Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon AT ALL! However all original characters in this fanfiction belong to me! Enjoy.
It all started when my mother and father gave me, Kevin Banks, my first pokemon as a tenth birthday present.
I decided I wanted to be a pokemon trainer when I was four years old. I decided I wanted to be the best pokemon trainer when I was seven years old. I knew becoming the best wasn't going to be an easy task. I knew it would involve a lot of hard work, but I didn't care. I suppose this need for perfection is the reason I graduated Trainer's School with such rapidity. I knew I had the capability to be the best. I was smart. I read a lot. Every night I read the dictionary so I could widen my vocabulary. Because of my desire for knowledge I was picked on. Names like dork, geek, and nerd were tossed around. Anything other students knew got under my skin, they would do. But I controlled my temper. The best has to have control.
By age nine I was out of school. Every spare moment I had was spent trying to figure out which pokemon I wanted as my first pokemon, my starter. I knew I wanted a fire type right off the bat. Fire is strong, beautiful, and exciting. Also, many trainers didn't start out with a fire type because sometimes they can be hard to handle, and I knew that if I wanted to be the best trainer I'd have to set myself apart from the other trainers.
Both of my parents had been trainers, also they had both finished the gym circuit. My father, Nolan Banks, received a machop on his tenth birthday. He is a machamp now, and his name is Jacob. My mother, Susan Banks, was given an oddish as her first pokemon. Her oddish's name was Summer. A year into my mother's journey, when she was eleven, something bad happened.
Summer had been a shiny oddish, so she was very rare. This was the reason my mother almost died. One night a gang of pokemon the thieves was chasing my mother. She decided to hide in an abandoned old barn for the night, but they found her. They tried to take Summer, who was a gloom by then, but my mother wouldn't have any of it. Her only other pokemon, a squirtle she received as an eleventh birthday gift whom she'd named Jayden, had defended her and Summer fiercely. Then the thieves had given up, but to a point. Somehow they stole Summer's poke ball and broke it. Then they set fire to the barn and left. My mother scooped up her gloom, returned her squirtle, and tried to escape the burning building.
My mother was making good progress until she tripped on a fallen rafter and Summer slid from her grasp. "You have to follow me!" she shouted in a raspy voice.
"Gloo." Summer responded weakly. Taking that as a yes, my mother continued to run. She made it out of the building quickly, but her heart sunk when she noticed Summer had, in fact, not followed. She was about to go and look for her when the entire roof caved in on itself. My mother just sat in the soft. She was catatonic. The fire department came just as the first signs of morning started to show. They took her to a mental hospital. She stayed there for about a month when they released her. My mother wasn't crazy after that. She was just changed. She became terribly afraid of fire and the only pokemon she ever caught were water types. She finished the gym circuit, but didn't even attempt to face the Elite Four. She met a nice man and settled down. She was happy to say that man didn't have a fire type pokemon. That is how I knew it was selfish to want a fire type starter.
My father never had a traumatic experience like my mother's. He simply finished the gym circuit, faced the Elite Four, and lost to the second Elite Four member, Bertha.
A week before my tenth birthday, when I announced to my family that I wanted a fire starter, my mother nearly burst into tears. "Why don't we get you a water starter?" my father asked pleadingly, curling his arm around my mother.
"No," I refused, "If I want to be the best I want to start out with a fire type. A fast one also, I need strength to be the best."
"I'm sorry but-" My mother cut him off.
"No. Nolan, if he wants a fire starter he should have one. The best part of becoming a trainer is picking your starter yourself. I don't mind fire pokemon, just . . . fire." my mother said, hesitating on the last word.
"Are you sure?" my father asked, "I mean he'll live." he told her. He wasn't exactly helping my case.
"I am positive. I can't let the past effect the future. So, what kind of fire type did you want?" she asked, as kindly as the current situation would allow.
"I don't know yet. I know I want something fast, and I want something that can use more than fire type moves because if I go up against a water type or ground type I want her to be able to defend herself." I explained.
"Her?" my mother asked, questioning my gender specificity.
"Yeah," I said, "I . . . want a girl starter." I admitted a little embarrassed. This, also, was one of the many reasons I was picked on. All of the boys at school talked about how they were going to make a team of only male pokemon. They talked of never catching pokemon like buneary, cleffa, or swablu because those were "gay" pokemon, when in fact some very strong men trainers used pokemon of the "gay" variety. I didn't take any offense to it though. Hardly anyone within the nine year old to four your old population knew want the classification of "gay" actually meant. They just thought it was a hurtful way to say something was girly. I wanted a female starter because throughout the nine (almost ten) years I've spent on this planet I have learned that women have the capability to be much stronger than the male race. Woman wouldn't confront you head on like men would, no that would be too easy to counter, women would find the smartest and fastest way to bring their opponent down. This realization sparked the desire for an all-female team, or at the very least, a female starter.
"There's nothing wrong with that. My . . . starter had been female." my mother said with hesitation again, remembering her painful past.
"I know that. I picture female pokemon to be the stronger of the two sexes." I told my parents.
"That's exactly how you should picture them honey." my mother said with a smile, and she leaned into my father's embrace.
"So I'm not for sure, but if I can't think of anything surprise me. I'm sure you won't mess up." I said with a grin.
"Hopefully we won't. Now don't you think it's time that you went off to bed?" my father asked.
"Dad," I said, "Don't you think I'm a little too smart for a bedtime?" I questioned.
"Even geniuses have to sleep at some point. Now go." he said, ruffling my hair.
"Fine, but can Nyx sleep with me tonight?" I asked motioning to my mother's bibarel that had raised her head at the sound of her name.
"If she wants to." my father said.
"Great," I said getting up from the chair I had been sitting in, "Come on Nyx, let's go get ready for bed." I said as I ran up the stairs that led to my room. Nyx obediently followed. I quickly brushed my teeth, changed into a loose fitting t-shirt and flannel pants, and jumped into bed. I got under the blankets and patted the bed so Nyx would know it was okay to get up. She turned around once or twice and settled at the foot of the bed. I turned on my T.V. and flipped to the battle channel, turning down the volume so my parents wouldn't know.
"Ick." I whined in disgust. The current program was the mock battle show or legally known as "Celebrity Showdown." This show films celebrities having fake battles. Everyone says that they're real, but I know that they're rehearsed down to the last blink. A battle was just starting. The first competitor walked onto the field. It was Ke$ha. Though her voice was completely synthesized, most of her work was on my iPod. The second battler was none other than the Queen of Performance, Lady Gaga. She was wearing a dress completely mad of poke balls, her high heels were dark blue with a great ball on the toe of each, and she even had a master ball carefully fitted into a tiara she was wearing. I quickly turned off the T.V., not being able to withstand a single minute of that show, and closed my eyes.
Sleep came graciously quick and I was thrown into an abyss of darkness only to be sent into another day of unbearable waiting.