[Pokémon] Hatching a Ninja Journey

When I was about three and a half, I made a wish that changed my life forever. What was the wish? I wished to be away from my abusive family and with someone that did love me and wouldn't beat me.

"Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, I wish to have this wish tonight," I whispered, repeating something I'd heard someone on the playground at preschool say. Of course, I was only in preschool so I wouldn't be around all the time, given that I wouldn't start kindergarten for more than a year. "I wish, I wish, I wish I could be somewhere I won't get beaten up or called mean names."

There was a bright flash of light, and then a creature appeared.

I'm Jirachi, it told me. I heard your wish, and it's my duty to grant wishes. Come with me, and I'll take you somewhere you'll be loved and cared for.

"Okay," I decided. "I'll come with you. Where are we going?"

You'll see, Jirachi told me and another flash of light filled my vision. When it cleared, I was in a grassy field, instead of sitting on a concrete driveway like I had been. Two men ran out of a house as Jirachi vanished.

"Was that Jirachi, Connor?" one asked the other.

"Yeah, and it left already. Bummer," the other replied. "Hello. Who's this?" he asked. "Travis, get over here, there's a little kid in the field! I'm Connor. What's your name?"

"I'm Evan. Jirachi brought me here. Where I lived before I was always getting called really mean names and getting beaten up," I told Connor. "They always screamed at me. Do you know why they did that? 'Cause I don't. I didn't do anything mean to them, so why were they so mean to me?"

"Well, Evan, some people are just really mean to other people without having any good reason," the other man, Travis, told me.

"Jirachi said that it wouldn't be like that here. Will you be nicer to me that they were?" I pleaded with the twin brothers.

They took far better care of me than my "real" guardians ever did, and slowly they came to be something like father/older brother-figures to me. They taught me about all the Pokémon they knew about. Around my fourth birthday, a visit to the doctor revealed a slow-progressing heart-weakening disease which would probably eventually spread to other organs or parts of my body. There wasn't a very good medicine for the condition, so my guardians made one themselves.

Around a year after that, when I was five, they started taking in other kids with variations of the same condition I had, making sure all the kids had access to the medicine they needed. Mostly the others were orphans living in orphanages, and they took older kids who'd gone longer without access to the medication first, then moved to progressively younger kids from there.

About a month before my tenth birthday, they gave me a trio of Pokémon Eggs. I ran everywhere—did as many errands as I could, delivered most of the Eggs Travis and Connor bred for people, and in general did anything that involved walking/running until my own Eggs hatched. Out of them came my first three Pokémon: Litten, Chespin, and Piplup. Now all I had to do was get my license from Professor Oak, the Pokémon professor in the first region I would be traveling in, the Kanto region.

About the time Connor and Travis were born, their dad had a brilliant idea for a new way to battle with Pokémon, something that appealed to someone who was maybe more of a risk taker. In this style of battle, trainers battle with their Pokémon and Pokémon battle in teams of three with the trainer. The first three Pokémon a shinobi-style Trainer starts with make up their Big Three trio, like a civilian-style Trainer's starter Pokémon. But shinobi, unlike civilians, mostly prefer to hatch their Pokémon and raise them from Eggs, instead of catching them and raising them from that point on.

Connor and Travis knew that the kids they'd raised would want to be just like them, and so the trained us all to be shinobi, just like them. I'd poured over guides and manuals of Pokémon, all so I could have a balanced, well-rounded Big Three, and I'd finally decided on three. First was Litten, the Fire-type starter in the Alola region, who would be a Fire- and Dark-type called Incineroar when he was fully evolved; next was Chespin, the Grass-type starter in the Kalos region, whose final evolved form was a Grass- and Fighting-type, Chesnaught. Last was Piplup, whose final evolved form Empoleon was a Water- and Steel-type; it was the Sinnoh region Water starter. I know that I don't really have any Pokémon that are great against Flying-types, but I can use one Pokémon to cover another's weaknesses.

The night before three of us—Professor Oak's grandson Gary, a girl who'd come to live with our guardians about two years ago named Willow, and me— set off, we were staying in Travis and Connor's friend's basement in Pallet Town, watching re-runs of old ninja league battles, as I said. We stayed up a little later than we ought to have, but it wasn't like I'd never gone to bed late when I had to get up early the next day. I'd done that exact same thing several times, in fact.

The next morning at eight sharp, I was very rudely awakened by my guardians' idea of a bit of morning fun: declaring in very loud voices that it was time to get up, and yanking my blankets off of me. I swore at them using words I'd learned since I'd started living with them, words they used all the time. The pair just beamed proudly at me, before tossing me my clothes. Willow and Gary got worse: they got icy water dumped on them; the only reason I didn't get the same treatment is because my affinity is fire and because being cold and wet are two big things that could make my illness flare up suddenly.

I rummaged through all my gear to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I had goggles that would protect my fiery red eyes if I ever had to travel through a desert, a few extra changes of clothes, my PJs of course, my red baseball cap that I promptly pulled out to put on after I got my license from Professor Oak, and a stethoscope that Connor and Travis forced on me to be used by Gary or Willow twice a day every day.

I also had my sleeping bag, extra Pokéballs for if/when I hatched more Pokémon, money for supplies, potions and stuff to heal my Pokémon if they got hurt, the heart medicine Connor and Travis created, food for me, food for my Pokémon, and a pair of red-painted stainless steel water bottles. Travis found them at a Mart when he was delivering an Egg and decided that since I would need a water bottle or two eventually, he might as well save me the money and buy them for me now.

"You missing anything, or is everything there?" Connor called from the other room. Or was it Travis instead? I still can't tell the two apart by voice alone. "You've got your hat, goggles, stethoscope, sleeping bag, Pokéballs, food and medicine for you and your Pokémon, and your water bottles? If you forget something you'll have to wait until you get to a Pokémon Center before we can send it to you."

"Yes, I have everything, don't worry," I called back. It was something of a ritual between us: I told them not to worry, and they worried anyway, because they're my guardians and that's their job.

The two repeated the listing of essential supplies with Gary and Willow, with only minor differences in the list; neither of them needed a stethoscope, but would need other equipment to monitor the progression of their conditions.

The three of us hurried over to Professor Oak's research lab, eager to finally start our journeys after dreaming about it for so many years.

"So," I murmured to Willow and Gary as we walked in. "You three as nervous as I am about finally starting our journeys?"

Willow gave me a look like I was being really, really dumb, but told me that as long as she had her Amaura Shimo, her Fletchling Phoenix, and Joltik Anansi, she would be fine; I wasn't convinced. Gary just said that of course he was, but there was no point in talking about it because it wasn't like any of us was about to back out now.

I volunteered to go first, so I ran to go see Professor Oak, who looked amused at our discussion as he handed me a Pokédex and Hitai-ate and officially registered my Big Three with the Kanto League, which I decided to tie onto my left arm, not my head after all, before I stuck my hat on my head. Gary and Willow would tease me about having hat hair when I took it off, but I was used to that; the two were really my brother and sister in every way that counts, so teasing was only to be expected.

Willow declared that she would go next and went to get her Pokédex and Hitai-ate and register her team. Gary was last; he took the longest, but his grandpa was probably talking to him about more than just the usual professor stuff.

Once Gary came back, we set off. We talked about finding some of the older kids who'd set off in the past year until we came across a Pidgey. "Who gets to fight it?" I asked. "Obviously neither of us wants to catch it, so how do we decide who gets to fight the thing?"

"We could draw paper out of Blackie's hat," Willow suggested, making a face at me. Blackie was her nickname for me, in retaliation for me calling her Blondie and making dumb blonde jokes.

"Works for me," Gary agreed, rummaging in his backpack. "I've got some paper."

He got the paper torn up into roughly equal pieces and drew an X on one of them, two X's on another, and left the last blank.

"One X goes first, or one X goes second?" Willow asked before I drew.

We decided that a single X would go first, the double X paper would stand for second, and the blank paper would be last.

Since I drew the since two-X paper, I took a moment to decide which of my Pokémon would battle the Pidgey. I decided that Casey would be the one to do battle, once it was my turn.

I saw a few Pidgey hiding in the grass and threw a rock at them as Willow called dibs and sent out her Amaura Shimo. Shimo took them out with some difficulty seeing as she was a Rock- and Ice-type, but she didn't have any good Rock- or Ice-type moves to use against the Normal- and Flying-type Pidgey, but she won eventually.

I spotted another one lurking and chucked another rock at it, telling Willow that this one was mine, since she and Shimo and already fought the first one. The rock hit and the Pokémon flew at us revealed a very different Pokémon than the one I originally thought it was: instead of a gentle Pidgey that would just fly up and maybe away, my rock had hit a Spearow who was now completely infuriated with us. I sent Casey to do battle with it; unfortunately, Casey hadn't fully perfected his aiming ability with ranged fire attacks and was defeated, even if he made the Spearow work for it. I called him back into his Pokéball.

We dodged the attacks it threw at us and finally Willow managed to hit it with a sort of light technique that would knock it out for a minute. The dumb Spearow quickly got back up and started calling for something, probably reinforcements.

Sure enough, the dumb thing had to go and call for reinforcements. I had Birch, but he was a Grass-type, which meant sending him out to battle a group of angry Spearow was a Very Bad Idea. Zabuza was a Water-type, but had the same aiming trouble as Casey, so eventually I decided to send him out; my Mudkip shot off Water Gun after Water Gun, but just couldn't get all of them. They started pecking him with their beaks; unable to stand my Pokémon—my family—getting hurt like that, I ran to him and scooped him up before I started running as fast as I possibly could towards the nearest Pokémon Center. Willow and Gary ran with me until we came to a waterfall.

"Here goes something!" I declared; I turned my hat backwards, secured my hitai-ate and jumped off into the water, Zabuza still in my arms. I heard my brother and sister do the same behind me.

The current swept us downstream; we saw a few different Pokémon, including a Gyarados, something I really didn't want to run into, especially while my Pokémon weren't at full strength.

Finally I saw something that looked like a fishing line and had the brilliant idea to use it to pull myself out of the water; the other two took the smart approach, grabbing the bank to haul themselves out. I on the other hand got flung around, holding onto the line, and crashed behind the girl whose line I'd grabbed.

"Ah, it's just a dumb little brother," she exclaimed disappointedly, as if my grabbing her line was nothing more than an inconvenience. "And your Pokémon, too! Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered shortly.

"Not you, I know you're not okay. Look what you've done to the poor little thing. Is he still breathing?" she wanted to know, obviously talking about Zabuza.

I stammered that yes, my Mudkip was breathing; my redheaded older sister barked at me to not just sit there, 'cause Zabuza and I both needed a doctor immediately. I wasn't totally sure where the other two she'd been travelling were, but I knew they couldn't be far.

"There's a medical center not too far from here; you've got to get moving now!" Misty ordered sternly.

"You mean like a hospital for Pokémon or a regular old Pokémon Center?" I clarified. At her shouted affirmative, I asked my next question. "Great, now which way do I go?"

She pointed in the direction it was in, but anything else she may have said was cut off by the flock of Spearow that were coming after Willow, Gary, and me.

Misty had a bike with a basket; that gave me an idea—a bike could go faster than I could run even on a good day. In my current condition, I really couldn't run all that fast; like I said before, cold, wet, and other stressors like extreme hunger and exhaustion my illness flare up—the worse the stressor, the worse I felt.

"Hope you don't mind if I borrow your bike, big sis," I called, clambering on and starting to pedal towards the hospital; Willow sat behind me, while Gary ran along behind as fast as he could. After the sister in question protested that it was her bike and not mine, I promised to give it back when she caught up. I really meant to give it back, but Misty didn't believe for a second I'd be able to keep it in good enough shape for her to ride it after I was done.

And then as if the day wasn't bad enough, the sky clouded over and I heard thunder. It would start to rain soon, and then my strength would be sapped even more. Swell. "Just hang in there Zab, we're getting pretty close now! We'll make it, no matter what I have to do!"

And then it really did start to rain; the day went from bad to worse to worst. I pedaled frantically, even over a short cliff, but my haste proved to be my undoing—the bike landed, but soon started to lean and fall over, sending Willow, Zabuza, and me sprawling in different directions. "Zabuza," I cried; heart pounding, gasping for breath, I slowly crawled over to where my Pokémon was.

The Spearow descended on us, so I stood in front of the flock, arms out, mentally daring them to attack me instead of the injured Mudkip I was protecting. My breath still came in halting gasps, and my heart was pounding harder and more erratically than before, but I stood there and silently dared them to attack my family.

Behind me, Willow was urging my Pokémon to come with her and make a break for the Pokémon Center, but he wasn't having it and I could tell he insisted that he wouldn't leave me.

"Come and get me, morons!" I bellowed through my gasps for breath. Casey apparently heard my declaration as he summed up the last of his strength and let off a huge and extremely overpowered Flamethrower that, despite the rain, was one of the biggest I'd ever seen him use.

The Spearow were fried and turned tail and flew away; unfortunately, the bike was also fried, but at least the weather had cleared up. "We beat 'em good, huh, Casey?" I asked, and he gave a soft "kip" of agreement.

There was a rainbow in the distance, and a beautifully majestic Pokémon flying into the rainbow. I'd heard stories about some Pokémon that were so strong and so rare that there were very few of them, called Legendary Pokémon. I wondered if this was one such Legendary Pokémon.

Shoving the mysterious and possibly Legendary Pokémon from my mind, I pulled myself up again as Gary caught up; the combined power of Zabuza and the Spearow's attacks had knocked me down. I saw as Willow did the same out of the corner of my eye; the three of us began our slow trek to hospital anew and finally we reached the town. I nearly sagged with relief, but had to hold it in until we reached the hospital. Finally, our first day as a trainer was over, and we were all in one piece.

Like the story so far. Looking forward to you posting more. I found a few places where you forgot to put a space between the lines. First is when Jirachi speaks for the first time and Evan decides to go with him. Next is when Evan starts explaining about how Connor and Travis' dad created the Shinobi Trainer system. After that it's when Misty points them in the direction of the Pokémon Center. Then finally it's when the Spearow are descending on them. Good luck with the rest of the editing.