chapter 1

"... Kenny, is it?" The examiner adjusted his glasses and asked almost in confusion

"Yes, sir," came my somewhat tense answer

The examiner hummed, not saying a word. Instead, of focusing on the piles of paper lying in front of him, the radicate sitting on his lap gave me a passing glance before letting out a disappointed huff.

I grew a little annoyed at that. I can't lie, but I ignored it. What would it know about me anyway? Either way, it wouldn't be the one judging me, so I returned to just awkwardly staring at the examiner.

The examiner spent the next ten minutes rifling through my files and background in silence, only the sound of paper being shuffled and the occasional purring. From raticate.

"So Kenny, I'll be honest with you you've already surpassed the standard for most youngsters," the examiner said, calming my anxious heart, but he wasn't done.

"From your tests, we can tell that you have a great grasp on Pokemon biology and evolutions. You're no slouch on the caretaker side of things either." Compliment after compliment spewed out of his mouth, yet I tensed up cause I could sense the big "But"

"But"

Called it.

"We are still hesitant to hand you the youngerster ID."

"What?! Why-"

"Before we get to that, let's also check up on your battle exams," he said, changing the subject momentarily. Taking in a deep breath, he began

"Your strategies are fine. They're actually very good for your age. Your knowledge of moves, pokemon types, and effective methods to use said moves led you to be the highest-scoring prospective youngster." Again, a barrage of compliments was thrown at me

Forcing me to try to resist the smile creeping up on my face, I've always been kinda of weak to praise.

"However, due to your young age and your guardians... unfortunate circumstances we will have to put your youngster ID on hold, " he declared, uncaring of the shocked expression that spread on my face

"On hold?... could you elaborate?.." I ask, confused 

I walked out of the building... still confused and somewhat satisfied.

Apparently, what I didn't know was that to become younger, you had to be ten years old at the minimum I had researched about the exam, so the fact that I didn't know this was quite surprising, there's nothing I can quite do about it.

Thankfully, while I didn't get what I wanted (the youngerster ID card), I did, however, get some rewards for my stellar performance. In both the battle exams and the writing exam 

(To be more specific, I was number 1)

First of all, 500 pokedollars 

Now, that may not be much, but that's like 2 Pokeballs and a potion, I'll take it, especially since I don't really have any stable source of income as of now.

Now... let's get to the real juicy stuff.

1 pokemon of my choice,

That's right baby guess who's getting his fucking starter now?!

Of course, it isn't going to be the region starters, those are reserved for the highest-scoring trainer applicants (or people with connections *cough* ash *cough*)

It also can't be anything too rare, so it leaves mostly just basic Pokemon, either way, I've already made up my choice, there wasn't even any need for me to think about it. 

They've told me that the Pokemon should be arriving in 2 days along with 3 months' worth of poke cubes for it, 

Ahhhh... how nice, who doesn't like not having to work for shit? 

With a silly grin on my face, I happily walked home, a bounce accompanying every step, 

Twinleaf Town was always a delight to walk through. Before dying, I'd never even stepped a foot out in nature, barring field trips from school and shit like that.

I was a city boy through and through, but God, nature in this world is so goddamn beautiful!.

Taking in a whiff of fresh clean air, I felt myself relax even further. Luckily, in this world, something like pollution would never happen. To be more specific, pokemon would never allow it to happen.

To be even more specific, I'm talking about the legendarys. Most of them work in balancing the world, so something like pollution? 

Something that would fuck up ice biomes destroy clean air cause forest fires and rise sea levels?

Yeah, no, with the snap of their fingers... wings... fins... whatever you get it, pollution would never last.

And I'm forever grateful for it.

Now I didn't walk straight home. Instead, I took a quick detour to the nearby Pokemon center. The building was exactly the same as depicted in the anime and games, with only minor differences here and there.

It was usually empty, seeing as the town was pretty small, and most of the residents were either elderly folks or people who wanted to settle down, so most of the nurse joys work came from travelers, and people who planned to stay the night 

And today was no different. Seeing as Nurse Joy was sprawled across the counter, I could almost taste that boredom emanating from her being

Chansey was sound asleep on her chair beside her, her adorable small and round hands somehow still gripping tightly onto a pen and paper, respectively.

Damn, this is kinda cute. Honestly, I really don't want to wake them up now, but... sorry Joy money is of great importance.

"Excuse me," I said softly, knowing that she's a pretty light sleeper

The nurse Joy suddenly shot up from her disheveled state, somehow managing to straighten her back, and immediately give me a gentle smile, as I'd she wasn't just sprawled across her table, drowning on her droll.

"Hello! And welcome how may I help- oh it's just you"Nursee Joy let out a groan in disappointment, flopping herself back onto her chair.

Chansey was, of course, still sound asleep.

"No work today?" I asked amused.

"No," she groaned out, "nothing, nada, no Pokemon to heal, no trainers to accommodate, just me and Chansey doing stupid paperwork all day!"

Letting out a sad sigh, she asks, "Anyways, you here to do some jobs?" 

I nod my head "Yeah I need to make some quick bucks, I have... a potential partner in the making coming soon, so I might as well stock up."

She looks at me, confused her eyes turn blank as the cogs in her head start coming to conclusions.

"A... Pokemon?"

"Yep,"

"Which you will be training, right?"

"Yep,"

"Which means injuries, right?"

"Uh... yep?" 

She calmly stands up and walks around the counter before kneeling to have a face-to-face (I'm nine, not short... shut up)

"Please hurt your Pokemon," she requests, the gentle smile from before not leaving her face

I didn't reply and simply just stared at her. My mouth formed an O shape in shock.

"I... what?" I asked stupidly.

"Hurt Train whatever just make your Pokemon are... healable," she said, her gentle smile turning into a sad frown. "Please... you're my only chance for any consistent work nonboring work,"

"What? The paperwork can't be that bad." Also I'm pretty sure "healable" isn't a word!... is it?

She shrugged and stood up before showing me 3 stacks of uncompleted paperwork.

I let out a pathetic noise at the sheer girth and size of each stack. My sympathy for the poor nurse was on the rise.

"I'll... make sure to bring him or her for a check-up at least once a week. " 

She smiled happily, her previous bad mode gone. "Oh right, what did you do to get rewarded with a starter?" She asked.

I said nothing, opting to instead reach into my pockets and flash my temporary youngster ID at her. Of course, I wasn't given the full benefits of having such an ID because of my age.

So I can't use it for, well. Anything other than being a useful ID and allowing me to train and carry Pokemon... still no travel, though, so that's a bummer.

"This?!" She looked at me, shocked."When did you take that youngster exam?!" She yelled, waking up the still sleeping channel in the process 

"Just this morning!" I said with a grin.

She grabbed the ID out of my hands to take a closer look. She stared at it for a couple of seconds, seemingly evaluating it.

"First place?" She hummed. Handing me the card back.

"Yeah," I said, putting it safely in my pocket along with my prize money. "It wasn't a challenge. Most of the other kids had no idea what they were doing." 

She didn't reply, her face turned into a frown, 

"Is something wrong?" I asked, noticing her sudden shift in emotions.

"Chan!" Chansey suddenly shouted, almost making me jump in surprise. She was also, for some reason, glaring at her trainer.

"Yeah, you're right, Chansey," Nurse Joy said, confusing me even further. "I shouldn't be thinking of something like that," she said sheepishly.

"Uh, mind elaborating, or is this some inside Pokemon and trainer thing?" I asked

She didn't answer opting to giggle like a school girl instead Hehh, don't worry your pretty little head about it Kenny" Ignoringg my grumbling about how I wasn't "pretty" she continued "Anyways didn't you say you wanted to do some quick jobs?"

Ignoring the "manly" part of me that was still... miffed about being called pretty. "Yeah, I need some money for training equipment," I answered.

She looked at me confused, one of her eyebrows raised. "Don't you get some money for being in the top 3 of the exam?"

"Yeah." 

"So why don't you just use that?" She asked, confused.

"I already have some plans for the money that I've got, plus, the equipment is pretty cheap, one or two jobs should be enough to cover the cost," I explained.

She shrugged, accepting my explanation before handing me a couple of papers. "Here are some jobs that should be pretty easy for you. They even pay decently well," she explained 

Taking a second to read them out reveals that she wasn't lying. Most of these jobs are just simple babysitting, cleaning, helping out with moving in, etc.

All in all, pretty boring stuff, but hey! The pay aint that bad.

I contemplated for a couple of minutes on what I felt like doing this particular day and decided to just do the cleaning and babysitting a baby bodoof.

I released a loud yawn that would even put a Snorlax to shame. The sun was saying its goodbyes with strong rays of orange light coating the entire town.

Twinleaf town was more akin to the anime rather than the games, which also meant that the town was way more spread out than you would think, each house was at least a 3-minute walk in terms of distance.

"My" house was the one most isolated from the others being a whole 10-minute walk, which isn't a lot, mind you I'm just saying.

Reaching the front porch, I fiddled with the keys a bit trying to find the right one. Finding it, I slowly opened the door, only to be greeted by a dark, messy living room.

Closing the door behind me, I turn on the light, feeling bits of hesitation and uncertainty gnaw at my stomach when I look at the stairs leading to my bedroom... and hers 

Even so, I move forward the sounds of beeps getting louder with every step taken. Finally reaching her room, I put my hands on the door, now trying to calm my hurting heart. The sounds of machinery were now deafening.

Finally, Gathering the courage, I slowly opened the door, almost cringing at the creaking sound that it made.

And then I saw her. 

It always felt surreal, seeing her like this. She felt invincible back when I was younger. Even if I knew it wasn't true, there was just something about her radiant strength and reassurance.

But perhaps that was just my bias speaking.

I sat down on the chair beside where she continued to sleep. Glancing at the heart monitor, I felt myself calm down with every beep for some odd reason.

She was beautiful. Incredibly so.

Her long, luscious blond hair in combination with her heart-shaped face and beautiful blue eyes. (That is if she ever woke up) made for a very compelling image for most men I could imagine.

However, if one looked closely enough, one would be able to see her form slowly deteriorating.

Her skin was pale from a lack of sunlight contrasting her skin 2 years ago that had a bright and healthy tan. Her body was abnormally skinny, and muscle atrophy was taking its share.

Her blond hair was also lacking a lot of it luster that it used to have despite my brushing and taking care of it.

Grabbing one of her hands, I flinched from how cold it was, almost making me jump to conclusions had I not installed a heart monitor.

The doctors and professors I've checked up with have all been stumped and confused about this condition that Mom was suddenly inflicted with.

After a bit of time, we found out that a Pokemon was the cause of this. We or well they don't know what Pokemon could have caused such an effect.

But I knew.

I had my suspicions before but with the doctors confirming that mom was plagued with endless nightmares.

I knew.

Darkrai it all lined up, while I couldn't remember much about the pokedex entries I did however Remember bits of a story on how Darkrai gave a child endless nightmares, cursing said child to never wake up again.

The father, in a desperate attempt to save his child, goes out to search for Cresselia, the lunar Pokemon... I think that's what she was called, anyway.

Her wings?... No feathers? I can't recall, but one of them was the cure to Darkrai's curse.

Here's the problem, I have no idea how the hell I'm supposed to find Cresselia, I'm sure there was a way in the games, but the thing is I've only played Pokemon Emerald (hoenn) The others I only know a bit about because I watched other people (YouTubers) play them 

The anime isn't a reliable source of information either because I could barely remember most episodes, except for the hype ones.

It's honestly hopeless, and I'm most likely never finding her... but... Grasping tightly onto my mom's hand, I felt my resolve start to trickle in.

That's right, this is why I wanted to become a trainer. Just wait, Momm, I'm going to save you!

Because in my unbiased opinion, you deserve only the best life! And you're baby boys going to get it for you!

Giving her cold forehead a gentle kiss, I leave the room to get some rest to prepare for my (hopefully) partner's arrival, but not before filling up her water and food supply, both wires sending in the essentials for her survival.

... unfortunately, I spent the whole night reading up on my partner's biology and moves, making me sleep-deprived the next day.

Ah! God bless the internet. No way I'm ever calling it fucking "pokenet"