A/N: Yay my first fic! :D I am doing this story not for the attention but because its just so fun writing a story! I had this story all planed out so I might be able to update this faster. Please tell me how to improve my story, im new at this. My goal is by the end of this story is to make it have so much emotion and action, kind of like metal gear solid :D.
P.S. This Chapter has been edited a second time. I have rewritten most of the prologue. When I looked back to this prologue I thought, "Dear lord! How could I have been this bad?" I guess this shows how much I've improved through feedback and a betareader (ignore the beta request at the end of each chapter, I like to keep it there for memories) to help me. But no worries, I'll edit this and my previous chapters soon enough.
Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon I just own the characters I made up in the story.
Prologue
War…war can change things… like the way people live… the way we look at people… and possibly the way people act. The date in my time is four thousand ten, and war is a really big thing today in the world. I guess war is just one of those things we can't get enough of. Sometimes we go to war just because we desire something the other one has, like a hungry predator waiting to steal it's competitors prey. Sometimes two countries just hate each others guts so much that they come up with the solution that war will eliminate their foe… but they can't… because they don't have a reason to. Without a reason, the world would look upon that country as a coward with no honor, with intentions for power… the thing that we all fear and depend upon in the hands of a government. It's only a matter of time before we go so deep in the war that we destroy everything on the land and everything we once were… and possibly ourselves. About two thousand years ago, a species named the humans suffered that same fate… in the great war known as World War Three, a war fought between the regions and the countries.
In this war, it was join a side… or get caught in the crossfire between these sides… and die. At first, the war was fought with common manmade weapons used in all warfare… then it was fought with weapons of mass destruction. A majority of the countries stocked up on as many nuclear weapons as they could hold… and their fingers were on the button to release them. They were just waiting for the other one to make the first move, like some kind of staring game. Eventually, one of these countries broke first and launched their nuclear weapons, all at once. It wasn't much of an attack, but soon after that country assaulted its neighboring countries, it caused chain reaction between the others. It was then when they thought that it was now, or never. These countries panicked and press that very button they had their fingers on the whole time. The whole world was in flames, thus turning it into a nuclear fallout. Anything that wasn't incinerated in the blast radius of these weapons, was poisoned by the radiation that that traveled around the world. Eventually, everything in the world disappeared, every plant, every animal, even the humans didn't survive. Everything on the earth stood still… but it didn't. Strangely though, the only thing that survived the nuclear catastrophe… was the pokemon. It was as if the pokemon had some kind immunity against the radiation, even to this day we still don't know how survived the whole incident.
After the war, the pokemon had to rebuild the once beautiful lands that were destroyed, and clean up the mess the humans left behind. About a couple years later, we found out how to use human technology to survive on our own, and use it to clean up the mess they made. It took about a thousand years to cleanse the world of the past. After that was over with, it gave us more time to figure out how human technology worked. Soon however, we inherited the humans method of order to keep the world in check by making our own governments and policies. It wasn't long before we also inherited their weapons, strategies, and methods of war. After we discovered this newfound knowledge, we were eager to use it to good use. One day one of the regions went to war with another country, claiming that they had bad relations… but in truth, the region was just too eager to use its new weapons, to test out their new superiority. It wasn't long before other countries and regions began to think like them, influenced by violence and aggression. Once again the entire world was at war again, but it wasn't as bad as its previously infamous war.
As I said before we may go so deep in the war that we may destroy everything that we once were… well we did just that. Sometimes during a war, when the war seems at its bloodiest… when we witness something over the edge… we may ask ourselves that one question, "Was all this really necessary?" After the world leaders asked themselves that very question, they halted all of their activities of war before creating any further destruction, struggling to preserve what else the world had left.
We soon realized that it was already too late; we already destroyed the way we once lived. We found out that we became the very thing that we all hated the most… we became the humans in the form of pokemon. Ironic that we became the very thing that we all thought was the most evil creatures on the planet.
All the leaders from across the globe came together and agreed to never again to go to war unless the time was absolutely right. About another thousand years later, everything seemed to have settled down a bit. There wasn't as many wars as there were before… there was more talking than fighting. However the big thing that we debate about to this day is how a war between this country and that country could make everyone's lives better in many ridiculous ways.
I bet you're wondering who the heck am I and why am I giving you a speech about war and the past that we once lived in. Well, my name is Jason, Jason the Grovyle. But before tell you about me in the present day, I am going to tell you a memory when I was just a ten year old Treecko, strangely though it's the only childhood memory I have. The region I live in is called Naru, its one of the newer regions that was found in this time. In Naru I live in an enormous fifty story palace that's in the middle of a really thick forest that looks like a green ocean if you look from the top of the palace. I almost forgot to mention that I'm the prince of Naru… its no big deal really, I just hate getting all the attention from everybody. My father, king Ryoto (who is a Sceptile), is always off fighting wars or speaking for Naru. He always worry me and Queen Elizabeth (who is a Megainium), or should I say my mother. Whenever he gets back from a war or some other business he had to attend to, we both try to spend as much time as we can together before Naru enters another crisis. They say that there was never a better father and son than us, which I sometimes believed in. While my dad is off doing his job, my mom handles problems that arises in Naru… but she will soon has her hands… or uh, paws, or whatever, full after I tell you my childhood.
I was just a ten year old Treecko (just to remind you) back then, I recall that it was a dark and chilly night… nights in the Naru region were always so cold that you could see your breath in the freezing air. I was looking out of my window from my room which was placed at the very top of the palace, gazing down at the large group of guests entering the palace. From up there, they all looked like colored moving dots scurrying around. While I was looking over the crowd, my mother was rummaging through my wardrobe, looking for the perfect attire for me to wear at the celebration tonight.
It's a little tradition that we do in Naru, every pokemon that is of royal blood gets a huge birthday party on their tenth birthday, one that is more spectacular than the rest. A birthday to be remembered by the royal child. That's just because the child begins to be educated in how to become a king or queen after the celebration, so I was not looking forward to that.
"Aha! Here's that cape!" my mother exclaimed in joy.
I turned away from the window to see a small red cape being held up in the air in front of me by my mother's vines. "Aw mom, can't I wear something different please?" I pleaded in annoyance.
"Why? This was your fathers when he was little, you will love it!" my mother said with glee.
"No I won't," I said plainly.
"Oh yes you will, now hold still while I put this on." I really didn't want to look like an idiot in front of a crowd of a thousand pokemon, so I did what any other ten year old would do at the time… run away! I quickly leaped into the air, attempting to escape for the door to my room as if my life depended on it. But unfortunately for me, my mother predicted my desperate move and seized me with her vines in mid air. After my mother made sure she had a good hold over me, she restrained me onto the floor with her right vine and then made an effort to put the cape on me with her other. I squirmed under her vine in a fruitless effort to escape her grasp. "Jason please! Im only doing this because I love you!" she said in an irritated tone. "And … there, you see all done!" My mother said once she successfully placed the cape on me. She then carried me over and placed me in front of a mirror, which was to the right of my wardrobe. "Well what do you think?" my mother asked with a grin of accomplishment. I took a second to look at my self with the red cape before turning to my mother.
"I hate it," I simply said. As I was about to reach for the cape to tear it off, my mother stopped me.
"Don't you dare take that off Jason!" my mother yelled with an angry look on her face.
"Okay I'm not doing it!" I quickly said whilst I swiftly placed my arms by my sides in response. Just to let you know, I really don't want to see my mom mad, she is scary!
My mother quickly changed from an angry look on her face, to a face filled with glee. "Good, now let's go down to the ball room," my mother said. I then recalled that my father was coming back from a far away region just for my birthday/celebration. Naru was currently at war with another region at the time, and my father was leading the fight, but since my tenth birthday was coming up, he put his plans for the war on hold just to celebrate my birthday with me. I was really thrilled when I found out that he was coming tonight, so I eagerly followed my mother out my room. We were in the hallway now, the rooms on the fiftieth floor was only reserved for members of the royal family or very important guests. The hallway was so long that you could barely see the other end of it. My room was placed at one end of the hallway while my parents' room was on the other end, and in the middle of it all is a single elevator that would take us to the bottom floor. Once we arrived at the elevator, my mother pushed the button to call the elevator up. Since we were on the fiftieth floor, it takes quite awhile for the elevator to ascend to the top to pick us up.
After impatiently waiting for few minutes that seemed to never pass, I finally heard a light dinging noise signaling the arrival of the elevator. "Yes finally," I said as the elevator doors opened its golden like doors to us.
The both of us walked into the cramped elevator calmly… well that was hard for me knowing that I will see my father tonight, so I was practically quivering with anticipation. My mother then pushed a button to start the elevators descent to the first floor.
Well this is going to take a while, I thought to myself. I then began to think about my father just to pass the time. I haven't seen in how long? I guess about a year and a half. It seems like a pretty long time for my father to be away from home and not come back to say hey how's everybody doing? But I can try to wait. I plan on spending every second I have with him the moment we meet, like any father and son would do if they were separated for some time… then say bye when the time comes. Thinking about our parting already just makes me feel slightly depressed.
The war that Naru was currently in at the time was between us and a neighboring region. I didn't know the details to what caused this war, but it didn't matter to me at the time.
Just for some more background information about Naru, it was originally a colony that migrated from America. Just recently, hundreds of regions began appearing in the Pacific Ocean for some odd reason. This compelling discovery gave way for a new age of exploration, which caused countries from all over the world to quickly claim whatever land was left available for them. Naru of course, is located in the middle of all these regions, in fact its right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
A light dinging noise snapped me out of my thoughts which signaled our stop. After the elevator doors opened I ran out on all fours, eager to get to the ball room to see my father as fast as possible. But unfortunately for me, the white marble floor had just been recently waxed for the party tonight, so I ended up going nowhere. It took me a little while to realize what I was going on so I stopped immediately, but I only accomplished in making myself look like more of an idiot as I slipped onto the floor in a belly flop position. I scanned the area to see if there was anybody who witnessed my embarrassing experience. Nobody was there laugh at me… except my mother who was trying to control her hysterical laughter behind me. I quickly got up with a face bright as a tomato and turned towards my mom.
"Uh, mom, can we just go to the party now?" I suggested, trying to change the subject at hand.
My mother finally stopped laughing and cleared her throat before speaking. "What? Oh right, the ball room. Well let's get a move on, we don't want to keep our guests waiting. But not too fast or else we'll trip," my mother said, whilst suppressing a giggle.
I just sighed and rolled my eyes in response.
Since the palace was extremely huge, we had to go through a series of endless hallways to get to the ball room which was on the other side of the palace. After walking around the palace for a several long minutes, we finally came across a double wooden door to the ball room, which brought great relief over me. My mother pushed the door for me as we entered the ball room. The enormous room was filled with pokemon of all shapes and sizes. Most of the guests were rich families and friends that my mother and father made, very few of these pokemon were also shinys and legendaries. The ballroom is really huge and the ceiling looked high enough to make even the biggest of all pokemon feel comfortable, the right and left sides of the room had glass windows that were as high as the ceiling and you'd be able to see the courtyard surrounding the ballroom. The floor was made entirely out of white marble and the ceiling was decorated with artwork of Pokemon.
I carefully scanned the room for any signs of my father, but after a few seconds I gave up and came to the conclusion that he may be having a chat with somebody inside the crowd.
"Hey Jason over here!" a familiar young voice said. I turned slightly to the left to see a Murkrow waving his right wing in the air to get my attention.
"Mom can I go with my friends, please?" I pleaded to my mother.
My mother thought about it for a second before answering "Well… okay then, I see why not. I'll tell you if I see your father okay?"
"Okay thanks mom!" I replied before dashing off to meet with the little Murkrow. "Hey Leonardo, nice to see you again," I greeted. Leonardo's joyful expression soon changed to a frown of annoyance, I then realized what I did to make him like that.
"Jason I told you guys not call me that, call me Leo okay, got that?" Leonar- I mean, Leo said with an annoyed tone.
"Okay, okay, sorry," I said defensively. "So, where are others?"
Leo quickly removed the frown on his face and said, "They're over at the courtyard, come on we've been waiting for you!" Leo motioned me to follow him as he flew over to the right side of the ballroom where a glass door lay open.
It wasn't long before we found ourselves outside of the palace and in the courtyard. The courtyard is pretty open, so the royal guards had plenty of room to do their daily training and perform other activities. The only thing other than grass growing in the yard was the bushes and flowers that grew on the sides of the place, as well as the trees that grew here and there. Surrounding the courtyard is a hundred foot tall wall that stretches around the property that we own, which is at least five miles long in all directions.
Outside there were several small Pokemon playing a game of tag, who are probably the guests' children. Most of these Pokemon out here are first evolutions, while there were very few miniature Pokemon who don't evolve at all. Within seconds I spotted a Torchic and a Pidove (both are male) sitting next to a tree in boredom. They stood up as soon they caught sight of me and Leo approaching them.
"Hey guys, I found him," Leo announced to the both of them.
"Hey dude where you've you been? We haven't seen you since like forever man," the Torchic said.
"Here in this fancy prison of course Drake," I answered. Drake is a really good friend to me, and an interesting one as well. Drake always traveling Naru with his father, so my friends and I rarely get the chance to see him. While Drake is traveling, his dad teaches him on finding peace. His father seems like a real pacifist. One day I chose to sneak out of the palace and then I came across Drake on the way to town, he wouldn't leave me alone! All he talked about was peace. At that time I really wished that I never snuck out of my prison, but he turned out to be a really nice guy after I got to know him, Drake was probably my first real outside friend.
"Hey, what's up Jason?" The Pidove greeted.
"Fine here. What about you Pax? Crashed into any windows lately?" I chuckled.
A tint of red was visible on Pax's face. "No shut up about that okay!" he said with a hint of hostility.
Here's the story of how I met Pax, one day I was minding my own business in my room, then out of nowhere a Pidove crashes through my window. Leo was trying to teach Pax how to fly that day, but Pax said that he got a little carried away once he got the hang of it. It was a little awkward and hilarious at the same time, just thinking about it made me laugh a little.
We all stayed outside for about half an hour, talking about what has changed since the last time we met, joked around, and even played our own little game of tag around the courtyard. Unfortunately our fun was interrupted when a Charizard named Arthur came up to us and said that my mother needed me.
Arthur is the most respected general in Naru, and is probably the busiest guy around the palace. Arthur has been my fathers' best friend since the day they both met in the army. I remember how my father told me stories about how he and Arthur fought by each others side, saving each others butts more than once. Arthur may be my father's best friend but he's definitely not mine. Why you may ask? Well one day Arthur promised to my father that he would do the job of protecting me while my father was away. So the problem is that he's annoyingly strict... I'm serious! If he sees me quickly walking down a hall he will say don't run, if he sees me play with my friends he will immediately stop the fun and tell me to stop playing so rough, if he sees me climb a tree he will tell me to get down. I'm a Treecko for crying out loud! We climb trees! There's a reason why we have the word tree in our species name!
I said farewell to my friends and told them that I would return after whatever my mother needed me for was done. But before I would be on my way, Arthur, of course, insisted that he would to escort me to my mother, so I had to be walking next to the person I hated most in this world.
I wondered what exactly my mother needed me for, especially on my birthday. However, now that I think about it, my mom did say that she would call me if she saw my father. I grew excited over the thought, all my patience will finally pay off when I see my father again.
After Arthur and I arrived at the ballroom, I desperately scanned the room for any sign of my father. Sadly though, I didn't catch sight him.
He must be somewhere in here, I thought to myself, trying to hold on to whatever hope I had left.
It wasn't long before I found my mom having a friendly chat with a group of several grass types. She however broke away from the group when she spotted me and Arthur approaching her.
"Here he is my queen," Arthur said with his arms behind his back.
"Thank you Arthur, you can take your leave now," my mother said. Arthur nodded in response and went off to somewhere in the crowd of guests.
"Is dad here yet?" I asked with anticipation in my eyes.
"I'm sorry Jason, he's not here yet," my mother said apologetically. My heart sank in disappointment in the absence of my father.
What's taking him so long? I thought.
"Come on Jason, it's time for you to blow out the candles. Everyone is just dying to get a piece of that cake the royal chefs made for you," my mother suggested when she saw the apparent look of disappointment clearly on my face.
Well at least I get to have some cake right now. But another thought came into my mind… He's going to miss me blow out the candles.
My mother brought me to a table in the back of the room, and on it is a 10 foot tall chocolate cake with white icing covering every inch of it. The sight of it just made my mouth water. The royal chefs really outdid themselves this time, they probably knew that I craved chocolate since the last time I raided their storage room for chocolate… unfortunately they put a lock on it to prevent me from eating half their supply again.
The candles were now lit and my mother had directed everybody's attention towards me. She began with her small speech she rehearsed so much, about the little tradition we were doing tonight and why was it more special than all my other birthdays. I wasn't really paying much attention to my mother, but I'm sure she said something about me being the next king or something. After my mother wrapped up her little speech everybody began to sing happy birthday to me. While this was all taking place, I was desperately surveying the room for any sign of my father, searching every face of the crowd present. However when I gave up searching and was a hundred percent sure he wasn't currently in the room, I had my eyes fixed on the ballroom doors, hoping that he would come in at the last second before I blew out the candles.
"Jason? Jason is something wrong?" My mother whispered next to me.
I quickly snapped out of my little trance at hearing my mothers' voice. "What? Oh nothing," I replied as if nothing was wrong with me whatsoever. All hope of him arriving was suddenly lost. Well better get this over with then, I thought sullenly. I slowly moved forward… took a deep breath… and whispered my birthday wish for nobody but me to hear. "I wish my dad was here." then finally, I blew out the birthday candles.
Everyone in the ballroom was now clapping in celebration of my tenth birthday, all joyous and proud for me…except for myself. The moment I blew out those candles my heart shattered into a million pieces, knowing that my father wasn't there to celebrate my birthday for the first time in my life. No one noticed this, but I felt a teardrop roll down my cheek… I ignored the tear like it was nothing and let it drop to the ground.
Minutes later, everyone was already lined up in front of the table that holds the cake, so that they may have a taste of the fine work the royal chefs made. I decided to ask my mom where my dad was at this moment, hoping to get an answer, hopefully an answer that would convince me to forgive my fathers absence. In the far left side of the ballroom I saw my mother talking to Arthur, obviously giving her a report of recent news because of the official posture he was in. I made my way towards the both of them, struggling to slip by the crowd of guests that were in my way. I also took note that my mother and Arthur didn't seem to notice me approaching them. As I finally came up to them, I was about to ask my mother the question that has been bugging me for so long, until my mother said something that peeped my interest.
"No please, don't tell him now it will break his heart, plus it's his birthday!" My mother said in a distressed tone.
"As you wish my queen, we will tell him in the morning," Arthur said calmly.
"Fine, but I just don't know how to tell him!"
"We have to give him the news soon, otherwise he will start to worry about him, which would just make things harder for us express the truth."
"I know, but it's not everyday he loses his father in some place a thousand miles away from home!"
"What?" I said in a whisper loud enough for them to hear. They quickly turned to me at the sound of my voice, noticing me standing there for the first time with looks of worry on their faces.
"J-Jason, I uh … Jason?" My mother stuttered. Sorrow filled my heart almost immediately like a wave.
I couldn't believe it! Is my father is really gone? No it can't be true. I had to get this processed through my mind… I had to be alone for awhile. I quickly ran towards the ballroom door.
"Jason! Jason wait!" My mother called, but I ignored her. At that moment I felt like if I needed to be alone from everyone else.
I swiftly made several sharp turns in the hallway, luckily for me I didn't slip on the floor despite the speed I was in, plus there was no body in the hallways to get in my way. Soon enough I was by the elevator with tears ready to burst in my eyes. I pushed the button to signal the elevator, and luckily for me nobody had used it yet, so immediately the doors opened for me. I wiped away my tears and stepped inside, I could already hear the footsteps of my mother approaching so I quickly pushed the button with the number fifty on it. Before my mother got a chance to catch even a glimpse of me, the doors slowly closed shut and started to ascend towards the top floor.
How could it be? My father… dead? No he can't be dead he's way too tough to be killed in the hands of some random guy…right? I thought to myself, keeping whatever hope I had left alive. Maybe he's just hiding in a hole somewhere and everybody thinks he's just dead… I kept denying the fact that my father was really gone by making up excuses, but I knew my father well enough… he wouldn't hide in a hole. No, he would rather fight than to hide from the enemy. Maybe he really is dead… that was the last thought that entered my head before the elevator doors opened for me. I quickly ran to my room as fast as my little feet could carry me. When I finally arrived at my room, I entered it and then shut the door behind me, giving the, Leave me alone, sign to anyone who wanted to talk to me.
I then jumped onto my bed and buried my face into my pillow, letting all my emotions flow out like a river. However, when I heard a, poof sort of sound, I raised my head only to see nothing in front of me. Must have been nothing, I convinced myself.
I had to stop this crying… I had to be strong as my dad… my father would be ashamed to see me like this. I had to be strong for him. My eyes slowly closed, and I was in a deep sleep.
So much for birthday wishes.
A/N: Took me quite awhile to get this prologue finished but its done. Poor Jason, I actually feel sorry for a character I made up. So did I do a good job at making this emotional lol? Okay I'm new at this so please don't make me feel bad. Reviews are greatly appreciated by all and tell me how to improve my story please… what no? You're not going to review? Well okay that's fine, I'm not forcing you or anything… but just in case you change your mind the review button is waiting for you to click on it, okay.
