Pokedex Entry#007: Cleaved

Welcome back, readers. You've waited long enough. Let's get right into the action! Last time out heroes were successful in defeating the triumvirate, but while their enemies are getting stronger, our heroes might be getting weaker. Let's see where this leads.

Taylor POV

Today was the day, a day that I had long been excited ever since I learned about the concept of trainers. Today will be the day where I finally catch my Pokemon, which had unfortunately been delayed till now. But I guess to talk about that, we needed to address the Donphan in the room. Years ago, a popular trend was that Pokedex originally needed a special Pokemon called Rotom to work. Still, after the near destruction of the Aether Foundation by a swarm computer infected Rotom, they were soon discontinued. 2 years after that incident, a new force soon took over: Wisty Lorre, the proclaimed tech wizard herself, made her appearance with two major achievements.

The first was the Pokedex (HANDY ver. 1000), which turned the gizmo from an encyclopedia of Pokemon to a mini-computer. The second was Poke tube, where thousands of videos and pics could be shared around the world.

From this system, we got the ever-present ranking system for all trainers, and recently I had been put on the list. Ever since Kopi's victory for the Triumvirate, we had been the talk of the town, which not only made Kopi's cover hard to contain and even harder to start right back on my journey. But my popularity had finally died down after five days. My objective to catch a Pokemon could wait no longer.

I wake up to the sound of my vibrating alarm as I quickly got dressed. Almost instinctively, I was about to wake the sleeping... Ditto up, but an instant flash of the events prior drew my hand back. You have to understand, I know he cares, I know he wouldn't hurt me, but I still couldn't think about how such a seemingly kind face could also enjoy such violence or what he would ever do with a nobody like me? Those three weeks were so fast I never even asked the questions that needed answering. Either way, I thought I would make that choice for myself, by myself. I left a note explaining that any cameras with him would expose his identity as I headed to route 201.

It took a while, but all too soon, the town started to fade away as I quickly grew used to the route ahead of me. When I finally got deeper into the route, I finally took out my Pokemon.

"Golett, show your stuff!"

Golett appeared with the same docile look he always had; I thought for a second that he had gone back to his usual self.

"Um, hey Golett, I'm going to go catch some Pokemon, you ready to rock?"

But in typical golett fashion, he gave an eccentric thumbs up and then erupted into a host of poses.

"Well, it looks like he's as energetic as ever," said a familiar voice.

I turned around to see Mr.Kopi in his human form right behind me. His grey hair and eyes clashed with army cargo pants and a blue shirt with a Pokeball on it. In a complete surprise, I backed away in excitement as all I could ask was.

"How the heck in distortion did you get here!?"

"Well, I saw your note, cleaned up the room, and threw myself out the window to fly all the way here. Also, language Taylor please."

It took me a second to get the second to understand, but then I realized that was dumb of me; he could find me once, why not again. Mr. Kopi continued his claim.

"Anyway, with everything being so crazy lately, I thought the closest thing I could do was help you with your catch. It's been a while, but it's time I brought out the charm button."

"Charm button?" I asked confusingly.

"Long story short, tell me the Pokemon you wish to bring, and I can use muscle memory to save it and emit the proper pheromones to attract the opposite sex over a large radius. Apex wanted me to be more than a weapon, but a gatherer, an infiltrator, but that is behind me now. Either way, better to help you than them, right?"

And just like that another face shown, Mr.Kopi never once shown: a mix of sadness and nostalgia took over, and once again, what I thought was him was once again ruined. Even with a tempting offer, I decided to keep with my plan; I still needed time to think.

"It's okay, Kopi; I think I'm going to do this one solo, I got snacks and potions, so I'll probably be back by sunset at least. Gotta get that experience, right?"

Kopi looked at me with genuine disappointment but acceptance as he said.

"Okay, then happy hunting," he said as he left me to my devices.

A funny thing happened when he left though, something felt off, like I had changed something that had always been there. This feeling only grew with time as I spent the morning fringing with my Golett (and I instantly regret saying that). Golett was around lv8 when I found it, and thanks to a couple of weeks with training, especially with the tips from Kopi, it's close to lv10. All the other Pokemon were nothing that I couldn't handle. It even became a tempo of mine, but I didn't see the same "spark" that I had now seen in my Golett. That was until I find a blur brush past! In an instant, I saw the blur try and tackle Golett, but it only ended up hitting a tree!

When it finally stopped, I soon realized what the blur was: A jittery zigzagoon. As it ran into the tree, it quickly turned around the tree and faced off against a Gollet who readied a boxing stance, with a little gesture asking for more. I suddenly got excited as a battle commenced! Though it wasn't that good as Golett phased through every normal attack and in only a couple of pounds, he was down and out, though it was still a slog trying to time it just right as he spasmed around. I was about the capture the jitter Pokemon, but out of nowhere, a female Nidoran came and knocked the Pokeball far away.

In a surprise, I see the Nidoran talk with its friend as a feeling of familiar nostalgia that I couldn't quite get at the minute. Once again, I saw a spark as the Nidoran triumphantly looked towards with all the pride in the world as it tried a powerful scratch attack! But like before, the Golett was unphased as in a single mud slap, Nidoran was sent into crashing into a tree! I would try and catch it again, but it still kept standing, unwilling to surrender. Careful to make sure that I didn't harm it further, I threw my 2 Pokeball with all my might! The 2 Pokeballs wriggled restlessly, and as I sat in anticipation and praying to Arceus will all my might, the Pokeballs stopped, signifying a perfect capture! For a couple of seconds, all I could do was stand in disbelief until the excitement couldn't be contained any longer as I jumped up in pure glee.

"A perfect capture! What did you think of that mr.-"

Then I realized that he was gone, that I drove him away, my mind carried itself on how I even met Kopi in the first place.

About a year ago, before he ever came along, I was stuck in a rut. With my endless energy and my hobby of reading, the girls in twinleaf and I never saw eye to eye. And after I explored seemingly every mystery I could find in the boring town, a new one suddenly opened up. All across the town almost overnight, everyone had been talking about a mysterious guy the girls fawned over him, and the girls were certainly impressed. But two weeks had gone by, and I didn't see him once I was half expecting the man to be a myth, so I decided to take the gamble and get to the bottom of it.

For days on end, I would run across the town at breakneck speed, but I was always one step behind. One time I had just tried to make a stakeout for myself. For what seemed like forever, I waited for him until a voice called out.

"So who are we looking for?"

In a start, I backed away until I gazed upon him for the very first time. But this was the only thing I could say.

"Huh, thought you would be taller."

And just like that, an awkward friendship was born. I told Mr.Kopi about my quest for a new adventure, and in response, he was amazed at all the little discoveries I made along the way. The real fear after that battle was in that he was using me as a cover, that he didn't care at all about me at all, that our friendship meant something. But upon reflection and seeing all he has been through, I was his only friend he had and said before, he was trying to be better than all he's ever known. And this journey wouldn't be fun without him. In a couple of hours, I healed my new teammates: Ziggy and Nadia, and headed over to air it all out finally. I ran back to the lab at a start, and as I saw Mr.Kopi with my heaving frame.

"I've got to say something," we both simultaneously.

We both saw who wanted to go first until Mr.Kopi won out.

"I'm sorry that I forced your hand to do that stunt with me, Taylor. I thought that exposing you to a little danger would, at the very least, protect you when I'm not around, but I also didn't mean for you to get hurt like that. I could use what I learned for some good, but I guess I was."

"That's not true, Mr.Kopi. I'm not mad at you at all; I don't think I ever was. And what you did was right, to a certain extent. I have to be stronger if I'm ever going to continue on my journey, and I'm not going to let you deny who you are for my sake. And I think as long as we keep going, as long as we keep moving together, we will find out the mystery that we seek. What do you think?"

Mr.Kopi looked it over but soon relented as all he said was this.

"I think that you're going to be an awesome trainer, and I can't wait to see how we grow together."

And as we both shook hands in the wake of our promise, my sense of adventure grew all the stronger as I waited for what could come next.

And with that, a bond is reborn! With Taylor now stronger than ever and our fabulous ditto is now unencumbered, the sky is the limit for our two heroes. The journey continues forward.