To Reach Your Potential (Pokemon OC Isekai)

[CagedHawky]

Chapter 1

Second Chance​

I snuck into my parent's bedroom, ignoring the hammering of my heart.

The room was a disaster area, dirty clothes strewn everywhere and beer cans littering the surface of both the bedside tables and the chest of drawers.

Dad's snores reverberated loudly, and I began the search for his wallet. It wasn't in the kitchen or living room, so it had to be in his room. However, it also wasn't on the chest of drawers it would usually be, probably haps because cans and other junk were already spilling over the edge of it, so there wasn't any room for it there anyway.

I crept closer to the bed where several days of clothes lay crumpled, slowly and quietly checking for the wallet. I gently lifted a pair of jeans at the top of a pile, and felt the extra weight in them immediately.

Bingo.

I rifled through the pockets and found the wallet quickly, pulling it out and seeing how much cash he had. I found a $20 note and a few singles, but that was all. It would be enough to buy ingredients for the twins' 9th birthday cake, but if I wanted snacks for their friends I would need to check for more tomorrow, because otherwise there would be nothing left for dinner that night, a far cry from the pizza's I hoped to get for them. That would be a terrible end to their birthday.

I suppose getting a cake at all would still beat my birthday back in March though.

I couldn't help but send the man on the bed a glare. Why did you have four kids if you couldn't look after them? Damn irresponsible… I guess it wasn't all his fault, it was probably a joint decision with Mum, but seeing she was dead, he had to take the blame for two.

I looked back at the wallet, and saw the picture he had in it from happier times not so long ago. Mum and Dad were smiling, and my brother and sisters looked so carefree. I also looked happy, I noted with some surprise. I'd always overthought stuff, and I can remember trying to get my hair right because it had been cut just before the photos and I liked it long, and I'd thought it still looked weird so I'd worn my favourite pokemon cap over the top of it... Such a stupid thing to worry about.

"Rob, the twins are ready!"

I startled as Rosie's voice rang out through the room, then froze, waiting to see if Dad would wake up.

His head was facing towards me, and his snoring had paused. I stared at his closed eyelids with bated breath, hearing my heartbeats. They stayed shut. His snoring resumed as he rolled over, and I started breathing again.

I put the wallet on top of his clothes, not bothering to put it back in his pocket, and left the room to walk my siblings to elementary school which was on the way to my middle school.

I didn't know if he would notice the money missing, but I doubted he would care either way. After all, that was his problem these days.

He just didn't seem to care about anything.

-break-​

12 years later

I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling, on a bed that was far too big.

I frowned. Did I have a medical episode last night… because this wasn't the palliative care ward?

Frowning, I tried to sit up, but my body had other plans. Pain coursed through my chest like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my ribs, and my head throbbed like… I laid back down with a groan.

It was too painful to think.

As if on queue the door opened. I tilted my head to see a young pink-haired woman in a nurse uniform walk in. Even in my disoriented state, I noted that the uniform was unlike anything that I'd ever seen back in my usual ward.

I tried to shake the thoughts out of my mind, but aborted the effort as pain shot through my head. I closed my eyes and gently laid my head back down. Staying still was good. Movement was bad.

"It's good to see you awake," the nurse said. "We almost lost you when you first came in. How do you feel?"

Made sense I suppose, my body was so riddled with cancer that I knew any time I went to sleep that I might not wake back up.

"I feel-" I started, before realising my voice had come out like a squeak. I gave a cough, then tried again.

"I feel like I got run over by a truck." My voice was still a bit weird. "Could I have some water?"

I heard the nurse murmur something, and I heard a set of footsteps walk away. I hadn't seen her partner walk in. I opened my eyes to check to see a pink blur just as it went around the doorway. I looked back at the nurse, who was somewhat familiar even though I couldn't quite place her.

"She will be right back with some water." she assured me.

"Thank you." I replied. Once again my voice was an oddly high pitch, but then again my throat was feeling rough. Perhaps some water would help.

"So Oliver, what's the last thing you remember?"

I frowned as I tried to think of a response to the question, but my mind was unusually sluggish.

"Well, before I went to sleep I was coughing up blood again, and I haven't had any appetite for a few days-"

The nurse jolted and looked at me worriedly.

"When we checked your condition we didn't see anything wrong with your lungs or digestive tract… I'll have Chansey check you over again, you just relax here." She shot me a smile that was likely meant to reassure me and briskly left the room.

Nothing wrong with my lungs or stomach? I'm riddled with cancer, mate. And how weird of a name is Chansey? Shaking my head in bewilderment as I was now alone, I finally looked around the room, then the large bed, and then myself.

It was then I realised - the bed wasn't too big, I was just too small.

It was with that realisation that the memories started flooding in. I wasn't just Oliver Kane, I was also Oliver Blincoe of the Pokémon World. For some reason I felt more like I was Oliver Kane than Oliver Blincoe, as though my life on Earth had happened more recently, even though I was in the child's body now.

All my memories as David Blincoe were still there though, and I was just starting to piece things together when the door opened, and a Chansey followed by Nurse Joy(?) all but ran in. Above her head were words

Chansey (F)
Current Strength: 60.88 / 65.43
Expected Potential: 5.47 -(7.01*)

Before I could make sense of the random words and numbers hanging over the Chansey's head, they were by my side and she impatiently passed me a cup of water to drink. She then touched her stubby arm to my head. A moment later a foreign sensation unlike anything I'd ever felt went through my mind, and while I still felt exhausted, my headache steadily receded until it was all but gone.

"Chansey." She said tiredly as she removed her arm, and I could tell the healing had taken a lot out of her.

Chansey (F)
Current Strength: 47.27 / 65.43
Expected Potential:5.47 -(7.01*)

"How do you feel now?" Nurse Joy asked cautiously.

"My head feels so much better." I replied, my mouth on autopilot while I tried to make sense of what was going on. "Why didn't you do that earlier?"

"Chansey needs to remain prepared for emergencies, so if the patient's condition isn't critical, then we usually let them heal naturally with a few berries and some medicine. If Chansey had been tired when you came in a few days ago, then likely you wouldn't be here with us, given the state of your body at that time."

As she replied to me, Chansey rifled through the nurses pockets and then quickly started munching on said berries, already working to replenish her energy stores.

"I'm going to repeat the question I asked earlier." Joy continued. "What is the last thing you remember?"

I tore my gaze away from the information hovering above Chansey and searched my memories. While they felt like they happened years ago, they were still there.

"Umm... let me think." I replied slowly. "I remember something happened to Mum, and then I had to live in the orphanage. It was supposed to be temporary…"

As the memories became clear, I felt my heart clench.

"She died… no went missing. But eventually there had to be a funeral anyway."

Joy had stopped writing.

"So I tried to find her." I finished.

I was crying before I even realised. I felt a bit awkward to be honest, and tried to control myself. My memories of this world were getting blended in with the memories of my own, and my body was responding spontaneously. As I looked back at the memories of her on this world, it was obvious she had been a kind and loving mother to this world's Oliver, just like mine was to me.

Nurse Joy didn't press me as I wept.

A while later, when I wiped the last few tears from my eyes, I saw Joy waiting for me.

"I'm sorry, I still have to ask a few more questions. Is that ok?" She asked gently.

I nodded, still wiping tears.

"Do you know where we are?" She started.

"Cerulean Pokécenter." I replied numbly.

"Cerulean Hospital. You aren't a Pokémon as far as I can tell." She corrected gently, trying to inject a bit of levity, "What is your name?"

I paused. My name was Robert Kane, but now it was… "Oliver Blincoe."

"Good, that's correct. How old are you?"

This was actually the most difficult question to be honest. It was ever changing, and the memories of my life on Earth blended in with my memories as Oliver here. I knew my Birthday on the 17th of March was the same in both lives. However, even as my mind struggled for the answer my mouth acted on instinct.

"Thirteen, nearly fourteen."

Ah, I was truly in a kid's body.

"That's correct, you won't be fourteen for another few weeks..."

For a moment the only sound was the scratching of her pen, and Chancy's munching of berries. The pen stopped moving, and Joy looked back at me.

"Now, I know you said you remember some of it, but do you have any idea what happened after you went into the caves underneath Mount Moon?"

I was found in the Mount Moon caves?

"No." I replied honestly.

"So you don't remember straying well away from the cleared path recommended for inexperienced Pokémon trainers?" She asked rhetorically with a raised eyebrow, before sighing. "You were found unconscious and poisoned in Mount Moon by a Pokémon Trainer who was searching for mushrooms. A friendly wild Paras led her to your body, which had been poisoned by a Zubat's bite... Does that jog your memory at all?"

"No… sorry." I said lamely. I didn't remember that, which was likely for the best to be honest.

She looked hard at me, then sighed.

"I guess I should give you a bit more information, to make sure you don't do something so foolish again. After your mother went missing nine weeks ago while finding geological samples for Bill's research, search parties were sent out, high priority as she was privy to some knowledge critical for the Indigo League's national security. They saw evidence of her Pokémon fighting, namely some… whiskers of your mother's Raticate, as well as some spores and leaves of her Bellossom. The investigation isn't concluded yet, but there might be criminal syndicate activity involved. You were never going to find anything but trouble by going down there."

She gave me a stern look, but it softened before continuing.

"...when the Trainer found you, she quickly used an antidote and both her potions, but your condition kept worsening as she couldn't make you properly ingest them fully. By the time you were brought back here, your heart had stopped, and you needed to be resuscitated. It's hard to confirm whether your memory loss is due to Mental or Physical trauma, but you should feel more yourself over time."

I nodded numbly. Even the original Oliver hadn't known about there being anything suspicious about his mothers disappearance. Did that mean it was Team Rocket? Or something else?

It was a lot to process, even without taking into consideration the fact that I was now in a completely different world.

Over the next half hour I was made familiar with my current situation.

I was to go back to the orphanage. It had originally been set up for War Orphans as a consequence of the Kanto-Johto War when the two human controlled territories had expanded into each other half a century ago. Those children had all aged out in the time since the conflict, and though there was a small but steady influx due to Pokemon incursions, there was still more than enough space for me. I had been temporarily excused from classes, but they were considered incredibly important and so the sooner I could get back to school the better.

After she had finished explaining my situation to me, and confirmed that I had no other questions, she let me know a light meal would be brought to my room and left. For the first time since waking up in this world, I finally had some space to take a few deep breaths and consider my situation.

I was in the Pokemon world, which was… interesting. I hadn't played many games since Mum in my previous life died, but occasionally I'd played either of the first three generations while cooking and caring for my younger siblings. There had always been a strong feeling of nostalgia, as it reminded me of a time when life was so much more simple, and grinding to get my Dragonite to level 100 seemed like the best use of my time.

Years later, once the life insurance payout was guaranteed, I had also played a little PokéRogue to distract my mind while my body deteriorated. Despite that, I was still ignorant of many Pokemon, and nearly all lore, post-gen 3.

My thoughts then moved to my family. Rosie had almost finished her degree now, while Ron and Roxy had both headed off to the same university together on an athletics scholarship. Combined with the life insurance payout, they should have every chance of achieving their dreams, and would have degrees to use as a backup.

Having to basically be a parent since Elementary school had sucked, I'd had to sacrifice a lot and it had robbed me of my childhood, but I had been looking forward to the next stage of my relationships with them as we continued to grow. They didn't need me anymore… but I missed them already.

My eyes moistened, and I quickly distracted myself, directing my thoughts to what the window above Chansey meant.

It had said 'Current Strength' and 'Expected Potential', and also let me know that Chansey was a girl, but the numbers were all completely unrelated to things in the game, and the current strength had gone down further when she healed me. Was it like, some combined stats average and fatigue ratings or something?

I mulled it over for a bit, but came to the conclusion that the sample size of one pokemon was too small. If I wasn't completely delusional and I was still here when I woke up, then I would figure it out later.

I gave out a yawn, and relaxed deeper into bed as I thought about lighter topics, like what Pokémon would I want on my team? I got more comfortable as I considered it. Something like a Dratini would be good to start with, as it would eventually become a Dragonite. Growlithe's seemed friendly and were strong, and an Eevee would also be nice, all the eeveelutions are strong, a Vaporeon would be indestructible to water types, while I've always thought Jolteon would be cool… Perhaps also a Larvitar…

- break -​

I was well rested and honestly a bit bored by the next time Nurse Joy entered. The meal I'd woken up to had been nice, but after eating it there was literally nothing to do, and while I'd felt awkward about it, I had ended up ringing the bell beside my bed.

"Ah, hey, sorry about this. I was wondering when it is alright for me to leave, or if there is something I have to do first?"

"First, I have to know whether you plan to go back to Mount Moon?" she asked, sending me a piercing gaze.

"No." I answered immediately.

To do so without pokemon was suicidal… which was likely a part of the reason Oliver had done it, if unconsciously.

She kept looking into my eyes, then nodded, seemingly finding what she was looking for.

"You are mending well, we just want to keep you under observation until tomorrow morning. Though unlikely, sometimes poison type energy can cause a delayed immune response."

I nodded back, but then asked. "Makes sense. Then is it possible I could have my phone back? There is nothing really for me to do here, and I don't like wasting time."

In my last life I had nearly always been doing something, whether it be working, cooking, cleaning or studying (before I had to drop out of school to support my siblings). The only times that changed was when my illness had progressed too far, and I had been forced to slow down. For the last few months I'd idled more time away than I had in the decade prior combined, and now my situation wasn't hopeless, I was raring to be productive again.

At my question she smiled.

"Of course there are no issues, we have some PCs in the communal areas. You should have it mostly to yourself, early Spring is the safest time of the year after all, though that will change when all you youngsters start travelling the routes."

That triggered something in Oliver's memories, sending a spike of anxiousness into my gut.

"What is the date today again?" I asked hesitantly.

Nurse Joy winced briefly, realising she had misspoke.

"Don't worry Oliver," she said with a consoling smile. "It has been a tumultuous couple of months, so I just wanted to let you know that I have raised your case with the League, and that due to your unique circumstances you will be permitted to undergo the trainer exam next year even if you fail this year.

"If you are selected next year, you would also be permitted to participate in the first year and second year conferences, although you would only get the first year of your Journey sponsored instead of the usual two by the League."

Everyone was allowed to go on a Journey, but the only way an orphan like me could go would be through an indigo league sponsorship. However, getting a sponsorship was a competitive process.

The research Oliver had done before his mother had passed all flooded back to me.

The region of Kanto had about 7 million people, and in my age group there would be somewhere in the region of 100,000 people. Of this cohort, only about 20,000 would be able to go on a sponsored Journey in their first year.

This meant ~80% of kids couldn't qualify. The prerequisites for going on a Journey entailed:

A high grade on the trainer exam.

Aura awareness and control.

A further 5,000 spots would be up for grabs for his cohort next year, but it would be even more competitive.

The reason why this year was the time to go was because the majority of kids only gained Aura awareness after the age fourteen. This meant that while there were ~100,000 in the cohort, only ~30,000 would be valid competitors competing for the 20,000 spots. However, if you wanted to compete for one of the 5,000 spots a year later, you would be competing against perhaps 65,000 others, which wasmuchtougher competition.

Those who missed out could do their own journey later, but they would be funding it themselves, and there were far fewer tournaments that they could compete in for prize-money unless they were entering the open division.

"Thanks for that, I appreciate it… but when is it again?" I asked again, trying to keep my rising panic from my voice.

Oliver had been in a position to blitz the exam before, and had planned to spend the last few months putting in work to gain Aura awareness… but it hadn't gone to plan, for obvious reasons. I knew the exam was on the 31st of March, but I had no idea how far away that was.

This wasn't just the previous Oliver's feelings, though it had always been his dream as well. Now that I was here, I'd been almost taking it for granted that I'd become a trainer, and make up for my lost childhood on Earth by living out childhood dreams that weren't just out of my previous life, but out of everyone else's as well.

"It's three weeks away tomorrow, on Monday the 19th of March." Joy replied with a sigh.

It was going to be difficult to grasp.

"Cool, thanks for letting me know" I said, plastering a smile onto my face to hide the urgency I felt as I sat up. "If you could lead me to one of the PCs, then that would be very much appreciated."

---

Hey everyone, hope you enjoyed the first chapter!

Thereare rules behind my power system, but I want you to know its not static, and values change over time based on whether the individual exceeds or fails to live up to their potential.

For example a young Lionel Messi may have had merely decent Potential until his growth hormone deficiency was cured, and then he bloomed into one of the all-time greats. Our MC will find Pokemon with surprisingly high potential despite their limitations, and look to unleash them.

Meanwhile, someone like Muggsy Bogues would never have had the highest potential in the league, but would have banged his head against his potential ceiling until it broke and he was well and truly world-class, despite it being a harder path than anyone else. Similar to this, our MC will more easily be able to find what increases a Pokemon's potential, so even those less gifted can rise to greater heights than most thought possible through supreme effort.

Of course, the easiest pickings will be finding baby Lebron the Caterpie that no one else realises is destined for greatness yet, and nurturing it so it flourishes into its full potential. After all, everyone gives a baby Dratini whatever it needs in order to thrive, but 'common' Pokemon are unlikely to ever receive that same treatment, so even if they have a high potential, it's still unlikely that they can ever reach it.

Our MC will take a while to realise this, so if you think he's acting a bit slow, give him a chapter or two, yeah? He just died after all

 

[CagedHawky]

Chapter 2

First Day of School​

My phone's alarm went off, bringing me out of my meditation session.

Today I was back to school for the first time since the incident, and I had spent the rest of yesterday reviewing what I would need to do going forward.

I hadn't been able to sleep since 4am, so had decided to practise my aura awareness through meditation, which was one of the methods recommended by the league. I had some previous experience with it, both in this life and my previous one, as it had been a good way to unwind and stop hyper-fixating on the problems of my life, and come back to it later with a fresh gaze.

I scowled despite myself, not having reached 'acceptance' with my current circumstances.

I'd been trying to remain focussed and relaxed during my meditation session, as there was no point to it otherwise, but now the session was over, I couldn't keep myself from engaging with my suspicion that there had to be a better way!

Throughout the day yesterday, I'd been doing research on Aura, which was still mysterious despite it being incredibly widespread.

The clan kids, like the Takeshi Clan in Pewter, the Kyou clan in Fuschia or the Blackthorn clan in Johto, always gained Aura awareness before the age of 12, with rumours stating it may be even earlier, and I was confident that the League knew information that they were holding back from the public. If publicly available methods like meditation were what they were doing, then why were 50% of those that get sponsored by the League also from such backgrounds, despite them only being about 10% of the population?

That wasn't even taking into account Youngster licences which let some trainers start their journey up to two years early, at the age of 12 or 13, with ~95% of the people who received Youngster licences being from the clans.

Something I'd learnt in my last life is that you will learn a lot more about what's really happening by looking past the words people say, and looking deeper into the actions and circumstances that go behind it - and there was obviously more going on here than met the eye.

I jumped out of bed and went straight to the shower. I'd been allowed to get my school bag and clothes from the orphanage whilst under hospital supervision yesterday afternoon, and now that my observation period was over, this would (hopefully) be the last time I was in a hospital for a while.

Ten or so minutes later I was dressed, and I headed over to the reception to say goodbye to Doctor Madeline Joy. (Turns out not all Nurses Joys were called 'Joy', or were even Nurses, though it was the usual title in the Pokecenter to help Pokemon feel more comfortable with treatment by making it consistent everywhere). Usually she would be more busy, and in the coming months she most likely would be, so I had been lucky to have received her treatment.

I smiled when I saw her.

"Hi Maddy, thanks for everything the last few days, don't know where I would be without you… Or I do know where I would be, and I'm really glad I'm here." I said with a laugh.

She rolled her eyes at me, but then smiled back.

"Look after yourself kid, and I'm glad you're looking better than when you came in, both physically and mentally."

While I had come over to give my thanks, I would be lying if I said I had no ulterior motive… After all, although anyone could join the Joy clan so she wasn't necessarily born into it, it was still a clan.

"Maddy, I was wondering if there was any advice you could give me about sensing Aura? I'm pretty confident in my academics-" a slight exaggeration "-but I still don't have any aura awareness, despite practising meditation regularly."

She shot me a piercing stare that made it feel like she was looking into my soul, then asked. "What is the advice given by the League?"

I counted the main four pieces of advice on my fingers.

"1. Develop your ability to focus and remain calm through regular meditation. 2. Strengthen your body and will through regular exercise. 3. Undergo new experiences to broaden your horizons. 4. Challenge yourself."

"And tell me - have you been doing all of those?"

I couldn't look her directly in the eye as I responded.

"I have been trying to meditate regularly, and I was certainly exercising regularly… until recently… and I'm not really in a position to go anywhere to broaden my horizons." I replied, though the excuses rang hollow even to myself.

Maddy frowned, tapping her foot on the ground as she looked at me. I raised my head and met her gaze, and after a moment she sighed.

"While the advice the League gives is a bit cryptic, it is good advice." she stated eventually. "Without meditation you won't be able to progress quickly - simple as that. Everyone has Aura, even if you don't know it, so train hard and push yourself a bit further each day. Aura depletion can occur, but usually it's impossible barring life threatening circumstances, so checking in regularly with an adult to see if you are overdoing it should be enough to prevent you from overdoing it. Broadening horizons is more about being challenged and understanding others than going sight-seeing, so you can do more -and have done more- than you think."

At this she paused, and seemed to think hard about something. I waited patiently.

"I have another piece of advice, but I need to know you are not going to act rashly. Can you promise to stay safe?" asked Maddy.

"Yes" I immediately responded.

Once again she gave me a piercing gaze for several seconds, before nodding.

"Alright, my last piece of advice is to spend as much time around others as possible, both human and pokemon. So much about Aura is connection, so being with others will only help you grow faster. Is that understood?"

"Understood." I said, bowing my head, even as I considered whether she said that just to stop me from isolating myself.

In any case, it would, so it worked.

She waved me off.

"Think nothing of it, this is far from hidden knowledge, any experienced trainer would be able to tell you this. I'm sure the orphanage has some pokemon around, but expose yourself to others too."

"Thanks for that, and once again, thanks for everything."

We said our goodbyes, and then I was off for my first day of school.

-break-​

I flopped onto my bed in the orphanage, and massaged my aching temples as I sighed into my pillow.

School had sucked.

I had also been keeping an eye out for other Pokemon to see what the numbers I'd seen above Chansey's head had meant. On the way I'd seen a few Pidgey and Spearow in the sky, but they had been much too high up for me to get a read on them. The only pokemon I saw was a Rattata that cautiously peeked out of an alley that was on my way to school.

Rattata (F)
Current Strength: 3.78 / 4.01
Expected Potential: 1.03 - (3.77*)

I'd just written down the values on my phone and resolved to try to understand them more later, and then I was at school.

The other kids honestly weren't that bad. Rumours had obviously spread over the weekend, and while a few of the nicer ones had reached out, most kept their distance. However, while I knew them all, there was no instant recall, so I would always be delayed on remembering their names which made everything even more awkward than it needed to be.

That delay on instant recall also extended to the lessons, so even though IknewI should know everything, it felt like I was always half a step behind most of the lessons and playing catch-up. Would three weeks be enough to jog my memory?

It would have to be.

That said, there had been a few easy classes.

MathematicsandSciencehad been pretty easy, andEconomics of a Journeyhad made a lot of sense and felt similar to when I was running the household back on Earth. HoweverBattle Tactics,History,GeographyandPokemon Habits and Habitatshad been a completely different story, and as they were all on the trainer exam I knew I would have to do a lot of revision.

Questions like 'What are visual indications differences that a Light Screen has ended when compared to a Reflect?' and 'What is the best way to train a pokemon to resist hypnosis?' showed that battling was going to be very different to how it was in the games. The only thing I did have on the public education system was the existence of Fairy typing, but even that was questionable seeing it was likely common knowledge for the clans, unless it was simply a game mechanic.

I sighed into my pillow one last time, then peeled myself off my bed and started changing into some workout clothes.

I didn't have time to be miserable.

I thought of the four things I had to do to develop Aura:

Develop your ability to focus and remain calm through regular meditation.

Strengthen your body and will through regular exercise.

Undergo new experiences to broaden your horizons.

Challenge yourself.

Connect with others* (Apparently very important)

I had done a three hour meditation session at 4am when I couldn't fall asleep, so I could tick that off. I felt like 3 and 4 were happening by default, as I'd been thrown into another world and body, so my horizons were pretty broad imo, and the next few weeks would be a challenge regardless of my preferences. I was going for a run, and 5 was… a problem for future me.

I was nearly ready, and grabbed my earphones while I searched for a recommended podcast that detailed the history of Kanto. It would be more fitting to jog my memory while I jogged, instead of during class.

"Going for a run?" A voice at the door asked as I was putting on my shoes.

I looked up and saw a fellow orphan at the door. While I hadn't remembered everyone at school, there were only a few 'inmates' at the orphanage. Marcus was a ginger haired boy that was tall for his age, and was best known for his prickly personality. Oliver hadn't had much to do with him before I had come along, but it wasn't really a bad relationship, just neutral.

"Yeah, strengthening the body and will, you know the drill."

"You seemed a bit out of it today." He noted.

"Big weekend." I replied, wanting to shut down that avenue of conversation. "Catch you later."

"Later."

-break-​

It was incredibly easy for me to push Oliver's body… because it was incredibly out of shape.

It only took about five minutes before I was huffing and puffing and my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. He'd obviously neglected working out the last few months, and eating properly seemed to have fallen by the wayside as well. I'd felt surprisingly good at the start, but endurance wasn't his strong suit.

I slowed down to a walk, and decided to work some other muscles. Give my heart a break for a bit.

I started with pushups. They began to get difficult once I reached 15 or so, and I managed to reach 24 before collapsing.

Not a bad start… if this was Earth. I'm sure with the power of Aura there was a lot of room for improvement. After that I did squats, then lunges. I then jogged for another few minutes to a nearby park and found some pull-up bars so I could work my back and biceps more. I could do seven, which once again was surprisingly good considering how much exercise had been neglected recently. On the grass nearby I did crunches, then cycled between the different exercises and cardio for the next hour.

It wasn't fun.

When I was done I was a wreck, and I wobbled my way back to the orphanage, having to use the handrails to heave myself up the steps on the way back, as my mutinous legs didn't seem up to the task.

I managed to spot an adult trainer going for a run with their Growlithe, and got some more data.

Growlithe (M)
Current Strength: 19.42 / 22.63
Expected Potential: 4.51 - (7.89*)

Like with the Rattata that morning I wrote everything down, and then continued on my way home.

I stopped by the kitchen and had a few berries with a few glasses of milk to hit the so-called anabolic window, then had to go up another flight of stairs to get to my room, which was a battle, but finally I could have a shower to wash-up.

I walked back to my room with a towel around my waist, and looked around my living space.

It looked like depression.

With a sigh, even though it was the last thing I felt like doing, I started organising the belongings, knowing it was a task that couldn't be completed in just the hour before dinner. As I worked through the task, I located previous workbooks that the old Oliver had filled in, and resolved to read back through them to freshen up that knowledge. I also found a week's worth of dirty clothes that he had obviously not been in the mood to deal with as well, and found a bunch of mementos that he had received throughout his childhood.

There were pictures of him, very young, with both of his parents. Now that I was looking at a picture and not my memories, it was easy to tell they were different from my parents on Earth, even though Oliver himself looked like a dead ringer of me. His Dad passed away when he was young, leaving his Mum a widow.

Oliver had idolised his Dad, a very different story when compared to me.

There was also a classic pokemon cap, and a few little pokemon figurines, including a Geodude, Pidgey, Pikachu, Staryu, and a Machop. Cute.

I was still tidying when I was called down for dinner.

For most of my life if I wanted a meal I'd have to cook it myself, so it was a refreshing feeling having a meal cooked for me.

I went downstairs to the dining hall, my legs having improved from feeling like jelly to now merely feeling like noodles, and entered the room.

There were about 12 other children already sitting at the dining table, so a few more must have still been on their way, as well as several pokemon who fulfilled a mix of being playmates, companions and caretakers.

It wasn't uncommon for pokemon to retire from the field. One of the many ways pokemon trainers could tempt pokemon to their side was by guaranteeing a safe retirement for them when they were past their prime, as the wilds were a rough place for an ageing pokemon. One of the key reforms Professor Oak had made as the inaugural League Champion was giving all Pokemon legal status in Kanto, which had helped foster a symbiotic relationship between Humans and Pokemon, and had allowed both to thrive in the 60 years since that resolution.

Yes, 60 years.

Professor Oak was a living legend, though most of the people in Kanto weren't even born yet when he was making waves. Those that cultivated Aura to a high degree gained many benefits, and two of those included improved cognition and increased life expectancy. Oak, one of the most powerful aura cultivators across any region, was over a hundred years old, and even though he was now showing clear signs of ageing, most were gambling that he would be around for a hundred more.

Anyway, back to the orphanage.

Pokemon with an agreeable temperament were allowed to choose their place of retirement, and some had chosen here.

There was an old Persian that showed some battle scars and acted as a guard incase anything unwelcome tried to enter, a Pidgey that was often used to do shopping and deliveries that had retired young after losing its desire to battle, a Machoke that had a prosthetic foot that helped around the house (right now he was setting up the table), an Azurill who had arrived around the same time I had, who was the child of a frontier farmer's Azumarill and who was a very popular playmate with the younger orphans, and lastly a Jigglypuff that helped ensure some of the more rambunctious children went to bed on time… I might actually ask for its help tonight, insomnia was a bitch.

Their profiles were as follows:

Persian (M)
Current Strength: 42.42 / 43.34
Expected Potential: 4.39

Pidgey (M)
Current Strength: 7.12 / 9.19
Expected Potential: 2.01 - (3.67*) - (5.89*)

Machoke (F)
Current Strength: 33.13 / 37.21
Expected Potential: 4.63 - (6.34*)

Azurill (F)
Current Strength: 2.04 / 2.43
Expected Potential: 2.22 - (3.24*) - (6.15*)

Jigglypuff (F)
Current Strength: 13.12 / 13.63
Expected Potential: 2.35 - (5.15*)

For the first time since coming to this world I could compare multiple profiles at the same time, and I came to a few quick conclusions, a few of which I had already suspected:

The values in brackets took into consideration the potential for evolution.

Older pokemon generally had a lower Expected Potential than younger Pokemon, especially when their Current Strength was taken into consideration.

While Current Strength seemed to increase exponentially, Expected Potential did not.

"Look who's back! How was your adventure?"

I turned around to see Ivy grinning widely at me. She was one of the few kids here who wasn't an orphan. While her Mum had passed away, her Dad just worked full-time as a League official which meant he was out of town more often than not, rotating between Celadon, Saffron, the Indigo Plateau, and Goldenrod.

Why he chose to leave his kid at Cerulean I had no clue.

Like me, Ivy was going to have a crack at the trainer exam. Unlike me, she had already awakened her Aura, so grades were the only thing she had to worry about.

"I wouldn't have called it an adventure to be honest." I said wryly.

"What? Why not? You went looking for your Mum in Mt Moon without Pokemon - incredibly brave - nearly died - but didn't! And now you are home acting like nothing happened as though you are too cool for us."

I gave in to her persistence.

"2 out of 5 stars, would not recommend."

She thought for a second, then shrugged. "Fair enough. Mind helping in the kitchen?"

I didn't mind, so I went and helped move the dishes to the table, and served for the younger ones.

Just as the dinner ended Marcus entered from outside, red faced and breathing hard, obviously just having gone for a run. He looked at the food on the table, then as he scanned the room he found me and raised an eyebrow.

"You did a hard workout in the end." He noted.

I frowned.

"I did, yes, but how do you know?"

"I can tell by your Aura. Duh."

I sighed despondently and rested my head onto the table. Only one in five non-clan kids managed to awaken Aura by the time of their first Trainer exam, and here I was with two of them. Comparison was the thief of joy, and getting thieved it was.

"That's impressive you can do that already." I replied into the table.

"Well, seeing you've finally gotten serious, you're a small chance to make it too if you keep it up."

I lifted my head in surprise. Marcus being supportive was rare, I knew that instinctively.

"Thanks man, that's the plan."

"What's the plan if you earn a scholarship?" He asked, sitting at the table across from me and leaned forward.

I paused in thought for a moment while the kids that had been packed next to him gave him a bit more space. Who needed a Repel when you were a sweaty teen boy?

"I haven't thought about it that seriously to be honest, taking it one step at a time. Would love to start with an Eevee though, seeing they are super flexible and I can choose their evolution."

"Wow, what's the payout of your Mum's life insurance?" Marcus asked bluntly, leaning back on his chair, gaze dismissive again like usual.

I found myself standing up.

"Excuse me?"

"Eevee's are incredibly expensive, usually going around for $20,000, and then a stone would be just as much again. You can evolve them without a stone, but that means you won't have any of your precious flexibility that you seemingly value. Also investing that much into an Eevee means you won't have nearly as much for the rest of your team, so you must really be rolling in cash to consider it. Or you're just stupid."

He looked around the dining hall, which had gone silent, then turned to Ivy.

"Let Roseanne know that I'll eat after my shower, if that's alright?" he asked, then without waiting for a response he went upstairs.

I stared aimlessly in front of me, then slowly sat back down in my seat. I noticed my fists were clenched, and relaxed them as Ivy slipped in by my side.

"Yeah, that's the thing about Marcus, he can be a fucking asshole sometimes." Ivy said casually. "He's not a bad person, but it's like that filter that most people have isn't there, you know? So what you see is the real him, unfortunately."

I let out a snort, the tension bleeding away.

"Yeah, he is 100% an asshole." I replied. A few seconds later I continued. "The thing is, he is also 100%right. Nothing is worse than an insufferable prick being right, you know?"

She nodded sagely. "I understand. I've gotten better at not telling people they are stupid myself. But he's not usually this bad, it's just that he's stressed at the moment."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Why's he stressed?"

"Because no one wants to go on their Journey with him. He's too much of a prick and burnt too many bridges. He might've thought you were a chance and gotten his hopes up, but you're too stupid."

"What happens if he can't find travel partners?" I asked curiously, ignoring the jabs that kept on coming.

"Then he will have to wait until trainers from other towns and cities come, and try to join their party. He could also join trainers not doing their first circuit, but then they'd have to stick to the safe zones because at maximum he'll have only one badge, so they won't be too keen on that."

I nodded thoughtfully. This was all stuff that Oliver had already known, but it was mixed in with all the other assumptions I had from playing the games and watching the anime, and my brain wasn't picking out the right information. It was like how if you hadn't read a book for a while you might not remember where you were at or the last things that happened, but as soon as you started reading it your brain begins reminding you of everything that was happening and what had happened.

"I see, thanks for enlightening this poor stupid soul. Appreciate it." I said, suddenly feeling tired.

"Any time!" she replied enthusiastically.

Dinner was ready to eat by now, and I ate while I thought about his question, this time tinged with more realism. What were the common pokemon that were around here? Bellsprout, Oddish, Rattata, Abra, Caterpie, Weedle, Mankey, Meowth, Sandshrew, Ekans, Spearow and Pidgey? In Mt Moon there would also be Geodude, Zubat and Paras… There would be other Pokemon floating around, but it wouldn't be wise for me to bank on it, so at least my first 2-3 Pokemon would have to come from this pool. I pulled out my phone as I decided to make a tier list of the pokemon, ones I wouldn't mind having.

A: Abra

B: Geodude, Caterpie

C: Zubat, Pidgey, Poliwag, Oddish, Rattata, Mankey, Bellsprout, Sandshrew, Spearow

D: Meowth, Ekans, Weedle

E: Paras

I knew Zubat had the potential to be pretty much the strongest on this list, but at the same time one had nearly killed me so I gave myself some permission to have some bias. That said, a Paras had saved my life, and it was still at the bottom of the list… sorry Paras, You're cute and I wouldn't mind you in the early-game, but I want to be with my team of Pokemon for the long haul.

I wrote 'Keep in mind that a plan only lasts until first contact with reality' down the bottom, then screen-shotted my list and waved Ivy over.

"Can you send that to Marcus when you get a chance? Let him know that he was right. He was a dick about it, but he was still right."

"Why do I have to act as an inbetween? Are you really so immature that you don't want to talk to him yourself?"

She asked, giving me an eye roll, but held out her phone so I could send it to her over bluetooth nonetheless.

"Nah, I'm just tired because I've been up since 4am." I replied as I stood up. "Catch you tomorrow."

"$1 dollar."

Was this girl serious? I turned and saw her holding out her hand.

"50 cents?"

"Deal!"

Apparently she was, and apparently I'd given in too easily. I was too tired for this shit.

I headed over to Jigglypuff, asked if it could help put me to sleep, and headed up stairs with it. Perhaps there was a bit of cleaning or planning that I could do before bed, but it had been a big day and I was ready to call quits.

Besides, sleep was always a productive use of time, in my opinion. With the 21 day deadline looming large in my mind, it would have been hard to find without assistance.

 

[CagedHawky]

Chapter 3

Survival Mode​

Over the next 10 days I fell into a routine.

Wake up and meditate, do some callisthenics, eat breakfast, then head off to school for the day. The cobwebs in my memories were getting blown away, and I was starting to feel confident that the exam wouldn't hold me back, though that hadn't stopped me from revising notes or past exams each night just to make sure.

Everything was going well… except Aura training.

Aura training was a slog. My training was progressing, and even though I went to bed each day exhausted, I seemed to recover in time for the next day's workout with no issue. I'd been young before, but I was pretty sure it wasn't just that.

I'd just hit 40 consecutive pushups, and could also do 12 pull-ups. I could still make myself winded after running for 5 minutes, but while before I was struggling to run a kilometre in that time, now I was running about 1.3km, or just over three quarters of a mile.

The gains were real… but I wasn't sure it would be enough.

I'd also tried spending more time with my peers to work on the task of building connections that Maddy Joy had left me with, but while most of them were perfectly friendly, it seemed that they didn't want to have anything to do with me or my issues, and I didn't care to force it.

I got along with Ivy, enjoyed playing with most of the other kids at the orphanage when I wasn't too busy, and surprisingly didn't seem to have any bad blood with Marcus, but my social network was still far from thriving. I'd barely had time to think, and for some reason trying to connect with peers that were a decade younger than me was more tiring than any of the other tasks that I had penned in my schedule.

It was Thursday the 8th of March now, 11 days until the trainer exam, and I had just arrived back from school. I'd made a decision earlier that I needed to try something new, so I walked straight to the kitchen where I found Elizabeth the Headmistress of the orphanage, and Mary the Machoke preparing the dinner which would be ready in a few hours.

"Headmistress, I was wondering if I could take one of the Pokemon to the outskirts of Cerulean? I'll be doing my normal training session, but I also want to interact with a few wild Pokemon to see if it can help me work on my Aura… I need a breakthrough, after all."

Elizabeth paused chopping onions and turned to me.

"First, I've told you a thousand times you can just call me Rose. Second, can you first promise you aren't going to do anything rash?"

"I promise I will be careful, and stick to the cleared routes." I said earnestly.

She inspected me for a moment, then nodded. Idly I wondered whether you could tell fibs by looking at someone's Aura, which would be a superpower for someone responsible for a bunch of troublesome kids.

"That should be alright then. I'm working with Mary, but see if Whiskers, Tunes, or Feathers wants to go with you."

Giving my thanks, I looked for a Pokemon to accompany me. Whiskers the Persian was snoozing in the living room, so I moved to find one of the other two.

Both the Jigglypuff and the Pidgey were outside playing with the younger children who had also finished school. The Tunes the Jigglypuff was doing magic tricks with sleight of hand, while Feathers was doing a mix of aerial acrobatics, and challenging the children to try to hit him with sticks or stones and either dodging or knocking them out of the air with well-timed gusts. The latter seemed a bit violent, but I'm sure anything the kids could do was nothing compared to a real fight in the wild

I got the Pokemon's attention and called them over.

"Sorry about this, I need to borrow one of you for an hour or two. Is that ok?"

While the children complained about me stealing one of their playmates, the Pokemon looked at each other and talked for a moment, before coming to a decision. Feathers flew to the gate, while Tunes sung out a challenge to all the remaining kids, who began to dogpile the Jigglypuff. I knew that she had a move called Disarming Voice, and I imagined it was the exact opposite of whatever she just did.

Yeah, pastimes are definitely a lot more violent here then they were on Earth.

I walked out the gate and Feather landed on my shoulder, and I told him my plan.

"What I want to do is grab some berries, then interact with some wild Pokemon and see if I can bribe a few to stick around while I meditate. I still can't sense Aura, and if I don't learn it within 11 days I won't be able to go on my Journey… which would really suck."

Pokemon could understand humans, but without Aura, humans couldn't really understand Pokemon. The way that Pokemon communicated was with Aura, so when they listened to you, they weren't really listening to you speak, but instead understood what you were trying to communicate by the thoughts and intentions that your Aura showed while you talked to them. Pokemon could learn to understand speech, and a select few could even learn to read, but most never bothered because they had a form of communication that was superior in every way (as long as you weren't doing a video call), and it didn't take years of dedication to do so.

He crowed softly, and I looked at him, trying to understand his meaning, then I smiled.

"Do I have enough budget for an extra berry to go with my bribes?" I asked with a grin, to which he happily chirped an affirmative. "I think I can squeeze it in."

-break-​

I breathed in slowly and deeply.

7.

I breathed out slowly and deeply.

8.

I breathed in slowly and deeply.

1.

I breathed out slowly and deeply.

2.

I breathed in slowly and de-

I felt a burst of fear, and something shifted on my leg. I opened my eyes to see the Caterpie that had been resting on my right thigh had turned around, and was staring towards the treeline.

I lifted my gaze and saw a Spearow staring back at me. Or likely not at me, but on the small bug pokemon that was resting on my thigh.

It was then that I remembered what had brought me out of my meditation session, and I tried to sense its emotions again.

However, even though I was certain I had felt it just a moment earlier, its thoughts and feelings were as opaque as ever.

I gave out a disappointed sigh, but then smiled despite myself. It was progress, and the first real sign that I was moving in the right direction.

I could do this!

I looked towards the Rattata I'd bribed on my other leg, and saw that while it too was looking at the Spearow, it didn't seem as afraid. It must have also known it wasn't the target. With a thought I activated their profiles, something I realised I could do a few days ago because more often than not the profiles were more distracting than helpful.

Rattata (F)
Current Strength: 4.37 / 4.53
Expected Potential: 2.0346 - (4.7698*)

Caterpie (M)
Current Strength: 2.01 / 2.18
Expected Potential:0.7832 - (0.9542*) - (4.2022*)

The Caterpie squirmed again, and I checked the time and saw I had spent about 50 minutes meditating. That should be plenty, seeing I had already done a session before school.

I gave a stretch, and briefly appreciated how quiet and calm my mind was after a good meditation session.

"Alright Feathers, I'm finishing up now." I called, and the Pidgey that had been gliding above us keeping guard flew down to the ground as I turned to the two Pokemon on my lap.

"And you two are free to go after you take a berry of your choosing."

The Rattata nodded, while the Caterpie shook its head wildly, seeming agitated.

"Don't worry, I can see the Spearow. If you want, you can stay with us for the night?" I offered, and the Caterpie immediately relaxed, though pointedly looked at Feathers.

Feathers rolled his eyes and looked away, and I just laughed. "Don't worry about him, we feed him too well for him to be interested in bugs."

Feather's gave a weighing look as though he might not mind the occasional snack, but I made eye contact with the few berries I had left, then back at him, and he got the message. I spent the next hour and a half doing my usual physical training, and surpassed all the benchmarks I set yesterday, getting an extra 2 pushups on my first set, managing another pull-up on my max, and wiping another few seconds on my time per kilometre.

I was finding as I went on that as my body strengthened, it was taking longer to tire myself out. In the first few days I'd been told I was toeing the line on what even my Aura enhanced body could handle, but it was adapting quickly and the load it could take had already increased slightly even as I upped the intensity.

That said, it didn't stop me from having to walk home like I was a toddler that was just taking his first steps, but it also didn't stop me from appreciating that Aura truly was one hell of a drug.

-break-​

I was just reentering the orphanage when I happened to run into Marcus, who was just as sweaty as I was.

"What's up with the bug?" he asked, nodding towards Caterpie

"He was a training partner today, but there was a Spearow that had its eye on him so I thought I would look for now. I'll probably drop him off tomorrow when it's safer."

"Makes sense." He said. After a moment of hesitation he continued. "Also, sorry about what I said the other day. I had a point, but I also crossed the line in what I said."

"Uh... Thanks man. Appreciate it. Ivy said you've been stressed lately, so I kinda get it."

I thought that would be the end of the conversation and went to walk through the door, but he surprised me.

"I should be better than that." he said, causing me to turn back to him. "I used to care what everyone thought, but it held me back and limited me. Eventually I stopped caring, and said if they had a problem then they can fuck off, and to be honest it went pretty well for a while." His voice went bitter. "But now I am on the doorstep of achieving my goals, and everyone is telling me to fuck off, so obviously my logic went wrong somewhere along the way, and I had overcorrected."

There were a few seconds of silence before he coughed awkwardly.

"Alright. So, also on Saturday I'll be leaving for a training session at 7:45am. Meet me out here at that time if you wanna join, and maybe I can give you some tips for your Aura." He said, turning towards the door.

"I'll be there." I answered, and the only response received was a barely perceptible nod as he walked through the doorway.

As he disappeared I smiled. Looks like I had something to look forward to.

 

[CagedHawky]

Chapter 4

Trainer Exam Results​

It was Saturday morning, and I met Marcus outside our home at 7:40am, five minutes early. In the two weeks I'd been here I'd noticed the sun rising a little earlier, and the weather getting a little warmer, though it hadn't stopped the mornings feeling a little chilly. I also had the Caterpie on my shoulder that had joined me Thursday, because after not having to fear for his life for a single day, he had decided that civilization was the best and begged me to let him stay. His living expenses were coming out of my allowance, and yesterday I'd been forced to grab extra leaves after school so he wasn't eating through my savings too much.

When I arrived he looked at his watch, nodded, then set off.

"We can talk while we walk." said Marcus, and I nodded. After 20 seconds though, he still hadn't said anything, so I asked first.

"So, what will we be doing?"

"We will be doing a form of Aura awareness training. It doesn't help strengthen your Aura or anything, but for simple Aura awareness I believe it's much more effective than meditation. Although you're Aura is still weak, it should be strong enough for you to gain awareness"

"Cool, so what is it?"

He looked around, and even though nobody was there, still said in hushed tones. "I'll tell you when we get there."

I rolled my eyes.

"Can you at least tell me where we're going?"

"The Cerulean Gardens." He replied, before adding. "This is too slow. Let's jog"

I couldn't really get a read on Marcus if I was being honest. In some ways it would have been better if he was more mouthy, because then you could at least talk about stuff, but instead he seemed to operate on a need-to-say basis, so if he wasn't interested in talking, then every word needed to be pried out of him.

If we went on a Journey together that could get old real quick… but I would gain Aura awareness first. Besides, there was a good chance that we would be going with Ivy, and she talked enough for two.

We made our way there quickly, and while I was running too hard to really talk anyway, to Marcus it seemed like an easy jog.

Cerulean was quieter on Weekends. It had around 300,000 people, so it wasn't a true Metropolis like Saffron or Celedon, and neither was it an industrial hub like Pewter, or an important port city like Vermillion. It was an important frontier city, and served as an important checkpoint to allow agriculture to flourish towards the interior of Kanto without wild pokemon completely destroying the harvests.

When we got to the gardens we beelined straight for a deserted but cosy corner of it, which made me quite confident that it wasn't the first time that Marcus had been here.

We stopped, and he let me put my hands on my knees to catch my breath while he pulled a small packet out of his backpack. He handed it to me and I took it, and I noticed it had no identifying marks.

"What is it?" I huffed out between breaths.

"Stun spores." He said, and I looked back to the packet with newfound interest, and even Caterpie moved closer for a better view. I wasn't sure if it was legal for him to carry it around, but at this point I wasn't about to ask.

"The trouble with Aura awareness is that the easiest Aura to sense is your own Aura, but as your Aura reflects your own emotional state, it's easy to dismiss sensations of your Aura as sensations of your own emotional state. Does that make sense?"

When I nodded he continued.

"Personally, I suspect that this is one of the main training methods that Clans use, though it only works if the Aura has already reached a certain threshold. I've also heard rumours on the internet that Poison Powder works even better, but even I didn't do that, and given your history… yeah."

"Thanks for your consideration." I said with a smile. "To be honest, while I wouldn't be that against it, I'm pretty sure if I ended up in hospital due to self-inflicted poison, the Doctor that treated me would finish the job herself." I then looked towards the packet I was holding. "I take it that paralysis isn't as bad."

He grimaced.

"It's not dangerous, but most certainly not pleasant. I wouldn't recommend it…"

I raised an eyebrow.

"In most circumstances." He amended.

I gave a laugh, then asked. "So how do I take it? Do I just rub it on some skin, or do I have to eat it or something?"

"Don't eat it, just rubbing it on some skin will be enough to disrupt your natural Aura flow, especially seeing you're nowhere near as strong as a Pokemon. However, I recommend meditating first so that you're more sensitive to the sensations in your body."

"Sounds good, I'll get started now." I said with a nod as I started to get myself comfortable then paused. "What about you, what are you going to do while you wait?"

He shrugged.

"I'll find something to keep myself busy. Even though I've gained Aura awareness, meditation still helps with Aura control, as well as clearing the mind in general. Once we get our own Pokemon, having greater control will allow us to better cleanse their Aura, which is a fundamental skill for a trainer's pokemon to get stronger." He suddenly grimaced. "It's also why Clan kids are at such a large advantage. Cleansing all the different types of energy is difficult and each one takes some getting used to, so being able to practise on a bunch of different Pokemon before you even start your Journey is a massive advantage."

"How do you know all this?" I asked, curious about the source of all this information.

"I gained my Aura awareness over a year ago, so I've been practising on the Pokemon we have at the orphanage."

My eyes widened in shock. "You've had Aura awareness for ayear! Why didn't you get a Youngster License?"

He winced. "The standards of getting a Youngster License are actually harder than getting a normal Trainer License, as you don't need to just pass the Trainer exam, but also exceed the average score of those older than you that passed the normal Trainer exam that year. If you don't, but your score exceeds the minimum pass-rate of those that earned a sponsorship that year, you can still get people to vouch for you… But the only person I could get to vouch for me was Elizabeth, which didn't count because she was my Guardian, and it didn't help that I had no one prepared to travel with if I'd passed."

It obviously still bothered him, so I tried comforting. "Hey man, it's honestly amazing you've done as well as you have. The stats say that 95% of the people that earn the Youngster License are from Clans, and not only are you not from a Clan, you don't even have parents to support you. The fact that you got so close purely by your own effort is impressive, and something to be proud of. I'm sure you'll destroy the circuit this year!"

Halfway through my spiel his gaze had turned to the ground, and when I finished speaking he didn't respond. After a few moments he looked back up.

"You should start meditating, and you of all people don't have any time to waste." He stated, making it obvious he wanted to brush the previous topic aside. "I want to try cleansing the Caterpie, I haven't worked a lot with Bug energy before. Is that ok?"

I shot a questioning gaze to Caterpie who nodded enthusiastically. I checked his profile briefly which stated:

Caterpie (M)
Current Strength: 2.29 / 2.48
Expected Potential: 0.8284 - (0.9994*) - (4.2475*)

His strength had increased a bit, but the thing that surprised me most was his potential. Before it had stated:

0.7832 - (0.9542*) - (4.2022*)

That meant, after just a few days of good food and no real training, it had already increased by about 5%. After Caterpie had pleaded to stay, I'd looked into Caterpie survival rates in the wild, and had been astounded. According to experts, they estimated 96% of Weedle, and 98.5% of Caterpie that hatched never reached their final evolution. I thought that when Caterpie had been scared of that Spearow that perhaps it was being a little bit of a drama queen, but after reading that example I'd had a change of heart and decided that I would look after it until it became a Butterfree. Nature was pretty metal here.

While it was eating a lot now, it would be pretty low-maintenance once it became a Metapod, and it could earn its keep and maybe do me a few favours when it fully evolved into a Butterfree

I turned back to Marcus. "Sure, feel free too."

I was also interested to see how cleansing would affect its stats as well, but first I had to meditate.

-break-​

Some time later I felt something gently shake me out of my session.

"How long was it?" I asked.

"About 30 minutes. You were pretty quick, I could tell by your Aura you'd gone deep enough."

I nodded, then glanced at the Caterpie. My eyes widened.

Caterpie (M)
Current Strength: 2.35 / 2.49
Expected Potential: 0.8728 - (1.0439*) - (4.2919*)

In only half an hour, the Caterpie's potential had increased by 0.05! That was insane!

I tried to maintain a facade of calm, and turned back to Marcus.

"So… how did your session go?"

He shrugged.

"I got all the low hanging fruit. I'm pretty good with Normal, Fighting, and Flying energy, and decent with Water energy as well, so I've removed most of that. I'd have to dig deeper though if I wanted to remove the Grass, Rock, Ground and Fire type energy as well, as it seems to still have plenty of that."

I calmed down a little when I realised that meant he couldn't increase potential by a point per day… That would have been a little too unbelievable.

"It also helps that he's weak. We're not bonded, so usually their Aura resistance would be pretty tough, but because it's just a Caterpie I could still do it with little issue." He turned to the Caterpie. "No offense."

The Caterpie just gave a little wiggle, and Marcus nodded. Then turned back to me and frowned.

"It looks like you gain focus quickly, but lose it pretty quickly as well. We had better get started then."

Even though the last time I'd been inflicted with a non-volatile status condition it had not been a good time, I was actually really excited for this. I'd been pushing myself to the limit non-stop for the last few weeks, and it would be a massive relief if I could finally get this monkey off my back. Or was it Mankey in this world? There were normal animals in this world, like cows, and sheep and goats, and humans as well as Pokemon farmed them apparently. I wondered…

"I can tell by your Aura you are completely distracted, do another meditation session and then we will jump into it while you're still focussed."

"Sorry Marcus."

-break-​

My body was battered and bruised, and every movement of my body reminded me of another ache or pain. I glared at Marcus as I lay crumpled on the ground, but he looked back unrepentant.

"I'm certain this is the best method of practise, it makes a lot of sense to me." He said simply. "We don't have a lot of time, and the paralysis effect on your Aura is much more obvious when you try to move."

Apparently I was no prodigy at sensing Aura. He said he had gotten the hang of it after just several hours of meditation under the effects of Paralysis, but when Saturday evening arrived and I still hadn't gotten the hang of it, he had cured me and we'd done some exercise together, and said we would pick up where we left off Sunday.

He had come back this morning filled to the brim with new ideas. While yesterday I had just been meditating, today I was supposed to try doing my normal workouts while Paralysed after starting the day with a meditation session.

"It's just like riding a bike." He continued straight-faced. "You'll have to fall a few times, but you'll get the hang of it eventually."

He took a look at his watch. "I'll run back to the orphanage and grab some lunch for us. Just continue exercising until I get back."

Without waiting for a response he ran off, leaving me and the Caterpie. I didn't know why, but it seemed happy watching me suffer.

Caterpie (M)
Current Strength: 2.50 / 2.61
Expected Potential: 1.043 - (1.214*) - (4.4621*)

It had continued getting cleansed, and now its potential had increased by 0.2 since we first started. I knew that Potential increased differently to Strength, so I was interested to know just how much it had benefited from the dozen hours of cleansing Marcus had done for it. Was it 10% stronger in the long run? 20%? More? I didn't know.

I sighed as I shakily got back to my feet. Trying to run while paralysed was terrifying. One moment you would be fine, and the next you would completely lock up, unable to do anything about it, and crash onto the ground. At the start I was still fine with it, and pushed through it, but it steadily accumulated until you were more paralysed by fear than you were by the Paralysis itself.

I stood there stockstill, mentally preparing myself to move when I had an idea. Back on Earth my younger twin brother Ron had started picking up injuries while training and playing soccer, and the physio had said that practising yoga would be a good way to improve his strength at extended ranges of motion, and also improve his mind-body connection. To be honest, I kinda thought it was hogwash, but then a bit of research showed studies supporting it, as well as anecdotal evidence from a lot of professional athletes, so I had dished out the money required to enroll him and Roxy in a local course, and also found some online youtube courses that seemed highly rated.

At the twin's encouragement I'd joined in occasionally, and with them kinda acting as my instructor I grew to enjoy it. I don't know whether I would have called it a 'Mind-Body connection', but it certainly increased your awareness of your own body, and that would be really useful right now.

Of course, the fact that I wouldn't be moving around would mean it wouldn't hurt myself so much when Paralysis struck, but that was totally just an added bonus.

I couldn't remember most of the poses, and also didn't want to overextend myself, so I focussed on making my breathing steady and went into a basic lunge with my hands extended above my head, and drawing my hands towards my chest as I breathed in. I can't remember what it was actually called by the online instructor, but I focussed on the sensations of my body as I moved slowly and deliberately in a controlled fashion. I was just going into a side lunge when -LOCK.

Slowly and steadily I toppled over to the ground. While the landing wasn't soft, it wasn't too hard either, and I smiled as I felt more clearly than before where the Paralysis had struck. When the Paralysis subsided I stood back up and picked up where I left off, much more relaxed than before.

I could do this.

-break-​

When Marcus arrived back he had been doubtful of my method, but after observing for a few minutes he decided to join in, minus the Paralysis and falling over. I did my best to instruct him, trying my best to channel the serenity of the instructors I'd seen online, but that image was pretty tarnished by my dirty, bloodied appearance as well as the frequent collapses. We had been going slowly for over an three hours now, with only a short break when I said I was famished

"So this pose here is a balancing pose, where you stand on one leg like a Flamigo." I said, raising my right leg off the ground. I'd already shown him all the easy poses, and had now moved onto a few that might hurt if I failed, but wouldn't really injure me. "You lay your raised foot on your opposite thigh, then pivot the hip externally and press your hands-"

I locked up, and started tilting towards the right. I focussed on my traitorous leg, and I could sense the flow of energy frozen, preventing me from re-extending my right leg to regain my balance. And then, without really being aware of how I did it, I released that tension and my right leg stabbed out and steadied myself.

"I did it!" I screamed out.

"You did it?" Marcus asked, eyes wide.

"Yes!" I said happily, before subduing myself. "At least I think so?"

"Let me see." He stared hard at me. "Try concentrating your Aura in your right hand."

I did as he asked, closing my eyes and visualising the energy that I'd noticed locking up shifting to my right hand. When Marcus didn't say anything I continued doing so, deciding that I would continue trying until he said stop. Five minutes passed.

"Stop."

I released my concentration, and I felt the energy in my hand disperse. Or at least I was pretty sure it did, unless I had become fully delusional. I opened my eyes to see Marcus smiling, and my worries eased.

"Congratulations, you did it."

-break-​

After I had learnt how to sense my Aura, the priority immediately became the theoretical part of the trainer exam. I would still do a quick meditation each morning, but exercise went from over an hour a day to just 45 minutes every two days, with every spare moment spent studying.

Ivy joined the study sessions as well, and I was surprised to find out that despite her care-free attitude, her grades were actually better than my own. It made me wonder whether the personality she showed was just a facade, because it was clear that she had more going on than what met the eye.

My birthday was coming up this Saturday, but I asked Elizabeth if it could wait until after the Exam. If I was in Marcus or Ivy's position and was confident of my success, then I would have been happy to enjoy it on Saturday, but I was cutting it a lot closer than them.

When I needed a break from studying, because it simply wasn't possible for me to study more than 12 hours a day, Marcus showed me the first step on how to cleanse Pokemon, which was interesting.

I worked with Dot the Azurill as well as Caterpie, as due to their weak Auras I could observe them through their resistance, and so I became familiar with Bug-type Aura and Water-type Aura.

The week ended, and I became so stressed about the exam that I couldn't sleep properly, and so I spent most of Friday night studying. For the rest of the weekend I became dependant on Jigglypuff for sleep, she would help me get to sleep at night, and also supplement that with a few ~2 hour naps throughout the day. Elizabeth insisted that once I'd taken the exam that was to end immediately, but let me rely on it for the time being.

Finally Monday arrived.

I'd been put to sleep early in the afternoon on Sunday, then woken up and snuck in an hour of revision before dinner, then after dinner Jigglypuff had put me to sleep for the last time. I'd managed to sleep until 2am, had studied until 6:30am, which was when I decided to go for a 5km run to clear my mind and freshen up, had breakfast, did some last minute studying, and at last took the Trainer Exam at 9am.

After all the time, effort, and stress, the exam itself felt underwhelming. It was a 3 hour exam, and all the parts that weren't unique to the Pokemon world were a breeze, so even though that composed of 50% of the exam I finished it within less than an hour. That left two hours for the rest, and even though there were a few questions that I answered more with educated guesses rather than certainty, on the whole I felt like I had done a good job. I was confident I'd done the best I could, and in the end that was all that mattered.

-break-​

Marcus, Ivy and I were all walking back to Trainer School that Friday. We'd had the rest of the week off, but today was the day we got our results back.

"How fucking funny would it be if after putting in all that work you still failed." Ivy was saying. "I mean don't get me wrong, like it would be devastating! But also pretty fucking funny."

I glared at her, but somehow it was eclipsed by Marcus's glare. The thing was, Marcus had no doubts that he would pass.

I knew how bad I wanted it, and how hard I had pushed for it, so it was actually crazy that it somehow felt like he wanted me to pass more than I did myself.

"Alright, maybe it won't be so funny." She conceded, raising her hands in surrender.

Marcus turned to me. "How confident are you that you passed?"

"Pretty confident." I responded, trying to shove down my nerves.

"On Monday you said you were really happy with how you went."

"Yeah well on Monday I hadn't pored over the exam sheet with you, so I didn't know I'd misread 1 question completely, and with another 3 I'll be lucky if I got half marks!" I snapped.

I took a deep breath, then released it slowly.

"Sorry."

"It's alright. I'm 90% sure that even if you got four questions completely wrong, you should still pass." said Marcus.

And that was the thing. I was pretty sure I hadn't made mistakes outside those 4 questions… but what if I was wrong? What if I'd written down the wrong thing, even if I meant something else? Back on Earth I'd usually done well in school before I had to get a job, but I'd still always been prone to stupid mistakes. No teacher ever called me stupid… too much, but many of them had called me careless, and while I knew I cared, I couldn't eliminate the errors so I couldn't deny it.

We walked the rest of the way in silence, and I'm not sure if I was grateful or not of the fact.

-break-​

Ivy ripped open the envelope containing her results.

"Pass!" She cried, waving the sheet in the air.

Marcus finished opening his own.

"Pass." He read aloud, then turned to me. I stared at, paralysed despite the absence of spores.

"Need help opening it?" asked Ivy, scooting closer. "I can read it for you if you want."

My jaw clenched. This was ridiculous. These were literal teenagers, barely out of their tweens, while I was an adult nearly a decade older than them… I should be better than this!

5 seconds passed in silence, then 10, and I finally handed over the letter.

I immediately regretted it.

She held it up to a light and tried to read it through the envelope. Then she asked if I wanted to make any prayers to a Mythical pokemon of my choice. She continued this song and dance until I was just about ready to take it back, then finally ripped it open and unfolded the sheet of paper inside with a flourish.

Oh dear…" she said, her face a mask of disappointment. However, I was elated, because no matter how convincingly she acted, she couldn't stop her Aura from telling the truth.

 

[darkphysicist]

You have my attention. Our main character isn't a genius with anything and according to your description of the story you don't just plan on him having or trying to obtain the highest potential at the start for the Pokemon you're going to actually have them raise and train the Pokemon he has to have them keep up with those who have naturally higher potential values. Sounds good so far everything is well written no major spelling or grammar issues kind of curious if the anime or the game universe is taking place here. And also if there's going to be romance because I'm just a sucker for that sort of thing. Looking forward to the next update

 

[CagedHawky]

You have my attention. Our main character isn't a genius with anything and according to your description of the story you don't just plan on him having or trying to obtain the highest potential at the start for the Pokemon you're going to actually have them raise and train the Pokemon he has to have them keep up with those who have naturally higher potential values. Sounds good so far everything is well written no major spelling or grammar issues kind of curious if the anime or the game universe is taking place here. And also if there's going to be romance because I'm just a sucker for that sort of thing. Looking forward to the next update

Click to shrink...

He won't be making things unnecessarily hard for himself by picking low potential pokemon, but many of these trainers will be from clans, and they will be getting a lot of support in the background with being able to have a two of their pokemon specially bred from Ace-level pokemon (Or pokemon that have completed the open-divison Gym challenge for all the 8 gyms). For wild pokemon they will have exceptional potential, but compared to the pokemon from breeding programs they will be nothing special.

I also like my romance, but I don't plan for the MC to be romantically interested in someone at this stage unless they are at least a bit older than him. Won't stop him from having girls crush on him, but right now he's not going to act unless the girl is at least 2 or 3 years older than him, and not many 16-17 years old are interested in a 14 year old boy haha.

As an aside, what type of romance do you like reading? This is the first fanfic I've written and I don't know whether I should ham it up, tone it down, or write my usual style, which is probably a bit tame haha.

I would also say it's closer to anime universe, my original second chapter timeskipped until post trainer exam and it mentioned Oak, Ash and Gary, but I'm not quite there yet in this version... but maybe thats because in my head I had already mentioned it haha. The characters are different though, and Ash won't start his journey until next year.

 

[CagedHawky]

Chapter 5

Birthday Present​

All of my earliest memories are of my big brother.

He was so smart, so strong, so brave, and always knew what to do.

I don't know why he decided to keep me with him… after all, we weren't even clutchmates, and I just held him back.

Anything I could do, he could do better.

But he said I was special, knew I was special, and told me that one day I would repay the trust he put in me.

'What if I can't?' I asked. He'd paused for only a moment.

'Do you believe in me?' He'd asked instead of answering.

When I said I did with my whole heart, his aura had shone in joy and mischief, before replying. 'Good, because I believe in you, so if you really believe in me, then you have to believe in yourself!'

When I said that's not how this worked, he'd just laughed, and I knew that no matter what, everything was going to be ok as long as we were together.

However, now that he had been taken from me, and it was all my fault, I didn't know how anything could ever be ok again.

-break-​

The relief that came with receiving the League Sponsorship was immeasurable.

Immediately afterwards we had photos taken and received our Trainer Licenses. I'd gone first and thought it was like Earth where you weren't allowed to smile, so on my ID I looked like I was a psychopath, but Ivy and Marcus learned from my mistakes and their's turned out alright.

That night Elizabeth threw a feast worthy of Kings and Queens, celebrating the fact that not one, not two, but all three of her charges had obtained a trainer sponsorship from the League.

After three weeks of putting my nose to the grindstone, I could finally relax and enjoy the fruits of my labour.

Later, Ivy might've managed to sneak some alcohol into the orphanage, and both Marcus and I might've had a sip or two.

It need not be said that I fell asleep without any help from Jigglypuff that night.

-break-​

The parties weren't over with just that, however.

I woke up well-rested for probably the first time since I'd entered this world. It was after 10am, so despite my late night, I'd still slept for at least 9 hours straight.

Hangover? All I could presume was that Aura was one hell of a drug.

I went down for breakfast, and was surprised to find Marcus sitting despondently at the table, eating mechanically.

He turned to me bleary-eyed.

"Are you… sick?" I asked, concerned. His Aura should be much stronger than mine.

He shook his head.

"No, I had a nightmare that I'd failed the test. It woke me up in the middle of the night, and even though I knew it was a dream I had to go and double check the acceptance letter, and I couldn't fall back asleep afterwards."

"I see, maybe you should try to ask Jigglypuff to give you a nap?"

"She's hungover."

I snorted despite, or perhaps because of, his extremely unamused expression. "Fair enough."

I got myself some cereal and sat down across from him.

"By the way, what's your plan of attack for the Gyms?" I asked. "Surely you've got it all mapped out?"

His eyes glazed over as he went through his thoughts, then they snapped back to lock eyes with me.

"First, do you know how the Gym tiering system works?"

I nodded. "Are you going to stick to the Big 8?"

There were 3 tiers of Gyms.

Tier 1 Gyms were the 8 main Gyms from the games, colloquially known as the 'Big 8'. They could be done in any order, but Giovanni was infamous for battling harder than the level required if you didn't do him last - Not necessarily fielding stronger teams, just outskilling you due to his decades of experience. In order to complete the Circuit, at least 6 of a trainer's 8 Badges had to be from Big 8 Gyms, so with proper planning a Trainer could dodge two if necessary and still complete a circuit.

Tier 2 Gyms were the Gyms that allowed up to 5th Badge challenges. This included the Fighting Gym in Saffron, but there were gyms not mentioned as well, such as a Steel type gym in Celadon, a Ghost type Gym in Lavender, and a Flying type Gym here in Cerulean.

Tier 3 Gyms were the Gyms that allowed up to 3rd Badge challenges. This included a Bug type Gym in Viridian, a Fire type Gym in Pewter, and an array of other ones scattered around Kanto.

These lower tier Gyms were especially useful early on in a season as they relieved a lot of the pressure on the Big 8 Gyms, because if every single trainer had to go to the Big 8 Gyms, then trainers would have to wait for months to finally get their battle. As it was, many trainers never surpassed the 5th Badge challenge, so these lower tier Gyms could give the big ones some breathing space, and help trainers that wanted to run on a fast schedule.

He looked at me for a moment, then sighed.

"I'm not sure, to be honest." He admitted. "To make the Autumn cup in 6 months we just need 2 badges, 4 badges for next year's Spring Cup, and for the first-years Indigo Conference in 15 months we still only need 5 badges for automatic qualification which seems achievable. However, if we want to compete in the second-years Indigo Conference we will need a set of 8 badges… We could go to Johto, or even Hoenn or Sinnoh to collect the last 3, but that's considered pretty bad taste because usually it's done to dodge harder domestic badges… and I've heard they ramp up the difficulty against foreigners as well."

He turned to me.

"What are your thoughts?"

While I had a blank expression, I couldn't help but admire his audacity. Only ~5% of Trainers could qualify for the Indigo conference, so naturally it was incredibly competitive. Yet here he was, already having put time and thought into schedules for our party with the expectation that we would be competing in them.

"At the end of the day the main thing is making sure our teams are strong, and improving our skills as a trainer. It doesn't matter if we skip Big 8 gyms in my opinion, and taking on a few small gyms will give us more flexibility."

It wasn't very romantic of me, but facts were facts. Personally I didn't want to be forced to face Giovanni if I didn't have to… On that topic, I wonder if my anonymous email found Professor Oak? Ash and Gary existed, and would be eligible for the Youngster License next year.

"If there's one thing I know about you, it's that you love your flexibility."

Marcus's words threw me out of my thoughts. "Sorry? Wasn't paying attention."

"Doesn't matter, it wasn't anything important anyway." He replied, shooting me a tired grin before continuing. "Something that does matter though is I was wondering if you wanted to watch a few Gym Battles in Cerulean Gym? It's getting late in the season so there are some 5th Badge to 8th Badge battles, and I thought you might want to check it out? My shout for your Birthday Party Day."

"Yeah, I'm keen!" I said honestly. That sounded awesome.

Also, if him getting him tired is what it took to bring out his sass, then it was almost a shame his sleep wasn't ruined more often.

-break-​

Eight-Badge fights were another level, and it was almost crazy to think that this time in two years I would (hopefully) be one of the people standing in the arena.

Misty wasn't Gym Leader yet, but I heard that she was in one of the outer stadiums already acting as one of the Gym's trainers, despite the fact she was nearly two years younger than me.

However, unlike in the anime, her sisters were certainly not pushovers.

"Icefang." Violet said imperiously, and her Gyrados flew through the air and delivered the final blow to the second-year trainer's Venusaur, which had been on its last legs.

Gyrados (F)
Current Strength: 43.37 / 124.53
Expected Potential: 7.1001

Venusaur (M)
Current Strength: 2.01 / 98.01
Expected Potential: 7.4996

"Trainer Megan's Venusaur is no longer able to battle. You have 10 seconds to send out another Pokemon, or you forfeit the battle."

While the referee's announcement rang through the stadium the Gyarados roared, and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. This was, by far, the most powerful pokemon I had ever seen.

I didn't realise it would only barely scrape into the top 10 I saw today.

Violet's first pokemon had been a Starmie with a potential of 6.6 and a Strength of 85, and Megan's first pokemon had been a Scyther. Scyther had narrowly lost out the battle despite its Bug-typing, as its strength had only been 74, though it had left Starmie at ~20/85 at the conclusion, which allowed it to be quickly dismantled by Megan's Venusaur. Gyrados had then been sent out, and although it was both leech-seeded and poisoned, it had ultimately taken out the Venusaur.

Judging by how Megan was still frozen as the umpire counted down, she had been hoping for more from the Kanto starter line.

When the umpire said '1' the trainer finally threw out his third pokemon, a Magneton. Immediately two voices sounded out at the same time.

"Thunderbolt!"/"Flamethrower!"

The Thunderbolt struck first, but unbelievably, despite what must have been a double weakness, it tanked the shot and still managed to release its own Flamethrower before going down.

Gyrados (F)
Current Strength: 0.00 / 122.13
Expected Potential: 7.0637

Magneton
Current Strength: 12.01 / 60.71
Expected Potential: 5.6091 - (6.8057*)

My eyes widened as I saw that not only had the Gyarados hit 0.00, which I thought might only happen when it was dead, but from one moment to the next 0.035 or so had been wiped out from its potential!

Before I could fully consider the implications, Violet withdrew her Gyarados and then immediately threw out another pokeball, and a Quagsire appeared on her side of the field.

Quagsire (F)
Current Strength: 78.79 / 81.19
Expected Potential: 6.0102

"Mud shot!" Violet called, but before the shot could connect Magneton disappeared into motes of light, and returned to the 2nd year trainer's pokeball

"I resign from this battle." Megan announced loudly, and although there were a few jeers, most of the crowd clapped supportively, which was nice of them. I pointedly ignored the fact that Ivy was not one of the nice ones. Said she wanted her money's worth, which was a bit rich seeing she'd gotten in for free after begging us to pay for her.

"That Gyarados was a monster." Marcus breathed. "Taking out the Venusaur is one thing, but almost taking out the Magneton as well? It ended the challenge with that play."

"Agreed, but why didn't the trainer send out the Magneton earlier?" I asked. "It should have been able to toast the Gyarados, or at least trade even? There was a good chance the Venusaur could sweep with that out of the picture."

"Well the Magneton was the one toasted in the end, wasn't it?" Marcus said with a smirk, before getting serious. "You are only allowed one swap per battle as the trainer, seeing you already have an advantage in knowing the Gym Leaders type and most of their pokemon, and on top of that you are incentivised to hold onto it because then the Gym Leader isn't allowed to swap either. The Scyther should have been able to hold its own against the Starmie, it's a good matchup for it, but there was a Trainer difference and it show-"

"Of course there was a trainer difference!" Ivy interjected. "Just because Violet's fucking adorable and has a heart of gold doesn't mean she hasn't got ice in her veins!"

Marcus and I both stared at her in response to her sudden outburst, and she stared right back at us.

"What? Don't stop." She said, making a 'go on' gesture with her hands.

Marcus cleared his throat and continued. "Also, I think that the Magneton was a bit undertrained, the trainer probably just picked it up for the type advantage, or if it is a core member then it has only recently replaced one of her usual party members." He then gave a shrug. "She still has another 2 months to qualify for the second-year conference, and so if she comes back then with her team a bit more polished she should be able to turn some of those pivotal moments that went against her in her favour next time."

I nodded in agreement as I watched Violet and Megan walk towards each other and shake hands, then move out of the stadium through a side door that connected the gym directly with a Pokemon Centre.

As they left Violet's sister Daisy took the stage in preparation to defend a 5th Badge challenge, but I couldn't get that Gyarados out of my mind. What had gone on when it tanked that Thunderbolt? Was it because it got that badly hurt from the Thunderbolt? Or could Pokemon burn their potential to temporarily push past their limits? A mixture of both, or something else? The way I trained my pokemon - and myself - would change a lot depending on that answer.

-break-​

We watched battles for another two hours, with the strength of Pokemon ranging from 40-75 for 5 star battles, and 65-120 for the 8 star battles, and then I found out why Marcus had been so keen to come to the gym today.

After the Gyarados the strongest pokemon we had seen until now was an Exeggutor with a Strength of 120 and a Potential of 7.36. It came to the field as the challenger's last pokemon, set up a Trick Room, then swept the remaining 4 pokemon of the Gym, as its only weakness was alleviated and it could take full advantage of the typing mismatch.

However that wasn't even the highest potential I'd seen so far today. There had been an Arcanine and a Lapras with lower Strengths, but they had even higher Potentials, and it made me very curious to where they would be in a few years, as well as what the Strengths and Potentials were of Pokemon partnered with the Elite Four.

Also, the Lapras had been a Gym Pokemon, and there had been half a dozen other Gym pokemon with a higher potential than the Gyarados, so I was starting to wonder if it was possible that the Gym had pokemon in reserve that were too powerful for even the 8 Badge challenge.

That question was answered right at the very end, as the last challenge was an Open-Division challenger. Daisy took the podium at one end, and a man who looked to be in his early thirties stood at the other end. The lineups shown in this battle blew all the previous ones out of the water - likely quite literally if given the chance.

Gym Leader Daisy

Lanturn (M)
Current Strength: 133.65 / 135.19
Expected Potential: 7.50

Tentacruel (M)
Current Strength: 165.16 / 168.66
Expected Potential: 7.84

Starmie
Current Strength: 173.65 / 174.60
Expected Potential: 8.03

Gyarados (F)
Current Strength: 195.24 / 200.57
Expected Potential: 8.14

Lapras (F)
Current Strength: 187.21 / 193.73
Expected Potential: 8.18

Kingdra (F)
Current Strength: 179.91 / 187.57
Expected Potential: 8.27

vs

Trainer Simon

Lanturn (M)
Current Strength: 113.82 / 115.13
Expected Potential: 7.13

Crobat (F)
Current Strength: 190.59 / 193.73
Expected Potential: 8.21

Umbreon (F)
Current Strength: 178.79 / 180.76
Expected Potential: 8.04

Breloom (M)
Current Strength: 109.18 / 111.91
Expected Potential: 7.11

Ninjask (F)
Current Strength: 131.11 / 131.29
Expected Potential: 7.42

Electivire (M)
Current Strength: 159.81 / 161.29
Expected Potential: 7.79

Both Daisy and Simon sent out their Lanturns first, but Simon winced and immediately pivoted and sent out his Breloom instead.

"Is he that unconfident in his Pokemon?" I asked, surprised he didn't even try to battle the mirror matchup.

It was Ivy who answered.

"It must have had the Water Absorb genetic trait, not Volt Absorb." she said.

Ah. Made sense then.

Daisy immediately responded by swapping to her Tentacruel, and Breloom managed to avoid getting hit with a super effective Sludge Wave during the minimum 10 second before it was swapped out for Electivire, so Daisy sent out her Lanturn again. Eventually they reached a stalemate with Electivire vs Kingdra, and so the battle was on.

-break-​

Challenger Simon won, but it was incredibly close. The MVP of the match was Umbreon, as it managed to get a few critical Mean Looks off which delayed Daisy from continuing to chase his switches, and caused her Pokemon to be put into unfavourable matchups. She had been protecting her Lanturn to use as a pivot, and eventually her Tentacruel was caught by a mean look, and then locked into a battle with the Electivire. Tentacruel didn't go down without a fight however, and managed to badly poison both Umbreon and Electivire before it went down. In the end both trainers were reduced to a single Pokemon, and it came down to a fatigued Kingdra vs Simon's fresh Ninjask.

Kingdra was the stronger Pokemon, but it had to end the battle quickly becaus Ninjask was getting faster and faster, and if Kingdra lost tempo Ninjask would happily take the time to buff itself with Sword Dance. Although Kingdra managed to clip it with a few moves, including an Ice Beam early on, Ninjask outlasted it, then tore Kingdra apart as it became too fatigued.

"She must be seething." Marcus said suddenly

"Huh?" I turned to him, heart still thumping from the spectacle. "Why would she be mad? She fought well!"

"Until now Kanto had eight new Ace trainers this season, and four- now five - of them have qualified through this Gym." Marcus explained. "Since the scandal seven years ago, Cerulean Gym has been seen as the easiest Gym to target, so it gets the most Open-Division challenges. The pass rate isn't much higher than the other Gyms these days, but because they continue to get so many Open-Division challenges it's inevitable that more will get through here than anywhere else."

"What scandal?" I asked. This was obviously something different to the anime.

"You haven't heard about it?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, then continued. "The Cerulean sister's uncle actually used to run the Gym, and was considered the head of the Kasumi Clan in all but name because his father had basically retired, but he was found to have engaged in Match-fixing and had taken bribes to act as a wall for specific trainers, and so was stripped of his position. Marlin, their Grandfather who had helped set up and unify the League, was given back the title due to goodwill for his previous services, but by then he was too old to battle, so he set the daughters of his deceased second son as joint heirs to the Gym. The older Cerulean sisters, while competent battlers in their own right as Youngsters, had been preparing for a different career path, and so were unprepared for the sudden responsibility, and there were some... growing pains, so to speak. For a few years the Cerulean Gym was a laughing stock, and the League had to step in and limit the number of Open-Division challengers while the sisters trained their pokemon and themselves.

"Two years ago they told the League that they could handle it, and that they no longer needed to limit the number of challengers. Since then they receive nearly as many challenges as the other 7 Gyms put together due to their perceived weakness, though it's very debatable that it even exists." He smiled suddenly. "Lucky for me though, means I get to watch battles like this more often."

-break-​

That was the last match of the day, so afterwards we trickled out with the rest of the crowd, and went to a restaurant where Headmistress Elizabeth had booked out three full tables for a dinner party. It wasn't just for my birthday, but she let me know I had a vanilla birthday cake waiting for me at home. One of the younger boys was turning 7 as well, but the main reason was that it was a good time to throw a going away party as any, and while most years it would be a bit awkward because someone or everyone missed out on a scholarship, this year everyone received one so she really wanted to commemorate the occasion.

It was a good party, but at some point I could no longer enjoy it.

My mood started dropping, and after a while I began to feel irritated by the whole ordeal.

I looked at all the other kids having fun and enjoying themselves, wearing the silly hats, and it hit me what was missing - it was nothing like any of my Birthdays back on Earth.

It should have been obvious, but since coming to this world just four weeks ago I'd had barely any time to think, going non-stop from one task to the next, with any time that could have been spent thinking instead being put to better use doing something.

The fact was, this didn't feel like my birthday, and it only highlighted what I was missing.

My Dad's gift for my birthday would be making himself scarce, but it was my siblings that truly made it memorable.

My Birthdays had always involved my younger siblings treating me like a Princess, if on a tight budget. They would cook all the meals, give me breakfast in bed if it was a weekend, pool together some of their meagre savings for a gift, and bake me a cake.

The cake might not always be the best cake in the world, but it always had the correct number of candles. They'd then do all the tidying up, and we'd bundle into the TV room to watch a movie I liked or had shown interest in.

In the present, the party continued around me unabated, and I tried not to ruin the occasion. Eventually it was time for presents to be given, and I received a sweat band, a proper hiking backpack… and a mountain bike.

It wasn't a new bicycle, it had obviously seen some use judging by the scratches on the frame, but I could see the chain glistening with oil, the brake pads had been replaced, there was no wear on the tires, and the seat had been patched up.

For the last several days since the exam I had been looking to purchase a Bike for the journey. I'd talked to Ivy and Marcus about it, getting their advice and expertise, and we had planned to go to the Bike store Monday and see what they had in stock. It would have cost $350-$500, because even if it was second hand you needed to be able to rely on it.

What they had just gotten me was the perfect gift, and on a completely unrelated note somehow I'd gotten some dust in my eyes.

Once I got the dust out of my eyes I managed to choke out a few words of thanks, and Marcus blushed and turned away.

"It's not like I paid for it or anything, I just pointed Elizabeth in the right direction."

"You did offer to pay a share though, in order to guarantee his bike had all the features you deemed necessary. I had to repeatedly insist that you didn't need to." Elizabeth remarked, a teasing smirk on her face.

"Well- that's just because - My travel companions need to be able to keep up with me is all!"

"Even Ivy offered to chip in," added Elizabeth, "and she's a tight-fisted, shameless, miserely daughter of a bastard if I've ever seen one."

I raised my eyebrow and looked towards Ivy, but she just sniffed at me proudly as if to say; 'Wot, you sayin' I'm not?'

She's built different, she is - and Elizabeth knows her charges well too.

Next up Ivy and Marcus were also told to stand up, and it was the presentation of a Pokebelt and our first Pokeball. I'd somewhat known these were coming, as I'd been advised to avoid buying those yesterday. Our first sponsorship stipend wouldn't be received until Monday anyway, and I hadn't really wanted to touch Oliver's savings unless it was really necessary.

Elizabeth stood up the front with a solemn expression, and started speaking

"It has been tradition over the last 57 years for the Head of Cerulean's Hope Spring Sanctuary to provide those who graduate from this institution with the Pokebelt and first Pokeball. This year I am honoured to provide Marcus Johnson, Ivy Groves, and Oliver Blincoe with these symbols of adulthood and independence. May these serve you faithfully and reliably throughout the duration of your Journey, and well into the future beyond."

Then she put on a cheeky grin, and with the formal part over continued. "And while you aren't leaving any time soon, I want you all to know that once you leave you will be welcome back for a warm meal and a place to stay at any and all times, though if you could give a few hours notice that would be appreciated."

The belt was handed to me, and it felt noticeably high quality, while the Pokeball was a newer model that included up to 48 hours of stasis if your pokemon was seriously hurt, as well as single use healing factors that you could use in an emergency. Both functions could be replenished at a Pokecenter, but it was expensive and so to be avoided whenever possible.

The three of us thanked Elizabeth, and now the gift giving was over, the party resumed in full force.

A few of the kids insisted I wear the Pokebelt and show it off, making poses and suggesting what cool Pokemon I should catch. It distracted me for a while, but when the interest subsided and I was left to my own thoughts, I slowly fell back into my funk. My birthday, while well celebrated, had only made it more apparent what I had lost, and also that my place on Earth was gone, and never coming back.

I stood up and walked to Elizabeth.

"I need to go for a walk"

"I understand." She said, not asking for an explanation. "You're a legal adult now, you can come back as late as you like - as long as it's before midnight."

I smiled despite myself, and made sure to wave goodbye to Ivy and Marcus, and told anyone who asked that I just needed some air.

Once I was out on the streets I walked aimlessly. Eventually I looked at the sky, and saw that the city was too bright for the stars. Were they even the same in this world?

Suddenly I had to know.

I started heading north, and soon found the Golden Ball Bridge. I crossed its span and the city steadily disappeared behind me. I reached the far end, it was nearly a mile wide, and mustered my courage. I looked up again and could see what must be hundreds of constellations.

I recognised not a single one of them.

No Orion. No Aquila. No Scorpius or Aquarius. No North star, or even Southern Cross.

The night sky was filled with stars, and I had never felt further from home.

-break-​

I sat hunched over on the northern bank of the Aurora River, tears long since dried.

The moon had risen to my left at some point, and I could see its reflection shimmering across the river surface.

It was probably a different moon too.

I knew I should get up, if there was one skill I had picked up in my last life it was that you couldn't wallow in self-pity if you stayed busy enough, but back on Earth life had merely sucked. Here I'd lost everything.

I felt something, emotions that felt like mine but weren't mine, and looked around.

Standing on the edge of the riverbank was a Poliwag. It had been staring at Cerulean as well, but it turned a moment after I did. Hopelessness and despair radiating off it, so thick I could practically taste it. As we made eye-contact something clicked, and I felt it all.

Loneliness. Uselessness. Loss. Guilt.

I jerked back, and the sensation ended abruptly. I stared at it, and it stared at me.

Some protective instinct came over me, and I patted the ground by my side. "Come over here, tell me what's happened."

It stared at me for a second, then walked over and plopped down. It wasn't because they particularly trusted me, it was because they just didn't care anymore.

I was gonna try helping this little guy, I decided.

After all, while we both felt like shit, I knew that there was at least a chance that his situation wasn't hopeless.

-break-​

Over the next 20 minutes, I steadily gained a picture of what had happened, and found out he'd been on quite the adventure.

The little Poliwag's closest friend had been kidnapped by humans, and it was because they threatened the little Poliwag beside me which was why he felt so much guilt. He didn't know how far south he had travelled to get here, but it had taken him multiple weeks, much of it over water but some of it over land after asking other wild pokemon where the humans lived.

"Is that right?" I asked, after communicating my understanding.

The little Poliwag hesitated, then nodded.

"Well, I don't want to give you false hope, but there is a chance we can find them." I said.

At the little Pokemon's disbelief, communicated both by face and expression, I explained.

"First, what they did is against the law. Humans absolutely cannot coerce a Pokemon into joining their team by threatening them or their loved ones. If they do that and it is found out, they could go to jail for a long time. Jail is not a good place to be." Seeing the little Poliwag nod, I continued. "While you were telling the story, it got me wondering wonder why they picked a young Poliwag, when they could have picked a more mature and developed pokemon. My belief is they know that a lot of new Trainers, like myself, would want a starting pokemon, and they want to sell it to one of these new trainers because there is a limit on how old a pokemon can be on the first-year circuit. It's also possible that they are training it themselves as well to give their potential buyer a head-start on the rest of the circuit, which once again is illegal. However, seeing they've already committed a much greater crime, it wouldn't surprise me to find out they are doing a smaller crime as well.

"However, it would have been against the rules to catch a wild pokemon until yesterday… but they've already broken the law once, so these people are not good people.

"There is good news however, because there are only 20,000 new trainers. Assuming 10% of them have a Poliwag as one of their first few pokemon, that limits the number of trainers we have to check to 2000. It's doable."

I felt the Pokemon's mind balk at a number that was so big its mind struggled to comprehend it, and sensed their hopelessness begin to surge once more. It pissed me off.

"Hey man, yeah it's a lot, but your friend's worth the effort, aren't they? Do you think your friend would give up if you were in their position!? Your situation isn't hopeless yet, so why are you giving up so easily?!"

I glared at the Poliwag, then realised I had a finger right in their face. He had inched back during my tirade, and I realised I had been practically jabbing it with my finger as I had berated it. I slowly retracted my hand, and swivelled my gaze back to the river.

I took a deep breath. "Sorry about that, I know it's scary to get your hopes up. I'll still-"

I was interrupted as I felt the Poliwag headbutt me, and when I turned to it I could immediately tell the difference. Resolve and Determination blazed so strongly it was impossible to mistake for anything else.

"Now there you go, that's what I'm talking about." I said with a smile, before continuing. "Do you think you would be able to recognise that Poliwag?"

They signalled an affirmative with their Aura.

"Even if it evolves before we find it? Perhaps even twice? After all, your final form evolves using a water stone, so as soon as your kind evolves the first time, it's possible for the trainer to push through a second evolution near immediately, and so they might have a Poliwrath as soon as Autumn."

There was a slight pause, but I could tell through its Aura it somewhat understood the situation.

"Alright, I will raise your case with Cerulean Law Enforcement, and when battles start happening you will have an opportunity to review them on a video- what's a video?"

I pulled out my phone, and looked up a recent battle vid.

"This is a video."

It stared at the screen, and I felt its confidence plummet. I felt it brush my Aura, and it showed how it saw me, and I realised only a part of that was due to my physical appearance, and a large part was my Aura. Perhaps it could recognise his friend as a Poliwag, but after evolution they had no confidence.

I nodded in understanding. That complicated things.

It was a pretty smart Poliwag, and I suddenly became interested in its profile. I froze when I saw it.

Poliwag (M)
Current Strength: 2.31 / 4.02
Expected Potential: 4.083 - (5.536*) - (7.6729**)

This Poliwag was a prodigy. He had the third highest Potential out of any pokemon I'd ever seen - bar the pokemon used in the Open-Division match. The only ones greater were a Lapras that had been sent out by Cerulean Gym with a potential of 7.91, though it was obviously still young and had been used in a 5th badge challenge, and later a challenger had brought out an Arcanine with a Potential of 7.94 in response to the Gym sending out a Dewgong during an 8th badge challenge. I'd saved the latter's trainer ID in my phone, and I knew I would be watching the Arcanine's career with great interest.

I thought about the problem of needing to see Aura, and now that I knew what the little guy in front of me could be capable of in the future, it gave me more options to help it… and myself.

"You're pretty special little guy, do you know that?" I asked him. "Just so you know, earlier today I saw a bunch of incredibly powerful pokemon, many of which I'm sure will be competing at the national stage in just a few months… and yet I'm pretty sure that if you reach the level you're capable of, Pokemon like them will be left in your shadow.

"New plan: We are pretty sure that your friend will be competing in the Circuit, but even if they are, it will be hard for you to see them face-to-face. So instead of just keeping an eye out for them, how about we make you so famous that they can't help but hear about you?"

I looked down, then thought about what I was going to say next. Even though this Pokemon could be incredibly useful to me, I knew its pain, and I wasn't going to stand in its way.

"I can't promise I'm the best Trainer in the world, but with your talent I can be certain that you will end up as a Pokemon that every trainer in Kanto will be keeping an eye on. I will raise you as high as I can myself, and once you start attracting attention, I'm sure better trainers will come flocking to see what you are capable of, and I'll make sure you go to a Trainer that will be able to put you on the front stage in front of the whole of Kanto. I'm not sure whether I can reach the national stage, but I'm confident you can."

"Pol?" At his question I focussed on his Aura, and felt doubt, hope, and fear all warring in equal measure inside the little pokemon.

"What if you can't? If you don't try, you can't. That is the only way to gain certainty. You can always obtain certainty of failure by giving up, but you can never gain certainty of success by persisting. That's the honest truth. However, for most Pokemon I meet, I don't have confidence. For you I do. You are special, and I truly believe you can achieve it."

I held onto the sensation of his Aura, and felt as the doubt and fear subsided and hope won out, and then I smiled as his Aura shone golden as it filled to bursting with determination and resolve. I let him soak in those feelings, and laid on my back as I looked towards the stars again. Those foreign, unfamiliar stars.

It was a few minutes later when I felt a nudge at my hip, and I turned to see him prodding my single Pokeball at my belt with his foot, and then he gave me a meaningful look.

"Sounds like you're committed." I said with a smile. I unclipped the ball, and changed the setting so that it would remain unlocked allowing the occupant to leave at any time, then held it out so the button was facing him. While in the games and anime there was usually a battle involved in catching pokemon, in reality it was more like a friendship or a partnership… with what happened with this Poliwag's friend being the exception that proves the rule. Perhaps a battle could happen, but that would be more to make sure that each party had a better idea of the capabilities of the other party, and forcing an unwilling Pokemon to join your party was incredibly impractical, if not outright impossible.

The Poliwag headbutted the button, and was beamed into the ball. A few seconds later the ball chimed, and his individualised information was registered. Once I obtained my Pokenav on Monday it would be synced and kept up to date, and if I ever handed it over to a Pokecenter they would have all the information on hand in an instant. This was also used by the League to make sure that at least 4 of the pokemon used by a trainer were wild Pokemon, as otherwise trainers from clans would never catch a new pokemon in the duration of their Journey.

After a few seconds I pressed the button on the Ball, and he was beamed back out beside me.

"Thanks for your show of trust, I'll do my best not to disappoint you." I said, then smiled. "And now that you are here, we need a name. If I bring you back to the orphanage, then by this time tomorrow they will be calling you something childish, like Swirly, or Flippers."

I sensed vehement denial from the Poliwag, likely more from my feelings about the names than anything else. I tried to think of suitable names, and after several minutes I looked to the night sky, and was struck by an idea.

"Pollux."

Castor and Pollux were not just a constellation on Earth, but were also mythical Greek figures. I turned to the Poliwag.

"Pollux was a mythical figure that symbolised Loyalty, Strength, Courage and Resilience. He had immortality, but his brother whom he deeply cared for did not, and when his brother died he begged the gods to let him share his immortality with his brother, which they accepted. What do you think?"

He sent admiration and affirmation through his Aura, as well as pride that I thought him worthy of the name, then sent something else that it took me a few minutes to understand.

It was a denial that he'd leave me for a better trainer, because…

"As long as I don't give up on helping you find your loved one, you won't give up on helping me find mine?" I asked, surprised. "I've got to be honest with you, my loved ones are more out of reach than you could believe. They're in a different time and space, and I will have to be like the mythical Pollux, and get into a position to negotiate with the Gods of this world if I want a chance to see them again. It very well may not be possible, if I'm being realistic."

Pollux may not have understood the meaning of everything I said, but he understood the feelings and immediately struck the crux of the matter.

Was I going to give up because of that?

"No. It may take years, decades, or even a century, but I will never give up."

Pollux sent a burst of vindication that seemed to say "That's what I thought!"

Later, as I walked back across the Golden Ball Bridge to Cerulean with my starter, I looked up at the sky. I was closer to the city, and couldn't see as many stars, but found the unfamiliar sky didn't fill me with the same melancholy as it did earlier.

After all, even if I'd lost all my connections from Earth, there was no certainty that they were lost forever unless I gave up, and there was nothing stopping me from making new ones here in the meantime.

---

Thanks for reading the story so far! I just wanted to say in advance that the reason communication was so smooth is because of a Resonance Phenomena, as in a sense they were quite literally Trauma Bonded. Communication, trust and recruitment will not be so smooth sailing in future additions as it was in this instance. It is rare and will stay rare.

Also, if you don't like the emotions in this chapter, sorry about that. I don't want to write melodrama, but I do want my characters to be realistic and have emotions, so let me know if I'm striking the balance alright. Or, if you think I'm not showing enough emotion, let me know too!

 

[cazador]

So is 10 the max potential

 

[Snakespm]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[Bossbeast302]

i think we're still early enough in the story that progressing the plot with a normal chapter would be best.

 

[CagedHawky]

So is 10 the max potential

Click to shrink...

Disclaimer that it is very early days of this story, so I don't want to Pidgeon-hole myself. But...

Barring Legendaries almost certainly. Legendaries are hard because some are effectively immortal, and thus their Potential is difficult to quantify, or their potential/strength ratio might be a bit different. Haven't decided yet exactly, because I have been using some game data as a measuring stick but I want the Articuno to be much stronger than a Dragonite. In a fanfic called 'Route to Power' (that I hope hasn't been dropped despite the 7 month hiatus), Legendaries could have offspring, leaving something like demi-Legendaries. Don't know how common that is in other fanfic, but I might do something like that.

An analogy I literally just came up with on the spot is that it's like Long Jump. If your PB is 8m and you could almost go to the Olympics. Over 8.5m and you could win it, and over 9m you are pretty much a different species. It's really early days, but I don't plan to have many pokemon breaking 9, perhaps half a dozen or so combined across the Indigo Elite 4 rosters.

 

[CagedHawky]

Hi all,

Just want to apologise for all the typos and little errors I had in Tuesday's release. I did proof-read it, then worked on it a fair bit, and only realised later that I'd been working in two different windows so lost all my proof-reading and a few other little things. I also decided to clear up a few of the things readers pointed out were unclear, changed a few small details, and added a banana a high level pokemon battle in Cerulean Gym for scale, all of which combined added an additional ~1500 words to last chapter.

In future I reckon I will hold off the upload until I'm confident it's clean, rather than just going 'F*** it, close enough' haha

With that out of the way, hope you enjoy the chapter!

---

Chapter 6

Recruitment Drive​

Pollux and I had nearly finished crossing the bridge when I saw a girl coming the other way. She was holding a Staryu, and had an Eevee padding along behind her. She looked young, but I couldn't get a good look at her because the light of the city was casting her face in shadow.

I'd passed a few other people on the bridge, both walking away from Cerulean and now on the way back, so I didn't think much of it… until I got a good look at the profiles of her two pokemon which made me pause mid-stride.

Staryu
Current Strength: 3.01 / 3.26
Expected Potential: 5.0167 - (8.0939*)

Eevee (M)
Current Strength: 2.71 / 3.37
Expected Potential: 4.3988 - (7.8478*)

Sorry Pollux, you've just been demoted from the 3rd highest Potential I'd ever seen outside the Open-Div challenge to the 5th highest in an instant.

"Hey, you ok?" The girl asked, and I realised I'd been zoned out for the last 10 seconds.

I threw the random thoughts to the back of my mind.

"Yeah, sorry, I was just admiring your Staryu." I admitted with a sheepish grin. "It's going to be a monster when it grows up."

"Good eye," she acknowledged, then turned her eyes to Pollux. "And right back at you, your Poliwag looks pretty good as well." Then she frowned. "But why haven't you been cleansing its Aura? That's really important during their growth phase."

"I will, the plan's to do it tonight. I only just caught him half an hour ago." I answered with a laugh.

She got a better look at the Poliwag. "You just caught him?" She then let out a low whistle. "Lucky you, he's a good one."

Even as I felt Pollux puff up in pride, it felt a bit humbling that this girl could tell all this at just a glance, without a system or any external help.

"Hey, don't stroke his ego too much, he'll get an even bigger head, and it's already 90% of his body as is." I joked, then extended my hand. "Name's Oliver by the way."

She extended hers in response.

"Nice to meet you, my name's Misty."

I tried not to overreact, but she must have felt something in my body or my Aura shift. It would be a few more months of training before I could trust my Aura not to give away my emotions.

"Ah, so you know me?" She asked, slightly more guarded.

I waved her off.

"Not really, this is the first time I've met you, but I did just watch your sisters battle earlier today. It was exhilarating to watch, especially the Open-Div battle. I can't imagine how it felt to be the one on the podium." I said with a laugh. "They're good battlers, and that Gyarados was the strongest Pokemon I've ever seen in my life. That said, I think the pokemon we have here will grow to be a good match for it in time."

She stared at me for a moment, then raised an eyebrow.

"Huh, you really seem to believe that." She said in a disbelieving tone.

I shrugged in response, then realised this was as good of an opportunity I was ever going to get to ask about the Gyarados that I'd seen hit 0.00 earlier. "How was Gyarados from the Eighth Badge challenge after his fight by the way? He tanked a pretty big hit as he went for the Flamethrower?"

"Oh, you mean the old Gyarados?" she asked. "I didn't see it live, but watched the replay afterwards."

"I think so, he's the only other one that fought today right?" I said hesitantly. "How old is he?"

"He was my grandpa's, so he's somewhere in his 80s… tsk, wants to die on the battlefield, that one does." Misty answered with a click of her tongue, then grimaced. "He'll be feeling that one for a while, didn't focus on defence at all, the stubborn bast…" her eyes flicked to me then she coughed slightly before continuing. "He should be better in a week or so."

"Ahh, that's a relief… so no long term damage?" I asked. I was pretty sure there had been, but wanted to see her opinion.

"Not really, but he's not doing himself any favours…" she grumbled.

She looked north, and I saw she was ready to keep going on her way, but I wanted to take advantage of the expert while I still had her.

"One last thing, how did you know my Poliwag is so good?" I asked. If I wanted to ever use my potential scouting in public, I needed a plausible reason for my judgement, especially if I wanted to advise Marcus and Ivy when they had to choose between a pool of candidates.

She paused in thought for a moment.

"He's very young, but despite that seems to have good awareness of everything going around him, such as reading our Auras well enough to keep up with the conversation, and on top of that his Water Aura also has a nice quality to it - although there are a lot of impurities to be cleansed." She explained, punctuating the end of her statement with a significant look. I felt another burst of smugness from Pollux, but I pressed on, ignoring the jab about cleansing.

"And how long until I can tell those things myself?" I asked hopefully.

"It took me 4 years until I started getting good at it - but water Aura is my speciality. Most career trainers have a good grasp after a few decades, but type-specialists tend to learn faster for their type."

I nodded gratefully at her for giving me the information, and knowing that I'd held her up long enough, I said my goodbyes.

"Have a nice night, and good luck… doing whatever it is that you're doing." I said with a smile.

"Thanks, have a good night too, and maybe I'll see you on the circuit." she replied with a wave, and then she turned north to do whatever 12 year-old trainers did at 11pm on a Saturday night.

-break-​

The very first thing I did the next morning was bring Poliwag down to the Cerulean Police station.

When I got there I told the receptionist what Pollux had told me, then filled out some paperwork while waiting for someone higher up the chain.

A dozen or so minutes later we were met by an 'Officer Jenny', as once again there was standardisation for the sake of young or unsocialised pokemon, whose actual name and title was Detective Penelope, though she went by Penny.

She brought us into a different room, where she talked to us for the better part of an hour about the incident, sometimes talking to me and sometimes talking directly to Pollux.

"And you are sure that he didn't leave voluntarily?" she asked, her face carefully neutral. Pollux denied it vehemently, and she wrote some more notes down her notepad.

"I see. I have all the necessary details to open a case file, but this will be slow going in the meantime. We catch a few cases of this every year, but we haven't been able to root out the culprits. We believe the Rocket Syndicate is behind it, but all they're doing is acting as a go-between between supply and demand… the real problem is all the buyers that enable it to happen." she looked up from her notepad and towards me. "Have you got any other questions?"

"Yes, if we find his friend, what should we do?" I asked.

"Good question, let me think." she wrote a few more things in her notebook then responded. "If you can, keep what you know under wraps and come straight back to us. Depending who it is, we might be able to dig a bit deeper into the Rocket Syndicate if we manage to turn one of them into a double-agent… Arceus knows they have plenty of their agents infiltrating us."

"You've been infiltrated!?" I blurted out before I could help myself. I lowered my voice again. "Won't this mean if we log a captured Poliwag that we will be giving them a warning?"

She sighed and rubbed her forehead, then opened her eyes again. "Do you think you are the only person reporting an enslaved Pokemon this season? It's always bad around this time of year, with over 50 cases already, two of whom are also Poliwag. The other two are more circumstantial, with this one being the first Poliwag case where we are certain humans are involved with a kidnapping." She paused, then took a calming breath.

"What I am saying is that you won't raise any alarms. The alarms have already been raised, but they nearly always do Hypno-therapy to confuse the stolen Pokemon, so they don't even realise what had happened, and we don't have the ability to muster up every recently caught Abra, Poliwag, Charmander, or what have you in front of every Pokemon that says their friend, sibling or child went missing.

"What I can do is give you a list of every tournament that will have a recently caught Poliwag competing, so you can decide if you want to watch and participate. Your identity will be kept anonymous, but the rest is up to you."

That… was both more and less than I was expecting. Less helpful than I hoped, and I would be doing more to solve this case than I was expecting to. Very different to how law enforcement on Earth worked, where you were told to mind your own business while the authorities investigated in your stead.

Whether the way here was for better or for worse, I wasn't sure.

"I see." I said slowly. "Do you think there's much of a chance to catch the bigger fish?"

She paused as she formulated her response.

"In this case, seeing it took nearly a month for the Poliwag to come this far south, they seemed to have gone pretty out of their way to make sure this couldn't come back to bite them on the ass.

"At the same time, they are a very compartmentalised group, with many members of teams not even realising they were even working for Rocket until after they got caught. If five coincidences happen that created an opportunity for Rocket to exploit, half the time the five coincidences happened because a proxy of a proxy of Rocket influenced actions for reasons they don't even know.

"They will also cut off a finger to save the hand, cut off the hand to save the arm, and cut off the arm to save the body. It is an insidious organisation that continues to pop up over Kanto and Johto like a malignant cancer, and when you whack it down in one area, it will be sprouting again in three others."

"Is there anything I should keep in mind?" I asked after a moment, not knowing what else I could say.

I saw something flash in Detective Penny's eye for a moment, then she blinked and it was gone.

"Yep. Stay safe kid."

-break-​

"I can't believe you just caught the very first pokemon you saw from the moment you had a pokeball on your belt." said Marcus with a shake of his head. "These kinds of decisions can't be made too rashly, you do know it's alright to take your time with them."

"Don't listen to him, he's only saying that because he's jealous I caught you first." I whispered to Pollux as we walked, while Marcus just rolled his eyes.

It was Sunday morning, and because I'd already caught my first Pokemon Marcus and Ivy were keen to get their own balls rolling - or filled to put it more aptly. We had already stopped by the shops and bought a few extra Pokeballs each (The first three we bought were all subsidised by the league), as well as a very large assortment of berries, while Ivy had also picked up a delivery of her own.

Now we were heading north to route 24 her backpack jingled and jangled with each step, as it had about fifty 100% pure silver spoons that she had gotten shipped from Pewter. It was to help with negotiations, she told us.

'I don't just want any Abra as my starter,' she had said, 'I want a business partner. Not every Abra will leap at the opportunity I'm providing today, but if they don't then we wouldn't be suited for each other anyway. We have to make sure our long-term goals and values align if we are to have a fruitful relationship.'

It was a surprisingly well-reasoned and mature outlook for the girl, if a little transactional.

We also had Feathers the Pidgey with us, as well as Crawler the Caterpie, who had been named by the children of the orphanage despite his mild protests. While Feathers was much the same as when I'd met him, Crawler had continued to grow in the last few weeks.

Caterpie (M)
Current Strength: 3.24 / 3.41
Expected Potential: 1.043 - (1.214*) - (4.4621*)

Only two weeks ago when he was first cleansed he'd had an Expected Potential of 4.2919* as a Butterfree, but it had been steadily climbing by ~0.01 a day and showed no sign of slowing down. Even though I wasn't interested in having Crawler as one of my Pokemon, I was quite interested in how he was developing. Were we really looking after him that well? I didn't think we were doing anything special after all.

We arrived at the edge of the clearing, and then Ivy turned to Feathers. "Alright Feathers, for every Abra you can bring over here, you'll get two berries… You don't think two is enough? Then I'll give you three… four!? Alright for the first couple, then you can call quits… You want them all to be worth four? Who do you think I am, Miss Moneybags? I live at an orphanage, Feathers, don't you have a soul? How about four for the first batch of Abra you bring, and then we can renegotiate then? Deal? Shake on it."

It took about half an hour for Feathers to return, bringing two Abra in tow. Ivy stepped forward, rubbing her hands together as she looked at them with an enthusiastic smile on her face.

"Before I start, let me ask you an important question - Do you want to be rich?"

-break-​

Ivy had given them a pre-prepared but passionate speech about forming partnerships to fully utilise each other's competitive advantages, outlined several potential synergies they could develop with each other, stated her commitment to employee satisfaction and retention, and continued on with other key points that followed a similar vein. It centred around an initial opportunity to sell the silver spoons, and whatever other goods the Abra and other nearby Pokemon deemed useful, to those that lived near Cerulean. Ivy would provide the initial capital and deal with all the paperwork, while the Abra that wanted to form a partnership with her would use their social network and ability to teleport to make sales. The spoons would merely be the start of it, and they would try to identify other opportunities and break into those markets. It would be a partnership, profits would be split evenly, and while she hoped they could battle together as well, it wouldn't necessarily have to be the core part of their relationship, and she would never force them to battle if they didn't wish to do so..

It was actually pretty interesting in my opinion, completely different from my own experience with my starter.

However, it didn't seem to interest those two specific Abra very much, though when they were told they would get a Berry for every Abra they brought there was some quick chattering exchanged between them, then they both quickly teleported away. Feathers, who had been munching happily on the eight berries he'd earned, had shot a look towards Ivy when his job was stolen, but Ivy kept reputational damage to a minimum by offering a 3 berry bonus if she ended up catching an Abra today.

Over the next few hours more and more Abra were being brought over to listen to Ivy's sales pitch, with Feathers now seemingly extolling Ivy's virtues to them as well, and Marcus also stepped forward and started his own recruitment drive. Their styles were pretty different, with Ivy's seeming to be something I would have expected to find at a business leadership seminar, while Marcus's lacked that polish but made up for it in passion.

I had also contributed towards the berries required for this plan and so was allowed to try to recruit my own as well, but as I looked at the Abra I'd changed my mind. It was a lot like being excited to see a movie at the cinema, but then checking the reviews before you went. Their strengths ranged between 6 and 10, which was fine, but all their Potentials seemed… a bit lower than I would have expected? So far the average Potential for their final evolution was 6.5, and none of them exceeded 6.9 in that regard.

Perhaps I would have been willing to chalk it up to an idiosyncrasy of the Abra line if I didn't know better, but I had seen a Kadabra with a potential of 7.4 just the day before in the Gym battles.

While I knew a Potential of 6.85 was plenty enough for the Gym Circuit, as there had been trainers doing the Eighth Badge challenge with much less… But it just felt bad knowing that would probably be the end of the road for them. They grew more slowly than a lot of other Pokemon, so it would take years of time and effort for them to reach their potential… and then their Strength would top out at what? 100? 120 at best? Either way, they would be the weakest Pokemon standing on the stage at any Open Division Gym battle, without much use at all unless they were at a type advantage.

Was there any point in me trying to convince them to completely turn their life upside down if I didn't see them having a long-term future in battling? Ivy's pitch was fine, seeing she was valuing them for more than just their battling prowess, but what about Marcus and myself? I wasn't so sure, especially seeing as the Abra seemed happy enough with their lives out here, judging by how readily they were rebuffing the advances of both my companions.

"Is everything ok?"

Ivy had taken a break from her recruiting, and was showing a rare concerned expression on her face. I looked past her as all ten Abra all blinked away, likely to earn another berry. All of them doing so meant that she had likely been unsuccessful in finding a partner again, however she didn't seem too fussed, and was instead more concerned about me.

I let out a sigh.

"I was just worrying about what would happen if we picked a Pokemon that wasn't suited to battling. What if we feed them all these hopes and dreams, and then they aren't strong enough?" then I snorted. "Not that it looks like we'll be having trouble with that if this keeps up"

"Do you see us forcing any of these Abra to join us?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "I don't think we'd be having so much trouble recruiting if we were, would we? Then that means that if they join us it's of their own free will, and as long as we have been honest with them, then we have nothing to feel guilty about. After all, is it better to try pursuing your dreams and fail, or never pursue them at all?"

I stared at Ivy. "You know, I never thought I would say this, but you might be the most mature 14 year-old girl I've ever met. You know that?"

"Don't make me blush." she replied, without a hint of colouring on her cheeks. "If you keep saying things like that, then I might be forced to prune your expectations of me so that they can remain reasonable. In my 14 years of experience, I've learned it's always better to exceed expectations than fail to meet them, even if it means being the one to lower the bar in the first place."

She then looked at Crawler the Caterpie which was snoozing in the sun, then turned back to me. "You and Marcus might as well get started on the bugs, and I'll send any Abra that show even an iota of interest in battling your way. No point having three people here to do a one-woman job, after all."

-break-​

At some point, I had my first thought.

I don't know what it was that I thought, but I was eating leaves with my kin, driven by the desire to increase my size from smaller than a blossom's bud to… I'm not sure, but I knew I had to get bigger.

I could sense them, but even though we were kin, they didn't seem to be able to sense me, at least not in the same way I could sense them. They could see me, but they couldn't see the essence of my being like I could see theirs, couldn't understand me like I understood them.

While I thought, they ate, and I realised I was falling behind. Above all else, I knew I couldn't afford that.

-break-​

It was a disaster.

A massacre.

A giant flying beast, larger than any 20 leaves laid side by side, flew through my kin, devouring them and eating them whole.

I saw my kin scatter, some falling to the ground, others trying to hide in the cracks in the bark. I was farther from the the trunk where I might find refuge than the others, so I looked down instead.

There I saw another beast on the ground, one that couldn't fly. It also ate my kin. I reached out with my essence, trying to understand it.

It suddenly looked up, as if it had felt my touch. I instinctively retreated within myself. I felt its essence brush mine, but it seemed to flow over me. I saw the flying beast still distracted with my kin, and crawled towards the tree trunk, certain I wouldn't make it.

However, as I crawled away, it never once turned to me, and I realised why.

My kin didn't know how to go within themselves. Few had 'awakened', and even if they had, they hadn't learnt this trick. I lived due to this advantage, and the relief I felt for the fact only served to exacerbate my guilt.

-break-​

Eventually the sky went dark.

I knew it was normal, and I knew it wasn't the first time I'd seen it, but it would be the first night I would remember.

It was safer now, I knew instinctively. I reached out tentatively with my essence before I left my crack in the bark, and there were no threats nearby. I could already tell other of my kin were out, feeding, so I joined them.

I ate for a time, then noticed a presence approach. It was a large beast, the same size or perhaps even larger than the one I encountered earlier, and yet it was somehow comforting and familiar at the same time.

I reached out with my essence, and made a startling discovery. It was my kin.

It looked at me, and felt my awe, and my hope. I felt it register surprise, and then it indicated the nearby tree.

He had left it for me, and he would come back for me.

He shared some wisdom with me. It was a race. There were many predators, and many of our kin wouldn't make it, so there was no time to waste.

It wanted me to join its pack, but it also wanted me to know:

Although there was safety in numbers, but even greater safety in size.

So I must grow.

---

Hi all, hope you enjoy the chapter! The next one will be out in ~30 hours

On a personal note, with this I've managed to catch up to the NaNoWriMo benchmark, despite the late start! All it cost was (only getting) a few hours (of) sleep per night, and a (not) insignificant portion of my sanity

I'm kinda joking about that, but insomnia has been making me its bitch lately, and I've been taking it out on this fic... What wouldn't I would do for a Jigglypuff?