"Why do I have to travel all the way to Littleroot town as well Mom?" A young boy asked as he stretched as much as he could in the cramped car. "I already have my trainer license, so me and Trapinch could have started our journey back in Fortree City."

The boys mother sighed as she looked away from the road for a second at her only child. "Ethan at least think about seeing your father before you take off. We moved to Littleroot so that we could be closer to his work place."

The brown haired kid frowned for a moment before replying, "Of course I'm gonna go see dad, but the thought of starting my journey all around Hoenn has me super excited."

"Well hold on just a little longer, we'll be at our new house soon. We can see your father and then we can see you off tomorrow morning." His mother said as she pushed some of her own brown hair out of her eyes.

"Alright we're here!" His mother said as they stopped in front of a building with a young man with deep back hair standing at the door.

"Clarise and Ethan, you both made it just in time, the movers just left" The young man said while opening his arms to receive Ethan as he dashed out of the car, throwing a pokeball into the air before flying into his fathers arms.

"Hey dad, we missed you!" Ethan said only to hear a 'GAH!' in response, as he looked up and saw his Trapinch biting onto his fathers face,

"I can tell," His father muttered while trying to pull off the small desert pokemon, "He has a much firmer hold than usual." While both Ethan and his mother laughed his father finally succeeded in removing Trapinch from his face, before petting the bottom of the pokemons chin.

Ethan and his mother were then brought on a tour of the new house and introduced to the neighbors and several of his fathers coworkers. Eventually the hustle of the early afternoon in the picturesque small town winded down and the family was able to have calm dinner with Ethan telling his father about the battles he had been in while he was away.

"Sounds like you've had a lot of fun." His dad said as he washed the plates from the dinner.

"Yeah, although they weren't official matches Winona helped me train Trapinch a lot." Ethan said as he thrust his fist into the air. Trapinch tried to copy the movement and fell over, wiggling helplessly on its back for several seconds before Clarise picked him up and handed him to Ethan with a small laugh.

"Alright I know you are both excited. Your father and I are excited for you too, our baby boy is a pokemon trainer." His mom said with emotion, " However you need to sleep if you want to get an early start tomorrow."

Ethan redend at being called a 'baby boy' but, he still couldn't argue. After all he had only turned 10 a short while ago. "Alright, goodnight mom and dad." Ethan said as he walked towards his new room as Trapinch growled a goodnight as well.

"Alright everything on the checklist is accounted for." Ethan said as he shouldered large blue backpack with a black pokeball design on it. He was wearing a matching shirt and black jeans as his chosen 'trainers clothes', along with a pair of black fingerless gloves and a bandana that matched his shirt and pack tied around his left arm.

"Traaaaa!" His Trapinch said as it jumped from his bed and landed on his right shoulder.

"This is it Trapinch, the first steps of our journey. I will become the World Champion one day, and you'll become the worlds strongest pokemon!" Ethan said as he exited his room eliciting a cheer from his pokemon.

"Going without eating breakfast?" His father asked as he set down the newspaper he was reading.

"Dad you just killed the mood you know that?" Ethan groaned as he pulled out the seat near his father and tucked into the eggs and toast that had been prepared. Trapinch joining almost immediately at his own food filled bowl.

"Slow down Ethan or you're gonna choke." His other warned him as he finished scarfing his food and downed the glass of moo moo milk.

"Sorry mom way to excited I can't wait to begin traveling." Ethan said as he stood up.

"Do you have everything?" His father asked as he sipped some coffee.

"Yeah checked everything 3 times." Ethan responded as Trapinch finished his food and hopped into his arms.

"Oh sweetie I'm gonna miss you, be sure to call often." His mom said as she smothered them both in a hug. His dad settled for a less embarrassing handshake and wishing him good luck.

"Ugh... 3 hours on this trail and not a single wild pokemon." Ethan complained to his Trapinch that was walking alongside him.

"Hello down there, can you please help?" Ethan heard the voice come from above and was startled to see a man with wavy brown hair in a lab suit hanging from a tree. His lab coat was snagged on several branches keeping him suspended in the air.

"How in the world did you get into a situation like that?" Ethan asked as he tossed Trapinch onto a branch and he started biting into it. Breaking one branch and using the mans weight to lower him further down.

"Hahaha. Funny story I was playing with some wild Poochyena while doing field work and accidentally stepped on ones tail. The whole pack ended up chasing me. I climbed up this tree t get away, but then I slipped getting down and ended up like this." The man laughed as he told the story. "Oh right I'm Professor Birch by the way."

Ethan raised an eyebrow at the man introducing himself as a professor. "Ethan King and this is my Trapinch." He said as Trapinch chewed through one last branch and Birch came down.. hard.

"Ouch, not the most graceful landing." P. Birch muttered as he picked up the pokeball that he fallen out of his pocket when he fell. "Now how to thank my saviour, wait!" He held out the pokeball in his hand towards

Ethan."In this pokeball is a rare fire type known as Torchic, I've managed to find trainers for its two friends but, no one wanted to deal with this rowdy little fellow. Would you be willing to take him?"

"Huh?" Ethan asked taken aback by the sudden question. "You want to give me a rare pokemon?"

"Well yes, but like I said Torchic is very rowdy and starts a lot of fights." Birch said as he looked at the ball.

"Liking to fight isn't a problem! I'm aiming to be the World Champion, I'll be having lots of battles!" Ethan said in an excited voice.

Responding to his words Torchics pokeball wiggled towards Ethan.

"Oh finally someone willing to take him." Birch said as he handed the pokeball over to Ethan. "Take good care of him I need to get back to my lab." He waved as he took off running towards Littleroot town in the distance.

"That guy was kinda out there huh Trapinch?" Ethan said as him and his pokemon watched the professor dash away, only to be chased by a horde of poochyena after he had moved a short distance. "Anyway lets meet our new friend, come on out Torchic!" Ethan said as he released the fire type from its pokeball.

The fire type stared at Ethan and Trapinch for a moment, unsure of what to do. Ethan crouched down and began to talk to the tiny chick pokemon.

"Hey Torchic, my name is Ethan and this is Trapinch. We've just started our journey but we've got big dreams. Trapinch wants to be one of the worlds strongest pokemon and I want to be the pokemon World Champion. In order to fulfill my dream and his we need strong pokemon like you. So will you join and battle with us?" He asked the fire type with a serious expression on his face.

Without thinking even for a second the small pokemon nodded and shouted, "Tor!" into the air while spitting out embers.

"Alright welcome to the team Torchic." Ethan said with a smile completely covering his face.

"So that's Gabriel's son huh. Seems like a really good kid. I hope he does well." Birch uttered to himself before a terrified look crossed his face as he heard a howl. "No not again!" He shouted as his speed doubled as he made his way towards littleroot with a pack of Poochyena on his tail.

A/N: And that folks is chapter one. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing about P. Birch's miserable luck with Poochyena. In this chapter we get introduced to the main character and his two main pokemon, Trapinch and Torchic. Expect big things out of these pokemon as they are both going to become solid anchors for Ethan's team.