You could say my family has a complicated history when it comes to Pokémon.

No, no one's been harmed in the way that sentence immediately implies. I think that would have been easier, actually, if we had renounced Pokémon altogether

Good thing mine are tucked away in their balls right now, otherwise I'd catch serious flack for that.

Allow me to explain the sichee-ashon we got here.

My father is a member of the Sinnoh region's Elite Four. His name is Flint, you have heard of him. He is sort of a fire-type expert, and got help you if you get him talking on the subject. What is that subject? Oh, that fire-types are the most powerful types, and how we wouldn't be able to live without them, how vital they are to our poke-ecosystem.

Anyway. He's a hothead, to put it shortly. And his name is Flint. Don't get me started on the unfortunate irony of that situation. Like he was destined from birth to become that man he is today, yeesh.

Well, about twenty years ago, my father met my mother in the Fiore region while he was still a gym leader on the search for more fire Pokémon.

The thing about my mother: She's a Pokémon Ranger. Now in the Fiore, Almia, and Oblivia regions, Pokemon Rangers do not capture Pokemon. In fact, no one does. Pokemon in those regions are revered more as pets and friends than tools for battle and allies like they are in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and even over in distant Unova which is even farther than Almia.

So drastic are the cultures and mindsets, made all the more palpable by the two-thousand some-odd kilometers in between each set of regions, that contact has all but been cut off.

My father's arrival twenty years ago was met with some trepidation and in rare cases hostility. Now it's just hostility when a Trainer from the Main Regions visits the outlying ones. The Island Regions call Trainers slave drivers and masters of the Pokemon rather than friends and allies.

The phrase "Gotta Catch 'Em All!" doesn't promote a warm, we're all one big happy family feeling does it?

This, of course, doesn't go over well with Trainers and more than one fight has broken out over the differences in opinion.

Now ambassadors from the Islands have indeed changed the Main Regions government and Leagues' stance on Pokemon training, it's now strongly recommended that Pokemon being held in computer should be released after two weeks or so, so relations have gotten better in the past couple years between the two sets of regions.

You can imagine how this left me in an awkward position when I was born three years after my parents met. They were—are—very much in love, and they didn't look forward to having to make me choose which route I wanted to take when I got older.

Because clearly, I'd have to choose one. With my father being an Elite Four member by the time I was born and my mother a respected Ranger Base leader, my options were limited to two fields: Trainer or Ranger. I almost gave the both of them a stroke when I jestingly toyed with the idea of being a breeder or researcher, but from the get-go they told me they would respect my decision no matter what.

So I became both.

E-gad! Both, you say, nameless, yet handsome narrator? Yes, both, I say!

In the Main Regions and Unova, we also have Pokemon Rangers, who have the same mindset of the Outlying Regions' Rangers—protect wildlife, keep Pokemon safe—but they just catch the Pokemon they encounter in a ball.

It seemed like an easy way out. But my mother informed me that I'd be given a Capture Styler if I wanted to "be a true Ranger."

So I became a trainer when I was ten. This seemed acceptable to my parents, who asked me to spend an amount of team in both fields I wished to go in to. So following Main Region tradition, I got my starter Pokemon the day I turned ten.

Let me clear up a few things. If it hasn't been made clear by now, yes, my mother moved with my father to Sinnoh to raise me. She takes weekly trips to the Outlying Regions though, to keep up with her duties that she refused to give up. The only week she's missed since marrying my father was the week she gave birth to me. Calling her determined would be like pointing out the flame on a Charmander's tail.

So let me say this: In an act of complete rebellion against my ass of a father—I love him dearly, don't get me wrong, but he can be rather ass-ish—I refused to get a Fire starter.

This, as you can imagine, boiled his blood. Har har.

I was adamant, though, and his tantrum only fueled my desire to have something other than a fire-type. "You said you're support me," my surprisingly mature, yet stubborn—wonder who I got that from—ten-year-old self argued. My mother agreed with me, and together we doused Forest Fire Flint.

I couldn't very well get a grass-type—nay, not something he could easily beat. So I went with the obvious choice: water.

And thus, Piplup became my very first Pokemon. Now I had the option of any starter of any of the Main Regions given my father's status, but his very first Pokemon had been Chimchar. Like, how do I not chose Piplup?

My father forbade me from catching anymore Pokemon for the first couple months I had Pip, something that didn't fly with me at first. He imparted on me the only advice about raising Pokemon I really listened to: "Spend time and get to know each one, Ford, because you will trust them and they will trust you. In battle, and in the rest of your life, this is something that cannot be stressed enough."

Pip and I became close. And when the time came for my father to give me my first PokeBall, he grabbed my shoulder before I could sprint out the door with it and to the nearest route.

"No son of mine is going to be limited to the options of a single region. Those professors are always talking about this great big world of Pokemon, then expect you to catch only those in your region. Well, hell, son, get in the jet." The perks of being an Elite Four kid.

So he took me on his plane and we flew to Kanto, where I caught my Pidgey, who I nicknamed Pudge because he wasn't the slimmest of Pidgeys.

From there we went to Fiore where I would stay with my mother for a month. She taught me the importance of being friendly with Pokemon and really driving the point that they are more than tools or pets home to me. It's this dual background of Trainer and Ranger that I think has given me an edge in my life, both Pokemon-related and non. My father picked me up a month later, and I said good-bye to all my new friends I had made at Fiore.

My father took me next to Hoenn, where I fell in love with the region. It was so different from Johto, Kanto, and my home region of Sinnoh. It was fresh and new and exciting and right then and there I vowed to myself that I would one day move there when I was a big hotshot dual Trainer/Ranger.

My father dropped me off at the airport and said he'd come back in a week. In that time, I was given a hotel and food card that would provide shelter in my quest to catch the best of the best in Hoenn.

It was in battling my Wailmer that Pip evolved into a Prinplup, and I'm not too proud to say that I cried when the event occurred.

A lonely thing it is, traveling by yourself in a strange region. But I think it built character. I was forced not only to rely on myself and my Pokemon, but also the kindness of strangers in town. I got caught up on the local and regional gossip, even got to meet the Hoenn Champion. I made a name for myself in Hoenn. I wasn't just "Flint's son" as I had been in Sinnoh. I was becoming my own man and I wasn't even eleven years old yet. I did a lot of growing up in a short period of time.

I didn't plan on catching two Pokemon in Hoenn, not so close to one another. I wanted to get to know my Wailmer before catching another Pokemon.

As it happens, Seviper didn't share my sentiment as he sprang from the grass, razor-sharp tail glowing a sickly purple with the Poison Tail move. I barely managed to throw myself back in time and I found myself desperately wishing for a Capture Styler.

I could calm the wild Seviper down that way as I had obviously strayed into its territory. The poor thing was probably mad with paranoia as I was in obvious Zangoose territory, a fact that immediately caught my interest. Why would a Zeviper set up shop here? It clearly had a chip on its shoulder. Everyone knew Zangoose and Seviper are bitter, bitter enemies. I guess my Seviper had had enough of the pounding.

Of course, he had yet to be my Seviper as I got to my feet and we squared off. An angry serpent Pokemon is a scary sight to behold if you're on the wrong end of its happy meter.

In a flash, we moved. My hand went to my belt and his muscles uncoiled in a spring that carried him ten feet to me.

I rolled aside and threw the first ball my hand touched. Which, was Wailmer, who doesn't operate all that well outsie of water.

Damned if my Wailmer isn't the most optimistic of creatures you'll ever meet in your whole damn life, though. He happily showered Seviper with a lovely Hydro Pump than knocked the serpent back into the tree with a dull thud. I returned Wailmer to his ball before he could get dehydrated.

Seviper's long, muscular body was coiled in a heap at the base of the tree as I began to turn my back on it, shaken but ready to continue on my merry way.

I stopped, though, when I saw a pair of Zangoose eyes in the brush to my right. And my left. And I realized that the instant I left, they would pounce on the defenseless Seviper and tear it to shreds.

Dropping my pack on the ground beside me, I turned back to Seviper. "I'm doing this not to save you from the Zangoose, but because I think you're strong." My words were met with heavy silence as its reptilian body rose and fell with shallow breaths. I think he heard me, though, because he lifted his head slightly and turned an eye to what I was doing.

I pulled a PokeBall from my pack, touched the button in the middle, which widened it to action mode, and threw the ball with all my might.

The inciter, that button in the middle, hit its target dead on and the PokeBall exploded open. Seviper, now awash with the teleportation energy that launched the world into a new age with its invention, evaporated into a red, ethereal glow and entered the ball. It trembled a few times before issuing a solemn tone, indicating capture.

A smile split my features as I rushed over to retrieve my new Pokemon. Glancing to the brush, I pursed my lips and reached into my bag and released Pudge (now a Pidgeotto) to dissuade my stalkers from attacked.

I told Pudge, who whistled and chirped along with my story, about my encounter until we left the woods.

Now reader, I tell you all about my life before so you will have a better fundamental understanding of it now. Now, during the war. I want you to know where I came from. I want you to know I wasn't always the soldier I am now. That I was once happy.

That I once gave a damn.