Level Up

Some fellow on the road points out my Pokedex and tells me that I'm lucky. He probably intends to steal my Pokedex. I'll probably have to kill him later. This reminds me that I must try out the Pokedex. But first, to explore the rest of this Sandgem Town. Hopefully there's more to do than in Twinleaf Town. Actually, the two are so close together I cannot fathom why they are considered separate towns. Some quirk or feud in local politics? What do I care? I'm like ten years old. When I enter the nearest house, the residents extol the virtues of Poke Centers and admonish me not to let my Pokemon faint, but to heal them regularly while they level up. That last phrase intrigues me. Level up? How can I make this happen?

The next house has a sign reading, "Dawn's house." Do children have some strange status in this world of which I am not cognizant? I enter the house. Dawn doesn't seem to be here, but her grandfather and her younger sister are. Why isn't the sister's name on the sign? The old man notes it's both Dawn and her father who work for Professor Rowan. I missed that. I should head back to the lab and see if I can find him. Maybe he can give me some dirt on Dawn.

I speak with the people working in the lab. They seem rather dull and quite busy anyway. Dawn's father is particularly weird. Enough of this. I examine the bookshelves. I see that there's information about Pokemon there, but for some reason I can't access it. What about the computer. The screen is filled with special terms and academic writing that is impossible to figure out? What is wrong with my brain? It occurs to me that I should see a doctor. Professor Rowan is the closest thing I've seen to one, though. Maybe later.

There's a patch of sand on the eastern edge of this town. The town's namesake? A boy in the sand is very excited, possibly because I have a Pokemon and he doesn't.

"Oh, wow! Pokemon are so cool! You can make yours battle and make them stronger! I wish I had some! It's so cool!"

I recall what I heard earlier about leveling up. Fighting will make Hanuman stronger? Excellent. I run back to the tall grass, looking for some victims. Before I find any, I notice a person standing in the tall grass, who gives me a potion as a free sample from the Poke Mart. In my haste, I forgot to visit the Poke Mart. Still, this is good. My new acquaintance informs me that potions can be used to heal Pokemon. As I put the potion in my backpack, I notice that the pack has several pockets, each specifically labeled. The pockets are "items," "medicine," "Poke balls," TMs and HMs," "berries," "mail," "battle items," and "key items." Bizarre, but not nearly so much as the fact that the potion automatically went into the "medicine" pocket without my having put it there. This worries me a little, but then a wild pokemon attacks.

This pokedex is useful indeed. My antagonist, of the same variety as the bird who first attacked me by Lake Verity, is a "Starly."

I tell Hanuman to use leer this time. I notice from the pokedex that his two attacks are leer and scratch. The Starly tackles him, but when I instruct a scratch to follow up, the avian is weakened. Apparently being leered at can have that effect. Curious. This time Starly growls at Hanuman, which lowers his attacking power. How does it do that? Oh well, he'll finish the bird soon enough. Scratch again. Starly growls again, but another scratch should still end this. I encourage Hanuman. The scratch works as predicted. Hanuman levels up! He's level 6 now. Time to head back to the Poke mart and see what they have in stock.

Another wild pokemon intercepts me before I can get out of the tall grass. It's the gopher from before, but now, thanks to the pokedex, I know its name is "Bidoof." Again, I elect to start the combat with leer, and again, the foe leads with tackle. I have Hanuman switch to scratch, which decimates the rodent, who still manages to score another tackle. I begin to understand how this works. Start with leer to weaken them, then scratch them into oblivion.

I enter the Poke mart for the first time. One customer seems to be interested in potions, because they can keep pokemon from fainting. The other tells me, "If you come across a Pokemon you've just gotta have, toss a Poke Ball! Never leave home without one!" Does this mean I'm not limited to Hanuman for the purposes of global domination? Time to acquire some of these wondrous globes. I order the merchant to provide me with some poke balls. She says that they're 200 dollars each. Oh. I might have money? I check. I have 3,000 dollars! Or whatever this money is. I'm not sure, really. While I can buy some poke balls if I want to, I really have no idea how to get more money at this point. Would it be best to save what I have? I purchase two for now, then return to the Poke center to restore Hanuman before our next venture.