The Collector

Prologue: The Collector

The sunshine shown bright over Celadon City, as it usually did on these typical summer days. Nothing was unusual about this day. Shoppers walked the streets left and right, some with numerous heavy shopping bags hanging from their arms, and others on the way to the department store to get bags of their own. Parents sitting around, discussing the day, as their kids participated in merry recess only a few feet away, and of course, Pokemon trainers, viewing it as a fine day to get outside and raise ones Pokemon. Some simply wanted to better their Pokemon, while others held high hopes of finally beating Erika, the local gym leader, so that they could finally move on from Celadon, to the next city.

Such was daily life in this city. People come, people go, and about the only real changes that would occur were the ones brought on by different seasons. A large city, the second largest in Kanto, actually, but even so, it was subject to the same routine, day, after day, after day.

Such, however, was not true for one young boy in particular.

"Andy Blair, I believe that's his name." A middle aged woman said, as she and her friend just happened to catch that one boy in particular, walking past the park that she sat in.

"I've heard that name here and there." Replied the woman opposite of the first. She was slightly younger than the first speaker. "He doesn't look to be all that great." She referred to his clothes, which were rags and barely covered him at all. "His parents let him run around like that?"

"He has no parents." Was the response from the first woman, which caused the second to turn her head back to Andy, as she watched him walk away. The first continued. "He's been around as long as any of us can remember. All he'll say is that his parents are dead, but he still likes living in Celadon."

"So he's homeless?"

"Aye, that he is."

There was a bit of a silence, as the second lady took in what she could about the young homeless child. His hair was dark brown, and cut, poorly, but it was cut, though by what methods were anybodies guess. His skin was tan from all the sun, and the lady guessed that if he did have some sort of shelter over his head, it wasn't much. When Andy was finally out of sight, the silence was broken.

"So what does he do?" The second lady asked. The first just grinned.

"He picks things up." This response brought a curious look from the second woman. "He picks things up." The first repeated. "Everybody calls him 'The Collector'. He walks around town, and picks things up that he finds. Not money or anything, maybe a dollar or two every now and then, but just, odd, Mundayne items."

"So...what exactly does he do with them." This time, the first lady just shrugged.

"That's all we know. But that's how he's earned his nickname."

The conversation began to drift away from little Andy Blair, but somewhere in the city, another was sure to pop up. The young, brown haired, green eyed boy was very popular among Celadonians, being surprisingly humble and selfless for somebody of his age and position in life. Either way, he was never a burden. Kept to himself most of the time, but was never an anti-social by any means.

"Ah, sweet, another bottle cap!" Little Andy ran over, picking up the dirty bottle cap, examining it for a moment. "Ah, somebody bit it off!" He ran his index finger along the indents on the top of the bent cap, feeling where the persons molar had created the leverage, thereby, opening the bottle. "Haven't found one of these in a long time!"

He examined the cap once more, then slid it into a small pouch, one that he had sown together himself out of pieces of leather and cardboard he had found lying around, using fishing line from the lake to hold it all together.

Little Andy Blair would skip around town like this for many hours a day, though to him, the time was based on the position of the sun. Either way, he was up at dawn, and on his way home, wherever that was, at sunset. Home, the one thing Andy was able to keep secret from everyone else. Nobody knew where the little tyke went at night, and nobody, thankfully, felt the need to pursue him.

All that matter was that Little Andy Blair was 'The Collector'.