The Shadow of Pallet…
"Honey!" shouted Louis's Mother from down stairs, "Professor Oak wanted to speak to you; wake up!" Louis opened his eyes wide and smiled, today was the day. He was thirteen now which meant he would have to start his journey later than the other kids, such as his friend Red who had started his journey through the Pokémon League five days prior to now. He bounded out of his bed and threw the covers on the ground without a care in the world except for finding out what his first Pokémon would be. He shrugged on his black hoodie with thick sky blue stripes going horizontal, over his yellow T-shirt. He grabbed his baggy pair of dark gray cargo pants and put those on with his blue sneakers. He ran by his desk and grabbed his pair of sky blue goggles and put them on his head atop his dark brown hair. His hair was long and it created wings as it grew off to the side. He also grabbed the PokéBall that his father had given him before he left, a Premier Ball, completely white with a ring of red going around the center of the capsule. He trampled the floorboards beneath his eager feet as he made his way down the stairs to his mother.
"Hi Mom," he grabbed a juice box out of her hand as he ran by, "Bye Mom!" he opened the door to the morning sun shining in his face to his left, he finished his drink and threw it into nearby trash bin and began the run to Professor Oak's lab. He had been waiting for this day his whole life; Louis's father had become the champion of the Pokémon league at the age of thirteen himself and Louis was looking to follow in his footsteps. He had a legacy to live up to and no one was going to keep him from it. Louis had always wondered to himself, what if these Pokémon don't like fighting for us? Should we still make them fight if they do? But his father had waved his concerns away by telling him how if his Pokémon trusted him enough they would do anything for him, and likely enjoy it to boot. It took a few minutes but he finally arrived at Professor Oak's Laboratory. The large white building towered above all else in Pallet town, not like anyone minded however. Louis opened the door to his lab and saw numerous research assistants tending to different types of machinery and technology that Louis had no idea even existed.
"Ah! There you are Louis." Professor Oak stood with a large black egg with gray spots in his hands.
"Hi Professor!" he waved. Louis walked over to the other side of the room with Professor Oak and they sat down in two very comfy swivel chairs. Oak sat the egg down in between the two of them.
"Now, this is a Pokémon egg, see…" he pointed to the egg as it shook slightly.
"It moved!" exclaimed Louis, Oak let out a small giggle and then composed himself.
"I received this egg with a note a night ago and it seems to be from your Dad.
"What's it say Doc?"
"It said that he would like you to have it and that he thinks it may be the egg of his own Umbreon, although I'm not sure why an Eevee egg would have such strange coloration?"
"What does it usually—" the egg began to crack.
"By golly it's actually hatching!" little by little the egg began to crack all around and then it began glowing.
"What's happening Professor!?" questioned Louis.
"Pokémon eggs don't hatch, they 'Evolve'." Just then the egg began to morph into the shape of an Eevee, and…
"E~evee!" said the hatchling. The professor had a look of misperception on his face. Louis didn't notice anything wrong.
"Oh my god it's so cu~u~ute!" he said. Professor Oak was rubbing his chin and mumbling to himself.
"Good news Louis." He looked up as he was playing with his new friend, "I think your new Eevee may be 'Shiny'." Louis had studied Pokémon physiology before in Pokémon School, and he had heard of shiny Pokémon. "You see this Eevee is supposed to be brown, but he is not." He was correct; the Eevee's coat was silver and seemed to be shimmering.
"Who cares when he has a smile like that!" he held up the Eevee to Professor Oak's face. It made a happy sound and tried to make its way free of Louis's grasp to go play some more. "Can I go now? I want to go train!" Oak appeared quite startled.
"This is just a newborn, you have to be careful!"
"Don't worry," he reassured himself, "I won't let anything hurt Shadow."
"Shadow?"
"Yeah," he said smiling with the Eevee still in his hands, "His egg was black so I'm gonna call him Shadow!"
"Vee~Vee!" agreed Shadow. Oak chuckled.
"I think it's a fine name, who knows one day it might become an Umbreon like your Father's." Louis Scoffed.
"The chances of that happening are pretty darn slim."
"Honey where are you going!?" shouted his mother; he had forgotten about her completely. Shadow was sitting on his shoulder as Louis ran to his mother. He gave her a big hug and looked up at her. They were standing outside their house.
"Mom! I'm going on my Pokémon adventure like dad!" she smiled and closed her eyes, eventually reaching down to kiss him on the head.
"I'm not going to stop you," she looked greatly worried, "But… just be careful okay sweetie." Louis rolled his eyes and moaned.
"I'm not a kid anymore Mom, I can take care of myself."
"Vee!" yelped Shadow as he began wagging his bushy tail.
"It's so darn cute!" she spoke as she bent down to pet the silver fox on its head; Shadow's tongue was sticking out.
"I named him Shadow." Smiled Louis, he was proud of his new friend.
"Why Shadow?"
"His egg was black." His mother looked confused.
"So it just hatched?" she asked, "Like, today?"
"Yeah, no time to talk Mom gotta' go!" he ran into the house and ran up the stairs, he began packing anything he could carry with him on his journey; meanwhile Shadow was bounding up and down across the room excitedly. Louis looked over and saw a box on his desk.
"When you start your Pokémon journey I want you to take what's in this box. There are a lot of bad people out there and I have seen my fair share, this will protect you when your Pokémon partners cannot." His father had instructed. He leaned over the desk and opened the black box to reveal a large baton of some sort; it was completely black and had a button on the handle. An instruction booklet lay beside it.
"Press the red button on the Baton to activate its electronic capabilities, capable of rendering a human being unconscious for a few hours; to be used in self-defence only blah blah blah." He threw the booklet behind himself and Shadow caught it in his mouth. He picked the baton up out of the box and saw a blue button on the other side. "What does this do?" he pressed it and the baton retracted into the hilt, Louis was relatively surprised. He shrugged and hooked it to his Poke-ball belt through one of the loops. He ran back down the stairs with a black knapsack of supplies on his back and Shadow in his arms, whom was still smiling. His mother caught him at the bottom of the steps.
"Here," she said holding a plastic card in her outstretched hand, "This is a bank card full of money that your father left for you, he wanted to make sure you were prepared for your… adventure." He grabbed it out of her hand and embraced her in another hug.
"Love you." He said before running out the door with Shadow now on his shoulder again. She never got to say goodbye, just like her husband.
"Chase!" waved Louis. Chase was a good childhood friend of his and they were almost always together. A boy with large thick rimmed glasses looked up from a book that he was reading whilst sitting on the grass. His hair was long and dark and through his spectacles you could see his brown eyes. He stood up and brushed off his blue jeans and black hoodie. Beside him sat a black backpack.
"What is it?" he sighed. Louis ran down the field as fast as he could and slid to a halt right before him.
"Check this out!" he held out his premier ball and pressed the button so it could enlarge.
"You finally got one!?"
"I know right, it's so awesome!" Chase put his hands up.
"Hold that thought." He kneeled down beside his pack and produced from it a PokéBall with an orange upper layer with black stripes across it. "I wonder if our Pokémon will like each other…" hinted Chase.
"Good idea!" agreed Louis. Both at once they released the Pokémon from their balls in large flashes of white light. Shadow the shiny Eevee materialized from the white ball that Louis held and from Chase's ball came another dog like Pokémon with a bright orange coat and black stripes.
"Shadow," pointed Louis, "Meet Fenrir the Growlithe." The Growlithe was almost double the Eevee's size, Shadow stood at only one-and-a-half feet; Fenrir stood at two-and-a-half.
"Vee!" said Shadow happily. He seemed surprisingly unafraid of the larger Pokémon.
"Grrrrow!" Fenrir replied happily. They sat there yelping at each other for a few seconds before bouncing off to play in the fields.
"That went better than expected." Smiled Louis. Louis looked over to see Chase with his mouth opened wide.
"Why is your Eevee silver… and sparkling?" he asked with a twitching finger pointed out towards the field.
"He's shiny, weren't you in Poké-Biology too?" Chase took a second to compose himself as he picked up his backpack off the ground. The two of them started off towards their Pokémon in the field.
"Yeah but the odds of getting a Shiny Pokémon are 8,192 to one; I never expected you to end up with one."
"Yeah well this one just hatched from a Pokémon egg, a miscoloured one at that." While still walking Chase turned his head towards Louis.
"Are you sure it's such a smart idea to be bringing him out so young?"
"Don't worry, I'm gonna become the world's best Pokémon breeder and evolution expert!" he threw his hands in the air, "I know what I'm doing." Chase just shrugged.
"I hope so…" they sat down beside Shadow who was rolling around in the grass and Fenrir who was watching him. "When are we going to go collect all of the badges like we had planned?" asked Chase.
"Today!" he exclaimed, Chase looked taken back, "It's still early in the morning so we might as well get going soon right?" Chase was shocked.
"I-I-I don't know how I wo-would explain that to my Mom. I-I—"
"Okay it's settled, I'll give you two hours to get ready and I'll meet you by the town gates!" he grabbed Shadow up off the ground and hoisted the Pokémon onto his shoulders. As Louis ran across the field Chase sighed and grabbed up his bags, whistling for Fenrir to follow after him.
Louis sat on a bench beside the entrance to Pallet-Town with his Eevee in his arms and his knapsack beside him. He was so excited that he could hardly contain himself and his rambunctious new-born friend wasn't helping that. For a baby Pokémon he was surprisingly obedient and seemed to understand when Louis said to do something. Shadow looked up at his master through black eyes with a smile on his face.
"Ee-Ee-Vee?" it said. Louis smiled back.
"Don't worry," he assured, "Chase and Fenrir will be here any moment." Sure enough after an hour and a half of waiting they arrived. It was strange, it seemed to Louis as if he could actually UNDERSTAND what his Pokémon was trying to convey to him, although he couldn't understand how that would work. Chase made his way up the road with his own knapsack full of supplies and Fenrir in tow; as he got closer a breeze mussed up his hair and he had to brush it back with his hand.
"My mother was sure surprised…" he said, "But she was happy that I would finally get to see Kanto." He reached into his pack and brought out two watches, or what appeared to be watches.
"What is this?" asked Louis as he sat up and let Shadow leap onto the ground; Louis snatched the blue one out of Chase's hand.
"They're new from The Unova Region, they're called X-Transceivers and we can use them to call whoever we want." He pointed at Louis's, "Yours already has mine and your mother's numbers registered in it." Louis put the gadget on his wrist.
"Wow, thanks!"
"Don't thank me," said Chase while shaking his head, "My Mom had them lying around and gave them to me, apparently she was planning ahead." He smiled and looked behind himself, towards the town, "So we're really going to do this?" Louis raised his fist in the air.
"It's our destiny!" he shouted. Shadow yelped towards the sky.
"Vee-Veevee!" Chase smiled and shook his head.
"Fine, alright Fenrir let's get going."
"Grrrowl!" He replied. Shadow jumped a good five feet onto Louis's left shoulder and they made their way through the gates, on the road to Viridian City.