at the end of five minutes both pokemon were still standing then it went to points. Supposedly stalling out that time wasn’t that hard to do, which made focusing on the knock out a risky prospect. Contests weren’t just about winning but winning and fighting with style and greater skill than your opponent. They were nearly as popular as battles and were often televised.
Conner spoke up, “Yep all contest trainers. We just flew up from Cherrygrove. We decided to give the Johto contest circuit a try and got thrashed. Their regulars like Valerie were all there and then the Princess and Lisia showed up as well.”
“Don’t mention that rival stealing no good ‘Princess of Hoenn’.” Chaz did air quotes for the last part. “She’s not even from Hoenn. She’s from Olivine.”
“Princess?” I questioned. The only royalty I could think of in pokemon off the top of my head were AZ, Lysander and the Harmonias if the Abyssal Ruins were correct. They were all part of royal lines. Ah, I was forgetting Sordward and Shielbert. Plenty of kings but no princesses.
Liam pointed behind me. The tv showed a Mega-Audino singing with a young woman dressed in a colorful outfit reminiscent of a japanese idol. The clip ended soon after and the talking heads started up, “That’s remarkable! May Maple…”
Yeah…
That would do it.
Chaz got his rival stolen by a protagonist.
I turned back to him.
“No! What’s with that look? I don’t want your pity. Some new music and some good battles and then Macherie will be in peak form.” He spoke as if he was trying to convince himself. He seemed to be doing a poor job of it.
“So Lisia is your rival then?”
Lisia in the games was an idol in the Hoenn region. She was extremely popular and skilled as a contest star. Her Uncle had an entire Contest Cup named after him yet she was the better performer. He eventually retired from contests to focus on battling full time. Considering that Wallace was the champion for Hoenn in one of the games and the eighth gym leader in the others, the family was very talented.
“Yes, we even debuted at the same time! But every year it just feels like she gets further and further away…” Chaz trailed off. One of his friends patted him on the back.
Damn, I was actually starting to feel a bit bad for him. Well, assuming he wasn’t stalking Lisia and she was an actual friend/rival. How many times had I started up a new game or a hobby with a friend and one of us just started to slowly get out of reach of the other? One of us was just a bit too good and a bit too skilled… We could find new games and start the process all over again. But here pokemon was the only game in town.
I did have music. I had quite a lot of it actually. If I got Mal to bring some more over after he finished with the simulator... Well, there had to be something in there that fit for a contest. I even had music made for this world. It would be better to share that with this world than to let it rot on my hard drive.
“Tell me, do you have a rival?” Chaz asked, pulling me from my thoughts.
My mind briefly drifted to Silver. I shook my head, “No.”
“Really?” Liam asked, “This is what? Your third season?”
“It’s my first one actually. I got a late start.”
“Ah, well you should get a rival. Strong rivals make strong trainers. Besides, you'll really need one if you want to catch up.” Liam went to continue but an elbow from Chaz cut him off.
“Congratulations on becoming a trainer Damien. What were you working on before becoming one?” Chaz asked.
“I was a research assistant…”
The rest of dinner passed in casual conversation. They were staying in the area until the next contest which would be here in Violet in a few weeks, the one after that was in Olivine. Chaz was thinking about trying his luck with the local gym. Considering his main pokemon Macherie was a Machoke that would be a tough matchup for him. Soon enough it was time to part ways.
I hesitated briefly before giving Chaz my email. “I may or may not have some music that might work? And that’s a big might.”
Chaz looked to his friends holding back a grin, “Anything would be great Damien.”
“Call me Gray.”
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After picking up my team and their scans I had the great pleasure of trying to set up a tent mostly in the dark in the middle of a crowded field behind the pokemon center. It was a valiant battle lasting twenty minutes but I won in the end.
I fed my team and broke out the new reptile grooming kit that I had gotten for Dunsparce. Most Normal Type pokemon were mammals or birds. Dunsparce was one of the very few reptiles in the entire type.
It was rather slow going by lantern light. Dunsparce reminded me more of a cat in its behavior than anything else. The tail seemed to be the key to understanding its mood. The speed of the drill and the angle of the tail, which was all going to take a bit to learn. However, Dunsparce who I learned from the center scan was a she, was content to eat a berry and some pokechow as I made sure her scales were in good condition and inspected her wings. She still needed a name but I was drawing a blank. What do you even name a japanese insect snake cryptid with wings?
As for the rest of my team, Callie was more than happy with the honey I had gotten earlier in the day. Her reward for drawing with Silver’s Totodile (though I would have given her some anyway). As for Mal I still had yet to see him actually eat, although the food I gave him always disappeared.
My team taken care of, I took out my laptop. I still had to keep up with the travel blog Mr.P had asked me to do. I had kind of gotten distracted by the whole world ending plot and the Plot. Now that I wasn’t freaking out about the world ending or messing something up I was met with a blank page. It stared back at me taunting me… Maybe start with a team update and describe some of the sights along the route? Slowly bit by bit the words began to flow…
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In the morning the sound of camps being packed up woke me. I began to stretch. I was still a bit sore from all the walking and had already started to lose some weight from my travels. I could slow my pace a bit. I had plenty of time in the season the expected pace was a gym a month, but I wanted to keep moving and there was a lot I wanted to get started on today. Get registered at the gym for a time slot. Get some training done. Maybe swing by the Sprout Tower or Earl’s trainer school if I had time.
“Dun…du..dududu.”
That almost sounded like cartoon snoring. Looking towards the source I found two thirds of my team still asleep. Callie with one honey covered paw still in her mouth using Dunsparce as a pillow. After holding back a laugh when Dunsparce snored again I took a quick picture of the two.
Quietly I began to pack up until I had to wake them to get the tent put away. Dunsparce was put back into their ball as they took up just a bit too much space underfoot to walk around a city with. Maybe if it was less crowded it would be okay. Mal was inside the harddrive and with his preference for cyberspace he’d be happy which just left Callie.
I knelt down and gave her a little scratch behind the ears. “Well you have a choice. Pokeball or walk with me?”
“Teddi.” she raised up her paws towards me.
I stared down at my sticky doom. “The third option huh? You want up?”
She nodded in response.
I held back a laugh. I guess pokebears were smarter than the average bear. “Actually, walk with me for a bit, I have an idea.”
With a grumble she followed behind me.
The sounds of battle could be heard behind us as the training fields opened now that the camps were cleared. The stalls in front of the center were open as well. It took about five minutes before I found what I was looking for.
A stand selling ballcaps.
I had avoided getting a hat, without really realizing I was. Hats were a piece of visual storytelling repeated throughout the franchise. Ash had a hat, Red had a hat, the player characters had hats. Sometimes the friendly rival would have a hat.
The ball cap though was special.
It had been almost solely reserved for the player character and a few classes of npcs. It was a rule that had been followed with only really one notable exception that being N. An antagonist with a ballcap to remind the player of Red and the other protagonists. To mark him as another hero.
Most of the hats being sold had symbols on them representing sports teams and towns. A few were done up to look like badges were on them. However after some searching I finally found one that I was happy with. The front panels were white and the rest of it was black.
“You sure this is the one you want? It’s kind of plain.” the man selling the caps asked me.
I nodded, “Yeah, it’ll do.”
“Are you sure? We do embroidery. Lotta young folks trying to make a brand. Only twenty five pokedollars more.”
“Not looking to make a brand and besides I don’t even have a… symbol…” My words trailed off as I opened my backpack digging until I found it. My jacket, the one I had been wearing when I fell into this world. I had kept it even with all the holes. And there inside it, like how Ash used to store his gym badges were two buttons that had been made with a button press. One had the symbol for Bug type and as for the other it brought a smile to my face. I held back a laugh and handed the button to the hat seller. “Can you put that on the hat?”
The man nodded, “Yeah, easy. Can I ask what it means?”
“It’s the Normal energy symbol.”
The man shrugged, “Type specialist huh? Well what colors do you want?”
“Black for the starburst, and the rest is gray.”
A short time later with a hat on my head and a bear on my shoulders I made my way towards the gym.