Welcome to Gaia! ::

Mezame pushed the door open and a bell tinkled to signal her arrival. There was a few people in the Mart already and no one really paid attention to her presence. There were many items Mezame didn't recognise and she looked around at the shelves in awe. Potion, Super Potion, Repel, Antidote, Awakening, Paralyse Heal- some of the stuff she could guess at what they were for but she was still surprised at the amount of different things a Pokémon could suffer from.

Mezame must have been looking a bit lost because the shop assistant approached her asking. "Can I help you at all Miss?"

"Oh, no I was ju- actually yeah maybe you can." Mezame started her sentence automatically as she was busy browsing the shelves but then remembered what she had come in for."I'm going on a journey you see and I was wondering what kind of stuff you have for carrying Pokéballs... Do you have stuff like that?" Mezame added her question as it suddenly occured to her that maybe people just carried Pokéballs in the bags and pockets like she'd been doing so far.

"We sure do!" The shop assistant said happily returning behind the counter. "These are brand new in, not officially on sale until tomorrow but for you Missy I'll let you get your hands on one of these babies early!" The shop assistant pulled out a box picturing a belt with lots of different pockets and compartments. "This here is a Pokébelt. It's gonna be a hit with all the new trainers this season!" He took the belt out of the box and started pointing out which each compartment. "This here are the Pokéball clips. There's twelve slots so you can carry all 6 Pokémon and twelve empty Pokéballs too. They run round the back so they're not on show. This here is a pouch big enough that you can keep your potion and other Pokémon medicines or even food in. This pocket here can fit your badge or ribbon cases and this space is for your Pokégear and finally this one is for your Pokédex! Everything you need in one belt, pretty awesome right?!"

Mezame didn't know what a Pokégear was either but since a Pokédex was even less familiar to her it was the one she chose to ask about. "Uh, ye-yeah it sounds amazing but uh, what's a Pokédex?"

A voice from across the shop was suddenly heard loud and clear. "You don't know what a Pokédex is!?" The voice belong to a girl quite younger than Mezame, by a few years at least. She was a head strong, sure of herself sounding type of a girl... in other words, a real brat.

"Uh, who are you?" Was all Mezame could think to ask.

"My name is Cora." The girl said as though this was common knowledge and continued with this attitude for her next line. "Anyone who's anyone knows what a Pokédex is!"

"Well I'm not anyone!" Mezame said irritably. "My name's Mezame and I never had a Pokémon before now so I'm still learning." Her face was reddening with annoyance and embarrassment but Mezame held her ground. Cora looked shocked that anyone as old as Mezame looked would never have had a Pokémon before.

"But... your parents must have taught you about Pokémon? Why didn't you go on a journey when you turned ten like everyone else!?" Cora's attitude had died off a bit and she seemed more distraught than anything else. Mezame sighed wondering how many people she would have to repeat this story too. Would she forever have to suffer the fate of explaining to little kids the reasons behind how naive she was?

"My parents are human doctors, they never let me around Pokémon and wanted me to be a human doctor like them. You could say I ran away from home and now I'm trying to learn about Pokémon, so if you're gonna be mean about it you can just go away now 'cause I'm not listening to it!" Mezame was flustered, she knew Glint was surprised about her lack of knowledge too and she didn't much care for his attitude either but at least he wasn't rude about it. Cora's face continued to look even more shocked to the point where Mezame wondered if her eyes were going to pop out.

"Wow..." Cora started, she seemed speechless and Mezame felt a little better. "I'm sorry, that- really sucks." Cora didn't say anything else and although Mezame didn't know her, she guessed that it was a rare occurrence.

"It's okay." Mezame replied awkwardly. "Sorry I yelled at you like that."

"Oh no no, it's fine." Cora insisted. "I thought you were just some dumb older trainer who'd been living in a cave all her life..." She trailed off. "I guess you were but not like it was your fault" Cora said scratching the back of her head and laughing nervously. Mezame didn't say anything, she just stared at Cora with an unimpressed look on her face. "I know, what do ya say I make it up to you?"

"It's really fine." Mezame insisted. "I should get going now."

"No wait! I mean it. I want you to have this." Cora took off her bag and pulled something out of a zipped compartment and handed it to Mezame. "It's my Pokédex. Here let me wipe off my ID info first." Cora pressed some buttons and a computerised voice said "Infomation deleted. In put new infomation?"

"What? Why would you give that to me?" Mezame asked surprised, confused and a little apprehensive. Cora leaned casually against the wall and waved a hand dismissively.

"I don't need it." Cora bragged. "I don't wanna be a trainer any more. I have a dream to become the worlds greatest poffin chief!" Mezame froze up, more Pokémon items she didn't know about. "Don't tell me you don't know about poffin's either?!" Mezame hung her head and shook it but Cora brightened. "Poffin's help a Pokémon to be as healthy as can be! But they're also a great snack too!" Cora sighed dreamily "Oh how I love to cook! People will come from miles around to feed Pokémon poffins from my kitchen!"

"That sounds great Cora." Mezame smiled.

Cora nodded matter of factly. "So you see." Cora started holding out her Pokédex to Mezame again. "You'll be able to get much more use out of this than me!" Mezame nodded and took the Pokédex from Cora. "Learn lots about Pokémon Mezame! Then come visit me at my Pokémon Poffin Kitchen and I'll test you!" Mezame nodded firmly blinking back the tears of joy. She made a fist and smiled.

"Alright Cora I will! That's a promise!"

"Awesome!" Cora yelled jumping in the air. "Lets try our best."

"Mmf!" Mezame agreed. "Thank you Cora!"

"Don't mention it. I'll see you again soon!" Cora ran towards the exit and then turned back to wave. "Bye Mezame!" Mezame didn't have a chance to say goodbye back, Cora had already ran out and was gone.

Mezame looked down at her new Pokédex, not really knowing the great wealth of knowledge it would bestow to her but being extremely grateful all the same. A sniffling sound caught Mezame's attention and she looked back at the shop assistant who was rubbing his eyes.

"That Cora is the sweetest customer I get in here." He snivelled.

Mezame scratched the back of head awkwardly. "Uh, yeah she's something..."

The shop assistant seemed to be over his bout of emotion and was quick to get back to the point. "So about this Pokébelt?!"

Violet walked into the pokemart with a sigh. It had taken her a lot longer to make it than she had hoped. She couldn't deal with large cities. Violet shook her head, she needed to hurry up and buy her supplies. If she was lucky she could catch the gym leader in the gym. She didn't know why, but they had a tendency to roam about. She guessed it must get boring or something. Violet walked down the isles. She saw something called a pokegear that looked rather useful, but for what they where asking she didn't think she'd ever be able to afford it. She walked on, glancing nervously about. The trainers in there where staring at her. Violet shook her head, the city air was getting to her. She muttered to herself as she grabbed a few packages of trail mix, jerky, and other good travelling foods. She also grabbed three standard pokeballs. She was really pushing her budget, pokeballs were so expensive. She wondered who the gym leader was, she should study up before entering a gym battle. She wanted to know all she could, so she could formulate a plan. Though she wasn't really expecting to win, she could at least try and knock out a pokemon or two. She needed to see how tough this leader was before heading off to train. She walked up to the cashier and purchased her things, he seemed pretty cheery... unlike some of the customers. "Sir, would you happen to know who the leader of this cities gym is?" she asked politely as she put her things into her bag. She put one of her pokeballs into her jacket pocket just in case. He seemed surprised that she didn't know, but he parted easily with the knowledge. "Sabrina, she specializes with psychic types" he told her with a polite smile. Violet blinked in surprise. Sabrina had quite the reputation, but Violet hadn't realized she would be in saffron. She nodded her thanks in hurried out. She would have to head to the gym now, but how would she beat such a peculiar leader? Even with sneasel it would surely be difficult to win.