Chapter 11: On the Road
The time has finally arrived as today is my tenth birthday which is the day I'm scheduled to embark on my journey as a trainer, it may be a very special event for many as it marks the time for them to get their first Pokémon, license and finally be able to travel, unlike me though who has already have several Pokémon in my arsenal and even done a couple to traveling here and there via our annual family trips around Kalos but the again even for me, today is a momentous occasion as my parent made sure of that with them inviting almost all our acquaintances in Lumiose city which includes business partners, friends, the trainers staying at the penthouse. It was overall a touching sight and to thank them for their attendance a large feast was prepared for everyone and the overall vibe of the celebration was less of a birthday party and more of a farewell one. As I was socializing with some of the trainers I was approached by Joseph informing me that I'm being called over by my parents who were with Alice in front of the Mansion.
(I'm having a serious case of Dejavu)
When I arrived I saw Alice happily cuddling with Nimbus my mom's Altaria, she truly is a bundle of joy. She still likes to hang out with both Milotic and Steelix and given them the title of "Ugah gah" which I think means pretty Pokémon but interesting enough she is now more interested in Zweilous as every time she sees Zweilous she tends to get overly excited.
(It looks like my sister is also gonna be a dragon specialist in the future, well like that's not a given from the start)
"Al your here, as you are about to go on your journey always remember that you can call us at anytime if you are ever in need of help, and to make sure of that we decided to give this to you"
My parents presented me with a small white box and a large wooden box, it in itself was a surprise as they already prepared everything I might need for my journey and with the specialized bag, it became quite the hassle-free task carrying everything. My supplies include but are not limited to a large tent, a sleeping bag that has a couple of lines of tough rope so that it can also function as a hammock, food supplies for both me and my Pokémon that can last for about a month, several pair of clothing and shoes, cooking utensils which includes a portable stove, 3 foldable chairs, a medium-size foldable table, underwater respirator, maps, potions, first aid kit, repel, poke balls and finally a rope as I was not able to find an escape rope so I just took a long sturdy rope as an alternative. I also received my license which was finalized a week earlier and was delivered yesterday.
(Hmm, what can it be?)
As I opened the small white box first and I was faced with a phone remanence of the one's in my old world as it looked like a flat touch screen phone with only 3 buttons on the side and a full glass surface in the front
"A phone?"
"It's not a phone Al, well it can also act as a phone but it's more than that as it is the latest prototype based on the touch screen device you described a few years back. I was able to finish this one in partnership with Silph Co and by combining their poke gear technology with our own advancements we were able to come up with this prototype we call the Travel Gizmo. It is equipped with applications you suggested that every trainer in a journey may need such as a voice log, map, ranger alarm, call/message option, camera, solar-powered battery and in addition being compatible with other communication devices."
(Not gonna lie it just sound like a normal phone from my old world but with a pre-installed google maps functionality but it's still amazing that my father was able to make this.)
"Thanks, Dad! I'll make sure to use it well"
" I hope you do, as we will need you to at least call us once a week or we will immediately send a search party in your last known location"
"....."
After getting the amazing phone I proceeded in opening the large wooden box. The box is filled to the brim with carvings of ornate dragon-type Pokémon designs which greatly increase my fascination with its content because if the package was already this amazing I can't imagine what it could possibly even hold.
In my excitement, I immediately lifted the lid, and upon opening the box I was faced with a necklace adorned with two jade beads between three high-quality Garchomp Claws which were similar to the one my mother always wear.
"Al this gift is something I specifically got for you as I'm certain that it can help distinguish you not only as a dragon type trainer but also as someone of high standing"
Getting the phone was already a great boon but with this, I will not half to worry about wild Pokémon attacking me on my journey because even if the energy released by this is small it's still to a point of being able to scare those that sense it away.
"Woah! Thank you, mom. I'm not complaining or anything however, didn't you tell me that I needed to get things such as high-quality dragon fangs on my own?"
(Heck, this thing cost may be close to about the price of a small mansion as acquiring it is equivalent to fighting an Elite level Garchomp to the death, and there are 3 claws! which means at least 2 Garchomp died for this thing to exist.)
"True, I did tell you that but I decided to make an exception today since it's a special occasion besides my Grandmother did the same when I was just starting out and gave me my Dragon fang Bracelet. Still, remember to be careful out there as that necklace will only act as a deterrence so just consider it a lucky charm"
"I will! Now I have a nice centerpiece for my Dragon specialist Drip"
(This necklace is like a Repel but in the form of an accessory but will only work on those that is close enough to sense it so it's best to still bring Repels as a normal Repel is based on smell and its odor travel's quite far besides one can't be too prepared when considering safety, especially during the night when I sleep where I think its a must to have at least one Pokémon outside its Pokeball."
Having a Pokémon outside its Pokeball during the night as a guard is something that has been done for a long time because at this time the routes have yet to be as safe as it is shown in the anime ... well "safer" in a sense as its a far cry from the wild areas which is prying with dangers from all direction.
"Mom, Dad I'm very thankful for the gifts as it's clear that it must have been hard for you to procure these items"
"It's nothing when the reward is your safety, and don't worry about the Penthouse will take care of it"
The Penthouse is still active with several trainers battling even on the day of my departure as my father decided to allow the penthouse to continue on its operation of accepting guests as it proved to be an effective marketing campaign for the company. The Pin already garnered fame amongst the trainers in Kalos going so far as to say it's a must-have for those challenging the seventh gym in order to see if they have the necessary skill to challenge an elite team of Pokémon. Cofo became the new Lakeside Landlord as Joseph was too busy working in the mansion and so Gardevoir who is newly named as Lily by joseph took the job of the house teleporter. At first many were questioning a Pokémon ability to manage the place but little did they know that from the start Cofo is the one managing the penthouse where the only thing I did was battling here and there, even the logbook was managed by Cofo and now his work included battling tenants who aim to get the Lakeside Pin.
Cofo was happy to accept the position as it will serve as a good way to train himself for his rematch against Milotic however he only accepts a challenge twice a day and a tournament will be done for the current tenants where the winner will be given the chance to battle Cofo for the Pin. We already battled Cofo a month back and it was truly a difficult match for Milotic but she was still able to come up on top due to her very high defenses even with the barrage of Shockwave that Cofo dished out she was able to shrug everything off but what made the battle such a nightmare was the fact that both Milotic and Cofo knew the move Recover and that coupled with Cofo's teleport and Milotic's high special defense made it so that the match lasted for quite a while which only ended by a well-timed Brutal swing by Milotic into Cofo's head. Brutal swing and Aqua tail were the newly learned moves of Milotic in the past months after training with Zweilous and Steelix to prepare for her match with Cofo.
I'm very proud of my starter as she was able to finally achieve a victory against Cofo and even learn two additional moves however, her grudge against Psychic types still hasn't left her system as of now I'm sure that her goal of drowning all Psychic types still lives on. Milotic has already reached the Peak of an eight badge level Pokémon where only intense battles with Pokémon of the same rank or higher will be able to help her develop into an Elite 4 level Pokémon in the future as she had already mastered her moves which even includes the two new ones.
Steelix's training went on a satisfying note as I'm sure that he can at least hold his own against a mega evolved Pokémon however considering that he is four times weak to both the attacks of Lucario and Blaziken due to them being fighting types and Blaziken is even also Fire-type, the odds of winning are not at Steelix's favor. It's quite a dilemma as they most likely are the Pokémon Steelix most likely get to battle. I'm still not certain if Gurkinn will set the match as a one-on-one but just in case I made it so that both Milotic and Zweilous are ready to step up for the battle.
Steelix has mastered the move Magnet rise to a battle-ready degree and we were already able to come up with several strategies for implementing the move in varying situations. Some strides were also done in learning Earthquake however it was a move we rarely trained due to issues pertaining to property damage in the estate as Earthquake is one of the very few moves banned public locations aside from specified arenas and that's saying a lot since hyper beam, fire blast, and even blizzard is permitted.
Earthquake is quite a strong move even in this world as it is very hard to dodge unless the opponent can either fly or float in the air and those unfortunate enough to be hit by the attack will half to go through an experience of having several shockwaves in the ground perpetrating their body thus not only receiving a lot of damage but also having a chance of being disoriented and fall due to the relentless shaking ground.
However, the biggest surprise that I encountered during Steelix's training is when we discovered another one of Steelix's abilities which seemed to be similar to Magic bounce but only reflects stat reducing moves back to the user. I have a clue on what ability it is as I'm sure that a Pokémon from the Galar region called Corviknight has the same ability however I can't remember the abilities name as I had never played the newer generations and it was not shown in depth in the anime. Getting a victory against Gurkinn is hoping for a lot considering I'm outmatched on both firepower and battle experience but I made sure that we could at least put up a fight and show them that we mean business.
Zweilous is still far from evolving as its species takes the longest time to evolve to its final stage among the Dragon-type Pokémon. He already mastered Draco meteor after his evolution and is now able to create twenty meteors from the initial projectile that then scatter around the opponent which was the requirement to master the move but that number can still be increased with training and no one knows the limit as even my mother's Goodra, Slick can make up to forty while the most recorded goes up to seventy. The move-in itself surprisingly has a lot of relation to my mother's clan which I have just learned about recently as by a whim she told me the history of the move.
Draco meteor was invented long ago when the Sinnoh region is known by a different name. At that time her ancestors after studying several ancient depictions of a move used by the Alpha Pokémon derived from it the move Draco meteor to imitate the destructive power recorded in the old scripts.
(I could already guess by that much information that the move Draco meteor must have been based on Arceus move Judgement and if that move could be imitated why not Spatial rend and Roar of time? Since they are both dragon-type moves, I may have an easier time in adapting a new move based on those to try and teach my team.)
The Zweilous food crisis was also finally been resolved with the successful manufacturing of the special Pink Poffin which was able to satiate his great appetite. The Special Poffin is jam-packed with a multitude of essential nutrients that came from using several naturally filling berries which are all contained and compacted in a Poffin.
The Pink Poffin can make even the largest Snorlax puff up and have their belly swell so much it might be visually seen double in size or so the scientist said as I can't really confirm or deny their claims because I don't own a Snorlax. My father decided to sell the stuff with some minor changes to the recipe to accommodate every type which degraded the quality a bit when compared to the one I have catered for Zweilous specifically but is still overall a good product.
The market for such a food product however small still exists. Overly large and heavy eater Pokémon like a Snorlax as it is known as the bankruptcy Pokémon in Kanto and the sleeping famine in Sinnoh is the reason why many trainers try to avoid catching and training such Pokémon as it may abruptly end their journey due to financial problems. My father hoped that this new food product will kick start the rise in the numbers of prospective trainers that is willing to train larger Pokémon.
Both of Zweilous's heads still bicker and fight from time to time but luckily no more self-mutilation happened after the first one as I was able to successfully make him understand that he is literally only hurting himself and in addition of limiting his Poffin intake each time he attacks himself.
Zweilous also started some wing exercises so that he could maybe have an easier time learning some wing based moves in the future such as Steel wing which I hope will come about before evolving and from that we may be able to transition to Flash cannon when he gets enough experience with the usage of steel type energy but that's still in the far future.
I already informed Gurkinn that I was starting my journey earlier this week and after hearing my plan to take the path of Route 13 to Coumarine city he suggested that I should try to battle the Coumarine gym to get experience in battling a gym leader to be more prepared for our match. The Coumarine gym was a grass-type gym which I'm confident my team can handle pretty well aside from Milotic but she does have Ice beam which brings my hopes up that she too can hold her own.
The Gym leader of the Coumarine Gym is Ramos and he is one of the gym leaders that did not have a minimum badge requirement to be able to challenge him, because of that many of his challengers are of the 1st - 4th gym badge level so the team he mainly uses are those below the 5th gym badge level but that kind of match won't be as much help to my team and so I aim to challenge his main team.
Gym leaders have several teams of Pokémon of varying strength levels where teams are swapped to match the number of badges the challenger owns however the challenger can still request for a higher difficulty which is up to the gym leader whether to accept or not. It is unfortunate though that battles on the road would be stale as most challengers would be below the standard my team needs to improve.
I divided to not take the train to Coumarine City that goes pasts the entirety of route 13 even if it's much less of a hassle as one of the five major cities connected by rail to Lumiose because I see it as a lazy way to start my journey. It was a hard decision that I know I will regret sooner than later because more than half of Route 13 is an area known as the Lumiose Badlands containing entirely of a rugged rocky terrain without any constructed road or pre-determined pathways which one can take. There is also hardly any vegetation in the area due to the barren soil and scorching climate of the location.
The Lumiose Badlands is also known as a danger zone where a lot of aggressive ground and rock type Pokémon which is known to stalk and tunnel under the rocky terrain and what's more disturbing is that those Pokémon even though unprovoked is said to go out of their way to attack weary travelers from underground.
(I don't really think that Pokémon in the Lumiose badlands attack travelers unprovoked as it can be seen as them intruding on the Pokémon's territory as I would also be ticked off if someone barge in my property uninvited, I could even imagine myself yelling "get off my lawn" like those grumpy old men from old Tv shows of my past life)
Unlike the games not all routes is a short path with accessible pathways as that can easily be traversed, it might be so in the future but currently, a predetermined path is only available for the first part of Route 13 which is a forested area with two towns in between but the Badlands is literally needed travelers to go through the wilderness following a few landmarks along the way to act as guides and getting lost is equivalent to a minimum of two to three weeks in that barren area as it is estimated that it would take an average traveler more than a week to traverse the Lumiose Badlands on foot.
Due to this hardly any trainers go on this Route to get to Coumarine city, much less trainers like me who are just starting out, but considering the strength of my team and the amount of provisions I have, I'm confident that I could still manage it one way or another.
(Well, If all else fails I'll just ride Steelix the whole way through. I don't think Steelix would mind as even with the hot climate his body is covered with an Ice that would Nevermelt)
.....
"Mom, Dad, and also everyone who came today thank you for everything"
"It's nothing Al just make sure to be careful on your journey. Another thing, Remember what I told you"
"I know to call right? I thought that was only when I was on a Pokémon Center but with the Travel Gizmo that's not a problem anymore though"
"That too, but I'm referring to the stuff we talk about a few days ago"
"About the Legendaries? Yeah, I know when I see one better stay away, that's common sense Dad as one does not simply approach a legendary besides who would be dumb enough to get close to a legendary Pokémon let alone challenge one"
" ... Your Uncle was one such individual"
" ... I have an Uncle?"
" Had an Uncle and my point exactly"
"...."
"So Al, remember to avoid trouble"
"I will Dad, but still do we have any more relatives I should know about?
"There are but I will tell you about them in the future"
"Well that's concerning but whatever I'm off, goodbye everyone"
"Take care Al"
"Have fun on your journey sweetie"
"Farewell master Albert"
'Ala Alakazam!'
"Ugah gah wahahaaàa"
"Bye Alice make sure to behave while I'm gone okay?"
...
After saying my goodbyes and learning a bit more about the disturbing history of our family tree I proceeded on my journey with my first stop being the Pokémon center to register myself for the Pokémon league as I do plan on fighting the gyms I will come across in my journey however battling in the league tournament is still something I have yet decided on.
"Hello nurse Joy"
"Welcome Al, so it's true that you are starting your journey today."
"Yes, I am. I was hoping if I could be registered in the League circuit"
"That would be no problem at all, just let me see your trainer Id then I could add you to the registry, It won't take but a minute"
The Pokémon center is still packed full like always with a lot of old and new faces to see but it's quite uncomfortable being stared at by some of them which were not unexpected since I do have a reputation in this city.
"Here you go Al, make sure to take care of yourself out there"
"I will, Thanks Nurse Joy"
After completing my registration, I went straight to Route 13 to avoid any more prying eyes. The route is located outside the west gate of Lumiose city which is an hour's walk away from the Pokémon center.
When I arrived at the entrance of Route 13, I took one last look back somewhere in City admiring the place I grew up in one last time before proceeding towards the large forest in front of me.
'Wheez' 'Breath in'
'Haaah' 'Breath out'
(Nothing beats the fresh air of a forested area)
I followed the path through the forest seeing and encountering several wild Pokémon along the way. Unlike in the games, the route is filled with varying species of Pokémon with the first stage ones in groups while the fully evolved Pokémon seemed to have a loner lifestyle.
During the first few hours of my journey, I had a strange feeling of being watched but since I was in a forest with a lot of Pokémon it was normal to have prying eyes all around. Even though I saw a lot of wild Pokémon I did not have any close encounters with them which I took as the repel I had on me is working just fine however that did not last long as I still had a problem with a wild Ursaring that came charging in towards my direction.
(So the Repel works well against weaker wild Pokémon but stronger ones could ignore it, huh ... wait I'm in danger!)
When Ursaring was a few meters away from me it suddenly stopped and stared for a few seconds at my necklace which was an indication that it could sense the energy inside it, however, it was not enough to scare away the Ursaring as it continued its charge right after which it quickly regretted as I had already called out Steelix who was happy to get a fluffy stress ball in a form of a teddy bear.
(It seems that growing up with Dragon-types and large Pokémon somehow dulled a bit of my fear receptors which may or may not be a good thing ... still, I need to do something about that in the future)
"I hope I will get fewer problems like this during the night"
(I really don't want my sleep to be disturbed, but knowing that most of the dangerous Pokémon are nocturnal leaves little expectation of that happening)
I had two battles along the way before reaching the first town which sadly only against a Three to Four badge level Beedrill and Roselia which Zweilous easily defeated with a single Incinerate each. As I am now a registered trainer, I'm finally able to partake in official battles which involve Prize money which requires the losing party in a battle to pay the victor with the amount to be paid is set before the match.
I agreed with the Beedrill trainer who was the perfect example of a bug catcher from the games that our battle will be off the record meaning there was no money was involved however the Roselia trainer who looked like a high school girl lost in a forest had to pay me 100 Pokedollar which is not much but still, something considering an average trainer spends at minimum 10,000 Pokedollar in a month which includes food for both trainer and Pokémon, Healing items, and other necessities.
After a few more hours of traveling, I was able to reach the first town before it got dark and so I was lucky enough to be able to spend the night in a Pokémon center and have my Pokémon checked up. The Pokémon Center is an important facility that gives free basic healing and lodging to active trainers and is funded by the league.
The league provides this service due to the trainers being included in the military force of the region that can be called upon, however, that's only insubstantial information compared to the existential crisis I had a few years ago when I wanted to know if all the Nurse Joys and Officer Jenny's look alike.
The answer to that question is yes ... they all do and the reason is really not complicated as I learned that in this world there is a chance of being Identical to a relative to a point of being no different from Identical twins and it just so happened to be prominent in Noble clans such as the Joy's and Jenny's. This phenomenon is very old as it's even depicted in ancient civilizations and researchers discovered from studying several new examples of this in the last decades that its prominent on trainers that had reached the level of Elites and higher. In short, people just trained so much that aside from their Pokémon even their genes became strong enough to dominate others to a point where this happens.
I prepared my team's Pokémon food after their check-up, it was decided that my parents will send a batch of Pokémon food to me once every month and it will be delivered to a Pokémon center in line with the route I'm currently on. It was a good deal for me as most of the Pokémon food I use is made from a lab and not a kitchen and if I were to make it on my own it would take 2-3 days to complete a single meal much more for a whole team. But the thing that I could make on the spot is my own food and Poffins but not Zweilous Pink Poffin which I'm not equipped to make alone so it was included in the Pokémon food to be delivered.
(For my and everyone's safety I hope those Pink Poffins never run out)
I'm on my own however in other aspects such as travel expenses which include lodging considering not every town has a Pokémon center, equipment maintenance or replacement as things break down more often than not in a journey, Supplies such as healing potions. I don't really see these expenses as a major problem though considering the revenue I got from the song I recorded which became a big hit in several regions already.
(Well at least I have something to consider doing if being a Pokémon trainer or businessman did not catch on, even though I never saw myself as a Rock star it's still nice to have a backup plan)
I took a bath and washed my used clothes as from what I was told, always take the opportunity to bathe and wash your clothes as there are times that it will be something difficult to do for several days while in the middle of the journey as a water source is not always available unless one has a water-type Pokémon. I also made sure to call back home to inform them that I had successfully reached the first town as it is a ritual for every beginner trainer to do at the start of their journey even though it's only been less than a day.
The next morning I ate breakfast served by the Pokémon center together with my Pokémon after which we did some training, I decided to train for an hour every morning to keep us in shape as most of our time will be that of traveling. After training, we continued on our journey through Route 13.
I traveled for another day and battled several trainers along the way but I had to camp out in the wilderness due to the next town still being several miles away according to my travel kit as my battles seemed to have eaten up some time and traveling at night is also something that is not so appealing. I settled on a clearing and then collected some firewood which was not hard considering the area I am in still encompasses woodlands which goes to show I'm not even halfway through. The campfire was started with a controlled blast of incinerate from Zweilous and with that I started cooking my meal while my Pokémon eat their pre-prepared meals. Even though I have the portable stove ready I decided to keep it as a backup as not all locations have available firewood lying around. After eating I decided not to put up a tent as the weather seemed to be clear and so I used my hammock tying both ends on a sturdy tree while I let Steelix sleep outside with me acting like a living icy wall around me to scare off any would-be intruder.
I manage to reach the second town by the next day without any more delay however I did not stay long and left after taking my Pokémon to the Pokémon center and restocking some supplies since this will be the last Pokémon center and town I will come across in the coming days ahead.
I traveled for another day and it was clear that very few trainers take this path after the second town because I had not encountered another person and as I continued on my journey the forested area I was on slowly started to disappear and after a few more hours of walking what's left in front of me is the Lumiose Badlands.
I saw first-hand the clear-cut reason why it was called the Badlands as it was truly a desolate place where a large expanse of rocky mountainous terrain as far as an eye could see encompasses the area with little to no vegetation in sight.
"Whoa … Ohh so this is what I got myself into huh, well I'm in too deep to Torchic out of this"
Even with the dangers, I decided on traversing this route not only for the sake of traveling but I do have a gree .... good reason for taking this path which has to do with the interesting tidbit that my mother told me a couple of months back about the Lumiose Badlands. The information is not widely known but is a proven fact that somewhere in Route 13 is a nest of a rare and elusive dragon-type line that I want to have on my team and that is the Gible line.
However, catching a Gible is easier said than done since it's well known that first stage Dragon-type Pokémon are known to be guarded by two to three fully evolved specimen of its line and only wonders off after evolving, In this case, as a Gabite and that Pokémon is harder to find due to it being a solitary Pokémon living underground in secluded caverns and only comes out at night to hunt for food and treasure.
(It's odd that they are social Pokémon living in groups when at the first and last stage but are complete loners during the middle stage. But still, Gible is easier to find but harder to catch and Gabite is harder to find but is much less of a hassle to catch, both have a positive and negative quality about them but it's still better than catching a fully evolved Garchomp which will not only be a nightmare to catch but also to train which is why I would avoid catching it for the most part)
"Well, I'm not gonna get anything done by just staring at the place better start exploring"
With that, I proceeded on my journey through the second half of Route 13.
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Line break llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Alden POV.
(After Albert's departure)
After the last guest left Al's farewell celebration, I proceeded to my office where Drasna seemed to be already waiting for me.
"Drasna what's the matter?"
"Albert's off to his journey"
"Yes, indeed and that's a problem why?"
"That's the problem, I'm surprised that in the end, you allowed him to travel without any strings attached so I came here to find out what it is you are planning"
"haha... I'm offended that you see me as some kind of schemer"
"Just be honest with me..... what did you do?
"....."
"You won't tell me? fine"
Right as she said that she rang the small psychic bell on top of my table that is used to call over Joseph.
'Ding, Ding, Ding'
'bzzz bzz bzzzz'
' Ala alakazam'
"How could I be of service Sir Alden.... and Madam Drasna"
"Joseph, tell me what did my husband do?"
"In of what topic and subject madam"
"Al and his departure"
" ..... Madam, Master Alden commanded several Elite trainers to guard master Albert undetected throughout the first Route of his journey"
"Haaaah, I knew it. Hmm? wait ... strange why only through his first route?"
"Traveling Route 13 will approximately take more than a weeks time and do you remember my brothers?"
"Yeah, what about them?"
"They all did not get past the first week of their career as a trainer so I made sure to have insurance that the same won't happen to Al"
" So in short you have a paranoia .... You do understand that Al is stronger than the guards you hired right?
"..... Well I can't hire an elite four to be a bodyguard so what other choice do I have?"
"Not hiring them from the start is one and you worry too much, Al won't succumb to the same faith as your Older brother as Al have something he did not"
"Ohh? what's that?"
"A functioning brain"
"...." Alden
"...." Joseph
'Alakakazazaaam' 'alakazam laughing while agreeing with the statement'
"That's demeaning but I will not confirm or deny your accusation"
"Trust your son as you have seen him grow to be the strong fine young lad he is now and with his team by his side nothing in that wasteland could put a dent on him, it will be his playground for the next couple of days."
"I understand, but I will call the ace trainers back after Al reach the Lumiose Badlands as I already paid them in advance"
"Well, that's on you, right? But why not call them back now? And what will you do about the other problem?"
"Don't worry it's taken care of, that's the other reason I hired the Elite trainers"
.... 2 months ago....
I knew that it would happen sooner than later after we released the songs but I did not expect it to be this problematic. The problem? My son gained a fan base even with them not knowing what he looks like as I made sure of it! Going so far to even make those that attended his ninth birthday party sign a confidentiality agreement.
His songs got the attention of many people and ask for interviews and concerts by the artists and all of the distortion world got loose when someone leaked the information that one person is responsible for coming up with all the songs we released.
We asked Al on the subject of the possibility of doing some interviews and concerts while in a disguise but he is not interested in such matters as he already has a lot on his agenda as his journey is only two months away.
It was getting hectic as it even got the attention of several high-standing people accusing us of imprisoning the artist considering anyone would take the chance to get famous so why would this generation's biggest music star not want to show himself?
Their reasoning was so dumb that I was not able to give a reply and when I asked Al about all he can say about the situation is "Well, that escalated quickly" and walked promptly away as if it got nothing to do with him.
Well, it's indeed for the best that Al keeps his privacy while being a trainer as being the little celebrity of Lumiose enough publicity to those on top and it's better that a few people know what he looked like as being swarmed by people in every town and city is not the best experience for anyone and wearing a disguise would just be a hassle for anyone. I would know as I funded celebrities in the past and unlike trainers music and movie stars get a harder time traveling around without being stalked or hounded down by fans.
(My son, if you want to proceed with your journey as you had planned then better keep your mouth shut and not sing in public)
I had hoped that things will die down after a while but sadly it got worse as a month prior to Al's departure Drasna and I was called over by the league to attend a secret meeting via video call where several gym leaders, elite four members, the champion, heck even Mr. Charles Goodshow attended participated to listen to us explain the situation and his on a different region in a different time zone than us to be the representative of the other regions.
It was a no-brainer that they were all surprised that our son the little celebrity of Lumiose city was the artist responsible for the several global hits that were deemed as modern classics by the media.
The perpetrator Al himself does not even realize the significance of the situation as the only thing he liked about it all is that the zeros in his personal bank account are steadily increasing.
Al was already well known by the league as one of the rising stars of this generation but what surprised them was his age as most of them thought that he was already a licensed trainer. As sadly no one in the league took the time to check the records of one of the said rising stars of the region.
(I do understand it from their perspective as from what I know Drasna seemed to talk about Al in most of their meetings praising our son as a prodigy to a point of most of the league officials are sick of hearing about it but seriously not once did she mention his age to them? However, by the looks of those present, it seemed that they did not believe most of the things Drasna said and considered it as a case of a mother boasting about her child to coworkers.)
After fully explaining the situation the league agreed to help in settling down the craze in the region and have given a statement about the artist which informed the mass that due to personal concerns involving health matters the artist is not able to do straining activities such as concerts. The statement was able to settle most of the crazed fans as a league statement is considered a trustworthy source but there are still a few stragglers remaining hoping to get to meet Al.
Even with the league's support, there were still problems popping up with the main one being several individuals for some reason came to the conclusion that Al and the music Artist must be one and the same and shared several topics supporting their claims but luckily nothing very concrete from what we have seen. Well, they are not wrong but just in case I had planned on diverting this thought process of theirs as we learned that they are planning to approach Al during his journey which seems harmless at first but knowing what some paparazzi could do to an unguarded celebrity well let's say several measures need to be done.
I hired one of my company staff to do weekly visits to our estate and the music studio we own while wearing a mask and carrying a guitar. I hoped that this could at least make them think twice about the truth but if they still plan on stalking my son then they can't blame me for being drastic in my actions.
…. A few hours after Alberts's Departure ….
In the middle of the forest, several figures of people were steadily following Al for hours through the forest making sure that they were far enough from the city before taking any action however before any one of them could get close to Al they were taken away by several Pokémon and were brought to the Police station with the accusation of stalking a ten yrs. old kid in the forest with video footage of the whole debacle. In the clip, they were shown with eyes that of a predator eyeing its prey, and since the target was a kid presumably around ten years old and seeing that the video had gone on for at least two hours before stopping when they were about to get in contact with their target Officer Jenny immediately put them away to be interrogated and with one of them spilling the beans on their plans to stalk the kid until he admits his identity as a certain celebrity singer they were locked up for a week but by then Al was long gone.
.....
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Thesilentwooper
Thesilentwooper An unexpected chapter! I don't know when the next chapter will be out but expect it won't be out anytime soon as my Licensure exam is getting close and my free time had been rare this past months and will be the same this following months but once again feedback on mistakes and possible improvements is greatly appreciated.
I had to rewatch some episodes of the anime for this chapter which what I based most of the qualities of the Route on. Some other stuff is something I made up and I think most of ya'll can already guess what those are.
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