Everyone knows they're out there, the brave souls who are destined to save the world. Everyone, it seems, but the souls themselves. They just think that they're going to go on their own journey across the land, get strong, and beat the champion. Be it contests or the Elite 4, the story is always the same. They end up battling the criminals, take down their boss and capture the legendary pokémon, using it to take down the champion with ease. My story however starts in a different place, in the Alamar region. Unlike the stories so often told, my journey of a thousand miles does not begin with a single step, but with an explosion. Here is my story, listen well, for I don't repeat myself very often.
My home is on the outskirts of the small, northern, frost-bitten village of Eira. It's so far north, you can make a snowman in August. My family lives in a nice house with two levels and a nice big fireplace. Ever since I was little I've been surrounded by pokémon. Maybe that's why I can understand them, but then again, maybe I was born with it. Who knows? Like I was saying, I've grown up with pokémon. There was Flit, my father's Altaria and Eve, my mother's Eevee. Both are very kind and gentle creatures, but wrong them, and they just might go ballistic. When my journey begins, I am a thirteen year-old girl, almost fourteen. My curves have just begun to show themselves and my parents were almost ready to let me leave on the journey that every determined child makes. My dream to become a pokémon trainer and defeat all the gyms is going to come true tomorrow morning, on my birthday. Professor Cypress will give me my starter and then I will finally be able to defeat the Alamar League and others to become a Pokémon Master! Little do I know what lies just beyond the corner.
I ready my outfit for tomorrow, since I can't sleep anyway. It's three-fifty in the morning. You'd think my body would have just shut down by now. I think to myself. I set my long, tan shirt with the blue zigzag pattern on the edges down next to the light grey/blue pants. I decide to wear my dark brown mukluks and bring my lighter jacket, since I won't be in the snow forever. I deliberate between my red swirly headband and the one with the blue flowers. I pick the blue and set it alongside my tan messenger bag. The one my mom gave me to journey with. I look into the mirror and plan what I'm gonna do with my hair. The same face I've seen for years stares back out at me. The same ice colored eyes, the same tan skin, the same, extremely long, dark hair that my mother likes so much to compare to a Murkrow's wing. But something is different. I realize that I have a spark of determination lighting up my features that normally isn't there. I decide to leave my hair down, mostly because it won't ever do what I want it to in the first place. When I look away from the mirror I hear a noise. It sounds like snow crunching under a boot. I look out my window, but I see nothing. I go back to making sure my things are in order and hear the crunching noises again. I look out my window once more and see a man at our doorstep. I pull on my clothes that I just laid out. Hey, I aint sleeping anyway. Might as well be fully dressed to help out a stranger. On a whim I bring my bag, boots and coat with me to set at the front door. I hear the knocking of the man at the front door. I walk down the hall so I can answer.
"Mama, Papa, someone's here." I say loudly, in case they didn't wake up at the knocking. I get downstairs and go to open the door, setting my things beside it. Papa comes down and gets to the door before I do.
"Hello?" he says as he opens the door, "Young man, you shouldn't be this far north this late at night. Come in and warm yourself." Papa opens the door further to let in the tall stranger. He walks in with a small thank you and sits by the fireplace.
"Would you like some tea?" my mother asks, always willing to serve food. The stranger nods and stares at the fire, like he's willing it to get warmer, or something. I study him as my mother bustles around the kitchen. He's got light brown hair that needs a cut and a strong jaw line. His eyes are never wavering from the fire, hardly blinking, even, but they are a lovely shade of amber. I notice Eve standing in the kitchen. She seems to want to be as far away from the man as possible. I look back at him, but he doesn't look dangerous. I decide it's just her nerves. Flint glides down the stairs and lands on his usual perch by the window. Now I know something is wrong. Flit never wakes up until either breakfast or something big is gonna happen. I walk over to Eve since she's the farthest away from him.
"Eve, what's going on?" I whisper, "Why do you look like you're going to jump out of your fur?"
"That man. He's not who he seems. He is dangerous." She says back. I go over to the couch and sit on the other side of the man. I study him once more. His jacket looks terribly thin for such a long trip north and his boots are hardly wet. They should be soaked if he's walked all the way here. Sitting closer to him, I smell something but I can't quite put my finger on what it is. It's sweet somehow. Papa is talking to him about his reason for coming here.
"Young man, just what are you researching?" Papa asks, trying to get to the point.
"Ice types, right now anyway." He answers in a deeper voice than I thought he had, "I am studying on their migration habits and social patterns."
"Hmmm," Papa grunts, "Well you really should have kept better time. It can get pretty nasty out there at night."
"You don't have to tell me twice," he says with a chuckle, "I'm just glad I found your village. I might have missed it if I was going any other direction." He is a very charismatic man. He just seems naturally likeable, but Eve and Flit's reactions are still bothering me.
"Rin, Honey, can you take a look out back. I can't get our stove to work." My mother asks me, and I nod. I go over to the door and pull on my jacket and boots. I grab my bag since it's got all my tools in it already, and that includes my flashlight.
"Come on Eve," I say to the suspicious Eevee, "You can help me see what's wrong. I dig out my flashlight and exit the house into the cold night air. I walk around back and find the water heater. I examine it high and low to find the problem and am just about to give up when I see it. The nut around the pipe has gotten loose again. I dig my monkey wrench out of my bag and tighten it as much as I can.
"Looks good Eve, let's go back inside." I say as I head back to the front of the house, Eve close on my heels. When I get to the front door I hear yelling, so I stop and eavesdrop.
"That's why we moved so far north! It was so we could live in peace! We retired, Hammond!" I can hear my father shouting.
"No you didn't! You left us! We need your skills again! We need your knowledge on the Zeta project! You two were the only ones who knew what it was capable of and you ran, taking the research with you! You're lucky they're sending me instead of Theo! I am giving you an option. He would just storm in here and make a mess of things. Please, come back to the lab and nothing will happen." It's the stranger who just gave the speech. He doesn't sound very sincere.
"Honey, maybe we should," My mother says, "We don't want anything to happen to Rin." She sounds kind of like a robot. Then I realize something, that sweet smell coming off the man. It's Sweet Scent! That's why he's so charismatic! I think back on all the little things. The large jacket, the barely wet boots, the fact that he's here at three in the morning! He must be hiding a grass type in his jacket, and he must have been dropped off in town or close by!
"Yes, think of Rin. She's old enough to be going on her journey soon, isn't she? It would be a shame if she got hurt. Things happen, you know. She could get caught in a blizzard, or attacked by a feral pokémon. All sorts of things are possible." The more I listen to this man, the more I am disgusted by him. My parents stay silent.
"He's right, Darling," I hear my father say, "We can't risk her." He sounds so robotic, I can't take it anymore. I burst in through the door and throw a good sized ice chunk at Hammond's head, nailing him right in the left eye.
"Mama! Papa! Don't fall for it! He's using Sweet Scent to persuade you!" I yell in panic. My parents seem to get the message but are a little groggy in shrugging off the effects.
"You little bitch!" Hammond yells, "Now you're gonna get it!" he lunges at me but my father steps in the way.
"You will not touch her!" he says forcefully, "Hammond we are through, we are not going to work for that evil man anymore."
"Fine, you've just dug your own graves," he says as he opens up his jacket. I see the telltale Oddish hanging on the inside as he reaches for a different pokéball. He throws it in the air and it releases its contents into the living room. "Electrode, Explosion!" he orders and everything flashes white. I am hit by an invisible force and thrown backward, through whatever wall is left of my house. The last thing I see before I black out is the man with the Electrode, flying off into the night on an unknown pokemon.