Chapter 1: Last Minute Preparations
The beautiful orange and yellow sun rises to the east of Knot Island. As the cool morning air wisps across the sea, down the jagged rocks of Mt. Ember, through the grassy fields of Kindle Road and into town, the people are just waking up to the dawn of a new day. One boy, however, is already awake and getting ready to embark on a great journey to explore the magnificent world of Pokemon. His grand quest starts here, but this is no ordinary Pokemon journey…
"Xander, have you packed your stuff yet?" yelled a woman from downstairs. "The ferry to Vermillion City leaves tomorrow morning and you don't want to make a bad impression by being late your first day at the Pokemon Academy. First impressions are everything, you know."
"Don't worry, mom. I'm almost done." Xander yelled back as he stuffed his last pair of pokeball covered boxers into his suitcase.
He took a deep breath and sighed with relief, grabbed his suitcase and put it into the corner of his room. He was wearing his favorite black shirt with a signature pokeball on it and dark blue jeans. He strapped on his black wrist bands, combed his dark brown hair, exited the room and walked downstairs where his father sat in the living room, reading the Sevii Times. He looked up with a smile on his face and put the newspaper down on the old wooden coffee table in front of him.
"Good morning, son." he said grabbing his coffee from the table, "Big day tomorrow. Are you nervous?"
"Not really, dad." Xander responded, "I'm more anxious than anything. I can't wait."
"Heh, are you really that excited to get away from your mother and me?" his dad asked with a grin and a giggle.
"It's not that…" Xander answered, "It's just that not many people get a chance like this, you know, and I'm just really excited that I get to go. Most people never even get off of the island. I want to see the world."
"Well, you can thank your grandfather for that. After all, he was once one of the best trainers in Kanto and he's known all over the region. If it weren't for his recommendation, you might not have gotten this chance." his father said, "Now, this isn't just any Pokemon Academy. This is the head academy in the entire Kanto region and you need to do your very best, ok? Make sure all of your homework gets done and no falling asleep in class. Are we clear?"
"Yeah, we're clear dad." Xander replied with a sigh.
"Ok, good then." his dad said, "Now, have you caught your Pokemon yet? You know that you need a Pokemon or they'll turn you back at the front door."
"Don't worry dad. I'm all over it." Xander responded, "I'm about to head out right now."
"You know you shouldn't put these things off like that Xander." his mother said walking in from the kitchen, "If you're going to be a KP Academy student, you should learn to manage you're time better."
"Oh, don't be so hard on the boy," said an old man as he walked slowly into the room, "He's young. Besides, you can't rush things like this, Betty."
"Thanks grandpa." Xander said with a smile, "I know you're right mom, and I'm sorry, but I need to head out if I'm going to catch the right one by sundown." He turned to the door and slipped on his shoes. He tied them up quickly, reached for the knob and opened the door.
"Wait son." his father said, "How are you going to catch a Pokemon without any pokeballs? You know that there isn't a PokeMart on this island, yet."
Xander smiled and winked at his parents. "I'll improvise." he responded with a wave and walked out the door.
"Agh, what am I going to do?" he asked himself. Just then the door swung back open and his grandfather walked out with his cane in his hand.
"Now, Xander you and I both know that you can't catch a Pokemon without a pokeball, plain and simple. Hehe, you can't even snag yourself a girlfriend." He said with a big smile.
"Oh, come on grandpa!" Xander exclaimed, blushing slightly.
"Now, before you turn as red as a Magikarp, I have something for you." his grandfather said reaching into his pocket and pulling out an old, odd colored, pokeball. It was white on both sides with a red line around the middle of it. "Now this is a very special pokeball. This is the pokeball that I used to catch my first Pokemon when I first left Pewter City on my journey. I was only a little younger than you, in fact"
"You mean you caught your Nidoking with this Pokeball?" Xander asked excitedly as his eyes widened in fascination.
"Well, it was a Nidoran back then." his grandfather corrected, "However, I did catch it with this pokeball, right outside of Mt. Moon. Now it doesn't have any special capture functions like those fancy new pokeballs that they come out with, but it is very special to me and I want you to use it to catch your Pokemon.""But it looks just like a Premier Ball." Xander stated, "They just came out with these and they're hard to find at that. How did you get one so long ago?"
"Well back then my best friend's father was a pokeball designer." he answered, "This was one of his first ones. My friend grew up, started a business and just recently began to mass produce them, but enough about that. Here, take it. It's yours."
He handed the pokeball to Xander and gave him a big hug. "I won't let you down grandpa." he said with a smile and walked off, into town.
The town was already busy. People were already heading off to work and soon, his dad would be as well. He worked at the hot spring at the base of Mt. Ember and Xander spend most of his time there when he wasn't exploring new areas on the island. Xander didn't have many friends because there weren't a lot of kids his age on the island and all the ones who were didn't like him too much. Most of them were jealous because his grandpa was a famous Pokemon trainer, but Xander didn't care. He had grown used to being alone and hadn't had many real friends.
He walked eastward through town, passing all the morning chaos. "I think I'll start looking on Kindle Road." Xander said to himself, "There are plenty of Pokemon there."
He came to a beach on the edge of town and walked over to a tree where a small raft was tied up. He grabbed a large stick, untied the raft and pushed it out into the water, hopping on it before it got too far out. He used the stick as an ore to push himself across the water. As he pushed, he gazed into the nice, clear, sea water. He could see the school of Horsea in the water and couldn't hide his smile. There were also a few Qwilfish swimming around.
The raft hit the sandy shore on the other side of the water and Xander hopped off, tying the raft to another tree before heading on. He had been here many times before and seen most of the native Pokemon, so he already had an idea of which on he wanted to catch.
"Alright then," he said to himself, "time to catch me a Pokemon."
He wandered around for a couple of minutes, keeping a sharp eye out for the Pokemon he wanted and when it caught his eye, he turned with a grin.
"Ha!" he yelled pointing his finger at the startled Pokemon, "I found you, Persian!" The Persian turned and ran in fear and Xander gave chase.
"Hey where are you going?" He asked running after the wild Pokemon, "I need you to get into the Pokemon Academy. I haven't even thrown a pokeball at you, yet!"
He tried, but it was no use. The Persian was way too fast for him and it quickly got away.
"Well that could have gone much better." he said under his breath, "Man, I suck."
Just then he heard laughter coming from someone nearby. He looked around and spotted a wild Tyrogue sitting on a tree branch, holding its stomach and cackling.
"Oh, so you think that's funny, do you?" Xander asked. He turned and picked up a rock off of the ground and threw it at the Tyrogue, but missed. This only succeeded in making it laugh even harder. Xander grew angrier and threw another rock, this time hitting the Pokemon right in the head and knocking it out of the tree. The wild Tyrogue stood back up, shaking his fist at Xander.
"Ha, that's what you get." Xander said with a smirk. The Tyrogue was angrier than ever now and his shaking fist began to glow. Xander's eyes widened in fear as the Pokemon ran down the hill and swung at him, but he ducked just in time to avoid the attack.
"You just tried to Mega Punch me!" Xander obviously stated, "You could have taken my head off, just now! I know. …you'd be a great Pokemon to catch. Oh, crap, but I don't have a Pokemon to battle you." Xander had no time to think. He needed to be quick if he was going to catch it.
"I've got it!" he yelled. He bent down and picked up two more rocks from the ground. He threw them both at the Pokemon, but it swatted them away with ease. Xander was a little embarrassed, but didn't stop. He picked up another rock, this time he wound up and threw with all of his force, but the Tyrogue simply swayed to the left and the rock flew into the trees in the distance. The Tyrogue stood facing the young boy with a challenging smirk, taunting Xander.
"You are really starting to tick me off." he said, "I am going to capture you. You can believe that."
The Tyrogue, growing tired of the simple stare down, began to charge at Xander, but just then a yellow beam shot from the sky and nearly hit it. The force of the blast pushed both Tyrogue and Xander to the ground and the beam kicked up dust all over the place. Xander looked up to see a wild Fearow flying overhead with fire in its eyes. Its deadly gaze pierced through him as it charged to fire another Hyper Beam. The blast shot from its mouth with amazing force and was headed straight for him.
To be continued…
Next Chapter: Fear of the Fearow