Storing Subarno's works

Pokemon story time, and it's my turn, just coz I feel like it
NOTE: This story is set 1 year after the events of Pokemon Red & Blue. In this story, I shall try to follow with the games mainly, with some elements of the anime thrown in. I also tend consider than each game took place around a year after the previous game, so basically this story starts at the point Gold & Silver is beginning. This is strictly a work of fiction (sadly). Cheers

A rustle. A slight breeze.
Silence. Then another rustle.
Hesitantly, he took a couple of steps forward. Then a slight step back. He remembered what he had been told, over and over again, "Never, ever go into tall grass. Or tall bushes. Or into the forest. Wild Pokemon live there, it's too dangerous." Wild Pokemon. The thought always made him...curious. Were wild Pokemon really as dangerous as the elders made it sound? He had heard many wonderful stories about kids who went on adventures with Pokemon and did magnificient things, but they were just stories to him. In Opal Village, most people had barely seen any Pokemon, except for the elders. "That was what happened when one lived in a remote village, no excitement, no change", he thought sadly. People with Pokemon barely ever came by...
There. Another rustle. He looked up. For once, the night sky was clear and cloudless, but there was no moon that night, so he had no idea what hid behing the bush. He took a glance back at the village, some distance back, almost invisible in the dark. What made him come out here, he wondered. All he could remember was not being able to sleep, and then sneaking off outside. And now here he was, at the edge of the forest.
He thought he heard a slight growl. He paused for a bit, but then gathered up his courage. Wild Pokemon never came this far out of the forest. This would be his chance to come face to face with a wild Pokemon. The bush was small too, so whatever was hiding there couldn't be very big. Talking the last few steps, he pushed aside the bush with both hands to reveal what was behind it.
"Whoa, what have we here?" It was a oval-ish, lizard like Pokemon, but with a tail curled around it's stubby legs and round head. Even through the darkness, a small, red flame at the tip of the tail could be seen, which gave the entire pokemon a creepy, orange colour. Noticing him, the Pokemon made a soft, growling noise, but then became silent and closed it's eyes again. He took a closer look, and saw scrathes along the Pokemon's back, and a large gash along the tail.
"Are you ok?" No response.
"So this is a wild Pokemon, eh", the boy thought. "Seems to be hurt though"
"Hey, can you hear me? My name's Keath, what's yours?" Another growl, but softer.
"It doesn't seem to be able to move easily, might have been attacked by another Pokemon...." mused Keath. "I can't just leave it there." Gingerly, he picked up the Pokemon and started walking tho the village. But then the Pokemon growled loudly and made a hissing noise, and a small spurt of flame came out of it's mouth, barely missing Keath's arm. "Whoa, easy there! What's wrong?" The pokemon feebly raised a stubby paw towards the forest.
"You want to go in there? Now? Come on..."
P.S. - Consider Keath's age to be 11. Opal Village is located somewhere between the Indigo Plateau and Viridian forest.

"But it's night time. How am I ever supposed to get through the forest? I'm not even supposed to go in there, that's what all the kids are told", Keath protested. "Anyway, I dont...like that forest either. I dont really like that place".
In reality, Keath was actually found by a villager, wandering inside the forest when he was very little. He only had hazy memories of the forest itself, and remembered nothing before it. Since he couldn't remember his parents either, the villagers assumed he was a lost orphan, and ever since then, he had grown up in Opal Village. He slept in the Elder's hut, and spent the days wandering the village, doing odd chores for the villagers then and now. Keath had always been more interested on what lay beyond the village, but he was also quite introvert and barely wanted to talk to the other kids, who considered him "strange", so he didn't have any friends.
"Do you have to go back in the forest now?" The little lizard Pokemon nodded. "Do you know where your home is?" No response. "Then how are we supposed to find it?" A harsh growl, and then what sounded strangely like a sigh. "Hmm...did you live in the forest?" The Pokemon growled and shuddered. "Guess not. Are you from a city then? Another village? A Town?" At the mention of town, the Pokemon nodded vigorously and raised its paw again. "A town? Then I guess you aren't a wild Pokemon. Do you belong to someone?" A shake of the round head, and then it closed its eyes again.
"Town...town...I don't even know any towns around here...there's Viridian City, but that's way off to the other side of the forest. There must be somewhere closer by...ah! Pallet Town! That's where most of the village's supplies comes from." At the mention of Pallet Town, the Pokemon opened its eyes again, and the flame on its tail seemed to burn just that bit brighter.
"Pallet town's pretty far off too thought, it'll take a few hours to get there by foot. How did you even get here?" Keath asked. Again, no response. "I need to get you patched up a bit first. Hang on here, I'll be right back".
With that, Keath rushed off silently back to the Elder's house. Everything was absolutely quiet when Keath entered the house , and he carefully took some cloth bits, a flashlight, a map and some healing herbs from the house. He liked to sit and watch the Elders working with different leaves and plants to make up herbs, so he had a pretty good idea which herb did what. Just before he left, he saw a lamp, burning dimly on the table, and he remembered something. Grabbing the pen and paper lying to one side of the table, he scribbled, "Found injured Pokemon. Taking it to Pallet Town. Must go now. Keath". For an instant, Keath thought what would happen when they found him gone, but then he thought, "I'm just an orphan. No one really cares for me here. They just think I'm weird. It'll be fine." Quick as a bullet, he was back to where he found the Pokemon. It was still lying there, half-asleep.
Slowly, he applied the herbs to the injuries, and wrapped them up with the bits of cloth. "I know this'll sting, but bear with me, ok?" The Pokemon opened its mouth and spat out some more flames, but other than that, it remained remarkably quiet. After a few minutes, it shakily stood up, and suddenly the tail flame was burning much brighter than before.
"That seems to have done the trick for now. Are you ready to get back home?" Keath asked. The Pokemon growled and stamped it's foot. "Huh, you're quite the Hasty one, can't even wait till dawn. I think we'll manage though. Hey, it'll be like our own adventure!"
Flicking on the flashlight, Keath trudged towards the forest path, followed closely by the little lizard-like Pokemon with a round head and flaming tail...

The leaves swished and flickered over their heads, the branches slowly rising up and down in the breeze. Occasionally, they could hear a few creaks, a few sleepy chirps, but other than that there was no noise.
"Walking through a forest in the middle of the night, who would have imagined? We've been walking for a few hours already, so we should be getting to the edge soon. Still, I got my flashlight here, and your tail flame's pretty bright, so nothing should attack us...AAAAHH!!!" Suddenly, Keath jumped back when he saw a long, looming shadow near the trunk of the tree he was facing. The shadow appeared distrorted and flickery in the combined light of the torchlight and fire, and it slowly creeped towards Keath. "W-w-w-what is that?" Keath quavered, raising the torch slightly higher and taking a few steps back. The lizard Pokemon, however, went forward and round the other side of the trunk t o investigate. It made a loud growl, and the shadow stepped into the light.
"It's...just a...what is that?" Indeed, staring at Keath was a small, caterpillar like Pokemon, green and reddish-yellow in colour, slowly crawling around the ground with not a care in the world. "Heh, and I was scared of that little thing? Pfft..." With that, Keath held up his map and took a long look at it. "We've been walking along this path, so we should be somewhere around here *points at a spot in the map*...so it should be just a little bit more till we're clear of the forest..." The Pokemon also came closer and tried to look at the map. "Hey, you can't read maps by any chance, can you?" No response. "Figured as much. Oh well, let's keep going then!"
At that moment, Keath heard a faint, buzzing noise. Very soft at first, but getting louder by the minute. Keath broke into a rapid trot and tried to ignore the noise, but it just kept increasing, almost as if it was following them. Suddenly, something burst out through the trees, missing Keath's head by inches. In an instant, dozens of dark shapes surrounded them, making the still night air shimmer and hum. "Whoa, what the heck is happening!" yelled Keath, swinging around the torchlight around his head, while the Pokemon spat out a gout of flame into the air, making a couple of the shapes scatter, but more of them closed in. Keath made out bulbous, red eyes, white buzzing wings and large, drill-like stings, as big as one's palm, in the narrow beam of the torchlight. "Why are we being attacked? I thought Pokemon wouldn't come out from tall grass, and we're still on the path..." It was then Keath noticed that those Pokemon weren't coming towards him specifically, but to the lizard Pokemon's tail flame, and his torchlight. "So they follow the light. That must have been what attacked the little guy" As the Pokemon inched closer, buzzing ever more loudly, Keath suddenly had an idea.
Bending his arm, Keath flung the torchlight back towards the path he had come from. That distracted about half of the attackers, but the rest still advanced towards them. As quick as possible, Keath scooped up the lizard Pokemon and dashed across the path at full speed.
"When you can't fight, it's best to run away" Keane thought to himself. "Just stick to the path...stick to the path...." He could feel the Pokemon slashing at his back, tearing through his t-shirt. Suddenly, the lizard Pokemon was up on his shoulder, and it belched some flames right past his ear, at the attackers, making them scatter and fall back.
"Nice! Keep that up for a bit buddy, and we'll be right across in no time..."

The Sun was just rising as the old man pulled open the curtains. "Another glorious day," he thought to himself, "it's always bright and sunny here in Kanto." However, he was feeling anything but bright. It had already been 2 days since that Charmander had gone missing. "Why did it even have to run away," he wondered bleakly. "I know that Squirtle was bothering him with that constant stream of bubble, but still...I'd asked Officer Jennie to search for him, but that damned forest is so huge, he could be anywhere. Guess I'll just have to call..."
At that exact moment, there was a loud knock on the door. "Strange, who can be here this early," thought the old man, as he went to the unlocked the door and swung it open. Right in front of him stood a young boy, panting heavily, with short, messy brown hair, wearing a faded green t-shirt tattered in numerous places and a pair of black shorts. In his arms he carried an orange, round, lizard like Pokemon which was scratched in many places. The boy looked to be in equally bad shape. "The sign here says *huff huff* Pokemon Professor *huff huff* Oak's Lab *huff*. Are you Professor Oak?" "Yes, that's me," replied the professor, slightly taken aback by the sudden visitor at his doorstep. "Slow down, what's going on?"
"Well, I found this *huff* Pokemon near my village, and it pointed me towards Pallet Town. Are you it's *huff* owner?" blurted the boy. "Ah, yes, Charmander, there you are! I was beginning to get worried about him. Come in, come in. What's your name again?" "Keath", the boy replied, as he shuffled into the lab.
"Whoa, this place is so cool..." murmured Keath as he stared around the lab. There were numerous shelves, lined with various different objects. Some had jars filled with multi-coloured liquids, some had strange smelling herbs and ointments, while others had some small, red balls. Others were stacked high with papers and books, and there was even a few strange, grey devices. "Keath," Professor Oak said, "thanks a lot for getting Charmander back here, but how did you both end up in such condition?" "We had to come through a part of Viridian Forest to get here, and then these large, flying Pokemon with stings attacked us, so we had to make a run for it," said Keath. "Must have been Beedrills, they're pretty active at this time of the year...anyway, you managed to get here alone?" asked the Professor. "Yeah, it wasn't that bad, plus that Pokemon was very helpful...what did you say was its name again? questioned Keath. "Charmander...it's called Charmander. And where did you say you were from again, Keath?" "Opal Village, it's some way off to the other side of lower Viridian Forest, close to Mt. Hideaway," replied Keath, slowly, slightly closing his eyes. "Oh, you must be very tired, walking all night. Here, lie down on the bed and catch a quick nap. I'll get someone to patch up those cuts, and you rest up," Professor Oak said, as he walked out of the laboratory. The last thing Keath saw as he dozed off was Charmander hopping onto his chest and curling up, it's tail glowing warm.
"Whoa, where am I... oh yeah, the lab" Keath thought, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He raised his arms upto his face, and saw a few bandages, but there was very little pain. "You're awake! You've been sleeping for a few hours now," said a soft, clear voice. Keath looked around and saw a woman with a pleasant face and shoulder-length brown hair. "Feeling better now?" "Yes, thank you..." Charmander yawned and pawed at Keath's face. "Hey buddy, you awake too? That's great...ah, sorry, um...thanks for taking care of me, Ma'am..." Keath ended uncertainly. The woman laughed a little, and said, "Ah! The Professor told me all about your little adventure Keath. That was very brave, getting Charmander back here in the middle of the night." "Um, that was nothing..." replied Keath shyly. "Don't be so modest. Your parents must be worried sick about you." "No, I don't...have any parents, I'm an orphan" mumbled Keath. "That must be so sad Keath...I'm sorry," the woman mused, silent for a few moments. "But look at you! Here, I brought you a change of clothes, you can't possibly walk around in that." And with that, she put a clean, black t-shirt, a red jacket and a pair of baggy blue pants on the chair beside him.
"Ah, thanks a lot, that jacket is so cool....wow...." Keath pored over the clothes as if he had never seen anything like them before. "My son always wore this wardrobe, it was his favorite." the woman said absent-mindedly. "Where is he now?" Keath asked. "Oh, having his own amazing adventure by now..." the woman replied in that same far off voice. "Thanks again," began Keath, "but can I, um, keep my shorts? They're comfy and easy..." "What are you saying?" the woman suddenly cut him off, her voice stern now. "I said you need something better to wear, right? Now hurry up, put it on!"
Soon, Keath was done changing. "You look just like my son! I'm sorry I don't have a cap though, he took all of them with him.." "Oh, so you're up Keath," interrupted Professor Oak. "Yeah...I should probably be heading back now, the villagers might get a little worried..." Keath said, as he took a few steps towards the door...and then he saw Charmander following right behind him. "He seems to have gotten attached to you already Keath, now you can't just leave him here," said Professor Oak. "Really...ah, ok then, um..." Keath said, slightly flustered, as he bent down to look at Charmander. "You wanna come with me, Charmander? But Opal Village is a pretty boring place, and I don't think they'll like me having a Pokemon..." "Keath, it's more important that a Pokemon chooses a trainer, than a trainer choosing a Pokemon. When a Pokemon willingly decides to follow the trainer, you will know that a true friendship has been formed." said Professor Oak. "Trainer?" Keath asked blankly. "Oh, you don't know about Pokemon trainers Keath...hmm...but Charmander is a starter Pokemon after all...oh, fine then. Listen Keath, a Pokemon trainer is a person who catches Pokemon and works together with them to win battles, earn gym badges, face other trainers... there's so much to it! Most importantly though, they go off on adventures with their Pokemon. Do you want that Keath?"
Keath's eyes suddenly lit up. "An adventure? I've always wanted to go on an adventure...but my village, what do I..." "Don't worry about that, you told them you were coming here, right?" "Yes, I left a note..." "Then all right! When someone comes over, I'll tell them I sent you off to do some errands for me. If you're tired of adventuring, you can always drop by your village," assured Professor Oak. "So..."
"Yes, of course I want to go! This is going to be...wow, thanks a lot Professor!" The Professor chuckled, and said, "Oh hang on, take this," and handed Keath a brown leather backpack and one of those small, grey devices. "This here is a Pokedex. It'll have almost all the information you need. The backpack should have all the other essentials for now. Your next stop should be Viridian City. Take good care of that Pokedex Keath, it contains the data of all my research over the years."
"Yes I will! Charmander, you ready?" Charmander growled and hopped up on Keath's shoulder. "Hah, you really like this spot then." Another soft growl. And with that, Keath dashed off out through the door, but then he stopped at the doorway and turned.
"Thanks again Professor Oak, and you too Ma'am. I'll try and have a great adventure. Bye now!"
The Professor smiled and said, "Would you look at that. He looked so much like Red just then." "Yes, he did. But I just realized it...he's also different..." the woman said.
P.S - Keath is NOT the shorts kid. I just couldn't resist

"Whoa, so that's how you catch Pokemon!" exclaimed Keath, looking at the instruction guide written in his Pokedex. "Do I have any Pokeballs though," he added, rummaging around his backpack for a few minutes, before locating five of the small, round red balls he had learnt to be Pokeballs.
"Charrgghhhh" Charmander half-moaned, half growled and rubbed at his tummy. "Oh, you hungry now? Yeah, we've been going through Route 1 for a while now...we'll get something once we get to Viridian City. In the meantime, why don't you just...umm...have some of these biscuits, yeah?" Hastily, Keath passed the half-eaten packet of biscuits at Charmander, the only food item in the entire bag, which he gulped down in two bites. "Seriously though, an adventure is great and all, but how am I supposed to get supplies for the journey? I shouldn't have run off so fast from Pallet Town...maybe I'll understand more once I make it to Viridian City. " Keath thought dismally, scratching his head and trudging along the path.
Soon, Charmander was up on his shoulder again. "Tired of walking already? By the way, let me check what you're good at," Keath said, opening his Pokedex and looking up the Pokemon entry on Charmander. "Hmm...it says you're a fire type Pokemon..." Keath pointed the Pokedex at Charmander's face until it made a beep noise, the read the updated entry again. "It says here you're level 8, and you can use Scratch, Growl and Ember. I know for a fact you're always growling, and the flame you spit must be Ember, so scratch must be..." Right at that moment, Charmander scratched at Keath's face, missing his eye by millimeters and nearly making him fall over, then pointed at his tummy again. "...that" finished Keath.
"Well, the map says Viridian City's just around fifteen minutes away" Keath said, poring intently over the Town Map he found in his bag. Suddenly, Keath heard a rustling noise from the tall grass located beside the path. "Wonder what's in there." Keath wondered, and went off to the side and started clearing the grass with his hands. Charmander began to growl slightly again. "Wait, hang on, I gotta see what's in here...WHOAAA!!!" In a flash, a flock of small, brownish-white birds flew out of the grass and straight past Keath's face, startling him so much that he fell flat on his back. However, he managed to turn around and extract his Pokedex from his pocket, and pointed it at the birds flying away, till the Pokedex made another little beep noise. "Pidgey...hmm, those were around level 3 to 6, and can use Tackle, Sand Attack and Gust. Argh, if only I wasn't taken by surprise, I might have caught one....oy, what's pecking at my head?!?" Slowly, Keath put a palm on the back of his head, and felt something soft, feathery and fluffy...and SHARP!
"OW OW OW!!!" Startled by Keath's shouts, Charmander quickly used Ember on Keath's head, but (thankfully) missed, only singing a few of his hairs in the process. "Watch it, whoa! Calm down Charmander! My palm just got cut, I'm fine...what cut me anyway," Keath said, finally turning around. Immediately, one of those brownish-white birds tried to hop onto Keath's face, which Keath narrowly dodged.
"A Pidgey! Yes, I can catch it! Charmander, use Scratch on it!" Charmander leapt forward and clawed at the small Pidgey with his paw. The Pidgey tried to hop aside, but it hit him on the wing, and took a few feathers off. "Nice! Again!" But before Charmander could use Scratch again, the Pidgey leapt up and fiercely flapped it's wings, kicking up a dust cloud and blinding them. "Must be *cough* sand attack!* Quick Charmander, let's move out of here." Keath and Charmander ran back to the path, and spotted the Pidgey trying to fly away, but struggling to gain altitude. "Don't let it get away. Use Ember!" Charmander spat a small ball of flame at the Pidgey, but missed. "Slowly now, take aim, and try again." This time, the flame hit him squarely on the back, and the Pidgey flopped down on the ground. Keath grabbed a Pokeball from the bag, and tossed it at the Pidgey. As soon as it hit the bird, an eerie red light surrounded it, and it was sucked into the ball, which vibrated for a few moments before becoming still again. "So...did I catch it?" Keath asked out loud, cautiously walking over and picking up the Pokeball, and pressed the button at its centre. The strange red light appeared again, and in a moment the Pidgey was back out again...and back to pecking at Keath's face again. "Stop it, does my face look like food to you? Huh, don't be so Naive!"
Having finally un-entangled the Pidgey from his hair, Keath set him down on the ground. The Pidgey tilted it's head to the side, and made a curious chirping noise. It was then he noticed that one of the wings was slightly bent, the feathers ruffled at an odd angle. It's back was also slightly burnt from that Ember attack. "So that's why you didn't fly away with the rest of the flock, hmm...looks like you're hurt as well. Come on, I'm not a Pokemon Doctor, am I? First Charmander, and now you...wait, lemme check my Pokedex for something" Keath pulled out his Pokedex and searched something on it for a few moments. "Ah, got it! It says here that injured Pokemon should be taken to a Pokemon centre for treatment...most cities also have a Pokemon Centre. So I guess we better get to Viridian City as soon as possible now!" exclaimed Keath, satisfied with having found a solution. "Here now, lemme just get you back in your Pokeball," but before Keath could do so, the Pidgey had already hopped onto Keath's shoulder and was nipping at his ear. Charmander growled and made a face, as if to say, "Hey, that's my place!"
"Come on now, I can't have every Pokemon hitching a ride on my shoulder....*sigh*"

"Ah, here we are. About time too," Keath thought, as he stared at the large sign to the side of the road, which read "VIRIDIAN CITY". "How about you two get OFF my shoulders now?" he implored. Indeed, almost every person passing by them had paused and turned a curious eye, with one or two even starting to approach him, but then turned away. But both Pidgey and Charmander remained unmoving. "Argh, fine then. Pokemon centre...that must be it!" Keath spotted a large building with a green roof, and a big poke-ball sign on it, which he recognized as the Pokemon centre from the tutorial in the Pokedex. Quickly, he walked over to the Pokemon centre, and the automated doors slid open, letting him enter.
"Oh...ah, is it...Oh, Hello there!" A cheerful voice called out. "Welcome to the Pokemon Centre. Would you like to get your Pokemon healed?" "Oh, yes please, umm..." "I'm Nurse Joy" said a young lady with pink hair and wearing a white apron. Keath walked over to the front desk and put down Charmander and Pidgey. "Ah, finally," Keath sighed, stretching his arms out, and then depositing their pokeballs at the desk. "Just give me a few minutes here while I get your Pokemon all fixed up," Nurse Joy said. "So, are you a new trainer?" "Uh, yes, how did you know?" Keath inquired. "Many young, aspiring trainers often stop by Viridian City while starting their journeys, plus you have only two Pokemon with you so far." "Oh ok." Keath paused for a few moments, and then blurted out, "But what am I supposed to do next? I don't even have any supplies with me right now..." "Oh, so you don't know?" Nurse Joy asked curiously. "Know what?"
"I guess I need to make a trainer card for you now." "What's that?" Keath questioned Nurse Joy. "Well," Nurse Joy explained as she bent down to retrieve a large brown box from a lower compartment of the desk, "a trainer card basically contains the details about yourself, like your name and Pokemon, but more importantly, shows that you are a Pokemon trainer. It's also used to record important events in your journey, like the date when you started your journey and how many Pokemon you have caught so far. Furthermore," she added, fiddling with the cover of the box now, "Pokemon Centers aren't just to heal Pokemon. If you show your card at a Pokemon Center as verification, you'll get food supplies for you and your Pokemon, along with a fixed amount of money to buy more supplies, like Pokeballs and Potions. You can only do this once every 7 days though. There we go, here, fill this in," Nurse Joy said, handing Keath a small, blue, rectangular card with some empty boxes in them. "Ok then, I think I understand that. So for now I'll just write down my name and the day I started my journey." Keath said. "Yes, that's all you need for now, and then I'll be able to verify you as a Pokemon Trainer."
"Looks pretty cool" Keath commented, holding the card upto his face and checking out the details. " "It does a lot more though," Nurse Joy continued to explain, "See the black strip at the left edge? You can put a corner of it inside your Pokedex, it's configured to synchronize your latest data from the Pokedex into your trainer card." "Impressive, but what's the use of synching it?" Keath asked. "Well, whenever you battle an opponent, be it another trainer or a Gym Leader, it's recorded in your Pokedex. This record is then transferred into your trainer card, and it's especially meant to show the number of wins. It also automatically classifies each opponent as a different trainer class, so each win has a unique value. You can then use these records to earn credits, which are used as money, in Pokemon Shops. It's then used to buy other equipment from the shops." Nurse Joy finished with a slight sigh, and said, "There, all done with your Pokemon." "Thanks a lot Nurse Joy, you sure know a lot!" "Well, I'm capable of more than just healing Pokemon, you know," she replied with a wink. "There should be some money in the card already, so head over to the Pokemon Shop now to see what you need."
"Sure thing!" Keath said happily, grabbing the Pokeballs and his Trainer Card with a flourish.
P.S - Sorry it's a bit small...