Maple’s Burrow daycare is a small wooden building with a huge fenced-off area at the back. The sign on the front of it is weathered, the red paint starting to chip off of the light-colored wood. While it’s called the daycare it does way more than just take care of Pokémon, they breed Pokémon, raise them then let new trainers have them.
They’re run by the league which basically means that they’re a government-funded business. It’s weird how intertwined the sport of Pokémon battling is with the government, ‘Well I suppose it makes more sense when you consider that top trainers’ Pokémon are like a small army.’
Standing outside of it I feel a sense of anticipation. This is where I’m going to get my first pokemon! I steel myself and walk through the door entering the Daycare. When I open the door a bell rings and the woman at the counter perks up, still half sleeping from her nap.
“Hello!” She says in a chipper tone. ‘Can’t tell if she’s actually happy or if she’s required to act like that.’
“Hello, I’m here to get my starter!” I say back in a similarly chipper tone while walking towards the weathered wood counter.
She nods and then asks for my license, I give it to her and she swipes it on a card reader ‘Wonder if my license can also act as a credit card?’ She looks at something on a tablet and then nods to herself in satisfaction.
“Ok, right this way Mr. Walker!” Her tone was still extremely chipper, her eyes closed and a big smile on her face ‘I’m starting to think she’s just usually this chipper.’ She leads me behind the counter and out a door into the fenced-off area.
The area is mostly clear with one or two trees dotted here and there, there’s a pond in the center with small canals leading all over the property. Right next to the door we exited from there’s a whole bunch of empty food and water bowls, next to it are various tubs labeled with all 18 pokemon types.
In the field, a herd of Lillipups is running around burning excess energy and yipping happily. I turn to the…caretaker? ‘Never actually caught what her name was.’ I shake the thought out of my head and ask her a question “Miss, which pokemon are other people’s and which are free for me to take?”
She looks down at me ‘I forgot how short I was when I was twelve, 4’11, well at least I know I’ll grow a foot.’ she motions to the pack of Lillipups and starts to speak “The pokemon with trainers all have collars or some other type of jewelry, plus they often look much older then the ones we bred” I nod my head vigorously, almost falling over while doing so. I reach into my pocket and pull out the Pokeball Nurse Joy gave me and start to walk into the field.
‘This place is incredible’ Pokemon in the wild are usually very cautious around humans, even when I went actively looking for them I couldn’t find them. But here I can see the Metapods hanging off of the few trees, in the pond Goldeens and Magickarp swim around without a care in the world. On a rock a Helioptile is sunbathing, crackles of electricity coming off of its frills, I ready myself to find my first pokemon friend and say “Status.”
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I groan loudly, flopping onto the grass ‘I can’t believe this.’ The pokemon at the daycare were all below average, all Ds and C-s no Bs or As. The herd of Lillipups starts to sniff at me and poke me with their paws. I sigh and look back up, the Caretaker is sitting down on a plastic chair by the door just watching me, chuckling slightly.
I sigh once more and sit up, startling the Lillipups who jump back. ‘Okay let’s take another look around the field, maybe I missed someone.’ I stand up and dust myself off. I take another lap around the field, looking at the Lillpups one by one, then check out all of the fish and one Weathered Starmie, who unfortunately has a small bracelet on one of its tendrils.
I check out the rocks and lizards sunbathing and sigh a bit more ‘So far Helioptile is my best option.’ I move around to the scattered trees with Spinaraks and Metapods on them. I circle the tree and notice something odd, a gray blur speeding across the Metapods leaving each one shining and polished. I quickly blurt out “Status” and manage to get the status screen of the pokemon.
Minccino
- Attack: C/S-
- Defense: F/B-
- Special attack: E-/B+
- Special Defense: F+/C+
- Speed: B+/S+
- Luck: A-/A-
- Reactions: C+/S++
- Intelligence: B/A+
- Overall: A well of untapped potential, his speed and reaction potential are more than enough to explain why he will become strong. If molded properly this could be a Champion level Pokémon.
If I had a drink I probably would of spit it out, ‘Minccino…which pokemon is that?’ I try to recall any information I had on it, ‘Right it’s that one pokemon that always cleans stuff, right?’ Looking at the Metapod I think I’m right. I look around trying to look for the Mincinno, I start to circle the tree and see a gray tail go up further into the leaves. I take a look at the tree and then start to stretch. ‘I hope the Metapod don’t mind being stepped on.’
I take a testing step on a Metapod and find that they’re a sturdy foothold, and they also don’t seem to mind and use harden to just ignore me. But as I climb up them I apologize each time I move to a new Metapod. ‘Christ is this tree tall or am I just short’ My new body makes climbing up this tree extremely hard, after climbing for a bit I feel exhausted ‘Note to self, work out more.’
I try to climb up high but my limbs feel like they're on fire, alright screw this. “Hey, Minncino!” I yell up the tree and flop down to the ground only to discover I barely managed to climb up the tree at all. The light gray chinchilla pops his head out from the leaves with a confused look. I motion for him to come towards me and he tilts his head in confusion, much like a dog weirdly enough. Minccino climbs down the tree and walks up to me with a hint of caution.
I bend down to somewhat meet eye contact with Minncino, “Hello, I’m Elliot” I say while offering my hand for a handshake, to my surprise Minccino actually knew what it was and placed his paws on my hand and shook it. “Min,” He says equal parts confused and curious.
I take my hand away from his paw and prepare to ask him the question “So Minccino, would you like to challenge the league with me?” As I say that I examine Minccino, to make sure he has no jewelry or anything on, luckily he does not. Minccino shoots me another confused look, that says “Why me?” I go crisscross on the ground and begin to speak.
“Well, I have a good eye for talent, and you, my good sir, are talented,” I say somewhat nervously with added flair. “If you want to challenge the league then please do join me.” I continue with a small smile on my face as I pull out the Pokeball, I set it on the ground and wait for Minccino’s response.
A few seconds pass and my anxiety is shooting through the roof, but I keep a calm face. Eventually, Minccino walks slowly to the Pokeball and taps the button, disappearing into a ray of red light that condenses into a small ball inside of the pokeball. It wiggles for a bit then stops with a tiny Click sound. A smile treads up my face and I lift up the pokeball my smile growing even wider, “Yes!” I shout while pumping my hands in the air.
I tap the button on the pokeball again and let Minccino back out, he comes out and shakes his fur a bit. Suddenly he races up my back and situates himself on my shoulder with his tail wrapped halfway around my neck like a scarf. I scratch his head a bit, and once I’m done he pats his fur back neatly into place then looks at my hair with determined eyes. ‘Good luck with that pal.’ I say with an internal chuckle. I say status once more and check out Minccino’s stats once more.
[Congratulations, with your first Pokemon, captured the system will now show you, your companion’s moves!]
‘Sweet, now I won’t need to test to figure out his moves!’
Minccino
- Attack: C/S-
- Defense: F/B-
- Special attack: E-/B+
- Special Defense: F+/C+
- Speed: B+/S+
- Luck: A-/A-
- Reactions: C+/S++
- Intelligence: B/A+
- Overall: A well of untapped potential, his speed and reaction potential are more than enough to explain why he will become strong. If molded properly this could be a Champion level Pokémon.
Moves: Baby Doll Eyes, Pound, Helping hand, Echoed Voice, Aqua Tail (Egg Move), Thunder Wave (Taught by TM)
My eyes scan the screen and two moves make my eyebrows raise the first being Aqua Tail ‘This’ll be very useful.’ and the second being Thunder Wave ‘Taught by TM huh, did Minccino have a trainer before me or did he stumble onto a TM?’ I wave away whatever thoughts I was thinking and make my way back to the Caretaker, who was now taking a nap on her chair. I gently nudge her and she shoots back up to her feet.
“Huh, who, where? Oh, finally found your starter?” She says eyes drowsy, I give her a nod and then point to Minccino who is currently trying his hardest to tame the jungle that is my hair. She shoots me a questioning glance but then shrugs and pulls out a tablet. She hands it to me and tells me to sign at the bottom, I glance through the conditions ‘Mostly just promises to not misuse or mistreat pokemon and the punishments you will receive if you do.’ I sign it with a sloppy signature and return it to her.
She nods to herself then opens back up the door and says “Really took your time huh, it’s almost night now” My eyes widen as I look back to the field and notice the sun starting to set ‘God, my time perception is the worst, I thought it’d been like an hour tops.’
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This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
I make my way back to the Pokecenter silently giggling at the frustrated stomps from Minccino on my shoulders as he struggles to make my hair even somewhat neat. The glass doors slide open and I find my way into the Pokecenter, Nurse Joy standing behind the counter messing around with a laptop. She looks up and was about to wave until she noticed Minccino on my shoulder.
“Hey Nurse Joy, look what I got!” I say with nothing but pure glee in my voice. She looks at me a bit confused. “Minccino?” Says Minccino as he stops messing with my hair a bit to look at Nurse Joy.
“A Minccino, huh?” She says with an inquisitive glance at my new pokemon. “You are challenging the gyms, right? Minccino isn’t exactly a fighting pokemon…” She says clearly not meaning to be mean, more so intrigued. Though Minccino shrinks a bit at the comment, clearly a bit self-conscious about that fact.
“Maybe other people’s Minccinos” A confident grin creeps across my face “But, my Minccino is clearly superior to theirs!” I say with absolute confidence, after all my Minccino is superior to theirs, or will be at least. Joy shoots me a questioning hum, then grows her smile across her face. “How about a battle then.” She says while tapping the counter, “You’ve got me intrigued, so let’s have a quick spar.”
I gulp a bit, ‘Relax, just a spar. She won’t go all out will she?’ I shudder at the memory of Espeon. I shake the negative thoughts out and try to look as confident as I could be “You’re on” I say with a mischievous smile crossing my lips.
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Turns out that the check-up room was, in fact, a battleground. The cabinets and table get covered by a false wall that popped out of the ground. I stop gawking at the walls popping around the room and look at Nurse Joy, she has a casual and kind smile on her face ‘That makes her even scarier’ I stiffen my worries and look at Minccino who seems to share my worries.
I pat his head and tell him “You’ve got this, Bud!” Joy motions me to put Mincinno into his pokeball I nod back and take the ball off of my belt and tap it against Minccino’s head. I turn back to Joy who’s now holding a pokeball with a small white plus sticker on the top. I know which pokeball that is and am filled with relief, it’s Chansey’s ‘Okay, still strong, but less so than Espeon’
Nurse Joy starts to count down from five when she reaches one we both toss our pokeballs onto the field, tapping on my belt to recall the now empty pokeball. Minccino pops onto the field with a meek squeal while shaking his fur, Chansey pops out with no noise just her small grin. ‘God, am I just being overly nervous because that was horrifying.’
The pink-haired Nurse immediately shouts out her order “Pound!” with a wave of her hand Chasey’s nubby hand flies towards Minccino, I quickly order in return “Dodge!” To my surprise, Minccino does just that, ‘Okay, you’ve got this Eli!’ I quietly murmur “Status”
Chansey
- Attack: E/C
- Defense: B/A+
- Special attack: F/B-
- Special Defense: C/B+
- Speed: E/C+
- Luck: C+/C+
- Reactions: B/A-
- Intelligence: A/A
- Overall: This Chansey is a very intelligent and bulky Pokémon, due to her medical training she has good situational awareness and can remain calm under pressure. However, she is not a good fighter, being the partner of Nurse Joy fits her to a tee. However, she could also work as a defensive wall for a team.
Her two weakest aspects are attacking and speed something we have in strides! “Mincinno hit and run using pound!” Mincinno starts to bounce across the field in a blur of gray, hitting Chansey with his tail and then backing away. ‘A battle of attrition, Chansey is a wall so let’s try to chip her down!’ This goes on for a bit until during one attack Joy shouts something “Trip Minccino up with Grass Knot!” A bundle of grass pops out of the battlefield “Quick, Dodge!” But it was too late Minccino tripped over the grass, his own momentum causing more damage than the attack.
Chansey starts to waddle towards him, panicking I shout “Echoed Voice!” An ear-piercing scream makes me cover my ears, startling Chansey enough so that Mincinno can get back up. ‘Great!’ I look at Minccino who looks a bit scraped up but otherwise fine. Then I turn to Nurse Joy who seems to barely emote, just smiling. “Minccino, back to hit and run!” And he does just that, this time being careful not to trip.
But Chansey doesn’t let him do this as Joy yells “Catch him with Strength!” My eyes widen as Chansey seems to get a burst of strength catching Minccino by his tail. ‘Shit!’ Minccino tries to wiggle out but Chansey has him trapped. “Use Aqua Tail to get out!” Joy’s eyes widen ever so slightly to that command. Water starts to wrap around Minccino’s tail forming a small whirlpool wrapped around the tail, making Chansey’s grip slip freeing Minccino.
“That’s enough!” Joy says with a peppy yell, returning Chansey. I sigh and go over to Minccino, he’s a bit scrapped up and bruised really bad on his tail. Minccino starts to groom himself as I return him to the pokeball.
“Well, that was impressive.” She says with a small clap “I didn’t know Minccino could learn Aqua Tail.” She says while shooting me a questioning glance.
I scratch my neck and respond “It’s an egg move, so normal Minccino can’t learn it.” I place the pokeball onto my belt with a magnetic clink. Nurse Joy hums with intrigue, “Your commands were pretty good as well.” I think back to the battle and realize that I could’ve used Thunder Wave to paralyze Chansey. ‘That pink beast looked barely phased by any of our attacks.’
“Meh, I could’ve done better,” I say with a shrug, Nurse Joy pats me on my shoulder and says “You did great, don’t be hard on yourself” She then motions for me to go back outside to the healing machine. I place Minccino’s ball in it and Joy doesn’t bother to put Chansey’s ball in the machine. ‘Kinda frustrating…Ah, whatever.’ I shake off any bad thoughts from my head and listen to the little song the healing machine places while healing.
I let Minccino out of the ball, now fully healed, and he starts to groom himself once more. “The hit and run idea was okay, but for an endurance beast like Chansey, that would just eventually lead to your downfall,” She says in a teacher-like lecture. I hum in intrigue, and she continues “Starting tomorrow we’ll train up Minccino for your journey.” She then starts to mumble about what type of feed to give Minccino and starts to get lost in thought ‘Man isn’t that a mood.’
I leave her to her musings as she goes back into the check-up room/battlefield. I wait for Minccino to finish meticulously cleaning up his fur before motioning for him to climb up onto my shoulder. He does so and I walk back to my room, and Minccino starts to clean up everything in the room, dusting off dust and looking at the plates piled up in the sink. I chuckle a bit and decide to help him, cleaning up the tableware.
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The next five days were much of the same, training with Minncino, spars against Chansey, and researching the Pokémon gyms. The gym circuit is positioned in an almost perfect circle around the Olamin region. While looking at the map of Olamin, I was shocked by how the whole region was vaguely shaped like a seahorse. Two peninsulas on the top and bottom form an S shape with a third one forming the tube mouth…thing.
I suppose it now makes sense why the Olamin region sees the Horsea line as sacred Pokémon. Though the Horseas here are a bit different from everywhere else, a regional variant that made the Seahorse Pokémon into a flying type, its dorsal fins splitting into two light blue wings, feathers that molt as the Pokémon evolves to Kingdra a Dragon Flying type with more draconic wings with sharp talons on the end, transforming from a light blue scale color to a deep purple with an orange belly. Olaman Kingdras use their wings like legs when they’re not flying, the wings being strong enough to hold their weight. From clips of them fighting it seems like they use their talons like spears, moving fast and using their mouth like a jet to make sharp turns.
I don’t know what Seadra looks like, and I really only know this because the Champion of Olamin, Kendrick Powell, his ace is an Olaman Kingdra. I look up from my Arc-Phone to see Minccino sweeping the floors that he’s already swept twice today. Today is the day I go to Mopeli, leaving behind Maple’s Burrow to start my journey, while Mopeli does have a gym its leader is notorious for not going easy, even on newbies. I get up and look at my backpack, a huge hiking bag with a sleeping bag rolled up on top of it held in place by two straps. I stuffed about everything I have into it, including the Growlithe Statuette, though I did that after editing its radius a bit to a few feet around it. ‘Even that made me tired…’
I put the backpack on my back and motion for Minccino to hop onto my shoulder, and after a quick last sweep, he does that, climbing up my back over the baggage and to his spot. I tussle his fur, much to his displeasure, and head out of my room for what may be the last time. As Minccino combs down his fur and resists the urge to try and tackle the immovable fortress of my hair I start my walk to the counter.
There I greet Nurse Joy, A melancholic smile plastered across her face. Chansey and Espeon, who seem to be her only pokemon, are outside of their pokeballs, Chansey seems much more emotional than Espeon who just lazily licks her paw. I take a breath and prepare to say my goodbyes. “Welp, this is it.” I pause for a bit, filled with a unique feeling, excitement and sadness mix into a feeling unknown to me. “Thank you for taking care of me these past weeks!” I say with as much excitement I can muster.
Nurse Joy steps out from the counter and looks at me, her expression tells me she’s also feeling something similar to me. She goes to ruffle my hair, but instead turns it into a hug, “Stay safe, okay Eli.” her hug is warm and new to me. She’s never used my nickname until now, emotions well up in my chest. “Yeah, I will.” I pause for a bit and hug back “See ya later, Cora.” She steps out of the hug and then ruffles my hair, upsetting Minccino just a bit.
I wave goodbye and then step out of the Pokecenter, the strange feeling wells up more. It’s not bad, in fact, it’s nice…hopeful even. I take a breath and then start my trek to Route 101, the only road going out of Maple’s Burrow.
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Route 101, was barely a road. The paved road soon faded the further we went into the route, moving to a beaten dirt path. I spot a few other paths merging into the route ‘Those lead to other towns’ A few young trainers come out from the paths, looking nervous. I try to recount how many pokeballs I have on me, there’s only one on my belt, Minccino’s, and five in my jacket’s pocket enough for one team. ‘Can’t believe these things are 200 bucks, had to use up a whole lot of money on them.’ I sigh in the recollection of handing my money over to the person who sold me the pokeballs, a small stand funded by Pokemart.
I look at my fellow new trainers, of varying ages though usually twelve to fourteen, a few are battling each other or trying to catch a new pokemon. I ignore them for the most part, as I just want to get to Mepoli and attend the ceremony ‘Heard you get a free potion just for attending, once again Cora saved my ass by buying the camping gear for me.’ My eye catches on a trainer with auburn hair in a small rat tail. ‘Hold up, that’s that one guy!’
I look at the boy, who is currently battling another trainer. His Torchic fighting against a Sneasel, ‘That poor…Weasel?’ I mumble under my breath while staring at the Torchic “Status.”
Torchic
- Attack: C-/S
- Defense: E/B
- Special attack: E+/A
- Special Defense: E/A
- Speed: C+/S+
- Luck: B+/B+
- Reactions: C+/S
- Intelligence: E+/B-
- Overall: This Pokémon is destined to become a champion-level Pokémon. Not a single one of his potential is below B-. Since he is already owned please do try to help the owner truly bring out his full potential.
My eyes nearly budge out of my skull, ‘Holy, that Torchic has some extreme potential!’ He’s well-rounded, with not a single stat below B-, while his stats are a bit below us now I have no doubt that this Torchic will become a huge contender for the champion spot. I decide not to talk to the boy, after all, I want to travel alone so that way the weird “Edit” app doesn’t draw attention when I use it. Though I’ll keep an eye on him when I see him, if I feel like he’s not training Torchic adequately then I’ll help him out.
I turn back to the road and talk to Minccino “Sorry Min, I’m going to put you back into the pokeball for a bit. I’m gonna start running, don’t worry I’ll let you out soon.” Minccino gives me a grumpy squeak but resigns to go into the Pokeball. I start for a bit and start to race towards Mepoli.
After a few minutes of running, I start to breathe heavily, ‘Come on! Push through this a great exercise!’ After a few more seconds I have to stop, I manage to get much further though. The road is started to get paved again, I sit down and heave on the floor for a bit and pull out a water bottle from my bag. “Phew, alright let’s let Minccino out.” I tap his pokeball and out he goes. Shaking then grooming his fur. I watch him for a bit, chuckling slightly as he started to sweep the road. After enough rest, Minccino hops onto his perch and I continue to walk.
“You know Minccino, I really should’ve exercised before starting this.” I say after a half hour of walking, Minccino says “Min” Then shrugs and sighs. I rustle his fur in retaliation for the sass and he goes to comb it back down. After a few more minutes I finally see a sign, a cityscape is plastered on it, it reads “Welcome to Mepoli City!” then just below that is “Population 23,082.” Is that the size of a city? This is something I also noticed, there are a lot fewer people in this world than in my world.
After a short trek up a small hill, I finally spot Mepoli City, the view of its various tall buildings and a singular skyscraper. The most intricate building is a stadium with a giant pokeball logo on it ‘That’s the gym, and also where I’ve got to go.’ I make my way downhill through a small checkpoint, two police officers talk as I walk through the air-conditioned hallway. Stopping for a bit to soak in the coolness, finally I step through the sliding glass door into the city of Mepoli.