It was a new day. A fresh new beginning, and as the sun peeped over the trees and mountains and shone over the lake. Three children rose bright and early, ready to begin their new life of adventure in the Pokémon world. In the Kanto region a boy with red spiky hair stepped out of his house with anticipation in every step. He bade good bye to his mum and rather sniffy sister and made his way down the hill towards Professor Oak's house. When he got there the professor was waiting for him.
"Wow you sure do get up early professor," remarked the boy.
"Thank you Ruban," replied Oak.
"Well I'm here and I know just who I'm gonna pick," said Ruban excitedly.
"Ok then, I might as well invite you in then," smiled the professor.
Ruban followed Professor Oak into the living room where three small red and white spheres were waiting on the table. Ruban stared at the pokeballs; his heart pounding it was finally time. Professor Oak smiled; he loved watching young trainers picking out their first pokemon. He opened the balls, red beams emitted from them and three small pokemon appeared on the table. One looked a green dinosaur with a bulb growing out of it's back, the next one was a small turtle with large eyes standing on it's hind legs and the last one was an orange lizard on it's hind legs and a flame flickering from its tail. Ruban stared at the last one and his heart leapt, Charmander, this was the one he wanted. The baby Charmander blinked shyly back at him, staring curiously. Ruban slowly put his hand out and gently patted him on the head. Charmander's flame flared and he stared into Ruban's eyes adoringly.
"Char," he squeaked, his arms held out.
Ruban smiled it was perfect; he got up and turned to the professor.
"I'll take this one," he said.
"Are you sure," asked Professor Oak.
"Yes," said Ruban his face determined.
"You've made a good choice Ruban, may you and Charmander forge a strong bond with each other."
"I'm naming him Flame," Ruban told him.
"That's a great name," encouraged the professor, giving him Flame's pokeball. After listening to some of Oak's legendary and welcomed advice, Ruban went on his way. He decided not focus on badges and instead to take this opportunity to befriend as many species of his favourite type of Pokémon as he could. Fire was his favourite type, it suited him well, the flare the colour and even if he didn't like to admit it the temper. Another decision he'd thought over carefully was what region he'd be travelling in. He wanted to see all of them before he settled anywhere so that's what he'd do. He was starting with the Johto region. As he walked the pokeball bumped at his belt, he smiled thinking of Flame curled up in the tiny capsule, his own pokemon. Johto was just through the forest, if he walked fast enough he could get there in an hour. He quickened his pace. As he walked briskly through the vegetation, Ruban could feel the residents staring down at him. Every now and then he would reach back and touch his pokeball, just to check it was still there. After about half an hour he came to a lake where he stopped and let Flame out for a while. The little fellow was all over the place Ruban had to keep an eye on him. Ruban picked him up and held him high into the air; he giggled and reached for Ruban's nose. Suddenly a sticky string whipped out from a bush and tripped him up. Flame flew out of his arms and landed on his head with a bump. Ruban sat up in alarm, but he had no need to worry. Flame jumped up and stared angrily at the bush, a fire in his eyes. To Ruban's mounting panic a caterpie emerged from the bush with a mischievous glint in its eye. Flame growled angrily and began to circle the offending caterpie. Ruban had regained his ground by this time.
"Flame..." he began. But he was too late; Flame opened his mouth and let a column of fire out. The Caterpie gave a squeak of terror before it lay flat on its back defeated. Ruban blinked, he had just defeated his first opponent, or rather Flame had.
"Way to go Flame," he cried. Flame smiled triumphantly back up at him.
"Char," he replied.
"We better get going then," said Ruban. He returned Flame back to his pokeball. As he strode through the greenery Ruban now kept an eye out for any suspicious looking vines, roots and other plants. Hours passed and he was beginning to feel a bit deflated as there were no signs of any of the forest clearing. He trudged on exhausted hoping upon hope that it would clear any minute, but it just went on. He must have sunken into stupor because next minute he found himself face down on the hard earth track. Irritably Ruban looked back to see what had tripped him. There a large pointed stone sticking out of the path. Something reflected on it made him turn around. There behind him was a small host of house and other buildings, he had made it! Breaking into a run he headed for a large building with a bright red roof, the Pokemon Center. He watched apprehensively as Nurse Joy checked Flame over. Flame didn't seem to mind as he was endlessly prodded and poked for all manner of problems. Finally Nurse Joy stood up.
"Your Charmander seems to be in top condition," she admitted. Ruban breathed a sigh of relief and started to follow her out of the room. There was an indignant squeak from behind him, Ruban smiled.
"Sorry Flame," he said, picking his Pokémon up. Flame climbed onto Ruban's shoulders carefully steering his tail away from anything potentially flammable. Then they exited the examination room and proceeded to the front desk where Nurse Joy was waiting patiently.
"Are you new?" she asked.
"Yes from Kanto," replied Ruban.
"Well you'll need to fill in these forms," she said, handing him a sheaf of papers and a pen. Bending at the desk he carefully filled the forms in. When he looked up Nurse Joy had disappeared. Puzzled he looked around to try and work where she'd gone. There was a tap on his shoulder. He turned and nearly jumped out of his skin to Nurse Joy exactly where she'd been. This earned him an alarmed kick from Flame who'd dozed of on his head. Turning back to Nurse Joy (who was now looking considerably more amused than before) he saw she was holding a peculiar watch-like device.
"This" she explained, "Is your Pokegear, it will help to guide your through the Johto region."
After a short explanation about how to work his Pokegear, Ruban wondered into the gardens. Taking a dozy and rather bemused Flame off his head, he sat on a bench. Flame, who had begun to wake up started to explore the grasses. Ruban watched him for a while, and then started to twiddle around with his Pokégear. Something caught his eye, a girl about the same age as him, with long green hair was playing the grass with presumably her Chikorita. The little yellow pokemon would make pink flowers grow around her and the girl would pick and plait them into a beautiful chain. A tap on his arm brought him back down to earth and not for the first time that day, made him jump. A Chansey staring apologically up at him, she motioned him to follow her. After scooping up Flame and hurriedly stamped on the blazing patch he had left in the damp grass, they rushed after the Chansey. Chansey led them round the front desk to an area where several people were talking to each other through large screens on a panel across the wall. Beside each screen was a phone, one of them was ringing. Ruban turned his attention to the screen, there was woman there with bright red hair like his waiting patiently for someone. It was his Mum! Hurriedly plonking himself down on the stool his pressed the received button and thanked the Chansey.
"Hey," said his Mum, brightly.
"Hey Mum what's up," he asked, carefully placing Flame on his lap (Flame fallen asleep again,).
"Do I need a reason to check on my lovely new pokemon trainer," she crooned.
"Ah mum," he moaned, watching as Flame's tail flickered precariously near to the keyboard. Aradia Fliktern gazed proudly at her son; he was shaping up to be a right Fliktern.
"No prizes for guessing which one you picked?" she asked.
"Nope," he answered, poking Flame awake.
"He looks a tad sleepy for your type," Aradia observed.
"I'll soon wake him up," he assured her. He went on to tell her how Flame defeated the Caterpie. The Charmander was now visually more awake and growling at the mention of the offending Caterpie. The conversation went on for quite a while and as the sun set Ruban decided it was time to go and set up camp, or rather Chansey had to pull him away from the screen before it ran out of airtime completely). As he started through the undergrowth once more, Ruban wondered about the future, his bond with Flame and other Pokémon he might catch. The sky had turned blood red and he still hadn't found an appropriate place to sleep. In fact he had completely forgotten about sleeping and was so immersed in his own thoughts that he didn't notice the rope on the floor or the tightly bent tree above it or the fact he was about to walk into an obvious trap. Another thing he didn't notice was his foot dropping squarely into the centre of the noose and…
TTWWAANNGG!
"WWAAHH!" cried Ruban