Power is in direct correlation to corruption, famine, war, and the destruction of a society. The Kanto Region is no different. Before I was born, my Mother and Father got married fairly young. They met at a dog show. Breeding animals and caring for them were both of their passions. It was love at first sight. They began talking and going on a few dates. Later in their relationship they entered their first contest show as a team. They won by a landslide. In all of the excitement of the crowd cheering and the pride they both felt, he proposed. After they were married they opened their own breeding farm where they bred all kinds of dogs. It was the perfect life. They bred prestigious breeds for shows as well as sold mutts for cheap to provide friendship to passing drifters who had nobody to love. Everyone knew my parents, not just because Pallet was such a small town, but because they made long lasting relationships with the drifters that came through. Their name spread like wildfire across the breeding community, they were soon some of the most well-known, and well respected people in the business. They were very much in love with their success and of course each other. Despite their busy schedule, they were very eager to bring a little breeder into the world.
My mom named me Red after her grandfather. She wanted me to grow up to be as wise and as caring as he was. The beginning stages of my life are a little fuzzy, everything I know from my early childhood is from my mother's stories and recollections which sometimes gets distorted by my own opinions. The world was changing as I was being born. My mother saw this as a chance for me to have a compelling destiny. She felt the power that I could have before I was born. Around the time I was born there was an accident at the Nuclear Power Plant off the Coast of Route 10 outside Cerulean City. This spill spread across the Pacific Ocean and caused a reaction at other plants putting the world in a nuclear fallout. The whole world was shoved into bunkers, basements, and storm cellars by their respective governments. The morbid part is not every shelter could handle these levels of radiation and most of the planet died. My mother and Father were separated during the chaos of the accident. I was delivered in a bunker of a university by a man by the name of Professor Oak, The Dean of The College of Animal Sciences at the university. The only reason I am here today is because my mom risked her life crawling through crawlspaces of the storm bunker in the basement of one of the buildings on campus. My father wasn't there. He was at a show in another region when the accident happened. My mom was giving a presentation at the university in Pallet. All the news stations played the same gruesome images of people suffocating near the plant. The damage spread quickly. Pallet was given 24 hours to evacuate or find shelter. My mom waited desperately for a phone call from my dad. She expected any second for a private helicopter and her knight in shining armor to take her away. But no such thing happened. Instead she got a voicemail from my dad's assistant saying that he hopes she can make it on her own. That he wasn't coming home for her. That he wishes the best for her and hopes she can forgive him. He said that he didn't think there was a point to come because my mom was as good as dead anyway. That there wasn't enough time, He said it would be better for all of their work if at least one of them lived. My mom tells me that he was afraid of death. No, he was a coward. He didn't even try to come help. He just washed his hands of the entire situation immediately. Rather than thinking of how he can save his family, he decided to save himself. He was afraid of losing everything he had worked for instead of the love of his life, completely oblivious to the fact that my mom is half the reason he had what he had. My mom thinks he might be dead now. I hope with all my heart he is. My mom is my whole world, she risked her life to make sure I was born and that she stayed with me. She was confi1dent that everything would work out and that I would go on and turn into something great, she believed that I could make the world a better place before I was even born. My selfish father decided to leave her. He was supposed to protect her, but his needs were more important to him. He felt that she was dragging him down from being the 'world's greatest dog breeder'. He thought that he was the reason for their success and that she was just an accessory. The rumor around town was that he was planning a divorce anyway and was fucking his assistant the whole time. He left my mom behind to watch dogs spawn more dogs, and sell those pups for a profit that he didn't have to share. That to me is enough evidence to prove those rumors to be true. In my opinion this was the coward's way of breaking off the marriage, by just letting her, and their son die. He is disgusting; was disgusting.
The next few years were hell. I didn't know better really since it was the world I was born into. There were 100 of us crammed in the bowels of the prestigious Kanto University at Pallet. We entertained ourselves with whatever we can find, books, makeshift toys, we told stories. I was a tight community we had built down there. Luckily there was enough canned food and bottled water stored down there for the university's student union to be able to survive. Not to be full, but survive. When the food rations got low enough, someone got brave.
"We have been down here for years. We never saw the effects nor do we know what it looks like now. For all we know, we could be the only people down here and our town could be inhabited by other survivor." The man speaking was Barry, a heavyset older guy who had at one time walked by the beach every night offering words of wisdom to drifters, pedestrians, and sailors coming in from Cinnabar Island.
He was right. No one wanted to believe him, but he had a good point. I mean the only way we knew how much time had passed was because of a nuclear clock and the tallies etched into the walls. We had to find answers. It was about time to take the risk of dying on the surface so we didn't have to face death in a dark pit.
Barry to be the one to lead the excursion. He cut the locks keeping the giant steel door separating the storm cellar from the rest of the basement. He walked into the hall. The crowd followed one by one. As we reached the stairwell to the first floor. We all stood in anticipation of Barry opening the small door that separated us from what we knew was safe, and the unknown. The door creaked and we all held our breath, we expected death to barrel through the door and wipe us all out. Nothing happened. There was silence. I let out a cry so loud it made everyone jump. I expected the worst, and when nothing changed, I was more terrified. We all followed in single file behind Barry as we walked up the rusty metal stairs. We reached the top and saw the door in front of us that was blocking our community from the unknown hell outside. We stood about fifteen feet back from Barry with Oak, who led the pack. Barry opened the door and poked his head into the desolate room. Tables were knocked over, glass was broken, papers thrown about the room. It was obvious that the building was looted. It was because of the big steel lock on our side of the door that no one was able to come down to where we were. Barry walked into the lobby of what was Oak's department. He got a few feet in, stopped, took a deep breath, held it, and exhaled slowly. His eyes darted around the red haze that overtook the room. The ceiling was letting in plenty of light since the other 50 stories of the building appeared to have been ripped off. Everyone thinks it was from microbursts of nuclear storms. Surprisingly most of the walls were still intact, despite some holes and other rubble in some areas of the room. He turned towards us.
"It's safe" he huffed.
Everyone flocked the room and looked around for supplies. Weapons, food, water, clothing and whatever else they could find. But there was nothing. Regardless of our lack of supplies, we needed to explore outside. We followed the same procedure of lining up and letting Barry take the lead to get out the front door. Once we were out everyone was rushed with the pleasure of fresh air and natural light. This was my first time seeing the outside world. I only ever saw pictures in books my mom read to me down in the bunker under the light of oil lamps. Even though it was mostly ruins, the sight was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined, I almost couldn't breathe, the fresh air felt so good. My eyes stung with the light but I didn't care. I liked it. The sand and grass under my feet were soft. Much softer than the concrete floors I had known. The feeling was so intoxicating. I stuck my arms out and looked into the sky. I took the deepest breath that I could and let it all rush in. My life was truly about to begin and I couldn't be more excited. We saw the other half of our building sprawled out across the shoreline, and even some floated in the water. It was almost beautiful to see the sun setting on the horizon of the ocean as the panes of broken glass and metal glistened in the beautiful orange and pink light. It was quiet and peaceful, and everyone felt relieved and joyful despite the destruction. I thought the destruction was beautiful. It was imagery. I was experiencing the beauty that is the earth.
In our moment of peace we failed to see a bird that had to have been at least five feet tall swoop down. We stopped what we were doing and stared into its dark soulless eyes. Fear replaced the tranquility. My body locked up. The bird screamed and it rattled my brains, the screech almost made me deaf. It darted at Barry, before he could react it picked him up in its razor sharp beak, then bit down. The blood and gore that stood before us me too much for words. I stared in horror as this bird ate people that I had known my whole life. I never saw the full faces of the people from the bunker until now. I had only seen dimly lit versions of their faces with the candle and oil lamp lights we had stored. And now I could see their faces in full, lifeless, and bloody. It was too much for me to handle. I stood frozen as the bird kept crunching and swallowing the human bodies that helped raise me. I can't remember what sound was louder, the bones crunching in that beast's beak, the screams of those around me, or my own internal screams as blood splattered on my face, I tried to scream out loud but nothing would come out. The mixture of the iron smell from the air and the shock I was in made me sick and made tears roll faster. I didn't know what to do. I collapsed and curled up in the dirt, I gave up. Gave up on all hope.
I laid in the path of this giant bird and I posed no fight to it, I was free lunch; this was the end. I will die before I can experience any significant part of my life, besides crawling out of a hole I've spent the first five years of my life in. My mom, again risking her life for mine, swatted at the bird with a giant metal spike she pulled out of the ground. The bird fought back, knocking her away with his giant wings. He jumped on top of her and tried to peck and tear away her flesh, but she kept deflecting his blows with that spike. The bird lifted up its head and let out a scream of frustration, then its eyes went wide and its scream cut short. Blood spilled from its beak and it looked down at my mom who had shoved the spike into the bird's throat. His blood spilled on to my mom's face and the bird fell on top of her. She shoved his body off of her, leaving the spike in, even twisting it once to make sure that devil was gone. She then picked me up and ran. I can't say it enough times how much my mom means to me, and this proves that I am as much her everything as she is mine.
"Over here!" we heard a muffled voice yell.
The voice came from a lecture hall next to the building we came from. Mom started running that way clutching me in her arms. I clung just as hard to her as she was to me. I was still in shock and couldn't process anything that was happening. Not only did I almost lose my own life but I could have lost her while she was trying to protect me. Once inside, I realized everyone who survived the attack congregated to the same place. There were about 200 other survivors that turned this building into a fortress. The barred off windows, boarded up doors, used spikes as traps to keep anything unwelcome from finding its way in. This was going to be our home for a while. We were finally safe with more people that had more food and had a system for actually livable conditions. Two men went outside and got the bird my mom killed, and brought it to the back area of the hall to be butchered and cooked. I snapped out of my daze and I felt safe again, I squeezed my mom's shoulders harder, she reassured me by doing the same.
"I love you, Red" my mom whispered "more than anything"
"I love you too" I said. I would not be here without my mom. She risked her life twice for me; she suffered for me; she is all I have and I love her more than I can love anything else.
Apparently the land outside the bunker had been livable for the past few months. These other survivors had built a shelter in this lecture hall building. The bird creature that attacked us outside was apparently not uncommon. Creatures like that have been what these people have been eating. They would hunt things like that bird, some birds that resembled the giant one, just a little smaller, and some small rats with giant teeth, and cook them. They said that these creatures were normal animals that must have been mutated by the radiation and turned into much larger and more terrifying versions of their past forms.
The next few years flew by. We were able to build new homes around the small amount of university campus that remained. The lecture hall was remodeled to be a laboratory for Professor Oak so he could study and try to understand and explain what was happening to the wild life on earth. The radiation also boosted the growth of trees and grass to the point of encasing our small area of the campus in a massive forest. Everything that once stood in the rest of the town had been swallowed by trees and vines. We constantly had to cut down the trees to keep the town we built from being overtaken by them as well. The terrifying thing was that not only were plants growing at an alarming rate, but some plants mutated to the point of even being alive, with animalistic characteristics. Eventually we had to dome off Pallet, too many people were getting hurt and the forest was too much to control. The dome was created by one of the engineers that worked in Oak's lab. It was put assembled outside by them and everyone else in the town. It was made from a type of rubber material that can be stacked like bricks and stick to each other. We were able to make a giant gate at the entrance of the city to allow fresh air in and allow us to leave if need be. This dome was created to protect the citizens of Pallet from the creatures and plants outside the town. Nothing was allowed in.
There were a couple tens of thousands of people left in the world. We got word of other survivors across the Kanto Region using an old HAM radio. We were able to use to communicate with other survivors that had the same idea of building a civilization and finding other people still alive. After a while, the rest of the region eventually came up with radios and were able to communicate their existence. There was one radio per city used to communicate important messages across the region. We never got any word from other countries, and assume they are all dead. With that assumption, Oak made himself the lead researcher on the massive creatures and the new world as we know it and began coming up with names and explanations. Not many people liked the idea of one man creating all the answers, but he was the only one with the expertise and qualifications to do this job.
He called them "Pokémon". These creatures mutated from actual animals and then proceeded to evolve into more powerful versions of the original mutation the older and more experienced they became, breaking all the rules in the theory of evolution. The one that attacked us the night we left the bunker, is called Pidgeot. It is the most powerful in the line of a bird Pokémon that Oak discovered were related. Pidgey, which is the first evolution is closest to birds we are used to. It still much bigger than regular birds, but a lot less aggressive than the others in its evolutionary line. They are the ones we eat most often. The middle evolution he called Pidgeotto. This was just the beginning of a long index of all the Pokemon species Oak would later discover. He guessed that there could be over 100 new species to be discovered and studied.
After much research Oak made a discovery that changed the way he could study Pokemon. He discovered that these creatures have a 'hole' in their DNA that allowed the Pokémon's physical mass to be reduced down to its most basic form of atomic particles. He figured out he could cause this by the administration of a chemical compound of Iodine and Potassium. The same process can be reversed by simply repeating the compound administration. He had a vision of a device that could cause this, and then capture the Pokemon for further study.
With that, the Poke ball was created- It is a hinged ball full of the chemical compound mixed with iron. Once the compound is injected into the ball the magnets inside the ball magnetize the solution of Potassium, Iodine, and Iron. The mixture is administered to the Pokemon by injection. When the ball makes contact with the Pokemon, It uses pressure release needles to shoot the serum into the Pokémon's blood stream. Then the ball opens and the magnetic pull between the magnets inside the ball and the compound now inside the Pokemon causes the Pokémon's atoms to dissipate into gas form which is pulled inside of the ball. Once inside, the ball steals a bit of the Pokémon's DNA and applies it to the chemical makeup of the ball. The Pokemon is now tied to that specific ball and can be extracted or put back in, at the command of the one who captured it (Unless the Pokemon dies). Whoever captures the Pokemon not only has control of when it goes in and out of the ball, but also control over the Pokemon themselves. The most interesting part of this is how the iron is implemented to the ball and how the Pokemon can only be controlled by the one who captured it. Before the ball can be used, the capturer must inject a vial of their own blood to the ball to mix with the chemical compound already inside, making the ball theirs. The iron in their blood is how the ball gets the iron it needs to finish the compound. When the ball makes contact with the Pokemon, that blood gets injected into that Pokemon with the rest of the serum being injected. Once inside the ball, the Pokémon's DNA and your blood intertwine making it tied to you by blood. It now looks at you as family. This gives the Pokemon an everlasting trust with you. It changed the way Pokemon and Humans coexisted.
Since this creation, Professor Oak has been documenting every Pokemon he encounters every time he travels outside the dome. He never goes far outside the dome but he goes far enough where he will find wild Pokemon without fail every time. He has been documenting height, weight, behaviors, and even been putting them into type classes. So far he has discovered very few type classes. These types were: Normal (these Pokemon were the ones that resembled their original animal form and used attacks most like normal animal aggression), Fire, Water (those two have a self-explanatory typing), Grass (which are not only animals but plants too, and some are even plant and animal hybrids), Flying, and Bug. He believes there are many more he just haven't discovered them yet. There are also some Pokémon that are too complex to choose just one category and therefore are categorized as a dual-type Pokémon. Each type of Pokémon has attacks that can be used against humans and other Pokemon in a form of battle or self-defense. He sent word of this research over the radios to everywhere he could to help spread the word. After he studies each Pokemon he releases it back into the wild. That is done by holding a button in the center of the ball while the Pokémon is inside. While you hold down the button, the ball will get hot and remove the serum from the Pokémon. The ball will then break open and the Pokémon will be set free.
This news didn't sit the same way with the rest of the region the same it sat with the citizens of Pallet. All of this information actually divided the entire Kanto region into many political parties. Everyone had their own ideas on how we should deal with the enormous responsibility of coexisting with these creatures. There is The Neutral Party: (which the domed people of Pallet associate with), who believe Pokemon and people are separate and the only interaction should be for research purposes and food. The Harmony Party: Which believes that Pokemon and Humans can coexist, and use each other for benefit of their lives. They essentially live as friends and family with them and use them for help with chores and labor. Then there is the Extinction Party: They believe that all Pokémon need to be exterminated. There is also the Survivalist Party: who believe that Pokemon should be used as survival tool against other wild Pokémon. Then there are the most dangerous, the Traditional Trainers' Party. This party holds the strong belief that Pokemon should be used as war tools to destroy others and destroy other Pokemon. They also believe that they should rule as an oligarchy across Kanto. These parties are in constant debate and fighting over whose party had the better ideals and who should hold political power.
One day someone snapped during a protest in Saffron City. A Traditionalist let loose one of his rare Pokémon native to the Fuchsia area of Kanto. Its name was Kangaskhan, and it was a seven foot tall kangaroo mutation that he trained to kill those who stood in his way. In this case it was the Extinctionists that wanted his tools to be taken from him. He commanded his brute to strike down the Extinctionist that was mocking him. The hit had so much force that it cracked his skull nearly in half and almost decapitated him. He died in the middle of the street instantly. This caused chaos across the entire city. People of all parties began killing anyone that moved with guns, knives, crowbars, and anything else they could get their hands on. And most dangerously, some used Pokemon to kill. This added to the death toll. People and Pokemon lay bloody in the streets of Saffron City. Today it is known as the Saffron Massacre. Blood ran down the streets in such high volumes that the storm drains had a hard time draining it away. Clean up crews and Saffron Police used fire hoses to wash the red tint off of the black asphalt and made a mass grave for all the bodies to be burned in. This day was the start of a civil war that has already caused more destruction than the nuclear fallout that should have originally wiped us all out. The war has been going on for over 10 years now. Luckily, Pallet is still domed in and has been untouched from the effects of war. We are living as a neutral state still a part of the Neutral Party, slowly watching the world around us falter under their own corruption and greed. My mom helps me keep hope. She tells me that no one can get through the dome. She reassures me that we are safe in our quiet town, and because we are not stirring trouble that no one sees us as a threat. Therefore no-one has a reason to attack us. I can see the pain in her eyes though. I can tell she's thinking about dad. She wishes he didn't leave, that he stayed to protect her and help her feel safe. She doesn't say so but I can tell she misses him and hopes he is still alive, despite the fact that I don't. She hopes one day we can be a family again, that he could hold her in his arms and they could be in love again. But she avoids talking about it. It hurts her heart, and she knows I hate him. Without her I wouldn't be here, and without me she would have no one. Except for maybe Oak, but this war is getting to him and he is starting to lose it. I would die ten times over for her so she doesn't have to experience pain ever again. If I ever lost my mom I would be losing the only thing tying me to this place. I live for her and only her. I love you mom. I will protect you. Like my father should have.