How did I get here? Brendan thought as he eyed the Dragon Keeper, a gloved hand toying with a PokeBall as he mulled over which one to send out. I just wanted to teach Dad a lesson... who'd have thought I would end up saving the world twice over? I didn't care about any of this... but I couldn't leave well enough alone, either, could I? When did everything spiral so out of control, and why did it have to be me? The gods must be laughing their heads off right now...
"Why do I have to ride in the back of the bloody moving truck?" Brendan muttered to himself as he looked outside the small window that was built into the truck. The roads out here were bumpier than he had expected; once they had moved beyond Rustboro City the roads had all been dirt tracks that avoided the feared 'tall grass' so as to not disturb the natural habitats that the local Pokemon lived in. He recalled them stopping in Petalburg for a short time so that Norman, his father, could start setting up shop in the Gym, but ignored the man as he tried to invite his son to explore the building and decided to stretch his legs by one of the ponds. By the time he had returned to the truck, Norman had already gone inside and left him and his mom to take care of moving the rest of the stuff into their new house. Stupid prick... he thought as he felt the truck pull to a stop. Must finally be here... hope it's as nice as our home in Eucreteak City...
Stepping out of the opened back of the van, he couldn't help but smile at the small town he now found himself in. Reminds me of New Bark Town... wonder how Professor Elm is doing? I should give him a call later, he thought as he turned to what seemed to be their new home. It was a modest, two-story house that looked similar to the other houses in the area. Must have been built by the same construction company... Brendan picked up his backpack even as several Machoke began to empty the truck, their strength clearly tempered by training as boxes marked "Fragile!" were lifted and carried carefully. Their trainer led the group in moving the boxes in, and when Brendan walked into the house his mom was already unpacking several boxes at the same time. Shrugging, Brendan began to help out as well, and an hour later all but the boxes belonging to Brendan himself, as well as his parents, had been unpacked and their contents placed where they would stay from that point.
"Brendan, dear, don't forget to set your clock," his mother reminded him. "You have a habit of sleeping in, and you need to introduce yourself to Professor Elm tomorrow."
Brendan sighed and replied, "Yes, Mom. I'm headed up there now." He picked up a box and began slowly making his way up the stairs. The bed and dresser, as well as the rest of the house's heavy furniture, had already been moved in two days before, so all he had to do was move his clothes and other personal stuff in. More than once he was thankful that he was a tidy person, so his last box was empty fifteen minutes later as his clothes were already folded and arranged and his computer was packaged properly. Problem was, this left him with at least six hours before sunset, and he knew if he just sat around he'd get bored. After setting his clock on the wall, he turned around and began walking downstairs, only to hear his mother call out, "Oh, honey! Come quick!" His feet picked up quickly as he ran into the living room, stopping in surprise as he saw his mother watching the TV. "Mom? What's wrong?" he asked, his worry turning into exasperation.
"Oh, you just missed it!" his mother replied as she motioned to the TV. On it was clearly a news program and a reporter stood in front of the camera, saying, "... And this report was brought to you live from Petalburg Gym."
Brendan just looked at his mother, a scathing look of incredulity crossing his features. "Really, Mom? This is what had you shout about? I thought someone had broken in!"
She simply laughed and replied, "Sorry, dear. They were showing your dad, and I thought you'd be excited for it."
Brendan simply frowned. "Well, I'm gonna go explore the town. Maybe I'll run into the Professor sooner." He turned and, grabbing his backpack, walked out the door as his mother shouted, "Alright, dear! Be back for dinner!" After the door closed, he muttered "Yeah, 'cause it's not like Dad will..." With that, he began to walk down the dirt path, which seemed to be the main road for the town. What surprised him was that right next door to them a mailbox read "Birch". Huh, guess Dad did something right... for once, he thought to himself as he decided to be a good new neighbor and introduce himself.
Before he could knock, however, the door flew open and a woman pulled him in, crushing him and shouting, "Oh, Dave! You're home early!"
"C-c-can't... breathe...!" Brendan wheezed out as he was being suffocated.
The woman blinked in wonder. "Wait, how did you get so thin all of a sudden?" She looked down, saw Brendan's panicked face slowly draining of all color, and she quickly let go of him. "Oh my, I am so sorry! I was expecting my husband to be home soon, but I saw movement out of the window and thought he was coming home early!" she exclaimed, bowing apologetically.
Between coughs, Brendan managed to get out, "That's understandable... I'm Brendan. Just moved in next door" as his complexion returned to normal.
The woman's face immediately brightened. "Oh, you're Norman's kid, right?" She missed Brendan's scowl as she continued, saying, "We've been expecting you! In fact, Dave, May, and I were going to invite your family to come by this evening, in order to welcome you to the region."
"May?" Brendan asked dumbly.
"Oh yeah, May!" she suddenly exclaimed. "Our daughter. She's probably around here somewhere. Come in! I'll introduce her to you!" Brendan couldn't even reply before he got pulled in. "Make yourself comfortable."
"Thank you, ma'am," Brendan replied, shocked at the woman's friendliness. Here I am, some stranger that she doesn't know, and she just casually invites me into her house... The inside of the house looked similar, but it was very clear that the building had been the Birch's home for many years, though it was also very clean and tidy. Many knickknacks lay about in an organized fashion, likely finds from the Professor's various research projects, along with artwork and other pieces that seemed to have been made by a child. He was snapped out of his observations by an urgent impulse. "Excuse me, ma'am, but I need to use the restroom."
She didn't look up from a basket of laundry she had just settled back into as she replied, "Up the stairs, first door on your left."
Brendan sighed with relief as he dried his hands and stepped out of the bathroom, glad that the woman had been kind enough to let him use it instead of making him dash back home. As he walked toward the stairs, though, a cracked door caught his attention. Now, Brendan didn't think he had many flaws, despite his mother's insistence that this belief was just proof that he had more flaws than he knew, but he knew that his curiosity had gotten him into trouble more often than he'd like. Still, he couldn't stop himself from peeking into the room. It looked a lot like his, surprisingly – from the computer in the corner of the room to the Gamecube sitting in front of the television, and even the similar clock hanging up near the door, there was no doubting that this could have been his room had he been in his house. Only the different bedspread and a PokeBall sitting on the floor next to the bed confirmed that he was in fact not in his house. This must be May's room... he thought, and despite the warning bells going off in his head he continued to look around. His eyes were drawn to the lone PokeBall, just lying there rather than being clipped to its owner's belt. I wonder what kind of Pokemon is in it, if there is one...
Just as he reached out to push the button, the door slammed open behind him and a girl rushed in, seeming to ignore him at first as she quickly grabbed a bunch of clothes and items that she stuffed into her side-pack before scooping up the PokeBall and putting it on her belt. It was only after she stood up that she noticed Brendan, who had quickly stood up and was now staring at her with a Stantler-in-the-headlights expression. The two continued to stare at each other, clearly unsure how to proceed, but May decided to smile and say, "Hey there! You're Brendan, right? My mom said you stopped by, but I didn't realize you were still here. Nice to meet you!"
Brendan blinked twice but decided to go with the flow. "Nice to meet you too, May," he replied with a tentative smile.
May opened her mouth to say something when she glanced at her clock. "Oh yeah, I need to meet Dad at the lab! Catch you later!" she shouted as she dashed back out the door as fast as she'd appeared.
Brendan, for his part, could only blink in confusion as he tried to replay what just happened. I just got caught... in a girl's room... by the girl herself... and I'm not in a hospital? May's attire definitely stuck out to him. A sleeveless red shirt with a white stripe running down the middle, bike shorts that he had only glimpsed before averting his eyes to avoid dying, and a green bandanna that somehow split her long hair onto either side of her head – it was certainly a unique style that would make her easily recognizable. Of course, he was no stranger to unique styles; his long white cap was often mistaken for his actual hair, despite inheriting his father's dark brown hair, but that had been the entire reason he'd worn the cap in the first place so to him it was a good thing. Shaking his head to try and clear the blush that he felt quietly creeping up into his face, he quickly slipped out of May's bedroom and left the house before May's mother could further delay him, not wanting to discuss with her – or the Professor, for that matter – just how he'd been introduced to May. He took time to look around the area before finding himself at the north exit of the town, but there really wasn't anything worthwhile aside from a guy playing a portable game and marveling at how the color scheme was so much richer than that of the one before it, and even that was little more than mildly humorous to Brendan. A shout, however, broke him out of his thoughts and, without thinking, he raced out into the field.
"HELP!" a portly man shouted as a pack of Poochyena chased him relentlessly. After several minutes, the guy found himself cornered between the pack and a cliff that was only just too high for him to climb over. Spotting Brendan, he shouted, "Oi! I need some help here! There are some PokeBalls in my case; grab one and scare them away!"
Still in react-mode, Brendan ran over to the pack, picked up all three balls, and threw them out toward the pack. Strength in numbers, right? He marveled at the sight of three unique Pokemon that he had never seen before appearing from the spherical capsules before immediately jumping into action. "Chicken Little, use Scratch; Lizzy, use Pound; Kipper, use Tackle!" Faced with the quick onslaught of physical attacks, the Poochyena had no choice but to quickly turn and run away as fast as their little feet could carry them.
Professor Elm's eyebrows raised in surprise at how quickly the three starters had listened to Brendan. This must be Norman's son... yes, he definitely is! He relaxed and approached the boy and held his hand out for Brendan to shake. "Thank you for the help. I'm Professor David Birch – resident Pokemon Professor of the Hoenn region."
Brendan, having replaced the PokeBalls in Birch's bag, shook the Professor's hand with good-natured amusement. "I'm Brendan. How did you let yourself be cornered like that, Professor?"
David simply chuckled and replied, "I'd set my bag down when a Ralts wandered into that patch of grass" - he motioned to the patch near the cliff he'd been cornered at - "but then a pack of Poochyena showed up and drove it off. I was so intent on observing the Ralts that I didn't hear the Poochyena, so when they attacked I panicked. But that's all in the past," he finished as he eyed Brendan. "You're Norman's kid. He told me you didn't have any Pokemon of your own, but from that battle there I'd have to agree – you hold quite a bit of talent, maybe as much as your father!" His joviality, however, dropped for a moment as he remembered where they were. "Actually, this isn't the best place to hold a conversation. Let's get to the lab; we can talk more there." With that, the two of them quickly walked back to Littleroot and to the Pokemon Laboratory.
AN: I've been having a tough time following up on my other stories, so I kind of wanted to do something to get back into the rhythm, and I decided to do something I've long been familiar with: Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. Part of it is because I've played the heck out of it so I know a lot of the ins-and-outs of it, and part of it is because I empathize with Brendan more than Red or Gold/Ethan; another part is because of OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire. Of course, there are some things that aren't mentioned in the games that probably are in the manga/anime, and they will be researched as I go because the little I know of the manga makes it quite compelling and I've been meaning to watch Pokemon Advanced (I stopped after Misty left the show). As is obvious from the beginning, I'll also include added details from ORAS because I think they add an extra layer of detail that make Hoenn that much richer. As always, reviews are most welcomed, especially if they contain advice/suggestions to help me improve my writing.
Also, the first time I uploaded this it was showing all this weird code stuff that I don't get. Has anyone had that problem? If so, how did it happen? o_O;;;