Chapter 1:
"Name. Age. Hometown." A fat, bossy lady said to me from behind a transparent glass with a circular hole in the middle.
"Sorry?" I said.
"What is your name? What is your age and where are you from?" She said in an irritated tone. "You seriously didn't get that?"
I actually did. I just wanted to annoy her a little and funny how it worked. "Kyle Cast. Seventeen years old. Vermillion City, Kanto Region." I said as the lady typed it in a computer in front of her.
"From Kanto?" She said as she started to print a paper out. "What are you planning to do here in Hoenn?" She asked or rather... mandatorily inquired. I hated her voice. So bossy.
"I'm here for a vacation." I lied. The lady ripped the paper from her printer and gave it to me. I grabbed it from her hands and immediately left her presence. "Next!" I heard her shout.
Hoenn region. I never thought that I would be invited here in this tropical region filled with trees and mountains and trees again and mountains again. Wait, I heard there were also a volcano and a dessert. Anyway, I was invited, yeah, by someone named professor Birch as his official assistant. It was a long story but to make it short, my mom knew him because he was an acquaintance of her friend who was also a Pokémon professor in Kanto so when she found out that he, professor Birch, was searching for an assistant, my mom immediately 'nominated' me and five months later, I found myself in a ship sailing from Vermillion City to Slateport City where I was currently standing.
The place was nice. There was a beach on the south side of the city where countless of people were currently enjoying themselves and a flock of Wingull was flying around the entire place, well, flocks (with an S). On the west side was the market place wherein half of the stores were selling over-priced goods, obviously taking advantage of the booming tourist population and on the east side of the city, a museum was standing. I loved the museum! I even saw a replica of the long lost SS Anne inside.
According to a text by Professor Birch himself, his son was already on his way to pick me up. I already visited almost all of the interesting places in the city so I decided to wait for him in the Pokemon center with my best pal, Poli, a Poliwrath. Compared to other Poliwrath, Poli never seemed to frown but he was always smiling. Well, I wasn't really sure but Poliwraths was always supposed to frown, wasn't they?
Later on, while I was feeding Poli her favorite PokEBar, a boy around my age entered the place. He was wearing a white hat that literally looked like a hair in a distance. He made his way to Nurse Joy and they talked for like ten seconds then, Nurse Joy pointed her fingers at me. I pretended that I didn't see her pointing at me simply because I didn't really want to stand up and greet this newly-arrived boy first, who I assumed (because of the hat, according to my mom) to be the son of Professor Birch, and besides, I was feeding Poli. Another besides, I didn't want to possibly be embarrassed since I was only assuming that it was him.
The boy made his way to me and greeted me with a smile. "Kyle Cast?" He asked me in a very confident voice.
"Yes." I replied. "That would be me."
He offered his right hand and I shook it. 'So formal', I said to myself.
"The name's Matthew. Professor Brendan Birch's son." He introduced himself.
"I'm quite aware of that." I said.
He laughed. "Of course."
Then silence. An awkward silence. I knew I had an awkward tendency in the presence of other people, something that I should probably fix sooner or later if I really wanted to be a famous Pokemon professor.
"So..." He finally broke the silence. "Let's go."
I called Poli back to her pokeball first before I stood and went with Matthew. We made our way to the Pokemon center parking lot where a green, roofless jeepney was parked. A jeepney... seriously. I expected something more, like a fancy car or even a helicopter. Okay, the helicopter was a little out of the line but he came from an adventurous family so I guessed them having a helicopter was a huge possibility but then I realized that a roofless jeepney was also adventurous-ish. Whatever. Matthew positioned himself in the driver sit while I sat in the passenger sit beside him. I insisted to sit in the back but he told me that sitting in front would be more comfortable and just after a half an hour of travel, I found out why – the floor of the vehicle had a little possibility of collapsing and by little, I meant about 60% out of a hundred percent.
"What's it like in Kanto?" He opened up a conversation. Thanked Arceus!
"Well." I started. "It's less ocean and more land there."
He laughed. I could see why.
"But seriously. I think Kanto is overall 'noisier' than Hoenn."
"I agree to that." He said. "I once visited Kanto with my father just a year ago. My father attended a conference that talked about the mirage spots. Stuff like those."
"Yeah." I was waiting for him to continue speaking.
"It was a week-long conference so while my father was busy with his conference, I took a little trip and almost everywhere I go, people where... I dunno... so 'alive'. Saffron was full of people running around the city while Celadon was so colorful. Vermillion was so classy, if you know what I mean." He looked at me and smiled. "Too many rich people. Cerulean was okay and the Lavender town, creepy!"
"What about here in Hoenn?" I asked. "Any point of interest?"
"The entire region is a point of interest." He said.
"If I'm really into trees, mountains, and a volcano, yeah, I guess you're right." I joked. "And islands. Don't forget the islands."
He laughed again.
"Hoenn is famous for its flora and fauna. The nature's beauty, it's called." He said. "But if you really like to have 'fun', I recommend going to Mauville City."
We talked for another hour about random stuff like how he got in trouble while visiting Vermillion. He had an argument with someone named Veronica (who was a friend of mine but I didn't tell him that part) and how he was forced to battle her father, Lt. Surge, that ended up with Professor Birch rushing to the Vermillion gym to 'rescue' him. "Lesson learned. Never throw a Voltorb in the sea." He told me.
I laughed.
We passed through the very famous Hoenn Cycling road and into an old abandoned house that had a 'Wondrous Trick House' written on a sign on top of it. "When I was still a child, like five or six years old, my father always bring me in that place." He said as he pointed at the old house. "It was a very fun house full of tricks and treats."
"What happened to it?"
"It closed down after its owner, the Trick Master died. Sad day for the entire Hoenn, believe me."
Passed the trick house was a lengthy bridge that connected Route 103 to, well, the other side of route 103. Route 103 was divided into two by a body of water. Matthew told me that during his father's time, there was no bridge there and people were forced to swim or Surf just to get to the other side of Route 103 then to a town called Oldale near Littleroot. It was a well-used shortcut because without that bridge (and if you don't know how to swim), in order to get to Littleroot from Slateport was either by sea via a ferry or by land where you would basically travel almost the entire north-western Hoenn.
We stopped for a moment in Oldale. It was almost sunset and I became a little anxious because I hated travelling at night especially in a roofless vehicle. Matthew went inside the one of the houses while I waited in the vehicle, listening to the radio. Hoenn had a weird range of radio channel. It didn't take long before Matthew emerged from the same door and he was already carrying a sketchpad.
"What's that?" I asked.
"I honestly don't know." He replied. "Father just asked me to pick this up." He continued. Out of curiosity, we opened the sketchpad and there was nothing inside. Nothing was drawn in any corner and in any page.
Matthew started the engine and we continued our way to Littleroot town. While travelling route 101, I saw dozens of Poochyena running around and playing with the countless Zigzagoon in the field. A group of Wurmple was also present in the trees and in the grass. I begged Matthew to stopped the car because I wanted to catch a Wurmple and evolve it into a very beautiful Beautifly (I loved the rhyming) but he insisted and told me that I could just do it the next day. I argued a little but then I realized he wasn't listening to me. Suddenly, his jerk side manifested. Great!
We arrived at Littleroot at exactly seven in the evening. Matthew threw the door of their house open without even knocking and inside was a picture of a perfect family. There was a man in his late forties (who I assumed to be Professor Birch) sitting in the sofa with a ten years old girl wearing a red bandanna. They were watching the television while in the kitchen table just behind the sofa, a woman who was also in her late forties was preparing dinner. They all greeted Matthew as we entered the place and then they shifted their attention to me.
"Hello Paps" Matthew greeted his father and approached her mother to give her a kiss on the cheek. He then went into the comfy chair beside the sofa and he gestured his hands towards the other chair lying next to him which I interpreted as a sit-here gesture.
"Is he the Kyle you're talking about?" The little girl asked.
The man smiled. "Kyle Cast, isn't it?" He looked at me.
"Yes. Professor."
"I am looking forward to work with you."
"So am I." I smiled.
Matthew's mom called us for dinner. I hesitated at first in joining them since I wasn't even a part of their family but they all protested. I sat beside Matthew and enjoyed the meal in their presence. They talked about stuff that I could sometimes relate into but most of the time, not. It was Hoenn matters, why should I even care. Okay, starting now, I would start to care since I was already living in the region... I guessed.
After dinner, Matthew escorted me to my room. It was a little, simple room with a bed, a lamp and a desk. I opened the lamp and released Poli in her pokeball when I was already alone. Later, I realized that a thick book entitled 'Cracking the Mirage' by Wallace was lying and on the cover of it was a note saying 'Read the first few chapters. – Prof. B.'.
Professor Birch was really dead serious in his research, wasn't he?
I got a little annoyed since instead of letting me rest in my first night here in their house, he already gave me a... assignment. What was I? A college student? Lucky for him, I wasn't annoyed enough so I did read the first few chapters and by first few chapters, I meant half of the entire book.
"We shall see what Hoenn can give us." I said to Poli who was already sleeping in her portable pond. (Yes, I had a portable pond just for her.) I retired in my bed and let my mind and body rest even just for some few hours since it was already four in the morning when I fell asleep.
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I FELT THE WORLD SHIFTED AS THE LAST PIECE OF MY CREDIBLE PLAN FELL INTO HIS PLACE. IN THE TOWERING TEMPLE OF MY ABYSS, MY PRISON, I FELT TIME MOVED FOR AN INSTANT AND SPACE DISORIENTED FOR A VERY LIMITED TIME. I FELT MY SIBLINGS' POWER AS THEY FELT ME BECOMING STRONGER.
MY WILL BE DONE!
