Subject: Pallet
Posted by: pry_goon
I'm sure most of you have heard of Pallet. Probably because of Blue and Leaf, though I guess I might have had a hand in it too. Anyways, Pallet is what you'd expect from a leafy little hamlet. No Pokemon Clinic or 'proper' retail center. Yeah, we're real backwoods. The only real export we have is the multitude of berry species that grow in the uniquely fertile soil underneath our town. I find it kind of weird really; plant a seed in the ground and within a few days a fully bloomed tree stands in its place. There are dozens of theories about why this happens. The mystery would probably have been solved a long time ago if Professor Oak took an interest in anything besides studying Pokemon. My favorite is that the overpopulation of Tangela spurs on some miracle in the berry seeds, though my mother being a certified Tangela breeder might have something to do with it.
People like to leave home. Running away to have adventures in the forest is apparently common in children. I had a thirst for seeing faraway places, but mom was a single parent after dad's job took him overseas so if I left it'd just be her alone in our house. It took a lot of convincing to get me to leave on that stupid 'mission' of Oak's. I still regret getting so caught up in travelling that I didn't visit very much. I miss her.
The stairs squeaked. A few seconds later my mother was standing at the entrance to the living room looking at me with an all too familiar exasperated expression. I shifted nervously on the sofa.
"Red, when did you get up?"
"Just a minute ago." I kept my eyes on the television.
"I asked you to make your bed yesterday. You never make it without being reminded. Funny thing, it was made when I went to wake you up. So try again, kiddo."
"…"
"What was that?"
"I didn't go to bed," I mumbled.
"I thought you were going to sleep right after Lance's match?"
My face lit up like a Squirtle tickling a Voltorb. "I know mom, but the match didn't end until thirty minutes ago! Second longest match in the League's history: 9 hours and 37 minutes!"
"You know Professor Oak wanted to see you this morning, right? Being dead tired isn't going to do you any good."
"What did he want?"
She smiled predatorily. "I told you it's a surprise. Now get cleaned up, and please take Thorn with you. She's still not house-broken."
I left the house thirty minutes later with my hair still a little bit wet and a small Tangela trudging along behind me, stopping every few feet to jump in a puddle with its red boots. If she kept this up all day she might become part ground type.
We lived on the far west side of town, only a block away from being considered the outskirts. It usually didn't take long to get to the Pokemon lab in the center of town, especially on my bike, but baby Pokemon aren't known for their punctuality. The clock tower in the modest park outside town hall was finishing its chime as I stopped in front of the lab, on the opposite side of the park.
Wedging the front door open with my foot, I reached down grabbing Thorn and then walked deeper into the front lobby. Everyone says Oak's lab looks like a library. That's because the front half is technically the town's entire compendium of knowledge, discounting the magazines sold on a stand at the marketplace.
A throat cleared to my left. Someone with a copy of Breeder's Digest was behind the counter, though they looked only a little older than me.
"Excuse me, but can I help you?"
"I… Professor Oak wanted to see me at 8 o'clock?" When I'm nervous everything sounds like a question.
The magazine dropped and from behind it appeared the prettiest girl in all of Pallet, Daisy Oak.
"Hey, Red! So he wanted to see you too? That's neat."
"Uh, what are you doing here, Daisy?"
"Oh, you know, just busywork. I needed some spending money for the Pokemon contest in Celadon. Stardust is going to win the beauty division, I know it!"
"Yeah, good luck. Uh, what about my appointment?"
"Hmm, let me check, let me check. Oh, right! Grandpa should be back any minute now. He had to take care of some business at the house." Daisy smiled. My heart went for a drum solo.
"You okay, Red? Your face is all…," she didn't finish the sentence, instead descending into an adorable fit of laughter.
More blood rushed to my face. "I… can I wait in the lab?"
"Sorry, sorry! Go through the door in back. You know the lab door? I'll tell him you're here when he gets in."
"T-thanks, Daisy."
"No problem, sweetie, and don't touching his things!"
I strolled through the aisles toward that door, though if anyone were to get hold of the film it might look more like an awkward 11 year old boy running away with a struggling shrubbery wearing shoes in his arms. The only thing on then-me's mind was how to woo the oh so mature 13 year old female Oak.
The Professor's lab smelled like bleach. The smell attacked your senses as soon as you entered the room; it even overpowered the mechanical whizzing of bland-looking machines that would have fit perfectly in old science fiction movies. The boring gray kind with bulky, monochromatic backlit buttons.
Running the length of the left side of the room were shelves and display cases with any sort of trinket you could imagine. Evolution stones were collected in a circular pattern like petals of a flower. Even the ones that weren't native to Kanto like Dusk, Dawn, and Shiny stones. Nearly a dozen types of incense in special painted boxes of delicate ceramic. I clutched Thorn tight and walked over to a particular piece that caught my attention every time I visited. It was a rock in the shape of a crown, or maybe an actual metal crown so old the rust made it look like stone. The one Oak had was found in the tomb of some old Sevii island king from long ago. My hand slowly crept closer toward it.
"Red! What are you doing?" I quickly scratched my nose and returned to holding my Tangela two-handed.
"Yo loser, Gramps asked you to come here too?"
I had been too enthralled by the King's Rock to notice my neighbors Leaf and Blue had showed up. Before I had time to respond, Leaf was already invading my personal space tickling Thorn and making that god awful cooing sound people think babies like. This one enjoyed them if the hard shoes kicking me in the gut were anything to go by.
"Your Grandpa asked my mom to have me be here," I glanced at Blue, "do you know why?"
"Sure do, not going to tell you though. That'd take all the fun out of it."
Leaf twirled on the spot and marched in front of him, batting her eyelashes. "Will you tell me?"
"Being all cutesy won't work on me, not like it does Red. One smile from Sis and he glows enough to evolve a Growlithe."
"Shut up, Blue!" Yeah, eloquent, I know. Banter wasn't my thing back then.
"Put your Pokemon where your mouth is, why don't you?"
Thorn cooed in my grip. "She's just a baby, and you don't even have a Pokemon."
"Not for long, dweeb. And I wasn't talking about your little houseplant…"
"Boys." Leaf sighed.
"What? You'll get your chance too."
"Blue Oak! I'm not 'borrowing' one of your Grandpa's Pokemon to battle with. Remember last time? We were banned for months!"
"Be patient, Gramps'll be here any second and everything will make sense."
I had returned to snooping around the lab with my eyes. Those two always fought like an old married couple. A lot of the kids from elementary had a bet about which one of them had Leaf Oak scrawled into their notebook. It would have been the only place you'd ever find that name.
"Ahh, children! You're all here on time, fantastic! I knew I picked the right ones for the job! Early birds get the worms and so forth."
"Gramps, you're losing me here. Can we hurry it up?"
"Enough of that, Blue. This is important and exciting and there's no need to rush through it. A day of celebration, even."
Leaf cleared her throat. "Professor, what did you ask us here for?"
"Right," he spoke grandly as he moved to the back of the lab, setting rectangular box down on a table against the wall, "I've asked you three here today for one simple reason: I want you to be the beta testers for a new invention of mine! It's really revolutionary, if I do say so. Imagine it, a device nearly the size of a wallet that stores up-to-date information on any Pokemon in the Kanto region. It even has pictures!"
"Aren't normal books enough? They make new ones every year," I asked.
"No, no! This is instantaneous. People in the field can input new information as they discover it! Access to footprints, habitat maps, and mutations within a species at their fingertips!"
"How are you going to get dial-up out in the Fuchsian Forest? Won't Pokemon eat the wires? You know, like that Pikachu you caught a couple days ago?" Blue was tapping his foot against the linoleum.
"This doesn't need any wired connections, it's wireless!"
"Wireless? Are you using dead Garvantula cables," Leaf asked shakily.
"No wires. Like the telepathy of psychic Pokemon, but using machines instead. We've gotten off track, though. I'd like to ask the three of you to use my device out in the field where it will be up against the elements. The technology is quite expensive to take to Silph for mass production, so it'd be best to have something that will last for a long time to come. The photo recognition also needs tested, it works fine here, but wild Pokemon aren't known for stopping for you to snap a picture. So are you interested?"
"Gramps, you forgot the other thing."
"Hmm? Yes! As an incentive, I'll also be giving you each a monthly stipend as interns for my lab. That should cover the cost of travel supplies and a modest amount of Pokeballs. Also, I've recently been to Floe Island in the Sevii chain and had three of my favorite Pokemon breed eggs. You may each choose one of the hatched offspring to help you on your journey. Sound good?"
"Hell yes, Professor!" I clasped a hand over my flushed face. Stupid over eagerness. The others expressed more restrained approval. Barely.
"Very well! I'm going to ask that you go by seniority, to keep things fair, so Leaf will be first. Go ahead, dear." He pointed at the box he'd placed down earlier.
Leaf strode forward and opened the box. Blue and I were attempting to look inside from a safe distance away, far enough that Oak wouldn't shoot us disapproving glances. There were three Pokeballs spaced evenly within the box, all with the same solid white bottom and see-through red top. What was inside each of them was entirely different. A grin spread across all three of our faces. They were some of Oak's rarest Pokemon, in cute child forms: Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. Leaf didn't even hesitate, sticking to her namesake she gingerly pulled out the Bulbasaur's capsule and giggled down at its tiny form as she walked back to our group.
"You can give them nicknames from your Pokedex anytime you wish, though once it's been registered with the Box System changing it is a hassle."
I scrunched my eyebrows together. "Pokedex? Box? What's that?"
"Zip it, doofus, you're next! I want to choose one this century!"
"Blue, enough."
Hearing Blue get chastised was a fun pastime, but I did want a Pokemon. As I looked down between the two, one of Thorn's tendrils moved toward the Squirtle. Probably some kind of territory marking, or it could sense that it was stronger as far as types went. Squirtle would be a good choice, though not the best. Thorn wouldn't like what I was about to do. Plucking Charmander's capsule from the box, I grinned down at it.
"Hey, buddy. Let's have fun together, okay?" Thorn shrank in on herself a bit.
"Well that took forever. Shove it." Blue nudged me out of the way, Thorn falling to the ground and running loose toward the library door. Oak swiftly dropped a Pokeball from his lab coat onto her head, capturing her in it. Blue turned back around with Squirtle clutched in his hand.
"Manners, boy," Oak sighed, "now that you've all chosen I'd like to give you your Pokedex and some Pokeballs to start you off with. Come now, it's best you pack your things and leave off before it gets too late."
When Leaf and Blue had already received their gifts and left, I approached the professor.
"Sorry about Thorn, sir. I don't think she took me picking a fire type too well."
"I should think not. Why did you choose that one, if I may ask?"
"Uh, Leaf had a grass type and Blue'd have to get a water type if I took this one," I said smiling at Charmander, "so once Thorn is trained up a bit I'll have an advantage over both of them."
"Don't get tied up in type matching, son. That's only a small step from sorting these wonderful creatures as weak and strong, or important and useless. Pokemon, like people, are more than a surface value, and if you give them a chance who knows what they'll grow into."
Back then I interpreted Professor Oak's response as a sign of approval, that his words were directed at Blue, but thinking on it I'm sure it was disappointment aimed at me. I was a dumb kid, still am sometimes.
"I won't."
He gave me the last Pokedex, a bright red one to go along with my name like he did with Blue and Leaf. Then he handed me four empty Pokeballs and the one that contained Thorn, who was officially my second Pokemon now.
"There's a gym in Viridian, if you want to take on that challenge. No doubt that's where Blue will head first. He'll want to battle you as well, so be prepared advantage or not."
"Sure, Professor."
"Good luck, Red."
I was so wrapped up in everything that had happened, I almost missed Daisy asking me to stop by her house as I left out the front door.