Chapter 2
Jason Fremont rolled over and right out of bed, hitting his head on something lying on the floor, and tried desperately to pull the blankets down over his face before he realized that morning light was pouring in through the window.
In under a second he was up and at the sill, peering out into the over-bright sunrise to see Pallet Town. Although it was only barely six thirty, the place was buzzing with as much activity as most places had around noon.
There was a knock at the door, and Jason suddenly realized that he had no pants.
"UHH—Hold on!" he shouted, grabbing his mis-matched cargo jeans and yanking them halfway on, then, realizing that his belt was on the other side of the room, attempted to bunny hop over to them.
This proved unsuccessful as he tripped over the tangled heap of sheets on the ground and fell flat on his face.
The door opened a crack. "Hello there? Jason, right? Are you okay in there? You said you wanted to be woken up at six thirty, right…?" an unsure female voice inquired.
"Don't come in! And yeah, I'm up, thank you very much ma'am!" Jason shouted from his face-down position. Sighing in relief as the door clicked shut again, he pulled himself up and got properly dressed.
Jason didn't have a whole lot of stuff with him, and he could see that his mom, who had accompanied him on the journey from Saffron, had already packed them. Marveling at his mother's uncanny ability to slip into his room and mess around with his things unnoticed, he grabbed his backpack and dashed out the door and down the stairs into the kitchen of the home he was staying in.
"Ah, good morning Jason," his mother said, stepping through the threshold and closing the rickety screen door behind her. Jason's mother, Sabrina, was the leader of the Saffron City pokemon gym, but had insisted on taking time off from her job to see to it that her son got down there safely. Many people had snapped their eyes to Sabrina and let their jaws fall open, not bothering to hide their shock and amazement, but she gave off the air of one who should not be approached for small talk. Now, however, she smiled slightly at her son and placed a hand on his blond-dyed-green head, saying, "Do you want anything to eat?"
"Mooom, my haiiir…" Jason moaned, ducking under her arm and grinning. "Naw, I'm not hungry! Can I go? Please?"
Sabrina looked him over solemnly, and after regarding him carefully, said "Very well. I'll meet you outside in a half an hour…"
"YES! Thank you, mom, thank you!" he shouted, throwing a hug around her waist and darting for the door.
"Oh, and Jason…" Sabrina continued after a second. He could tell the words on her tongue were Be careful, the ever-constant mantra she seemed to chant at him. Instead, her look of somber affection melted into a smile. "Good luck."
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Jason slid into line, pleased that he was about tenth from first. There were maybe a hundred new trainers here altogether, and Jason felt exceedingly lucky to be one of them. his mother had almost not let him come to Pallet this year, but after MUCH heavy persuasion on Jason's part, he had been allowed to.
Jason groaned as the first guy came out of the building. The boy locked eyes with him for a second and gave him a none-too-friendly scowl, before tossing his pokeball in the air and heading off. Jason thought that looked a lot like what's-his-name, the supposed son or nephew of the guy who ran the Research center he was about to enter. Mar… Mar-something.
Jason felt eyes on the back of his head, and, turning around to scope out the people behind him, wasn't surprised to see the silhouette of his mother watching him from the window of the house he'd just left. The owner of the house was talking animatedly to her, waving her arms in the air, and although his mother was nodding and answering with one or two words, Jason knew that she wasn't paying the slightest attention to her. Sabrina's eyes kept flashing to the left and right of Jason, carefully calculating each person and their level of threat to her son. Jason waved at her, and, having been caught in the act, Sabrina waved back before turning her attentions (with much effort) back to the conversation she was pretending to have.
Jason knew perfectly well why his mother was so overly protective… and the reason wasn't at all a bad one. Jason's father was no doubt on the look out for his second son, and would send "someone" to take Jason to him upon a moments notice.
He shook out his head. No need to think about that stuff now. He was gonna get his first pokemon, his very first pokemon, in a few mere moments!
It seemed like forever and a day had passed before it was at last Jason's turn. He practically ran through the doors, and even as they were still swinging from his entrance, he was mumbling "Jason Fremont" in passing to the scientist at the desk who was taking names, and burst in through the double doors into the back of the lab.
"Hello!" Jason shouted, skidding to a halt in front of a tall, auburn haired man and leaning over to catch his breath.
"Well, hello there!" the man said with a laugh, putting down the brown clipboard he'd been poring over and straightening his spectacles. "And your name is…?"
"Ja… Jason Fremont, sir!" he replied, standing up.
"Well, Jason… which pokemon will you be choosing to start off your journey?"
Jason closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. "… Bulbasaur!"
"Bulbasaur it is, then." The professor said smilingly. Jason felt like the entire world had been spinning round and round since he'd set foot into this place, and suddenly something fell into his palm. Red and white metal with a chromed shine, three and a half inches in diameter, sealed air tight with a tiny round aiming laser set into the button in the front, which was a new feature to the fabulous device that held the creature that was now his: a pokeball.
The reassuring weight in his hands made Jason feel as if he'd just been crowned Supreme Ruler of the Universe. All his hopes and dreams resided somewhere within the amazing mechanism cupped in his palms now, tingling, waiting for him to sharpen it's content's skills to the best they could be. Waiting for him to be great.
Jason wanted to start this very second, now, yesterday. He was dashing out the door when the researcher's arm snagged the back of his orange tank top and held him sternly back, effectively gagging him. Jason squirmed and struggled and looked up through his mass of green and gold hair at him, who frowned in a paternal way.
"You… you are Surge's son, aren't you?"
Jason's eyes fell from the man's face to the floor at once. "Erm—yeah, yeah… that's me…" His euphoric bubble suddenly seemed to have developed a hole, and he could feel his pounding heart start to slow down. It was never good when someone made the connection between he and his father.
"Now see here, Jason, was it?" the man began, relinquishing the grip on his arm. "I want you to remember something, always." Jason was paying full attention now, not so distracted by the pokeball in his hand, which suddenly felt a lot heavier under the stern stare of the professor. "There are a lot of ways to become great, Jason… a lot of different paths you can take… but not all of the quickest paths are the best ones. The more time you spend with your team, the stronger you'll become… and there's a big difference between strength and power."
"Huh…?" Jason asked, not quite sure what he meant.
The professor smiled at him, and silently shook his head. "Ahh… you don't think on that right now, just remember it, alright?"
Jason managed a smile again. "A… Alright, sir." He couldn't help noticing that the professor's strange advice had been given after he realized who Jason was. For a split second, Jason frowned, wondering if this man perhaps knew something about his family… if he would know about—
"Well, I don't want to keep you!" the professor said with a laugh in his tone, and he cupped Jason on the shoulder and gave him a little push towards the door. Whatever Jason had been thinking, it was gone. "You take good care of that pokemon now!"
Jason nodded, his energy suddenly back. "I will, sir. And thank you!"
And, clutching his prize close to his chest, he sprinted back out through the door.