Pokemon: Pogeymanz Version

Aaron's alarm sounded throughout his room as he shuffled within the covers and sheets of his bed, struggling to find the snooze button with his head face down upon his pillow. Finally finding the button he was searching for, Aaron suddenly went still and grew comfortable once again.

. . . Ring ring . . . Ring ring . . .

Reluctantly, Aaron crawled out of his bed and wandered towards his closet, swinging the door open a few seconds after it was in reach. He then quickly jabbed his hand into the mess of clothes and pulled out his favorite orange undershirt, a pair of nice, denim jeans, and his favorite black jacket. Beginning to wake up, Aaron began to dress faster and faster as he lethargically began to recall what today was. It was the day he and Caroline would set off on their grand adventure across the region.

Hastily trotting down his warm home's stairs and into the kitchen, he quickly took the piece of buttered toast his mother had prepared for him before his awakening. Shouting into his mother's room, which was adjacent to the kitchen, he said his goodbyes, hoisted his pack upon his back, and walked out the front door with a rapt feeling in his step. A sudden breeze of fresh, autumn air then took over his body with a delightfully soothing feeling. He gazed up at the reddish leaves and trees that were dotted throughout the small, unpopulated, yet somewhat prosperous town. He would definitely miss the place, but he was finally able to go on the journey he had always wished to go on.

Suddenly, footsteps could be heard in the far off forest, yet, the echoes were closer than they seemed when a petite and ecstatic girl suddenly embraced Aaron in a hug from behind. Startled, he turned around to face his town friend, Caroline. "How ya doing today, Aaron!" She said, releasing the clasp she had around Aaron's torso.

"Oh.. Um, I'm fine. How about yourself?" Aaron responded, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. He couldn't believe that he had been jumped by a little farm girl like that.

"Come on! We need to put a little spring in our step if we want to make it to the professor's lab in time!" She gestured a forward motion with her hand and began to run towards the laboratory, which could be seen in the background if tree's didn't block your view.

"Yeah... Right." He shyly chuckled as he caught up with Caroline.

Ring ring ring! Ring ring ri-

The sound of an alarm clock was cut off as a hand reached out from the covers of the messy bed and tapped a button on the clock, setting the alarm to 'snooze.' The large covers were wrapped around the girl who was sleeping atop the mattress. It had been her hand that had reached out to turn off the alarm. Her hand eventually retreated back under the sheets and the girl dozed off once more.

Her name was Selena. A young, intelligent woman who hated waking up every morning. Her silky brown hair was scattered about her pillow, a now serene expression upon her face. She wore a nightgown, concealed by the bed sheets, and a creature seemed to be sleeping at the end of her bed. The creature looked feline, and had a long tail that split into two ends. The oddest thing about the creature was it's pink fur and a red crystal that sat on the feline's forehead.

Eventually, Selena pushed the covers off of herself, revealing her light pink nightgown. She carefully sat up, so as to not wake up the sleeping cat-like creature, and slipped her feet into a pair of fuzzy slippers. Selena slowly rose from her bed, yawning and stretching her arms out. Selena never considered herself to be tall, but in actuality, she was taller than a lot of people, including her father, who was away at the moment. Her mother was a little taller than Selena was, however. Selena's mother, a fantastic woman and a great breeder, stayed home to watch Selena and the house while her husband was out doing fieldwork for a professor in another continent. Selena didn't mind the absence of her father, for today was a special day.

Selena looked over at the feline creature, who was still sleeping at the edge of her bed. Sighing, Selena tapped the creature's ear once, and said, "Espeon, time to get up sweetie."

The creature, Espeon, opened an eye and stared up at Selena with a slightly grumpy look. When Selena didn't move, Espeon closed it's eyes and began to stretch, yawning just as Selena had done moments ago.

A knock on the door tore Selena's eyes away from Espeon and towards the unwelcome sound. A feminine voice then came from the outside, muffled by the wooden door. "Selena, are you awake?" It called.

"Yes mom. I'm up, Espeon is too," Selena replied, walking over to the door and opening it to reveal her dear, sweet mother. Espeon quickly hit the floor and dashed out of the room, smelling something all animals love. Food. Even Selena was sniffing the air, her eyes closed. "Wow mom, what are you cooking?" She asked, a dreamy expression on her face. Selena's mother just smiled at her daughter and took a few steps out, allowing Selena to come out of her room.

"Breakfast will be ready after you are," The older woman said, gesturing towards the bathroom. Selena rolled her eyes and took the woman's advice.

After a nice, hot shower, Selena prepared herself for the day. In truth, she hadn't packed up nearly as much as she should have the day before. She had figured that it wouldn't take very long anyway, so it could be done in the morning. Nonetheless, Selena grimaced at the amount of items she was allowed to carry with her. Not to mention that packing would have to wait until her hair didn't look like a water park. Selena glumly began preparing herself for the day.

"Need some help?" Asked a quiet, masculine voice from outside. The door had been open since Selena dressed herself, but she didn't expect anyone to come in yet. She looked over at the voice and saw her friend, Jake. Jake had come from a rich family of scientists. However, he did not particularly like the way his parents were forcing him to do stuff, so he ran away from home, eventually coming here to Foratia Village, where he and Selena met.

"No, I can handle everything," Selena said, returning to her hair, "Just go downstairs and wait for me there. Mom has breakfast cooking now, so I hope you're hungry." Jake didn't say anything, he only nodded and walked out of Selena's room, calmly heading towards the fabulous scent in the air.

Selena, once Jake had left, shook her head from side to side, causing her hair to fly out. She quickly picked up her hairdrier and proceeded to...well, dry her hair. In the process, she used her available hand to straighten her shirt and jeans, pick up her necklace and skillfully place it around her neck and strap it together. Selena was holding a small band in her mouth by the time she turned off the hairdrier and placed that down. She grabbed her long brown hair and flipped it a few times, twisting and wrapping it up until it came to be a bun. She took the band out of her mouth and used it to keep the bun in place, making sure that a few strands of hair were allowed to drop out of the bun.

Espeon then snuck into her room, peering at the human as she did her business. The feline creature, more formally known as a Pokemon, quietly jumped back up on Selena's bed and curled up on the pillow. Selena gave Espeon a look, to which the pokemon ignored almost completely, her eyes shut. With a heavy sigh, Selena grabbed her pack and laid it down on her bed, beginning to grab items from her drawers and shove them into certain pockets. Her hands hesitated over a small, brown case. This case was actually her supplies for artwork. She didn't draw elaborate paintings for money, she just liked to draw and paint for the fun of it. One such painting was hanging on her wall, a very cute picture of two grass pokemon huddled together under the setting sun. Selena smiled at the picture and stuffed the art case into her bag. She shouldered the pack and began to head downstairs, leaving the door open for Espeon.

"Hey mom, is breakfast ready?" Selena asked, placing her bag down on the counter and looking around for the food. A plate of mixed edibles appeared in front of her and her face broke out into a huge grin. Her mother really knew how to make a 'good-bye' breakfast. Fried eggs topped with pepper and a small sprinkle of salt combined with two curved pieces of bagon just south of the two eggs, as well as a flat sausage patty in the middle with a droplet of ketchup on it. It looked like a smiling face.

"I hope you like it. Jake already ate," Selena's mother said kindly, turning towards the dirty dishes and beginning to clean them. Selena looked over at Jake, who had just finished and was now dabbing his mouth with a napkin. He looked over at Selena and blinked at her, who in turn, blinked back.

Selena then looked down at the face and frowned. "I really hate to kill your faces mom, but this has to happen," She stabbed a fork into one of the eggs and began to cut it, a yellow liquid slowly oozing out of it.

After what seemed like ages, Selena and Jake were headed out the door, their stomachs full and their faces bright and cheery. It was time to set off on their journey towards the laboratory of the Pokemon Professor. There they would meet up with a few other people, and begin their quests as Pokemon trainers.

Approaching what seemed to be a fork in the road, Aaron kneeled down onto the ground, removed his pack from his back, and shuffled through it. An embarrassed look spread across his face as he turned back to Caroline.

"So?" Caroline tapped her foot impatiently, knowing what had happened before he even told her, "Is it not there?"

"Well, about that..." He scratched the back of his head nervously as he continued to scuffle through his bag unsuccessfully. Now becoming so frantic, he then took his entire bag, tipped it over, and dumped everything out of it. Searching through the pile of miscellaneous junk that had been poured onto the dirt, Caroline continued to wait without patience.

"Is it not there?" She repeated as she approached Aaron, throwing dust into the air with her raging feet, "Is it not there, Aaron?!"

"... No." He sighed, beginning to pick up the mess that he had created.

"What?" Caroline stared blankly at the pile of junk, "You mean you forgot the map?" Her brow tensed, clearly showing her anger.

"Yeah..." Aaron nervously responded to the angry, petite girl behind him.

"You're so silly!" She suddenly tackled the kneeling boy and dragged him onto the ground, "Now get picking!" She pointed at Aaron's empty bag and let out a cute, high pitched laugh.

"You mean you don't care?"

"About what?"

Aaron scratched the back of his head, "You know, the map?"

"What map?"

"The map to the professor's lab."

"What about it?"

Unable to tell if Caroline's forgetfulness was just a poor joke or true amnesia, Aaron shrugged and began to pick up the mess that he had created. Caroline, on the other hand, happily skipped off towards a nearby tree. Tilting her head in curiosity, she took her foot, swung it back, and lunged it into the tree. The large oak shook tremendously as a Pineco fell from the tree branches and plopped onto the moist dirt in front of Caroline's feet. "Don't touch that thing." Aaron responded, eyes still fixed upon the mess as he continued to clean.

"Fine." Caroline frowned, crossed her arms, gently kicked the Pineco out of her way, and sat beneath the branches of the tree, shading herself with its large shadow. "Hey Aaron, do you know if there'll be some other folks we'll be traveling with?"

"Not sure." Aaron shrugged, "But to be honest with you, I hope not." He sighed at the thought of traveling with other people that he had little to no knowledge of.

"Why not?! Traveling with lots and lots of people is fun!" Caroline fixed her vision upon Aaron.

"Not to me it isn't." And without another word, Aaron finished picking up his bag and stood back up. Taking a quick look in both directions, he began to walk down the leftmost path, "Now lets get going."

Ignoring Aaron's complete guess of directions, Caroline stood up with rapture and happily responded, "Okay!"

"So...is it this way, or that way?" Selena muttered to herself, her eyes laid upon the map she was holding out in front of her. By now, she had gotten used to the weight of her backpack, and hardly noticed it any more. She was looking at a rather detailed illustration of the land that she and Jack had to travel. Selena's finger was pointed to their general location. They were in the city just before Carindite, they were relatively close for only being on the road for a few days.

"Oh! So that leads there, and this leads there!" Selena exclaimed suddenly, attracting an odd look from Jake. She peeked over at him and stuck out her tongue. "I know where we are."

"Fantastic." Was all Jake said before looking in the other direction.

Selena shrugged and began to exit the city, not caring if Jake followed her or not. To be completely honest with herself, she didn't mind the presence of others, but travelling alone was just as appealing to her. The concept of travelling with multiple people wasn't far enough away for her to not understand. Selena, being a dynamic person, could find fun on her own just as well as she could with other people.

"What do you think Jake?" Selena asked the boy walking behind her, "Which would you prefer, travelling in a group, or by yourself?"

Jake was silent for quite some time. He hadn't really given it a lot of thought, because he, like Selena, didn't mind the presence of others, nor did he care if they were even there. Jake looked up for a bit, still contemplating his thoughts, then turned his attention to Selena's question.

"I wouldn't mind travelling in a group or alone," he said. Selena nodded to show her agreement with his statement.

"I was also thinking about our starting pokemon. What kind do you think you want?" Selena posed another question for Jake to consider. She seemed to have a knack of picking out questions he never bothered to think about on his own time, and would then be forced to think about them in order to answer the crazy girl. Selena saw him attempting to make up his mind and decided to stall time for him, "I've always liked grass pokemon, so I think I'll go with one of them. We have a wide variety to chose from, more so than those guys in the past, that's for sure."

"It's a tradition that has been held up for quite a few decades," Jake commented, "They decided to add a wider variety because of the popularity certain types of pokemon received. The professors decided to build up enough funds to allow this change to take place. Not to mention their appeal to the Pokemon League. It was such a unique idea, the Pokemon League might have found it to be an interesting turn of events. Not to mention it would benefit the Pokemon League by increasing their own popularity with this decision."

"Uh..." Selena blinked a few times, then laughed nervously, "Yeah! Right. So what type of pokemon do you want?"

"I want to go with a fighting-type. They've always had a unique trait that I admire." Jake answered plainly.

"So..." Aaron blandly tried to start up a conversation as he looked over at Caroline, who was overcome with boredom, "What type of Pokemon do you plan on picking up at the lab?" He scratched the back of his head as he looked at the path ahead; luckily, it seemed like Caroline and he were going the right way.

"The cute type." She quickly responded and looked up into the sky, "But it has to fly." She added a little bit of a skip into her step and looked over at Aaron. "D'you know why it has'ta be able to fly?"

"To be honest... No-" He stumbled over a rock, clumsily regaining his balance shortly after, "-No, I don't."

"Well you see..." She continued to daze off into the sky, walking backwards in front of Aaron. "Cute Pokemon are so adorable when they have wings!" She flailed her arms up and down with glee, "And when they try to fly, but just fall to the ground! It's so sad, but it's really, really, really cute!"

"Uh... I see." Aaron stared at the girl, amazed by the way she acted, "Go on. I'm interested."

"Oh, okay!" Caroline smiled, linked her hands together and laid them on her back, and leaned towards Aaron; all while walking backwards, "But, when they finally learn to fly, a huuuuuge feeling of joy comes across you and the little bird! It's so cute!"

"I see..."

"And when they get really, really good, sometimes they even-"

"Look! It's the lab!" Aaron exclaimed and pointed at the small, wooden building about 30 meters away from the duo, "I guess it's time to see if we truly are traveling with another pair."

"Yeah, lets go!" Caroline dropped her previous conversation immediately, turned around, and sprinted off towards the small, unwelcoming building. As she reached the front wall of the lab, she ecstatically kicked it and shouted towards Aaron. "Hurry! Hurry! I wanna go inside!"

"H-Hey! Don't do that! You might break it-... Um... I mean... No, just stop it! You'll damage the building!" He frantically ran after the girl, attempting to restrain her.

"And what trait would that be?" Selena asked, looking up at Jake. Jake looked back down at her, as if she was wrong about something. Selena paused for a second, then realized, "Oh, me first I guess."

"Obviously." Jake replied, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

"Oh look! There's the lab!" Selena suddenly exclaimed, grabbing Jake's hand and running over to the lab, dragging him with her in the process. "Come on, come on, come on!" Selena shouted rapidly, attempting to drag a body that was much heavier than her to the lab. Jake simply continued at his normal walking pace, overpowering Selena by quite a lot. Selena stopped trying to drag him, frowning. "Fine!" She said, running towards the lab.

Once Jake was inside, he already found out that there were two others there. Selena had already gone ahead and pretty much shoved herself in their faces with an introduction, and her favorite game, "10,000 Questions." The male there didn't look very happy, at the moment, he actually looked rather nervous. With a sigh, Jake walked over and picked Selena up, throwing her onto his shoulder, despite her many protests.

"Sorry about her, she can't contain herself half the time. You'll get used to it." Jake said to the boy, "I'm Jake, by the way." He said, sticking out a hand for the other boy to shake.

"Oh... Hello. My name is Aaron and this is-" The blond, timid boy responded to the other male. When he attempted to shake hands with Jake, Caroline abruptly jumped onto Aaron's back and pushed him out of the way.

"I'm Caroline! Nice ta meet'cha!" The peppy girl shouted at the male, even though she was only a foot or so away from his face, which probably made him slightly uncomfortable.

"Um... I guess you're the two we're traveling with?" Aaron regained his balance and walked back over to the others. While he waited for a response, he looked around the laboratory only to find heaps of trash littered around the room. There were a few, ripped up cardboard boxes here and there with more "trash" inside of them, but definitely nothing interesting. The lights were barely working, the pale wallpaper was peeling, and the floorboards would squeak and rumble whenever anyone would pass over them.

"Boy, this place sure is a dump, huh?" Caroline shouted as she ripped up one of the floorboards, revealing a pairing of Rattata that quickly scurried out of the floorboard and out onto the floor. Looking back at the humans only for a second, the Pokemon then ran off into the depths of the lab.

"It's infected with rats too? Great." Aaron murmured.

"Ew." Selena commented, looking down at the rats. The only reason she wasn't freaking out, was because she knew that they couldn't reach her unless they climbed Jake's body. And Jake wasn't one to let animals crawl all over his body. Selena paused for a minute or two, hearing sounds from the other side of Jake's body. She was getting slightly impatient, but nothing she did caught Jake's attention. "Let me down, damn it!"

"No." Jake finally replied, but he let her down anyway. Selena immediately twirled around, managing to whip her hair up into Jake's face with the fast motion.

"Anyway, my name's Selena!" She said cheerfully. "This place really is quite the dump, I wonder where the professor is. I wanna get this thing moving!"

"It looks like you four have already been introduced to each other, that saves me some time." An elderly, flat voice with little emotion echoed throughout the darkness of the laboratory. A figure concealed mostly by a lab coat emerged from the shadows of the lab, and with his entry, the lights of the laboratory illuminated. "My name is Professor Regemond Cypress. Call me what you like, I have no preference." The man's figure was a rather fragile one. His back was severely damaged, forcing him to waddle around the laboratory in a comedic manner whenever he wished to move. His face was ridden with wrinkles and tufts of scraggy, white hair protruded from his balding scalp. "Allow me to get your equipment..." He mumbled, receding back into the corner of his laboratory, which was covered in various boxes of different sizes.

"I can help ya!" Caroline blurted and ran toward the man with an ecstatic smile spread across her face. Lifting the box the man was bending down for, she happily skipped back toward the group with it. The contents of the box rattled dangerously as she flailed it around the room, "I wonder what's inside!?"

"Ah... If you wanted to take the box, I guess I didn't really have to move, did I?" He sighed, chuckling slightly. "Within the box, you'll find a newer model of Professor Oak's Pokedex... Four or five, I think."

Giggling with hyperactive joy, Caroline ripped the box open and pulled out one of the red devices. It looked rather similar to Oak's original model, in fact, it was completely identical. "Hmmmmm~? What's different about this one?!" She commented, fiddling with the controls on the Pokedex.

"They've been updated to include various different regions of Pokemon, young lass." He coughed, "Kanto. Johto. Hoenn. Sinnoh. Unova. All different types can be found here in Crysandia."

"Ooh, how wonderful!" Caroline commented, swooned with awe.

"You can also find a few Pokeballs in that box near the bottom. Twenty of them, I thin-"

"Five for each of us!" Caroline shouted, jumping up and down with joy.

"Yes. Now, if you'd follow me to the back of the laboratory, I can show you the Pokemon that I have available."

"Okaaaay," Selena said, looking down at the green pokedex in her hands. Jake had picked up a black one himself, and Selena was judging him harshly out of the corner of her eye. She watched the elderly professor waddle into the back room. They were supposed to follow this old man, apparently, to receive their first pokemon. How amusing. Selena had something else in mind, and Jake did as well, apparently.

"So Selena," Jake said, his head dangerously close to her ear, making her jump slightly. "You never told me what kinds of pokemon you like, so let's hear it before we move on, hm?" Jake asked, quickly getting out of the way before Selena's hair whiplashed around to smack his face again.

"Nope, that's for me to know and for you to find out!" Selena responded, rather happily. She giggled and grabbed Jake's arm, pulling him in front of the group, quickly releasing him and beginning to push him forward. "Now let's go get our pokemon! Come on Caroline, Aaron!" Selena said excitedly, continuing to push Jake into the next room.

The next room was just as cluttered as the one before it. The old man, Professor Regemond Cypress, was still slowly waddling over to the center of the room, which seemed quite easy to locate. It was the only area that didn't have some box or mechanical garbage sitting within a few inches of each other. A few enlarged pokeballs sat on top of a small, metallic table along with other various instruments. Some of which looked rather sharp.

"Maybe we should refrain from letting you touch that table, hm?" Jake told Selena jokingly.

"Hey, I'm not a klutz, just happily eccentric," Selena snapped back, but she smiled anyway at his attempt at humor.

"So professor," Jake began, "which one holds what?"

"You see..." The professor shuffled over to the leftmost side of the table, placing his palm over a pokeball, "In this here container, we have the fire-type starter Pokemon from the Johto region, Cyndaquil. He's an eccentric little one, that's for sure." The professor huffed a deep chuckle, proceeding to tap the two pokeballs next to that one, "These two contain the other two starters from Johto, the grass-type Chikorita and the water-type Totodile."

Proceeding to the center of the table, the professor gestured toward six different pokeballs which appeared to be thrown astray across the table, "These are other Pokemon. None of them are useful to me for experimentation anymore. They aren't technically starter Pokemon either. I believe they contain a Yanma, Doduo, Clamperl, Joltik, Tyrogue, and some other Pokemon that I've forgotten." He smirked, "You may take one of these if you'd like to."

On the right side of the table, a small incubator stood. Within the container, a rather hefty egg lay still. "This here's a Pokemon egg-" He began, before being interrupted by Caroline's squeal of joy.

"Excuse me Mr. Professor, I would love to take that egg of yours!" She skipped up to the egg, happily rubbing the glass container of its incubator, "Can I please, please, please take it? I'll take good care of 'er and stuff!" She gazed deeply at the egg's shell, perplexed by the fanciful patterns sporadically arranged along it.

"Caroline, do you really think you can handle it? Eggs are a lot of responsibility." Aaron exclaimed, baffled by the idea of Caroline taking care of a helpless egg. She would eventually forget to feed it or keep it warm, it was just her personality. "Though I suppose you could if you think that you can... And if the professor approves..."

Ignoring Aaron's concern, Caroline proceeded to list the different characteristic's of the egg, happily babbling on about things that nobody truthfully cares about. "This is really neat! All of these differently colored triangles! There's a blue one... Oh, and there's a red one there too!"

"Hu hu hu..." The professor chuckled at Caroline's actions, "I suppose ye could take the old thing. I didn't want to really take care of it anyways!" Unleashing a sudden, hearty laugh, the professor waddled away from the right side of the table and toward the center, "Take what you like, kiddies."

"In that case, don't mind if I do." To everyone's surprise, Jake walked up to the container before Selena could and fished out a pokeball from it, containing something he hoped would interest him. "And let's see who the lucky winner is," Jake said, pointing the pokeball towards the ground. With a flash of light that immediately took form came a pinkish pokemon who's legs were much wider than the upper part of its body. It cried out to announce its presence.

"Tyrogue?" Jake looked down at the smaller pokemon, bending his knees to take a closer look. "Very well, you will be my new partner." Tyrogue looked up at Jake with a frown. It crossed its arms and seemed perturbed by the new face of Jake's. Jake offered a smile, but Tyrogue simply shifted its head away from him.

"Ooooh," Selena breathed in quickly, as if she were wincing, "Looks like you got shot down, Jakey." Selena reached into the box with the Johto starters and took out the pokeball that had been labeled as Chikorita. "I already have the perfect partner set in mind," Selena sang mockingly, pointing her pokeball at the ground. "Come on out!"

The pokeball showed an extreme lack of activity.

"What was that?" Jake asked, his eyes glinting mischievously up at Selena, "Did you say something about being rejected?" Selena glared at him.

"Well, it seems that grass pokemon are difficult to tame," Selena muttered, still holding onto the pokeball containing Chikorita.

"Oh no, Chikorita just likes to sleep a lot," the professor said in a droll tone. Selena gave a half-hearted smile in response.

"In that case, maybe I should let it sleep for a bit," Selena said, her eyes now glinting down at Jake, "It's better than being rejected, right?"

Jake frowned, looking back at Tyrogue, "Okay Tyrogue, I understand how you feel. We just met and you don't know if I'll be good to you. In that case, let me introduce myself first." Jake pointed to himself, bending down so that he was eye-level with Tyrogue, who seemed vaguely interested, one eye warily watching Jake's movements. "My name is Jake Grazim," Jake said, "It's an honor to meet you, Tyrogue, I hope we can be friends."

Selena looked over at Aaron, "You're up dude," she said, "Pick a cool one, 'kay?"

"Oh... Yeah..." Aaron mumbled, stumbling forward slightly as he took his position at the left side of the table, "Might as well stick with the traditions, I suppose..." His hand wavered over the two pokeballs, stuck within a state of vacillation, "... But... Which one should I choose?" Aaron had always been the indecisive one, but then again, you couldn't really blame him. With so many choices, it would take a lot of people a lot of time to choose.

"I'll go with Totodile." Aaron smiled, reaching out toward the pokeball, hand shaking slightly. Before he had the chance to firmly grasp the ball, it opened into a flurry of bright red lights, which then revealed a small, amphibious pokemon, Totodile. "Wait, did I call him out?! I didn't think I did... Professor?" Aaron's head turned frantically, unsure of what he was supposed to do.

"Oh no! Totodile's just an ecstatic little guy, that's all. I think his pokeball might be malfunctioning a little bit too..." The professor responded, a rather lax, yet dark tone in his voice.

"Should we get a new pokeball then?" Aaron suggested, attempting to pet his newly acquired ally. He failed miserably, though. Whenever he attempted to get close, the Totodile would clasp its maw down onto Aaron's hand, causing him to retreat.

"You'll be fine." The professor stated bluntly, turning to Caroline. "Would you like that egg, then?"

"Ah, yes I would, good professor!" The girl responded blissfully, knocking on the glass of the incubator. "Should we take the thing out of this fancy contraption, I think I'd be better if we did!"

"Take the machine too. It's no use to me anymore." The professor commented, eyes shifting away from the party of travelers, "Yes, take the machine too." His voice was raspy, as if attempting to hide some sort of secret from his visitors.

"Ah... Okay then..." Caroline squinted her eyes, fiddling with the cords on the back of the incubator, trying to separate it from the rest of the gadgets in the room, "Blue wire... No... Red? I think... Aha! Here we go!"

The machine made a slight clicking noise.

"I've got it!" Caroline held the incubator up into the air, a triumphant grin creeping its way across her visage.

"Be careful not to break the egg, Caroline." Aaron's worried composure not changing in the slightest, "Would it be okay if we take our leave now, professor?"

"But of course," Jake said to Aaron, returning Tyrogue to his pokeball and pocketing it. It had taken him a bit of convincing to get Tyrogue back in its pokeball. "It's not like there's any special mission for us to get done for the professor." Jake had no idea what had just crossed Selena's mind, but by the grin spreading across her lips, he could make a vague guess as to what it might be.

"I have an idea," Selena spoke up, "A mission for us all to complete. It's more of a contest, really."

"Here we go," Jake sighed loudly. Selena glared at him, but Jake continued on first, "I would prefer if we could go outside, the musty air in here is bad for my lungs."

"What are you, an old man?" Selena snapped, but she still understood where he was coming from. "We'll be taking our leave, professor." Selena told the old man, and then with the others left the building. Along the way, Selena spoke her mind about the contest that she had in mind. "Well, since we all have our first pokemon...well, Caroline has an egg, but the rest of us have pokemon. Since we all have pokemon now, let's see who's better than who. A battle, of course!"

"Caroline has an egg, she can't fight with that," Jake said flatly, looking at Selena with an expressionless face. Selena paused for a moment, attempting to think of some way to get around that.

"Well, Aaron can do battle, right?" Selena said, turning to face the boy with a smile. "What do you say, Aaron? Should we kick off our journey with a battle?"

"Hold on a moment, Selena," Jake said, pushing the younger girl aside, "You would have an advantage with Chikorita, my Tyrogue, however, would be a better match-up for Aaron's Totodile."

"Well," Selena pouted, "You don't have to be so pushy, jeez. Fine. Aaron, what do you say to a battle with Jake? I'll referee if you accept."

"Oh, okay." Aaron, caught off guard, jumped slightly after hearing the sudden offer, "Umm... Yeah, that sounds fun." A small smirk slowly grew onto his face at the idea of having his first Pokemon battle. "If we want to battle, we should probably move over into the fields. We may get in the way of travelers if we battle on the road." He pointed over toward a large, grassy plain that was directly off to the left of the road, behind the town to the west.

The trainers maneuvered off to the side of the road as suggested, Aaron and Jake taking their positions. Caroline and Selena were off to the side, prepared to watch the battle unfold. "This is so exciting, isn't it!? I can't wait to see Aaron try to win a Pokemon battle, it sounds so silly! He's not really much of a fighter though, but I guess that's okay. He may end up doing fine," Caroline bent down and placed the incubator on a nice lump of soft soil, tinkering with the mechanism, "but I dunno, he tends to get nervous in these situations and stuff." Caroline's mouth continued to run a mile a minute as she removed a small, iron rod from her handbag. Taking the rod, Caroline pried the lid of the incubator open, a large puff of steam cascading out of the mechanism. "Would you look at that! I got it open!!" The young girl cheered, removing her newly acquired egg from the machine and grasping it with her arms, brushing it up against her bosom.

"I'll guess we'll start now..." Aaron murmured, coaxing Totodile onto the field of battle. The creature had been out of its Pokeball since Aaron obtained it. It constantly gnawed against the boy's leg or his hand, but Aaron eventually grew used to the pain. "Come on, go onto the field. You can chew on my leg later." He calmly spoke, gently pushing the creature forward. The Totodile happily obliged, jumping up and down with joy at the idea of having a battle.

"Oh cool!" Selena said, happily watching Caroline open and retrieve the egg from the strange incubator. She leaned in closer to the egg to get a closer look, careful to keep her hands away from it. Selena may not be a klutz, but she didn't want to be the reason behind it falling or breaking accidentally. "These designs are really strange though, I wonder what kind of pokemon it will be." Selena wondered aloud.

"A Yanma," Jake guessed randomly, walking with Aaron to the opposite side of the field. "Selena, I thought you were going to referee?"

"Oh, right." Selena quickly got up again and skipped to the area where Jake and Aaron were, making sure to stay off on the side. "Okay, the rules are simple. Whoever knocks out the other pokemon first is the winner. I want to see a clean, fair fight between you two! It'll be Totodile and Aaron versus Tyrogue and Jake! Begin your battle now!" Selena announced, taking on the role of referee rather seriously for a simple field battle.

"Let's take this one step at a time, shall we?" Jake asked, taking out Tyrogue's pokeball. He had put the pokemon away after first meeting it. He didn't want Tyrogue to become too familiar with him just yet, these things took time, and so only by Jake's consent would Tyrogue be allowed outside. Now was a perfect chance for Tyrogue to get some exercise and experience with battle. "Tyrogue, take your stance!" Jake shouted, throwing the pokeball out into the center of the field. With a flash of bright light that caused the pokeball to rebound back to Jake, Tyrogue appeared, cried out and immediately took a judo stance, ready to start.

"Right, let's decide by a coin flip who goes first. Heads for Jake, Tails for Aaron!" Selena said, taking out a small coin. She flicked it with her thumb and caught it, slapping it onto the back of her hand. Selena peeked under her hand to see the coin and paused, looking at Jake, then at Aaron. "Aaron has the first move!" Selena said, putting on a huge, fake smile."

"Oh, um... Okay then!" Aaron stuttered upon hearing his name, "Totodile, use Water Gun on Tyrogue!" He ordered, voice still stumbling, not sounding too confident in his abilities. The Totodile nodded its head in compliance, charging toward the Tyrogue at full speed. Dropping its maw wide open, the Totodile stopped in its tracks and prepared to unleash a beam of water upon its opponent.

"You go, Totodile!" Caroline shouted from the sidelines, jumping up and down with ecstatic glee and excitement. Upon hearing the girl's cheers, Totodile gagged, contorting its body and tripping backwards, firing a barrage of water at Aaron.

"Wait, hold on! No!" To dodge the blast of liquid, Aaron tumbled to his side, "Umm... G-Get back up, Totodile! Recover before Tyrogue takes initiative!" Before giving any more commands, the boy gradually regained his balance, attempting to provide Totodile with as much moral support as possible. The Totodile ignored Aaron's pleas, happily rolling around in its own puddle of water with giddy excitement.

"I've never seen this technique before..." Caroline stammered, placing a finger over her lip, deep in contemplation, "No way!" She shouted suddenly, bouncing unconsciously, "Could it be that Aaron has devised a master plan in advance?! This may be a part of his grand scheme, Selena!"

"Right," Selena said, holding in her giggles, keeping her eyes on the battle. A smile grew upon her face, "That looked like a slip-up on Totodile and Aaron's part to me, and Jake isn't the kind of person to hold back, so..." Selena left the sentence hanging incompletely, willing to let Jake finish it through his actions.

"Alright Tyrogue," Jake said, not even the slightest bit confused or worried about the current situation. "Use Foresight and then Tackle away!" he commanded. Tyrogue obeyed, holding up both of it's tiny hands and forming a circle-shape with its fingers, and focused the center of that hole on Totodile. When Tyrogue was ready, it ran forward with its shoulders bared, aiming for Totodile with nearly-perfect accuracy thanks to Foresight.

"Told ya." Selena said proudly, still smiling.

"Totodile! Get up and... um... quickly! Just get up and run away!" Aaron's face began to turn a reddish hue, becoming more and more flustered as the battle continued to escape from his control, "Y-You can do it! Try and dodg-" He began, choking on his own words as the Tyrogue's attack made direct contact with Totodile's skull. The poor, crocodilian creature stumbled back and forth, irises whirring around in all directions.

"Perfect hit!" Caroline shouted with glee, almost dropping the egg due to all of the excitement, "Now, Aaron, execute yer battle strategy!" She pointed her available hand at Aaron in a demanding manner, chuckling in a haughty, deep voice.

"Umm... I don't think I-" Aaron began, cutting himself off shortly after, "No! I-... I need to focus! Totodile, try and use Water Gun again!" Aaron ordered. Totodile opened its mouth wide once more, still severely disoriented from the direct blow it received from Tyrogue's attack. A small stream of water began to gently drizzle out of Totodile's mouth, shortly before a gargantuan wave of water roared out of its maw and flew directly into the open, missing Tyrogue completely.

"That wasn't a Water Gun... Right?" Totodile's actions had Aaron baffled, leaving him unable to focus on what the creature should do next.

"Alright Tyrogue, good work," Jake said when the tackle hit. He had hardly enough time to tell Tyrogue to dodge the water gun, but it didn't really seem necessary, since the attack completely missed. Jake paused for just a second, his brows furrowed at Totodile and Aaron. From his perspective, all he could see was Totodile's dizzy movements and Aaron's stuttering indecisiveness.

Selena had long since put her head in her hands, feeling embarrassed by Aaron and Totodile's performance. And Caroline's obliviousness seemed to make it all worse. She looked up for a second to check on Jake, and saw that Totodile was tripping around everywhere, and Aaron seemed clueless. "Jake!" Selena called, "Just finish this now, so Aaron can stop embarrassing himself!"

"Already planning on it," Jake hollered back, then pointed to Totodile and ordered Tyrogue forward, "Tyrogue, use Vacuum Wave!" Tyrogue answered, pulling back his small hands behind his back, his focus still perfectly on Totodile. Then he shoved his hands forward, shooting out a strange wave of pure energy at Totodile, an energy that spun around like a mini-tornado and sped towards Totodile.

"T-Totodile, dodge the attack by moving to the left!" Aaron shouted, finally sputtering out an order after overcoming a long period of indecisiveness, "Quickly!" Totodile nodded in compliance, except instead of moving to the left as ordered, Totodile rolled backward in an attempt to dodge the attack. The Vacuum Wave struck Totodile in the back during mid-roll, sending the poor critter flying into the air.

"Well..." Aaron muttered, gently rubbing his face into his palm with embarrassment. As Totodile came falling down back to the earth, the creature regained its balance, running toward Aaron, tears streaming down the side of its face. "Ah... Is the battle over, I guess?... You'll be fine, Totodile." The boy stammered quietly, rubbing the maw of his Totodile with care, "Here, why don't you go back into your pokeba-" He began, before the creature's eyes filled with spite, "What?... Is something wrong?" The Totodile nodded gravely, sinking its teeth into Aaron's palm with unusual viciousness, "Aahh! Okay! Okay! You don't have to go into your pokeball!" Aaron shouted, flailing his arm around the air, Totodile still attached to him.

Upon hearing the boy, Totodile let his teeth free, jumping around with joy and hugging Aaron's leg excessively. "Look at the bond they've formed already, Selena!" Caroline shouted with wonderment as she pointed at Totodile, "Should I start rubbing my cheek against my egg to increase our bond as well?"

Selena laughed nervously at Caroline's comment, "I think that would be a great idea, actually." Selena smiled brightly up at Caroline, "Pokemon usually can hear what is going on outside of their egg, and it will surely notice the warmth of your skin if you rub up against it. Be careful not to be too rough though." Selena stood up, brushing the dirt off her skirt as she stood.

Jake knelt down to congratulate Tyrogue on its performance during the battle. Tyrogue, however, didn't seem to care much for Jake's words of praise as it simply looked away from the trainer. Jake sighed, "Still not bothering to talk to me, huh? Well, at least I know you can trust me enough to listen to me during battle. And that's good enough for me," Jake said. He couldn't see it, but Tyrogue's facial expression when from emotionless to slightly troubled in an instant, his eyes moving off to the side, as if glaring at Jake. Jake raised his pokeball and returned Tyrogue to it, standing back up and heading back to Selena and Caroline and Aaron.

"Well, that's a good job you did there," Selena said to Jake, "But Tyrogue still doesn't seem it wants to get acquainted with you."

"Yeah, I'm sure Tyrogue will come around eventually," Jake said brightly, beaming at Selena. "Nice try Aaron, but maybe you should work on your nerves before trying to battle someone else," Jake offered, giving Aaron a small smile.

"Well, I think we should hit a Pokemon Center," Selena said, looking primarily at Totodile. "Toto here took quite a beating from Tyrogue, and I'm sure Tyrogue could use a quick rest too. Not to mention I'm getting kind of hungry."

Jake laughed, then handed Selena a berry that he had picked up during the trip over to the lab, "Here, eat this. The Pokemon Center serves food that isn't really suitable for a vegetarian. At least the ones that I've been to." Selena glared at Jake as if he had offended her in some way, but snatched up the berry anyway.

"This doesn't change the fact that we should visit the Pokemon Center, you know." Selena said.

"That's so cool, Selena!" Caroline moaned in awe at Selena's intellectual words, proceeding to nearly smash her cheek against the shell of the egg, rubbing vigorously, "Oh, right! I need to take it slow, right?" She slowed down her movements, causing a small, purr-like rumble to emit from the insides of the egg, "Right! It's working! Nice call, Selena!"

"Oh... Um, yeah. A Pokemon Center would probably serve well as a next stop." Aaron looked away from the others, slightly embarrassed by his pathetic performance in his first battle, "I'm not sure if there's a Pokemon Center in such a small town... So it would probably be a good idea if we went ahead and traveled to... to..." Aaron's voice drifted off as he pulled the map out of his back pocket and quickly glanced over it, "to... Valion, right... Valion."

Totodile scurried over to Aaron and, using the boy's leg as a tool to propel itself higher into the air, hopped up to face-to-face level with Aaron, snatching the map from the boy's hand using its jaws. Aaron frantically chased the creature around the fields, failing to retrieve the map before the Totodile swallowed the map whole. "Ah- Totodile, why did you- ..." The boy gave up on his attempts to scold the Pokemon. After all, they would most likely be vain attempts regardless, "Well, it looks like Totodile doesn't mind his injuries... That's good... W-We should probably start moving, I guess... The nearest Pokemon Center is quite a ways away..." Aaron sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as he attempted to hold back his Pokemon, having a difficult time staying in control.

"You shouldn't worry about that map too much," Jake reassured Aaron, sounding rather confident about his statement. He plopped his hand down on Selena's head, who in turn glared up at the hand on her head. "We have a map right here, in this one's brain," he said proudly, grinning from ear-to-ear.

"Get off," Selena snapped, pushing Jake's large hand off of her head and ducking away from him as he reached towards her with his other hand. "And stop treating me like an object. We get it. I'm smart. Now drop it." Selena shook her hair out, brushing it behind her back with her hands. Her long, brown hair had gotten messed up when Jake touched it, and that set off her compulsive personality in an instant.

Selena smiled at Aaron in turn, "We came all the way from Foratia, so we've been around quite a bit. I'll have us in a Pokemon Center in no time flat!"

"It'll take a little longer to reach the next town than you think," Jake pointed out, looking back into his own memory to figure out how long it took for the two of them to get from place to place.

"Augh!" Selena groaned, already getting irritated with Jake. "Will you stop being so condescending already!? We get it, jeez. Let's get going, Aaron, Caroline. We have a world to explore." Selena grabbed Aaron's wrist and yanked him forward, kicking Jake as she went. Jake didn't flinch until she turned her back, grabbing his shin and silently screaming in pain.

"I wonder what kind of pokemon we'll see first...?" Jake wondered aloud to himself, almost in a whisper so that the others couldn't hear him. A small smile spread across his face, only time would tell what they would encounter on their journey.