A Soul of Silver: The Johto tales

Chapter 2: My journey begins

Surprisingly, just like the Pokémon Adventure manga series I used to read in my homeworld, the Poké Balls seemed to be transparant on the red side unlike the animé I used to watch. In the three balls, I saw Pokémon watching me. They all seemed to be a different kind of Pokémon, including their types.

One was Chikorita. It seemed to be looking rather excited to join me on my adventure.

I pushed the button on the device, causing the machine's disk system to turn to the right.

The next Pokémon was a Totodile. I remember picking him in my old game, but I didn't feel like taking him this time. I pushed the button again.

Cyndaquil had its eyes closed, so I wasn't certain if it even realized where it was. I picked up Cyndaquil's Poké Ball, and Elm smiled at me.

"So, you will pick the Fire Pokémon, Cyndaquil?"

I nodded and pushed the button on the Ball, and there it was. A little echidna creature with a flaming back.

"How do you like walking with your Pokémon?", Veritas asked as I walked up to him.

"It's not bad, is it? You can take it all the way to Vinculum's house. If your Pokémon gets hurt..."

He glanced behind him, watching a machine that seemed to have 6 indents next to a PC.

"You should heal it with this machine. It's easy to use, just check the PC on my desk!"

He turned back to me.

"Vinculum goes everywhere and finds rarities. His house is past  Cherrygrove City. Go north a little past Cherrygrove. I'm counting on you, Sand!"

Cherrygrove... So the town names didn't change into a pony version of themselves. Good.

As I walked outside, one of the generic scientist ponies (the only one there) and gave me Potions, which I knew were handy at the start of my journey. What happened next astonished me.

"That's kinda generous of him."

I looked around the lab, searching for the girly voice that said that.

"Down here, Sand!" I glanced down at Cyndaquil, shocked.

"Did you hear me?" My eyes widened even more. My Cyndaquil was talking to me! That was awesome!

"...You can talk?" I asked her curiously, to which she nodded. "I knew  you could hear me! You're the special trainer!"

This only made my curiosity increase.

"Special trainer?"

Cyndaquil nodded happily. "Yup! By the way, thanks for picking me, Sand! We'll be great friends in no time!"

My curiosity replaced itself with a feeling of bonding and I picked up the little Cyndaquil talking to me, giving her a hug.

"So, you're a girl... That's quite rare for a starter Pokémon. I should give you a name!"

I began thinking of names, and finally, I found one.

"Clara! That will be your name. Clara the Cyndaquil.", I told her with the widest of smiles.

Cyndaquil jumped up and down, clearly approving of the nickname I just gave her. I figured naming her after the Santa Clara, a volcano in the Galapagos islands in the real world. Seeing how Typhlosion could learn attacks like Lava Plume and Eruption, it fit her perfectly.

As Clara and I walked outside, Marill bumped against my leg again, this time being chased by Lyra. As she saw me, she trotted up to me, calling my name.

"So you picked a Cyndaquil? That's a cute Pokémon you have! When you walk with it, it'll become more friendly. You should turn around and talk to it sometimes too. Oh, that's right! Why don't you show her to your mom?"

She waved and trotted off again, leaving me baffled.

"What just happened, Clara?"

Clara shrugged.

"Dunno, but she told you to show me to your mom. Let's go!"

Clara ran to my house, somehow knowing where I lived already. As I entered, I saw Clara comfortably laying in "mom's" lap.

"This is one cute Pokémon, Sand. Professor Veritas gave it to you?"

I nodded and walked towards Clara and 'mom'.

"Yeah, the prof gave me a task..."

'Mom' only smiled at that. "Oh? What kind of task?"

I told her the request Veritas had made to me like the character does.

"I see. That sounds a little difficult."

I nodded.

"But when someone makes that kind of request of you, it must be important!"

She showed me a watch. Or, well, it looked like a wristband with PDA functions, almost.

"By the way, your Pokégear came back from the repair shop! Here you go!"

I wrapped the Gear on my left...wrist? If ponies had those. Otherwise it'd just be my left front leg.

"The Pokémon Gear, or Pokégear, as it's often called, is what every Trainer should have. And guess what?"

I interrupted her.

"Don't say, mom. I can use the Pokégear to make a phone call, too?"

She nodded and continued.

"You remember how?"

I nodded again. Surprisingly, the way 'mom' and I nodded was very similar. After receiving my Gear, I walked outside, ready to fulfill the quest Veritas had given me.

Before I left for the route left to New Bark Town, my hometown in this world, Veritas stopped me to give his Gear number to me. I continued my journey right after.

My first battle ever occured soon, a wild Sentret on Route 29. Clara only knew Tackle or Leer, so I supposed I could use Tackle to take it down. Determined, Clara followed my every command while trying her best to avoid Sentret's attacks. Eventually, the battle was over, with Clara still standing. In the short time I had met her, it felt like we had been battling like this all our lives. Clara jumped up and I hugged the Cyndaquil which I knew would be my partner for the rest of this journey. One battle later, she learned Smokescreen, a pretty cool attack.

Once in Cherrygrove, the familiar old guy gave me the Town Map for my Gear and the Running Horseshoes, which I found was very clever, and I proceeded to Vinculum's house, with Clara clearly enjoying her ride on a pony's back. On the way there, I also got stopped by a stallion giving me a Case for Apricorns, something that was completely new in this game, I believed.

As I entered the house I was looking for, Vinculum already came trotting up to me. On the other side of the table, another stallion sat, his coat darkish blue with a silver mane and tail. He looked like the opposite of Vinculum, who was rather cheery to see me, whereas the other one remained calm and collected.

"You must be Sand. It was I who sent an email to Professor Veritas earlier."

He walked to a closet and took an egg out, handing it to me.

"This is what I want Veritas to examine for me. A friend of mine from Ecruteak City gave it to me. I bet you can't find this kind of egg here in Johto. I thought Veritas might be able to tell what this is. "He's the best when it comes to the research of Pokémon evolution." That's a quote from the famous Professor Menda."

At the mention of the name Menda, which was familiar to me as I played him in roleplays, the blue stallion rose from his chair and walked towards me.

"And with that... I am Menda, a Pokémon researcher! So you are Sand! I was just visiting my friend Vinculum here. I heard you were running an errand for Professor Veritas, so I waited here."

He glanced at Clara, who showed the old stallion a warm smile.

"Hello, professor!", Clara happily exclaimed.

"Oh, what is this? A rare Pokémon! I see... You must be helping Veritas' research! I think I understand why he gave you that Pokémon. You will treat it with love and care, it seems."

He paused for a few seconds and continued his sleep-inducing (to me) speech.

"How would you like helping me out?" He showed me another familiar device. "This is the latest version of the Pokédex. It automatically records data of Pokémon you've seen or caught. It's a high-tech encyclopedia! I'd like you to have it!"

After registering my number in his Gear and vice-versa, I said goodbye to Vinculum and went outside, when suddenly, my Gear's phone began ringing.

I pushed the button and saw Veritas' face on the little screen, panicked and worried.

"H-Hello? Sand?", he began with a tremble in his voice.

"Professor, are you OK?"

"It's a disaster! Uh, um, it's just terrible! What should I do? It... Oh, no... PLEASE GET BACK HERE NOW, SAND!"

With those words, the call stopped. I glanced at Clara and nodded at her, receiving a nod back. Clara and I began running back to Veritas' lab.