The Hoenn Adventure

Thomas sat on the second floor of the pokemon center in Slateport City. The pokemon center was brightly lit and the second floor where he was sitting was mostly like a waiting or resting area for traveling trainers. The area was brightly lit with light orange walls and tile flooring. The tables that lined the walls of the room were a shiny metalic blue and all of them had at least two chairs at them.

Thomas was at a table next to a window with his laptop open in front of him and an open notebook just off to the side. While a video was loading on his screen, Thomas lightly tapped the top of his pen on his chin and looked out the window while he waited.

Thomas had a wide view of the southern half of Slateport City from where he was sitting in the pokemon center. It was the middle of the day so there was a large amount of people walking or driving through the streets. Off in the distance Thomas could see the edge of the main town, marking the cliff that overlooked the beach and the sea. On a day like this he would have preferred to be down at the beach, but he had to work instead. So he pushed up his glasses and adjusted the sleeves on his sweatshirt.

Thomas's video finally loaded and he turned back to his computer screen. He was watching a recap and comentary on a recent pokemon battle at a tournament that had been held a few days ago in the city. As he watched the video Thomas took notes on both the pokemon who were battling and the trainers commanding them. As Thomas took notes on the video he focus began to slip away from his surroundings as he examined the video thoroughly.

OoC: You can have your character showing up to the table from being somewhere random. Doesn't really matter.

Thomas's Appearance and Outfits:

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Thomas's Current Team:

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Udar's Appearance and Outfits:

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Udar's Pokemon:

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Udar made his way off the small speedboat and stepped onto the hot sand. He thanked the boat driver for his service, bowed and gave him 2000 Pokemon dollars. As the boat turned around and sailed back to Dewford, Udar was struck by the cacophony of noise.

Trainers were battling on the sand, little children were screaming as they ran and built sandcastles, and loud vendors hawked sodas from their stands.

So this is Slateport, huh? I've never seen so many people in my life!

Udar let out his Torchic, Vatra, from his pokeball to play on the sand. Vatra joyfully scampered around in the sand, cooing and rolling around. A child came careening from seemingly out of nowhere, and in his carelessness accidentally stepped on the rolling Torchic. Vatra gave a loud cry and began preening his feathers, as he was wont to do when nervous.

"Hey, kid! Watch where you're going!" Udar yelled, but the boy was out of earshot, already accidentally dropping his ice cream cone on a sunbather.

"Someone obviously has not taught that boy manners", Udar remarked as he gently picked up Vatra and scratched behind his ears.

"Don't worry, it'll be okay", cooed Udar to the frantically preening Torchic. "We'll get you to the Pokemon center as soon as possible".

He walked at a fast pace into the city, ignoring the seaweed merchants trying to get him to take a free sample and let his Makuhita out of her pokeball.

"Alright, Pobeda. As you can see, your brother is a little anxious and my hands are a bit full. Just open the Poke center door for me and you'll get all the food you want later".

Pobeda bowed and held the door open for Udar and Vatra, following them inside. The Nurse gave her standard spiel and Vatra was as good as new in no time. As Vatra jumped into Udar's arms, he noticed the sounds of a Pokemon battle coming from a man's computer. Curiosity struck him, as he was very interested in the art of Pokemon battling and saw this as a good starting point.

"Excuse me, sir, what exactly are you doing there?", Udar inquired.

Thomas looked up when he heard Udar address him. He hadn't seen the trainer come up to the floor or enter into the area because he was so consumed with watching the video and taking notes. Thomas paused the video so that he wouldn't miss any crucial parts of the battle and he then began speaking to the trainer. "Oh I'm just watching recap videos from yesterdays tournament matches," he said, "I'd do it in a cafe but most of them are biased to at least some trainer so it kind of skews the notes." Thomas eyes the trainer up and down, he seemed to have a martial artist feel about him, Thomas had met a few while he was in Dewford, but he didn't recognize this trainer. But there was a good chance that he wasn't actually from Dewford so it wasn't that unbelievable that Thomas hadn't met everyone.

"Huh, that seems interesting," Udar remarked. "I'd like to get involved in some of these tournaments, after some more training of course. My team's still pretty green so I'd likely get demolished by the likes of the guys I'm seeing on your screen". Udar stared in rapt attention at the computer, seeing the fluid movement of the Pokemon and the quick minds of the trainers at work. He suddenly snapped to attention. "Oh I'm sorry, how terribly rude of me. My name's Udar and these are Vatra and Pobeda", he said, gesturing to his Pokemon as they gave happy smiles. "What's your name?" he asked, reaching out a hand to the man sitting at his computer.

"Nice to meet you Udar," Thomas said, "My names Thomas, but you can call me Tom if you prefer." Thomas considered getting to know Udar to see if he could be Thomas's first client. Even though Thomas didn't know a lot about representing somebody, but he figured he would have to start somewhere. At the same time Thomas simply considered getting to know Udar and travelling with him. By having somebody he knew actually participate in the tournaments, he would have opportunities to get to know more competitors and maybe get some insider knowledge. "Well if you want to get into tournaments, you'll have to travel around the Hoenn region to participate in them." Thomas said, "The registration period for this tournament ended yesterday so you're a little late for this one."

"Yeah I figured it would be too late for this one," Udar remarked. "Would you happen to know when/where the next one is? I'd like to know so I can get my team in shape and maybe find some new additions."
His Torchic began to squirm in his arms and chirp.
"Oh quiet you, just because you'll get some new brothers and sisters doesn't mean I'll stop loving you. I'd be honored to receive some of your help Thomas, but I'd completely understand if you were too busy or something."

"Yea I do," Thomas said with a smirk on his face. "But you know what, lets talk about it over lunch," Thomas closed his computer and got up from his chair. "I know a great place on the side south side of town," he said said as he placed his laptop into his backpack. Thomas placed a few pieces of poke on the table as he started to walk towards the stairs ((remember they're on the second floor)), he knew that the pokemon centers didn't charge anything, but he stayed around long enough and figured that giving some future visitor or employee a little something extra was a good habit to have.

Udar looked down to his stomach, heard a grumble and realized he hadn't eaten yet today. The stress of setting out on his journey must have dulled his hunger as he was usually very quick to eat whenever hungry.

"That sounds great! I'm new in town so I trust you to find somewhere good. I've actually never left Dewford so this'll be my first meal that isn't homecooked or caught myself," he explained. "Lead the way and I'll follow. Also I've never seen anyone leave money at the Pokemon center in Dewford, is that tradition around here?"

"Nah not so much of a tradition," Thomas said, "more a passing of good will on my part." He then turned back to Udar as they walked down the stairs, now I hope you like seafood cause that's mostly what they have at the place I'm thinking of."

Thomas sat at a table located at the edge of a balcony overlooking the beach and marina that Slateport got it's name from. The wing was blowing in from the ocean and you could hear the sounds of Wingulls floating in the breeze. The balcony that Thomas and Udar sat on was tiled with white and blue marble and was part of the outdoor seating area of local seafood restaurant and bar. The balcony went up only a few feet short of the cliff, giving anyone who was close to its edge a wide panoramic view of the southern edge of Slateport. In the background behind the table where Thomas and Udar were sitting you could hear the cheers of people watching a newscast of the tournament playing at the bar inside. Since there was a no wall between the bar inside and the balcony where the boys were sitting, it was easy to hear them cheer and celebrate an attack from a pokemon or a victory of a contestant.

Thomas took a sip of his Nomelade (Nomel berries are based off of lemons) as the salty air blew across his face. Thomas had on his sunglasses and since they were now sitting outside Thomas had taken off his sweatshirt and was now wearing his black t-shirt that had been underneath. As he sat looking over the beach their waitress came over to the table and placed their orders on the table. "Here are your Krabby Cakes," she said as she placed a plate in front of Thomas, "And here is your Wailmer Steak," she said placing a plate in front of Udar. "If you gentleman need anything else just let me know," she said before she walked over to another table.

"Thanks," Thomas said with a smile to the waitress as she walked away. He started to pour some sauce onto his meal when he said, "So Udar, tell me about yourself." He wanted to get to know Udar a little bit more, they talked slightly on the way to the restaurant, but it was mostly about where they were going and Thomas answering a few questions about the tournament.

New "Official" Images of Slateport:

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"Well there's not all that much to know about me really," Udar replied in between bites, wolfing it down like he had been a desert castaway for years. "Man this is really good! It rivals my mom's homemade Magikarp skewers! But anyway like I've mentioned I haven't left Dewford before today. I've trained under Brawly to hone my martial arts skills since I could walk basically. I've grappled with Makuhitas, sparred with Machops, meditated with Meditites and on a good day not had my ass completely kicked by a Hariyama." He paused to take a sip of his berry juice mix and gulped it down in one long chug.

"Ahh that hits the spot. I never really shared in his passion for surfing though, I was more into strength training in the waves, but I did share his passion for Pokemon. My parents let me petition Professor Birch for a Pokemon and a few weeks ago he arrived with my Torchic and a Pokedex. Under his guidance I caught a Makuhita in Granite Cave and after a few weeks of online research on Pokemon and redoubled exercise with my new partners I set out on my journey."

Udar reached down with his fork to eat more steak but was dismayed to see there was none left. With a shrug he lifted his plate to his face and let the leftover juices run into his mouth. "Yep, gotta savor every last bit I always say. Need that protein," he remarked. "So now my goal is to see the rest of Hoenn, maybe the rest of the world, observe Pokemon for Birch's research and become a better Pokemon trainer. I'd also like to personally wrestle with some of the world's toughest Pokemon, man vs. Pokemon. How about yourself, what's your story, what're you planning to do?"

Thomas was barely paying attention to the things that Udar was saying. Thomas heard the occasional word like 'grapple', 'Hariyama', 'waves', or 'cave', but he was mostly paying attention to the speed at which Udar was eating the food that was on his plate. Thomas had never seen someone eat food as ravenously as Udar, and when he drank the juice from the steak when he was done Thomas was simply wide-eyed. He swallowed the piece of Krabby Cake that was in his mouth before speaking.

"Okay it's fine that your hungry," he said, "but I recommend you hold back from devouring your food like that." He looked around the balcony to see if anyone noticed Udar eat that way, luckily nobody seemed to be paying attention to anything besides the tournament so nobody was looking at them, hopefully.

As Thomas took another bite he started to talk about himself, "As for me I grew up in Verdanturf Town just outside of Mauville City," he said. "I spent most of my days watching video of the pokemon tournaments that took place on TV and going to the occasional pokemon contest in town. Eventually Professor Birch stopped by the town since we're so close the pokemon daycare where a lot of breeding is done. When he stopped by town he gave me my Treecko as my first pokemon."

About a month passed and after some training with Treeko we eventually caught our first pokemon together, Taillow. It was then that my parent's let me leave home and start to travel. I made my way to Mauville and while visiting the Pokemon Day Care, it's a place where you can maybe meet good trainers, the owners gave me an egg that was given to them by a trainer from Dewford. On my way here from Mauville it hatched into Sabeleye, and that's where I got my team and how I ended up here."

After having another sip of his Nomelade Thomas continued talking, "As for my plans I want to become one of the best Talent Scouts in Hoenn. I want to attend tournaments and the occasional pokemon contest, find the trainers who have the talent to be the best, just don't have the support or refinement necessary, and help them get the necessary skills and knowledge to become the best." As soon as Thomas finished talking there was another loud cheer coming from inside the restaraunt, Thomas turned to try and see what had just happened.

"Oh no I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was being rude!" Udar exclaimed as his cheeks turned red. "Back home, my mom and dad ate like that to show they really liked a meal. I shouldn't have assumed it was the same here" he said as he wiped his mouth with the napkin.

"That's interesting that we were both approached by professor Birch though. Maybe he sees something in us that we don't? Well we can't let him down then. We'll both just have to train hard and live up to our full potential!"

Udar then heard the commotion in the restaurant and joined Thomas in trying to see what was going on. "Hey, how about we head over and see what all the noise is about? There's probably a great battle going on."

Thomas looked at his watch and made a guess about the tournament. "Maybe, its nearing the end of the second day of matches, after today they'll be announcing which trainers are advancing to the top sixteen tomorrow," he said. Thomas got up and walked over to the bar inside so that he could take a look at one of the matches that was playing on the screens. There were six matches being held at once in the stadium, but most of the people watching the screens were focusing on two screens that were showing two different matches.

The tournament was a 2v2 tournament, so there was a total of four pokemon on each of the screens. In the first round of battling the trainers could only use two pokemon, but the sixtreen trainers that would advance to the second round would be allowed to have four pokemon. On the screen on the left there was an Alakazam and Shiftry, on one team, and a Meganium and Togekiss on the other. The screen quickly showed the two trainers as they shouted commands to their pokemon, a trainer wearing a baseball cap was shouting commands to the Meganium and Togekiss, and a teenager with green hair pulled back in a ponytail was the trainer with the Alakazam and Shiftry. "Hm..." Thomas pointed at that screen and said, "You want to participate in tournaments? Well he's someone you'll get to know. That guy with the green hair is Vito Winstrate, he's a favorite to win this tournament." Thomas looked at the screen a little longer and then said, "He's pretty famous for taking on the Victory Road Challenge and actually making it for a week."

Thomas then turned his attention to the television screen just to the right of the one showing Vito's match. The pokemon in this match were a Gallade and Azumarill, and a Tropius and Chandelure. The trainer with the Tropius and Chandelure was a female trainer with her hair in a bun and the her opponent was a young male trainer who had large grey eyes and medium length green hair. "Wait," Thomas said, "Wally's in this tournament? I didn't see his name of the list."

Udar gazed in rapt attention at the screens. He could understand why people got so into it, the energy and strategy of the event was captivating. The atmosphere must be practically intoxicating if we were to actually be there, he thought to himself.

The double battles intrigued him as he had never seen one before. Sure he had heard of them, but the thought got pushed to the wayside as he practiced roundhouse kicks against a Makuhita. It seemed full of strategic opportunities not seen in single battles. The amount of options was almost mind-boggling and he made a mental note to think of a Doubles strategy in the future.

A grin came to his face and he slowly turned to Tom as his more impulsive side took over.
"You want to be a Talent Scout, right? And I want to be in some of these tournaments. So let's start now. I want to prove my talent to you in a Pokemon battle. After we pay the bill, we'll have a battle right outside and give a show to some of these customers. You in?" Udar asked, the smile still on his face.



(that's how his smile formed basically, by the way)

Thomas was watching Wally's battle when he heard Udar suggest the two of them having a battle. He looked over at Udar with a look of worry, "Um... I mean if you want," he said, "I'm not the best at battling. The most experience I have is facing some Whismur inside Rusturf Cave, so with the experience you seem to have you'll probably destroy me." Thomas turned to look back at the television screens, "I'm best at analyzing people and how they handle battles, not so much at analyzing the battle strategies themselves." he said.