Shade Not my first fic, but my first attempt at a good one. 
Whaddaya think?
The Bashoto League
Chapter One – Just Starting Out
I woke up at 6:02 A.M. exactly.
I was breathing in short spurts, extremely excited. I had been dreaming about what today would bring.
Today was an extremely important day in my life. Not only was today my birthday, but it was also the day that I was to travel to Dewleaf City.
You see, I had been a long time since I had actually become a Pokémon trainer, starting out with a Cyndaquil, Cinder. Cinder was my male Cyndaquil that I had adopted out of the wild. He was unique in that he had a bright purple flame, and his skin and flame sparkled brighter than a normal Cyndaquil’s.
I left Cinder at the Pokémon lab south of my house, with Professor Todd, the local Pokémon expert. He took care of him for me, and I routinely went out with him to train in the wild grass about a ten-minute walk from our house.
Before, I had been afraid to leave home. I felt too young to compete in the Bashoto League. But, turning twelve, I figured I was older than a lot of the ten-year-old trainers who were already totally fine, taking care of themselves. Besides, Andy and Michael, my best friends, were also starting their journeys to the League tomorrow. They both already had their starters, but kept them as pets, more than battlers. So my Cyndaquil had much more experience than them.
Andy slowly stirred. “What is it?” he grumbled.
Michael awoke too. “We need rest, guys, or we’ll never be able to get going when we leave home today…”
Andy and Michael had spent the night, as a party for my birthday. We had eaten pizza and cake and played Super Smash Bros. Melee all night.
Andy’s Pokéball rolled off his belt and out of his sleeping bag. He watched it as it popped open.
“Tree…” said Kavu, wiping his eyes. He was still groggy, as we had woken him up too. Kavu picked up his red cap with the bunny ears on it and put it on. He also slipped on his blue jacket (that looked identical to mine).
Now, Michael’s Pokéball fell out of his backpack and also opened.
“Toto,” said Michael’s Totodile, Judo. It wiped its brow, still tired. Its loose karate outfit was held up by a black belt. Its bright yellow eyes were looking none too bright right now.
“Great,” I said. “You woke the Pokémon.”
As soon as I had said that, both Kavu and Judo both fell over and went back to sleep.
I had a sweatdrop.
The three of us changed into our trainer clothes. Going out in our pajamas wasn’t something that was generally done around the town of Oviroot.
Michael slipped on his leisurely T-Shirt and greenish-brown shorts. He swung his backpack over his shoulder, and attached Judo’s Pokéball to his belt.
He went downstairs to eat breakfast.
Andy put on one of his red Hawaiian shirts with palm tree silhouettes along the bottom and his white vest. He wore blue jeans.
I put on a white T-Shirt like Michael’s and blue jeans like Andy’s. I then put on my blue jacket that looked just like Kavu’s. (Everybody copied my clothes.)
Andy and I went downstairs to see Michael gulping down a huge heap of eggs. He was extremely hungry today, unlike usual.
Andy and I chuckled. “A little hungry there, huh, Michael?” said Andy.
Michael smiled sheepishly. “Your mom’s eggs are pretty good,” he said.
My ten-year-old sister, Sara, was sitting across the table from Michael, eating a bowl of Cheerios. She was already dressed in a white shirt, long, khaki pants, and her black bandana. She had her brown, curly hair done up in a ponytail.
“Is Cinder at the lab?” asked Sara.
“I dropped him off last night, Sara…”
Andy and I sat down to eat, too. Mom and Dad were excited.
“It’ll be nice without all the bickering that you two do,” said Mom jokingly.
“Yes,” my dad said, pulling his fist down in victory.
“What?” I asked. “You’ll still have Sara here…”
“Er…” said Dad. Mom and Dad looked at each other.
“I’m coming too!” said Sara.
I sighed. “Oh well,” I said. “The more the merrier.”
Inside, I was kind of happy, but kind of annoyed. I loved my sister, and she was a fun person to play video games, but I didn’t know how good of a traveling partner she’d be.
After breakfast, Sara and I had to pack our bags. Andy and Michael waited for us at the door.
I put my Game Boy Advance SP, my Pokémon Sapphire version, my GBA Link Cable, and my battery adapter in the left side pocket. In the right side pocket went my water bottle. In the large pocket, I put a sleeping bag and changes of clothes. In the next-largest pocket, I put books, a bag of food, and my unused Pokédex. In the smallest pocket, I put nothing.
My sister packed the same as I had, except that she put her collapsible scooter and helmet in her second-largest pocket. She also had a Ruby version of Pokémon, rather than Sapphire. We planned to battle virtually for fun during to trip.
We didn’t share a long goodbye with my parents, since we knew there would be video phones at every Pokémon Center ahead.
Now, the Pokémon Lab was a cool place. It was a circular building with a glass dome roof, like a greenhouse. There was machinery working all the time, whether one was analyzing a hair from a Piloswine, one was listing all of the attacks that a Nidoking could successfully do, or one was downloading information from the MBL Trainer Profile base, there was always the familiar hum of machinery working. A hall right down the middle of the wide, open room from the door led to the desk of Prof. Todd.
Sara, Andy, Michael and I dodged hurrying Aides, trying not to run into those who were carrying stacks of papers especially. When we reached Prof. Todd’s desk, he greeted us warmly.
“Hello!” he said.
“What’s all of the rush in here?” said Sara.
“With four new certified MBL trainers on the loose, there is a lot of information we have to process, like your Pokémon roster, your I.D. number, your certificates that certify you as trainers… It’s a mess, quite frankly.”
“Sorry,” Andy said sheepishly.
“No problem,” Prof. Todd said with a smile.
He led us to the back room, which led to the huge pen where the Pokémon were. The place was teeming with Pokémon that Prof. Todd had to take care of while trainers transferred their Pokémon to him.
Cinder and Marsh, a Mudkip at the place, were playing with a ball, throwing, rolling, and bouncing it to each other in weird ways to see if they could catch it.
Cinder then rolled up into a ball and bounced, right into the rubber ball. They bounced off each other, and Cinder flew backwards and fell into a small pond containing some Water-types. Cinder uncurled and started happily splashing around. Marsh ran to the pond and jumped in too, and the two started seeing who could make a bigger splash.
I interrupted quickly, knowing how Cinder could hurt himself if he got splashed too hard, and picked up my Cyndaquil. He was dripping wet, and I wiped off his head with the towel in my backpack.
“It looks like you were enjoying yourself,” I said.
“Cynda, cyndaquiiil!” Cinder chirped. His purple flame started up on his back again, and he was no longer dripping.
Marsh swam to the edge of the pool, jumped out, and ran into Sara’s arms.
“What’s up, Marsh?”
“Mudkip!” said Marsh.
“It’s really too bad we couldn’t give you Marsh,” said Todd. “She is obviously the only Pokémon here to take to you so kindly.”
Sara sighed, and put Marsh back onto the ground. Marsh looked a bit sad, too.
“So, I guess what we need to do is find Sara a Pokémon, huh?”
“Yep,” said Sara.
Prof. Todd motioned for Sara to follow him, and they left in search of a Pokémon for Sara.
Andy and Michael released their Pokémon.
Kavu stretched and yawned, but Judo immediately starting running around in pure bliss. Michael started to chase after his partner, and they made a fun game out of it.
“Well, there’s a Pokémon who perfectly suits its trainer,” said Andy.
“Dang right,” I replied.
I sat down, leaning against a huge tree on which many Bug and Flying Pokémon had their nests. Cinder, being such a sleepy Pokémon, immediately curled up in my lap and began to nap.
I wondered what the journey around the continent would be like. I had always dreamed of becoming a Pokémon trainer. I had seen on television how happy people had been, winning huge Pokémon tournaments and sharing the awards with their best friends, their Pokémon companions. I wanted to share that feeling, and just like I loved having friends, I would love having Pokémon.
I began to dream about what my first battle in the Bashino League would be like, if I could make it there…
“Welcome, one and all, to the Bashino League tournament! This, as you all know, is the biggest Pokémon-related event this side of Bashoto!
Today, we begin the first match of the 23rd annual Bashoto League Tournament! In this first match, a new trainer to the world of Pokémon will compete, although he is already known worldwide as…”
Andy shoved me awake.
“Oh,” I said. “Sorry…”
“Dreaming again?”
“Sure am.”
I saw Sara and Prof. Todd coming up the side of a hill and got up. Cinder fell of my lap, waking up, and for a second he looked like he was about to Tackle me. Instead, he jumped up onto my shoulder. I walked over to them. Sara had a Pokéball in her hand.
“Oooh,” I said, “Lemme see what Pokémon you got!”
Sara smiled proudly and threw her Pokéball into the air. In an explosion of white light, a small silhouette appeared and landed on Sara’s head lightly.
“Treecko!” said the Pokémon.
“A Treecko?” I asked as Sara caught the ball. “Why a Treecko?”
I was all up for originality, and since Andy already had a Treecko, I didn’t think it was very cool to pick the same Pokémon as him. Just another flaw of my personality, back then.
Sara looked at me as if I was totally stupid. “Because I like it, and it likes me.”
Treecko glared at me.
“And you can call him Venom, thank you,” added Sara.
Venom nodded.
“Well, I’ve got to get back to the lab,” said Prof. Todd. “You kids have fun!”
He left hurriedly.
Sara and I, without a word, began walking toward the lab again. We figured Andy and Michael were waiting for us somewhere near the door.
And sure enough, they were.
That’s when I had an idea.
“Hey,” I said, “why don’t we test out our Pokémon in battle?”
“You mean, right now?” asked Andy. He looked a little nervous.
“Yep,” I said. “We can do a Multi Battle.”
“I pick Pablo’s team!” cried Michael.
Andy walked over to Sara. “Okay,” he said, “It’s you and me.”
Sara blushed very, very, very slightly.
EDIT Stuff...
The Bashoto League
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