This Life
Innocence
The town of Pallet; the home to the leading expert on Pokémon, Professor Oak, or that was its one claim to fame. Now, the unassuming, small place was known for something much more now. Mere minutes had passed since a young man they could call their own had become the Pokémon Indigo League Champion. Its second Champion in under an hour.
Tens of people piled into Viridian City's Pokémon Centre, hoping to catch a glimpse of the television screen above the front desk. The Elite Four had been crushed and so had their new Champion all because one youth took a dream almost too far. That young man became known to these people, and the other countless amount of people watching in Kanto and Johto, as Red.
Red stood with his Charizard, smoke billowed out of it's nostrils after the hard fight he had endured with it's long time rival, a Blastoise belonging to the Champion. That Champion, was Red's own rival, a male known to these people only a short period of time ago, that was, until he had been defeated.
'CHALLENGER WINS' flashed on the screens of the televisions and fireworks went off. The fireworks had been set off an hour before, now their replacements were booming and exploding under the starry sky.
Red's rival collapsed to his knees, bemused but he felt it was okay, like a weight had been lifted. A weight of expectation. His rival was known as Blue.
The Charizard returned to it's Pokéball and Red walked over to his friend, he held out his hand, offering help. Blue obliged and raised to meet eye to eye with his successor.
"Well done, old friend." Blue whispered, wrapping his right arm around Red's back before doing the same with his left, embracing him.
They stood for a minute as the cameras watched, neither of them cared but the crowd kept cheering, Blue raising Red's arm to show him as the new Champion. The shouts from the audience kept coming, Professor Oak walked out on to the field, accompanied by a reporter, she looked eager to get an interview.
"Young man! Young man!" She barked at Red.
"Can we get an interview with the new Champion?" She continued.
Professor Oak held her back, instead muttering to Red about heading to the rear of the stadium. Red nodded and walked with the aged man, Blue instead taking the bullet and talking with the reporter.
Professor Oak took Red through a door emblazoned with the image of a Dragonite, a Pokémon Red had seen, faced and defeated for the first time on this night.
"Come in here 'Red'," the Professor said with a knowing nod.
"We will register you and your Pokémon as the new Champions!" He typed on the almost ancient looking machine, a holographic display flickered on and Red watched as his Pokémon were recorded on screen for the first time.
- Eevee -
- Snorlax -
- Pikachu -
- Wartortle -
- Ivysaur -
- Charizard -
"You've done it m'boy! You've become the Champion!"
Red eyed the tiled flooring, his mentor watching him closely.
"This...this is what you wanted, no?" The older man asked.
"...I-I don't know."
"What do you mean?" Professor Oak was notably unnerved by this reaction.
"I just mean...they're gonna be after me now, aren't they? Pestering me for a battle, every day until I lose."
Professor Oak sympathised with him, the expert had, after all, been close to that ultimate prize himself.
"Listen, we'll go back to Pallet Town and see how this all works out, okay?"
"Okay."
Blue finished his interview with the reporter, grabbing his Pokéballs and walked out of the Indigo Plateau, the enormous trees dwarfing him as they fell back to Viridian City.
Viridian City and Route One had become flooded with people, they were hoping to catch a glimpse of the new Champion in his own environment, cameras flashed as a few policemen cordoned off the area.
"We love you!"
"Marry me!"
"I want to be you!"
They all shouted at Red's bedroom window.
Red's mother walked upstairs as he headed downstairs, she was baffled but asked him anyway, "Why do I have to call my own son, 'Red'?"
"League regulations or something like that. A codename to avoid people taking my real details and stealing Pokémon from me."
"How can they do that anyway?"
"Through the PC. Plus, it's to stop them finding anything out about you either. I'd rather you were safe than not at all. Plus I'll be leaving again soon, then they'll leave Pallet alone shortly and go back to their own lives."
"I know son. You just be careful out there."
"I will be." He smiled a genuine smile, the first one in a long time and he hugged her tightly.
As his mother retired to her room, he went downstairs and watched television, made himself a sandwich, ate it and he became quickly bored. Switching off the television, he rifled through his dumped backpack, finding nothing of interest so he searched the front pocket. In it he grabbed something he had not seen in almost two years, a journal his mother had given him, simply to write notes but he hadn't even bothered to open it. Red peeled the plastic off and he flicked through the crisp, lined, white pages, a satisfying smell came from it. Searching for a good pen, he found his mother's best one and began to write.
Blue walked into his grandfather's laboratory, hands in pockets, shoulders slumped back.
"Gramps..." He started.
"Just a minute Gary..." came the reply from under a desk.
"Gramps, I think I want to be a Gym Leader."
Professor Oak hit his head when he heard 'Gym Leader'.
"You...you do? Why ever so?"
"Well after...'Red' beat me, the noise and the feeling of being so important to the wider scheme of things really made me think."
"You want to make a difference?"
"Yeah. Is that so bad?"
"Of course not! Where would you reside though?"
"I was thinking somewhere in Johto, either that or in Fuchsia. I heard Koga's gonna give it up."
Professor Oak put his hand to his chin, "You really want to do this?"
"Definitely. I think I'll call it Blue's Gym, maybe have a Blue Badge."
"You're not going to go back to your real name? That's awfully strange."
"I know, I know, Red's the Champion, I don't need a code or anything but I think it's ominous, quite mysterious and foreboding."
"Oh-ho! Gar-I mean 'Blue', you go for it then!"
Red scanned over the page and looked to what he had written.
May 30th, year whatever;
I don't really know what to put down here, I'm surprised I remember how to write, it's been so long. Sigh. I just sighed in real life, there, that's something the people want to know about their champ right? He sighs, like the rest of them. STOP THE PRESSES. I am seventeen years old, eighteen in June but who's counting right? I'm Red to them now, I could be a murderer and they wouldn't care, so long as signed their Pokéball or Pokédex. I left here almost two years ago, when I got my Pokémon licence, I got it on my sixteenth birthday, the last semblance of law and order in this place really. The only criminals people care about are Team Rocket and they're gone now, they've seen enough horror and lost enough in their life times anyway. I leave my home once more to set out on another journey, one of self discovery or some other clichéd stuff like that. My name is now Red, I am the Indigo Plateau Pokémon League Champion of both Kanto and Johto.
A.N. I had seen a lack of stories on Red's journey after the Elite Four and Mount Silver on here so I decided to write my own. I have a lot in mind for this so keep reading, thanks in advance for any views/reviews!