The Power of an Idea-1

    “I hope you do realize that, no matter how impressive it is, a set strategy will always fail you when it matters most. You need to be flexible.” This Snivy wasn’t so much reprimanding me, as he was teaching me. The irony of the Pokemon training its trainer is amusing. It’s easy to understand Pokemon when you were one yourself in a previous existence. I reassured the little snake with limbs while surveying the damage of my furniture. I had taken down two of my closest friends in my first two Pokemon battles. Already, I knew I had chosen well. Bianca had taken the Water-type starter. Probably for utility purposes, as she wanted to travel the world to find her niche. I hoped Oshawott can look after her, because she doesn’t do a very good job of it, sadly. On the flip side, Cheren knows what he wants, and believes he can’t fail. Maybe I really crushed his hopes and dreams by winning? I explained my worries to my new ally.

    “Bianca’s the blonde? Oh, she’ll be fine. She’s got a great partner. He actually wants to travel, too…even if he has better self-control. And the guy seemed more confused than dismayed. Expect him to challenge you again.” In spite of how most speak of snakes as liars, a majority of Snivy are very honest in a round-about way. Those that aren’t are terrible liars. Properly assured of my friends’ well-being, I walked to the stairs, taking a small bottle of seawater and sand with me for good luck. I wore it on a string around my neck like a pendant. Before descending, I fixed my glasses, my hat, and realized I’d forgotten my badge box. And of course Bianca forgot hers, too. Typical Bianca. It’s a wonder she didn’t leave her Pokemon up here.

    Finally going downstairs, Snivy in his Pokeball, I saw Mom had gotten us all a glass of sweet tea poured before we left. Two were in the kitchen sink, and mine had a note with it. Mom let me have my drink before starting in on how this wasn’t a good idea and how Dad had never come back after I was born. All of this I had heard too many times before. Never occurred to Mom that maybe the reason Dad had left was because she was obsessive, overbearing, and self-absorbed.  An idea struck me, suddenly.

    “Mom, what did Dad want to name me?” My inquiry was one I had never remembered making, yet she still sounded exasperated. My memory was never too good, to be fair. She sighed as she responded, “His idea was to name you Snidely, based off of a cartoon villain.” Well, the name of a trickster was just what I needed. My thought was Dad knew that he’d never win the agreement if he had a better idea for my name. Maybe he had looked at me and tried to figure out my starter, and just gave a clever nickname for what he thought I’d choose. Maybe I was overthinking. I don’t ever know for sure. I took the note, thanked Mom for the tea, and got flocked by Pidove. I HAD been in there too long! The note had told me to be at the lab by a certain time. I had two minutes, easy to make when your town has four, very close buildings, with your own centrally located. One building was the lab, the others were houses. And sadly, the only three houses in town were the ones my friends and I lived in. It was just the three of us in this town. We all knew each other well, though.

    I let Snivy out of his ball, and he looked around, sorely disappointed at the town. Cheren asked me to go find Bianca as she had quickly left to tell her parents. I couldn’t tell if he was more annoyed over Bianca forgetting to let her parents know or that she hadn’t come back, yet. Her dad was upset. The old guy was a manipulative fool, who hadn’t gone on a serious Pokemon journey. Needless to say, he hadn’t grown up. Snivy yelled at him for his attitude towards his daughter leaving for what she wants to do. I waited until he was done before telling him his rant was in vain. Only I could hear him. A few moments later, we six stood before the Juniper Pokemon Lab. Three children and three Pokemon, ready to travel together. We all knew about the professor’s work in how Pokemon came into being. She had told us, once, that in one region, a single Pokemon hatched from an egg that came out of nothing, and the Pokemon created the world. How silly that idea is! As Bianca and Cheren decided whether to nickname their Pokemon or not, Snivy confided in me that Tepig wouldn’t like it, but he was the only one. I asked him if he liked “Snidely”. I had to explain who Snidely Whiplash was before he decided. Fortunately, he did like it, saying the Whiplash bit had some potential to a Snivy. If we kept that hidden, he figured, we wouldn’t tell people directly that their next opponent was a Grass-type. Upon deciding, Cheren had named Tepig “Baconbits” and Bianca’s didn’t have a name. She either wasn’t paying attention, or wasn’t concerned with it. Cheren, Bianca and I also received Pokedexes, Pokemon encyclopedias that require to have seen said Pokemon in order to note it’s existence, always starting with a blank memory.

    “If I were to tell you that some Pokemon you could only see if you were able to contact an alternate reality, would you believe me?” Snidely did look sincere, and I was ready to believe the powers that be would do something so vicious. As a polite person would have, I thanked the professor, and the six of us made our way out to Route 1, taking our first step to our adventure together…