A/N: I've just figured out that the first paragraph at the beginning of every person's POV is in past tense. The rest of it should be in present tense. Also, I know you don't call a Pokemon IT, however I'm pretending that some of my characters don't realize that right at the beginning. Normal typing is human language, italics are pokemon language.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or any characters from Pokemon. I do not own the chaos emeralds from Sonic the Hedgehog or any Sonic character. However, I have altered the purpose and powers of chaos emeralds to suit my fanfiction stories. I do own Jack (one of many I'm sure), Brent, Muragal, Dustin, Charlotte, Golden Rise, Gold Feather, and the chaos badge.

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Our Heroes being their Journey…

Jack's POV

When I first got up this morning I did all of the things I usually did. You know, brushing teeth and stuff. Then I decided to look at my calendar to see what today was. That's when I abruptly woke up.

"Oh no! Today's the day I get my first Pokemon! I've got to get going!"

I quickly change out of my pajamas and into the clothes I would wear on my journey. It looks almost like what Ash Ketchum, Pokemon Master and my hero, wore when he was just beginning. Except, I have blonde hair so I don't look quite as cool in the mirror. Maybe I should dye my hair black?

Ugh! What am I doing? I'm wasting time! I run down the stairs at full speed and wave goodbye to my mom. I dash down the main drag of Pallet town in order to get to Professor Oak's laboratory.

I quickly arrive at the lab's door, panting. I knock on it and wait for somebody to come answer. To my surprise, Brent opens it.

"Sheesh Jack, what took you so long? Did you oversleep or something?" He looks at me with one of his eyebrows raised. It looks like he decided to wear his blue jacket and grey pants. Dang, even his brown hair would look good in my outfit.

As I walk indoors he says, "You just had to wear that outfit, didn't you?" He groans out loud. "You're an Ash fan if I ever saw one. All you need to do is dye your hair black and you'd look almost like him."

I'm about to reply when Professor Samuel Oak, he's looking older, arrives to greet us. Then he stares at me. "Ash, did you dye your hair yellow?" I think I notice Brent sweat dropping.

Brent answers, "Sorry professor, this is my friend Jack. He's a big Ash fan so he's trying to look just like him."

The professor nods his head in understanding, "Well normally I give a little speech, but since I'm not getting any younger I'll just cut to the chase since you two probably already know how this works. Each of you, select a Pokemon. Your choices are Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle."

Brent walks up to a pokeball, "I already know what I want. I choose Squirtle!" He opens the pokeball and the little turtle appears. The turtle looks up at Brent and shrugs. It doesn't seem too excited about this at all.

I look at my other two choices, neither one I was hoping for. "Hey professor, any chance you have a spare Pikachu around?" I noticed that Brent face planted to the floor this time.

The professor shakes his head, "I'm sorry Jack, but these are your only two choices. I'm all out of other Pokemon. You'll just have to make do with one of these."

I nod in reply, a bit disappointed. I guess that means I'll have to find a pikachu on my journey then. Now, which should I pick? Ash eventually got one of each kind of starter so that doesn't help narrow my choices. Hmm, well I remember stories of how Ash had trouble with his charizard at one point in time. Ah ha! That's it! Only a true trainer could tame a charizard!

I face the professor, confident now, "All right professor, I've made my decision. I choose charmander!" I open the Pokeball and out comes an orange lizard. It stares up at me and gives a little huff. I'm not sure why though…

Professor Oak hands the two of us a pokedex and six pokeballs. "The pokedex acts as your identification, as well as a device that allows you to scan pokemon and retrieve information about them. You use the pokeballs to catch other Pokemon you come across in your travels."

He then hands us two strange badges, "These have been developed by Dr. Muragal Fireheart, head researcher at the Pokemon League in Kanto. They're called 'chaos badges', they do not count as a gym badge. They've already been tested out and are now being mass-produced for all new trainers to use. According to the instructions I was given it is up to you to discover the powers that might be held within. You can use any ability you unlock in any Pokemon League match, which means you'll be at a disadvantage if you cannot unlock any abilities. I'm afraid I can't tell you much more about them."

I take the odd badge and pin it to my jacket, I notice Brent doing the same. I then tell the professor, "Thanks professor! Now I'm going to start on my quest to become a Pokemon Master!"

Brent turns towards me, "Yeah, I figured you would follow your hero's footsteps. However, I'm also going to try my hand at becoming a Pokemon Master. I suppose that makes us rivals then right? I challenge you to a Pokemon battle!"

I laugh, "Hah! You're on Brent! Charmander let's go!"

Brent answers, "Um, not in here. We wouldn't want to wreck anything. Come on Squirtle, let's head on outside for the battle!"

Oh yeah, professor Oak would probably get mad at us if we messed up his lab. I follow Brent outside.

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Brent begins the battle, "Squirtle, use a Tackle attack!"

The turtle pauses a moment before it starts walking towards charmander. Hah! It's moving way too slow!

I yell, "all right charmander! Use a Scratch attack!"

Charmander gives me a funny look before walking up to the squirtle. The squirtle jumps towards the charmander and knocks it down. Charmander then swipes its claws to remove the turtle.

Brent looks on in disbelief and I cheer, "Way to go charmander! Try another Scratch attack!"

Again it hesitates before it walks forward again. I expect Brent to shout an attack back but he just stands there watching.

My charmander hits the squirtle on the face and it steps backwards. Man, this is too easy!

Apparently Brent found his voice again, but he says something I didn't expect. "Squirtle, return." He holds up a pokeball and the squirtle disappears into it.

I yell at him, "Hey, what's the big idea? We're in the middle of a match!"

Brent shakes his head, "I give up, you win. I'm going to head back to my house and prepare for my journey. I'll see you around okay?" With that he walks away.

I stare at him for a while wondering what's up with him. Then I realize that we won. "All right charmander! Good job boy, you deserve a good rest!" I pull out the pokeball and return him.

"Look out world! Here comes a new Pokemon Master!"

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Brent's POV

That battle just felt plain wrong. I, I couldn't take it anymore. I've always heard that Pokemon battles were exciting and fun, but that was just awful. I had decided I would head on home in order to talk to Squirtle about what had happened.

Flashback

I begin the battle, "Squirtle, use a Tackle attack!"

You pause a moment before you start walking towards charmander. In that pause I felt extreme sadness coming from you.

Jack yells, "all right charmander! Use a Scratch attack!"

Charmander scrunches his face when he looks at Jack before walking up to you. You jump towards Charmander and knock him down, but I can tell you're heart isn't in it. Charmander then swipes his claws to remove you; it wasn't even really a swipe, more of a push.

I feel the pain you're going through although I don't understand why yet. Jack cheers of course, "Way to go charmander! Try another Scratch attack!"

Again he hesitates before he walks forward again. I look on as pain crosses the charmander's face.

Charmander hits you on the face and you step backwards. After you recover I notice that you give a little smile to the charmander. That's when I realize what this whole battle meant to you two.

You two, along with the bulbasaur probably, have been together for a long time. You guys probably became friends with one another, and here we are trying to get you guys to turn into mortal enemies. You wanted to let your friend know that you still thought of him as a friend even though you were fighting. I cannot let this battle to continue in good conscience.

End flashback

I close the door to my room and sit down on the floor so that I can be closer to Squirtle's height. I open up his Pokeball and he materializes in front of me. He sees me and then puts his head down. He puts his arms together and twiddles his fingers. He thinks I'm going to punish him!

I grab his arms and bow my head, "I'm so sorry Squirtle! I didn't want to destroy the friendship you have with charmander. I was only thinking about myself and the glory I could win. I hope you can forgive me for the pain I caused you." I'm a little surprised when tears start to fall out of my eyes. I'm glad the door's closed so that no one can see me in such a pitiful state.

I feel Squirtle climbing up to me; he hugs me around the neck and starts trying to pat my back, meanwhile muttering something in his language. I start to laugh a bit, "Thanks Squirtle. Even though I can't understand you too well, I'm so glad you forgive me."

Just then a bright light emanates from inside of my jacket. I pull out the chaos badge and discover that it's glowing yellow. Squirtle and I stare at it in fascination until it fades.

Then I put it away and say, "Well that seemed random. I wonder why it did that."

Squirtle responds, "No idea why, but it sure was pretty."

I nod my head; then my mind backs up a few seconds. I turn to him, "You can talk!?"

He looks at me with his head cocked, "Duh, every Pokemon talks. Where have you been?"

I reiterate, "Sorry, I meant that I can understand you now. Maybe that's what the bright light meant, I unlocked one of the badge's special abilities!"

Squirtle perks his head up, "Really? Cool, if you can understand me then can you call me by my name, Dustin? I'm getting a little tired of being called Squirtle all the time."

It's my turn to raise my eyebrows, "Dustin eh? What a cool name for you! So, what do you want to do then Dustin?"

Dustin closes his eyes to think, then he opens them again, "Can we go visit Charlotte? I want to still be friends with her. She's a friendly charmander to be around."

Charlotte? Wait, Jack's charmander is a female? Huh. Well, I always did want to understand my Pokemon. This is like a dream come true! "Sure, let's go find Jack. I wouldn't mind traveling along with him if you and Charlotte get to hang out with each other."

I scoop up Dustin onto my shoulder and downstairs. After I briefly introduce Dustin to my family, I head out the door and down the path that Jack was sure to have taken.

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Jack's POV

The bright blue sky is above me, the winds feel nice and cool, and I won my first battle! Oh man! I know it's been an hour but I still feel great!

Then I realize that I need to get charmander to fight some battles so that he can get stronger. I look out into the grasslands for some Pokemon. It takes a while but I find a wild rattata. I throw out charmander's pokeball.

"Ok charmander! Let's go!" Charmander pops out of his pokeball and spots his opponent. "Use a Scratch attack!"

I watch as my charmander dashes up to the rattata and scratches it. The rattata rubs its face before dashing towards charmander. I think it's trying to use Tackle.

"Brace yourself, then follow up with another Scratch!" Charmander takes the hit, but then scratches the rattata away. His tail flame starts to burn brighter, and he shoots little fireballs from his mouth.

"Cool! You learned Ember!" The rattata took too much damage and faints. "Congratulations boy! This is your second win today!"

Charmander looks at me, then folds his arms and turns his back to me. "Huh? What's the matter boy? Aren't you excited that you're getting stronger?" Charmander face palms and then faces me. He starts yelling at me but I can't tell what he's trying to say.

"Um… you're upset about something… but I don't know what's wrong…" Charmander sweat drops, then looks down at the ground and sighs.

Suddenly I feel like something collided with the back of my head, and I fall over. The pain doesn't stop after I fall though; it keeps hammering through my hat and into my head. I hear a slight scuffle and the pain stops. When I look up I see my charmander fighting with a shiny spearow.

"Wow! A shiny spearow! Today must be my lucky day! Come on charmander, give it an Ember!" Charmander opens his mouth to fire, but then the spearow quickly Pecks his lip making him yelp in pain. The spearow doesn't stop there either, but keeps up its relentless Fury Attack.

My charmander soon faints, but before I can return him the crazy Spearow flies towards me, shrieking something I don't understand, to Peck my face out!

A familiar voice yells, "Dustin, use Bubble!" A bunch of bubbles fly towards the spearow and knock it away. Before it can recover, a squirtle jumps and tackles it. Someone threw a pokeball at it and captures the shiny spearow! Nooo! It was going to be mine!!

A trainer, that I recognize as Brent, runs past me and picks up the pokeball AND my charmander and keeps running, with his squirtle running behind him! "What the? Brent! Come back here with my charmander!"

I chase after him down the road. We run for a long while, my legs are getting sore, before Brent collapses in front of a tree. He looks up, then around him, and lets out a sigh of relief. So does his squirtle. Meanwhile, I stand there panting.

I turn on him angrily and out of breath, "Why did you steal my charmander from me Brent? I thought you were my friend!"

Brent doesn't even look up at me as he fishes for something in his backpack. It turns out to be a potion, which he sprays generously on my charmander. Then he responds, "Sorry Jack, but we had to get out of there as soon as possible. I didn't want to stick around and see if any of spearow's friends decided to join in attacking us. After all, that's how your great hero Ash almost died at the beginning of his journey, remember?"

I'm shocked at what he said because I had totally forgotten about the danger. I look at him a little ashamedly, "sorry for doubting you Brent. I guess I overreacted a bit."

Brent nods, accepting my apology. "Don't worry about it, I would've probably felt the same way in your shoes. Anyways, just to warn you I'm going to release the spearow to have a better look at her." He opens the pokeball and out comes the shiny spearow… the one who should have been mine…

The spearow appears and looks at Brent's face. I can't tell what its facial expression is but Brent's is rather grim, "I'm sorry I captured you against your will, but you were hurting my friend. If you want, I'll release you as soon as we get to the next human town. Then all you have to do is fly back down this path until you get somewhere you recognize."

The spearow stands completely still for a few seconds, then slowly bows its head in acceptance. Then the shiny looks at me and sends a staggering death glare!

I back up slowly, "Easy there spearow, just take it easy now!" After I step back a few steps I notice that the spearow isn't looking at me, but rather at a pidgey on a tree branch that's now over my head. A shiny pidgey! It's rolling on the branch, laughing its tail feathers out.

Before any of us can react, the shiny spearow shoots towards the shiny pidgey and starts whaling on it! Both are tangled in a dust ball when they finally hit the ground. After a few seconds, the dust settles revealing two panting birds.

Then I realize that this is my chance! "Go pokeball!" I toss the pokeball at the pidgey. It rocks for a little while, but then I hear the click.

I pick it up and raise it over my head, "all right! I caught a shiny pidgey!" Out of the corner of my eye I can see everyone except the spearow sweat dropping. The spearow just glares at the pokeball.

I turn to Brent, "Well I guess we're even now. We both got shiny birds! Anyways, I'll just take charmander with me now." I move to grab charmander but he moves away from my hands and grabs onto squirtle's paw.

I tilt my head in confusion and turn to Brent, "What's the matter with him, and why's he holding your squirtle's hand?"

Brent speaks, "First of all, my squirtle's name is Dustin. Second, your charmander is female. Third, they were best friends growing up and they like to hang around each other. That's part of the reason why I came to find you. Since Dustin is friends with your charmander, I thought we should travel together so that they could be happy."

My eyes open wide in surprise. "Really? Wow that's pretty cool. Hey, that means you want to travel with me? Ok then, that sounds great! Oh, I should think of a name for my charmander, too! How about Ember?" I turn to look at my charmander and notice that she's hiding behind Dustin's back.

Brent makes the next suggestion, "I don't think she likes that name. How about Charlotte?" My charmander starts jumping ecstatically in joy. I can't help but face plant.

After I get up again I say, "Ok, Charlotte then. Now, let's head to the next town so that we can think of some names for our birds!"

We start walking towards Viridian city; already my adventure is starting off great!

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Brent's POV

After we arrived at the city both Jack and I decided to stay at the Pokecenter overnight. After Jack fell asleep I woke Dustin up and we went outside the city. He stands on my right shoulder, fairly heavy but I can take it. I opened up the spearow's pokeball.

She reappears on a tree branch about my eye-level. "Okay then, you can go home now if you want. I'm pretty sure you don't want to stick around with humans. I'm not sure I understand why either, but if it makes you uncomfortable then you can leave."

She looks at me for a long minute. Inside that minute I look at her eyes and see many conflicting emotions. Eventually she settles on a question, one that would determine her path. "Are you going to be traveling with the boy who captured Prince Golden Rise?"

I raise an eyebrow, "Golden Rise? The shiny pidgey? Yes, I plan to travel with them during my journey. I'm the boy's, Jack's, rival. However, we are friends, so we're going to stick together and improve each other."

She nods her head; "Gold Feather shall travel with you then. Gold Feather and Golden Rise are archenemies! One day, Gold Feather shall defeat Golden Rise and bring glory to the Blood Feather tribe!"

I look at her a moment before asking for clarification. "Okay, so your name is Gold Feather? You're part of the Blood Feather tribe, which is at war with Golden Rise's tribe?"

She nods emphatically, "High Risers are Blood Feather's sworn enemies! Have major big blood feud for many, many seasons! Feud started with a trainer, his pidgeot King High Rise, and his pikachu. Feud shall end once Blood Feathers destroy all High Risers, the trainer, and that pikachu!"

I gape at her, "Wait, your tribe is the same one that the legendary Ash Ketchum ran into on his journey? And you said Prince Golden Rise earlier, are you telling me that he's Ash's pidgeot's son? Man… what does that make you?"

The spearow puffs out her chest feathers, "Gold Feather is youngest daughter of King Blood Beak. King rule over Blood Feather tribe with terrible fierceness! He fights with King High Rise constantly, and in the end he shall restore our tribe's right to rule the forest!"

Dustin and I look wide-eyed at her. Then I recompose myself, "Well, all right then. But please, while you travel with me can you pretend that you aren't at war with Golden Rise? I want to keep you outside of the pokeball, but I can't do that if you take every second of your time attacking them."

Gold Feather flaps over to my unoccupied shoulder and settles down. "Gold Feather likes freedom. Gold Feather will not risk loss of it to be jammed inside small uncomfortable container."

I chuckle a bit then head towards the Pokemon Center. "Let's go get some sleep then guys." I can already tell that this story will be a hell of a tale to tell once its done.

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A/N: And that's the start of a new storyline. I have many long-term ideas for this story, but we'll see if I get there eventually. Also, I know that shiny Pokemon are rare, but they fit a LOT better into this storyline if the birds are shiny. Meh, anyways I dunno if I'm going to continue this story or work on one of my other ones at the moment. I just type when I'm inspired to. Speaking of which, the second half of this story was inspired by listening to the music of when you fight Champion Cynthia in Diamond/Pearl. As always, I don't know why or how but it did inspire...

Oh god, I just realized. As a trainer-type fic, this will probably be filled with tons of battles. Which I am unfortunately not that good at writing... Meh, practice makes perfect right?