I'm sure many of you have wondered what happened to the player characters after their games ended. Asides from Red, none of them are ever seen or even mentioned in later installments. From what I figured they were either all away training in an alternate dimension or were simply hanging out together in some secret Champions-only country club after failing to adjust to civilian life. I figured the latter was probably more likely and thus this fic was born!

Anyways, this is my first long-term story in several years so I would really like to know if there's anything to improve upon during my time writing this. As such, any and all reviews are welcome. Even a simple "Meh" would be appreciated. Well, I would like better feedback than that but it would be pretty funny to see hundreds of reviews saying nothing but "Meh."

Now then, I present to you the untold story of the great 'heroes' of the Pokémon Universe! And who better to begin with than the trainer who started it all: Red!

Prologue: The Fandom Menace

Back in his youth, Red had imagined that becoming the Pokémon Champion would be the single greatest thing ever. Deluded by the TV shows of his childhood, Red had believed that being Champion simply meant looking cool and owning a fabulously large mansion. That and holding uncontested bragging rights over his life-long rival, Blue. Two years into his career as the Champion of the Kanto region though, Red found out the hard way that this wasn't the case. Surprisingly, it wasn't the societal pressures, lack of personal free time, insistent news reporters, or even the daily line of trainers wanting to challenge him that bothered him. No, what truly destroyed his childhood image of the job was this.

"Can't you people leave me alone?! I just wanted to buy some cookies at the department store!"

High above the coast of Vermillion City, Red screamed this out loud from the back of his Charizard as the two soared through the sky at near-Mach speed. Casting a quick glance backwards, Red saw to his horror that the enormous flock of trainers chasing him had nearly tripled in size since the last time he had checked. Apparently, flying over a major city had been a bad idea as his adversaries had managed to request back-up from below. Red had little time to think about this though as a flurry of Hyper Beams were shot out from the various Flying-type Pokémon that the pursuing trainers were riding on.

"Crap! Charizard, evasive maneuvers now!"

Thankfully, Red's Charizard was more than skilled enough to avoid all of the attacks. Just as Red was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a loud yell was suddenly heard from above him. The young Champion had just enough time to look up and see a large Fearow that had managed to stealthily catch up with Charizard and was now flying a few feet above him. However, the thing that really caught his attention was the young girl that had just jumped off of the aforementioned Fearow and was now falling directly towards Red. Before he could do anything, she crashed on top of Red like a ballistic missile.

The impact caused Charizard to plummet down several feet before he finally managed to steady himself. During this time, both Red and the dive-bombing girl managed to recover and simultaneously turned to face each other. Much to Red's dismay, the girl was wearing an outfit that was clearly supposed to be a replica of his (complete with gloves and hat). Anyone else looking at this bizarre situation would have probably been very confused but Red knew from experience just who exactly this girl, along with all the other trainers following him, were.

Indeed, they were none other than members of his devoted 'fan club' who had been trying to capture him for the last two years.

"Umm… that's a nice costume you have there," Red said in an attempt to distract the fangirl in front of him. Unfortunately, this only made the situation worse as the girl began to squee in delight as she suddenly leapt forward to hug him.

"OH MY GOSH! RED-SENPAI NOTICED ME!"

Red thought his ears were going to bleed from the high-pitched sounds as he did his best to hold off the fangirl's assault.

"Haven't you ever heard of personal space, lady?" Red managed to yell out as he tried to figure out what to do. After seeing just how low they were currently flying, Red came to an abrupt decision. Muttering a silent apology, Red grabbed the girl's flailing arms and used all of his strength to throw her overboard. However, the fangirl had other plans as she reached forward at the last second and managed to grab a fistful of Red's hair. Red gave a pained yell as he suddenly felt a large tuft of his hair being ripped away.

"I GOT HIS HAIR!" the fangirl yelled out in psychotic glee as she fell through the air. This was immediately followed by an enormous splash that would have made Magikarps everywhere proud as the fangirl fell into the ocean.

I'm sure she'll be fine, Red thought as he tried to ignore the pain on his head and returned his attention to the swarm of fans that were still hot on his tail. As he did, he realized that he should be worrying more about himself at the moment. Apparently the scuffle with the fangirl had allowed the other fans to drastically close the distance between them and their prey. Red could now see that the hundreds of trainers following him were all dressed just like him with some of them even going so far as to dress up their Pokémon in red vests. In the back of his head, Red couldn't help but feel a tiny bit impressed by the fans' dedication. However, this feeling was mostly ignored due to the greater sense of absolute terror that was coursing through Red at the moment. His fear was only increased ten-fold when he heard a loud shout from the crowd behind him.

"First one to bring him down gets his vest!"

This, along with the thunderous roars of approval that followed, nearly made Red wet his pants. As if sensing his trainer's anxiety, Charizard increased his flying speed as he headed up towards a group of clouds in the distance. However, the dragon's plan to lose their pursuers was quickly ruined when a trio of Super Nerds riding on Aerodactyls zoomed ahead of the main flock and caught up to their target.

"Heh heh heh. Looks like the vest belongs to us now!" the lead Super Nerd announced victoriously as he threw the large net he was holding. Seeing this, Red closed his eyes and prepared for the worst. Just when it looked like all hope was lost though, Charizard brought out his full power and blasted forward like a flaming missile. This in turn caused the thrown net to completely miss its intended target and ironically capture one of the other Super Nerds instead.

"You idiot! How could you mi- AHHHHH!" With his Aerodactyl's wings tangled up in the net, the captured Super Nerd and his mount plummeted downwards like a rock. As it so happened, the net had been connected to a rope that was tied to the lead Super Nerd's arm. Realizing too late what was going to happen, the Super Nerd could only make a terrified squeak as he too was dragged down.

Hearing the two loud splashes coming from behind him, Red couldn't help but punch the air triumphantly. "Woohoo! Great job Charizard!"

However, Red soon realized that he was now in even more trouble than before. Judging from the labored breathing, Charizard was reaching his limit after pulling off that miraculous speed boost. Even worse, the last Super Nerd was still right behind them with the main flock of fans not too far behind. Knowing that they would both be goners if Charizard crash-landed into the sea, Red began looking around for any nearby pieces of land where they could possibly hide. Unfortunately, the two had flown pretty far out during the chase and were now miles away from the nearest coastline.

"Hang in there Charizard! A few more miles south and we'll reach Fuchsia Ci-" Red paused as he suddenly felt his instincts warning him of incoming danger. "Charizard, dive!"

The two barely dodged a Hyper Beam sent by the remaining Super Nerd's Aerodactyl as the blast narrowly sailed over their heads. Giving no time for their targets to recover, the prehistoric beast launched another Hyper Beam towards them.

"Hey, no fair!" Red yelled out as Charizard once again dodged the incoming attack. "You can't just use Hyper Beam again like that! You need to recharge after every attack!"

The Super Nerd ignored him as he simply ordered his Aerodactyl to continue firing off its death lasers. Apparently the Super Nerd's burning obsession to capture Red was so powerful that it allowed his Pokémon to ignore even one of the basic laws of the universe. Seeing this only served to reinforce Red's belief that his fans were not human and were actually demons from some twisted alternate dimension.

"There's got to be a way out of this mess," Red muttered as he looked around for anything that could help them. Sadly, nothing could be seen but an endless ocean that seemed to stretch on forever. Red even thought about switching out Charizard for his Blastoise and surfing across the water but soon realized that the airborne fans would catch up and descend upon them in a matter of seconds. Fighting the fans head-on was also out of the question as the sheer number of foes meant that Red and his team would quickly be overwhelmed. With no other option but to hope that Charizard could last for a few more minutes, Red began praying to an imaginary Pokémon god he made up on the spot for help.

As it turned out, Red's god was in a less-than favorable mood that day. As Charizard struggled to stay airborne, a haphazardly shot Hyper Beam made a lucky (or unlucky in Red's case) hit with its intended target. As the explosion blasted Red off of Charizard's back, the young trainer silently vowed to strangle his god if he ever got the chance. As he fell alongside his Charizard towards the cold waters waiting below though, he realized that it probably was not a good idea to piss off an almighty deity when he was most likely going to die soon. After quickly thinking up an apology to his imaginary god, Red began wondering if he would really die from a fall at this height. Whatever the case was, he was pretty sure it would be far better to die from the impact than to let his fans dismember him and sell his parts on their website.

As he continued to hurtle downwards, Red felt his consciousness slowly starting to fade. Perhaps it was from delayed shock or perhaps the pressure of falling down at such high speeds, he really couldn't tell. As his vision began to blur, Red was left with one final chain of thought:

Darn it, I never did get to buy those new imported cookies from Celadon. Well… I just hope the afterlife has a decent cookie shop around. Hmm… I wonder what kind of cookies they have in the afterlife…? I hope they have the apple strudel ones with caramel pieces inside… Mmm… Caramel…

And with that happy thought the world faded to black.

Review? You can have one of Red's imaginary afterlife cookies if you do.