Beginnings

It has been three years.

The three years after I came from the sky bearing gifts, I have waited still.

Finally, they shall realize what it means to be one with a Pokemon.

I shall watch from above, waiting for the True Champion.

Good luck to all of them.

The early light of dawn crept through a window on a medium-sized house placed on a rather quiet street. The window belonged to the room of Kyle Parker, a young, short, and thin youth. The morning sunlight pushed on Kyle's eyelid's forcing them to open. He groaned and turned over in his bed, away from the light. The blinds weren't usually open in the morning; Kyle didn't like anything disturbing his sleep, as his insomnia kept him awake too much anyway.

Kyle's room was strewn with thick books and dirty clothes. The books were all about the research the CPP had done on Pokemon thus far. They each focused on a different topic, such as experience, evolution, and type. There was a desk in one corner of the room with even more books piled on it. Papers with handwritten theories on the Arceus were scattered about the surface of the desk as well. The papers flapped a little bit from the spinning of the ceiling fan.

Five more minutes, Kyle thought sleepily.

Then he heard the sound of a car outside on the street and remembered why he had kept the blinds open in the first place.

Kyle suddenly sprung out of bed and to his feet, a fool's grin spreading across his face. He took off the shorts he had worn to bed and quickly pulled on his jeans and t-shirt. He didn't take the time to put on socks, shoes, or a jacket, despite how cold it was outside. Kyle fell against the door stumbling to pull his blue jeans over his legs. He finished putting them and yanked the door open. He ran through the hallway and jumped down the stairs toward the front door. Kyle could hear his older sister grumbling from another room. The amount of noise he was making had woken her up.

Even though he was almost 16, Kyle felt like a child. The smile he had adopted earlier was still strewn across his face. As exited his house through the front door and leaped off his front porch. The cold bit into his bare arms and feet, but Kyle didn't care. He was much too excited to care about a mere chill. Nobody was exiting their houses yet; most cars were still in driveways. It was still very early and almost everyone on Kyle's street didn't have a job that required them to be up before six o'clock. It was just around half-past five.

The vehicle he had heard was the one he had been expecting. A postal truck was positioned in front of his mailbox, the mailman holding a package in his arms. He smiled at Kyle and raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't think I would survive to see the day you were up this early, and not because your sister dragged your ass out of bed," the mailman said. Kyle called him Mr. Roberts.

He was an aged man who had been delivering the mail to his house ever since Kyle's family had moved in. Kyle had never seen anyone else deliver a package on his street.

Kyle laughed, breathing hard from his bursts of movement. "Well, I guess it's just an exciting day, isn't it?"

Mr. Roberts smiled even more. "That it is," he said. "I received a little gift for myself too." He pointed in the direction of one of the other houses.

Kyle turned in the direction Mr. Roberts was pointing and saw a small, plump, red and white bird standing on two legs and carrying a small white sack. It was walking to different mailboxes to take packages and letters out of its sack and place them inside of the mailbox.

"A Delibird!" Kyle exclaimed.

"Yep!" Mr. Roberts said. "But I call him Deli for short. He came in along with the other packages of Pokemon, except that one was addressed to me. Been helping me out a lot. These legs don't work as well as they used to." He turned back to Kyle. "Anyway, I'm excited to see what you get! I got a lot of packages to deliver, so show me your Pokemon when I come back!"

Delibird finished delivering the other packages and finally came to Kyle's house. It took two small packages out of its sack and handed them to Kyle with its beak curved into a smile. With that, Mr. Roberts climbed back into his truck and waited for Delibird to rush inside and hop in the passenger seat. Kyle waved as he watched the truck go around the corner and out of his view.

Kyle rushed back inside his house, up the stairs, and into his room, leaving the package marked "Chelsey Parker" by his sister's closed door. He set the brown box on his desk and furiously tore it open, though careful not to break anything inside. He stopped when he saw the red of the surface of the Poke ball. He carefully wrapped his hand around it and pulled it out of the box. He examined it with awe.

Kyle had kept up with everything there was to keep up with on Pokemon. Ever since they had begun to appear, he had been fascinated with their existence. He devoted himself to learning everything he could about them. He had even wanted to try and become a part of the CPP, though his sister told him he was too young. But Kyle could tell that she wanted to become a professor too.

Kyle had spent all of his time after school browsing the CPP website. He looked at plenty of theories on what the Arceus was and what Pokemon were, though he never posted his own theories. He was too self-conscious.

When Kyle saw the findings on experience points and evolution, to Kyle it looked like something from a video game. He imagined people training and using Pokemon as their champions and friends, leveling them up through battle and becoming the strongest. Kyle then saw a post that was a perfect copy of what he had been thinking. He immediately gave support to it, and millions of people followed suit. He had hoped, but he had never actually thought the CPP would agree to it.

The CPP opened a website for people to register as trainers, and Kyle was one of the first to register. Registering would allow the CPP to send you a newly hatched, randomly selected Pokemon. You would train it from the beginning. Kyle then waited for more than a year for his dream to become a reality. Now it was finally time to meet his first Pokemon.

He could hardly wait any longer. He pressed his thumb against the button against the half-white, half-red device. The ball enlarged, showing it was unlocked.

This is it, he thought, bracing himself. He pressed the button again. The Poke ball popped open. Kyle expected a noise. He expected a flash of light. This is what research on how a Pokeball functioned told Kyle to expect. He received neither of these.

Nothing happened. No Pokemon emerged from the Poke ball. Nothing. The room had as much in it as it had ten seconds before. Confused, Kyle took a look inside of the device. Instead of a Pokemon, he found a folded piece of paper. He grabbed it between his fingers and unraveled it.

It was a note. It read:

Mr. Parker

We regret to inform you that you will not be receiving a Pokemon at this time. There were simply too many trainers that wanted to register, and not enough newly hatched Pokemon to go around. The donation you provided was less than what others were willing to offer, and so they were prioritized ahead of you. We are deeply sorry. If you wish, you may return to our website next season and try again so that you may receive a Pokemon after more have been hatched. You are still a registered trainer, so you may alternatively use this Poke ball we have provided to attempt to capture your own Pokemon.

Sincerely,

Mark Aspen

Council of Pokemon Professors

A cold wave washed over Kyle. A donation? I don't remember seeing an option to donate! From the hallway, he could hear the sound of a Poke ball opening and Chelsey gasping in delight. Kyle's heart sank. Chelsey had received a Pokemon. They had denied him and accepted her. Kyle ran his fingers through his messy light brown hair. The amount of frustration in his skull could not be described. He would have to wait until next season until he received a Pokemon.

Kyle knew he wouldn't be able to catch a Pokemon. There weren't enough in this area, and he'd need help to get it week enough to catch, and he didn't want help catching his first Pokemon.

Kyle flopped back onto his bed and put his face in his hands. I'll be so far behind. By winter, everyone will have leveled up their Pokemon by at least fifteen levels. I won't be able to face any of them. How will my Pokemon get any experience points? There aren't enough Pokemon in the wild, and I also don't want to have to go around bullying Pokémon without any trainers to care for them.

What am I going to do?