3 The First Step

Theodore held Combee's pokeball in the palm of his hand as he stared at the battlefield ahead of him. He remained silent and threw the Pokeball onto the field. Upon impact, a red light escapes the Pokeball revealing the Tiny Bee pokemon. The pokeball flew backward towards Theodore himself and Theodore caught it without much effort.

Theodore thought that Combee looked absolutely stunning for her tiny form. He noticed that she looked a bit smaller than what the average Combee should be. He guessed that might be a trait of the female combee, so he was going to be feeding her more to start increasing her size. Her wings were considerably larger than the average. He guessed he could start a training regimen to increase the speed of her wings, so the Combee could fly faster.

While he was deep in thought, he absent-mindedly shrunk his Pokeball to make it more transportable and clipped it to his belt.

Combee narrowed her eyes at the Trainer which had released her. A teenager that had looked exhausted in the way that she herself could relate to. She made an accepting clicking sound before moving her wings rapidly allowing her to take flight with her bulky body.

Theodore continued to stare at Combee in silence as she flew toward him. As Combee got directly in front of him, he held his arms out in front of him. The combee suddenly stopped flying and let gravity take hold. With a small grunt he held the Combee with his arms. The Combee made some clicking noises as if he was an acceptable throne.

Giving a small snort, Theodore began to look at the other trainer's throughout the area. Some of them had been not accepted by their own pokemon and were having trouble with connecting with them. Others had pokemon that tolerated their trainers like himself, but that was to be expected as not everyone started off perfectly with their starter.

He looked down at his starter in slight amusement, "So I am a throne now? Me? The amazing Theo?" Combee rolled her eyes and chirped in a so-so manner. Theodore had gotten the gist of what she wanted to say and gave a huff,

"So, the amazing Theo is only a lowly royal stool? Bah. What fate have I deserved to be demoted from the top immediately?" Theo slightly pouted at his starter and began to scratch the area above her antennas. A soft, buzzing noise could be heard from his starter as she enjoyed her pets.

"Woe is me-" Theo winced and stumbled backwards as he felt his mind expand. Theo instantly righted himself to prevent Combee from spilling out of his arms. He could almost sense the hint of slight worry which his starter aimed at him. His mind began to burn in flashes of pain as if flakes of his brain were being slowly peeled off.

When the pain finally cleared after a few minutes, his thoughts began to function once more. While his body locked up unexpectedly leaving the Combee chirping in even worse worry, Theo was in his own mind. A brand new part of his brain that had been rusted over the years had finally been cleaned.

Theodore had opened up that part of his brain only to find swaths of information about [ The Swarm ] [ The Hive ] [ The Leader ] [ Bug ] [ Poison ] [ Water ] [ Steel ] [ Flying ] [ Typing ]. The overwhelming amount of information began to quickly filter into the rest of his mindspace. These topics were so old and ancient that he felt it was a fundamental topic of a world he only had the barest glimpses of.

The luxury of the knowledge had finally settled in his mind to the basics of what he wanted. His body was finally relinquished to his mind once more as he took in a shuddering breath. He could taste the pure amount of worry in the loud, annoyed buzzing of Combee. He could feel the anxiousness of the Pokemon around him through their subtle expressions that only a few humans could pick up on.

His jaw dropped in pure awe at what he had just opened up, but he felt like something like this was a lifetime opportunity none truly had. Those who had the same basics of pokemon expressions had been trained for years just in that singular typing. When he spoke in [ The Swarm ] and [ The Leader ] towards Combee, he could feel Combee stiffen in either fear or shock,

> "I am fine, Tiny Bee." < [ Confusion ] [ Unsure ]

Combee could only respond in a rushed, confused tone of voice while buzzing in excitement.

> "How? How can you speak in- In this language! I thought humans couldn't.. Couldn't talk in our language." < [ Confusion ] [ Excitement ]

Theodore stared at Combee and then hummed softly while scratching above her antennas. He looked around the battlefield and briefly gave a sigh of relief to see that no one had seen him lock up unexpectedly.

> "I am unsure of the why and hows, tiny bee. But I know of [ The Swarm ] [ Types ] [ The Hive ] [ The Leader ]. I wasn't expecting something so huge dropping onto my shoulders, but I will have to make do. " < [ Knowledge ] [ Slightly Understood ]

The Combee flinched at the mention of [ The Leader ], but other than that he could see the reluctant acceptance of his answer.

> "Very well, royal stool. You are thereby promoted to royal throne! Now! Onwards to food because I am hungry. " < [ Pompous ] [ Hunger ]

Giving a small snort, Theodore continued to scratch her good-feeling spots, "Hungry, huh? I suppose I can spare a few Oran Berries." The Combee continued to buzz happily as he searched the pockets of his backpack to find the pocket he was looking for. Pulling out an Oran Berry, he placed it in front of one of Combee's mouths. It began to hungrily chomp down on the Oran berry in front of it. He finally continued to look around before realizing what he was supposed to be heading.

Wincing at the wasting time, Theodore exited the battlefield with Combee in his arms looking at the lobby in wonder. He soon passed by Miss Wellspring who was looking as prim and proper as ever and waved, "Bye Miss Wellspring! I have to catch that one-way boat to Johto! It's been a great time while I was here!"

Miss Wellspring, the receptionist, rolled her eyes then scoffed, "Boys and their time management skills. Awful as it should be."

Theodore quickly skipped out of the building and towards the docks. He stared at the many ships which were currently docked in preparation to transport goods and trainers. When he found the ship he was looking for, he began to quickly run towards the ship with Combee in his arms buzzing in an annoyed manner.

> "Why are you running so quickly, fool? You want to trip and look silly? Haaaaah?" < [ Agitated ]

Shaking his head at Combee's loud verbalization of her annoyance, he slowed down and climbed the boarding plank with ease. He got up onto the transport ship deck and noticed the Captain, "Hey! How are you, Captain?"

The Captain was a bulky looking sailor with a jolly smile spread across his face, "Haha! I am doing quite well. Just call me Johnson, will ya? I assume you know we are taking a brief stop at Hoenn, yes?"

Theodore nodded, "Of course. That's not a problem at all. You do mind if I do some small drills with my starter on board? I don't want to spend my first two weeks doing nothing productive."

The Captain looked slightly amused, "Huh. Yeah sure that's fine. Small pokemon like Combee won't do much damage anyways, or any damage at all. No practicing moves with loud noises though. The crew needs to sleep, hear me?"

"I hear you, Captain Johnson. Talk to you later, yeah?" Theodore skipped past the Captain who could only grumble at 'impatient trainers'. He stared at the large, looming skyscrapers that took up the skyline from the low position of the docks. A wellspring of relief filled his stomach as he felt the agitation of his starter started to swell.

> " Hey! Don't ignore me. I don't want a moody bitch as my trainer. No brooding on my watch. Hear me! My wrath will not be ignored!" > [ Insult! Insult! Insult! ] [ Slight Agitation ] [ No More Brooding! ]Theodore could only look slightly scandalized at how his starter perceived him.

"Y-you! I am the almighty Theo! And the almighty Theodore does not brood! He, uh. He stares out brilliantly at skyscrapers lost in thought. . Fuck. That is brooding. You've caught me red-handed, Arceus damn it." Theodore chuckled as he hummed softly down at his starter, "Now it is time to give you a really, really bad nickname that I look back on and tease you with. Like any good trainer should."

Combee could only look horrified as Theodore started to call off from his mental list,

"Princess . . Nah. Queen? Not that either. Hmmm. How about Lady Bee? Impossible." As he continued to list off terrible nicknames, Combee's expression continued to skyrocket on the horrified scale from three to seven.

With fear quaking her voice, she spluttered,

> " Stop this tomfoolery at once! I demand a proper nickname. Not a name you'd give- You'd give to a housepet!" < [ Horrified ] [ Stunned ]

Theodore could only laugh at his starter and her anime-esc horrified expression. With a teasing voice he continued, "Okay. How about Queeney?" Theodore could see the small, creeping blush that started to form on his starter's many faces.

>"Queeny!? Are you kidding me? That is- That is just horrendous- Wait you're kidding! Please tell me your kidding. Pleeeaase!" [ Fear ] [ Pleading ]

Theodore roared in laughter at his starter's pleading. Getting into a thinking pose, he actually began to think of a nickname. After a moment, he finally spoke up, "Your name will be . ." He pointed at her dramatically, "Warmaiden Khepri."

The Combee, nay Khepri seemed to buzz happily at the name.

> "A proper name instead of that filthy you call Nicknames. Yuck. " < [ Happiness ] [ Disgust ]

Khepri's face scrunched up in disgust and as if she just tasted something bad was adorable and cute in Theodore's eyes. Scratching the area above her eyes while still holding her he looked up at the looming sun as it peaked between the skyscrapers.

He could only feel that his Journey was going to be amazing. Pride infused Theodore's emotions as he felt a elation that he hadn't felt in years. His lips curled up into a smile as he averted his eyes and awaited the week and a half journey with open arms. Or as open as they could be with Khepri residing in them at least.