Slowly, the sun was sinking over Pallet, dipping into the far horizon to the west. Baryl Ketchum rocked back and forth in his chair, watching the Pidgey fly across the orange skies, trying to get back to their nests before night fell. Taking a long draw from his pipe, he shifted to look at the figure coming up the path towards the house.
From this distance, and in this lighting, he could not recognise the person coming up the path and so, gently nudging his Espeon with his boot, he reached past the lemonade on the table to grasp the shotgun he kept near. Bringing it back to him, he lay it across his lap as Espeon sat up on her haunches.
This was all for naught, as the figure became visible easily enough. A grey-haired old man, wearing a long lab coat, with a large grin on his face strolled up to the house, skipping two steps at a time as he climbed onto the porch. Slouching into one of the seats beside Baryl, the professor mock-wiped his brow. "I must be getting weaker in my old age."
Shaking his head, still smiling, he went on, "All that walking took it out of me." Turning to the Espeon, he petted her on the head, chatting all the while. "Of course, you've just been sitting here all day, Baryl." The other grey-haired man shrugged.
"It entertains me." The Espeon mewed tiredly, as the professor scratched behind the ears. "What're you doing here anyway, Oak?" Immediately, the jovial mood of the other man disappeared.
"There are riots and protests in Viridian." Baryl turned to him, a brow raised. "The gym leader -and most of his higher ups- have just up and vanished." Oak turned back to Baryl, eyes hard. "We're witnessing total chaos. There aren't enough gym trainers left to defend Viridian from wild pokemon, not enough to protect the government buildings, hell, there aren't enough to defend the caravans coming south!" He sighed, leaning back. "The outer regions of the city are slowly being infested, the rioters are attacking city hall and we can't get any supplies from the north."
Baryl narrowed his eyes at Oak. "Why are you telling me this?" Oak grinned again.
"Your grandson, Reginald-is that his name? I'm so used to calling him Red-never mind that." Oak leaned over, a finger pointed at Baryl. "He's going on his journey tomorrow, isn't he?" Baryl grimaced.
Red, while he had stayed just above the required grades to avoid becoming a trainer for nearly four years, had finally succumbed, getting a D in all subjects last School year. Thus, Red was forced to become a trainer and get at least 4 badges in order to be allowed to return to his Mother's custody. The boy, while actually quite bright, was cripplingly lazy, deciding to hang out with the Oak boy, who had also dropped below the requirements, rather than do homework.
"Yeah, he's goin'." No matter how many times the boy begged, whined and raged, he was still going, by League regulation with the "Control Act", designed to control populations of dangerous pokemon, after a wild Gyarados destroyed Cinnabar mansion.
Oak beamed. "Of course! Now, you already have a starter for him, right?" Baryl nodded.
"A Nidoran. Ash bred it for us from his Nidoking, Champ." Ash always said that Nido was going to win the Saffron GP for him. Of course, the fact that it had more firepower than a gunboat helped that case. The other man motioned him closer, cupping his hands around Baryl's ear conspiratorially when he leaned over.
"With these recent developments in Viridian, I may be able to justify also giving him a starter. Two are better than one, you know?" Baryl pulled back, a frown beginning to form.
"I don't know..." Baryl had always been a more classical trainer, believing that people shouldn't get hand outs. After all, he had caught his first pokemon on his own, before the advent of the pokeball.
"Would you rather he entered a rioting city with only a Nidoran, a Rattata and a Pidgey?" Sighing in defeat, Baryl held his hand out.
"You got a deal, Oak."
Buzz.
Buzz.
Buzz.
Bu-SLAM!
...Buzz.
Thud.
Red looked up at the white ceiling from his new viewpoint on the floor. Funnily enough, it didn't change much. Buzz. His alarm clock, despite taking a hefty hit, was still buzzing. Red sat up, resting his arm on his bent knee.
Today was the day he would set out. On this day, he would venture forth into the wilderness, with but a Nidoran by his side. Of course, he was not happy about that, rather wishing to stay at home playing video games and fantasising about what the Nurse Joys get up to after hours.
But thou must!, cried the government in his mind. And thus, sighing, he got to his feet. Sweeping through his drawers, he stuck on a pair of trackies, a plain white t-shirt and his lucky red baseball cap.
Picking up his bag and stepping into his beaten old trainers, he walked to the door. Pausing, he turned back to his room, to the poster covered walls, the unmade bed, closed blinds and blank TV. This might be the last time I see it., he realised.
With a longing gaze, he turned from the room, out to his future.
Being unenthusiastic about the whole idea, Red tried to go as slow as he could when going downstairs. Eventually he reached the bottom, however, and was forced to walk into the kitchen to face his Grandfather and Mother, who would likely be on the verge of disowning him.
"Hey, 'lil bro!"
His head shot up from its current viewpoint of his feet...in time to get smacked in the face with a red and white sphere. Orientation and gravity seemed to shift, as Red found himself on his back with a small pink rabbit on his chest. Blinking, the rabbit squeaked in confusion, swirling around until its large red eyes found what it was looking for and leaped off the tired, confused and hungry young man.
Dazed, he sat up, glaring at the small animal, before he realised what it was attached to. Or who. A muscled, 20 year old man sat in one of the seats around the Kitchen table, gently scratching behind the pink-furred rabbit's ear, making sure to avoid the spikes on its back and the horn on it forehead and the small spines on the edges of its ears.
Grinning, the man shook his head in amusement, wild black hair shaking with it and brown eyes glittering with boyish glee. A tattered greatcoat hung off the back of his seat, black, contrasting with his bright green T-shirt and bright blue jeans.
Red's sour mood disappeared in an instant, replaced with joyous smile. "Ash!" The 15 year-old all but sprinted to his brother, locking him in a tight hug. However, he was forced back as the Nidoran got startled and tried to stab him.
Minutes later...
"What're you doing here?"
Ash handed over the now peaceful Nidoran to Red, now seated, saying, "To give you your starter." A look of sudden realisation came over him as well. "Oh yeah!" Ash began digging around in the rucksack deposited at his feet, explaining while he did that, "Oak'll be busy at his office so he asked me to-Yeah!"
With a triumphant flourish, Ash ripped 8 Pokeballs and a Pokedex from the bag, depositing them on the table. Strangely, though 6 of the balls had small yellow lights on their equator, and one had a red light, proving that to be Nidoran's, one had a blue light, signifying that it had a current occupant.
"Um, Ash, that one has a Pokemon in it." The older man glanced at the ball briefly and said, "Yeah, present from Oak." Curious, Red picked the sphere up in his hands, sliding his ring finger into the circle at the back, before casting the ball at the floor, the circle staying put, connected to the pokeball by a thin metal wire.
Impacting the floor, the ball cracked open, releasing a white light which coalesced into a small purple ball with stubby feet. Sticking from its back was a silvery, muscular tail, while on top of it was a pair of googly little eyes sitting just above a little pink pig nose. Despite this cuteness, the front of the little beast was semi-transparent, showcasing its organs just beyond the white patch, though dominated by the spiral shape of its intestines.
Squeaking, the pokemon sprayed Ash in the face from fright.
Nidoran did not take kindly to that, leaping from Red's lap to do battle. Before it did, the smell of food wafted across the Kitchen, and the boys' mother -whom Red scarcely knew was in the Kitchen- brought two plates filled with Bacon, Eggs, Sausage and other breakfast foods to the table.
Salivating, the two warriors stopped in their tracks, leaping into the trainers' laps, expecting to be fed (Poliwag apologising by wiping Ash's face with his tail). As they fed the pokes and ate themselves, they chatted.
"For the first Route, I'm gonna be accompanying you." Red stole a quick look at his brother, while giving his Nidoran a nice, crispy strip of Bacon. "Can't have you going alone, since Blur left a few days ago."
"Why can't I go alone?" Red whined, causing his brother to snort.
"So that you're not just having sex with random females on the Route!" Ash's face darkened, and he brought his gaze down to the ceramic floor tiles, as he gave some of his scrambled eggs to Poliwag, who absorbed it through the centre of the white patch. "But really, Viridian's been going crazy these past few days." Returning his eyes to meet Red's gaze he continued, "So I'll be watching you as far as the Viridian forest. After that, I'll meet you in Cerulean."
He cracked a grin. "You'll love it there, all the female Gym trainers wear bikinis." Slamming his fist on the the wooden table, he went about stating, "IT. IS. AWESOME!"
Red smiled briefly, but looked worriedly at the door his mother had left through. "Why's mom so quiet today? It's unusual..." Ash shrugged.
"Did the same with me when I left. Called me two days later all chipper, wanting to save money for me." Lifting his fork to his mouth, he finished, "Just leave her be."
Red nodded. "So, how many badges you planning on getting?" Red looked out the window, nonchalantly eating as he did so. "Probably four, just so-"
At this, Ash slammed his fist into the table, screaming, "WHAAAAAAAAAAT!" Poliwag jumped off his lap, darting behind the bin for safety, as Nidoran crouched, covering its ears with its paws. Red was taken aback as Ash continued to scream. "You'll do no such thing. You're gonna keep going and we'll have a big battle in the Finals of the Saffron GP later this year, and we'll both be masters and...and...RRGH!" Red merely nodded, scared of his brother.
Soon, they finished and started to leave the house, ("Better to leave with no ceremony." Ash instructed.) when their Mother embraced Red in a tight hug. "Come back safely," she sobbed, crying into his hat.
"Didn't give me no hug." He heard Ash mutter, irritated, as his Mother bundled a small flip-phone called a Pokegear into his hand, before tearfully sending him on his way off the porch and down the dirt road to Viridian City...