Heyllo folks! Here we go! Time to kick things off with the beginning of canon. It's a pretty long chapter which could have been double the length if I wrote out what I wanted in the first place for this chapter, but I think I found a great place to end this part.
We finally get a starter Pokemon and it's a great one. I wonder how you'll react when you see what it is. I'll talk about this more in the bottom notes.
Oh yeah, guys if you're gonna give me things like songs or references to our world, make sure they're from before early September 2019, because that's when Mark died and he can't know anything after it. You don't see me making lockdown references, do you?
OK, now on to admin stuff. Some of you leave reviews with a lot of questions and are either not logged in, or have PMs disabled, leaving me with no way of contacting you. I try to answer every review I get, so if you haven't gotten one it probably means you have one of those two problems. On the other hand, some people ask a question, I answer it, and then they ask it again in the next chapter. Check your PMs people!
Anyway, enjoy!
…, I Choose You!
"To Prometheus!" Bryce toasted, with his beer bottle held up high,
Everyone else at the table responded with, "To Prometheus!" and downed their drinks.
Of course, Mark downed his juice, but it was the thought that counted.
His band, Prometheus – he managed to sell the legend of Prometheus as an old tale from Kalos, just with Prometheus stealing fire from Pokemon, and compared it to them bringing new kinds of music to the people of Kanto – celebrated Mark's soon departure and the hopeful prompt release of their first album.
They finished their album, The Very Best, a few months ago; however, even with Bryce's connections, it took time for a record label to decide whether they wanted to sign someone on or not, especially when that someone insisted on retaining the rights for their songs.
In addition to the drawn-out negotiations, the Indigo Plateau Conference happened every March and the whole region went on a semi-vacation during it, including record producers. So, instead of celebrating when they got the final green light, the band decided to do it now because Mark wouldn't agree to stop his journey when the time came.
They decided to celebrate in a fancy Italian-style-looking restaurant in Viridian. Mark had a suspicion that Giovanni had something to do with it but quickly stopped thinking about the man and his machinations in case he had powerful Psychics on-hand.
Instead, he looked around the table and the happy faces sitting there. His bandmates had only grown more beautiful over the years while he barely grew a dozen centimeters.
Lilly let her long pink hair hang down for once, and had dressed in an impressive pink evening gown, even though they decided to celebrate one PM. Her parents either decided not to come or had too much to do at work. Mark had a feeling the rich business-people disliked her choice of career, but the girl never talked about it and always seemed happy.
Becky either decided to wear her usual black jeans and shirt combo or didn't have the money/desire to dress up for the occasion. She still dyed her hair black, although Mark had a suspicion it would grow out as blond if she allowed it. Her sparkling blue eyes betrayed the excitement she tried to hide by the serious look she kept pasted on her face at all times. Everyone thought she didn't have any parents and she confirmed that when they asked her to invite them to the celebration.
Katie decided to change her usual jeans and shirt combo with a green summer dress, even though the unreliable Kanto spring weather didn't guarantee her warmth. Her laughing voice rang out over the table at some joke her dad made and it made Mark glad they decided to choose her as his female vocal partner in the several songs that required it.
Becky probably had a better range, but her shyness and outright refusal to sing prevented that. No one even considered Lilly after hearing her try to sing one time. That day, they heard Bryce's Exploud complain from the other side of the building and quickly put a stop to the potential disaster.
Bryce hadn't changed much since Mark had met him, except for maybe a few grays in his hair. After the first month of knowing him, the boy realized that the man doted on his daughter whenever he could. Because of that, he would only take money from them if he had all of his studios booked at the time they wanted to practice and then kick out some band he didn't like because he had justification. At other times, he'd allow them to play for free and for as long as they wanted. To Mark's surprise, he wouldn't take any extra money for the work he did on their album, even though he put in three times more hours than he usually did for other people.
Sarah too hadn't changed much on the outside other than for some smile lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth. On the inside, however, she soaked up any class Mark thought necessary, and a few extras, to help her in her job as the band's official manager. Without her new knowledge, Mark doubted they'd be able to get the opportunities presented to them, even with Bryce's connections.
A week after Mark leaves for his journey, Sarah first has the final contract negotiations with the record label, then, after she signs the papers, she has scheduled meetings all around central Kanto with different TV and radio stations to promote Prometheus. Thankfully, Michael can help Tom with Marianne if necessary once his wife leaves on her tour.
Tom would have liked to attend their lunch, but everyone always withheld their electrical issues for the end of March so he couldn't get a free Monday from his boss.
Mark's look stopped at the final member of their party, Ethan. He'd hired the prematurely-graying and bearded artist once he calculated the amount of money he'd save with Bryce not charging him for the studio most of the time. Even then, the young man didn't require much money since Kanto didn't have a large market for what he specialized in, animation.
Ethan's job for most of last year had been to draw the scenes Mark wanted him to for their first music video. Since he had no desire to film it, and didn't want to get hounded by people who recognized him during his first journey, Mark decided on an animated video as the best choice.
Everyone looked at him strangely when he explained an animated music video to them, but soon enough they caught on and agreed with him. From then on, they bombarded Mark with ideas on how the video for their first single 'Gotta catch em' all!' would look like.
Mark insisted that the intro scene mirror the stadium one from the first anime intro, other than that, they modeled the main character on Mark's description of Red and gave him a trusty Squirtle with who he traveled and fought Pokemon, trainers, and Gym leaders while building up his team.
The main reason Mark hired Ethan had to do with his drawing style, which resembled the Pokemon Generations short stories. Thanks to this, they hoped Sarah had a chance of convincing TV stations of playing the video in some of their programs.
Once the group finished their deserts, Mark stood up with his glass in hand and said, "Thank you, everyone! Nothing we achieved so far could have been possible without even one person sitting at this table. For that, you will have my eternal gratitude," he stopped talking to let the cacophony of boos – from Lilly and Bryce – and cheers – from everyone else – settle down, before he continued, "Nevertheless, this is just the beginning and I hope you will continue to do your best and help Prometheus prosper long into the future. To you all!"
When everyone answered his toast, he sat down and added, "That doesn't mean you get to slack off while I'm gone," the look he gave Lilly had the girl squirming a little, but she endured it until he turned his focus to everyone else and concluded, "I didn't record over a hundred different songs for nothing. You have the task of choosing the top twenty and working on them while I'm gone so we could record them for our next album when I'm free to do so."
The girls knew what he expected of them so they didn't mind his nagging too much, and the rest all had their tasks so they didn't make fun of them. Even Ethan had a possible second animation project pending on the success or failure of the first one.
They stayed in the restaurant for another hour longer, just talking and hanging out with one another, but soon the time came and Mark and Sarah had to go meet up with Tom and Michael to go back to Pallet Town together.
When they returned home to Marianne, the day continued as normal. However, by the time dinner-time came around Mark started noticing the lingering gazes his parents, especially his mom, shot him, and the hints of anger in his sister's avoidance. Only Michael acted normal, for him, and kept his head in a textbook instead of spending time with the family.
'At least his Wartortle doesn't shoot water at me whenever no-one's around anymore,' Mark thought and gave the hateful little turtle a middle finger under the table. Michael scraped enough money to buy him off Professor Oak shortly after Prometheus' founding. He refused any help from his family so it took him a while to gather the money.
When he finished eating and took care of his plate, Mark said, "I'm going to go over my things one final time, then I'm going to bed early. The sooner I get up, the sooner I can get my starter and be on my way."
Tom gave him a serious nod in response, while Sarah looked away and brought a hand up to her face, Marianne stared down at her plate, only Michael looked up from his book and mumbled, "Sure thing, bro."
Ignoring his family's weirdness, Mark went up to his room and started cataloging the possessions he prepared on his table that morning.
First, he inspected a special Berry Pouch made by Silph Co. in which he could store hundreds of Berries without changing its weight. The hand-sized brown pouch with a Pokeball logo on it had a string to tighten it up and tie it to something, but its simple design hid the wondrous space extension technology made specifically to keep Berries fresh.
Over the years, Sarah's Berry garden prospered with the help of her Vileplume and Kraven's guarding. Giving the entire family additions to their diet, and Mark materials he could use to test out his Pokemon food-making skills. When he bought the Berry Pouch, he solved the problem of leftover Berries going bad and slowly gathered up a large surplus to help him on his travels.
Berry trees had fruits almost every month with Vileplume's help, except for the winter months, so he felt certain he had more than enough for his journey.
Mark still felt weird every time he took something out of one of his space-extension items since they worked on some Psychic principle to give him what he wanted when he reached into them, but he chose to ignore the weird feeling for the major convenience they provided him. Seeing that he had no problems with taking out an Oran and a Cheri Berry, he moved on.
Next, he picked up a grey watch-like gadget and strapped it on his left hand. This one, the Pokegear, didn't have the Pokeball logo, but it still had a small S above its screen to let everyone know Silph Co. made it.
Mark tapped the buttons on the side of the Pokegear and started going through the options. According to his wall clock, it showed the correct time, and the maps of both the Kanto and Johto regions seemed fine if a little limited.
Moving on to the next option, he selected one of the numbers on his list and called it.
After a few rings, a voice answered with, "Hello, you've reached the Wood residence. To whom am I speaking?"
Mark's face spread into a grin as he said, "Such a proper greeting, Leaf. If I didn't know you better, I'd almost believe it."
He felt sure that if he called her from his family's new video phone she would have answered with a terse, "What?" instead of how she did now when she didn't see the face of the person on the other side.
After a short muffled conversation that included the words, "It's just Mark," Amy came back on the phone and said, "What do you want, Mark? I'm busy packing for tomorrow so I can't stay on for too long."
Mark chuckled at her answer and explained, "Oh nothing, just testing out my Pokegear's call function. How's my voice coming through on your end?"
A huff came out in response before Amy said, "I still can't believe you got your hands on one of the early models. And you sound fine, a little like you're standing too far from the phone, but otherwise all right."
Mark brought his wrist up closer to his face and declared, "It pays to have friends who know people in high branches, Leaf," when she decided not to fall for his frequent taunt, he continued, "Anyway, thanks for the help. I'll see you bright and early tomorrow, don't oversleep."
With a, "Yeah, yeah," Amy hung up the phone and left Mark smiling awkwardly at the silent empty room.
A second later, he shook the building cringe off and went on to the last function of the Pokegear, the radio. With a twirl of the side-dial, he searched and found the few Kanto stations that existed and broadcast all the way to Pallet.
Feeling satisfied, Mark removed the Pokegear from his wrist and moved to his last Silph Co. expensive purchase. His Bag, or backpack, however, you wanted to call it. It had a dark-blue exterior with a white Silph Co. logo Pokeball printed on the front pocket. In addition to that one, it had two side pockets on each side of the Bag, and the main pocket which opened at the top.
Silph Co. called the compartments in their Bags pockets because that word best described them. Small pocket dimensions sewn together in the form of a backpack. Mark's only regret with purchasing the very expensive Bag was that he couldn't put his Berry Pouch inside of it. Other than Pokeballs, Silph still couldn't figure out a way to pack one of their larger spatial items into another one, but he had faith that they'd crack it soon.
'Until then, I'll just have to have a pouch hanging off my hip like some kind of hippy druid,' Mark thought while he stared at the Pokeball logo on the Bag. 'Companies from my old world would give their left nut to have the monopoly Silph has here,' he concluded when he finished his rumination and went on to open the front pocket.
In it, he packed all of the different clothes and personal items he thought he might need on his travels. Pulling out a pair of blue swimming trunks with Magikarp all over them, some rolled up thick socks, and Kraven's Pokeball, Mark felt confident he could locate everything he needed on the fly.
Putting the things back in and closing the front, he turned the bag to have access to the left-hand pocket. After opening it, he started pulling out sealed baggies of different types of Pokemon and human food. Unlike his Berry Pouch, his Bag didn't keep his food fresh so he had to improvise. Pokemon food, like dry dog food from his old world, could keep for a long time in the baggies, and his own food had to keep until he reached Pewter so he had no worries.
When he packed the baggies back in, he started pulling smaller parts of a machine out of the same pocket. Once he had everything out, he assembled the parts into a grinder/compacter contraption Oak taught him to use to make his own Pokemon food. After a few test runs, he disassembled and packed it away, closing the left-hand pocket when he finished.
Turning the Bag to have access to the right-hand pocket, he opened it and pulled his wallet out of it. After a quick check, he reaffirmed the 25000P he had inside, prepared to buy 120 Pokeballs tomorrow after he registered as a trainer, and leave him with a neat thousand for spending money until Pewter.
By then, Michael should have transferred the rest of Mark's money he kept in his account for tax purposes. Even though he got kicked out of the junior trainer program and lost his stipend this year due to his age, Michael still had a year of taxes waved off to get ready for the adult world. That's why he could still have three Pokemon without paying a king's ransom to the League.
After putting the wallet away and imagining all the Pokeballs he would stuff in the, for now, closed empty pocket, Mark turned to the main one.
Pulling the zipper for the top pocket open, Mark stared down in the shady depths and for the hundredth time tried to see past the darkness. A minute later, he gave up and plunged his hand in with the item he wanted in his mind.
He still felt weird when pulling out an item larger than the entire Bag, but shook it off with the ease of familiarity and inspected his old acoustic guitar. After a few strums, he placed it aside and pulled out and inspected his tent and sleeping bag, before he packed everything back into the magical backpack.
Seeing that he had things well in hand, he did a circuit around the house and checked if everyone's alarm was set for 6 AM, before going to the bathroom to get ready for bed.
Once Mark had his PJs on – he preferred to sleep in only his underwear, but Sarah wouldn't let him – he walked back down to the ground floor and said, "Hi," to his parents and sister in passing to the back yard.
"Kraven!" he called out towards the forest of Berry trees, and soon enough a Butterfree materialized himself from the night sky.
When they got their usual greetings out of the way, Mark ordered, "Hit me with a short Sleep Powder then catch some shut-eye yourself. We have a busy day tomorrow."
Kraven dutifully did as told, and sprayed a dazzling green powder over the boy for a few seconds while repeating, "Free," over and over.
"Thanks. Good night, buddy. See you in the morning," Mark said and walked back inside.
Over time, and with the constant exposure to Kraven, Mark developed a slight resistance to the status moves the Butterfree threw around all the time. Using this, and the knowledge he learned from Oak's lab, he decided to dose himself with a different powder every day to build up the resistance. Sometimes he overdid it, but he had a bunch of Berries to help with that so it didn't bother him too much. For obvious reasons he didn't do it today so he decided to get a sure sleep instead of letting his excitement keep him up until the dawn.
Saying another "Good night," to his family while stifling a yawn, the boy climbed up the stairs to his room and barely managed to pull his tired body up the short ladder to his top bunk bed.
He didn't manage to stay awake long enough to notice when his mother came up to his room to stare at him for a long time before his father pulled her away, nor did he notice the quiet sobs of his sister that rang out long into the night.
First one, then two, and a few seconds later the third alarm went off in Mark's room. By that point, he had already thrown off his covers and started climbing down the ladder from his bed.
When he reached the floor, he looked down Marianne's sleeping face and wondered how someone could sleep through that racket, before going to the alarm clocks and turning them off.
He went to open his room's door when it swung inward and almost smacked him in the face.
In the doorway, an enraged-looking Michael stood with his alarm clock in his hand and its wires trailing back towards his own room.
"What the actual fuck, Mark!?" he growled while his red bleary eyes tried to burn holes in his brother's cheery face.
Before Mark could answer, the door at the end of the hall opened up and Tom stepped out in his boxers. He gave one glance to his sons and said, "What's wrong, Michael? You woke us up early too."
Michael – given bravery by his lack of sleep – rounded on their father and yelled, "I didn't set the alarm in their room too! He robbed me from another sweet hour of sleep!" while waving around the ripped-out clock in the larger man's face.
Tom gave him a look that sobered the aggrieved young man real quick but didn't say anything else. Instead, he turned to Mark and asked with a smile, "Excited for your big day?"
Mark responded with a bright smile of his own and answered, "Sure am! I can't wait to get my starter," then he looked over Tom's shoulder and asked, "Where's mom? She said she'd make breakfast before I left for the lab."
Tom looked over his shoulder, then turned to his younger son with a crooked smile to say, "She'll come out soon. Give her a few minutes."
The boy shrugged and went to use the bathroom.
Soon enough, Tom managed to wake Marianne up while Sarah pulled herself together enough to put some clothes on and start making food.
During breakfast, Mark kept getting constant glances from his mother without her saying anything, so he decided to address whatever bothered her, "Mom, what's up? You've been acting strange ever since dinner."
Sarah gave him a surprised look, then her face crumpled and she started bawling her eyes out. A second later, she got up from the table and rushed to the downstairs bathroom.
All the children turned bewildered eyes to their father, who gave them a shrug while he explained with fond exasperation, "She gets like that sometimes. You should have seen her when Michael left; I thought she would go after him."
No one looked more surprised than Michael as he asked, "She what? How come I never saw that?" The other two joined him with nodding heads.
Tom gave them another shrug as he chewed his food, before swallowing and answering, "She managed to hold herself together until I took you to your first day of school, Mark, and you slept through the worst of it, Marianne."
For some reason, this made the girl's face scrunch up. She placed her fork next to her plate, said, "I'm full," and rushed away from the kitchen and up to her room.
The men gave each other a look that plainly stated 'women' and continued eating their breakfast.
Soon enough, Sarah returned and apologized profusely, before crying some more and clinging onto Mark for far longer than he felt necessary.
When he managed to extricate himself from his mother's clutches, he hurried up to his room to get ready for the day.
There, he was faced with a problem he hadn't even considered up to now. The door of his room wouldn't open.
With some irritation, Mark knocked a couple of times on his own door and asked, "Marianne, are you getting dressed?" When no answer came, he knocked a little harder and questioned, "Hey, can you hear me?"
To his surprise, his sister answered with a shout, "Go away!"
Immediately, Mark's face turned cold. He didn't shout or bang on the door, instead, he used the voice he saved for when Kraven started doing something stupid and needed straightening out, "Marianne, open this door. Now."
Several seconds passed before a soft *click* announced the lock turning. He gave his sister a moment to finish her task. When the door stayed closed, he grabbed the handle and pushed in.
Their room, usually a neat place maintained by both of them, now looked like Kraven had come up here and used Whirlwind in it.
Mark's eyes snapped to the desk before he gave out a slight sigh of relief when he saw his expensive items survived the rampage.
'Whatever this is, at least she still knows not to damage things precious to me,' he thought and turned his eyes to the now sitting in a corner with a blanket, his blanket, over her head figure.
Deciding to cut to the root of the problem, Mark approached his sister and sat down next to her.
After sitting in quiet for a long minute, Marianne finally lowered the blanked and looked at him.
He continued staring at his now mattress-less bed and asked, "So, what brought this on?"
Another long silence followed before Marianne answered with, "Everyone's leaving me here so I was feeling sad. Then dad explained how mom acted and it made me mad that I inherited something from her that you two didn't."
Mark cocked an eyebrow in surprise and asked, "Oh, and that is?"
The girl rolled her eyes and said, "We care about you all more than you care about us, obviously."
Mark couldn't help it, he laughed in her face. However, before the gathering clouds could explode into thunder on the tiny girl, he hastened to explain, "I'm sorry for laughing, truly, but you have to know how false that is. Did you not see dad's shaking hands? The man works with electricity; if he had the shivers he would have killed himself thousand times over. Did you not see the book Michael was reading last night? Do you think gave up eating to read the 'How to Survive in the Wilderness' guide?"
Finally, he turned to lock eyes with Marianne's wide ones and almost whispered, "When was the last time I kept smiling for longer than a dozen seconds?" as tears started rolling down his sister's face, Mark clarified, "We are men. We don't get to throw a tantrum and have someone come and tell us it will get better. If I did what you did, dad would kick my ass and then have me grounded for at least a week."
Mark saw Marianne wanted to protest, but he rode over her with, "And he would have good reason to do that. The world treats us differently, and he knows he has to toughen us up to live in it otherwise he failed in his role as a father."
A sad smile appeared on his face then as he looked into the distance and said, "When you left the table, the three of us shared a look that at the surface sent a message of not understanding women, however, beneath that shell, we sent each other a message that we understood we wanted to act emotionally as well but had to stay stoic just in case something unexpected happened and we had to react to it with a clear head."
When tears welled up in Marianne's eyes, he threw an arm around her shoulder and let her cry it out for a few minutes.
Once silence returned to the room, Mark let it linger for a moment before saying, "How about you get yourself ready for school? It is your first day of the new year; it wouldn't do for the other girls to see you so disheveled."
Marianne looked up at her older brother with completely red eyes, but she still nodded her head and got up to follow his instructions.
In the empty room, Mark leaned his head on the wall for a moment and allowed himself a moment of peace.
After releasing a long sigh, he got up and started getting himself ready for the journey.
The depression from his sister's outburst left Mark as he got ready, and by the time he left his house and neared the lab, it disappeared completely, replaced by unparalleled excitement.
When he opened the lab's door with his key, seven hard-eyed women met him at the entrance with hands in their purses.
Mark gave a hollow laugh at the reaction and greeted the relaxing professionals with, "Hello, ladies. Is the Professor up yet?"
Their leader, a woman wearing sunglasses indoors, answered, "Yes, we just finished breakfast so he went down to the lab to prepare things for you kids. He should still be there."
Mark thanked the scary woman and followed the familiar path towards Oak's main lab.
The seven women are from a security company the Professor hired to keep an eye on his grandson while posing as his cheerleaders. Even the brown-haired boy thought they would come on his journey to cheer him on. Only the older and more experienced people understood that no way could Oak release his grandson into the wild without adequate protection.
Focusing on the here and now, Mark knocked on Oak's door and entered when he received permission. To his surprise, Daisy sat next to the Professor and neither of them looked up when he entered.
Only when Mark said, "Good morning, everybody," did the two scientists snap out of their fugue and realize that one of the children who would get a Pokemon that day had come in before they got everything ready.
"Mark, my boy, you're early," Oak stated instead of greeting him, which Daisy corrected with, "Good morning to you too, Mark. But you have to wait for a while longer until we're ready for you."
Mark's smile dropped a little, but he rallied soon as he asked, "Anything I can help you with?"
Daisy's "No," got overridden by Oak's "Yes," as the older man signaled his assistant to keep working while he went and dragged the boy out of the lab.
Mark didn't even get to ask what he could help with, as only two doors down they entered a room they usually used to take photographic evidence of Pokemon and he realized he would get his picture taken for his Trainer Card.
He immediately went over to the lighted up area, while Oak went to the camera. However, before he picked it up he asked, "Mark, we've known each other for how long now? Four years? Do you mind doing me a tiny favor?"
Before he could continue, a voice sounded out in both of their heads exclaiming, 'Don't listen to him, Mark! He's gone mad! Don't sell your future out for one old man's lusts!'
Mark stared, wide-eyed, at the flustered Professor as he looked up into a corner of the house and glared menacingly at it.
A few seconds later, Oak turned his gaze back to the boy, but Mark preempted the question by saying, "I'm not giving my Pokemon to Ash."
It didn't take much for Mark to put Benedict's warning together with the old man's words and add them together to come to the conclusion he now had. He sent a 'Thanks, Benedict,' message out into the aether and focused on the Professor's next step.
Oak looked surprised for a moment, before he rallied and tried to wheedle, "But, you have Kraven, and I thought…"
"No," Mark interrupted, and continued, "Kraven is still technically my brother's Pokemon and will remain like that until I set him free. I did not bust my ass for this long just to give my rightfully earned prize to some underachiever. Figure something else out."
The older man looked petulant for a moment before he sighed his frustrations out in a long exhale and said, "Fine," as he brought the camera up to his face.
Mark tidied his light-blue t-shirt up a little, pulled his dark-gray pants up, and pasted on a challenging smirk on his face for the photo.
Once Oak took a few shots, which directly transferred from the camera to the computer, the duo left the room. Mark to go bother Daisy while she finished her work, and Oak to go and wake Gary up.
Half an hour later, Daisy exclaimed, "Done!" and jumped out of her chair. Oak followed her in rising after he pressed a few buttons and they congratulated each other for a job well done.
Mark, Gary, and Amy who stood in a corner of the lab waiting for them to finish sent out a prayer of thanks to the world as they closed in on the celebrating duo.
Amy had dressed herself up in a pretty cream-colored dress and matching sandals, while Gary still had his in-house sweatpants and t-shirt together with a pair of slippers.
Looking a bit chagrined by the annoyed stares they received, the two older people separated and Daisy excused herself while wishing them luck and sending Mark a familiar wink.
"Khm, yes, well, shall we begin?" Oak asked once only the four of them were left in the lab.
Three piercing glares answered him that yes, they should indeed begin.
"First, we need to register you three as official licensed Pokemon trainers. That's why we had to take your pictures, for your Trainer Cards," the Professor explained and had each of them come up to the computer and set up their own account.
It took a few minutes, but soon Oak handed each of them their own Trainer Card with their face and ID number on it. From now on, they could buy things with the Card if they had funds in their Trainer account, and would get 10000P from the League as a stipend each month. And, if for some reason they had dealings with the police, it would identify them.
But, more importantly, they could now legally buy Pokeballs and own Pokemon.
When they all thought the most important step would come any moment now, Oak interrupted them with, "In addition to the Cards, you are issued these," and gave them each a red blocky device.
Even though Oak invented them recently and they didn't come into widespread use, they all saw a Pokedex before so Oak didn't get the expected reaction of either puzzlement or excitement he got in the previous couple of years he handed them out to new trainers.
"Don't you want to know what they do?" the Professor asked when he saw the three children's eyes straying towards the suspiciously placed domed pedestal in the middle of the room.
"They make us collect data for you while giving us random facts mixed up with folklore tidbits about the Pokemon we scan with them," Mark said in a deadpan.
Amy poked him with her elbow as she added, "That's not all, they can tell us which moves our or other Pokemon used."
Before Oak could praise the girl, Mark struck back with, "Yey, I'll know what moves my Pokemon knows after I see them use them, not before they figured it out."
To everyone's surprise, Gary spoke up for his grandfather as he said, "They can also keep track of which Pokemon we caught and their data and locations."
Oak felt the desire to hug his grandson for the first time in a while, but Mark brought him down to earth with a shrug and a, "So can a notebook."
Feeling tired of the boy trashing his legacy, the Professor spoke up, "Daisy and I just finished an update to the Pokedex, that's why you had to wait for a little longer," seeing the unimpressed eyes of the children, Oak continued, "Now you can use your Pokedex as a form of identification, or even use it to pay for things in stores. Soon enough, it will replace the Trainer Card altogether."
Mark's raised brow surprised Oak and gave him hope, but his words smothered that flame in its infancy when he said, "So we'll replace a convenient piece of plastic that can fit in our wallets with a large chunk of metal? Oh, joy."
Despite his words, Mark knew how useful new trainers found the Pokedex and how much better it will turn out in the future, but right now it would at best inconvenience him, and at worst serve as a way for the League to track his location wherever he went.
Realizing that he still hadn't rid himself of the melancholy his sister infected him with, Mark waved his arm to signal to the others to ignore him and explained, "Don't mind me, I'm just being difficult because I've waited for this moment for so long and now you've prolonged that wait. Please, continue."
The Professor blinked and then reminded himself that, despite his behavior, Mark was still a ten-year-old boy who couldn't wait to get his first Pokemon and released the bit of anger he started gathering for the child.
With a clap of his hands and a once more blinding smile, Oak said, "Right, now that that's out of the way, let's get to what you're really here for," and pressed a button.
After a beep, the dome over the pedestal opened with a hiss and presented three Pokeballs on it in a triangular formation. Each ball had a different elemental sign pasted on it to indicate the Pokemon-type it held. A flame for Charmander, a leaf for Bulbasaur, and a droplet of water for Squirtle.
The kids practically teleported to stand around the pedestal and stared at the Pokeballs on it with excitement and wonder.
Oak felt genuine joy resonate in himself at seeing that reaction, especially in his recently arrogant grandson and his too mature mini lab assistant.
He walked up to join the children and explained, "Since you're here due to your scholastic achievements, the law is that you get to pick your Pokemon depending on your rankings."
After glancing at his sullen grandson and the accepting girl, the Professor turned his gaze to the blond boy and said, "Mark, you've achieved the highest score in all of your classes in all six years of schooling, what Pokemon will you choose?"
Mark felt butterflies in his stomach as the moment he'd worked so long and hard for finally arrived, without hesitation, he extended his hand and grabbed a Pokeball while exclaiming, "Bulbasaur, I choose you!"
'I always wanted to say that, but now that I did I can feel the cringe creeping up. Never again!' Mark thought during the silence his proclamation caused. With a smile, he looked down at his hand and passed his thumb over the leaf marking his new Bulbasaur's ball.
A "What?!" ringed out inside the lab, making Mark snap his head up to look at the people in front of him. Gary looked relieved that the blond boy decided to go for something other than Squirtle, but both Oak and Amy stared at him with widened eyes.
"But… You said… And all the Fire Pokemon talk…" Amy spluttered, not able to understand what just happened in front of her eyes.
"The girl has a point, Mark. I thought you researched all of those Fire-types with the focus on Charmander because of this selection," Oak elaborated what the poor shocked girl tried to say.
Mark gave them a casual shrug as he explained, "Sure, I like Charmander a lot, but I'm not stupid. It's the worst starter for the Kanto region, without a doubt. Both the Pewter and Cerulean Gyms wreck it in the start, and it only has an advantage over the Celadon Gym while remaining either neutral or ineffective against the others. Even if you manage to get to Viridian, if you don't have a Charizard by that point it will get destroyed there too. Plus, it has a four-time weakness to Rock when evolved which means it can get knocked out pretty easy if someone throws a stone at it."
Everyone stared at him like he'd grown a second head, but Gary seemed least bothered out of the group as he asked, "What about Squirtle?"
Mark didn't mind giving him an explanation so he said, "It's great for Pewter, is ineffective against Cerulean, and gets its teeth kicked in at Celadon and Vermilion. Later on, it's quite useful for both Cinnabar and Viridian, while it's neutral for the others."
Amy seemed to come back to herself after hearing his rambling and murmured, "So you've picked Bulbasaur because…"
Not letting her finish, Mark said, "Yeah, it destroys both Pewter and Cerulean, while it can kick some ass in Celadon and is resistant in Vermilion. Saffron and Cinnabar will ruin it, but then it will resist any poison Fuchsia throws at it and will destroy Viridian."
Amy looked at him with murder in her eyes as she growled out, "Not that, you idiot. You've picked Bulbasaur because you're a horrible friend. Everyone in school knows Gary will pick Squirtle, which means you stuck me with the worst Pokemon."
Mark gave her an offended look and said, "Hey, Charmander is a great Pokemon, just not for Kanto. And you can still catch others to build your team up around its weakness'."
The girl looked like she wanted to argue some more, but Oak interrupted the impromptu lesson on Pokemon type weaknesses with, "All right, now that Mark has his Bulbasaur, it's your turn, Gary."
Without missing a beat, Gary grabbed the water drop Pokeball from the pedestal like he thought someone else might snatch it from him if he didn't move fast enough.
Not needing Oak to prompt her, Amy picked up the flame-marked Pokeball with something resembling disgust on her young face soon after.
The Professor stared at her for a second, before releasing a knowing sigh and deciding to not mention anything to the youngsters. Instead, he clapped his hands to get their attention and said, "Now that you all have your first Pokemon, how about you release it and scan it with your Pokedex? It will automatically update your Trainer License with its data so you won't have to go to a Pokemon Center to register it."
'At least it's useful for something,' Mark thought as the three children moved as one to different corners and released their Pokemon.
"Bulbasaur! Saur!" exclaimed the small quadrupedal Pokemon. It had light turquoise skin with darker patches randomly placed around its body. This one, in particular, had its forehead clear of them but had both ears completely covered. A small green healthy-looking bulb had a glossy shine in the lab's lights, while its expectant red eyes stared up at Mark.
With a wide smile across his face, Mark reached down to pet the Pokemon behind its dark ear as he said, "Hey, Bulbasaur, my name is Mark and I'll be your trainer from now on. That OK with you?"
He knew the words probably meant little to the young Pokemon, even if it came from a breeder, but he thought about living, fighting, and growing strong together while he said them and tried to imbue those feelings into the noises.
The small Pokemon seemed to understand his meaning, as it nodded its head slightly while leaning its whole body into the scratches.
They stayed like that for a dozen seconds, before Mark pulled away and pointed his new Pokedex at the blinking Pokemon.
Skipping over the pointless drivel, he pressed a few buttons and got to the information that mattered most to him.
His smile turned into a full grin as he proclaimed, "They sent me a girl? Ha, sucks for them."
Usually, breeders kept female starters to themselves because they appeared so rarely in their species and because the female Pokemon determines the kind of Pokemon that will be born when two different species mate. However, sometimes they either have too many females, didn't check properly, or someone just made a mistake, and they send a female as a Pokemon meant for fighting to the person or organization who requested it.
Mark didn't know which, nor did he care, his only problem now stemmed from the nickname he prepared for his Bulbasaur, which wouldn't fit a female.
So, while he heard various noises around him and ignored them, he squatted down to keep closer eye-contact with his Bulbasaur and said, "Well girl, how about we get you a proper nickname and then go show the world what we're made of?"
He received an enthusiastic "Bulbasaur!" in response.
Soooo, what do you think?
Any thoughts on the name of the band? I felt it appropriate, but still am not sure about it.
I decided a while ago that I would have them make an animated music video, just didn't want to waste time with getting to find someone to do it so I had it done in the time-skip. Let's hope everything goes well with the record label or they would have celebrated for nothing.
How cool is it that I can put in cheat items like space expanded backpacks and have it still be within the limits of canon? They make things so much easier without having to figure out the logistics of packing even more than you already have to.
Is Mark abusing harmful powders with his Butterfree, or is it all for his own good? Discuss!
Man, that whole heart-to-heart with his sister had even me bummed out, but I planned it out a long time ago so I forced myself to push through.
I had to put in one last Oak and Delia reference for those of you that love/hate that. I mean, they're adults so who cares, right? Also, Oak and Benedict are bonded and we've seen the Exeggutor exhibit some bribable traits, I wonder who he got those from?
And, finally, Bulbasaur! What do you think about Mark's choice? From the very beginning of this fic, he was going to pick a Bulbasaur as his starter so nothing anyone has written to me in either a review or a PM influenced that.
Which leaves me with the still unanswered question, what do you think he's doing with Amy/Leaf? Most of you guys went the whole different direction with my little hints and felt certain he's gonna pick either Charmander or Squirtle so I wonder what you can figure out now when he hasn't.
Next chapter we're seeing some familiar faces so look forward to that.
Cya!