I Suck At Titles
Theodore took one last look at Hearthome City. He knew he wouldn't miss his old life at all. His foster parents were abusive, his friends all laughed at him when he devoted to life to finding his missing dad, the whole city laughed at him whenever he came up with some elaborate theory about why his dad went missing… he clutched his Poké Ball closer to his chest. Then he took his first step onto Route 208.
He thought about his dad. The former Champion. He knew he'd have big shoes to fill if he ever got to the Championship. He sighed, thinking about the last opponent his father ever faced. Cecil. The sunglasses-wearing, leather-jacket loving, all-around shady jerk. Their match was the closest for a Championship battle ever, but in the end, Cecil's Dragonite was defeated by his dad's Toxicroak.
Toxicroak was the third in a long line of Poison-type starters for Theodore's family, with his Grandpa's Swalot and his Great-Grandpa's Muk earlier in the family.
"And I kept it in the family…" Theodore thought. He remembered all the fights he'd had with his dad. Theodore wanted a Rhyhorn, more than any other Pokémon in the world. But his dad wanted him to keep the Poison-type tradition in for a fourth generation.
"I followed your wishes, dad…" Theodore said, on the brink of tears, as he released his Nidoran from its Poké Ball. "Hey, Gary…" he greeted his new Pokémon. He kept the tradition of g names in his family, too.
The Nidoran sat there for a minute, then got up, stretched, and began looking around. There were a lot of wild Pokémon in the area, and Gary looked around for a minute before lashing out at a nearby Budew with a Peck attack, causing the Grass/Poison type to reel in pain. It tried to fight back with an Absorb, but Gary jumped over it and defeated it with another Peck.
A nearby Bidoof angrily attacked back, but a single Double Kick to the face knocked it out. A Meditite's Confusion attack managed to slow him down, but another Peck attack knocked it out as well. Gary returned to his astounded trainer, happily rubbing his horn against Theodore's leg.
"Wow…" Theodore gasped in astonishment. "I thought I'd need to train you up, but it looks like you already have enough power to take on a gym." Gary nodded and curled up around his leg. "We'll still need two more Pokémon before we can face a gym leader, though."
Just then, a Ralts Teleported nearby. Theodore gasped, knowing how rare Ralts were in the Sinnoh region. He thought about how much fun he could have with an awesome Gallade. He had fantasies about taking on the tournament with a full-fledged, super awesome Psychic/Fighting type.
Unfortunately, Theodore was so busy thinking about the fun he could have, he forgot to throw a Poké Ball, and the Ralts Teleported away to who-knows-where. Theodore stood standing there for a second before falling down and curling up into the fetal position.
Gary moved away from Theodore's feet and used his horn to pat Theo's back in a "there, there" sort of way. Theodore sat down for a few more minutes before standing back up, sniffing, and smiled softly.
"You- You're right, Gary," he said, regaining his composure. "We just have to go find an even more awesome Pokémon to catch! We're gonna go out there, find some new, good Pokémon. And then we're gonna go CHALLENGE THE GYMS! Now, we're gonna go catch a new Pokémon!"
4 Hours of them not catching a new Pokémon later
"So many critical hits…" Theodore sighed, sitting down by their campfire glumly. They had tried everything, from toning down Gary's hits so they wouldn't do much damage, to not using any attacks period [at which point the Starly they were facing's attack activated Gary's Poison Point ability], but they ended up knocking out everything they faced before Theodore could throw a Poké Ball at it.
Theodore sighed as crawled into his sleeping bag, with Gary crawling in behind him. "We'll try to catch another Pokémon in the morning…" Theodore said as he drifted off to sleep.
Between his weird dreams about ice cream hot dogs and Quagsire/ Mightyena offspring, he had an oddly realistic dream about his dad.
"Dad?" Theodore said, looking up at his former guardian.
"Son, I haven't got much time but I want you to know-" his dad was suddenly disappearing into the deep banks of his mind.
"Dad? DAD?" Theodore screamed as his father faded and was replaced by a giant version of Cecil.
"Ha ha! You wanna talk to your dad, kid? TOO BAD! You'll never see your dad again, and it's all thanks to me! And now, I'll take care of you!"
All of a sudden, Theodore woke up and felt a bit of pain in his leg. He opened his eyes and saw a concerned looking Gary staring back at him.
"It- It's okay, Gary, you can go back to sleep," Theodore said. Gary nodded and crawled back into the sleeping bag while Theodore laid his head back down on his pillow.
He started thinking about his weird dream. Why was he having such realistic dreams? And what was his dad going to say to him? He thought about this a bit longer before sleep took him back to the land of weird dreams.
When he woke up in the morning, he yawned, stretched, and reached down into the sleeping bag and pulled out Gary.
"Good morning, Gary!" Theodore said happily, hoping he could put his dreams on the back burner while he tried to catch some new Pokémon. Gary remained completely silent, his eyes following something nearby. Theodore followed his eyes and found a Weedle, crawling directly next to his sleeping bag and not paying much attention.
"New Pokémon!" Theodore shouted. He attempted to jump out of his sleeping bag, but he got tangled up in it and spent the next four minutes trying to get out. He finally jumped out and looked frantically around for the Weedle, only to discover that it was still right next to his leg. He looked down at the bug, who chanted its own name happily. Theodore threw a Poké Ball at the Pokémon and it shook three times before catching the Pokémon.
"I'm gonna call you… Larson!" Theodore shouted, happy that he finally caught a new Pokémon. Then he looked at its level on the PokéDex. Level 2. He sighed. It would be a long day of training.