Pokemon Heroes: Sinnoh Saga [Book 1]

Chapter 96: Katelyn of Johto

"With the Gym being closed, we took some time to explore the city until it was open and taking appointments again. While exploring the city we met a Johto Gym Leader, my future opponent, Jasmine, and her younger sister, Katelyn, who would eventually become a companion of ours down the road. Though...we didn't know that at the time. The two were in Sinnoh to broker a trade deal between Olivine City and Sunyshore City among other things. We ran into them at the Sunyshore Bazaar of all places..."

The group explored the market.

They had been dragged to, and side-tracked by, a very aggressive berry salesman, who kept offering them better and better deals for Oran Berries.

Pikachu had smelled the berries from a whole building away and had forced everyone to chase him down to the berry salesman's stand and refused to leave until they had purchased an absurd amount of Oran Berries.

Once that detour was over, the group split up to explore the bazaar, everyone wanting to look at different things or sections in the area.

Sam and Alyssandra went together, starting in the antiques section, exploring artefacts and collectibles from Kanto and Johto.

Sam found a few Oni Masks that he bought, and Alyssandra got some antique jewellery to wear in future contests.

Next, they wound up in a section with old books, and even some old games—another collection Sam and Alyssandra both seemed to enjoy working on together.

Twinleaf Town didn't have much in the way of game stores, but whenever he could get a chance to travel to Sandgem Town, he would always make a stop in the local game store to see what he could find, Alyssandra usually joining him.

In recent years Sam had refurbished and grown his collection of Familcomp and Hyper Familcomp games, as well as adding to his GameBox, GameKid, Notendo 87 and Notendo Wee games.

That didn't even include his collection of handheld consoles from Notendo, including the rare GameKid Mini—which was essentially a GameKid Progress but smaller; needlessly smaller.

He was excited for the release of the upcoming Wee O, though many were sceptic the console would reach the heights of the Wee console, but Sam had faith.

He missed gaming and having his friends to come over and play games together on their consoles; games like the Antonio Kart or Antonio Party games, or the Ultra Bash Siblings games.

Road Fighters was another favourite—few could match Niya's skill with the super-soldier and spec-operative Kammy.

Since leaving, Sam and his friends had completely forgotten about their old pass time, but this bazaar allowed Sam and Alyssandra to indulge in their collecting desires and further add to their collections.

It was a nice call back to their youth, and their lives before Team Galactic and this Pokémon Journey.

Alyssandra was excited to go back home and enjoy some time hanging around the town, spending time together and having a small break after all this moving and travelling.

Of course, what they would do after once lounging around home for a few weeks was still undecided—but they could figure that out later.

It was a fun and productive morning—Sam had almost forgotten about the disappointment of the closed gym this close to the Elite Four.

Sam and Alyssandra walked through the remainder of the crowded bazaar, the crowd ringing loud in their ears; they started to wade through the sea of people, looking for their friends.