Morty on the age of 12, never knew and understood why he was punished so many times. He only knew it was because he failed at retrieving Ho-Oh back. He never asked questions as he knew he would get a beating from his caretakers. The Sages where cruel people, who didn't really care about Morty. Morty knew this. He knew this because the way he was threaten. He was trained to know everything about the three legendary dogs, Entei, Suicune, Raikou and the legendary rainbow Ho-Oh. He was trained to be a Gym leader and to retrieve Ho-Oh. And when it showed that Morty had another ability, then it became clear that he had to be the one who would get Ho-Oh back. First Morty thought that the people in Ecruteak would act nicer, but he couldn't be more wrong. They avoided him, they where scared of the young boy with the mysterious ability. That was when Morty found his peace and quiet at the Burnt tower. He never had any friends, so he was always alone. The Sages took care of every one who wanted to be friends with Morty. And soon after the Sages scared every one away, Morty received the title of Freak. The young blonde was always alone, but still reacted nice to people and Pokémon.
On a warm Tuesday morning, he was walking through the forest, like he always did. He then heard a cry of a Gastly and hurried to the sound. When he arrived there, he saw that one single Ghastly was attacked by other Ghost Pokémon. The wounded Gastly couldn't fight anymore and the other Haunters and Gastly made themselves ready for another attack. Morty couldn't see how they would hurt of even kill the weaker Gastly and jumped between the Shadow Ball attacks. Morty who was already used to the beatings on his back, could easily ignore the pain and turned around. He only bit out a few words.
"Go away now!"
The Haunters and Gastlys ignored him, but stopped the attack. Morty, who was already happy with this progression, stumbled to the wounded Gastly. The wounded Gastly looked scared towards Morty and the blonde held up his hands for the sign of peace. He fell on his knees and shuffled to the Ghastly. He then took the Gastly in his hands and stood up.
"I have to take you to the Poké Center. We will see what to do with you after that." Said Morty gently with a caring smile on his face.
He walked to the Poké Center and walked in and then directly to Nurse Joy.
"Hello, Nurse Joy. Sorry to interrupt you, but I found this Gastly. Could you help him please?" Asked Morty politely to the Nurse. Nurse Joy, who always had respect for the young trainer, as she knew that he had to do a lot for Ecruteak, nodded and took the Gastly. When Morty turned around, she saw red soaking through his shirt.
"Hey Morty, wait and walk with me." She commanded and Morty looked a little bit scared. He heard that sentence many times before he was punished. He turned around he thought about to follow the Nurse or run away as fast as he could. He gave a sigh and followed the Nurse. He was never one to give up. Nurse Joy took care of the wounded Gastly and then turned to Morty.
"Take of your shirt. I will wash it immediately. If you don't then the blood won't come out." She said nicely. Morty didn't like the idea of doing that, but before he could say that, he saw the commanding look in the eyes of the Nurse. He swiftly took his blue, yellow shirt off and gave it to Nurse Joy. Who immediately proceeded to wash it. Then she came back with bandages and signed him to sit in front of here. Morty shuffled to her and then sat. He still was afraid that Nurse Joy would hurt him and he knew he showed it.
"Don't worry Morty. It will only sting for a short moment. The disinfectant will sting a little, so don't worry okay. If I don't threat the wounds on your back, it will get infected and then it will hurt more." Said Nurse Joy gently to get Morty more at ease. She smiled when Morty nodded. She put some disinfectant on a bandage and gently touched the wounds. She felt a little bad when she heard Morty hiss. She worked fast and then when she was done, she bandaged his wounds.
"You have to wait a while for your shirt, so here is something you can wear until then. He gave him a light blue male nurse upper top. Morty smiled and took it and put it on.
"Do you want to see how the Gastly is doing?" She asked gently and was relieved when she saw Morty nod. She didn't knew that the young male was so quiet. She walked with him to the Gastly and she was glad that the poor Gastly was already healing. Morty smiled at the healing process of the Ghost Pokémon. He never liked wounded Pokémon or people. To be honest, Morty could see himself in the Gastly. Casted out by the others because they are different. He sighed and looked at Nurse Joy.
"Nurse Joy, is it okay that I sit with him and is it possible that I can take care of him when he is better? I've to get used to Ghost Pokémon as I'm the Gym leader who suppose to have Ghost-Pokémon." Asked Morty carefully and nice. Nurse Joy smiled and said:"Maybe, but only if he want that."
After Morty's shirt was washed and dried, he walked to his "home". He wasn't punished for once and he went to bed. There he decided to come by Gastly every day until one day the Gastly was awake. He walked to the Gastly and said hello to him. Gastly gave Morty a big smile and said hello back to him in his own language.
"Are you feeling better today Gastly?"
"Gaaastlyy." Said Gastly happily. Gastly liked Morty. He was nice to him and accepted him with the way he was.
"Haha, I think I can say that I'm right." He smiled at the Gastly and then decided to ask him a question. "Gastly, do you maybe want to stay with me, until you are perfectly healed? Then you can go if you want?"
Gastly looked at Morty and then looked like he was thinking about it. After a minute of nothing, Gastly suddenly began to nod in his way. It was his way to say that he like to stay with Morty.
And so began the day of Morty taking care of the wounded Gastly. He still was being punished for not being able to tell the Sages the things they wanted to hear, but he was able to take care of the Gastly. And when the Gastly was completely healed after 2 months, the Sages decided that it was time to let the Gastly free. Even after all the excuses the blond male had, they just silenced him and said it had to be done. The young boy didn't really wanted it, as it was the only Pokémon he ever had to take care of. He knew that he would miss Gastly, but it was for the best. He walked with Gastly to the Burnt Tower and then he said, with his back towards Gastly:
"Gastly, your healed now. So it's time to go now. You are free again." Said Morty sadly. Then he turned and ran away, only to leave the Gastly sadly alone.
When Morty was home, he began to cry silently. He had learn to do that, otherwise the Sages would be angry. With tears on his cheeks, Morty fell asleep. What he didn't knew was that the Gastly had no intentions to leave him and was now on his way to find his chosen trainer.
When Gastly arrived at the house, he saw the Sages sitting. They were talking about his knew master. Something about that the boy wouldn't be ready for bringing the great rainbow bird back. Gastly just floated past the Sages, who were now staring at him. Gastly ignored them and just tried to find his master. When he finally found Morty, he moved faster and tried to wake him up. Morty slowly opened his eyes and smiled a little when he saw Gastly.
"Hey buddy, you're not wounded again are you?" He said sleepily. Gastly responded with a shake of his head and floated towards Morty as if he wanted to show that he wanted to stay with him.
"You want to stay here? But I can't have you. I don't even have Pokéballs." Said Morty now wide awake and eyes wide open. One of the Sages walked then towards Morty and gave him an empty Pokéball.
"He wants to stay with you. You don't want to disappoint him, now do you Morty?" Said Sage Masa. Morty didn't said a thing, but accepted the Pokéball. He then turned to the Gastly as if he wanted to confirm that the Ghost-Pokémon was sure of it. Gastly nodded and then Morty opened the Pokéball. Gastly got into it and the it moved one time and then it stopped. Morty had finally his first Pokémon on his age of 12.
When Morty was 13 his life became to be a hell. He would be shouted, insulted or hit by more people in Ecruteak. The people called him worthless, freak and a good for nothing boy. They said that he would be a bad Gym leader and that nobody would ever like someone like him. If was when he was 13 that he found a Misdreavus. Misdreavus had a little scratch and Morty took take of the wound. He then continued towards the Burnt Tower. At least there he wouldn't be called a freak or worthless. The Ghost-Pokémon were his only friends.