Soni
3rd May 2004, 05:10 PM
Here it is, I'll save the intro, just read it! :)!
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Soni: in Kanto
Chapter I
-01-
Adventures Begin!
Slowly and somberly, cautiously and questioningly, never cross the road, well maybe not that one. Everyday in my life my mom would remind me that nobody is to be trusted without getting to know them. I was getting so sick of it my mom kept nagging me over and over again. I tell her to lie off and she uses the ‘excuse’.
“I just have your best interests at heart,” she cries tears eating away at her eyes.
When she was little, a stray Poochyena attacked her and bit her leg, turns out the wolf Pokémon had hydrophobia, or rabies, she was rushed to the hospital and injected with the vaccine, luckily there was no lasting damage. Ever since she was a caution-freak, it got annoying fast!
But there was no point in her denying me of this opportunity, my Pokémon Journey was starting in, I slowly lifted my wrist so it was visible to my eyes, I started muttering random numbers before coming to an answer, thirty-six hours and twenty-eight minutes.
I walked over to my window and unlatched the lock; I slowly lifted up the windowpane and climbed out to the roof. The roof stooped low enough that it was capable of climbing on and off to reach it from the ground. I often laid on my roof to think, as nervousness and anxiety got the best of me or just to talk to myself. Many thought that talking to yourself was a sign of insanity or depression, but it was my little way of getting up enough social stamina to talk to a girl you liked or just out of boredom.
I was snapped out of my thoughts as blinding headlights scorched
the irises of my eyes.
Kanto’s Pallet Town was always bustling with commotion besides the fact that besides Cinnabar Island it was the smallest town/city in Kanto. There were always the lights from distant building in the downtown area.
Downtown Pallet was the home of most office buildings, the Pokémon Laboratory, The Pokémon Center that was built with Ash Ketchum’s prize money he won in the most recent Kanto Pokémon League Finals. Also there was the Pokémon Market, and finally there were some of the richest subdivisions and houses in Kanto. Although it was almost seven miles away, you could see the lights as clearly as if you were standing right in front of it.
I slowly closed my eyes, if I fell asleep it wouldn’t be the first time, but I wouldn’t there was to much on my mind. I checked my quartz watch again seeing the long black hand tick to the minutes number pointing on the small twenty-eight in between the twenty-five and the thirty, the hour hand was halfway to its small goal of the ten.
On Saturday of the twenty-first of May I would stand in front of Professor Gary Oak Jr. whom would bless me with a small red and white crystal orb.
As today was Thursday the nineteenth, it fell into the time stream of life; my watch was now telling me it was Friday the twentieth at twelve ‘o’ one.
I snapped out of my trance wondering how the past hour and a half ate away so fast. I decided to get some sleep; I climbed through my window, got in my bed and fell asleep fully clothed.
***
As I slowly awoke from my unconscious state, I opened my eyes and stared around. I got up and walked to my closet clutching the doorknob in my fist and opening it up.
I lowered a white tee shirt over my head and pulled on a pair of blue cargo jeans. Over my white tee I pulled on a black coat vest that had many differently shaped pockets on it.
I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out the wallet I had forgotten through the night and opened it up. Inside was twenty-seven dollars, a Food Stamp, which enabled twenty percent off food for trainers, a Rest Stamp, which is twenty-five percent off room and board, and a small semi-flexible card.
My Pokémon Training license, in the left-hand upper corner was a mug shot of myself. My hair was brown and spiked in the front. Just to the right of the picture were personal details. Name: Soni Sinai, Age: 12, Birthday: June 27, 1991, Eyes: Blue, Hair: Brown, Expiration Date: August 6, 2004. I slipped it in my clear plastic cover of wallet, folded it up, and put it back in my back pocket.
I glanced at the digital alarm clock and noticed it was ten ‘o’ four and time to go to Celadon City. I was traveling by car with my mom, to Celadon City to do shopping for my Pokémon Journey.
Celadon City housed the largest mall in the Kanto, Hoenn, and Johto regions.
So twenty minutes later my mom and I were off on the road to Celadon City. The journey is a four-hour drive so I brought my notebook and a pencil.
I started writing a short-story entitled A.I. And I Don’t Care! I started bobbing my head up and down as I slipped my headphones so the soft material tickled my ears. On the way there I nibbled off bits of food, overcoming small bouts of writer’s block and then eventually finishing my masterpiece.
As we drove down a local road of Cerulean City called Sensational Drive. We drove up and stopped at a tollbooth.
“Two dollars,” the gatemen grunted in a bored fashion.
“Here you go good man,” my mom said handing over two American dollars.
The flow of currency valued anywhere you went. Some cities, such as Celadon, took many kinds of current. Every city took American dollars, but some took Pesos, some took Franc, some took Euro, and some took all of them.
“Drive on.”
When we turned onto the road labeled, Sooper-Dooper Road, I got plain freaked out I put my notebook page to the omega page and titled the page, Better Street Names Than Sooper-Dooper Road. I jotted down many-a-few names and finally got bored of my little game and closed my notebook and stared at cars.
The license plate game was next on my agenda. I saw a Corvette with a plate titled, AMYS TOY. I then saw a plate with, WHY ME on it. This game got boring fast so I tilted the chair back to a laying down position and took a short nap.
As I awoke in the beige interior of my mom’s Jeep Grand Cherokee, my mom braked into the parking lot of the Celadon City Mall.
The exterior was a large half brick building with a tinge of orange on every brick, due to old age. The upper half was a white-sided building. The building itself formed the letter ‘L’ shape the building itself had five stories not including the roof.
I opened the car door hoped out onto the black pavement and closed the silver door.
The doors automatically slid opened and a bell sounded.
“Hello and welcome to the Celadon City Mall,” the Welcome Lady said cheerfully with a very cheesy grin.
“I was wondering what level Pokémon Training Goods are on?” my mom asked the lady.
My mom was wearing an olive green dress that went to her ankles, and a flower embedded hat.
“Floor four, miss,” the lady said motioning to the stairs to the side.
We climbed up to the stairs and footed ourselves on the first floor. It looked like it was a TM Card Shop.
The latest version of the Pokédex was created and mass-produced two months ago and it had a new feature.
But first, TM or Technical Machines, taught certain Pokémon certain moves. The TM Card was the newest development in Pokémon history.
The Pokédex had a TM Swipe, a card reader, which was designed for easy use of Pokémon move readers. The TM Card was buyable and you receive one for each gym leader you conquer.
Up the stairs we went up to the second purchase room.
This floor was devoted to Pokémon enhancers. There were things like X Attack, X Defense, X Endurance, and Pokémon Elemental Stones.
They boosted Pokémon attributes and helped certain Pokémon evolve.
Pokémon that were traded for evolution is now a drowned out fashion. Pokémon can now find ways to evolve without trading to a new owner. Maybe a Kadabra will spend a week meditating and then all of sudden emerge an Alakazam. Or a Machoke will lift weights continuously and become a Machamp. Weird situations have happened like, a trainer in a battle called on his Haunter and it emerged as a Gengar unexplained.
We moved on up the stairs to the third floor.
This was a floor devoted entirely to selling actual Pokemon. My mom had to drag me away from the Ultra-Rare section where I repeatedly told her, “I wouldn’t leave till I owned a Dratini purchased from that very store!”
“A Dratini runs for $12,000! I don’t even have that! If I did I would have your father’s Nissan Skyline mortgage paid off!” My mom said grumbling the last part.
Walking up the stairs after finally giving up, my mom threw in the argument the, “If you don’t listen to me we will march straight out of this store and you will not go tomorrow!”
When we arrived on the floor, we started to shop around, picking out items putting them in our cart, putting back items we decided not to get. Going in between aisles and having a good time with my mom was fun.
Tomorrow I left Kanto for a few years and who knows I will probably go to Johto maybe Hoenn! I would probably take a few years off from school and make them up at night school when I am an adult. I was bummed to go but anxious to start, is that weird?
After some serious thought and consideration we purchased, from the big brown desk in the front a large leather Trainer’s Bag, five Pokéballs, ten Potions, two Super Potions, a Paralyze Heal, a Burn Heal, a Defroster, and a Pokégear. After paying for them I loaded them into my new bag pulled off the tag and slung it on my right shoulder.
“I’m thirsty mom,” I told her rubbing my neck; she stroked her chin and then snapped her fingers.
“In my Pokéjourney there was a rooftop Food Court,” she said grabbing my arm and leading me to the stairs.
“I’m gonna use the elevator, I love those things!” I said smiling broadly.
I walked in and I pushed the button and the button labeled ‘Roof’ and it flashed green and stayed lit. There was a single stranger on the elevator and I decided to have fun.
I reached over and tapped his shoulder; I quickly retreated and stated, “Wasn’t me!” goofily.
He frowned at me and we walked out, him in one direction me in another. I distinctly heard him mumbling, “Disrespecting kids!”
There was no longer a rooftop Food Court, it was an indoor Food Court. There was a large glass dome over the top of the roof and obviously a sun protector, because I was staring directly at the sun without even wincing.
“Oh my,” my mom uttered slowly, after I met up with her.
We walked over to a nearby restaurant called, Charmeleon Island and asked to the counter person what had happened.
“Well the insects were eating up our customers away so we had the Saffron Building Company and they built a Sun-Glass Dome, caused a big pay-cut too, mind you,” he said, grumbling the last bit.
“Wow, anyway I’ll have a Charmeleon Chilidog, Soni,” my mom said trailing off her voice, I was already walking to McPikachu’s and ordering a five piece Pikanuggets and a McFry and a McShake!
After we ate I saw a pop machine, dumping my disposable tray into the garbage can I walked to the big red machine. Fifty cents for lemonade, seventy-five for water, and a dollar for soda, I put a dollar in and waiting as I pushed the button an ice cold Staryu Soda fell out.
I walked to my mom and we headed out.
“I was wondering do you want to go to the casino?” my mom asked smiling.
“Don’t tease me mom you know I’m underage,” I said sighing, I wanted more then anything to play some Texas Hold-Em for real money, blackjack, Five-Card Stud, Omaha, Craps, but nine years until that faithful day.
“No, no they have a Kid’s Casino here,” she said opening her door; I got in to and picked up my notebook.
“Texas Hold-Em here I come!” I shouted!
“Soni sorry, only in the Adult Casino is there card games just slots in yours, and not for money, tickets for prizes,” she said smiling.
“Woo-Hoo” I sighed.
I double-check and triple-checked my spelling and grammar of my twelve-page front and back-story, by the time we arrived. Being one-thirty already we’d only get an hour and a half.
“I’ll get you in an hour and a half son, have fun,” she said handing me fifty dollars.
Ten minutes and two hundred tokens later I began playing. I had a ball, with five tokens left and had won zero coinage I was bummed. But setting my third to last token in a large red seven appeared, a second had shown only white. My legs shaking a large blue seven appearing. 50,000 tickets fell out of the ticket slot, the last token I won twenty tickets so when I went to the counter with 50,020 tickets in my hand folded into a stick about the size of five television remotes and as thick as a medium-sized book.
“Wow, our second jackpot winner ever in history, congrats! Now for your prize, you can get one of the following Pokéballs…” he said laying out a Lureball, a Greatball, a Friendball, and a Heavyball. “Or a truckload of this other crap… er… stuff,” he said grinning I returned the grin.
“I’ll take this,” I said picking up the Friendball, “and four candies.”
He dropped four chocolate candies in my hand and took the Friendball from my other. He reached below the counter and pulled out a box and set it on
the counter.
“There ya are bud, see ya.”
I picked it up and walked out of the building greeted by my mom who as to say blew her fifty and won nothing. I showed her my new Friendball.
It was a green and white ball, on the cover of the green was a triangle but the left and right points were gone and there were three yellow vertical lines intruding the triangle. I had already eaten my other prizes.
On the way home I wrote a sequel to my story, ‘And I Still Don’t Care.’ Fourteen pages and a quadruple check and we turned on our road. I crumpled up my food package of a drive-threw and threw it outside in our garbage bin. As I walked inside I walked straight up to my room, being ten-thirty I was tired. I magnetically attached the Friendball to the second magnetic circle. I fell asleep, this time in pajamas, so I would be comfy.
Little did I know I had forgotten to set my alarm . . . Had ya fooled didn’t I. Just kidding Soni did set his alarm and woke up on time for his appointment with Gary Jr.
As I stood up and buttoned up my brand new wardrobe, the silk black T-shirt felt soft against my skin but the feeling would soon have me feeling the usual as my previous shirt did. I pulled on my baggy blue cargo jean shorts and then the best piece of my clothes. I fastened on a black belt.
The Trainer Belt was what made most trainers the most anxious. When receiving a belt at the end of your three-month mandatory training session with Professor Oak, it meant you were qualified to receive a Pokemon at the next Ceremony. The belt was kind of a satin brand and had large pouches, which store unused Pokeballs.
Pokeballs are magnetically attached to the belt when they are captured. Pokemon’s durability rely on their immense amount of iron, that’s why when a Machoke punches you, you either die or need a new ribcage, and when a Machoke punches a Pokemon only a small fraction of health is reduced. When a Pokemon is captured the amount of iron is quadrupled, which explains the reason why a captured Pokemon is more durable then a wild Pokemon. The amount of iron in the newly captured Pokemon is enough to make a magnetic field strong enough to attach the ball to the belt.
I admired the belt from my full view mirror. To me, I just looked too different for my taste. I went into my closet and took out my favorite article of clothing and pulled it over my shirt. My black coat-vest fit in perfectly with my new clothing.
I walked downstairs shortly after spiking my hair in the front and was greeted out of nowhere by the biggest bear hug I had ever received in my life.
“My baby is leaving Pallet Town,” sobbed my mom, she was wearing a flowery nightgown and then finished, “Always remember the Sinai family motto: Slowly and somberly and cautiously and questioningly!”
“Yes, mom, even our dumb family motto can’t dampen my day, but who’s driving me?”
“Our motto is not dumb young man! Your sister is driving all the way from Cerulean City Gym to see you receive your Pokemon.”
“Kimi, oh man I haven’t seen her since the Cerulean City Gym Leader Ceremony after Misty’s funeral.
Misty, the ex-gym leader of Cerulean sister drowned after falling unconscious in a show she did daily. Everyone thought it was part of the act until the air bubbles slowly faded to the water and panic struck. By the time officials fished her out she had already bit the bucket, she was buried at twenty-two. Ash, her husband, was devastated moving to Hoenn and taking the role for Roxanne and becoming the first multi-type gym, Roxanne was Misty’s half-sister.
Kimi Sinai was the newly appointed Cerulean City Gym Leader training water Pokemon since she received an Squirtle from Professor Gary Oak Sr.
Can you believe back then Gary Sr. only gave three of the same Pokemon each year: Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. Pathetic, nowadays Gary Jr. gave Pokemon that related the Trainer’s personal attributes he picked up in the mandatory training program.
Seven months apart from your favorite seventeen-year-old sister was too long. Unlike most siblings we got along tons, she had an entirely awesome team: Blastoise, Gyarados, Mudkip, and a Horsea. She had dozens of other non-water Pokemon but she used different Pokemon for different experienced trainers.
“Hey, hey, how’s my favorite brother?” said a very feminine voice.
“Very good, but save the small talk for the car it’s time to go we’re twenty-seven seconds off-schedule!” I said hugging my mom one last time, “Goodbye.”
“Goodbye sweetie,” sobbed my mom crying onto my father’s shoulder.
He just appeared in the doorway he works graveyard shift at the Pokemon Center in Pallet. His five-oh-clock shadow was showing and he had a smile.
“Glad I caught you, I wanted to give you this,” he said he dropped a small ping-pong ball in my hand.
It was a smooth crystal dyed red and white and the same ring line as the Friendball.
“Thanks pop,” I said dropping the crystal next to my Friendball crystal it made a dull clunk as it collided with it.
“No problem son, also Nurse Joy wanted me to give you this,” he said handing me a miniature version of a spray bottle cleaner supply bottle.
It was pink and white with a spray nozzle, it was a spray candy, and it was for revitalizing liquid that healed Pokemon. There was in fact a pouch shaped exactly like the bottle in, which placing it in it’s own pouch.
“Goodbye son, I hope you succeed in where I failed,” he moved in shook my hand and then hugged me.
My father had collected seven badges and on the eighth failed five times resulting in disqualification from the Pokemon League Championships. The seven badges were placed in a plaque and hung on my parent’s room wall.
“Tick tock people, two minutes and thirty-eight seconds off schedule gotta go! Goodbye parents.”
Driving along the road my sister’s car passed green lights and soared off yonder to Pallet Downtown, my thoughts drifted to my brother on Cinnabar Island. He was actually the youngest Professor ever in Kanto, he became one at eighteen. He was mining cinnabar because scientists recently began fusing minerals into the top half of the Pokeball. He promised me a dozen Goldballs when they started mass production. He also said he’d give me a Cinniball when he received a rough draft copy.
Before long my sister stopped at the first red light and pulled down her mirror and fixed her lipstick. Traveling with Kimi a lot, that only meant one thing, we were nearing our destination.
“How much longer Kim?” I asked my sister gazing into my watch, so many green lights we were now three seconds ahead of schedule.
“About five minutes if we get no more red lights,” Kimi said folding up her mirror, when the light changed we accelerated into the street ahead, “Then mom wanted me to take you to Pallet Town Pass.”
“Ok then,” I said sinking back into my seat.
We didn’t hit any more lights and in three minutes I could see a large white mansion.
“Let’s go, Matilda; that’s the receptionist, has a questionnaire you have to fill out before Professor Oak can see you,” Kimi said opening her door, she took off her sunglasses and put them in her pocket.
“Hi Kimi, what brings you… here…” she said trailing off spotting me, “Soni Sinai, I thought we’d be seeing you soon. But I am surprised Molly (my mom) is letting him out what with Team Trauma’s ancestral prophecies fulfill…”
“Matilda, please do not inform my younger brother of useless information,” my sister said menacingly.
“Yes terribly sorry. Soni I need you to fill out this form,” she said handing me a clipboard.
I took a seat and started filling out the form.
1) What is your name?
A) Soni Xavier Sinai
2) What is your age?
A) 12
3) What is your birth date?
A) June 27, 1991
4) Has Professor Gary Oak Jr. Gary Oak Sr. of Samuel Oak given a family member a Pokemon?
A) Yes, Kimi Cindy Sinai, Professor Gary Oak Sr.
5) What Pokemon did she receive? What is it now? (Only answer if you answered yes to #4)
A) Squirtle, Blastoise
6) When is the next expiration date on the License Card?
A) August 6, 2004
I handed in the form to Matilda and she guided me, without my sister to the next room and told me to climb the stairs straight up to the top floor.
I climbed the stairs, and what I say I wouldn’t have believed it in a million years…
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Soni: in Kanto
Chapter I
-01-
Adventures Begin!
Slowly and somberly, cautiously and questioningly, never cross the road, well maybe not that one. Everyday in my life my mom would remind me that nobody is to be trusted without getting to know them. I was getting so sick of it my mom kept nagging me over and over again. I tell her to lie off and she uses the ‘excuse’.
“I just have your best interests at heart,” she cries tears eating away at her eyes.
When she was little, a stray Poochyena attacked her and bit her leg, turns out the wolf Pokémon had hydrophobia, or rabies, she was rushed to the hospital and injected with the vaccine, luckily there was no lasting damage. Ever since she was a caution-freak, it got annoying fast!
But there was no point in her denying me of this opportunity, my Pokémon Journey was starting in, I slowly lifted my wrist so it was visible to my eyes, I started muttering random numbers before coming to an answer, thirty-six hours and twenty-eight minutes.
I walked over to my window and unlatched the lock; I slowly lifted up the windowpane and climbed out to the roof. The roof stooped low enough that it was capable of climbing on and off to reach it from the ground. I often laid on my roof to think, as nervousness and anxiety got the best of me or just to talk to myself. Many thought that talking to yourself was a sign of insanity or depression, but it was my little way of getting up enough social stamina to talk to a girl you liked or just out of boredom.
I was snapped out of my thoughts as blinding headlights scorched
the irises of my eyes.
Kanto’s Pallet Town was always bustling with commotion besides the fact that besides Cinnabar Island it was the smallest town/city in Kanto. There were always the lights from distant building in the downtown area.
Downtown Pallet was the home of most office buildings, the Pokémon Laboratory, The Pokémon Center that was built with Ash Ketchum’s prize money he won in the most recent Kanto Pokémon League Finals. Also there was the Pokémon Market, and finally there were some of the richest subdivisions and houses in Kanto. Although it was almost seven miles away, you could see the lights as clearly as if you were standing right in front of it.
I slowly closed my eyes, if I fell asleep it wouldn’t be the first time, but I wouldn’t there was to much on my mind. I checked my quartz watch again seeing the long black hand tick to the minutes number pointing on the small twenty-eight in between the twenty-five and the thirty, the hour hand was halfway to its small goal of the ten.
On Saturday of the twenty-first of May I would stand in front of Professor Gary Oak Jr. whom would bless me with a small red and white crystal orb.
As today was Thursday the nineteenth, it fell into the time stream of life; my watch was now telling me it was Friday the twentieth at twelve ‘o’ one.
I snapped out of my trance wondering how the past hour and a half ate away so fast. I decided to get some sleep; I climbed through my window, got in my bed and fell asleep fully clothed.
***
As I slowly awoke from my unconscious state, I opened my eyes and stared around. I got up and walked to my closet clutching the doorknob in my fist and opening it up.
I lowered a white tee shirt over my head and pulled on a pair of blue cargo jeans. Over my white tee I pulled on a black coat vest that had many differently shaped pockets on it.
I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out the wallet I had forgotten through the night and opened it up. Inside was twenty-seven dollars, a Food Stamp, which enabled twenty percent off food for trainers, a Rest Stamp, which is twenty-five percent off room and board, and a small semi-flexible card.
My Pokémon Training license, in the left-hand upper corner was a mug shot of myself. My hair was brown and spiked in the front. Just to the right of the picture were personal details. Name: Soni Sinai, Age: 12, Birthday: June 27, 1991, Eyes: Blue, Hair: Brown, Expiration Date: August 6, 2004. I slipped it in my clear plastic cover of wallet, folded it up, and put it back in my back pocket.
I glanced at the digital alarm clock and noticed it was ten ‘o’ four and time to go to Celadon City. I was traveling by car with my mom, to Celadon City to do shopping for my Pokémon Journey.
Celadon City housed the largest mall in the Kanto, Hoenn, and Johto regions.
So twenty minutes later my mom and I were off on the road to Celadon City. The journey is a four-hour drive so I brought my notebook and a pencil.
I started writing a short-story entitled A.I. And I Don’t Care! I started bobbing my head up and down as I slipped my headphones so the soft material tickled my ears. On the way there I nibbled off bits of food, overcoming small bouts of writer’s block and then eventually finishing my masterpiece.
As we drove down a local road of Cerulean City called Sensational Drive. We drove up and stopped at a tollbooth.
“Two dollars,” the gatemen grunted in a bored fashion.
“Here you go good man,” my mom said handing over two American dollars.
The flow of currency valued anywhere you went. Some cities, such as Celadon, took many kinds of current. Every city took American dollars, but some took Pesos, some took Franc, some took Euro, and some took all of them.
“Drive on.”
When we turned onto the road labeled, Sooper-Dooper Road, I got plain freaked out I put my notebook page to the omega page and titled the page, Better Street Names Than Sooper-Dooper Road. I jotted down many-a-few names and finally got bored of my little game and closed my notebook and stared at cars.
The license plate game was next on my agenda. I saw a Corvette with a plate titled, AMYS TOY. I then saw a plate with, WHY ME on it. This game got boring fast so I tilted the chair back to a laying down position and took a short nap.
As I awoke in the beige interior of my mom’s Jeep Grand Cherokee, my mom braked into the parking lot of the Celadon City Mall.
The exterior was a large half brick building with a tinge of orange on every brick, due to old age. The upper half was a white-sided building. The building itself formed the letter ‘L’ shape the building itself had five stories not including the roof.
I opened the car door hoped out onto the black pavement and closed the silver door.
The doors automatically slid opened and a bell sounded.
“Hello and welcome to the Celadon City Mall,” the Welcome Lady said cheerfully with a very cheesy grin.
“I was wondering what level Pokémon Training Goods are on?” my mom asked the lady.
My mom was wearing an olive green dress that went to her ankles, and a flower embedded hat.
“Floor four, miss,” the lady said motioning to the stairs to the side.
We climbed up to the stairs and footed ourselves on the first floor. It looked like it was a TM Card Shop.
The latest version of the Pokédex was created and mass-produced two months ago and it had a new feature.
But first, TM or Technical Machines, taught certain Pokémon certain moves. The TM Card was the newest development in Pokémon history.
The Pokédex had a TM Swipe, a card reader, which was designed for easy use of Pokémon move readers. The TM Card was buyable and you receive one for each gym leader you conquer.
Up the stairs we went up to the second purchase room.
This floor was devoted to Pokémon enhancers. There were things like X Attack, X Defense, X Endurance, and Pokémon Elemental Stones.
They boosted Pokémon attributes and helped certain Pokémon evolve.
Pokémon that were traded for evolution is now a drowned out fashion. Pokémon can now find ways to evolve without trading to a new owner. Maybe a Kadabra will spend a week meditating and then all of sudden emerge an Alakazam. Or a Machoke will lift weights continuously and become a Machamp. Weird situations have happened like, a trainer in a battle called on his Haunter and it emerged as a Gengar unexplained.
We moved on up the stairs to the third floor.
This was a floor devoted entirely to selling actual Pokemon. My mom had to drag me away from the Ultra-Rare section where I repeatedly told her, “I wouldn’t leave till I owned a Dratini purchased from that very store!”
“A Dratini runs for $12,000! I don’t even have that! If I did I would have your father’s Nissan Skyline mortgage paid off!” My mom said grumbling the last part.
Walking up the stairs after finally giving up, my mom threw in the argument the, “If you don’t listen to me we will march straight out of this store and you will not go tomorrow!”
When we arrived on the floor, we started to shop around, picking out items putting them in our cart, putting back items we decided not to get. Going in between aisles and having a good time with my mom was fun.
Tomorrow I left Kanto for a few years and who knows I will probably go to Johto maybe Hoenn! I would probably take a few years off from school and make them up at night school when I am an adult. I was bummed to go but anxious to start, is that weird?
After some serious thought and consideration we purchased, from the big brown desk in the front a large leather Trainer’s Bag, five Pokéballs, ten Potions, two Super Potions, a Paralyze Heal, a Burn Heal, a Defroster, and a Pokégear. After paying for them I loaded them into my new bag pulled off the tag and slung it on my right shoulder.
“I’m thirsty mom,” I told her rubbing my neck; she stroked her chin and then snapped her fingers.
“In my Pokéjourney there was a rooftop Food Court,” she said grabbing my arm and leading me to the stairs.
“I’m gonna use the elevator, I love those things!” I said smiling broadly.
I walked in and I pushed the button and the button labeled ‘Roof’ and it flashed green and stayed lit. There was a single stranger on the elevator and I decided to have fun.
I reached over and tapped his shoulder; I quickly retreated and stated, “Wasn’t me!” goofily.
He frowned at me and we walked out, him in one direction me in another. I distinctly heard him mumbling, “Disrespecting kids!”
There was no longer a rooftop Food Court, it was an indoor Food Court. There was a large glass dome over the top of the roof and obviously a sun protector, because I was staring directly at the sun without even wincing.
“Oh my,” my mom uttered slowly, after I met up with her.
We walked over to a nearby restaurant called, Charmeleon Island and asked to the counter person what had happened.
“Well the insects were eating up our customers away so we had the Saffron Building Company and they built a Sun-Glass Dome, caused a big pay-cut too, mind you,” he said, grumbling the last bit.
“Wow, anyway I’ll have a Charmeleon Chilidog, Soni,” my mom said trailing off her voice, I was already walking to McPikachu’s and ordering a five piece Pikanuggets and a McFry and a McShake!
After we ate I saw a pop machine, dumping my disposable tray into the garbage can I walked to the big red machine. Fifty cents for lemonade, seventy-five for water, and a dollar for soda, I put a dollar in and waiting as I pushed the button an ice cold Staryu Soda fell out.
I walked to my mom and we headed out.
“I was wondering do you want to go to the casino?” my mom asked smiling.
“Don’t tease me mom you know I’m underage,” I said sighing, I wanted more then anything to play some Texas Hold-Em for real money, blackjack, Five-Card Stud, Omaha, Craps, but nine years until that faithful day.
“No, no they have a Kid’s Casino here,” she said opening her door; I got in to and picked up my notebook.
“Texas Hold-Em here I come!” I shouted!
“Soni sorry, only in the Adult Casino is there card games just slots in yours, and not for money, tickets for prizes,” she said smiling.
“Woo-Hoo” I sighed.
I double-check and triple-checked my spelling and grammar of my twelve-page front and back-story, by the time we arrived. Being one-thirty already we’d only get an hour and a half.
“I’ll get you in an hour and a half son, have fun,” she said handing me fifty dollars.
Ten minutes and two hundred tokens later I began playing. I had a ball, with five tokens left and had won zero coinage I was bummed. But setting my third to last token in a large red seven appeared, a second had shown only white. My legs shaking a large blue seven appearing. 50,000 tickets fell out of the ticket slot, the last token I won twenty tickets so when I went to the counter with 50,020 tickets in my hand folded into a stick about the size of five television remotes and as thick as a medium-sized book.
“Wow, our second jackpot winner ever in history, congrats! Now for your prize, you can get one of the following Pokéballs…” he said laying out a Lureball, a Greatball, a Friendball, and a Heavyball. “Or a truckload of this other crap… er… stuff,” he said grinning I returned the grin.
“I’ll take this,” I said picking up the Friendball, “and four candies.”
He dropped four chocolate candies in my hand and took the Friendball from my other. He reached below the counter and pulled out a box and set it on
the counter.
“There ya are bud, see ya.”
I picked it up and walked out of the building greeted by my mom who as to say blew her fifty and won nothing. I showed her my new Friendball.
It was a green and white ball, on the cover of the green was a triangle but the left and right points were gone and there were three yellow vertical lines intruding the triangle. I had already eaten my other prizes.
On the way home I wrote a sequel to my story, ‘And I Still Don’t Care.’ Fourteen pages and a quadruple check and we turned on our road. I crumpled up my food package of a drive-threw and threw it outside in our garbage bin. As I walked inside I walked straight up to my room, being ten-thirty I was tired. I magnetically attached the Friendball to the second magnetic circle. I fell asleep, this time in pajamas, so I would be comfy.
Little did I know I had forgotten to set my alarm . . . Had ya fooled didn’t I. Just kidding Soni did set his alarm and woke up on time for his appointment with Gary Jr.
As I stood up and buttoned up my brand new wardrobe, the silk black T-shirt felt soft against my skin but the feeling would soon have me feeling the usual as my previous shirt did. I pulled on my baggy blue cargo jean shorts and then the best piece of my clothes. I fastened on a black belt.
The Trainer Belt was what made most trainers the most anxious. When receiving a belt at the end of your three-month mandatory training session with Professor Oak, it meant you were qualified to receive a Pokemon at the next Ceremony. The belt was kind of a satin brand and had large pouches, which store unused Pokeballs.
Pokeballs are magnetically attached to the belt when they are captured. Pokemon’s durability rely on their immense amount of iron, that’s why when a Machoke punches you, you either die or need a new ribcage, and when a Machoke punches a Pokemon only a small fraction of health is reduced. When a Pokemon is captured the amount of iron is quadrupled, which explains the reason why a captured Pokemon is more durable then a wild Pokemon. The amount of iron in the newly captured Pokemon is enough to make a magnetic field strong enough to attach the ball to the belt.
I admired the belt from my full view mirror. To me, I just looked too different for my taste. I went into my closet and took out my favorite article of clothing and pulled it over my shirt. My black coat-vest fit in perfectly with my new clothing.
I walked downstairs shortly after spiking my hair in the front and was greeted out of nowhere by the biggest bear hug I had ever received in my life.
“My baby is leaving Pallet Town,” sobbed my mom, she was wearing a flowery nightgown and then finished, “Always remember the Sinai family motto: Slowly and somberly and cautiously and questioningly!”
“Yes, mom, even our dumb family motto can’t dampen my day, but who’s driving me?”
“Our motto is not dumb young man! Your sister is driving all the way from Cerulean City Gym to see you receive your Pokemon.”
“Kimi, oh man I haven’t seen her since the Cerulean City Gym Leader Ceremony after Misty’s funeral.
Misty, the ex-gym leader of Cerulean sister drowned after falling unconscious in a show she did daily. Everyone thought it was part of the act until the air bubbles slowly faded to the water and panic struck. By the time officials fished her out she had already bit the bucket, she was buried at twenty-two. Ash, her husband, was devastated moving to Hoenn and taking the role for Roxanne and becoming the first multi-type gym, Roxanne was Misty’s half-sister.
Kimi Sinai was the newly appointed Cerulean City Gym Leader training water Pokemon since she received an Squirtle from Professor Gary Oak Sr.
Can you believe back then Gary Sr. only gave three of the same Pokemon each year: Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. Pathetic, nowadays Gary Jr. gave Pokemon that related the Trainer’s personal attributes he picked up in the mandatory training program.
Seven months apart from your favorite seventeen-year-old sister was too long. Unlike most siblings we got along tons, she had an entirely awesome team: Blastoise, Gyarados, Mudkip, and a Horsea. She had dozens of other non-water Pokemon but she used different Pokemon for different experienced trainers.
“Hey, hey, how’s my favorite brother?” said a very feminine voice.
“Very good, but save the small talk for the car it’s time to go we’re twenty-seven seconds off-schedule!” I said hugging my mom one last time, “Goodbye.”
“Goodbye sweetie,” sobbed my mom crying onto my father’s shoulder.
He just appeared in the doorway he works graveyard shift at the Pokemon Center in Pallet. His five-oh-clock shadow was showing and he had a smile.
“Glad I caught you, I wanted to give you this,” he said he dropped a small ping-pong ball in my hand.
It was a smooth crystal dyed red and white and the same ring line as the Friendball.
“Thanks pop,” I said dropping the crystal next to my Friendball crystal it made a dull clunk as it collided with it.
“No problem son, also Nurse Joy wanted me to give you this,” he said handing me a miniature version of a spray bottle cleaner supply bottle.
It was pink and white with a spray nozzle, it was a spray candy, and it was for revitalizing liquid that healed Pokemon. There was in fact a pouch shaped exactly like the bottle in, which placing it in it’s own pouch.
“Goodbye son, I hope you succeed in where I failed,” he moved in shook my hand and then hugged me.
My father had collected seven badges and on the eighth failed five times resulting in disqualification from the Pokemon League Championships. The seven badges were placed in a plaque and hung on my parent’s room wall.
“Tick tock people, two minutes and thirty-eight seconds off schedule gotta go! Goodbye parents.”
Driving along the road my sister’s car passed green lights and soared off yonder to Pallet Downtown, my thoughts drifted to my brother on Cinnabar Island. He was actually the youngest Professor ever in Kanto, he became one at eighteen. He was mining cinnabar because scientists recently began fusing minerals into the top half of the Pokeball. He promised me a dozen Goldballs when they started mass production. He also said he’d give me a Cinniball when he received a rough draft copy.
Before long my sister stopped at the first red light and pulled down her mirror and fixed her lipstick. Traveling with Kimi a lot, that only meant one thing, we were nearing our destination.
“How much longer Kim?” I asked my sister gazing into my watch, so many green lights we were now three seconds ahead of schedule.
“About five minutes if we get no more red lights,” Kimi said folding up her mirror, when the light changed we accelerated into the street ahead, “Then mom wanted me to take you to Pallet Town Pass.”
“Ok then,” I said sinking back into my seat.
We didn’t hit any more lights and in three minutes I could see a large white mansion.
“Let’s go, Matilda; that’s the receptionist, has a questionnaire you have to fill out before Professor Oak can see you,” Kimi said opening her door, she took off her sunglasses and put them in her pocket.
“Hi Kimi, what brings you… here…” she said trailing off spotting me, “Soni Sinai, I thought we’d be seeing you soon. But I am surprised Molly (my mom) is letting him out what with Team Trauma’s ancestral prophecies fulfill…”
“Matilda, please do not inform my younger brother of useless information,” my sister said menacingly.
“Yes terribly sorry. Soni I need you to fill out this form,” she said handing me a clipboard.
I took a seat and started filling out the form.
1) What is your name?
A) Soni Xavier Sinai
2) What is your age?
A) 12
3) What is your birth date?
A) June 27, 1991
4) Has Professor Gary Oak Jr. Gary Oak Sr. of Samuel Oak given a family member a Pokemon?
A) Yes, Kimi Cindy Sinai, Professor Gary Oak Sr.
5) What Pokemon did she receive? What is it now? (Only answer if you answered yes to #4)
A) Squirtle, Blastoise
6) When is the next expiration date on the License Card?
A) August 6, 2004
I handed in the form to Matilda and she guided me, without my sister to the next room and told me to climb the stairs straight up to the top floor.
I climbed the stairs, and what I say I wouldn’t have believed it in a million years…