The three Poke Balls contained, in order: a green snake with short legs, large eyes, and a large leaf at the end of its tail; a red and black pig with a curly tail tipped with a ball; and an otter with a white head, red nose, and a shell marking on its belly.
Hannah was smart enough to figure out that she was going to be limited to just one of them, which was just as well as entrusting a newly-christened trainer to three Pokemon at the same time was a rather stupid move. At the same time, she found all three of them equally appealing, so it wasn't going to be an easy choice.
The snake looked easy enough to care for, as reptiles usually tended to be. On the other hand, could one really forge a strong bond with a reptile? Pigs were said to be really smart, and the otter was cute if nothing else.
In the end, she decided on the snake. It was just as cute as the other two, on top of being a reptile that ultimately wasn't going to be horribly high maintenance. As someone who was just starting out, she might as well start out easy.
“I'm settling for the cute little plant snake,” she said, reaching for the far left Poke Ball.
Bianca happily nodded. “Snivy, the grass-type Pokemon? You got it! I think you two will make a perfect match!”
“...That's not a stealth insult, is it?”
Bianca's smile vanished, which was followed up by a sigh. “By the way, you can give a nickname to the Pokemon you chose, if you want.”
“Oh! I can name him? Alright, I think I will!” Hannah said before looking out over the overlook, thinking. “I think I'll call him 'Telan,'” she responded after a few moments.
Bianca's usual cheer came back to her. “Telan! That is such a great name!” She adjusted her hat again. “Now you've got your Pokemon, so I'll give you this, too – a Pokedex!”
She handed over a rectangular device with a screen on the top and a Poke Ball icon on the lower half. Hannah turned it on, and it briefly showed the one Pokemon she had met thus far – Snivy, the Grass Snake Pokemon.
“You want to know what it does?” Bianca asked as Hannah turned the device off.
“I already know what it does. I watch the Discovery Channel, you know,” Hannah replied, in a tone that strongly suggested that she didn't need yet another info dump.
Bianca just gave her an awkward look. “Well, you might as well hear it from someone who's used one personally. The Pokedex is a high-tech device that automatically records the Pokemon you encounter!” Yet another smile. “So Professor Juniper wants you to carry this Pokedex, visit a lot of places, and meet all the Pokemon in the Unova region!”
“An adventurer is me, huh? Alright, I suppose I can live with that.” Hannah then yawned. “After I go grab the nap that I just lost. Being awake at this hour had to have some sort of negative impact on my health.”
Bianca shook her head. “For what it's worth, I'm not completely happy to be here, either. It's pretty and all, but I wish Juniper would have warned me before sending me all the way out here!” One more smile concluded the meeting. “You're a trainer now; I'm sure you'll get used to it eventually.”
“Yay.” Hannah replied in a most-definitely-not-amused tone. “Thanks for the well-wishes, and especially thanks for Telan! I'll take good care of him, I promise.” she added, in her usual tone of voice.
With that, she walked back to Hugh. “I think we're ready to head off, now. I'm going back to bed if you have no other ideas.”
“About time. I was wondering how long you were going to keep me waiting,” Hugh replied, jokingly, before sighing. “You could stand to be a little friendlier, you know. I get that it's early and all that, but...did Bianca really need all the sarcasm?”
“What did you want me to do, then?” Hannah shot back. “I wasn't going to suddenly start polishing her shoes or something like that. Besides, I did try to be friendly at first....”
“At first. I think it was about, what, one second before you started being snarky? When you meet a new person, you should focus on trying to make a good impression. From what I could tell, you completely failed at doing that with Bianca....”
At that point, Hugh's eyes settled on the Poke Ball Hannah carried around. “At least it didn't deter her from giving you a Pokemon. What did you pick?”
“The cute little grass snake Bianca called 'Snivy.' His name's Telan, now.”
“Snivy, huh? That's great!” Hugh nodded, then looked Hannah in the eyes. “My sister already said so, but really, really good care of your Pokemon! Got it?”
“I suppose you missed my promising Bianca that? I'm not that mean....”
Hugh shrugged. “Well, I wanted to make sure....” His eyes then flipped over to the device Hannah had in her other hand. “What's that you're holding there?”
“It's a Pokedex!” Bianca chimed in.
Hannah sighed. “I could have told him that myself, thanks.”
Hugh shook his head before turning around, looking away thoughtfully. He then turned to Bianca.
“Please give me a Pokedex, too!” he suddenly asked. “I want to get stronger! If I have a Pokedex, I can learn more about Pokemon, and that'll make me stronger, right?”
Bianca blinked. “Um...who are you again?”
“I'm Hugh! I'm going to travel the Unova region with my Pokemon partner in order to search for something very important!” Hugh curled his hand into a fist and moved it up to his chest as he stated his goal.
Bianca hesitated for a few moments before shrugging. “Well, okay! I don't really get it, but going on a journey is always good!” She pulled out another Pokedex. “And I happen to have another Pokedex on me! It looks like Pokemon distribution has really changed compared to two years ago, so the more, the merrier!”
After she handed Hugh his Pokedex, she stepped back, glanced between Hugh and Hannah several times, and cocked her head to the side. “Oh! I just thought of something cool! You both have Pokemon, right? Why don't you have a Pokemon battle?”
Hugh grinned. “Oh, I like the sound of that!”
Hannah, on the other hand, didn't look at all pleased. “But I just got Telan! Isn't it a bit too early to be thinking about that?”
“Oh, come on Hannah!” Hugh laughed. “I've battled wild Pokemon many times already, and it's not that rough on them. Besides, you're going to learn how to battle if you want to be a trainer, and you and your partner could use the practice!” He pulled out a Poke Ball of his own and raised it above his head. “My egg-raised Tepig and I can help you with that!”
Hannah sighed. “If you say so....”
Battle! Hannah vs. Hugh!
“Go, Tepig!” Hugh cried, throwing his Poke Ball. It cracked open in mid-flight, releasing another red-and-black pig, who landed quite admirably and let out a pleased oink.
Hannah glanced at her own Poke Ball awkwardly. “Er...how do I use this?”
“Put your thumb on the button, then toss it!” Hugh replied.
“Okay...” Hannah did as Hugh said. “Go, Telan?”
The ball opened, releasing Telan the Snivy, who whistled once his feet had made contact with the ground.
“Okay, so...do something!” Hannah told her Snivy.
Telan just gave her an odd look.
“Tepig! Use Tackle!” Hugh said.
“Tackle him, Telan! Or something similar to it!”
The Snivy and the Tepig met each other mid-charge, then bounced off each other.
“I won't forget the pain you just put my partner through!” Hugh said.
“Did that even hurt that much?”
Hugh shrugged. “I wouldn't know, but I imagine it did. Either way, I was talking to the Snivy.”
“Fair enough. Tackle him again, Telan!”
Telan did as he was told, this time without suffering any damage himself since Tepig decided to swing his tail around instead.
And so it went on. Telan kept tackling the Tepig regardless of what it decided to do. Tepig seemed mostly focused on lowering Telan's guard, so when it did attack, it took Telan by surprise.
Hannah winced. “You sure this is good for the Pokemon?” she asked.
Either way, the battle ended when Telan skirted around the Tepig and delivered one final tackle to the Tepig, who finally fell over in exhaustion.
“...You okay, Telan?” Hannah asked. Telan looked towards her, and whistled again while carrying a very pleased expression.
Hugh recalled his fainted Tepig back into his Poke Ball. “I couldn't achieve victory for my partner.... I won't let myself forget this frustration!” he said to himself.
“Hey, Hugh! Mind telling me how to get Telan back in the Poke Ball?” Hannah asked.
“Oh, right.” Hugh replied, as he walked over to Hannah.
Once both Pokemon had been returned to their Poke Balls, Hugh shook his head. “I lost.... This is different than battling with wild Pokemon!”
“You do realize I had no idea what I was doing, right?” Hannah replied.
“And yet you still won. I think you'll be a great trainer, Hannah.” Hugh nodded and smiled. “I can count on you, and that's good enough for me.”
He looked down the stairs. “I'm heading off now. Let's focus on getting stronger, okay?”
“Fair enough. I'll talk to you later, Hugh. Take care of yourself!”
“You too, Hannah. Try not to let that personality of yours get you in trouble!” Hugh grinned before turning away and heading off.
“Couldn't go away without one last jab at me, could you?” Hannah muttered as Bianca walked up besides her.
“Don't worry about the first impression, Hannah,” she said warmly. “I've met other people who were much less nice than you are.”
“So I didn't do that badly, then? I've accomplished something.” Hannah replied. “So, how do you think of that battle?”
“The Pokemon on both sides did their best!” Bianca replied. “Telan could still use some practice, though. Battle with him, and he'll get stronger!”
“Are you sure that would be good for him, though?” Hannah asked. “I don't want to stress him out too much or something like that.”
“Battling is an important part of being a trainer, and it doesn't harm the Pokemon too much.” Bianca replied. “For the sake of treating them nicely though, you shouldn't let them go too long without a break.”
Hannah nodded. “So, can we go get Telan healed up?”
“Yes, we can! There just so happens to be a Pokemon Center in this city, and Pokemon Centers are, like, the best place ever for Pokemon who battle and get hurt!”
“Well then, I suppose we shouldn't dawdle.” Hannah said, and then the two left the overlook and headed for the Pokemon Center.
