"You can do the same attack a bunch of times, but too many will make a Pokemon sore and they won't want to use that move again until they heal. Growl can be used about 40 times, and Tackle about 35."

Gwen nods. Got it. She looks thoughtfully at Fluffy (unruffled wall of floof) and her Bulbasaur (definitely not getting anywhere), and adds, Maybe he should pick on somebody his own size.

"A proper match sounds like a great idea! Why don't you go down the street and challenge Sherry? She got a Charmander yesterday, I bet she'll enjoy a go."

Sherry's got a Charmander, huh. Well, Gwen and her Bulbasaur will just have to give it their all.

I'll do that, Gwen signs cheerfully, and gestures for her Bulbasaur to follow her.

A few feet out of Professor Persimmon's lab, she stops, turns to kneel in front of her Bulbasaur, and says firmly, "You Basauw."

Yes, it's the closest she can get to pronouncing the last two syllables of "Bulbasaur". It's also a name that a girl with issues about her speech problems can be proud of.

Basauw named, she gets back to looking for Sherry.

Sherry is at her house, finishing packing for her Pokemon journey!

Eventually she comes out, carrying a backpack. "Hi Gwen! I'm starting my pokemon journey!" 

Gwen waves, then signs, slowly and clearly, So am I! I have a Bulbasaur. Want to battle?

"You bet I want to battle! I'm gonna be the very best!" She moves to an open area of yard and lets her Charmander out.

"Char!"

Basauw is of course already out, because Gwen sees no point in putting him back in his Pokeball when he could be stretching his cute li'l legs.

She points firmly at Sherry's Charmander. "Basauw, 'ackle!" Because she is gonna be the very best.

Basauw goes at the Charmander full tilt! The Charmander is knocked back but jumps back up again.

"Sparky, growl!" yells Sherry. Sparky goes "Charrrrrrrr!".

Is that so. "Basauw, 'ackle!" He can do it, she knows he can, because Bulbasaur is the best Pokemon. (Except for Ivysaur and Venusaur, which are Bulbasaur but bigger anyway.)

Wham! Sparky is looking kind of unsteady on his feet.

"Come on, Sparky! Scratch!" Sparky slashes at Basauw with a handful of tiny claws.

Gwen and Basauw will win this with the power of love, friendship, and full ramming speed. "'Ackle!"

Basauw recovers from being scratched, takes a step back to get more space for momentum, and WHAM!s into Sparky again. Sparky falls over and doesn't want to stand up.

"You're good, Gwen! But expect a rematch really soon!" says Sherry, re-digitizing Sparky and handing Gwen a bit of prize money. "I'm going to go heal at the Professor's lab." She scurries off.

Yaaaaay she won her first Pokemon battle!! Basauw gets many ear scritches, which he would've got anyway but they won so they're victory scritches.

And then healing him at the Professor's lab sounds like a great idea. She shows him his ball and asks, "In bauw?" If he doesn't care or seems to like the idea she'll re-digitize him; if not they can walk back together.

"Bulb!" says Basauw. It may be relevant that even though Gwen's ten-year-old legs are short, Basauw's are much shorter.

Why yes, he is a teeny little thing with teeny little legs. In the ball he goes, and they're off to see the Professor (again).

"Ah, Gwen, I'm glad you're back. I have something I forgot to give you. But first, how did you enjoy your first battle?"

It went great! she signs exuberantly. My Bulbasaur's scratched up. And I named him B-A-S-A-U-W. And we won. She hands over his Pokeball so he can get digi-healed or however it works. (She is ten and her obsessive Pokemon research has focused on how cool Grass-type Pokemon are which is very.)

Professor Persimmon knows exactly how Pokemon healing works. The tray she puts Basauw's ball in is a marvel of biomedical science and software engineering, with fascinating implementation details which this margin is much too small to contain. The point is that Basauw is fine now.

"That's a lovely name. Congratulations on winning! Here's his ball back, and here, is your Pokedex!" She hands over the ball and a bright red device that flips open to reveal a screen and keyboard. "You can use this device to record information on Pokemon you find on your journey! You can also use it to send calls or text messages to other trainers. And since people in other towns might not understand sign, if you press this button, you can type into it and it will read your words out loud."

!!!

Gwen's tucked away Basauw's ball by the time Professor Persimmon gets to the part about the Pokedex having text-to-speech, which is good because dropping your Pokeballs is a bad habit and she wants to have good ones. She immediately presses the indicated button, types rapidly, and the Pokedex says, "Thank you so much!"

And then she hugs the Professor. There are now pokey edges of a Pokedex digging into both of them. Gwen doesn't seem to care.

Professor Persimmon doesn't care either; her lab coat is plenty of cushion. "You're very welcome! The Pokedex already has your parents and my numbers in it, so you can text any of us any time. Now, go enjoy the wonderful world of Pokemon!"

Hug. Hughug. Ok, enough hug, the pokey Pokedex is finally bugging her. She will text her mom, with lots of exclamation marks, and get a less giddy-ten-year-old but still congratulatory response back, and spin out the door without bashing any limbs into anything.

Next stop, Adventure, population: Tall Grass.