I never expected something like this to happen… Who would think about it, anyway? I was old enough to know that I will never become a Pokémon trainer. It was just games, entertainment. That universe didn't exist really.
At least I used to think so.
I woke up unaware yet of anything that was going to happen and still sleepy, so I didn't even open my eyes. The first thing that alarmed me was the bed – mine was coming into contact with the wall but this – wasn't! Anxious, I jumped up to notice that the entire room looked unfamiliar. I mean… It did looked familiar but certainly not like mine! It was quite empty – in the corner there was a desk with a pretty old computer, next to it a cabinet and a bookcase, also in the middle was a TV with a gaming system connected…
"Oh boy, it's a real SNES!" I squealed preoccupied, as a fan of retro games and I jumped on the carpet to turn the hardware on. Suddenly, I noticed a note attached to the console. It was his, I read. Wait, what? I got chills. I put the gamepad down and I got up. What was that about? And why in general I woke up in that place? It certainly wasn't a dream. Then I noticed something on the desk – a trainer card. With a picture of me… And the name Leaf.
I screamed quietly, suddenly remembering what I was doing the previous day. Before sleep I started playing FireRed again. I named my character Leaf. I probably fell asleep, playing… But why I got sent do the game world?! Besides, the graphics were totally realistic. And that strange note on the console…
I sighed and looked out of the window. Surely I was in the room upstairs, at home of the game's protagonist, in Pallet Town. From the window I could see huge corrals at the professor's laboratory, where there were different Pokémon. Was I really about to start my adventure? Be a trainer, catch Pokémon, battle, get badges… Become a champion? Well, I've been dreaming about it since the first time I played Pokémon Crystal as an eight year old… Apparently, Jirachi answered me, I smiled slightly. But I noticed something else – it was snowing. What's more, it wasn't settling on the ground… It was falling from the clouds, only to disappear just above the surface. I had no idea how to explain it, nor how it might affect the weather and everything else, but I wasn't going to wander wearing a skirt for sure… I opened the cabinet and fortunately, I found clothes there – a pair of jeans, a black T-shirt, red-and-white vest, a hat in the same colors and a belt with pockets for pokeballs. These were clothes for a thirteen year old boy indeed but I had a fairly thin body build, so I fit in. I took a backpack lying on the floor and my card, then went downstairs hesitantly. I had no other choice, and yet I wanted to take the chance for an adventure and not think about my real home.
"Hello," I mumbled to the mother, sitting at the table.
"Right… All kids leave home someday to travel… Just like my son…" the woman sighed. "Oh, yes, professor Oak was looking for you."
I clenched my hands nervously on the braces of the bag and left quickly. The town was quiet and peaceful; except houses and the lab I noticed there was also a greenhouse, where were grass Pokémon for sure. The sound of the water (it was hard to call it a sea and it certainly wasn't a river) sounded very soothing. Fortunately, the snow weren't causing any problem practically, it even looked nice on the background of green forest. I opened the lab's door, after all curious what I was supposed to find there. Of course, next to the table with three pokeballs was standing none other than Green Oak. Interestingly, he didn't look like an eleven year old but fifteen, like me; he also wasn't wearing the clothes he was supposed to have in the remake but his old purple sweatshirt, navy blue pants and these funny boots, not to call them rain boots… The boy turned around and looked at me suspiciously. I didn't expect that…
"Who are you? You aren't Red."
"What?" Wasn't I supposed to be the protagonist of the story? "My name is Leaf."
"I don't know what you're doing here but he was supposed to come here." The rival gave me a cold stare, so I preferred to withdraw. What was wrong with him? I have always defended Green, because people were demonizing him. I was reading his speeches carefully and I knew that he was a cocky asshole but he still was acting a bit friendly after all, and the Pokémon games weren't really giving a chance to observe the development of characters and relations, at least not in the case of Green. And so he was repaying me? Well, if I had any impact on this world as the main character, I decided to try to affect on the young Oak somehow.
I headed toward the road out of town. May the professor appear…
"Wait! Don't go out!" The scientist ran up to me with a perky face. "It's unsafe! Wild Pokémon live in tall grass! You need your own Pokémon for protection. Come with me to the lab."
"Sure, professor." I smiled slightly. At least he was acting normally.
"Gramps, I'm fed up with waiting!" Green uttered his old speech.
"Wait, Green. Leaf will choose first." Oak pointed at the table with pokeballs. As if on cue three creatures came out of them, which I knew well. Despite this, I watched fascinated how truly they looked!
The rival stood in front of me and started eyeing me up again. Wasn't that an exaggeration?! I stepped back, clenching my teeth and giving him an angry look.
"You look like him… Why? Who are you?" he asked accusingly.
"I can't wear men's clothes? Sexist. I guess you have a headache, Green" I growled.
"There's no place for you. Go away! He will come back soon and he will need a Pokémon!"
"Be patient, Green! You can have one, too" professor said quietly.
And Bubasaur, and Squirtle, and Charmander looked incredible to me live. The creatures were humming, looking at me expectantly. Well, the least often my starter was a…
"I choose Charmander." I pulled my hands out to the fiery lizard.
"Hurray! You're cool!" The creature jumped into my arms.
"What?" I almost fell down. "A talking Pokémon?!"
"He was living in the lab after all. Of course he is wise, unlike you" Green muttered dismissively. "I choose Squirtle!"
"Thanks, dude!" said the little turtle. Bulbasaur sighed quietly but unfortunately, he had to stay.
"Thank you, professor. I guess it's time for me to go." I headed to the exit slowly.
"Not so fast!" Of course, young Oak stopped me. "Let's battle! Unless you're scared?"
"Don't be ridiculous" I snapped. "Charmander, let's do it!"
"Sure!" The lizard jumped to the ground, ready for a skirmish.
Of course, the first fight is nothing exciting. My partner was slightly faster and stronger than Squirtle, so he won easily.
"N-no… This isn't right… You're not Red. Only he can win over me" Green whirred. He was beginning to worry me, continuing these speeches.
"You need help, you know?"
"I need to fix this… Get out of my head." He gave me the last hateful look and then left, slamming the door. Professor only sighed.
"So pushy, as always… Well, now you can reach Viridian City safely."
"Goodbye, professor." I picked the Charmander up and I headed to the road. "Hey, you don't mind being outside the pokeball, huh? It's nice to have someone to talk to" I asked my pet. "By the way, I'm Leaf."
"Of course not! I don't know who likes to be closed there but it's definitely not me. You know, besides, you can give me a name, since you have one yourself." The creature grinned his fangs.
"Oh, exactly!" I wondered for a moment. "How about Jim?"
"Jim? Why?" He made big eyes.
"The Lizard King's name was Jim." I said, not explaining much.
"The king's, you say?" Pokémon scratched his mouth. "If so, my name is Jim!"
"I'm glad we're going to travel together, Jim!" Honestly, I was very pleased. At least my partner wasn't talking about Red.
"As for Green, I don't know what got into him. As for me, you're not the least bit similar to Red. Besides, you're a girl…" Oh, I brought on the disaster.
"Huh? You know Red?"
"Yes. You know, he is the champion of Kanto and Green's friend. They both were always helping the professor with Pokémon. However, a few months ago Red vanished and Green again started to behave like…"
"An asshole" I finished.
"Yeah. But he doesn't treat others like you…"
"Great, I'm a number one enemy of Green Oak, my rival for the title of champion of the Indygo League" I sighed. "It will not be nice."
"If you'll try hard enough, you can do it. Besides, we reached the city."
Indeed. Viridian City looked very nice – if someone liked flowers, because the pots were standing on windowsill of every house that were a lot of there too. Everything was giving a positive impression, in my opinion appropriate for the city where one gets the final badge and then goes to the Indygo Plateau… Although I wouldn't call it a city but that's okay. It just was reminding me of New York's Brooklyn, full of green and residential houses. I looked at the sign by the stone wall and again I felt as if some Pokémon used Ice Beam on me. Come home, I read.
"Let's go have a look around" I said quickly. First, I headed to the Pokémon Centre, so Jim could regenerate after the battle with Squirtle; by the way I reached for the magazines lying on the table. Of course, they weren't lacking articles about the lost. Even the graffiti on the school wall was saying The pride of Kanto is never coming home! Apparently, some people were totally crazy about Red. Well, at least back then I thought that only some…
Knowing the storyline well, I went to the PokéMart – since even the drunk (yeah, sure, he hasn't had his coffee yet!) old man weren't letting me go further (stating that I was really looking like him), I should cope basing on the knowledge of the game. Of course, the shop assistant immediately guessed that I came from Pallet Town and handed me a package for professor Oak. Too bad nobody was paying me for being a courier…
"How's my old Pokémon, Leaf?" asked the scientist.
"I'm doing great, professor! We brought you a parcel."
"If Charmander says it himself, you must be a talented trainer. Oh, indeed, I ordered some pokeballs…" He took the package from me.
"Gramps!" Oh, who came here? "Gramps… I want… My rival… Friend… Back. Home." It was even seen how much he desired it; it even made me a little sad but after a moment I remembered Green was claiming that I took Red's place and was rude to me, so the sympathy was over.
"Oh, yes." Oak seemed to not pay any attention to his grandson's words. "I forgot to give you Pokédexes. Thanks to them you'll get much more information about caught Pokémon. The Pokédex still hasn't been completed, so I hope you will help me? To make a complete guide on all the Pokémon in the world… That was my dream! Get moving, you two." Professor gave us red devices similar to a pocket size book and pokeballs.
"I'll be the hero of this story!" Green decided suddenly. "You shouldn't even be here." Once again he froze me up with his glance and left, slamming the door.
I sighed, heading outside. To be honest, my rival's screams were making my ears hurt.
"Hi, Charmander!" A girl older than me waved at my pet.
"Hi, Daisy. From now on, my name's Jim. And this is my trainer, Leaf."
"Nice to meet you, Leaf. You won a battle against Green, right? I wish I've seen that!"
"Uh, thanks." I smiled shyly.
"Take this map, it will be useful on the go." How nicely that at least Green's sister wasn't nasty to me. "Good luck!"
"Okay, so now we'll catch the first Pokémon we'll find on this route" I said with determination, reaching into my pocket for a pokeball.
"Why only the first one?"
"It will be more interesting that way." I smiled under my breath. "But no doubles, 'cause it can make things hard. Ready?" I turned my hat backwards.
"This is!" Jim waved his tail and we slowly entered the bush.
Hello to all of you! It's my first story here. I hope you'll like it, 'cause it took me nearly six hours to translate! c"": Well, any comments would be really helpful, 'cause I want to know if there is anybody who would like to read this story further.
If you want to get to know the main character a bit better, here: art/Leaf-trainer-card-1-v-1-542727660?q=gallery%3AAfterWeDie&qo=0 you can see her trainer card.
If English is your first language or you just know it better than me, please help me correct any mistakes! I'm always forgetful when it comes to English grammar and I wasn't really taught about the punctation and writting dialogs correctly in English, so I assume I might be wrong sometimes. Big thanks in advance!
In any case, I'm also posting this story on deviantART and Wattpad (and Valhalla forum in Polish). Thank you in advance for any feedback!
~Silent Protagonist