Hey, guys. I'm masterrevan51, and this is my first story. It's a novelization of Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, with my own flairs. I know flamers are out there, and I want them to know that I have quite a few Lv100 pokemon to deal with them. As for anyone else who wants to criticize my story, I'd like suggestions on how to improve it, and I want people to know that I don't have a Beta reader. So, here we are.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, or any subsidies. This is just my own story.

Pokemon Alpha Sapphire: Birth of a Legend

He was in a black room. He could make out hints of boxes in the darkness. It was an unusual ro- WHUMP. A particularly rough bump threw his head backwards, slamming it into the box behind him. It was the third time it had happened, and again he bit his tongue against some of the nastier swears he had learned in the weeks he had spent on the ship coming here. The last time mom had caught him saying one of those words… he shivered. No. Better to suffer in silence, at least until he was away from here. Wherever here happened to be. As he thought that, the door slowly opened upwards, as he squinted and winced in response to the light. A shadow fell over him, and he looked up, seeing the enormous figure of the Machoke standing before him. He gave a weak grin.

"Right. I'll be going now," he said, slipping by the large pokemon and dropping from the moving van down onto the grass. As he rose, he looked around.

He was in a small town, with only a few buildings, the largest being a stark white building in the southwestern part of the town. A sign by the entrance proclaimed "Welcome to Littleroot!" He snorted. Littleroot was right. This place was tiny. As he moved out of the shadow of the van, more people were able to see his appearance. He wore a black and red jacket currently unzipped to show the white shirt underneath, a pair of shorts more fitting for the current weather, and an odd white hat, which looked like his hair. His eyes gleamed a deep red; a red any jewelry expert would say was the color of rubies.

"Brendan!" The voice made him turn, and he saw his mother walk out of the house closest to him. She was a tall brunette, with a pink shirt and brown skirt descending below her knees. She smiled at him, and continued, "I'm so sorry. It must have been tiring riding in the back of the moving van with all our things. Come in, and see your new home!" She turned, leading him into the house.

As he entered, he saw the table being swiftly assembled by a Machoke, while another Machoke was stocking the kitchen cabinets with tableware. His mother, Caroline, smiled and gestured to them.

"Using pokemon to move is so convenient. Isn't it wonderful to have everything packed away so easily?" Not waiting for him to answer, she pointed towards the stairs at the back of the building.

"Your room's the second one on the right upstairs. Go! Check it out." With that, she gave him a push towards the stairs, and he moved quickly up them to avoid any more pushing. It was normal for her to start pushing whenever she didn't think he was moving fast enough.

He rose to the second floor, seeing three doors, two on the right, one on the left. He opened the second door, and entered, seeing that the mover's pokemon had already put his room together. It was a fairly simple room, with his bed in the corner farthest from the door, his desk and wardrobe on the corner between them, and his bookshelves and Snorlax pokedoll in the last corner. He moved towards it, sitting himself down on the pokedoll, which moved like a beanbag chair. Normally he wouldn't have gotten something like this, but it was comfortable to read in, and he had won it at one of Goldenrod City's many festivals a couple years ago. He looked at the bookshelves, and sighed. The Machoke had put his books in all out of order. He hummed at that. He hadn't finished the last of the books he had gotten in Olivine City before leaving Johto, so he still had some reading material.

He slowly rose, sighing as he did. Then he noticed the clock and map on the wall next to each other. He slowly rose and took a look at the clock. It had fresh batteries, but it wasn't set. He quickly pulled it off the wall and began turning it until it fit the time on the pocket watch his grandfather had gotten him. There, 10:45. As he put the clock back up, he took a look at the map on the wall. It was a map of the Hoenn region. He moved towards it, trying to pinpoint Littleroot. Ah, there. It looked as if the closest towns were Oldale, and Petalburg City, where his father probably was right now.

'Hmph. Couldn't even take time to greet his own family.' He rarely saw his father, as the man had been busy for years. In fact, the last time he had seen the man for more than a few hours every week or so was at his eleventh birthday, and that had been over a year ago.

He sighed, and turned away from the map. No point getting all worked up about that again. He frowned. It looked as if Petalburg was the closest actual city. If he wanted to get new books, then he'd need to find a way to get there. Wait. His mother had said something about a friend of his father's living in Littleroot, and being the local professor. Maybe he could-

"Brendan! Brendan! Come! Come quick!" At his mother's voice, he immediately spun, running out of the room that was now his, and scrambling down the stairs. His mother was at the tv- 'Ugh, stupid thing. Why couldn't more people appreciate books?'- And gesticulating wildly.

"Brendan! Look! It's a report on Petalburg Gym! Maybe your father's on!" Brendan quickly slid over to the tv, just in time to catch the reporter saying, "This was Carrie Simpson, in front of Petalburg Gym," before it went to the weather. He sighed, and slowly turned to his mother. She was frowning now, and there was a shadow of sadness in her eyes. Brendan split his face into a false smile, and spoke quickly.

"Well, looks like we just missed him. But I'm sure he'll be coming home soon."

The assurance seemed to work, as Caroline shook herself, and smiled wearily, before she clapped her hands, her face lighting up in remembrance.

"Oh! I just remembered. Your father has a friend that lives here in Littleroot. His name is Professor Birch."

Brendan nodded. So that was the name of dad's friend. But there was an odd note to her voice. "And?"

"And he has a family with a child your age," Caroline continued, oblivious to the distress growing in her son's eyes at her words. "Why don't you go over and introduce yourself?"

"Ok," he replied, resigning himself to the inevitable. He turned, and walked towards the door. Then he turned back, and asked, "Which house is theirs?"

His mother smiled sweetly, as alarm bells screamed in his head. Caroline walked over, opening the door and pushing him through it. "Well, I guess you'll have to ask around and see what house it is?"

Brendan's stomach dropped, as he spun towards the rapidly closing door. "Wait, wha-" Click. The door was shut. His shoulders slumped. He shouldn't have agreed to even one of her requests to meet someone. That always led to him meeting more people than he wanted to. He sighed, and turned away from the door.

The town was a relatively small one, with only a few buildings. He sighed, and slowly walked over to the closest one, silently praying to Arceus that it was the correct one. He raised his hand and knocked softly on the door. After a few moments, it opened, and he saw a woman about the age of his mother looking at him.

She frowned, before her face cleared up. "Oh! You must be one of the new neighbors! I did hear they had a child about your age. What's your name?"

Brendan ducked his head, before muttering out, "I'm Brendan."

The woman seemed to be oblivious to his discomfort, however, and smiled brightly. "We have a daughter about your age. She's upstairs in her room. Why don't you go introduce yourself?" She gestured for him to enter, smiling all the while. "Her room is the second door on the right. Go on."

Brendan sighed, before slowly walking through the room, and up the stairs to the second floor. It seemed to be laid out the opposite to his new house, with her room being on the right. He knocked on her door, and waited.

"Come in!"

Slowly, with the sense of going to his doom, Brendan opened the door. It seemed to be an ordinary room, if somewhat more feminine than his own, and without the enormous plush. He turned, and saw a female figure sitting at a desk, scrolling down a laptop screen. She looked up, then suddenly, much faster than he would have thought, scrambled to her feet, which gave him a better angle to examine her from.

She was a bit on the shorter side, not the tallest of girls, and she was wearing a pair of black shorts, red and yellow sneakers, a red tank top, and a red ribbon, which circled around her head. She had brown hair, with two protruding sections at the side, and soft blue eyes, which reminded him of sapphires he had seen in jewelry stores. Then Brendan's eyes wandered downwards.

'What the heck?! How is she twelve? What does she feed those things?!' Due to his love of literature, and his preference for being alone, Brendan had gained something of a limited, focused perspective of women. As a result, he often found himself caught off guard by his hormones, especially when he was around pretty girls.

Fortunately for Brendan, she was caught up looking at him, and therefore didn't notice the direction his eyes went. May noticed that he was on the thin side, due to the open jacket that hung loosely from his frame, but he was surprisingly tall. 'Why does everyone have to be so tall?' she mentally whined. His eyes were red, something that caught her interest as she looked at his face, which was narrow, and gaunt, which made her wonder at his age. May then looked at his hair. 'I-is his hair white?! OhmiArceus! It's just like Hitsugaya's from Bleach! Wait… oh, it's a hat. He has brown hair. Still. Maybe he'll be that smart and girly best friend of the protagonist?'

Her final decision was that he looked alright. Even if he was way too thin.

Brendan finally managed to jerk his eyes away from her chest, and looked up at her face. She was gazing at him intently, which made him feel somewhat uncomfortable. Trying to get her to stop looking at him, he coughed somewhat awkwardly. Instantly her eyes snapped to his face, and his mouth went dry.

"Um, hi."

She was looking oddly at him, now. Maybe he'd better keep going, before he lost his nerve and bolted.

"Ah, I'm Brendan. I just moved in next door, Ms. …" he trailed off as he realized he didn't know her name.

'Ms.! He called me Ms.! Oh! What if he's the shy type, the one who others ignore, but is always kind and polite! Just like Hinata and Hanataro!' May blushed as she thought of the type of character she enjoyed just below the tsundere type. Then she blushed again as she realized that he was looking at her expectantly, but nervously.

"Oh! I'm May, May Birch. I heard that someone my age was moving next door, so I was hoping we would be friends. I have this dream of being friends with pokemon all over the world." And now she was blabbering on to someone she had just met, when the word 'pokemon' reminded her of something.

He was still absorbing her rush of words, so Brendan was startled when she suddenly gasped, and spun towards her desk.

"Oh no! I promised I'd help dad with his fieldwork!"

The girl he now knew as May shut her laptop, stuffed it in a backpack, grabbed a pokeball and clipped it to her waist, and put her backpack on, running past him to the door before turning and saying, "Sorry, gotta go. Nice meeting you, Brendan!" and was out the door before he could respond.

Brendan blinked, before slowly walking out the room, closing the door, and walking out of the house where that unusual family lived. He decided he'd walk around for a while. If he went back home now, his mother would push him right back out after she heard his story, and decided he had made it up. He admitted to himself that he probably would have tried to make a story up after he went to the first or second house. Despite being a good storyteller, he was a terrible liar.

He was heading to look around the outskirts of the town when he saw a young boy standing at the edge of the path through the tree line with wide eyes. The boy turned to him, and ran over before Brendan could turn around.

"Iheardsomescreamingandthere'ssomeoneouttherebutIcan'tgobecauseIdon'thavepokemonandyou'rebiggercanyoulookitsoundsreallyscarybutwhatifsomeone's hurt!"

The spew of words from the boy made Brendan stop and blink, but as soon as he realized what the boy had said, he groaned inwardly. Someone would have to go out, and, looking around, he saw that there wasn't anyone else close enough to help.

He looked down at the boy and spoke quickly, moving towards the forest as he did so. "I'll go see what's going on, go find a trainer." When the boy was just standing there Brendan pointed towards the town and shouted "Go!"

He saw the boy turn and take off, before quickly walking into the forest. The path was well worn with the treads of many feet, but still grassy underneath. He continued forward, slowing so he wouldn't be caught off guard. The words of Jeong Jeong, one of his few friends back in Goldenrod City, sounded through his mind. "Corners are dangerous. They let both you and the enemy catch the one coming around them off guard. By that same token, if you are careful and slow in maneuvering around corners, you can catch them by surprise."

"Help! Somebody help!"

The words made Brendan speed up, stopping just in front of the clearing before peeking around the closest tree. He blinked at what he saw. It was a brown-haired bearded man, on the burlier side, running from a canine pokemon that reminded Brendan of a Houndour with more fur. The man scrambled up into a tree, hanging by the lowest branch as the pokemon lunged to try and bite him. Then the man turned and saw Brendan, and waved, pointing at a bag on the ground, obviously forgotten in his fright.

"Hello! You there! I need some help! In my bag, there's a pokeball!"

Brendan ran towards the bag, all previous caution forgotten as he saw the man's grip slipping. He pulled the bag open, saw two pokeballs, and reached for the closest one, pulling it out and pressing it to expand it, just as he had seen his father do, so many times before. His arm came back, then forward, as the orb was flung high. "Come on out!"

The moment the pokeball reached the height of its arc, it opened, releasing a white light of energy. The energy soon solidified into a blue pokemon, with two orange protrusions on the side of its head, and two fins, one on the top of its head, and the other a tail. The pokemon inhaled as it saw the canine in front of it, which turned to face the new threat, and let out a loud challenge. "MUDKIP!"

Brendan caught the pokeball as he stared at the blue pokemon, Mudkip, in surprise. He had done reading from books he had found on the ship to Hoenn, in order to preserve his own, and one of them had been a book on the three pokemon that professors and Nurse Joys gave out as beginner pokemon in Hoenn. The three starters, as they were known, were Treecko, the Grass type, Torchic, the Fire type, and the Water type in front of him, Mudkip. This was good. It meant that Brendan would be able to command it without trying to figure out what moves Mudkip could use. According to the book, a young Mudkip knew- 'Ah! Here it comes!'

During his internal monologue, the canine had stopped waiting, and charged at Mudkip as its body glowed slightly, signaling a Tackle attack. "Dodge it!" Brendan cried, having seen what even such a basic attack could do. He needn't have worried. Mudkip leapt away from the attack before turning to face the canine again, looking back at Brendan for instructions. The look gave him the jolt he needed to remember Mudkip's early moveset. "Tackle!" He ordered. The blue pokemon turned towards the canine as it slowed to turn, before lunging, its own body glowing with the Tackle. This time, the strike was a direct hit, sending the canine sliding away, before it regained its feet. Then it suddenly accelerated, using Tackle on Mudkip before either human or pokemon could react. Mudkip screeched as it was flung from its position, before rising back to its feet.

Brendan breathed a sigh of relief as Mudkip rose. He was really worried. It was his first battle as a trainer, and he wasn't confident in his ability to win. But he did know something that would help, and he immediately acted on it. "Water Gun!" He commanded, guessing that as the canine seemed to be a Dark type, it wouldn't know any long range attacks, as most Dark type long range moves were only learned at higher levels.

Mudkip responded instantly, opening its mouth to release a torrent of water, blasting the canine back. The canine rose on shaky legs, but still moved forwards. "Again! Finish it!" Brendan shouted. Mudkip complied, and the third and final attack caused the canine to collapse, its eyes swirling in the well-known sign of a KO. Brendan stared at the pokemon for a long moment, before jumping and yelling "Yeah! We did it!"

"You sure did." The man had climbed down from his perch, and was walking towards him and Mudkip. "Thanks for the help there. I'm Professor Birch."

Brendan started, and guiltily looked at the pokeball as he returned the Mudkip to it. "Oh, uh, then, I guess this is yours." He held the pokeball out to the professor, but Birch simply picked up his bag before squinting at him.

"Ah! I thought I recognized you. You're Brendan, Norman's boy." The professor grinned as he turned and started walking back to Littleroot. "This isn't a good place to talk, so let's go back to my lab."

Evan Birch looked at the son of his best friend. The boy was thin, and quite gaunt. If he didn't know Norman and Caroline better, he would have thought that the youth was underfed. But it looked as if the boy simply moved around quite a bit, which was surprising, considering the shy child who had hidden behind the books which obscured his entire head that Evan had last met. But the shyness didn't seem to have faded, as Brendan was looking around at the lab, and then at his feet, while still holding the pokeball awkwardly in his left hand. The odd color of his eyes was reminiscent of Norman's mother, who Evan remembered as a quiet woman, but who had been a strong woman and a strong Trainer nonetheless. He gestured towards the pokeball.

"Well, that battle was quite impressive, for a novice. You seem to be your father's son." Odd. The boy gave a slight flinch when Evan mentioned Norman. 'Hm. Perhaps his home life isn't as happy as I would have thought.' It was something to talk about next time he saw Caroline or Norman, but that had nothing to do with the current topic.

"I was thinking on the way back here, and I noted how you worked well with Mudkip. Because of this I decided… that I want you to keep him."

Brendan had been looking at the clean laboratory, with Professor Birch's two assistants working on the equipment off to the side, before looking down at his shoes. He had listened to Professor Birch's words, but only in a half-interested manner, before the full import of the man's words hit him. Brendan's head jerked up, and he stared at the man in shock as his mouth dropped open.

"R-really?" He asked, his heart rising up to his throat. He had always adored Water types, and Mudkip had attracted him when he read about it. But this was too good to be true. "Do you really mean it?"

Birch laughed, and waved a hand. "Of course I do. You're at the age to be a trainer, anyways. Besides, I don't doubt Mudkip's already bonded with you."

Brendan felt his heart soar at the professor's words, and he looked down at the pokeball again, which no longer felt awkward in his hand. Then he noticed the professor holding something out.

"Here's a potion. It'll restore his health from any damage he took from that Poochyena."

Brendan took the potion and released Mudkip before filing the name of that canine away. The Mud Fish Pokemon responded happily both to the potion and his caresses. Brendan took the chance to broach the subject of their newfound bond.

"Hey, Mudkip. Ah, do you want to come with me?" He asked nervously. After all, the Mudkip might not actually like him. But his fears proved unfounded as Mudkip happily cried out "Mudkip!" and jumped into his arms. Brendan happily hugged the blue pokemon, as a smile slowly spread across his face. "Alright!"

Birch smiled down at the two, before a thought occurred to him. "Brendan, why don't you give Mudkip here a nickname? Something that'll make him unique."

Brendan blinked as he put Mudkip down, looking at him. "Um, alright Mudkip, how about… Susanoo?"

The pokemon seemed to think about it, before shaking side to side. "Mud!"

"No? Ok, ah, how about Poseidon?"

This time the pokemon didn't even think about it before shaking in the negative again.

Brendan frowned, before another idea came to mind. "How about… Neptune?"

Mudkip thought for a long moment, before smiling, and lifting a foreleg in approval. "Mudkip!"

"Alright, Neptune!" Brendan cheered before hugging the now-named Neptune again.

Birch smiled at them as Brendan stood up, still holding Neptune in his arms. Then he remembered something. "Brendan, that route we were on earlier, that was Route 101. My daughter May's out on Route 103. She's started as a Trainer recently as well, but she's been helping with my research for quite a while. Why don't you go out and see her? It'll give you a preview of a Trainer's life while I take care of your registration."

Brendan remembered the cute and swiftly speaking girl, and blushed slightly, before nodding. He would like to see more of Hoenn, and it probably wasn't too far, as Birch felt comfortable sending him while he was dealing with registration. "Alright. See you later, Professor." With that, he turned and walked out of the lab, before letting the squirming Neptune down. "Sorry for not putting you down earlier, Neptune."

The pokemon huffed slightly, before smiling, and turning to look around at the new world he found himself in. Brendan pointed towards Route 101 in the distance, and said, "We're heading that way, Neptune. We're starting our journey together."

The twosome walked through the town and towards the Route, passing the little boy from earlier, who waved at them as they passed. Brendan waved back, remembering how the boy had come running with a man who looked like him while Brendan and Professor Birch were on their way back to the lab. Birch had assuaged their concerns, laughing the incident off. Now Brendan and Neptune stood in front of Route 101, staring out towards the land, and the town Brendan could see in the distance. He licked his lips. "Well, Neptune. Let's go."

And there's the first chapter. Updates will come along, but they will be slow. Life gets in the way, or I might not feel like writing. Please, read and review.