Slate continued to stare dumbfoundedly at the words on his Pokédex screen, “New Pokémon registered to the Pokédex.” After falling into the larva pit, he dropped his Silph Ball. While busy escaping, it had evidently taken in the first Pokémon it came into contact with. In the space of five minutes, he had caught two new Pokémon—that were weak enough to capture without battling—by accident!
Returning his gaze to the larva nest, Slate shuddered at the thought of retrieving the ball, which sat atop the center of the pulsating swarm. Having previously been empty, it hadn’t yet been magnetized to his Poké Glove, so he was tempted for a moment to abandon it. However, he knew he couldn’t do that. It would be totally irresponsible.
On the upside, the Silph Ball had a Bug-type inside it, meaning he could get the heck out of Hazell Woods without losing face. April would surely have something to say about his new catch, but at least he wouldn’t be facing her empty-handed. Realizing that he wasn’t exactly sure what his new catch was, Slate consulted his Pokédex.
SPECIES
#038 Larvoid
DERIVATION
Larva + Void
CATEGORY
Larva
COLORING
Pale red
-
-
TYPE
Bug
-
ABILITIES
Swarm
Huge Power
Overcoat
DETAILS
While it shares its physical appearance, behaviors, and habitat with multiple Bug-type Pokémon native to Nutera, it was recently classified as a distinct species. Pokéologist are still investigating their connection.
“Larvoid, huh?” he muttered aloud, confirming the previously unidentifiable creature’s name and information. The Pokédex entry image showed it to be light red in color, but it was otherwise identical to any one of the wriggling bugs in the pit, which appeared to also come in pastel shades of blue, yellow, and green.
Slate sighed as he reattached his Pokédex to his bag strap. He needed to collect his capsule somehow. He searched the brush for an errant branch or something to extend his reach. Finding no such tool, he resigned himself to lowering back into the nest. Thankfully, he was spared this humiliation when Cryote leaped into the pit.
“Cryote, wait,” Slate started, worried for the pup, but it landed gently on the squishy pond of larva Pokémon. It moved to the center of the mass easily as if jumping on a bouncy house, then took the purple ball between its teeth. Happily wagging its bushy white tail, Cryote dutifully returned the ball to its master, who was put in mind of a bizarre game of fetch.
“Good boy!” said Slate, gratefully scratching Cryote behind the ears as he accepted the capsule. “Right, now let’s get out of here! I don’t suppose you can find the way back to the path? It should be in that general direction if you can track the way I came by my scent.”
Slate wasn’t sure this would be possible, but Cryote stepped forward and began sniffing the air. A few moments later, it set off at a trot, and Slate followed. Within twenty minutes they arrived at the place where he had left the path. “Remind me to get you a treat!” he said, to which Cryote barked loudly.
They jogged along the path from that point, passing several Trainers along the way who looked as if they might want to battle. Slate was eager to put the experience behind him and get to a shower, so he purposely avoided making eye contact. Upon reaching the entrance to the woods, he slowed down and walked the rest of the way to the Pokémon Center, speculating aloud about what sort of treat Cryote might want.
As Slate sounded off suggestions, he recalled the taste of the donuts from his last visit to Hazell Town. His stomach rumbled as his mouth filled with saliva. He was suddenly in the mood for a treat too, and no wonder given it was almost two o’clock in the afternoon. He had been in Hazell Woods for almost four hours and had skipped breakfast that morning.
“Some birthday this is shaping up to be,” said Slate with a derisive chuckle. “Mom’s sick, I can’t reach Jet, I’m covered in maggot sweat or something, I’ve got two new Pokémon that I didn’t really want, and I’m out of Silph Balls again. All I need now is for April to win that contest!”
Cryote surveyed him with curiosity, its head tilted to one side.
“Sorry, boy. I guess I need to snap out of it. Again. Better return for now. We’ll get something to eat after I clean up,” he promised the pup, then pulled its Silph Ball from his belt.
Inside the Center, after a significantly shorter wait now that Melissa was nowhere to be seen, Slate submitted his new Larvoid’s Pokédex details to the contest organizers.
“There we are. All done!” said the same curly-haired woman from that morning. “The Award presentation is taking place on the battlefield behind the Center at eight o’clock. Best of luck!”
Slate thanked her, then while his team got a healing cycle, checked with the Center nurse about the facilities. She confirmed the bathrooms upstairs were open but that they didn’t have any beds left for that evening due to all the contest visitors. That was fine by him. He didn’t mind camping out in his capsule tent for the first time, so long as he could get cleaned up before then.
----------------------------------------
Slate felt like a new person after a shower and a change of clothes. One of the advantages of expensive Trainer Gear was the revolutionary compactable fabric from which the clothes were made. This made them capable of fitting inside a standard capsule washer, an ideal tool for traveling Trainers and one that was included in the bag his mother bought him.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
While his Trainer Gear was getting clean, he opted for the black cargo shorts he packed for warm days and the gray hoodie he packed for cold ones. The latter sported a print of his hometown Gym Leader’s signature Pokémon and Gym Badge. After securely fastening his Poke Belt, he headed downstairs with lunch firmly in mind.
“Oh, there you are!” said April Larch before his foot had even touched the ground floor of the Pokémon Center. “I was starting to worry you might have gotten lost or injured!”
“April…” Slate sighed as the girl sprung up from one of the Center’s green sofas. Pushing the thought that she was bang on the money out of his mind, he replied dryly, “Nope. Safe and sound I’m afraid.”
“I’m glad to hear it! Only a weak Trainer would have a problem in Hazell Woods,” said April, her eyes watching his face shrewdly for a reaction.
“Really? How did you make it out of there in one piece?” slate quipped, but April roared with laughter in response, making Slate flinch and eye her disparagingly.
When April calmed down, she said, “Good to know you have a sense of humor, Slate. What happened to your Trainer Gear?"
"Nothing, I just felt like switching it up," he lied.
"I see. Did you eat yet?”
Not for the first time, Slate marveled at the girl’s rapid changes in mood and conversation subject. “Err, no, not yet.”
“Well, the café is jammed today because of the contest. I just came from there and it took forever to get a seat, even at the counter. I wouldn’t say no to a donut, though, if you want to grab something to go from the bakery?”
“Sure,” Slate agreed. The pair left the Center and started toward the high street, walking in silence for a while before Slate asked the question that had been nagging at him. “Are you really not going to tell me where you’ve been unless I beat you in the contest?”
April looked at him and grinned. After a moment of indecision, she answered coyly, “I suppose I could tell you now.”
When she didn’t immediately elucidate, Slate pressed, “So… Where were you?”
“I was in school.”
“School?”
“The Pokémon School, in Pistachion City. I always intended to join you, Slate, I just needed to be sure I could keep up.”
“What do you mean?”
April stared off into the distance, “The first few days of our journey were a real eye-opener for me. My dream is to become a Pokéologist like my mom. But this journey that we’re on, it’s going to be dangerous. What Team Shade did to your mom and who knows how many other people… Knowing that my mom is still a target…”
Slate nodded in understanding, but sensing April’s lugubrious manner, he allowed her to continue without interruption.
“Competing in the Pokémon League may not be my goal, that’s more my brother’s thing, but knowing about Pokémon isn’t enough. I need to be a competent Trainer if we’re going to expose those thugs, especially since we know they don’t play by the rules.”
“So, you enrolled in Pokémon school?”
“Yep. I’ve passed all my classes with flying colors, naturally,” said April, returning to her usual cheery and boastful self. “I cringe when I think about how I let Rodenki get hurt before, but I know all about battling now. I might even be better than you!”
Slate smiled widely at this. April had surely improved since their last meeting, but he was confident about all the training he had done with Eevee and Cryote. Of course, the same couldn’t be said for his other three Pokémon, but he reasoned that they just needed time. “You’ll have to show me what you’ve learned sometime.”
“Be careful what you wish for!”
The two of them laughed heartily.
“So, coming here for the contest was just an excuse to run into me, huh?” Slate teased.
“Hardly,” April retorted. “I still have a few upcoming classes I want to take in Pistachion, but I did want to test out what I’ve learned so far. The contest seemed like a great opportunity. I also wanted to visit Pyne Farm.”
“Huh?”
“There’s a farm in Pyne Village, just north of here, where they raise Miltank and sell fresh Moomoo Milk. With Silph hiking their potion prices, I figured it would be smart to stock up.”
“That’s a great idea!” Slate exclaimed. “Moomoo Milk works like a healing item on Pokémon.”
“Yeah, I learned about it in school. That’s why I suggested it.”
“But wait,” said Slate, confusion etched across his face. “I thought you told me Pokémon from other regions don’t live in Nutera?”
“They don’t.”
“So, how does Pyne Farm have Miltank? They’re native to Johto.”
April furrowed her brow, searching for an answer to this question. “I guess they must be the Nuteran form of Miltank.”
Slate looked at April dubiously. “I’ve never heard of Miltank having a regional variant.”
April shrugged. “Well, I’ve never heard of Onix having a regional variant, but isn’t that what’s on your chest?”
Slate looked down at his Pewter City hoodie. “You’re saying Onix has a Nuteran form too?” To his annoyance, April shrugged again.
“I guess so. We get them here, but they don’t look quite like that.”
Slate shook his head with incredulity. Nutera was so different from what he had expected. It wasn’t like Johto, which shared so much with Kanto, including many Pokémon species. It was effectively cut off from the rest of the world, figuratively and literally. But if it had regional variants, didn’t that imply that at one time, it hadn’t been so cut off?
“So, we’ll head there after this? To Pyne Village? It’s not far, so we’ll be back in time for the contest presentation,” said April. “Then, on to Pistachion tomorrow?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Slate agreed, internally thankful to have her back. He had headed into Hazell Woods blind only to humiliate himself. Having someone knowledgeable about the region was going to be a big help on his journey. Quirky though April might be, to put it kindly, he was glad to have a friend like her by his side.
There was a bit of a queue when they arrived at Hazell Bakery. Slate grumbled in annoyance. He’d had quite enough of queues for one day. However, his stomach objected noisily at the thought of going elsewhere, and again when the smell of freshly baked bread and pastries wafted out of the quaint store’s door.
“This is on me, by the way,” said April casually as the pair entered and joined the queue.
“What? Why?”
“Call it a birthday present.”
“Oh, you know about that?” said Slate, blushing at the unexpected kind gesture. How did she know when he kept forgetting?
“Mom mentioned,” April explained simply, then switched subjects. “So, did you catch something for the contest?”
“Of course,” Slate asserted confidently, “You?”
“Just a Larvibe,” said April before adding defensively, “it was the biggest one of a bunch, though. What did you catch?”
“A Larvoid.”
“Excuse me?” April giggled.
Slate noticed others in the bakery queue close to them were laughing too. Surely not at him, though. “What? I’m pretty sure that’s what it was called,” he said.
“Oh, Slate… Of all the Pokémon you could have caught, you got a Larvoid?”
The people ahead of them in line made eye contact as they laughed into their hands. They were laughing at him. But why? “Yes. What’s wrong with that?” Slate questioned, trying to hide his chagrin.
April looked fit to burst as she explained, “It’s common knowledge that of the seven identical Bug-types in Nutera, Larvoid is the only one that doesn’t evolve. Your new Pokémon is a dud!”
Slate pursed his lips as April and strangers nearby continued to snicker. For the second time in recent memory, he found himself wondering whether “friend” was too strong a word for this girl.
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