When I woke up I had all of my team of eevees on the bed with me. I had felt kind of mean leaving them in their pokeballs for all of the afternoon and I had faith they would wake me up if they needed to go outside. As a result Im guessing they all waited for me too fall asleep before hopping up onto the bed to go to sleep themselves. Honestly I wasn’t even mad, I figure new place new rules.

“Morning you guys”

A chorus of calls and yawns answered me as they all started waking up themselves and performing the stretches that all dogs do, big bows, back legs stretching out behind them, the works. Looking at my watch as I got dressed in my clothes from yesterday I saw that it was mid morning. Opening the door my team all ambled over to kitchen and started sniffing around one of the cupboards. That’s right I didn’t feed them last night I thought to myself. Opening the cupboard I saw that the bag of pokemon food Anna was mentioning last night of having bought and not used was sitting there. It had a big logo of Pokechow on it and a bird special written underneath it with a flying pidgy. Now I assume bird food isn’t probably the best option for eevees but beggers cant be choosers. Grabbing the scoop and several bowls I gave each of the team a small helping of food.

“Alright guys, we need to find someway of making money so I can get you guys some proper food and some gear for me if we are going to go adventuring.” Brandy and Gin looked up at me briefly before going back to slowly eating their breakfast. It didn’t look like they were enjoying it very much. “I had a thought last night but I think I’m going to try sell the motor bike”. That made them all look up at me. “From what Anna said I’m not going to be able to afford to keep running it so we are going to be either walking everywhere from now on or riding the bus. So first step is going to be finding somewhere to sell it and then use the money to buy some more clothes, a bag and food for all of us.”

I hadn’t seen any sign that Anna was awake and I didn’t want to go and wake her just to ask for directions so I thought I would maybe go for a morning walk while I waited for her to get up. Once I was done cleaning up after everybody I walked outside with me team all around me.

“By Arceus would you look at that!” I heard an exclamation from Mrs Winslows garden next door. Looking over I saw her staring at my me team as they turned to look right back at her.

“I have never seen so many eevees in one place! May I?” she asked walking over and reaching down to pat Rum.

“Sure sure go for it. They all love the attention.” I replied.

Kneeling down Mrs Winslow seem to greatly enjoy petting my team as they all swarmed over her begging for attention. Shameless the lot of them.

“Actually while I have you Mrs Winslow could I pick your brain for a moment?”

“Sure honey, how can I help you?”

“I’m actually looking for somewhere to sell my bike, and If I can maybe a shop I can buy some clothes and gear. A hiking pack for example.”

“Are you sure you want to sell your bike, it looks rather valuable?” she asked looking up at me. “And a bag? Are you going a journey or are you looking to challenge the gym circuit with these delightful young pokemon?”

“Ahhh probably a bit of both too be honest. I just figured it was time for a change and me and my team want to go see the world. The bike will probably get in the way in the long term so I might sell that and use the money to get all the stuff I need. If not I might head out to the ranches outside of town and try do some work for a bit otherwise.”

“Well I know just the young man to talk to. One of my friends son runs a garage not far from here and he is know to buy and sell vehicles. Id suggest talking to him and then another friends daughter runs the local adventure gear store…”

About 30 minutes later I had a list and a map of nearly every shop that could be useful in the 5km radius for where I was and how I could get to them. She even wrote down which bus to catch which would drop me near some of the ranches outside of town. I think she was thoroughly enjoying getting to talk to someone. With a thankyou and a wave I recalled all off my team and drove my bike to the garage that she recommended nearby.

I wasn’t sure if Joe at the garage was trying to rip me off or not. When I had entered the workshop, seeing several machop lifting up wheels and in one case the front of a car, Joe had come over and introduced himself and asked how he could help. His face hadn’t looked pleased when he found out I was trying to sell him something but had changed completely once he had seen my bike. Turns out Joe loved his bikes and hadn’t ever seen a model quite like mine (no surprise there). He had made an offer on the spot for $10k pokedollars and I wasn’t sure if that was a good offer or not. I knew what the costed back home but that was a different currency and world away. I managed to delay him by saying I was waiting for my Trainer ID card to be reprinted (which also acted as debit/credit card) so I would come back to him once I had picked it up. That would give me time to ask around, but it was good to know it wouldn’t be hard to sell. Especially as it was on its last bar of fuel. Heading back to Anna’s I decided to wake her up if she wasn’t already up as I needed local advice. Thankfully as I opened the door I saw her sitting in the kitchen staring vaguely at a cup of coffee.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Morning Anna”

She slowly turned her head at me and stared. Id seen that look before. “Not a morning person huh?”

A slow blink was my response. I waited until she had finished her coffee before trying again and asking her how much I should try sell my bike for and how much everything cost.

“Well I have seen brand new ones in shop windows going for $30k pokedollars so 5 seems rather low, but I don’t really know what the sale value of them is. “ she replied slowly. “I’m more up to date with what the breeders sell their pokemon for or what a registered wild pokemon goes for.”

“O yeah? Do tell?”

I nearly fell out of my chair. “An eevee goes for $50k each?!” No wonder Mrs Winslow had looked at me funny at the start when I said I was broke at the moment. I had $250k worth of pokemon walking around her garden!

“That’s the last price I heard for a eevee selling for from the Eevee breeders Association, but I personally reckon they keep numbers low to drive the price up. And that’s nothing compared to the dragons. A dratini went for over $300k last year! But then no one who catches a dratini would every sell it. I think that was a fundraiser from the league to raise funds for something.”

I am definitely going to the safari zone to try catch a couple dratini. That would be all my money problems solved! I thought.

“Why do more people not try catch them?”

“Aside from it would make the dragonites mad? Outside of the Blackthorns in Jhoto I wouldn’t even know where to look for one. People say out to sea is best but then why are the Blackthorns in the mountains?”

“Well I might have an idea on that”. That woke Anna up far more than her coffee did,

“Really?! Where?” She gasped excitedly.

“Ill keep that to myself at the moment just in case I’m wrong. Or if your right and me trying to find them pisses off a dragon. That doesn’t sound like much fun.”

Anna pouted at me. “Meanie, teasing me with something like that and then not sharing.” Looking at her watch she jumped up. “I’ve got to get to work!”

“I filled out that paper work earlier, If I come with you can I get that ID so I can sell the bike?”

“Yeah sure it should only take half an hour if you filled it out properly.”

Awesome, money here I come.

3 hours later I was much richer than I had been that morning, followed by poorer but stocked up with new gear and food which I was unpacking and sorting back at Anna’s place. It had been fun haggling with Joe over the bike. Good thing I did as I got nearly double what he started offering. I wasn’t sure if it was great deal or not $17k for the bike but his excitement over the different bits and pieces he kept finding on it made me think the price he ended up offering was genuine. That allowed me to get a good pack, though sadly not the space distorting Sliph Co ones which the shop keep didn’t stock as they went for at least $25k upwards. I can see what Anna meant by needing big sponsors to fund you if you wanted that as a 16 year old just starting your journey. Packing my bag with enough gear for the afternoon I left and caught the bus to the outskirts of town where I could walk to one of the nearest ranches. The road was no longer tar sealed past the bus drop off point but the track towards the ranch but was wide and clear and surrounded by forest on one side and open grassland on the other. The bus driver had mentioned that the ranch was under an hour’s walk alongside the forest edge. So, seeing it was a good opportunity I released my whole team and we wandered our way towards our destination. Seeing my team running around sniffing everything and generally playing around keep my spirits high as the walk left my mind to wander. I had to actively find things to think about to stop my brain going down a depressive spiral of my now lost home. While I was lost in my own thoughts as I walked along the forest edge I didn’t notice my team all stop until one of them started growling.

“Hmm whats wrong?”

Looking ahead I noticed that there was a group of small purple creatures, rattata’s, standing in a row in front of us. I assumed we must have walked up to them while they were playing or looking for food. I hesitated. What was I actually supposed to do here? Do I send one pokemon forward to battle? Do I send the whole team and try make the wild pokemon flee? My questions were answered when the largest rattata there step forward and snapped its front teeth at us.

“Rat at atta!”

“Fuck it, like the games it is. Brandy step up.”

Brandy turned her head to look at me briefly before leaping forward with a cry.

“Eevee!”

“Righto Brandy I want you to mess him up! Its just an over grown rat! Go bite it!”

“Eeee vee!” she growled at she ran forward towards the rattata. The shot a glare my way quickly (maybe it understood my insult?) before it seemed to glow slightly and run straight at my eevee. before leaping at the last moment and headbutting eevee right in face. The impact stopped Brandy dead in her tracks, her letting out a yelp while the rattata leap back and started circling. Eevee looked shocked that the rattata had attacked her back and put started turning on the spot to try keep rattata in her sight.

Shit. That wasn’t supposed to happen. I really just assumed she would bite it and ragdoll it like a rat from my world. Im guessing from the faint glow that rattata had just before it attacked that that was an actual pokemon move. Tackle maybe? I might need to get the team some lessons on how to be pokemon before we head off I thought to myself quickly while watching the two pokemon circle each other.

“You got this Brandy!” I cheered. Wait I should be giving commands right? “Try to bite it again! Watch out for it…”

As I was yelling the rattata must have had enough and broke off from its circling and launched itself at eevee again but at the last moment lept again, but instead of head first it spun around and whacked eevee on her side with its tail. Eevee slid across the ground before righting herself.

“v eve eevee” she whined holding her front left paw up lightly.

I’m fucking losing to a rattata I thought incredulously. Ok no, this isn’t happening. I think Ill back off and try get my team some training before we do any more battles. Imagine they’re level 1 Josh. Never battled before and neither have you. Reaching into my pocket I found her pokeball and pressed the ring to recall her. “That’ll do Brandy” I called out and with a red flash she disappeared back into her pokeball. With her return the rattata let out a victorious squeak.

“Ratta tatta tat!”

With a flick its tail it turned away and walked back to it buddies how ran up to it chittering. Looking at the rest of my team who where surrounding me they in turned looked back at me with confused looks on the faces. I don’t think any of us expected Brandy to lose to a rat. “Ok guys, lets just back away slowly and we will try that again another time.”

Moving with me we backed away slowly from the celebrating rattata’s until I guessed we were a good distance before turning around and heading back the way we came. We will go back, wait for the next bus and I figured I’d ask Anna and her pidgeotto for some training before heading out this way again.

What a disaster this trip had been.