And so, the journey begins...

[Hikaru]

While today was probably the most important day of Hiki's life, she had to stop in front of the huge laboratory for a few minutes. In fact, her legs were so tired from walking that she had to sit down, but that didn't really matter much to her. She shrugged her denim messenger bag off of her shoulder and looked up, squinting, at the large building she was just about to enter. Her thoughts wandered.

She thought about how it was just a little while ago, maybe ten or twenty minutes, that she said goodbye to her father, and had seen him for what might be the last time for years to come. She'd said goodbye to her mother even earlier, considering it was only Hiki and Daddy who'd traveled such a long way to Pallet Town. Now Daddy had to go all the way back to Kyoto, which was so far away... She wondered if she would even be able to visit him before her adventure ended.

Speaking of that... Today was the day she'd get her first Pokemon. Not a tame, harmless creature who was so old their years were numbered. She wanted an uncaged, wild beast who would fight for her, and who doubled as a reliable friends outside of battle matters. Yes... That's what she wanted. She thought back to all of the things she'd planned out the night before: where she would go next, what she would do...

Hiki stood up, a smile now on her face, and grabbed her bag. Though she was tired from the long walk she'd just been through, she was ready for almost anything that a ten-year-old could successfully deal with, and she began to march up the hill towards the lab.

[Hikaru]

After a short hike up the hill, Hiki found herself facing two great, big doors. Her right hand was occupied with her messenger bag, so she awkwardly tapped three times with the clenched fist of her left. Could he hear it? She certainly was right-handed... Maybe if she just switched her messenger bag to her other hand...

Before she could do anything, the door was flung inward, open. "Well, hello there! I'm Professor Oak," cried a very eccentric-looking old man in a white labcoat. Hiki stared at him for a moment, startled by his enthusiasm. But she wanted to be polite, so she smiled and gave him a little shrug, a way of her saying that she didn't quite know what to do. The man laughed. "Well, then, come on in!"

Hiki allowed herself to be dragged in by the giddy professor, but was stunned to see the elaborate interior that matched the exquisite exterior. It was crammed-full with high-tech stuff, but seemed, for some reason, very neat and orderly, despite all the books that piled on the tables, and all of the papers that had become so numerous that they'd simply drifted to the ground and laid there. But what really caught her eye was the pretty, circular dome-pillar-thing in the middle of a circular section of the room. Excited, she hurried forward.

The Professor made no attempt to stop her, but merely chuckled. Hiki was intently looking into the glass dome atop the pillar, which was empty except for five circles evenly spaced with slashes through their middles on the top of the pillar. She stopped after a second. She was being rude again, wasn't she? She hadn't even invited her name!

"I'm Hikaru," she said, making sure to use her real name instead of her nickname. "But you could call me Hiki if you wanted to. But if you don't want to, then just call me Hikaru." She nodded, but wasn't facing him. She still stared at the dome intently, like something was going to happen. Did she have to take some sort of test to be able to choose her starter?

Oak laughed aloud. "I think I'll stick with Hikaru for now. So... Have you given any thought to which Pokemon you're going to start with?" Hikaru started to shake her head no, when she realized what the question was and immediately turned around. Here it comes... she thought eagerly.

"Yes!" she said. "I think so!" The Professor laughed again, and moved around to the other side of the pillar+dome, and pressed a button or something, because the next moment she saw mini-pillars rising up from the circles with slashes in them. Each little pillar had a pillow on top, and each pillow had a pretty pokeball sitting on them. Her eyes scanned over them, flashing, and caught on the little symbols that were placed center on the red half, just over the release button.

One was a red and orange flame. The next was a small water droplet. The third was a leaf, the fourth was a lightning bolt, and the fifth looked like the fire, water, and lightning symbol circling each other in almost what looked like trio symbol. She grinned up at Professor Oak, who opened his mouth to talk.

"I'll tell you about the starters before you choose, regardless of whether you've already chosen one yet." He moved so he could clearly indicate towards each pokeball turn. "Your first option is Charmander, a fire pokemon. Trainers with Charmanders as their starters tend to like challenges, as Charmanders will help you with neither the first two, nor the last two gyms, and very few gyms in-between. They can be rude and unthoughtful, but are great friends and powerful fighters for those who they warm up to.

"The next is Squirtle, a water pokemon. Squirtle can be rebellious, but they help you out in plenty of gyms. While they favor defense and offense over speed, that's not to say they can't take more than a few blows when they grow up big and strong. Of course, they make wonderful partners.

"Now on to Bulbasaur, the grass and poison type pokemon. They're one of the more stubborn breeds of pokemon, but nonetheless the hard head of theirs is useful for staying in battles far longer than other breeds, who would give up. They can learn some powerful grass moves, and are immensely loyal to their trainer friends. They also help out in the first few gyms, just to help you along your journey.

"Then there's Pikachu, the electric type. Pikachu personalities differ with their trainer, as they're impressionable and tend to try and copy things. They're independant, but highly faithful, and you know you can count on them in times of need. They're not much help in the first gym, but with their resilience they can help out in multiple other areas.

"Finally, Eevee, the normal type pokemon who is far from normal. They're perhaps some of the strangest pokemon breeds out there. What makes them so special is their ability to evolve into three different types of pokemon, all with the use of a special stone. They could turn into a powerful fire-type, a graceful water-type, or a nimble electric-type, all of whom make excellent companions and great attackers.

"Well... That's about it. Who do you want to choose? Remember, you have one shot and one shot only." as Professor Oak finished his speech, the dome split in half and parted to allow the pokeballs to be touched by Hiki.

"Well..." she began, inhaling. "While I like all of them very much..." She sighed. "I'm gonna stay with what I've decided before. I'm going to choose Bulbasaur." The Professor smiled, but didn't say anything. He merely gestured toward the pokeball with the leaf on it. Hiki doubted any other pokeballs anywhere had leaves on their fronts, or any other symbol, to think of it.

She took it off of its pillow, and immediately the other pokeballs sunk down into their holes, where two slabs slid in to make the circles with slashes in them. "Good choice... Very nice choice. I'm sure you'll make great partners and friends," Professor Oak murmured as he began to lead her towards the door. She turned and waved at him, then set out without another word (or a thank-you - he probably would hear enough "thank-you"s by the end of the week than anyone would enjoy.

Her very own pokemon... And so, her journey began...

[Hikaru]

While Hiki was excited for her new pokemon, she hadn't let it out of its pokeball. What if it didn't like her for not letting it out so quickly after getting it? Would it notice? And the longer she took thinking about opening it, the longer her Bulbasaur stayed in its ball. It was such a severely tender subject that she finally pulled up the courage at the edge of Pallet Town to release it. She raised the pokeball in one hand and tapped the release button.

In a beam of white light, the form of a hunched-over creature appeared. After a moment, it became solid, a short, stocky green beast with red eyes and navy blue spots all over. It didn't seem at all like it was angry; Hiki knew that it was just the shape of its eyes that made it appear mad all the time. She smiled at it, and after a moment she was sure it smiled back. But was it a boy or girl? It was hard to tell sometimes with Pokemon...

"Bulba - saur!" it cried in its throaty voice. It definitely sounded like a boy... So she assumed it was. She was delighted that at least he wasn't too mad at her. Bulbasaur started wandering around a little, taking in where he was. After a while, his attention was back on Hiki, and he blinked, as if he was asking her what she wanted to do next.

"I don't know..." she murmured, realizing she hadn't really thought about it much herself. "I guess we'll just go to Viridian City. How's that sound?" Bulbasaur nodded his head in approval, still smirking in that mischievous way of his. She couldn't help but smile back at him. Bulbasaur so far wasn't showing any sign of reluctance. Maybe he was special.

She raised the pokeball to pull him in, but he immediately shook his head quickly. Confused, she lowered it. "Bulba!" he cried. She furrowed her brow, trying to figure out what he meant. Did he not want to go into his pokeball? She thought all pokemon liked it in there... Unless... Unless she'd traumatized Bulbasaur by keeping him in there too long! Her eyes widened. What if he never wanted to go in again because she didn't let him out soon enough? "You don't want to go in?" she asked tentatively, trying not to hurt his feelings any more then they already were.

To her surprise, he shook his head again, but more slowly. "Bulba." he repeated. Did that mean he just didn't want to go in? "Oh... You don't feel like going back in?" she asked with more confidence. Bulbasaur nodded, the smirk back on his face. "Well, okay then. If you insist." She shrugged.

Bulbasaur looked smug, but he didn't boss her around again. It reminded Hiki of what Oak had told her. They set off into their first step towards victory, Route 1. It was long, much longer than the hike it had taken through Pallet Town, and was covered in unavoidable paths tall grass filled with wild pokemon. Could Bulbasaur take them on? He did look small for a Bulbasaur, but maybe that was just because he was still level 5. Anyway, he walked close to her feet, making sure not to stray too far. They had to get through this obstacle before they could get to Viridian City.

After just a few minutes of walking on a normal dirt path, tall grass seemed to leap up in front of them. They couldn't go around it, since even more tall grass was beside it, and she shrugged. They'd have to go through sometime, and this long section of grass was the only spot they really needed to go through to get to Viridian City. Sure, they'd avoided pokemon straying out of the tall grass and onto the main path, but she doubted it would be like that after this point.

She took a deep breath, glanced at Bulbasaur to make sure he was still there, and waded into the tall grass, which went up to her stomach.

[zifgf]

While walking in pallet town Zifgf noticed a new trainer and challenged her with his Eevee and Dratini(yes my dad gave me a dratini) He had won but barely and then he gave her a pokemon he had just caught, an Aipom.