Pokemon Legends: Region Zero

Chapter 1

A Stranger Arrives

It was a quiet day in New Bark Town, the town in Johto closest to Kanto. A quick trip through the nearby water route would take you into the neighbouring region. On this quiet day, in the backyard of a fairly modest household, a small bird pokemon called pidgey was perched on the branch of a tree with a small, brown furred mammalian pokemon called sentret.

The pidgey in the tree was only a baby and had yet to try flying on its own. The sentret standing next to it was pointing excitedly and patting it on the back, encouraging to try flying to the ground below. The pidgey looked nervous and looked down fearfully. It didn't want to, but the sentret insisted. Eventually, the pidgey gave in. Spreading its wings, the pidgey jumped off the branch and flapped its tiny wings frantically. It flew erratically through the air, completely unable to control its direction. It was about to take a nosedive toward the ground when a pair of human hands caught it.

"Careful there!" a young, blue haired girl said to the pokemon as she held it up to her face. "You could hurt yourself if you hit the ground like that. Why don't you try from a lower altitude or practice flapping your wings first?" The pidgey chirped happily and nodded its head. The girl giggled.

"Well, just be careful from now on, okay?" she said to it. "You're lucky I was just getting ready to go out on an errand." She reached down with one hand and patted a trio of pokeballs clipped to her belt. "These three need to be delivered today." The pidgey tilted its head and peered at the girl curiously, wondering what she was talking about. It soon lost interest and hopped off on its own.

A voice then yelled out to the girl from the nearby house. "Crystal! There's someone at the door for you!"

"Coming, Mom!" the girl called back. "Must be Ethan," she said to herself, then headed toward the house.

Crystal is a young girl living alone with her mother in New Bark Town. Her mother, Roxy, ran a ranch of sorts in the town which the pidgey and sentret were part of. Along with her mother they raised pokemon, mostly smaller ones, in their rather large backyard. They mostly adopted abandoned or weak pokemon and raised them themselves. Occassionally, the pokemon would be given away to young trainers.

Today was different, though. Today, Crystal would be delivering three very special pokemon she and her mother had raised. But first there was her sudden company to deal with. Crystal rushed into the house, expecting to find a certain young boy waiting for her.

The boy she was expecting was nowhere in sight. Instead, standing at the front door, was a blonde haired, red eyed girl that Crystal had never seen before. The girl was wearing a red skirt, a blue top that looked more like the top half of a one-piece swimsuit, and a red vest over it.

"Umm... hi?" Crystal blinked. "Have we met before?"

"Nope," the girl replied quickly. "So you're Crystal? Nice pajamas."

"Th-thanks..." Crystal replied sheepishly. She had completely forgotten she was still wearing her pajamas. When she had received word of her errand from her mother she had raced outside to collect the three pokemon without thinking.

"Well, anyway, my name's Angela," the girl said, casually introducing herself. "I'm going to be your bodyguard from now on apparently."

"Oh. I see." It took a moment for what Angela said to sink in for Crystal. She blinked in confusion a few times and then said, "Wait, what?"

"Isn't that great, dear!" Her mother said enthusiastically. "You'll have a bodyguard for your first errand! She even has her own pokemon to protect you with!" Crystal glanced downward. Sure enough, there were two pokeballs clipped to a belt at the girl's waist.

"But I'm only going to the lab! I don't NEED a bodyguard!" Crystal protested. She then pointed a finger at Angela and said, "And what gives you the right to come in here and declare you're my bodyguard anyway! I don't even know you!"

"I came all the way here from the Hoenn region on special orders from May herself!" Angela replied in a huff. "If May says you need a bodyguard then you need a bodyguard!"

"Wh-what!" Crystal said in disbelief.

"Well if May says so, you can't argue with May," Roxy said.

"You're siding with HER!" Crystal asked incredulously.

"Don't raise your voice with me!" Roxy shot back, resting her hands on her hips. "And there's certainly no harm in having someone else go with you, right? Now go get changed. The professor is waiting for you."

"Fine..." Crystal replied, sighing in defeat. It was rare for Crystal to get into a fight with her mother, who was generally eccentric and easily exciteable. But when it did happen she would usually back down fairly quickly.

Leaving her mother and and her strange self-proclaimed bodyguard in the kitchen, Crystal rushed up to her room to get changed. She changed out of her pajamas and into a pair of yellow and black bike shorts, a red tank top, and a white jacket. Finally, to top it all off, she grabbed a yellow hat and pulled it over her head. It was the kind of outfit she usually wore while out with the pokemon in the back yard, but she didn't think it would be too out of place on her errand either. Her choice of clothing was inspired by her mother, who also had a tendency to dress similarly.

As she was getting changed, many questions filled her head concerning Angela. Did she really come from Hoenn? Was she really sent by May? Why would May even send a bodyguard for her? She didn't even know May! Or Angela, for that matter. She couldn't think of any reason for this girl, who was definitely a stranger in town, to take an interest in being her bodyguard. The possibility of Angela being a pokemon thief entered Crystal's mind, though if Angela was already a trainer then there would be easier ways for her to steal pokemon from them.

The easiest question to answer would probably be whether or not she's really from Hoenn, since her pokemon would likely be from there if she was, Crystal thought to herself. She took a quick look over herself in the dresser mirror, making sure nothing was out of place, then nodded to herself. "Right. As soon as we're outside I should question her, starting with her pokemon," she said to herself. She then finally went back downstairs.

"Looking much better now!" her mother said to her when she finally came back downstairs.

Crystal forced a smile and said, "Thanks." Then she grabbed Angela by the hand and lead her toward the front door.

"Say hello to the professor for me!" Roxy called out after her daughter.


"So who are you really?" Crystal asked Angela as soon as they were outside.

"I already told you!" Angela replied indignantly, folding her arms in front of her. "My name is Angela and I was sent by May to be your bodyguard!"

"And you're from Hoenn, right?" Crystal asked her. Angela nodded. "So then... are your pokemon from Hoenn?"

"Of course!" Angela replied, then took one of her pokeballs in each hand. "Bitey! Gorey! Come on out!"

Crystal cringed. Bitey? Gorey?

Two long, slender pokemon were released from the pokeballs Angela was holding. The first was a blue, serpentine pokemon with a disproportionally large head and a mouth full of sharp teeth. It was easy for Crystal to see why the pokemon was called Bitey, as unimaginative as the name was. Gorey, on the other hand, was a long, slender, pink fish pokemon with a long and thin mouth. Crystal couldn't imagine why she was called Gorey.

They do look kinda foreign though, Crystal thought, tilting her head from side to side as she looked over the two pokemon.

Angela grinned and set her hands on her hips. "They're a huntail and gorebyss, incase you didn't know!" she said to Crystal. "They're still kinda small though 'cause they're still young."

"Definitely foreign..." Crystal mumbled, nodding to herself.

"-What does that have to do with anything!-" Bitey demanded angrily while trying to glare up at Crystal from his sprawled position on the ground.

"-Yeah! What does that have to do with anything!-" Gorey echoed in agreement. Of course, Crystal didn't know what either of them were saying.

"Anyway, let's get to the laboratory already so we can get this errand done with," Angela said impatiently.

"We're already here," Crystal replied, pointing to the building to her left. Angela looked at the building, which was large but looked like it was in need of maintenance. The paint was chipping off and one of the front windows was cracked. The sign overhead was still perfectly readable, however, and confirmed that the building was indeed Professor Elm's Pokemon Lab. Looking back the way they came, Angela could still see Crystal's house. It was practically in throwing distance from where they were now.

"New Bark Town is kinda... small, isn't it?" Angela asked.

"I don't think the population even reaches triple digits," Crystal replied with a slight smile. "On the bright side, everyone knows everyone."

Angela's suspicions about New Bark Town being small - even moreso than most small, rural towns with a pokemon research facility - were further confirmed when she went inside. The lab was pretty quiet. And empty. There wasn't a soul to be seen as they walked through the middle of the building. The only individuals in the lab, aside from themselves and the two pokemon dragging themselves across the floor behind Angela, were two men in labcoats standing in front of a computer at the far end of the lab.

"Did everyone else have the day off?" Angela asked quietly.

"This is everyone," Crystal replied. Indeed, the young, glasses-wearing man seated at the computer with a lab coat draped over him was Professor Elm himself. The younger aide standing behind him, who didn't even seem like he'd be in his twenties yet, was his one and only aide.

"The professor must not be very good then..." Angela commented. Crystal shot her a sharp look but said nothing as they were now easily within earshot of the professor. In fact, Elm had heard their footsteps approaching finally and looked up from his computer.

"Crystal!" Elm said as he suddenly stood up and rushed over to her, nearly knocking his aide over in the process. "You brought the pokemon right? RIGHT!"

"Of course I did!" Crystal replied, backing a few steps away from the professor to give herself some personal space. She then reached down and took the three pokeballs from her belt. "See? They're right here."

"Oh, thank you!" Elm replied and breathed a sigh of relief. "I was just talking to Ethan's mother earlier. He's planning to leave on a pokemon journey and needs a pokemon. With you delivering those pokemon for me to research today I thought I could give him one and have him raise it for me, but then I was worried you might have forgot or they might not be ready and..."

"Ethan is leaving on a pokemon journey...?" Crystal asked quietly. Everyone looked at her curiously when they noticed the saddened tone of her voice, causing her to blush and quickly correct herself saying, "W-well you know what they say, right? All boys leave home eventually!"

"Girls too," Angela said flatly.

But must don't go as far as you did! Crystal thought as she glanced over at Angela. Looking back at Elm she cleared her throat and asked, "So when is Ethan coming by anyway?" Before Elm could answer, a boy's voice interrupted them.

"He's already here." Everyone looked to the opposite end of the lab to the now open door at the entrance. A young boy wearing a red jacket, black capris, and a black and yellow hat was leaning against the inside of the door. His arms were crossed and a pair of shades with orange lenses covered his eyes.

"Ethan!" Crystal said in disbelief.

"Close enough," Ethan replied, grinning as he turned to the group. He reached up and pulled down his glasses so he could look out over them. "Because from today on I'll be known as Ethan, the Gold Trainer!"

"Gold trainer?" Crystal asked, blinking in confusion.

"Who's this weirdo?" Angela asked Crystal.

"That's Ethan, he's a friend of mine," Crystal replied. Angela rolled her eyes.

"Friend. Sure," she said quietly. Meanwhile, as he finally neared the group, Ethan glanced over at Angela and raised an eyebrow.

"Who's the new girl?" he asked Crystal. Angela responded first, however.

"I'm her new bodyguard," Angela replied. Crystal's hand went straight to her forehead.

"Bodyguard?" Ethan raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "Well, whatever you say. This town could use a strong trainer. And I don't plan on sticking around." He then looked to Elm and said, "So where are those pokemon, anyway?"

"Your timing couldn't be better, Ethan! Crystal here just arrived to deliver the pokemon!" he said, then gestured to an empty table. "Crystal, could you let the pokemon out and put them on that table?"

"Sure," Crystal replied. She walked over to the table and took the three pokeballs from her belt, then proceeded to release them one by one.

The first pokemon to appear on the table was a four-legged, grass-type pokemon with a leaf on its head. The pokemon looked around at the people gathered with a disinterested look on its face, then reached up to comb back the leaf on its head. A line of seeds encircled the pokemon's neck, giving it the appearance of wearing a necklace.

"This is chikorita," Crystal explained. "He's a grass-type pokemon. Kinda vain. He gets really distressed if he gets any dirt or mud on himself, especially on his leaf." Ethan nodded, but said nothing. Crystal could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't too interested in a vain grass-type pokemon.

The next pokemon Crystal released was a small, black-furred mammalian pokemon with a long snout and small eyes. On its back were several small red dots. Seeing the chikorita next to it, the pokemon grinned and flames shot up from those dots on its back. The chikorita was startled into falling off the table.

"Umm... this one is a cyndaquil..." Crystal sheepishly explained to Ethan. "He's a bit of a troublemaker and is usually tormenting the chikorita. You can probably tell what type he is." A grin spread across Ethan's face almost instantly. He already knew which pokemon he wanted.

Even though it was pretty clear Ethan had already made his choice, Crystal proceeded to release the third pokemon. A blue reptilian pokemon with red spines along its back appeared. The pokemon's eyes immediately narrowed into a glare as it looked around the room. Its gaze eventually came to rest on Crystal and it folded its small arms.

"Finally, this one is a totodile." A slight smirk crossed Crystal's lips as she gestured to the small pokemon. "He likes to act tough but really he wouldn't hurt a fly. I think he feels like he has a reputation to keep because of his species."

"I bet he evolves into something really mean-looking!" Angela said excitedly.

"-I don't see what's so special about him.-" Bitey said, glaring at the totodile. "-I bet I could swallow that thing whole!-"

"You could say that..." Crystal replied to Angela.

"Whether or not something looks mean doesn't matter when it comes to pokemon. What really matters is the bond that exists between pokemon and trainer!" Ethan walked over to the table and picked the cyndaquil up in both hands. "And I have a feeling you and me are going to go far, little guy! From now on, I'm calling you Crimson!"

"-Crimson, huh?-" the cyndaquil repeated curiously, then shrugged. "-Works for me.-"

"An excellent choice!" Elm said. "Now, Ethan, could you come over here for a moment? There's something I would like you to do for me." Elm motioned for Ethan to come over to the computer so he could show him something on the monitor. Meanwhile, Angela approached the table so she could take a closer look at the totodile.

"So what does this evolve into anyway?" she asked Crystal. The totodile raised an eyebrow at her, wondering why she cared so much.

"Umm... well..." Crystal pondered how to explain it for a moment and scratched her head. "He just... gets bigger and meaner, really..." Crystal said.

Angela turned to Crystal and pointed at the pokemon. "I want it."

Somehow I'm getting the feeling that she shouldn't have it, Crystal thought. To explain it to Angela, she said, "Professor Elm needs the rest of these pokemon for his research."

Angela pouted and then started down through the lab. "Bitey, Gorey, come on! We're going fishing!" she called out to her pokemon, then stormed out of the lab with the two pokemon in tow.

"What's her problem?" Crystal wondered. She shrugged and looked over toward Elm and Ethan. Elm was explaining the errand he wanted Ethan to run, asking him to visit someone named Mr. Pokemon. Crystal couldn't help thinking it was a weird name. However, she realized that she didn't need to stick around. Her job was to deliver the pokemon and she had done that, so now it was time to leave.

"Umm..." Ethan and the professor looked up from the computer as Crystal began to speak. "I guess I'll be leaving now. Good luck on your journey, Ethan!"

"You don't need to worry about me!" Ethan said with a grin. "By the time I return to New Bark Town, I'll be the first trainer ever to beat the Johto Elite Four!"

"I don't know, they're pretty tough..." Crystal said to him. The Johto Elite Four was formed just over two years ago. Though it currently shared the same building with the Kanto Elite Four at Indigo Plateau, the Johto Elite Four were a separate group and said to be the most powerful Elite Four there were. They had yet to be defeated and even the most powerful gym leader, Clair of Blackthorn City, a gym leader said to be able to hold her own against the Elite Four, was unable to beat even one member of the new Johto Elite Four.

"I'll just have to be even tougher then!" Ethan replied.

"If you say so," Crystal said. "Anyway, I'll see you around then!" Crystal then quickly left the lab. No one in the lab seemed to notice the darkened figure peering in through the window...


After leaving the lab, Crystal returned home. She was alone this time and Angela was nowhere in sight. When she got home she went straight to the backyard, carrying a bag of pokemon feed she had retrieved from the house. A group of pokemon comprised of various species from all around Johto approached Crystal as soon as they noticed she had food.

"Sometimes you'd almost think all pokemon were the same," Crystal said, shaking her head. She immediately set to pouring out food into dishes so the pokemon could feed. Among the pokemon gathered were the pidgey and sentret from before, hoothoot, a pair of poliwags, a swinub, snubbull, mareep, natu, wooper, and smoochum. All were pokemon that were found abandoned in the wild, either by trainers or by other pokemon. Some were brought in as babies, left to fend for themselves after their parents were caught by other trainers.

While Crystal was feeding the pokemon, her mother came to the door. She was quiet and her presence went unnoticed by Crystal or the pokemon. Roxy scanned the backyard, looking for someone.

"Where did your bodyguard go?" Roxy asked her daughter. Crystal stopped what she was doing and turned to her.

"You mean Angela? She went fishing for some reason," Crystal said. She then quickly finished putting out food, emptying the bag into one last dish. The smoochum - a small, babyish pokemon with large lips - approached the dish and picked up a single piece of kibble, which it popped into its mouth and sucked on noisily. The piece of kibble stuck in its mouth made it look like it was sucking on a pacifier.

Roxy shook her head. "A proper bodyguard shouldn't be leaving her guardee so readily. What if someone were to attack our house while she was gone!"

Crystal shook her head. "Like someone really would..."

"Hmm..." Roxy studied her daughter's composure. "Crystal... is something bothering you?"

Crystal blinked and looked back at her mother again. "Huh?"

"You sound upset about something," her mother said. "If something's bothering you, you can tell me about it."

"Well..." Crystal explained to her mother what happened at the lab, about how Ethan was leaving to become a pokemon trainer. After Crystal's explanation, Roxy smiled to herself.

"Well, dear, why don't you go on a journey, too?" her mother suggested. "In fact, I think it would be a good idea if you and Angela took the remaining pokemon you gave Elm. He needs trainers to raise those, afterall. You could take the chikorita and Angela could take the totodile."

"I couldn't do that!" Crystal replied. "What about the pokemon here? Someone has to look after them!"

"I can look after them just fine. If you took a few of them with you it'd be even less work, too," Roxy pointed out to her. "And wouldn't it be fun if you had your own pokemon to battle against Ethan with?"

"I guess, but I'm not all that into battling..."

"Then perhaps you'd be better suited to pokemon who are good at disabling enemy pokemon instead?" her mother suggested, then reached down to pick up the feeding smoochum. "Like this one. She learns an interesting little kissing attack that puts enemy pokemon to sleep!"

"Hmm..." Crystal was slowly coming around to the idea of leaving with pokemon now and turned to inspect the rest of the feeding pokemon. "A mareep could disable pokemon with paralyzing electricity, stantler and hoothoot can learn sleep-inducing attacks like Hypnosis, and I think a wooper can yawn stuff to sleep..."

"Now you're getting the idea, dear," her mother said, putting the smoochum down and clasping her hands together. "Now let's get you some pokeballs and put those pokemon in them! If Ethan is going to become a pokemon trainer then my daughter won't be far behind!"

"I don't think I can be as good as Ethan..." Crystal quietly admitted. "But if he's leaving, then I won't stick around either! I'll train my new pokemon so I can go anywhere I want!"

"That's the spirit, Crystal!" Her mother said enthusiastically. "In fact, I've kept a pokegear set aside for just such an occassion!"

Crystal and her mother then went into the house and set to work getting her ready to leave on her pokemon journey.


Meanwhile, inside the pokemon lab, two pokeballs remained sitting on the table. Elm had put the pokemon back inside them before deciding to take a break. The only other employee in the lab was on break as well, meaning the lab was now empty. It was the perfect time for the red-haired, teenage boy waiting outside the lab to kick in the window and jump inside.

"Heh... guess these guys haven't heard of security before," the boy mused to himself. He made his way over to the table and grabbed the two pokeballs. "This is much easier than trying to steal pokemon from that ranch or whatever. Even weak pokemon can be a pain in large numbers. But stealing from an unguarded, run-down lab like this is a piece of cake.

The boy clipped his two pokeballs to his belt and headed for the exit. There hardly seemed to be a need for stealth now. That line of thinking would soon cost him, though. For as soon as he opened the front door he almost ran straight into a brown-haired girl wearing a mob cap. The two stared at each other in silence for a moment until the girl suddenly shrieked.

"THIEF! THERE'S A THIEF AT THE LAB!" she screamed, then turned to run.

"Shit!" the boy spat. He took off after the girl and quickly proved to be the more athletic of the two, almost catching up with her before suddenly being stopped by a wall of water that rose up around him.

"Now what!" the boy growled. He looked around him and saw the water was swirling around him in a wide circle and rose to just over his head. Two serpent-like pokemon could be seen swimming through the water, moving in a circle around him. "A whirlpool technique. Being used by two pokemon..."

"That's right!" a girl's voice called out to him. "And I wouldn't try moving past that water if I were you. With how fast it's moving it'll easily tear a human to shreds!"

The boy smirked. "Pretty ruthless. And those pokemon... you're the girl that was in the lab before, aren't you?"

"That's right, too!" the girl replied. Angela was standing several feet back from the whirlpool with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face. "I'll be taking those pokemon back now! Bitey, Gorey, get 'em!"

"-Got it!-" the two pokemon called out in unison. The two then shot out of the water, aiming to strike the boy trapped in the center. Gorey's mouth cut across the back of his black jacket, but he managed to lean back and avoid being hit by Bitey.

"Attacking a trainer... hmph, I was right to call you ruthless," the trainer said to Angela. "Who would have guessed? But, then, you're a foreigner, aren't you?"

"What about it?" Angela asked in a defensive tone.

The boy reached for a pokeball on his belt, one that wasn't stolen from the lab. "Then you and your pokemon have something in common..."

"What's that?"

"You're both fish out of water!" The boy aimed his pokeball at the base of the whirlpool and pressed the release button. The pokeball opened and a red beam fired out and materialized into a small electric rodent. The pokemon was a pichu, though it was colored more like a pikachu.

"Pichu, Thundershock the whirpool!" the boy ordered. The pokemon let out a cry and fired a blast of electricity into the wall of water swirling around it and its trainer, wincing in pain from the power of its own electricity. The two pokemon swimming in the whirlpool cried out in pain shortly after as the electricity passed through the whirlpool, shocking both of them and causing the whirlpool to collapse.

"Hmph." The boy smirked and quickly recalled his pichu. "Good try, but I won't be caught by a weakling like you!" he said. Then he took off running toward the entrance to Route 29 while Angela's pokemon were left high and dry.

"Argh!" Angela stomped her foot against the ground. "He got away with the pokemon I wanted to take!"

"He got away with what?" a voice asked from behind her. Angela turned around to see Crystal standing there, now with a belt that was one pokeball short of a full team.

"Umm... w-well..." Angela stammered.

"You can explain later," Crystal said to her, then looked off toward the nearby route. "We've got a thief to catch."


Author's Notes: And here we have the start of the Johto Saga of Pokemon Legends, aka Region Zero. This is the last saga I plan to write for the Pokemon Legends series. I want to try to move a bit quicker with this one, cutting out fillerish chapters and pokemon captures. That's one thing I've been pretty guilty of, too many pokemon per trainer. So there won't be many captures this time around. Crystal has almost a full team and Angela is pretty specific in what pokemon she wants. So instead of a lot of captures I'll try to work on developing Crystal's pokemon instead.

Some of you are probably wondering why the rival had a pichu, which he never has in the games. For the rival I plan to have him releasing some pokemon, kinda like Paul in the anime. In the games the rival mentions just getting stronger pokemon to deal with trainers he can't beat, so he strikes me as the type to release pokemon that he considers weak. So he'll probably have a few temporary pokemon over the course of the story.

Next chapter will continue from where this one left off and, hopefully, get into the first gym battle.