An Adventure of New Expectations
- Prologue –
The Pokémon World was a mysterious place, indeed. You take these creatures, very similar to animals — physical features and behaviors being taken into consideration — only they clearly weren't. These pokémon were just as mysterious, invoked with tremendous abilities and powers that within the hands of certain people could've proved to be miraculous and lead to an advance for human society... or it could've proved to be horrendous and lead to nothing but destruction. This was what I had come to conclude from the many stories I had heard about pokémon and how the current world had come to be.
I was born and raised in a small, little country town on the southeast coast of the Kanto Region called Pallet Town. Not a whole lot goes on in the area; small family farming has been the primary industry in the area and technology still hadn't reached these parts, at least, not as much as it had the larger, more populated cities. This place was a haven for people who'd grown tired of the hustle and bustle of "big city life" and wanted a more relaxing environment in which raising a family could be a more enjoyable thing. I'd not known any other life so I couldn't say otherwise, but I too had lived very comfortably.
My mother and father had shared with me their stories of how life used to be for them growing up, raising and training pokémon for their travels across the world, winning and losing pokémon battles, learning and loving despite all of the hardships that they'd had to experience. To some degree, I too would have wanted to experience that kind of life; however, with the way the world had change over the past few decades that would've proved to be impossible, now.
May 7th, twenty years ago, I suppose that date marked the start of it all; it was a date that would've lived in everyone's memories — at least, it would've to those who were around to remember it. Twenty years ago was when the world and people's understanding of the world had shifted on its side. That organization had shown itself for the first time, and things had not been the same since.
What happened was that scientists — now known to have been from that organization — had conducted research on pokémon and their latent, dormant abilities. Supposedly, the idea had been to use pokémon's latent abilities to make pokémon battles more exciting and "flashy." People had grown attached to the idea of making pokémon battles more exciting so the idea had come to fruition. These scientists had designed an "experimental prototype" of pokéball that when a pokémon was captured in one, or transferred to one, their latent, dormant powers would have awakened and could then engage in longer, fiercer battles.
The prototype pokéball had grown in popularity to the point that within the first year, nearly every pokémon trainer had begun to use the new design. There had been a few trainers reluctant to take on this new wave, but enough damage had been done to the pokéball market that all off the old styled pokéball manufacturers had decommissioned the old model and had adopted this new design into their marketing. That had been the beginning of a soon to be calamity.
On May 7th, of the year these new pokéballs became the new "normality," that organization had sent a world-wide public announcement that they were the creators of the new pokéballs, that they were taking claim over the Pokémon League, and in a matter of course, the whole Pokémon World. People had laughed at the idea, and didn't pay any heed to their words, but that organization had expected as much and showed their true hand.
It turned out that the new pokéball design had a few other characteristics that weren't publicly known. One of which was that as a means of "awakening" the latent, dormant abilities of trainers' pokémon, the pokéballs were really designed to hypnotize the pokémon, in the process, getting rid of the mental block that pokémon subconsciously produced as a precautionary measure to prevent them from exhausting their life energy. This did two things: it put trainers' pokémon under the direct control of that organization and when a pokémon had exhausted their life energy, instead of fainting, indicating the end of a battle, the pokémon would die.
Since that time, all pokémon trainers, people who fell under the Pokémon League's jurisdiction, and subsequently, anyone who had something to do with pokémon had been affected. That organization had gained incredible ground and stability. Anyone who was found to be in that organization's disfavor would have had their own pokémon turned against them. New rules had been developed, making the profession of simply being a pokémon trainer in itself a more difficult feat.
Some people had adapted to the new ways; others had simply turned away in disgrace. People just simply didn't know what to do from that point on but to either continue their existence in this "new world" with its new rules, or to remove themselves from the scene altogether. This was where we now stood.
I didn't know why they did it. I didn't think anyone knew other than the people who were directly behind that organization. The only thing I did know was what the current rules of the world were now. What kind of effect did or would it have on me, I did not know.
- End of Prologue –
NOTICE!
Rules for participation in the Pokémon League challenge:
(1) Obtain [first] pokémon from the nearest Pokémon League outpost — located in any major city/town with an official Pokémon League gym.
(2) When registering at Pokémon League outpost, an official Pokémon League pokégear will be issued to each new trainer. The pokégear has a digital trainer card that contains the identification number corresponding to their respective pokémon trainer.
(3) Only pokémon captured, gifted, or traded with official Pokémon League pokéballs will be accepted acquirements of pokémon. Any tampering with said pokéballs or use unauthorized pokéball variety will mean immediate disqualification from Pokémon League challenge and forfeiture of said acquired pokémon. Further penalties will apply as applicable.
(4) Upon acquiring any new pokémon in a new area — regardless of whether said pokémon were gifted or captured in a wild battle — the Pokémon League database will record pokémon acquirement and lock out any future pokémon acquirements in said area. (Note: Pokémon traded through official Pokémon League transfer stations do not count as a gift transaction as one pokémon is being traded for a different one, and the pokémon count remains the same.)
(5) Pokémon battles can be forfeited at any moment, and forfeiting trainers will be penalized by an automatic transfer of half money earnings being transferred to winning trainer — however, trainers are not obliged to end their battles for the sake of their opponents. If a trainer's entire pokémon team falls in battle, all of their money earnings will be transferred to the winning trainer, and the losing trainer's entry in the Pokémon League challenge will be disqualified. The control of all subsequent pokémon under said disqualified trainer will be transferred to the Pokémon League.
(6) Upon acceptation and commission of the above conditions in regards to entry into the Pokémon League challenge, all new and old trainers are allowed to continue competing in the Pokémon League challenge.
If trainers and potential trainers have additional questions needed to be answered, all trainers and potential trainers will be referred to nearest Pokémon League outpost to acquire appropriate answers.