The PokeChronicles Saga: Vol. Emerald

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, all rights go to GameFreak and Nintendo.

A/N: Hello everyone, this will be the first chapter of The PokeChronicles Saga, starting with Emerald. I thank all of you for taking the time to read this and hope you will enjoy the adventure that I have written for you.

On a side note, Brendan and May are dressed in their Emerald attire.


A young man stepped out of the moving truck, taking a deep breath as he examined his new surroundings. Adjusting his hat, he headed towards his parents' house.

Recently, Brendan and his mother had lived in Viridian City in Kanto, but his mother had eventually decided to move to Hoenn where Brendan's father was situated. Finding a way to pass the time, Brendan glanced down at the map of Hoenn for the umpteenth time.

A tropical region, definitely a lot more different from Kanto, that's for sure.

Brendan wasn't really sure how he felt about leaving Kanto, he didn't make many friends in school, preferring to focus more on his studies, instead. That wasn't to say he was shy, he talked with several students in the past and would never hesitate to ask someone for something he had no savvy for. But whatever, he was hoping that this would be an interesting experience for him, adjusting to his new home.

"So, what do you think Brendan?"

Brendan slowly turned to the voice of his mom, who patted her son's shoulder as she led him into their new home. Brendan gave the usual, firm smile to his mom.

"Pretty cool, different from Kanto."

His mom chuckled and patted her son's shoulder even more.

As they entered the house, Brendan could see several Vigoroth carrying boxes of his mother's favorite dishes and setting them in the kitchen.

"We have the mover's Pokémon taking care of our belongings for us. All your stuff is upstairs. Here, I'll show you your new room!" She took Brendan's hand and led him up the stairs.

His mom led him to his room and gently pushed him inside.

"Now you be a dear and set your clock, okay? I'm gonna go help with the rest of our stuff."

Brendan nodded, then went to scanning his new room while his mom went back downstairs.

His TV placed on a stand with his PS3 neatly placed underneath. A bed near the wall, his PC placed on the study table. Eventually finding his clock hanging up on the wall next to his study table, Brendan breathed with relief.

Of course, it would nearly be the same as our old home, no reason to worry, right?

Brendan walked over to the clock, his eyes glanced down at his watch then quickly shifted back to the clock as he began to set the time.

1: 30 PM. I think that's right.

Brendan smiled, "That should do it." the young man said to himself.

Afterwards, he walked back downstairs and ran into his mother again.

"Honey, why don't you go introduce yourself to the neighbors next door, they have a girl that's about your age. Wouldn't it be great to make your first friend in a new region?"

For some reason I don't think so, but hey, why not?

"Yeah, I'll do that but you sure you don't need my help?"

His mother shook her head and ushered her boy outside.

"Of course, we've got it covered." She gave a reassuring smile as she ushered her son out of the house. "Have fun!" She dismissed with a wave.


Brendan glanced at the tan-colored house with a green roof. Walking up to their doorstep, he was about to knock when the door opened revealing a girl who looked to be about his age. Her brunette locks hanging on both sides of her head which was adorned with a green bandana. An orange, sleeveless shirt coupled with a long, white shirt underneath and skin-tight shorts coupled with a fanny pack clasped around her waist.

In Brendan's eyes, this girl would have easily passed off as a trainer.

"Hey there," Brendan said with a wave.

"Sorry, Mom's busy right now." She said with a bored expression, studying the boy a little more. Brendan could swear her eyes were boring holes into his skin, was he too friendly with her or-

Wait a minute. Of course. Her eyes were scanning his head, he had a good idea about what she was thinking, he's been asked that question too many times in Kanto.

"Is that your real hair?" The girl plainly asked.

With a smile he gently removed his hat and revealed his smooth ebony hair, bangs falling in the center of his forehead and either side of his face. He tried his best to stifle a laugh when she looked at him with wide eyes.

Having felt she's seen enough, Brendan quickly put his hat back where it belonged. The girl gave him an incredulous look again as she stared at his hat that she seemed to be infatuated with.

Honestly, who wouldn't? Brendan thought.

Brendan giggled even more at that, having one of his thoughts responding to another thought. That was weird but funny. He noticed the girl just continued to give him a blank stare while she was twiddling with one of her locks, a hand perched on her hip.

She's looking at me as if I just came from an insane asylum. Brendan chuckled, Not that I care.

Hell, he's had giggling fits since he was a kid. Sure, it would aggravate a few people but other people, like his parents, merely accepted it as a weird quirk. Brendan reasoned that it was those sort of bits that make people unique.

"You are who you are, right?" Brendan said aloud but instantly froze when he realized his inner thoughts were leaking out. The girl on the other hand merely rolled her eyes at him.

Yep, she definitely thinks I'm crazy.

"Whatever, what's your name?" The girl bluntly replied.

"Brendan Birch."

"Oh, you're the Professor's son?" the girl asked as she shut the door behind her, "I went over to his lab to get my starter but he wasn't there, so I was gonna wait near his lab again till he shows up." The girl shrugged. "Some luck, huh?"

So this girl is a trainer-

Or rather, soon-to-be trainer.

Brendan broke out of his thoughts when the girl spoke.

"Name's May," she extended her hand out and the boy took it. "Hope we can be good pals." Patting his shoulder with her other hand, she broke the handshake and wandered off to his dad's lab.

Brendan left May's house and took another look around the town, stopping when he saw a little girl running from the forest up ahead. He ran up to her, taking notice that the girl was out of breath.

"Hey, calm down," Brendan asked as he held her shoulders in place. "You okay?"

"The professor's being attacked by a wild Pokémon!" The girl yelled.

Brendan's eyes widened at what he heard. Without thinking, he dashed past the girl and into the forest. Immediately stopping when he saw his father being cornered into a tree by a wild Zigzagoon.

"Dad!" Brendan yelled.

Professor Birch quickly perched his head over at his son. "Brendan, quick!"

He tossed a bag near Brendan.

"There's a case with three pokeballs inside, take one out!"

Brendan hastily opened the bag and pulled a silver case out. He opened it and grabbed one of the pokeballs.

Standing up, Brendan held his arm back, ready to toss the ball. "Let's go!"

The ball was tossed into the air and landed on the ground, opening up and releasing a white light. A small, green-colored lizard Pokémon materialized out of the light. It's soft dark-green tail standing up. He glared intently at the Zigzagoon as he stood into a fighting pose.

Alright, this shouldn't be too hard, just gotta stay calm and-

Realization hit him, he didn't know what kind of moves this Treecko has.

Well, it wouldn't hurt to ask good ol' Dad, right?

"Hey Dad!" Brendan called out to him, "What moves does this guy know?"

Professor Birch perked his head to his son. "Who, Treecko?" He asked, quickly turning his head to the Zigzagoon barking at him. "Pound and Leer!" The professor quickly blurted out, sweat filling his face out of fear.

Brendan nodded in understanding and turned his attention to the grass starter.

"Treecko, use Pound!" Brendan yelled as he pointed to the Zigzagoon.

"Treecko!" the Pokémon complied as he dashed to the Zigzagoon and punched it square in the face, knocking the wild Pokémon back. Sustaining slight damage the wild Zigzagoon struggled with standing up. It used a Growl attack on Treecko to lower its strength. Brendan wasn't sure what it did to Treecko but shrugged it off, his father's life was at stake!

"Treecko, use Pound again!"

Treecko nodded and ran straight towards the Zigzagoon who sidestepped the attack, with a turn of its body and rammed its head into Treecko, knocking it to the ground. The Zigzagoon was ready to do another Headbutt, but Treecko regained its momentum by pushing its hands to the ground and leaping forward.

"Good job, Treecko. Now dodge and use another Pound!"

Treecko stood still, eyeing the Zigzagoon carefully. As soon as the Zigzagoon closed in on it, Treecko jumped on its head, leaped into the air, and gracefully landed across from it. It quickly shifted its entire body toward the Zigzagoon, with its fist flying forward, it managed to successfully land a severe blow to the Zigzagoon, knocking it father away. The Zigzagoon, now severely injured, backed away from the Treecko and dashed into the tall grass.

"Thanks Brendan," The professor quickly regained his composure as walked over to his son. His dad said as he clasped Brendan's shoulder. "That was really impressive what you did there." His dad said with more enthusiasm. "To think that my son would finally get his first Pokémon!"

Brendan gasped as his father pulled him into a bear hug. Honestly, what was it with his dad and hugs?

"Hey Dad, we should head back to the lab. There's a girl there waiting to get her starter."

"Right, my bad." Professor Birch said with a chuckle as he released Brendan, roughly patting the boy's back as an apology. Brendan called Treecko back into his pokeball and the two walked back into town.


Back in the lab, Brendan introduced the Professor to May, then began discussing to her what happened to his father.

"It was all thanks to this little tyke," Brendan said as he knelt and gently scratched the grass Pokemon's head who purred in response. "Treecko pretty much saved my dad's life."

"Not bad," May looked impressed. "Didn't think you had it in you, kid." She smiled affectionately as she messed with his hat.

"Well May, there's still two more pokeballs left." Professor Birch said as he opened the case. The young girl nodded in agreement as the professor opened the case. revealing two more pokeballs.

"This one has Torchic, the fire-type starter," The professor said as he pointed to the pokeball on the left. "and the other pokeball contains Mudkip, the water-type starter." He said pointing to the one on the right.

"Alright then, I'll take Torchic." May said expectantly as she took the pokeball out of the case. Summoning the Pokémon out of its ball, she picked the orange-chicken Pokémon up and patted its head affectionately.

"Hey there, sweetie!" May cooed, "My name's May!"

The Torchic tweeted in approval, it really liked this, May and was looking forward to being friends with her.

For Brendan, it was unusual to see May change her personality so quickly. When he first met her she was all doom and gloom but then she's all cutesy with a Torchic.
It started to get a little weirder when the girl began planting quick, soft kisses to the Torchic's cheek and nuzzling her face into it.

Maybe she has multiple-personality disorder or some crap like that? Nah.

In any case, he was happy to see May in a brighter mood.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he looked up to see his father giving him a serious look. "So Brendan, what do you plan on doing now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, May here said that she plans on challenging the Pokémon League. Now that you have your first Pokémon, maybe now would be a good time to start your journey, too. You are 17, after all."

Brendan mulled over it for a moment. He never actually thought about becoming a trainer. He had studied up on Pokémon in school, learning the ones that were native to his region, what attacks they used, type advantages and statistics. The concept of how all of this affected the tide of battle was intriguing to him. But he never thought he would be capable of doing it. Then again, the thought of traveling with his Pokémon appealed to him.

Maybe he could be like Red, the Kanto trainer from three years ago. Brendan had heard many tales of the young man's achievements in school and while he pretended to show disinterest, he found the young man's accomplishments to be impressive. Maybe he really should give this adventure thing a try?

"I'll do it." Brendan replied with confident smile.

"That's the spirit!" Professor Birch said as he patted his son's back. "Now then," Professor Birch went to one of the tables and carried two Pokedex, with two cases. He set the cases on the desk, handing the Pokedex to Brendan and May. "Just like any trainer starting their journey, a Pokedex is essential for identifying any Pokémon, their gender, what moves they use. Try it out on your own Pokémon."

Brendan and May nodded in approval as they turned on their Pokedex and scanned their starters. On Brendan's Pokedex, Treecko was identified as male, it's moves being Pound and Leer. For May's Torchic, it was identified as female and knows the moves Scratch and Growl. The duo returned their Pokémon into their pokeballs afterwards.

"With the Pokedex, I would like both of you to capture and record as many Pokémon as you can with this device to help with my research. Which brings me to these,"

Professor Birch opened up both cases to show them five poke balls in both of them. Brendan and May took the balls out of their respective cases and stuffed them in their bags.

"Can't go anywhere without these, their pretty much essential for any trainer starting out on their journey," the Professor explained. "If you run out of pokeballs, you can buy more of them at the local shops in each town along with food, water, and other supplies."

"Well, I'm all set then," May said as she finished stuffing her pokeballs in her fanny pack. "See you in Oldale Town, Brendan."

"You're going at this hour?" Brendan asked.

"Yeah, so? A little dark won't scare me, I just need to tell Mom I'm leaving and presto, I'm on my way. Later."

Though he didn't show it, the young man was completely dumbfounded at how straight-forward she answered that and simply watched as May gave her thanks to the professor and quickly left the building. He really had to respect May for her fearless nature.

"Brendan, if you do plan on setting out, you should tell your mother before you go." Professor Birch asked.

Brendan nodded. "Right, thanks Dad."

After a few seconds, Brendan yelped as his father quickly pulled him into a bear hug and began bursting into tears.

"My little boy is finally setting out on his own adventure!" Professor Birch sobbed, "Just like your father!"

Brendan chuckled to himself, the bear-hugging again, really Dad?

He didn't really have a problem with it, his dad was a good-natured man but he really had to be going, his hat almost slipped off from his father shaking him back and forth.

"Dad, I kinda have to go now, so-" Brendan trailed off. "Mind letting me go?"

"Oops," Professor Birch released his son, who tried his best to stand straight. It was pretty difficult since his body was still aching from that bear-hug. "Sorry about that." Professor Birch chuckled, then he stared at his son sternly.

"But listen son, it's a tough world out there. You never know what you'll encounter but no matter what, stand strong and keep your head held high."

Brendan nodded.

Like I always do right?

"Yeah, I got it." Brendan turned and gave a wave to his dad, who returned the gesture. "Well, I'll see you later."

With that, Brendan took his leave.

"Best of luck to you, Brendan." He murmured as he watched Brendan exiting the door.

After exiting the lab, Brendan wondered how his mom would take the news, in any case, it was getting late and unlike May, he didn't think starting his journey this late at night would be such a good idea. He walked towards his home to tell his mom the news.


A/N: And there is the first chapter, for now. I might make a few changes to this chapter and it might take a while but I do plan on getting this story done.

Hope you all enjoyed the first chapter and again, thank you for taking the time to read and review. Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

Also, I'm sure we can all agree that we thought Brendan's hat was his hair when we first played Ruby & Sapphire, right?