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Pallet Prodigies

Written By: Northerner7

Official Pokémon Trainers Handbook

Trainer Ranks:

At the age of ten any boy or girl may apply for their Pokémon license. If deemed worthy their local Pokémon League office will supply them with a Pokédex, regional starter Pokémon, and five additional pokéballs.

All beginning trainers are given the rank of novice. Novice level trainers may carry up to six Pokémon and compete in single battles of 1 vs 1 - 6 vs 6. Novice trainers travel around their region and compete against Gym Leaders. Every town has a gym. If a novice level trainer is able to obtain eight gym badges they are then given the rank of journeyman.

Journeyman level trainers are able to compete in their local region tournaments. Trainers are allowed to carry up to twelve Pokémon at this level. And any official journeyman level battles are double battles between all twelve Pokémon. Once a year each region hosts its Grand Tournament. Only journeyman who have obtained another four badges by competing against gym leaders in a journeyman level match may attend. At the Grand Tournament, journeyman face off against other journeyman in preliminary matches. 128 of the region's best journeyman then battle to decide that year's top journeyman.

Expert level trainers are journeyman who were able to defeat and obtain eight total badges from gym leaders in journeyman level battles. At the level of expert a trainer is allowed to carry eighteen Pokémon and when competing against another expert they fight triple battles of 18 vs 18. Any expert level trainer is allowed to compete in the Grand Tournament. At this point in the tournament experts compete till 128 remain. These 128 go on to battle down to determine that year's top expert level trainer. If a trainer wins eight badges in expert level matches they are promoted to challenger rank.

Challenger level trainers may carry 24 Pokémon and battle one another in quad battles. Which means four Pokémon are fighting at the same time for each trainer. Challenger level trainers fight one another until only 128 remain in the Grand Tournament. This is where the pattern ends. The remaining trainers then battle through several rounds till only eight remain. These remaining trainers are allowed to take the Elite Four challenge.

That aside, to compete at this level in the tournament, trainers must travel around and win two badges from gym leaders in challenger level matches. All gym leaders are considered high level challenger level trainers. But use weaker teams against the other level trainers. Their true teams are what a challenger level trainer must face. So if you can beat two then you should perform well in the challenger level of the Grand Tournament and are likely to be given a chance to take on the Elite Four.

For the Elite Four challenge, any of the eight remaining trainers are allowed to compete against the Elite Four. The Elite Four are considered to be the four strongest elite rank trainers in the region. Elite level trainers are trainers who manage to beat one of the four Elite Four. They may then take that trainers position or not. However beating one of the Elite Four grants one the rank of elite. An elite level trainer may carry up to 30 Pokémon and battles against other elites in matches where five Pokémon fight on each side at the same time. When challenging the Elite Four a trainer may choose the order in which they battle the first three elites but the fourth elite, who is considered to be the strongest of the group must be fought last. If a challenger level trainer or an elite level trainer manages to defeat all four trainers they are then allowed to battle the region's Pokémon Champion. Elite level trainers may challenge the Elite Four as often as once a month.

A region's Champion is a master level trainer, the highest level trainer within the League. A master level trainer carries 36 Pokémon and fights battles of six Pokémon a side at the same time. Master level battles are very rare. As are master level trainers. To achieve the rank of master a trainer must beat their regions Elite 4 and manage to beat at least 25/30 of the current Champion's Pokémon. The elite level trainer facing the champion will battle in an elite level battle. If they beat 25/30 they are then considered a master level trainer. They cannot take the title of champion without competing in a true master level battle. So even defeating the current champion in an elite level battle would still only earn you master rank. A master rank trainer may challenge their region's Champion as often as every six months. Currently no region has more the four master level trainers residing within it and no region has ever had more than eight master level trainers at the same time.

Every ten years a tournament is held. The Masters Tournament. This is a tournament held only between master level trainers. Trainers fight against one another till one emerges as the master of masters. This trainer has earned the title The Pokémon Master. Since the Leagues inception there have been 21 Pokémon Masters. No one has ever managed to win it twice. Supposedly there is a special series of rooms. There are five total rooms. They are only accessible after winning the tournament and within the first room was a black cape which the trainer is allowed to wear till they are displaced as the Pokémon Master. The other four rooms will supposedly only open one at a time if a trainer is able to concurrently win the tournament till they have won five times in a row unlocking the fifth room. No one knows what lies inside the other rooms. But if a trainer were able to maintain the title for 50 years it would be possible to find out.

Some other facts for trainers:

Journeyman and expert level trainers make up the bulk of trainers in every region. However challenger level still has a fairly high population of trainers. Elite level trainers are much rarer than challenger level trainers, and master level trainers are very few. Most trainers either pass from novice to journeyman quickly or quit being trainers.

Commanding more than three Pokémon at once is considered to be very difficult which is why most trainers never pass from the challenger tier as they find the commanding four Pokémon at once hard and are not able to compete against the ones who can.

Gym Leaders are appointed by a region's champion and cannot be challenged for their position.

End of Section

In a lab in Pallet Town

Samuel Oak had lived a long and exciting life as a Pokémon trainer. But now at the age of 55 he had retired from Pokémon training and taken up his new passion in life as a Pokémon professor and researcher. During his career he had witnessed many things, and had formed several strong opinions, that how the League currently functioned needed to be changed.

He had once been in the position to change it. However when he was the Kanto champion the last thing on his mind was changing the rules of the League. And while he had been the Pokémon Master he had been far too preoccupied to put a real vested effort into a reform.

Now however he was the local licenser for Pallet Town. His hometown and the town where his young grandson was seven years old. Oak didn't want Gary to begin his journey at the young age of ten. Oak thought it was incredibly stupid and irresponsible for the League to expect ten year old children with one weak beginner Pokémon to be able to live in the wild while they traveled from town to town to challenge for badges. With his new found position as the licenser for Pallet Town, Oak had decided to try and put the plans he had put off for too long into effect. He knew it would take lots of time from his research but he knew it would be worth it.

Oak spent the next year creating a program with which he would educate and mold the future generations of Pallet Town into strong trainers and well-rounded people.

Three Years Later

Ash Ketchum was ten years old. He was on the short side for kids his age, he had messy raven colored hair and innocent amber eyes. He had two odd lightning shaped birthmarks, one under each eye. And he had the biggest grin his mother had ever seen. Delia Ketchum stood in the same room as her son trying not to laugh as Ash grinned like a mad man while watching someone, a challenger level trainer, battle one of the Elite Four on TV. Ash was so excited because tomorrow he would be able to get his starter Pokémon and begin his journey as a novice trainer. His quest, his goal, no his dream was to become a master level trainer. Then he wanted to be the Pokémon Master but he thought, no he knew deep down inside that he could be the first back to back Pokémon Master and be the first to open the second room. And this line of thinking was why his face was close to splitting from his grin.

Little did he know however tomorrow Oak was finally going to unveil his hidden project and change the way Pallet trainers started their Pokémon journey.

Next Day

Ash woke up bright and early, he was so excited he had barely slept anyway. He knew he would be feeling the lack of sleep later that day but he figured his excitement on his first day as a trainer would help him cope. Rushing down stairs he greeted his mother and happily devoured the breakfast she laid out before him.

"Ash honey, listen to me for a moment won't you?" His mother asked.

Ash noticed something strange about her tone but thought nothing of it. "Sure mom," he responded after swallowing a large bite of pancake.

"Ash, I know you are really excited about going on a journey starting today," His mother paused for several seconds. "However Professor Oak asked me and the parents of every other kid who was going to get a Pokémon today if he could try something different with you five... And we all agreed we thought it would be a great idea."

"What was his idea mom?" Ash asked feeling slightly worried.

"I won't tell you now, Samuel wants to explain it to you guys at the same time. But listen to me ok. If you really want to become the Pokémon Master you should do exactly as Samuel says. I will let you in on a little secret but you can't tell anyone," Ash quickly nodded still confused as to what his mother was getting at. But he knew it was important so he tried to take her words as serious advice. "Professor Oak used to be the Pokémon Master. 20 years ago he won the title. He is a very skilled Pokémon trainer and believe me when I say he knows what's best for the five of you."

Ash couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew the names of the last ten Pokémon Masters by heart, but he had never imagined that Gary's grandfather was one in the same. Unsure how to respond Ash simply nodded to his mother and finished his meal in silence absorbing their conversation.

Oak Laboratory

Ash was currently in a waiting room with four other kids. He knew them all rather well. Since Pallet was such a small town they were the only kids his age in his age group. Ash was lost in thought from his conversation earlier with his mother. Gary was smirking to himself with a far off look, probably imagining winning the title of Pokémon Master easily since he was after all 'The Great Gary Oak'. The other three were fidgeting in their chairs partly from excitement and mostly from nervousness. Every situation a ten year old could imagine they were currently imagining then ruining it and their careers as trainers, only adding to their nervousness. Finally a lab assistant opened the door and spoke.

"Professor Oak will see you now. Right this way."

Broken from their thoughts they all stood up and quickly filed out the door into the hall which led towards the center of the lab. When they entered they saw five chairs arrayed before Professor Oak who was calmly sitting in a chair in front of the semi-circle of unoccupied chairs.

"Come and sit down please." Oak spoke before the kids could move from the doorway.

"Hello and welcome. You five are all here to begin your Pokémon journey and as Pallet Town's Pokémon League licenser it is my job to provide you with your starters and Pokédex. Legally I can't not give you a starter and a Pokédex. However after talking it over with your parents they have decided to accept my plan and as such whether you like it or not you will not be setting out on a Pokémon journey," Raising his hand to stop the oncoming rage and complaints. Oak spoke again.

"You are all very young and inexperienced, the way the League allows ten year olds to venture out into the wilderness confuses me and has lead me to this new idea. As such for the next eight years until you are eighteen you will stay in the town of Pallet and study under me. I have much I can teach you about Pokémon. While you will stay novice level trainer longer than normal I promise you with my guidance you will easily all make it to the level of challenger. After that it will be all up to you to see if you can continue on and become one of the rare few Pokémon masters. Currently Kanto has the fewest compared with the other regions. Kanto is the only region with a single active master. That is, we only have one while all the other regions at least have two. Now to give you a basic outline, today I will give you your starter and give you the rest of the day off to play around with and get to know your starter better. For most trainers their starter becomes their best friend and their strongest Pokémon. Creating an early bond with them will help you along the way to becoming a master."

Oak had taken all the children's frantic and sometimes angry questions. With the exception of Ash, he took his mother's and Oak's words to heart. He knew that he really had no idea what to do on his journey, but with Professor Oak mentoring him he knew he was set on the right path. What surprised Oak the most was Ash Ketchum, a boy he knew rather well, and knowing him well he expected the most opposition to his mentor ship plan from Ash, but the boy hadn't said a single word since he had called them into the room.

'I will have to talk to Delia about it later,' he thought to himself. 'Now to get on with it, their questions are becoming repetitive,' Oak stood up to gain their attention.

"Alright now, no more questions let's get you your starting Pokémon. Now this is the largest group of trainers at one time Pallet has ever had. As such I must apologize but the League didn't send me enough starters. I have two Squirtle's a Bulbasaur and a Charmander. But don't worry I took it upon myself to go catch a fifth Pokémon so you would all get one. It isn't a normal starter but I imagine one of you can get along with him just as well."

Ash spoke up before the others. He could never decide between the three starters and so he immediately jumped at the chance of getting a different Pokémon. "Professor I will take whatever Pokémon it is you caught," Surprising everyone as Ash hadn't spoken once all day. Which was opposite of his normal loud mouthed antics.

Oak was surprised but found a small bit of respect for the boy for volunteering to take it without him even saying what kind of Pokémon it was. "Alright, Ash since you seem to want to be surprised I won't tell you what's in the ball," he said while pulling out a pokéball from his pocket and handing it over to Ash. "As for the rest of you, feel free to line up and choose from the four others I have."

The kids quickly lined up and chose. Gary got a Squirtle, and another boy Blue got a Squirtle as well. There other two of the group were girls. One named Leaf took the Bulbasaur while the fourth to choose, Ruby was her name acquired Charmander. They all four released their Pokémon and greeted them. Ash just stood off to the side staring at the pokéball in his hand.

'In here is who will probably be my new best friend,' Ash thought. 'With this guy I will become the greatest Pokémon master ever,' without another thought Ash let a grin split his face and he threw the pokéball high in the air.

"Go Pokéball!" He exclaimed. Everyone was secretly relieved to see Ash acting a bit more normal. In a flash of light a small figure appeared from the pokéball. A small, in Pokémon terms anyway, yellow mouse appeared. He stood about two feet tall and had two long black tipped ears and a lightning bolt shaped tail, he had several brown stripes on his back. On his cheeks were matching red circles and he had a small cute face with black eyes.

"Pikachu!" The small mouse exclaimed.

'A Pikachu huh?' Ash thought to himself.

"Hey there little guy," Ash walked up to the newly appeared Pokémon and greeted him. "My name is Ash Ketchum and if you want I would like to be friends with you."

Pikachu was preparing to zap the boy in front of him as he didn't really like humans, but something about the boy stopped him, he wasn't sure maybe it was a look in the boy's eyes or his tone of voice. All Pikachu knew was that something about the boy seemed to say to him that he should be friends with him as the boy was being genuine. What Pikachu didn't know was that Ash had unconsciously activated his aura slightly for the first time and had used it to silently communicate his feelings to Pikachu.

"Alright everyone, be back here tomorrow at eight o'clock and bring your Pokémon. The rest of the day I want you to spend playing with your Pokémon," Oak said as he dismissed the kids. With that said the kids and their Pokémon walked out to go show their new Pokémon around Pallet Town as a group. They were all talking excitedly and slightly bragging about how awesome they thought their respective Pokémon was compared to the others. Pikachu didn't feel like walking so he sprang up and landed on Ash's right shoulder. Slightly surprised but happy that Pikachu had no problem being close to him Ash just silently looked at Pikachu and smiled. Little did they know all the crazy adventures they would have in the next eight years. Most of them courtesy of Oak's so called tutelage skills.