The Legend of R.E.D.
Dragon Master
A Pokémon FireRed Storylocke by ThePokeman92
Chapter 1: R.E.D.
This is the story of Remus Emerentius Draco. If you were to meet Remus Emerentius Draco, he would prefer you not use his full name, for he did not like it very much. He much more preferred just being called 'Remus'. He rarely used his middle name or his last, even when writing it on school papers or official documents. Instead he always wrote his initials, "R.E.D.," and everyone seemed to know who he was. In fact, most people did not even know Remus's last name. 'Remus' was unique enough a name that most never even bothered to ask.
Remus behaved like any other decent child. He listened to his teachers, he got good grades, and he always played fair with the other kids, even when they were not playing nice in return. Like most kids around the world, he also loved Pokémon.
Pokémon were not new to the world, but Pokémon Training was, relatively speaking. Since ancient times, Pokémon training had been reserved for just those that could tame and develop close bonds with several other Pokémon, usually of the same type – although it is unclear exactly why. This was mostly because there were no easy ways to capture or transport Pokémon. Only those with the ability to befriend and earn the trust of a Pokémon on their own would ever have a chance to participate in a Pokémon battle, but all that was about to change at the turn of the millennium.
In 1996, three fantastic devices were invented which made Pokémon training accessible to the masses. The electronic PokéBall and its accompanying Electronic Pokémon Storage System allowed Pokémon to be captured in small capsules that could either contain them on a trainer's belt or be used to electronically transport the Pokémon as bits of data in a computer database to a remote location for storage. Additionally, the new PokéBalls allowed the trainer to control Pokémon through electronic impulse signals, allowing even those with no talent as a true Pokémon trainer to command the creatures in battle. Finally a few years later, the PokéDex – a high-tech encyclopedia on Pokémon and their abilities – allowed trainers to analyze or research almost anything about their Pokémon that they so desired.
The invention of these three devices ultimately turned the once lucrative and dangerous job of Pokémon training into a hobby that almost anyone could pick up in a day or two. Everyone who was anyone wanted to try to train Pokémon themselves! From the massive Kanto/Johto continent to the smallest of the Orange Islands, the training craze swept the world, and soon you could not walk ten feet in any civilized area without meeting a Pokémon trainer!
Remus wanted nothing more than to try to become a Pokémon trainer himself. Ever since he could remember, he's had a fascination with Pokémon training. Of course, the fact that his father was once a Pokémon trainer meant it was only natural that he wished to become one himself. In particular, Remus wanted to become a Gym Leader. He had heard all about the Gym Leaders in history class at school. They, along with the Elite Four members, were the only trainers in the world that got paid by the government to train Pokémon! It sounded like a dream job to Remus, so he decided he would study very hard and try to get a head start on his Pokémon training career.
Unfortunately for Remus, he lived in Pallet Town. Pallet Town was the one place left in the world of Pokémon where it seemed the training craze just did not catch on. Thus, it was very difficult to become a trainer if you lived there. Most people from Pallet Town chose instead to live normal Pokémon-free lives. Kids went to normal schools for a full 12 or more years, Adults went to work and maintained both their family and household, and life without Pokémon was just normal. Remus, however, was not what the Pallet folk would call 'normal'. He was not born in Pallet Town, nor did he move there intentionally to get away from it all. Unlike the rest of the town's residents, Pokémon training was simply in Remus's blood. He was going to become a trainer one day even if it meant traveling all the way back to his hometown, Cerulean City, to get a license.
It would have been very easy to get a Pokémon license from Cerulean City since it had a Pokémon Gym of its very own, but it was much too far away for Remus. With a large ocean and a Pokémon-infested woodland separating Pallet Town from the rest of the world, there was simply no way Remus could get a license on his own. Of course, his father might have been able to help him travel there, but his parents had both died just before he was born.
It was a rather strange and tragic event, to say the least. Remus's father had gone out to become a Pokémon Master many years ago. He was supposed to take time off from his training when Remus was born, but a freak hail storm around the Seafoam Islands sunk the ship he was traveling on a few days prior. His body was never recovered, and news did not reach the main land about the accident until Remus's mother was on her way to the hospital. His mother, grief-stricken over the tragic loss of her husband, died while in labor. Doctors had to operate quickly to save the newborn baby, but could do nothing to save his mother. Thus, Remus was born with no mother, no father, no sisters or brothers, grandparents or even cousins. He almost wound up in a foster home, but the hospital managed to track down who they thought was the boy's last surviving family member, Great-Aunt Valerie, who reluctantly took him in.
Aunt Valerie had moved to Pallet Town just a few months after taking in Remus, mostly to try and put as much distance between herself and other Pokémon Trainers as she could. She did not believe any person could make a decent living off of Pokémon training without sheer dumb luck or existing celebrity status. She wanted no part of that world for herself, or her grand-nephew. Not only that, but fighting each other with giant monsters sounded to Aunt Valerie like a sure way to die a most horrible, painful death, like her niece's husband. No, that was certainly not for her. Remus would not be able to rely on his Great-Aunt to send him off to get a Pokémon Training License in another town, he could not imagine it happening in a million years! Aunt Valerie's roots were very firmly based in traditional living and proper work – be it office jobs or manual labor – and she embraced those values with every single breath she took.
Remus on the other hand, was not really interested in following such old-fashioned values. He seemed to naturally attract and befriend Pokémon wherever he went. Whether it was playing tag with a Rattata in the backyard or befriending a flock of Pidgey while bird-watching on Route 1, everywhere Remus went Pokémon seemed to jump out of nowhere and follow him! Aunt Valerie always had to shoo the monstrous critters away whenever Remus came home.
"I didn't mean to bring them all home, Aunt Valerie," Remus would say to his aunt every time he showed up at the doorstep with a pack of Pokémon following him. "They don't listen to me when I tell them to go back!"
"Nonsense," Aunt Valerie would reply, waving her broom around and swatting at the nasty critters, who would then scatter off in every single direction imaginable. "If I can chase them away, then so can you." Then she would then put Remus to work cleaning, cooking, or doing other chores for the rest of the day to "keep the boy out of trouble," but all that really did was give him an excuse to try and stay out of the house as long as he could every day.
Now that is not to say Aunt Valerie did not love and care for her grand-nephew, but she was not the child's parent, nor did she ever have or want children of her own. Parenting was completely new to Aunt Valerie, and it showed in her parenting skills. Furthermore, she simply could not forgive her niece's husband for abandoning his duties as a parent to pursue what she thought was the most "irresponsible, irrational, and downright improper career in the world" while his wife was getting ready to have a child at home. Alone. Because of him, she needed to make sure that Remus grew up to be a respectable man. In order to do that, Aunt Valerie had to constantly check on Remus to make sure he was not slacking off or sneaking away to play with his Pokémon friends in the forest again. Each year wore on her more and more as Remus gained more independence, until she felt like she was constantly at her breaking point.
Perhaps some of this frustration and exhaustion was let out on Remus, or maybe he just did not understand some of the things his Aunt did to try and raise him "properly," but whatever the reason, this impacted Remus quite negatively. By the time he was 9, Remus had decided that he needed to go out on his own for both his and his Aunt's sake. If he was going to follow in his father's footsteps and become a Pokémon trainer, he needed to start as soon as he was eligible for a license.
On the day before his 10th birthday, Remus had just the bargaining chip needed to break the news to Aunt Valerie, so he told her his plans to follow in his father's footsteps that evening after dinner.
"That's ridiculous!" snorted Aunt Valerie as she was chopping away at some cabbage for a stew the next day. She turned around to look at Remus, who stared right back at her with an aura of determination and drive. "Oh, don't give me that look," She snapped. "You have no idea what sort of trouble you would get yourself into on your own. Traveling around the country with dangerous monsters! You could be kidnapped, you could get hurt, or worse!" She finished with a stern glare.
By "or worse" Remus knew she meant his father, but he did not care. His dad died of a freak boating accident after all, not while actually training his Pokémon. Aunt Valerie always seemed to forget that little detail though.
"But Aunt Valerie!" Remus protested. "Everyone who turns 10 is eligible for a Pokémon Trainer's License!"
"I've told you before I won't have it," Aunt Valerie replied. "You'll just have to find something else you want to do. Besides, I don't have the money to pay for your training and you know it."
The two had engaged in exactly this conversation many times before and the answer was always the same, but Remus had hoped that this time it would be different. He would be eligible for his trainer license tomorrow at last, and in his hands he held an official envelope bearing the seal of the Oak Laboratory, his only chance to become a Pokémon Trainer in Pallet Town.
"I got this letter today," Remus said, pulling the envelope out from under the table placing it on the table. "It's for the new Pokémon trainer's mentorship program at Professor Oak's Laboratory!"
Aunt Valerie brought the chef's knife down on the cutting board with a loud THUD! She turned to look at the ungrateful boy who was now wishing he had not spoken up at all. "What did you say?" She asked, very slowly. "What does that old windbag want with you?!"
Remus should have expected such a response, but the sheer anger such a name could summon still caught him off guard. Old Professor Oak was not exactly liked by the rest of Pallet Town. In fact, you could say that he is rather hated by them. Residents who had moved to the small town years ago came to get away from the Pokémon training frenzy that had been sweeping the world. It was because of Professor Oak – and the massive new research laboratory he had built a few months ago – that the once quiet town of Pallet had slowly begun to transform into the very thing the residents sought to get away from.
Aunt Valerie also happened to be one of the loudest protesters of the Oak Laboratory since it had been built and the floodgate of trainers and researchers had opened. Everyone in town now despised the once well-respected researcher for tainting the last slice of paradise left in the world. Aunt Valerie had even gone so far as to set up a petition to have his Laboratory forcibly closed to preserve the "Peace and Purity" of the town – a phrase referenced in their own motto.
"Give me the letter now," Aunt Valerie said, moving very deliberately towards the kitchen table and extending her arm. Even though Aunt Valerie was still about 5 feet away from him, Remus could see she was shaking. The veins on her temple were pulsating violently, as if they were about to explode. He had never seen her so upset before, not even when he had accidentally let an Ekans in the house last year. He slowly got up and presented the letter to Aunt Valerie, who immediately snatched it out of his hands. She ripped open the letter and began reading:
Master Remus Emerentius Draco,
It is my greatest pleasure to invite you to the Oak Laboratory tomorrow, June 23, 2007, as part of our new FREE Pokémon Training Prospects program. This new program will prepare you for life as a Pokémon Trainer and set you up with valuable skills and tools to aid in your success. As part of this 3-day program, you will team up with 2 other prospects to learn the basics of Pokémon Training using my own personal training regimen. In addition, you will receive your very own top-tier starter Pokémon (a choice between Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle) and your own copy of the latest edition PokéDex, widely regarded to be the single best tool for Pokémon trainers since the invention of the PokéBall itself.
This program is completely free to those that qualify as a one-time opportunity on their 10th birthday. The government-mandated Pokémon Trainer's License Application Fee (1500) will need to be covered by the student, but the Starter Pokémon Fee and the first year of the Pokémon Center Healthcare Plan and Electronic Pokémon Storage System Plan will be covered by the Laboratory (a savings of (50,000).
If you wish to attend, please arrive at the main gates in full trainer gear tomorrow morning at 6 o'clock sharp.
I hope to see you at the Laboratory then.
Best wishes,
Samuel P. Oak
Director, the Oak Laboratory
Aunt Valerie finished reading but remained silent for a moment, her eyes darting between Remus and the letter. Remus took a chance and spoke up first.
"You don't have to do anything," he started, trying to spin the conversation back into his own control. "I've got everything already packed, I more than enough money to cover the application fee in my savings, and when I'm done with the training I'll know enough about Pokémon to start-"
"No." Aunt Valerie said simply, cutting Remus off. Then, to his horror, she began ripping the letter up in front of him and tossing the tiny pieces onto the table. "I'm not about to let you go off to learn about Pokémon with some crackpot old geezer and ruin your life!"
"I'm not going to ruin-"
"YES YOU ARE!" Aunt Valerie screamed, slamming her hands down on the table angrily. The minuscule pieces of paper fluttered back in front of her face as Remus cowered in his chair. "You don't get it, do you? NOTHING good can come from wasting precious years of your life chasing your father's dream! You see what happened to him, don't you?! Don't you see what happens to all those Pokémon Trainers that fail and have to return home? They can't do ANYTHING because they have no education, no useful skills, and no desire to succeed in anything other than Pokémon!"
"My father didn't die training Pokémon," Remus said coldly, staring his aunt down again. "He died when a ship sank in the ocean. He could have made it as a master too, he had 7 badges in just 9 months!"
Aunt Valerie opened her mouth to say something, shut it, opened it again, then shut it once more and began pacing the room. She had not meant to lose her temper, but she knew no other way to tell Remus that he simply would not be going. It was a long time before she finally stopped pacing the kitchen and turned to look at Remus once more.
Aunt Valerie took a few deep breaths, sat down in the chair opposite Remus, and said just as calmly as she possibly could, "You aren't going, not as long as I can help it." She pointed out the window towards a rather large building off in the distance. "You are going to enroll in Madame Daisy's Preparatory School this fall, you are going to get good grades and get into a good University, and you are going to make something out of your life. Once you've finished with that you can do whatever you like, but only then."
"…I understand," Remus said, defeated. He put on his best depressed face and slowly got up from the table, taking care to avoid looking directly at Aunt Valerie's piercing eyes.
"Good," Aunt Valerie said, picking up the scattered pieces of paper and tossing them in the trash, "Now off to bed. We have to be up early tomorrow, Madame Daisy would like to meet you before the term starts so you'll need to look your best!" Remus nodded his head and slowly turned and trudged up the stairs to his room.
As soon as he left the room, Aunt Valerie let out a long sigh. This parenting thing just is not getting any better, she thought to herself as she instinctively walked over to the pantry and reached for a large, unopened bottle of brandy on the top. She stared at the bottle a long time before finally letting out another long sigh, grabbed a glass from the dish drain, uncorked the bottle, and poured herself a very large drink.
Meanwhile, Remus was not getting ready for bed. He was getting ready to sneak out. He had snuck out of the house dozens of times before – often to meet his friends and go hunting for nocturnal Pokémon – but this time he had no intention of coming back for a very long time, if at all. If he were to ever learn to be a Pokémon Trainer, Remus had to take his only chance at a license in Pallet Town. He would go to the Oak Laboratory and learn to be a Pokémon trainer if it was the last thing he ever did.
Remus had a small backpack stuffed with all the essentials he needed for the first few days of his journey ready to go in the corner of his room. He had packed three sets of clothes in the main compartment, a Town Map, compass, small first aid kit, camp stove, and a Potion in the smaller front compartment, and he had a small lunch cooler attached to the front loop which held 6 large cans of food. A sleeping bag was rolled up and attached to the top of the backpack, and a 1-liter plastic water bottle fit snugly in the only side pocket.
Remus quickly changed into a fresh set of clothes – a pair of blue jeans, a black undershirt, and red vest – and donned his favorite red and white Pokémon League cap. He then took all 4500 from the Jigglypuff coin bank on his nightstand and stuffed it inside a small Eevee-themed coin purse, which fit nicely into his inner vest pocket.
Was there anything else? Remus scanned the room once more, looking for anything he might need on his trip. He would not get the chance to come back, after all. As soon as the thought hit, Remus instantly remembered all that he would be leaving behind. All of his friends that used to sneak out with him and go looking for Pikachus at night (though they never did see any), his teachers that always thought so highly of him and his potential for the future, and of course old Mr. Richards, who lived just two houses down the road. Mr. Richards was the only person in Pallet Town Remus knew of that actually used to own a Pokémon. Remus would spend hours after school listening to Mr. Richards talk about the great big cities of the Kanto Region. He also loved to listen to the stories about all the battles Mr. Richards had with his fellow Pokémon many years ago, when the training craze first swept the nation. He decided that he would send Mr. Richards a postcard from one of the cities when he got there. He didn't want the kind old man worrying about him too much, after all.
Having decided that there was nothing else he needed from his room, Remus went over to his bed where he quickly stuffed a few sets of clothes under his blanket to form the shape of a person, then gathered all of his gear, shut the lights, and silently crept out of the bedroom.
Aunt Valerie was still downstairs, judging by the faint rays of light streaming up the steps, so Remus had to be extra quiet in opening the creaky bathroom door. He very slowly pulled the door open, millimeter by millimeter. Each slight creak by the door hinges made Remus cringe, but he didn't hear any signs of movement downstairs until finally the door was open just wide enough to slip through.
The bathroom window was incredibly small, even by most standards. If it weren't for Remus's incredibly skinny build, there would be no way he would be able to climb out and jump down to the bushes below. As it was, his backpack posed a bit of a problem, but after a lot of pushing and shoving Remus was able to squeeze the bag through the window and secure it on the corner of the ledge. He then climbed out of the window feet-first, using the narrow ledge a foothold while he slithered the rest of the way out into the cool, starry night. Stopping only momentarily to pick up his backpack again, he jumped down into the bushes and sprinted down the hillside towards the woodlands, where he would sleep until morning.
Aunt Valerie thought she heard something rustling in the bushes on the side of the house. Stupid Rattatas, she thought to herself, scowling at the half-empty glass of brandy in front of her. She would have to spray the bushes again to keep the nasty creatures away from her prized Berry patch. She let out a very long sigh and went to pour herself some more brandy, but the bottle was empty. Hmm, it must have been almost empty when I took it down, she thought to herself, as she got up shakily with the glass and hobbled over to the pantry again. She considered pulling down another bottle, but decided against it.
She stumbled up the stairs, nearly toppling over three or four times on the way up. Once at the foot of the stairs, she closed the bathroom door, then waltzed over to the door to Remus's room and peeked inside. Aunt Valerie's vision was quite blurry for some reason, but she could just barely see the outline of a human shape in the bed.
"I'm sorry," she whispered shakily, staring at the lumpy shape across the room. "But you'll be better off this way." She then quietly closed the door and retired to her own bed, ready for yet another sleepless night.