Standard disclaimer:

I do not own Pokémon. Pokémon belongs to Nintendo and Game Freak. I do not profit from this fanfic in any way.


Author's note:

This is my very first fanfic. This is a humble attempt by yours truly to write something that hopefully I would've liked to have read had I not been the one who wrote it.

I've also moulded the Pokémon world a bit to my convenience. Trainers here start their Pokémon journeys at the age of 18.

As this is my first story and all, criticism of all sorts is greatly appreciated, as long as it's constructive. I'm not afraid of editing things or even going back and ripping whole sections out if it really sucks that much.

Finally, thanks a lot for reading. :)


-Introduction-

The plans for Paul Almond's traditional coming-of-age pokémon journey were in full steam. A rite of passage for a lot of people who just turned 18, as well as the childhood dream of anyone fond of any sport involving pokémon, the journey was supposed to teach self-reliance, bonding, and whatnot.

Getting one's Trainer Licence was a very special moment for most 18 year olds. Although not every single person went off in a pokémon journey (some went to university and others simply travelled around the world), almost every single person acquired a pokémon as soon as they could. After all, the prospect of a life long friend and partner was a difficult thing to resist. So almost every school in Hoenn dedicated at least 1 hour to teaching students all about pokémon, with the final aim of enabling them to get their Trainer's Licence.

The trouble was, that the circumstances weren't exactly in Paul's favour.

An economic crisis of sort was underway since a few years ago, with most of the world's major powers involved in trying to fix it some way. Increased poverty, criminality... some of the more sensationalist news outlets were pretty much equating it with the end of the world and all people held dear. Protests all around the world didn't quite help things.

While Hoenn wasn't a major power, it was also affected by this famous 'crisis'. Rumours abounded that the various routes that criscrossed Hoenn were even becoming dangerous.

Of course, the word 'dangerous' computes perfectly fine in the complex brain of the wild Mum, but the word 'rumour' doesn't quite compute as well, so Paul had to reassure his mother, get a Pokégear (along with other journey equipment) and do other inhuman feats in order to leave behind a somewhat worried but still willing Mum once he set off for the wild.

Still, he already had his training licence, he had an appointment to pick up his new starter pokémon at the Petalburg Pokémon Centre in three days (and he found himself staying up, late at night, googling his choices, which were the typical Treecko, Mudkip, and Torchic, while analysing his options).

So, protests and bank runs be damned. What could possibly go wrong?