<The four checked in at one of the city’s three pokecenters, with only one member shocked that the mega-city would have more than one equivalent to a hospital. Unfortunately, due to current occupancy and what one might call “politics”, the group was only able to secure two rooms, with Chad being asked to stay in his pokeball while staying overnight. After a good hour to let everyone get situated (and a hot shower), the group reconvened in the lobby to discuss where to go from there.>


    <After checking a free computer in the lobby, the group was disappointed to learn that the city Gym was currently closed due to power issues, with no known reopen date. When discussing what to do for dinner, the four also seemed to pull in different directions, leading to a split-up for the night.>


    As Chad embarked on his early-evening stroll, he took in the signs around him, careful not to bump into or jostle anyone else out for the night. The streets were diverse, with a variety of humans and pokemon walking amongst each other, all with their own unique story to tell. Dozens of storefronts offering a variety of craft goods, unique services, and a cavalcade of different foods. It was almost overwhelming to be forced to select a single location to grab dinner.


    <Following the flow of certain aspects of traffic, Chad wandered until he reached a section that seemingly was predominantly filled with pokemon, rather than humans. He came to a stop at the entrance of a shop which was an exposed café with a stage against the far wall. There was no text announcing what it was, just a graphic of a dog-like pokemon’s head. It appeared to be white with brown floppy ears, brown rings around their eyes, and something white on their head which resembled a hat.>


    <The outdoor café was packed with a variety of pokemon, some with simple beverages, others with full plates of food, all re-enacting a species-shifted version of a normal human establishment.>


    “When in Paris, I guess,” Chad muttered, stepping into the line that led towards a counter where a white puffball pokemon was taking orders and directing the customers. As he progressed through the line, Chad noticed the menu was merely a combination of iconography and colors. Each line had a different number of circles, and each line had one or two colors, but there was no text of any sort. Between red, blue, green, yellow, and pink, it was some sort of code.


    <Upon reaching the front of the line, the Swirlix gave Chad a gander and smiled. “Welcome to Smeargle’s! You new in town?”>


    Trying not to stand out too much, Chad shifted nervously and nodded. “Yea, first time. How do I, uh..?”


    <The fluffball eyed him up and down. “Colors represent flavors, circles are cost in coins- assuming you can count, though for the young ones they just play a matching game. As some advice for a first-timer, you don’t strike me as a red kinda guy.”>


    “Could I order one of the blue and greens, and one of the pink and yellows?” Chad asked, counting out the coins in his claws before handing over 7 of the appropriate discs. He noted that the menu seemed to use the 10 Poke coins, which was pretty affordable given the location.


    <Swirlix smiled, lapping up the coins with their tongue and depositing them behind the counter. “Go find a seat and we’ll bring them out when they’re ready. Friendly reminder, please be respectful of the artists performing tonight, and be sure to tip them if you can,” the living cotton-swab explained, moving their gaze to the next customer in line.>


    Chad stepped to the side, and lucked into finding a seat towards the far corner from the stage, placing his pack down beneath the table and gazing across the crowd. “Whatever I ordered has to be better than that bagged mass-produced garbage,” he grunted, watching as a younger pokemon stole a small red berry from their parents’ plate and immediately began crying. “I wonder how my spice tolerance has changed coming here,” he questioned, as the crowd began to quiet down.


    <The lights dimmed, and two spotlights ignited, creating a circle that focused on the center of the small stage. A white dog pokemon– the same one from the café banner above– stepped into the light, their long and thin tail tipped with a plume of white fur that appeared to be covered in green paint. “Thank you for coming tonight everyone,” she spoke, her voice just loud enough to be heard at the back without carrying too far beyond the area. “Tonight, we have a few returning faces, and some new voices, who have come to share their self-expression with us. Remember that we are always accepting new applicants, and to contact whomever is working the front counter after the event if interested in participating in the future.”>


    Chad noticed the line was much shorter now, likely due to almost all of the seating being claimed or occupied. The first poet to step onto the stage was a small yellow and green monkey, who shared a short sonnet about the trees changing with the seasons. Chad participated in the soft appreciative clap with the audience as the monkey finished and walked off-stage.


    <The night progressed, and Chad received his two plates of food after four more wordsmiths had come and spoke their piece. Some beautiful, others clearly in need of a rewrite, but all granted the same level of appreciation and applause. Chad was partway through what he suspected to be the pink and yellow plate when his eye caught the next performer take the stage.>


    The blue frog was equally small as some of the previous artists, but unlike the others she deigned not to introduce herself or explain the piece, immediately jumping right into the performance.


    “Je ne comprends pas.”


    “Pourquoi tu m''as laissé ici.”


    “Qu''ai-je fait de mal?”


    The food practically fell from Chad’s mouth during her performance, as he froze like a statue. Everyone else gave her the standard soft applause, as she delicately bowed and stepped off the stage. Broken from his daze, Chad continued to eat as the host returned to the stage. “Thank you everyone, both for participating and for providing our artists an audience. As a reminder, tomorrow night will be a performance by our local songstress Loudred, followed by Roselia’s dance lessons the night after,” she listed off before the spotlights shut off, and the general lighting returned to normal.


    <Barely a moment later, Chad notices the blue frog moving towards the exit, and in turn she notices him staring.>


    “I’m not staring-”


    <Eyeing the lizard up and down, noticing the bag, she grins and pulls a seat over from an adjacent table.>


    “Bonsoir monsieur; I haven’t had anyone give me eyes like that in a long time,” she trilled with confidence, plucking a piece of food from the blue-green plate Chad hadn’t touched yet. The way she slowly consumed the morsel would’ve been textbook seduction, had she been in her final evolution stage. “I’ve certainly not seen you around before, and this-” she nudges the bag beneath the table with a foot, “is certainly an odd thing for one of us to be ferrying around.”


    Chad, unimpressed, finished his mouthful before responding. “Yea, traveling the continent and challenging the gyms; kinda need something to carry my supplies with.”Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    “Sounds like there’s a story there,” she leads on, taking another mouthful.


    “Yea. After my trainer died, I took up his stead and set out to complete my journey in his memory,” he rattled off, less emotional and more rote repetition at this point. The frog stiffened at the admission, leading to an inquisitive eyebrow from Chad. “Something wrong?”


    “Most of us have never had an entra?neur, even fewer would seek one out despite living amongst a literal city of them. Why would you, now free of their cha?nes, attempt to continue on this way?” Her voice had sunk to a near-whisper, hushed as to be inaudible to the nearby tables.


    “With or without him, I was set on this path. I merely traded one set of– uh, chains, for another.” Chad’s plate was nearly empty at this point, as he noticed his new conversation partner was halfway through the other plate. “I’m Chad by the way,” he said, trying to relax the conversation.


    “A Named too,” she scoffed, shoving a fist-ful of food into her mouth, her manners beginning to degrade as the conversation continued. “I pity des imbéciles who choose to travel with you. Vous voilà en train de jouer à faire semblant, comme une insulte à tout ce que nous essayons de prouver ici-”


    “Stop!” Chad whisper-shouts, trying not to notice the gaze from the adjacent table, but certainly not improving the mood of his conversation partner. “Ugh, look I get it, can you stop being so obvious about it? I can’t understand a word she says when speaking French.” The Froakie stares at him, confused and offended.


    We weren’t sure how else to make it more obvious, but fine.


    “Thank you,” Chad responds, as his conversation partner begins to delicately slide away from the table.


    <I do find this entertaining though, and the translations failures add personnalité.>


    Chad groans, as the frog stops, her head spinning around in confusion. “Who said that?” she asked, her eyes returning to Chad in panic.


    “I said I had chains; he’s the one who holds them. Mysterious poet, meet The Narrator,” he introduces, reaching across the table for one of the blue-green plate scraps.


    <Charmed; though I don’t think the nickname fits. She’ll need a proper name when she joins our merry crew.>


    “Rather entitled to assume I’ll be going with you-”


    <Your compensation package includes being elevated to an eight-badge battler, above average food, and a found-family to travel the continent with.>


    She pauses, still visibly upset but slightly less as the list continues. “Still doesn’t sound like-”


    <Also a solid chance at a woman who will become so smitten with you that we’ll have to omit dozens of scenes from this story just to keep it reader-friendly.>


    Chad laughed with a mouthful of food before swallowing, “Pretty certain some readers would prefer you kept those in.”


    <They can go write their own omakes, I would rather keep this at least borderline wholesome.>


    Stunned, the blue frog sat back in the chair, her gaze firmly fixed on Chad as he finished the last of the plate. “So I don’t get a choice, juste un autre pion, eh?” Her voice wavered, eyes conflicted, mouth taking another piece of food as she chewed both metaphorically and physically.


    Chad shook his head as a firm ‘no’, “You get a choice, but I would wager the options are either joining me on this journey, or repeating this conversation until you agree to come.” The prospective teammate mulled over the answer, her face a petit scowl in anger and frustration. “Just as a personal anecdote, I tried door number two back when I first started. You’d be better off asking for door number three,” he explained, prompting a confused look from the frog.


    <Before she could respond, the two noticed a glowing circle appear next to their table, ringed by magical rainbow clouds. Slowly, an image began to come into focus; an image of an older, evolved version of the young lass, as the visibly upset Greninja glares at her.>


    <The amphibian could only look in fascination and abrupt disgust as the vision gave her a hand gesture so rude I can’t explain it, before a deep and sultry voice echoed through. “Arrête de faire l''idiot et accepte l''offre! Ne me fais pas revenir à temps et me gifler pour avoir été si myope!” The image faded quickly, the young girl bordering on shock at the sequence of events.>


    “So, what should her name be? I was thinking… Or how about-? Wait, why-?” Chad spoke, as his mouth moved but on several occasions no words came out.


    <The Author and I agreed on a set of names in advance, especially after he showed me what names you used in your save files back on Earth. We decided to name her after an infamous French spy; Ginette.>


    Chad groaned, likely upset at being out-voted, but just as likely for remembering the names he had used back in his old life. “I like it,” Ginette said with a wide smile. “The name feels like the kind of girl who stirs up trouble and leaves it all for the men to clean up.”


    <Great, welcome to the team! Your pokeball is in the bag, and if Chad gives you any trouble feel free to ask for help.>


    <The duo finished up dinner before returning to the pokecenter. The humans had already gone to bed, so Chad and Ginette returned to their pokeballs to tuck in for the evening with the center’s staff. In the morning, a brief round of introductions were made to welcome Ginette to the group. After someone suggested to visit the professor at his lab in the city, the group unanimously agreed and headed out to drop by.>


    Ginette, dizzy and unsteady on her feet, leaned on Chad for support. “Don’t worry, it gets easier over time,” he comforted, as the five of them walked through the lobby. There were several ongoing experiments they passed by, all dubious in goals and nature, before the familiar face walked out to greet them.


    <Eager not to be left behind, Shauna, Trevor, and Tierno all pulled out their badge cases to flash their Bug Badges with pride. “They may have a head start, but we’re not far behind!” Shauna promised with a determined smile.>


    <The professor laughed, “Indeed you’re bound to catch up with that attitude, then surpass them! Speaking of badges, Chad, I was shown Calem’s recording of your gym battle. I think you and I need to have a discussion before you leave.” His voice dropped from a happy encouragement to immediate concern in the single sentence.>


    Chad began to squirm in place, the mood only downbeat for a split-second before Shauna spoke up. “Wait, do you have a copy? We didn’t get to see his battle,” she pleaded, the other two catching on and begging.


    <Faced with the human equivalent of a begging Dugtrio, the professor relented, typing a few things on a nearby computer to bring up the video file. Eager, Shauna grabbed Ginette by the hand and led her over to watch the ‘epic’ battle.>


    With them distracted, Sycamore motioned for Chad to follow him deeper into the lab, as the two stepped into an office with the professor’s name emblazoned on the door. “While I am upset at the lengths you went to, I can’t fault your determination. You really put it all on the line to win, even though the odds were technically in your favor.” Chad tilted his head to the right, signaling a lack of understanding. “You’ve been training for two years, where a first gym battle is typically for trainers who have been with their pokemon for less than a month.”


    “And yet a single attack was enough to take me down, hardly seems fair,” Chad grumbled, crossing his arms.


    Chad leaned down, opened the top buckles, and stuck his whole arm inside, wiggling it about. Satisfied, he closed the top of the bag, then smacked it, “Oh yea, this baby can fit so much camping gear!”


    As he was in the middle of transferring over his supplies, the other four rejoined the excited lizard and generous professor. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fight like that below four badges,” Trevor remarked, as he took notes on his holo caster.


    “No way, I don’t think anyone has ever had a first badge battle like that in history!” Shauna exclaimed, somehow hyped up from the shaky hand-held hyper-cam2 recording.


    “I see what that trainer, Roland, meant; that battle was way above what we had to deal with,” Tierno followed up, so shocked from the match he was walking normally.


    Ginette strode closer to Chad, standing before him with a focused look. “I want to be able to fight like that, to dominate my enemies so thoroughly they can only chier dans son froc.”


    Chad, transferring the last item into his new space-folding bag, put a hand on her shoulder. “Stick with me, and you’ll get so good you won’t have to try half as hard as I did on that video.”


    Shauna glanced between the two pokemon, observing their expressions and body language, before opening her mouth to ask: “So Chad, how did you convince her to be your girlfriend?” Chad’s face was redder than a Cheri berry as he quickly removed his hand from Ginette. Ginette gave Shauna a glare promising such a painful death that, where she a Ghost type, might’ve caused the young girl’s spirit to vacate her body immediately.


    Now things should be more lively. Shame Chad didn’t earn a pokedex though, that would’ve been helpful.


    <Agreed. Thankfully, one accidentally slid into his backpack while nobody was looking.>