Authors Note: This started years ago and honestly, I got to the point where I just wanted to finish it. Rest assured I still tried and I even introduced some new extra features into the story via links - this story's also found on dA where you can actually read the extra content. My apologies for the inconvenience, but the hyperlinking I tried here won't stick for some reason.
It gets a bit rushed towards the end and there's some things and characters I know I should have put more time into, but I got overwhelmed to tell the truth. I still hope you enjoy it though, can feel the energy and recognize the parts of the story where I truly was excited to be writing it. They're all there sprinkled throughout in highs and lows. ^^ Heads up: I've heavily condensed the first 23 chapters from the last version into the first 6 of 18 here, which means I've trimmed some fat off of it, but also relocated some information in what I'm calling Diary Entries - those are linked here and there throughout the story, too.
Chapter 1:
"Pokémon, huh?" came the slightly dulled voice from one end of the dining room table. The 10 year-old girl sat across from her parents, looking like she'd recently stirred from her slumber, though admittedly, she tended to wear that face often. Her father spoke up encouragingly, wearing a reassuring smile:
"Yes, a lot of kids are getting into it. And your brothers left on a journey a few years back..." He was really hoping this would finally get his daughter involved in something. Where earlier attempts had failed - Pokémon might just have been the ticket.
"Sounds interesting." Hazel replied, though not sounding very interested at all... the girl's mother now piped up, sharing her husband's desire to engage their daughter in something constructive.
"You could make some friends - they say it's better when people travel together."
"Sounds about right." Hazel answered, eyes falling to her empty dinner plate. There was a long, rather uncomfortable pause before she took a quiet gulp and returned her gaze to the hopeful faces of her mother and father. "So what's it all about?" She asked. Her parents' eyes brightened and her mother leapt into the logistics, as she believed her daughter to be interested in such things.
"Well, you get registered at 10 years old and then you pick a Pokémon partner to start with. You can start with one of three types like Dark, Fighting or Psychic."
"Ooh, Fighting sounds like a contender, Hazel." Her father added, looking back enthusiastically - though Hazel's eyes had gone wide and a bit glassy; clearly she was somewhat overwhelmed, and her mother took a moment to collect herself and continue with something a bit lighter:
"Honey, I think you'd really enjoy it if you just give it a try." At this, Hazel sighed, her shoulders dropping, and she looked back at them with a restrained pout.
"Mom, that's what you said about softball, soccer, chess, drama, karate... and Girl Scouts."
"I thought Girl Scouts was going well." The mother said, almost to herself with a bit of a disappointed look. The father comforted his wife a moment then turned to Hazel, mirroring his daughter's imploring expression.
"I think this'll be different, Hazel. Maybe you just need more of a CHALLENGE." He emphasized the last word, trying to end it on a positive note.
Hazel stared from her parents to the table and back, took a deep breath and let it go. "Okay, I'll give it a shot."
"Atta Girl!" Her father replied with a grin as her mother squeaked with delight.
"I really think you'll like this, Hazel." Her mother added, aglow with happiness.
The following week, Hazel went with her parents to the local Pokémon Registration Center, read and signed all the papers and sat through Orientation...
"Hazel Dayberry?" a voice called out over the intercom. Hazel snapped out of her daze at the sound of her name, and after looking awkwardly back at her parents who remained seated, followed a woman through a doorway and down a few hallways, almost blindly until they stopped at a large room lined with shelves, each shelf containing numerous red and white spheres. Remembering orientation, she realized these were what were called Pokéballs. They're a lot smaller than I thought they'd be... at the end of the room was a table with 3 Pokéballs lined up in particular.
"These are the three Pokémon available for new trainers today."
That sounded robotic. What a creepy lady... Hazel thought to herself before letting her eyes fall on the three Pokéballs. There were labels in front of each one, but randomly she chose the one on the far right. She looked at the placard in front of it, and read its name out loud. "Baltoy. Psychic... I guess I'll go with this one." At this point, Hazel was rethinking the whole Pokémon thing 15 minutes ago. She learned that Pokémon were living things and the ones she owned would have to be cared for - and she'd likely have to travel. This was a long haul and she wasn't sure she wanted it. But it was a little late to change her mind.
"Alright, there we go." The woman said with a smile. "Congratulations, you are almost set to go on your Pokémon Journey."
"I can hardly wait." Hazel answered mutedly, eyeing the Pokéball nervously.
"Why don't you get acquainted with Baltoy while I finalize your registration and get you your Pokédex, I.D. and Travel Pass?"
"...sure..." she replied uncertainly, then walked back to the waiting room where her parents stood smiling, eager to see the partner she had chosen. She smiled meekly at them before her eyes returned to the strange object. Whistling as though calling a dog, she said: "come on out - Baltoy." Her calm frown deepened instantly as a bright red light formed in front of the sphere in her hand, and blinking away the shock, she looked to see... well, it was difficult to describe.
It had a large oval-shaped head with eyes like old Asian statues she'd seen in art class, and a small body with a red stripe broken up by a ring of the same color. The strange creature had long plank-like fingerless arms. On the bottom of its body was a top-like diamond shape, and there was also the conical horn on its head to consider. All in all, it looked perfectly alien, and Hazel was at a complete loss for words. Numbly, she looked back at the Pokéball noticing a distinct difference in size between the one foot tall object and the two inch tall ball in her hand. For lack of anything else to say, she muttered "huh... I wonder how it fits in this thing..."
"Amazing isn't it Hazel?" The father said, beaming between his daughter and the albeit, non-contender looking Pokémon she had chosen.
"It's pretty unusual Dad..." There was a pause in which she stared right through Baltoy, eyes widening as she was struck with a sudden epiphany. "Wait a minute! I'm gonna be away from home! I'm gonna miss you guys!" She shouted as though they were 20 feet away, eyes wide with fear. Her Dad patted her shoulder comfortingly, grinning and relieved that it wasn't something truly horrendous that his daughter was worried about.
"Don't worry, Honey, there's all kinds of WiFi spots so you can email and video-call us anytime."
"Huh?" Hazel muttered confused, unable to comprehend how this made anything better. Regardless her mother continued:
"How do you think I stayed sane all this time your brothers have been away? We chat with them every morning while you're at school, dear." Hazel moaned; this wasn't helping at all. Suddenly, Baltoy started wailing loudly, long flat arms wrapped around Hazel's neck.
"Oh my God, what is it doing?" Hazel asked, horrified. At this point, the lady was back with I.D. and Travel Pass in hand.
"Oh, Baltoy congregate and cry noisily when they meet others of their own kind." The woman offered cheerfully. Apparently, she thought this was a good sign.
"Oh, isn't that sweet Honey? When you whined, it started crying too! Oh, you're two peas in a pod!" her mother added, over the moon.
Hazel whined again while Baltoy continued to wail.
It has been a week since Hazel began her Pokémon Journey. Over the past few days, she slowly became more accustomed to her partner Baltoy who she had nicknamed "Benji", as the Project Pokémon Establishment mandated that Pokémon be given names as an additional method of distinguishing them in the international database. Only recently however, had she even considered training it to fight. Having read the manual she received and guidelines for training Pokémon in combat and presentation competitions - and not seeing herself as a performer, she reluctantly turned to the concept of battle. Traveling from town to town, using the travel pass for a meal and motel every so often and eyeing various wilderness enclosures with minimal suspicion, she eventually approached an enclosure hosted in the heart of Missouri.
Read the Diary Entry for More!
3 days later found Hazel in the state of Oklahoma. She and Baltoy had been in a few battles, but mostly fled from a number of Pokémon that they thought they could handle until it opened a fang-lined mouth, or stepped out into the open with some other frightening implement of predation. Baltoy had managed to learn one new attack: Harden, which had proved useful when a wild Fearow attempted to crack Baltoy in two with its beak. Hazel would never admit to her parents the panicked shrieks of "HARDEN! HARDEN! HARDEN!" when the large vulturine bird carried her partner off to a nest. It took her an hour to climb the steep ridge and timidly snatch back her Pokémon, being chased all the way to the bus stop. That was one enclosure that, if she had her way, she'd never set foot in again. Of course, when her parents asked how her day went, the answer was: "Oh, fine. You know, the usual." The parents traded worried looks as their daughter plucked a couple twigs out of her jacket and forced a weak smile.
She pressed on, determined that she would last at least a month, for then she could say it lasted longer than her time with the Girl Scouts. She had at least found that Benji was becoming kind of pleasant company. Even if this training thing didn't work out, at least she had someone to talk to. After all, it never argued with her. Another brisk night in Oklahoma was spent on Route OK-152, and if nothing else, she had the light of a full moon to walk by. She normally stopped in a hotel at night, but she was determined to get out of the state or at least on a bus out of the state before the night was through. After all, she was only 30 miles from the border. Bad idea. She decided well before midnight that she didn't like the wilderness enclosure after dark. "Shouldn't Pokémon be asleep by now?" Hazel whimpered, looking around nervously at the imagined sources of night noises, "I'd be asleep by now." Benji was out of its Pokéball, arms wrapped tightly around her neck as their heads both lolled in opposite directions watching their surroundings, swallowed in darkness though they were.
Suddenly there was a sound she wasn't expecting. The somewhat loud and hasty closing of a door. Her eyes darted to the right to see a cabin with dimly glowing windows about a hundred yards away and a figure approaching them, clearly bipedal. She watched in growing trepidation as the person neared them, standing head and shoulders above her. By the time she could make out the features, the person was right on top of her, wide, dark eyes shining out of the shadows of its face. The voice was a bit deep when he finally spoke up, but friendly-sounding and laid-back.
"Hey now, Oklahoma law states that minors under of the age of 14 are prohibited from walking the trails between dusk and dawn. You look suspiciously younger than 14." The person continued as a grin broke out on his face. "I guess you'll have to stay in the PRG cabin with me 'til morning." He finished, turning as he swept his arm in a beckoning gesture, at which point Hazel tentatively followed him.
As they entered the lit cottage-like building, she could clearly make out the appearance of this stranger. It was a tall and somewhat stocky young man with dark brown skin, long even-darker-brown dreads, layered green shirts and brown cargo shorts. Turning her attention to the surroundings, she could see a warm crackling fire alight in the fireplace, and right in front of it a... a...
"What's that?" Hazel asked numbly, too confused to feel much of anything. To this, the man looked down so as to follow her gaze.
"Oh, that's my Typhlosion." He answered, gesturing to the large, dark-furred creature with a cream-colored underbelly. It was curled up in front of the fire, which reflected dimly on old metallic prosthetics that replaced both its right legs. "Don't worry, guy's like a big teddy bear." At this point though - admittedly - Hazel wasn't listening as she noticed a number of other sleeping creatures, certainly Pokémon scattered about the room. A medium-sized blonde-furred dog perched on the back of an armchair, a lanky reptilian-like creature with a rather bony-looking head draped across the front of said armchair, a Fearow perched in the corner - and a HUGE moth in meatloaf position pressed flat against the wall to her left.
"Are these all your Pokémon?" She asked, looking a little uncomfortable. What if they were disagreeable rescues kept here so as not to bother trainers?
"They sure are. That's my Jolteon," he said pointing to the canine, "and Marowak", he continued, pointing to the spindly creature, "and Fearow" he said, gesturing vaguely to the large bird, which had woken up and offered a raspy hissing snort in their direction, "what a punk," the man chuckled, "and that's Venomoth." he added as pointed to the insect. Then he gestured to a very decorative looking coat rack back by the door, and offered with an almost theatrical tone: "Why don't you put up your coat, it's warm enough in here, right?" While just a little suspicious of his inflection, Hazel took a few short strides over to it, unzipping the coat and tugging off the arms, but before she could put it up, what she thought were bulbous hooks on the rack reached and took the coat out of her hands, causing her to yelp in alarm.
"BALMORHEA!" The coat rack called out, wiggling in a sort of duck-and-weave dance routine. It was rewarded with a short, but full scream which had all sleeping Pokémon present with skin pulled tight in tension. The young man laughed heartily, clapping a hand down on Hazel's shoulder.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist. Meet Balmorhea, my Sudowoodo." He stopped laughing long enough to straighten up and say "and my name is OW!" Hazel had stomped on his foot with a deep pout on her face and brows furrowed in disbelief.
"That wasn't funny!" She shouted, even as all the Pokémon started to settle down.
"Okay, it wasn't funny." The man formed a nervous smile as he stifled the pain now radiating from his right foot. "My name is Varus by the way, I'm a PRG, that's Pokémon Route Guide." He added, straightening out his vest and trying to look professional and composed.
There's more to learn about the project if you're interested! See here for more!
There's also a Trainer Spotlight for the Ranger Varus - click here to learn more abut him!