Chapter 7

I dismiss the notifications to think about them later before rushing over to Skadi. 

"Skadi, are you alright baby?" I look her over for any injuries and besides some blackened fur on her beautiful white tails I don't see any visible injuries. Sighing in relief, I gently pet her head. "You did wonderfully for your first battle. Don't worry about getting hit, I wasn't expecting the quick response of Fletchling." 

"Pix! Vul Vulpix!" Skadi looks at me and shakes her head quickly as if denying my claims. She gestures to herself with her tails trying to claim credit for the mistake.

"Alright, let's agree to disagree and say it was both our faults." I smile wryly as Skadi nods at me satisfied with my answer. "Well that just means we will try to train while we travel. Even though getting hurt will happen, I don't want to see you all banged up."

"Vulpix!" Skadi exclaims loudly as she agrees with me.

I start to stand back up and notice that the blackened hair is already starting to disappear while I was talking to her. I tilt my head slightly, curious about what was happening but then shrugged it off as I could ask Grandpa later once I reach Viridian City. 

"Now, how about we meet our new little friend and convince her to join us?" I grab Fletchlings pokeball and hit the button to allow her to exit the pokeball. In a small flash of light, the tiny bird is now standing in front of me. Her wings are still slightly frozen, but I can see the ice slowly receding. 

"Ling?" The tiny bird chirps while looking around. When it finally spots Skadi and me it hops back warily. "Fletch! Fletchling!"

I squat back down so I'm not towering over her. "Hi there. I'm sorry for attacking you like that, I was excited to catch a pokemon. If you don't mind, would you like to travel with me?"

The tiny robin stares at me for a little bit before nodding and chirps cheerfully. "Ling~!" 

 I smile at the little bird before holding my hand out towards it. Fltechling looks at my hand and then hops into it as I start to stand up. I cup my hands and I can now feel just how warm it is in my hands. It feels like a hand warmer that I used to use in the winter back on earth. It was comforting but still slightly hot on my skin. Fletchling on the other hand, seemed to like the slight amount of ice energy I gave off as it settled down into my hand. "Now for a name for you, I can't keep calling you little one as you will grow big and strong. How about Zephyr? It means gentle wind." 

Fletchling seems to think for a moment before chirping in agreement at my choice of name. I gently move her to my shoulder so I can free up my hands and pull out my phone again. I opened the Pokedex app and rescan Zephyr. I skip past the information that was already provided and look at the abilities and moves.

[This Fletchling has the ability of Big Pecks]

[Fletchling currently knows the moves: Growl, Peck, Defog, Quick Attack, Ember]

Looking at Zephyr's move set my eyes widen slightly. Unlike the games, where a pokemon can only learn four moves, it seems like pokemon are not limited to what they can learn. I also realize that I was quite lucky in catching Zephyr as she was much stronger than Skadi, we only won because of a surprise attack.

Now that everything was settled, I decided it was time to get back under way to Viridian. I started walking again with Skadi beside me and Zephyr on my shoulder. I look around for a while to see if anything else is going to pop out at us while we are walking. After seeing nothing after about thirty minutes, I tip my head back and close my eyes, trusting my pokemon to alert if something happens, and enjoy the quiet sounds of the trail and the sun on my face. 

Since my Aura awakened, the sun itself never felt quite as warm as it did when my bloodline activated. I believe the ice energy I emit is dampening the direct effect of the sun. I have noticed, on days where it is more humid or raining, I seem to have almost a diamond dust effect around me from where the ice energy has created tiny ice crystals that melt once they move away. The effect only happens within an inch of my skin so it isn't really noticeable unless you are paying attention to it. 

When someone asks about the little bit of sparkle on me I just claim that I was wearing some glitter, not that I need to wear any makeup anymore. Coming to this world and the changes since have caused my skin to become enviously perfect. There are no blemishes or freckles, small pores and always silky smooth and soft. I can hear the envy from the girls back on earth about it now. Not to mention that my hair has become super low maintenance. I only need to lightly brush it and it behaves the way I want. No friz, no morning bed head, no tangles. It also has this natural glossy sheen to it, elevating my already unnatural beauty to another level. 

I might not be a narcissist, but I will say that I am hot. If I was a character in a chinese webnovel, I would have been described as a jade beauty in all sorts of flowery words. I look like one of those photoshopped models that you see in magazines and on Insta. With that thought in mind, I decided to open up Pokegram and finish setting up my profile. 

I don't put a lot of information in my profile yet, just that I just started as a trainer. I will add more as it becomes relevant but that was enough for now. I take a few moments taking some selfies until I find one that I like the most to use as my profile picture. I flick through the different filters to see what is available, but almost all of them seem to screw up my natural looks instead of enhancing them. I did find one that gave me fox ears and a tail. I decided to use that filter and placed it as the first picture on my page. I also took a picture holding Skadi and Zephyr and posted it as well. I'm not expecting much from it as I am still an unknown trainer. Back on earth I wasn't exactly an Insta star and only used it to keep in touch and share pictures with my friends.

After posting, I decided to scroll through Pokegram to see if any of the notable trainers I remember are on there to follow. First person I search for is the one whose theme song still sends shivers up my spine, Cynthia. It only took a few seconds as she was the first person to pop up when I searched her name. From what her profile says she is turning twenty six this year and is known as the youngest Champion. She is just as beautiful in real life as she was in the anime, if her pictures are to be believed. The few others I can remember off the top of my head are Elesa, Bea, Marnie and Lorelei. The only ones I was actually able to find were Lorelei and Elesa as they are part of the league. I guess that Bea and Marnie were too young currently or are unknown.

Putting away my phone, I looked around checking where we were. We were still a few hours away from Viridian and not another soul in sight. Taking this time, I decide to spin the gacha to see what I might get. 

[Congratulations host, you have received the Yuna special.]

*Splat*

Zephyr was startled and tumbled off my shoulder due to my new makeup. I sigh deeply and wipe the cake that just appeared off my face. I should have guessed that something like this would happen. I had forgotten that I got this system from Yuna. After wiping away what I could, I look around for a stream or something to wash myself off in. Luckily there was a river nearby. I head over to the river and kneel down to wash my face. While I am busy washing, Skadi decides to jump on my back playfully and causes me to fall into the water. 

The water was a delightful temperature so I quickly finished washing my face and got out of the water. I playfully glare at Skadi and she just smirks at me. "Brat…" I mutter under my breath. Not bothering to dry myself, despite my clothes sticking tightly to my skin, I get back under way. Now that my fun surprise is done, I decided to spin the gacha once more. It's not like I would get caked again, right? Shaking my head at the thought I spin the gacha once more.

[Congratulations host, you have received an Ice Silk Qipao.]

[Ice Silk Qipao: This item is specially made from the Ice Silkworm. The fabric of this dress generates a miniscule amount of ice energy. Anyone that wears this dress will be slightly cooled.]

In front of me, a beautiful ice blue chinese styled dress appears in front of me. It has silvery snowflakes embossed on it and a leg slit on the right leg where my thigh bag would sit. There is also a pair of matching skill shoes that appear with it. I quickly grab the dress before it can fall to the ground and hug it tightly to my chest like it is the most precious thing ever. As I hold the dress I can feel the little bit of ice energy that it emits that my body seems to absorb. It is not nearly as much as my Aura, but I have the feeling I could wear this and not have to look like a ten cent working girl.

I quickly take off the tiny pieces of fabric that I had to consider as my clothes and toss them on the ground. I grab the dress and take a moment to figure out how to put it on. As I start to slip it on over my head, I feel some drops of water start to hit my naked body, reminding me that I am not wearing anything in an open area. My face flushes as I speed up getting the dress on. 

Once it was on, I took off my sneakers and slipped on the matching silk shoes. Once I was fully dressed, I could feel the effect of the dress keeping my body cool. I was still warmer than I was with my previous clothes, but not unbearably so. I wouldn't want to test my luck in some place like Mt. Chimney or Alola, but in the average temperature of Kanto it was fine. I took a moment to change my hairstyle slightly from my normal high ponytail to tight bun, with my bangs still framing my face. I sigh in contentment at the fact that I no longer feel the wind caressing most of my body. I finally felt normal again.

A few more raindrops fall and wake me from my revelry. I look up to see the sky turning dark with an incoming storm. I quickly pack up my clothes and sneakers into my bag, which by some wonder of technology holds way more than it should, and start a light jog towards the city in the distance. As I make my way, the rain starts falling harder and the sky gets nearly as dark as night except for some flashes from lightning. I take pity on Zephyr and let her rest in her pokeball as I find a tree to take shelter from the storm. 

I stand under the tree, petting Skadi lazily as I continue to watch the sky waiting for the storm to pass. The storm only seems to get stronger as time goes on until suddenly in the distance, closer to Viridian from where I am, an extremely bright flash of lightning occurs. The flash is so bright it is almost like a second sun at about tree top level. A few minutes after the lightning, the storm starts to dissipate into the distance leaving behind damp ground and a few puddles as well as a rainbow. 

I look towards the rainbow just in time to see a phoenix-like bird that is seemingly gold in color. I quickly let out Zephyr and nudge Skadi so that they both look up and when they do I can almost see the awe in their eyes. 

"That, my dear little ladies, is Ho-oh the guardian of the skies." I whisper to them with a good bit of awe leaking into my voice. I knew it was possible that I could experience the same situation as Ash did in the anime, but actually seeing and experiencing the slight bit of aura from the legendary pokemon left me in complete awe. We watched as Ho-oh flew off into the distance and out of sight. Once it was gone, I noticed that the sun was setting and I only had a few more hours to get to Viridian City before it was too dark to travel. 

Still holding onto my star-struck pokemon, I took off at a light jog while maintaining a pace that I could easily endure, similar to a marathon runner. It took us nearly two hours to reach the outskirts of Viridian City. I just crested the last hill as the sun fully set and I could see the city coming to life for the night. I took a few minutes to recover from the extended exercise I just completed. I didn't feel anymore winded than I normally would have after one of my workouts which I was ever thankful for deciding to do. 

I let out Skadi again and the two of us walked into the city and towards the pokemon center. In this world, pokemon centers are league owned and Joy operated hospitals and hotels for active trainers. Active trainers do not need to spend anything to stay at a center but you might not get the nicest room. They are made for high amounts of traffic so you can normally expect the minimum amount of amenities to be available in the room itself. 

Skadi and I take in the sights of a city at night. For Skadi, this is the first time she has seen something like this so she is looking around curiously. As for me, I am enjoying the difference between my memories and my new reality. I didn't feel the differences quite as much when I was living in Pallet town as I lived in a rural community back on earth, part of why I was excited to head to Niagara Falls. Yet now that I was in an urbanized area, the differences were drastic. 

The first difference was the smell. Cities on earth, no matter where you go, always have this smell of burnt fossil fuels. The smell is so omnipresent that you don't even realize it is there. Here, there is no usage of fossil fuels as people have learned how to use pokemon as an alternative source of energy. This means that all vehicles are electrically powered. Now the smell of humans still exists, I don't think that smell would ever go away. Dark alleys that smelled of trash, both biological and manufactured, urine, and sour alcohol. Wherever humans gather, so do those scents.

The other major difference I could tell is the lights. On earth, city lights produce a ton of light pollution and can be nearly as bright as daylight in places. Here in Viridian City, the lights are drastically toned down so as to not disrupt pokemon. They still produce enough light to see but it is angled and colored differently than the xenon or led lights of earth. Everything is lit up in a fashion similar to full moonlight, like the Moon Towers in Texas that I had heard about. 

It took us another thirty minutes of slowly walking through the city to finally reach the Pokecenter. The center was one of the only places that did not conform to the lighting of the rest of the city. The way the lights were positioned around the Pokecenter reminded me of the hotels in Vegas where they shine bright spotlights straight up to attract attention. The roof was a bright red color and had a flat spot in the center where flying pokemon could land. I don't think I could ever miss a Pokecenter in a city, which I suppose was intentional. I reached the Pokecenter a few moments later and passed through the front doors.