Chapter 1: Prologue
Chapter Text
Today's the dayyyyy! I shot out of bed, face planting with an “oof!” As my feet became tangled in my blankets in my excitement.
But the pain didn't dull my joy. I popped back up, shook my head to clear it, and bolted downstairs like a kid on Christmas.
It was my birthday. Unlike most trainers who started young, I had chosen to wait to start being a fully fledged gym chaser until I had graduated high-school, much better that way I think. That way I already had more knowledge and skills going into the adventure then I would otherwise— and also.. scholarship opportunities, because college ain't cheap.
Back to the task at hand. I stepped into the kitchen.
“Gib?”
“Mornin’, Gibs, you ready for the big day, buddy?”
“Gible!”
“You said it!” I chuckled lightly.
I picked her up and set her on the counter, offering the little land shark a berry.
“I'll make some breakfast and then we can head over to the professor and get started, okay?”
In response she took the berry between her stubby little arms and munched on it happily.
I gave her a skritch behind the fin and got set cooking some steak and egg sandwiches for the road. I was far too excited to be hungry, but I knew I would be later.
***
20 minutes later, I was stood before a massive white and red building. A stark contrast to the rest of the wooden huts in the village.
Quite frankly it was a miracle we even HAD a professor, I thought. Caffrey, it was called, a little village in the middle of nowhere that had somehow attracted the attention of professor Kopi L. Wisteria, or just professor Wisteria as he was known.
I took a deep breath, and stepped inside.
It was cold. Smelling strongly of mint and faintly of cleaning supplies. I approached the reception desk and looked up at the woman behind it, who glanced at me curiously. “Good morning, Colin. Here to see the professor I take it?”
“Yes, ma'am.”
“Go on back, he's expecting you.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Cortado, have a nice day.” I said, going past her and into the lab proper, Gible tottering along behind me.
The tall, wiry man that was the professor was stood against the far wall, humming himself as he tinkered with… something. I couldn't tell what it was from here.
I slowly approached, and he turned around at my footsteps. “Ah, Colin. 4 years already, hm?”
“Yes, sir.” I said, not able to contain my grin.
The man was tall, about 6 foot 3. A wiry frame, but not weak by any means. He had messy purple hair with white streaks in it that always looked like he had just been thunder shocked by a belligerent Joltik. I wasn't convinced the color was natural.. but that was not something I could prove.
He wore thick round glasses that he had to constantly push up as they looked to be way to big on him. A long white lab coat with a billion pens and other various things hanging out of the pockets. Today he even had a disposable glove hanging halfway out of one like he had forgotten it was there, which— wasn't unlikely.
The professor was a good guy, but a bit… scatterbrained I think is a nice way of putting it. Always on the move, never standing still for more than a few moments. Whether it was from his caffeine habits or some kind of adhd, I had no idea.
But regardless, he was the man who was to get me started on my journey. One of legends that most people took up at some point in their lives, but that nary a few succeeded in, the quest to become a Pokémon Master.
I heard the sound of a sliding door behind me. “Ah, looks like my other guest is here too. Perfect, I'll get you both sorted at the same time.”
I glanced over, and was surprised to see the girl who was coming towards us. “Evelyn!?” I asked, confused.
She stopped in her tracks and looked at me just as flummoxed. “Lin?”
“How are you? Haven't seen you since graduation?” I asked as she approached.
She stepped up beside me. “I'm good, getting ready to start as well?”
I nodded. “I thought you had already left.”
She shrugged. “Nope, took it easy for a bit and decided that now was a good time.
“Makes sense.”
I turned back to the professor who was looking through his far too many pockets looking for something. “Aha!” He said, producing 3 small red and white halved orbs, a button on the front of each. Poké balls. “You both know what these are and what they do, so I won't bore you with the explanations.” He clicked the buttons on them, and the orbs expanded in his hand with a sound like an inhaled whistle.
He set them down, and they opened, 3 red beams bursting out like a bolt of lightning, where they took the shape of 3 little creatures. A small green monkey with a brown tail, wide ears of a similar color, tan rings around its black eyes, and a rather large orange nose. It had a stick in the fur on the top of its head that caused 2 tall patches of the stuff into what looked almost like a pair of leaves.
The second was a white rabbit. It looked like someone had slapped a yellow post-it-note between its red eyes and pink button nose. It had tall fluffy ears with yellow fur on the inside, the top half of them was red, orange stripes dividing the colors that made it up, this was similar to its feet where the toes matched this color scheme. And lastly it had a little red ruff around its neck like someone had ripped just the collar off of a dress shirt and slapped it on the thing's shoulders.
And lastly, there was a little pale blue lizard that looked quite distressed. It had wide cyan eyes that looked like it was going to burst into tears at any moment, a mouth that was the definition of :(, little blue dots on its cheeks like blush, and a large curly chameleon's tail with a light blue center. And last but not least, a tall pink crest on its head that looked like a lopsided heart.
“Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble. These are the starter pokemon you have to choose from,” Professor Wisteria said, motioning to them. At his movement, the Sobble shot behind his leg and hid there. Poor baby..
Evelyn knelt down and looked over the 3. She smiled softly. “Who wants to go on an adventure, hm?”
The Scorbunny bounded up to her and raised its arms with a squeaky cry of “Scor!”
Her smile widened into a grin. “I think I've made my choice.” She picked up the Scorbunny and sat it down in the crook of her arm.
I looked at the professor. “Am I allowed to choose one, even with Gible?”
The professor nodded. “Of course! It's not too big of an advantage, you'll both have yourself full teams of ace Pokémon in no time! Just.. don't tell anyone I let you have another one.”
I chuckled a bit, and knelt down on one knee and held my hand out to the professor's leg. “Hey, Sobble.” I said in a quiet voice. “Do you want to come with me? I'm not as scary as I look, I promise.”
The little chameleon poked its head out from behind the professor. I wiggled my hand a bit in beckoning. “It's okay.. you can trust me.”
The small creature slowly moved over to me, I slowly, carefully, picked it— him up and lifted him into my arms, cradling him like the baby he was. “There you go,” I said with a smile.
He rubbed his cheek against my hand and I gave him a little scratch under the chin with my finger, which he seemed to like.
The professor smiled. “Quite impressive, both of you. I can tell you have the makings of great trainers already!”
He held out their Pokéballs to us. Grookey clambered up his leg and onto his shoulder. “Grookey!” It said in a high pitched tone, smiling at us. I felt bad not being able to take the little guy as well, but alas, I was already bending the rules with Gible.
Next he held out a pair of little red devices. I thought they were phones for a second, but then I recognized the tech. A Pokédex. A little Rotom that had been coded with the data on every Pokémon studied, and the capability to add more should we find any. That was the true nature of trainers, I think. Data collection. We were used to not only further research into already discovered species, but to help discover new ones all around the world. But we were well compensated. Paid for every battle in both money and badges if you challenged a gym.
Lastly he gave Evelyn 5 empty Pokéballs, and me 4. I guess that was the price for the extra tag along.
I clipped them to my belt, a yellow and black ultraball that belonged to Gible, and now the regular ball that was for Sobble. I worried that I'd get them mixed up.. they all looked identical.
But I'd cross that bridge when I got to it.
“Well now. Evelyn Rose, Colin Baxter, I welcome you to the world of fully fledged trainers. Congratulations.” He said with a smile.
“Thank you, professor,” we said.
“Hey, we should battle!” Evelyn said.
I turned to her. “H—huh!? Right here in the lab!?”
“No, stupid, outside!”
“Oh, sure,” I said.
And with that declaration of challenge. Our adventure began in full. Where it would take us? Who knows! But I for one am excited to see where it does.
Chapter Text
We stepped out into the field outside the lab.
There wasn't an arena for the several miles that stretched between Caffrey and the nearest town, but we'd make do.
We had both seen, and even run practice battles for classes and borrowed Pokémon for fun duels.
I raised Sobble's pokéball. “Standard rules?” I called to Evelyn as she created distance between us.
“Yeah. Match Pokémon count so no Gible, alright?”
“Naturally.” I recalled her and clipped her ball to my waist, lifting the new red and white orb. I gripped it loosely, gazing at the tiny curled form of Sobble inside of the partially see-through cap. I pressed the button, and the ball returned to full size.
I looked up at Evelyn. She held her Pokéball to her chest.
I hadn't really paid attention to the outfit, but she looked good. A white frilly button up shirt with a red ribbon tied loosely around her neck in a bow as a choker, a long tan skirt that blew in the breeze over tall black socks, and matching tan hiking boots.
Her chestnut brown hair was partially hidden by a ball cap, the other parts fluttering around gold eyes and soft features, her angel bite piercings glittering in the morning light.
I smiled a bit. “I feel underdressed. I didn't even bother with a theme.” I said.
She chuckled. “Gotta go with the opposite, dress in all red and flame stuff and then throw out a water type.”
I laughed. “I should. The expressions alone would be worth the awful color scheme.”
She laughed as well. “You should absolutely become a gym leader just to mess with people.”
We stopped a good 20 feet away from each other. “Think this is enough space?” She called.
“Should be.” I yelled back.
She tossed out her Pokémon. The fiery rabbit blazed to life in a streak of red, my sobble right behind… where he promptly shot back into the ball, and a beam shot from my waist, dragging out a rather surprised Gible.
“Gib!?” She said, confused.
I blinked at the switch for a moment before looking down at the ball. “Dude…” I muttered.
I tried to swap them, but this time Sobble just ran behind my leg and glowered at the flaming rabbit. “Sob, Sobble!” It barked.
I looked over at Evelyn, embarrassed. “I guess he's shyer than I realized…”
She leaned back “damn. Alright, go ahead and use Gible, don't want to stress the poor guy out.”
I nodded and let Gible out again. She looked at me like “please for the love of god make up your mind.”
I knelt down and gave her a scritch under the chin. “You're up, Gible. Go easy on them, ‘kay.”
“Gible.” She grunted.
I stepped back to my place, where Sobble was still sitting, looking sulkier than usual. I offered him my hands, “No worries, little buddy. I get not wanting to battle yet, I won't force you.”
He hopped up into my hands. The little critter barely weighed anything.
Compared to Gible at least— although— that might be due to me spoiling her rotten with sweets from the Pokémon friendly bakery down the road.
I let Sobble gingerly climb onto my shoulder where he tucked himself into my hoodie like a kangaroo pouch on my back.
I smiled a bit and reached into my pocket, handing him a piece of sandwich.
Then I returned my attention to the battle. Evelyn was looking at me, hands on her hips. “You ready?” She called.
“Yeah.”
“Let's go!” She yelled. Scorbunny was a blur of motion, zipping in with a headbutt.
“Dodge, and counter with a tackle!”
Gible attempted to follow my direction, but the nimble rabbit was far too fast. It shot in and smacked Gible hard.
She fell back with a cry, attempting to counter, but the rabbit dipped out just as fast as it had attacked.
“Tch…” she knew what she was doing much more than I did, I had a trick but whether it would work depended on how gullible she was... “Gible, focus on defense. We're slower, so block don't dodge.”
“Gib…” she said, lowering her head.
Evelyn pointed. “Go for a growl then scratch.”
Scorbunny let out a high pitched growl, and leapt in, raking its surprisingly sharp claws across Gible, carving 3 cuts into her scaly side.
At this rate I would lose if I couldn't land a hit… unfortunately for Evelyn, I had grown very good at reading fights over the last 4 years. Scorbunny's evasion was good, but I knew it’s defense was likely trash as a result…
“Wait for it…” I murmured just loud enough for Gible to hear. “Just a little longer..”
Gible tensed. Scorbunny shot in again for another attack, a scratch, a headbutt, another headbutt.. her mouth opened as it flew closer for the finishing blow.
“Now!”
She caught the advancing Scorbunny in a wicked jaw clamp before Evelyn could finish the command.
“Dragon breath!” I exclaimed.
As her mouth glowed with blue flame, where the Scorbunny had been, a laser appeared, and recalled to the ball in Evelyn's outstretched hand.
Gible collapsed, letting out a satisfied “Ble..” before I recalled her. “Good fight…” I whispered to the ball. “Well done.”
“Yeesh, you're mean.” Evelyn complained, walking over. “A dragon's breath at that range!? Were you trying to kill him!?”
“I knew you'd withdraw.” I said with a smile. “You don't like letting your Pokémon faint, which is admirable, but exploitable.”
“What are you, Mr. Phillips from battle theory 101?”
I laughed. “Actually, Mrs. Smith in math class taught me that one. She's a surprisingly ruthless battler if you can get her into a ring.”
“Seriously?” She asked, as we walked back inside.
“Yeah, I tried a similar tactic on her, hit and run with a Doduo, let me get a few attacks in before ending me in one shot with a mach punch, I didn't even know her mon could learn that!
Anyways, gave me the idea. I didn't have the type advantage here like I would have with Sobble, but a well placed dragon breath certainly does the job.”
“Also the fact that she was your dad’s and has a lot more experience than Scorbunny…” she grumbled.
I shrugged. “eh, the fact that she hasn't evolved yet means she's likely not that much further along.”
“Maybe Gibles just evolve at a crazy late stage in development.” she responded. “I mean the only Garchomp I've ever heard of was in battle history class, Champion Cynthia has one y'know?”
I nodded. “We were in the same class… but I get what you're saying.” I looked down at Gible in the top of her ball, my smile fading. After dad had gone missing, the only thing that had been left to me was her…
“Do you remember the checklist?” Dad’s last words to me resurfaced in my mind, “Make sure to take Gible for a walk twice a day, she needs the exercise. And no extra meals, the center says we need to back off on it because she’s getting too heavy. You should have enough food to last until I get back, but I’ve left you some cash in case you run out. And NO slacking off on school, do you understand?”
“Yeah, dad. I get it.” I had replied, rather annoyed at how juvenile he had been treating me…
“Good. I’ll see you in two weeks then.”
Those “two weeks” had stretched into 5 years now, and counting. The knot of worry that usually plagued me built back up in my gut.
I could only hope he was still alive.. All forms of contact were useless, phone calls went straight to voice, search parties returned empty handed every time.. It was like he had dropped off the earth entirely.
A hand waved in my face. “HelloOo! Earth to Lin?” I blinked and shook my head a bit to clear it. “Sorry, just thinking.”
“Your dad?” she asked.
I nodded.
“Look, I’m sure he’s okay.. I know it’s been years, but Mr. Baxter is a strong trainer, I bet he’s out there, fighting tooth and nail to come home to you.”
I forced a smile. I knew she was trying.. But I had gone through the entirety of high school without so much as a trace of him…
I let out a breath. 5 years of waiting had let me process. The thoughts weren’t the mine field that they used to be.
I looked up. We had reached the edge of town, the forest ahead the way forwards.
“Well, Lin and Lyn, back on the road, eh? Ready to go get our butts kicked?”
“You know it, although, I'll be the one kicking.”
“Yeah, yeah, just don't start a forest fire.”
She grinned. “No promises!” Then she dashed off into the underbrush.
“Lyn!” I yelled, chasing her. “Don't run off on your own, it's still dangerous!”
I jumped in after her, and tumbled out onto an old road leading towards Masala, the next town over.
I got up and dusted myself off.
Evelyn was standing, looking up at the massive trees in awe.
“Never gets old.” I murmured as I walked up next to her.
“Last time I came through here was 7 years ago on my way to Hammerlocke..”
I glanced at her. “Hammerlocke? What were you doing there?”
“My sister was challenging the gym there. We went along to cheer her on.”
“Hm.. nice. Did she win?”
She laughed. “Nah, brought a bunch of dragon types hoping to go bar for bar with the gym leader, got cooked obviously.”
“Rip. Well hey, we'll win, right?”
“Probably. Although Gible will have a rough fight, we'll have plenty of time to build good teams in the meantime.”
I nodded. “True.” I heard a rustle beside us, “and I think that starts now!”
A blur of red and black shot from the underbrush, and leapt towards me. I dodged, whatever it was lunged at me again. I jumped away and called Gible.
In a red beam, the little shark appeared, ready to go.
In the clearing where it had landed, was a fox. It had tall black ears on its dark red body, black rings around its yellow eyes that looked vaguely like the eye holes of a mask.
White patches of fur flecked it's face, making it look like someone had thrown a snowball at its maw.
It's feet looked like little black boots, and its tail was shaped like a full sack, black fur on the bottom.
It was leaning over something… ‘My sandwich!’ The creature had my sandwich in its maw as it looked up. 4
“Gible, weaken it, but don't hurt it too badly.”
“Ble!” She flung dust into the fox’s eyes, and went for a tackle, which the creature narrowly avoided, pawing at its face. “Nick!” it dropped my sandwich and backed away, looking through one squinted eye.
I pulled out my pokédex, and pointed it at the creature, snapping a picture. “Nickit.” The text popped up.
I'd have to read the entry later.
I watched for an opening. Gible tried at another tackle, this time, it landed, and she managed to pin the Nickit down under her.
I doubted it could take a dragon’ breath, so I threw one of my pokéballs at it.
It ricocheted off of the Nickit, and hovered in the air for a moment before opening, and absorbing the Pokémon.
It rolled and shook, but after a moment, the lid clicked shut.
“Heck yeah!” I said, picking it up.
Evelyn nodded. “Nice. Next one's mine though.”
“All yours, grab the next two actually so we can have an equal match.”
“Nah, until Sobble is ready to battle, you'll have to use just Gible and the new one, we'll take turns until we each get six.”
“Hm, fair. I can agree to that.” I said, putting the ball on my belt.
I let Nickit out again, where it glared at me. I offered it the sandwich. “Sorry.”
It hesitantly took it in its maw, and wolfed it down.
It gave me a lopsided smile. “Nick nickit!”
I put my hand between her ears and scratched her neck. “There we go, we good?”
She licked my hand. Her tongue was raspy like a cat's. I smiled and laughed a bit.
I called out Sobble and offered him my arm so I could have all of them out. “You wanna walk with us, bud?”
He clambered up onto my arm and chilled on my shoulder as we walked.
Another rustle to my left caught my attention, I looked over, and there was a sheep. A Wooloo, even I knew the farm animal.
I snapped a photo for the dex and stepped back.
Evelyn walked over. “Hey buddy.”
It cocked it's head at her. “Loo?”
She lifted an empty ball from her waist. “What do you say you come with me?”
“You think it will work without weakening it? They told us all the time that you have to battle to catch.”
She looked over. “Only really powerful ones. This little guy should be okay.” And with that, she tapped it on the forehead with the ball.
It got sucked in, and immediately clicked.
I stared at the ball. “What—”
“Not my fault you chose the feisty one.”
“Nickit!” She complained from my side.
“You tell her.” I said to the fox with a chuckle.
Evelyn also let all of her Pokémon out of their balls so they could walk along with us. Gible and Scorbunny glowered at each other, but their rivalry was seemingly forgotten as soon as Evelyn produced a bag of Poké chow from her bag. “Who's hungry?”
“Wow, you came prepared for everything.” I commented.
“And as usual, you prepared for nothing.” She said with a grin.
I rolled my eyes. “Shush.”
She stuck a pastry in my face. “Where did you even get that?”
“Bakery on fifth.” She answered. “I thought you wouldn't have made breakfast, so I grabbed you some.”
I reached for the scone, "I'm not that bad…” I muttered as I took a bite. “Wait… how did you bring me food if you didn't know you'd be coming with me?”
She was spared from answering as the trees began to thin. “Looks like we're almost there.”
Masala opened before us. A decently sized town, that most notably had a train station, which is why we were here.
“Should we get some lunch before we head towards the city?” I asked.
Evelyn covered her mouth in mocking embarrassment. “Oh my, asking me on a date? You scandal!” She said in a false voice.
I rolled my eyes. “I'd rather take a heat crash than ask you on a date.”
“Ouch.” She said, letting out a chuckle. “That almost hurts.”
“So do you want lunch or not?”
“Oh, absolutely. I'm starving,” She replied.
10 minutes later, we were inside a small diner next to the train station.
A meal awaits us, and the train beyond. The next steps begin now. Where it will go? Find out next time!
Notes:
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed consider leaving a comment, it would make my week!
Also if you like my writing style, I have many other fics on my page to enjoy!
Chapter 3: Cronus Epoch
Summary:
I was always intrigued by the potential of the legends games, a past before even Pokéballs, a time where humanity was the prey instead of the hunter.
And I wanted to explore it in my own way.I hope you enjoy :D
Notes:
Things are heating up! Welcome to the flip side, dear readers!
A wild change of pace from the other perspective, but, I like a bit of both in my works.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
***
Everett Baxter, Pokémon professor, and tech scientist. The name and title I had once called my own.
But that may as well have been a dream now. A fading memory of the past as I stood among the trees of the ancient forest.
‘Days? Months? Years? How long has it been since I found myself here?’ I didn't know. Didn't much care. Not anymore.
My blade gleamed, stained crimson from many hard fought battles.
I walked forwards toward the towering titan of a Pokémon that stood before me.
An alpha, the people I had found called them. Pokémon that stood above all in power and status.
These weren't the animals I knew, but monsters, bent on consuming what little of humanity remained.
I turned the sword in my fingers, the cold metal frigid against my bare hand. Snow fell in sheets, melting around the fallen men and monsters that had been claimed by this war, their blood steaming, filling the air with the acrid metallic stench I had come to know all too well.
The Pokémon glared down at me, sizing me up as I was it. A giant of rippling black armored plates, red knife-like claws, and a pair of red edged axe blades on either side of its sharp beaked jaw.
A Haxorus, twice the size of anything I had seen in my time.
‘In my time…’ a face drifted into my mind. ‘Colin… I have to get back. Have to see my son once again, no matter how many wars I must face, how many obstacles I must destroy, I will see him again, and then, only then, will I judge if I am worthy of looking him in the eyes after all I've done here.’
I shot forwards, fur cloak billowing out behind me, my feet pelted on the rocky ground beneath me, a guttural yell rising to my throat as I leapt into the air, sword raised high to strike at its face. “Get out of my way!” I roared, metal sparking as my sword met it's axe.
It flung me back, letting out a roar of its own.
I landed, and the Haxorus was a blur of motion, flinging forwards. The me from before would have never been able to react, but my time here had turned me from a weak professor, to something of a monster myself.
I caught the axe blade with my sword, hooked it and flipped the massive creature, its own weight carrying it into the ground. The force seemed to shake the earth as it flipped back to its feet.
‘My turn..’
Before it could react I was inside of its guard, it blocked my sword, but I struck it under the chin with my fist. The armor hurt like hell… but it did it's job. It stumbled under the force, and I freed my blade, drawing it across the Haxorus’ face.
But it moved at the last moment, and my sword slid harmless over its scales, letting off a grinding sound that set my hair on end.
It shoved me back with a powerful arm, bounding backwards until we were in a neutral position again, circling, neither one of us seemed to be able to spot an opening…
I circled past one of my dead compatriots, and drew his sword from the ground.
‘I'll bring you peace, friend. Rest now, you fought well.’
The sword was shattered. It had taken a direct hit from those massive axes, and blasted straight through to it’s wielder.
I tightened my grip, and threw it hard at the Haxorus’ head. It naturally deflected it upwards, as I had planned. That split second of distraction was all I needed.
My blade cut upwards, carving a gash in its armored chest, I landed on it's back, and barely managed to catch the falling blade.
It bit into my palm and fingers, but I brought it down on the creatures eye as hard as I could muster.
It screamed, and bucked me like a tauros, sending me flying. I rolled and got to my feet, unsteadily. ‘Did I do it?’ The creature turned to me, it's eye closed, a wide bloody gash in a diagonal line across it. I doubted I had actually pierced it's iris, but blinding from its own blood was still an advantage.
It stumbled towards me. I raised my sword… and it knelt, lowering it's head to me.
I stared. ‘What?’
I took a step back… it was… submitting to me? Like a modern-day Pokémon losing a battle, and being captured… pokéballs didn't exist at this time, but I think I had just figured out where it had started…
I raised my chin, holding my blade to its throat. I hesitated. I could kill it easily.. take it's head, avenge the 6 people it had killed. Or… ‘I could.. use it… a Pokémon of this caliber would be exactly what I needed to get back home..’
I lowered my sword.
“Serve me. Together we could carve a path to the future. Your strength and mine would rival that of any force. But if you so much as move an inch to betray me, know that I will have your head.”
The Haxorus looked up, and seemed to nod, there was a gleam of intelligence in its eyes. If it didn't understand my words, it seemed to understand my intent.
I motioned for it to rise, and turned back towards home. “Follow, we have much to do.”
Notes:
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed consider leaving a comment, it would make my week! :D