Swellow Your Doubts!

Picture an arena the size of a small soccer field in the dead of the night. The blinding stadium lights keep the battlefield clear as day and you can see the monsters—pocket monsters, mind you—clashing in the center, in all their splendid ferocity. On one side stands a purple phantom with menacing red eyes and a sinister smile creeping across its face. On the other, a large pink rat with a row of long horns lining its head and back. You feel the tension nipping at your fingers as the two creatures stare each other down for what feels like far too long. Eventually, the phantom makes the first move, and you watch from the edge of your seat as it raises its ghostly arm and swipes at the rat. The pink monster nimbly dodges the attack by hopping to its left, and promptly lunges at the phantom…

Welcome to the world of Pokémon. My name is Sean, and this is the story of how I became the very best, like no one ever was.

> NEW GAME

CONTINUE

"Waaah!"

If the bump of the bus hitting the pothole on the road wasn't enough to wake me up, the feeling of having someone slam into me immediately afterwards certainly was.

It took me a second or two to come to terms with the situation I was in, but when I did, I tried to open my mouth to breathe, only to get a mouthful of hair in my mouth. The person that had been tossed across the bus and had just unintentionally body-slammed me--a petite girl in high school age--shrieked and scuttled off of me, her red jacket rubbing across my face and knocking my glasses off my face in the process.

"Eeek!"

I felt the bus pull over. "Miss, are you okay?" asked the bus driver, showing no visible concern for my own well-being. "I'm really sorry. I wish I could have avoided that pothole, but the road was too narrow."

I flicked my tongue around the inside of my mouth to make sure I hadn't lost any teeth in the impact before continuing. "Excuse me--" I began.

Unfortunately, the girl cut me off. "Yes, I'm fine!" she said. "I'm sorry! I should have held on harder to the railing..."

I patted the general area of the seat vigorously, then proceeded to feel around the floor around my feet, all in search of my missing pair of glasses. Just as the driver was about to rev the engine back up, I noticed a glint of the sunlight reflecting off of the pair's lenses coming from the seat in front of me. However, as soon as the engine started up, the bus accelerated forward in a jerky motion, prompting the glasses to slide all the way under the seat and just out of my reach.

Defeated, I huffed and sat up. I was not about to get down on my hands and knees to fetch anything from under the seat of a moving bus so long as I could help it. "I could get seriously hurt if I try to reach down there while the bus is moving," I told myself. "Guess I'll have to wait for it to stop..."

"You really should watch your grip, Elise. You could have seriously hurt someone," said one of the other passengers, adjusting her glasses as if to prove her point. I could have sworn she gave me a passing glance as she said that, but if she did, she was most likely too indifferent to point me out. The two girls' faces were very similar, to the point where I'd consider them clones if not for the subtle difference in their eye color and choice of jacket. The girl that had just spoke up had a light blue jacket on, and sported a shorter bob cut hairstyle, as opposed to Elise's longer one.

"I'm sorry, Elsa. My hands just got tired, is all." sighed Elise, slumping her shoulders and pouting.

A third girl, this one noticeably taller than the other two and in a deep purple jacket, stepped in and placed her bony hand on Elise's head. "There, there. Accidents happen. What matters is that you're okay, after all."

With that last part being said, I grunted. Not wanting to start any confrontation, I dusted off my clothes and rested my head against the glass window in a futile attempt to let sleep drift me away. Just as I was about to close my eyes, I noticed that the bus had finally exited the mountain range it had been driving through for the past few hours, leaving the blue sky and the azure sea on full display. The entire bus erupted into a chorus of "Ooh's" and "Ahh's" as all the passengers looked out their windows to take in the wondrous sights.

"Look at that one!" Elise pointed at a plump swallow-like Pokemon gliding through the wind, slightly faster than the bus. "I've never seen a bird Pokemon as pretty as that one!" The Pokemon looked at the passengers and let out its trademark chirping cry.

Elsa adjusted her glasses again, allowing me to take a good look at her expressive eyes without the glare getting in the way. "Come to think of it, there aren't a lot of pretty bird Pokemon in Kanto that I can think of. Pidgeot are pretty elegant, but I think these swallow Pokemon beat them in that regard."

"It's actually pronounced 'Swellow'," I chimed in. "They're very common where I'm from. They're Normal/Flying-Type Pokemon that evolve from Taillow."

"Really?" asked the taller girl, turning towards me. "I'm usually not a fan of bird Pokemon, but those Swellow are really pretty. Part of me wants to throw a Poke Ball out the window and see if I land anything."

"But Ellie, how are you going to get the Poke Ball back if you threw it out the window?" asked Elise.

There was a moment of silence as Ellie thought her answer through. When she was done, she gave the smaller girl a toothy grin. "Don't worry about it."

"Look at that other bird Pokemon!" Elise exclaimed, pointing at a flying Pokemon that was quickly descending towards the ocean below. "I wonder what it's doing..."

The Pokemon in question was very far away, so I couldn't identify the Pokemon by noticing its visual features alone, but with a good squint, I could identify it by its massive beak and its behavior. "Oh, that's a Pelipper!" I exclaimed. "It's--" I began.

"It's fishing," answered Elsa, cutting me off. As she said this, she adjusted her glasses such that the glare covered her eyes and smirked just enough to reveal the tip of a glistening white canine tooth.

The three sisters watched the waves silently for a few seconds before the Pelican Pokemon emerged with its massive beak filled past its capacity with wild Magikarp. I noticed that Elise in particular watched with her eyes wide open as one baby Magikarp jumped from the Pelipper's mouth as it was taking off, free-falling a few meters before falling into the murky depths once more. She slowly turned to her sisters with her mouth agape to the maximum reach of her lower jaw.

Well, at least she missed when the bird swallowed the entire mouthful of Magikarp at once.

"Nature sure is scary..." she finally said, her voice echoing how disheartened her face looked.

Ellie gave a comforting tug at the hood of her sister's jacket. "Hey, don't worry. Pokemon are fascinating creatures, and once the three of us graduate from this new school, there won't be a single Pokemon that won't bend its knee to us!"

"But Sis, some Pokemon don't have knees..." whimpered Elise.

"We'll just make them bend some other part of their body in reverence. No big deal." How Elsa--or anyone--could say such a thing with the straightest of faces, I have no idea.

"Stop it, Elsa, you're making it sound even scarier!" cried Elise. They all looked the same age, but it was pretty clear that these sisters have a hierarchy kind of thing going on.

"Wait, so all three of you are enrolling into Kobukan Academy too?" I asked the three from the seat behind them, completely conscious that I was killing the mood.

"Of course we are!" exclaimed Elsa. With another confident adjustment of her glasses and a head tilted upwards, she spoke with a giddy smile on her face. "The Shroomie sisters are going to rule the school!" She turned to Ellie. "Isn't that right?"

"I'm not sure about 'ruling the school', but I defintely hope we all come out Pokemon Masters when we graduate in three years." They're all graduating at once, so that would make them triplets... I think. Ellie then extended the hand she wasn't using to grip onto the railing. "My name's Ellie Shroomie. These are my sisters, Elsa and Elise."

Elise shot me a nervous grin. "Hi. Sorry for crashing into you earlier."

"It's okay," I answered. As the chuckle left my mouth, I almost gagged as I noticed how fake it felt. "My name's Sean Sanchez. I'm a first-year from the Hoenn region. I take it you're from Kanto?" I tried asking them a question out of fear of stagnating the conversation.

"Yeah!" answered Elise. "We're from Celadon City. Ellie was the reserve Gym Leader for about a year while the real Gym Leader left to study here! Now it's our turn to take the spotlight!"

"Wow, a reserve Gym Leader." I opened my eyes a little wider. "You must be a really strong Pokemon Trainer, especially among rookies like me."

"Not really," Elsa added. "She lost more than she won, which was why she--with the two of us in tow--was sent here to study on a full scholarship."

Immediately after Elsa finished speaking, the side of Ellie's open hand bashed against the crown of her head. "He doesn't need to know that!" growled the embarrassed elder sister. I'll have to admit, it warranted a constrained chuckle from me. Just as I was done enjoying the sisterly bonding the three were sharing, I felt something slide against the tip of my shoe. I noticed that the object in question was a pair of glasses of a similar enough color to mine, and in a severe lapse of judgment, I picked them up and put them on without a second thought.

"Why is everything even blurrier than before?" I asked, noticing that everything inside and outside the bus had become extremely foggy and borderline indistinguishable.

"Hey, give those back!" cried Elsa, snatching the pair from my face. Within an instant, everything became clear enough for me to notice the girls' faces again.

"Oh, those were yours?" I asked her. "Sorry, I'm just a little desperate looking for mine."

"That's right! You dropped your glasses when I crashed into you earlier, right? I'm so sorry..." Elise mumbled.

"I told you, it's fine. I'll just drop down and look for them when the bus sto--" I was about to finish when the bus stopped to a screeching halt.

"Alright, everyone off. Welcome to Kobukan Academy," said the bus driver.

When I looked out the window, I noticed that we had already reached the heart of the big city. Huge buildings surrounded the bus, a sea of people of all shapes and sizes lined the sidewalk, and neon signs like "Burger Kingler" and "Brave and 'Busken's" caught my eye, among many others. "I guess time flies when you're having fun."

"Yeah. I wish we'd gotten the chance to enjoy the city landscape on the way here, but I'm guessing we'll have a lot more chances starting today." Ellie sighed. "Come on, girls. We don't want to be late to registration."

"But Sean..." Elise began.

"Don't worry about me! I'll catch up to you later," I assured the girls.

"Alright! Make sure the bus doesn't leave with you still in it." said Elsa, as the triplets made their way off the bus.

Once I had my glasses on and I took my first steps off the bus, I could finally catch a decent enough view of the campus that would become my home for the next thre years. A huge iron fence with bars about twice as tall as I was surrounded the whole thing, and in front of me was a beautifully ornate building with beautiful murals of Legendary Pokemon lining the walls. I could identify a few of these legends from the history books back at Hoenn, but I was surprised by how many there were from around the world.

With a heavy gulp, I made my way through the open gate, taking in the circumstances I'd be thrust into the moment I'd come out the other end.

"So this is how everything begins… My new life as a student in the Academy, and my career as a Pokémon Trainer. My very own Pokémon adventure is about to unfold."

> Would you like to save the game?

> YES

> Saving, don't turn the power off…

> The game has been saved.

TO BE CONTINUED.