Ugh, terrible start to my day. Woke up too late, figured out my mom didn't dry my boxers, so I'm still wearing the same ones as before, and I feel like crap.
Chapter four here.
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Foreword
Ok well there's not much action or moving around in this chapter, but it reveals a lot of background on our new character. It's important that every main character has a well developed background in a story isn't it?
Oh, and another person finally makes an appearance.
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Chapter 4 - History Maker
The day was in late-afternoon and the now-foursome walked down the long dirt road. As hungry as they were, they still managed to keep their spirits up, except for one member of the group.
Ash walked stiffly at the back of the group, with Pikachu on his shoulder, as he began to recall the battle he and Pikachu had went through only an hour ago.
"Altaďr... that guy... I really never did stand a chance against him did I? I was so stupid to think I did in the first place," Ash clenched his fists as his thoughts ran wild.
"If he's a nobody yet so powerful... then... how do I know there's not more people out there like him? If there are more trainers as strong as he, then what does that make me? All my achievements... my victory at the Orange League and Battle Frontier... what do they mean?"
Pikachu noticed a small twinkle in Ash's eye, and decided to converse with his trainer to cheer him up.
"Pika pikachu, Pikapi?" the little mouse Pokémon asked.
"It's nothing Pikachu." Ash pulled his hat over his eyes.
"Pikapika, cha pikachu!"
"Well, I was just thinking about... him."
"Kachu?"
"Yeah, the new guy." Ash lowered his voice. "Do you think we could ever be as strong as he is, Pikachu? I mean, he has a completely different way of training and fighting with his Pokémon, which makes them extremely powerful. I don't know, even though I want to train you guys my own way, I can't help but be somewhat... interested in his techniques. Oh man, I wish she was here, she could - no, would, help me calm this fire in my head."
"Pika..." sighed Pikachu as his ears drooped.
"You miss her too don't you?"
"Chuuu."
"Well, I guess she's having a lot of fun in Johto, winning a bunch contests and whatever. Maybe even hanging out... or getting closer... with ... him." Ash felt a wave of depression as he thought about that idea. Pikachu noticed his trainer's misery and patted Ash on the back of the head.
"Thank's Pikachu." Ash let out a small grin towards his partner and best friend. "I know you'll always be there for me..."
"Pikapi..."
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"Hey Altaďr, how old are you?"
Altaďr looked down to his right at the beaming girl, and returned her smile with a neutral demeanor.
"15... I think"
"Ooo, that's the same age as Ash, though you somehow look a bit older than that. I'm 12 by the way! Brock's 20, isn't he old?" Brock frowned at her remark.
After a second, Altaďr's last two words registered in Dawn's head and she spun her head back to look towards him. "Wait a second... what do you mean, you think?"
"I don't know my birthday," replied Altaďr. He took his eyes off the girl and looked into the sky.
"Wha? Why not?" the coordinator inquired on. Brock and Ash soon began to listen to the conversation with interest.
Altaďr closed his eyes as he kept walking for several seconds before finally giving an answer.
"I don't know my parents."
Dawn, Brock, and Ash stared at the tall teenager with dumbfounded looks.
"What-what do you mean?"
Altaďr let out a long but soft sigh. "I guess I'll have to tell you about my past now."
The other three travelers simply gawked at him.
"I am... an orphan, or at least I think I am. I actually don't know if my parents are alive or not, but-"
"Wait, I thought you said your father was the one that named you," Dawn interrupted.
"The... father-," he emphasized the word father. "-is actually just an old hermit who lived on Mt. Coronet that decided to take me in when he found me on a cold night on August 5th, which is the date my supposed birthday is on. I was only an infant, so I don't remember much about him finding me, but I did grow up is his home, which lead me to believe he was my actual father. But when I was seven, or at least when he said I was seven, my 'father' became very ill, due to the cold climate and his old age, and he began to fade."
Dawn gave Altaďr a compassionate look, but he took no notice.
"Before he passed on, he told me the truth about how he found me a box in the snow, that one fateful day six years ago. I was extremely surprised at first, but then I felt the sadness of never knowing my parents. Then I felt a bit of anger when I realized they probably abandoned me. I don't really care now though, since they're probably either dead or having a great life for all I know." Altaďr's eyes narrowed as he said that. "So for the next year, I fended for myself until... my best friend came to me."
Everybody gave a confused look at Altaďr, but he continued on with his tale.
"My best friend... Eevee... who is now Glaceon, found me one day when I was about eight. Actually, I was the one who found Eevee. I found him half-frozen in the middle of December, and took him into my home to care for him. From then on, we were inseparable. I told him about my dream to leave the mountain to become a Pokémon trainer, and we immediately began to train together. Eevee was a strong little Pokémon with a great spirit, and was my best friend as well, so I promised him that I would never leave him and that he would always be by my side."
"His relationship with Glaceon... it's almost like my relationship with Pikachu..."
"When I turned ten, I walked down the mountain to the local laboratory to receive my trainer's license. However, when I requested one, I was turned down because I didn't have any sort of proof that I was indeed ten. I then resorted to stealing another kid's birth certificate and forging it, replacing the kid's name with my name, but I was young and it was easily deemed a fake. By then, I could only do one thing, beg. I begged the professor for a license and he finally took pity in me after half an hour and finally issued me a one. The professor was not well known and his lab was small, so he didn't carry and Pokédexs to give to new trainers, but I didn't mind. I was just glad that I had finally become a trainer, and Eevee shared the same feelings." Altaďr stopped his story and seemed to reminisce something for a moment, before quickly continuing on.
"We then set out for the gym of Oreburgh, but Eevee was easily defeated by Roark's rock Pokémon. That defeat crushed my spirit, since I was only ten and had no family or support, so I began to wander through the regions, training Eevee and battling other trainers. Eevee soon became a powerhouse, but I still didn't feel that I was ready to compete in gyms and leagues. I also still had Eevee as my only Pokémon, so I began to search for other suitable team members. I don't know why I did it, but I managed to acquire five more Eevees in the year so I then began to evolve a few of them." Altaďr fiddled with his Pokéballs one by one as he pressed on.
"First I evolved Flareon, Vaporeon, and Jolteon, in that order, through the use of elemental stones. Then, one night while I was training with one of my other Eevees, he evolved into an Umbreon, thus giving me my fourth evolved Eevee. When I came back to Sinnoh after I had turned twelve, I visited a strange forest and fought some wild Pokémon, and it was there that the Eevee now known as Leafeon evolved. I now had five evolved Eevees, but my first and strongest Eevee hadn't evolved yet." He then brought his hand back up to the teal Pokéball at the top of the strap. He cracked a small smile.
Well, that changed when I returned to my home with only Eevee by my side for reasons I don't even know myself. I had dropped my five other Eevee-evolutions at the Pokémon Center and decided to revisit the old place. It was the middle of winter, and it had just snowed recently so when I got to the house, an avalanche occurred. It was a rather small avalanche though, so I was able to keep my head above the snow as I was swept away, but Eevee wasn't so lucky. He was buried almost as soon as the snow fell upon him, and was gone within seconds." A look of sadness crept into Altaďr's eyes. Ash couldn't help by feel a little bit of sympathy for the guy that had just destroyed him in a battle.
"When the avalanche stopped, I began searching for my lost friend, digging and calling out his name for two days and nights. On the third morning, I was about to give up hope, but then I heard an loud rumble, and I thought I was going to get hit by another avalanche. However, when I turned around and looked up the mountainside, I saw Glaceon running down towards me..." This time when Altaďr paused his story, he let out a tiny tear out the corner of his eye, but none of the others noticed it. He hastily wiped it away and went back to his neutral composure.
"And... that completed my team. After Glaceon's evolution, I decided it was time to get back into the competition. I easily earned eight badges in the Sinnoh region and entered the Sinnoh League in a timespan of six months. But... that's where things went wrong again, as I was defeated... in the first round."
"What? How could Altaďr have been defeated in the first round while I was able to make it to the top 16 and 8 in the leagues I entered?" This puzzled Ash greatly.
"I fell into a state of depression and lost all hope in myself. Nothing seemed to work out at all for me, and I thought I had nothing to live for... so I nearly committed suicide, until I remembered my promise to Glaceon. That promise brought me back to reality, and I decided to take a hiatus from training to rethink everything that I had gone through, and what I had to do next. During that break is when I developed my technique of training and battling, and I devoted myself into training my Pokémon to be the best. I didn't participate in a single league for the next three years, and continued to develop myself and my Pokémon. We had our problems but we endured them and kept through the years. A couple of months after I turned 15, I finally decided that we were ready, and we started competing in the Sinnoh League again. And so... here I am, telling you guys my entire life story... dunno what compelled me to do that though." Altaďr gazed at the sky silently.
"Wow, all the stuff he's been through... it makes my life seem so... perfect," Ash thought.
"This guy is quite the character. No wonder he's the way he is," Brock deduced.
Dawn's thoughts were in disarray, as she thought about Altaďr's story and how he had been so strong... so determined... so loving for his Pokémon. Her thoughts then began to turn into a fantasy, as she daydreamed of being held in his lean, yet strong, arms. She began to phase out of reality as she saw herself in kissing a boy, but she couldn't tell who it was. The height of the boy seemed to change every couple of seconds, from tall to short. Dawn's heart began to race as she was all of a sudden looking at a pair of eyes, then a face, then a mouth, coming towards her, but before she could tell who it was, a voice intruded into her fantasy.
"Hey, we're here."
Dawn snapped back into reality as she looked around, seeing nothing but the sun and blue sky in front and a river with a bridge they had crossed while listening to Altaďr's story.
"Where? I don't see any city," Dawn said with a frown, as her wonderful, romantic fantasy had just been broken for nothing.
"Try looking down," chuckled Ash.
As she looked down, she indeed saw a city. A very large and beautiful city in fact, with seemingly hundreds of skyscrapers and other tall buildings, all nestled in a colossal valley a couple miles away. It was not dark yet, so there were no spectacular lights shining, but the city looked magnificent, nonetheless. Dawn felt a surge of excitement in her stomach, but then remembered how hungry she was. She gave a slight groan, and wished that the city was not still a mile or two down the valley.
"Haha, race you all!"
Ash broke into a sprint down the slope of the valley, laughing with joy.
"Heh, guess the thought of food is giving him the strength to run..." Brock said amusedly.
"Well, we'd better not fall behind," said Altaďr. With that, he began sprinting after Ash as well. Brock then gave a sigh and chased after the two younger boys.
Dawn stood and smiled for several seconds at the two energetic teenagers, until she realized she was being left behind and she began to give chase as well.
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On the western side of the valley, a teenaged girl stood silently and looked down at the immense city that lay before her.
The girl held a small object in her hands that were clad in white gloves with black fingers. She slowly brought the object up to her chest, which was accentuated by her red, tight, zip-up blouse, and held it there tightly. Her feet that wore red and yellow sneakers shifted as she looked down at her legs, which were dressed in a white mini-skirt with a pair of blue spandex shorts underneath. The breeze blew her brown hair, styled with long locks that hung down the side of her head under a red bandanna, into her large, sapphire eyes. The girl soon became irritated by the hair in her eyes and she removed it from her face with a flick of her head. She then pulled her hands off her chest and looked at the object she held once again; a half of a ribbon. Her eyes began to water as she began to think about the owner of the other half.
"Ash, where are you..."
"I need you..."
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Afterthought
Hmm, I wonder who that person was.
So now, you all learned a little something about Altaďr, any thoughts or comments to make about his character? I'm trying to make him seem as real as I can like he would be in the anime or something.
And now you all know the current character's ages too. I decided to try to weasel that in somewhere in this chapter because of all the backgrounding I was doing. As you can see, it's already been two years since Ash met Dawn, so they've probably had a ton of adventures in Sinnoh already. However, I don't want to mention things like badges or ribbons that Ash or Dawn may have since then it'll over-complicate some things and people will start asking questions. It's kinda like the Pokemon movies, they're nestled somewhere in the storyline but not always exactly told when. They're Pokemon are the same as the ones that are currently seen in the Japanese anime though. (Dawn had Buizel as you've all seen and Brock has Happiny.)
Oh, and I hope my last description was ok, I tried to write it so I didn't simply lists the articles of clothing and then the body description. I already did that three times in a row in chapter one.
You guys R&R while I go R&R. (Rest and recuperate.)
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Originally Posted by Lord Zant
, then hit a vowel, which in this case is I, and voila! Heh, and this was totally by accident.
