Wait, who's that writing a new fanfic? :O Whoa, it's Shinigami! Yeah, I know. Unfortunately, I still do not intend to update my old fanfics for HP in the near future, or, like, ever. Yeah, this is a Pokemon fic that I'm pretty sure no one will read, but whatever. I'll try anyway.

So, instead of reading my rambling, nonexistent readers, let's jump into this, shall we?

POKEMON: FIRERED AND LEAFGREEN

QUEST

I stepped out from the dim light of my house into the bright sunlight, shielding my eyes with my red cap. I was pretty excited to be getting out of the house today, but I'll tell you why later.

First, I'll tell you about myself.

I'm 14 years old, with long brown hair and red eyes. I was constantly wearing my dad's red cap, since he didn't care about it and I loved it. I live in a small town called Pallet in a small house, occupied by my mom and me. I loved manga, books on Pokemon, and Pokemon themselves. I've always been obsessed with going on a journey with one ever since I was a little kid and my dad started living at and running a gym in some other region.

And that brings us back to why I was so excited this particular morning.

The morning before this one, I had stocked up on Poke Balls at a neighbor's house-run store. I was ready to try and catch a Pokemon.

Little did I know what a landslide this attempt was going to be.

I stepped into the tall grass north of my house, which was the entrance to Route One. Immediately, a small purple blur shot at my face. I was instantly bowled over and fell to the ground with the writhing mass of fur scratching at my face.

I finally got it off me after a struggle and stood up slowly, staring at my attacker. It was a purple-and-tan mouse-like Pokemon, with long whiskers and teeth along with big, wary eyes.

"What in the world are you doing?" cried out an elderly voice as I readied a Poke Ball. As if by magic, the same instant it was at full size, a man slammed into me. The Poke Ball went flying out of my hand and smacked the rat Pokemon in the face. In a rage, but with no desire to face two humans, the Pokemon ran off.

I whirled around to face the man and demand what he was doing, but then I saw who it was.

I was facing none other than the professor of Pokemon himself, Samuel Oak.

"What were you doing, young man?" demanded the professor.

"I—I was trying to catch a Pokemon, s-sir," I stuttered.

"Hmm... I see..." said Oak, staring at me in an analyzing way.

"S-sir?" I asked.

"Come with me, young man."

To tell you the truth, I panicked a little. I mean, who doesn't when asked to accompany an old man to his dark lab? But half of me was ecstatic. This was Professor Oak we're talking about here! So I followed him.

He opened the door to his lab, and then, in surprise, said, "Blue! I didn't expect you until tomorrow!" I groaned inwardly. Blue Oak, the professor's grandson and complete jerk? I did not want to see him right now.

"Yeah, well, I came early," Blue's cool voice came from inside.

Oak brought me in. "Well, no matter. Blue, this is... wait, what was your name?" he asked me.

I didn't get a chance to respond. "Red," said Blue, a snide, close-lipped smirk crossing his face.

Yeah, Blue knew me. He was my best friend back in grade school, but once we turned 12, he turned into a bully and started hanging out with the cool kids, who tried to bum cigarettes from the eighth graders (who always refused). I despised the lot of them, and most of all I despised Blue, who completely shunned me for 'better people.'

"Er... I see. Red, then... I was going to offer you a Pokemon. It's not safe to go in the tall-"

"Excuse me?" Blue interrupted. His smirk was gone, replaced with a cool and jealous stare. "I thought I was getting the Pokemon, grandfather."

Look at him, being the spoiled brat.

"Well, Blue, I actually said you could have a Pokemon tomorrow. And Red here has a lot of potential. You can choose right after him, so calm down." Oak said.

Man, the look on his face.

"Anyway, Red, go ahead-" he pressed a button on the wall, and a partition slid out right next to it, "-and choose."

Oh, man. This was the biggest decision of my life. I stared at the three Poke Balls, sitting there in the partition. In the first Poke Ball, a fierce-looking dinosaur Pokemon with a bud on its back. In the second, a salamander with fire on its tail. In the third, a blue turtle. It was incredibly hard.

Finally, I settled on the second Poke Ball, which contained the salamander. I picked it up. Oak nodded at me, and I tossed it to the ground. Amazingly, the ball split in two, released the Pokemon, and the ball was spat back up at me. I managed to catch it right before it would've hit my face.

The red salamander sat on the ground, staring up at me with huge, adorable green eyes.

"Charmander," it uttered. It was the coolest Pokemon I'd ever seen.

Oh, by the way, you must be wondering, 'If he reads all these Pokemon books, how come he doesn't know about that purple Pokemon and the Charmander?' Well, I'll tell you. The books only detail exotic Pokemon, like Dragonite and Rhydon. I'd never heard of a purple mouse Pokemon (which, by the way, is a Rattata) or a fire lizard.

But anyway, I'm getting off-track. Back to the story.

"That," said Oak, "is Charmander. Your first Pokemon." I would've cried; I'd been dreaming about this day for years, but Blue was there.

"Thank you, so much," I said.

"Now, Blue, it's your turn," said Oak. Blue, the cool little smirk back in place, walked up to the Poke Balls. And, of course, the prick picked up the Poke Ball with the water type in it, namely, Squirtle's.

"I'll take this one," he said.

"That would be Squirtle." Oak explained, but Blue cut him off with an "I know" look.

I turned to go and tell my mom the good news, when Blue said, "Stop."

"What?" I said icily, Charmander staring back at the blonde.

"I want a battle," said Blue, holding out his Poke Ball. His smirk was slightly wider, his blue eyes slightly more malicious. I straightened my cap.

"Fine," I said. "Charmander?" the salamander walked in front of me, as if to guard me. "Let's do this," I told Blue.

"Squirtle, let's battle," he said, before letting out the turtle Pokemon.

We stood staring at each other, daring the other to blink. Thankfully, I always win staring contests.

"Charmander! Scratch!" I called to my Pokemon. The red lizard complied, leaping at Squirtle with claws unsheathed. With a cry, it slashed the turtle across the face. Squirtle fell back, rubbing at its wound.

Blue growled, before ordering, "Squirtle! Tackle!" Squirtle shook off its pain and slammed into Charmander, who was still near the turtle. Charmander went flying back and landed at my feet. It was down, but not out. It stood up again, still ready for battle.

I eyed my surroundings. Desk. Chair. Machine for healing Pokemon. Computer station. Bookcase. And walls. "Charmander! Leap off the wall!" Charmander did as I asked, and ran up to the wall and used it as a spring board, jumping off. I didn't have to give it a next order, it seemed to know what I wanted.

With a lot of momentum, Charmander used a very powerful Scratch.

In two swift hits, Squirtle was down for the count. Blue stood there, nothing betraying his shock but his wide eyes. Then, the surprise was gone and the facade was back, as he retreated the turtle into its Poke Ball. He tossed me a few Poke Dollars, and then he was gone.

Oak was looking at me with a pleased expression. "Very well done," he said."

"Thanks," I said, rubbing Charmander's head. "I try," I said with a hint of attitude.

"Yes, you do," Oak agreed. "I saw the way you analyzed your surroundings and found a way to use them to your advantage. With experience, you'll become quite the force to be reckoned with. I think you should take the Pokemon Gym challenge. You'll definitely rise up the ranks that way!"

Of course, I'd read all about the Gym challenge. You went through the region, fighting 8 Gym Leaders and collecting 8 badges. It was on my bucket list for sure, even before Oak brought it up.

"I'll definitely do that, sir," I said, "but first I have to tell my mom. See you again."

Oak nodded, and I moved off to tell my mom and then start my journey.

(-o-)

Okay. Um, wow. That actually came out decently okay. If you liked, drop a review please. If you noticed any errors; spelling, grammatical, continuity or otherwise, please drop a review. If you want to see more, please drop a review. But I'm not going to beg you for reviews, because that's not what we do here, oh no.

Anyway, be here for Chapter Two, in which Red moves through Route One and arrives in Viridian City!

P.S. On a side note, I think I'll be doing this by AREA OF THE GAME, and doing the Gym Leader battles IN HALVES. The second part may not actually happen, but for the first part, to be clear:

Route One, for example, counts as an area.

A city or town (aka Pallet Town, a la this chapter) counts as an area.

If there is a compilation of areas (like, for example, Viridian City-R1-Pallet Town, due to the Package quest) that have already been run through, that will probably be part of Viridian City, or Chapter Three.

Though the Indigo Plateau is technically one area, I'll probably still do separate parts for each Elite Four member, if not two for each.

-Shinigami out.