"Fucks sake man I'm still running late even after legging it!" he complained, quite literally in fact as he sprinted through the streets of Nuvema Town while checking his watch.
Several people making their daily commute gave the aspiring trainer strange looks as he flashed by. With good reason as well, compared to their pristine clothing, unblemished from the world's elements, Magnus did indeed look out of place.
Dirty black trousers covered in dirt and mud from running through route 1, coupled with his t-shirt and jacket that weren't much better for wear. Add on the swear that was budding across his face and you had someone who looks like he's just crawled out of a cave.
Thought Magnus was in this state for good reason… or bad depending on how you look at it. Some asshole of a trainer, which he paid with his hard earned poke to fly him over to Nuvema reneged on the deal after catching a fight of a wild pokemon that tickled his fancy.
With his time better spent elsewhere, the chubby fuck promptly landed and handed Magnus his money back before flying away with enough speed to avoid the torrential wave of curses that Magnus fired at him, and it definitely wasn't the move.
The move would do some damage for sure but the pokemon centres would be quick to have the cunt recovered, but there was no walking away from the mental damage he would've assumed had he heard. At the very least he'd be needing a psychic to help him leave his house everyday without bursting into tears.
The worst thing about the whole thing was that Magnus was left stranded at the least part of the journey, which truly infuriated him to no end. Nuvema Town, a long way from Opelucid City, Magnus had to get three different flights. One from Opelucid city to Nimbasa, then Nimbasa to Nacrene, and finally to Nuvema.
The first two journeys went soundly, it was only at the last stretch he was fucked over. One a normal day Magnus would've been pissed, but this was no average day for him.
Today was the day where he'd finally become a pokemon trainer. Professor Juniper called him a few days back to notify him about when he'd be getting his starter.
The total milf of a professor had been good to him over the past year or so. Ever since Magnus was all cleared to leave the orphanage, take whatever his parents left him in inheritance and live by himself all at the age of 12, he's been knees deep in anything pokemon related. Books, articles, battling recordings, anything that would help him prepare for his journey. Thanks to this zealous attitude and a fair bit of luck he managed to get noticed by the Unovan Professor, with her taking a liking to him, Magnus was already on the fast track to becoming a trainer.
And this was on top of spending the best part of a year at opelucid academy. Even though he was a few years late to enrol at the proper age, Drayden - the city's gym leader and mayor - made an exception. Magnus had a sneaking suspicion that he was the one that helped him get noticed by Juniper, but the verdicts are still out on that one. All in all a year at the academy and a year helping Juniper did wonders for him.
To become a trainer - at least legally- you need to get the approval of the league. None of the big wigs running it want any trainer related accidents so they give out licences to those deemed able to safely care for their pokemon.
A big part of being able to get a licence is age related, the younger you are the harder it is to get one. Though it isn't the rarest of occurrences to see people as young as 12 and 13 running about with a licence, it's not the norm. All the youngsters that end up with one all have some sort of guarantor that helps them speed up the process, as well as take the fall if anything goes wrong during their starting years.
Letting those at that age loose in the pokemon filled wilds is a risky game at best, and the league doesn't want any flack for injuries or worse, so there's a high chance that those guarantors are affiliated with a league in some way. While pokemon - especially in these modern times - have mellowed out a lot especially in areas near civilisation, there's still plenty of aggressive and territorial beasts lurking around that wouldn't think twice about munching down on human sized snacks.
Exempting the younger trainers, the average person normally gets a licence at around 16. Even though you're legally classed as an adult at 12, that doesn't give you a pass for having ownership of what may as well be biological weapons of war.
With all the work Magnus has put towards getting his licence, it's no surprise that he managed to get one as soon as he turned 15.
Nearing the centre of the town Magnus caught sight of the professor's lab. With the end point in sight, he made the final dash with his hopes and dreams on the line. In the distance was the vast ocean, shimmering a fantastic shade of blue, if you looked closely you'd even see the titanic forms of wailords floating atop the waves.
Completely disregarding the beautiful view, Magnus dragged his sweaty self up the stairs and into the large window filled research lab owned by Juniper.
Crashing through the front doors, he was met with the pleasant brown haired receptionist who was currently tapping away at her keyboard no doubt doing something for the researchers.
Before I could even say a word a voice called out to me, "Magnus, you've finally arrived." they said.
Turning his head Magnus saw a lab coat dressed, bespectacled woman by the name of Fennel, her flower shaped clip shook in her long dark hair as he stepped towards me with a stiff smile. She was one of the main researchers here working as an assistant to Juniper, as face Magnus has seen more than a few times.
"Yea, the prick that was flying me over left me in the middle of route 1" Magnus told her with immense irk evident in his tone. He'd already called Juniper with on his X-transceiver that she gave him, but told Fennel about his trouble in case she wasn't informed.
"Yes, Professor Juniper told me what happened. Please follow me, the Professor wants to talk to you about something" she informed and promptly left in the direction of Juniper's room.
With no time to waste Magnus follows behind already fantasising about his first Pokemon.
The news Professor Juniper told him nearly brought him to his knees, after basically running the entire way here his legs were already weary and her words put him on his last legs.
"I'm really sorry Magnus but the last starter pokemon escaped the facility about an hour ago. We can't find its current location." Juniper said while slightly bowing in apology. Her puffy light brown hair draped over her eyes, concealing the cyan orbs behind them. Those massive tits of hers that he previously would've been all too happy to see pushed against her grey top exposing an ample amount of cleavage, but Magnus never even took a peak the sudden bout of disappointment was gnawing away at him.
It was unimaginable for Magnus, all his hopes came crashing to the ground. His excitement died along with them, out of all the things he expected Juniper to say, this definitely wasn't one of them.
What would happen now, will he have to wait till a new batch comes in? No, who knows how long that could take, there's now way he could wait. Then will he have to settle for another pokemon? He was truly looking forward to choosing an Oshawott, ready to teach it how to shank things properly with that shell of theirs, but even if he wasn't able to choose one, he'd be grateful to have any of the other two.
Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott. Either one of the trio can evolve into powerful pokemon, a great start to any newbies team. That's why he worked so hard to get a chance at picking one of the three starters provided by Juniper. Now it just feels like all his hard work has gone down the drain.
If he couldn't get one, what was the point in coming down here in the first place? He might as well have just caught himself one back in Opelucid. With all these thoughts swirling about his head, Professor Juniper now finished with her apology, stood up straight and continued.
"Now you have a few options available to you" Pulling myself from my slump I look her in the eyes.
"First of all, you could wait until we get another batch of starters, but with this option comes an unspecified wait. We've got no idea when the league will send them, it could be days, weeks or even months".
Still not liking the sound of waiting, Magnus listens in for the other options.
"Secondly, If you don't want to wait, we can go and catch one of the pokemon nearby, there's quite the wide variety if we go down to route 18".
That's sounding like a much better plan to Magnus, there's lots of water, fighting and grass types that hang about around the area of route 18, there's even a rumour that a dragonite has made its home there. The only problem for trainers is that getting there's quite the pain. If you don't have a water type - or a boat - you need to travel through an extremely dense forest for miles and If you don't have something to navigate with there's a high chance you'll get lost within the sea of trees.
Just as he was about to take her up on that offer, Juniper gave him another option. One he wasn't expecting, something that's happened too many times today for his liking.
"Or as an apology for losing Oshawott and wasting your time, I can give you one of the research pokemon I got a few months back" she said while crossing her arms.
That really caught Magnus's interest, saying something for the first time in a while, he asked the professor curiously "What kind of pokemon is it?". If it's a pokemon that she was researching, there's a high chance that it's a rare one, or at least had something special about it if Juniper's looking into it.
"Interested in him, can't say I blame you. Give me a minute and I'll go get the little guy" She answered and left for the door, leaving Magnus and Fennel themselves for a bit.
A couple of minutes later, she came strutting in with a tiny pokemon perched on her shoulder. The pokemon was tiny, even smaller than a pidove, even if not by much. Still it was an eyecatcher for Magnus, he couldn't recognise it even after memorising most of the Unovan pokedex and more.
The little bird was primarily coloured blue, with his wings and back being the colour of the ocean on a cloudless day, while his crown and the stripe leading to the area around his face being a much darker shade. The part which stood out the most was the striking yellow on his underbelly just above the grey talons.
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"This cutie here's a Rookidee. Don't let her stature fool you though, he's quite the feisty one once she starts battling" Juniper informed me while gently scratching the bird's chin with her pale finger as Rookidee preened at the praise.
Stopping right in front of Magnus she reaches into her pocket while asking "Let me see your Pokedex from a second"
Promptly handing over the device, the professor then mashes a few buttons and inserts a small circular drive into the Pokedex. After a moment it slid back out and she returned the Pokedex to its rightful owner.
"I've just updated it with the National Pokedex. You'll be needing it if you want to take a look at Rookidee, who chirped in affirmation.
Pointing the Pokedex at Rookidee, it only took a second for Dex's automated voice to start giving off information.
'Rookidee, the tiny bird pokemon. A flying type. Rookidee are feisty and territorial pokemon and will bravely fight against anybody, no matter how big or strong that opponent is. They are able to store some of their own energy after every battle, so they can grow a bit stronger even if they lose.' the voice informed.
'This Rookidee has the moves: Leer, Peck, Power Trip, Hone Claws, Fury Attack, Roost and Sky Attack'
"Damn, you're packing some serious moves aren't you" Magnus said, impressed at what he saw making the receiver of the complement chirp.
"While Rookidee is proficient at most of his moveset, he still has trouble with Sky Attack, and most likely will until he evolves. Such a powerful move isn't made for a weak body, but I'm sure you already came to that conclusion yourself" Magnus just nodded in affirmation while Rookidee cawed at the professor for calling his body weak.
Not being able to use Sky Attack properly isn't surprising as it's basically the Giga Impact of flying moves. Rookidee using it as he is the now would most likely end up with disastrous consequences.
After she finished Magnus skimmed over some of the other important information the Pokedex had on Rookidee.
"So Rookidee is from the Galar Region" He asked the professor, realising the reason why he had never seen the pokemon before.
Letting the bird fly from her shoulder to the ground in front of me, she replies "Indeed, a colleague over in Galar sent him over at my request. Rookidee here has the ability 'Big Pecks' , a rare ability for his species, therefore I wanted to understand what effects it had on the species and if the ability was any different from the norm. For the past few months he's been aiding me with my research. I was close to sending him back into the wilds over in Galar but then… this morning happened and I thought Rookidee might want to tag along with you.
'Rookidee then, Huh' Magnus thought. After having a peak at the Pokedex he was more than okay with a partnership, one of the part's he looked at was Rookidee's evolutions. In the tiny bird's final form, he morphs into a titan of a pokemon standing 7 feet tall, that's nearly the size of a Dragonite and even gains a steel typing to boot.
Whatever pokemon he might've caught at route 18 can wait, once himself and Rookidee's stronger he can go back and have a look.
Leaning down next to Rookidee I ask him "What'd you think about that then? Want to team up and I'll help you get real strong?". Seemingly debating with himself for a moment, Rookidee then squawks loudly and begins to fly around Magnus's head.
"Looks like that's settled then'' Juniper says. Reaching into her pocket once more, she takes out 10 basic pokeballs in their un-primed state, one being Rookidee's pokeball which she sat to the side; they were so small she could carry them all in the palm of her hand. Before handing them over she dug into her other pocket and pulled out a single pokeball sporting a different design.
With Rookidee now calm and perching on Magnus's shoulder, she finally got to handing the items over, Magnus seeing the yellow and black design on the variant pokeball exclaims "You're giving me an ultra ball?"
Just shrugging in return, Juniper replies "It's the least I can do to show my appreciation for you coming all the way down here. I know the flight's would've been expensive, so just think of this as me squaring you up."
Magnus stared in wonder at the rare ultra ball in his hand. These rare variants have a much higher catch rate, and because of that they come with a hefty price tag. Just this one has already covered the money Magnus spent on the flights, plus a few hundred extra. Juniper never had to do this, but Magnus isn't going to refuse now that she's offering.
Stuffing the capture devices into his bag, he reaches out and grabs the badge case that Juniper was now offering him. With that he had everything and was ready to leave after saying thank you to the Professor and Fennel.
Before he walked away though, Juniper requested "Can I ask one more thing of you before you leave?"
Happy to oblige with whatever her request is Magnus responded "Sure, as long as it's not something impossible"
"You don't need to worry about performing the impossible. A simple request really, all I want is for you to note down any changes Rookidee's ability goes through during evolution, and show them to me whenever you've got the time" She explained.
An easy enough task, and one that will have a direct effect on his team if the ability morphs into something else. "I'll keep an eye out for it then"
"That's all I ask. Goodbye Magnus, enjoy your journey" Juniper said while waving next to Fennel.
"Catch you two later then" Magnus said, and with those parting words set off away to Route 1.
Once Magnus and his new partner Rookidee left the boundaries of the town, they were met with a green forested expanse that was route one. Now that he wasn't legging it at full speed, Magnus finally had the chance to take in his surroundings.
Route 1 is one of the safest out land areas in Unova thanks to the calm collection of pokemon that inhabit it. The area's very popular with newbie trainers because of this, on good days such as today, there's normally a substantial amount of trainers hacking their way up and down the path, fishing by the cove and even travelling deeper into its pokemon filled woodland.
Back when he ran through it, he did manage to catch sight of some of the easy going pokemon that hung around near the path, but because of time constraints he wasn't able to enjoy any of their meetings. The most he gave to the wild pokemon was a quick wave or greeting before speeding past them.
Now though, with time on his side, Magnus was eager to make the most of his travel up to Striaton city where he'd tackle his first gym.
While Magus was watching the surroundings for any of the local wildlife, Rookidee was doing the same but with a lot more zest. If he wasn't perched on his trainer's shoulder, he was soaring into the sky excitedly, beating his small wings to keep him airborne as he revelled in his time spent away from the lab.
Living at Juniper's lab for a few months was by no means a bad experience, in fact most pokemon would jump at the chance to do the same. All Rookidee's needs were accounted for and he was kept fit and healthy which is better than you can say for many pokemon roughing it in the wilds.
But if there's one thing that wild pokemon have more, it's freedom. Only being able to fly around in the vicinity around the lab irked Rookidee to no extent. Which was why he was ecstatic to be on the move again.
While walking up the path, the two had a few encounters with the route's wildlife. A small group of Patrat peeked at them though a plethora of foliage, but scurried off once Rookidee flew towards them so they just left the group be.
A Herdier shot across the path not long after, it never stuck around though, once it saw Magnus it froze up like a deerling in headlights, but not long enough to confront it in battle. The Pokemon clearly wasn't eager to be caught, as soon it got out of its stupor the Herdier raced off into the dense sea of trees.
"Not having much luck today are we?" Magnus sighed as Rookidee landed on him while tweeting in confirmation.
Scratching his pokemons chin he said "Bet you're desperate for a chance to show off your skills"
"Rook!" the bird replied while beating his wings.
A few hundred metres down the road, the large bush they were passing by began to loudly rustle as if something was preparing to burst out.
"Rookidee get ready" he said to his pokemon as they both prepared for what was coming.
Somewhat anticlimactically, instead of a pokemon busting out it was a trainer, followed shortly after by a Watchog that seemed to be his own. The trainer was probably a year or two older than Magnus, he was wearing all green and seemed to blend in with the surroundings, the only thing on him that wasn't green was his messy brown hair that had a few leaves stuck in it, probably from the bush.
"Hey man! Sorry if I scared you, me and Watchog got a little lost while exploring" he explained as Watchog just shook it's head as if stuff like this happens all the time.
"I was just heading back to Nuvema Town to get my team healed, but since you're here how about a quick battle with Watchog here" he offered.
Meeting eyes with his pokemon for a second he replied "Sure, one on one match right?"
"That's right, follow me through for a bit, there's an open area not too far from here perfect for battling" He said while smiling
Magnus nodded and followed him into the forest, careful not to trip over and roots they arrived at a clearing not too far from the path. The tree surrounded a patch of healthy green grass with a couple of flowers mixed in that looked up to the sky.
Standing at opposite ends of the clearing the man named Mark shouted out "You ready!?" as Watchog stood out ahead of him.
"I'm ready!" Magnus shouted back, "Let's go Rookidee, show me what you can do"
Rookidee gliding off his shoulder and landing on the ground signified the start of the match. The emotions that Magnus was feeling were indescribable, it was his first real pokemon battle. Sure he's had mock one's before with temporary pokemon but that's totally different, they were always in a controlled environment with someone supervising.
Now it was the real deal. His own pokemon. His own opponent. His own skills.
"Rookidee Hone Claws then get in the air!"
Scraping his talons together they glow a shining silver for a brief moment before fading back to grey, as soon as Rookidee finished the move it used its unassumingly powerful legs to launch itself into the air.
"Watchog use Confuse Ray!"
Taking aim at its opponent, the Watchog shot a thin beam of ghostly energy. It flew through the air but wasn't fast enough to cause trouble for Rookidee who easily avoided the ghost type attack.
"Close in and use Fury Attack" Magnus ordered.
At the same time Mark shouted "When it gets close use Crunch!"
Listening to his trainers commands, the little bird plunged at Watchog with his talon's poised to attack. The Watchog was bigger, but much slower and had no chance at stopping the relentless assault.
Unimpeded, Rookidee managed to get a few solid hits in, he was just too nimble to be caught by Watchogs crunch.
Seeing his Pokemon being out manoeuvred, Mark racked his brain to come up with a counter. Every second he never did anything, his Watchog would become more injured.
Luckily before Watchog could faint he cried out desperately "Watchog blind it with Sand Attack!"
Magnus wasn't an idiot though, once he head Mark's order he called out to Rookidee "Stop and fly up!, don't let yourself be hit"
Just as Watchog used its tail to slap the group and bring up a cloud of sand and dust, Rookidee pulled out of his attack and flew out of the clouds' reach.
"Hit it with tackle Watchog!"
Magnus couldn't see Watchog thanks to the dust cloud so he yelled "Watch for it jumping out, when it does use peck!"
Rookidee's beady eyes constantly flickered around, searching for any movement underneath. Catching a glimpse of Watchogs brightly coloured vest, Rookidee prepared a peck for its now wasted surprise attack.
Watchog emerged from the cloud, it's strong tail was used to quickly propel itself at Rookidee in hopes Tackle would connect.
This was it's big mistake, Jumping so high into the air left it immobile, the complete opposite of Rookidee - a flying type - who easily used its flight to dodge the tackle and strike Watchog's exposed side with a peck.
When Magnus saw Watchog hurtling back down to the ground he yelled "Use Hone claws again and finish it with Power Trip!"
Badly failing to do an intimidating screech, Rookidee plunged after Watchog as his Beak and talons turned a malevolent black that gave off a dangerous vibe to both person and pokemon.
"Dodge it Watchog!" Mark cried desperately wishing that his pokemon could avoid taking anymore damage.
Sadly for Mark, it wasn't to be. Once Watchog impacted on the ground there was barely any time for it to move before the Rookidee smashed into its chest.
After the hit Rookidee flew away, revealing the KO'd Watchog lying in a small crater. Seeing that his pokemon fainted, Mark was quick to return it after saying a few words of comfort and then reaching into his bag for something else.
"Great job Rookidee. You showed him who's boss" Magnus praised the tiny bird that landed on his shoulder.
Throwing his bag back over his shoulder Mark walked over and said "Awesome battle bro, that flying type of yours is some fighter. Anyway here's your winnings" he gave Magnus a small bundle of 326 poke.
Getting his winnings was a bizarre experience for Magnus, this much money was what he'd normally earn in a week at this old job, and now all he had to do was win a quick battle to earn the same amount.
"Hope we can have another battle if we meet again." Mark said as he began to head towards Nuvema town.
With his first win under his belt and a heavier wallet, Magnus picked the pace up. Not too far up from here was the cove that sat in the centre of route 1, home to the resident water types. Curious to see what kind of pokemon were there he made quick work of the remaining distance.