Alice's Journey - A Pokemon Fanfic

The first day

Alice quickly made her way down the stairs to the hall and glanced at the mirror. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt and a pair of denim pants that ended just above her knees. She matched a pair of green sneakers with a light green jacket that tightened around her waist and wrists. Alice grabbed her backpack, which she had packed the day before, and quickly examinated it. In various pockets she had packed clothes, food, a map and others things that might would come in handy for her journey. Alice grabbed her hat, tugged on it until it covered her ears and eyes and straightened her back.
"Mom! I'm leaving!" she shouted. A stressed woman stormed out of the kitchen to kiss her beloved daughter goodbye. The woman had dark circles under her eyes, her lips were a straight line and her hair was halfway tied back in a messy bun, which implied that she was not very happy about Alice leaving town. She carefully put her arms around Alice's shoulders and hugged her.
"Be careful" Sally whispered with tears in her eyes. She knew how well prepared Alice was, but she couldn't help that she was mortified. Alice was the only one she had left after Jason died. Sally wiped her tears and grabbed Alice's arms.
"You'll do great. Good luck! I'll root for you!" she encouraged.
"Of course I will" smiled Alice. "Riley!" Alice shouted. A brown lopunny jumped down the stairs and looked around eagerly. "Goodbye, Riley!" Alice said and stroked the pokemons head. Riley just stared at Alice with her nut brown eyes, blinked and twitched her nose. Alice looked into her moms eyes for the last time in many months and nodded.
"Goodbye mom."
"Oh goodbye honey! Don't forget to call me in every city you get to, and be careful." Sally sighed. She couldn't afford to lose Alice the same way she had lost her husband.

Alice gently closed the door behind her and shut her eyes. Yes! She thought for herself. Her big journey was about to begin. She was about to get a trainer license, a pokedex and a starter pokemon to start off her quest to become a pokemon trainer. The sun burned on Alice's skin as she walked through the city toward professor Oak's lab. This year was a tough year to get chosen by Prof Oak, around one hundred of fourteen years old kids from Pallet Town auditioned to get a starter. About 50 years ago, the limit to get a trainer license was 16 years old. The activity among trainers was extremely low, and there were only a few professional pokemon trainers. The Indigo League lost big amounts of money and they were near a total break down, so to prevent that from happening they managed to lower the age limit to 11 years. The number of trainers rose like a rocket, and soon almost all 11 year olds were out in the woods. Many protested against the age limit, since people daily found corpses of dead children out in the forest. Professors gathered, and together they made sure that no one under the age of fourteen could get a trainer license, and only the most qualified youths would be allowed to train pokemon on their own. That's where the audition came in. Every year, all fourteen year old kids in Pallet Town could try their luck in charming prof. Oak, and hopefully get a pokemon on their own. Only three persons were chosen in the end, and Alice was one of them. She was thrilled and excited to see who was going to join her journey as she turned right to enter professor Oak's garden in front of his big labratory. The building was several stories high and many meters wide. Large windows covered the majority of the walls and just by looking at it, you understood that it was a place for high-tech researching. Alice knocked on the door and took a quick look on her watch. 7:50, she was ten minutes early. A second later, a man in a long, white coat appeared.
"Ah! Welcome, welcome. You must be Alice Cowell?" He bursted out. Alice nodded nervously and looked down at her shoes. The man clapped his hands. "Splendid! Now, I will take you to professor Oak. The other kids are already here" he explained. Alice watched him as he turned around, pushed a number of buttons next to a door and opened it, it obviously led to the lab. Alice stood stunned for a second before she entered the door and therefore also the building.

After waking through several different hallways Alice could finally spot professor Oak's office. On the door someone hade put a big sign with the text: Sam Oak - Pokemon Professor of Kanto. The Aisle, who had a small name tag where it said Daniel, confidently pulled the door open. The first thing Alice saw was two boys her age, standing next to an older man. The boys stared at her curiously and raised their eyebrows. One of them was tall, with light blond hair and fair skin. He had small features and a pointy nose, on which a few freckles could be seen. The other boy looked like the opposite. He was not directly short, but next to the blond he almost looked like a 10 year old. He had dark chocolate hair and coloured skin. His hazel eyes were surrounded by night black eyelashes. The older man, who was professor Oak, smiled friendly and waved a little to Daniel who swiftly walked out of the room.
"Welcome Alice! It's great to see you again! Come say hello to your travel companions. This is Eric" Oak pointed at the blond boy who smiled, a little surprised, and waved.
"Nice to meet you" Eric said.
"Nice to meet you too" Alice answered and smiled back.
"This is Dave" Oak continued. Dave's hand automatically flew up in a greeting.
"Hello!" he said enthusiasticly.
"Hello Dave" Alice said and smiled. The three of them talked for awhile and got to know each other. It appeared that Eric and Dave went to the same school, just in different classes. Erics aspiration in life was to open a carecenter for pokemon whose trainers had abandoned them or hurt them, so now he wanted to travel the region to study the pokemon. Dave wanted to beat the elite four, become the Kanto champion and win the Indigo League. Alice felt her cheeks go red when they asked why she was going on this trip. "Eh" she stuttered, searching for professor Oak's support. He just nodded and winked at her. "Well, I want to educate people about pokemon. I want to go on a journey, learn as much as possible and then teach it to the younger generations. No matter what anyone say, pokemon are dangerous creatures who could easily kill anyone in this room, but they don't have to. Us, we, the people, need to learn more about how we should contain these animals. We are doing a great job already, but sometimes, it's not enough." Alice's eyes teared up as she thought about her father.

"It's just a Gyarados going savage by the west coast. I'll be right back."

The silence laid thick in the air. Oak nervously observed the children. Alice's hands shaked violently and she looked down at her lap. Eric and Dave looked confused at each other. Dave opened his mouth to say something, but then he changed his mind and stayed silent. It was finally professor Oak who said something.
"I'm so sorry, Alice. How about we go look at the starters?" Alice face lit up with a big smile.
"That sounds great!"