Pokemon: Advent Of The PokeCore - Johto

Part 1 - New Bark Town and Cherrygrove City

Growing up in the sleepy, rural town of New Bark, Kai hadn’t experienced the upheaval gripping the world beyond the mountains. Sure, he watched the news from time to time. Sitting in front of the fuzzy TV screen with his trusty Growlithe, he would listen to the reporters talking about the activation of the Pokecore, and how the way of life for the residents of the Johto Region had changed forever. 

“You watch too much of that. You’re gonna get depressed,” his sister said, rolling her eyes as she switched the screen off.

“What’s your problem, Mai?” He shot at her, reaching to get the remote back. His little sister could be so annoying at times.

“Professor Elm is looking for you, dummy.”

“Professor Elm?” He was immediately curious. Professor Elm was the weird scientist who lived at the edge of town. Aside from a handful of assistants, nobody had much interaction with him. 

“Yeah, said something about needing help with something.”

“Help?” He looked over at Growlithe. The fiery canine cocked his head to the side. “Guess we’d better go over and see what he wants.”

It was a short walk to Professor Elm’s lab. The large building was easy enough to find; a bit of an eyesore amongst the scattered houses that made up the rest of the town. Kai examined the smooth, white walls as he approached. It looked so clinical that it almost changed his mind about going inside. The sliding doors parted and he was greeted by a grey faced study aide.

“Please come with me,” he said in a dreary monotone.

“Uh, sure,” Kai said.

The inside of the lab was filled with humming and whirring machines. Some of them had monitors with weird symbols cascading across them. Kai had no idea what they could mean. They passed a room full of Pokemon eggs. It had been a while since he’d seen one of those, and he slowed his pace to catch an eyeful of the different shells. None of them looked like the one his Pidgey had come from. The aide cleared his throat impatiently and Kai hurried to catch up with him.

They entered a room where Professor Elm was tapping away at a keyboard, muttering to himself. A collection of Pokeballs were gathered on his desk and every now and again he would pick one up and peer at it with strained eyes.

“Professor?” The aide said to get his attention.

Professor Elm turned around, scratching his head as though he wasn’t sure what Kai was doing there.

“Oh, yes, Kai!” He said slowly.

Kai nodded his head slowly. This was the first time he’d seen the Professor in a long time. He was tall, skinny and pale with glasses perched on the end of his nose. His wrinkled coat looked like it hadn’t been washed in years.

“How would you feel about running an errand for me?”

“An errand?” Kai wondered what this quirky professor was going to ask of him.

“That’s right! I need someone to pick up a package from Mr Pokemon.”

A package from the strange man who lived off the grid? It didn’t sound like something urgent.

“Now don’t pull that face. If you leave quickly, you might be able to meet Professor Oak.” 

“Professor Oak?” Kai spluttered. It was a name that he had only heard about on TV; the famous professor of the Kanto region. 

“He’s visiting Mr Pokemon. You’ll find his house on Route 30, the other side of Cherrygrove City.”

“Ch...Cherrygrove City?” Kai exclaimed. He’d never set foot outside of New Bark Town before, and from what he’d heard on the news, he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to.