Yay! A review! Thanks Link2005! And I'll take a look at it. Well, here's chapter 1. Its somewhat of an introductory chapter.
Pokemon Emerald
Chapter One:
The Journey Begins: Enter Alex and May!
"Melany Stone, daughter of the president of Devon Inc., has been reported missing after having not been seen out of her home for almost two years. The famous archaeologist..."
Alex suddenly lost interest in the tv in the pokecenter. He would have changed the channel, but there were other people watching it.
"People go missing everyday..." , Alex thought to himself.
"Why should it matter if some rich brat disappears anymore than if an average citizen disappears? Oh right, because stories like that get better ratings for the media..."
Alex was an average looking 12 year old boy, just getting ready to start out as a pokemon trainer. He had just recently gotten his trainers card, and was currently in the Petalburg Pokemon Center on his way to Littleroot to receive his first pokemon. He was older than most beginner trainers, as he had no real interest in pokemon. He decided to study a bit though, more than most other trainers, and prepared some special equipment. Although he appeared average, short brown hair, brown eyes, and a slightly athletic looking build, he was fairly smart. He already had a pokedex, and downloaded information on all known species of pokemon. He was wearing a brown vest over a green shirt, pair of blue jeans, and a pair of running shoes. He had a belt strapped around his waist that had hooks for 6 pokeballs, his custom pokenav/pokedex on the opposite side, and a brown backpack for holding his items.
Alex wasn't in the pokecenter to get his pokemon healed, mainly because he had none. He was taking a short break in Petalburg after spending a week getting through the Petalburg Woods. He was lucky getting through the woods, since there weren't many pokemon that could bother him in the woods and he stayed in the open by jumping down the high ledges. He determined from looking at a map that he should be able to get through to Oldale with little to no trouble and then from Oldale to Littleroot. He was actually fairly lucky, because if he ran into a wild pokemon he was stuck fending for himself.
Alex left the pokemon center and started on his way out of the city. However, on his way out of the city he happened to hear something from one of the alleys, sounded like a fight.
He looked down the alley and saw 3 teenagers picking on a green haired kid. Alex decided to check it out. The three teenagers had the kid cornered into a wall, and were taking turns throwing punches at him. They didn't notice Alex enter the alley though.
"L-leave...me...a-a-lone..." the boy begged them.
"Not a chance, Wood! Since your leaving soon we need to pound you extra!" The bully speaking threw another punch into the kid's chest. Alex could tell he was in a lot of pain.
"Hey! Leave him alone!" he yelled to them. The three of them turned to face him.
"Want to try to stop us?!" Alex backed away, holding his hands up as if surrendering.
"N-now lets not do anything rash boys...I-I just don't think you should be picking on him!" The three of them sneered and started to move towards Alex.
"I think you should join your little friend here then!" The one doing all the talking threw a punch at Alex, but as the bully made his assault, Alex's expression suddenly changed to that of a more determined one.
Alex moved to the side slightly, the bully's fist just inches from his face. Alex wasn't overly strong, but he had good reflexes. Before the bully even had time to register what happened, Alex brought his fist up, connecting with the boy's chin, knocking him back slightly.
"You're going to pay for that you little pest!"
"Try me..." The bully backed up slightly, then charged at him. Alex quickly dropped to the ground, and shot his elbow into the boy's knee as he ran toward's him, causing him to fall over and miss Alex completely, and smashing his face off the ground.
Alex turned to the other two, "Wanna try your luck? Your both what? 3? 4 years older than me? Shouldn't be too hard for you to take down a kid right? ...But I suppose your buddy's been thinking the same thing."
The two looked at each other, then ran by Alex and out of the alley. The one Alex had been fighting soon got up and followed behind them, and Alex could have sworn he heard him crying. He quickly turned his attention to the kid.
"You ok?" The boy slowly stood up. Alex could tell he was hurt, but nothing serious.
"Y-yeah...I'm fine...thanks..."
"Don't mention it. I can't stand bullies. Name's Alex, by the way."
"I'm...I'm Wally." Alex nodded.
"Do they pick on you often?" Wally nodded slowly.
"Have you told the police? Or your parents?"
"N-no...they'd just beat me up more...I'm moving in a few days anyway..."
"You should learn to stand up for yourself...if you don't deal with your problems, they'll just get worse. Its a lesson I learned the hard way."
Wally looked at him, "Your strong though..."
Alex laughed, "Strong? Naw! Bullies just can't deal with people who try to stand up to them. They only go after whoever they think would be easy...anyway I have to go, I'm supposed to be heading to Littleroot to get my first pokemon. You should probably head home." Wally suddenly looked nervous.
"N-no! They'll be waiting for me! I wish I had a pokemon...then they wouldn't pick on me..."
Alex sighed, and looked back the way he came,
"I really need to get to Littleroot..but..." , he thought, then looked back at Wally.
"Tell you what, I'll walk you to your place. Those three are probably afraid of me at this point."
"R-really? But...why would you help me?"
"...Why should I need a reason to help someone? There's nothing to be gained from letting others suffer. Now come on."
Wally nodded, and started to walk out of the alley and towards his home, Alex following behind him and keeping an eye out for those three. He doubted they'd try anything out in the open though, especially with him there. He knew he hurt them very little physically, but he might as well have smashed their pride with a sledge hammer.
Wally soon stopped at a house near the other end of town, opposite the exit that'd lead Alex to Oldale.
"This is my place...thanks for your help."
"Anytime. Good luck on the whole moving thing by the way. Maybe you'll manage to get your own pokemon someday. Anyway, I really have to get going. See ya!"
"Bye...and thanks again..."
Alex turned and began walking back toward the other side of the city, where the exit to the route that leads to Oldale is. On his way he passed by the city's gym. Alex looked over the sign in front of the gym, it read, "Leader: Norman Maple." Alex thought to himself, "Despite this being the first gym I'll run across in my journey, it'll actually be the fifth I'll have to face as I recall. I hear this Norman guy is pretty good though..." Alex quickly ran toward the city's exit, he had lost time to make up for. Lucky for him, though, it was a relatively short distance from Petalburg to Littleroot. He planned to make a quick stop in Oldale though.
Meanwhile...
A 10 year old girl was riding in the back of a moving truck. She had short brown hair, but it went down to her shoulders on each side of her head, almost like a pair of drooping bunny ears. She was wearing a green bandana that she was almost never seen without, a red top with a white pokeball on the right side of it, a pair of black shorts and red shoes. She was May Maple, daughter of Norman Maple. As to why she was riding in the back of a moving truck...she was asking herself the same thing.
"This was a stupid idea, mom...I swear these boxes are all going to fall on me if we hit another...", her thoughts were interrupted as the moving truck hit a bump causing the boxes to shift around her. One of the boxes stacked above her looked like it was just about ready to fall on her, so she moved to the other end of the truck, sighing.
"We better get there soon...and I am never doing anything like this again...".
The truck finally came to a stop, the boxes shifting around some more as the truck's brakes were applied. Shortly after stopping, the back of the truck was opened and May eagerly made her way out of the truck. As soon as she got out, her mother came out of their new home to greet her. The house didn't look like anything overly fancy, in fact the town seemed fairly small and the only building she saw worth noting was the pokemon lab, the only one in Hoenn. In addition to studying pokemon there, it was also where you went to get your first pokemon. May was actually contemplating getting one, since she was old enough to become a trainer now.
"Oh honey, you must be exhausted from riding in the back of that truck!" her mother exclaimed as May climbed down out of the back of the truck. May's mother was a tall woman with brown hair, wearing a yellow dress.
May sighed, "Thats one way of putting it...never doing that again..."
"Isn't this town wonderful? Its quiet...peaceful...and not that far from Petalburg either! Why don't you come inside and check out our new home?" May's mother seemed to be ecstatic about moving here, but she herself wasn't overly excited. The town actually seemed kinda boring to her.
She followed her mother into the house, and couldn't believe what she was seeing. There were a pair of vigoroth moving furniture around her house!
"Umm mom...do you really think Vigoroth should be trusted to do all this?" Vigoroth was a white, ape/sloth-like pokemon with long claws on its hands and a lot of energy. Vigoroth didn't seem like a very intelligent pokemon to May though, and didn't see anyone giving them instructions...
"They're doing all the work of moving everything into the house for us! Aren't pokemon movers convenient?" May's mother seemed to be in a state of pure bliss over everything and didn't seem to care about the Vigoroth. May wasn't half as excited as she was.
"Oh May, you get your own room too! Your father bought you a new clock, it should be on the wall in your room but its not set. You should go set it." her mother continued. May decided it'd be best to just go along with whatever her mother said at this point, there was just no way for her to get through to her mother when she was like this.
"Sure, mom." May went up the stairs and easily found her bedroom. It didn't seem to be anything special, but all her stuff was already there, including her computer. She decided to turn it on and make sure everything was ok on it. When she checked out the item storage feature though, she found there was a potion stored.
"Huh? When did I put that there..." She double clicked on the potion, and suddenly a potion formed on a device next to her computer used to retrieve stored items.
She shrugged, "Oh well, maybe I'll have a use for it soon enough..." She then opened her dresser and pulled out a large green belt pouch, that was actually more like a backpack worn about her waist. She put it on, with the pouch part of it behind her. The belt also had clips for a pokenav, pokedex, and 6 pokeballs in front, but she never had a need for them yet.
She finally decided to set the clock hanging on the wall. Looking at her watch, she carefully set the clock to 10:35 AM. Her mother came into her room shortly after.
"Oh good everything is put away neatly! Did you make sure everything was on your desk, dear?" May looked over at the desk her computer was on.
"Yeah...everything's there..."
"Oh! Good! You should go introduce yourself to the neighbours then!" Her mother then left the room and went back downstairs.
May followed shortly, thinking to herself,
"This is going to be one hectic day I can see it now..." .
As May finally reached the bottom of the stairs, her mother called out to her yet again.
"Oh, May! Hurry! They're showing Petalburg Gym on the news!"
May quickly made her way over to the TV just in time to hear, "We bring you this news from outside Petalburg Gym." May's mother sighed.
"I think your father was on, but we must have missed him..."
"Oh, too bad." May replied, then left the house to look around town.
In Oldale Town...
"Mr. Norman, is it true that there have been talks of the Hoenn League getting involved in the disappearance of miss Melany Stone?"
"I have heard no such talks, myself. But with criminal groups using pokemon around, the league may have to get more involved in public matters eventually."
"Thank you, Norman. We bring you this news from outside Petalburg Gym." Alex rolled his eyes, yet another announcement about this Melany person.
"If they're so **** worried about her why aren't they looking for her? **** media..." he said, mostly to himself. But his comments did not go unnoticed.
"You seem to be quite interested in this...situation..." Alex looked over towards the source of the voice, and saw an older man wearing a brown overcoat.
"...And you are?" The man grinned.
"Detective Dirk. I've taken it upon myself to investigate this disappearance...and you are?"
"...Alex. Wouldn't it make more sense to be searching in...say...Rustboro? Since, ya know, she lived there and all...?"
"Why search Rustboro? I think I've found the best clue right here..."
"...He doesn't honestly think..." Alex's began thinking to himself.
"I believe you may have something to do with this! Yes, your actions are very suspicious indeed..."
"...What a dork." Alex thought to himself, not amused by this "detective" in the slightest.
"I'll be keeping my eye on you...Alex...don't leave town." With that, the detective left the Oldale Pokemon Center.
"Don't leave town huh? Just try to stop me... Bah. I can see this guy is going to really become a nusiance in my travels. He suspects me?! Just because I'm not interested in hearing the media talk about her?!"
Alex's thoughts were apparently being made more public than he thought, "Don't let that detective bother you. He accuses everyone of everything. Everyone just considers him a nusiance." the nurse behind the desk piped up.
"I don't plan to. If he even tries to get in my way...I'll see what it takes to knock him down a few notches."
Alex left the pokecenter and made his way toward the town's southern exit. It was a fairly small town, and thankfully he could see no sign of Detective Dork. He left the town, heading south toward Littleroot. He didn't get far, however, before he heard someone yelling. He ran off to see what it was...
Back in Littleroot...
"Oh! So your our new neighbour May Maple! Welcome to the neighbourhood, May!"
"Thanks."
May was visiting one of her neighbours, apparently it was Professor Birch's home. Or at least it was when he wasn't at the lab or doing field work. Which he was doing now.
"We have a son around your age, May. He was excited to hear he'd be getting the chance to make a new friend. He should be upstairs." Mrs. Birch said. May nodded and went upstairs.
May entered a bedroom that seemed like it'd belong to the woman's son, but there was no one there. She noticed there was a pokeball on the floor though.
"I wonder if there's a pokemon in it...?" , she thought to herself,
"Hmm...a quick peek couldn't hurt!" she giggled and walked over to the pokeball. She was just about to pick it up when someone yelled from behind her.
"HEY!"
She turned to see a white haired boy about her age wearing a green headband, black t-shirt, a pair of long black shorts, and a pair of black shoes.
"Who do you think you are?!"
"Oh uh...I'm your neighbour...May Maple..."
"...Oh. So your the one who moved in next door. I figured you'd be a guy, since I heard a gym leader's kid was moving in next door."
May twitched slightly hearing that,
"And just why does a gym leader's kid have to be a boy?!" she thought to herself angrily. She then noticed him looking at the empty pokeball slots on her belt.
"You don't have your own pokemon yet?" May shook her head.
"Hmm...how about I go catch you one? ...Oh right I have to help my dad with some research...sorry. Maybe some other time."
May nodded, "I'll leave you alone then." May left the Birch residence, and as she left she thought she heard someone yelling from the route north of Littleroot.
She made her way to the town exit, and this time she definitely heard someone yelling. She ran out of the town, and didn't have to go far before she saw a man running from a very angry looking racoon-like pokemon. The man quickly climbed up a tree...but seemed to forget that this pokemon could climb trees. He then noticed May.
"Hey! You! Help!"
"Huh? I can't! I don't have a pokemon!"
"Look, in that basket over there! There should be three pokeballs! They have pokemon in them! Use one of those!"
May noticed the basket and ran over to it, and quickly grabbed a pokeball from it. She threw it near the racoon-like pokemon, and an orange chicken-like pokemon popped out. She remembered it as Torchic, one of the three starting pokemon.
"Torchic! Use scratch!" The Torchic looked at May curiously, not used to taking orders and not having seen her before, but obeyed anyway. It leapt at the Zigzagoon that was climbing the tree, landing a scratch attack on its back. The Zigzagoon fell off the tree and ran off. May recalled the Torchic. The man in the tree breathed a sigh of relief and jumped down.
"Thanks...I was researching the wild pokemon around here when suddenly that Zigzagoon jumped out at me...by the way I don't remember seeing you around here before. My name's Professor Birch."
"I'm May Maple, I just moved to Littleroot."
"Oh! Your May! A pleasure to meet you. I heard you don't have your own pokemon, but you seemed to handle yourself fine. How about I give you that Torchic you battled with?"
May smiled brightly, "Really?!" Professor Birch nodded.
"Of course. I already know your a qualified trainer from talking with your father, and there's only one other trainer coming by that I know of anyway."
May was about to ask who the trainer was, when they heard someone yelling out in pain. May and Professor Birch went to investigate...and found the Zigzagoon from before latched on to Alex's arm, and Alex was trying to pull it off.
"Let go already! My arm's not a chew toy!!" May and Birch couldn't help but laugh at the scene, and Alex finally noticed them.
"Its not fun...oh! Er...hello professor..."
"Greetings Alex...having a little trouble I see?" Alex sighed.
"I made it this far without any problems whatsoever and then this Zigzagoon comes out of nowhere and bites onto my arm...and refuses to let go."
The Zigzagoon then noticed Professor Birch. It finally let go of Alex's arm and ran after Birch! May quickly released Torchic again, and the Zigzagoon stopped in its tracks.
"Torchic, use scratch!" Torchic leapt at the Zigzagoon, delivering another scratch attack. This was more than it could handle, though, and the Zigzagoon collapsed. Torchic started jumping up and down happily at its victory.
"Way to go Torchic! You showed that racoon!" May yelled.
"Your pretty good for someone just starting..." Alex commented.
May smiled, "Thanks! My name's May Maple."
"May Maple? As in...the daughter of Norman Maple?" May nodded.
"...Your just getting your first pokemon though? I mean...you look like your older than I am. And I'm 12..."
"Huh? I'm only 10..." Alex stared in disbelief.
"She's only 10...? Sheesh. Quite the figure for a 10 year old...and whats with her hair?"
May noticed him staring, "What?"
"Errr..." Alex blushed slightly, "Nothing. Anyway, Professor, I'd like to get my starting pokemon now. If I can that is..."
"Of course. Why don't we go back to my lab?" Alex and May nodded, and the three of them followed Birch back to his lab in Littleroot. Once they got there, Professor Birch placed the pokeball containing Torchic in some device to restore it to full health. Not that it was injured while fighting the Zigzagoon anyway, but he figured better safe than sorry.
"Now, I'll need to see your training cards so I can put my stamp of approval on them." Professor Birch stated. May and Alex handed over their cards, and Birch stamped the corners of them with his personal marking, signifying that they had his approval and were given starting pokemon from his lab.
"Now, May, Torchic is yours. Alex, you can pick from the remainign two, which are Mudkip and Treecko. Do you know anything about either of them?" Alex nodded.
"I've been studying. Mudkip is a water type, small blue pokemon with a fin on its head. Treecko is a grass type, green lizard-like pokemon. I think I'll choose Treecko."
"An excellent choice! Of course, all of my pokemon are good choices anyway. And I see you already have a pokedex."
"Actually, its a pokenav. But I've made my own modifications to it. It has a built in pokedex, phone, as well as the standard functions of any pokenav."
Birch smiled, "Ah, you seem to be quite well prepared for all this. You'll both make fine trainers I'm sure."
Birch took Torchic's pokeball from the machine and picked up Treecko's pokeball as well, handing them to their new trainers.
"Hey Alex! Why don't we have a quick fight?"
Alex shook his head, "As much as I'd like to...it wouldn't be much fun at this point. Our pokemon only know very basic attacks. Maybe if we meet up again we can battle then." May sighed.
"Alright then..." "Hey May, why don't you go visit my son Brendan? I'm sure he'd like that."
"Sure! Maybe I could battle him instead!" Professor Birch chuckled.
"Well I don't see why not, but just to warn you he's been helping me with my research for a while so he's pretty good. You can find him on Route 102, its north of Oldale."
"Alright! I'll meet him there for a battle before I start my journey then!"
May and Alex left the lab, and decided they'd travel together as far as Oldale since they were both going in that direction anyway. Alex didn't have any intention of making additional stops though, so they'd be going their separate ways once they reached Oldale. However, as they were passing through Route 101 on their way to Oldale, someone was watching them from the bushes...
"Hmm...there's that Alex character..." Detective Dirk muttered to himself.
"And if my suspicions are correct, then it would seem that his next target is May Maple...the daughter of the Petalburg gym leader Norman." Dirk chuckled to himself.
"Yes its all clear to me now! This 'Alex' works for some sort of underground child pornography ring! They use Alex to befriend unsuspecting girls...and then kidnap them! Well me and my Poochyena will put a stop to that right now!"
Alex stopped, "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" May asked, staring at Alex quizically.
"I thought I heard something moving through the bushes...could be a wild pokemon..." Alex reached for Treecko's pokeball, ready for a fight.
"I think your being paranoid." Alex ignored her, and then suddenly out of the bushes jumped...Detective Dirk!
"...Oh great. Its Detective Dork."
"Thats Dirk, kid. And I'm on to you now! Don't worry Miss Maple, I'll protect you!"
"...Protect me? From what?", May asked, not a clue as to what was going on.
"From him!" Dirk pointed at Alex accusingly.
"...You honestly think I'm a criminal?"
"I KNOW your a criminal now! Go, Poochyena!" Dirk threw the pokeball about halfway between him and Alex, and a black pokemon that looked like a cross between a dog and a hyena pup came out, growling.
"...If its a fight you want, its a fight you'll get. Go, Treecko!" Alex released Treecko from its pokeball for the first time, and it glanced around cautiously at its surroundings, its eyes resting on the Poochyena with a determined look on its face. Alex took out his pokenav and aimed it at the Poochyena to get an estimate of its strength. He knew Treecko was a level 5, as all pokemon received as starting pokemon were, and the Poochyena was level 6 apparently. Alex knew Poochyena were particularly weak, though, so he wasn't worried. No dumb detective was taking him in for no reason.
"Treecko start off with a pound attack!" Treecko rushed toward the Poochyena, bashing it across the face with its tail. Poochyena already seemed like it was taking a serious pounding after the first attack.
"Heh...so you have a pokemon now huh. No matter. Poochyena, tackle attack!" The Poochyena rushed toward Treecko, but the green lizard pokemon just stepped aside of the attack.
"Treecko, hit it with another pound attack!" Treecko nodded in agreement and leaped toward the Poochyena, slamming its tail into the pooches back, slamming it into the ground. It didn't get back up either.
"Dammit...this isn't over kid! Poochyena, return!" The detective called back his pokemon into its pokeball and ran off toward Oldale.
"...Ok, what was that all about Alex?" May asked, still not sure what was going on. Alex returned Treecko to its pokeball.
"Just a screw up of a detective...seems to think just because I don't like the news, I have something to do with the kidnapping of Melany Stone."
"Wow, screw up is right..."
"No kidding...anyway we're almost to Oldale." May nodded, and the two of them continued walking. It wasn't long before they reached Oldale town, and no sign of the detective either.
"Well, be seeing you around May."
"Yep. Bye Alex!" Alex started heading toward Route 103 while May started heading to Route 102, but then Alex remembered something.
"Hey, May! Wait!"
May turned to face him, "Huh? What is it?"
"Are you taking the Hoenn League Challenge?" May nodded.
"A tip then, the first gym is run by Roxanne. She uses rock type pokemon. According to my research her team consists of two Geodude and a Nosepass, which means it'll be a 3 on 3 battle. You started with a Torchic, so you might want to consider finding at least one good pokemon to challenge her with, or try to get your Torchic to evolve into Combusken, then it'll be a fighting type as well as fire and will learn Double Kick."
"Wow...you sure know a lot. Well thanks. See ya!"
"No problem. Later!"
And with that, May and Alex, having just met, went their separate ways after starting their own adventures. What challenges await them along the way?
Its probably one of the less interesting chapters. They get better as they go though *nod* By the way the next few chapters will be split into 2 parts to show their respective journeys.
