The Long Journey to Ever Grande
Prologue
Lightning flashed across the sky over the quaint little Littleroot Town. A resounding clap of thunder followed as the rain pounded down on the few small houses in the town. A loud crash awakened eight-year-old Kevin Jet. He rubbed his eyes drowsily and continued to lie in bed trying to go back to sleep.
A loud gunshot sounded through the house. He bolted up in his bed. He quickly threw the covers off of him and crept towards his door. He slowly opened it and went out into the hall, looking over the balcony to the floor below. He saw a shadowy figure standing over a bloody body.
Tears burned in his eyes when he realized the body was his father's. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned quickly to see his mother. There were tears running down her face as well.
"Get in your room and lock the door. Hide under the bed and wait for a few hours. Then get up and go straight to the Pokémon Center," she whispered, slightly pushing him back to his room.
He nodded and did exactly as she told him, locking his door and crawling under the bed, waiting quietly. He heard a few other gunshots and the scream of his mother. More tears crept into his eyes before finally pouring down his face.
He then heard footsteps and his door was kicked open. He saw the feet of whoever had broken into his house and killed his parents. He tried to keep quiet but his sobs gave him away. A strong hand gripped around his elbow and he was jerked out from under the bed and thrown against the wall. He turned to see the man in a mask with a gun poised right at his chest.
Just as Kevin thought his life was going to end, there were a few loud barks from their pet dog Inferno, a Houndour from his uncle in Johto. It distracted the murderer, who turned before Inferno leapt from the doorway and tackled the murderer. The gun was sent skidding across the room. Kevin ran out the doorway, down the stairs, and headed toward the Pokémon Center.
Kevin bolted up in his bed with a cold sweat. The fourteen-year-old scanned his room, seeing nothing but his room, with Inferno sleeping soundly in the small beanbag chair that Kevin had made into a dog bed for Inferno. He rubbed his eyes wearily, trying to shake the memory out of his head. He often had nightmares that made him relive the night that his parents had died.
He had run all the way to the Pokémon Center, and told a policeman who was there what had happened at his house. The man was arrested and taken to a high-security prison in Dewford City.
He turned fifteen the next day, which was when he was going to start his Pokémon Journey to get all the badges and eventually challenge the Elite Four, and defeat the mysterious champion who was fabled to use many rare steel type pokémon.
Kevin looked over to the clock next to his bed. It was five in the morning. He got up and walked over to the window in his room, looking outside. The moon was nowhere to be seen, and the sky was still a very dark brown. He guessed that the sun would be rising soon. So he decided not to go back to bed, not that he would be able to if he tried.
He walked over and knelt next to Inferno, petting him lightly. The fire/dark pokémon, who had become a very light sleeper, slowly stood up. Kevin stood up and walked downstairs to the gym in his house. Inferno followed after him, panting quietly.
When Kevin walked into the gym, he turned on the light and rubbed his eyes again to help them adjust to the light. The entire wall of the gym opposite the door was a mirror, used to check form while working out. There was a bench press, a punching bag, a butterfly press, and various different weights spread out all over the room.
There were also various targets located along the different walls, used to train pokémon. Kevin walked over to another door in the room, opening it and dragging out a large pad. He wrapped it around two 50-pound dumbbells, and then walked over to the bench press. Inferno walked over to the wrapped dumbbells and pushed his shoulder against them, trying to push them. This was one of the many exercises that Kevin used to train him.
Ever since that night, Kevin had worked out alongside Inferno's training. He would do various workouts while Inferno would shoot embers at the targets, try to crush small weights with its teeth, or, as it was doing now, push large weights. At the beginning of the training, Inferno could only push ten pounds and could even get the embers on the targets. But over the seven years that they had trained, Inferno had improved greatly.
Kevin had also gotten much stronger. When he was eight he was extremely scrawny. Now he had a fairly muscular body for his age, and his abs showed slightly through his stomach. He always thought of the murderer that had killed his parents, which always gave him motivation in his workouts. And today, he would start to put all of his working out and all of Inferno's training to the test as he would start the biggest journey of his entire life.