This is my original fanfiction,
Torches and Pitchforks
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Pokémon!
Today is February, the second.
Yesterday things were no different than they had been his entire life. It was the same routine all over again, day after day. But today was a very special day indeed. It was Kevin's birthday today. He was finally turning ten years old. It was the time for him to begin his Pokémon journey at last.
He had been looking forward to this since his older brother, Taco, had left on his journey four years ago. And although he would miss his mom and dad, he was looking forward to finally getting out on his own. Pallet town had always been a simple and boring place. It was just your average small town.
He knew all the old faces. From the lady who ran the grocery store to his neighbor who lived with a bunch of Zubat. All in All, he loved his home dearly. But when he woke up this Sunday morning Kevin was overwhelmed with a feeling of anticipation at finally being able to leave the confines of Pallet. He was so excited. Once he rolled out of bed and dressed himself, he went downstairs for a little breakfast before his tread up to Professor Oak's laboratory.
Becoming a Pokémon trainer was something that had always interested him. It was like a dream come true when he got his postcard in the mail last week. This was the real thing. This was really happening. Kevin quickly ate his eggs with toast and after a hurried kiss goodbye from his mother; he sat off for Oak's lab.
The professor's estate was the highlight of the town and truly a sight to behold. Although Kevin usually passed the building via bicycle on his way to the grocery store or running errands, he had never actually been inside. While he made his way up the steps, nervousness began to eat away at his insides. As he approached the front door, his palms started sweating. Once Kevin composed himself, he knocked twice.
A few moments passed before a tall boy in a green shirt answered the door and greeted him.
"New trainer?" he asked.
Kevin nodded swiftly, his voice apparently absent.
"You're the last one, right this way." He added kindly, making room for Kevin to enter.
Kevin crossed the threshold and was lead into a laboratory-type room that housed a number of gadgets and electronics. His mouth hung open in silent awe and he quickly closed it. Glancing around the room, Kevin noticed three other people. Two young kids much like him, a boy and a girl. There was also a woman with short blonde hair wearing the most ridiculous outfit he had ever seen. She was draped in robes of dark blue that matched her eyes. She also wore a tiara of sorts with brown sandals and winter gloves. She was seated in a chair facing the window. When she shifted sideways at his arrival, their eyes met briefly. Kevin noticed that she sported a trainer's belt with three Poke balls. There was no sign of the Professor himself.
All of the children's faces bore confused expressions. The other boy kept glancing at the woman as if he expected her to provide some sort of explanation. The girl kept playing with her nails, anxiously. Nobody broke the awkward silence. After about ten minutes, echoing footsteps could be heard from down the hall. There was a door on the other side of the room. When the footsteps came to a halt, the knob started twisting. Kevin held his breath. Samuel Oak entered the laboratory.
"Hello there." He greeted them with a smile on his face. He walked to his desk and began shuffling papers. "Just give me one moment to find your information." He added.
Another minute passed and he began. "Ahh, I see now. You're Travis." He said indicating the other young boy who arrived before Kevin. "Susie," he went on. "And…Kevin."
They all nodded enthusiastically.
He continued in a serious tone. "Now all of you are here today because all of you are now of age to begin your Pokémon journeys. You see, we trainers travel around with and raise our partner Pokémon. You will each be embarking on a quest I wouldn't recommend for the feint of heart. This day marks a milestone in your young lives and I can't stress enough to you how absolutely serious being a trainer actually is. Make no mistake, taming Pokémon can be dangerous. Answering this call will put your capabilities to the test. You must learn to conduct yourselves as responsible young adults and try to learn from all your mistakes, because everyone's bound to make them. Do you understand?"
More nodding from the trainers.
"Well, now that that's settled." In a more joyful tone, "let's get started."
He walked over to the wall on the far left of the room. Perched there was an intercom. Pressing a button, he spoke into the speaker. "Tracey, bring them in."
At once the door Kevin entered through burst open. Tracey rolled in a small cart that neatly displayed-Kevin's heart jumped- three red and white poke balls.
Tracey stopped in front of Professor Oak, who seemed to conjure a mug of coffee out of thin air.
After a sip he began. "These, as I'm sure you've already deduced, are poke balls. They contain the Pokémon with which you'll be staring your journey with. As you'll notice, there are three here. One for each of you," he added. "You'll be responsible for adding more to your roster."
He concluded, "We'll use the order of your arrival to determine who goes first." There were no arguments as they filed into a small line.
Travis came forward, evidently proud of himself for arriving before the others. He was a few inches taller than Kevin and he had brown hair.
He looked up at Professor Oak, "I already know which one I want."
Oak raised his eyebrows, "Oh? Well then, what'll it be?"
"Bulbasaur!" Travis exclaimed.
Oak walked up to the cart and picked up the middle ball. "That'll be this one."
He then handed the ball to Travis, who looked as if he were in a trance. Travis went to the back of the line.
Susie was next. She was one of the smallest girls Kevin had ever seen. Her red hair was short and in small pigtails. She seemed very nervous.
"Um…I want the strongest one, so it can protect me." She said in a barely audible, squeaky voice.
Oak smiled and said, "Well, I can guarantee they're both equally qualified for that."
She looked reassured at the statement.
"Ok…well, how am I to choose between them?"
The Professor seemed to consider this, but only smiled.
After a short pause and a chant of 'Eeny, meeny, miny, moe' Susie decided on the first ball and Oak handed it to her gently.
"I think you'll be very happy with this one, just make sure you raise it well."
She seemed quite content with that and stumbled back behind Travis with glee.
Kevin now stepped up. Admittedly, he hadn't given much thought to which one he preferred. But he decided that it didn't really matter much, as long as it was nice.
"Well, Kevin, it seems your partner will have to be Squirtle, the water type."
The boy nodded eagerly and gladly accepted the Poke ball from Oak. A feeling of accomplishment overwhelmed Kevin while holding his very first Pokémon, a Squirtle. He was officially a trainer.
Squirtle. He kept repeating the name over and over in his mind. I gotta meet him, Kevin thought. Questions like, 'What if he doesn't like me? What if I'm not a good enough trainer?' all came to mind. But looking around he noticed the others had already released the Pokémon that they received. Holding the ball in front of him, there was a flash of white light as it exploded in his hand. Appearing at his feet was a little blue turtle with a brown and yellow shell.
"Squirtle!" It shouted at him.
"…hi there," Was all Kevin managed to say before Professor Oak beckoned their attention.
"Now listen up everyone. This here is Elizabeth, a Pokémon league representative and a former student of mine." He said with a nod to the girl wearing strange garments. He added bluntly, "Why are you wearing gloves?"
She stood up at the introduction and removed the pair of grey gloves. Elizabeth mumbled something about 'raising a Snorunt' then speaking in a clear, precise voice so that everyone could hear her:
"Hello there, I'm here on behalf of the International Pokémon league association-Kanto branch. I'm to extend an invitation to all new trainers who are interested in taking on the league challenge in order to become the regional champion."
Kevin perked up at these words. Champion had a pretty nice ring to it. He glanced down at Squirtle; the little guy seemed to be hanging on to Elizabeth's every word.
She continued, "To qualify all trainers must travel the region and earn a total of eight badges. Badges must be earned by defeating participating Pokémon gyms in each city by the deadline of July the twenty-second. Badges will be awarded at the gym leader's discretion." She added grimly.
"Those who meet the deadline become eligible to participate in a league hosted tournament in which the winner will get to face off against the elite four and reigning Pokémon Champion for the title. Interested trainers are urged to travel to Viridian city and register at said Pokémon center. Deadline's in a few weeks. Exceptions can be arranged."
She bowed deeply. "Thank you for your time, professor, a word if you will…"
Oak and Elizabeth stalked off behind the big desk to continue a more intimate conversation.
Kevin turned to Squirtle, "Do you think should we go register?"
Squirtle nodded enthusiastically. He held out his little blue hand.
"Squirtle Squirtle!"
Kevin put his hand on top of Squirtle's.
"…you mean, together we can do it?"
"Squirtle!"
They were interrupted by Tracey gesturing for their attention.
"You guys can collect your Poke balls from that bin over there."
He pointed to a box on Oak's big desk.
"Since you're only allowed six Pokémon in your roster, five more will do it."
He then turned facing the exit. "Good luck guys!"
After Tracey left, the three young trainers went to collect the balls.
Kevin could conveniently overhear Oak's conversation.
"—I apologize for my being tardy, Liz, but Professor Maple was just here…in the back."
With an unexpected speed, Elizabeth flung out a red and white Poke ball. It crashed onto the floor, an illuminating white light materialized into a Pokémon Kevin had never seen before. Hovering six feet of the ground was what appeared to be an orange and yellow miniature sun.
"Professor, why didn't you say something earlier!"
Oak, with both hands up, hastily responded
"Everything's fine, she already left, no harm done!" he chuckled nervously under the woman's stern gaze.
"Solrock, go search the premise for intruders!"
It grunted its compliance and in another flash of bright light, it vanished.
"What did she want Professor?"
"Well, she broke into the lab and I confronted her. It was the strangest thing, she kept rambling on about the Eevee research I've been conducting recently. I finally convinced her to leave, so I could prepare for the new trainers-"
Kevin was now digging through the bin, counting out five Poke balls.
"…I just don't know what's gotten into her lately."
After this brief recollection he added grimly, "What has Maple been up to, Liz?"
"Well, professor, she is a criminal wanted in five different cities for various crimes against Pokémon! You should notify the authorities at once."
Something was nudging Kevin's right leg. He looked down to see Squirtle trying to drag him after the rest of the trainers, who were now going into another room.
"Oh, I'm sorry Squirtle! Did you want to have a look around?"
It nodded and pointed to the room.
"Well, o.k.."
He followed Squirtle as he led him into the room where there were hundreds of columns of ceiling-high shelves all containing Poke balls.
"Oh wow, there must be thousands!" Kevin heard Susie's squeaky voice exclaim.
Looking around, there was one column with a majority of green poke balls that caught your eye. The label read…
"-Ash."
It was Professor Oak.
"Yes, he left on his own Pokémon journey quite some time ago. You see, whenever you capture more Pokémon than the I.P.L.A deems a trainer is allowed to carry at one time, in this case six, they are automatically transported here to this lab, where I look after them."
"But doesn't that become a burden after a while? Looking after so many Pokémon?"It was Travis's turn to interrupt.
The others, it seemed, silently gravitated toward Oak the moment he entered the room.
He laughed, "Why no, looking after all these Pokémon helps with my research! There are still so many questions to be answered about our friends here."
He bent down and began to pet Susie's Charmander.
"So many things we don't know. It's my job to answer as many of these questions as I can. This reminds me, I have a favor to ask each of you."
He pulled from his pocket three, identical, red, calculator-like contraptions.
"These are an invention of mine, the Pokedex or Pokémon encyclopedia. You see, being cooped up in this lab all day, I require field assistants out collecting data on Pokémon in the wild. If you would each take one and use it to record data on any Pokémon that you happen to see, I would greatly appreciate it. Not only will this data be of value to my research, but I'm positive it'll greatly aid you as well in your quests. Not only that, but these will also serve as your Trainer's License and identification. What do you say?"
They all agreed, so once he registered the Pokedexes in their names and presented them to the trainers, they all started on their way.
Oak led them to the front door, "I thank you for your assistance, good luck on your journeys!" he yelled, waving them off. "Don't forget to keep in touch! And be careful with the Pokedex, you don't want to lose them!"
As they made their way from Oak's estate, it was Susie who spoke up first and broke the awkward silence.
" ..So, should we meet up at the edge of town after we say goodbye to our families?"
Travis responded, "What for?"
"…so we can go to Viridian City together."
Travis laughed sarcastically at this. "Me? Get saddled with a loser like you? I don't think so."
Kevin thought about it for a minute. He had never been outside of Pallet before. So traveling with someone seemed like a good idea to him.
"I'll go with you." He spoke up.
Susie turned to face him, "O.k., we'll meet up at the edge of town in an hour, alright?"
"Alright."
Travis looked distinctly put off by this arrangement and as soon as they reached the fork in the middle of town, he took off without a backwards glance.
After a hasty 'see you later' toward Susie, Kevin set off for his own house. He had to be mindful of his pace so Squirtle's little legs could keep up with his stride.
"Come on Squirtle, you'll get to meet my mom!"
Unbeknownst to them alert in the bushes lurked a pair of bright ever-watchful eyes…. What does this mean for our young protagonist?
Okay so this was re-edited...as of 12/20/2013
Also I won't be going into too much detail when I describe the characters. I want them to look like whatever you envision them to look like. I like to use my imagination when it comes to original characters. It helps to 'absorb' them into the fic but maybe that's just me.