"Mom can I go see the orange one that has a volcano on its back," was what a jumping ten year old by the name of Simon asked his mom when they were in line at pokemon exhibition to get t-shirts.
"Yes you can see the numel darling, but remember to stay away from strangers and stay put once you get there, I will be over in a little bit once I pay for the shirts."
"Thank you!" Simon yelled over his shoulder as he was running towards the board with a layout of the place on it, not noticing his mother release her Leafeon telling him to trail her son to keep him safe. So to get to the place where the numel are held I have to go around in a circle to reach the other side. But that is so long. Why do I need to go that way when I can just cross across the forest right here and reach it in half the time.
With his plan in mind Simon started running towards the fence that blocked the forest from the patrons, sneaking past a security guard as well as a distressed leafeon when he jumped the fence. He was walking through the midst of the forest looking around at the tall trees and sunlit leaves so different from the beaches of his hometown, catching some slight glimpses of the random oddish and paras. Simon started to see the fence of the other side when he heard a loud SNAP. Slowly he turned around to see a creature of a magenta hue looking at him with antennas facing him.
A dratini. And a shiny one too. Simon was in shock of how lucky he was and slowly started to edge towards it when it took off leaving him to take chase after it.
"Wait up, I'm not going to hurt you! I want to be you're friend." The elegant slithering mass kept on running away and turned a sharp right into a field of rock formations. Simon noticed that the dratini was trapped by rock walls on all three sides of it with him coming down the fourth. He held his hand out in an imitation of what he has seen on the Saturday cartoons.
"My names Simon, I just turned ten years old a couple weeks ago and my favorite color is a mix of blue green, but not teal because that is not a good color, I call my color bleen," he continued to ramble on about inconsequential things while inching forward slowly towards the dratini.
The gap between the two slowly closed until Simon was close enough that he could clearly see the expression on its face change from scared to malicious before melting away to become a pink blob getting bigger. He was close enough that he could see black fur sprouting out from the limbs the glob of pink turned into. He was close enough to feel the heat of the monsters breath as it stared him down.
No thoughts were entering Simons head as he sprinted out of the closed off area to try and escape the newly turned houndoom who was producing rough barks of laughter as it saw its preys measle attempt to escape.
With a few bound from the muscled legs of the creature it was on top of him, pushing his stomach into the dirt. With ease the horrific ditto raked their claws down Simon's back, with the only purpose to sick their sick sadistic pleasure. Hearing the ear splitting scream from the boy brought a sneer to its face. With a paw raised about to strike the fatal blow the monster was pushed off by a gush of pressurized water emitted from a source not visible from the child's closed eyes. Losing form the ditto switched to an electabuzz before getting blasted by a flamethrower.
Eyes hazy due to tears and pain Simon saw a barrage of attacks come from both sides with one switching into forms with ease while the other dodged attacks with elegance. With a last hit, the ditto that attacked him ran off in the form of a vaporeon.
The pokemon then turned to him and despite the pain and the sobs the were running through his body, he tried to drag himself away yelling for help. Black started to creep into the corners of his vision no matter how hard he tried to fight but he heard one last thing before he fell into the clutches of sleep, "Chansey?"
-.-.-
He sat down in front of the camera aimed right at his face, " say cheese" the technician stated in a voice much too cheerful for that early in the morning. Simon's face stayed in its scowled expression as the flash washed over his face, making his pale face even more pale than it usually is while making his freckles more pronounced.
"It looks great." the man said apprehensively almost like he was asking a question as he looked down at the picture with an unsure smile. He waved Simon over to sit on a chair as he sat down on the swivel chair behind the desk making it squeak a little. The teenager took a seat on the cheap plastic chair in front of the desk, noticing that the other man's name was Randy from the name etched into metal laying on the organized desk
"Okay well you just need to fill out this quick informational sheet right here and then you will be done, Okay? ' he voiced chipperly handing the papers over as Simon nodded, "here you go, just ring the bell to call me over if you need anything" with that Randy went out through the door and into the depths of the registration building.
Simon looked down at the sheet finding spots to fill in for his height, age, date of birth, hair color, eye color, gender, signature, if he was choosing a lab starter or not, and a multitude of other information about his person. Once he had finished that he sat and awkwardly looked around for a bit hoping that Randy would just come in, but he didn't so Simon reluctantly rang the bell sitting on his desk and within seconds Randy came bustling in.
'So how can I help you'
'Um, actually i'm done so I was wondering what to do now...'
"Oh, terrific" Randy sat down in his chair causing it to bounce down a little 'I'll just plug this into the computer and then you should be good to go'. He took a quick paused before he asked 'just out of curiosity why did you pick a lab starter, because my kid wants to go on her pokemon adventure soon, and I want different opinions on whether she should get a lab starter or if we should find one for her. Me and my husband are having some different opinions so we ask people for their input."
"Well," he hesitated trying to think of something on the spot "lab pokemon are usually bred to almost perfection, generally they will listen and care for their trainer more than other wild pokemon can. Also if they are one of the stronger pokemon of their types, so yeah. Oh but fair warning you'll want to get her into one of the better lab programs because getting her her own pokemon would probably better than some of the places that I've seen while researching" Simon warned finishing with his hands behind his back, fingers crossed hoping he would accept the answer without any more questions.
Randy sat with a contemplative look on his face before nodding and replying with a small smile "Yeah I can see the logic in that," before sighing, "I'll use that because using logic will probably be the only way to get through that thick head of his, thanks.''
"No problem" he replied motioning with awkward finger guns
"Okay let's get back on topic, I just need to inform you of some things to keep you safe and all the jazz before you can go on your way! You have signed up for the Sinnoh League challenge meaning that you will have to collect at least 8 gym badges from this point forward before you can qualify to battle the at the league and, eventually the Elite Four. However make sure you pay attention to when the competition is held because it is an annual event and decides who gets to face the Elites, if you don't sign up in time then you'll have to wait for the next one. Second is to make sure to read up on the pokemon of the area you're about to go into and avoid all big nests of strong po-" Randy was saying before he was interrupted by a meek but insistent voice.
"I am so so sorry Randy, I really am, but I have an appointment with the Rowen lab in a little bit and I've already read the handbook so could I just get going. Please?" Simon stated while he looked hopefully at the behemoth sitting in front of him.
Randy looked like he was going to say no before asking a question, "did you get a scholarship from Rowan?" after receiving confirmation he just sighed "Since I know how hard it is to get a spot in the Rowan scholarship...fine, but no one hears about this you hear me.' he joked before his face turned into a more cautious expression "but seriously don't tell anyone."
He cracked a smile "I can do that." Randy then clicked a few keys on his computer and went to a printer sitting on the table behind his desk inserting a plastic card into it until only a little tab stuck out while tapping another couple of buttons
"This will take a little while so you can wait outside until all your information is transferred "I'll call you in when it's ready." Randy smiles at the slightly awkward teen who he can't help but like.
He opened the door and stepped outside bathing in the barely rising sunshine that him in the face. Simon then turned his neck from side to side, cracking it in turn while letting out a sigh of relief. Well, that turned out better than I expected it to. He put his hands in his pocket feeling the empty space where a small circle once rested, his fist clenched, fingers digging into the skin of the palm drawing specks of blood. Don't think about it, ignore it and it will eventually go away.
-.-.-
Simon was sitting in the, not so kindly put, bland waiting room tapping his foot against the tile incessantly. After he was retrieved from the outside of the registration building he received his trainer card and a few well off warnings about the dangers of the world. He grabbed a flying pokemon shortly after that from a traveling company to spring him all the way from his home town, all the way to the region's leading pokemon professors laboratory.
The reason why he was inside one of the most prestigious labs within the whole Sinnoh region was because of a simple thing called Rowan's Scholarship. It is a program that tests kids every year, and after vigorous testing a certain amount of people were accepted to get a pokemon for the start of their journey from the famous Rowan. These pokemon were the best bred out of all the pokemon given out by labs throughout the region, and would almost guarantee recognition within whatever path the trainer chose to follow, be it battling or coordination. However it was very rare to even be chosen to be able to get the chance to get one of these pokemon, even more so to actually get them.
To get the distinguished scholarship you have to be able to identify all the pokemon that naturally live within the Sinnoh region as well as many foreign pokemon that have been known to be found within the lands. There would also be written questions about evolution, origination, and nutrition of pokemon. One question for evolution was what two species are could be the descendants of Tirtouga, Simon answer being the squirtle line as the ones who went to the surface, with the feature of hands grew from need to hold food and the lapras line as the ones who stayed and dove deeper into the ocean, with the long neck making it easier to reach prey.
Two hours later and that is where the unlikely trainer was found expectant and waiting for for someone to call him to receive his pokemon.
He was wondering what was taking so long it has been already been two hours and he was getting extremely impatient if one couldn't tell by the leg twitching and thumb fiddling. He was on the verge of falling asleep when the doors to the lab banged opened causing him to bolt up.
"I am terribly sorry you had to wait so long but we had some slight problems with a couple pokemon," a women with messed up hair and a thick unovan accent stated apologetically as she fixed her rumpled lab coat. "If you will follow me I will show you where you can pick your pokemon."
Simon followed her through the lab passing rooms filled with pokemon playing in artificial lakes and forests, allowing the scientist hidden behind one way mirrors, to study their behaviors actions. They then stopped at room labeled 21b, she held the door open for him and walking in after him. She grabbed three poke balls each with a sticker on it off a containment rack and threw the one with a leaf on it.
A flash of white shot out of the pokeball taking shape of a toritse looking pokemon, its four feet were yellow matching its slightly underbite jaw. It had a shell that was wrapped with a black band around and through half of it. It yawned as wide as its mouth would let it and then flopped to the floor in an slovenly heap "Urrrrr"
"This is Turtwig the grass starter."
Another flash went off to the right of Turtwig,
"This is Piplup the water starter."
From the ball came a penguin like creature with a small beak and a crown shaped design running across its forehead. It had a cloak of navy fluff originating from its neck and reaching down to its back which contrasted against the light blue of the body and the white dots on its chest.
"Last but not least is Chimchar the fire starter."
The last pokemon that Simon could chose from came from the ball with the flame it on it. Like the sticker the pokemon had a physical flame on its rear end that came from the gases in its stomach, it also had hair that was shaped like its tail with ears almost the same size as the head itself.
"I was wondering if I could have a little time with them to get to know them better before I chose one of them as my best friend?" Simon questioned sweetly,hoping to get on the woman's good side by mentioning them as his best friend
"Sure" but seeing through his act she advised, "the best friend part was kind of laying it on thick." Smiling sheepishly Simon said nothing as she chuckled "Just give me a thumbs up when you decide." She then went over to the observation deck, allowing her to see him interact with the pokemon.
He walked over to the fire monkey and cautiously sat in front of him showing that he meant no harm by baring his empty palm to the creature.
Chimchar got down on all fours and started growling a bit to try to show of its dominance, he was so focused on the soon to be trainer standing in front of him that he didn't notice the grass pokemon walk past him giving him a shove along the way casting a smug smile as the biped pokemon fell over from the sturdy shove.
She then sat down in Simon's lap and promptly fell asleep with slight snores already coming from the small body. Chimchar sat up rubbing his head and grumbling a bit before he sniffed Simon's hand and rubs his body against it shortly afterward. Simon sat there with one hand scratching the soft underbelly of the Chimchar and the other hand was slowly petting the surprisingly moist soil on top of Turtwigs back. He then shifted his gaze towards the final starter and got locked in a staring contest with him. He got shocked out of the competition and the Piplup just huffed and turn its head up snootily when the loud crackle of the announcement system went out.
"-a new trainer, yeah he's deciding right now" a familiar unovan accent stated "I just... are you sure that this has to be Piplups last year? If he doesn't leave then he will have to stay in this lab forever. You saw the damage he did to the lab when he riled up the other pokemon, he hates it here."
"Yes Katie I know" a voice Simon hadn't heard before sighed "but it is its third year of being in the lab it can't be given out any longer due to league restrictions, and even if it wasn't it might be one of his last years anyway because the TFAA is thinking about getting rid of piplups as starters all together. I'm sorry but it has to be like this."
The PTA then went out as the strange man stood up from where he had accidentally sat on the button. Simon turned his head and gazed at the penguin who seems to have not heard and was cleaning out his cape of sleek fur with rapt attention instead. He sighed daming his morals. He gently grabbed the Turtwig from off of his lap and set her down not even disturbing her sleep. He went over to Piplup and crouched next to him.
"Hey there little guy would you like to go on a journey with me?" Simon proposed with a small smile and a fake voice that is used to talk to children. Piplup was staring into his eyes and then, while sneering, pecked his cheek causing a small gash to form and ooze out blood.
Simon sat back with a dazed expression before he quickly got onto his knees, grabbing the beak with fury evident in his eyes. "Listen here you little fucking bitch, I am doing you a favor here, this is the last year that you can qualify to be given away as a starter, so unless you want to stay cooped up in this lab, eventually dying still as a Piplup and never doing anything worthwhile of attention then I suggest you come with me, cause I can get another starter but you can't get another life" Simon snarled. Piplup glared at the human that as standing in front of him but eventually nodded with his hands folded across his chest, as if that would protect him from the realization that he had been beaten in a battle of wills.
"Good" Simon said face twisting into a sneer even though he was cackling giddily on the inside as he won this round. Piplup jerked his beak out of his grip and rubbed it as the door opened letting the two people return into the room.
'Is everything alright? We saw Piplup peck you" the bearded man voiced his worries. Before Simon could answer the stranger turned to Piplup and scolded him "Piplup we do not hurt other humans unless they are endangering you're life!"
"No, no it's okay it's just a small scratch" Simon answered the previous question as we wiped the copious amount of blood from his cheek, trying to make it look like it's not as bad as it actually was. "Actually I want him to be my starter!" The bearded man stared at Simon like he was crazy, and stepped forward a little bit raising his hand.
"Young man are you sure because it seems to me like he doesn't like you, not in the slightest, and you must see how that can be a hindrance towards trying to train him" the bearded man warned.
"Yeah I can see that but I don't really care and not to be rude but who are you?"
"Oh i'm terribly sorry it totally slipped my mind to introduce myself" wiping his palms off onto his shirt he held his hand out towards Simon '"I'm Professer Birch"
-,-,-
"This is how you turn it on," the Unovan assistant pressed a button on the side of the device and the lid rose up presenting a light emanating from the screen asking for everything he put onto his trainer card 'You'll have to re enter you're trainer information and then when you are done with that you can scan Piplups information by pressing the button on the pokeball halfway to shrink then press it into the circle slot, white side down, till the black line latches on then it will show you the information it gathered" she said while handing him the red and white ball with a drop of water sticker on it.
She guided him outside and with a well off farewell she walked back in letting the doors close behind her.
Simon walked away entering his data for the second time thinking about what happened after he met the famous Birch.
After reassuring the pokemon professor that Piplup was indeed the pokemon he wanted to start with he was led to an area where the professor gave the rehearsed speech about how to safe and how to use the fruit of land to you're advantage and how berries could help make you pokemon tougher through the nutrients they held.
"You know I was actually quite impressed by you're test scores especially your ideas on the long term evolution that occurred on top of the short term evolution we already know about"
A beaming smile replied with thanks before listening to the speech that was probably given out to every trainer that walked through the door. When that was over Birch looked him straight in the eye, gabbed his hand, and put a scrap of paper into his hand that Simon learned was his number when he looked down.
"If you ever need anything you just call me, do you understand, you call me"
He looked and older man and nodded confused about what was happening "sure if I never need any help i'll be sure to call you" gently punching the older man on the arm and instantly regretting it, remembering that he was a professor.
He nodded his sharp words were now subdued, "well now how about we get you you're pokedex so you can be on you way.'
He was led outside after being explained what the pokedex did, and how to use it, and while it had a solar powered funtion he was also given a charger just case.
He then finished entering his information into the pokedex and two options came up for him to do, he ignored the one that said scan pokemon and pressed the one that would scan pokeball. He pushed the button on Piplup's pokeball to minimize it and slid it into place getting that click.
Before he could access the information through a screen popped up that asked for the name. Simon looked down at the huffing bird below him and grabbed its midsection, hoisting him up in the air despite the indignant cries that were heard.
"So what should you be called. I read somewhere that by giving you pokemon names helps a connection grow stronger and faster, there is some outliers for that of course but still." he looked at the squirming mammalian creature in front of him "Since you are a water type we could try to do something with that."
"How about Bubbles" Piplup stopped moving and gave him the look that said if this gross peasant gives that name I will kill him with a rusty spoon starting out with gouging out his eyeballs.
"Okay I guess not Bubbles" he said with a small chuckle. "Hmmmm, if you like the name you nod you're head up and down like this he said demonstrating and left to right for a no."
"Pip." Came the reluctant agreement.
"Aqua?" and head no,
"Triton?" another head no,
"What about Fishface VonBlubberbuns" this time with a definite sharp no he muttered,
Pi pi up" Judging by the smirk on his small face he could tell that he just got severely insulted, but decided to ignore it.
His face scrunched up into a thinking expression with his lip being bit by a sharp canine. Suddenly it became relaxed and light up like a kid on Christmas day. With a terrible accent he set him down, bowed to the penguins level and said 'Well good sire, the king of all lands and of all the people I now dub you Emperor' he then patted the furred animal on the head.
He rubbed his flipper against his head with a scowl but then smirked and held his head high as he nodded a yes.
Simon face broke out in a smile and then turned back to the pokedex and imputed the new name into the small device. Subsequently the device then went on to show all the statistics of Emperor.
Saving those to look at later, he put away the pokedex into his jean pocket and gestured for Emperor to follow him "We actually have someplace to be, i'm getting a haircut WHOOOO!" he said with so little enthusiasm not wanting to get rid of the perfectly styled hair on top of his head.
-,-,-
ZZZZZZ
The razor shook to life vibrating menacingly and it stared hungrily at the, slightly wet, luscious hair sitting right in front of it. Its sharp maw of jagged teeth purred at the delicious meal it was about to get lavishly right there in front of it, it moved forward powered by the movement of flesh on its body.
His eyes were closed relishing in the blade shearing off the hair on the side of his head. While he may not like cutting his hair off, he liked the feeling of when the hair was actually cut. He opened his eyes when the barber asked, "I'm done with the sides, so what do you want me to do with the top now?"
He gulped before saying "I want you to cut it until there is only two inches left on top so it is short but I can still style it."
The barber nodded and Simon before he closed his eyes he saw the image of Emperor writhing on the counter looking like he was laughing with no sounds coming out, at how terrified his new trainer was at getting the haircut. He flipped the avian off and closed his eyes letting himself be lulled into a sense of security.
Fifteen minutes passed and he walked out with a slight strut, simply delighted how it turned out.
"Hey Emp," He looked up at Simon "There's this lake not far from here that we could go to. This is probably going to be one of the largest water reservoirs that we will see in a while and I doubt you have ever seen a lake been bred and raised in a lab and all, how bout it."
Emperor's eyes sparkled thinking about all the possibilities of things he could do inside a lake. Simon taking this as a yes started walking west out of the city and towards the lake.
Once they two reached the start of the thin forests Simon stopped and turned to the piplup "You can go off if you want find some wild pokemon, fight them or whatever, you do you. Just make sure you come back to me when you're done."
He nodded running off into the forest.
After walking for a while he turned around when he heard a loud squawk just in time to see Emperor running toward him with a dark shape being dragged behind him, leaving its mark in the dirt.
He chirped out a jubilant cry as he reached Simon's feet pulling the thing from behind him, showing that it was a Starly whose neck was twisted in an unnatural way, showing that it had been snapped. His chest puffed up proud of the fact the he had provided the food.
Simon reached down to grab the dead animal off the ground when Emperor snapped at him trying to protect his catch. He backed off "Hey buddy, can you maybe chill, that would be helpful." And now I have a territorial piplup, great.
Emperor still was growling and scowling at him shoving the bird behind him protecting what he had killed. He then slowly backed away, taking continues bites while staring down the teen who had his hands up not moving. When he had finished he turned around a with blood and a smug look written upon his face. Then he started hacking and coughed out a couple of bones.
Slowly lowering his hands and moving towards Emperor, Simon spoke out "Okay i'm coming towards you now, don't bite me or anything, i'm not food." Advancing ever so carefully he grappled with his beating heart before realizing that Emperor wasn't even paying attention to him, instead he was rubbing the blood off his body under the water coming from his mouth.
Simon stood up feeling slightly stupid, shaking his head he called out "we'd better get going if we want to get to the lake within the day," walking away using his peripheral vision to make sure that Emperor was following him.
Under his breath Simon whispered a quiet fuck as he set out on his journey with a starter that didn't like him and a wish that he didn't have to do this.
Author's Notes: Any comments are welcome and if you see any grammar problems please tell me so I can fix it. This story does not have a beta. The TFAP stands for the Trainer Financial Access Project which is the group that chooses the starters for every region. They help aspiring trainers from all financial fields have access to one of three pokemon.