Big Bee was looking for the catching tutorial. As little as he wanted to run through it, it was his job as a customer experience expert to know what the players were going through. "It's here, right?" he said, stepping into a patch of grass.

Nothing happened.

"Ugh. Okay. C0D13! I want to do the catching tutorial!" As he called out his wish, there was a flash of blue and pink and his digital fairy godmother transported him to the massive patch of grass that Laguna happened to be standing near. The auto-party feature kicked in, and Big Bee blinked at the new trainer. "Hey! I'm Big Bee. Looks like we're going to do a team tutorial. Is this your first time?" he asked, laughing nervously. It was fine. She looked new so she probably wanted to do the tutorial anyway.

"Greetings trainers! It looks like you were about to enter the Tall Grass, but did you know that there are many dangers within?" He felt a gentle beam scan his body, and Codie piped up again. "I see that you both have your starter Pokemon from the lab. So how about I show you how to catch a hew one in the wild?"

Big Bee felt himself move towards he grass, as if he were on rails. The thick foliage consumed the trio, waist high and rustling like a bag of potato chips.

"Oh dope! I played a few of them as a kid," Big Bee lied. In truth he'd bounced off the games as a kid, preferring sports, but had needed to play them all before starting work at Hydance. He'd crammed them like he was studying for a test, playing for hours at a time and only breaking to test himself on game content. "My favorite is gen 5, so when I saw we were in UNOVR I was so excited. What about you?"

"What do you mean this time?" Codie replied. "Have you completed the tutorial before?" Beams shot out, checking Laguna's character profile and history. "I see no record of a prior catching tutorial." As Codie devoted some processing power to the conundrum, there was a tremendous shaking and shuddering in the grass behind him.

Big Bee could see something coming towards them through the field, but was locked into position and couldn't run away or access his Pokemon. "Over there! Something's coming!" he shouted, pointing at the shape in the grass. It dodged back and forth, moving erratically before bursting from the grass! The striped ball of brown and white fur grwled, baring adorable little teeth, and Zigzagoon threw itself at Codie!

The digital assistant blinked out of existence, and Zigzagoon collided with Big Bee, knocking him to the ground. 

"Ah! I warned you! Dammit Codie!"

The Porygon blinked back in next to Laguna. "It seems that your friend has drawn the attention of a wild Pokemon!" he buzzed happily. "This is the perfect opportunity to learn about catching." 

Laguna pulled Big Bee free of the attacking Zigzagoon, and the generated mini-C0D13 swooped in to deliver a quick shock to the wild Pokemon, drawing its attention away from the scratched up trainer.

"Ugh, thanks for the save. That angry bath mat came out of nowhere!" He grinned at Laguna, pulling himself to his feet to watch the rest of the worryingly close demonstration.

Zigzagoon had turned to face mini-C0D13, and health bars had popped up above both the combatants. C0D13's digital spiel kicked back in, buzzing with perfectly calibrated educational frequencies.

"In a Pokemon battle, it is incredibly difficult to catch a Pokemon at high health." A Pokeball materialized in front of Codie and was launched halfheartedly at the Zigzagoon. It ricocheted comically, disappearing among the tall grass.

"See? Impossible. First, you must weaken the opposing Pokemon." C0D13 must have seen the excitement in Laguna's eyes at the prospect of battling, because he continued quickly. "Which I will show you how to do. Attack Mini-C0D13!" A beam of customer service energy blasted the Zigzagoon, dropping it perfectly into a catchable range.

Another Pokeball materialized and was launched at breakneck speed towards the Zigzagoon. It smacked into the fuzzy Pokemon, which was sucked inside without resistance. "Bzzt! Easy as 1, 10, 11!"

A popup appeared in front of Big Bee.

>Wow! I get it now!
>Can you repeat that?
>My turn!

"What do you think?" he asked Laguna, hand hovering over the 'My Turn!' button. "Give it a go?"

"At least this tutorial was optional," Big Bee said, getting up and brushing off the Zigzagoon fur that was stuck on his shirt. He retied his bandana, which had come off in the scuffle, into a zig-zag style.

"I'm just doing it to get that Golden Pokeball. It's only a few minutes, and this place is great, isn't it?" He looked around at the long grass. There was something oddly calming about the slow, constant movement. It was like watching a great, green ocean. "I used to be all about rock types. But ever since I got Taka I've been heading more towards water. I love the swimming in this game! I'm a bit of a surfer in real life."

"What about you?" he asked, slapping the 'My turn!' button. "You look like the sporty type!"

Big Bee laughed as the Popplio shot off into the grass, disappearing completely. One second it had been floating gently through the air and the next it was swallowed by the foliage. "Yeah I never got that sense from the games, but they've really captured it here," he said, making a mental note to send the compliment down to the graphics team.

"Always the rodent," he agreed, as the sounds of muffled fighting came from deep within the grass. "Is it fair to make it a 2v1?" he asked, reaching for a Pokemon of his own. "It probably scales, right? It's fine. I'll pick a little one too."

A Litten appeared on the ground, looking up at him with big eyes. "Go help!" Big Bee said, pointing into the shaking grass. "Use Bite on Patrat!"

Litten's eyes sparkled mischievously, and she bounded off into the grass. A second later there was a high-pitched, squeaky scream. Big Bee hoped it was from the Patrat.

"Poochyena!" he said suddenly, turning to Laguna. "In Ruby and Sapphire you fight a Poochyena, not a rodent."

"I think they're saving the lawnmowing side quests for the Trainer Class wars," joked Big Bee. "When us oppressed Swimmers must rise up and cut down the overgrowing Gardeners." He laughed. "Pretty sure that's all in Area 2 though."

The tussle in the grass went on, and the trio tumbled into sight for a moment. Litten had its jaws clamped around one of the Patrat's back legs. "Yeah! You got this Litten!" Big Bee called. He hadn't named the cat yet, but he was getting the feeling that it was a ferocious little predator.

Big Bee wracked his brain, trying to remember his training. His backstory. He'd never actually played Ruby or Sapphire, and he'd only watched a fast-forwarded let's-play of the remakes by some generic British youtuber. "Uh, yeah I picked Mudkip too!" he lied. "I've got one now, too. Love that little guy. Not the brightest, but he'd one hell of a tank! Great defensive typing." Phew! Saved it.

Big Bee watched the unconscious Patrat roll around inside the giant bubble. He gripped his Pokeball tight, taking aim. The tutorial wouldn't be complete until he actually caught something, right? "Catching it should be easy now. We just..." he tossed the Pokeball and the Patrat disappeared inside.

"Great!" buzzed Codie. "Catching initiation sequence has been completed. You are now fully qualified to continue without further assistance." He blinked out of existence, and a series of popups appeared in Big Bee's UI.

Patrat has been added to your Box!

Congratulations! You have passed the Catching Tutorial!

Golden Pokeball has been added to your inventory!

He dismissed all of them, grinning as he picked up the ball that held his new friend. "I've never had one of these. Fierce eyes, right?"

Laguna mentioned friend requests, and he launched into immediate Customer Service move. "Sure we can! It's easy. Just head into Friends List, and then click Add Nearby Trainer. And there we go!" His UI pinged for the tenth time in as many minutes, and he gladly accepted the request. "Thanks! Yeah I'm sure we'll bump into each other again soon. Be sure to send me a message if any terrible Patrats are bothering you, or if the Gardeners begin their uprising early!"

And with that the two parted ways. For now.