Okay, hopefully you enjoyed the prologue. Uh, just so you know, in this story, I'll be using a few of my own original pokémon. Hopefully it doesn't put you off, but I don't put them on a pedestal and praise them like they're the best thing since sliced bread (that would be too conceited of me). Just so you know. Well, enjoy Chapter 1!

Chapter 1: Head North, Young Man

Jeff Grayson lay on his bed, fingering the new Trainer Card he had gotten the night before. It was small and rectangular, with rounded edges, and was mostly blue in colour. The inside rectangle, which portrayed his photograph, his badges (of which he had none), and his personal data (age, sex, hair colour, etc.), was white. Just looking at it made him smile. That and the fact that he got his first pokémon and started his Pokémon Journey. And, even better still, this October was the tenth anniversary of the local Pokémon Laboratory, meaning that the Lab wasn't just offering the starters from the Tryotho region, Dropdaling (the Water starter), Blosprig (the Grass starter), and Eelava (the Fire starter), but the starters from every region. With so many options to choose from, Jeff wasn't sure who he'd pick. Craig had his heart set on Eelava, even though he could get any starter he wanted.

A shout from downstairs broke Jeff out of his fantasizing trance. It was his mother, calling him to come downstairs. Jeff went down, replying as he did so, "Yeah, I'm here. What's up?"

"We got you something!"

That doubled Jeff's pace. He hurried into the living room to see his mother, his father, and his little sister with a large gift bag. Mr. Gruff was there too, but all he was doing was rolling around on the floor.

"This is yours, for your Pokémon Journey." Mrs. Grayson handed it to Jeff. Jeff wasted no time in ripping out the tissue paper to see what was in the bag. He reached in and pulled out a brand new green backpack.

He looked over at his old brown backpack, sitting in the hall. It didn't look too bad, but it was kind of scuffed up. "Um, thanks," he said, not sure if he should be really grateful.

"Open it up," said Mr. Grayson. Jeff obliged and inside were various pockets, each with its own little label. One said 'TMs', another said 'Supplies'(that one was much larger), and one more said 'Pokéballs'. That one had a bulge in it, so Jeff unzipped it. Inside were five pokéballs. Jeff smiled. He had pokéballs now. He was getting more and more like a real Trainer.

"Thanks Mom, thanks Dad," he said, then he gave each of them a hug.

"Your welcome, bucko," said Mr. Grayson. "Now, it's almost noon. Aren't you supposed to be at the Lab by now?"

"Oh, that's right!" Jeff quickly ran to the door and slipped on his shoes. He grabbed his favourite green hat and went to leave when his mother interrupted him.

"Uh, Jeff," and she pointed at his backpack. He smiled, rushed over, zipped it all up, and rushed out with a "Bye, guys!" thrown back at his family.

Mr. Grayson leaned back in his chair. "Reminds me of myself when I was a teen," he said.

Mrs. Grayson rolled her eyes. "That's what they all say."

Mr. Grayson tried his best to look hurt. "Well, it's true!"

...

Jeff pedalled his bike as fast as he could. The faster he got there, the more choices to choose from. There weren't that many kids who'd turned fourteen in that October, but still.

Jeff pulled up in front of the Lab. In front of it sat Craig, who looked bored. Jeff locked his bike in the bike rack and ran over to him. Craig looked pleased to see someone else there.

"I'm the last one in," he said. "There were five kids in front of me, the two from school and three from somewhere else. So far, no one's come out with the Eelava. I'm just waiting on this next guy. Then it's my turn."

Before Jeff could say something, the lab doors slid open quietly and a boy in a t-shirt and jeans walked out, holding a pokéball. Craig quickly stood up and called the boy. "What pokémon did you get?"

"I got the Totodile," he said. Craig breathed a sigh of relief and the boy gave him a confused look. Then he left.

"Next!" came a woman's voice from inside.

"That's me!" and Craig rushed inside.

A few minutes later, Craig came back out, looking extremely proud of himself.

"You look happy," Jeff understated.

"I certainly do, and for good reason. I got the Eelava!" Craig reserved a moment for a victory dance.

"Next!" said the woman's voice again.

"That would be me!" said Jeff, and he went inside.

The entire interior of the Laboratory was white and grey, and was covered in scientific notes and examination stuff. Somewhere, a machine hummed loudly. The main room of the Lab, which was what Jeff was standing in, was basically a two-floor corridor, with the second floor accessible by twin flights of stairs at the opposite end. Standing between the staircases was the Professor, Prof. Maple. Being one of the only women in charge of a major lab facility, she was highly respected. In front of her was a table with small cups in it. In most of them (except for six) sat pokéballs with labels on them. The labels were there to let people know which pokémon was inside.

Jeff stepped forward in front of the specially-designed table. Prof. Maple said nothing, but gestured at the table, as if to say, 'please choose'.

Jeff clapped his hand together and rubbed them. "Okay, which one?" He looked over the pokéballs to make his choice. His hand decided to go for a walk, moving over the pokéballs, then it stopped on one. Jeff picked it up and looked at the label. The label said, 'Squirtle: Tiny Turtle pokémon, Water-type, Kanto'.

Jeff though it over. Water-types were very useful, and Squirtle's final form, Blastoise, was probably one of the best all-around Water starters.

"I'll take this one."

"Fine choice," said Prof. Maple. "A formidable foe, and powerful ally."

"Do you say that to everybody?"

"Most of the time, yes."

"Oh, that gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling." Jeff muttered sarcastically.

"Now, if you would just step over here, and I'll scan your eye with your new Pokédex." Prof. Maple pulled out an ocean-blue Pokédex and pressed a button. A scanner popped out of the side. "Now, hold still." With one hand, the professor held Jeff's eyelid open, and with the other, she held up the Pokédex scanner. A bright wave of light passed over Jeff's eye, and it began to water. If the professor hadn't been holding it open, his eyelid would have snapped shut.

An electronic voice on the Pokédex read out, "Jeff Grayson. Age, Fourteen. Sex, Male. Hair Colour, Brown." Professor Maple snapped the Pokédex shut and the machine went quiet. "There, now it's registered to you." she handed it to Jeff. "It's yours now."

Jeff did his best he could to suppress a mad giggle.

"Are you the last person?" said the professor. Jeff nodded. "Alright, out you go." Jeff obeyed. "Wait!" she called after him. Jeff turned around to see her holding a pokéball.

"Oh. Right." Jeff walked back, took Squirtle's ball, and left sheepishly.

...

Craig was outside waiting for Jeff. "Well, we've got our starter pokémon. Now the only thing to do is BATTLE!"

Jeff shook his head. "Maybe we should wait a little while. I mean, you know, just toss out our pokémon and get to know them a little before we battle with them."

Craig, in return, rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine." Then he grinned. "I've wanted to do this since they put that law thing into effect. Go, Eelava!"

Craig pressed the button on his pokéball and it grew to maximum size, which was about the same as a good-sized orange. He clicked the button again and tossed it to the ground. The ball broke open horizontally at the middle line, and a flash of white light surged out of the ball. The light arced up, then back down onto the ground. It began to form a long, thin shape. As the light faded, it revealed a thin red eel, about a foot and a half long, and eight inches high, though it couldn't have been more than an inch thick. A row of yellow flames flickered down the length of its back, and its stomach was a dark red colour. It had big green eyes, making it look quite adorable. It had two tiny nostrils, but it didn't seem to have any mouth to speak of (or with). Then a tiny hole appeared below its nostrils, which, indeed, was the mouth, and it said, "Eelava."

That was it, but it was enough to get Craig attempting to smother the Baby Eel pokémon in love. His attempts were foiled by the flames on the eel's back. Jeff noticed that the eel seemed to be levitating about half an inch off the ground. He wondered why, and came to the conclusion that if it wasn't levitating, it would probably just flop over. Eelava began wriggling around, pushing its tail back and forth to propel itself forward through the air.

Craig squatted down in front of Eelava and spoke to him. "Hey, little buddy. I'm your Trainer, and you're my starter pokémon. We're going to go on adventures together and have loads of fun!"

Eelava responded to this by saying, "Eeeeel, eelava va eelva."

Craig, who wasn't very good at translating speech, turned his gaze to Jeff and asked, "What did he say?"

"He said, 'Please stop treating me like a baby; I'm a Baby Eel in name only."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Eee."

"He said that's okay."

"Thanks. Hey, aren't you going to let out your pokémon, too? What did you end up getting, by the way?" Craig stood up, carefully lifting Eelava as well, so the pokémon lay in his arms without setting them on fire.

Jeff smiled and took out the pokéball. "You'll see," he said as he peeled off the label. "Go!" he shouted, tossing the ball like Craig had done. The white light burst out, like before, and the shape it became was the Tiny Turtle pokémon, Squirtle. It was definitely a Squirtle, his brown shell, chubby blue body, and curled tail proved that.

As if that wasn't enough to prove it, Squirtle piped up, "Squirtle!"

"Aha, a Squirtle," said Craig. "Nice choice. Strong and steadfast. Good combination. But not as good as my Eelava!"

Squirtle looked at Jeff. "You're my Trainer, right?" he said, in pokémon speech of course.

"Uh, yeah," said Jeff.

"And we're supposed to go on a Journey around the region to collect badges and challenge the Tryotho League, is that right?"

"Only if I decide that's what I want to do."

"Okay, so then, isn't our first move supposed to be something like, fight some other Trainer?" Squirtle looked at Craig who was staring back at him. Eelava had responded badly to Craig picking him up, so he'd been put back down again. "See, he's got a pokémon."

"Yeah, but I don't want to humiliate him. He's only just got that pokémon."

"So did you," pointed out Squirtle.

"You're talking about me, aren't you?" said Craig, trying to stick up for himself.

"I'm glad you noticed. Give this man a lollipop," said Squirtle. "By the way, what's your name, anyway?"

"I'm Jeff Grayson, and that's my best friend Craig Stevenson. You seem to know a lot about this whole Pokémon Journey business. Is there, like, some kind of test to become a starter Pokémon or something?"

Squirtle shook his head. "After we've hatched, becoming a starter is kind of drilled into our heads. We're raised to about the same power, but its still pretty low. You wouldn't want a Squirtle that can decimate the competition right away." Squirtle grinned.

"I know some lazy lard-buckets who do," said Jeff.

"I heard 'lazy lard-buckets'! Are you insulting me now?" Craig pointed his finger at Jeff like it was about to go off.

"Watch where you point that thing," said Jeff. "You know, if we're going out on our Pokémon Journeys, we should probably go home and say goodbye to our families." he hefted his backpack. "And get whatever we're bringing with us."

"'We'? 'Us'?" said Eelava sceptically.

"Well, yeah. Craig and I decided that we were going to go together a few months ago," Jeff explained.

"Oh. Okay then."

"We'll meet back here in half an hour," said Jeff, pointing at the ground. "Okay?"

"Okay then," said Craig. "Come on, Eelava, I'll take you to see my folks."

"Oh, boy, this should be fun," said Eelava, rolling his eyes.

Craig stopped and looked back at Jeff. "Did he just say something about popcorn?"

"No."

"I need to work on my speech skills."

"Yes, you do." said Eelava.

"He agrees with you."

...

Ten minutes later, Jeff's new backpack was all packed. His shoes were on, his hat was firmly on his head, and his mother was sobbing over him as if he'd gone and died.

"You're growing up," she said between sobs.

"Just like your sister," said Mr. Grayson.

"You mean my older sister, right?" Jeff asked, looking at his baby sister, who was attempting to ride Mr. Gruff with disastrous results.

Mrs. Grayson blew her nose. "Well, be careful out there, dear. Don't talk to any strange Trainers."

"Sure, Mom. I'll battle them, but I won't say a word to them."

"Well, um, when you put it that way..."

Mr. Grayson put his hand on Jeff's shoulder. "Above all, have fun. This Journey only happens once a lifetime, you know."

"I will, Dad," said Jeff, grinning.

"Okay, can we go now?" asked Squirtle. "This whole sob-fest is getting me bored."

"Well, I'm on my way, now," said Jeff, opening the door. "Bye all!" and he left, looking back only once to see his mother flagging him off with her soiled handkerchief.

...

About twenty minutes later, Craig walked up the road towards the Lab, Eelava tagging along behind him.

"Sorry I took so long," he said. "My mother really dragged out the goodbye."

"No problem. We're here now, but not for long. Did you bring your bike?"

Craig shook his head. "Nah, it felt like cheating to start out from home with a bike. Don't know why, though."

"In any case, we'd better get moving. If we want to reach Earthgale by mid-afternoon, we'd better go."

"Righty-ho!" said Craig, and the two young boys set out north towards Earthgale City, taking the first step towards what was to be the most momentous event of their lives.

(Don't worry, in the next chapter we'll get some action.)