Pokemon Angol: Chapter 1
Hey, all, Locke here once again. It's been a while since I've uploaded a chapter of anything, but I've had little to no inspiration to write. That is, until I got bored and started writing this on long car journeys and it migrated to my laptop at home. So here it is, my own region explored in Pokemon Angol.
The region of Angol holds strict pokemon training laws, that is that if trainers are of school age, the only time they can travel is during the 6 week summer holiday, and a trainer must be at least 13 years of age. if a person under the age of 13 is found truanting to train their pokemon, then the pokemon is confiscated or the family are fined for a large sum of money. There are no exceptions to the rule, and no loopholes to take advantage of. Unsurprisingly, after the manifestation of these laws, the country became much safer, as most trainers are able to understand their pokemon and their abilities better thanks, in part, to the mandatory biology lessons taught in national schools. The change in law also had another change, being that grades throughout the country were improving ad children weren't off gallivanting through the countryside without a care for their education. The training barrier, as it's referred to, is lifted on the first of July, after their 11th year of schooling where they are considered adults in the eyes of Angol officials and are free to do whatever they want, like get a job, go to college for years 12 and 13 of schooling or train pokemon.
I was an outlier, as people generally only pick one path and stick to it - if training isn't somebody's style, then they can still work as a ranch hand and 'jump' into the occupational tree, but it's very rare that people will travel along two paths at once. I, being the outlier, chose to go to college during term time and travel through the summer, until I had finished college, which I left open for the future.
The training for my journey technically began on the 26th of December, the day after Midwinter, despite it only being the start of winter, as I got the first and, arguably, most important requirement for being a trainer the day before - my own pokemon, a Houndour as a present for all of my family…
I woke up on the 25th, shivering beneath my thick duvet as the bitter Anglish cold had infiltrated my bedroom, entering from the ajar window that allowed some decent ventilation in my room, as i would have otherwise overheated beneath the thick covers. Instead of just sitting there or calling for my dad to turn the central heating on, I steeled myself and quickly rolled onto my feet and launches myself right at my cupboard to find some clothes that would keep the heat out better than my cotton pyjamas.
Eventually, I had found some decent clothes, the details have slipped my mind after all this time but they hardly mattered, what mattered is that I had put some clothes on and was starting to warm up. After going downstairs and saying good morning to my parents, my eyes drifted to the false pine tree in the corner of the room which was covering a mountain of wrapped presents. My eyes drifted towards them, and my Mother definitely noticed.
"You know how Kyumas works, Magnus" she called prematurely, so I sighed and walked back upstairs to play on my Xstation U whilst waiting for my sleepy siblings to awaken.
It was past 9 when my sister woke up, making her presence known to all as she made more noise than I thought possible as she practically fell down the stairs. Why she did it at the time was beyond me, as it was very annoying but, looking back on it, she probably meant to wake me up and if I wasn't awake, it would've worked. Needless to say, as she made herself known to the world, I saved my game and followed her down so that we could both open our presents.
For the past years, I had been asking for games that I could play on my Xstation from my family but, this year, I had made a point that I wanted equipment that would allow me to start training pokemon, and they most certainly didn't disappoint. They must've spent at least £1000 on me, due to the sheer quality and quantity of stuff I was given.
I was given a new, travelling backpack with an ever-coveted storage transmitter that would allow me to easily store and retrieve bigger items such as tents or a suitcase full of clean clothes, should I need to. It must've cost them at least £500 due to how advanced it was. On their urge, I opened it and found that it was full of other presents, such as some new clothes, a cool travelling cap and the coveted trainer's belt, a belt that had six magnetic notches on to safely store your six active team members easily without worrying about crushing them in your pocket. At the time, I thought that they were all of the presents that I was getting that day, but with hindsight, I know better and so do you. I guess you're all wondering how I got my Houndour, aren't you?
It was an underhanded trick that my parents pulled. I'd heard rumours about it from my brother who had his S64 hidden from him all day, but I'd given it no thought that day, since they'd already spent upwards of £700 pounds on me, and getting a new console would be out of the realm of possibility, so I was content. Then, roughly an hour after Kyumas dinner, a man knocked on the door, and my Dad was far too eager to greet him at the door. Curious, I hid around the corner in the kitchen where I could eavesdrop on their conversation.
"Are you sure this is the one for sale, Gav?" Dad asked.
"Definitely, he's the most tame of the bunch, but that doesn't mean he's completely useless. I assume he's for Magnus? He's, what, 16 now?" The man asked, leaving me wondering for a second who he was to know my name and nearly my age.
"He's 15 but, yeah, the 'dour is for him, he's wanted to be a trainer when he left school, so I figured that we should get him started and bonding a little early." Dad answered, "so how much is he?"
"For you, H, £250." 'Gav' replied.
"£250? I was expecting somewhere close to £300, but I'll take him for it, it's not every day you can get a Houndour of such good heritage." At that, I heard the door shut and I quickly ran back into the lounge and sat as casually as I could, trying not to give away that I had revealed my last present early. It was when my dad came in with the dog that I first saw it.
He looked just like any other houndour, with black fur on its back and orange fur around its mouth and on its stomach but he looked, for lack of a better word, shy, as its little tail was tucked between its legs and it was looking down at the ground. Throwing caution to the wind, I slipped onto the floor and slid my way to the young pup. I put out my hand for him to sniff it, as I learned to be the correct protocol for dealing with unfamiliar dog pokemon, and it gently licked my hand.
"Dad, is this Houndour mine?" I asked, as I moved my hand to scratch behind the dog's ears.
"He's our Houndour, but he'll be your starter when you set off." Dad said. Despite the surprise being spoilt, I still grinned. There was something magical about hearing those words that made it seem ten times more real, and made me ten times more appreciative of the Houndour.
"Does he have a name?"
"Not that I'm aware of, no."
"Then he's Rufus. Welcome to the family, Rufus." I said with a smile, hugging the pup.
That night's sleep was, perhaps, the best sleep I had had during the winter until then. I had managed to sneak Rufus upstairs and he acted as a hot water bottle throughout the night, keeping me warm thanks to his natural flame. Then, on the 26th, I set up a training regiment to get myself into shape and develop the stamina needed to travel across the country. Until the first of March, I would stay close to home with Rufus, taking daily walks down to a local nature reserve, keeping myself active for two hours in the journey. Whilst there, I would do different types of runs - sprints along the uneven terrain and through the forest, which ended up making he and I much more agile.
By the time that March arrived, my training had to slow as I had to revise for my year 11 GCSE exams. As a result, the training that we did had to be intense, so we would run up and down a sloped path near the house for a solid hour before returning home to revise. As May came, I had no time to train, as I was purely focussed on revision and ensuring that I actually got good grades. On the 15th of June, my exams were finished and I could spend the next two weeks in preparation for the start of my journey in July. The first week was much like my winter training, travelling down to the local nature reserve and running. On the Sunday, I sent in an application for a Pokedex and a full training license.
On the following Wednesday, I dressed up in my training gear for the first time. Some black combat pants which, if the summer got too hot, I could turn into shorts by unzipping the legs, some steel toe-cap hiking boots and a black shirt with a Plethora of different pokemon on them, all related to far off champions. Why did I dress up in my training gear? I dressed myself up because that Wednesday was the day that I would take my first step as a trainer and get both my dex and license, but it would be a long drive before I got there.
Two hours later, I was stood in Mancunia's steel gym, being scrutinised by Ferro the giant - the gym leader, most prestigious steel type breeder in the region and a man built like a tank. Standing at just over 6 foot 5 inches, with shoulders twice as broad as my body, he was enough to make even the bravest of Men cower in fear.
"Release your pokemon." The man commanded, looking down at my belt. Not wanting my head to be smashed in I grabbed the ball and gently pressed the manual release button, bringing out the little fire dog to my side.
"There he is, sir." I murmured, looking down at my feet and Rufus, his curious gaze meeting mine.
"You are aware, Mister Bellator, that Houndour are on the dangerous pokemon list, yes?"
"Yes, sir, I am."
"And you are also aware of the consequences of carrying a member of the dangerous pokemon list, aren't you?"
"Yes, sir, the league may choose to carry out a spot check on your control of the pokemon, else the pokemon may be confiscated and you're given a two year ban of owning any pokemon, sir."
"And yet you waltz into a league building without a license with a Houndour? You are aware of why Houndour are dangerous, aren't you?" The elder demanded, raising his voice.
"Yes, sir, the entire Houndour family are notoriously dangerous due to the contents of their fire. Whilst it's unknown what the flame is composed of to make it so volatile, any burns that a houndoom, in particular, causes will hurt and burn eternally."
"Well look at you, do you think you're smart kid?"
"No, sir, I don't." I replied. I may have studied Biology for the past five years of my life, but I knew that I didn't know everything about Houndour.
"You'd best keep that humility, kid. Now, prove to me that you can control that Houndour, and that it won't just go and burn somebody."
"Yes, sir! Of course I will," I turned to look at Rufus and moved back from Ferro, "Okay, Rufus, let's show him why we're gonna be the next champion!" I yelled, with Rufus joining in with a howl. "But, uh, what are we meant to do?" I immediately asked, rubbing my head at my show of false bravado." Ferro let out a hearty laugh and shook his head.
"Tell you what, kid, I'll make it easy for you, just land a hit on one of my pokemon." Ferro said with a smirk.
"I can do that, how hard can it be?" I replied, but I was wrong.
How wrong could I be? Very wrong. Ferro, as it turns out, wasn't the most terrifying thing in the gym, it was his Aggron. The room shook as the mountain of an Aggron, which must've been at least twice my height, materialised on the battlefield with an ear splitting roar.
"Rufus, I don't think we can take this guy." I said down to the dog who shook his head and stood in front of me, staring at the Aggron and growling.
"I'll not attack or tell Collin to do anything. Your dog just has to get in close and hit him." Ferro sat down cross-legged and stared at Rufus. Then, the 'battle' began.
I ordered Rufus to dart forwards and jump up with a bite, with the silent hopes that he would be able to get a hit on the goliath. Instead, the goliath hit him hard, and didn't even appear to make an effort. It just lifted its arm and swatted him away into the wall.
"Rufus!" I called, running over to the dog who weakly picked himself back up again. "No, you're not attempting to get it again, not a chance in the distortion." The pup whimpered as I returned him to his pokeball and stood back up, with my head bowed.
"I guess you'll be taking him, now, won't you?" I accepted, not daring to even look up to Ferro.
"No, I'm not. Whilst you didn't hit Collin, you still showed a decent bond with your Houndour, so you can definitely get your 'dex. Just stop by the front desk in five minutes and we'll get you sorted out."
I stood there for those five minutes, dumbfounded. I had lost the trial, but I had succeeded? What was the point of it? Was he messing with me? All of those question ran through my mind as I tried to rationalise the leader's decision. Eventually, though, I moved to the front desk and met with Ferro.
"So, if you'll just stand over there... Magnus, was it? We'll get this over quickly so that you can get your dog healed up," he ordered and I drifted to the corner, got my picture taken and was given a pokedex. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you what this pretty little thing can do for you, kid, but it doubles as your license and keeps you from worrying about your houndour ever again and gives you free access to Pokemon centres. Any questions?"
"Yes, actually, one question. Why would you put me through such a harsh trial, with the threat of losing Rufus?"
"It was a test. I wanted to see if you knew when to stop and give in so that you wouldn't get yourself or your pokemon hurt. That marks a true trainer."
"I… I see… Thank you, sir." I said with a nod and walked out with everything I needed for the great journey ahead of me.
And there it was. While I admit that the first half was probably better, I'd like to ask you all how you enjoyed it and I'd particularly like it if you pointed out any grammar mistakes because Capital letters are the bane of my existence.
Glad to be back - Locke.