So after almost a two-year long hiatus (College will do that) I've returned to the world of fan fiction. I can honestly say I haven't been this excited to write in a long time. This is a journey/OT fic of sorts so if you're violently opposed to that I apologize! Hopefully you guys enjoy my fic as much as I've enjoyed writing it! I'll be starting a PM list so let me know if you're interested. I'm also going to say this PG-15 just to be safe (violence, suggestive themes).
PM List:
And without further ado...
Ch.1) A Less Than Stellar Start
Jack’s alarm on his phone went off for the fourth time that morning. Naturally, he hit snooze again.
“I can afford ten more minutes.” He thought to himself before rolling over, face-first, into his pillow.
No, Jack wasn’t pulling the stereotypical “new-trainer-sleeps-through-his-first-morning-of-being-a-Pokémon-trainer” routine. In fact, Jack had been rather diligent and responsible on his first day, showing up three hours too early.
In actuality, Jack had only set his alarm to keep on his Dad’s good side. His Dad was a teacher at the Pokémon academy in Viridian City and was out for summer break. During the school year, it was a rarity for Jack to be up and out of bed even a second before noon. However, with his Dad home he felt obligated to be out of bed at a semi-decent hour.
His alarm went off again. Jack rolled over onto his back and checked his phone’s display for the time. 10:30.
“Guess it’s that time, huh?” Jack looked down at the little orange lizard sitting at his feet. The Charmander smiled a pointy toothed grin and twitched his flamed-tipped tail. There’s no telling how long the fire Pokémon had been awake, waiting for its trainer to finish his daily battle with the snooze button.
Jack got out of bed and walked over to the mirror. His thick black hair was unkempt as always, sticking out at every possible angle. The 5 o’clock shadow on his face further added to his general disheveled look. The only part about him that hinted that he might actually care about his appearance was his slender, runner’s build. While Jack never had a knack for the so-called “spectator-sports”, he was always a good runner which kept him in fairly good shape. He pulled an orange v-neck on over the gym shorts he had slept in the night before and headed to the kitchen for breakfast.
Along the way, he passed his Dad who was watching the daily news in the living room. Jack’s good-morning was greeted by a non-committal grunt. His parents’ frustration with his latency was becoming glaringly obvious, particularly his Dad’s. Jack was 20 after all and still hadn’t left home. His Dad had gotten sick just before he was set to go on his Pokémon journey at ten years of age and Jack used that as an excuse to not leave Pallet Town. He had since made a full recovery but Jack had always found a reason not to continue with his journey. He had been free-riding on his parents ever since.
Jack looked around the kitchen. His Mom had left for work without making any sort of breakfast. Perhaps this was a hint. He opened up the refrigerator and squinted into the light. Charmander came up behind up and peeked into the refrigerator from between his legs.
“Well we’ve got some slim pickings today, buddy…” Jack reached into the refrigerator and grabbed a cold pork chop. He gave the left-overs to his companion and then pulled out a gallon of milk, drinking directly from the container. He wiped the milk from his upper lip, replaced the jug, and closed the door. He looked down at his Charmander who had just finished eating and was now inspecting the vent at the bottom of the refrigerator. Despite his lack of aspiration as a trainer, he loved his Charmander dearly. Charmander and Jack were best friends. Like Jack, Charmander had grown content with their life of mediocrity and didn’t resent his trainer for not pushing him. It was probably a good thing as Jack hadn’t battled a Pokémon with Charmander in years.
“I’m going into Viridian today,” Jack’s Dad said as he came into the kitchen, snapping Jack out of his reverie. Jack’s Dad was a tall man with broad shoulders and white hair. His green eyes studied Jack disapprovingly. “I don’t know if you needed anything.”
“Nah…I think me and Charmander are just going to hang around today.” Charmander beamed at Jack. He loved lazy days. Most of Jack’s days were lazy days.
His Dad became irritated and with an exasperated sigh said “Are you planning on getting a new job anytime soon?”
Jack had formerly worked as the announcer at the Viridian City gym before being laid off when the gym closed. His parents’ impatience had picked up considerably now that he was unemployed.
‘I’ll get one eventually, Dad. Come on, Charmander.” Jack didn’t want to look at his Dad anymore. He knew he was letting him down. After he backed out of his trainer journey, he had enrolled in his Dad’s school and gotten nearly perfect marks. He graduated with honors and appeared to be on the fast track to becoming a stellar trainer. Instead, he opted for a brief stint as Professor Oak’s lab aide. Just one of his many excuses for not leaving home. Needless to say, he had never lived up to his potential.
“Son, you’ve got to do something with your life eventually.”
Rather than acknowledge his Dad’s pointed advice, Jack walked out of the front door with Charmander following at his heels. “Some fresh air would do me some good,” He thought to himself.
As he walked down his driveway he could see some new trainers leaving Professor Oak’s lab. Undoubtedly, they had just received their first Pokémon and were on the verge of starting their respective journeys as trainers. Jack smiled to himself, thinking fondly of his first day with Charmander. They had spent the entire day fighting wild Pidgey and Rattata until the sun finally set.
Suddenly, one of the new trainers came up to him with a brand new red and white Pokéball in his hand and a hungry look in his eye.
“I’ve got a Charmander too! Let’s battle!” Without waiting for a reply, the kid threw his Pokéball on the ground and in a flash of white light, a Charmander exactly like Jack’s erupted onto the grass. “C’mon Scorch! Let’s show this guy what we’ve got!”
Being somewhat of a veteran trainer, Jack wasn’t looking to demoralize a young trainer on the first day of his journey. After all, he had been with Charmander for over ten years. They had conquered the trainers’ school together. It wouldn’t be fair to the new trainer, no matter how naïve and cocky he may have been so far. “I don’t think it would be fair to you to battle me at this point. I’m pretty experienced, kid.”
“Oh come on! It’s Charmander versus Charmander! It’s fair!”
“You have a lot to learn. My Charmander is pretty experienced. You’re still a brand new trainer. Go train up a bit and then I’ll be glad to battle you!” Jack hoped this would diffuse the situation. It didn’t. Instead of taking up Jack’s offer of a future battle, the kid instead switched his focus to Jack’s Charmander.
“Scorch! Use Scratch!” The kid’s Charmander took off at a sprint at Jack’s Charmander. Scorch jumped into the air, claws raised, ready to rake them along Jack’s Charmander unprotected body. However, Jack’s Charmander’s experience came into play and the tiny orange lizard deftly rolled out of the way, finishing smoothly on his feet, ready to return an attack.
“Alright, well I guess our hand has been forced,” Jack thought to himself. “Charmander! Use Fire Fang!”
Jack’s Charmander took off at Scorch. As he opened his mouth prepared to bite, flames flared around his fangs. Scorch attempted a dodge but couldn’t quite avoid the attack. Charmander bit into Scorch’s unprotected side, causing the young Charmander to cry out in pain. Scorch was hurt but not out of the battle yet.
“Scorch! We can’t take another hit like that! Keep him at bay with Growl!” Scorch let out the most ferocious possible growl that could come from such a small fire type. Jack’s Charmander receded slightly. “Good! Now use Scratch again!”
Scorch swiped at Charmander’s face again. Charmander ducked under the claws but not quite as smoothly as his first dodge. The attack passed overhead and Charmander stumbled before regaining his footing. Jack’s Charmander was already becoming winded from the battle.
“Hang in there, buddy. I know it’s been a while!” Jack’s Charmander nodded at him but he couldn’t mask the fatigue in his eyes. “Use Ember!”
Charmander grabbed his tail and blew into the flames sending tiny plumes of fire flying into Scorch’s direction. This time, however, Scorch was fast enough to dodge Charmander’s attack. Scorch quickly sidestepped the flames and without taking direction from his trainer jumped in the air to attack Charmander.
“Charmander! You’re gonna have to dodge this one!” Scorch’s claws had begun glowing and his entire paw had turned silver. Unfortunately for Jack, Charmander didn’t have the energy to duck this time. The fire-type took the full brunt of Scorch’s attack and fell to the ground unconscious.
“No way! You learned Metal Claw, Scorch? That’s awesome!” The boy ran up and hugged his victorious Pokémon while Jack watched in slight shock. “I win!”
Jack couldn’t believe he had lost. Jack pointed a Pokéball at his defeated Charmander. A red beam of light came from the Pokéball, engulfed Charmander and sucked it back into the Pokéball.
“Good battle. You’re really talented for someone as young as yourself.” Jack extended a hand to the boy. If he was going to lose, he might as well lose graciously.
“It was mostly Scorch,” The boy shrugged and returned Scorch, not fully able to hide his excitement at winning. “My name is Colin, by the way.”
“It’s good to meet you, Colin. I expect to see you doing big things down the road.” And with that, Colin was on his way. There was no telling what adventures he would face. As for Jack, he was still facing mediocrity. He couldn’t help but be envious of Colin. Colin had the entire world in front of him, ready to be seized. Meanwhile, even Jack’s Charmander had sunk to a level of sub-par.
“This isn’t right…” Jack looked off to the southern horizon at the huge expanse of sea that separated Pallet Town and Cinnabar Island to the south. He realized he wasn’t happy with his lot in life. Mediocrity was easy but not rewarding. He owed it to himself, his Pokémon, and his parents to make something of himself. It was time. In the morning, he would finally leave Pallet and live up to his potential.
PM List:
Moog2;
Codeepfly;
DMerle;
jeffdavid102;
Ninja Bulbasaur;
SamuraiDragon1;
energo;
brendan25;
Codeepfly;
DMerle;
jeffdavid102;
Ninja Bulbasaur;
SamuraiDragon1;
energo;
brendan25;
And without further ado...
Titans of Kanto
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Ch.1) A Less Than Stellar Start
Jack’s alarm on his phone went off for the fourth time that morning. Naturally, he hit snooze again.
“I can afford ten more minutes.” He thought to himself before rolling over, face-first, into his pillow.
No, Jack wasn’t pulling the stereotypical “new-trainer-sleeps-through-his-first-morning-of-being-a-Pokémon-trainer” routine. In fact, Jack had been rather diligent and responsible on his first day, showing up three hours too early.
In actuality, Jack had only set his alarm to keep on his Dad’s good side. His Dad was a teacher at the Pokémon academy in Viridian City and was out for summer break. During the school year, it was a rarity for Jack to be up and out of bed even a second before noon. However, with his Dad home he felt obligated to be out of bed at a semi-decent hour.
His alarm went off again. Jack rolled over onto his back and checked his phone’s display for the time. 10:30.
“Guess it’s that time, huh?” Jack looked down at the little orange lizard sitting at his feet. The Charmander smiled a pointy toothed grin and twitched his flamed-tipped tail. There’s no telling how long the fire Pokémon had been awake, waiting for its trainer to finish his daily battle with the snooze button.
Jack got out of bed and walked over to the mirror. His thick black hair was unkempt as always, sticking out at every possible angle. The 5 o’clock shadow on his face further added to his general disheveled look. The only part about him that hinted that he might actually care about his appearance was his slender, runner’s build. While Jack never had a knack for the so-called “spectator-sports”, he was always a good runner which kept him in fairly good shape. He pulled an orange v-neck on over the gym shorts he had slept in the night before and headed to the kitchen for breakfast.
Along the way, he passed his Dad who was watching the daily news in the living room. Jack’s good-morning was greeted by a non-committal grunt. His parents’ frustration with his latency was becoming glaringly obvious, particularly his Dad’s. Jack was 20 after all and still hadn’t left home. His Dad had gotten sick just before he was set to go on his Pokémon journey at ten years of age and Jack used that as an excuse to not leave Pallet Town. He had since made a full recovery but Jack had always found a reason not to continue with his journey. He had been free-riding on his parents ever since.
Jack looked around the kitchen. His Mom had left for work without making any sort of breakfast. Perhaps this was a hint. He opened up the refrigerator and squinted into the light. Charmander came up behind up and peeked into the refrigerator from between his legs.
“Well we’ve got some slim pickings today, buddy…” Jack reached into the refrigerator and grabbed a cold pork chop. He gave the left-overs to his companion and then pulled out a gallon of milk, drinking directly from the container. He wiped the milk from his upper lip, replaced the jug, and closed the door. He looked down at his Charmander who had just finished eating and was now inspecting the vent at the bottom of the refrigerator. Despite his lack of aspiration as a trainer, he loved his Charmander dearly. Charmander and Jack were best friends. Like Jack, Charmander had grown content with their life of mediocrity and didn’t resent his trainer for not pushing him. It was probably a good thing as Jack hadn’t battled a Pokémon with Charmander in years.
“I’m going into Viridian today,” Jack’s Dad said as he came into the kitchen, snapping Jack out of his reverie. Jack’s Dad was a tall man with broad shoulders and white hair. His green eyes studied Jack disapprovingly. “I don’t know if you needed anything.”
“Nah…I think me and Charmander are just going to hang around today.” Charmander beamed at Jack. He loved lazy days. Most of Jack’s days were lazy days.
His Dad became irritated and with an exasperated sigh said “Are you planning on getting a new job anytime soon?”
Jack had formerly worked as the announcer at the Viridian City gym before being laid off when the gym closed. His parents’ impatience had picked up considerably now that he was unemployed.
‘I’ll get one eventually, Dad. Come on, Charmander.” Jack didn’t want to look at his Dad anymore. He knew he was letting him down. After he backed out of his trainer journey, he had enrolled in his Dad’s school and gotten nearly perfect marks. He graduated with honors and appeared to be on the fast track to becoming a stellar trainer. Instead, he opted for a brief stint as Professor Oak’s lab aide. Just one of his many excuses for not leaving home. Needless to say, he had never lived up to his potential.
“Son, you’ve got to do something with your life eventually.”
Rather than acknowledge his Dad’s pointed advice, Jack walked out of the front door with Charmander following at his heels. “Some fresh air would do me some good,” He thought to himself.
As he walked down his driveway he could see some new trainers leaving Professor Oak’s lab. Undoubtedly, they had just received their first Pokémon and were on the verge of starting their respective journeys as trainers. Jack smiled to himself, thinking fondly of his first day with Charmander. They had spent the entire day fighting wild Pidgey and Rattata until the sun finally set.
Suddenly, one of the new trainers came up to him with a brand new red and white Pokéball in his hand and a hungry look in his eye.
“I’ve got a Charmander too! Let’s battle!” Without waiting for a reply, the kid threw his Pokéball on the ground and in a flash of white light, a Charmander exactly like Jack’s erupted onto the grass. “C’mon Scorch! Let’s show this guy what we’ve got!”
Being somewhat of a veteran trainer, Jack wasn’t looking to demoralize a young trainer on the first day of his journey. After all, he had been with Charmander for over ten years. They had conquered the trainers’ school together. It wouldn’t be fair to the new trainer, no matter how naïve and cocky he may have been so far. “I don’t think it would be fair to you to battle me at this point. I’m pretty experienced, kid.”
“Oh come on! It’s Charmander versus Charmander! It’s fair!”
“You have a lot to learn. My Charmander is pretty experienced. You’re still a brand new trainer. Go train up a bit and then I’ll be glad to battle you!” Jack hoped this would diffuse the situation. It didn’t. Instead of taking up Jack’s offer of a future battle, the kid instead switched his focus to Jack’s Charmander.
“Scorch! Use Scratch!” The kid’s Charmander took off at a sprint at Jack’s Charmander. Scorch jumped into the air, claws raised, ready to rake them along Jack’s Charmander unprotected body. However, Jack’s Charmander’s experience came into play and the tiny orange lizard deftly rolled out of the way, finishing smoothly on his feet, ready to return an attack.
“Alright, well I guess our hand has been forced,” Jack thought to himself. “Charmander! Use Fire Fang!”
Jack’s Charmander took off at Scorch. As he opened his mouth prepared to bite, flames flared around his fangs. Scorch attempted a dodge but couldn’t quite avoid the attack. Charmander bit into Scorch’s unprotected side, causing the young Charmander to cry out in pain. Scorch was hurt but not out of the battle yet.
“Scorch! We can’t take another hit like that! Keep him at bay with Growl!” Scorch let out the most ferocious possible growl that could come from such a small fire type. Jack’s Charmander receded slightly. “Good! Now use Scratch again!”
Scorch swiped at Charmander’s face again. Charmander ducked under the claws but not quite as smoothly as his first dodge. The attack passed overhead and Charmander stumbled before regaining his footing. Jack’s Charmander was already becoming winded from the battle.
“Hang in there, buddy. I know it’s been a while!” Jack’s Charmander nodded at him but he couldn’t mask the fatigue in his eyes. “Use Ember!”
Charmander grabbed his tail and blew into the flames sending tiny plumes of fire flying into Scorch’s direction. This time, however, Scorch was fast enough to dodge Charmander’s attack. Scorch quickly sidestepped the flames and without taking direction from his trainer jumped in the air to attack Charmander.
“Charmander! You’re gonna have to dodge this one!” Scorch’s claws had begun glowing and his entire paw had turned silver. Unfortunately for Jack, Charmander didn’t have the energy to duck this time. The fire-type took the full brunt of Scorch’s attack and fell to the ground unconscious.
“No way! You learned Metal Claw, Scorch? That’s awesome!” The boy ran up and hugged his victorious Pokémon while Jack watched in slight shock. “I win!”
Jack couldn’t believe he had lost. Jack pointed a Pokéball at his defeated Charmander. A red beam of light came from the Pokéball, engulfed Charmander and sucked it back into the Pokéball.
“Good battle. You’re really talented for someone as young as yourself.” Jack extended a hand to the boy. If he was going to lose, he might as well lose graciously.
“It was mostly Scorch,” The boy shrugged and returned Scorch, not fully able to hide his excitement at winning. “My name is Colin, by the way.”
“It’s good to meet you, Colin. I expect to see you doing big things down the road.” And with that, Colin was on his way. There was no telling what adventures he would face. As for Jack, he was still facing mediocrity. He couldn’t help but be envious of Colin. Colin had the entire world in front of him, ready to be seized. Meanwhile, even Jack’s Charmander had sunk to a level of sub-par.
“This isn’t right…” Jack looked off to the southern horizon at the huge expanse of sea that separated Pallet Town and Cinnabar Island to the south. He realized he wasn’t happy with his lot in life. Mediocrity was easy but not rewarding. He owed it to himself, his Pokémon, and his parents to make something of himself. It was time. In the morning, he would finally leave Pallet and live up to his potential.
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