TEEN: Pokémon: This Wide World (Chapter 3 update!)

[Extroth]

Notes from the author:
Hello everyone and thank you for taking a look at my first ever fan fiction project Pokemon: This Wide World. I want everyone to know that I am making it an important priority to update and post new chapters regularly to this thread. I've been meaning to write this for some time but have always had other writing projects that I've been working on. Now that I have finished writing my book (still working on getting it published) I feel like I need to fulfill one of my goals as a writer (Strange as it may be) write a Pokemon fic. A few things before we get started.
1: The teen rating is mostly there due to this story discussing depression and anxiety. There will be what some might call suggestive themes as well but I've always considered those more subjective than anything else.
2: I always do my best to listen to constructive criticisms and I am perfectly fine with spelling and grammar suggestions as well.
3: I am really bad with forum threads and will probably struggle to keep this organized. Be patient I'll figure it out eventually. You can always send me PM's with suggestions and tips on how to keep things looking good in this format
Alright without further ado let's get this going.

Chapter 2 update: Hello everyone Chapter 2 is here this one is a lot more exposition heavy and as such it's a little longer. It took me longer to get Chapter 2 done then I wanted but I had to take some time to make some edits. This one dosn't seems as clean as chapter 1 to me but the nice thing about the forum format is that I can make small edits to things after the chapter is released. And along those same lines I still need to go though chapter 1 and make some spelling and grammer corections so there is that as well. Alright that's all for now, have fun!

Chapter 3 update: Sorry for being gone lastly (If anyone cared) I've been working on other writing projects and my new job has been taking some getting used to, more then I thought actually. I also received some negative feedback over pm that I was meditating on as well. Anyways have fun!

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1—Ends and Beginnings
Chapter 2—Aura of Change
Chapter 3--Burnt Woods​

Chapter 1—Ends and Beginnings​

The products rolled softly and casually out of cashiers practiced hand as her other hand operated the touch screen of the store register. She didn’t even think about it, she had done it so many times, she had to remember to double check that she had gotten everything right. Sometimes she went to fast that she didn’t notice she was getting something wrong. She read the total out load without really thinking about what the number meant.

“Would you like a bag with that?” she said with a smile on her face. A fake smile, flacking like dried paint as her skin stretched. She wasn’t even looking at her strangely dressed customer. She thought they were strange at least but most of their customers were dressed in odd clothing of some sort or another.

“Don’t I get a Premier Ball when I buy five Pokeballs?” her customer asked pursing her lips aggressively at the poor cashier.

“Uhh—no that’s ten—you need to buy ten Pokeballs and then you get a Premier Ball,” the cashier said without dropping her smile.

“Oh—are you sure?”

The cashier nodded and waited patiently for her customer to pay. The girl spent a good five minuets thinking about the number of Pokeballs she was buying. She kept counting them, and then starting over again like she might have missed something. The cashier decided that she shouldn’t think about it too much. A young stupid Pokémon trainer was infinitely easier to deal with then some middle-aged women named Karin why didn’t know the difference between a protein and an X-Attack and then tried to return the X-Attack because it didn’t work.

The cashier resisted the urge to sigh, once she started she would never stop. Besides she had wanted to live the simple life, she had chosen that life, she didn’t think she had the right to complain about it. So, she stood there and patiently waited for the Pokémon Trainer to finish her pointless counting. Eventually, she was satisfied, even though the cashier had no idea why. The customer paid for their stuff and walked out the door of the Pokemart.

As the automatic door slid shut with a definitive clink, the cashier let out a sigh. She had promised herself that she was going to stop doing that. And for some reason, she could never sign just once. So, she signed four times, she managed to stop herself before the fifth time, for some reason stopping at an odd number seemed wrong.

“Maybe I should make a sign about that or something.” The person who had spoken from the stockroom behind the counter was her manager. He was a tall man with sandy brown hair and a serious expression permanently plastered on his face. The cashier had no idea how someone with that kind of look could manage in customer service. But he had the respect of both his bosses and his employees.

“Don’t bother Sam, you and I both know that the Pokemart Corporation doesn’t allow for us to advertise the Premier ball thing. It’s not worth you getting in trouble for.”

The sound of Sam shuffling the stock and moving around in the back room grew closer and he made his way to the storefront. He poked his head out of the backroom and looked around to see if they had any customers, but the Pokemart was empty. That wasn’t surprising it was still early in the spring and the Pokémon League season hadn’t started yet.

“Hay Anji there’s something I should probably tell you,” the cashier named Anji looked back at her boss waiting patiently for what he had to say. Sam wasn’t the kind of person to approach a topic carefully with words like ‘probably’ and ‘should’ if it was a topic that could make a man like him nervous it was probably something important. “Your parents called and asked me to take you off the schedule for next month.”

“What?!” Anji said just a little louder than she probably should have. “I’m 21 they can’t tell you to do that.”

“Well, that’s basically what I said. But they must have gone above my head, I don’t know what they said to my boss, but he told me in no uncertain terms that I would be taking you off the schedule. And then he told me not to tell you.”

“But you're telling me anyways?”

“Hay sometimes being a good boss means being a bad employee, especial with these corporate structures. Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“Yeah,” Anji said as she let out two of her signature sighs. “My parents have been bugging me to go on a Pokémon journey.”

“At 21, didn’t you already do that when you were younger?”

“No…I never really wanted to,” she lied. “But my parents were both hardcore trainers back in their day, so they think I haven’t lived until I’ve gone on a journey or something like that.”

“Is it because of your—condition?”

Condition? what a way to put it, Anji thought. But I guess there really isn’t a better way to describe it.

“You're medicated now though, right?”

“Medication doesn’t really make it go away it just lessons it—and I still have panic attacks sometimes—there’s no way I can travel the world like that—I’ll end up dead somewhere.”

Sam sighed a deep and thoughtful sigh, he stared blankly towards the storefront as though it might give him an idea of what to say. Anji knew that her manager had never been on a journey himself, he had never even been to college. He had gambled that spending that time working would get him further in life. And to some extent he was right. Sam made far more money then Anji did, and he was on a short list of store managers who were being looked at for promotion to regional manager. Anji wondered if he ever regretted it….

“You should go on your journey Anji,” he said at last.

“But…”

“You’re not happy here I can see that—and I think your parents can too. Go and find what the world has to offer. You're right that you might die—but if you keep pushing yourself to do something you hate you might as well be dead.”

She didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t say anything. The two of them closed the store in silence. That would be the last time she ever worked there. She would always remember Sam though. Sometimes when things were peaceful she would wonder how he was doing, she would wonder if he was happy. She hoped he was and that he always would be.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I could have sworn I'd seen a story by you here before, but no, apparently not.

In terms of making this readable on the forum, I'd highly recommend adding a table of contents. Traditional way to do this is links to each chapter in your first post, but threadmarking chapters also works.

Technical Accuracy
I don't normally go through all accuracy errors, but given that the chapter is quite short, and the grammar looks accurate anyway, I will this time:

The products rolled softly and casually out of cashiers practiced hand

The product rolled softly and casually out of the cashier's practiced hand

She read the total out load

Loud.

The girl spent a good five minuets

Minutes.

Hay

Hey.

especial with

especially with

it just lessons it

Lessens.

With that out of the way, the chapter's a good length. It does what it needs to do and doesn't, for the most part, feel rushed. I'll caveat that slightly, in that Anji's thoughts on her life and training are told quickly in exposition here. That might be something you're intending to build on more solidly in chapter two, I don't know.

The Pokémart comes across pretty realistically for retail, down to retail staff who were obviously never cut out for it. The only detail I don't think fits is this:

“Don’t bother Sam, you and I both know that the Pokemart Corporation doesn’t allow for us to advertise the Premier ball thing. It’s not worth you getting in trouble for.”

Because why bother having a promotion you don't advertise?

Why Anji wouldn't want to go on a trainer journey I get. What I don't really buy is the premise of parents interfering in work. I just don't see a manager being prepared to play family games like that when they have an adult employee. It would make more sense if Anji weren't a legal adult ... but then it would be a shame to ditch an adult journeyman trainer, because not many stories do that

 

[Extroth]

Hello Beth, and thank you for your feedback. I'll go through some of the technical recommendations you made and make some corrections when I have a day off of work so thank you for that.

I could have sworn I'd seen a story by you here before, but no, apparently not.

I swore I posted a poem in this section at some point but for some reason, I can't find it anymore. To be fair before this post I never came into this section very much so if someone had replied to that post or mentioned it at all I probably wouldn't have noticed.

Because why bother having a promotion you don't advertise?

A fair critique, this is an out of control game reference to the fact that there is no sign anywhere in the Pokemarts in game that tells you about the buy ten pokeballs get a premier ball thing. But now that I'm typing that out I'm not really confident in that fact anymore. There may have been an npc who mentions it or something but I never talked to them if they did.

Why Anji wouldn't want to go on a trainer journey I get. What I don't really buy is the premise of parents interfering in work. I just don't see a manager being prepared to play family games like that when they have an adult employee. It would make more sense if Anji weren't a legal adult ... but then it would be a shame to ditch an adult journeyman trainer, because not many stories do that

There are some more details about her parents interfering in her work in chapter 2. Now I can't guarantee that you'll be satisfied with the explanation but there is more to it then what I have in chapter 1. Looking back on it I may have left chapter 1 too lean and saved all the details for chapter 2 but when I wrote it I wanted chapter 1 to really be immersive with Anji's experience and leave out the long-winded explanations until later.

 

[Extroth]

Chapter 2—Aura of Change​

One of the tricks she had learned to calm herself at the worst of times was to hold her breath. It helped her control her breathing when she normally couldn’t. So, she found herself outside the professor's lab holding her breath in a desperate attempt to calm herself. She could only think of all the bad things that could happen.

What if there are a whole bunch of young kids there to start their journey and they laugh at me. What will the lab assistants think? Will my Pokémon hate me because of how I am. I’ll probably be a bad trainer what poor Pokémon is going to be unlucky enough to be stuck with me?

Her thoughts raced as she tried to work up the nerve to walk in. But her legs wouldn’t work. And the more she tried to force them too, the more they locked up. She was trapped by her own terror. She wanted to turn around and run but her body wouldn’t let her do that either. It was a good ten minutes of panic before she started to calm. She didn’t cry this time at least—that was good because she really didn’t want to have to explain to some overly serious academic why tear stains covered her face.

Before she lost her nerve, or worse, had another attack, she decided to force herself to walk into the lab. For some reason, the sterile white building had a sliding automatic door leading inside. So she didn’t even have to think about it too much she just walked forward.

Once she was inside the first thing she noticed was how empty the lab was. She had expected complex instruments bleeping and blooping as they worked on some important task. But there was only a reception desk with a small waiting room. Behind the waiting desk was a hallway leading deeper inside. She could hear the sounds of Pokémon coming from somewhere but the lab echoed quite a bit so she couldn’t tell where. There wasn’t anybody manning the reception desk but as soon as she stepped inside she heard movement coming from somewhere in the back hallway.

“Just a minute,” a gruff voice called.

After only a short wait an old graying man in a wheelchair rolled into the reception room from somewhere. He had a computer attached to his chair and some other gadgets that Anji didn’t recognize. He looked up and smiled warmly at her. Anji thought maybe the professor would be mean and difficult to deal with. She had heard stories about Clunux's Pokémon professor. But the man didn’t seem mean at all.

“Ahh you must be Anji, I’m professor Cork.” They shook hands after his introduction. The professor squeezed her hand maybe a bit too hard. But then again, he was from a time where handshakes were important for first impressions.

“You’re here to get your first Pokémon correct?” Anji nodded doing her best to hide her nerves.

“I wish more people your age started their journeys. There are lots of people who never get to go on one for various reasons. And once they hit eighteen they think they're too old. Like there’s some arbitrary cut-off. But I think your never to old for an adventure, these kinds of things help us learn more about our selves—oh but you didn’t come here to hear my lecture, I have grad students for that.”

He laughed at his own joke probably imagining the look on one of his student's faces as he launched into an impromptu lecture at the worst possible moment. Anji made a mental note to make sure she never became one of the professor's grad students.

Cork rolled into the back of the lab and motioned for Anji to follow. She cautiously walked after him, she half expected some random Pokémon to jump out from around a corner and attack her. Or maybe she would bump some important machine and brake it.

Anji was surprised, as she walked through the lab, she noticed that there was no one else there. It was just the professor, there wasn’t even any Pokémon around.

“Are you here by yourself today—did I maybe pick a bad day for this?”

“Oh no,” the professor said. “I gave all my assistants the day off. Your parents requested it.”

Well that explains it, Anji thought to herself. My parents are trying to “help” again.

“Anyways,” the professor said starting to change the topic. “I have the perfect Pokémon for someone like you.”

Someone like me? Anji started to ponder what the professor meant by that.

The handicapped man rolled into the back most room. It looked like some kind of Pokémon storage room with Pokeballs of various kinds stacked on every shelf and every table. There were various instruments lining the walls they all had a slot to insert a Pokeball into them. Anji assumed they were for doing some kind of scan of the Pokémon inside.

The professor wheeled up to a wooden table with a single Pokeballs sitting on top. The Pokeball was the traditional kind with a red top and a white bottom. She had sold thousands of those things to customers at work, so she knew a little about the nuances of Pokeball design. The ones made in a factory we’re always perfectly smooth. The ones made by hand always had interesting davits and cuts in them. The ball sitting on the table had been polished by hand probably for hours. Its smoothness was beyond just factory perfect, this particular Pokeball had been the point of pride for someone.

“This here is your first Pokémon,” the professor said with a hand motion.

That struck Anji as a little odd, most of the time new trainers were given the choice of three Pokémon to pick from. Of course, she was a bit of a special case considering she was an adult and starting her journey at an unusual time. But even considering that there was something odd about that Pokeball. That symbol on it looked familiar to her—but she couldn’t quite place where she had seen it before.

Maybe it’s just my usual paranoia talking, she thought. I did give the professor short notice he probably had to scrounge up a Pokémon from somewhere for me.

So, ignoring the pit in her stomach she picked up the Pokeball and opened it to see what was inside. Popping out with a flash of light and a cute chirp, was an eevee. It was a cute little mammal Pokémon with a bushy tail and big bright eyes. She was so completely taken in by how cute it was.

“Aren’t you just the cutest,” she said as her voice raised a few octaves.

Eevee chirped and smiled at her warmly. It nuzzled her hand affectionately. Anji had always been what some people considered empathic. She understood what others were feeling sometimes before even they did. She never really thought too hard about it, but some people considered it a supernatural talent. She thought those people were crazy, but then again sometimes she thought she might be crazy, after all who ever heard of someone who feels what other people are feeling? After all, there were some people she couldn’t read even when she was trying to, her boss Sam was one such example.

But regardless her empathy kicked into high gear the moment the eevee appeared from its Pokeball. It felt joy, but it also felt to her like it might be a little nervous. Not all that strange considering it was being taken on a journey by a strange woman it didn’t know. She had to wonder if that was the life of a Pokémon born in captivity—constantly worried about what kind of trainer it would be stuck with. Or maybe she was crazy, that was also a possibility.

She took Eevee in her arms and lifted it up cradling it like a baby. She looked down at it and smiled.

We’re going to get along great little guy—or girl.

The professor gave her a few moments before clearing his throat. He handed her ten empty Pokeballs and a strange looking sim card of some kind.

“What’s this?” she asked pointing to the hi-tec looking chip.

“It’s a Pokedex sim card for your phone. It will let you run a special application on your phone. A Pokedex—is like an encyclopedia of Pokémon information. It automatically updates with information about Pokémon you’ve seen or caught and this one can even transfer information to a central database where we professors can review all the information. It also serves as your identification while you travel and a host of other useful features as well.

“I think I followed that…” Anji said her head still spinning.

“It’s a lot to get your head around it’ll be much easier to fool around with the app later when you get a chance.”

She was secretly excited—but she would never admit that to her family—they had been trying to convince her to go on a journey for so long the fact that she had decided to take that risk was only due to Sam’s counseling. But she was still scared of what might happen to her out in the world. The only reason why she had decided not to go on a journey was because of her anxiety. But the more her family dug in to try and convince her to go the more she dug on not leaving on a journey, it became less about the journey itself and more about how she felt like her parents wouldn’t respect the choices she made.

“Oh, were your parents going to come and see you off at some point?” the professor asked jolting her from her thoughts.

She looked down at the eevee she was clutching in her hands as though she was looking for advice from it. But of course, it couldn’t give any. Her parents were coming to see her off, but she had left early in the hopes that she might be able to dodge them. But if the professor found that our he might call them and that would be bad.
“I think—maybe—I guess I can check,” she gave a weak answer because she didn’t know what else to say and the professor was staring at her. “Well look at the time I should really be going, thank you professor for the Pokémon and everything else.”

She then ran for the door as quickly as her legs would take her still clutching Eevee in her arms. She made it to the front door and as the automatic door slid open the thing she feared most waiting for her on the other side.

“Hello sweetie,” her mother said as the door revealed her presence almost too dramatically. Her mother’s red hair had been combed to perfection even though Anji knew that she was leaving the lab much sooner then she had told her mother she was going to.

“Hello mom,” she said as her spirit sank.

“Look at my little girl finally becoming an adult.”

“Yes, mom because wandering around the county side like a hobo is what will make me an adult.”

“Ohhhhh, that’s what you say but you were so excited you left for the professor’s lab early. Not even your sister got up this early on the dawn of her journey,” when her mother said sister she motioned to her right and Anji noticed for the first time that her sister was standing next to their mother looking like she had just gotten out of bed.

Her sister was a redhead like their mother, a trait Anji didn’t share. She was shorter than her mother and not nearly as good as taking care of her hair as it always seemed messy and unkempt even at important moments. At least she still wasn’t in her pajamas. Anji hadn’t expected to see her sister who was away from home more often than not.

“Jill!” Anji said her tone turning brighter the moment she said her sister's name. “You came to see me off.”

“Yeah I couldn’t miss my little sisters big day—I just wish you hadn’t gotten up so early.”

“Sorry…” was all Anji could say.

At that point, the professor emerged from the back room holding a Pokeball. He was taking his time slowly wheeling towered the small group that was now gathered in his lobby. He smiled and nodded at Jill and their mother as he came into the room.

“Anji you forgot Eevee’s Pokeball,”

“Right I’ll probably need that.”

“Yeah it might help,” the professor said.

“Ohhhhh, I’m so glad my little girl is finally going on a journey, what made you change your mind sweetie?”

“Well, I suddenly found myself with a lot of time off on my hands,” Anji said tongue planted firmly in cheek.

“Ohhhhh, I wonder how that happened,” her mom responded innocently.

“Seriously mom?” Jill said rubbing the leftover sleep from her eyes. “It’s to early in the morning for your games. Anji isn’t stupid she probably already figured everything out.”

“Well mostly,” Anji said. “How did you convince my bosses, boss to go along with your plan?”

“Ohhhhh, did you forget dear, your sister is a member of our regions Elite Four she has quite a bit of clout with the Pokemart corporation.”

“I didn’t ‘forget’ mom I just assumed that being a member of the Elite Four didn’t necessarily mean she could push people around.”

“To be fair,” Jill said sleepily. “Your direct boss, what was his name again? Oh, right Sam, Sam was defiantly not going to listen to a word I said, I had to go above his head to get anything done.”

“And what exactly did you say to my boss’s boss exactly?” Anji asked.

“Trade secret.”

“You better not of threatened someone.”

“Look,” Jill said with a sigh. “I know you might not agree but mom, dad, and I talked and we all thought that your refusal to go on a journey was unhealthy.”

Why is it that everyone gets to decide what’s healthy for me, except me? Anji thought.

“So yeah I pulled some strings threw around my title a bit. But when I explained the situation your regional manager agreed with us.”

Anji sighed, defeated, everyone was determined to make sure that she spent at least a year of her life traveling and not doing anything productive. But she hadn’t exactly been happy working at the Pokemart. Maybe while she was traveling she would find something that would motivate her. Maybe a job that she liked doing that she didn’t even know existed, she could hope. And she knew full well that she had always wanted to go on a journey just like her sister had even if she would never admit it. But she had been too scared, scared of what could happen to her, scared of what she would find. Her sister was strong, she had proven that by becoming a member of the elite four. Anji knew she herself was anything but strong.

Eevee chirped at her almost like it was trying to encourage her. She realized that she had started squeezing the poor creature in her arms. She softened her iron grip, hoping she hadn’t hurt it, of course Pokémon we’re much harder to hurt than that. But she had yet to discover that fact.

“Ohhhh that eevee is so cute,” her mother said changing the topic. “Are you going to give it a nickname?”

“I haven’t even thought about it,” Anji said. “Maybe later.”

“This is so exciting,” her mom exclaimed. “Maybe I’ll get to see my two girls battle at some point.”

“Remember mom,” Jill said in a tone that said she was the parent instead of the other way around. “You promised there would be absolutely no pushing her to do anything specifically on her journey. She doesn’t have to challenge the gyms, she doesn’t have to participate in any contests. It’s her journey.”

“Ohhhh it’s fine hun, battle is in our families blood she’ll find herself in the arena eventually.”

Right, Anji thought to herself. No pressure whatsoever.

They exchanged a few more formalities and well wishes before Anji was off. But she wasn’t even really paying attention. She was struggling with her errant thoughts, feelings that were running away from her. She knew she would never be half the trainer her sister was, she probably wouldn’t even be half the trainer her mother was. She knew that she shouldn’t care, that her value as a person was not determined by her skill as a trainer. She had told herself a thousand times. And yet she found her mind wandering back to those dark thoughts again and again. What if I’m not good enough?

 

[Extroth]

Chapter 3—Burnt Woods​

And so, she found herself wandering up route 5 with nothing but her eevee besides her for company. She had thought about putting the little thing back in its Pokeball—but she couldn’t bear the thought of being alone while traveling to such unfamiliar places. Luckily Eevee didn’t seem to mind being outside it’s ball. She had thought maybe it would get tiered or want to be away from her. But it was more then happy to sniff around the trail as they walked.

She had never been away from the Twilight Cities before. Her and her family lived in a suburb called Grovesbury. It was mostly an upper middle-class neighborhood, none of the houses were mansions or anything but the houses in her neighborhood had three stories. She didn’t like to think of herself as wealthy—but then again, she had a trust fund so there really was no getting around the fact that maybe she was a little spoiled. She had seen plenty of maps of the whole region before in school, so she had a general idea of where she was even if she didn’t have a specific destination in mind.

Route 5 was mostly forest with a simple paved path that went though it. Routes were mostly walking paths for trainers and other people who preferred to travel on foot. There were roads near by that cars used for much more expedient travel. She had a driver’s license herself, and a car. But her sister and her mother insisted that trainers needed to travel by foot. And despite her trepidation about the whole things the idea of a Pokémon journey was to meet and see Pokémon as one traveled and that was much easier on Routes which more closely wove in and around nature.

“What’s that?” she said as she noticed some rustling in the underbrush as she walked and went over to investigate.

“Vwee?” her eevee looked up from a stick it was busy sniffing and ran over to her.

She reached into the underbrush surprisingly unaware of the danger she could be putting herself in. She grabbed onto something and pulled it out carefully revealing a yellow bug with a spike on its head, a weedle. The bug Pokemon for it’s part seemed unware of what was going on. After she picked it up it just kept trying to crawl forward. So she just let it crawl along her arm, it eventually made it’s way up to her shoulder onto her head and then down to her other arm.

“Ha isn’t it cute?”

“Vweeeeeeeeee…” her eevee said sounding unsure.

“Hay don’t judge me,” she responded. “It’s cute alright….Oh I know I’ll catch it.”

She pulled out a Pokeball from her newly bought messenger bag. She could still smell the store where she bought it from.

“I know I should weaken it first, but this little guy doesn’t really seem aggressive at all. I can probably get it no problem.”

She booped the Weedle's nose with the Pokeball and a red light appeared and swallowed the creature disappearing it into the Pokeball. The ball shook more violently then she was expecting, which caused her to drop it. Hitting the ground it rocked back and forth, once, twice, three times. And then it an audible click announced that it had locked shut. She stood there stunned for a moment. It had happened so fast she didn’t even have time to react. She always expected Pokeballs to shake more slowly then that, building up drama with each wiggle. But she didn’t even have any time to feel nervous.

She picked up the Pokeball and smiled at it. “Well looks like your stuck with me for now little guy.”

The Pokeball seemed to radiate curiosity and confusion. Like the Weedle wasn’t really sure what just happened.

“See no problem,” she said as she opened the Pokeball to let it out.

It popped out of the Pokeball with a confused look on it’s face. It looked around slowly and made what Anji assumed was a shrugging motion and continued to make it’s way across the trail as though nothing had happened. Anji chuckled at it’s adorable obliviousness.

“Where are you even going?”

“Weed ul ul…” came its response.

“Yeah I have no idea what you're saying.”

But before she could ponder the nature of Pokémon language any further a loud cracking sound echoed through the forest followed by a load crash that announced something heavy falling to the ground. The loud crashing sound harmonized with the sound of someone's panicked cry for help. The sound hadn’t even subsided its echoed strain before Anji was running towards the source. The sound came from off the trail, deeper into the woods.

“Weed we!” her new Pokémon said panicked that she was heading in the opposite direction that it was going.

“What’s wrong?” she asked stopping to turn towards it.

The little thing moved to her and started to push on her leg like it was trying to keep her from going in that direction. It was completely ineffectual, but very cute.

“Come on,” she said leaning down. “Someone might be hurt.”

The Weedle looked around seemingly confused and conflicted. It hadn't thought of that apparently. She scooped the bug up in her arms and ran off in the direction of the panicked scream. Her Eevee ran after her with surprising nimbleness keeping up to her despite being much smaller.

They were not running for long before they came to the horrifying sight. A large section of the forest had been burnet to charcoal. The trees were black as was the ground, and stranger still there were odd black shells of some kind on the ground. Whatever they had been they were unrecognizable at that point.

The person who had let out the scream was laying on the ground looking around dazed. One of the burnt trees had given way and fallen on top of him. But after being burnet to a crisp the tree was very light and he had just pushed it off. He looked around to see if anyone had seen his embarrassment just in time to spot Anji come running out of the green part of the woods.

“Are you OK?” She asked walking over to him.

“Only thing that’s bruised is my pride,” the man responded.

The man, who was now covered in black soot, was tall and skinny. He wore a thick green jacket, that looked a little hot for the summer months, but had all sorts of pockets and loops for things to hang off of. There was a large imposing backpack nearby that Anji didn’t think she could even lift let alone carry for long distances. It was partially open with all sorts of strange books and gadgets sticking out of it, some of which she recognized, most of which she didn’t. Based on everything he seemed like he was some sort of researcher.

“What happened here?” She asked as she offered him her hand to help him up.

“I’m not sure that’s what I’ve been trying to figure out,” he said as he grabbed her hand and let himself be pulled onto his feet. “Oh, hay a Weedle,” he said noticing the Pokémon in her arm for the first time.”

“Oh, yeah I just caught it as it was going the other way.”

“It must be one of the survivors of the fire,” the researcher said motioning to the odd black shells.”

“Wait--are those...”

“Well they were Kakuna,” he said shaking his head.

“Oh,” was all Anji could say as she looked down at the bug she was holding in her arms. It didn’t look particular upset. But it did seem that it wanted to get away from that area as soon as possible—she put it back into its Pokeball before she could think about it anymore.

“These things happen,” the researcher said, avoiding eye contact with her.

“Andrin,” a voice called out from somewhere catching the resurcer’s attention. He looked relived as he looked around for the source of the voice. The owner of the voice was a gruff looking police officer that was just ducking out of the treeline.

“Officer,” the researcher named Andrin said happily. “How can I help you.’

“Well you can start by telling me who that is,” he said pointing to Anji.

“Sorry officer,” Anji said apologetically. “I heard someone scream while I was walking on the trail and thought someone might be in trouble.”

“You don’t have to worry he tends to scream a lot,” the officer said smirking. “Anyways it’s dangerous to be here, we’re still assessing the damage.”

“Oh--I didn’t see a do not enter sign or anything like that.”

“Well you know how it is—understaffed and overworked,” the officer explained. “I’m sure Andrin here could escort you though route 5 and to the next town.”

“But I still need to take core samples of the trees, and analyze the chemical composition of...”

“Maybe I wasn’t clear?” the officer said cutting Andrin off before he could finish.

“I’m sure I can find my own way,” Anji said feeling rather uncomfortable.

“No, it’s fine,” the researcher said with a defeated sigh. “We’re not too far from Cloud City, let me show you the way.”

Andrin motioned for Anji to follow him as he made his way out of the burnt part of the woods. The officer didn’t take his eye off of them until they were out of sight. Which Anji thought was odd but certainty didn’t think too much of it at the time. The two of them quickly found themselves back at the main path, it was a pathed path, most of the Clunux walking routes were well paved—or at least that’s what her sister always told her.

“I can really find my own way from here, you probably have an important job to do.”

“Important or not, it really seemed like they took the first opportunity they could to get rid of me,” Andrin said. “It’s fine, I’ll walk you to cloud city and stop in at my office at the university.”

The two of them started to make their way down the path, Anji wasn’t particularly excited to have an escort. But it was only until Cloud city and then she could be on her own again. There really wasn’t a point to the whole journey thing if she had to deal with too many people. If she wanted to do that she could have stayed and worked, making money as she did.

“Wait stop,” they hadn’t gotten particularly far when the officers voice called out.

“What does he want now,” Andrin asked needlessly as it soon became clear the officer was not calling after them.

A girl came bursting out of the woods with a Sneasel running besides her. She was young with blue hair, her clothing was burnt and torn up and her hair looked like it had seen better days and while it was difficult to know for sure it looked like her eyebrows were non-existent.

“Stop chasing me,” the girl yelled as she jumped out of the woods and made her way down the path towards Anji and.

What do I do, what do I do, Anji thought as the girl ran towards them trying to get away from the officer who was in hot pursuit.

“Out of the way,” the girl shouted. Anji and Andrin were standing in the middle of the trail and it would be difficult to push past them if they decided to block her. The girl didn’t appear to be ready to take that risk. “Sneasel ice punch.”

As the Pokémon charged the two of them something inside Anji clicked, all of her anxiety melted away for just a moment. She didn’t even really understand what she was doing. When asked to describe what it was like in the future the most she would be able to offer was to say it felt like someone else took control of her for a moment. It wasn’t true of course, it was her, it was always her, it was just a different part that she hadn’t come to understand yet.

“Eevee knock it off balance with tackle,” she said with more confidence then she had ever said anything in her life.

Eevee had been patiently walking next to Anji as they were making their way down the path. So, when the command was given it didn’t hesitate. It charged forward and tackled into Sneasel from the side somehow understanding exactly what Anji wanted when she gave the order. Sneasel lost its balance and skidded along the ground freezing the paved walking path as it went.

“Sneasel roll out of it and use quick attack,” the Pokémon rolled back to its feet and quickly struck Eevee in retaliation it flinched back but not enough to put it in any danger.

“Eevee swift,” the little Pokémon formed stars made of energy around it in a way that really seemed impossible. Anji didn’t really understand the science of how such moves worked. But it worked, as the stars rushed forward and slammed into Sneasel knocking it back. The poor thing must have taken substantial damage already, because Sneasel fell to the ground it what Anji knew was the Pokémon Fainting, it was over.

Anji blinked coming out of her strange battle trance, her anxiety rushing back to meet her. What did I just do, oh no, oh no, oh no. What if the officer arrests me? I just attacked a little girls Pokémon with zero remorse.

“Well, well, well,” the officer said. “I thought you were just some useless traveler. But you're quite the skilled battler.”

“Are you ready to calm down and talk,” the officer said turning his attention to the girl.

“No,” she responded with the stubborn indignation only a child could have. “You burned the forest down,” she pointed accusingly at the officer.

“Wha--what,” the officer said reeling at the accusation. “No, I didn’t.”

Adrin leaned down to put himself on eye level with the child. He smiled at her and made sure that he had her attention before talking.

“What’s your name?”

“Chyrin.”

“Well Chyrin, it looks like you and your Pokémon are hurt. So, we’re going to walk you to a Pokémon center alright.”

The girl stared at Andrin for a long moment. The man never broke eye contact with the girl, not once, Anji couldn’t even tell if he blinked.

“Fine,” the girl said at last.