Chapter 1: Intro (The Warm Up)
I've always wanted to be a Pokémon trainer, and not just any old regular trainer, but the champion of the Kyro league. Being the world champion would be nice to, but younger me always thought I was being generous when I settled on Kyro champion. When I was little and things in my life went bad, I'd close up my eyes and pray to Arceus that I would one day be champion. In my premature mind, being champion meant I would be strong enough to stop all the bad things happing to me, including saving my mother. She got real sick right before my eighth birthday, and she never got better. A tumor in her brain killed her, and it sent me into the foster care program. Normally if that happens to a kid they still have their father to look after them. The real kicker is I have no idea who my father is, considering the bastard ran out on my mother and me before I was even born. He did leave me one parting gift though, my name. It's Sanjay, by the way. I have no idea why my mother still named it that after he ran out, and I suppose I'll never find out. After bouncing around foster homes for eight years, my faith in Arceus died out, but one thing that's never changed is my desire to become the champion.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
As my alarm went off I sleepily tried to reach over and hit the snooze button, but it wasn't there. Opening my eyes I looked and saw it sitting across the room on my dresser. I had to get up to turn it off, and by that time I was already awake. Then I remembered why I put it over there. Today's the day I turn sixteen, and that means I can officially become a Pokémon trainer and go on a journey to collect the gym badges.
Suddenly I didn't feel tired at all. I'd packed the night before, and said goodbye to all my friends, so I was already prepared to go register as a trainer and start my journey. While brushing my teeth I looked at myself in the mirror. I didn't really feel any different from the day before, but according to the government I'm now old enough to drive and battle in the gym circuit.
Looking at myself I had to admit I was pretty good looking. I had a few old pictures of my mom, and she was quite the looker. I didn't know what my dad looked like, but he was a native Gurgish, the original inhabitants of the Kyro region. I actually looked pretty white, like most of the Kyroti people. The only giveaways to my Gurgish heritage were my slightly olive skin and dark hair. I did get my mother's green eyes though, which made me happy.
About three hundred years ago the Kyro region was known as the Gurgesh region, home to the Gurgish people. Then, settlers from the Sinnoh region came, fleeing religious persecution (or something like that, I'm not a historian), and they nearly drove the Gurgish people into extinction. Kyro is an extremely mountainous region, and nowadays the few remaining Gurgish either live in poverty in the Giri Mountains, or they live in slums in the city. The "regular" Kyroti citizens live in the valleys that dot the landscape, which is where most of the habitable space in Kyro is.
Not that any of that really mattered to me. The only thing I cared about was becoming a strong trainer. To hell with politics.
I finished getting ready and headed downstairs. The house was quite, so that meant Tiffany was probably already off at work. Tiffany was my foster parent, but we weren't particularly close. Bouncing around six foster homes tends to not make you want to get to close to your new "parents". Tiff wasn't too bad though. I'd managed to live with her for almost two years, due to the fact that we came to an agreement when I first got here. If I got a part time job and helped pay for the bills, she would leave me alone. It worked for the most part, although we didn't have any love for one another. I was basically her roommate, though she did cook for me whenever she made dinner. I actually preferred it this way, since I could take care of myself. I'd told her months beforehand that I was leaving when I turned sixteen, and she was completely fine with it.
I took one last look at the apartment that we lived in. I didn't have any love for this place, but it was the longest I'd lived in the same place for eight years. I would miss it.
I turned and went outside. The morning sun was just peeking out from under the ground as I started walking to the Trainer Registrar building. I was glad I lived pretty close to it, considering how big this city was. It was the largest in Kyro, called Jameson's Station (commonly called the Station for short). It was named for the first Sinnohan who crossed into Kyro. He decided this was the perfect place to build a house, and soon an entire town sprang up. Today skyscrapers dotted the skyline, and the city was home to over two million people, almost a third of the entire country of Kyro.
I reached the registrar pretty quickly, and went inside. The building was completely empty of other trainers, with only a few tired looking employees at their desks. I went up to one of the desks, where a tired looking forty something woman was working.
"Um, I'm here to register as a trainer."
"Name." She asked without even looking up.
"Sanjay Dunn."
That did manage to get her attention. She looked up to study me. Native Gurgish were pretty rare, I think we only made up something like five percent of the population. The worker managed to let out a yawn, though either because she didn't find me that impressive or because she was tired I couldn't tell.
Registering was surprisingly quick, the longest part was taking a picture for my trainer I.D. After we finished up she asked me if I would like to register my current Pokémon as part of my party.
"I don't have any." I answered sheepishly.
"Don't worry about that, you'd be surprised by how many people become trainers without having a starter Pokémon. Would you like to purchase any? We have captive bred Pokémon for sale for new trainers. I think this week it's Bellsprout."
I didn't have any money to spare and buy one, even though I thought having a Bellsprout would be pretty cool. Victreebel were pretty badass Pokémon. "No, I think I'll just catch one."
"Ok well you're officially a trainer now. Congratulations, and good luck. Oh wait, do you want to buy a Pokedex? We have government grants to sell them. It's $300."
I almost physically balked at the price. They were that expensive even with grants? I'd planned to buy one, supposedly they were invaluable for newer trainers, but I couldn't afford that.
"Do you have anything cheaper?"
"We do sell trainer field guides. They have a map of the region, and data on all the native pokemon, but obviously they don't have GPS or access to the internet." She said with a smile. "They're only $20." She quickly added.
I sighed, it was better than nothing. "I'll take it."
I planned to take a bus to the small town of Amos in the east. It was a seven hour drive, and I'd would've been a lot cheaper to walk, but the Station and the area around it was heavily populated, and I figured it would be easier to catch a Pokémon in a less crowded area. Amos was the perfect place to start my journey. I could catch a Pokémon around there and then travel east to the town of Oppel, where I would challenge my first gym.
I boarded the bus and found a seat near the back. I was too excited to fall asleep, but after a while I drifted off, dreaming about training.
I decided that the best course of action would be to stick close to Amos as I tried to find a starter Pokémon. Traveling all the way to the next town without having anything to protect me didn't seem like the smartest idea. The bus stop where I had gotten off was already near the edge of town, so I simply headed into the woods. I wasn't sure how wild this area was, or what types of Pokémon lived there, but I knew there had to be something out there weak enough for me to catch. I'd have preferred to buy my own starter, as most new trainers did, but I didn't have that kind of cash. Buying one meant you could dictate what kind of egg moves it knew, and really expensive ones had real fancy pedigrees. The pokeball factory in Speers sold Voltorb for an extremely cheap price, due to the fact that they are created from the excess energy given off when pokeballs are massed produced. Or something like that, I'm no scientist. Going that route would require me to travel all the back to Station, and besides, Voltorb are really lame. They don't eat, drink, or sleep, gaining all their energy by absorbing electricity. No, the only way I'm getting my first Pokémon is by catching one. With a determined stride I headed deeper into the forest. I wasn't following any path, using the logic that there would be less Pokémon around more crowded areas. Unfortunately it made travel difficult due all the underbrush I had to try and navigate.
"Fuck this shit."
I felt utterly defeated as I sat down on a big boulder at the edge of a small clearing, a cigarette in my hand. Who knew that catching a Pokémon would be this hard? It wasn't for a lack of finding anything. They forest was filled with Pokémon. Pidgey and Starly fluttered above me even as I rested, and the trees were filled Weedle, Caterpie, and Wurmple. Catching them was the difficult part. Supposedly it wasn't even easy if you actually had a Pokémon, but this was just impossible. I even found a Metapod that had fallen out of its tree and I couldn't manage to catch it, not that I really wanted it, but at that point I decided it was better than nothing. It broke out of the first pokeball I threw at it, so I tried to kick it to weaken it. All that got me was what I think is a broken toe. I wasted four of the six pokeballs I had on it, and I'd have to dip into my emergency funds to buy more.
Putting out my cig and tossing the butt onto the ground I started heading back to town, thinking maybe a Voltorb wouldn't be that bad, when suddenly I felt something tug at my hair. I reached up to get if off without even thinking and the next thing I knew my hand was stuck to my hair. Something very sticky was binding them together, and I realized it was a spider web.
"Can this day get any worse?" I yelled at no one in particular, frustrated that something like this happened. I tried to just walk off and drag the entire web with me, but the pain shooting through my skull quickly ended that plan.
I looked up to try and assess my situation when I noticed a green face clinging to the tree above me. It looked really weird, lacking any discernable features other than two small eyes and mouth. Said mouth suddenly shifted into a frown and I saw it start to come closer. At that point I noticed the six yellow legs and two more eyes, on its ass. It only took me a second to realize I'd been looking at it all wrong. The face I originally saw was part on the back of the creature, and what I'd assumed was its body was actually its head. It was a Spinarak. I'd dealt with Joltik, another spider Pokémon, all the time. They fed on the electricity in houses, and give you a painful shock if you weren't careful, but this Spinarak was easily four times their size. It might have been just trying to free me, so it could go back to catching proper prey in its web, but didn't plan on finding out what its motives were.
As the Spinarak slowly climbed down its web toward me I used my free hand to reach into my pocket. Fumbling for my lighter I pulled it out and raised it above my head. I tried to light only the part above my hair on fire, hoping that it would travel up, freeing me and scaring off the spider. Unfortunately I didn't know that Spinarak web was highly flammable, and I mean highly. Almost immediately the web caught on fire and I felt my head tug free. I barely heard the Spinarak give a squeak of pain, as I was a little bit preoccupied with the fact that my hair was now on fire.
Yelling in a mixture of surprise and pain I flung my backpack off and pulled the back of my shirt over my head. Falling onto the ground I tried to beat the flames down, while simultaneously rubbing my head into the ground. I managed to put it out, but my head hurt almost worse than anything else I had ever felt in my life. My hands weren't much better off, but I managed to rip my shirt off. The back of had multiple holes in it, and I cursed at the entire situation.
I turned around just in time to see the final bit of the web burn up, and luckily it didn't seem to catch any of the trees on fire. The Spinarak whose web I got caught in wasn't so lucky. It must have gotten got in the fire, judging by its prone form on the ground in front of me. I couldn't tell if it was alive or not, until I saw its abdomen move up and down.
At least it's still alive I thought, although it looked pretty burnt. I was to just walk away, still mad at it for this whole situation, when I realized that this was actually a golden opportunity to catch a Pokemon. I'm not one to look a gift horse (or spider in this case) in the face and walk away, so I pulled out a pokeball and tossed it at the Spinarak. It wobbled a few times, but the spider wasn't able to put up much in its condition and the ball clicked and fell still.
It took burning myself, a shirt, and some of my hair, but I finally had my own Pokemon. For the first time during this journey I felt like I was actually a trainer.
Hi, Catacoma here! This is the first story I've ever posted on here. Actually it's the first creative story I've ever written, so I apologize if it's not written well. If you enjoyed the first chapter, or even better, if you hated it, PLEASE review. I'm hoping that I can improve my writing, so be as critical as you can. Seriously, be brutal. The best way to learn is by learning from mistakes.
Anyways there wasn't a lot of action in this chapter, but I promise there will be some in chapter two. This chapter was mostly about in introducing Sanjay and doing some world building in the process. The next chapter will introduce the other main character in this story, and there will be an actual Pokémon battle! Hopefully I'll have it released in a few days. This chapter was about 2500 words, and I'm shooting for about 1000 a day, so hopefully updates will come fairly quickly. (Can't promise the same when college starts in a week though).
