Cyndaquil (oh god its not finished yet I who the frick made [enter] automatically post aaaaaaah)

It was hard to choose. For the most part I didn’t care much about their first forms since for most of my life they would be in their final forms but its hard to ignore Cyndaquil’s cute little snout. Besides typlosion is basically a fluffy warm pillow, once my adventuring days are over he would be the easiest to take care of. Empoleon would need a massive bathtub and serperior would strangle me in my sleep.

“Would cyndaquil be ok professor”

“If you can convince the little guy then sure”

Something like this was to be expected. Just as a trainer chooses his pokemon a pokemon chooses its trainer. And so I went down on my belly. The floor was cold but now I was at eyelevel with cyndaquil making me a bit less intimidating.

The snivy immediatly lost interest and waddled off to slap his tail against the wall. “Probably practicing” I thought. Cyndaquil showed no signs of approaching.

A few minutes later a berry dropped on my head, quickly followed by a curious piplup who waddled around my back, even pecking the back of my head a couple times before finding his berry and continuing to do whatever it is that piplups do.

After what felt like ages I began to doze off. And just then I felt something boop my outstretched hand. I slowly turned my head to see who it was and to my suprise: cyndaquil. He was carefully poking around my hand, and slowly ever so slowly he came closer and closer until eventually: he was sniffing my face.

I let him do what he had to do while I slowly moved my Other hand to my pocket. I had an oran berry. It was actually going to be my snack while I waited for the professor but I had forgotten about it because of my conversation with Gina.

After a little while I managed to get the berry out and once again very slowly moved it front of the cyndaquils face. He sniffed my hand for a bit before sniffing the oran berry before taking a carefull bite. They were small bites but he was eating from my hand.

As he was eating I whispered to the professor to hand the cyndaquils pokeball. Once the oran berry was gone I held the ball in the same hand and manner as I had the oran berry before.

The cyndaquil sniffed the ball, he sniffed my face, then my hand and finally let out a small noise, before pressing his little sniffer on the pokeball’s button sending him inside.

Hearing a loud yawn I look to the professor “well, it may have taken forever but it seems he’s accepted you as his trainer. Congrats Trainer”

I looked at the ball in my hand and let out a sigh of relief. I was beginning to think he wouldn’t accept me but I guess he was just as nervous as me.

Saying my goodbye’s to the 2 remaining pokemon I walked back out the door.

when I came back in the main room Gina jumped up “and? Did you get one?”

I proudly showed off the filled pokeball

“Man you had me worried that they didn’t trust you with how long you took. So, What pokemon is it?” Gina asked

“I’ll show you later. Wouldn’t want you to counterpick me. Besides: you’ve got your own to convince... I think you’ll like them”

Gina took 1 look at the professor who gave a small nod before bolting off trough the door.

Before walking off the professor told me: “if you want you can release your pokemon outside of the lab, i’ll call you back inside once everybody has a pokemon”

“Allright, thanks prof”

“Call me Holly”

“Allright, Thanks Holly”

As I was walking off I could hear a very girly scream of joy, and a very distressed piplup.

Once the door closed behind me I took out the pokeball and after a bit of fumbling managed to release cyndaquil.

He looked around for a bit sniffing the air, he seemed a bit scared. From what you remember at trainer school cyndaquils are usually rather timid and easily scared. This in combination with them releasing flames when they are scared makes them quite a fire hazard and generally not people’s pick for a starter.

“Hey there little buddy”

I sat down on the floor opposite of him and took out another berry. They were all quite small so I had to collect a lot to get a proper snack. I could have gotten bigger one’s but I forgot about them like most things until the last minute.

Using the tiny berries I made a line going towards the cyndaquil. And 1 by 1 fed them to him. (Actually, is it even a boy? I Haven’t checked yet). Regardless the cyndaquil slowly came closer to me and eventually was eating from my hand, Once the berries began to run out I slowly moved 1 hand to cyndaquils back while the other was busy pouring more berries into his tiny mounth. Its amazing how much food he can stuff in his tiny body. Very slowly and very carefully I went to pet cyndaquil and when my finger touched him I almost expected to get burned. Luckily I didn’t and I was able to softly pet him.

“I should probably give you a name shouldn’t I?”

Cynda!

“I’ll give you a name once I get the pokedex. It would be unfortunate to call you John and you end up being a girl”

I sat on the ground whilst petting cyndaquil. Once the berries ran out he began searching through my bag and clothes looking for more, I was about to stop him when the door to the pokelab opened up to reveal a very proud Gina.

“I got one!” She yelled whilst pushing the pokeball in my face.

“Congrats, did you get the Piplup?”

“It was love at first sight” she said dreamy

“What about you? I still haven’t see yours yet”

I pointed at my bag which was moving around on its own “I got the cyndaquil..... he likes oran berries”

“Ha! So you’re weak to my piplup”

“I guess I am”

She had a sly grin on her face “Say, do you wanne have a quick pokemon battle while we wait?”

I let out a small sigh “I would love to, but I don’t think cyndaquil is ready for it, how about next time?”

She shrugged her shoulders “fair enough, i’ll just go find some trainers on route 101. Which reminds me, where are you going to go?”

“Well, first I have to head home and say goodbye to my mom’s properly. After that i’ll probably head after you towards muko-town to stock up. Where i’ll head after that I don’t know yet. Probably going to look for my first gym”

“Did you plan ahead at all?” She asked not sounding very suprised.

“Its me we’re talking about here. Even if I planned ahead I would probably abandon the plan before I even got my starter. Besides: its an adventure, i’ve gotte keep it exciting somehow.”

She shrugged her shoulders “yeah thats about what I expected from you. Well, try not to get into to much trouble”

“No promises”

I wanted to ask where Gina was planning on heading but was interrupted by Dickface mcgee opening the door. She had a pokeball hanging from her belt and what appeared to be a pokedex in her hand. “The professor wanted me to call you. Says to go inside”

“Oh tha-“ before I could even finish thanking her she stormed past me and Gina even giving her a push as she walked past her.

“Rude” Gina said staring daggers into Dickface mcgee’s back.

“Yeah I don’t like her either. Lets just ignore her and see what the professor has. I doub't well see her again anyway”

Gina agreed and the 2 of us headed inside, an assistant pointed us back to the room where we first met our pokemon. The professor stood behind the table presenting us with 2 pokedexes.

“Alright kiddo’s. You probably already know this so i’m going to keep it short:

The pokedex is a device which we used to note down data. Thankfully thanks to a long history of trainers and scientists alike we have a fairly good understanding of wild pokemon. So please don’t pretend to be a field scientist, we have trained professionals now.

The pokedex is a tool that gives you instant access to most information regarding pokemon from habitats to egg-groups. If you see a pokemon you can simply scan it and the dex will tell you its age, gender, and even mood.

Its valuable so don’t lose or break it. I won’t buy you a replacement..... I recommend buying a protective case.

Now i’m still a scientist. So while this is by no means required I will ask that you collect some data for me. Specifically you Trainer. We know a lot about how pokemon behave in the wild but we know very little about their relationships with their trainers. What causes them to bond?, why do we rarely find fully evolved pokemon while trainers can easily train them?, do they battle differently in the wild vs with a trainer?. And in your case Trainer: are there any major differences between male and female trainers and how their pokemon treat them.

So in order to collect all this data in an unbiased manner I request that the 2 of you will maintain a diary during your adventures”

Gina raised her hand “Um, i’ve never kept a diary so i’m not sure how to use one”

“Its really simple” the professor said with a yawn “just write down what happened during the day. It can just be mundane things, a funny experience, or even how you feel about something. All that matters is that you write about your pokemon every now and again. But since you’ll be spending a lot of time with them i’m sure you’ll find it comes quite naturally”.

“Allright that should be pretty easy” I said “should we send in a weekly report or something?”

“oh don’t worry about that” she said whilst handing me and Gina our dex “You can send the data whenever is most convenient.” She let out a loud yawn before continuing “lets see here. You’ve got your starters, you’ve got your dex, ah right! just one last thing” she took out 2 small cases. One was a bright blue while the other was split in the middle, the top being green and the bottom being black. Both cases had a pokegym logo on them “These are for your gym badges. You can also fit your trainer card in there”

Gina took the blue case and I took the green/black case. Looking at the back you could see a little trademark indicating they were made in unova.

“And with that, my job is done” the professor said while stretching. “I wish the both of you good luck. Now if you’ll excuse me, i’m going to take a na-” THUD

Before she was able to finish her sentence Holly fell down to the floor. We were quite concerned at first but she soon began snoring loudly.

Gina and I notified an assistant who just sighed heavily and took out a seemingly prepared blanket “looks like her wake-up juice ran out” she mumbled as she walked away. When she came back she gave us a quick “good luck” and walked us out of the lab. Once we stepped outside The first people could be seen walking around town, this whole ordeal had taken a couple hours and by now it was early morning.

I was about to say goodbye to Gina since I had no clue when I would see her again when she suddenly had a present in her hand.

“Happy 20th birthday!” She said as she handed me the present.

“I, euh, thanks?” (I’ve always been awkward with receiving gifts)

“Come on open it” she said impatiently.

And so I did quickly tearing apart the red wrapping to reveal 5 pokeballs neatly arranged in a plastic grey box.

"What do you think?"

"its perfect" I said.

and it really was, this would save a lot of pokedollars that I can use on other supplies, and now I could look for pokemon on my way to Muko town Which just leaves one question: "don't you need these for your own journey?"

she shrugged her shoulders "probably. but its your birthday and I can't just give you nothing. So just accept them" she let out a chucle "besides; you'll need this little headstart if you want to be a proper rival to me"

"You're going to regret that"

"try me"

I let out a sigh and pocketed the present, locking the empty balls on my belt. "Thanks for the pokeballs regardless. so now that we have our starters, where are you headed?"

"straight to Wabot-city ignoring everything on the way there. I want to get my first gym-badge as soon as possible. The more gym badges we have the more TM's we are licensed to use. the more TM's we can use the more freedom and options we have. exploring before that almost seems like a waste of time"

"And why Wabot-city specifically?" I asked.

"If I beat the water-gym there I can use surf. I should be able to get around a lot easier with that. After that I don't know yet. It depends on the pokemon i've caught I guess" she said with a smile. "speaking of which, I should probably get going" she was looking to the sky where the sun began shining through the thick forest surrounding our village.

"yeah, you probably should" I said following her eyes, though they couldn't see what she saw in the sky "otherwise your slow ass in going to still be here by the time i'm champion"

she quickly gave me another punch on my shoulder, before I had a chance to react she was already running off to the village exit as she waved her goodbye's.

"cheeky son of a b- nevermind" I said rubbing my shoulder. thats probably going to leave a bruise.

I turned to cyndaquil who had been rummaging through my bag the entire time. when I called for him he popped his little head out of the bag. His whole head was covered in a blue sticky liquid and I had a gut feeling I was going to need more oran berries.

"those were supposed to last until Muko-town"

"Cynda!" He seemed quite happy with himself.

Allright buddy lets get you cleaned up and I'll introduce you to Ma and Mum.

after cleaning cyndaquils face with some napkins I made my way over to my house for probably the last time until I'd get a flying pokemon. I opened the door

Happy 20th birthday!

When I entered I was greeted by my 2 mothers, a small tower of presents and a sparkling birtday cake. A Very sparkling cake.

"Euh, mom. the cake is burning down" I said pointing my finger to the table behind them.

FUCK! they yelled in unison as Ma burned her hands trying to get the candles out while mum Began blowing on them. Eventually mum ran to the kitchen and came back with a flowervase filled with water which she promptly dumped on the cake.

We were all 3 looking at the burnt soggy cake while mum stood above it with the vase. Until Ma broke the silence "So... who wants a slice?"

"Me" I said throwing my bag next to the door and sitting down.

I managed to keep the stoic face going until mum began slurping up some cake resulting in a coughing fit. I lost it and the rest soon joined me in laughter. Mum didn't appreciate this much as her precious breath between coughs was wasted on laughter.

Once we all calmed down and disposed of the now titled "Spongecake" Ma said:

"Well then Trainer. Its the big day. And while we would love to keep you here just a tiny bit longer I know from personal experience you can't keep a trainer from adventuring. Altough good luck explaining that to your mother"

"oh please, if not for me you would've locked him in a basement with yourself as his personal bodyguard"

"Anyway!" she said quickly moving on "Since WE" she glared at mum who just grinned "can't keep you here We've got some presents for you to hopefully make the journey a bit easier"

"I'm a bit old for presents aren't I?"

"Well if you don't want them"

"Nevermind!" I yelled as I quickly grabbed a package and started tearing into the wrapping, a few seconds later the wrapping laid on the floor and before me lay a box wrapped in swalot tape, zip ties and and even some steelix-grade steel chains"

I looked over at Ma and Mum with a questioning look

"The present is in the package" mum said sarcastically

"Yeah I got that, but why is the package better fortified than a dreadnaw?

Ma gave a little michievous smile "Consider it a little test. A trainer must if nothing else be a good problem solver. If you can’t crack a simple gift how could you ever hope crack the elite 4?”

I sighed deeply “I should have known you wouldn’t let me go that easily. Can’t I just go grab a bolt cutter?”

“Unless you happen to have a bolt cutter in your travellers bag, no. You can only use what a trainer would carry with him.”

“Thought so”

I took the package in my hands and shook it around a bit causing something inside to rattle. "At least its not empty" I mumbled. I took a good look at the package while considering my options. The tape I could get through with brute ****, and the same could be said for the zip-ties, if not with my bare hands then the pocket knife somewhere deep in my bag. The chains are going to be a big problem do. And then I noticed the lock that kept the chains together. It was probably just as strong if not stronger than the chain itself, but it did mean there was a key somewhere.

“Hey Ma, you don’t happen to know where the key is do you?”

She grinned while pulling out a key from her pocket and showing it to me. “Not everything a trainer faces can be dealt with by a pokemon battle. But in this particular case, it can. If you win I’ll give you the key”

“And if I lose?”

“You’ll have to stay 3 more days at home and let us get to know your starter Pokemon”

“Yeah no thanks” Ma was a former trainer who quit right before getting her 8th badge. And while she hasn’t trained since adopting me she still has her old team. Even if I got 10 Cyndaquils it would be a hopeless endeavor.

Ma shrugged her shoulders while putting the key back in her pocket.

“once a trainer always a trainer” mum said while shaking her head. “Seriously, do you ever lose that lust for battle?”

“I’ve got a burning passion for battle that no water can extinguish” said Ma whilst puffing out her chest.

“How about I throw you in a river and we’ll see if your passion keeps your clothes dry” mum said.

“wait” I said getting an idea “say that again”

“about how I’ll throw your ma in a river?” mum said whilst tilting her head

I waved my hand “no no the other thing”

“the burning passion that no water can extinguish?”

I snapped my fingers “That’s it! Cyndaquil, I choose you!”

As the ball popped open a red light came out which quickly took the shape of cyndaquil sniffing the air.

"Awwww look at him I never imagined my son's starter would be so adorable" mum squeeled. while ma nodded approvingly "a fire type pokemon. Very smart since most pokemon around here are grass type and thus weak to fire"

"yeah thats great ma but he only knows tackle and growl like every starter so that doesn't really help me"

"Really? back when I was a trainer every pokemon got 3 moves. So why did you pick cyndaquil then? A water pokemon would have saved you money on provisions and a grass pokemon would have been immune to the powder type attacks commonly used in the forests"

"He cute"

"I-"

"stop coaching the boy" mum interrupted. "He's old enough to make his own decisions"

"But I can make the journey so much smoother for him. listen Trainer when you go to route 101 you've got to catch a-"

I ignored both of them as I turned to Cyndaquil. "Ok little buddy, this will be our first challenge together, So lets work together ok?"

"Cynda!"

I gave a small nod "You see this chain here? Our goal is to break it. I need you to get all fired up to heat the metal up. Once its hot enough i'm going to try and pull it apart ok?"

"Cynda?"

Ah right. For a second I Forgot why trainers even exist in the first place. While pokemon can generally survive in the wild and are emotionally very intelligent they aren't very good at complex plans. Especially when multiple steps are involved.

"Ah oke, let me rephrase that. Cyndaquil, use fire"

he seemed just as if not more confused then before. oke, new NEW plan. "Just repeat after me"

"Cynda!"

I took a deep breath in, and thankfully, syndaquil mimicked me. And as expected the flame on his back got a little brighter. I was thankfull I remembered that cyndaquils fire is based on their oxygen intake. After holding my breath for a few seconds I exhaled all the air in my lungs. Cyndaquil did the same, and once I saw his flame start sputtering a bit I inhaled again and once again Cyndaquils flame got a little brighter. I kept repeating this process slowly increasing the pace while Cyndaquil faithfully mimicked me. And slowly but sure, The flame on his back glew brighter and brighter to the point that it even became blue. I don't know when but mum and ma had taken a step back. Ma was even holding the fire extinguisher. I myself had begun sweating, but I knew Cyndaquil couldn't keep it up for long.

"keep it up just a little longer cyndaquil!" I yelled while quickly grabbing my fire resistant gloves from my backpack. originally meant for Volcano's and snowstorms they would have to do here. I hasted myself back to Cyndaquil and held the package with the chain over his flaming back and while my hands where slowly cooking in the gloves that I now realised where of poor quality the chain slowly got an orange glow. Even so it didn't break, and unless I did something cyndaquil would exhaust himself for nothing.

"Hey Trainer, mayby you should try something el-"

"WE ALMOST HAVE IT!" I interrupted Ma.

"Its fine we can ju-"

Before Ma got me to change my mind I Grabbed the chain close to the heated part, Causing both Ma and Mum to shriek out.

I ignored both them and the burning pain in my hands as I started pulling on the chain with all my might. For a second the flames sputtered as Cyndaquil focused on me.

"Keep Breathing" I said through clenched teeth. Cyndaquil hesitated for a second before the flames became steady again. As I strained my muscles on the chain again. I've always been told boys are stronger than girls and need to watch their strength, And even during boy camp I was able to overpower boys above my weight class. And that was before I started seriously training for my pokemon journey. Thus I hoped that a combination between my strength and Cyndaquil's heating would be enough to break the chain.

I kept pulling the chain as hard as I could, sweat dripping down my forehead and falling on the red-hot chain causing an occasional sizzling sound. The pain in my hands was starting to become unbearable, But through the tears starting to form in my eyes I did ever so slightly feel the chain bending. So I kept pulling. I could see Ma and Mum wanted to stop me, but if they pulled me and I dropped the iron on my unprotected legs it would almost certainly leave a third degree burn. Not that I was paying much attention to that. I simply kept pulling and pulling and.

[Cyndaquil fainted]

Suddenly the fire beneath me went out and I quickly dropped the chain and ran towards the sink

"Ow, hot, fuck, shit dammit, AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaahh oooooooh, thats better"

I let out an inhuman sound of relief as the water washed over my hand. Looking down I could see some minor burns on them. "Not a good start to an adventure" I mumbled to myself as I followed proper procedure and let it cool for the next 15 minutes.

When I finally came back to the living room I saw that mum had wrapped Cyndaquil in some blankets. Meanwhile Ma was rummaging through an old bag. After a few seconds she pulled out a weird yellow clump vaguely resembeling a star.

"Its a max revive" She explained, after seeing my confused look.

I stood there cooling my hands for 15 minutes before finally coming back to the living room. Where Mum had wrapped Cyndaquil in some blankets, Meanwhile Ma was rummaging through an old dusty bag. After a few seconds she took out a weird yellow clump that vaguely resembled a star.

"Its a max revive" she explained upon seeing my questioning look

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running shoes

pokemap

[1 unopened present he may only open once he's back]

hat --> black + green stripes [special present by father figure --> Mart]

"Go empoleon, show them why you're called the KING"