Dreamchasers

[Copperfield]

Hey, a Pokémon based story by me. Oh boy. Should I even continue this? I'm not sure. Anyway, tell me what you think, no matter how brutally honest you want to be.

The crowd went wild. Screams, cheers, applauding but above it all I could hear them, the ocean of people chanting my name.
"Martin! Martin! Martin!"
I called my now-knocked out Nidoking back to its ball. From the tanoys came the voice of the announcer,
"With five of his Pokémon now down, who does Martin have left?" I smiled down to my waist, where the last Pokémon's ball may as well have been smiling at me, "Remember, folks: Martin's opponent, Isabelle is now down to her last Pokémon, already on the field, her Skarmory!" The crowd gave out boos and hisses and on the far side of the arena, the girl brushed hair long black hair from her face and gave a menacing smile.
 
I grabbed the ball from my belt and sent it flying through the air to the middle of the dusty field. It opened and the tell-tale red light emerged from its middle. The crowd roared and my heart raced at the sight of the bohemoth now towering above the battered Skarmory. My Rhyperior.

The Rhyperior turned to me, opened its mouth and gave out a giant roar, "Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggghhhhhhhhhhtin! Maaaaarrrtttiiiin! Martin! Martin! Wake up!"

A dream. Of course it was. It's never real. No matter how much I want it to be. My eyes opened reluctantly to the sight of two figures standing above my bed. My two best friends. Chris, wearing a leather jacket, black fingerless gloves and black jeans to compliment his choppy dark brown bangs, dark brown eyes and tanned skin; and Isabelle, with shoulder length black hair, neatly kept out of her face with a headband, wearing a blue coat and blue skinny fit jeans.
"Wake up, man. You know what day it is today, don't you?" said Chris in his usual patronising tone, "or does uncle Chris have to explain everything to you as well as get your clothes ready?" I looked to the bottom of my bed and saw a pile of clothes picked out for me already. That's when I noticed that I was practically stark naked, except for a pair of blue boxer shorts. It was summer, and so far too hot to sleep in clothes, and far too hot to be sleeping under the doona.
"Have some mercy on us and put the clothes on, Martin," said Isabelle, "and don't listen to a word he says," nudging Chris, "I was the one who picked out your clothes. Practicality is the key for this, not fashion."

By 'this', I finally got what they were talking about. Today was the day. The day we finally got out first Pokémon. On the first day of June, every year 16 year olds would be allowed to visit the Pokémon League representetives closest to them and pick a starter Pokémon and sign up for the Gym Challenge. This year was our year. Isabelle could have started her journey the year before, seeing as she was now 17, but decided she would rather do it with us than alone.

"AWWWW YEAAAAHHHH!" I let out, jumping up and rushing on my clothes, not bothering to change the boxer shorts I'd slept in. Isabelle certainly had picked everything practical that I had to offer in my drawers. Grey cargo pants, a belt that had six spots ready for pokéballs, plain black polo shirt and black zip-up hoodie that would have roasted me alive if I had worn it there and then, so I just tied it around my waist. I grabbed the red bandana with pokéball insignia and tied it around my forehead and brushed away the sand coloured hair to either side of my head. I battled on black hiking boots that my mum had bought me the week before, a size too big (my mum's motto was 'better safe than sorry') and I was ready. Ready. "I'm ready... are you guys ready?"
"Of course we're ready, smartarse. We've been ready for hours," said Chris, hypocritically, (it was 11AM and I knew for a fact that Chris never got up before 2PM in his life) "Now let's hit the road."

So we left my house on the edge of Crymson City and caught the bus. I felt like we should have ran or cycled there, seeing as taking public transportation was rather anticlimactic, but none of us felt like running or cycling two miles to the center of town. We sat in dead silence. It was cool to begin with, heroic even, but then it just got awkward.
"What are you two idiots even going to choose?" asked Isabelle, "I'm having a Chimchar. An Infernape can absolutely crush anything. Anythi-"
"A little fire monkey? Pah," said Chris, always trying to get the upper hand, "I'm taking a Totodile. Not only can a Feraligatr's bite cut through just about anything in the universe, but its water attacks would rip through at least six buildings."
"Chimchar's not a monkey, it's a chimp. There is a difference. And what exactly are you basing a Feraligatr's power on? Scientific fact or just things you've read on the internet?" It always has to be an argument between these two.
"You're just jealous because my Totodile will absolutely destroy your stupid little mon- chimp. What about you, Martin?" This is usually when someone cooler than me would say 'I haven't given it much thought...' but I had. It's the only thing I could think of in the last couple of weeks. Reading articles, comparing average stats, talking to breeders online, watching and re-watching battle tutorials on YouTube.
"Me," I said, trying to remain as cool as possible, "I'm choosing a Snivy."
"Suits you," laughed Chris, "a grassy little lizard. It's you in a nutshell!" Isabelle and him laughed. The only time the two of them could ever agree on something was when it's making fun of me. I didn't have a comeback so I sat in silence.

We finally reached the Pokémon League center in town. A colossal building with at least sixty storeys, it towered above anything else in the city. We walked in, in silence and in the lobby saw dozens of important looking men and women in suits and smart clothes. We walked up to the main desk, a square of dozens of people at computers in the middle of the room and I finally asked,
"Uh, we're here to sign up..." the woman looked up from her computer, gave us a look down and pointed towards a doorway on the far side of the room where people dressed in what Chris would call "dorky" and Isabelle would call "perfect" clothes. We walked in and were greeted by an usher with spiked purple hair,
"Hello. My name is Caeser, like the salad!" he smiled, Chris laughed too-sarcastically, "well come on over here and let's sign you up."
Caeser walked us over to a terminal where we had to scan our ID cards. The computer spat out 3 Gameboy-looking things and 3 cards. Caeser handed us each a Gameboy thing and a card, "This is your Pokédex! It has data on all the Pokémon found in the world so you'll never be in the dark! And these are your Trainer cards. You'll need them to ID yourselves around the world as official Pokémon League trainers."
"Look, I don't mean to be rude," Isabelle started, but I nudged her in her ribcage before she could finish. I wish this guy would cut to the chase, but I didn't want to miss anything, either.
"You just want a Pokémon, of course," Caeaser smiled, his teeth far too white to be natural, "Well, grab one of these each and we'll be on our way." He handed us each a small rectangular box, "this is your badge box. You'll need to keep the badges you may gain from the Pokémon League gyms in there to qualify for a Pokémon League tournament!" Chris leered at his box, as if angry and Isabelle immidiately slid it into her back pocket without even looking it over, whilst I opened mine to find seventeen different slots for seventeen different badges. I was impressed.
"Look, now can we please just get to the Pokémon bit?" asked Chris, this really angered me.
"The guy's just doing his job, Chris, for f***'s sake. We'll get to it when it's time to get to it, Jesus." I thought saying this might win me Ceaser's favour, but he just giggled at me, I looked back at Chris and... well, if looks could kill. Isabelle looked angry at me too.
"Well," saved by Ceaser's bell of a voice, "it actually is time to... 'get to it' now." This embarassed me. I just made a complete idiot out of myself. Good job, Martin, I thought.

Caeser ushered us over to a large machine with a nozzle on the end of it.
"Now," he said, "Isabelle, let's start with you, since you were so eager, which Pokémon would you li-"
"Chimchar, please," she interrupted. He typed something into the screen and a pokéball came out of the nozzle. Isabelle grabbed it.
"And Chris, what about y-"
"Totodile, gimme a Totodile." Ceaser typed something else in and another pokéball came out of the nozzle and Chris grabbed it before it even hit the reciever cushion.
"Um," started Ceaser, "Marti... Martin?" I would never interrupt someone in authority, I'm not as rude as my friends.
"I'd like a Snivy, please, Ceaser." I said.
"Snivy, okay," and he punched something in and a pokéball came out of the nozzle.

My Snivy. My own Pokémon. I grabbed the ball. I expected it to come alive in my hand, I expected to feel the warmth eminate from inside, for my Snivy and me to have a bond straight from the word go. But it was just a metal ball.
"Alright, guys, have fun!" Ceaser interrupted my over-thinking, "we suggest to new trainers from Crymson City to train in the woods to the west, they're teeming with wild Pokémon and a perfect opportunity! We hope to see you soon."
That's it? No ceremony? Not even any freebies? Just registring and getting a cold metal ball that may as well be empty? Oh well, at least I knew my Snivy was inside. I grabbed the ball and prepared to get my new partner out when, "Uh, I'm afraid we don't allow Pokémon out of their balls inside the building," said Ceaser.
We each sighed and walked outside.

We each lined up and got out our Pokémon. Isabelle's Chimchar, my Snivy and Chris's Totodile stood to attention on the pavement outside the HQ. They didn't seem like our new best friends... more like bored soldiers.
"Uh," I broke in, "I guess we should go train with these guys."
"Right," said Chris and Isabelle in unison and they returned their respective Pokémon back into the balls. I decided to call Snivy to grab onto my shoulders as we waited for the next bus that would take us west so we could head deep into Crymson Forest.

[zylonnick]

Nice story copperfield, keep it going. I'm eager to see what happens next.

[FireDarkGuy]

NIX!

P.S.: Nix = Nice

[Copperfield]

After getting off the bus at the Western edge of town, I nudged my shoulder as a gesture for my overly-obidient new Snivy to get off. Isabelle let out her Chimchar from its ball, which stood to attention, looking at Isabelle; and seeing that he was the only one without his pokémon out, Chris let out his Totodile.
"Shouldn't we, like..." Chris started, reluctantly, "I dunno... give them nicknames?"
"Good idea," I said, "I think that might get them to seem less like..." I stopped in my tracks, I wanted to say 'like robots,' but couldn't bring myself to say it, in case I offended the little creatures.
"Like little soldiers?" Isabelle came to my rescue. I nodded. "You're right. Okay, Chimchar..." Isabelle knelt down and ruffled the chimp's tuft of hair with her hand. Looking confused at the affection, it gave out a happy squeak, "how would do you like the name... Sol?" Cool name for a fire pokémon, I had to admit.
"Yeah, Totodile," Chris knelt down and scratched the Totodile's neck, it closed its eyes, savouring the moment, "how about the name..." he paused, looking as confused as a Spinda, "um... Jeff... no... Jez... Jeb! Jeb! Yeah, you like the name Jeb?" Jeb let out a croak of approval.

It was unspoken, but my turn had come, I stumbled down on my knees to come face to face to my Snivy, the sun's rays reflecting off his awesome green skin and into my eyes. I ran my hand down his - suprisingly - smooth back and expected him to give a slight notion of happiness as Sol and Jeb had done, but he didn't. Instead, he ran into my arms, clutching onto my jacket. This was surreal. The nonchalant soldier that had stood before me about ten minutes ago had now opened up. I really didn't expect us to bond so strongly this quickly. Gobsmacked, I wrapped my arms around him and whispered, "Hey, little buddy. I was wondering whether or not you like me, but I suppose I got my answer, huh?" Snivy looked into my eyes with his - a, somehow, cool-seeming red - and smiled. I loved this little guy already.
"So we need to give you a name, huh?" Snivy nodded, "Hmm..." I was lost. I hadn't thought this far ahead. Sol and Jeb, they were cool names. Cool names for cool pokémon. Snivy wasn't cool. Snivy was sincere and sweet and his name needed to reflect that. "How's about... Nev?" Snivy smiled at me, nodding, his ruby eyes glistening in the sun, "like Neville, but Nev, right? Is that okay?" from his cry of joy, I could tell that he wasn't Snivy any more. He was Nev.

Me and Nev, Chris and Jeb, Isabelle and Sol. I could feel the foundations of quite a team building as we walked into the woods. None of us spoke until we came to a clearing in the trees, where the sunshine managed to find a gap in the canope.
"So," Isabelle started, "how exactly are we gonna train these guys?"
"That weirdo in the League HQ said this place is teeming with wild pokémon," said Chris, referring to Ceaser's words.
"How are we gonna get wild pokémon to come and fight us, huh?" asked Isabelle. I heard a rustle behind me and looked, I was still beaming with joy from mine and Nev's bonding experience earlier, but the smugness was quickly wiped off my face. There, peering through the trees were a pair of beaming red eyes. Not a sweet, cool red like Nev's, but an angry, rage-filled red. A buzz filled the air.
"Um," I said, "I don't think we'll have to look far." Isabelle and Chris turned around.
"Oh, f***," said Chris, "BEEDRILL!"
The yellow-black monster rushed from the trees and charged at is, flying.
"Teamwork, right?" Isabelle asked. Me, Chris, Nev and Jeb nodded.

Sol's rear started to smoke and ignited in bright flames.
"Ember, Sol!" commanded Isabelle. Sol let out bright red embers from his mouth and shot them like bullets at the Beedrill. Its wings started to flap at blinding speed and the embers shook off. It charged for Sol and struck him with its right needle. Sol was knocked out. Isabelle quickly returned Sol to his ball.
Chris and I looked at each other and nodded, whilst simultaneously Nev and Jeb nodded at each other.
"Leaf tornado!"
"Water gun!"
Jeb let a powerful looking jetstream of water out of his mouth whilst Nev whipped up a horizontal tornado of leaves from its tail. The Beedrill lifted its needles, deflecting the two attacks with ease.
The four of us gasped. The Beedrill charged at Nev and Jeb, its needles glowing bright green. It slashed acrossed diagonally. X-Scissor, a powerful bug move. Nev and Jeb were out cold.
"ALRIGHT!" Chris shouted, picking up a stone from the ground, "f*** off, you stupid bug!" He threw the stone which struck the Beedrill, which flew off into the safety of the woods. Chris and I returned Jeb and Chris to their balls.

After a somewhat embarassing trip to the Pokémon Centre to heal Sol, Jeb and Nev, Isabelle got a call from her mum, saying we should all go back to her's. After arriving, Chris and I noticed our cars parked outside.
"This must be... y'know... the goodbye." I said. Our parents must have gathered to say goodbye before we really headed out on our journey. When we walked in, I was right. My mum greeted me with by getting a blue backpack on my bag and securing a new Pokétch onto my wrist. A useful tool not only to tell the time, but for maps, weather and news updates.
"I'm really..." my mum started to sniff, "gonna miss you."
"Don't cry, mum," I said, hugging her, "I'm sixteen. I have my friends and I have my new pokémon. I was born to be a trainer. Like dad."

My father had been a pokémon trainer. One of the best in the country. He'd won three League Tournaments in a row - one of only four people in history to ever win more than two and the only one to achieve what they called a 'hatrick.' After retiring from training, my father turned to pokémon research, wanting to unlock the mysteries of the fantastic creatures. My father was in Africa researching tha nature of Donphan when him and his research team were caught in a Rhydon stampede. They were all killed.

"I'm gonna make you proud, mum," I said. I wasn't lying. I was leaving her alone now, I owed her pride at least.
"I'm already proud of you, son." After a flurry of goodbye clichés, we were ready.
"Now then," started Isabelle's mum, "you kids - sorry, young adults - can't be trainers without catching more pokémon than you already have, so..." she pulled out fifteen pokéballs and handed us five each.
"Thanks," the three of us said in unison, "we promise to make you proud of us." We hugged our mums one last time and stepped out of Isabelle's house, heading down the road, back on the way to the forest.

And this time, we were ready for anything the world could throw at us.

[Yume Tsuki]

Merged both topics together, in future make sure you post your story in this topic if it's a part of this story.

[Copperfield]

Merged both topics together, in future make sure you post your story in this topic if it's a part of this story.

Sorry, I'll be sure to keep all posts to this thread in the future.

[zylonnick]

I'm eagerly awaiting what happens next. Please continue this story.

[GrAmPa]

You've got me hooked on every word! Awesome story