Chapter 2: A Start

Carson walked a few blocks across town to the PokéMart, where he intended to get some pokéballs and maybe some potions. Once he had the balls he could go about catching a Pokémon and starting his training. Maybe a Pidgey, or whatever it was that was native to this area. He'd have to find something weak enough to catch without a Pokémon of his own, but he wasn't too worried. He knew what he was doing. As he was about to enter the store, he saw a poster on the door, advertising a job for trainers that involved cataloguing as many Pokémon species as possible. The poster had direction to a lab on the edge of town, where one was to inquire after a "Professor Oak." He decided to ignore the ad, however. He had something he wanted to accomplish, and it didn't involve running errands for some old man in a lab.

"I need to buy some pokéballs" Carson said, approaching the counter.

"Pokéballs? We're fresh out, sorry" said the shopkeeper. "You'll have to head up to our branch in Viridian City."

"Really? There are no other stores in town that sell pokéballs?" Carson was becoming visibly annoyed.

"I'm sorry sir, Pallet Town isn't very big, and we're the only store here licensed by the League to sell Pokémon equipment. We don't get another shipment until the end of the week, so until then we're out of pokéballs. I'm sorry."

With that, Carson left the store and made for the edge of town. He didn't want to waste any time, so he figured he'd head straight to Viridian and pick up some balls. It was almost noon when he reached the edge of town, and he paused to check a map he'd picked up at the police station on the way over. He had to head due north to make it to Viridian. Easy enough, he thought. He began to walk along the dirt path, making sure to stay out of the tall grass lining it. He had walked for around ten minutes when he heard someone shouting for help.

"Great" Carson said out loud. "Some idiot is getting himself attacked. This is definitely going to end well." With that, he waded into the tall grass towards the sound of the shouting. He reached an area of shorter grass and saw an old man in a white lab coat cowering under a tree. He was being attacked viciously by a Pidgey. It was dive-bombing him repeatedly and clawing at his arms and hands. Carson looked around and saw a large branch on the ground, which he grabbed.

"Hey! Get the hell away from him!" Carson shouted. He swung the branch like a baseball bat, connecting with the Pidgey as it made another attack. It crashed into the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust into the air. Carson advanced on it, placing himself between the old man and the Pokémon, brandishing his branch. The Pidgey fled, however, flying away as rapidly as it could towards a thicket of trees.

"Thank you so much, young man" said the old man awkwardly as Carson helped him up. "It's been a while since I've done any field work myself, and now I'm remembering why I started sending other people to do it in the first place" he chuckled.

"You're bleeding" Carson said.

"I'll be quite alright. That was a brave thing you did there. Though you look like a trainer to me, why didn't you use a Pokémon?"

"I don't have any" Carson replied. "I was just heading to Viridian City to buy some balls and to catch some."

"Oh don't worry about that, I think I know exactly how I'm going to repay you kind deed. Please, accompany me back to my lab."

"Look, I don't even know you and I have things to do…" Carson began.

"Oh nonsense, you can spare some time, I'm sure. My name is Professor Samuel Oak, by the way. What's yours?"

"I'm Carson. Steve Carson. Are you that professor who put up posters in town?"

"Yes that's me, but more about that later. Please, come with me."

Seeing that the old man wasn't going to take no for an answer, Carson decided to accompany him back to his lab. It sat on the edge of town, a nondescript, white, two story building. Inside was what appeared to be lots of high tech equipment. Oak led him into a room at the back of lab. Once inside, he entered a password into a keyboard on the wall, and a safe in the wall opened up with a hiss. Inside were three pokéballs.

"I want you to have one of these" Oak said to him, indicating the pokéballs in the safe. "One is a grass type, Bulbasaur. Another is a water type, Squirtle. The last is a fire type, Charmander. Please, take any one you want." Carson made immediately for the third ball, and picked it up. It felt right in his hand.

"Charmander, eh?" said a voice from the door. Carson turned slowly to see a man in the door, roughly his age, maybe a year or two older. The man had long, brown hair that stood spiked up on the top of his head. He wore blue jeans and a gray, V-neck t-shirt. Carson could make out what looked like dog tags on a chain around his neck.

"Ah, this is my grandson, Gary Oak" said the Professor. He looked down at his feet as he said so, and began toying with one of the buttons on his lab coat. Something was making him nervous, but Carson couldn't be sure what it was. Was he scared of his grandson? Gary sure looked intimidating enough. He was leaning casually against the door frame with his hands in his pockets, looking Carson up and down with his blue eyes. He had a definite air of cockiness about him.

"Who's your guest, Gramps?" Gary asked, turning his attention to Oak, "and why are you giving him one of your new Pokémon? I thought I was getting them."

"This is Steve Carson. He, uh, helped me outside of town. I was being attacked by a Pidgey. A vicious thing. It drew blood." He lifted up his hands, showing Gary the dried blood on the backs of them. "He's a new trainer and doesn't have any Pokémon of his own, so I'm repaying him for his kindness." Gary smirked.

"Aren't you a little old to be just getting your first Pokémon?" Gary asked.

"Aren't you?" replied Carson. Gary made his way into the room, taking his hands out of his pockets.

"Who said it's my first?" Gary replied, meeting Carson's eyes. He turned to Oak. "Anyway, you're giving me the Pokémon today that you promised me, right?"

"Uh, yes, yes of course. Just one though. Take your pick. I just hope you didn't want the Charmander" Oak said with a nervous laugh.

"It'll be Squirtle for me" Gary said, picking up the second pokéball and turning to flash an infuriating smile at Carson. "How about a quick battle? See what these little guys have in them."