"Who are you again?"
"I'm Jak. We've met before."
"..."
"I live down the street from you."
"…"
"And there's only like fifteen of us in this whole town."
"Oh, that's right! Jak, is it?"
"Yeah."
"Great! Welcome to the wonderful world of Pokémon!"
"Yeah... what?"
"So, I forgot, what time is it?"
"Aren't you wearing a watch?"
"..."
"It's 11 o'clock in the morning."
"Great! And this is my grandson, your rival. Er, what's his name again?"
"You don't even remember your own grandson's name?"
"..."
"Look, I came here because you said you'd give me a free Pokémon. Let's just get to that part."
"The Pokémon are on this table. You can pick one of these three."
The boy reaches for one of the Pokéballs on the table.
"Oh! So you want Charmander, the fire Pokémon!"
"So that's what this is?" He picks up the Pokéball and looks at it. "It still amazes me that Pokémon can fit in these things." He turns to Professor Oak. "Yeah, I'll take this one."
"Great! Would you like to give a nickname to Charmander?"
"Um, I don't know. That hadn't crossed my mind yet. I don't know, maybe I will. We'll see."
Professor Oak looks at the boy with fixed smile on his face.
"Okay... well, I'll be going now," the boy says and starts walking out of the lab. "Thanks for the Pokémon."
The Professor continues looking at the boy with the same fixed smile.
"Creepy..."
Jak hasn't gone far outside before Oak's grandson, Gary, yells out,
"Hey, stupid head!"
Jak turns around. "Stupid head?" he repeats quizzically. "Really? What are you, five?"
"I just got a Pokémon from gramps too! Let's battle!"
"Does immeasurably low IQ run in your family?"
Gary just stares at Jak like it's inevitable that he will battle him.
"Oh, what the heck. Let's do this."
Jak presses the release button on his Pokéball, and his new Charmander zaps out of the little metallic ball like a bolt of lightning.
"Squirtle, go!" Gary yells and releases his Pokémon.
"Eh..." Jak sighs, "why do so many people feel like they have to yell, 'Go! Whatever!' when they send out a Pokémon? It gets old quickly."
"Squirtle, tackle!" Gary's little blue Pokémon launches itself at Jak's Charmander. The Charmander doesn't move and gets knocked to the ground.
"Oh man, this is gonna take some work," Jak groans and puts his hand to his head. The Squirtle jumps back off of the Charmander. The Charmander gets up and stands there. It turns and looks at Jak.
"What?" the boy says. "What are you looking at me for? Go fight that Squirtle!"
"Squirtle, tackle!" The Squirtle tackles the Charmander again.
"Ugh..." Jak groans. This battle is clearly over.
"Haha!" Gary shouts. "Pay up, loser!"
"Pay up? Are you nuts? We never agreed that this would be a match for money!"
Gary just looks at Jak, expecting money.
"Forget that! I'm outta here!" The boy raises his Pokéball and presses the retrieve button. Charmander zaps back into the ball. "See ya," he says, putting the Pokéball in his carrying case and walking away.
"Charmander?" The boy's new Charmander cocks its head to the side and looks at him.
"Alright, look, Charmander," the boy says, seated on a fallen tree, "we need to talk about fighting tactics."
"Charmander?"
"Yeah, that's what you are. Good job. Now listen, are you gonna need me to tell you specifically every little thing to do in a fight?"
"Charmander?"
"Ehh..." the boy sighs. "Look, instead of learning a bunch of command words from me, why don't you just learn how to fight depending on the situation? I mean, you're in there, in the thick of it, and you'll be able to react much faster if you think on your own instead of relying on me."
"Charmander?"
"Ehhh. Okay, here's the deal. I command you to fight using your own thought and instinct unless I shout out a command, in which case I want you to follow that command. Got it?"
"Charmander!"
"Haha! Yes!" the boy shouts happily. "We're making progress!"
"So long, Pallet Town!" the boy says as he starts down Route 1. "Haha! Finally!" he laughs joyfully. He can't help but smile as he dwells upon the thought that the entire world is his to explore.
"Tall grass—heh!" he laughs. "I've never been allowed to go out in the tall grass before, but now I've got a Pokémon!" He enters the thick, tall grass, and before long he comes out of it and back onto a path. "Well, that was disappointing."
Soon he enters another patch of tall grass.
"Whoah! A wild Pidgey!" he whispers to himself, eyes wide with delight. He crouches down behind some thick foliage and peers out at the bird Pokémon. "Snap! I don't have a Pokéball!" The Pidgey suddenly looks right at him. "Oh crap," he mutters and begins to back away. "Nice Pidgey... nice Pidgey... I'm not gonna hurt you."
"Pidgey!" The Pidgey takes to the air and flaps ferociously toward the boy.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!" he shouts and starts running away through the thick grass.
"Rattata!"
"Not another one!"
The boy named Jak continues to sprint through the tall grass, now being chased by both a bird Pokémon and a mouse Pokémon.
"Pidgey!"
"Rattata!"
"Craaaaaaaaaaaap!"
Far in the northeast of the Kanto region, there is the sound of heavy breathing and loud footsteps in a cave.
"Hurry, Butterfree!" shouts a man who is breathing heavily and running through the cave.
"Butterfree!" cries the bug Pokémon, emitting a glowing light to illuminate the dark path.
Suddenly the entire cave begins to shake, and large rocks start falling all around.
"Butterfree!" the man cries.
"Butterfree!" the bug Pokémon cries out in return. The man looks up just as a large boulder comes crashing down upon him.
A red and white ball flies at the Butterfree, and with a white flash of light the bug Pokémon disappears into the ball, which then falls onto the ground. The cave becomes pitch black.
"Good job, Onix." A man walks slowly up to the Pokéball on the ground. A faint glow is coming from something behind him.
"Unngh..." groans the man crushed under a boulder. "Who are you?" he chokes out.
The other man picks up the Pokéball with the Butterfree inside.
"Who am I?" he asks with a slightly amused tone. "Why should I tell that to a dead man?" Upon saying this he begins to laugh loudly.