"Bye! Don't forget to wash up in every town you pass! And brush your teeth!"

"Don't pick fights when you don't need to!"

"Gloo! Glooooo!"

I waved to my family, their forms disappearing behind the trees as the trail curved, even as they continued to shout advice and love. Finally on the road, I breathed a sigh of relief, echoed a moment later by Hobbes.

We'd originally intended on setting out at the crack of dawn. I'd known that had been ambitious, that delays during the beginning of my pokemon journey were inevitable, but I just hadn't realized how many delays there would be.

First, I had overslept. It was embarrassing to realize how much I had in common with the irresponsible protagonist of the anime, but my excitement the previous night had kept me up later than usual and the sun was already in the sky by the time Hobbes woke me with a cry of impatience. Next had, of course, come breakfast. I had intended on quickly munching through some cereal before setting off, but my mother had insisted on preparing a massive spread of bacon, pancakes, and Kalos toast. And then came the goodbyes. The goodbyes with my parents and Kisses had, obviously, dragged on, but I hadn't realized how many people in Lavender town would show up to see me off. It felt like every house we passed out of town had someone coming out to give me a hug and offer a last piece of advice. It'd felt good to see how much my neighbors cared for me, but after the fifth had pulled me aside, I was starting to lose my patience.

Then, of course, I'd realized I'd forgotten my hat at home, and had to run all the way back to grab it, enduring a few more goodbyes along the way.

Eventually, though, we were on the road. Six hours later than planned. But, finally, I was on my journey.

I took a deep breath, reveling in the pollution-free air. That was certainly something the pokemon world had over my original world -- while pollution certainly existed here, as evidenced by pokemon like grimer and trubbish, it wasn't nearly as widespread of a problem. The lack of widespread use of certain technologies, combined with the fact that disturbing certain parts of nature could literally be a death sentence, resulted in a world much cleaner than my old one.

Hobbes as well seemed to enjoy the walk. While I stayed on the road, Hobbes dashed along the edge of the bushes and trees lining the road, examining every plant and scaring the caterpies hiding beneath them. He would've fallen behind my long-legged pace, but every few seconds darkness would gather around his cloth and he'd blur forward to catch up, making good use of shadow sneak.

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A few cars drove by as we walked, and I gave a friendly wave to each one, but we never stopped to talk with anyone -- which I was perfectly fine with. This was my pokemon journey, after all, and I relished the freedom and isolation with only Hobbes for company.

We were heading mostly south from Lavender town, but a bit further inland than the much more popular coastal road that was due east of us. That road would've taken us to Fuschia, which I planned on visiting eventually, but that was for later. There was no explicit time limit for my pokemon journey, and I had no intention of rushing through it and miss smelling the roses along the way, so to speak. And while beating gyms would eventually be on the docket for me, I had something much more important to take care of first. For that, I had a very specific destination in mind: Merraga.

It wasn't one of the larger cities in Kanto, lacking the distinctive 'colorful' name scheme that all of the larger cities, and many of the smaller towns, followed. Originally started as a mining town next to the Merraga Quarry, it exploded in size after Silph Co. constructed one of their offices there, taking advantage of the easy access to whatever material had been being mined.

That had been almost half a century ago, though. The quarry had been completely emptied, and Silph abandoned their offices when it no longer made financial sense to house so many employees so far out in the boonies. Some people still lived in Merraga, but it had become practically a ghost town compared to what it once was -- a ghost town in the metaphorical sense.

Not literally a ghost town. I grew up in Lavender Town, so I knew that that was something entirely different.

Eventually, we came upon a fork in the road -- the nicer option, which stayed paved, continued due south. The other option -- going west -- was also paved, but much less well-maintained. There were potholes every few feet, and weeds grew up between cracks in the pavement. Trees on either side of the road arced over it, leaving it entirely shaded, and as I stared down the second option, a cool gust of wind blew down the dark path, making me shiver. Hobbes quit his investigating and hovered next to my leg, looking apprehensively down the route.

I fingered a repel on my belt but decided against using one. While they'd protect us from attacks from all but the most powerful and wildest pokemon, they could also bring trouble. I didn't want to anger the pokemon of this route if it wasn't necessary, and according to the reports, the pokemon along the route were weak enough that Hobbes could protect me.

Besides, repels smelled terrible, and I didn't want to subject both Hobbes and myself to that without a good reason.

So, after taking a deep breath, I stepped forward into the shadows.