Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.
This is my first fanfic, so any constructive criticism would be very much appreciated. Characters and region are original, but it contains references to canon. It follows the journey of two pokemon trainers, featuring other trainers they encounter along the way.
Chapter 1: Arrival
"The Gornen region: famous for being one of the most dangerous places in the world. Well known for it's overgrown pokemon and treacherous terrain, only some of the most skilled and/or foolish pokemon trainers in the world dare to explore it."
Dexter flipped the guide book closed, the first paragraph etched in his mind. He had read the entire pamphlet cover-to-cover, twice, on the seven-hour plane ride, slightly more than six-and-a-half of which had already passed.
"I hope I don't regret volunteering for this trip," he thought. "This place doesn't sound anything like the other regions I've been to."
He took a quick glance around the plane, the gentle hum of the engines reverberating in his ears. He noted that most of the seats were empty, of the few passengers present most looked to be traveling pokemon trainers, probably thrill-seekers looking for adventure. The others seemed to be mainly natives returning home from travels elsewhere, looking bored as they impatiently fidgeted in their seats.
*Di-ng dong* "We'll be arriving in the Gornen region shortly, all passengers should remain in their seats until it's time to disembark."
Dexter turned to look out the window, hoping the get a glimpse of his destination. Quickly approaching was a rather small, almost bean-shaped landmass. Beyond it was the mainland, an enormous continent dotted with forests and mountainous areas that sprawled far into the distance.
"First time in the region?" Dexter turned to the passenger sitting in the seat behind him, a huge, tan-skinned man wearing a business suit.
"Yep, it sure is. I've been to a few other regions, but never this one." He laughed nervously before continuing. "Although I don't think I've ever been to any other place as intimidating as Gornen."
The man chuckled, a loud booming sound. "I figured that much, you got that look of a newbie about you. You'll be fine kid, keep your wits about you and don't travel without pokemon. Pretty much anyone can manage if they stay in safer areas."
The man crossed his arms in his seat, the many rings on his fingers gleaming off the light coming in from the window. "I was born and raised in this region, I know how it is. I only left for a few days for a business trip, speaking of which," he said, grinning as he motioned toward Dexter's clothes. "Are you here on business yourself?"
Dexter looked down at his attire. He was so used to wearing a lab coat that he didn't realize how silly a 15 year old wearing one and carrying a briefcase must look.
He was a blonde-haired boy of slightly below average height. He was also rather skinny, and intelligent looking, thanks in no small part to his lab coat and glasses.
"Uh, sort of," Dexter answered. "I work for a pokemon professor in Kanto, I'm delivering research notes to a colleague of his for him." He tapped the briefcase, indicating that it held said notes, and that he wasn't carrying it to look classy.
"Ah, I see. Going to visit ol' Professor Pine huh?" the man said. "His lab isn't very far from the airport, so you shouldn't have much of a problem getting there as long as you have a pokemon trainer to escort you there. No offense if you have pokemon yourself, but you don't look like much of a battling type to me."
"None taken," Dexter said with a smile. "I've never been in a pokemon battle in my life. It's cool though, the professor should be sending a trainer to show me to his lab. I guess the guy's supposed to be a real pro or something."
"WAKE UP ZEKE! YOU"RE GONNA BE LATE!"
"Huh?!" Zeke snapped awake, glancing around his messy room. "CRAP! We already should've left by now!" He rolled out of bed and tossed the white t-shirt he had been wearing overnight on the floor, throwing on a red hoodie that had white on the front pocket and hood to make two separate pokeball designs.
Zeke then rolled up a dirty sock he picked up off the ground and threw it at the pokemon sleeping soundly in the corner on a straw mat. "Get up Combusken, we overslept!"
The young fowl pokemon blinked awake from the impact of the sock, "Buu? Sken?" It muttered sleepily.
Having put on a pair of jeans, Zeke moved to hurry out the door. "C'mon slowpoke, we need to get moving."
Combusken got up and hurried after it's trainer, straightening a few unkept feathers on it's head as it did.
They rushed downstairs, where Zeke's mother was at work preparing a morning meal. "Mom I need-" Zeke started to say, before his mother interrupted.
"Breakfast," she said, handing him a biscuit sandwich with sausage and cheese in the middle.
As Combusken ran by she handed it a brown paper bad filled with poke-food. "Of course I won't forget about you Combusken. Eat up!"
"Thanks Mom, you're the best!" Zeke called as he ran out the front door.
"Busken Bus!" Combusken chirped as it waved back, apparently agreeing with it's trainer.
The mid-morning streets of Primerva town were hardly bustling, it was a quaint, breezy island town, with small, rectangular, buildings lined in rows making up the majority of it.
A lanky, athletic boy on the tall side, Zeke had no problem speeding ahead of his pokemon, when it wasn't trying to move particularly fast at least. His bedraggled brown hair blew into his eyes as he ran, requiring him to stuff it all under his hood to keep it under control.
He bit into the sandwich as he ran down the street toward the airport. "You gotta be kidding me, we won't even be close to making it to the airport in time if we follow the main road." He turned to look back at Combusken, "We'll have to take the shortcut, you know the one right?"
"Combusken?" it said, as if unsure if that was a wise move.
"Oh, c'mon man," Zeke said, "we only had problems that last time because we got too close to that ursaring nest. We'll be fine this time, it'll be okay. Promise."
The fire type let out a sigh before speeding up to catch up with Zeke, reluctantly following him into the forest at the edge of town.
Dexter stepped out into the entryway of the airport, looking uncertain as he searched for anyone who could be his escort.
Surrounding the airport's main building was a dense, lively looking forest, filled with thick greenery that blanketed the entire wood, except for a wide dirt-path that cut through the middle of it all.
The big man, who had followed him off the plane also looked for anyone like Dexter had described. "Doesn't look like your guy is here. If you want I could take you," he said, pulling a pokeball from his pocket. "I happen to be a pretty decent pokemon trainer myself."
"Nah, it's fine, I don't want to waste your time mister. I'm sure someone will show up. If not, maybe I'll ask one of those guards to take me into town," Dexter said. He pointed to the uniformed men clutching pokeballs who stood around the perimeter of the airport, on watch for wild pokemon.
"Suit yourself," the big man said. "Good luck with your trip kid. Hope everything goes smoothly." And with that, the enormous man squeezed himself into a parked limousine nearby, which immediately took off on a paved road that followed the outer edge of the island.
"Man, who was that guy anyway?" Dexter wondered. "We never even introduced each other. What kind of big shot in a suit offers to help some random kid out before leaving in a freaking limo?"
"DRILL! DRILL!"
His thoughts were interrupted shortly after when a pair of beedrill burst out from the nearby foliage, buzzing furiously. They were immediately followed by a boy wearing a pokeball hoodie and a combusken, who were being chased by three more beedrill.
"Combusken, Fire Spin!" the boy ordered.
The pokemon reacted without hesitation, letting out a stream of spinning flames from it's mouth with a "buuuuuuskeeen!" It turned as it preformed the attack, spewing fire at all five beedrill at once.
The bug pokemon panicked, their wings droning vehemently as they narrowly avoided the flames before retreating back into the wood.
The threat gone, Combusken crossed it's arms and turned it's back on it's trainer. "Bus! Combusken!" it said, clearly scolding him.
"Well how was I supposed to know?" Zeke said in response. "We haven't used that path in months, that beedrill hive must've been new."
*Ahem* Dexter quietly cleared his throat before approaching the newcomers. "You wouldn't happen to be the pokemon trainer from Professor Pine's lab would you?"
"Ah, you must be the kid from Kanto," Zeke said, turning away from his pokemon. "Yep, that would be me. Name's Zeke." He held out his hand and shook Dexter's. "And this is Combusken," he continued, motioning to his partner.
"Combusken!" The pokemon said, extending it's own hand to shake.
Dexter laughed as took Combusken's arm to shake it. He had never met a pokemon before that had offered to shake hands. "I'm Dexter. Nice to meet your guys."
"Right back at 'cha," Zeke said politely. "So are you ready to head for the lab? Primerva town, where I live and where the pokemon lab is located, is almost a thirty-minute walk from here. Most of the wild pokemon start waking up here around this time of day, so we should probably get into town before they get too active."
"Of course," Dexter said, holding up the briefcase. "Getting this to the professor is the reason I'm here after all."
The three of them set off at a leisurely pace, walking down the main forest path. Dexter took in the sights from the lush landscape around him, noting several in particular: two spoink bouncing gleefully amongst a pile of large stones, a scatterbug slowly inching it's way up a log, and a chubby sentret gathering up a few fallen berries at the base of a tree.
"Maybe that guy from the plane was right after all, this place doesn't seem half bad." Dexter thought.
"So how long have you been a pokemon trainer for, Zeke?" Dexter asked, breaking the silence that had formed since they had left the airport.
Zeke shrugged. "Pine gave me a torchic on my 10th birthday, and that would be a little over six years ago... so yeah, about six years."
"Wow, that's a long time," Dexter said. He couldn't even imagine what it must be like to own a pokemon for that long of a time. "I saw the mainland from the the plane I came in on, have you guys ever gone training over there?"
"Nope," Zeke said. "I went to the closest city from here, Treza city, one time when I was little." He unconsciously shuttered as he said that, clearly a memory he didn't cherish.
"But besides that, I've spent my whole life here on Bean Island. That's gonna change really soon though, we, Combusken and myself, are finally leaving to go on a journey in a few days." At this point he excitement in his voice was palpable, his eyes nearly shining with anticipation. "It's what I've been waiting my whole life for. We're taking on the pokemon gyms, it's the Gornen league or bust! "
Dexter nodded in understanding, recognizing the enthusiasm from his own experience. "That sounds like me and my dream. Someday, I want to become a pokemon professor. I can still remember the day Professor Oak offered to make me his apprentice. Even now, I still get fired up just thinking about it." He grinned fondly at the memory "Speaking of professors," Dexter added, "What's Professor Pine like? Oak told me he tends to rub people the wrong way, but he never really clarified on that..."
"Old man Pine?" Zeke asked. "He's okay, I guess. He gets pretty cranky sometimes though, so try to stay on his good side. I guess those genius types have a right to be eccentric, the guy's only studying the great secret of the Gornen region after all."
"This region has a secret?" Dexter said. "The guidebook had never mentioned anything like that..."
Before Zeke could answer, a loud rustling sound emerged from a patch of tall grass nearby. On instinct, both boys immediately backed up, letting Combusken stand between them and the source of the sound.
A tiny cry of "Biiiiiiiiiii" sounded from the brush, and a docile-looking bidoof trotted out.
"Awww," Dexter said, "it's so cute," he crouched down next to it, gently patting it on the head. "Your not gonna be hurting anyone are ya bud?"
"Hold on," Zeke said, sounding troubled. "Is it just me or is there something 'off' about that bidoof? Not sure what it is, but the more I look at it the more I feel like something's wrong here ..."
"Huh?" Dexter said, giving the bidoof a closer look. Something clicked in his mind as he examined it closely. There was something indeed odd about the pokemon: it's face was a bit too thin, the feet too small, and it's cry was far too high-pitched for a normal bidoof. "It looks too... young, somehow. That can't be right though, it's the same size as the ones I've seen in Sinnoh. Why would it look-"
"BIIIIIIIDDDDOOOOOOOFFF!"
The savage growl came from the shrubs on the other side of the path.
Zeke sighed."If that's a baby bidoof, I think we just found it's parent..."
The bidoof that emerged was massive. From the bottom of it's feet to the top of it's head the pokemon was nearly three feet tall, almost waist-height measured up to the two boys. As opposed to the portly regular bidoofs, the parent's body was lean and elongated, on it's hind-legs it would be taller than either of them, let alone a normal bibarel.
The child bidoof instinctively scurried back into the brush, even it knew not to get too close when it's parent was agitated.
"BIIIII" the beast snarled, surging forward at Dexter. Saliva glinted off it's huge tooth, which was raised and ready to chomp down on his throat.
"Combus-"
Dexter didn't even have time to shout in terror before Combusken's foot collided with the huge bidoof's face.
"ken."
Combusken forced it's foot forward, pushing the bidoof away and resulting in it's face slamming into the base of a nearby tree. "Stay back," Zeke said, his voice now dead serious. He stepped in front of Dexter, raising one arm out to the side. "We got this."
The bidoof stood back up, it's nostrils snorting violently. With a grunt it rushed forward, trying to use Tackle on Combusken head on. "Bus." Without even needing to be commanded, Combusken acrobatically jumped straight upwards, allowing the bidoof to pass under it before landing.
"Quick Combusken, use Fire Spin!"
The bidoof skidded to a halt, hopping out of the way of the incoming attack, but not fast enough. The stream of fire grazed it's backside, causing it to cry out in pain and shake it's rear back and forth.
"Now, Double Kick!"
Combusken surged forward before the bidoof could react, kicking it once in the face, and immediately again in the side of it's head. The force of the second blow threw the pokemon backwards, knocking it back into the tall grass, leaving it no longer visible.
They waited a few seconds, getting it ready in case it attacked again. "Is it gone?" Dexter asked, tension in his voice. As if to answer, a odd scuffling sound echoed from the brush, showing that it definitely wasn't.
Zeke pointed at the brush. "Clear the grass away, Combusken, use Slash!".
Swinging it's claws, Combusken cut straight through the greenery, revealing not a huge bidoof, but a medium-sized hole in the ground.
"It's using Dig," Zeke said. "Be careful, it could come out anywhere!"
"Craaack, snaaap."
Trainer and pokemon whipped around in unison, just in time to see a large tree beginning to fall towards them. "It's uprooting the tree! Again Combusken, use fire spin!"
Once more, flames poured from the pokemon's mouth, scotching the tree's bark and slowing it's fall. "Now, rush!" Combusken proceeded to jump in front of the tree, letting loose a fierce string of kicks with one leg.
While not an actual pokemon move, the rush command was something Zeke and Combusken had worked with over the years as an alternative to double kick. "Why use just two kicks when you can put out way more?" Zeke always said.
"Ken, ken, ken, ken, ken, ken, ken, ken, ken ken, ken ken, ken, ken!"
With each cry of "ken" Combusken's foot hit the tree again in a rapid barrage that was so fast, it appeared as if it was more than just a single foot kicking. The final kick snapped the tree in half, the bottom portion falling short of Combusken, the top half sailed overhead, landing harmlessly on the other side of the path.
Before Dexter could even catch his breath, the ground directly behind Combusken began to rise up. "BEHIND Y-"
The warning wasn't even necessary. As the bidoof tried to bite into it's flank, Combusken pivoted on one leg, lashing out with another constant stream of kicks.
"Ken, ken, ken, ken, ken, ken, ken, ken, ken ken, ken ken, ken, ken, combus-KEN!"
The finale strike sent the bidoof airborne, causing to hit the ground with a hard thud. "DOOF! DOOF!" the bidoof yelped, retreating into the forest as it cried out in pain, blood dripping from it's nose.
They waited another moment to make sure the coast was clear. "That," Zeke said finally, "is the secret of the Gornen region. It has more super-sized pokemon than all the other regions in the world combined. No one really knows why. That's what Professor Pine is trying to find out."
Obvious that the enemy was gone, Dexter picked himself off the ground. He had been too scared to even move since the massive bidoof had appeared. "Th-that thing could have taken my freaking head off it's tooth. The guidebook I read was right, this place is insane! You people here just learn to put up with this stuff?"
Zeke grinned, nodding as he did. "Welcome to the Gornen region bro."
Well, there we have it, the first chapter. It ended up being a lot longer than I expected, so I hope it was at okay for a first try. Again, any helpful input would be great, so please drop a review if you think my story has potential.