"I'm gonna catch it," my older brother, Stain, said.

"With what? That net?"

"I brought a rake too..." he looked crestfallen. The little blue alligator monster seemed to be taking a nap underneath of a tree by a small creek a few miles outside of the main populus of Cinnabar Island. We were on a vacation with our mother and grandparents, and Stain and I had gone wandering to find some apples... or so he had told me when we left.

"Cameron, go to the other side and be prepared to scare that thing back towards me if it runs." I glanced out at the sleeping Pokemon. We were hidden by a dying bush, and though the alligator-like monster was asleep, I wasn't fond of the idea of it's teeth sinking into my flesh.

"I'm 11."

"I know, good job on that. I'm gonna jump out and put my net around it, and keep it contained... shoo. Go." He crouched and acted like a professional as I made my way carefully around the sleeping beast.

As I got into position I shouted, "Aren't you supposed to catch these things with a Pokeball?"

"Well yeah, but as we don't have one, I'm gonna use the net."
"What about the rake?"

"Oh, in case I need to defend myself." It was my brother's dream to become a famous Pokemon trainer, though he was already 14 years old, when most trainers leave at the age of 10, our family knew of the dangers of Pokemon training, as our cousin Lynette had once been a star trainer in the league, and had also been killed on a journey to discover new Pokemon and regions... the thought of danger reminded me of something.

"What if I need the rake?"

"Er... get set, here I go!" With a yell and a lunge Stain scooped the Pokemon into his net and looked prepared to drop it and run away if it attacked.

It lazily opened one eye, stretched, yawned, and rolled over to continue it's nap. Stain looked shocked.

"... so... I caught a Pokemon?" He asked. I shrugged. "I caught a Pokemon!" He jumped around (the Pokemon stayed asleep) and jogged all the way back to the motel we had rented until the next morning.

I had never really liked the idea of becoming a Pokemon trainer, as my brother had. I did well in school, and thought about going into business like my mother and grandfather. However, my brother seemed to follow in my father and grandmother, as they had taken stints out of their childhood and early adulthood to train and capture Pokemon. My mother was frantic when she saw us running up the hill that was beside our motel.

"Stain! Cameron! Where were you two? It's been hours and-" she looked at the net trailing from my older brother. "What's in the net Stain?" Guiltily, he held out the net.

To say she screamed so shrilly that aircraft overhead had to remove the headphones from their ears to make sure they weren't malfunctioning might capture the impression we got. "GET-THAT-THING-OUT-OF-HERE-THIS-INSTANT!!"

"I want to keep it," Stain looked firmly at our mother, and the Pokemon woke up without him realizing. It crawled out of the net, walked along the shaft, and climbed up Stain until it rested in his hair, and curled up to fall asleep again.

"It's mine, and it obviously likes me."

Our mother opened her mouth to protest. "You just-"

"Did you capture yourself a Pokemon, son?" Our father was making his way down to pack the car before we left in the morning. Through his years of being a trainer, he knew how to best skim time off of almost any journey. He didn't even try to hide the exictement in his eyes or voice. "Looks like a species I've never seen, but it's definitely water-type, just like my Squirtle was back in the day... let's ask your grandmother."

"Now Phillip, let's not get my parents involved... you know how my mother gets about Pokemon." My granmother, Nicolette Steele, was a bit of a fanatic researcher on Pokemon. She wasn't crazy, she just loved her work a lot, for a very long time.

"I see no reason not to ask Nicky what the best method of training would be."
"So I can keep it?" My father glanced uncomfortably at his wife, apparently remembering her misgivings on the subject.

"Well... ask your mother." Stain looked like his heart sunk to his stomach. My mother looked surprised (but pleased) with her husband's response, but sobered up at the sight of her son's disappointment. She knelt beside him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Of course you can keep it. Just be careful."

"Grandma!" I yelled up at the elderly woman slowly making her way down the steps to the parking lot we stood in. She used a cane, and had thick glasses that made her eyes look like tiny specks behind the glass- but she was sharp as a whip, and loved to remind people. "Look what Stain caught!"

"Hmm?" She hobbled slowly over to my brother and he held the net open to her. She didn't seem to think as she responded barely a half-second later.

"Number 158, Totodile, water type Pokemon. Usually found near lakes, predominant male numbers makes reproduction harder and- you caught this?"

Looking proud of himself, Stain said, "Yep, and he's already taken a liking to me."

"It's not yours yet. You have to put it in a Pokeball." She handed him one.

"Erm... okay then. Pokeball go!" He tossed the ball at the Pokemon resting in his blonde hair (I inherited my father's brown) and it disappeared into it. It shook a bit, but then rested.

"There, now you really have caught your first Pokemon." She looked at him happy, and he looked in awe at the Pokeball conatining his Totodile in his hand.

"Be careful, that Pokemon may be small and playful, but it's jaws are plenty strong enough to take a chunk out of your leg." This news seemed to elate her, or maybe it was just the thrill of helping another trainer on his own way.

"I don't think this Totodile will hurt me. Come out, Totodile!" He tossed the ball out and the alligator appeared again. "I'm your trainer now, little buddy. We're gonna be the best!" The Pokemon let out a guttural growl that sounded like "Dile!"

"You know... your father started with a water pokemon as well... and I started out with a Mudkip all those years ago." This news seemed to make my older sibling swell with the pride of carrying the family tradition to a new generation.

"Well Totodile," he said, as he called his original Pokemon back to it's Pokeball, "We've got a lot to do before we start to go get our badges!"

That was 5 years ago. The path I would take, and the story I would unknowingly write, was one I would never expect.