Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, only Pokémon owns me.

Author's notes: I have never written on this site before, or written any kind of fanfiction before at all in fact. This is just an idea that has evolved over the years, which I've fiddled around with and changed a lot. To whoever reads this, it means the world to me to know your opinions. Do you like it? Great. Do you think it's awful? Great again. Is there something lacking with it, like could I add more to a chapter; did I make a spelling, grammar or punctuation mistake; are there places that need better tension? Great once again. Please comment once you've read it. I'm open to criticism entirely. Now onto the fic!

Chapter 1 — The Beginning:

"Bzz-zzt! Bzz-zzt!", sounded the alarm on his phone.

Great, the teenager thought to himself, his eyes once again struggling against him.

"Bzz-zz-zzt!"

It was yet another boring Monday in which Damian just had to be woken up at. As usual, he hadn't slept well at all, taking two hours to go to sleep. On top of that, it was 6:30am, hardly a good time for the insomniac to wake up at. As a result, having to go to school really rattled his bones, as if it were an eternal curse placed upon him, even though academically he was doing very well.

"Bzz-zz-zz-zzt!"

"FUCK THIS STUPID ALARM!" he shouted, throwing the ringing phone onto the floor with surprisingly quick speed, before realising what he'd done. He made a quick sigh of relief as his eyes finally properly opened to find… that his phone was in fact completely unharmed, having fallen on its back instead of the screen, which was fully protected by the sturdy emerald green case he'd gotten along with the phone itself on his birthday last year. Perhaps today wasn't going to be totally bad like always. He then noticed the date on his phone, somewhat quietly chuckling to himself. "Speaking of birthdays," he thought aloud to himself like he always did, "I'm finally 16! I can finally get that trainer's license and be rid of all of this." This day just kept getting better and better, even though it had only been at most a minute and a half since he'd fully waken up.

He ran down the stairs, shouting and screaming "I'm 16 now!" over and over again in a childish and giddy tone that betrayed his new age, and to no one's surprise, he bumped into his rather disappointed dad. "Your mum is still sleeping," said his dad, in his usual cold but scolding tone. He seemingly gave no thought as to what his son had just said disappointingly enough, but Damian was ironically too excited to notice, having already sent a bunch of texts to his friends, two of whom had already gotten their trainer's licenses and left school several months ago. These two, Tristan and Jackson, already had 3 badges each, and already had 9 and 15 Pokémon respectively. No point in comparing himself to them yet. He speedran his breakfast, which was composed of some chocolate-flavoured cereal, and then went back upstairs to change into his outdoor clothes. He quickly decided to wear a mud green t-shirt and mud green trousers with a zipped maroon hoodie on top and black fingerless gloves with mud green outlines. After he had gotten dressed, Damian took his black travel bag, and then decided to spell the news to his dad about having decided to become a Pokémon Trainer.

"Are you honestly sure about this? This could sabotage you being employed if you're not careful," warned his dad. You could see a genuine concern on his eyes, and yet they also seemed to be almost accepting of the situation.

"I'll be fine. Besides, I still want to be like you, Dad. You literally travel the world and find ancient artifacts. How could I do anything other than that?" replied Damian.

"Make sure to be safe in your travels for me and for your mum, yeah? Promise me," replied his dad, the middle-aged man looking at him with more emotion than he normally ever allowed himself to be.

"I promise," said Damian, "I'll make sure to frequently video call you and mum and send you pictures of my progress."

"See you!"

"See you Dad! Bye!"

Damian walked to the tube station, jumping on at Edgeware station on a Kennington via Charing Cross train with the intent of getting to Professor Arauco's laboratory as fast as possible to get both his license and his starter Pokémon. This professor was one of many in London that he could choose to get a starter from and get sponsored by, but he specifically chose him because he seemed to be more down-to-Earth than other professors he'd seen and read about, and seemed to be quite a competent battler too, so he might have a sparring match against him now and then again or ask for battle-related advice. His mind then drifted to what he should pick as his starter. He could swear by Arceus, there were so many starter Pokémon to choose from. He was already fairly knowledgable in all things Pokémon, as well as the sciences, history and maths. This had often helped him immensely, sometimes even coming in useful for his dad, an archaeologist and historian, and he hoped that they would help him even more now, considering that he was about to set foot afield, which would at times be literally the case.

He got off at Leicester Square station to change to the Picadilly line, and worked his way around there. Finding a train that wasn't full at this hour of the week was difficult. After all, it was rush hour. At least it was only one stop away, and he counted his lucky stars when the first train appeared before his eyes, and appeared with space to spare too. He immediately went on the train, and sat on one of the seats. When the train reached Picadilly Circus, he got off in full speed, with not a care in the world, too focused on getting to this professor. The Professor's living quarters that doubled also as a lab was fairly close, but the station was densely packed, and the several dozen walkways and pairs of stairs thrown at his direction certainly didn't help. After about 5 minutes inside the tube station, he was finally out, with his prize he so desperately eyed within spitting distance of him.

Arriving at Professor Arauco's house, the bell he rang took several tries to give an appropriate reaction, with Professor Arauco responding after 15 seconds or so by finally opening the door.

"I'm sorry, but we've already ran out of any starter Pokémon," replied the curly-haired professor after opening the door. He was wearing the typical white professor's lab coat, with a blue shirt and brown trousers. This is not what caught Damian's interest, however: it was more so the face. His eyes were somewhat bloodshot and definitely very sunken, and he seemingly had not shaved for days, as his stubble looked more like a Qwilfish's quills than, well, facial hair.

"What? Already? But it's only 8:30am," responded Damian in a disappointed manner, oblivious to the professor's seemingly disturbed manner.

"You should've come earlier or gone somewhere else. I can at least print you your license," replied Professor Arauco, "What else would you like? A drink? Some food? A chat? Please come in."

Damian felt sorry for the definitely overworked and underslept professor, who even in his obviously miserable state was trying to be as hospitable and kind as possible. He went inside, closing the oak double doors behind him. The place was lavishly decorated, with a long red carpet leading up all the way to the room that would have housed the starter Pokémon. There were 30 or so paintings each with gold-coloured frames placed decoratively on the wall. A few were clearly portraits of the professor and his family, but most were of beautiful landscapes, with offers of lavender fields, vast snow-capped mountains, sandy beaches with the sun setting in the background and more. There was even a painting of an olive grove, and this by far looked the best out of them all. The walls meanwhile were outfitted with cyan paint, and parts of it had golden candle holders, though the candles themselves were clearly not real as otherwise they would've burned down the paintings by now with how close they were to them.

When they finally arrived at the kitchen and sat down at a red table, which had a ceramic vase with yellow tulips inside, Damian asked, "Are these paintings yours?"

Professor Arauco replied, "Yes, I'm glad you noticed. You must have a sharp eye for your age. When I'm not out researching, I find that the best thing to do is paint scenes. I became a professor because I was fascinated by nature, of both plants and Pokémon, but I have always enjoyed art as well. I find that my job allows me to do both passions, though I'm finding I have less time these days to paint," he added, "I'm sure you have intertwining passions too, right?"

Damian was quick to reply, "Even since I was small, I've really loved history. Maybe it's my dad being an archeologist, but since then I've hoped to one day uncover an ancient ruin of some sort. It'd be really cool to find all these artifacts, and maybe even fossils of ancient, maybe even extinct Pokémon. And you know, there's always that possibility that I could perhaps even find whole lost civilisations."

At this, the professor's face brightened up. "You know, I still do have a Pokémon left. It's not your regular starter, but I have in the past kept an unorthodox starter in case I meet someone interesting like you. If you want it, say so now or forever hold your piece."

Without a thought, the teenager immediately replied to him, "Yes! Yes! Thank you so much!"

Both were quick to head to the room that held the starters, with the professor's thoughts of offering breakfast now a distant memory. The professor was quick to show off the Poké Ball table, which had none left. He quickly pressed a series of buttons, which split the table in two and somehow swapped it with a second table, which was designed to hold 50 or so Poké Balls, though true to Professor Arauco's words only held one. The man held the Poké Ball, opening it to reveal the creature inside.

"You're offering me a Gastly? That is a rather unusal one to choose, though it looks very interesting," Damian commented.

"Do you not want a starter? I thought you were desperate for one," said the professor in confusion, which was understandable given his lack of sufficient sleep.

"I do still want him, it's just, well, my observation that Gastly is not something you find every day," replied Damian, remembering to add, "Thank you so much."

"Not a problem," quipped the professor in delight. The man then made and stamped a trainer's license for the teen, also offering him some Poké Balls, a badge case that could hold 96 badges and a Pokédex in Damian's favourite colour, green.

"Have fun," said the professor, "Make sure to have more than 6 Pokémon soon so that I can take see your taste in them and look after them, and maybe even visit me again sometime. It can get very lonely here."

"I'll make sure to! It's been a pleasure meeting you," said Damian as he left the professor's residence, already thinking about the journey lying ahead of him. He could swear the weather had just turned really sunny all of a sudden, as if it somehow coincided with how he felt exactly. It must've just been a coincidence, and not down to anything else.