A old, greyhaired man in a lab coat sits in a office chair within a dusty lab, fiddling with a computer, charts and numbers flashing before your eyes, terms that you don't quite understand scrolling by. As you step into his lab, he hears you approach, turns around, and smiles. Seeing that you are a foreigner, he coughs, stands up, and prepares a introduction for you. His hands are shaky, and his posture is awkward, but you get the feeling of warmth and intelligence from him.
"My name is professor Samuel Oak, but you can call me Oak." He says, a glint in his eyes. "This world used to be peaceful. It used to be happy. It still is, in a way, but now we're ruled by the tyranny of fear. I'm afraid it is, in part, my fault." He takes a deep breath, coughs once more, and reaches for a orange container on his desk. He unscrews it, shakes out two white pills, and then places it back down, swallowing the medicine with a look of disgust and a sigh. Clearly, a bitter pill. After a moment, he regains the warm smile on his face. "But enough of that hum-drum depressing talk!" He reaches in his pocket and pulls our a red and white ball, giving it a toss. "Come on out, Nida." Out of it appears...some sort of strange creature, with green skin, cute, little ears, a small, white horn, red eyes, and a fierce expression. Oddly, her face looks similar to a human's. "This world..."
The strange, horned creature he sends out beams, giving a bow of the head. "Nice to meetcha!" Oak reaches down and gives her a stroke of the head, causing her to purr as he continues. "Although there is another, more slang term for them: Moemons. However, men of science like I prefer to use the scientific term. For some people, Pokemon are pets. Others use them for battling. Me? Well, I used to be a battler, back in the good old days of sanctioned battling, but now I research them as a profession." He takes a moment to scratch Nida behind the ears, a gesture she seems to appreciate, before reaching for a book on his desk, handing it to you. "Here, read this. It's the diary of the man who changed the face of Kanto forever. I'm sure it'll help you understand what kind of continent it is now."
...
Ugh. My mother has been fawning over me for the past ten minutes now. Doesn't she get i'm ten now? I'm old enough to start on my own pokemon journey! I mean I get she's concerned, but jeez.
"Yeah mom, that's what I've been trying to tell you!" I respond back, rolling my eyes. "Hey, I'm just afraid you'll do something stupid like get into a fight!" She scolds. As always, with the scolding. Seesh, I know how high-stakes trainer battles get! I don't plan on getting into any, she can rest easy! She pats me on the head, looking wistfully at me before sighing. I hate it when she gets like this. "Alright, fine, just don't get in danger, you hear? Oh! I almost forgot..."
"Oak?" What the heck would Oak want with me? "Oh shoot! Gotta go mom!" I said, giving her a quick hug before dashing out the door. Oh Arceus Arceus Arceus! I totally forgot that today was the day he said he'd give me a new pokemon! Quickly, I rushed out of the house, and into the warm, fresh air of outside.
You know, I've never really noticed it until today, but Pallet Town is a pretty decent place. We've got a handful of somewhat old buildings and a pokemon lab, so it isn't exactly like we've got tons of stuff, but...well, the air's breathable, we're surrounded by tons of trees, and we even have a garden. I mean sure, still not impressive, but...Oh shoot, no time to ramble, gotta get to the lab!
The inside of the lab is pretty modern, actually. Surprising for this rural town. The professor's assistants bumbles their way around in their lab coats and fancy glasses as always, taking readings from the various devices Oak has all around the lab. He's also got a bunch of books for some reason, all stacked onto plastic bookshelves. Strangely, though, there's no dust on any of them - does he really read them all on a regular basis?
Unfortunately, Oak was nowhere to be found. Worse still, a black shirted, brown haried, faux-cool looking punk was waiting for me. That poser stance, that cheeky grin - I'd know it from anywhere. It was my rival, Arthas, the arrogant, 'cool' punk of a kid. He looked at me with a air of fake excitement, which turned to equally fake disappointment. Or perhaps the latter was real, who knew with this hipster?
"I'm surprised you even managed to get out of bed today, ya lazy punk!" He said, with a smile. Fist shaking, I responded back "I'm surprised you had enough time after burying your hair in gel to make it here." We glowered at each other for a moment...and then burst out laughing. He placed a hand on my shoulder and smiled. "Good to see ya, punk. But seriously, gramps ain't here. He said something about going out to investigate into rumors of caterpie nearby..? I dunno, but tell ya what. I'll hold down the fort here, and you go look for him." Of course, I was getting the worse end of the bargin, but I guess he
was here first. "Only if I get to choose the starter pokemon first." I said, smiling back, unaware of how stupid a decision that was. He just crossed his arms and smiled back, saying "Sounds like a deal. Now go find gramps."
Leaving the lab, I took a deep breath as I made my way to the front of the town. To the place I had never really gone into before. I had already searched the rest of the town on my way to Oak's lab, so I knew he had to be
there. The place where adults shunned us from, the place where I saw only in nightmares...
THE GRASS!
...
Okay now that I'm actually looking at it I have no idea what the heck I found so scary about it. Honestly, it's just grass! Only slightly taller then usual grass. So all I have to do is take a few steps into it and...
I heard the old man's voice call out from behind me. Wait, how on Arceus's green earth did I miss him? I scoured the entire fuggin town! Well, whatever, I guess. This solved the problem of having to find him. I turned around to face him, frowning a little. I was a bit upset, after all! "Where were you!? We were waiting to get our pokemon from you!" I said. The professor stared back at me for a few seconds...before slapping himself on the forehead. "Oh darnit, that was today!? Well, come on then, lets get back to the lab. I'm sure you and my grandson will be happy to get your new pokemon as soon as possible."
ONE EXCITING TRANSITION SCENE LATER
Once we got inside, Arthas scolded gramps for being late. Which...wasn't really surprising, I suppose. He always was a bit of a hothead. "Now now, Arthas, you and Shirou will have your pokemon soon enough. Ahem..." He said, reaching out and pointing to the three pokeballs, a rather happy look his face. He always did get energetic when he was talking about these kinds of things, I suppose. I nudged Arthas in the side and whispered to him "
Heh, he seems real happy to talk about his balls." This, of course, elicited a chuckle from my arch nemesis.
I am the king of ten year old humor.
Well, at least the old man had a sense of humor too.
"When I was young..." He said, looking out into the distance with a look of...nostalgia, was the word? "I was a very experienced and renown pokemon trainer." He said, walking over to his desk and pulling out a license card, showing it to the both of us. It was..very impressive, to say the least.
Taking a moment to bask in our slack-jawed looks, the professor smiled before continuing. "Now, however, in my old age, I only have these two left. Shirou, Arthas, I want you two to each have one of them. Since you're the oldest, Arthas, you-" "No need gramps." My arch-nemesis said, giving his grandad a cocky grin. "We already made a agreement. Shirou here gets to go first. Pick a good one, why dontcha?" He said, flashing me that same smile with a thumbs up. "Can't have my snot-nosed rival complaining about choosing the wrong pokemon!"
Eager as a butterfly, I bounded over to the table...
And became paralyzed with indecision. My hand shook, quivering, not sure which one to pick. As I hovered over each one in turn, Oak chimed in with a few sentences of advice.
Should I pick Bulbasaur, the grass type?
Or perhaps Squirtle, the water type?
But there was also Charmander, the fire type. It was hard to pick! And if I could even make up my mind, what would I name it? Seven characters wasn't a whole lot...Fluffy McFluffington was right out I suppose. Well, perhaps if I sit and think on it for a moment, I can decide which to choose...
---
Audience participation time! Go ahead and vote for a starter, and suggest a name. Name will be chosen at random, and the starter will be decided by majority vote. If there's a clear favorite names wise, I guess I'll let democracy handle that part as well. Poll ends sometime friday-ish!
Status!
Current Team: None! :<
Seen: None! D:
Caught: None! T_T
RIP: Nobody! ^_^
