I would like to give my major thanks to Lady_Vulpix for proofreading this chapter. Thanks!
Chapter 2
Hit head on
Professor Zue and Matt’s father, Jeff, came walking back to the Meeting Room where they saw Matt sitting with a piece of paper scribbled with notes.
"Ok, we’re here. What have you decided?” the professor asked appearing from behind the door. Professor Zue and Matt’s father both seemed very curious, which was not normal for the professor.
"After heavy consideration and some further analysis I’ve decided to take Salaka.” Matt explained. “I’m not into the whole heavy pounding, kicking and cutting thing for now, so Salaka seems the most ideal choice. Plus, it looks cool.”
He grinned, but also realised that this was his decision. After all those years, wondering what his pokemon will be, he had finally chosen. It’ll determine a great deal of his career as a pokemon trainer. Meanwhile Matt was oblivious to the understanding nod his father gave professor Zue, which she simply returned with a vague smile.
"Great" she said shaking Matt out of his thoughts. "It’s a good choice even if I say so myself. In my whole career here as a professor in Reeto City only two other people have chosen a Salaka as their companion. It’s a good pokemon, but it’ll take a while for you to get used to it."
Matt said nothing, he just nodded. He was surprised about the number she’d just gave him. Was it really such a hard pokemon to communicate with? He had his doubts after hearing this, but remained happy with his choice.
"Could you follow me please? We need to get your trainer equipment" Prof. Zue said as she made a sign to follow her again, while she picked up Salaka’s pokeball and put it in one of the pockets of her lab coat.
As they left the Meeting room Matt took one last glimpse at the balls in front of him, and at the pokemon he hadn’t choose, hoping that he had made the right choice. They proceeded by walking through the beautiful hall again and Matt wondered why Professor Oak was the only one with a statue. He kept thinking and scouting around until they stopped at another mahogany door. It had the same pokemon-carvings and a similar sign on it, but this one read ‘Trainer Room’.
Professor Zue opened the door and led them inside. Matt’s eyes went big when he saw thousands of pokeballs, from pokeball to ultraball, some custom balls made by Kurt, or so he believed; and some strange ones he had never seen before. He figured that most of them were probably from trainers who had more than six pokemon and couldn’t have any more with them. His theory seemed to be correct as he noticed different names above each shelf.
In the right corner of the room was a black, iron door. They went through it and found four big tables, each with different compartments. The whole room was filled with various items, some nicely stored, some tossed around. Matt started thinking that they had more stuff and items here then in the Trainers Market in Lilycove, which he had visited with his family four years ago.
"This here is the place were every newbie gets his or her equipment." Prof. Zue said." Trainers who started here in Reeto City can also come here for extra items, with payment that is.”
She went over to the table on her left.
“This here will be your most important device. It's called a Pokétech and it records all data on pokemon you’ve seen or caught. It also contains a Pokedex, version 5.1. Don’t forget to upgrade to version 5.2 in October, but I’ll remind you about it again then." She said explaining the functions of the Pokétech.
The fact that she said October made Matt aware of time and place. He had almost forgotten that it was only June and that he’d be away for a long time, on his own. He was thrilled about the prospect, but was also a bit uneasy, since he didn’t know what to expect or where he’d end up.
"The poketech allows you to check the gender, level, type, evolution forms and breeding moves of a pokemon. It also displays pictures of several known shiny forms and an explanation about the pokemon you’re scanning. This is basically what the old Pokédex did with some extras. Pokétech also contains a Pokenav, which can store phone numbers and includes maps of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Zuta, Sinnoh, Orré and Teraho,” Professor Zue continued.
“It also has plenty of other uses, but you’ll have to figure that out on your own,” She said with a smile, handing it over to Matt.
"Thanks,” He replied honestly.
It was the greatest gift he had ever received until now, except for his pokemon, who he was dying to meet.
"Well then, let's get to the next table, shall we?" she proposed. Matt nodded and followed her.
The next table was by far the largest of the four and contained about a dozen metal boxes which appeared to be welded to the table. Each box contained minimized pokeballs in different colours. Jeff eyed this with a silent, yet intrigued look.
"I’ll give you the basic pokeball kit here. Three pokeballs, one greatball, one lureball, and a skyball,” Professor Zue exclaimed while handing them over, checking a list to make sure she had given everything.
"Thanks, but I’ve have never heard of a lure or skyball before" Matt said looking at the light yellow ball covered with blue spots shaped like a cloud. “As the name states, I assume that they are for flying and rare pokemon, respectively?”
"Well, sort of. The skyball is for flying pokemon indeed, but you also get a catch bonus on dragon-typed pokemon. The lureball however isn’t to lure rare pokemon. It’s has a catch bonus on pokemon who are hauled in with a fishing rod," She clarified with a faint smile.
She suggested that they follow her as they walked to the third table. When they arrived at the medium-sized table Matt saw cube-like machines, about the size of a lunchbox, and funny looking miniature bottles, also in a whole spectrum of different colours.
"Here, this one’s yours," she said while giving Matt a brown version of the strange cube-machine.
“What does it do?” asked Matt’s father, staring at the thing just as puzzled as Matt.
"It's a TMBox. You can select any TM you bought or received with the touchpad, then press the red button and one of those bottles will come out," she demonstrated.
She pressed the red button after using the touchpad, but no bottle appeared. Which made perfect sense seeing that Matt didn’t have any TM’s stored at that point, but Matt still looked puzzled.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, here in the Zuta region TM's are bottled. After years of scientific research, the research and development building in Siance city came out with a report that the effectiveness of the moves will increase if the TM is mixed with the pokemon’s food. So you open the bottle, which contains the chemical structure of the Technical Machine, you mix it with the food of pokemon, let him eat it and train on that specific technique for a while. Depending on the move you wish to teach, the training period should be between two hours and half a day," She elaborated after seeing Matt’s unsettled look.
"Oh, that’s actually quite astonishing,” Matt said in admiration.
"It took about ten years of research before the prototype was finally released, so they’ve prepared well,” Professor Zue proudly told Matt. “Oh, and by pressing the green button you can shrink the machine so that it fits your backpack.”
She pressed the green button as an example and it shrunk from lunchbox-like size to the size of a double-cd.
"Hey, that’s great. Is there anything else I should get?” Matt said, thankful, but eager to get his pokemon and leave this strange woman.
"Yes, here take this,” Professor Zue said while handing a Potion-spray and a bag of food. “The spray contains thirty sprays and the food is for Salaka. It’s a start, but you’ll have to win matches in order to get some money for other needs.”
Matt accepted the equipment and put it on the floor with the rest as he eyed the fourth table.
"Ah yes, the last thing you need to do is get a trainer card. We wouldn’t want you to be an unofficial trainer, now wouldn’t we?" She said joking, but it didn’t really seem to suit her.
Matt followed the professor to the fourth table, which was small compared to the others. It had a photo camera, a Polaroid to be exactly, a pen, some sort of form and one weird metallic, prehistoric computer-like thingy on it. Matt frowned when he saw the ancient device, but then giggled at the irony of such a device in a high-tech lab. While he was occupied with his inner-self, Professor Zue took the camera and in a flash Matt’s picture came out of the Polaroid.
"Oh great, now I look like a moron…" Matt said, realising that she took the picture when he wasn’t ready for it.
"Oh, don't be such a baby; everyone looks ridiculous on their trainer card," She hushed Matt. “Now write down your personal information on the form in front of you.”
Matt glared at her and then shrugged, filling in the form. Meanwhile, the professor entered the picture in the medieval machine and after Matt finished writing, the form as well. After some crackly noises, a few beeps and a ‘ping’, Matt’s trainer card rolled out. He accepted it from Professor Zue and saw that it contained nothing more than his name, last name, IDnumber, Professor Zue’s acceptance seal and the lousy snapshot.
"Well that’s it, you’re set for action,” she said to him, eying him in a strange kind of way. “and here’s your pokemon, at last.”
Matt longed for that moment, as she gave him the black pokeball that seemed even more beautiful from up close.
"Go Salaka, come out!" Matt said, again trying to conceal his major enthusiasm.
The ball bounced on the floor, into the air and in a white flash the lizard pokemon appeared and stared at Matt. Matt fell kinda uncomfortable and hoped that the creature wouldn’t poison him right now. Salaka hissed something, looked closer at Matt and then put up some sort of smile while withdrawing its split tongue. Matt's father, who had been silent all this time, sighed out of relief and smiled watching his son. Matt watched Salaka and went closer after seeing somewhat of a smile, so he thought it was safe for now. He wanted to pat it on the head when he suddenly remembered the info Professor Zue had given him in the meeting room.
"Euhm…professor, how can I touch him, I mean her, I mean…what gender is Salaka anyway?" Matt asked confused.
“Use your gear,” She replied, when the strange smile had made room for her usual uninterested expression.
Matt grabbed his Pokétech from his pile of equipment and pointed it at Salaka. It made a little beep sound and the info began to appear on the screen in shiny blue letters.
Salaka
Type: Fire/Poison
Gender: Male
Level: 5
Breeding moves: 0
It has the inborn ability of Poison Skin. There’s a 30% chance that the opponent will be poisoned if he makes contact with Salaka's skin.
Salaka: The lizard pokemon. Its skin is poisonous to everyone it doesn't trust. It has the ability to poison the foe at contact. The circles on its back glow a deep red when it’s about to spit fire.
"So I didn’t tell you at first hand, but now your Tech did it for you. You can touch him if he trusts you, and since he withdrew his tongue, it means he does," She said forming a forced smile, while looking at Matt's father giving another nod.
“That’s great!” Matt exclaimed, happy that he could at least pet his newly obtained pokemon.
He went closer and patted it on the head. Salaka formed its vague smile again, which reminded him of Professor Zue, and it happily spit some fire.
"So now you’re completely set to go," Zue stated.
They left the trainer room and went down the hall again. Matt took one last glance at the Oak-statue and then Professor Zue guided them to the exit.
“The Zuta region is tropical, but harsh, and that goes for the trainers as well. You’ll meet plenty of them on the road, so be careful. If you want to reach me, my phone number is stored in the Tech, should there be any problems. Otherwise I’ll just wish you good luck, you’ll need it,” She said, quite harshly.
"Well, thanks," Matt said politely.
Zue said her goodbyes to Matt’s father and then went inside again as another rainstorm was about to commence, or so she believed. Matt and his father walked to the same spot where Pidgeot landed on arrival. It seemed like ages ago.
"Well Matt, I'll be leaving then," his father said while releasing Pidgeot. It spread its wings and started flapping.
"Ok dad, thanks for the ride and I hope you’ll win the next flying contest," Matt said. He wasn’t about to get emotional, he was far too stubborn for that, but he wanted to say something.
"Yeah, I hope so too, but anyway: behave, train hard, be nice to your pokemon and win if you can," his father replied giving Matt the usual pep talk any father would give.
"Thanks dad, see ya!" he said as he was about to leave and Pidgeot started flying.
"Hey, wait!" Matt shouted. "How am I supposed to buy food if I don't have any money?"
"Sorry, forgot, here's 6000,” Jeff replied as Pidgeot landed again. “It's not much but it's something, you’ll have to earn the rest yourself,”
He gave a pouch to Matt with the money, held on to his hand for a minute, and then winked.
"See ya,” His father waved as he took off on Pidgeot. It was eager to fly again.
Matt could hear his father yell 'Extremespeed' from a distance. He would really miss his old man.
"So, now I'm on my own then." Matt said out loud.
"Come out, Salaka!" he shouted as he released him from its ball. He could use a companion.
Salaka appeared and started hissing again. He seemed rather pleased about going back into nature.
"You're in a good mood. I hope you’ll put up a decent fight for me," Matt said to his precious reptile. “Now, let’s get going shall we?”
So they commenced the journey Matt had been waiting for all his life. They walked through Reeto city, watched the scenery, frowned when an old lady was shouting at a sleeping Snorlax that had apparently eaten her flowers and laughed at two fighting Caterpie, who were both trying to win in a Stringshot-battle. As they reached the city borders, a black forest stood in front of them. Matt looked down to Salaka and it appeared as if it was tired out, probably because of its short legs.
"Salaka, you seem kind of tired. I think you’d better rest a bit for now; return," Matt said while he hit it with the laser beam from its pokeball. Salaka nodded as it was absorbed and Matt was pleased with his choice and partner.
"Well, let's see…what will my first destination be?" He asked himself while taking out his Tech.
Its red, silver colour shone bright in the afternoon sun. Matt pondered over the device for a while and started searching the Nav-fuction for a good Zuta map. After getting stuck on an Alpha ruins map, he finally found the correct map and pressed the blue button. The screen started glowing in a blue-ish light as a green and yellow map formed on the screen with red dots, resembling the cities and towns.
"Treetop city eh. North, then west, then north again…” Matt spoke out loud. “That shouldn’t be that hard.”
Matt headed north as planned, through the forest he halted for just a minute ago, and enjoyed the nature of the forest. It kind of resembled a tropical rainforest with its wide variety of vegetation and pokemon. He saw 2 Mankey getting into a friendly brawl and was eager to catch one, but realized that Salaka needed his rest so he skipped the capture and went on, deeper into the forest. He walked on the sandy dirt path, hoping he was going the right direction and saw some more pokemon, which none of them really caught Matt’s interest.
Suddenly out of nowhere a Pidgey smashed right into Matt’s stomach, which made him topple over, hitting his head on a rock. He got back up and grunted in pain as he looked at the Pidgey, which was apparently knocked out. Meanwhile, a young man arrived at the scene.
When kids grow.
Originally Posted by Zorak
Salaka's poison - evade - wear the opponent down fighting style was one of my strategies when I still played ASB, if I had a difficult matchup power-wise.
