Story Notes:
The Disclaimer that Protects my Ass: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.The main character is heavily based off the author of this story, so you could consider this a "What I would do if I was in Pokemon" story.Note on DialogueAny and all text residing within {} is interpreted poke-speak. The accuracy of the interpretation depends on who's point of view the story is currently been told through. Human interpreters may or may not make mistakes while interpreting, thus the dialogue may not always be accurate. Pokemon interpreters are fluent in their own language, thus the dialogue will not be warped when heard through their ears. Poke-speak will still be in {} even when heard by a Pokemon in order to distinguish it from human speak.
Chapter 1 (Old version)
Wandering through the forests that scatter the Sinnoh region was a "young man", not an uncommon occurrence. However unlike the other "young men" that were normally seen wandering the region, this "young man" was actually a "young man", being 17 years of age.
"Birds are cir-cl-ing a-bove
They're called back to a wai-ting glove
But, whyyy don't they
Flyyyyy a-waaaaay?!"
There were many things that could be considered odd about the boy: the fact that both his first and last names were in the dictionary, the way he wore his naturally red hair, his near total lack of interest in his schooling- On the subject of school, it is important to note that he never wanted to finish high-school. The only reason he suffered through the twelve years he did was to please his parents, who insisted that he "earn an honest living" by getting through college.
"Sure-ly they have guessed by now
There is no gun to shoot them down
But stiiill they staaaay
For whaaat they saaaay..."
He, however, had always been fascinated by the prospect of traveling with Pokemon, something his parents never understood. However, promising him he could go on travels with them during summer break propelled the kid towards good grades, so that was their arrangement: Complete a school year with A's and B's in order to earn a summer of freedom. It had been this way ever since he was 13.
"{Are we kill-ing them with lies?
Are they fight-ing for their lives?
Kill-ing them with thoughts
Can't we e-ver get en-ough?
Kill-ing them, are we kill-ing
Kill-ing ev-ery sin-gle feel-ing?
It's a trained re-sponse!}''
Traveling with him were the only Pokemon he ever believed he'd need: An Espeon, a Mightyena, an Arcanine, and a Luxray.
The Espeon, named Psy, was once the family's pet Eevee. He volunteered himself to travel along with the boy, Dalton, after he earned his first summer of freedom and evolved soon afterward.
The Arcanine, Flare, had been the first Pokemon Dalton "captured", having found her abandoned as a Growlithe in a Pokemon Center and taking her in directly afterwards. She evolved the following year, when she accidentally stepped on a FireStone while exploring a cave.
The Mightyena, Shade, was the first (and last) wild pokemon Dalton ever captured in the conventional sense of the word, and now was incredibly loyal to the kid because of his kindness.
Finally, there was the Luxray, who's registered name was "Sparks" but was commonly referred to by the group as "Stalker" because of how she came to join the team. Two years ago, for whatever the reason, she started to stalk Dalton while he was wandering a mountain forest. She continued to follow the human and his companions relentlessly for a solid week until finally making her move. The group was well aware of her incessant presence and done their best to keep their guard up, but found it hard to fall asleep knowing she was watching. As a result, when she finally decided to assault the group (at night) they were all groggy, making it easy for her to paralyze pokemon and pin the human. Instead of killing him, however, she laid down on top of him and waited for him to open his clenched eyes, which she stared intently into as soon as they did. After roughly fifteen minutes of this, she did the thing he (and his immobile friends) expected least: she nuzzled him and purred. Dalton fainted in response. The next day, after everyone had a good long rest, she asked Psy to ask Dalton if she could travel with them, and has been with them ever since.
"Birds are cir-cl-ing a-bove
They're called back to a wai-ting glove
This soooordid game
It feeeeears my naaame!"
Right now, the group was singing along with a favorite song of their's that Dalton was playing on a portable speaker, "Killing" by KoRn. KoRn was quite possibly the boy's favorite band in existence, and the Pokemon were inclined to agree with him. Dalton was filling the role of the lead singer right now with the others singing the supporting parts, but their individual roles varied by song.
"I have ques-tions of false Gods
You run to them with o-pen arms
To hiiiide your shame
It faaaans the flaaame..."
"{Are we kill-ing them with lies?
Are they fight-ing for their lives?
Kill-ing them with thoughts
Can't we e-ver get en-ough?
Kill-ing them, are we kill-ing
Kill-ing ev-ery sin-gle feel-ing?
It's a trained-}"
"Hey asshole!"
Dalton and company instantly stopped singing and spun around, all of them taking up battle ready stances. The 15-year-old standing five feet away who had interrupted them merely scoffed at the 17-year-old's reaction.
"Pft, what you gonna do, bitch? Beat me up with that Pokeball?" The cocky kid asked, gesturing to the red and white orb Dalton was holding as if he was going to beam the kid in the head with it. He simply returned the ball its proper place on his bag-strap and looked over the brat in response. The challenger had naturally his naturally blue hair and wore "gangstah" clothes, meaning they were baggy and had some meticulously planned tears in them. He also wore those stereotypical sunglasses the "badasses" always had in movies, had a toothpick hanging from his lip, and some false piercings on his right ear.
"You'd be surprised how much damage a well placed Pokeball can do to a guy's face, kid," The ginger-haired teen responded, smiling rather pleasantly as he turned off the music.
"And you'd be surprised how much damage my team and I'll do to your puny ass pets if you don't hand over your wallet and all your supplies, queer." Despite his apparent youngness, the kid looked as if he'd seen many a scrap in his day and knew how to push people around. Dalton, however, was used to the tough-guy routine.
"Queer, eh?" He couldn't help but chuckle. "If I had a dollar for every time someone's called me that..."
{You'd be filthy, sinking rich,} Psy finished, he and the others relaxing as the realized Dalton didn't view the kid as a threat. Dalton did have and odd air about him, that was for sure. Just look at him: he had red hair that looked similar to how the Greasers of old wore their hair (but an inch taller), he normally wore military surplus pants, whatever tee-shirt he randomly threw on and some black velcro shoes and he carried around a one-strap black backpack. Add that odd fashion sense to a pair of glasses and a pale, moderately-freckled skin-and-bone frame, and you'd have what Dalton looked like daily.
"Yeah, I know," The alleged queer replied. "If only..."
{If only...}
"Why the fuck are you pretendin' to talk with your gay-ass Espeon when you should be handin' over your fuckin' wallet, queer?" The kid was losing control of the situation, and he didn't like that.
"Three reasons. One, unlike you I actually try listen to what my friends have to say instead of writing it off as complete and utter humbug," The would-be thief's eyebrows raised at the word 'humbug'. "Two, you're a little too far from Jubilife and its dark alleys to be intimidating without any form of weapon or visible backup. Aaaaand three, if you were to try and attack me, my friends here could lay you out before you so much as ruffled my hair." With that, Dalton turned to walk away.
This really got the kid's blood boiling: nobody other than his bosses got to talk to him like that without receiving a complimentary a fist to the face. He lunged forwards...
"Arr!"
... Only to find himself on his back under the paws of his intended victim's Arcanine with a surprising lack of air in his lungs.
"I did give you fair warning, kid," Dalton chided, walking over and kneeling down next to him. "An Arcanine is said to be able to run 6,200 miles in a 24 hour period, and that breaks down to a speed of about 260 miles per hour. Keep that in mind next time you're trying to outrun one." All he got was a growl in response. "Now if you persist in trying to mug us, you'll wake up with all your Pokemon KO'ed and half of the contents of your wallet missing. I suggest you give up and leave once Flare decides to let you up."
#####
{He smelled like shit, too!} Shade added roughly a half an hour later while the group was resting in a clearing.
"Actually, I think that was tobacco." Dalton corrected as he divvied up piles of poffins for his friends.
{Maybe to a human,} Flare replied, {But to us it was shit. You forget how strong our noses are.}
"Ah, right..." Came his reply as he counted the poffins in each pile, making sure nobody got short-charged. "There, we, go! Who wants poffins?!"
{POFFINS!!!} He was instantly swarmed by his companions.
"I'll take that as a yes!"
Soon everyone was enjoying their treats and conversing about relatively random things while Dalton lay back and watched the clouds, savoring his pile of pink poffins. After a few minutes of staring blankly at the sky he propped himself up to look at his friends. Flare and Sparks were speaking a ways away (preferring to talk in private as always) while Shade chased Psy around in an effort to snatch back his stolen snacks.
{You don't even like sour anyway, cat! Just give them back!}
{Work for your food, dog! Work!!}
Dalton couldn't help but chuckle at the display, even though the two of them did this just about every time he passed out the treats. He continued to watch the feuding cat and dog for a few minutes before laying back down to look at the sky and sigh in contentment.
This is exactly why I'm not going back, Dad, the runaway thought to himself. I'm turning eighteen this summer and get to chose my own path, and this is the life I want. Smiling at the thought of what his Dad would say to that, Dalton continued to scan the clouds, stopping on what looked to be a flying Pokemon in a nosedive. He watched the shadow with interest for a few more seconds before realizing two things: One, that the shadow was in fact a Charizard with a trainer on his back, and two-
"Holy shit!"
They were heading right for him!
"Birds are cir-cl-ing a-bove
They're called back to a wai-ting glove
But, whyyy don't they
Flyyyyy a-waaaaay?!"
There were many things that could be considered odd about the boy: the fact that both his first and last names were in the dictionary, the way he wore his naturally red hair, his near total lack of interest in his schooling- On the subject of school, it is important to note that he never wanted to finish high-school. The only reason he suffered through the twelve years he did was to please his parents, who insisted that he "earn an honest living" by getting through college.
"Sure-ly they have guessed by now
There is no gun to shoot them down
But stiiill they staaaay
For whaaat they saaaay..."
He, however, had always been fascinated by the prospect of traveling with Pokemon, something his parents never understood. However, promising him he could go on travels with them during summer break propelled the kid towards good grades, so that was their arrangement: Complete a school year with A's and B's in order to earn a summer of freedom. It had been this way ever since he was 13.
"{Are we kill-ing them with lies?
Are they fight-ing for their lives?
Kill-ing them with thoughts
Can't we e-ver get en-ough?
Kill-ing them, are we kill-ing
Kill-ing ev-ery sin-gle feel-ing?
It's a trained re-sponse!}''
Traveling with him were the only Pokemon he ever believed he'd need: An Espeon, a Mightyena, an Arcanine, and a Luxray.
The Espeon, named Psy, was once the family's pet Eevee. He volunteered himself to travel along with the boy, Dalton, after he earned his first summer of freedom and evolved soon afterward.
The Arcanine, Flare, had been the first Pokemon Dalton "captured", having found her abandoned as a Growlithe in a Pokemon Center and taking her in directly afterwards. She evolved the following year, when she accidentally stepped on a FireStone while exploring a cave.
The Mightyena, Shade, was the first (and last) wild pokemon Dalton ever captured in the conventional sense of the word, and now was incredibly loyal to the kid because of his kindness.
Finally, there was the Luxray, who's registered name was "Sparks" but was commonly referred to by the group as "Stalker" because of how she came to join the team. Two years ago, for whatever the reason, she started to stalk Dalton while he was wandering a mountain forest. She continued to follow the human and his companions relentlessly for a solid week until finally making her move. The group was well aware of her incessant presence and done their best to keep their guard up, but found it hard to fall asleep knowing she was watching. As a result, when she finally decided to assault the group (at night) they were all groggy, making it easy for her to paralyze pokemon and pin the human. Instead of killing him, however, she laid down on top of him and waited for him to open his clenched eyes, which she stared intently into as soon as they did. After roughly fifteen minutes of this, she did the thing he (and his immobile friends) expected least: she nuzzled him and purred. Dalton fainted in response. The next day, after everyone had a good long rest, she asked Psy to ask Dalton if she could travel with them, and has been with them ever since.
"Birds are cir-cl-ing a-bove
They're called back to a wai-ting glove
This soooordid game
It feeeeears my naaame!"
Right now, the group was singing along with a favorite song of their's that Dalton was playing on a portable speaker, "Killing" by KoRn. KoRn was quite possibly the boy's favorite band in existence, and the Pokemon were inclined to agree with him. Dalton was filling the role of the lead singer right now with the others singing the supporting parts, but their individual roles varied by song.
"I have ques-tions of false Gods
You run to them with o-pen arms
To hiiiide your shame
It faaaans the flaaame..."
"{Are we kill-ing them with lies?
Are they fight-ing for their lives?
Kill-ing them with thoughts
Can't we e-ver get en-ough?
Kill-ing them, are we kill-ing
Kill-ing ev-ery sin-gle feel-ing?
It's a trained-}"
"Hey asshole!"
Dalton and company instantly stopped singing and spun around, all of them taking up battle ready stances. The 15-year-old standing five feet away who had interrupted them merely scoffed at the 17-year-old's reaction.
"Pft, what you gonna do, bitch? Beat me up with that Pokeball?" The cocky kid asked, gesturing to the red and white orb Dalton was holding as if he was going to beam the kid in the head with it. He simply returned the ball its proper place on his bag-strap and looked over the brat in response. The challenger had naturally his naturally blue hair and wore "gangstah" clothes, meaning they were baggy and had some meticulously planned tears in them. He also wore those stereotypical sunglasses the "badasses" always had in movies, had a toothpick hanging from his lip, and some false piercings on his right ear.
"You'd be surprised how much damage a well placed Pokeball can do to a guy's face, kid," The ginger-haired teen responded, smiling rather pleasantly as he turned off the music.
"And you'd be surprised how much damage my team and I'll do to your puny ass pets if you don't hand over your wallet and all your supplies, queer." Despite his apparent youngness, the kid looked as if he'd seen many a scrap in his day and knew how to push people around. Dalton, however, was used to the tough-guy routine.
"Queer, eh?" He couldn't help but chuckle. "If I had a dollar for every time someone's called me that..."
{You'd be filthy, sinking rich,} Psy finished, he and the others relaxing as the realized Dalton didn't view the kid as a threat. Dalton did have and odd air about him, that was for sure. Just look at him: he had red hair that looked similar to how the Greasers of old wore their hair (but an inch taller), he normally wore military surplus pants, whatever tee-shirt he randomly threw on and some black velcro shoes and he carried around a one-strap black backpack. Add that odd fashion sense to a pair of glasses and a pale, moderately-freckled skin-and-bone frame, and you'd have what Dalton looked like daily.
"Yeah, I know," The alleged queer replied. "If only..."
{If only...}
"Why the fuck are you pretendin' to talk with your gay-ass Espeon when you should be handin' over your fuckin' wallet, queer?" The kid was losing control of the situation, and he didn't like that.
"Three reasons. One, unlike you I actually try listen to what my friends have to say instead of writing it off as complete and utter humbug," The would-be thief's eyebrows raised at the word 'humbug'. "Two, you're a little too far from Jubilife and its dark alleys to be intimidating without any form of weapon or visible backup. Aaaaand three, if you were to try and attack me, my friends here could lay you out before you so much as ruffled my hair." With that, Dalton turned to walk away.
This really got the kid's blood boiling: nobody other than his bosses got to talk to him like that without receiving a complimentary a fist to the face. He lunged forwards...
"Arr!"
... Only to find himself on his back under the paws of his intended victim's Arcanine with a surprising lack of air in his lungs.
"I did give you fair warning, kid," Dalton chided, walking over and kneeling down next to him. "An Arcanine is said to be able to run 6,200 miles in a 24 hour period, and that breaks down to a speed of about 260 miles per hour. Keep that in mind next time you're trying to outrun one." All he got was a growl in response. "Now if you persist in trying to mug us, you'll wake up with all your Pokemon KO'ed and half of the contents of your wallet missing. I suggest you give up and leave once Flare decides to let you up."
{He smelled like shit, too!} Shade added roughly a half an hour later while the group was resting in a clearing.
"Actually, I think that was tobacco." Dalton corrected as he divvied up piles of poffins for his friends.
{Maybe to a human,} Flare replied, {But to us it was shit. You forget how strong our noses are.}
"Ah, right..." Came his reply as he counted the poffins in each pile, making sure nobody got short-charged. "There, we, go! Who wants poffins?!"
{POFFINS!!!} He was instantly swarmed by his companions.
"I'll take that as a yes!"
Soon everyone was enjoying their treats and conversing about relatively random things while Dalton lay back and watched the clouds, savoring his pile of pink poffins. After a few minutes of staring blankly at the sky he propped himself up to look at his friends. Flare and Sparks were speaking a ways away (preferring to talk in private as always) while Shade chased Psy around in an effort to snatch back his stolen snacks.
{You don't even like sour anyway, cat! Just give them back!}
{Work for your food, dog! Work!!}
Dalton couldn't help but chuckle at the display, even though the two of them did this just about every time he passed out the treats. He continued to watch the feuding cat and dog for a few minutes before laying back down to look at the sky and sigh in contentment.
This is exactly why I'm not going back, Dad, the runaway thought to himself. I'm turning eighteen this summer and get to chose my own path, and this is the life I want. Smiling at the thought of what his Dad would say to that, Dalton continued to scan the clouds, stopping on what looked to be a flying Pokemon in a nosedive. He watched the shadow with interest for a few more seconds before realizing two things: One, that the shadow was in fact a Charizard with a trainer on his back, and two-
"Holy shit!"
They were heading right for him!