Matthew's journey
Chapter 1: Three friends, one journey
It's a warm sunny day in New Bark Town as a boy wakes up, ready to start the day. His name is Matthew, and today is the day that he starts his journey as a Pokémon trainer. He spent the last week packing up his bag with the essentials that any trainer is going to need on a long journey.
He gets on his clothes which consist entirely of blue: Shirt, jean shorts, and blue-white shoes. He looks at himself in the mirror and staring back at him is his reflection, a kid with messy short blond hair and green eyes. After grabbing his bag, Matthew made his way down to the kitchen to have his last meal for a while at home.
Matthew lived alone with his mom. His dad was a Pokémon trainer who was off in a far region perfecting his Pokémon's abilities. Matthew has made it his goal to one day find his dad and see just how good of a trainer he's become. Matthew's dad looks similar to him except he had brown hair instead of Matthew's messy blond hair.
"Morning mom is breakfast ready yet?" he asked as he entered the living room to place his bag on the floor.
His mom was a typical stay at home mom. Unlike Matthew, she had brown shoulder length hair, brown eyes, wearing a red blouse with black pants.
"It's almost ready Matthew!" his mom replied. "I can't believe that you'll be on your journey soon. It seems like only yesterday that you were just born and your father was still at home taking care of us."
She brought the meal over to Matthew, which consisted of pancakes, eggs and bacon. She had another plate that she took over and started eating next to him.
"Yeah, I miss dad. Do you think he'd want to battle me someday?" he asked as he took a bite of his meal.
"I'm sure your father will battle you one day Matthew, but you'll have to try and find him first. He's always traveling around, so it's hard to say where he'd be now."
Matthew finished his breakfast and was ready to head out the door, when he saw his mom standing next to it waiting for him. In her hand was a package.
"Matthew, before you go, I have something to give to you. I got you a Poké Gear. You can use this to call me if you are not at a Pokémon Center. I heard that if you go to Goldenrod City, they are upgrading pokegears to include a new radio feature."
"Thanks mom, I'll be sure to check out Goldenrod City to see if it's true." He went up to her and gave her a loving hug. After this, she moved off to the side to allow him to leave.
As he gets ready to leave, he looked once more at his mom. He knew that his mom would be ok by herself, since Ralph, their pet Growlithe was there to protect them. Then from out of nowhere, a black and orange blur runs down the stairs and pounces on Matthew, knocking him down, and it starts to lick him. It was Ralph.
"Alright boy, knock it off!" Matthew says, wiping the slobber off of his face. The fire Pokémon steps away as Matthew gets up and wimpers.
"I guess I'm not the only one who will miss you," Matthew's mom says, smiling.
"I'm sorry boy, but I can't take you with me. Besides, someone needs to keep mom company while I'm away. I'm counting on you boy."
"Growlithe!" Ralph barks, as if it was saying will do. Before he heads out of the door, his mom has one final thing to say to him.
"When you are out on the road traveling, I want you to be careful. I heard that the Pokemon Center was attacked a couple of days ago by two members of Team Rocket. Luckily, there was a trainer there who stopped them in time but they escaped before officer Jenny could get there. You don't know when they might pop up."
"Don't worry mom, I'll be fine. I'll have Toya to help out if I need it." He replies. He opens the door and walks out.
Matthew's house is centered on the opposite side of New Bark Town, next to a forest. A boy named Sage was sleeping in a hammock strung up twenty feet between two trees near the house. The boy awoke to the sound of Matthew's door opening up when his eyes could focus, he found a Kakuna in his face. Startled, he falls out of the hammock and onto Matthew.
"Oof!" Matthew says as the boy lands on top of him. He pushes the boy off and gets up, dusting himself off. Matthew's Mom sees that he is ok and closes the door. Matthew then looks at the boy who gets up. The boy had on a black sweatshirt, brown shorts and black sneakers. His hair matches the green of the forest near them and one particular section stands straight up in the middle of his head. It takes Matthew a minute but he instantly recognizes him.
"Hey, aren't you that kid that hangs out in the woods? Your name is Sage right? Boy, I sure wasn't expecting you to just drop on to me like that!"
Sage proceeded to straighten his sweatshirt. From the sun, Matthew could see that Sage's hair color matched that of the surrounding forest. His brown eyes still had a sleepy look to them.
"Yeah. Sorry about that, I hope that you're ok." Sage replied. He quickly climbed back up the tree to get his backpack and his hammock, then jumped back down and landed on his feet with both in his hands. As he packed the hammock away, he looked up at Matthew. "So why are you up so early?" he asked.
"I'm on my way to Professor Elm's lab. I get my starter today, along with my friend Toya." Matthew replied. He watched Sage as he put away the hammock and zipped up his bag.
"Wow, what a coincidence, I'm heading there today as well. I might actually be on time too! Do you wanna walk there with me?"
"Sure! By the way sage, my name is Matthew."
"Nice to meet you Matthew, or do you prefer Matt?"
As Sage asks Matthew this, they start walking towards the lab.
"Either is fine with me. So why do you do you always hang out in the woods?"
"I don't know, I've just always felt... right when I'm in the forests next to a raging river. My mom says I was raised by wolves." he said jokingly.
Matthew smiled. "Oh, I see. Well I find it cool that you like being out in nature. As for me, I'm at home either way, out in the woods or in a city or town. When my dad was at home with us, he used to take me out camping."
"Hey, I think I might remember seeing you. Weren't you the kid that got scared of the Butterfree?"
"It was only because the Pokémon startled me! I'm not usually scared like that!"
Sage laughed. "It's ok. Actually I think it might have been a small Venomoth. They can be really scary when they're crossed."
"Hey I think I see my friend. Hey Toya!" he called out, waving to his friend. Toya had brown hair that stood up (like Lucas from Diamond and Pearl), blue eyes, and he had on a grey sweatshirt, blue jeans and green sneakers.
Toya comes up to the pair. "What took you so long? I was starting to wonder if you overslept!" He looks over at Sage. "Who's this guy Matthew?"
"This is Sage. You know the same guy that hangs out in the woods most of the time? He landed on me when I was leaving my house."
Sage chimed in. "I think I might have caused him personal injury, but I don't think it was anything really bad."
"Matthew's tough, he's probably fine. By the way Matthew, I got a call from Logan yesterday."
Logan is an old friend of Matthew and Toya's cousin. He had to move when his dad was offered a job by the Silph Corporation. He is nearly identical to Toya except he has black hair and blue eyes.
"How is he? I haven't gotten the chance to talk with him since he left last year." Matthew replies.
"He started his Pokemon Journey yesterday. Due to the Indigo League already done for the year there, he is coming out to compete in the Johto League. I told him to meet up with us at Cherrygrove City."
"Awesome! I can't wait to see him! I wonder what he started out with." Matthew says. "Toya, why don't you knock on the door to let Professor Elm know that we are here."
Toya does so and a few minutes later, a man with brown hair opens the door. He was wearing a blue shirt with a yellow stripe running across the middle, green pants, brown shoes and a lab coat. "Ah, you must be the new trainers here to pick up your Pokémon. Please, follow me."
The boys all follow him into the lab, where they see a bunch of computer equipment. A man with gray hair wearing a similar lab coat with a red shirt, brown pants and shoes was sitting at a desk that had two chairs. The man looked up as the boys entered.
"Oh, I almost forgot! My name is Professor Elm, head Pokémon researcher of this laboratory. Aside from handing out the starters to trainers like you, I spend a lot of my time doing research on the different abilities that Pokémon possess. There are many fascinating discoveries that I hope to discover-"
"Ahem!" said the gray-haired man. "I'm sorry to interrupt you Professor, but I think that these kids want to get their Pokémon, not hear a lecture all day!"
He stands up and walks over to the boys. "My name is Professor Oak. Professor Elm is an old student of mine and I was told that he was giving new trainers their Pokémon today. What are your names?"
"My name is Matthew."
"I'm Sage."
"And mine's Toya."
Professor Oak takes a moment to let the names sink in. "It's nice to meet you. I wanted to give you boys a special gift, and I have it here."
Oak takes out 3 red devices from his pocket and places them on the table. He turns them on, places the names of the trainers into them, and steps back so the trainers can see. "These red devices you see on the table are my own invention, the Pokédex. These contain the latest information on every Pokémon that's currently been discovered. I have one for each of you. Please, take the one that has your name registered in it."
The boys do as he asks and they stand there with it in their hands. Elm motions them to come over to a table that has 3 Pokémon sitting on them eating. "These are the Pokémon I have to give to you boys. In order from the left are Chikorita, the Grass starter, Cyndaquil, the Fire starter, and Totodile, the water starter. Toya, why don't you pick first?"
Toya goes up to the table and looks at the three Pokémon. After giving a bit of thought, he picks up Totodile. "I think I'll take Totodile Professor!"
"Totodile is a decent choice, though they can be tough to handle. Ok, Sage, you have the next pick."
Sage goes up and Chikorita comes right up to Sage. "I guess I'm taking Chikorita, since it appears to want to go with me!"
"Chikorita is an easy Pokémon to raise." Professor Oak said. "They have a tendency to avoid fights in the wild, but will fight for its trainer."
Matthew was the last one to go up, and the only starter left was Cyndaquil. "I guess Cyndaquil is mine then Professor."
"Cyndaquil is a bit young, but if you spend enough time training it, it'll become strong in no time Matthew. Take very good care of it." Professor Elm remarked. He then goes over to a tray and wheels it over with 18 Pokéballs, split out in 3 areas. He picks up the first Pokéball from each group and hands it to the boys. "These are your starter's Poké Ball. Use these to keep your starter safe. The other 5 Pokéballs are yours to catch Pokémon with. Before you go and catch them though it's best to weaken them."
"There is a limit to how many Pokémon you catch." Professor Oak added. "At any given time, you are allowed 6 Pokémon on you. Any other Pokémon will be transported to my laboratory in Kanto. If you want to exchange them, all you have to do is call me up and I'll send you it via the video phone."
"Thanks for the information Professor Oak!" The three boys say in unison. They pick up their Pokéballs and place them on their belts.
"I guess that's everything. I got to get going back to my lab. Will you boys follow me out?"
The boys just nod their heads. They follow Oak out with Elm following behind them. Outside the lab, Professor Oak heads toward the road east, and waves goodbye to the kids. Professor Elm turns to them. "Well, I wish you all the best on your journey. Make sure you register at the Cherrygrove Pokémon Center for the League. I'll be looking forward to hearing from you on how you are all doing."
The three boys wave goodbye as Elm heads back into his lab. Sage stops walking, and the other boys notice.
"Sage, what's wrong?" asks Matthew.
"Well, I was wondering if I could come with you guys. I liked meeting you guys and I would like to travel with you, if you will let me."
"Sure," Toya said, "The more the merrier."
So the three boys head out onto the road leading to Cherrygrove City. What kinds of Pokémon await them?