“Congratulations on graduating son!”, both my parents said to me as they hugged me, any other time I would be too embarrassed, but all around us there were multiple families doing the same thing to their kids, graduation is one of those moments in life where being embarrassed by your parents isn’t so bad.

The event itself lasted only a moment, we received our certificates from the school and were now qualified to begin our journey as pokemon trainers. The top 3 ranking students of our generation were called last and received one of the three Kanto region starters.

That could have been me, I got unlucky with the group stage matchups, out of three opponents I had to face, two of them had type advantage against Bobo, my Phanpy. One of them, Terry Green, my nemesis, is standing there having first pick out of the three rare starters, to think I almost beat him.

That was it, my school years were over and tomorrow the new season would begin, with me being from Cerulean City not being a great choice for first gym battle, I decided to go through Mount Moon towards Pewter City for my first gym.

“Son, I know you are excited about tomorrow, do you really need to leave right away?”, asks my mom, she isn’t very happy with me leaving so soon.

“It’s okay Connie, our son is prepared and we need to let him go”, answer my dad, he is a hiker and is tasked with keeping Mount Moon route safe and help guide trainers through the tunnels. He is already taken me there a couple of times and shown me the route for new trainers, it can get dangerous in there if you leave the safer zones.

“Yes mom, I have accompanied dad to Pewter a few times already”, I can’t stand the look of worry in her face, “besides, Gladys and Jimmy will be there with me”.

Rookie trainers aren’t allowed to travel by themselves, we were taught in school to work in teams of three, Gladys and Jimmy were my partners for three years at school and we got along great so we are keeping the same group for this season.

After going out for a celebration dinner we returned home early, I needed to get ready for my trip. My dad got me a hiking backpack, very big but with enough space for everything I could need and more, we algo got the essentials for travel, a headlamp, a first aid set, some cooking gear, a tent and sleeping bag. I also had to choose my clothes, with limited space three extra sets of clothing were enough. Feeling somewhat ready, I went to sleep with Bobo by my side.

“Wake up son!”, said my dad as I felt him opening the door of my room, “are you ready for your big day?”

“What time is it?”, I asked while trying to compose myself, drowsiness didn’t feel like leaving my body anytime soon.

“5 in the morning, I’m ready to leave for my shift this week”, that woke me up fast, “are you coming with me?”, I asked while feeling conflicted.

“No, but I’m going to be around the route, I will be in the four-badge zone so no need to worry about me following you”.

I sighed in relief, how could I have my dad right next to me at the start of my journey, that would be so embarrassing.

“Well son, I have to go, maybe I will see you later today but even if I don’t, know I will be nearby keeping the stronger pokemon away from your route”, he said with a somewhat sad smile, I know he too is afraid for me, going on a journey is not as dangerous as it was years ago but some new trainer still disappear or die each year through their journey.

Later in the morning, my mom served me breakfast for the last time in a while, I couldn’t help but notice her holding back tears, I’m sure she will be crying when I leave, I need to make sure to keep in touch often.

“Good morning, Gladys, you are here early”, my friend arrived while I was lost in my thoughts, “did you have breakfast?”

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“Yes I did, thank you Connie”, Gladys looks ready to leave I can see the excitement in her movements, like she is barely holding herself back from leaving right away.

“Jimmy should be here soon, his mother let me know he already left their house”, explains my mom, and not a second later I can see my other friend looking through the window with a smile on his face.

I quickly eat my breakfast and join my friends outside, my mom hugging me for way too long before I can leave. I’m sure my friends had the same experience, but I can’t help but feel embarrassed, so we leave soon.

“So it’s a couple of hours of walk through route 4 to reach Mount Moon entrance, do any of you have anything left to do before we go?”, asks Gladys.

“Are you guys sure you don’t want to try Cerulean Gym?”, I ask them, they decided to accompany me, Jimmy even has some type advantage with his Bellsprout.

“We already discussed this, so no, we are doing our gym challenges together”, explains Jimmy, “I’ve heard about some Mankeys near route 4 though and would appreciate if we take some time trying to find one for me to catch”.

“Mankey are very fierce, it will be hard to find them on the safe route”, Gladys looks concerned as she speaks, she knows Jimmy might want to try going off route.

“So hear me out, I paid to get a trainer to locate Mankeys in the area and there is this one spot five minutes away from the route where they appear in sometimes, it’s halfway through and we could stop there to rest”.

“I knew it, you had already planned to go there”, my friend sounds slightly upset, I understand why, going off route is something we have been told against doing by our teachers many times.

“Are you sure about this Jimmy? Besides, without badges we are only allowed to carry two pokemon, you would hit your limit right at the start and Mankeys aren’t known for being easy to train”, I respond with some concern in my voice. Jimmy is known to be the risk taker of our group while Gladys prefers to go for safety first, I’m right in the middle, that’s the reason we work as a team, keeping the balance is important.

“I’m sorry guys but I need to do this, you know Bell isn’t the greatest battler, I love her but she does better as a support”, he answers and I notice his expression, Jimmy ranked at the bottom of our generation because of his Bellsprout, his family isn’t exactly wealthy and he received an egg from his mother’s Weepinbell, not exactly the pokemon he wanted, even paying to get Mankey’s location must have hurt his savings.

I got lucky my dad is a hiker who traveled a lot during his youth, his Donphan is rare around here and I was quite happy with Bobo. Gladys has a Krabby, which isn’t that rare around here but is a monster in his own right, she made it to the top eight thanks to him destroying his opponents, and she lost against a Magnemite, meaning it was only bad luck she didn’t make top three.

Gladys and me exchange glances and nod, we know our friend needs our help.

“Alright”, I say.

“If it isn’t farther than five minutes from the route I’m okay with it”, says Gladys.

“Thanks guys”, our friend smiles.

We go straight through route 4, there aren’t many trainers walking yet, mostly seeing as trainers in Cerulean are lining up in the gym to grab a spot for their battle, those lucky enough will be able to fight today.

As we walk, I can only see some Rattata hiding around bushes and trees, a Spearow flies away when it notices people walking nearby. There is a reason it’s called the safe route, it’s patrolled by rangers and trainers can get missions from the pokemon center when there are some higher leveled pokemon in the area.

After a little more than an hour of walking, Gladys’s King beat a Rattata, that was the only battle so far and we were nearing the spot where Mankeys appear.

“Okay, if we find a Mankey, Bell is going to put it to sleep and I’m going to try and catch it, chances are fifty-fifty”, my friend is clearly forgetting the pokemon isn’t going to be happy about it when it wakes up.

We carefully walk to the spot, apparently there is a small creek where pokemon come to drink water, when we arrive, the place is empty, so we take a seat some distance away where we can keep watch of the area while not being noticeable.

“Looks like I’m out of luck”, says my friend as a resigned expression appears on his face, thirty minutes was the most we could wait here, anymore and we might attract some attention from the pokemon have marked this place as their territory.

“Shhh”, Gladys puts her fingers over her mouth while signaling for Jimmy to keep quiet.

A rustling sound nearby puts on alert, until a couple of Mankeys land from the trees around and walk to the creek. We were hoping for just one to appear, what do we do? I look towards Jimmy and I notice him hesitating, so I bring out Bobo.

“I will keep one of them distracted, get the other one, Gladys cover our backs”, without hesitation my friends bring out their pokemon and prepare.

“Bell, Sleep Powder those Mankeys”, whispers Jimmy.

The little plant releases a blue shining powder from her mouth reaching both Mankeys, with one of them falling asleep right away, while the other looks unaffected and very angry once it realizes they are under attack. Vital Spirit, crap we forgot some Mankey have the ability to ignore sleep status effect.

The creature rushes towards Bell, “Bobo, Tackle and keep it distracted”, my pokemon is fast and hits Mankey before it reaches Bell, Jimmy and her go forward and throw a pokeball towards the asleep one. Seeing this, its partner gets angrier and tries to attack my friend, but Bobo is already standing in its way, the Mankey tries Low Kick, which deals a good amount of damage but Bobo stands strong with Defense Curl, we have trained for him to be able to activate de move whenever an enemy move it’s going to hit.

Seemingly forgetting about its partner, Mankey loses itself in anger using Fury Swipes against Bobo, which my pokemon takes like a champion, barely noticing the damage.

“It’s time, Bulldoze!”, I shout, an orange aura surrounds Bobo and it stands on its hind legs, then he stomps its front two feet on the ground and causing the ground to shake, an orange aura moving straight towards Mankey and hitting the pokemon sending it flying away.

I look towards Jimmy with a pokeball in his hands and Bell cheering by his side.

“It’s time to run, we made too much noise already and some other pokemon might be coming here”, says Gladys behind me, looking worried.

“Jimmy! Time to go!”, I notice the enemy Mankey trying looking somewhat dazed after receiving Bobo’s attack, so we begin running towards the safe area while it’s distracted.

Five minutes later we are back on route 4.

“That was exciting”, I say, so far the route has been quite boring.

“Let’s not do that again please”, answers Gladys, looking around us in case some wild pokemon follows after us.