OC Trainer snip
Title: From Kanto to Sinnoh: A second chance
Prologue
Jacob's steps had an echo to them, bouncing off the long shelves of the aisles he walked down. The fluorescent lights above him were dimming, prepping for the early morning sun to take over the duty of lighting the warehouse. So he kept his flashlight out and on, sweeping it across every few steps to keep up the appearance of diligence even if he was yawning.
This night shift crap was starting to get to him but the overtime was nice. Not much to do but, hey, that's what you want with security work. A nice boring shift. Even higher level jobs were like this in his city and he thanked the local Gym Leader for that. Most people were terrified of the Lieutenant as he tended to take most things in Vermillion personally.
Once he was at the end of the aisle he gave a quick glance towards the ends, making sure no Rattata or Zubat got in again, before picking up his radio. "Altan here, quarter three is clear."
"Rodger." the machine squeaked, "C'mon in kid. Your shift's basically up and your relief is waiting by the door. Might as well make the change."
"Copy that," Jacob said, for once happy with some of the brown-nosing ways of his coworker. A few minutes wasn't going to hurt his paycheck and he'd love the headstart home.
But as he made his way to the building doors he heard a sound, a skitter that made him groan. While he could ignore it, or even just inform his shift lead on his way out, he couldn't just leave. Dragging his light over to the source of the sound he saw a small cluster of Rattata hiding under one of the shelves. They glared and chittered at him.
All Jacob did was sigh and grasped one of his pokeballs, the third one in from the left. With a pop and a flash of red a familiar tangle of blue vines formed into existence. With a shake and a yawn she looked up at him with a questioning "Tang?".
"Hey girl, got another batch to round up. Mind dragging them out?" He asked, pulling out a net capsule. His pokemon seemed to sigh as he let the net expand in his hand and she reached out with several blue vines.
The Rattata tried to run away but they were no match for his Tangela. Trained as she was grasping the Wild Pokemon out of the air was near literal child's play. Looping the net into a bag Jacob held it out for Tangela to pour the struggling Rattata in.
"Thanks girl, we'll be good to go home and sleep soon." He gave her a smile and she made a pleased little wrabble as she pressed the button to her own Pokeball and returned. He wished he could do the same.
Nightshifts sucked.
Returning to the main building he held up the netbag of struggling Pokemon up for his Supervisor to see. "Spotted these guys on my way out."
His Supervisor glared at the sack, a sigh rattling out as they made a note in their log. "I guess that means there's a hold somewhere in Quarter 3. Perfect. Alright kid, drop them there and get out of here."
Jacob didn't need to be told twice. A powerwalk to his walk later he was on his way out the door in fresh clothes and an unfortunately dead phone. He kept it out in his hand as he made his way out of the site's gates, waving to a coworker as he passed. The solar panel in his screen should get him a bit of a charge before he got home.
The salty air of the Vermillion Docks filled his nose, washing out the stagnant warehouse air from his lungs. He could say a lot of things about his home city but he would never deny that the ocean view was always amazing, it made the walk home all the more pleasant. Especially since it was starting to get to mid morning, which meant that kids were in school or sleeping in, which meant he could avoid -
"Hey! Mister!"
Jacob pretended he didn't hear and kept walking, he even picked up his pace but the sound of little feet stomped after him. "Hey! Hey! Wait up!"
The problem with living in a city with a Pokemon Gym? There were plenty of kids out there who thought they were pretty hot stuff after getting whatever number badge they were at. They were a nuisance upon societies at large.
Eventually, the kid managed to get in front of him, a frustrated pout on his face. Jacob tried to take a step around the kid but he was having none of it, planting himself in his way again and again. Letting out a long breath Jacob tuned the kid out as he bit back his temper and held up a hand to stall whatever it was he was saying. "Before we go any further how many badges do you have?"
The kid puffed himself out, and solidified himself in Jacob's mind as a recent Badge winner, "4! I just got my Thunder Badge the other day. Pretty great, right?"
It was. Most people usually top out at 2 badges so the kid was likely going places. All the same, "Not good enough dude, come back to me when you have 6 or so Badges. Then we'll talk." Which would hopefully be never, Jacob had a date with his bed and he's been delaying it all too much dealing with this.
"Wha-" The kid started before stomping after Jacob. "Oh yeah, and what makes you so great."
Jacob held up 3 fingers and started to count them down for every reason. "I'm tired, I don't have time for this, and-" He paused on the last finger, unsure on the bragging now that his conscious caught up with the rest of him. But he already had the finger up so he powered through. "I've been in the Top 64. It wouldn't be a fun Battle, for either of us."
"Wait, you've been in the 64?"
Multiple times but no further. Whoever said, "third times the charm" was a damn liar.
With an answering grunt, he disengaged from the now stupored kid, who thankfully didn't' follow, and finally made it the last few blocks home. It was a modest affair, a two bedroom apartment with a fairly decent sized living room. Perfect for him and his team just to hang out in when nothing was going on.
Speaking of, he swiped his hand along his belt and let his Team out. They deserved a nice long rest after such a long day. The room heated and the air filled with static as they all appeared.
Magneton, Magmar, Electabuzz, Porygon 2, Rhydon, and Tangela.
They were the best Team a guy could ask for. Too bad he couldn't bring them further.
"What do you guys think? A snack and then bed?" There was a general cheer to that and Jacob got to work fetching each of them one of their favorite treats. While he did that his phone buzzed as it booted itself to life on the windowsill, then it started to blare as notification after notification caught up to the poor thing. 14 missed calls, 9 voice messages that filled up the inbox, and 20+ new texts went a long way in explaining why his phone died.
They were all from the same person, his old rival from when he was actually competitive. Unlike him, Neela actually breached the top 32 and even made it all the way to the Indigo Plateau's semifinals. They still kept in contact, not as much as before but they still reached out to each other. More her than him but still.
Last he heard she was studying up to join the International Police, what could she have been doing to call him so late? He sent her a quick text asking what was going on because he definitely not going to go through all of those. Besides, her last text was sent right before dawn. She was probably asleep already.
And as if to prove him wrong, as she usually does, his phone went off again. "Hello?"
"Where were you?" She asked a bit too loud, sounding jittery and tired.
"Getting OT… Have you been drinking energy drinks again?"
"Only a few." She admitted, "But I'm studying for the exams."
"They're months away Nel, you don't need to cram so far out." He said, taking a seat on his couch and was near instantly mobbed by his pokemon as they tried to find a space near him. His Starter, Magneton, made a warble of disappointment as he had to keep his distance until the call was over. Most modern phones didn't have the issues with magnets like the old ones did but habits were hard things to fix.
"Better to do it now and relax closer to the exams than the opposite." She countered before taking an exaggerated gulp of something. "Anyway, I found out something awesome when I was studying the Pokedex of other Regions!"
"Important enough to kill my phone with messages?"
"Yep!" She admitted without shame. "Look, I sent the info in the e-mails you've obviously didn't read but telling you is so much better. This one Region, Sinnoh, has been experimenting with Evolution and they've found new ways to Evolve a bunch of Pokemon. And like all of them are on your Team!"
There was a jolt at his spine, traveling up from his gut to his heart. It was familiar, it was electric, it was… unsure. "What?"
"Everyone on your Team can Evolve again, every last one." She said, "They're new, like really new in some cases, but each has been verified."
Each of his Pokemon looked at him, they couldn't hear the conversation but they recognized something familiar in their Trainer waking up. He was tense, his heart was racing as he stood and scrambled to find his tablet. His phone trapped between his shoulder and ear as he listened to his friend prattle on.
He opened her email and the file she sent him, eyes gazing over each bulky form revealed to him. Well, Porygon's new form wasn't so much bulky as crazed looking but from what he was reading that wasn't going to be a problem.
He gulped as he looked at the studies, at the stats and results. One of the things that held him back in the Plateau, according to various commentators, was a lack of raw power other Pro-Trainers could bring to bear. Which was a bit fair when near everyone else was bringing out Gyrados and Dragonites, or shelling out for a Lab Pokemon.
But if they could Evolve… How much further could they go?
His Pokemon were looking over his shoulder, yellow hands snagging the tablet away from him as his gaze went towards his little display cabinet. A set of 8 Kanto Badges, a handful of Johto Badges, and 3 certificates. Proof of scraping the top but never reaching it.
Of dreams not quite obtained.
If they could Evolve… Could they do it? He was kind of old now to be going on a Journey but it should be okay. Right?
Over the phone Neela was still going on in her caffeine fueled chatter. "Dude, you have to go! You could even take on the League over there! Then, when we get back we can have a rematch! It would be so awesome!"
Would it?
He looked over at his Pokemon and saw his Eletibuzz having a flexing contest with Rhydon. They certainly seemed excited about the idea, so maybe they could. He did have a good chunk of money saved on the side and a ticket shouldn't cost him too much.
Maybe it could be different this time.
Maybe Sinnoh could be his... their second chance.
AN:
And done, more of a pain than I thought to get the snip itself to stop at 1996 words.
Anyway, old idea for a Pokemon Team with more of a direction plot wise. There is likely to be an underlying theme of perception of reality to tie in with the Galactic/Galactic remnant in Sinnoh. Probably have hints of self care/help and rediscovering passion.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed!