TEEN: My Way

[Jersey Jimmy]

-MY WAY-
​

You may or may not remember that at one point, I had plans to write a journeyfic based around my Jimmy character. Consider this the result of those plans. Now that I've roleplayed on Tumblr for a few months, I feel like my writing skills are up to snuff enough as to start this story.

This story is mainly rated Teen for the use of profanity. As it goes on, there may be more serious portrayals of violence, as well as some topics a bit too heavy for an Everyone rating. With that being said, let's get started.

Spoiler: Table of Contents

-Chapter One (You are here!)
-Chapter Two
-Chapter Three
-Chapter Four
-Chapter Five
-Chapter Six

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-CHAPTER ONE: START TODAY-

APRIL 2, 2005, 9:18 PM
DRIFTVEIL, UNOVA
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One could say whatever they wanted about Unova. They could say that their invasion of Orre and the subsequent war that ensued were completely uncalled for and made the once-idolized region look like a bully. They could say the economy was shaky. Domestic threats were at an all-time high.

However, to many parents, there was an additional concern: how the country’s youth treated their futures.

In the industry hub of Driftveil resided one such couple. Pierre and Sofia Lecavalier, the parents of fourteen-year-old Jimmy, spent this cool April evening much like any other - that is, settled in to catch the latest episodes of their favorite shows. Pierre, whose own parents had immigrated from Kalos when he was just a baby, possessed some local recognition for being the highest-ranked trainer at the city’s Pokemon gym besides the leader, Clay. Meanwhile, Sofia ran a highly-popular stand at the City Market, selling all kinds of TMs and items to give Pokemon a boost in battles.

Once the current program came to a commercial break, Sofia turned her head slightly to face her husband. “Pierre, can we talk for a minute? About Jimmy?”

“Sure, hon, what’s eatin’ at ya?” Just because Pierre wasn’t a native Driftveiler didn’t mean he hadn’t picked up the accent. He reached over to the walnut end table besides the couch, grasping a cold cola in his calloused hand and taking a hearty swig.

Sofia let out a long sigh. “Well... you saw his report card, right? None of his grades even cracked an 85... sure, he didn’t exactly fail anything, but...” As her sentence drifted off, she began to grow irritated at the sound of her husband chuckling under his breath. “...what? What’s funny about this, may I ask?”

After finishing off his drink and promptly crushing the can, Pierre returned, “I honestly think ya worryin’ too much, hon. Jimbo just had an off quarter, he’ll rebound. Why d’ya think they let ‘im into kindergarten a year early? The kid’s incredibly gifted.”

“That’s not my point. I know how gifted he is. The problem is that he doesn’t seem to care.” Their show soon started up once more, but Sofia merely paused it. After all, it wasn’t nearly as important. “You haven’t noticed how little attention he’s given to his work recently? The minute he gets home, he completely disregards any homework he might have and just grabs his skateboard. And that’s not even bringing into account how much time he spends in his room on that computer. Sure, he can get to the top of the leaderboard on Special Ops, but how is that going to translate to the real world?” She sighed once more, leaning her head against her palm. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that he isn’t preparing himself. His priorities aren’t in order.”

“Well... why don’ we teach ‘im how t’survive out there?”

Cocking an eyebrow, Sofia responded, “What do you mean?” Jimmy was barely old enough to have a job, a year too young for his driver’s permit, and was far, far from ready to live alone for any more than a few days. How would they teach him?

Again, Pierre chuckled. “Simple. Y’see all those kids goin’ out on Pokemon trainin’ journeys lately?” Around late March and early April was traditionally the ideal time in Unova for a new batch of trainers to set out on their own adventures. Whether they chose to challenged the Pokemon League and its eight gyms was up to them, but most saw it as an ideal learning experience to get ready for adulthood. “Th’boy’s already got that Haunter, don’t he? So howsabout we send ‘im off on one? After all, m’cousin used to babysit Cedric Juniper’s daughter, really nice woman... so maybe she could help out.”

Sofia paused to consider it for a moment. Jimmy was fourteen, the average age for a Unovan trainer to start on their journey. Maybe Pierre had a point. Maybe the time had come. “...I’ll talk to him about it, alright?” confirmed the saleswoman.

“Great. Thanks fer comin’ through, hon.” Pierre rose up from the couch - punctuating just how tall he was, at six-foot-seven - and took aim at the recycling bin across the room. It took him only one lob to sink the empty can. Having been a basketball player in college most likely helped. “Anyway, think it’s ‘bout time we got back to th’show?”

A gentle smile drew across Sofia’s face, obviously agreeing. “As long as you sit down.” And that her husband did, as she responded by hitting the play button to continue their show. Though as it played out onscreen, thoughts raced through her head... specifically, whether this really was a good idea to send Jimmy out into the world.

I guess we have no choice but to find out.
​

APRIL 2, 2005, 11:34 PM
JIMMY’S ROOM, DRIFTVEIL, UNOVA​

“♪ They said they knew my fate and I'd be great and fine,
And rich in time, stay on the line, I'm gifted and one of a kind... ♪”

In part due to Unova’s recent political unrest, punk rock had seen a major boost in popularity, mostly from those with left-leaning views being fed up with the perceived antics of the somehow re-elected Gregory M. Shrub. To Jimmy Lecavalier, though, it wasn’t exactly a recent discovery - he’d been listening to a wide spectrum of its sub-genres seemingly ever since he first hopped on a board. Unfortunately for his parents, this led to such side effects as having it blasting from his room late into the night.

What was Jimmy himself up to, though? The same as usual - playing one of his favorite video games, the multiplayer first-person shooter Special Ops. After a long day of kickflips, caspers, and sacking the library rails, there was no better way to let off some steam for him than virtually shooting up some Pokemon poachers.

“Aw, c’mon, man, you’re usin’ the AWP? That’s so cheap!” he half-lamented through his headset. Not that he was alone in his line of thinking; there was a reason the sniper rifle was banned in countless servers. “Eh, anyway, I’m gettin’ off now. Be back tomorrow, alright?”

After accumulating a healthy stash of farewells, Jimmy disconnected from the server and casually dropped his headset down onto the desk, leaning back in his chair to stretch out. “Jeez... hit the 200-kill mark again, Haunter... eh, Haunter? Where you at, buddy?” A simple scanning of his room proved futile, so he took the next logical step - bending down and flicking at his shadow.

Sure enough, out slipped Jimmy’s best buddy, who was essentially a floating head and pair of hands composed of gas. “Hawn,” the Pokemon grunted, not too pleased at how his trainer chose to get his attention.

With a shrug, Jimmy hopped up from his chair and walked up to his CD player, pausing the brash rhythms emitting from it. “Hey, man, I get that you’re a ghost and you like to slip into people’s shadows. That’s a species thing, that’s cool, but ya can’t be doing it all the time, alright? Sometimes I’m gonna need you for stuff.” Then again, “stuff” usually entailed “scare the hell out of this drillbit that stole my civics textbook”. Not that they didn’t get a kick out of it, but still.

Haunter merely rolled his eyes. “Cheer up, alright? I’m not sayin’ ya can’t do it. Just... learn to cut back.” Having already switched into his pajamas, Jimmy lazily flopped onto the bed and blindly reached for his TV remote. This time, he only managed to knock one other object down before finding it - which unfortunately happened to be a model cannon, whose wheels broke off upon contact with the floor. “Ah, crap...”

The sound of footsteps ascending the stairs caught his interest before he could turn his TV on, however. “Ma? That you?”

“You’re getting good at this, Jimmy.” Sure enough, Sofia welcomed herself into his room seconds later. “How are you?” she asked, an obvious hint of concern hidden in her tone.

Wait, why’s she asking that? Jimmy looked towards Haunter, the two briefly exchanging confused glances. “Things’re... fine, I guess. I busted out back-to-back ghetto birds down by the Cold Storage today, so that’s somethin’.”

Sofia shook her head while sitting down at the foot of the bed. “That isn’t really what I meant...” Her whole demeanor was beginning to make Jimmy feel a bit uneasy. Did he screw something up? Nothing too recent came to mind... “Jimmy... I guess the best way to put this is that your father and I are concerned about you. You’re fourteen now... in three years, you’re going to be done with school and go out on your own, is that correct?”

“Yeah... what’s got you worried, though?” All he did was reinforce her point - not that she’d made it yet.

Turning to look her son in the eyes, Sofia continued, “You don’t seem prepared... and honestly, you don’t seem like you really care. All you do recently is skateboard, play video games, skateboard, video games, over and over. Maybe battling with Haunter once in awhile. Schoolwork is much too low of a priority for you... and what we’re worried about is that, if you keep this up and disregard the fact that you’re quickly becoming an adult, you aren’t going to be prepared to go out into the real world.”

Well, that certainly came out of left field - and it showed, as Jimmy’s eyes widened quite a bit as he heard her out. “O-oh... eh... yeah, guess I kinda see where you’re comin’ from... y’know I’m trying to get an amateur sponsorship, right?” He gestured towards the skateboard leaning against his desk, one sporting artwork of a twisted carnival.

“Yes, I do, and I appreciate that you care so much, but...” She supposed it wasn’t entirely his fault. It wasn’t like he completely lacked motivation, as his skateboarding efforts were a comprehensive, compelling argument against that. As a matter of fact, now that she’d brought it up, he actually seemed to understand her point of view. “...I’m just going to say it right now. Pierre and I talked, and we think it would be a good learning experience for you to head out on a Pokemon training journey. It’d help you prepare for being your own support, and Haunter already puts you far ahead of the others who are starting their own-”

“Whoa, wait, you serious?!” Jimmy was quite surprised, and it was easy to tell by just how fast he rocketed up from his slouching position. On top of that, Haunter floated down to be closer to the conversation, himself intrigued.

With a faint smile, Sofia gave her son a finalizing nod. “Absolutely. I’m happy to see you’re so excited about this...” She rose from the bed and idly re-adjusted her blouse, adding, “You know Cedric Juniper, right? The researcher? His daughter is registering new trainers out in Nuvema... since your father’s cousin knows her, we thought that perhaps she could help you get a bit of a head start.”

Jimmy still almost couldn’t believe it. Was he dreaming? Did he have to pinch himself? Was Haunter screwing with him? No, no, and no. “Th-that sounds gnarly, yeah! We’re goin’ tomorrow?”

“Indeed. Until then, get some rest, alright? We don’t need Aurea thinking you’re a zombie.” Sofia began to head back towards the door, but stopped short once she was in the frame to look back at Jimmy one last time. “Good luck.” And with that, she gently shut the door behind her, leaving Jimmy and Haunter to digest the news.

Needless to say, they took it well. Really well. “Alright, this is freakin’ awesome! Yo, up high, big guy!” Jimmy held his hand up in anticipation, and Haunter took the hint, swinging one of his own disembodied appendages... which phased right through. “...well, important thing is ya tried, I guess. Anyway... ya think it’s ‘bout time we get to sleep? I mean, not like there’s anythin’ else to do.”

“Haw-hawn...” agreed the Gas Pokemon - though not that it’d be distinguishable to the naked ear. In any case, Haunter never actually slept - as a ghost, he didn’t need it. Thus, he merely slipped into his trainer’s shadow, and while it wrestled a brief shudder out of Jimmy, he didn’t really mind it.

Choosing to actually look over to his end table this time, Jimmy reached for the switch to his Lampent-shaped... well, lamp. Once his room was shrouded by darkness, he dropped the side of his head to the pillow as to not mess up his spiked hairstyle. “Night, Haunter...”

As he slowly but surely drifted off to dreamland, Jimmy’s excitement refused to fade. Imagining all the things he’d get to do... catch new Pokemon, challenge gyms, travel across Unova... and how much of a breeze it’d all be with Haunter by his side.

Well, at least he hoped it would be a breeze. But hey, when you’re about to set off on your Pokemon journey, it’s a pretty safe bet you’d be looking on the bright side of life.
​

APRIL 3, 2005, 11:40 AM
SEWANHAKA EXPRESSWAY NEAR NUVEMA, UNOVA
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“So, y’ready, Jimbo?” Ten more miles separated Jimmy and his father’s pickup truck from Nuvema, Ms. Juniper, and the beginning of his journey. As it stood right now, though, they zipped down the road past midnight green pine trees walling off each side. They did occasionally let up to allow a glimpse at some of the cities the vehicle passed by - Emerdale, Accumula, Sathington...

Jimmy himself continuously tossed Haunter’s ball up into the air before letting it fall back into his hand. “Never been more ready... still can’t believe it’s time. Seems like yesterday I picked up Haunter back in the Pokemon Tower...” Ah, yes, the story of just how he’d acquired the Gas Pokemon in the first place. A family vacation was to thank, as when Jimmy was eleven, they visited Saffron in Kanto for a week - which naturally caused him to be incredibly interested in all things Kanto for about a month.

One of the days they were there, they hopped over to Lavender in order to pay a visit to the Pokemon Tower, one of the world’s most notorious final resting places. While exploring on his own, Jimmy had found himself constantly bugged by what he thought to be a run-of-the-mill normal ghost. Yet once he finally figured it out, he’d come face-to-face with a wild Gastly. Using the Great Ball that he’d been saving up, however, Jimmy swiftly captured Gastly, marking his very first Pokemon.

Ever since, most of Gastly’s - now Haunter’s - battle experience had been limited to battles on the middle school blacktop to settle arguments, no matter how petty. It was through these that the Gas Pokemon honed his skills, slowly growing a more versatile movepool until finally evolving into a Haunter on the final day before winter break in eighth grade - taking down a Beartic in the process.

Now came the time to put those skills to the test. Jimmy wouldn’t be taking on garden variety schoolyard bullies anymore, oh no - legitimate opponents were on their way. Career trainers, the gym leaders, and if he really made it that far, the Elite Four.

It was due to this trip into his thoughts that he barely noticed the truck inching to a stop. Were they really already in Nuvema? Looking around, the trees’ leaves blossoming and the instantly-recognizable suburban architecture confirmed it. Right up the driveway stood a three-story house that would blend in perfectly if not for one little detail: the “Juniper Pokemon Laboratory” sign above the front door. “Well, kid, we’re here. Ya got everythin’, I’m hoping?”

“Lemme check...” Jimmy zipped open his survival backpack and made a brief run-through of his supplies. Snacks and drinks, check. Pokegear and handheld game console, check. A few TMs as gifts from his mother, check. And most importantly, his skateboard was right there, part of it sticking out of the top clear as day. “...yep, all set!” Bursting with eagerness, he swung the truck door wide open and hopped out, pulling his backpack after him.

Before he could rush right off, though, Pierre had to leave him with one last thing. “Jimmy... remember, this’s a learning experience, alright? I want ya t’have fun and go on a great journey, but I’m hopin’ that once this is all over, ya’ve learned somethin’ from it all. Got it?”

Jimmy gave his dad a reassuring two-fingered salute. “Damn right I do. Thanks for the ride, Dad... I’ll see ya when I’m champ, alright?” Pierre responded with a hearty laugh as he flashed his son a thumbs-up, once again wishing him luck before pulling out of the driveway.

As he watched the pickup head back down towards the street, the situation because clearer to Jimmy. There was nobody but himself to fall back on now, except his Pokemon. If he was going to be a trainer - an adult - he was going to have to learn to look out for himself. This remained his main thought as he traversed the curved cobblestone path up to the front door.

No more games. Time to get real. With that, he took a deep breath before rapping his knuckles against the door.
​

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As always, comments are much appreciated! I like to have an incentive to keep improving, y'know?​

 

[Crimson&Gold]

I should probably preface this by confessing my ignorance: I have yet to read "One Big Conspiracy" (where I'm assuming this Jimmy character ultimately comes from,) so perhaps I'm not your ideal reader. Nevertheless!

I think this is a perfectly good start! I'm somewhat of a sucker for stories that take place in the same regions we all know from the games, yet outside of the main time period that we are used to. It means there's a lot of potential to play about with characters and places that we know (or thought we knew) and allows us to see them in an entirely new light. You mentioned in the General Chat Thread that you're going with a "Pre-RBYRSE" and "late-90s / early-00s" theme with this; that sounds pretty exciting to me and I've enjoyed what you've done with it already and am even more interested in seeing how it effects the future of the story. The tongue-in-cheek
references to real life events were nice and actually seemed to fit the tone of the rest of the chapter in my opinion. (Gregory M. Shrub was a personal highlight.)

One very minor discrepancy in terms of the whole "early-00s" thing; the nods to (I'm assuming) Call of Duty through the video game "Special Ops", particularly the whole online multiplayer community aspect stood out to me as a little jarring in among everything else that was fitting with the theme you've got going. I may be alone on that, though. A couple other small things:

Spoiler

What was Jimmy himself up to, though? The same as usual

Ah, yes, the story of just how he’d acquired the Gas Pokemon in the first place.

Both of these moments also stood out quite a bit. Perhaps intentional, the narration did seem a little discordant in those parts during my read. Also:

After accumulating a healthy stash of farewells,

This phrasing is a little awkward, I think. I had to reread it a few times before I actually caught what it meant, really.

But those were the only few small (potentially non-) issues that caught my attention. As I mentioned, it's a solid start for sure and a particularly nice introduction to this Jimmy character: he's fun to read about.

 

[Legacy]

This was extremely well written. The prose are very advanced and I very much enjoyed reading it. Your style and way with words is great.

I loved Sophia and Pierre's interaction as a married couple. Pierre's accent was well done, and each character's dialogue and mannerisms are unique which is a nice touch.

Excited to see how Jimmy's journey unfolds.

 

[Jersey Jimmy]

Thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad you're enjoying the ride so far! "One Big Conspiracy" is completely unrelated to this story, actually - mainly because that one takes place in an entirely different canon (Pokemon on Earth, basically). Special Ops is also supposed to be the Pokeverse version of Counter-Strike, not Call of Duty. Jimmy plays Counter-Strike Special Ops instead because he's cool like that. As for Pierre's (and to a lesser extent, Jimmy's) accent, I've always liked to play with the Funetik Aksent trope and see which spellings could give the best impression as to what the characters sound like.

One thing I should probably mention is that unlike OBC, I'm not going to constrain myself to an exact schedule this time around. Chapters could be separated by anything from a couple days to a week and a half. Depends on what I have to do and how much motivation I have to write.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I'll say this, your writing does get better when you have some discipline about it. I don't mean in terms of hammering out a chapter in a certain timeframe, so much as deciding where you're going with the story ahead of time. If there's one thing One Big Conspiracy really suffered from, it was a lack of planning.

Technical Accuracy/Style
There's still this vaguely aggravating habit of the narration almost directly addressing the reader to convey information in a very tell rather than show way. Much less obvious than usual, admittedly. The accent works ok. I think the final verdict on that will be based on how thick it is with other characters as well. Conveying accents is difficult, especially variations on English accents, since the standard alphabet doesn't really do a good job of conveying the different sounds.

Story
It's reasonable. The reason why Jimmy is pushed out into a journey makes enough sense. I would be interested to see just how much he does learn on the journey. The lesson will rather fall flat if a kid who spends most of his time skating and playing video games goes out and acts entirely responsibly and carefully from day one.

Setting
Your Unova does have a distinctly American feel to it. I suspect you're doing what I do for The Long Walk, using what you're familiar with to build the world

Characters
Oh, first chapter syndrome. As usual there's not a lot I have to say that I haven't already hinted at. The parental conversation at the start wasn't bad. Sofia's conversation with Jimmy also wasn't bad, but I do think that it could have been better if Jimmy hadn't been quite so agreeable. I mean, it had admittedly been over ten years since I was that age, but as I recall we all secretly thought we were immortal and almost none of us were thinking of our futures. Some eye-rolling and a sound conviction that skating is all he needs to build a life on certainly would not have gone amiss.

Final Thoughts
Oh, yes, and keep on keeping the politics directly relevant to the story you're telling!

 

[Jersey Jimmy]

Your Unova does have a distinctly American feel to it. I suspect you're doing what I do for The Long Walk, using what you're familiar with to build the world

Pretty much, with the difference being that Unova is actually based on America. Then again, don't expect it to be specifically based on New York. Or have the locations they're based on correspond geographically.

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-CHAPTER TWO: SET IT OFF-

APRIL 3, 2005, 12:05 PM
JUNIPER POKEMON LABORATORY, NUVEMA, UNOVA​

Jimmy had been let inside with relative ease, only undergoing a quick backpack check - one could never be too careful nowadays. After that was over with, he’d been directed towards a waiting room, with a few couches and coffee tables lying around as well as a TV to keep the potential trainers that had dropped by occupied.

One of five people in the room, he bided his time by playing around with his Pokegear. He’d received it as a birthday present last month as a replacement for his old one, and this new design was much more practical, based on a standard flip phone. Plus, it was purple, which was always a plus.

“Huh... this touch screen’s pretty sick.” Indeed, the bottom half of the Pokegear had introduced a design feature that would’ve most likely been impossible to implement on the original model: a touch screen. It served quite well as a replacement for the average cell phone’s keypad, as it was also the screen that hosted the main menu and controls for the phone’s... still exceptionally slow internet browser. But still, technological progress, right?

While Jimmy began a quick run of Bricksmasher, another voice came up. “Youse gotta new model one, ah?” it observed, having the unfortunate side effect of messing up his focus. He took the opportunity to look to his side, and sure enough, another teenager around his own age had plopped down in the next seat over. This person’s most notable feature was probably his sharp combo of a black blazer, white dress shirt, and bright red necktie.

Choosing to ignore the needlessly-spiffy outfit, Jimmy responded, “Eh... yeah, got it for my birthday last month. Works pretty sweet, I’ll tell ya that.”

“Nice, nice... I’s got one of my own, see?” The sharp dresser took a quick dive into his pocket, coming up with a Pokegear almost identical to Jimmy’s with the exception of being black where his was purple. “My pops picked it up for me ‘fore it was even sellin’ in stores. Y’know, knows a guy who knows a guy.”

Jimmy could believe it; he did seem like the kind of person who’d be ahead of the pack on things like this. “No shit? Man, that must’ve been nice... ya here to get a starter or just your trainer card?”

That question was answered almost immediately, as the other boy reached under his blazer to grab a Poke Ball, lobbing it a few feet in front of him. Out of it emerged a crow Pokemon colored like the night sky, his head feathers fashioned into a hat of sorts. “Jus’ the card. ‘Ey, Murkrow, say hey to this guy, will ya?” Murkrow looked around aimlessly for a bit before he found Jimmy and greeted him with a wing wave.

“Heheh, hey there, fella.” Deciding to try and get along with the Pokemon, Jimmy pulled a box of shortbread cookies from his backpack and opened it up, taking a couple to give to the Darkness Pokemon. He took them happily in his wing, laying the cookies down on the floor before beginning to nibble on one. This managed to earn a small chuckle from Jimmy; good thing the Nidorina Scouts had extras. “Yeah, I’ve got a Haunter of my own myself. Don’t really need a starter.”

As their conversation dragged on, something began to come clear to Jimmy - he’d never even asked for this person’s name. “Oh, hey, before I forget... what’s ya name, anyway? I’m Jimmy Lecavalier, I’m here from Driftveil.” He held his hand out as a gesture of friendship.

“Ricky,” answered the boy as he gave Jimmy a singular shake. “Well... technically Ricardo, but Ricky’s gotta better right t’it, y’know? Some’a my friends call me Ricochet, though.” In addition to being a ridiculously cool nickname, it fit his real name, too. How Jimmy wished he could have a nickname like that sometimes...

As it turned out, though, their conversation would be cut short by a middle-aged woman holding a clipboard suddenly coming through the door. “Le... Le-cavalier? Leca-valier?” she awkwardly repeated, adjusting her thick glasses.

Through an exasperated sigh, Jimmy corrected, “It’s pronounced ‘leh-cav-ihl-YAY’,” as he rose from the couch with a drawn-out stretch. If there was one thing he expected a lot of people to get wrong on this journey, it was his surname. Regardless, he directed a quick nod towards Ricky before walking up to the woman, hands shoved in his pockets. “My turn, I’m guessing?”

“Yes, Aurea’s waiting for you right down this hall.” Aurea... Jimmy had heard some rare names in his life, but Aurea? This was the first time he’d ever heard the word! He began to head down the hallway until coming across an open door. Peering into it, Jimmy was greeted by a large room with plenty of computers and other contraptions, while in the middle of it all a young woman sat at a desk typing away.

“Uh... ‘scuse me. You Ms. Juniper?” Jimmy waved a hand in the woman’s direction in an attempt to catch her attention.

Her gaze rose a bit, and a smile formed on her face once she saw him. “Yes, that’d be me! You’re Jimmy... Lecavalier, right?” Jimmy’s eyes widened as he nodded - somebody actually pronounced his surname right! She rose from her seat and approached him, her crisp white lab coat trailing behind her. “Your father told me about you. Having that Haunter is really going to help you get a head start!”

Jimmy instinctively reached for Haunter’s ball, tossing it up into the air to let it fall back in his hand. “He is, ain’t he? Hits fast an’ hits hard, and he’s great to hang around with, too.”

Giving a subtle nod, Ms. Juniper walked over to another computer, this one running a program that entered information for trainer cards. “Gengar are very popular battlers for that reason... perhaps you’ll have one on your hands soon enough!” Once she sat down, she asked, “Could you fill out that sheet next to me, please?”

“Yeah, sure thing.” Jimmy snatched the paper, and after taking a brief moment to scavenge for a pen, began to fill it out. Hometown... Driftveil, of course. I’m five-foot-seven, around 140 pounds... have you battled with Pokemon before? Looking down at Haunter’s ball, he smirked. Yes.

After a little while, he returned to Ms. Juniper’s desk with the form completed. “Oh, you’re done already? Wonderful!” She took it in both hands, quickly scanning it over before turning back to the computer. The sheer quickness of her typing stunned even Jimmy, who’d thought he’d mastered that art. Then again, he supposed you didn’t have to actually type a lot in Special Ops.

The abrupt noise of a printer began to resonate soon enough, spitting out a fresh sheet of paper with Jimmy’s completed trainer card on it - his mother had provided a picture already. “I’ll be right back, I have to laminate this,” informed Ms. Juniper, who promptly took the sheet and headed out of the lab.

“Well... nothin’ else to do.” Haunter’s ball hit the floor, and the Gas Pokemon’s first reaction to his new surroundings was to immediately begin examining all the machinery in the room. Jimmy, meanwhile, trailed just behind him to make sure he didn’t accidentally break everything and get Ms. Juniper to kick them out. It wasn’t like it was out of the question. “Remember, Haunter, just ‘cause you’re a ghost doesn’t mean ya phase through everything by default.”

As expected, Haunter gave an eye roll. He probably would’ve defiantly crossed his arms, too, if he actually had arms. “Haw, haw, hawn...”

Something soon caught his eye, and he swooped down a bit to observe it... or rather, them. Residing on the table was a stack of electronics that somewhat resembled Game Boys, except with a Poke Ball motif. Noticing the devices, Jimmy commented, “Hey, nice find... the hell’re these, anyway?” He picked one up and checked for an on/off switch.

It turned out that one wasn’t necessary. The device sprung to life as the screen showed an image of Haunter, and a computerized voice beeped out, “Haunter. Gas Pokemon. It likes to lurk in the dark and tap shoulders with a gaseous hand. Its touch causes endless shuddering.”

Jimmy cocked an eyebrow at this, looking back up towards the real thing. “Really? I ain’t had that problem with ya.” Haunter merely shrugged. Maybe it was a selective thing.

“Good, you found the Pokedexes!” The voice confirmed Ms. Juniper had finished laminating Jimmy’s trainer card, as she returned to the room and handed it to him. As he slipped it into the pocket of his torn-up jeans, she explained, “I’m sure you’ve heard of them before, but a Pokedex is a digital database of sorts for recording different species of Pokemon. The more Pokemon you come across, the more your Pokedex will fill up!”

This little thing? It has data on... every single Pokemon in the world? Assuming he was being given the Pokedex to keep, Jimmy switched it off and dropped it into his bag. “So... you’re saying that I gotta unlock info on new Pokemon, basically.”

“Essentially, yes. Think of it as a side quest of sorts. Oh, and before you go...” Ms. Juniper grabbed a small cardboard box and opened it up, holding it out to Jimmy to show off its contents. “...if you want to catch any Pokemon, you’re going to need these.” Inside were six instantly recognizable, red-over-white Poke Balls.

Jimmy took them eagerly, stuffing them into his bag right next to the TM discs. “That’ll save a few bucks... thanks, Ms. Juniper.” He swung the backpack around again on one shoulder. “And hey, one thing... are you a full-on professor? ‘Cause I know your dad is.”

She’d actually become quite accustomed to this question, having come to learn it’d be brought up a lot. Thus, Ms. Juniper politely shook her head. “I am not... well, not yet, at least. Actually, I’m currently studying Pokemon origins at Opelucid State University.”

“So why’re ya here?” A bottle of Dr. Checker emerged from Jimmy’s bag and twisted open with a satisfying ksshh! noise. “I mean, isn’t it spring break? I’d kinda expect ya to be down at the beach or something.” Not that he was complaining; in fact, he was glad Ms. Juniper had chosen to stay and help new trainers get the things they needed before heading out. Then again, the thought of her in a swimsuit... he instantly took a long swig from the bottle, trying his hardest to hide the blush that had formed.

The bad news was that his effort was futile. The good news was that she merely laughed it off. “I have been, actually. Dad’s out today and he asked me to take over. Actually, I’m sort of happy about it now that I’ve had the opportunity to meet you and your Haunter! Speaking of which... where is your Haunter?” As she began to scavenge the lab, Jimmy simply tapped her shadow a couple times with the sole of his sneaker, and the Gas Pokemon emerged unamused.

With that, he held the Great Ball back up. “Alright, ya had your fun, smart guy. Return.” And return Haunter did, though he wasn’t exactly thrilled about it. Jimmy heaved a sigh before turning back to Ms. Juniper. “Anyway... suppose I should get outta this place, ah?” He flipped open his Pokegear to check the time - it had been around twenty minutes.

“If you want,” responded Ms. Juniper. “Oh, and I should let you know that I put my number on the trainer card for you. If you ever need any help, make sure to contact me, alright?”

Jimmy pulled out his trainer card and looked over it again - sure enough, right there at the bottom was her Pokegear number. “Ah, thanks!” He wasted no time flipping his own open and adding the number to his contacts. “Well, guess that’s it. I’ll talk to ya soon, Ms. Juniper, alright?”

The professor-in-training answered his imminent departure with a friendly wave. “I hope you do! Best of luck to you, Jimmy!” As he exited the lab (and by extension, the building), she went right back to work, a warm smile on her face. I should’ve told him it’s okay to call me Aurea...

APRIL 3, 2005, 7:02 PM
REGIONAL ROUTE 1, NORTH OF NUVEMA, UNOVA​

Skating along the side of the highway only reminded Jimmy how poor some of Unova’s infrastructure really was. For one, much of the road itself had been greatly worn down, cracked asphalt prevalent in many places. There was also the fact that the railing that was supposed to divide the two sides had been rusted beyond belief, giving the impression a car could ram right through it.

He chose to ignore it, however; the sun was setting anyway, a lightshow of yellows, oranges, and pinks accompanying it. Jimmy couldn’t help but admire it as his board cruised along. In the meantime, he began to think just where he would stop for the night. Maybe Sathington? It ain’t that far, and from there it’s only... what, five, six miles to Accumula? Actually, I wonder if I can knock out the whole thing before midnight...

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the presence of a large crack in the road, just large enough to catch his deck’s front wheels. “Sonuva-!” he yelled out, being ejected from the board and stumbling forward uncontrollably. At the very least, he managed to steer himself towards the grass before falling to the ground. “Ugh... dammit.”

As if it wasn’t already bad enough, the sound of laughter began to become clear to Jimmy as he pulled himself back to his feet. He demanded, “Where the hell’re ya? You can stop laughing now.” Great, the first bail of his journey and he wasn’t even going for a trick - and to top it off, somebody saw.

To the girl’s credit, though, she did emerge from the shadowy woods only a few seconds later. “Sorry about that... but y’know, if you really don’t want people laughing at you when you bail, at least try to pay attention to the road instead of the pretty sunset. You’re honestly lucky you didn’t turn into a driving lane by accident...”

“Torkoal. Coal Pokemon. It burns coal inside its shell for energy. It blows out black soot if it is endangered.” The beeping of his Pokedex turned Jimmy’s attention to the creature beside her, an orange tortoise who appeared to be half-asleep. Sure enough, a light cloud of smoke protruded from the holes in its shell.

“Huh... Torkoal ain’t native to Unova.” He looked towards the girl quizzically. “So either ya caught it on vacation or ya ain’t from here, right?”

When she nodded, her striking volcano-like hairstyle bounced a bit. “Yep! I’m actually from Hoenn. I already beat all their gyms and got to the final eight in the League tournament. Name’s Flannery!” She held her hand out eagerly, and sure enough, Jimmy shook it soon after. “When I came home after the tournament, I was thinking about going through another region. I chose Unova because of how different it is from Hoenn than, say, Kanto or Johto.”

“Really? Well then, hope ya like warmongers and bigots. Jimmy, by the way.” That was another important thing about Jimmy - he actually didn’t care much for his home region. In the current political climate, it was hard to. “Like, down here it’s fine, but once ya hit Mistralton? Get ready for every Hoennese stereotype in existence and then some to be thrown at ya.”

Flannery let out a puff of air, and the way her expression shifted seemed to signify she knew this fact. “Yeah, yeah, I know... guess Torkoal and I’ll just have to humiliate ‘em, right, Torkoal?” The Coal Pokemon merely grunted in response.

Jimmy grabbed his board and moved a bit farther off the asphalt, a possible reaction to the cars that zipped by just a few feet away from him. Better safe than sorry. “I’m willing to bet that’d be pretty easy for ya considerin’ what you’ve done... anyway, you’re coming from Nuvema, I take it?”

“Where else would I be?” responded Flannery with a giggle. “I’m heading to Sathington right now... if you want, you can come with me.”

The choice was obvious. “Yeah, thanks! Before we keep goin’, though, I should probably bring this up...” Jimmy’s fingers overtook his Great Ball, hurling it and calling out Haunter in the span of a few seconds. “...you ain’t the only one with a Pokemon not from here.”

Upon the Gas Pokemon’s release, he curiously floated over to Flannery - or, more specifically, her Torkoal. “Hawn-ha!” he cried with a friendly hand wave, attempting to greet him. Torkoal, however, grunted again and blew more smoke through his nostrils. This didn’t please Haunter, who tried to show off by creating a bluish flame with a snap of his fingers, one that traveled in a slight wave for a few dozen yards before dissipating.

However, the Coal Pokemon remained unimpressed, huffing again before giving Flannery’s calf a light tap. “Hm? You wanna go back in, Torkoal?” Torkoal responded with a motion that could generously be called a nod, yet his trainer complied, sending him back into what appeared to be a Premier Ball with its all-white coloration.

“Torkoal doesn’t seem to be fond of strangers,” Jimmy observed with his arms crossed.

Sighing, Flannery shook her head to confirm it. “No, he really isn’t... then again, Torkoal as a species are quite shy. I’m surprised that I managed to become his friend.” Storing his ball away, she made a gesture that seemed to be aimed down the road. “Anyway, c’mon, sun’s setting. It’d be great if we got to Sathington before dark.”

Jimmy almost hopped back onto his skateboard before his subconscious remembered to tell him doing such a thing on grass was nigh-impossible. “Ah... y-yeah. Yeah, right, let’s go.” His face tinted red once Flannery giggled, and the two started off, continuing their way down the road and to the first stop of their journeys, Haunter trailing just behind them. If nothing else, he’d made an ally on his first day.

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Author Notes:
-Nuvema is primarily based on Long Island, specifically around where Nassau and Suffolk Counties meet.
-Sathington's name stems from Primus's "Sathington Willoughby," "Sathington Waltz," and "The Return of Sathington Willoughby".
-Jimmy's Pokegear number is 867-5309. He hates this.

 

[Jersey Jimmy]

-CHAPTER THREE: SATHINGTON WALTZ-

APRIL 3, 2005, 9:24 PM
SATHINGTON, UNOVA​

“Boy, if this isn’t the most generic city I’ve ever seen, I don’t know what is.” Safe to say, Flannery’s first impression of the city of Sathington wasn’t a positive one. Considering it sported no gym and no major attractions - well, aside from the memorial to the city’s founder, Sathington Willoughby - the place sure wasn’t one that was going to be high on many travel lists. Yet despite this, over a hundred thousand people chose to live there. The two assumed there was no better option for them.

Jimmy was none too impressed either, electing to practice flatland tricks on his board as the two headed down a street that didn’t deserve a name. “Yeah, I really didn’t expect ya to have a high opinion of this place. I hear there’s a pretty good triple set by the courthouse, though. My buddy told me he pulled a frontside double heel down it.”

All he did was earn himself a blank stare before Flannery responded, “...I have almost no idea of what you just said.”

“Didn’t really expect ya to.” The exchange was punctuated by Jimmy flipping the board onto its side and riding the wheels for a few yards. He hopped off not long after and tucked the deck underneath his arm, turning to his new partner. “Anyway, this really ain’t what we should be focusin’ on. Help me find a PokeMart, alright?” After all, if he was going to take Unova head-on, he couldn’t do it without the right supplies.

Both made sure to be on the lookout for one of those familiar royal blue awnings, yet their current street was littered with stores that didn’t interest either, such as antique shops that most likely contained enough dust to pose a serious choking hazard.

Jimmy decided to start another conversation soon enough, if for no other reason than to break the silence between them that was starting to grow awkward. “Hey, do ya have any other Pokemon with ya, or was Torkoal the only one that got to come to Unova?”

“Nope, Torkoal’s the only one! It’d be kinda unfair if I had my full team from the start, y’know?” As Flannery spoke, she pulled out the Premier Ball that housed Torkoal and briefly spun it on the tip of her finger. “But I’ll have you know that back home, I’ve got some of the best Fire-types Hoenn has to offer! Camerupt, Magcargo, Ninetales...”

“I’m pretty sure Camerupt is the only one of those that can actually be traced back to Hoenn. Ain’t Magcargo and Ninetales more common in Kanto?”

Flannery rolled her eyes, replying “I never said anything about them being native species...” in one of the most condescending tones Jimmy had ever heard. Soon enough, though, she spotted a blue sign out of the corner of her eye. It may have been a different region, but the sign meant the same thing - a PokeMart.

The two turned the corner and traversed the parking lot until they eventually spotted a rather peculiar man outside the store, sitting in a lawn chair with a makeshift sign painted onto a sandwich board next to him - not the most professional setup. “Huh... hey Jimmy, can you read that sign from here?” inquired Flannery, squinting her eyes in an effort to get a better look.

“Nah, I got nothin’. Guess we should walk up to him, ah?” And that they did, more and more details of the scene becoming clear as they drew closer. The man was clearly in his later years, as evidenced by his unkempt grey hair and wrinkled facial features, and sported a fully camouflaged getup - jacket, cargo pants, and trucker hat. “Take Back Unovan Liberty” had been crudely painted over what appeared to be a Burger Czar advertisement on the sign at his side - in fact, some of the patriotically-colored red and blue paint had dripped down before drying.

Jimmy and Flannery shared confused glances with each other. Both gave the impression they wanted the other to start the conversation with this man; however, neither got the chance, as he soon piped up in his creaky voice. “You two wonderin’ why I’m here?”

Another few seconds of silence passed before Jimmy let loose a long sigh. “I... guess we are,” he answered, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“I’m here to spread a word. Simple as that.” Spread a word? This already wasn’t looking like it’d be a good interaction. Or a short one. “I don’t know how much you kids know yer politics, but the way Congress has been actin’ up lately scares me. Can ya believe they actually tried ta push the assault weapons ban back through?”

It seemed like their initial skepticism was well-deserved, and while Flannery didn’t have a complete grasp of the topic given she was a foreigner, Jimmy did. “Yeah, they tried to ban people from owning freakin’ AKs ‘cause of all the school shootings recently. They’re so evil.” He could feel Flannery’s silent approval of his sarcasm already.

The old man shook his head. “No, no, no, you don’t get it, kid. Ain’t you ever opened up a history book? Read the Unovan Constitution? We as Unovans have got an Arceus-given right to own firearms for-”

“Hold up, hold up, hold up, lemme stop ya right there.” Jimmy punctuated his interruption by dismissively waving his hand, a motion he’d rehearsed to perfection over the years. “‘Arceus-given right?’ Man, all that’s tellin’ me is that you’re delusional. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got this strange feeling that even if Arceus actually was this higher power like ya say, it really wouldn’t give a crap about humanity that much, let alone Unova in particular.”

Flannery couldn’t help but agree. “Jimmy’s got a point, y’know. Hoenn has pretty strict gun laws, and we don’t have nearly as much of a problem with shootings as you guys.”

“Ya don’t have a say in this, girly. This here’s a topic fer Unovans an’ Unovans only. As fer you, girly-boy...” The man rose from his seat with surprising fluidness, and as it turned out, he stood a good six inches above Jimmy.

Not that this fazed him in the slightest. “Oh, cute, now you’re resortin’ to insulting my appearance. Because as everybody knows, I better be covered in body hair and be a real man if I wanna get anywhere in life, right?” Jimmy promptly raised a clean-shaven arm towards the man, with one specific finger raised.

While he really should’ve expected it, the fist that rocketed into Jimmy’s jaw seconds later caught him completely off guard. “I thought yer parents would’ve taught ya to respect yer elders... guess not, hm?” Jimmy instinctively reached a hand to his jaw to try and ease the stinging pain that followed, but the man wouldn’t let him, shoving him back with surprising force. “Sometimes it’s just better ta keep yer mouth shut, kid.”

Safe to say, Jimmy wasn’t happy about it in the slightest. “Time to thrash, Haunter!” he cried, hurling the Great Ball in front of him. The Gas Pokemon looked back towards his trainer upon materializing, but a pointed finger shifted his attention right to the old man. He’d been in this situation many times before - an escalated argument turned Pokemon battle - and was ready right out of the gate, making a knuckle-cracking motion to intimidate. Even if there was nothing to crack.

“Well, ain’t you headstrong? Fine then... Duosion!” The old man responded with a Poke Ball of his own, one that released a strange, seemingly embryo-like Pokemon that floated a couple feet off the ground. Sure enough, Jimmy’s Pokedex piped up seconds later. “Duosion. Mitosis Pokemon. When their two divided brains think the same thoughts, their psychic power is maximized.”

Before Jimmy got the chance to bark out the first attack, Flannery cut in. “Jimmy, you want me to get Torkoal in on this? I mean, considering how powerful Duosion’s attacks can be, and how Haunter’s weak to Psychic-types...”

“Flannery. Relax. Haunter and I got this.” Pulling out his Pokedex, Jimmy scanned over the available data for Duosion. From the looks of things, it actually appeared quite similar to Haunter; they were both fragile, but packed quite a punch with special attacks. Alright... so this is gonna be decided by who gets hit first. Fortunately, Haunter had one thing that Duosion apparently didn’t: speed.

“Alright, Haunter, let’s start this off right! Confuse Ray!” Haunter opened up one hand as a flashing rainbow-colored sphere of light formed within his palm. Without hesitation, the Gas Pokemon thrust the ghostly appendage forward, turning the sphere into a thin beam that launched forward without hesitation.

With a grunt, the old man ordered, “Duosion, split up.” Ripples began to form in its squishy membrane, and soon enough, it appeared that Duosion was slowly stretching wider. Just before the Confuse Ray made contact, however, a flllooop! resonated throughout the darkened parking lot.

Duosion had indeed split in half, each of its facial features halved on both sides. Now that there were two targets, Haunter’s ray was unsure of what to do, swirling around in a figure-eight fashion around Duosion’s two halves. While Jimmy was a bit frustrated - and it showed through his gritted teeth - he couldn’t help but begrudgingly admire the unique strategy. Clever bastard... looks like it’s two-on-one now.

Eventually, the Confuse Ray gave up and drilled into Duosion’s left half, leaving it in a seemingly drunken daze. “Yes! It chose the right side!” Jimmy cocked an eyebrow as he turned back to a clearly-excited Flannery, who promptly offered an explanation. “Jimmy, you know how the left half of the brain is the analytic side, right? In Duosion, since they have two brains, that role’s assigned to their entire left brain. Now that Haunter confused it, it’ll be practically unable to strategize!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” A simple reply, but it got the point across.

Flannery rolled her eyes, took a deep breath, and called out, “Duosion has no idea what it’s doing! Kick its ass!”

She made a valid point for sure. Jimmy turned his attention back to the battle; in the time span that their conversation took up, Duosion had merged back into its full form, yet still appeared to be bewildered by the Confuse Ray. Nevertheless, the old man ordered, “Psybeam, and ya better make it a good’un!” A series of multicolored rings formed in front of the Mitosis Pokemon, ready to be fired off... yet when it did, Duosion sent itself catapulting backwards, actually hitting the asphalt and tumbling until it hit the curb.

That didn’t mean the Psybeam failed to launch. “Outta the way, Haunter!” Haunter floated off to the side, dodging the attack with ease. “Now, Night Shade!” A menacing ruby glow began to protrude from his eyes as a pitch-black aura engulfed both of the Gas Pokemon’s disembodied hands.

“Haaawn... hawn-HAH!” In the blink of an eye, Haunter’s hands joined together as he formed his fingers into the shape of a pistol. With a firing gesture complete with recoil, the dark aura was sent hurtling towards Duosion’s upended form at a blazing speed. It connected without giving the Mitosis Pokemon any chance to dodge, creating a shroud of darkness around it once the beam hit.

Once the darkness cleared, it became clear that Duosion had been knocked clean out. “Dammit!” cursed the old man under his breath, holding out its Poke Ball to return it. Once that was done with, he turned back to face Jimmy and Flannery, stowing Duosion’s ball inside his jacket. “Ya won this time, I’ll give that to ya. But listen, girly-boy... one of these days, yer gonna provoke the wrong man, and yer gonna wish ya never decided to become a trainer.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jimmy sarcastically responded as Haunter returned to his side, offering a fist bump in an effort to ease his trainer’s emotions. And while he accepted it, the intended goal wasn’t reached. “And if ya call me ‘girly-boy’ one more time, we’ll go again. Without Pokemon... now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta get supplies.” With that, he passed right by the old man, Haunter and Flannery trailing behind.

As the PokeMart’s automatic doors parted to welcome them inside, Flannery placed a hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. “Hey, Jimmy... next time, maybe tone it back on the post-match banter, alright? That guy did seem pretty fond of guns...”

“Yeah... yeah, fine.” Jimmy didn’t appear to be too happy, though you really couldn’t blame him. He turned back towards Flannery and Haunter; specifically, the Gas Pokemon seemed to be wondering how his trainer was feeling so overcast after the battle. “Let’s just get what we need and get to a Pokemon Center, alright?”

Flannery gave a small nod in agreement. “That’d be for the best... as for supplies, you’re probably going to want to prioritize Super Potions and Full Heals for the time being. And I know you said Ms. Juniper gave you those Poke Balls, but if you want to pick up a couple Great Balls or something-”

To her credit, her rambling did manage to coax laughter from Jimmy. “Alright, alright, relax. Jeez, I thought one of the reasons I was sent off in the first place was to get away from Ma.” Flannery’s lips curled into a slight smile; his mood was improving already. Hopefully it would last.​

APRIL 3, 2005, 11:56 PM
CENTRAL SATHINGTON POKEMON CENTER, SATHINGTON, UNOVA​

It wasn’t too difficult finding the Pokemon Center - as most experienced trainers (such as Flannery herself) could attest to, they were never too far from a PokeMart. Some newer ones in larger cities even had express counters built into them. One thing that all Pokemon Centers shared, though, were their trainer accommodations. As long as you showed your trainer card, you’d be able to stay one night in one of the Center’s hotel-like rooms free of charge.

The problem was that, due to the large influx of new trainers migrating from Nuvema, Jimmy and Flannery were forced to share a room meant for a solo trainer. It certainly didn’t lack anything a two-trainer room would have - a TV and microwave each stood at the ready, for example - it was just smaller than normal. Oh, and there was only one bed.

Currently residing upon said bed was Flannery, who’d long since changed into her pajamas, a simple black racerback with loose flannel-patterned pants. The television was tuned to Unova’s leading music channel, yet she wasn’t all too interested in the music video currently playing. Instead, she elected to direct her attention towards Torkoal, who sat in her lap with his legs retracted. “You handled yourself really well when we met Jimmy and Haunter earlier, y’know,” she complimented. As expected, Torkoal’s answer was a grunt - though not as harsh-sounding as usual.

As the song on TV faded out, the incessant buzzing of an electric razor from the bathroom became even more noticeable. That’s gotta suck for him... first day of his journey and an old man berates him for not looking ‘manly’ enough. Then again, every cloud had its silver lining, and in Jimmy’s case it was his first victory in battle - as far as Flannery knew, at least.

The buzzing fortunately died down after a few seconds, and Jimmy emerged from the bathroom not long after that sporting the undershirt for the basketball jersey he’d been wearing, as well as simple purple shorts. While his hair would normally be spiked up, it was late and he’d just showered, so limply from the top of his head it hung. He began to speak upon sitting down on the bed right across from his companion. “Hey, uh, Flannery... there’s nothin’ wrong with how I look, right?”

“That old guy got to you?” Jimmy nodded with a drawn-out sigh. “Hey... try not to worry about it, alright? You look fine as far as I’m concerned... there’s nothing wrong with looking androgynous at all.” At the very least, Flannery was making a conscious effort to comfort him, which was really all he wanted.

Yet, what she said... sure, it was true. Everyone had the right to look how they wanted. Public perception was a much different tale. Pulling his bag up onto the bed, Jimmy answered, “I know there’s nothin’ wrong with it. The problem’s that... see, I don’t really know how it is in Hoenn, but people are kinda big on gender conformity here. I’m sayin’ that there’s a lot of pressure, especially up north.”

“Yeah, I got it. Everything’s worse up north. You only said that about a hundred thousand times on the way here.” Her tone was lighthearted, but it did get on her nerves after a while. “Huh... y’know, you really look a lot more like a girl without your hair spiked.”

“I do? Hold on...” Just as Jimmy moved to head back to the bathroom mirror, however, Flannery pulled one of her own from her bag; she most likely needed it to keep her admittedly-ridiculous hair in check. Jimmy took it in his hand and looked his reflection over, and without the gel practically turning his hair into a needlestack, it actually reached down to around his chin. The most surprising part? It looked quite nice. “...holy crap, you’re right.”

In the meantime, Flannery held up Torkoal’s ball to return him, giggling a bit at Jimmy’s amazement. “You’ve really never noticed before?” she questioned.

“No, not really... guess either I’ve never grown my hair out this long or I’m just that oblivious.” Jimmy’s eyes shifted to the clock - it was past midnight now... maybe it was about time to wrap things up for the night. “Hey Flannery, before we go to bed... what’d ya think of that battle earlier?”

Right, the battle... to Jimmy’s credit, he’d done incredibly well for something on-the-spot like that - both times, too! Upon taking a couple minutes to think back, Flannery answered, “It was pretty impressive. I like how you and Haunter have a sort of no-holds-barred street attitude towards battling... not to mention, Confuse Ray is a fantastic attack.”

Jimmy wasn’t exactly expecting to be showered in much praise, so her compliments came as a pleasant surprise. “Really, ya mean that? ‘Cause I honestly thought we got kinda lucky with the Confuse Ray goin’ into Duosion’s left brain and all...” While talking, he dropped his bag back to the floor, yet didn't scoot over to the bed's other end just yet. "Uh... actually, I just realized this, but if ya want me to sleep in that armchair-"​

"Oh." As much as she tried to not make a big deal out of it, Flannery's cheeks tinted a slight shade of scarlet. "Er... I guess if you keep your distance, it'll be fine."

Jimmy's immediate reaction was to raise his eyebrows in surprise. He'd thought for sure he'd be banished from the bed... it seemed that wouldn't be the case. Remember, Jimmy, keep your distance. Giving his shoulders a small shrug, he crawled towards the pillow opposite Flannery, pulling the covers over both of their bodies soon after. As it turned out, her blushing was contagious.

To her credit, though, she picked up their conversation right where it took a detour. “Anyway... we all get a little lucky sometimes, right? But you’re right, it’s getting late.” Flannery reached over towards the lamp by the bed’s side and flipped it off, leaving them in the dark. “Jimmy... I’m pretty happy I met you, to be honest. You seem like a really cool guy to be around... so I was thinking... I know we only really said we were gonna come to Sathington together, but... you wanna stay together heading out?”

If the answer were any more obvious, there would be no purpose for a question. “Hell yeah!” enthusiastically returned Jimmy, rolling over to face her. “Yeah, that’d be awesome! Plus, since you already kinda did this... I guess you could be my mentor of sorts, right?”

“Hehe... guess I could. But let’s focus on that tomorrow, alright? See ya in the morning...” And with that, the two shut their eyes and slowly began to drift off to sleep. Now knowing they had each other’s back only made it all the easier.
​

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

Author Notes:
-Sathington doesn't have an exact inspiration, but I imagined a smaller New England city when writing it. Think of Manchester, New Hampshire or Portland, Maine.
-Pokemon Centers and PokeMarts are operated by the same company that receives funding from the Pokemon League, who in turn receive funding from the Unovan government. This takes place before most Pokemon Centers had PokeMart Express shops built into them.
-Great, two chapters and the feedback well has already run dry. C'mon, guys, don't make this another OBC.​

 

[Beth Pavell]

Ok, back for Chapter Two

Technical Accuracy/Style
Let's see ... I wasn't completely sold on Ricky's accent, which rather points out the main problem with transcribing accents. It was still readable, so not at all a disaster, but I had trouble hearing those sounds in my head. Difficult territory - I scrapped my attempt to add Black Country dialect into The Long Walk because I couldn't figure out how to transcribe the sounds in a way that would be easily picked up.

Story
What you might call a cliché chapter that doesn't mind that it's a cliché. I mean, the business of getting a trainer card and the paraphernalia of training was reasonably paced with reasonable detail on it, so it doesn't really matter that the events themselves are nothing innovative.

It's the second scene, with Flannery entering the equation that I think needs work. In short, it's all so very friendly. There's an element of that anime-esque "Hi! We've just met and the first thing I tell you is my hopes and dreams!" about the conversation - the information needs to come out in a more natural way. What Flannery could reasonably see in Jimmy is a decent stranger, which isn't really much of a base for moving into the temporary travel to Sathington.

Setting
Nothing wrong with the lab. Nothing wrong with invented towns, hell, it's usually a good sign if they turn up in a journey fic. The actual description of Route 1 could use some polishing. When you're making a departure from the location as it is in game, you need to be clearer as to how. I got the impression that the road was disused before the mention of cars on it turned up.

Characters
I'm not sure whether Ricky is intended to be this fic's version of Cheren or whether he's a character for the scene. I reckon I'd be ok with it either way. I had a feeling that Flannery would be turning up sooner rather than later, and actually, I was expecting something more obviously energetic. You know, the whole "Fiery Fire-type trainer" thing. I prefer this version of it with her merely being on the peppy side.

Final Thoughts
It's not bad. In need of some polishing here and there, yes, but not bad

 

[Crimson&Gold]

Sorry for not posting sooner, I've been busy. Right now I only have the time to read the second chapter but I shall update this post later to include any of my comments on the third when I can get round to it.

A necessary albeit a bit of an elementary chapter however Jimmy remains an entertaining enough character to set it apart from the crowd. Besides, it was well written and the pop culture references are still entertaining. The presentation of Ricky who I'm assuming is a potential rival figure of sorts was nice and I enjoyed seeing a younger Juniper in your story.

The introduction of Flannery caught me off guard. I find it interesting that she's apparently not a novice trainer: I believe that's a pretty rare dynamic to have between two trainers in a journeyfic. Kind of curious to see how much of an impact that has later in the story. I would have to echo Pavell however and say that there was something a little forced perhaps about Flannery and Jimmy's meeting. Them decided on travelling together, even on a temporary basis, did come across as somewhat sudden.

Overall it was an enjoyable installment. I'm looking forward to when the journey really kicks off for Jimmy.

 

[Jersey Jimmy]

Thanks for the feedback!

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-CHAPTER FOUR: WELCOME TO THE SHOW-

APRIL 4, 2005, 8:42 AM
REGIONAL ROUTE 1 BETWEEN SATHINGTON AND ACCUMULA, UNOVA​

Jimmy and Flannery couldn’t have possibly gotten out of Sathington faster. The minute they had finished their morning routines, the two grabbed breakfast from a nearby Burger Czar and immediately set back out onto Route 1, this time taking the portion heading north towards Accumula. Jimmy didn’t even get to go to the courthouse and test the triple set.

This half of Route 1 differed from the other, however, given that no vehicles traversed its similarly-cracked and pothole-laden road. In fact, Jimmy explained it to his newfound partner as they walked down it, kicking along a chunk of asphalt along the way. “...so basically, Flannery, since they don’t realize that you’re s’posed to repair roads, they just abandoned this one and built a new highway between Sathington and Accumula.”

“Explains why it was fenced off, then. Actually, didn’t one of those signs say there’s a town called Bridge Out in two miles? We could stop there for lunch!” Both trainers erupted with laughter. Even if there was nothing else to do, Flannery always seemed to have a relevant joke or two on standby.

Their conversation paused for a few moments as they examined their surroundings with a bit more detail. Trees still lined both sides of the highway, yet seemed to be a bit less saturated - perhaps it was due to their dreary surroundings. Every now and then random debris popped up, though it was mostly useless junk. Plastic shopping bags, shattered beer bottles, and broken Poke Balls were just a few examples.

Eventually, Flannery spoke up again. “Y’know, Jimmy, you should probably try catching a Pokemon soon. Haunter’s not gonna win you every battle... doesn’t the Opelucid gym leader have a Hydreigon? He’d get obliterated by that thing!”

“Ya don’t think I know that already?” Jimmy carelessly tossed his empty soda cup behind his back to join the rest of the trash lining the route, earning him a small grimace from his partner. “I know that I ain’t gonna breeze through Unova with one Pokemon. Nobody could do that. ‘Sides, you can’t even challenge Lisbeth without havin’ seven other badges. I got time to prepare.”

With an eye roll, Flannery outstretched her arm to stop Jimmy before scanning the immediate area. “Listen, I’ll help you find a Pokemon, but you’re gonna have to do some work, alright? You take the other side of the highway, I’ve got this one.”

Jimmy called out Haunter almost instantaneously - after all, if he was going to catch a Pokemon, simply throwing balls at it wouldn’t work. Well, when I caught Haunter... no, wait, he wanted to come with me. “Gotcha... I gave ya my Pokegear number, right? Call me if ya find somethin’.” He gave himself a running start towards the concrete that divided the highway’s two roads, managing to clear it by swinging his legs up to the side. Haunter merely hovered over.

“Alright, ya ready, Haunter?” he asked the Gas Pokemon, who replied with a confident cackle. They began crossing the road as Jimmy dug into his bag, pulling out one of the Great Balls that Flannery had pressured him into buying back at the PokeMart. “Y’know, this better be worth it. I coulda used that ten bucks on somethin’ we don’t already have.” Like a stylus for my Pokegear, he tacked on in his thoughts rather bitterly. What happened to the one he got with it remained an unsolved mystery.

They walked parallel down the barrier of red firs and river birches before coming to a small clearing. Making sure to remain as quiet as possible, Jimmy slipped through it while Haunter merely phased through the multitude of branches with a smile that could be seen as either mischievous or arrogant depending on who you asked.

As it turned out, the woods weren’t as dark as expected. A sufficient amount of sunlight poured through the trees and made the area - while still dark - visible to the naked eye, meaning the flashlight in Jimmy’s bag would remain unused. “Hey, y’know what? I think my Pokedex might have somethin’ that tells ya what Pokemon are around here...” He pulled the device from his pocket, quickly scrolling through the menu. “Uh... let’s see here, type effectiveness, evolutionary stones, gender differences...”

In the meantime, Haunter began to float off a bit, feeling the need to scour for wild Pokemon on his own. It wasn’t as dark as he would’ve liked, but considering the other option was the bright morning sun back on the highway, it was a welcome change of scenery. His favorite time to be out of the ball was the dead of night, after all.

A faint chittering soon entered the ghost’s earshot. Haunter peeked around a tree in the noise’s direction to be greeted by what appeared to be a heated lecture - by a Pokemon, of course. A Scrafty stood before around six Scraggies, appearing to be quite upset with the group it supposedly led. Through its exaggerated and hostile gestures, all made with one arm in an effort to keep its pants-like loose skin up with the other, just what it was yelling about was nigh-impossible for Haunter - who was able to understand other Pokemon’s speech patterns relatively well - to make out. “Hawn...” he muttered, scratching his head.

Haunter suddenly remembered what he was supposed to be doing with a snap of his fingers - he was scouting out the woods for wild Pokemon, and he’d found some! However, a “Scrrra!” interrupted him before he could head back. Facing the gang of Scraggies once again, it became clear they’d noticed him. The unamused expressions on their faces made it even clearer they were quite a bit upset about their turf being invaded.

Before he knew it, Haunter was fleeing. The gang of Scraggies trailed right behind him, though each one was slowed a bit due to the need to hold up the skin over their legs. Fortunately, however, it appeared that at least the Scrafty had stayed behind.

“Haaawn!” the Gas Pokemon cried out upon spotting Jimmy. Having given up on finding the feature he was looking for, he’d slumped down against a tree in anticipation of Haunter’s return; one thing he didn’t expect was for him to return in a panic and having angered a bunch of Scraggies.

Jimmy instantly leaped up and held one of the empty Great Balls at the ready. “Sonuvabitch, Haunter, ya couldn’t just lead one of ‘em back here?! Now we gotta deal with six and-” His Pokegear suddenly began ringing, and as bad of an idea as it probably was, Jimmy took the call. “Yeah?”

“Hey, it’s me.” Jimmy’s nerves calmed a bit upon hearing Flannery’s voice resonate from the phone. “I was originally gonna say that I found you a Purrloin, but... weeell, upon further inspection, Torkoal got a bit too carried away with his Flamethrower.”

A long sigh escaped his lips. He really didn’t want to think about what that entailed right now. “Right.... Flannery, I’m kinda busy over here, so-” His leg rose from the grassy ground just before one of the Scraggies tried to Low Sweep it. “-I’ll have to call ya back, alright?” Before she was able to respond, the call had already been ended. Jimmy promptly turned his attention back to the Scraggies, who had begun to overwhelm Haunter - he’d hit one with Night Shade before being attacked from behind by another, rinse and repeat.

“Alright... ugh, crap... Haunter, try floatin’ up and hitting as many of ‘em as ya can with Will-O-Wisp.” Haunter rose a few meters, enough for none of the Scraggies to touch him. At first, Jimmy was a bit confused as to why he didn’t just fire off the attack - that is, until he noticed Haunter’s unamused look towards him. He was still in the blast radius. “Oh... right.”

It wasn’t long before Jimmy ran off into the woods, and now that the coast was clear, Haunter snapped his fingers and conjured up another ghostly-blue flame. “Hawn-HAH!” he cried as it plummeted to the ground below, exploding in all directions upon impact. All of the Scraggies were hit by the attack, and while at first it didn’t appear to have lasting effects, their bodies were briefly taken over by the same fire after a few seconds.

“Good!” his trainer called out from the thick trees. “Night Shade!” Haunter made his pistol gesture as the dark aura surrounded his hands, and no time, he fired off three bursts in quick succession. Three of his adversaries were taken out like clockwork, hurtling back into the woods they came from.

As this happened, both the Gas Pokemon and his trainer failed to notice that one of the Scraggies had slinked off... and considering how it ended up on a tree branch at Haunter’s level, they probably wished they would have. Jimmy called out, “Haunter, watch behind ya!” but it was a bit too late, as the Scraggy leapt at him and delivered a devastating mid-air Feint Attack from behind.

Haunter didn’t stand a chance; he immediately spiraled towards the ground, crashing onto the grass below. “Dammit!” The three Scraggies that remained surrounded Haunter’s prone form, each one chittering threateningly in turn. Ah, crap, what now? It ain’t like I got any other-

“Torkoal, Flamethrower, let’s go!” Before Jimmy could finish his thought, a stream of searing orange flames rocketed through the trees and rammed directly into two of the Scraggies - once it dissipated, they were nowhere in sight. He looked over to see that Flannery had finally decided to show up, and she glanced right back at him. “What’s the matter, can’t deal with a couple of ‘em by yourself?”

Shooting up from his slumped-against-the-tree position, Jimmy shot back, “There were six, an’ they all had a type advantage!” He would’ve gone on, but the blue-and-red ball still in his hand caught his attention first. Wait a sec... if five of ‘em are gone, and the last one’s burned... The final Scraggy’s burn affliction flared up again, causing it to flop onto the ground.

Jimmy walked out of the trees, Great Ball at the ready. “Stand back... I got this.” He cupped the ball in both hands and stood sideways towards the Scraggy just like Andy Bronson, the Driftveil Drillers’ ace pitcher. Kicking his leg out, he yelled, “One-two pitch!” before hurling a near-perfect slider at a good sixty-five miles an hour.

It hit Scraggy in the back without much trouble, causing the lizard to be morphed into red energy and sucked inside. “Think that’s good enough, Flannery?” asked Jimmy, looking back towards the person who’d given him this opportunity in the first place.

She crossed her arms and tilted her head curiously towards the ball while Torkoal grunted, spewing out a little puff of smoke. “Don’t know... guess we’ve gotta wait and see.” The ball shook once, indicating the Scraggy inside was struggling to escape. The motion repeated again, and then once more...

...before it became motionless with the sound of a ding!, indicating a capture. The first of Jimmy’s journey. “Ahaha, put it in the books!” He ran towards the ball with glee, picking it up and happily tossing it up into the air before catching it again.

“Hey, you’re welcome,” Flannery interrupted, walking towards him. “Seriously, though, congratulations! Maybe you should let it out, I’ve got some Burn Heal in my bag.”

“Sure thing... c’mon, Scraggy.” Jimmy lobbed the ball back onto the grass, releasing Scraggy in a flash. As Flannery dug out one of her spray bottles of Burn Heal, his Pokedex piped up - a bit late, perhaps. “Scraggy. Shedding Pokemon. Its skin has a rubbery elasticity, so it can reduce damage by defensively pulling its skin up to its neck.”

After a few seconds, Flannery found one of the bottles, colored a familiar bright green - each status medicine was color-coded. “Hold still, Scraggy...” She aimed the bottle towards Scraggy and gave it a couple quick spritzes. Soon enough, the burn from Haunter’s Will-O-Wisp was completely gone.

As Jimmy kneeled down to greet the lizard, his Pokedex beeped again. “This Scraggy is female, has a Brave nature, and knows the following moves...” The screen switched to a list containing all of the moves Scraggy knew. Headbutt, Brick Break, Feint Attack... the usual suspects.

“Huh... you’ve got some pretty sweet moves, Scraggy.” Putting his Pokedex away, Jimmy looked up towards the freshly-caught Pokemon and extended his hand. “Nice to meet ya.”

However, it didn’t seem like Scraggy was too fond of it, as instead of taking the handshake, she defiantly crossed her arms and turned away with an unamused chitter. “Eh? Somethin’ wrong?” Jimmy tried tapping her shoulder, but Scraggy didn’t budge.

It didn’t take long before Flannery kneeled down as well. “Scraggies are a very proud species,” she explained. “It’s gonna be a little while before she’ll come to accepting you.”

“Ah, alright... well, I guess there ain’t much we can do ‘bout it right now. Scraggy, return.” Jimmy held out the Great Ball that would house her, retracting Scraggy with ease. Haunter finally hovered over not long after, appearing quite dazed. “And as for you... ya did good, but ya need the rest, too.” And with that, Jimmy grabbed Haunter’s ball and returned him as well.

Before Jimmy could rise back to his feet, Flannery held her hand out towards him. “Hey, to be honest, that was pretty good... y’know, having Haunter float up high before using Will-O-Wisp. Great coverage.”

For a moment, Jimmy considered getting up himself; he hadn’t really been hurt during the battle, after all. No, you idiot, it’s a friendly gesture. Accept it. With a small sigh, he took Flannery’s hand as she helped him get back up. “Yeah... I kinda came up with it on the fly. Just quickly thought, ‘hey, what’ll work here?’ and it came up. But, ah... thanks for comin’ over with Torkoal.” Torkoal himself looked up at the mention of his name, grunting towards Jimmy.

“Any time. Anyway, we should probably get going again, c’mon.” It wasn’t until Flannery began to head back out of the woods that Jimmy realized he was still grasping her hand. He quickly pulled away as a faint pink overtook his cheeks, and after taking a few much-needed seconds to regain his composure, he followed right behind her.

Nothing had changed on the abandoned highway once they emerged, but then again, that was to be expected - if something had changed, it most likely wouldn’t have been a good sign. As the two continued right along, Jimmy began thinking of things to discuss. He came across a big one after a while. “Oh, Flannery, I never asked you this! How’d your journey though Hoenn go, exactly?”

With a smile, Flannery reached down to pat Torkoal’s head before beginning to tell her story. “Well, I think you’d kinda expect this, but Torkoal was my first Pokemon. I caught him in the Fiery Path near Lavaridge when I was nine... and you know, looking back, I can’t believe I was allowed to go out there by myself. That’s one of the hottest places in Hoenn.” Jimmy cringed a bit; he already knew about Hoenn being a warm, tropical region, so for Flannery to have gone to one of its hottest places alone must have taken some guts.

“Anyway, a few days after I turned ten, I decided that I’d go down to Mauville and challenge their gym leader, old guy named Wattson. I lost to him the first time, so I decided it’d probably be best to actually train a bit first. So I did, and I ended up catching a Slugma and Numel... and Numel really helped me in that battle. Y’know, Ground being immune to Electric attacks.”

Jimmy laughed a bit, sticking his hands into his jean pockets. “Always fun when your opponent doesn’t have an answer for ya. Y’know how many times Haunter’s fought a Normal- or Fighting-type and they literally couldn’t touch him? Good times, I’ll tell ya that much.”

“Speaking of that, I’ve always wanted to catch a Pokemon in the Litwick family. Maybe I’ll get the chance here!” She spoke with such eager anticipation, and the way she was practically skipping along made it tough for Torkoal to catch up - which she must have noticed, as Flannery returned the tortoise to his ball soon enough. It made Jimmy’s lips curl into a smile; it was nice to be alongside someone who was so positive for a change.

“Hey, if ya wanna try goin’ into a graveyard at the dead of night to do that, be my guest... I’ve already got my own Ghost-type.” Jimmy patted Haunter’s Great Ball, as if Flannery wouldn’t know what he was talking about already.

They seemed to lose focus of their original topic of conversation, but it didn’t matter much to either; if they were enjoying each other’s company, who were they to argue? That is, until Flannery remembered a very important detail. “I just thought of something... that sign said the bridge was out, right? Then... how the hell are we gonna get across?”

Jimmy shot her a playfully condescending look in response. “It ain’t a river, it’s a valley. Not even that deep, anyways.”

“Oh... well, that solves a lot of problems, then! Like how neither of us have Pokemon that can ferry us across water... or how Torkoal would sink like a brick.” Flannery shuddered at the terrifying thought; some things were better left unsaid.

“Right! Oh, an’ on that topic... remind me to catch a Water-type at some point.” And so, the duo continued on towards Accumula with a new Pokemon by their side - albeit still a bit too proud to accept her capture. Hopefully they’d fix that little issue soon enough, because after Accumula came Striaton, and with it the first gym of their travels.

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Author Notes:
-Jimmy was originally going to explain just what happened to the broken bridge. I decided against it because this is a relatively lighthearted chapter... y'know, aside from the whole "Torkoal accidentally barbecues a Purrloin" thing.
-Scraggy isn't going to be like Ash's Charizard. That'd be stupid. I did briefly think of having Jimmy somehow catch the Scrafty and having that be like Ash's Charizard, but... no. We don't need another damn Ash's Charizard.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Chapter Three and Four down

Technical Accuracy/Style
I think I've managed to figure out what's been bugging me about the prose. The narrative flicks back and forth between viewpoints a lot, and it starts to get jarring when it involves character's thoughts in the narrative. It is harder work to stick to one viewpoint in, say, any given scene or chapter, but it does tend to produce better results.

Story
Bit of a variation on the usual first battle – or even, first Evil Team battle – there. I kind of wish he'd been less of a jerk, if I'm honest, but there it is. Using Duosion's biology with a bit of expansion was a nice touch. Reminds of that one early episode of XY where Clemont's Magneton dodges in a similar fashion. One thing I did notice is that you subtly ran into the “Pokédex as a Free Action” problem, as I like to call it. The timing feels off in that battle – the 'dex seems to teleport into Jimmy's hand, and then his opponent obligingly waits while he uses it. It's not the worst thing you could do by a long way, but keep an eye on it lest it become a habit.

Setting
Not bad. Burger Czar was an unexpected little joke. I wonder just how straight you're going to play the Unova=America thing. Don't get me wrong, I meant what I previously said when it comes to worldbuilding. The mark of a good fantasy is putting a creative spin on where the inspiration comes from.

Characters
Flannery and Jimmy really are too chummy for people who have almost literally just met. I mean, I can suspend my disbelief when it comes to characters making friends quickly in a journeyfic – it's part of the genre – but there is a limit to how far you can push it. Knowing that you're something of a Flannery fan, I can't help but wonder whether you've got a subplot burning a hole in your notes.

Final Thoughts
In general the pacing and progression of the story isn't bad. The one obvious onion in the ointment is in the events that relate to Flannery and Jimmy, as I've already touched on. I'll be interested to see what happens when Jimmy starts to run into his first real challenges. His previous experience as a casual battler is enough to have reasonably carried him this far (And actually, I quite like to see a trainer who at least knows the basics of the sport. Maybe my sample is biased, but there seems to be an oddly high number of protagonists whose idea of training is "Uh, kill it, I guess?") - but then he also hasn't run into any real trainers either

 

[Jersey Jimmy]

-CHAPTER FIVE: SUGGESTIONS-

APRIL 4, 2005, 7:36 PM
BIG STOUTLAND’S HOT DOGS, ACCUMULA, UNOVA​

At the very least, Accumula wasn’t nearly as boring as Sathington. For one, the city’s terrain was incredibly varied and rose and fell quite abruptly at times, and there were certain points where, with the aid of a makeshift bridge, you could be on grass one minute and a nearby building’s rooftop the next.

It may have looked cool, but to a pedestrian, having to walk up a multitude of hilly sidewalks could grow tiring really fast. Given that Jimmy and Flannery already had to deal with traversing the valley on Route 1 due to the broken bridge, things only became worse for them, and the two eventually reached a point where it felt like their legs were going to shatter like glass.

Fortunately, that turned out to be a non-issue. They soon enough managed to discover a restaurant with a cartoonish sign out front and a colorful building. That was naturally more than enough to convince Flannery, who got Jimmy to agree with her choice based on one simple fact: it was a hot dog restaurant.

“This is way better than what we had for lunch!” joyfully exclaimed the Fire-type trainer before taking a bite out of a spicy sausage, split open and filled with sauerkraut. All the while, she subconsciously tapped her heel against the checkered floor in time to a ska track playing over the speaker system.

Jimmy laughed a bit in response - all of the walking had made him a bit grumpy (it’s tough to skate uphill, after all), but the combination of the atmosphere, food, and music seemed to lift his spirits. “Probably ‘cause we didn’t have anything for lunch.”

Flannery cocked an eyebrow as she gulped down some of her soda. “What are you talking about? We both ate something, didn’t we?”

“I don’t think potato chips count as ‘lunch,’ Flannery...” With a relaxed sigh, Jimmy leaned back in his chair and took a few seconds to take in their surroundings. The entire building had a supposedly retro flavor to it, but he didn’t really feel it was retro enough. They were five years removed from the nineties, yet here was Big Stoutland’s with brightly-multicolored stripes painted on the walls and Reel Big Frillish blaring throughout. Then again, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing; the place may have been a bit outdated, but at least it was fun.

Then again, there were still things they had to discuss, and Jimmy felt like it was as good a time as any to bring up one that had popped into his head. “Yo, Flannery, can I ask ya a question real quick?” A rhetorical question, as evidenced by his immediate continuation. “Listen, I appreciate that you’ve kinda taken me along with ya and all, but I was thinkin’... do ya think that maybe you were a bit too quick to invite me to come along?”

“Too quick? No... no, I don’t think so.” She finished off the last of her sausage before digging into the pile of waffle fries sitting just beside it. “It wasn’t like you looked dangerous or anything, right? I can understand staying away if you were wearing, like, gang-related clothing, but-”

Jimmy held a hand up to stop her; it wasn’t an unfriendly gesture by any means, but if he was going to get his side of the story across, he had to get Flannery to hear him out... and, perhaps, focus a bit more on him than her food. “That ain’t the point. Point is, ya had no idea who I was, right? So ya just walked up to me laughin’ ‘cause I bailed... I ain’t mad, just... kinda curious. What if - and I probably wouldn’t do this anyway - but what if I... well... got real pissed and attacked ya?”

Aside from the music, an awkward silence passed between the two. Flannery let a waffle fry fall from her grasp back into the pile, drumming her fingers against the table. “Um... what are you trying to ask me?” she inquired, her vision not quite meeting his.

“I guess I’m askin’ ya why you’re so open.” Conversely, Jimmy took the final bite of his hot dog. “I mean... again, maybe people were friendlier in Hoenn. But we already talked ‘bout this, hell, that corn-fed inbred down in Sathington showed ya. Unova ain’t sunshine and rainbows, Flannery. We just had to cross a valley ‘cause a bridge collapsed and they just left it sittin’ there.” After all, the fact that there were cars - or rather, the wrecked corpses of them - in the valley was all too true.

Flannery’s eyes wandered down towards the table, probably the first time since they’d met that she looked so morose. “A-are you... saying I’m naive or something?”

“What? No, ‘course not! I just... eh...” Jimmy sifted through his brain in search of something to say that wouldn’t hurt her. As much as he hated to face it, though, that wasn’t coming easily. “...don’t you think you were too... well, forward?” Was that going to work? He’d be lying if he said he didn’t hope it would.

For a few moments, there was no response. One of the restaurant’s workers did come over and take their tray now filled up with trash, and Jimmy gave a polite nod towards them, but Flannery remained silent.

A long, deep breath marked the end of it. “M-maybe you’re right, Jimmy,” she finally answered, looking back up towards him - her eyes were dry, so it wasn’t like she was on the verge of tears. “Yeah, I guess I might have a tendency to be a bit too friendly... I’ve had people call me naive before, though, and gullible. At least I’m not overly negative, though, right?”

“Yep. I’m already enough of a pessimist as is. Don’t really need someone backin’ me up there... c’mon, let’s bail, alright?” Jimmy seemed to waste no time, as he rose from his chair, threw his bag on his back, and pushed it in all in one swift motion. Flannery got up soon after and trailed right behind him as they made their way out of Big Stoutland’s.

It may have been the middle of spring, but even in southern Unova, it got quite chilly at night. The strong breeze - blowing right towards them as they exited the restaurant, in fact - didn’t help matters in the slightest. Flannery, whose shirt left her midriff exposed to the elements, responded immediately by wrapping her arms around herself. “I really should’ve brought a jacket with me,” she mused, visibly shivering.

Jimmy glanced back towards her, feeling a bit sorry for her. Then again, she really should have known how cold Unova could get before coming. “If I had one, I’d give it to ya.” He gestured to the right and promptly began to walk down the sidewalk in that direction. As he did, Jimmy grabbed one of his occupied Great Balls - specifically Scraggy’s - and looked upon it. “So, Scraggy... how am I gonna get her to work with me?”

“I guess the best way would be to let it happen naturally.” Flannery idly brushed her hair with her hands as she walked beside him. “Listen, Scraggies don’t exactly like to listen to their trainers at first, but y’know what they do like? Battling. So if you let her just go out there and do her thing, eventually she’ll start working with you, right?”

Jimmy looked up, thinking about it. The sky glowed a soothing orange as the sun set, though the full effect was mostly obscured by the clouds blanketing it. Would that really be a bright idea, just sending Scraggy out into battle without any sort of... what was it, leadership? Order? She had quite the fighting spirit, so to leave that unchecked in a sanctioned battle...

A long sigh escaped his lips. “I, ah... I ain’t really sure ‘bout that, Flannery. See, before I caught Haunter, he really just screwed with people, but Scraggy... well, this ain’t really an insult ‘cause it’s the entire species, but I’m gonna say it. She’s a punk... and not the good kinda punk, like me.”

“Yeah, guess you’re right... it’d still be nice to try though, right? Anyway, I think the Pokemon Center’s right... around... here!” And sure enough, once the two passed by another brick building, a Pokemon Center revealed itself sitting at a three-way intersection.

Flannery took over the lead as the two jogged up to it - the building itself was made of brick as well, though they were painted in the familiar white-and-orange color scheme of practically every Center. Once they went through the double doors, however, everything was the same as usual.

It didn’t take long for them to get a room - they walked up to the counter, showed the nurse on duty their trainer cards, and she gave them the keycard. Simple and efficient. “Let’s hope we actually got a room with two beds this time,” joked Flannery as she gave her companion a friendly elbow jab. Jimmy snickered in return, though that didn’t mean he didn’t blush - in fact, he looked away just so Flannery wouldn’t notice it.

Good thing she was right. In place of the one twin-sized bed from their room in Sathington lied two separate ones meant for holding one person each, divided by an end table sporting a lamp. Other than that, nothing was new.

“Hey, looks like you were right!” Jimmy instantly ran over to the bed farther from the door, plopping his bag down on it before reaching down to untie his shoelaces. “This one’s mine, yeah... feels bouncier somehow.”

“How’d you know that without testing the other one?” With an eye roll, Flannery put her own bag at what was now her bed’s side. Just like the previous night, she soon took Torkoal’s ball and released the Coal Pokemon, who examined his surroundings and gave nothing more than a grunt and puff of smoke in conclusion.

As Torkoal climbed into her lap, Jimmy took one of his own Great Balls and let Haunter out - or so he thought. In fact, he accidentally reached for the wrong one. Thus, instead of the friendly ghost he’d known for years, Scraggy came out and landed on the mattress. She gave a confused “Scrrr?” as she examined her surroundings until looking up at Jimmy, narrowing her eyes, and tilting her disproportionately huge head to the side - it was a wonder she didn’t topple over.

“Oh... hey, what’s up, Scraggy?” Jimmy’s first thought was that he had to act quick - he felt that if he didn’t do something soon, Scraggy would get right to work on beating him into the mattress. Thus, he reached into his bag again and retrieved the box of shortbread cookies. “Here, try one of these,” he offered, pulling out a few and laying them down in front of the Shedding Pokemon.

Scraggy wasted no time in snatching the top cookie of the stack and munching it down. Her reaction wasn’t immediate; she chewed slowly, possibly to get the most out of its flavor. Once she was finished with that one, however, Scraggy instantly grabbed another. And another. And another. Before Jimmy knew it, all six of the cookies he’d taken out were gone.

“Er... okay, so ya like those, then.” Ignoring Flannery’s giggling, Jimmy tried to put the box back into his bag. Scraggy wasn’t having it, however, and with one jump she took it right out of his hand. “‘Ey, those ain’t yours!” Scraggy didn’t care; she instantly began digging into the box for cookies, eating them as soon as they emerged.

Meanwhile, Flannery had turned to full-blown laughter, and it had gotten to the point where even Torkoal had become amused. “I guess the way to her heart’s through her stomach!” she quipped, now lying flat on her back.

It wasn’t long until Scraggy let out a slightly dejected chitter and tossed away the box, now completely empty. Jimmy could only glare at the lizard. “Y’know those cookies weren’t yours, right?”

What happened next surprised everybody - Scraggy jumped onto Jimmy’s lap and hugged him to the best of her ability. “Eh... so.. you’re happy that I gave ya the cookies?” She nodded. “Alright, then... hey, listen, if I kept gettin’ cookies for ya, would you be open to battling with me?”

The lizard pulled away as she put two fingers to her chin, weighing her options. She still wasn’t too happy about having been caught, and sort of wished to go back to her gang. Then again... Jimmy didn’t seem like too bad a person, and if he was going to supply her with those scrumptious snacks...

She eventually came to a decision. Looking back up towards her trainer, Scraggy gave a confirming nod before holding her fist out invitingly. Jimmy seemed surprised - this was how he gained her trust? By giving her snacks? Well... it wasn’t like he was going to argue. “Happy ya see it my way.” He balled his own hand into a fist and happily pounded it against hers.

“You got a Scraggy to like you by giving her a box of Nidorina Scout cookies. I’m shocked.” The deadpan tone of Flannery interrupting their little moment caused both Jimmy and Scraggy to glare daggers at her. “Hey, I never said that was a bad thing. Congrats, man.”

With an amused scoff, Jimmy reached for Scraggy’s Great Ball. “Thanks... alright, think ya’ve had your fun, Scraggy. I’ll see ya in the morning, alright?” Scraggy replied through her species’ signature chittering, this time sounding quite content. He pressed the button on the device, and soon enough, the Shedding Pokemon was sucked back in as a swirl of red energy.

“Hey, how do these things work, anyways?” The ball dropped back into one of the six pouches on the outside of Jimmy’s bag. “Like... what’s it like for the Pokemon in there? Are they unconscious? ‘Cause that would kinda suck.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works, actually...” Flannery had flipped the television on in the meantime, and given how the current program seemed to be about coal plants, Torkoal was actually quite invested in it. “From what I know, I think the Pokemon’s natural environment is projected into the ball and they hang around in there. It’d probably be some sort of inner-city alleyway for Scraggy, for example.”

Jimmy looked back at the Great Ball. So... virtual reality, essentially? Jeez, some of the things people have invented... Shrugging it off, he hopped up from the bed and started off towards the bathroom. “Anyway... I’m gonna take a shower, yeah?”

“You have fun with that.” Not five seconds later, Jimmy had disappeared into the bathroom. Flannery looked down at Torkoal in the meantime, trying her hardest to think of something to do with the Coal Pokemon. “So... your shell is kinda dirty. Need me to clean it?” One defiant grunt and a cloud of blackened smoke in Flannery’s face later, Torkoal waddled to the other end of the bed and tucked himself into said shell, which had become coated with a fine layer of soot.

Flannery crossed her arms and leaned back against the headboard once her inevitable coughing fit ended. “You’re no fun, y’know that?”

LATER THAT NIGHT...​

It wasn’t uncommon for Jimmy to wake up suddenly in the middle of his slumber. The main reason was usually because he got thirsty; he’d get up, grab a can of seltzer or perhaps a lemon-lime soda, drink it, and head back to bed.

Such was the case tonight, as he reached down towards his bag while groggily rubbing his eyes. Jimmy didn’t exactly have a reason for it - no nightmares or insomnia. It simply seemed like he had subconscious cravings for carbonated drinks.

What he didn’t expect, though, was that Flannery was awake, too. He could barely make out her form in the shadow-clad room, but it was clear that she was sitting cross-legged with her head far from the pillow. She let a solemn sigh flow from her lips before flopping back onto the mattress.

“Eh... Flannery? Ya alright?” The least he could do was try to talk to her. Jimmy swung his legs over the edge of his bed and brushed his hair out of his eyes. “Why’re ya up this late?”

She appeared to be a bit startled by Jimmy’s voice, evidenced by her shooting up a bit. Once realizing who it came from, though, Flannery leaned back on her elbows and turned to him. “Oh... hey, Jimmy. Y’know, I could ask you the same thing.”

“Thirsty.” The cracking of a can of Coronet Mist backed this up. “This is probably somethin’ you should get used to.” From his point of view, the reasons behind him being up were completely irrelevant. Flannery seemed to be much more morose than usual, and it was bugging him.

A brief silence followed. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but definitely eerie. “I... I was just thinking about some things,” informed Flannery, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face. “Like homesickness. I mean, it’s cool to travel and all, but I miss Hoenn, Lavaridge... my parents...”

Jimmy was the exact opposite - he was glad to be able to get away from his parents for a while. As such, he couldn’t relate, but he respectfully nodded along and listened. “Alright, yeah, I feel ya... what’re ya parents like, what do they do?”

This silence was noticeably longer than the last. The only sound came from the very faint flow of liquid as Jimmy tipped his soda can. After a while, though, Flannery answered, “My mom’s an assistant at the Lavaridge Gym and my dad owns a community pool. Y’know, one of those places where there’s a fifteen-kid-long line for the high dive.” It wasn’t clear, but Jimmy believed he could make out a blissful smile on Flannery’s face as she talked about them.

“Ah, pretty cool. Seem like chill people...” Jimmy crushed his now-empty can in his hand, carelessly tossing it in the general direction of the room’s nearest wastebasket - and, obviously, missing by a country mile. “I’m goin’ back to sleep. Guess you are, too.”

“Yeah, might as well... night, Jimmy.” With that, the two dropped their heads back to their respective pillows as they drifted off once more. They definitely needed the rest, as Route 2 awaited them.

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Author Notes:
-Don't be surprised if chapters are a lot more sparse. I kinda just... really didn't want to write this at a certain point. I've got other stuff to do.

 

[Lugion]

Ok, I read chapter one. It was pretty enjoyable, but like others said, a first chapter is a first chapter. Jimmy seems like a fairly developed characters, a little bit hipsterish, a little bit skaterish, a little bit nerdish, like a lot of people I know around my hometown. Kind of an odd progression with the parents' conversation, though, what with the mom bringing it all up but the father having the idea to send Jimmy on a journey, but it kinda makes sense.

I'd say it could use a bit more description, as all I know about their appearances is that Jimmy's mom presumably has a vagina, his dad is tall, and Jimmy himself has spiky hair. That said, I'll have to read further to make a valid judgment.

 

[Jersey Jimmy]

I'M STILL ALIVE.

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-CHAPTER SIX: JUST ANOTHER DAY-

APRIL 5, 2005, 1:36 PM
TRAINER ROUTE 2 BETWEEN ACCUMULA AND STRIATON, UNOVA​

Between the facts that they’d slept surprisingly well after their late-night conversation and managed to find a Lenny’s, which were quite rare in southern Unova, Jimmy and Flannery were in definite high spirits heading out onto Route 2. At this point, they’d reached where the routes split into two, one for cars and one for trainers, after a surge of federally-funded construction in the late nineties. Before then the two shared one route that led to numerous car wrecks, of which the first half of Route 1 was the last remaining - and even it was due for replacement in the near future. “I still can’t believe ya finished that entire Triple Play,” Jimmy commented as he tried his best to balance on a low stone wall.

Flannery responded first with a cheerful giggle, soon after adding “You should expect that whenever there’s crepes in front of me!” She was in much higher spirits than last night, that much was clear; Jimmy figured it was either the sleep she’d gotten or her breakfast. Either would’ve been acceptable.

“Actually, y’know what?” Having been looking down at his Pokegear, Jimmy finally noticed the time. “It’s ‘bout time we had lunch, ah? And a real lunch this time, not just a bag of potato chips.” He was still quite bitter about that, and made a big deal of telling Flannery he was starving by the time they’d arrived at Big Stoutland’s.

Naturally, she rolled her eyes once he brought it up. “Yeah, yeah, I got it... over there, let’s eat under that huge tree.” Her pointed finger was in the direction of a gargantuan swamp white oak, almost reaching a hundred feet in height. There’d be plenty of shade, so Jimmy followed right along as she headed towards it.

Once they were shrouded by the shadows of the tree’s branches and leaves, Flannery dropped her bag onto the grass, kneeling down and opening the largest pocket - a built-in cooler. A bit ironic for the Fire-type trainer to be the one to have it, perhaps, but neither was complaining. She pulled from it a bag of pre-sliced Tamato Berries, another with leaves of lettuce, and turkey breast wrapped up in plastic. “In all seriousness, Jimmy, thanks for reminding me to get stuff for lunch this morning.”

“No problem. Now...” Jimmy set his bag down as well and reached for the two Great Balls, bringing Haunter and Scraggy out. Ignoring the fact that the two Pokemon instantly sized each other up, he continued to sift through, retrieving another important food item they had purchased - a box of shortbread cookies.

It took all of three seconds for Scraggy to willingly forfeit her staring contest and snatch the box out of Jimmy’s hands. She proceeded to scurry up the oak tree’s trunk until reaching the first branch, upon which she sat with her loose skin dangling from her ankles.

The sound of munching became clearly audible as Flannery began to lay the turkey out on a kaiser roll. She actually sounded quite a bit concerned about Scraggy’s eating habits. “You know she’s sitting directly above us, right? I mean, what if she drops cookie crumbs into my hair?! Look at this!” There was no absolutely purpose for Flannery to gesture towards her volcanic hairdo, but she did anyway. “How the hell would I be able to fix this?!”

“A shower?” Jimmy deadpanned, taking a roll of his own.

“...yeah, I guess you’ve got a point.” Once her sandwich was finished, Flannery went from kneeling to sitting and took her first bite of it. “Anyway... I think it’d be best if we talked about the gym in Striaton. What do you know about it?”

Jimmy thought back to some of the gym challenges he’d watched on the WPL Network. One thing he did know, the most important detail, was that the Striation Gym was run by three leaders as opposed to one. “What do I know? It’s run by three guys ‘round our age, and they rotate between challenges depending on who’s got the best type matchup. I think they’re the primary trifecta - Fire, Water, Grass.”

Upon hearing this, Flannery let out a long groan. “Oh, great. My first gym challenge in Unova and I’m gonna have a type disadvantage.” She flopped onto her back in a deliberately exaggerated fashion. “I kinda hope that for you, they go with the Grass-type one by accident. Haunter’s part Poison-type and a lot of people seem to forget that.”

On cue, Haunter proudly widened his mouth to what would have been an impossible extent were he not a ghost, releasing a white cloud of smog into the air - with the unfortunate side effect of causing the others around him to begin coughing. “Haunter, cool it, we get it,” Jimmy got out between wheezes and from behind the portion of his shirt he’d pulled over his nose. Haunter proceeded to close his mouth somewhat reluctantly.

The smog subsided a few seconds later. Once Jimmy was sure it was safe, he lowered his shirt and began to eat his own sandwich. “Hey, I’ve got an idea... hold on, we’re both going for badges, right?” Flannery nodded in confirmation with a small smile. “Right, so howsabout this... instead of each of us challenging the gym separately, what if we teamed up and did a multi battle? That way I could deal with the Water-types for ya.”

“That... might actually work.” There was one catch, however, and Flannery was quick to point it out. “Would that be allowed, though? I know it isn’t in Hoenn.”

“It actually is here. Hold on...” Jimmy opened up his bag with his free hand, taking out what appeared to be an informative pamphlet for the Unova League. After flipping to the correct page, he quoted, “‘In the event more than one challenger would like to battle the gym leader or leaders at the same time, a multi battle may be performed; however, complying with rules set by the International Pokemon Association, no more than three trainers may challenge at one time.’” Once finished, he casually allowed the pamphlet to fall to the grass before flashing Flannery a thumbs-up.

Flannery was obviously pleased to hear the news. “Really? That’s awesome! Man, that’ll save us a lot of time...” With that, the two went back to eating their sandwiches as they observed the fauna around them. A flock of Pidoves and Tranquills flew by through the air, led by one male and one female Unfezant as per usual. A Patrat had joined Scraggy on the branch above, though didn’t seem to care much for the lizard and instead looked out towards the distance.

Suddenly shooting straight up, she held her hand out towards Jimmy in a “stop” gesture. “Flannery, what’re ya-” He was shushed before he got the chance to finish, instead giving way to Flannery pointing slightly to the left of a large rock. Remaining silent as ordered, he looked over alongside her to see what appeared to be a simple cream-coated equine. However, upon further inspection, its striking scarlet mane and tail actually turned out to be composed of fire crackling faintly. “Oh, I gotcha,” Jimmy continued in a whisper. “You don’t got a Ponyta or Rapidash back home?”

“Nope... always wanted one, though. You know the old cliche, right? Every girl wants a Ponyta? Guess that’s true for me, though not for the typical reasons.”

Jimmy was just about to tell her to send out Torkoal and go for it before he realized that plan may not work. “Wait a sec... Ponyta’re pretty damn fast, yeah? How’s Torkoal gonna keep up?”

Flannery elected not to respond with words, but instead a devious smirk as she reached into her bag once more. After a few seconds of deliberate suspense, she slowly rose her arm and showed off the object she’d plucked out. It was a Poke Ball, yet painted light blue on both halves with yellow stripes that somewhat resembled lightning bolts. Jimmy cocked an eyebrow. “Is that a...?”

“Quick Ball. I told you I bought a few in Sathington, right? Long as I don’t actually engage the Pokemon in battle, catching it’s a practical guarantee. Now stay here and sit pretty, I’ve got this.” Grumbling a bit, Jimmy did so as Flannery slowly crept up on the Ponyta in a crouch. Given how upbeat and peppy she usually was, Jimmy was a bit surprised to see her so concentrated. Then again, he did entertain the possibility of someone becoming a completely different person in certain situations.

It really was heart-pounding to watch. The Ponyta was facing away from Flannery, nonchalantly grazing on the emerald-green grass below its hooves. Alright, doesn’t seem like it notices me, she thought, her grip tightening around the Quick Ball in her hands. Upon reaching a good distance, she stopped and slowly rose back to full height...

“Ponyta, you’re mine!” While Flannery didn’t “pitch” the ball like Jimmy had done with Scraggy, her throw was still forceful - not to mention dead-on. Ponyta barely turned its head before the Quick Ball connected with the back of its neck, being sucked in not long after. The ball shook once, twice, thrice, and even four times...

...ding!

“Yes! Ahaha!” With a little fist pump, Flannery ran over to the ball and picked it up off the ground, joyfully smiling at it. “Man, I haven’t caught a Pokemon in... what, eight, nine months? Feels good to get back into that groove.”

Jimmy shared her smile, as he got up and jogged right over towards her, giving her a friendly pat on the back. “Nice job. Hey, remind me to get some Quick Balls, alright? Think they’ll turn out to be real useful.” The next few seconds went by in without a word from either as Flannery lightly tossed the ball in the air and caught it multiple times. “Well, uh... you gonna let Ponyta out? Y’know, check its gender, moves, that sorta thing?”

“Oh! Right, yeah, sure! C’mon, Ponyta!” Flannery dropped the Quick Ball right back onto the ground, releasing the flaming equine once more. It took a bit to readjust before turning back to its new trainer, looking at her with a bit of a confused expression. As it did, Flannery pulled her own Pokedex from her pocket - one with a noticeably different design than Jimmy’s, perhaps due to it being from Hoenn - and held it up to Ponyta. “Ponyta. Fire Horse Pokemon. Ponyta is very weak at birth. It can barely stand up. This Pokémon becomes stronger by stumbling and falling to keep up with its parent. This Ponyta is male, has a Docile nature, and knows the following moves...”

The moves promptly came up on screen as Flannery responded with a quiet chuckle. “Hehe, Flame Wheel... oh boy, that’s gonna be fun. Flame Charge, Stomp... Hypnosis? Ooh...”

Suddenly, an idea popped into Jimmy’s head. He rushed back to his bag, prompting Flannery to cock an eyebrow. “Eh? Jimmy, what are you getting?”

“Just wait...” She was able to spot what appeared to be a very small lightning-yellow disc between two of his fingers. Upon his return, he explained. “I don’t know if I told ya this, but my ma sells TMs at the Driftveil Market, so she hooked me up with a few before I set off. This one’s Wild Charge. I figured it’d help ya deal with Water-types.”

Flannery took the TM from him, obviously grateful; after all, Water was Fire’s primary weakness. “Um... wow. Thanks, Jimmy! Sure, I’ll have him learn this right away!” With that, she pressed the Quick Ball’s button to return Ponyta before spinning it around. On the back of the bottom half, just beneath the hinge, was a CD slot around the size of the disc - they’d been implemented in most balls since the advent of TMs themselves.

Once the disc was inserted, the ball let out a quick series of five beeps. “Unovan Technical Machine number 93: Wild Charge. Technical Machine is compatible with... Ponyta. Please wait.” And so, the process began inside as Flannery sat down and watched the ball intently. Jimmy most likely would have brought up how there was no way she could visibly see the process had his attention not been caught by something else...

...or rather, someone else. “Hey Jimbo! How’ve ya been?” That accent was impossible to mistake for anyone else, and sure enough, Ricky emerged from a nearby cluster of trees with his Murkrow hopping right along beside him.

Jimmy wasted no time in jogging up to Ricky and holding his hand out, an offer he accepted with a firm shake. “Pretty good! Y’see that Scraggy up on the branch there? Caught her after we got outta Sathington... I’ll tell ya this, if ya give her some shortbread cookies, she’ll do pretty much anything.”

“Sounds like an easy one t’train, then!” Ricky boisterously responded with a quick laugh. His attention soon turned towards Flannery, who still watched Ponyta’s Quick Ball intently. “Who’s this chick?”

“Process complete. Ponyta has learned Wild Charge successfully.” With that, Flannery picked up the Quick Ball and rose to her feet before joining Jimmy and Ricky. “I’m Flannery! I came here from Hoenn and I’m traveling with Jimmy.”

Ricky directed a nod towards her as he adjusted his tie. “Hoenn, ah? Damn, this must be quite the change a’pace for ya... in any case, name’s Ricky.” While they traded introductions, Ricky’s Murkrow found that since nobody had his attention, he’d be free to fly off and do his own thing. He took off towards the tree, deciding to perch right next to Scraggy.

Scraggy herself had finished her box of cookies in an even shorter time than the first one, causing her to carelessly drop it to the ground. A squawk soon caught her attention, and once she turned to the source, Murkrow waved his wing towards her. However, the lizard’s eyes narrowed. She’d been fine with the Patrat as it wasn’t bothering her, but this Murkrow thought he could just fly right up and introduce himself like nobody’s business?

Before anybody knew just what had happened, Murkrow launched right out of the tree, crashing onto the grass below with a thud. Scraggy followed him not long after as she chittered with what could best be compared to a menacing demeanor. “Scraggy, what the hell?!” scolded Jimmy as expected. “Ya can’t just punch other Pokemon away when ya don’t want ‘em around! Do ya have any idea how-”

“Relax, Jimmy.” Once the hand rested itself on his shoulder, Jimmy nearly guessed it was Flannery trying to quell him... yet, the voice belonged to Ricky. And sure enough, it was indeed his hand. “This’s the perfect setup for ‘em to get some training in, right? Let ‘em at it.”

“Wait, shouldn’t you be commanding them?” Flannery butted in. “Just letting them fight like that doesn’t seem like it’d be too productive.” Her main concern was obviously in the realm of trainer-Pokemon communication. Should the Pokemon gain experience in an unorganized melee, it could prevent them from increasing cooperation with Jimmy and Ricky.

Ricky, however, wasn’t concerned. “They’re learnin’ to fight though, eh? Just let ‘em play it out. Trust me, it’ll help.” Sure enough, Scraggy promptly charged at Murkrow and rammed her rock-hard skull straight into him, tackling the bird to the grass.

While still a bit wary of the prospect, Jimmy decided to trust his judgement. “Right... y’know, I think after this blows over, Flannery, we should probably get going again.” As such, he made his way back over to their supplies to presumably pack everything up.

“So, ah... what about you, doll?” With Jimmy gone, Ricky’s attention naturally turned to the only other human in the vicinity. Stuffing his hands into the pockets of his charcoal slacks, he faced Flannery. “Ya said you’re from Hoenn, right? Did you already take their gym challenge, or...?”

If there was one thing that could’ve soured Flannery’s mood at that time, it was being referred to as “doll” or anything similar. She tried not to let it bother her much, though, instead focusing her sight on her newly-caught Ponyta. “Yeah, I did. I’m from Lavaridge, but they haven’t had a gym there since the seventies... I think I heard something about Lilycove’s relocating, though. Anyway, yeah, I’d be willing to say we’ve got a pretty tough lineup of leaders. Juan in particular took me three tries to get past, but it’s probably just because I’m a Fire specialist. Ended up bluffing my way through with Sunny Day.” Murkrow squawked not long after she wrapped up her story.

“It’s not really bluffin’ as much as it is a strategy to me. How’d ya do in the tournament?” As the conversation went along, Ricky casually took some sort of bandana from his pocket, primarily yellow and orange.

It certainly caught Flannery’s eyes. “Got to the quarterfinals... what’s that?”

“Ah, this? Muscle Band. Put this on a Pokemon, any physical attack they do’ll be ramped up to eleven. Don’t ask me how it works, ‘cause I didn’t make the thing.” Not like there was any reason for Ricky to confirm that; he definitely didn’t look like he’d make clothing, even if it was just an accessory.

“Oh! Right, yeah, I’ve seen something kinda like that, but it was for special attacks... pair of glasses, I think.” Flannery herself had never really used held items outside of berries. She slipped the bandana out of Ricky’s hands, looking it over; upon closer inspection, it appeared that the orange sections were a flame pattern, obvious bringing a smile to her face.

It didn’t take long for Ricky to notice how interested she was in it, backed up by his subsequent offer. “Y’want it? Your Ponyta could probably put it ta pretty good use.”

Flannery tilted her head up, a bit surprised by the offer. “Er... yeah, sure! Thanks!” She proceeded to flash him a grateful grin while shoving half the bandana into her back pocket, leaving the other half dangling freely like a cloth tail.

Their exchange was soon crashed - pretty much literally - by Murkrow, who landed flat on his back between the two trainers. As they looked in the direction he came from, they could see Scraggy victoriously pumping her fist as Jimmy silently chuckled, holding both his and Flannery’s bag. “Well... guess we should probably learn ya some actual Flying-type attacks, Murkrow. Come back.” Ricky retrieved Murkrow’s ball and held it out, bringing the bird in for a much-deserved rest.

Just as he did, Jimmy jogged over with both bags in hand and Scraggy already recalled. “Ready to go?” he asked Flannery as he held out her bag. There was a noticeable step up in enthusiasm in his voice, most likely from Scraggy’s victory.

“Yep, all set!” Flannery proceeded to slip her arm through one of the straps, not even bothering to repeat the action with the other. “We’ll see you soon, alright, Ricky!”

“‘Course. Take care, you guys.” And with that, Jimmy and Flannery set off once more along the route while Ricky presumably took his own approach to traversing it. Either way, all three of them had the same destination: Striaton.

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Author Notes:
-Tried to make Ricky's accent a bit less represented in dialogue. Tell me if it works or not.