My name is Stephen, otherwise known as "Guts" on the internet and elsewhere. Lately, my mind has been going wild with an idea for a fan-fiction Pokémon story and I have decided to upload it to this very site. ^~^

Anyways, I've loved writing for quite some time but I've never written a fan-fiction story. However, this story is very in-depth and has quite a deep background which will unfold during the Protagonist, Gattsu's, adventure.

Also; I will be playing Pokémon Fire Red version along with this story so there will be quite a few similarities between the story and events that happen within said game.

Anyways, I just wanted to give this sort of "introduction" to my story so you understand that this isn't going to be a boring story about some trainer blasting his way through the various regions, collecting badges and defeating the Elite Four over and over. While it will be set in the same world as the Pokémon games, anime, and manga, it will be a very detailed and in-depth story.
I hope you all enjoy, and thanks for reading.

-Guts

Pokémon
the Adventures of Gattsu

Chapter 1
Enter Gattsu

Gattsu woke up in the mid-afternoon to knocking on his door. At first he would just lie there, rubbing his eyes and yawning, wanting to just fall back into his nap, but the persistent knocker wouldn't let up. He sat up and sighed, brushing his long, dark brown bangs out of his deep blue eyes. His hair was a mess, as usual, and jutted out in many directions. It was just his style. Gattsu was only nine but he looked to be about twelve. He was taller than your average nine year old. Thinner as well.

He finally managed to swing his feet over the side of his bed and stand when he noticed the knocking ceased. He grunted, thinking seriously? Just when I get up? He considered laying down once more and getting another half hour or so, but he was already up, he might as well do something. He heard chatting coming from downstairs so he made his way to the stair case from his bedroom. As soon as he left the small, child-sized room, he could make out the conversation being had between his father and, what sounded like, Samuel Oak, the local Professor.
"I've told you before, Oak, ten years old is too young," he heard his father say.

"But, Steve, surely he's got talent. You would've had talent, had you taken an interest. Do you know who your father was? He was almost a master!" replied Professor Oak.

"Look, I don't mind if Gattsu wants to pick... it up, but not right now."
At this, he heard a sigh. He assumed it was Professor Oak's. Next came a few footsteps, what seemed to be Oak giving up and walking toward the door, then they stopped.
"You know he would love it, Steve. I wish you'd just let me talk to him about it. And I've made the-"
"I don't care about your encyclopedia, Oak, and neither did my father. He only had six his entire life. Now please, I hate to be rude to you, but just leave it be!"

Gattsu knew exactly what they were arguing about, despite the fact that his father tried to keep it from him. How could he not know about Pokémon? Especially having grown up in Pallet Town.

Truthfully, Gattsu didn't mind that his father didn't want him to become a trainer. That's what somone who collects, battles, and befriends Pokémon is called. The idea of traveling throughout his entire region looking for new Pokémon seemed interesting enough, but the fact that he couldn't do it didn't hurt his feelings any.

Gattsu assumed that by this time, Oak was surely gone. He made his way downstairs to find his father in the kitchen.

"Hey dad," Gattsu greeted.

"Hey, Gatts. How're you, buddy?"

"Doin' okay, just a bit bored. I think I'm gonna go play with Sam, I'll be back in a little bit."

"Okay, just be careful. And do not step foot outside of Pallet, you know what's lurking out there."

"I know, dad, I'll be careful. Love ya'."

And with that, Gattsu had left his house.

Pallet Town, especially on a Fall afternoon, was such a nice and peacful place. As soon as Gattsu stepped foot outside, he felt the comfort of a cool breeze, forcing his hair to flow in the direction of the air. He closed his eyes for a moment and smiled, it was going to be a good day. He opened them and looked around the small town, taking in it's innocent scenery. Small children were running around near the sea to the South of the town, cute Pokémon were enjoying themselves in the small woods that surrounded to the East and West, and when he looked to the North he saw Sam just gazing out into the route that lead into Viridian City.

Gattsu approached Sam and said "Hey, what're you looking at?"

"Oh, nothing. Just wishing I would turn ten sooner."

Unlike Gattsu's father, Sam's parents were going to allow him to become an official Pokémon trainer, but his birthday wasn't until ten days from now. Gattsu's happened to be tomorrow.

"I'm sorry. But it's not so far away, you'll be ten before you know it!" Gattsu replied with a smile.

Sam nodded, "I know, but I'm just so anxious. I wish you were coming with me, Gatts. I'm gonna be pretty lonely at first."
"No you won't, you'll have your Pokémon with you, Sam. Did you forget that?"

"Oh yeah, I guess I did," Sam replied. The two laughed briefly before Sam stared back out into the route. "It's still gonna be lame to not have you with me. We'd make an awesome team, I bet."
"Well, maybe I will some day, who knows," Gattsu responded, offering a smirk for encouragment. "But one thing is certain, I'd definitely be better than you!"

"No way," Sam replied, "I would become a champion years before you could even think about it!"

They laughed again for a moment and then they both felt hands rest on their shoulders simultaneously. They both jumped due to being startled and turned around only to be greeted by Professor Oak's grinning face.
"Hi, boys," he greeted.

"Oh, hi Professor," Gattsu responded with an embarassed smile.

"Not thinking about going out there, are you? Dangerous area route one is without a Pokémon. Speaking of Pokémon, Gattsu, you're turning ten tomorrow. Have you thought about becoming an official trainer?"

"Of course I've thought about it. Dad won't let me." Gattsu replied.

"Well, I'll tell you what, come to my lab in half an hour and I'll teach you the basics of training a Pokémon. I bet if you show more interest, your father would definitely agree to letting you become a trainer," Oak stated. "Sam, you come too. Your birthday isn't far from now and there's no harm in getting in a bit of training before hand, right?" and, with that, he turned and walked off toward his lab, which was located in the South part of town, close to the Sea route.

Gattsu looked to Sam, who had the most excited look on his face.

"I can't believe it!" he shouted, jumping up and down excitedly, "Gatts, this is the first step to us becoming masters! Do you know what that means?"

"Uh, well, I was thinking about not going. Dad always tells me to stay away from Professor Oak and-"
"Are you kidding? No way, you're coming with me! We're going now!"

Sam grabbed Gattsu's wrist and yanked him into a run, trailing behind clumsily as they got to the lab.

Gattsu had never been to his lab but it was so amazing. It was the largest building in all of Pallet, and it had a very large field beside it where various Pokémon lived. They were all in Oak's possession, he studied them and even trained some of them in his youth. Just seeing all of the Pokémon on his property instantly made Gattsu excited, almost like he had been waiting for this moment his whole life. It was weird for him to feel that way because his father had never been into Pokémon and, from what he remembered, his grandfather didn't have any interest either. Then Gattsu recalled something from earlier, Oak had said that his grandfather was almost a master during his conversation with Gattsu's father.

That can't be true, Grandpa never showed any interest in Pokémon. Then again, I only knew him until I was about six. Gattsu thought. His thoughts were interrupted by Sam saying "Come on, let's go!" Gattsu nodded and the two slowly approached the door.

Gattsu's heart felt like it was going to leap up his throat, he could hardly stand it. They were just inches from the door when it popped open and Oak looked out at them.

"I see you just couldn't wait, eh boys? Come on in, I've got a big surprise for both of you!" Oak said with a friendly smile.

The two nodded and walked in, very shy and curious, taking in everything the lab had to offer.

There was large machinery everywhere they looked. Weird bleeps and whistles and various other noises sounded in the distance. Pokémon and lab assistants seemed to be doing very important work as they scrambled about or mixed what looked like chemicals. It was all so much to take in, but they followed Oak right into a small office in the northern section of the lab.

"Here we are, boys, my office," he led them in and closed the door only to find that there was another boy in the lab with them. Sam and Gattsu looked at him awkwardly, not sure who he was. He seemed to be about their age, however.
"Oh, forgive me. Sam, Gatts, this is my grandson, Green. Green, meet Sam and Gatts."

Green turned around and barely nodded in their direction, offering them a dull glance with piercing eyes. It was actually quite intimidating to both of them.

"Green turned ten about a week ago but he's just now returned to Pallet to get his license," Oak stated. "Anyways, come here you three, I've got something to show you."
The three walked up to a round table in the center of Oak's office. The table had three spherical objects on it that looked as if they would fit perfectly in the palm of your hand. They had a transparent red top half and a solid white bottom half that was seperated by a thin, black line that wrapped around the object. The last noteable feature of the devices was the button on the front of them.

As they got closer to the table, the three realized there were small creatures, Pokémon, inside of them.

"Green, you already know this, but these two don't. Sam, Gatts, these are called Pokéballs. They're a device used to capture and hold your Pokémon. Each of you, pick one up."

Green gave a scoff and said "Gramps, I already know all of this."
"Quiet, Green, you'll do as I say if you want to become a trainer."

Green nodded and did as he was told. He glanced over the three objects and must've decided on one because he reached out for the one furthest from him. It was actually the one that was in front of Gattsu, who was on the far right of the group.

Gattsu raised his eyebrow as if to say what if I wanted that one? But he decided not to worry about it. Instead, he grabbed the one in front of Sam, leaving Sam to grab the one in front of Green.

Holding the Pokéball felt so natural to Gattsu. It was like he had already felt this sensation before, but he'd never even heard of a Pokéball prior to today.

"Okay, now follow me you three," Oak said, leading them through another door in his office.

This door lead to what looked like a giant in-door battlefield. It was a big, empty room with a rectangular "field" painted across the floor in white. The field was split into halves by another white line and there was a large circle that seemed to resemble a Pokéball painted in the center of the field.

"Okay, let's see. Sam, Gatts, you two stand at opposite ends of the field," Oak instructed, "when I count to three, you're going to throw your Pokéball out into the center. The force of the impact will open the ball and your Pokémon will emerge. But be alert because the ball will come right back to you."

Gattsu was so impressed by the technology he had in his hand that he could hardly believe it was real. Sam felt similar.

Oak and Green stood to the side of the field and observed as Gatts and Sam looked each other in the eyes and nodded, as if communicating each other's feelings telepathically. After the nod, they both tossed their Pokéballs out onto the field, catching them as they returned.

The Pokémon that stood in Gattsu's half of the field was small, light-blue with a burnt-orange colored shell on his back. He also had a bushy tail that was the same color as his skin. He slightly resembled a turtle. It looked around the room and back toward Gattsu. Gattsu felt a tingling sensation in his stomach as the creature let out a cute cry and a smile, then turned toward Sam's Pokémon.

Sam's Pokémon looked quite a bit different than Gattsu's. It was shorter, stood on all four legs, it's body was the shape of a frog, it had a blueish-green skin color with green colored shaped on placed randomly on it's body. It's ears were small points and on it's back was a light green bulb. It's cry was a bit more ferocious than Gattsu's Pokémon, but not very powerful all together.

"Aah, so Gatts, you chose Squirtle. He's a rare water type Pokémon with quite a naughty nature. Sam, yours is Bulbasaur. A grass type, very stubborn," Oak stated with a serious look on his face. "Let's see what they've got, huh? Sam, command yours to tackle Squirtle."

Sam blinked as if he was a bit confused and said "Uh, tackle?" in a very shy tone. Bulbasaur yawned and layed down. "Hey, it looks like he's going to sleep!"
"You need to be a bit more aggressive, Sam, he'll never respect you if you sound afraid of him," Green spoke out. This was the most Sam and Gatts heard Green say.

"Uh, okay then. Bulbasaur, tackle Squirtle!"

Bulbasaur let out a yawn and stood back on his feet, he glared at Squirtle and charged at him suddenly. Squirtle's eyes widened and he jumped to the side, dodging the attack. Bulbasaur skidded to a halt and turned around.

Gattsu didn't need to be instructed, he suddenly called out "Squirtle, return that attack to Bulbasaur!"

Squirtle grinned and lowered his head, charging Bulbasaur and slamming into him with a loud thud!

Bulbasaur slid back a bit and Sam said "Oh no! Bulbasaur, tackle him now while he's close to you!"

Bulbasaur obeyed, leaping at Squirtle and slamming his head into Squirtle's body, sending him onto his back.

"Squirtle, get on your feet, he's coming in for another attack!" called out Gattsu as Squirtle struggled to get off of his shell.

It was too late, by the time Squirtle got to his feet, Bulbasaur already tackled him back down. Squirtle looked to be in a bit of pain, but he stood up again with a determined expression.
"Squirtle, he's coming in for another attack, dodge and use his momentum against him!" Gattsu called out.

Squirtle waited until just before Bulbasaur reached him to dodge out of the way and charge at him from behind, slamming into him hard and sending him down. Squirtle was breathing heavily as Bulbasaur lay collapsed on the floor, looking as if he wanted to get up but just couldn't.

"Looks like Squirtle took the match. Good job, Gattsu. You did good as well, Sam. Now, throw your Pokéballs back at them to miniaturize them and contain them inside the device once more. Like last time, it'll return right back to your hand so be prepared."

Sam looked very upset as he did as Oak instructed, tossing the ball at the exausted Bulbasaur. The ball tapped Bulbasaur's bulb and popped open. Bulbasaur gravitated to the interior of the ball as he shrank to a pocket size.

Gattsu did the same with Squirtle, offering a "Good match," to Sam, who just nodded in return. He was taking the defeat pretty hard.

"Let's get them healed up. Luckily, Pokémon can heal quite quick from minor injuries by being placed on these specially designed recuperation machines," Oak said, taking the Pokéballs from the boys and placing them on a device that was in the corner of the large room. The device glowed and pulsated as it seemed to heal the Pokémon.

Just as Oak was about to speak, the door burst open and in walked Steve, Gattsu's dad. "Oak, what did I say!?" he burst out angrily. He stormed toward Gatts and gripped his arm, "my son will not be a Pokémon trainer at the age of ten. Don't try to trick him into thinking he can. I am his father," and with that, he stormed out of the room and out of the lab all together.

Oak stood there, feeling quite bad for what he had done. It was true that he shouldn't have tried to persuade Gattsu, but he knew what he was capable of and he just couldn't resist. Oak had a feeling that he would still be seeing Gattsu tomorrow, but for now he had to continue training Green and Sam.

Meanwhile, back at Gattsu's house, Steve scolded him for quite some time as tears streamed down his face. He had felt like a big part of him had been ripped away now that he had met Squirtle and couldn't take him home. He didn't know if Oak was going to give him Squirtle anyway, but just that brief battle was enough to get Gattsu attached.

"...now go to your room! Tomorrow is your birthday and I don't want to still be angry by then," Steve finally finished.

Gattsu began to walk toward the stairs when a sudden wave of encouragment flooded his body. He turned and looked at his dad. "I am going to become a trainer tomorrow, dad," he said suddenly.

Steve looked at him surprised. This was the first time Gatts directly defied his word. He opened his mouth to speak but Gattsu interrupted.

"You can't stop me. I was born for this. It's in our blood! Grandpa was almost a master, I heard Oak say it earlier. And I did amazingly my first time battling. I will be a trainer tomorrow no matter what, I've made up my mind."

Steve starred at Gattsu angrily and then the anger washed away. Without saying another word, Steve went to his room and layed down in his bed, still very frustrated. Gattsu went upstairs and into his bedroom, lying down on his bed letting the rest of the day go by as he drift into sleep.

A rapping was heard at his window and he awoke with a start. He looked around and the tapping upon his window continued. He stood up quickly and grabbed a baseball bat from the corner of his bedroom before approaching the window. He slid the curtains away from the window to see Sam holding onto a tree branch that just barely reached Gattsu's window.

"Gatts, let me in!" Sam said, looking as if he could lose balance on the thin branch at any moment.

Gattsu opened his window and pulled Sam into his bedroom, sliding the window and telling Sam to be really quiet. It was about 12:30 AM and Gattsu didn't want his father waking up.

"What is it, Sam?" Gattsu asked, wondering why Sam would be out so late.

"Oh, you know, I just brought Squirtle to you, that's all," Sam said sarcastically, dropping a Pokéball onto Gattsu's bed. Inside the transparent red top was a miniature Squirtle grinning up at him.

Gattsu felt his heart drop and hugged Sam bigger than he'd ever hugged anyone. "Thanks, Sam!" he said out loud, probably louder than he should've.
Sam smiled and almost lost his footing as he said "no problem, but you really should thank Professor Oak, he said we could have our Pokémon! You should've seen the one Green got! But you'll probably see it later on so I won't ruin the surprise for you."

Gattsu was so happy that he had his Squirtle that he just had to release it. He dropped the ball onto the floor gently, Squirtle emerging and smiling at him, letting out his cute cry.

"Squirtle, I'm so happy you're here!" Gattsu said sitting on the floor so he could see Squirtle better.

Squirtle gave a cute, excited look and looked around Gattsu's room curiously. He'd never really been outside of Oak's lab or his yard so this was all pretty new. He looked back to Gattsu and let out a cry once more. Gattsu smirked and hugged Squirtle, who hugged back.

Although they'd only known each other very briefly, they already had a strong attachment to one another. Gattsu felt like it was the start of a great friendship and a powerful partnership. He looked back up to Sam and said "why don't we meet up tomorrow afternoon and let our Pokémon play together? We can even train a bit if you'd like."

Sam nodded, "I'd like that. I better get out of here, I'm gonna let my Bulbasaur explore my bedroom tonight so he gets comfortable," he held up his Pokéball, showing Bulbasaur to Gattsu, "See ya'!" and with that, he was back out the window and down the tree, running to his house.

Gattsu had a hard time sleeping due to how anxious he was for tomorrow, but eventually he would doze off to sleep, Squirtle beside him resting his head on Gattsu's stomach.

The next morning, Gattsu woke up to Squirtle tugging at his t-shirt anxiously. As soon as Gattsu's eyes opened, Squirtle jumped around excitedly, letting out a joyful cry and hopping off of his bed, pointing at the window.

"Not just yet, Squirtle, I still have to talk to my dad. You'd better get back in your Pokéball for now," Gattsu said, gently tossing the ball at Squirtle, who entered into the device just before it sprung back into Gattsu's hand.

Gattsu's bravery from the night before had all but vanished as he slowly marched downstairs. His dad was in the kitchen making breakfast, which was quite rare. As soon as he saw Gattsu enter the kitchen he said "Happy birthday, my new Pokémon trainer!" and put a plate in front of him on the table that had pancakes decorated to look like Pokéballs. There was also bacon and eggs on the plate.

Gattsu about sprang out of his chair with excitment. He looked up at Steve and said "D-dad, you mean..."

"Yep, I thought about it for quite sometime... It's what Grandpa Gatts would've wanted, son. I am sorry I was so hard on you, and I apologized to Professor Oak already as well. I am going to be very worried about you but as long as you contact me frequently I will let you adventure around Kanto. Happy birthday, Gattsu." Steve smiled and sat down next to his son. The two ate and Steve gave him his birthday presents. Money, clothes, a hand-held gaming device for his trip with several games, and a cellular device.

"Dad, thank you so much! I will call home daily and I'll be very careful. Thank you!" he hugged his father around the neck and the two spent a little bit more time together before his dad said "You'd better get to Professor Oak's lab, I heard he has some presents for you too."

Gattsu smiled and hugged his dad one last time before leaving the house. He met up with Sam right on time and the two released their Pokémon to walk with them.

"You're so lucky, Gatts. My birthday is in nine days and I'll catch up to you then, I promise!" Sam said as they strolled toward Oak's lab.

They reached the lab and walked in, heading to Oak's office.
"Aah, I figured I'd be seeing you early, Gatts. Your father spoke to me and gave me the okay to present you with this," he handed Gattsu a plastic rectangular card. It already had a picture of Gattsu on it, his name, birthdate, and several more information.

"How do you have this picture of me?" Gattsu asked.

"My lab is equipped with several cameras for security purposes," Oak replied, "I just used a picture from them. Anyways, that's not all I have, here are these as well," Oak then handed him five Pokéballs, which were empty. "Use those to capture new Pokémon. Official trainers can only have teams of six so choose wisely. You can capture more than six but you'll have to transfer the ones you're not using to me or Bill."

"Bill?" Gattsu asked, not familiar with who that was.

"Oh, right, you don't know of Bill. Well, no matter, I'm sure you'll meet him soon enough," Oak responded. "And, last but certainly not least, your Pokédex." This time, Oak handed him what looked like a wide, red cell phone. The front of which popped open on a hinge to display a screen and several buttons.

"Hello, Gattsu," the Pokédex said in a monotonous computerized voice.

"Whoa," Sam said looking at the device.
"This device is used to record data about Pokémon as you capture them. As you know, my goal is to research and discover as much as I can about Pokémon so I've built this sort of encyclopedia with one task which I ask of you, discover as much as you can about as many Pokémon as you can. I've asked the same of Green so I'm hoping that between the two of you, I'll learn about all the Pokémon in Kanto."

Sam felt very envious now. Was he not going to give him a Pokédex when he turned ten? He kind of looked to the floor in sadness.

"All right, Professor. Thank you so much! I will try my hardest to catch as many Pokémon as I can! I'll be leaving this afternoon after I say goodbye to dad and Sam."

"Very well. Viridian City is just North of here down route one, just follow the path and don't stray too far and you should find it just fine. You might even catch up with Green. Now, I've got a lot to do today so I'll be contacting you frequently for updates on the Pokédex. Have fun, boys."

Oak smiled and waved good bye as the two exited his office and then the lab.

"Man, I am so jealous!" Sam said as Gattsu looked at his new Pokédex.

"I'm sure you'll get one too, Sam," Gattsu said.
"You heard Oak, he's hoping that you and Green will collect all the data. He never said anything about me."
"Oh, you're just thinking too much, don't worry."

The two let their Pokémon play a bit that day. Gattsu let Squirtle swim in the shallow part of the sea for a little while and they trained a bit as well. Gattsu won three matches and Sam managed to win one when he discovered that he could use an attack with vines that came out of Bulbasaur's bulb. The attack seemed to injur Squirtle quite a bit. Gattsu also found that Squirtle had a water attack too but it didn't seem to do anything to Bulbasaur.

After a couple of hours, Gattsu returned home to rest and say goodbye to his dad, then it was time to start his adventure to Viridian City.

Gattsu stepped out of Pallet Town for the very first time. The route that led to Viridian was very grassy. Often times there'd be rustling in the grass but Gattsu decided for now he'd just enjoy his time strolling along with Squirtle, who was out of his Pokéball.

Bird type Pokémon flew high above route one. Gattsu had seen them before but there seemed to be many more in this area than in Pallet.

Gattsu contemplated on battling or capturing one but his thoughts were lost when he heard someone say his name from behind him. He turned to face whoever it was that had spoken his name only to find that it was Green wielding his Pokéball.
Green had a cold look in his eyes as he said "We're both trainers now, which means we're going to battle."

Gattsu swallowed hard, unsure of how this would turn out. He knew nothing about Green's Pokémon and he definitely knew that Green was more advanced than he was. But he couldn't turn this down, he had to prove himself.

"Right, you're on, Green," Gattsu replied as Squirtle stepped out in front of him ready for battle.

Current teams at the end of chapter 1:

Gattsu:
Squirtle Lv. 7

Sam:
Bulbasaur Lv. 9

Green:
?