No Gray Area - Chapter 1

No Gray Area – A Pokemon Black Nuzlocke

Chapter 1 – How It All Began


When Cheren reached the top of the stairs and entered my room, he rushed over to me excitedly as I stared dreamily at the massive blue box that Professor Juniper dropped off.

“Jenny!” he shouted. “I heard from Professor Juniper! Can we have a Pokemon?”

“Well, she said there were three in here,” I replied.

“Hmm…” Cheren stood with me for a moment, and we gazed at the box together. “What’s keeping Bianca?”

After about a minute, Bianca came bursting into my room, clumsily and out of breath. “Am I late again? Sorry!”

Cheren turned to her and sighed. “Bianca…I’ve known for ten years that you have no sense of time, but…seriously? Today’s the day we get a Pokemon from Professor Juniper!”

Bianca whimpered and rushed over to us. “I know…sorry, guys.” She glanced around the room. “So…where are the Pokemon?”

I pointed to the box on my table. “Juniper delivered them in a very blue box with a bright green ribbon.”

“Oh…” she squeaked, glancing at the box. “Well, since they were delivered to your house, you should get the first pick.”

“Naturally,” Cheren agreed in his usual snobbish tone. “Come on—the Pokemon are waiting for us inside that gift box. Jenny, you go first and take a peek. I want to meet the Pokemon now!”

I took a deep breath and undid the ribbon over the box. Lifting the lid, I saw three adorable little creatures inside. One was a Snivy, another a Tepig, and the last an Oshawatt. They all squeaked and squinted at the light of day, but soon they were all staring at me. The Snivy smiled at me, and immediately leapt up onto my chest. I stumbled back in fright, and my friends chuckled at me.

“Mommy!” he squealed.

I laughed, lovestruck and excited. In that instant, it felt like a pairing made to be. “Hey, I think he likes me!”

Bianca squeaked with joy and rushed over to pick her Pokemon. She picked the Oshawatt up out of the box and cradled him like a baby, his beady little eyes staring back up at her like a pair of sparkling gems. “Ok, I’ll take this Pokemon! Cheren, that one’s yours!”

Cheren scoffed at he in disgust. “Hey, how come you get to pick out my Pokemon?” He sighed and tried to remain cynical, picking the Tepig out of the box and holding him in his arms as he said: “Oh, never mind. I wanted Tepig from the start, anyway.” Despite his stiff façade, there was no hiding the look in his eyes as he stared down at his new friend, looking like he would have snuggled him like a little girl if we had not been standing there.

“So, that’s that!” Bianca announced.

“Dat’s dat,” the Oshawatt imitated, causing Bianca to squeal again.

“Oh, he’s so cute!” she shouted. “Hey Jenny, let’s have a Pokemon battle!”

“Wait, right now?” I asked. “In here?”

“Battle, Mommy, battle!” my Snivy shouted.

Cheren rolled his eyes. “Honestly, Bianca. Even though they’re still weak Pokemon, you shouldn’t have Pokemon battles inside a house.”

“Don’t be a worrywart!” Bianca said. “These little ones are weak, like you said.”

I felt Snivy tighten in my grip, and I looked down to see a tense look on his face.

“We have to let them battle so they’ll get stronger,” Bianca continued. “It’s settled, Jenny! Get ready for a Pokemon battle!”

“Mommy?” Snivy squeaked.

“It’ll be okay,” I assured him, setting him down on the floor across from Oshawatt. “You’ll do good. Make Mommy proud.”

Snivy was suddenly determined, glaring at Oshawatt. In one fell swoop, he charged across the room and dove into Oshawatt, knocking him back against the wall. Oshawatt gurgled painfully, a trickle of blood escaping his mouth.

“Ouch!” Bianca winced. “I won’t let you get away with that!”

Oshawatt wiped the blood away and jumped back into the game, and he and Snivy charged hard at each other in an all-out war. Whacks, smacks and punches echoed throughout the room, and small sprays of blood spattered about. The battle had just about finished when Oshawatt lay on the ground in a beaten pulp, unable to move anymore as Snivy came in for the final blow.

“Enough, ENOUGH!” Bianca shouted frantically as she scooped up her beaten Oshawatt, who was hanging on by a thread. “Both Pokemon did their best.”

I picked up Snivy, then glanced around at my now destroyed room. Pokemon tracks covered the walls, massive pieces of furniture were flung around, and dirt and blood painted the floor.

“Wow…” Bianca muttered. “Jenny, you’re gonna be an awesome trainer someday, I can tell!”

“Uh…” Cheren was shaking, clutching Tepig nervously as he kept his eyes glued on my room. “Bianca, would you take a look around?”

When Bianca bothered to look around her, her eyes went wider than I thought possible. “WHOA! What happened!?” She turned to me, and to my shock, she was all smiles. “Wow, Pokemon are amazing! So little, but so strong! I’m so glad I get to have one!” When she saw my hard, cold, I’m-going-to-kill-you glare, she finally stiffened and said: “…Oh, um…sorry about your room, Jenny.”

“You better be sorry!” I screeched. “What will my mom say when she sees this!?”

Cheren rubbed his forehead and said to Bianca: “You…are completely hopeless. Here, let me restore your Pokemon for you.” He took the poor, beaten Oshawatt from Bianca and withdrew some Oran berries from his pocket, feeding them to the Pokemon and restoring some of his energy. In a matter of seconds, he stopped bleeding and his bruises vanished.

“Jenny’s Pokemon should be fixed up, too,” he said, handing Oshawatt back to Bianca and doing the same with Snivy.

“Hey, Cheren!” Bianca said. “How about you battle, too? With all you know, I’m sure you can battle without turning the room into a disaster area like I did!”

“I believe you’re right!” Cheren said pompously. “It’ll be no problem for me to keep the room from getting any messier. Besides, it’s not fair if you two are the only ones who get to have fun battling!” He turned to me. “It’s decided. You’ll be my next opponent…in our first Pokemon battle!”

“You can’t be serious…” I groaned, looking back at my smashed furniture.

Cheren set Tepig on the floor and said: “Let’s see what you can do, Tepig!”

“I won’t let you down, Master!” he said, taking a stance as he glared at Snivy.

“I’m gonna regret this…” I moaned, setting Snivy down to fight.

“Watch me, Mommy!” Snivy begged. He tried the exact same stunts on Tepig as he did with Oshawatt, and it resulted in an even faster victory in which Tepig was thrown to the floor bleeding. Cheren snatched up Tepig before Snivy could kill him.

“Forgive me…Master…” Tepig wheezed. “That Snivy is…stronger than he looks…”

“Calm down, calm down…” Cheren said, digging some more Oran berries out of his pocket to feed to his fallen friend. “This is my fault. I made a strange blunder in my first battle, but…this feeling I have…” He hugged Tepig tightly to his chest. “I’m finally a trainer.” Tepig snuggled his shoulder, but then Cheren noticed the wreckage around us. “But first, we’d better go apologize to your mother for this messed-up room.”

Cheren headed for the stairs, and Bianca followed behind, saying: “Oh! I’d better come, too!”

When I followed my friends downstairs, they had just finished telling my mom what had happened.

“I’m very sorry about the trouble, ma’am,” Cheren said, stiff with nervousness.

“We can…clean up…” Bianca squeaked.

“Keen up!” said Oshawatt.

“Cleaning up?” Mom echoed. “Oh, no worries. I’ll take care of it later.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Well, she took that frighteningly well.”

“Shouldn’t you be on your way to meet Professor Juniper?” my mom continued.

“Yes, thank you!” Cheren said, adjusting his glasses like the snob he was. “Please excuse us. Come on, guys.”

“Oh!” Bianca squeaked. But this time, it sounded much less excited and much more frightened. “I’ve gotta go home first.” She rushed out, and Cheren followed behind.

Mom came up to me and said: “Pokemon battles are so lively, aren’t they? I could hear the Pokemon’s cries clear down here!”

“Still taking that too well for my comfort level,” I muttered under my breath.

“Oh, and after a battle, you need to rest your Pokemon,” she continued. “You don’t want anything…bad to happen to them.”

“I know,” I sighed, dreading the thought of it.

When I wandered out the door toward the Professor’s lab, Snivy looked up at me. “Mommy, what did the lady mean by anything bad happening to Pokemon?”

I stopped in my tracks. Was he too young to know? Or did I need to tell him as early as possible? Sighing shakily, I just said: “Well, if a trainer’s not careful, their Pokemon could pay the ultimate price. This was something I just had to accept when I became a trainer.”

“But you’re careful, right, Mommy?”

I smiled. “Yes. I want to be as careful as possible, so that I can have some great friends like you.”

Snivy snuggled against my chest for the rest of the way to the lab. But when we got there, Cheren was standing just outside with Tepig at his side. He was adjusting his clothes, trying to look presentable. When I approached him, he said: “Oh! I’m sorry, but could you go to Bianca’s house? I’ll bet she’s spacing out like she usually does. She’s totally flighty.”

“Well, she did say she had to go home first,” I commented, walking away toward her house.

When I walked inside, I nearly jolted backward at the sound of her father’s booming voice: “No, NO! A thousand times, NO!”

Bianca was shaking, Oshawatt whimpering in her arms. “But…I’m… But I’m a good trainer! I’ve already got a Pokemon and everything! I can do this if I want to!” She stamped her foot and, in a dark rage that I had never seen before, she stormed toward the front door. She stopped in her tracks when she saw me and bowed her head, looking like she was about to cry. “Oh… It’s okay…”

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine!” she snapped. “I’m going to the lab!” She brushed past me and went outside, slamming the door behind her.

“What nonsense!” her dad growled. “How could my daughter, who knows nothing about the world, be going on a journey with Pokemon? She’s going to get that Oshawatt killed!”

I shook my dizzy head, not wanting to hear anymore, and bolted for the lab. When I made it over there, Professor Juniper was there waiting.

“Hi there!” she chimed. “I’ve been waiting for you.” Just then, she took a closer look at our Pokemon, who all had a few scars courtesy of our battles. “Oh, that’s unusual! You’ve already had a Pokemon battle! It also seems like your Pokemon have already begun to trust you.”

“Trust!” Oshawatt shouted.

“My master is the greatest,” Tepig said. “There’s nothing he can’t do!”

“No way!” Snivy sneered. “My mommy’s the best!”

Juniper chuckled. “Such sweet things. Would you like to give them names?”

“I would,” I said quickly. “I want to distinguish my Snivy from the rest, because he’s gonna be the best Snivy there is!”

“I love such confidence!” Juniper said. “I will say that we here at the lab have been having some…difficulties with that Snivy. He was always managing to escape from his cage and wreak havoc around the place.”

I was genuinely surprised. “Snivy, is that true?”

“No,” Snivy squeaked in a tone that told me he was lying.

“He really is quite impish,” Juniper said.

“Hmm…” I thought for a moment. “In that case, I’ll call him Sneaky.”

“Sneaky,” Juniper echoed. “That’s a fitting name! Take good care of him while on your adventure, okay?”

“Yes,” I promised, holding Sneaky close to my chest. I knew in my heart that this was only the beginning of a very long journey.