Petalburg City

After a quick visit to the pokemon center I make my way into the local gym. I’m shocked to see uncle Norman… with hair!

Hello there, are you here for the loaner pokemon?

- Uh..

That’d be me, sir!

- Where’d you come from?

Sorry, I followed you in. I’m Wally.

- I’m Caldar, I’m here to challenge the gym leader.

A trainer! Perfect! Could I ask you to accompany young Wally here while he catches his first pokemon? I’ll let you battle for the badge afterwards. How about it?

- Sure…

Great! Here’s my little Zigzagoon. He’ll follow your commands, Wally.

Thanks. Wow… a real pokemon!

Route 102

I take Wally to the grass and after a while a wild ralts appears. Not knowing what to do, Wally just freezes in panic.

I direct him to let out the zigzagoon to battle ralts. Wally looks at me, unsure of what to do next. I tell him to command zigzagoon to attack but Wally doesn’t know any of the attack names.

‘Dex gets irate and simply barks orders at Wally, telling him exactly what moves to command zigzagoon and then to “Throw the damn pokeball!”.

The ball Wally throws goes nowhere near ralts at first, it bounces off a nearby tree and then lands onto ralts. As the pokeball shakes I wonder if that was a fluke or if Wally could be some sort of prodigy.

My train of thought is interrupted by the pokeball’s click, indicating the capture was successful.

I congratulate Wally and while he goes to show off his new pokemon to his parents I decide to take the zigzagoon back to Norman.

Petalburg City

There’s no sign of Norman in the gym. I look for a place to put the zigzagoon, eventually leaving it by the gym leader’s pokeball safe. Taped to the safe I find a note written in familiar handwriting.

- “Will battle you some other time. Try Roxanne at Rustboro City. Go west, then north through the forest, then continue north.”

What an ass! He’s just gonna fob us off?

- I guess we just follow the directions…

Route 104

I’d may as well recruit while I travel to Rustboro. A wurmple? Pokeball go!

Wurmple: It’s a little worm… bug.. thing.

- Welcome to the team, Jay!

Jay ♂ Lv. 4

There aren’t many trainers around but I battle them nonetheless. There was a rich girl who used a full restore to heal her zigzagoon when a potion would do. The dumb rich girl had no idea it’s kinda like using napalm to kill a single weed in your garden.

Petalburg Woods

Another chance to recruit. A shroomish? Pokeball go!

Shroomish: It’s a walking mushroom…

- Welcome to the team, Shiitake!

Shiitake ♂ Lv. 5

Real original name…

After a few wild encounters and a run-in with a bug catcher, Jay evolves into a cascoon!

Jay ♂ Lv. 7

I get a little turned around, the tree canopy is blocking out the sun and I can’t find north. I try my pokegear again but it just doesn’t respond.

Hello there! You’re a trainer, right? Have you seen any shroomish around? They’re my favourite pokemon.

- Yeah, I caught one not long ago.

Can I see it please, oh please?

- Sure…

Shroomish-shroo!

Wow…

- So.. you wouldn’t happen to know the way to Rustboro from here?

Is your pokenav broken?

- What’s a pokenav?

That thing you have there, it looks like a pokenav. Though I didn’t think we made wrist mounted ones like that.

- We?

Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot to mention I work for the Devon Corporation. I’m sure I can get the engineers at the office to fix it for you if you want, as a thank you for showing me shroomish.

- Uh… OK.

I hand over my broken pokegear to the dude from Devon. From nowhere a street thug wearing a blue bandanna jumps us.

Yarr, ye landlubbers! Hand o'er the fancy gadget real swift-like an’ no harm’ll come t’ ye!

- Um… no?

Why don’t you shove off, Bluebeard!

I soon see off the thug in blue. He wasn’t all that much, he only had a poochyena.

Argh! Ye filthy bilge rat! Ye not seen the last o’ me!

He runs off towards Rustboro.

Thanks for that, those Team Aqua thugs have been getting to be a real problem lately.

Is is pirate week in the crime world or something?

I’d better get back to Rustboro quick to warn them, I’ll be sure to get your pokenav fixed too!

The Devon dude rushes off towards the city.

You know… he didn’t actually tell us the way out of the woods…

- We’d better hurry and follow him, and watch out for the Aqua Crew while we’re at it.

I continue onwards, trying to keep up with the Devon dude.

- I wonder if this Aqua Crew is related to the Rocket Gang?

You’re an idiot, you know that?

Back in Petalburg Gym:

Norman steps out of the W/C. He walks up to his pokeball safe and notices another ball on top of it.

Hm? Oh Wally must’ve returned my Zigzagoon. Such a shy kid, I swear he was stood outside for hours before that Caldar kid showed up.

Norman checks the time, steps out of his gym and locks the door.

Well… I guess Caldar didn’t want to battle today. Probably training on the beach, maybe he’ll be back tomorrow.

You’re getting crazy in your old age, Norman. You’re talking to yourself again.