Disclaimer: Pokemon is the property of those who own it. That list sadly does not include me.
A/N: The prologue is not from the author's perspective.
/-\-/-\-Prologue: A World Full of Pokemon-/-\-/-\
You probably came here to find another story about some stupid ten-year-old leaving on a Pokemon journey and finally taking down his or her region's Elite Four and Champion, while simultaneously saving or at least trying to save the world. This is not that kind of fairy tale. If you're here for that, you should disperse immediately.
The world, and probably even outer space, is dominated by strange creatures called Pokemon. They possess strength and power which has not yet been completely discovered by humans. They have coexisted with humans for millennia, and they have performed many different functions to aid man. In fact, many of the Pokemon were actually created by humans or were man-made mishaps. Garbodar and Magnemite for example.
Until recent times, Pokemon were only partners and tools in different occupations. Each one of them was associated with a job. Artists had Smeargle, smiths owned a variety of Fire-types, hunters carried around sharp-sighted Flying-types and those Pokemon who had an excellent scent of smell, and a person seeking spiritual or scientific answers was always accompanied by Psychic-type Pokemon. Pokemon were surely an inseparable part of religion, culture and economy, but yet, no real information was truly known about Pokemon. But then, technology developed.
Researchers across the world began appointing people to catch and send Pokemon to labs to be studied by the researchers. These researchers provided these 'Pokemon trainers' or 'Pokedex Holders' with all the essentials. The training craze grew by many times in a sparse few months. Pokeballs, Pokedexes and Pokegears were made and modified and many people left home to leave on their 'Pokemon journey'. This new craze was the most popular in Japan, where there was abundance of highly skilled and intelligent researchers. The fact that Japan had an ancient culture of catching and collecting Bug Pokemon also helped. The post-World War 2 generation was swept up by the new and exciting craze of Pokemon training. But, collection and research was definitely not the most exciting part of Pokemon training. This is where we come across battles.
Not much was known about Pokemon battles, except that wild Pokemon battled frequently for various reasons and that battles between Pokemon were not as simple as duels between humans. There was no tradition of humans pitting their Pokemon against each other, and while used, Pokemon were generally absent in wars and attacks. The Pokedex movement allowed humans to understand how these battles worked, and soon, Pokemon trainers began having battles. Pokemon such as Garchomp and Tyranitar, which were previously feared beasts began becoming human allies. Championships and tournaments were held and soon the UN met and decided to hold a large worldwide challenge based on Pokemon battles, known as the Pokemon World Championship Challenge. Eight challenge checkpoints, or World Gyms were established in eight different nations across the world. These Gyms contained trainers who were specialized in a certain Pokemon Type, and a Gym Leader, who was undisputedly the strongest trainer that that respective type had. A battling trainer had to defeat these Gyms to proceed onto the next level: the Elite Four. These were even more skilled than the Gym Leaders, and were all located in Tokyo, Japan in Research Headquarters, the one single place which handled majority of the affairs of the Pokemon training world. All the Elite Four had to be defeated consecutively, and with one single team. It didn't help that all the Elite Four were specialized in types. Defeating the Elite Four was a big achievement, and doing the task would surely imprint your name in golden letters in the history of Pokemon training.
But, does it end with defeating the Elite Four?
Was that how far any trainer could go?
Not even close.
We're not yet done with the final step of the World Challenge.
The Champion.
Coming after the Elite Four, and more powerful than all of them combined, the Champion is undoubtedly the greatest and most skilled trainer on the planet and probably even in the universe. Even those who have made victory over the Elite Four believe that defeating the Champion is a purely impossible task. Many strong trainers have given up on Pokemon training after the Elite Four. Those who tried their chance at the Champion were found dead in Victory Road. The Champion's Location is unknown to all, probably even the Gym Leaders. The Champion's identity itself is a ruthlessly gurarded secret. Nothing is known about the Champion at all. Many, many people believe that the Champion has a team made up completely of the biggest and baddest Legendary Pokemon.
What does this have to do with the story, though?
A lot.
Our protagonist is a trainer. He doesn't have some unfair adavantage over the others, such as having Lucario blood running through his veins or having a Gym Leader in his family or starting out with the Legendary Pokemon Mew. Neither is it that the emothers/em have some unfair advantage over him. All in all, he is a more or less normal trainer.
But, there is one defining quality in him, and it's his determination.
Our protagonist here is just eighteen. It's only the minimum required age for the World Gym Challenge. Yet, after completing his college, he decided to take on the world head-on at such a young age.
Even he doesn't have any superpowers, he is a talented Pokemon trainer. He easily defeats trainers older than him using his one and only Pokemon, whose level isn't very high. He has won over many gyms for Team Mystic and maintained their continuous rule there.
Even if he isn't related to any World Gym Leader, many trainers older and more experienced than him respect him. He is shown as an example to many aspiring teens.
But that are the qualities which are present in every protagonist, you'd say. You are asking me a solid reason to read this story. Truth be told, I don't have one.
Everybody has different thoughts. You may not like this story in the end. I cannot guarantee to you anything. Don't read if you want to.
But I can assure you, this tale is different than all the others. This is the story of his race through the continents You can choose to continue, or leave this here. You won't lose anything if you take the latter one.
But if you want to know what happens to the protagonist, turn over to the first chapter.
The choice is yours.