[Pokémon] To New Heights - A Journey in the Yusoh Region [T-ish]

[Zeffyz]

Hi guys. You might notice my tiny post count. That's because I only just joined because I wanted to share with you all a Fanfic that a member of another site (Anzellous) and I (Zeffy) created. It's about a teenage boy and his journey throughout the Yusoh Region. I'm apparently not allowed to give you the URL to the site according to the Rules, but you can try googling it yourself. "Yusoh" or "Yusoh Pokemon RP" should work.

Anyways, sorry about the lame title. It was just called the Yusoh Fanfic on our site, so I just made up a random one on the spot. Meh. Warning, chapters can be around the range of two to three thousand words long.

This Fanfic is rated T-ish for mild references to illegal actions and (mostly) censored cursing. If you're under 13, well, you shouldn't even be on the site! If you're not violating the site's T.o.S. and still reading this, you should be fine.

And so, without further ado, the first chapter of the Yusoh saga:

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Chapter One - A Hero is Born Bored
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It only ever came once a year; this festival that they were preparing for. Redbud Town, a quaint little community of simple dimensions was, for once, alive with activity. The festival of the Solstice was coming soon, and everyone was pitching in - delivering supplies to each other through rustic dirt paths that connected the streets and homes to each other. Alongside the most productive workers were Pokémon well-suited to their tasks, and that's what made it all work. The Pokémon. That was what the most important thing was.

Everyone in Yusoh knew that was the most important thing, especially since they were not properly considered to be a part of the Pokémon World. Yusoh residents knew quite well what other regions thought of them as: a backwards, back-water region that wasn't really a region, where Pokémon had feet on their foreheads and the streets were vibrant and alive with crazy people spouting insane ideals. But what region didn't have those types? Even Johto, one of the most respected regions of the Pokémon World had its fair share of crazies.

But since Yusoh was not yet considered to be as important as those other regions, it had a reputation of having no reputation... Or at least, none worth mentioning.

Right now though, no one was worried about the organization Yusoh Project for Respectability. No one was thinking about anything really, except getting everything ready for the Solstice celebration. It had to be perfect, and everyone talked to everyone else to insure that everything went smoothly... Well... Almost everyone.

Only one person made their town's smooth machine rust, only one boy... The boy was walking at a nonchalant pace through the town, holding a crate that was filled with some sort of decorative paste that would be used to hang lanterns. He couldn't be bothered into rushing, especially since nothing would happen if he took his time. This festival came every single year. What made this one any different? No one from any other city would come and marvel at the effort they put into their traditions. No tourists would come and take pictures. Like every year.

"Alucard!"

The boy looked up at the sound of his name. Wheeling around, he saw his father running towards him with another crate that he would have to carry to the Pokémon Center. Alucard wasn't expecting to see anyone else running towards him, or even talking to him at all. Ever since he was very young, his father had been the only person in his life. The teenage boy had barely any memory of there ever being a mother in his life. All he could recall was a few snippets of her voice and how warm he had felt when he was small, being hugged by her. Even those thought, he was starting to think, were lies made up by his mind.

After all, in these memories, she always said she loved him, but if she loved him, then why would she leave him all alone like that? Every time he thought these things, rage bubbled inside of him, so much hate... He had always tried to make it a point not to let what the other guys said bother him, but that was hard when he grew up with everyone calling him a 'motherless freak'.

"Come on Al, you have to move faster than that." His father said in a kind tone, placing another crate on the ground in front of him. Alucard did not respond, only looking forward with his dull red eyes. His father was well versed in reading his moods, especially since he had started take to silence instead of talking to all the people he had known since childhood. His father hoped it was just puberty, but still... It unnerved him to see his son like this, looking more like a mannequin than an actual person. "You're thinking about her again, aren't you?"

Alucard shook his head to say no, but it was really a yes. "Don't listen to them. She loved you okay?"

As usual, he nodded a yes, but his hands clenched around the crate. Why then? He burned to ask. Why did she leave you and me?

"Dante!" Someone called, and his father looked over his shoulder to acknowledge them. With a wave to his quiet son, he turned and ran to where his assistance was needed.

Once the paste was delivered, Alucard plopped down on the bench outside of the center. Part of him was yelling for him to get up and go back to get the other crate of paste that he had left behind, but he just wasn't in the mood. The other part of him was asking a much more pertinent question:

Why was he here? This was BORING!

His eyes widened as this realization overwhelmed him. When he was younger, he had to depend on his father for everything. But he was sixteen now, more than capable of taking care of himself. So why, for God's sake, did he stay in some boring rustic town that plagued him of horrid memories of a phantom mother?

Running his fingers though his silver-y hair, he realized that he couldn't stay here anymore. This place was suffocating him; killing him slowly. He had to leave RIGHT NOW! However, Professor Hawthorne's lab was closed for the festival, so he couldn't get a Pokémon from him… At least, not right now.

Looking around, he saw a young a boy who had a Pokéball next to him. What the Pokémon was, he wasn't sure, but he knew it didn't matter. As long as it was strong enough to help catch him another Pokémon, it was fine with him. Alucard watched the boy for several minutes until he was called away, leaving his Pokéball behind. That was one of the best things about this place. The townspeople were so trusting, and the kids were so naïve.

As soon as the boy was gone, he stood and grabbed the Pokéball. He then turned and walked towards the route leading away from Redbud town without another word. He said nothing to anyone, nothing to his father, and especially nothing to the boy whose Pokémon he just stole.

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Stepping onto the route, Alucard already felt better. Something about just being away from that tiny town made him feel at home. He didn't belong there. No one belonged there. That was some sort euthanasia center where dreams went to die. He wasn't ready to die yet. When he thought about it that way... He could almost understand...

No. No more thinking about her. He had something more important to do. He needed to adventure, or do something, to put as much space between Redbud and himself as he could.

The first steps were truly the longest. He had never set foot outside of Redbud in his entire life. What had made him do it now? Impulse... Chances are, he would turn around and go right back after he had had his fill of this craziness. But still... He liked it here. This was something he liked.

When he heard a squawk, he nearly jumped out of his skin. Before he had time to sort himself out, a big brown blur came out of nowhere, its talons nearly touching its head. The creature had black markings around its eyes and a tawny underbelly, while the feathers on its back were a darker shade of brown. It squawked, seemingly agitated about something.

Well, now was as good of a time as any to figure out what he had taken from that little kid.

He tossed the Pokéball into the air and it broke open in a bright red light. What came out to meet him seemed to be an orb with huge angular eyes, its pupils nothing more than dots. The creature's mouth was huge as well, with two fangs visible. It didn't have any limbs, but was surrounded by some strange gaseous substance. "Gaaaastlyyyy..." It said in confusion, looking around and seeing Alucard instead of the small boy he was used to seeing.

"Hey! You... Uh, ghost!" Al called to the creature. Gastly looked down to him, raising a nonexistent eyebrow. Well, he hadn't been with the little boy long enough to really care for him. A human was a human, though this one seemed to be a fairly stupid human. "Attack that... Bird thing!"

Gastly turned to face the agitated Pidgey, floating over to it with decent speed and sticking out an incredibly long pink tongue, began to lick Pidgey with it. The bird all but fell out of the sky and landed with a thud. It got onto its feet, quivering and frightened. It seemed unable to move, paralyzed by the creepy attack.

"Good job, uh... Gastly! Do whatever that was again!" Gastly sighed in exasperation, floating over to the immobilized Pidgey and attacking it with its tongue again. The bird fell over with swirls in its eyes, knocked out and defeated by Gastly's two Licks.

The Gastly floated back over to Alucard, who seemed very happy with his victory. "You know, this ghost isn't too bad for a Pokémon!" He attempted to pet the Pokémon, but it was a ghost after all. The Gastly nearly laughed at the stupid boy. A human was a human, after all.

"Pidgey!" Alucard heard someone cry, running over to the defeated Pidgey. It was a young girl, not much older than maybe eight years old with a boy coming up behind her. He was holding a Bug Net over his shoulder with a small satchel resting on his hip. "You big meanie!" She cried to Al, holding her defeated Pokémon tightly in her arms. "Don't you know anything? You're not s'posed to attack a Pokémon without its trainer!"

The girl ran off with tears in her eyes, bolting towards Redbud. Her friend stayed behind and stared at Alucard in wonder. "I saw your battle!" He said with a childishly happy face. "You were super cool! Not nearly as good as the gym leaders, or the champion but--"

"Gym Leader?" Alucard asked the young boy. It seemed like there was more to this whole adventuring thing than just beating up the Pokémon that dared to show their faces to him.

"Yeah! The Gym Leaders are a bunch of super strong trainers! If you beat them you get badges, and if you get all eight badges you can go to the championships! And you get to battle the champion!"

Alucard put his hand to his chin in thought. He could probably defeat those gym leaders with his Gastly anyway. He didn't even need much training! Hah! This would be the easiest sweep of the region ever.

He thanked the young boy for his information and walked up the route a little more. There were no more Pokémon that came out to fight with him, much to his disdain. He kept walking, and eventually came to a river where assorted fishermen were. He didn't have a rod, but it stood to reason that there were Pokémon in the River too. Walking slightly closer, he began to overhear a conversation.

"…and she hooked a Gyarados! Huge thing, nearly broke her arms and legs… Poor girl but still, managing to FIGHT that thing..."

"To think it evolves from Magikarp!"

Hm. That sounded like his type of Pokémon. He waited a little while, and sure enough, one of them hooked a Magikarp and it went flying, falling onto the grass not far from where he stood. Staring at into its huge round eyes, Alucard watched the fish flop around uselessly. After about two minutes, he pulled back his foot and punted it back into the water where it had come from.

"Useless piece of sh*t!" He cried out and turned, stomping back down the route, enraged at wasting his precious time on such a useless thing.

"Gaaast..." The ghost sighed, floating after its new trainer. That HAD to be some sort of record...

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Written by Anzellous and Zeffy of the Yusoh Pokemon RPG

Any comments and criticism is welcome, appreciated, and very wanted.

 

[Zeffyz]

Chapter Two - The Hero Becomes a Proper Trainer… Sort Of

It only took Alucard a couple of hours to make it to Riveria City, which was wonderful timing, considering the fact that it was nearly nighttime and he hadn't brought any supplies with him to aid him on his journey. He didn't even have anything more than a couple PokéDollars in his pockets. Well, at least he could be happy that the Pokémon Center offered free lodging and food, so he wouldn't starve or freeze while he was in a town. On the roads between towns, especially Route 903, he could expect some problems.

He placed the Pokéball containing Gastly on the counter, and the pink-haired woman known as Nurse Joy came out and took the capsule away to heal the Pokémon inside. In the meantime, he found himself looking at the walls of this building. It was the exact same as the Center as the one in Redbud. The wallpaper, the decorations, the arrangement of the chairs... Everything was the same in every way. The only difference was that the wall bore a map of Riveria City instead of Redbud town, and the people that loitered around the center weren't the same people that he was used to seeing every day.

Since he had no idea where he was, he thought he might as well take a look at the map and figure out where he would go from here. It seemed that near the Pokémon Center where he currently at, there was also a PokéMart, where he could buy some much-needed supplies, and there was also a Gym.

A Gym? That's where those Gym Leaders would be! Apparently, you could get money from winning battles, and since he was lacking in that respect - not to mention money could go towards getting him important supplies - it would be worth his time to go and check it out.

Well, after the Nurse came back with his Pokémon, at least. He couldn't help but remember the ease with which his ghost had defeated that Pidgey. It made him feel like he was walking on air. And it was his Pokémon. It would defeat everything in its path! And stand over the defeated bodies of its enemies!

Uh… Well… FLOAT over the defeated bodies of its enemies...

Alucard turned and leaned on the counter, waiting for Gastly to come back. He wasn't left waiting too long, as the creature came back out floating, beside him Chansey waddling up, holding out a little tray that held the Gastly's pokeball on it. Almost as soon as his Pokémon was returned, a troupé of trainers came in, their faces displaying varying levels of sadness and rage.

"It's that stupid girl!" They were yelling, but that was all that could be salvaged from their yells. Apparently, when the Gym Leader defeated them, she took their money, along with their Pokédex, their Pokémon, or the contents of their backpack, depending on what she wanted from them at that time. And it seemed that no matter how much they fought, they were unable to defeat her.

"I had no idea Gym Battles had such steep consequences..." He muttered to himself. It dawned on him that he only had one chance to win this. He didn't have a Pokédex or a bag, and he didn't have much money. So, the Gym Leader would take his Pokémon, and he couldn't get another. Alucard would be stuck returning to his hometown hanging his head, forced to take the consequences of his rash actions.

Not today! Not ever!

Looking towards Gastly, he scoffed and smirked. "Please. How tough could she be?"

Gastly merely rolled its eyes and followed its trainer out of the center. He looked around for a couple of minutes before locating the gym. It was a difficult building to miss, as in the increasing darkness, it was one of the few aside from the Pokémon center that was still lit up and alight with calamitous noise. Seemed like her battles were really interesting and kept you on the edge of your seat.

As he walked closer and heard it get louder and louder, a strange feeling came over him. Was he nervous? No. It was just his first major battle, that was all. Once he got in there and defeated her with the power of his ghost-type, she would be groveling at his feet for mercy. And he would consider it.

"Bagon, use Bite!"

Following that explanation came the cry of a Pokémon in pain and the loud thump of its body right beside his head. The dark-colored Pokémon - it seemed to be some sort of cub-like creature with a dorsal fin and brownish markings - crumpled on the ground, clearly unable to fight any longer. The Gastly was wearing a mask of horror looking at the utterly defeated Pokémon, only being able to imagine the pain that wrecked its small body.

"Alright, loser! Hand over your Spup's Pokéball and all your money!" The owner of the voice was a girl who stood near the far edge of the gym with her hand on her hip and taking all the money the defeated trainer had, along with the Spup's Pokéball. Her hair was short and dark, her clothes simple. A tank top and hurricane pants were all she wore. The apparent leader of this gym returned Spup and began to revive it with a machine in the back of the building, to prepare it for another battle. "Who else wants to try?" She called out to no apparent audience.

Her Bagon, who seemed particularly feisty, was prepared to beat down whoever her next opponent was. It took Alucard a while to remember what he was here for. She was clearly strong, and he wasn't so sure he would stand a chance against that Bagon of hers. It looked well-trained and ruthless. "I'll challenge you!" he said, walking closer to the battle arena.

"Beat 'em up!"

"Toast this guy, Seraph!"

"Tear him apart!"

Simply placing her finger in front of her lips to hush her fans caused the entire gym to go into silence. "Well, let's go then."

This was all she said in the way of banter before tossing out Spup's Pokéball. The Pokémon, which had been laying in a crumpled mess on the ground, now looked fine and well, and even looked hardy. Her Bagon jumped back to her side, where she patted him to congratulate him on another victory. Gastly came out, feeling less afraid of this dog than it was of that Bagon.

"Attack her, Gastly!" The Gastly came forward and stuck out its tongue to lick the Spup.

"Dodge it and use Bubble!" Seraph called, and the Pokémon nimbly dodged Gastly's tongue, opening its mouth and spraying bubbles at the ghost. Gastly cried out in pain and backed away, apparently hurt by being hit point-blank by the bubbles.

Alucard was surprised that Gastly's all-powerful lick attack hadn't even hurt the Pokémon. It had never failed before, so what made this Pokémon so special? Or maybe it was the trainer that was special? "Do it again, Gastly!" The ghost looked over at his trainer and was surer now than ever before that he had gotten stuck with the dullest pencil in the box. Bu,t he went closer all the same and stuck out its tongue to lick Spup again.

And the same thing happened; the little Spup dodged the attack and tossed a bubble at the ghost from point-blank range, not giving the ghost enough time to evade the attack. Once again, Gastly floated back to Alucard, its energy drained significantly. "You really are a newbie, aren't you?" Seraph taunted lightly, looking at the weakened Gastly, knowing that it would be hers soon enough.

"Immobilize that Spup!" Alucard cried before he knew what he was saying. He had no way of knowing if his Gastly was actually capable of doing something like that. But, Gastly complied and looked at Spup, its eyes glowing red, gently chanting its name again and again until the Spup fell over, fast asleep and unable to move. Rather than looked panicked, Seraph smirked as though she wasn't even worried about being defeated and losing Spup.

Without Alucard's call, Gastly went forward and began to lick the Spup while it slept. Unable to dodge, it took hit after hit from the ghost's freakishly large tongue, finally woke up. However, with its energy nearly at zero, it couldn't do much. As Gastly came in again for a final lick attack, Spup opened its mouth and unleashed as strong a bubble attack as it could manage, but not before enduring another hit.

Both Pokémon fell, but since Gastly was floating, he hit the ground right after Spup had. It was called a draw officially, the biased referee, however, Seraph said, with a sigh, since Spup fell first, it was Alucard's victory. So, she handed over the Spup's Pokéball, beginning to return her Bagon and leave before Alucard stopped her.

"Hold on! You didn't give me a badge!" He called. He wanted recognition for his (admittedly, very, very narrow) victory. When she heard this, she gave Alucard a long look to make sure he was serious before busting out laughing, soon joined by every spectator in the gym.

"Badge? Hah! Don't you know? This isn't an official Yusoh League Gym. So you don't GET a badge. You didn't even have to come here." Seraph still found the whole situation very funny. "You would never be able to defeat a gym leader like that."

Finally calming down and looking at him closer, she realized that he didn't have a pack or anything. It stood to reason that he didn't have money or supplies... "Hey you don't look like a -"

Before she could finish her sentence, the door was kicked in by Officer Jenny and her troupe of police officers. They poured in, beginning to point fingers and night sticks at everyone. Before the police Officer could call her out on her terrible behavior, stealing Pokémon and people's stuff, Seraph climbed up the bleachers and out a window. Some officers stayed behind to question the trainers there about Seraph's deeds, but many left to give chase to the girl.

Once again feeling angry because he thought he had wasted his time, Alucard left the gym. Still, he had another Pokémon to add to his collection, even if it was a scrappy one. Since both of his Pokémon had fainted, he went to the Pokémon Center to get them healed before he could even think about moving on. Of course, he could always spend the night in the center, which would be the smart thing, but he couldn't bear wasting another moment of his time in this dump.

After Nurse Joy returned with his Pokéballs, Al began to leave, but his path was soon blocked by Seraph jumping down from a roof. "Hey there. So, I was thinking –"

"If you're not going to give me a badge, then I don't have anything to say to you." Alucard turned and started to leave her behind, but she tagged behind him anyway.

"Oh, please. Without a registered Trainer Card and a Pokédex, you can't compete in the Pokémon League anyway."

Those words stopped Alucard in his tracks. After a few moments of silence, he looked over his shoulder and stared at her. "I'm listening..."

"Well..." She held out one of the Pokédexes she had taken from a loser. "I'm running from the police, you see... I have a pack full of supplies and tons of cash. You... Have no supplies at all and barely any money. If I come along, we'll be helping each other in more ways than one."

Alucard considered this. She had a point. As long as she was with him, he wouldn't have to worry about his Pokémon fainting and there not being a nearby Pokémon Center... And she was a pretty good battler, and could help him understand how it all worked. Not that he needed help. He wasn't a sexist or anything, but he would never accept help from a girl.

...That sounded sexist, didn't it?

"Fine! Suit yourself. Come along."

With a smirk, Seraph re-adjusted her bag, trotting behind Alucard. "I WILL suit myself, thank you, Mister Illegal Trainer..."