This story takes place in the world of Pokémon. Each installment in the tale of this marvelous world involves a Pokémon Trainer, just in the beginning of their journey, saving the land from great evil, making unbreakable bonds of love and friendship with their Pokémon, and becoming the greatest of all Trainers! This…is not one of those tales.
This tale takes place in a region that is home to probably the greatest Trainer of all time, a young man from Pallet Town – the Kanto region. It starts with a boy deciding to set out on his very own Pokémon journey, aided by his much more experience older brother and his brother's best friend. We meet the three Trainers as the sun rises on a new day…
"Look at it," said Chad, gesturing to the sunrise. "It's…DISGUSTING! There is no reason –NONE- for us to be awake this early! My brother had better fucking appreciate this!" Chad, his friend Lindsay, and their Pokémon Lucario and Roserade stood on a hill overlooking the small town south of his hometown of Viridian City, Pallet Town. He was a Trainer who stood at five feet, eight inches tall, and was of average build. He wore his long hair tied into a low ponytail, and it was dyed jet black, and he had hazel eyes, and only the slightest hint of a five-o'clock shadow. He wore black jeans, leather choker-collar, combat boots, fingerless gloves, vest, and trench coat, which he had the sleeves of rolled up to his elbows. Under the vest, he wore a deep-red buttoned shirt, the top two buttons of which were undone and the sleeves also rolled up to his elbows, and a gun-type shoulder holster. The holster wasn't used for any kind of firearm, however; it has his six Poke balls attached to it. On his left bicep he wore a sash that matched his shirt that had the logo of the Pokémon League emblazoned on in black.
Beside him stood his friend and companion since childhood, Lucario. His Lucario didn't look much different from a typical male member of its species, except for having a longer tail and being perhaps an inch taller than what was considered average. What he wore, though, made him more unique: a black-fringed karate jacket with the sleeves torn off, and black karate-style belt, and cloth wrappings around his hands and feet.
"I know, pet," said Lindsay, Chad's best friend and traveling companion from Cinnabar Island. She pet him on the head to comfort him. "It does suck being up this early, but we promised your brother we'd be there this morning to help him on his journey. Besides, we can haz coffeez when we get into town!" She spoke very cheerfully and flashed Chad a smile when she said the last part, and Chad found himself smiling back. Lindsay stood only three inches shorter than Chad, and had a very curvy figure with wide hips and shapely legs. Her hair was short, not even reaching her shoulders, the bangs and upper layers of which were bleached blonde while the rest was as black as Chad's, and she had grey-green eyes behind a pair of rectangular, thick black-framed glasses. She wore a black headband with the logo of the Pokémon League in white on the front of it, black boots, tank top, and fingerless gloves, blue jeans, and a pair of black-and-white-striped sleeves. Around her neck she wore a necklace with her six Poke balls attached to it, almost giving the appearance of Pokémon-themed prayer beads.
As with her friend, she kept a Pokémon, her Roserade, out of its Poke ball to walk along with her. Roserade looked, like Lucario, nearly identical to any typical member of her species except for two features: a beauty mark on its left cheek, and the fact that her eyes were always half-closed in what appeared to be apathetic indifference.
The two trainers also carried traveling bags, and Lindsay carried a six-foot long bamboo walking stick. Tied to the top of the stick with a piece of string was a tag that read "TRUTH." The four made their way down the hill, finally stepping onto a sidewalk, and entered the town. The first stop they made before even heading to Chad's childhood home was at the local Sacred Ash coffee shop, one of the only shops open at six-thirty in the morning, to order what they considered their very life-giving liquid.
Zack awoke with a groan aimed at the alarm clock, which he quickly punched off. He rose to a sitting position, yawning and stretching, and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. His grogginess quickly disappeared, however, when he remembered why he was up so early. This was the day that he had finally decided to begin his very own Pokémon journey! He had to be at Professor Oak's research center by eight-o'clock in order to receive his new gear, and he didn't want to miss it. He fumbled around for a moment, searching for the light, before clicking it on. He screamed in shock and terror when he saw the face of his first (and only) Pokémon grinning mischievously at him – the face of his Gastly.
"Holy crap!" he yelled. "Gastly, how many times do I have to tell you not to do that?" Gastly simply laughed and nudged Zack playfully, and Zack also let out a small chuckle. "Anyway, I have to go shower. Today's the big day!"
When he was finished showering and dressing, he shouldered his bag and made his way out the door quietly, not wanting to wake up any of the other patrons of the small motel. Zack, despite being two years younger than Chad, stood taller than his brother at six feet, one inch. He was very wiry, but fit, and had very short sandy-blonde hair, blue eyes, and a short-trimmed beard and mustache. He wore a dark grey hoody with black pinstripes, a white t-shirt beneath it, faded blue jeans, and black-and-white tennis shoes. He and Gastly reached the small parking lot just in time to meet up with Chad, Lindsay, Lucario, and Roserade.
"Hey!" he called to them with a big smile on his face. Chad, Lindsay and the Pokémon returned the smiles, and Chad hugged his brother, as it was the first time they had seen each other in nearly six months. "How's it going, man?"
"Not bad," Chad answered. "How about you?"
"Pretty good! Lindsay, how have you been?"
"Good! Glad to see you again."
"Well," Chad said as the Pokémon greeted each other. "You ready to head out? We need to leave now if we wanna' reach Professor Oak's in time."
"Yep," Zack said. "But we can relax for a bit if we want! I'm taking my car, so we can make it there in about five minutes-" But that was all the more Zack could say. He was cut off by the looks on his friends' faces: anger on Chad's, and shock on Lindsay's.
"NO!" yelled Chad. "NO CAR! THIS IS A POKÉMON JOURNEY, DAMN IT! WE WALK EVERYWHERE!" At this, he reached into his trench coat. Zack yelled and dove to the ground before he remembered that the area where Chad was reaching for was where was the location of his Poke balls. His brother threw out a Poke Ball and a Heavy Ball, and out came his two largest Pokémon, Blastoise and Snorlax, respectively. "Blastoise! Snorlax! Trash it!"
And trash it they did. Zack watched in terror as Blastoise head butted his car and blasted it with its water cannons, leaving large holes and shattered windows every time. Snorlax focused on the engine area, crunching it with his teeth and crushing it with his massive bulk. The alarm went off, but only for a few short seconds before the two raging Pokémon silenced it. Lindsay stood with her arms crossed over her chest, nodding in approval.
"Good job," said Lindsay. She and Chad walked over to the pile of scrap that was Zack's car only seconds before, and took a whack at it with her bamboo stick while Chad gave it a strong kick.
"A good job, indeed," Chad agreed. He withdrew his Pokémon back into their balls, and reattached the balls to their holster. "Now! Let's head out!"
"Y-you didn't have to destroy it!" Zack shouted. He followed his brother and friend when he saw they weren't responding. "Geez, we could have just left it here…"
About twenty minutes later, the six companions arrived at the large building that was the research center of Professor Samuel Oak, the Pokémon professor and the world's leading authority on all things Pokémon. The good Professor was waiting for them right at the door, too.
"Good morning!" he called to them in a friendly voice.
"Good morning, Professor!" Zack responded. "How are you doing?"
"Very well, my boy," he said.
"Hey, Professor!" Chad shouted as he jumped in front of Zack. "Remember me? The greatest Trainer ever to set out from your lab?" At that, he showed what could only be described as a "shit-eating" grin.
"Er…" Professor Oak paused for a moment, squinting his eyes and looking closely at Chad. "Red, is that you?" Chad's stupid grin left his face, replaced with a combined look of sadness, shock, and rage.
"RED?" he yelled. "What does that third-rate hack know? I'm a thousand – no! A million times better than that jackass! You'll see! You'll all see, one day! I will own that twerp!" His outburst was complete with waving fists and stomping feet. Lucario turned around, closed his eyes, and shook his head, while Zack and Lindsay looked on quite startled.
"Oh, that's nice," Professor Oak laughed as he walked just inside the research center and came back wheeling a table covered by a white cloth. It was if he never noticed how upset the mention of the legendary Trainer made Chad. "Anyway, it's such a nice spring morning, I thought we'd do the "ceremonies" out here! Now…" With this, the Professor dramatically pulled off the white cloth, revealing a red Pokedex, blue Pokegear, and three Poke balls set neatly on the cart. Each of the balls had a symbol on it: one for grass, fire, and water. Oak picked up the two technological marvels and handed them to Zack. "Now, you get to choose your first official Pokémon League Pokémon! Choose wisely, and listen to what your heart says is the best choice."
"Or just whichever one you think looks coolest," said Chad. Lindsay poked him in the ribs, making him jump and let out a sound like "meep!," though she was giggling lightly as she shushed him. Zack seemed to ignore him, and stepped up to the cart, staring intently at the Poke balls.
"I'll take this one," he said after a few moments concentration. He reached out and grabbed the ball with the grass symbol on it. He turned and pointed it toward the grass, and the ball opened and released his new Pokémon: Bulbasaur. It let out a cry of "Bulba!" and jumped over to Zack, nuzzling happily against his leg. "Haha! I think he likes me!"
"Indeed," said Oak. "Take good care of him, now, as well as your Gastly and any other Pokémon you catch in your travels. Now I'd love to stay and chat, and catch up with Lindsay and…um, this other nice young man, but my teakettle's whistling and I have a wonderful haiku in my head that I must put to paper!" With those last words, the Professor walked inside, laughing as he went.
"Other nice young man?," said Chad. He crouched down and hugged his knees to his chest, mumbling more insults about Red.
"I think that went pretty well," Lindsay said, and Roserade nodded her agreement. "He didn't even wait until we were finished picking our Pokémon to write his haiku when we started our journey; he just pulled out the paper and used Chad's chest as a writing surface." Zack laughed, but slowly stopped when he realized she wasn't joking.
"Yeah," said Chad, suddenly snapping out of his depression. "And besides, Zack complete the "trio." Now we have one of each of the starter Pokémon."
"Cool!" said Zack. "So you guys have Charmander and Squirtle, huh? That's awesome!" Chad and Lindsay gave each other amused looks, finding his implication that they hadn't evolved their Pokémon absurd.
"Anyway," Chad started. "This is a big moment for you, Zack! We're heading out on your big journey, so you have to do the thing!" He sighed and shook his head when Zack raised an eyebrow in question. "Run off to the horizon with your new Pokémon and Gastly! We're headed to our hometown – Viridian City! It's tradition, and it brings this chapter to a dramatic close!"
"Oh, right!" his brother answered. He ran off into the distance, a dumb grin on his face, as Gastly and Bulbasaur followed. Chad and Lindsay followed behind them with Lucario and Roserade.
"Think he'll be dead in three days?" Lindsay asked.
"Honestly, luv, I think three days is a little optimistic," Chad answered.