Chapter 3: the war and a name,
I'm finally going to explain about the war and give Charmander a name. Also I edited the previous two chapters and fixed their many errors, I'll be more careful in the future. Shoutout to RSDU for commenting and roanoak for following and favoriting this story, you guys are the real MVP.
The overgrown grass brushed against Anna's legs as she made her way through the first patch of grass on route one. The grass and weeds were tall enough and dense enough that she has to feel her way through lest she trip and get caught in the mess. She carefully picks her way through the overgrowth that used to be the neat path to Viridian City.
It used to be that you could walk between Pallet Town and Viridian City without ever going through the tall grass, it had been that way between most towns." "But that was a long time ago," Anna thought wishfully, "a time before the war." Anna herself barely remembered the clean path or the times her father had taken her along it to see the wonders of Viridian City or to stop at the pokèmart.
As far as Anna was concerned both were relics of another age, lost in the war. Anna had been so little when it started that she barely remembers the time before, but she certainly remembered the war.
Pallet town had been relatively safe, but Anna had still seen her fair share of blood, both human and pokemon.
Before the war there was a sudden increase in science and pokeball technology, leading to more people living longer and more successful pokemon captures. Pokemon became rarer and rarer as everyone tried to catch them all. Soon there were very few pokemon left in the wild at all. Pokemon became a hot commodity, very expensive and rarely sold. As with all things in hight demand it was only a matter of time before someone killed for one. "Damn greedy people ," Anna thinks, "starting a war because they wanted to complete their collection."
Normally, that's were the police would intervene and catch the killer, but it didn't stop at one; more and more people were killed or mugged for their pokemon. Eventually people started forming groups to protect themselves, and these groups turned into factions.
Some were good, or as good as you can be in war, like the faction that restored the government, and set up the elite four, not only as a test to become the pokemon master but to protect Kanto from future wars.
Others were bad, like Team Rocket, who many suspect were behind the overthrow of the old government. If not, they certainly did their best to gain from it. Most of the 'bad' factions have disappeared, but some still linger in Kanto, hiding from the authorities.
"At least laws were passed to stop a war like that from every happening again," Anna says to herself, trying to find comfort on a route destroyed by war.
After the war, adults were made to release many of their pokemon, or make them participate in breeding programs to increase the population. The age a child starts there pokemon journey was raised to sixteen and it was decided that a trainer could only catch one pokemon per route so as to keep up the population.
Anna shakes such depressing thoughts out of her head, as she finally makes it through the first small patch of grass. "No, im not going to let the war dampen this day," she says to no one in particular, "especially when I've got a partner I need to introduce myself to." She then plops down onto a small ledge and pulls out Charmander's pokeball.
For a moment she rolls the round sphere between her hands wondering what she's gonna say to him. Then she realizes that she's being ridiculous, if his earlier behavior was anything to go on then he already liked her, at least enough to battle for her, so there was no reason to be worried now.
Before she can chicken out, she quickly releases her pokemon who appears in a flash of bright light. He immediately tenses looking for some threat or an opponent to battle. When he doesn't see one he begins walking in a slow circle searching in every direction for an enemy.
"It's alright," Anna soothes, "there's no one to fight."
At this Charmander turns his head to the side in confusion studying Anna. "Char?" He asks which Anna assumes means something along the lines of "really?" or "what?."
"As long as were on the path and not in the tall grass, no wild pokemon will attack us," Anna says. At his confused stare she continues, " I just though we should get to know each other, seeing as I'm your trainer now."
"Char, char mander," he says in agreement.
"I'm Anna, it's nice to meet you," she says sticking her hand out in reflex. To her surprise Chamander slowly walks up to inspect it. He sniffs it warily a few times before nuzzling his warm face in it, and allows Anna to pet him.
She smiles as she pets the fire pokemon. "We need a name for you, eh troublemaker?"
At the word troublemaker he hisses playfully and lightly nips at Anna's hands. She laughs and says "Alrigt, alright, you're not a troublemaker, but you still need a name. What are we going to call you?"
As he listens, Charmander looks deep in thought, before rolling onto his back and curling his tail around to wave it at Anna. "What do you want to be called, fire?" Anna asks, poking at his belly. "Naw, that's way to simple a name, maybe if I was ten."
Charmander looks relived at this, but continues drawing attention to his tail. "What you want something manly like blaze or flameheart or something? No that's to basic you need something more special."
He let's put a purr like noise in agreement as Anna begins to rub his belly, deep in thought. "What about Kai?"
"Char?"
"Yeah, Kai, whata you say?"
He seems to think about it for a bit, tilting his head side to side. After awhile, he lets out a simple "char," of agreement. Then, with a playful gleam in his green eyes, he scampers off into the grass.