Roughly 12:50 pm
Steven stretched, refreshed after beating the three trainers. He’d managed to cool down enough to be more rational now, but he was still elated. It finally felt like his pokemon journey was starting. Guess there wasn’t anything like beating on someone in combat to really get that feel of freedom. Don’t try this at home, kids.
Tim warbled a cheerful, slightly out-of-tune song. Steven reached back into his bag for a well-deserved oran berry and chucked it up to his buddy. Tim snapped it up in mid-air, gulping it down gratefully. He warbled his thanks and continued cheerily singing. The kids of course fought him, because they were kids. To put it kindly, they were largely untroubled by the complexities of life. Not that it mattered much, though.
Steven and Tim had managed to finish the fight relatively unscathed, to say the least. It was more like systematic annihilation. And while Steven felt kind of bad for possibly destroying their hopes and dreams, he knew they would probably just get up. He was a kid a few months ago, and he’d been their age only 2 years ago. Okay, it was a pretty long time, but children were petty and didn’t think things through, so he might meet them again one day. Then again, it would be unlikely considering they were basically nameless and faceless, and also considering that Steven didn’t care.
He was happy right now, breathing in the fresh air, feeling the wind carrying him to distant adventures. It was his journey, and it made him feel good. Speaking of journeys, however, Steven remembered what he set out to do.
Opening up his pokenav map, he checked the town he was going to once again. Dune town, the town next to the desert. It seemed that a gym lay in it, and Steven wanted to challenge it. He wasn’t really trying to win, though, he just wanted to see what was up. Besides, he’d never been there, and he planned to make like a tourist with the money he got from the kids. He should probably feel bad about that too, but it’s not like he asked for it, they just threw it at him and ran off. An unexpected bonus, really. But at least he knew what he wanted to do right now. Go to Dune town, make like a tourist, inspect the competition.
[ENCOUNTER REQUEST: APPROVED!]Steven was suddenly yanked out of his musings by a rustle in the nearby long grass. Quickly shutting off his pokenav, he dropped down and eyed the bushes cautiously. Looks like his old hide-and-seek tendencies were acting up again, perhaps with good reason.
Tim and Steven stayed deadly silent, listening for more signs of movement. The sounds of movement shifted further away. Steven followed the sound while it moved, entering the tall grass as quietly as he could. Listening intently, Steven moved when the creature moved and stopped when it stopped. Strangely enough, even when it wasn’t moving forward, it emitted a constant humming sound. Steven had a hard time placing the noise as he was focused on stalking his prey, but then it hit him.
A bug pokemon! He thought.
As the pokemon moved, the bushes stopped rustling, as if it had disappeared, but the buzzing sound was still there. Steven quickly popped up from the bushes, as quietly as he could, and found that his guess was right. A strange collection of hexagons was buzzing away in front of him, seemingly engrossed with a nearby berry tree. Steven recognised it from a lesson he had in trainer school about pokemon common in the nearby regions.
”Combee.” He mouthed quietly.
While the wild combee was busy doing who knew what, Steven readied a pokeball. Tim quietly warbled a question, but Steven’s mind was already set.
”Gonna try catching it, buddy.” He whispered quietly.
This would be a good chance to test out the pokeball’s mechanics. After all, if he screwed up in a crucial moment, there was no telling what could happen. They did, of course, teach him how to use one in trainer school, but theory was much different to practise. The ball was lighter than he’d expected, certainly considering its size.
Now, press the button… Steven thought.
Press the button, then throw. That’s what he’d been taught. Steven pushed the small white button and was a little surprised when the button stayed down. Not knowing what would happen, he quickly threw it at the distracted combee.
Time seemed to slow down as the pokeball sailed through the air. Steven’s eyes tracked its progress as it flew towards the unsuspecting pokemon. The pokeball hit the combee and bounced off ineffectually. For a few worrying milliseconds, nothing happened.
Did I do it wrong? Steven thought nervously.
His worries were misplaced, however. As the combee turned and the ball bounced off of it, the ball opened. Things sped up to normal speed as the ball opened to its full size, emitting a strange red light which engulfed the confused combee. The red light retracted and the pokemon came with it, shrinking down to an almost impossibly small size before disappearing into the ball, right before the ball shut.
Did… Did it work? Steven thought.
The ball shook once and paused. Then it shook again, and again. A nervous pause followed as Steven wondered if he’d done it or not. The ball finally settled with a brief colour change followed by the sound of a clasp snapping shut. Steven finally got up, surveying the results of his labour. A single red ball sitting in the clearing. Walking cautiously to where he pokeball sat, Steven brought his right hand down to pick it up. It felt a little heavier now, as if it had some weight to it.
As Steven picked it up, the pokedex beeped in his pocket. Swapping the ball from his right hand to his left, he dug into his bag and fished out the pokedex. It seemed that it had a new entry.
Combee, the tiny bee pokemon. The pokedex droned.
A trio of pokemon since birth. It collects honey for its queen, Vespiquen.Steven was about to dismiss the entry when he noticed that there was more information on the pokedex. Combee’s entry included its height, weight, and the region it was found in, and it even had the status of the current one he had.
“Oh, It’s female.” Steven said.
Tim bent down to look at the pokedex in Steven’s hands while Steven switched his attention back to the pokeball. Steven pressed the button again.
To release the pokemon, just press the button and hold it out, button facing away from you. Steven said, mentally going over the instructions again.
Steven turned the pokeball so the button faced the ground and this time, white light appeared from within the pokeball. The white light retracted as quickly as the red did, but it left behind a new friend. Steven’s new combee. The insect seemed a little disoriented, understandable considering the events that took place just now. The combee looked around, always coming back to Steven and Tim, as if noticing that Steven was his master now. Steven carefully brought his hand out to touch his new pokemon.
“Take it easy now, I won’t hurt you…” He said, trying to sound reassuring.
The combee didn’t shrink away from Steven’s approach, so Steven took his hand closer. Suddenly, Tim hopped off of Steven’s head and onto his arm, bringing an involuntary flinch from Steven and the combee. Steven hadn’t expected Tim to do that, but he didn’t have time to take his hand away.
Tim hopped into Steven’s open hand and stopped, studying the combee. Unlike his gaze with the other trainer’s pokemon, Tim’s gaze was one of curiosity. Tim tilted his head this way and that, sizing up the confused combee. The combee flittered its wings slightly, unsure of what to do, while Steven looked on in slight confusion. Tim brought his face close to the slightly scared combee, causing another involuntary flinch. He sat there for a few tense seconds.
Steven wondered if he should pull his hand away. His worries were unnecessary, however. Tim suddenly relaxed and stretched his neck out to rub his face on the surface of the combee. The combee initially flinched, but relaxed as soon as it realised that Tim’s gesture didn’t have any ill intent. Tim stopped after a few seconds, satisfied, and warbled a friendly greeting. The combee buzzed a greeting back, finally smiling, realising that Tim wasn’t a threat. Its three faces licked Tim’s own face, returning his friendly gesture. Steven smiled, happy that Tim was getting along with the new addition. When Tim rubbed another pokemon with his face, it typically meant that he liked them. It was a sign of his affection, and a good sign of budding friendship.
Tim smiled as best as a spearow could, hopping up from Steven’s hand back onto his head. As he went, Steven smelled the faint scent of honey. Steven smiled brightly, happy that the two were friendly with each other.
“Heya, my name’s Steven.” Steven said, waving at the combee.
The combee was less nervous now, and buzzed a friendly greeting in return.
“Glad to be working with you to.” Steven said with a broad smile.
The combee flew around Steven happily, expressing his relief at meeting new friends. Tim followed, jumping from pose to pose, tracking the combee around and around.
”Hey, guys!” Steven tried to keep up, making a fun little game for the two pokemon.
They spun and spun, trying to catch each other for a little while, before Steven and Tim got dizzy and the combee finally settled in front of Steven.
”You sure are energetic,” Steven said, staggering a bit but still smiling.
”But hey, so am I today.”The combee buzzed happily, and offered Steven a jar of honey.
”Hm? Oh.” Steven said, noticing the gift.
“But I can’t just take that. Hold on a sec.”Steven fished around in his back pack before finding what he wanted.
”Ha ha!” Steven said, revealing his prize.
”Oran berry! Here.”Steven swapped the two gifts, Steven giving the Combee an oran berry while taking the honey and putting it in his bag. The combee chewed the oran berry delightedly and buzzed its satisfaction to Steven.
“Good, wasn’t it?” Steven grinned.
The combee nodded. A sudden warbling from Tim told Steven about a current predicament.
”Oh right, that was the last one. Wait a second…” Steven said.
He turned to where he’d just captured the combee and, lo and behold, there was a berry tree. Steven cheered and headed towards the bountiful copse. The combee followed behind him enthusiastically. Steven reached the berry trees and stopped just short of them, taking a deep breath. The tasty smell of fresh berries dangling on the leaves was quite tempting. Tim mirrored Steven as he breathed while the combee was a little late in copying him. Steven exhaled and smiled.
Steven began looking for the ripe berries, searching through the branches. Tim searched with him, poking through the higher branches with his beak. Even the combee helped, searching through the bushes next to Steven. Steven was rewarded for his efforts. 3 ripe oran berries emerged in his hand. He quickly bagged the berries in his berry pouch.
”How’d you guys go?” He asked his two pokemon.
Tim took his head out of the bush, a fresh oran berry in his beak. He tilted his head up, gulping down the oran berry with a
gulp, before letting out a satisfied
caw! The combee also emerged from the bush, mouths covered in berry juice.
“Looks like you got the big score!” Steven said, laughing.
He wiped the three mouths of the combee and was met with grateful licks in return. Now that Steven was close, he could smell the honey more, and the combee’s wet tongues left faint traces of the smell on his clothes. Steven laughed, as its tongues were also very ticklish.
“Hm, you seem to eat a lot of honey, and you’re a girl…” Steven said, pretending to go in a thoughtful state.
His smile gave him away, though, and Tim and the combee waited with knowing grins on their faces. Steven’s wide grin returned as he revealed his revelation.
“I’m going to call you Honey Queen!” Steven announced.
Tim warbled his approval, flapping his wings in delight for their new friend, and the combee buzzed happily. Steven grinned wider, if that was possible, thrilled at the prospect of having another new team member.
“Tim, Queen…” Steven said, pausing for dramatic effect.
”Let’s go on an adventure!”The pokemon cheered and Steven made off back to the path of route 2.
