chapter 2: Love at first fight

Oceana pier

Crossing the pier, passing by grazing Fletchling(bird Pokemon), and a guy shouting something about a trip to Hoenn, Ray stumbles upon a sight that awakens some repressed memories, kids in school uniforms.

(Flashback 2 years ago)

Unova region

Castelia city

Castelia middle School

Castelia city is one of the biggest cities in Unova, therefore it's school was high maintenance, the kids we're all rich snubs, Ray was also rich but that did nothing for him personality wise, the kids in school were by the book, all liking the same thing, same music, same movies, same games etc, however the dark skinned boy enjoyed some weird stuff, like combining different snacks together, reading manga, shouting Pokemon moves aloud and posing strangely, to top it all off, he was honest to a fault so he didn't hide his true nature from the others

During an assembly after saying their school anthem, all the students put their right hand to their chest, however Ray cover the left side of his face with it and made a menacing face, the others looked at him confused as heck.

In the Cafeteria, Ray had a sandwich with peanut butter in it, yet he added soy sauce on top of it.

"Dude are you sure that's a good idea?" A boy passing by said.

"Yep, the spicy taste of the sauce, the sweetness of the bread and the peanut butter come together perfectly!" Ray said as he took a bite making the others feel disgusted.

In class some students were talking about their favorite artists,actors and trainers

"Did you hear DJ Leo's new song 'dig it out alola'? A girl with green hair said as she sat on her desk.

"Yah I did it's awesome, I think it's going to be in the new movie 'Kalos 7' with the famous actress Diantha, she's so hot!" A boy with an Afro said while smiling.

"Lance the dragon master is going to be in it too right? Hey Ray are you excited for the movie?" Another girl with pink hair tied into a ponytail asked.

"Not really... The manga is better, there the protagonist is a guy with a magikarp that faces evil, while in the movie it's a girl with a shaymin....." Ray blabbed out until he saw his classmates had ignored his rant and continued their discussion without him, making him feel even more left out.

These events were just a small portion of what he experienced in school, becoming an outcast for having his own special individuality and not following the norms, one of the main reasons his not fond of his home region Unova.

Present

"Hey kid, kid! You okay?" A man with a gray shirt said to Ray who was spaced out.

"Oh yah am fine..." Ray said calmly.

"You look gloomy, Gearan just up ahead" the man informed him.

Ray thanked the man and headed for the south gate of Gearan.

Gearan south gate

Ray entered the gates to find a receptionist calling him she had brown hair and wore a white dress, her name was Mable and she collected his trainer card since he didn't have any more passports.

Mable then got up from her desk and moved to another receptionist wearing the same dress, with Ray behind her.

"Hey Sable, I need you to verify this trainer's card, if not you what will happen to him" Mable said with a Stern face.

"Hai hai got it!" Sable said as put the card into a computer and pulled it out again.

Mable collected the card and handed it back to Ray.

"Congratulations Ray, your a verified trainer of Aevium now! Good luck"

"Thank you, now on to Gearan labs!" Ray shouted as he pointed to the sky, with sweat dripping from Mable.

East Gearan city

Ray awed at the amazing city he found himself in, a mixture a huge story buildings and normal bungalow all together in harmony, a line of purified water ran through a glass floor on the road all around the city, the weirdest part is that this was just the East part of Gearan west Gearan was even bigger but was blocked off for some reason.

Gearan laboratory

After admiring the city Ray decided to head to the laboratory, it was a huge blue building with 2 water tanks on top of the building.

Inside was even bigger having 2 parlours, 1 with books everywhere like a small library and the other having a flat screen television with people watching in it.

Ray entered the tv room to hear from the newscaster Volta(a girl with blonde hair) speaking about the missing S.S Oceana, which made him sad again.

He then spoke to a girl with long braided pigtails.

"Hey have you heard of the Garufa tribe, it's said that they used Pokemon as sacrifices to gain mysterious powers, that's so cruel" the pigtails girl said.

"Garufa tribe? Hmmm strange" Ray said, the word sounded familiar but he couldn't tell from where.

After that he met a girl wearing a black,red and white uniform, she had long red and black tied by a red baseball cap, her eyes were really sharp looking like they could see through stone.

"You really kept me waiting didn't you! It's me Amanda the scout for the Aevium league! Now that that's settled let's go get you a starter!" Amanda said cheerfully.

"Yay...." Ray said, he would have been happier but something about Amanda ticked him off.

As the two walked north of the laboratory into the waiting room next to the professor's room, a man with silver hair ran towards them.

"Amanda where have you been? it's been a week since you went to grand dream city! And left me with all the paperwork okay!" The man shouted at Amanda

"Come on bro, you know you're better at the paper work aspect of running the league while am the hands on director look I've got a a new trainer to evaluate" Amanda said pointing at Ray looking absent minded as usual.

"Oh you're the new trainer, my name's Jan, I manage the Pokemon league with my lazy sister right here" Jan said laughing to the dismay of Amanda.

"Nice to meet you, am Ray and am going to be the champion!" The dark skinned boy said while pointing to the ceiling again.

"Yah they all say that..., Give me a minute with my sister then you can continue" Jan said as he pulled Amanda to the sidelines while Ray looked around.

Ray saw a particular scene of a girl with green hair sleeping, she had a cute frilly lime dress on, along with her looks she was a 10/10 in his book, the next moment a strange man with wild purple hair and a lab coat enters the waiting room, wakes her up and the two leave, Ray wonders if he'll see that girl again.

"Okay let's go get your starter!" Amanda says as she walks away from Jan and into the professor's office.

Ray follows suit until the door opens again and his hit by something soft in the chest, Ray opens his eyes to see a girl on the floor.

She's blonde with chin length hair, a white sweater and black bike shorts, she's holding something like a briefcase in her left hand.

"Am so sorry are you okay?" Ray gives her a hand.

She takes his hand and Ray Sees her face, at that moment as he looked into her big dark gray eyes his heart skips a beat, her cheeks seemed full of life as if pinching them would give you Joy, her lips were plump and Rosey, Ray lifted her up without blinking still admiring her face.

"Thank you, am in a hurry so bye!" The girl quickly ran to the exit of the lab.

"Wait...(I didn't even get her name)" Ray sighed at his failure to get her name.

Professor Jenner's main office

Ray enters to see a blonde man in a lab coat talking to a woman with red hair on a flat screen.

"Make sure she's ready for pickup" the woman said in an obnoxious voice.

The man closes the channel and addressed Ray and Amanda.

"Oh you guys are early! Am professor Jenner" the man identified himself.

"We're actually late but whatever, this is Ray, he'll be getting his starter Pokemon" Amanda said.

"Oh alright, go help him pick one, after that I want to see him privately" Jenner asked

"Oh I guess that's fine" Ray said confused.

Starter habitats

Ray walked into an enclosure with 21 Pokemon, 3 habitats were there, a rocky terrain for the fire types, a forest terrain for the grass types and finally a murky terrain for the water types.

"Look Ray we've got all starters from 7 different regions, ain't that cool" Amanda said full of pride.

"It's cool but it makes choosing even harder!" Ray shouted as he was pissed off.

Ray didn't know what type to get, all he knew was he wasn't going to pick any starter from Unova, he looked at the rocky terrain but didn't see a fire type to his liking.

He moved to the forest terrain and grass types all looked lazy to him.

Finally the murky terrain, a turtle like Pokemon caught his eyes as it was showing great defense by blocking attacks from a blue otter Pokemon.

"Alright I'll take the turt.." before he could finish his sentence his face was hit with a soft ball, it was pulling his cheeks making him uncomfortable.

"Get off me!!" He tried to pull the ball off his face.

"Huh you want that Piplup? It's the only starter Pokemon that hasn't been replaced since the lab was established"

"Piplup?" Ray pulled the Pokemon off and saw it was a tiny blue penguin, it's expression was that of a warrior.

"More like it chose me, why hasn't anyone else picked it?" Ray asked.

"It's troublesome, doesn't obey it's trainers, and it's not a physical attacker yet it only likes using physical moves" Amanda explained.

"What a handful, if I pick you, we'll have to work on that okay?" Ray asked the Piplup.

Strangely the penguin acted docile and happy as it nodded it's head Amanda gave Ray Piplup's pokeball and Ray put a finger to his chin.

"What to nickname you?" Ray said as he looked at the big headed penguin.

"I'll just call you Pip for now!" Ray said as the penguin looked in total dismay at his poor naming skills.

"Pip,pip luppppp!" The bird said angrily.

"Nice nice, what do you say about me being your first Pokemon battle partner huh?" Amanda asked.

"Oh yeah my first official battle! Bring it!" Ray shouted and Pip also moved into positions happily.

"Alright I'll take it easy on you by using my newest Pokemon..... Listen!" Amanda shouted as she released a black and red kitty cat from a pokeball.

"Pip use peck! Am sure you know that right!" Ray shouted still unsure of Piplup's moveset.

"Piiiiii!" The birds yellow beak grew longer and white as it ran towards the cat.

(Heh, this is easy, along with Piplup's bad attack stats, litten has the hidden ability intimidate. Which will make that peak attack useless) "Go litten stand your ground and retaliate!" Amanda commanded.

"Liiiit!" The cat cried as it released it's intimidating aura to drop Piplup's attack however...

Piplup's aura glowed red as it's attack instead increased, the penguin smiled as it landed an attack on litten's chest.

"Pipppp!"

"Li....!" Litten was pushed all the way to the other side of room by the Peck attack.

"What?" (Was that.... 'Defiant?' that Piplup's got a hidden ability as well!)

Amanda said in disbelief.

"Wow Pip! Did you get stronger from that intimidate? It must be your ability or something! Awesome we won our first battle!" Ray shouted while jumping in the air and Piplup did the same.

(But still why would that Piplup choose him, and also develop have a hidden ability at the same time, weird) "Gee willickers Mary Ann! I was blown away by your potential, well I wish you good luck in your future battles bye!!!" Amanda said before rushing out.

"Huh okay bye, what's her deal?" Ray asked his partner who looked even more confused.

As Amanda ran out of the laboratory she could only think of one thing (this got become a big problem in future).

As Ray walked back to professor Jenner with Piplup riding on his shoulder, he sees a boy with black hair wearing dark clothing,next to him was a blue frog with white bubbles on it's neck.

"Am back from amethyst cave professor, Froakie's a bit hard to handle but am getting used to him" the boy said as he looked at his frog.

"Wow that's a starter from kalos, hey can we battle!" Ray quickly asked.

"Oh Ray. It seems you picked Piplup, I was sure you would, he was waiting for a special trainer and he seems to have found one" the professor said confirming Piplup was male.

"Oh so you're the new trainer hehe, am Ren the professor aide and I accept your challenge!" Ren said with a cocky voice.

"Awesome! am Ray and I won't lose to you!" Ray shouted while making the peace sign with his fingers.

[After a series of quick attacks it seemed like Froakie had the speed advantage giving him the win against Piplup].

"Aw I lost!!!" Ray shouted while holding a knocked out Piplup.

"Heh! That's the skill of a goldenleaf trainer! But you were awesome let's meet up again" Ren said with a bashful face.

"Huh you're leaving already?" Jenner asked.

"Yah I've got to go meet up with my friends, see you around professor, Ray!" Ren said as he ran out.

"Did I just get a rival!" Ray said with stars in his eyes.

"Back to business, Ray I need a favor from you, I just sent my daughter to route 1, could you follow her and make sure she's safe" Jenner asked.

"Your daughter? Wait a sec! Was she blonde and holding a briefcase?" Ray asked.

"Yep that's Melia, will you do it?" Jenner said with serious eyes.

"(Melia, her name's Melia...) Yeah I will" Ray said as he recalled the memory of the cute girl he met some minutes ago.

Jenner gives Ray a pokedex and a cybernav(an enhanced pokegear) then Ray stepped out of his office, Jenner sank back into his chair as he closed his eyes (everything's in motion now).

Ray gets a lecture from Jan about the gym mechanics and how he'll help with strategies when Ray needs him, and that Gearan is owned by the Blakeory family.

East Gearan gardens

After healing Piplup Ray decided to train a bit, by doing help quests in the help center building in the city(read the Ray's side stories for more details), challenging trainers around the city, buying pokeballs, berries and potions and most of all battling wild Pokemon.

Ray entered the green gardens of Gearan, where different plants and shrubs were, the field was a grassy terrain which healed up Piplup from time to time.

Suddenly a group of grass types came from a huge bush including a Pansage(grass monkey), budew, bellsprout, lillip all part of the flower looking family.

"Alright Pip use Peck!" Ray ordered and the penguin went to work.

"Pip! pip! pip! pip!" Pip attacked all the grass Pokemon with it enlarged beak.

"Now pokeballs go!" Ray shouted as he threw 4 balls at the damaged Pokemon.

Ray caught all the grass Pokemon in the garden and sent all of them to his PC except the strongest bellsprout, a walking yellow Venus flytrap.

"Alright bellsprout welcome to the team!" Ray shouted as he and Piplup welcomed the lazy looking flytrap into his party.

Christola hotel resort

This was the only building Ray hadn't entered in the whole city, it was a huge yellow hotel with 3 floors, inside was even more amazing as it looked so clean and well kept.

Ray walked over to the receptionist (an old man) only to be rudely received.

"We don't need street rats in here! Get out!" The man shouted.

"Who are you calling a street rat! You fat Kermit!" Ray shouted mocking the man's frog like face.

All of a sudden Ray is flung into the air by a chargeing force.

"Ahhh! ouch" Ray falls on his face after landing and jumps up to see a gold and red trolley had hit him.

"Owie powie kazowie, lowie! that hurt!" A young girl with black shoulder length hair shouted.

She had a red hair ornament that looked like a rose, her clothing looked like a black and red school uniform with a red scarf around her neck, she looked a little younger than Ray but her snarky expression made her look older.

Ray stood up to face her and she was reaching his shoulder in height.

"What's the big idea!" He shouted.

"Ah my bad, I lost control of that thing tee hee" the girl said with her tongue out.

"Miss Saki! You shouldn't waste time on a street rat like him! He should be happy for getting run over by you" The receptionist said.

"The hell!" Ray looked at the receptionist with blood red eyes.

"Oh damn! Val will kill me if am late! By the way what's your name stranger?" Saki asked.

"It's Ray, just Ray" Ray said still pissed at the receptionist

"Well am..." Before Saki could finish.

"This is Saki Blakeory! Daughter and Heir to the Blakeory fortune, kneel peasant!" The receptionist shouted.

"Screw you! I don't care if she's the daughter of the king of the world, I ain't kneeling!" Ray shouted.

Saki chuckled at this scene as she walked into an elevator "You're really weird dude, I hope we Meet again, sayonara!" She said as the elevator closed.

She's weird... but also kind of cute, Ray made a mental note as he left the hotel.

Gearan train station

As Ray was about to enter a blue and pink train station to go to route 1, he heard some God awfully loud music.

«🎵D O G A R S Dogars!🎵»

The music drawed his attention to a purple house.

"Veronica turn off that music before the neighbors complain again, I don't want the police involved!" A loud voice shouted from the house.

"You can't stop me mom, and don't call me Veronica!" Another voice was heard.

At that moment the roof of the house was breached and a girl came flying from it amd landed right next to Ray.

"Gyahhhhhhhh! Are you okay?!" Ray rushed over to the girl who was motionless on the ground, she had bright purple hair with pink flower hair pins, wearing a black,red and white shirt and skirt.

He picked her up and she grabbed his left hand.

"It's too late for me, I can already see the light.... If only I could taste a pecha berry one last time" the girl said softly.

Ray reached into his backpack and brought out a pink heart shaped berry, "Here.." Ray offered but in the blink of an eye the girl had engulfed the berry as well as Ray's fingers in her mouth.

The soft texture Ray felt from his fingers made his face red.(my fingers....in her mouth!! Kyahh)

The girl let go his fingers and licked her lips, "how about an oran berry when you're at it" the girl said nonchalantly.

Ray caught on to what she was doing and dropped her gently on the floor,

"For a dying person you sure are bossy" he said as he walked back to the train station.

"Hold up, come on is it that wrong to trick people into giving you free food?.... Don't answer that" she said as she pulled on Ray's gray jacket.

"You could have just asked me normally!" Ray shouted.

"Awww you are a nice guy, my name's Venam don't call me Veronica, why don't you come hang out with me and my friends near the abandoned sewers" Venam said with a smug face as she ran off.

Ray not wanting to tick off a girl, decided to go meet her in the abandoned sewers, on the way there he met Karrina a gang leader and protector of Gearan, who offers him a place in her gang if he gets stronger.

Ray reaches the entrance to the sewer factory where he sees Ren talking to Venam. "Heh! Quit it already Veronica, that berry trick won't work on me!" Ren shouts

"Don't me call Veronica you fake ninja! As a guy you should give a girl what she wants!" Venam shouted.

"Wow you're a girl? Could have fooled me" Ren retorted.

Venam saw Ray approaching her and Ren and started to cling to his jacket making Ray blush in surprise.

"Ray you see how he treats me! Awful!" Venam fake sobbed on Ray's jacket.

(Enough with the teasing already! Am at full mast!) Ray cried in his mind as smoke started coming from his head.

"Oh Ray you know Venam? Cool" Ren said to Ray who was mentally trying to keep calm.

"Oh you know Ray, Ren? Well no need for introductions Melia in the sewer and needs our help let's go!" Venam said as she let go of Ray's jacket and headed to the sewer factory door.

"Wait Melia isn't in route 1?" Ray asked.

"Nope, the powers out so she came down here to fix it" Ren answered as he and Ray walked behind Venam.

Abandoned sewers

A place with a collection of scents, pipes and crawling with strong trainers.

Venam quickly ran off to find Melia while Ray was left to chat with Ren.

"Welcome to the abandoned sewers, I have to admit even I ain't strong enough to March through this place alone so let's double team this, together we'll destroy them all muhahaaha!" Ren laughed evilly while Ray looked a bit confused.

"It's a joke.." Ren explained.

"Oh... Hahahahahaha!" Ray

Gave a hefty laugh before he and Ren continue.

While battling trainers together Ray saw that Ren had a red and yellow puppy (Growlithe) now part of his own party. On the way the duo ran into one of Venam's friend, she had long curly brown hair and wore a yellow sailor school uniform.

"The name's Luca and am the toughest trainer here!" She shouted.

"Do you have to be so loud" Ren asked.

"Yes I do!, come out Patrat, Munna!" Luca sent out a rat with weird eyes and a floating pink tapir.

Ray and Ren easily took down Luca with their water staters Piplup and Froakie.

Sewerek

After the battle Ray and Ren decided to go to the sewer restaurant Sewerek and had some mystery bowl ramen, the ingredients were unknown but it tasted pretty good, while Ren was slurping down the Noddles he turns to see Ray adding mustard to his.

"Is it tasty? With mustard?" Ren asked.

"Yah kinda tangy tho" Ray said with a mouthful of yellow noodles.

Ren tried some mustard to Ray's surprise, nobody has ever tried his weird food combos before.

"Actually pretty good, weird but good"

Ren said as he took another bite.

Ray smiled a bit and continued eating.

On the way to the electric grid, Ray and Ren are stopped by a horde of noibats the sound wave Pokemon, Ray attempt to catch one but...

"Pokeball go!" Ray threw the ball at one of the big eared purple bat but it avoids it.

"Woo woo!!!" A ball of green fluff with wings and a pig nose is hit instead and is caught instead.

"Oh damn i caught a woobat instead, pfft... let's just go" Ray says in disappointment, it was his last pokeball now he couldn't catch anymore.

Power grid

Ray and Ren in a place filled with generators and sees venam and Melia talking about something.

"See Melia the experiment worked the trash bags aren't here anymore, if they turn out shiny it will mean you've got an aura ability!" Venam said waving her hands in the air.

"We can solve that later for now what do you think is cutting the electric wires here?"

"Hey ladies! The guys are here!" Ren said as he puffed out his chest.

"You sure took your damn time!" Venam shouted looking pissed.

Melia faces Ray who's cheeks start to red up from her gaze.

"You... I met you in the lab this morning didn't I?" Melia said surprised.

"Ummm yah that was me! it was destiny for us to meet, am Ray the future champion!" Ray said arrogantly as he twisted around in a circle.

"Cool am Melia. Ren, Venam let's think of a plan" Melia said coldly in response.

Melia's cold response hit Ray hard as he sulked on the floor, then all of a sudden...

"Trubb, trubbish!" Two garbage looking Pokemon came out from the flowing sewer water.

"I knew it! It worked the trash bags turned it Pokemon" Venam shouted.

"What the hell!" Ran screamed at the weird situation.

"Garbodor !!!!!" A giant purple trash monster appeared. From the sewage next to Melia on top of the electric monitor.

"Melia it's a shiny! That proves you've got an aura ability to draw in shiny Pokemon" venam shouted.

"Shut up!" Ren covered her mouth.

Ray's pokedex went to work

Garbodor the trash heap Pokemon

It's known for shooting out 7 different kinds of poisons from it's body.

"Garrrrr!" The trash monster reached out for Melia.

"Kyahh!" Melia shouted, but...

"Piplupp!" Pip shouted as it hit the trash monster's claw away with it's beak.

"I won't let you touch Melia you Unovan trash heap!" Ray shouted as he shielded Melia.

"I'll help out too! Go froakie!" Ren said as he released his frog to fight along side Ray.

"I've got the two trubbishs then, Zubat let's go!" Venam sent out a tiny blue bat.

"Woobat go help venam too!" Ray shouted at the fur ball sleeping in his bag.

"Woowoo!" The bat hurried to Venam's side so she could face multiple Pokemon.

"Wooooooo" woobat used a psychic wave of energy to push a trubbish back onto the sewage.

"Truuub!!!" The garbage shouted as it was knocked out.

"Holy shit! That's thing's actually strong?" Ray said wondering how that pig furball bat was so strong.

"Zubat wing attack!" Venam shouted as her own blue bat attacked the other trubbish making it weak.

"Go pokeball!" Venam threw her own pokeball catching the left over garbage.

"Nice one Venam!" Ray complimented.

"Ray focus on the boss!" Ren shouted as the shiny Garbodor used pound on Piplup.

"Pip!" Piplup screamed as it was pushed back.

"Oh damn Piplup we can't attack on close range so use bubble!" Ray said.

Piplup not happy with it's trainer's decision begrudgingly shot out a stream of blue bubbles at Garbodor forcing it back.

"Garboooooo!" The trash monster shot out it's own stream of poison as a Gunk shot, cancelling out the bubbles.

"Keep going Piplup send out more bubbles!"Ray ordered.

"You too froakie water pulse!" Ren ordered as well.

" Pipppplupppp!," Froooookie!" The penguin and the frog sent out their water bubbles and orb attacks at the same time and collided, forming a blue light.

"That's!" Melia shouted surprised.

The orb of spiral water was now surrounded by bubbles, a COMBO MOVE ‹WATER BUBBLE PULSE!›.

The combo move hit Garbodor head on and forced it back into the sewage.

"Alright!" "Good one bro" Ray and Ren fist bumped each other and so did their two water starters.

"You guys were amazing! you're really strong together to perform a perfect combo move like that!" Melia said impressed.

Ren smiled normally but Ray blushed like crazy(she's praising me!) While his penguin looked embarrassed at it's trainer's behavior.

"But still if we were in real danger I would have saved us all with this briefcase" Melia said as she lifted up the briefcase her father gave her and rubbed her cheek against it.

"You and that briefcase hehehehehe" both Venam and Ren laughed as Ray just admired how cute Melia looked while cuddling up the briefcase.

After repairing the broken pipes and

Monitors on the sewer the group could finally chat.

"Am going to wait here and see if those things come back, later Melia, Ray and dofus!" (not like I can go back home when my mom kicked me out) Venam said cheerfully.

"I'll go to the library and study up on more moves for froakie, got to get stronger! Later Melia, Ray and trash!" Ren said as he rushed off.

"Ha! Dad said I should go do some research in route 1, hey Ray want to come with me?"

"Hehhhhh! Just the 2 of us?" Ray asked nervously.

"Yep route 1 Is a great place for rookie trainers, and it would be nice having a friend around" Melia gave a bright smile.

(A friend, even though I was kinda creepy before, she still called me a friend) "O....Kay" Ray said while scratching his hair.

(All these people Venam,Ren and even Melia haven't even sent me away or looked in disgust at my behavior. If I had people like this in Unova..... Am sure I would have been happier) Ray thought to himself as he and Melia walked out of the sewers.

Next chapter Ray's first date?