Gabriel Stone was a fifteen year old living in Viridian City. He has very tall for his age, hitting six feet and two inches. It wasn't surprising though, as his father Fredrick was a giant, standing at six foot seven. His mother Heather on the other hand was slightly shorter than average, standing at five feet even. Gabriel had jet black hair like his mother, while his father was a blondie.

Gabriel was asleep against a tree in a forest beyond the edges of Viridian. He had a PDA in his lap which was streaming a battle going on between the champion of the Pokémon league from Sinnoh and the champion from Johto. The match was intense, and it was down to both of the champions last Pokémon, a Zangoose for the Johto champ, and a Hitmontop for the Sinnoh champ.

Yet Gabriel had been up for two whole days with no sleep watching matches to learn battle strategies. This match was the one he had wanted to watch most, yet he was simply too tired to stay awake.

Next to him slept his Cyndaquil. He had gotten an egg on his eleventh birthday and after three months it hatched into a Cyndaquil. Gabriel had never been happier in his life. The two didn't really battle much until Gabriel turned fifteen, which is when he seriously began considering going on a Pokémon journey.

If one were to go deeper into the forest Gabriel was in they would find dozens of burnt out trees from when Gabriel was training with his Cyndaquil. Gabriel knew that his Cyndaquil was good, yet unknown to him it had a wickedly very high sp. attack stat, and its nature was made for sp. attack at the cost of defense.

"Alright Roselia… vine whip," a feminine voice said.

Suddenly four vines wrapped themselves around Gabriel and he instantly woke. "Huh? What's happening? Who's there?"

He got no response, and he couldn't even see where the vines were coming from due to a blurry vision from just waking up. "I swear if you don't show yourself! Cyndaquil get up and find it!"

Cyndaquil jumped into action, yet it didn't need to, as a girl the same age as Gabriel walked into view.

"Nicole… really? Tell your Roselia to let me go…"

"Fine, alright Roselia, let him go," as she said that the vines suddenly retracted and the Roselia hopped into view, only to be recalled a few moments later.

In Gabriel's eyes, Nicole Jackson was gorgeous. She was five foot two inches, had long, flawless, brown hair, and beautiful green eyes.

He'd had a crush on her since the Jackson family first moved to Viridian city when Gabriel was seven. He had thought he had met an angel that day.

He also thought he had met a devil.

Anthony Jackson walked up to Gabriel not long after Nicole did. He was five foot six, and had the same eyes and hair color as Nicole.

"Slacking off again Gabriel?"

"Ugh… Anthony… Hey…"

"What are you doing out here in the forest alone?" Nicole asked.

"I could ask you the same thing… not including the alone part…"

"Searching for you."

"Why would you ever care about where I am?"

"We want to know because we're starting our Pokémon journey tomorrow," Anthony said.

"You… you are? Well, have fun…"

"We want to know if you can come with us."

"Huh? Anthony… you really want me to come with you?"

"Hey, we might not like each other, but I could always use a rival to keep me on my toes. You could be useful…"

"Oh, so you just see me as a tool for your success."

"Basically," he grinned at him.

"Uhh…" Gabriel looked down at his Cyndaquil, and the flame on its back went off like he wanted Gabriel to accept, "Alright."

"Good, let's have a battle right now then."

"Now? As in right now?"

"What other now is there? God Gabriel, you always were slow…"

Nicole got out of the way and sat next to a tree to watch the coming battle. Gabriel's Cyndaquil jumped forward, ready and eager to fight.

"Well… this should be quite easy. Go, Tentacool!"

"Great, he had to use his Tentacool… why couldn't he use his Machop or Houndour instead?" Gabriel thought to himself.

Tentacool was Anthony's first, and favorite Pokémon. Not to mention his strongest. It was massive, three times the size of a normal one.

Yet that meant it was slow, and besides it was on land, so how could it move quickly?

"Tentacool, bubble!"

"Cyndaquil, jump up and use swift," Tentacool appeared to spit bubbly water at Cyndaquil, yet he jumped up just in time and released dozens of small yellow stars from its mouth.

Tentacool, stuck on land and being slow as a result, was completely unable to dodge the attack, taking it head on.

Yet the Tentacool wasn't done, "Bubble again!" Anthony yelled out to it.

"Quick attack Cyndaquil!"

Cyndaquil began charging right towards Tentacool at very high speeds, yet before he could hit it Anthony yelled, "Bubble beam!"

Cyndaquil was moving too fast to stop, and was hit directly by the bubble beam, being send back and smashing into a tree.

"Cyndaquil, are you alright?"

Cyndaquil pulled itself up and the fire on its back lit again, "Nice… alright, let's play this smarter…"

His Cyndaquil looked at him and nodded its head before looking back at the Tentacool, "Constrict!" Anthony yelled.

The Tentacool used its strong tentacles to jump itself forward at amazing speed right at Cyndaquil.

"Alright, smoke screen!" Cyndaquil let out a large amount of smoke, obstructing Tentacool's vision, and preventing it from hitting Cyndaquil, "Now, flamethrower!"

Tentacool went flying out of the smoke cloud after being hit by the flame thrower, and it landed on the ground next to Anthony. It got up after a few moments however, still able to battle.

"Alright, shoot your bubble beam into the smoke cloud!"

"Cyndaquil, use flamethrower to propel yourself off the ground!"

Cyndaquil went flying into the air and soon was above the tree line, "Now, flamethrower one more time!"

"Tentacool, shoot it quick!" Tentacool looked up at Cyndaquil fast and let loose its bubbles, yet they missed by a hair.

Cyndaquil however, did not miss. His flamethrower hit Tentacool directly, dealing a critical hit.

Tentacool went flying back into a tree, and Gabriel gave one final order to Cyndaquil, "Quick Attack!"

Cyndaquil landed on the ground and rammed right into Tentacool as it stood up, sending it right back into the tree, yet this time it didn't get back up.

"Well Anthony… I think I win," Gabriel said.

"Wha… what? No! Get up Tentacool! We're not losing to this kid!"

"Anthony, Tentacool lost. You lost…"

Anthony sighed and recalled his Tentacool, "Fine. Come on sis, we're going home. Gonna leave Gabriel to think about if he wants to come with us or not."

The two walked off leaving Gabriel with a feeling of accomplishment. He had won his first battle, and against Anthony no less…

He looked down to his Cyndaquil and said, "So… you wanna go on a journey to become the best?"

.

"Well… let's just hope mom and dad say yes… especially considering how short notice it will be…" he sighed thinking about that. They would probably say no…

"Really? You're going to let me go with them?" Gabriel was astonished.

"Yes. I've actually been waiting for you to want to go on a Pokémon journey," his father replied.

"I still don't like it," His mother snapped.

"Mom… this is something I really wanna do though! Come on… don't ruin it for me…" Gabriel said, trying to guilt her.

"I know… and fine… just call us every day… I want to know where my baby is, do you understand?"

"How bout every week instead?"

"Honestly Heather, every day is a bit much. I didn't speak to my parents for months."

"How far did you even get? Only four lousy badges. I could have done better than that!"

"You quit before the first gym because you didn't like not sleeping in a house when we were traveling."

"Yeah well… I could gotten farther…"

"Dad…" Gabriel interrupted.

"What son?"

"Why did you quit?"

"Well… once I got my fourth badge and went to the fifth gym I just… couldn't win… I told myself if I lost to a gym three times in a row I was done, and I lost not just three, but five times in a row. I didn't want to quit after I got so far… but it just wasn't working out for me."

"Well… I'll make sure I don't end up like you."

"Make it all the way to the Indigo League, and win it for me."

"I promise you, I will…"

"Don't make promises you can't keep. Trust me… this is harder than many think it is. I thought it would be easy… and it wasn't…"

"Don't worry dad, I'll be fine. I got Cyndaquil with me after all…"

Gabriel's mother crouched down and looked at Cyndaquil saying, "Now you better take care of my son Cyndaquil, or else."

Cyndaquil nodded and soon Gabriel's mother stood up and took Gabriel's backpack off the table and handed it to him, "It's got clean clothes for seven days, a sleeping bag, tarp, a map of Kanto, food for a week and a phone."

"Thanks mom…"

"And here son," Gabriel's father handed him a bag, which was filled with four normal Pokéballs and a Great Ball. The Great Ball is in case you run into something tough. I couldn't afford an Ultra Ball… sorry about that…"

"It's alright dad, it's all I need."

"Well, to sign up for the Pokémon League you need to first go to Professor Oak in Pallet Town. He'll give you a Pokédex and you can use that at the Pokémon Center to register. After that the nearest open gym is in Pewter City. We have one here in Viridian… but it's closed for some reason…"

"Thanks for the tip, I'll be on my way then…" Gabriel recalled Cyndaquil into his Pokéball and hooked all six onto his belt. He took a breath before opening, and walking out the door.

It was time for a Pokémon adventure.

Hi guys. Some of you might be wondering, "How does Cyndaquil already know Flamethrower and Swift". Well, in the anime Ash's Cyndaquil was capable of using both moves, so I thought, "Why not?".