Introduction
Before we get started, I have some few things to say about this adventure.
This log is about my experience with the game Pokémon Sinking Sapphire, which is a hack of Alpha Sapphire, made by Drayano. As any other of his hacks, Sinking Sapphire has modifications on encounters (meaning you can get all 721 Pokémon within the game), trainer rosters (this also include rivals, gym leaders, elite four, etc.), and, naturally, difficulty. I'll be testing a different way of writing this, inspired by Rick Riordan's way of writing Heroes of Olympus books. You'll see what I mean later on.
I will be focusing on the story of May and Brendan, two friends who travel the Hoenn region together with their partners.
I hope you enjoy it!
Achilles Last Stand
May
"Huh, hello?".
Those were the first words I heard this evening, and they came from the last person I imagined.
A boy was standing at the entrance of my bedroom, his hand knocking the door gently. His hair was dark brown, almost entirely covered by a white cap. He was carrying a strange rectangular device in his left hand, and he was wearing traveling clothes and a backpack, like someone who was preparing to go far, far away.
He looked around my bedroom.
"So… you're May, from Blackthorn City?" Said him, now staring at me. "Pleasure to meet you, my name is Brendan".
I got up from my desk in a jump and shaked his hand.
"I'm Ma… wait, how do you know who I am?".
"I was talking to your mother downstairs" He pointed his thumb down. "I saw that you two just arrived and wanted to come and say hi. But now I have to go, I need to help my father collect data for his PokéDex".
He showed me the device.
"Do you want to come with me? Maybe we can get some Pokémon from him".
I opened my mouth in surprise. I never thought in having a Pokémon before, but I always loved them. Clair, the gym leader of Blackthorn City, tried to convince me on having a Pokémon journey when I completed 11, but I refused, afraid of traveling the world alone. Now I'm 15, and maybe I could make a trip with my new acquaintance Brendan…
"A Pokémon?" Said I.
"Yeah" Brendan answered, smiling. "He is a Pokémon Researcher, and I'm his assistant".
The idea of owning a Pokémon made me not listen to Brendan at all. When he finished his sentence, I was already at the door.
"Let's go get a Pokémon!"
* * *
After telling mom that us two were getting a Pokémon, and probably traveling the whole region with them, she instantly climbed the stairs and arranged a backpack for me.
"Here's your stuff dear, don't forget to change your clothes every day!".
"Mom! I don't even know if I'll want to go around the world yet. And I would tell you if I did!".
"Ok sweetie, but be careful anyway. Bye, Brendan!".
And we left. The sun was setting on the horizon. A bearded man with a lab coat was standing outside, impacient, staring at his watch.
"Ah! Finally" Said him, looking at Brendan. "Hurry up, child! I saw a Zorua running in the woods right after you entered the house, let's go do some field work!" He turned his head towards me. "And this must be Norman's daughter. Hello! I'm Birch, Brendan's father!".
I don't like to be recognized by 'Norman's daughter', but I shaked his hands anyway.
"May" I said. "Brendan told me you can get us Pokémon?".
"You're anxious" Said Birch, laughing. "You can help me and Brendan study the environment of Route 101 and maybe I can give you each one of these"
He grabbed three pokéballs in his pocket and showed us. Brendan told me that they contained three rare Pokémon in Hoenn: Treecko, Torchic and Mudkip.
"You have to really trust us to give two rare Pokémon that way".
Birch laughed again, this time a little bit more hysterical.
"Let's head to Route 101!" Birch said.
* * *
We exit Littleroot Town to the north and we arrived at Route 101. I could hear the Taillow sing in nearby trees (I could swear I saw a Swellow feeding his babies in a nest). Professor Birch took a notepad and a pencil out of one of his pockets.
"Hoenn suffered a massive migration of species in the past few months" Said Birch, looking around in the trees. "I want to research every single one of them, and discover the reason why such migration happened. Apparently, you can find a lot of Pokémon from other regions here now.".
Brendan almost stumbled in a rock.
"What?" Said him, recovering from the surprise. "You can find every Pokémon in the world here?".
"Well, don't exagerate, son" Birch said, distant. "Every Pokémon is a lot of Pokémon".
"But you just said..."
Before Brendan finished his sentence, a bush next to Birch moved and Brendan and I screamed with the fright. A Zorua jumped out of it and bit Birch in the heel.
He yelled with pain, and I got terrified. Two poké balls rolled out of his lab coat as he fell down, and both me and Brendan knew what to do.
Each of us picked one ball, and two Pokémon got out of it immediately.
"Wow, I got Torchic!" Brendan said, gaped. "And you got Treecko!".
I looked at my Pokémon. It stared at me, wondering. It turned around and, as it saw Professor Birch being attacked, it shouted and instantly went to help him. Torchic did the same.
The battle was intense. Even though Zorua had number disadvantage, it still gave trouble to both Treecko and Torchic. Zorua jumped on Treecko and started scratching it, but Torchic used Ember and, with the help of Treecko's Pound, they managed to defeat it.
"AAAAHH!".
"Professor!"
"Dad!"
The Pokémon returned to their poké balls, and we run to help Professor Birch. He had a major wound in his left heel, and his clothes were full of scratches.
"Help me get back to the lab, children." Said Professor Birch, holding his scream.
Brendan aided Birch to stand in his shoulder, and conduced him back to the lab, as I kept sitting there, in the grass. I looked at Treecko's poké ball, wondering.
"Maybe travelling the region is not a bed of roses, after all...".
I got up and followed them. If Birch didn't carry those Pokémon with him, what could have happened?
The sun finally disappeared from the horizon, and we were back in Littleroot Town.
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