Chapter Four: The Original Pokeball

I traveled to Professor Oak's lab around the same time as Jason's battle with Victoria. I needed information about pokemon if I was going to change how we would use them. See, Professor Oak was long viewed as one of the most important names in popularizing the use of pokemon in every day life. Before his research, people feared pokemon. Though the pokeball was invented almost a century before Oak came to be, people often found themselves incapable of controlling their new "pets."

Professor Oak was originally a field zoologist. He studied pokemon in their habitats and eventually modified the pokeball so that it had the power to quell the basic instincts of all these pokemon. His new pokeball actually manipulated the brain of the captured pokemon to completely trust he or she who captured it. With these modifications, even kids like Ash and Gary could gain powerful pokemon and actually be able to use them.

My plan was to backtrack. Pokemon are too powerful a force to be allowed in the hands of reckless kids. Having a powerful pokemon should require an intense amount of effort to gain its trust. Simply throwing a ball at it should not be enough. Before Oak, you had to work to gain a pokemon's trust. The only situations like that that still exist are pokemon that one does not catch or hatch him or herself. If you obtain a pokemon in a trade, or if you are given one, and it is powerful enough, it won't listen to everything you say. That's how it used to be all the time.

I wanted to change that, to make it so that only the truly powerful trainers could use pokemon. Limit the amount of people capable of using them so that only those that are specifically trained to be pokemon trainers could use them. Unfortunately, I needed access to the world's supply of pokeballs and, moreover, I needed information on how they work now and how they used to work. I needed information from Oak.

I rung the doorbell at Oak's lab. The speaker came on at the door, an unfamiliar voice. "Can I help you?"

"This is Lance," I said. "The Dragonmaster, and Pokemon League Champion. Is Professor Oak in?"

There were a few moments of silence before the door opened up. I walked in and at first everything seemed like a normal company building. The front room was very empty, and there was simply a counter and one hallway, which, I imagined, led to the real stuff. The man at the counter, a Hispanic looking man with glasses, stood up as I entered and approached me, making me somewhat uneasy. He held out his hand and I took it, because I'm not a douche.

"It's so excellent to meet you, sir," the man said. "My name is Jonathan."

"Good to meet you, Jonathan," I replied. "Oak's not busy is he?"

"Oh, he's always busy," Jonathan laughed. "But he said he'd make some time for you. Head on down that hallway, and he's straight ahead."

I nodded and did as the man said. As I finally got to the room where Oak was, I opened the door. It was filled with books and machines, shelves filled with pokeballs. Oak was sitting down at his desk and across from him was a young girl. Both looked at me when I walked in.

"Lance, my friend," Oak said, standing up. "How is the Pokemon League?"

"I wouldn't know," I shrugged, walking to the professor and taking his hand. "I'm a champion, but I'm not actually a member of the league anymore."

"Ah, yes, yes of course," he replied. "Ah, how foolish of me. This is Iris, a young lady from Saffron City. She wants to do the Pokemon League challenge. You may have some competition, Lance."

"Best of luck," I said to Iris, faking sincerity. "It's not easy, though. I happen to know the Elite Four personally, and they're all pretty tough. Then there's the Gym Leaders."

"I know what I'm getting into," Iris said. "I'm not expecting to win, but I want to try."

"Fair enough," I said. "So why start here?"

"Well, Lance," Oak interjected. "Saffron City is a tough place to get started with pokemon. All the wild ones near the city tend to be very strong. She contacted me, and I got one of my aids to give her a ride to Pallet Town. So now I'm going to give her a pokemon to get her started."

"Interesting," I nodded. "So what are you gonna give her?"

"Well, it seems we have a few options," Oak said. "She seems a poison type trainer. Gastly would be good, or Ekans. I think Ekans is perfect. Gastly's a tough pokemon to start out with."

"Whatever you think, Professor," Iris grinned.

"Then it's settled!" Oak cried. "You will start out with an Ekans! Congratulations, Iris, your very own pokemon adventure is about to unfold."

"Thank you, sir," Iris stood up excitedly. "And, Champion Lance, it was really great to meet you."

"Good luck, Iris," I smiled. Happily, she left the room, and I went ahead and sat down where she was sitting to see Oak smiling.

"I love giving kids pokemon," Oak said. "The pokemon love it, and the kids get to go on the best kind of adventure a kid can go on."

"Professor," I leaned forward. "I need to talk to you about your pokeball."

"Hm?" Oak asked, an eyebrow raised. "You mean the Master Ball? I've only made a few of them, Lance. Do you need one?"

"No," I replied, leaning back and crossing my arms. "I'm talking about your original pokeball."

"Ah," Oak said. "The kind I made my fortune with."

"Yes,"

"Well, what can I do for you?"

"Mechanically speaking," I began. "What's the difference between that, and the original pokeball?"

"Mine required a lot more effort," Oak laughed. "I implemented a neurological device, that actually digs into the pokemon's brain upon capture. It's very painful, but afterwards, the pokemon doesn't remember the pain, and it actually makes them happier. Unless. Are you asking specifically about how I did that?"

"No, of course not," I shook my head, smiling. "I'm no scientist, that would go completely over my head. But I'm wondering. Is it something different within the simple pokeball, or is it programming?"

"Haha," Oak laughed. "I'm good, Lance, yes. But it would be incredibly expensive to actually build a device capable of digging into a pokemon's brain within each pokeball. It's programming. That's what made it so easy for me to update the original pokeball. All I had to do was update the central computer at Indigo Plateau. Then, from there, I could immediately update the pokeballs of anyone who sent me the update fee."

"You're a genius," I said.

"Well, it all goes to science," Oak replied, smiling.

"Another thing," I began. "Do you have any of the old ones on hand?"

"Sorry to say," Oak replied. "But I don't. You might try the lab on Cinnabar."

"I suppose I'll check it out. But about this central computer. It's just that," I continued. "I was leader of the Elite Four, highest ranking member of the Pokemon League. I never even knew about it."

"It's no secret, Lance," Oak said. "If you asked about it, they'd have told you. Of course, you wouldn't have had access to it."

"Why not?"

"Because you weren't the highest ranking member," Oak said. "The Pokemon League is a business. A huge business. You weren't the CEO. You were just the highest ranking...Advertiser I guess."

Oak was being truthful, yes, but it was still somewhat of a harsh truth. In my eyes, the Elite Four were the highest ranking positions in the Pokemon League, but we weren't owners or anything like that. We were just leaders in the public eye. Thing is, though, we actually did have a lot of power as spokespeople for the League. If we said something, the board usually went ahead with it, because they didn't want to cause discontent between corporate and the Elite Four.

"So who has access to it?" I asked.

"Members of the board, high ranking shareholders," Oak said. "And myself."

Board members were notoriously difficult to find. They contacted each other through ever changing means, and had a continuously changing code. Their emails would always change, their locations, their phone numbers. Even their identities.

"Why all these questions, Lance?"

"Curiosity, I suppose," I said. "I have a lot of free time these days, and I find myself thinking about how the world works."

"I can't take you to the computer," Oak shook his head. "I've been somewhat paranoid about it for a while now, actually, ever since Giovanni bought a huge share of the League."

"What?" I asked. "Giovanni's a shareholder?"

"Giovanni was CEO."

"Was?" I asked. "What is he now?"

"He's dead, Lance," Oak said.

This was a surprise to me. I sat for a few moments. "Who got his share of the League?"

"His son," Oak said. "A man by the name of Tucker."

"Thank you, Professor." I said, standing up. "I hope to see you soon."

"You too, Lance," Oak said. "Whatever you do. Just don't let it come back to me, alright?"

I nodded and left. I had some more research to do. I had to find this Tucker and I still needed to find the outdated pokeball. I wondered whether I should go to Cinnabar first, or find Tucker.