A young boy sat in his father's lap, enjoying the warm sunlight of the summer afternoon. A large indigo turtle lounged beside them, fanning itself with its furry tail.
"Hi Wartortle," said the child happily, extending his hand in an attempt to pet the Pokemon. Upon discovering that his arms were too short, the Wartortle stood up on its hind legs so that the boy could reach. He giggled in delight, patting the turtle's leathery head. The man watched, his eyes sad.
"Hey, son, listen. I'm going on a trip tomorrow," he said, pushing his round glasses up to the bridge of his nose. "I could be away for a while. Okay, Cam?"
The little boy blinked. "Where ya goin', dad?"
"I'm going to look for a special Pokemon," he explained gently. "It's a Pokemon that came from space. We call it Deoxys. I want to find it so that I can study it. But it's very, very hard to find, so it might take a long time."
"Can I come with you?" asked the child, his eyebrows furrowing as he attempted to come to terms with this turn of events.
"No," he said, ruffling the boy's brown hair. "Sorry, sport. It might be dangerous. You have to stay here and help mom, okay?"
"Okay," Camden agreed quite passively. "Hey, dad?"
"Yeah, sport?"
"When I'm growed up, I wanna be a strong and smart Pokemon trainer like you! And I wanna study space, too, just like you!" He grinned a wide, open grin.
The boy's father laughed. "Okay," he said. "Just like me."
Author's Note: This story is rated M for violence and language in later chapters (it gets increasingly dark as time goes on), as well as some suggestive themes. If there is explicit sexual content, it will be separated from the rest of the story and appropriate warnings will be given; everything else is fair game. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it!