Onwards - Chapter 2.1 (Patreon)

Yarden woke up to a dead, numb feeling in his legs.

He groaned, rubbing sleep from his eyes and tried to sit up, to no avail. There was a dead weight on his dead, numb legs.

"…Really?" he groaned, reaching down for the sheet covering his body and pulled it up to reveal the form of a slumbering orange and cream furred pooch nestled over his legs, from the knees down.

Some things never changed.

With a huff, Yarden eased himself backwards and pulled his feet out from underneath the canine, grimacing when he felt how sweaty and clammy they were, "No point having a shower until later anyway." the teenager mused to himself as he hobbled around and stood up, stretching out his arms.

He hit the switch on the light atop a table besides the bed and yawned as he stretched-

And was mirrored just a split moment later by the Growlithe on the bed as the canine smacked his lips sleepily and stood up on all fours, only to lean down forward immediately, backside raising into the air as he stretched out.

And with that done, Growlithe lay back down on his front and looked at him expectantly.

"Yeah, yeah you'll get your breakfast in a little bit." Yarden rolled his eyes. It was still almost surreal to him. His dog looked completely different, hell they were together again in a completely different world.

But he was exactly the same-

"Grow!" Growlithe barked happily, a wide happy look on his maw.

Well, mostly the exact same.

Growlithe was vastly more intelligent now, not that it was a bad thing. Two months had passed since that fateful day where he'd had to get him put down, only to get into a tussle in the rain and get run over by a bus and end up here.

In the world of pokemon.

It still felt like a blissful dream. Yet, it was not.

It was real.

Amazingly so.

"Right gimme a minute to get ready." Yarden waved the now canine pokemon off and made his way to the other side of the room where a small closet lay. The Pokemon Centre he was staying at, provided rooms free of charge for pokemon trainers and had been where he was staying since he arrived in this world.

…Even if technically he wasn't actually a pokemon trainer as of yet.

Opening up the closet, he pulled out a pair of sturdy black work boots, charcoal grey work pants, a dark tank top and a sturdy jacket of the same colour as the pants.

His work attire.

With his clothing in hand, he headed into the narrow en-suite bathroom all of the rooms in the pokemon centre had, Yarden quickly washed up, freshening up his face with a wash and brushed his teeth before getting changed into his gear for the day.

And once that was taken care of, he dumped the shorts and t-shirt he had wore to bed into a basket at the foot of his bed, before making his way over to the table beside the bed.

Or rather in between them.

There were four beds in the room, bunk beds on either side of the room. Pokemon Centres were apparently usually very busy, but Yarden had been lucky to get the room to himself since his stay here began.

Apparently it was in between league seasons.

There was a three month break at the end of each league season before the next started from what he'd learned. 'Only another one left before it starts up again though.' Yarden hummed to himself thoughtfully as he looked down at two specific items atop the desk.

The pokedex that had somehow replaced his phone when he ended up in this world.

And a gleaming red and white sphere.

A pokeball.

Picking it up, he closed his fingers around the metallic sphere, feeling its coolness in the palm of his hand and couldn't help the grin that spread across his face.

He'd had the pokeball for over a month now, it was Growlithe's after all. Yet, even now just holding the pokeball in his hand made him feel so damn excited.

He was holding a real pokeball in his hand!

It was a dream come true.

Every day he woke up here, he was living not only his dream, but the dream of many, many other people who grew up on the series like him.

It was incredible.

…And expensive.

After all as it turned out, the currency of this world, the Pokedollar was not equivalent to the yen, but rather its name sake.

The dollar.

And also the reason why he wasn't a real trainer yet.

"Alright buddy, ready to go?" Yarden shook his head and put those thoughts out of mind for the moment, turning to the pokemon on his bed.

"Grow!" Growlithe gave him a big dopey smile and barked with a nod.

"Alright then, in you go." Yarden held the pokeball up, and pressed the white button on the front with his thumb.

As he did, a ream beam of light erupted from it and washed over Growlithe, lighting his form up with a red glow, before sucking him inside.

'Still so cool!' Yarden had to resist the urge to pump his fist into the air.

He stared at the pokeball for a moment, before stuffing it in his jacket pocket, and then grabbing up the pokedex to do the same with.

'Apparently you don't need to be a trainer to own a pokedex.' he mused as he zipped the pocket up. They could be bought even if you weren't a trainer, and didn't just function as trainer identification like he'd been led to believe through watching Ash Ketchum's journey.

But rather trainer identification could be inserted into the pokedex to use as a digital device for it instead of needing to carry around an ID card.

But, to gain a trainer identification one had to pass a very specific test, simply known world wide as the trainers test.

From what he'd seen about it, Yarden was pretty sure he could pass it pretty easily. The problem though, was that there was a fee to take it.

Quite a substantial fee all things considered.

Three thousand pokedollars to be exact.

Though if one passed the test, they would not only be given a pokedex for free, but also six starting pokeballs.

And a starter pokemon provided by the pokemon league association.

He left his room not long later, locking the door behind him and made his way downstairs into the main lobby of the Pokemon Centre.

It was early, so the place was pretty deserted. Not even one of the usual bustling Chansey in sight, only pretty pink haired Nurse Joy was in the wide main room, sitting behind the lobby desk, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to meet the-

Nurse Joy yawned loudly, covering her mouth with the palm of her hand and giving him a sleepy look, "Oh, good morning Yarden," she greeted him with a small wave as she finished yawning, "Up early as usual I see."

It was just shy of six in the morning.

"Well Roark likes to get started as early as possible." Yarden shrugged. As it turned out, when he'd appeared in this world after the incident with the bus, he'd been just on the outskirts of Oreburgh City.

Home to the rock type gym of the Sinnoh Region.

And a city that had a lot of mining jobs that paid quite well, and Roark wasn't too picky about who he hired as long as they could handle themselves and didn't cause trouble. Working in a mine definitely wasn't Yarden's first choice, it was exhausting and not to mention highly dangerous.

But the pay was amazing.

Thirty poke dollars an hour, and he worked ten hours a day.

It was backbreaking work, and he trudged home with his muscles howling every night, but it was worth it.

He had a bit over nine thousand pokedollars saved up from all his efforts over the past two months since he arrived in this world, and that was even with buying some clothing and other necessities.

And of course Growlithe's pokeball.

…Which cost a whopping three hundred pokedollars. Half again as expensive as the games had led him to believe.

"Mmm, so he does. That man, I swear his obsession with fossils is beyond compare," Nurse Joy shook her head, "Be careful." she wagged her finger at him.

Now that wasn't really fair to Roark. Sure, he definitely was fossil mad just like his apparent father Byron, but Oreburgh was a very lucrative city thanks to Roarks efforts. Oreburgh was the main trading hub in Sinnoh when it came to evolutionary stones and jewels.

A port had even been established at the edge of the city to export all the goods mined up by Roark and his company.

"I always am." Yarden inclined his head, before bidding her goodbye and heading towards the cafeteria.

Just like the lobby, the place was empty besides him due to how early it was, and probably because the league season hadn't started up yet and as such, there wasn't really many trainers active on their journey at the moment.

The only occupant of the room besides him, was a Chansey. One of the Chansey's who worked the kitchen and was filling up trays of food for breakfast to be chosen from.

Honestly, Chanseys were amazing. They pretty much did everything around the Pokemon Centre. They cooked, they cleaned, they cared for other pokemon.

"Chansey chanse!" the Chansey greeted him with a happy chirp as he approached, giving him a joyful little wave.

And they were so nice and happy all the time too. He loved the vibe.

"Morning Chansey." he waved back as he picked up a tray and an empty plate and bowl for both him and his pokemon.

'Honestly, they're such useful pokemon in every way. I wonder if any of them knows gravity?' Yarden wondered idly as he began filling his plate with food. He'd seen a lot of them use Heal Pulse.

But imagine if they could use Gravity as well. If he got ones help, he could super charge his training as a trainer, both for himself and his pokemon and get really good and strong, really fast.

It would just be like Goku training in intense gravity with senzu beans. First Chansey would increase gravity over them, and then they'd train really hard. Then Chansey would heal them with Heal Pulse, giving them instant physical gains and allowing them to do so over and over and grow rapidly in physical ability and become monstrous physical power houses!

"Nah, that's just silly." Yarden snorted, shaking his head. That was an absurd idea and would never work.

Only an absolute maniac would think up something like that and actually go through with it.

It sure was a funny image though.

Yarden idly imagined himself doing something ludicrous like tossing a Gyarados or beating up a Dragonite after training in such a crazy way as he filled up his plate with a large, filling breakfast. Before making his way over to the provided fire type pokemon food and filling up his Growlithe's bowl.

Then he made his way over to an empty table, placed his plate on the table and the bowl on the ground beside his chair, and then let his pokemon out to start digging in to his breakfast.

As he began eating, his mind wandered, thinking of what he'd do going forward.

'I can afford to take the trainer exam right now.'

That was a persistent thought.

Even if he took it right now, he'd have six thousand pokedollars left over to use as a starting point for his journey. On top of that, he'd confirmed that even though he had a Growlithe already, he was still eligible for a starter pokemon that would be provided by Roark the gym leader and overseer of Oreburgh City.

And he'd have an entire month with two pokemon to prepare for the coming league season. Honesty, it hadn't even really been a thought on what path he chose.

Without hesitation, he had to be a trainer.

Like Ash Ketchum.

Like he'd always dreamed of growing up. Having epic gym battles, travelling the world, seeing incredible sights straight out of fantasy and concluding with legendary league battles that left crowds of people stunned and in awe.

But being a trainer was expensive. And if you didn't have the skill, you wouldn't make much from it either.

Most, he'd learned gave up very quickly. Less than one in fifty new trainers every year managed to even attain one gym badge, never mind make it to the league in their first year.

Yarden had come up with a wild idea though.

Something he'd noticed this world had a distinct lack of when prowling through the internet, despite their amazingly advanced technology.

Something that made random people on the internet, famous sensations with millions of fans and earned a ton of money.

His plan was simple.

Become the very first Pokemon Streamer.

And stream his journey as a trainer.

But to do so, he needed something very specific he'd come to learn the existence of since his arrival here in this world. Something that wasn't in any of the anime, games or even manga up to the sixth generation the series had reached before he ended up here.

A Rotom Phone.

A top of the line cell phone with high definition video streaming capability, possessed by a Rotom.

They cost a crazy twenty thousand pokedollars.

More than double what Yarden currently had to his name.

_______________

Got a wild hair up my ass and decided to go ahead and write a little bit of this.