East Campgrounds, Azalea Nature Preserve, Johto Region.
Friday afternoon.
"Hahahaha! Again, again!" The young teen rolled around in the grass, kicking his feet into the air and giggling convulsively. The Ledyba at his side looked a little woozy, with animated curlicues spinning around in his eyes. "Wyndon, Comet Punch!"
The Ledyba took a moment before responding, finally raising itself up on its six little feet and waddling over to a nearby apricorn tree. A few campers were having a picnic in the tree's shade. Wyndon the Ledyba snuck up to the tree, and with a mischievous buzz, began pounding on the tree at lightning speed with his little round front fists. He stopped, and a few seconds later, an ominous rumbling sound started to emanate from the treetop. The picnickers looked up in confusion, as the rumbling noise grew louder and louder. Suddenly, Weedles and Caterpies started dropping from the tree and crawling around--it was raining insects! A couple of confused Beedrills flew out from the canopy and buzzed around menacingly, too! "Aaaaaaaaah!" The campers screamed and ran for the hills, leaving all of their food behind them.
"Great job, Wyndon!" Buzzer, the boy responsible for the chaos, laughed raucously and skipped into the bug-infested picnic area without a care in the world. He lay down on his back among the crawly creatures and grabbed a chunk of frosted vanilla cake with his bare hands. His eyes glazed over as he dropped the huge piece of cake into his mouth in one giant gulp. He patted his stomach contentedly and folded his arms behind his head, basking in the sun and letting bug Pokémon crawl over him as they tried to find the way back to their homes up the apricorn tree. He observed the Caterpies and Weedles slowly climbing up the tree trunk and wondered what it would be like to be a bug living in a park like this, and not have to worry about school, parents, food, money...
When Buzzer opened his eyes again, the sky was crimson red and two Poké Rangers looked down at him disapprovingly. Buzzer shot up and started to try to explain his way out of trouble: "I-I was just playing with my Pokémon and I saw this picnic here and a bunch of Beedrills attacked them and I was trying to help but they ran away and I... fell asleep and I didn't mean to eat their food I was just so hungry, and..."
The female Ranger cut him off, shaking her head. "No need to worry, kid. Your mom just left this at our office, it's a letter for you. She said she knew you would be here. ...Don't you ever go home?"
Buzzer ignored the question and stared at the envelope that was handed to him. It had an official seal of the National Event League, and postage was paid for delivery of the letter from Kanto to Johto. The postman must have had quite a hard time making it to the tiny forest town of Azalea, since the envelope was bent up, dirty and half-open. Buzzer finished tearing it open, tossing the envelope aside as he slowly read the contents of the letter. An invitation to Champion's Day... in Vermilion City. A cruise ship. All expenses paid. Impossible... it had to be a mistake. Or... maybe someone had seen him and finally recognized the Pokémon training talent he knew he had?
The boy stood up and gathered his things, trying to pack as much of the leftover picnic food that he could find into his knapsack-on-a-stick. In the meantime, a curious-looking Venonat tottered over and read the letter that Buzzer had left tossed on the ground. "Come on, Sprinkle. You can tell me what you think about this on the way there... I'm going, no matter what you say." He tied up his knapsack, scooped up his Ledyba, Venonat and a lethargic-looking Weedle as well, and headed off into the sunset.
