Story of a remarkable Trainer

[Trainer Grey]

Hi all, first of all I want to say that I'm not a writer, I was just checking out some pokemon lore when I kinda realized that all the main Character trainers were named after a colour (Red, Blue, Silver, etc) so I thought of a Trainer named Grey. I will start by posting my prologue and the first 2 chapters.

So with that being said I would like to ask you all to read the fanfic I am writing.
I am writing a story about a young trainer and his adventures in the Pokémon universe. I tried to stay as true to the lore as I can possibly be. This story takes place before the events of Trainer Red (Pokemon Red and Blue).
I've posted the prequel, and the firs two chapters, I've also written chapter 3 and 4 which will be posted later. For now I'm just curious about other people's view on it. I have had some friends read it and they thought it 'wasn't bad' considering I am not a writer by profession or anything. Actually this is the first time I wrote a story ever.
But I am more interested in the opinions of people who have knowledge about writing and about Pokémon.
I would appreciate some feedback, because I want to continue writing this story.

[Trainer Grey]

Prologue


It was a poorly lighted place surrounded by thick titanium walls, but was filled with the fastest super computers and the newest high-tech equipment one could find in the Kanto region. Multiple scientists used their knowledge and experience and worked together on the same experiments, while only a few of them knew each other by name. Many dark experiments had happened in this secret underground laboratory, but none of them came even remotely close to the horrors this project eventually would reveal.
“I’m telling you Fuji! The kid was almost dead when a Dratini brought him to shore”, a man with a mustache wearing a white lab coat said.
“So you just took him in to live in your house?” A bald headed, aged man replied.
“Well yeah, why not? He seems pretty bright so who knows what he might end up doing? It could be an interesting riddle to see unfold itself”, the man with the mustache said while rubbing his chin as if he was fantasizing about the outcome.
“Besides, he helps around the house, and I’ve never had a child of my own.”
The two scientists immediately stopped talking the second a thick titanium door opened and a man in a business suit, escorted by two persons wearing identical outfits, walked up to them.
“I do not pay you to stand here and talk about the weather”, the man said with a serious tone in his voice, “The sooner this project is finished the better. The expeditions to even get a hold of the embryo alone cost me more then enough to begin with.”
The two scientists immediately grabbed their clipboards containing some sort of test results. The man with the mustache seemed semi frightened, as if he knew that what he was about to say was not what the man in the suit wanted to hear.
“Apparently, the vital signs haven’t stabilized yet, adding more oxygen and running the breathing tests now will end up in a complete failure.”
The man in the suit wasn’t happy to hear this indeed. He grabbed the scientist’s clipboard and threw it away causing the papers to fly around the lab.
“You promised me this would work,” he said with a raised voice, “I told you I will destroy this place if you fail, and why not the entire Island while I’m at it!”
The scientist quickly grabbed the scattered papers. He obviously cared more for them than the man in the suit did.
“We just need more time”, he said, “And I never promised anything. We can make this happen I’m sure.”
The man in the suit laid his hand down on the scientist’s shoulder as if he sarcastically tried to calm the scientist.
“Make it happen, I really want this, no, I NEED this to be a success.”
The suited man formed his hand to a fist as he looked up to the ceiling of the laboratory with a slight smile on his face.
“I can almost feel the power it will provide me…”

[Trainer Grey]

How to catch a Pokémon


As usual, the temperature was great and the sun was shining bright again.
Because beautiful warm weather affects people’s behavior, almost everyone was always happy and friendly on Cinnabar Island.
“And why wouldn’t they?” Grey thought, “This Island is like a vacation place.”
And it was. Palm trees surrounding the white beaches, perfectly bright blue sea surrounding the island, many shops to visit and, of course, the volcano as the main attraction for tourists.
Grey was a bright, teenaged boy with a small rectangular pair of glasses and a hair color one could describe as being a mixture of blue and violet. Grey always liked to wear a grey, short-sleeved button shirt. And black pants. He liked his grey shirt because, according to him, it matches his name. He lived with Cinnabar Island’s gym leader, Blaine, who took him in after finding him unconscious when a Dratini brought him to shore.
Grey remembered Blaine helping him back then, but how he got there has been a mystery to him ever since he came to Cinnabar Island.
Grey always enjoyed his walks home from school. “If only I owned a Pokémon.”
A girl came running towards Grey, waving and calling his name.
It was Cari, a pretty looking girl with long black hair; she always had it tied in a knot on the left side of her head, because she hated getting sand from the beach in it. She had bright green eyes, and always wore a wetsuit under her regular clothes. She wore a short white skirt and a pink top. Since her father was captain of a ship, always gone for several weeks trafficking goods between the island and the mainland, and her mother worked as a researcher at the Pokémon lab, doing research on old fossils, Cari’s been Grey’s friend ever since he washed ashore on Cinnabar Island.
“Wearing a wetsuit again?” Grey asked.
“Of course”, Cari replied smiling, “School is out, so me and Marill are going swimming in the sea again. Will you come with us?” She asked hoping that this time Grey wasn’t such a bore by staying home to study Pokémon again.
“No”, Grey replied like he always did when she asked him this.
“I think I’ll be doing some studying, I’m reading one of Blaine’s books, this one is pretty interesting. It’s about Pokémon evolution”, he continued. “And it says that…”
“Yeah, yeah, bla bla”, Cari interrupted him like she always did when Grey was talking about reading Blaine’s books again. “Well, we’ll be swimming near the rocks close to your house, so if you change your mind you know where to find us!” And Cari ran along as if the sea had a closing time and she was almost late.








Grey arrived home, kicking out his shoes as he put his bag next to the door. He walked towards the kitchen to find a note on the kitchen table.

– Grey, I’ll be working late at the Pokémon Mansion again. Our research is progressing well. You should have dinner at Cari’s place again or make some yourself. Blaine –

“That’s the third time this week?” Grey asked himself. He grabbed a cold soda from the refrigerator as well as a book from Blaine’s bookcase and started reading.
…A Pokémon can evolve in multiple ways. Some evolve by being exposed to a certain type of stone, while other Pokémon evolve by gaining a lot of experience. Some say a Pokémon can force itself to evolve when it’s under great pressure…
Grey was so intrigued by what he was reading that he didn’t immediately notice the banging on his door.
“Grey! Grey! I need your help!” a panicked girl’s voice shouted, “There is trouble at the beach!”
It was Cari’s voice! Grey got up and hurried to open the door. Cari was standing there, breathing heavily like she’s just run a marathon.
“Grey! The beach…Marill… some Shellder attacked…there was this Cloyster…and this other Pokémon…” Cari didn’t make much sense but Grey noticed she was seriously scared.
Grey tried to understand what Cari tried to tell him.
…Did she run into a Cloyster? That would explain her fear, Cloyster are known to be pretty dangerous Pokémon. But her Marill is pretty tough…
“Calm down Cari”, Grey said with a calm voice, hoping to stop her from panicking. “Calm down and explain to me what is going on.”
“No time! Come with me!” Cari shouted as she turned around and started running towards the beach.
Grey stood still for a few seconds. He needed a Pokémon if he wanted to do something about a Cloyster. But unfortunately Grey didn’t own any. Fortunately, Blaine did. Blaine is Cinnabar Island’s gym leader so his Pokémon are seriously strong ones.
Without hesitating Grey ran into Blaine’s bedroom and grabbed one of the six Pokéballs from a shelf above the bed.
“This better work”, Grey said to himself as he ran out of the house to follow Cari to the beach.

Once he arrived at the beach he stumbled upon a scenario that wasn’t too pretty to behold.
In the sea close to the beach, in the middle of a group of rocks was a Cloyster wildly shooting ice beams at a small, light blue colored snake like Pokémon. Around the group of rocks was a group of Shellder using their water gun attack to prevent the almost completely frozen, trapped Pokémon from escaping through the razor sharp rocks.
Grey recognized the Pokémon. It was a Dratini, and not just a Dratini, it was the very same that rescued him before and brought him to the shore of Cinnabar Island.
The sun was setting and the water was starting to rise. If the trapped Dratini couldn’t escape before it got completely frozen and the water rose higher above it…
Grey didn’t want to think about the horrible but probable outcome of this terrible situation.
“Grey!” Grey looked to his left and saw Cari and her Marill standing.
“We need to do something or that poor Pokémon will die! I’m scared Grey!” Cari screamed full of fear, she was almost crying. She loves Pokémon more than anything, so she hated what she was witnessing but felt so powerless at the same time.
“Shut up! I need a second to think!” Grey didn’t like being mean to his friend but he didn’t want to be distracted by a screaming girl as he thought of a strategy to solve this horrifying situation.



“I only have one Pokémon, it’s a strong one but it’s most probably a fire type Pokémon. And if not, it’s Rhydon which also doesn’t like water type Pokémon like Shellder and Cloyster”, Grey started saying to himself, “But I don’t necessarily have to defeat them, I just have to scare them away…”
As Grey was thinking of what to do the sea level was rising, and the Dratini was getting frozen solid and getting under water.
“Cari!” Grey shouted, “You and Marill go into the water and grab the attention of the Shellder. As soon as they target you two, start swimming like crazy to try and drive them away from the rocks. Leave the Cloyster to me!”
Cari took a second to look at Grey, she had never seen him this determined before.
She felt his aura and got more secure about herself as well. She nodded and grabbed her Marill. “Marill here we go!” She threw her Marill as far as she could into the sea and followed it by running into the waves of the rising water and swimming towards the Shellder. “Marill use your water gun to attract those Shellder, make them follow us!” Cari commanded her beloved Pokémon with a strong sense of confidence, the way a true Pokémon trainer does it.
The Shellder got annoyed by the Marill pretty quickly and started to rush towards it. Cari and Marill started swimming away from the rocks as fast as they could with the Shellder closing in on them.
“It’s working”, Grey said and didn’t waste another second just standing there and ran towards the rocks throwing the Pokéball he grabbed. “Pokémon Go!”
The ball opened up in mid air and a bright light came shooting out of it and in a matter of seconds a giant dog like Pokémon with beautiful orange-red fur with a pattern of black stripes appeared. It was Blaine’s Arcanine, a proud, very fast and very powerful fire type Pokémon.
“Arcanine! Get up there and use your flamethrower attack to scare away that Cloyster!” Grey commanded the Arcanine with such determination; one could think he was the owner and trainer of this mighty Pokémon.

Cari and her Marill were swimming for their lives with five Shellder closing in on them.
Cari looked back and saw the Pokémon getting close to them. But, against her own expectations, she didn’t panic. She knew exactly what to do.
“Marill! Aqua-jet towards them but instead of hitting one of them, make a short turn and swim towards the beach!”
Marill did what it was told to do and started rushing towards the Shellder; it’s speed created a strong wave behind Marill. As Marill quickly turned and rushed towards the beach, the strong wave created from the Aqua-jet launched the Shellder further in the sea making the distance between them and Marill and Cari impossible to beat. The Shellder gave up on the pursuit and sank them selves to the bottom of the ocean.
“We did it Marill! We did it!” Cari shouted full of joy. But the sight of what happened at the rocks took her joy away as she tensely watched what happened.

Arcanine let out a loud roar and then rushed towards the Cloyster jumping from rock to rock, closing in on the Cloyster. As Arcanine jumped on top of a rock that he could stand still on he let out another loud roar followed by a tremendous wave of fire coming from his mouth, massively hitting the wild Cloyster in the middle of the rocks.
Even though Cloyster was a water type Pokémon, getting hit by Arcanine’s flamethrower was far from painless. But Cloyster wasn’t planning on running away. Instead, it faced Arcanine. Cloyster closed the shell around him while jumping up and spinning around trying to hit Arcanine with the long sharp spikes attached to its rock hard shell.
“Evade those spikes! Keep evading until it has to open up to see where it is going. That’s your moment to strike Arcanine!” Grey instructed Arcanine as he started running into the sea, swimming towards the dangerous sharp rocks in order to try to save the trapped and frozen Dratini.
Arcanine started jumping from rock to rock again; evading all attacks this Cloyster threw at it. Grey was right, the clams around the Cloyster opened up briefly to coordinate its own movement. Arcanine didn’t let the momentum go to waste. In the same three seconds the Cloyster opened up to see where it was going, Arcanine shot a huge fireball in the direction of the center of the Cloyster. As the Cloyster tried to quickly shut its clams again, Arcanine’s ball of fire entered the clams of the Cloyster right before they shut closed. Cloyster closed its clams causing the fireball inside to explode, making the wild Cloyster faint and sink into the ocean.
Grey swam closer to the rocks but the waves were too wild and the rocks too close to each other to reach the poor Dratini, which started to drown.
“I can’t reach it!” Grey screamed while he watched the frozen Dratini getting deeper under the water.
“Use this!” Cari yelled to Grey as she threw him an empty PokéBall, “You’re going to have to catch it!”
Grey caught the empty PokéBall and used one hand to grab one of the rocks in order to lift him up from the water and used his right hand to throw the PokéBall at the Dratini.
The PokéBall opened and a red beam absorbed the Dratini into the ball as the Pokéball closed and floated at the surface of the water. The light in the middle of the Pokéball was blinking and beeping. “Beep…beep…”
It was quiet. Nobody heard the waves raging against the rocks. Nobody felt the cold of the sea or the blowing wind; it was all eyes on the Pokéball.
“Beep…beep…PING!”
It worked. The Dratini was successfully caught and the Pokéball containing it was floating on the waves towards Grey.
Grey grabbed it and swam back to shore where Cari, Marill and Arcanine stood waiting for him.
He stumbled on shore, stopped moving and looked Cari in her green eyes.
“And that’s how you catch a Pokémon!” Grey said with a big smile on his face.
“Oh my, that was intense!” Cari ran towards Grey with her eyes filled with tears of joy, hugged Grey and held him.
They both looked up as they heard Arcanine bark. A man with a big white mustache and a round pair of glasses was standing at the beach a few yards from Grey and Cari.


“So you thought it was wise to steal my Pokémon?” Blaine sounded angry when he said that but his face couldn’t hide his smile. Apparently he witnessed the spectacle that had happened and he was impressed by the actions of the two.
“What you two did was very dangerous, but very brave.”
“But very dangerous!” Blaine repeated, “Did you at least prepare some dinner before you went all hero on yourself?”
Gray laughed exhaustedly. “Well,” he replied, “I did make some roasted Cloyster, but it got dropped in the sea.”
Grey, Cari and Blaine laughed loudly as they walked home with the last bit of the sun setting behind them.

Grey was exhausted when he was lying in his bed with his new friend lying curled up by his feet. He never felt so satisfied about himself; he couldn’t believe he finally got his first Pokémon! “I guess I’m a Pokémon trainer now. Who would’ve thought we’d meet again huh, Dratini?” Grey asked.
But the tired little Pokémon was already fast asleep.

[Trainer Grey]

Friends vs. Bullies


The next morning when Grey woke up, he felt good, he felt strong as if he could take on the whole world if he had to. He opened his window to see the sun shining bright, the sky being almost clear of clouds and hear the Pidgey and Spearow twittering joyfully as if they we’re saying ‘goodmorning’. When he turned around to wake Dratini, he didn’t see Dratini anywhere. He went to look in the living room but no one was there, not even Blaine.
“Where is everybody?” Grey asked himself when he heard sounds coming from outside the house. He went outside where he saw Blaine. Blaine was using a wet towel to clean the plates of his Rhydon, which looked a little annoyed because Rhydon never really liked being cleaned.
“Goodmorning”, Blaine said with a friendly tone, “Would you look at that?” And he pointed towards the grass where Arcanine was jumping around Dratini playfully.
“I guess your new partner has been accepted into the family”, said Blaine laughing.
He told Grey to eat some breakfast and get ready for school, as he would be working at the Pokémon Mansion again.
“What is it that you do there again?” Grey asked.
“Research on Pokémon”, Blaine briefly answered while he was making Rhydon’s plates shine, “And you are getting late for school.”

When Grey grabbed his bag and called Dratini to go with him, Cari came by to pick him up so they could walk to school together. Cinnabar Island was a relatively small island so the school wasn’t too far from Grey’s place. He and Cari just had to follow the small dirt road along the beach for a small hundred yards and take a right, walking right up the town’s main street. Cinnabar’s main street was a wide uphill going road, for the town was built up against the lower part of the island’s volcano. During the afternoon this street was filled with market stands and crowded with people. Halfway up this street was the Poké-Center, a small hospital-like place where nurse Joy worked, helping nurse injured Pokémon their trainers brought there back to health.
The two trainers walked through town greeting the friendly habitants of Cinnabar Island.
It was early but the people of Cinnabar always got up early to set up the stores, clean the streets and tidy up the greenery in town.
Grey once heard the mayor of Cinnabar Island say: “We will make sure that Cinnabar always is a beautiful place and make tourists never want to leave.”
The mayors voice sounded so annoyingly happy, it was kind of difficult not to remember what he said.
“You know what I was thinking about when I got home last night? Cari asked Grey.
“How can I know that? I’m not a Drowzee”, Grey responded still annoyed by the mayors voice in his head.
Cari didn’t pay attention to Grey’s grumpy response and continued with what she was saying. “Dratini are pretty rare Pokémon, so I wondered what Dratini was doing at those rocks yesterday.”
“Yeah, that’s a pretty good question Cari” Grey responded, “but I guess we’ll never know the answer. We can’t actually ask what Dratini did there.”
“Right Dratini?” Grey looked at Dratini, but Dratini was more interested in the blue ball on Marill’s tail rather than paying attention to what Grey and Cari were talking about.

As Grey and Cari walked up the school’s yard, they noticed a group of students standing together. By the sounds Grey heard them make, he deduced that they must have been admiring something. As their curiosity was touched the two trainers went to see what was happening.

In the middle of the group of students there was another young Pokémon trainer standing. It was Derek, the school’s bully and self-proclaimed champion of the school. Derek was kind of chubby and a little taller than the average student at the school. He probably thought that was good enough a reason to assume he was the boss around there. He liked picking on students with his friends, Johnny and Berk as much as he hated being compared to a Munchlax.
Johnny and Berk were twins; they looked almost identical to each other. Only their clothing could help tell the difference. They both wore army like pants and a dark blue hooded vest. The only difference was that Johnny wore his black cap normally while Berk always wore it backwards. The twins always wanted to do double battles. Johnny and Berk used a combination of a Sandshrew and a Koffing. The twins followed Derek everywhere because this was a good way of preventing getting picked on by Derek them selves.

Apparently Derek’s Totodile had recently evolved into a Croconaw and because of that he felt definitely sure that no one could beat him in a Pokémon battle. So now Derek was making fun of Pokémon that hadn’t evolved yet, hoping that this way someone would challenge him for a Pokémon battle. And he was right.
“Picking on pre-schoolers again, Derek?” Grey asked while stepping in the middle of the group facing Derek. Grey felt like the ultimate Pokémon trainer today because of the events that happened the day before, so he wasn’t even slightly intimidated by Derek’s Croconaw that was even taller and chubbier than Derek was. The group of students quietly watched, as Grey was acting cocky towards Derek.
Derek looked at Grey and laughed. “And what are you going to do about it? Battle me?” he asked while smirking, “You don’t even have a Pokémon!”
“You’re right and you’re wrong at the same time”, Grey calmly responded, “I do want to have a battle against you, and I do have a Pokémon.” Grey pointed his eyes towards Dratini.
“And what does that little worm think it can do to my Croconaw? Besides, you can’t battle me, because you have to beat my gang first. And you’re going to need two Pokémon to even begin trying.” Derek was starting to get a little irritated by the fact Grey wasn’t at all intimidated nor impressed by his evolved Pokémon.
“Don’t worry, I have a partner” Grey said smiling while pointing at Cari and her Marill, “And we can’t be defeated, so why don’t let your boys give it a try?” he added arrogantly feeling confident it was impossible for him to lose any battle today.
Dratini jumped in front of Grey looking ready for a battle. It let out a little war cry and gave Derek a look as if he was its target. Dratini felt that this Derek wasn’t such a good guy and wanted to beat him just as much as Grey wanted to defeat him.
“So a double battle it is”, two voices said at the same time, “Our Pokémon are ready for you two!” Derek’s friends Johnny and Berk stepped forward.
The group of students took a few steps back creating a circle around the trainers, forming a sort of battle area. Cari stepped into the circle, standing next to Grey, whispering in his ear: “Grey? I’ve never done a double battle before.”
“Don’t worry about it Cari”, Grey said trying to calm her down, “You’re a good trainer, I’ve seen how you handled it yesterday, we’ll be just fine.”
Derek announced the match to begin and both parties let out their Pokémon.
“Sandshrew go! Koffing go!” The twins summoned their Pokémon from their Pokéballs and gave each other a high five as they always did right before a Pokémon battle.
Because Grey and Cari always liked to have their Pokémon walk freely, Dratini and Marill were already on the field.
“Let’s do this Cari! We can win this!” Grey shouted as if he was a commander leading a platoon of soldiers into a war zone.
And so Grey and Cari’s first double battle commenced.
“Koffing! Use smoke screen! Sandshrew you know what to do!” The twins commanded their Pokémon with synchronized timing; this was not their first double battle.
Berk’s Koffing opened its mouth and let out a thick cloud of smelly, dark green smoke covering the field making it impossible to see anything.
“Okay, when I get rid of the smoke, make Marill attack the Sandshrew”, Grey instructed Cari and she nodded, understanding what to do, ready to strike.
“Dratini use twister to get rid of this smoke!”
Dratini jumped and used every muscle in its body to rapidly turn around its own axis, creating a small tornado-like wind causing the thick smoke to thin out and dissolve, restoring visibility on the field.
“Marill use your water gun on that Sand…” But before Cari finished her sentence she noticed that there was no Sandshrew to attack. It was like the little ground type mouse Pokémon had disappeared.
Cari’s Marill was just as confused as Cari was herself. The water mouse Pokémon looked around restlessly to see where its target had gone, but the Sandshrew was nowhere to be found.
“It’s digging its way underground! Watch out!” Grey immediately knew what was happening here. He had to respect his opponent’s strategy. Using Koffing’s smokescreen to cover the field with thick smoke made it impossible to notice Sandshrew going underground, this gave Sandshrew the perfect opportunity for a surprise attack.
Grey was right but his warning was already too late. Before Cari could instruct her Marill to do anything, the ground beneath Marill burst open and Sandshrew launched itself from underground giving Marill a head butt with such an impact it caused the Marill flying away through mid air.
When Grey’s Dratini witnessed what happened to its friend Marill, it got angry and rushed toward the Sandshrew, without being commanded by Grey. Dratini wrapped itself around Sandshrew letting off some kind of electro static energy. The small amounts of static energy penetrated through the Sandshrews hard yellow scales and caused it to endure repeating small electroshocks making it hard for Sandshrew to move.
“Nice one Dratini! Now Cari, make Marill take it out!” Grey was surprised by Dratini acting out of its own will but didn’t let his emotion show and went on with the battle.

Marill took a big hit from the Sandshrew but Cari’s Marill was a tough little one. After it heard what Grey told Cari to do, it immediately got back up. It was in pain but Marill didn’t show; it was time to settle it with this Sandshrew. Marill took a deep breath, opened its mouth wide to fire the strongest water gun attack it had ever used. The water sprayed towards the barely moving Sandshrew with such powerful, high pressure, it could split a rock in two pieces. With high speed the water gun blasted Sandshrew away and it got slammed into one of the walls surrounding the school area.

“Dratini use your dragons breath to take out that Koffing. Let’s get this over with!”
Grey’s Dratini jumped away from the incoming Koffing that was trying to tackle it; turned around and opened it’s mouth. Koffing turned towards Dratini and opened its mouth to release a nasty brown gas. The tiny dragon Pokémon fired a ray of purple colored flames like a small flamethrower in Koffing’s direction. When the dragons breath got in contact with the gas pouring out the Koffing’s mouth the gas caught on fire shooting into the holes in its body, causing a chemical reaction. The hot flames combined with the sticky, smelly fluids in Koffing’s body created an explosion sending the Koffing flying and smashed it into the same wall Sandshrew got slammed into.
Both of the twins’ Pokémon got knocked out and were unable to continue the battle.
“Woah! How could this happen?” The twins Johnny and Berk had trouble believing what just happened to their Pokémon when they returned them to their Pokéballs. “Our combination was perfect, and our timing flawless!”
Grey smiled as he was rubbing Dratini’s head complimenting it on its performance.
“Yup, that’s true”, Grey said, “Our Pokémon are just a little stronger, and our reactions a little faster.”
Grey complimented Cari and her Marill for doing an outstanding job when Derek stepped forward with his arms crossed.

“So I guess you and your worm earned the right to have a battle with me.” Derek smirked being fully confident that Dratini must been tired now and didn’t stand a chance at all against his powerful Croconaw.
“Yup, and I will win this battle just as easy”, Grey said with a cocky overconfident look in his eyes.
Cari wasn’t too sure if immediately having another battle was such a good idea. Especially against a powerful Pokémon; like Derek’s Croconaw.
“Are you sure Dratini is up for another Pokémon battle, Grey?” she quietly asked, “It’s probably pretty tired now, and that Croconaw looks pretty powerful.”
But Grey, arrogant and confident as he was, ignored Cari’s comments completely.
Derek was a fool, just a stupid bully who Grey really wanted to teach a lesson. Besides, Dratini proved to be a pretty powerful Pokémon so he didn’t even bother to consider any chance of losing this.
“We’re not doing this here”, Grey figured they were going to need more room then the school’s yard could provide, “Let’s do this on the beach.”
Since class was about to start, the spectators from the school stayed behind but Cari was to concerned about Grey that she couldn’t force herself to stay at school so the three bullies and the two friends walked to the beach.
When the trainers arrived, Grey and Derek each took a spot to stand across from each other. Grey comforted Dratini by saying it will be fine. “You can take ‘em, Dratini. I know you can.”
Dratini wasn’t tired at all and adrenaline was pumping through its body. It wanted to defeat Derek just as bad as Grey wanted to win this. Dratini was confident, ready.
Derek stood across Grey, with his arms crossed and his Croconaw, smiling to show off his big teeth, standing in front of him. “You’re a fool for even trying this, prepare to lose Grey!”
Cari witnessed the two confident young trainers standing in front of each other. She thought they looked like ancient samurai ready to have a fight to the death. And the Pokémon of both trainers looked just as self secure as their trainers.
When the two trainers commanded their Pokémon to rush towards each other, Cari knew, this battle was going to be fierce.

[Trainer Grey]

Dratini’s Potential


“Dratini evade!” Grey commanded when Croconaw came in on Dratini with its giant mouth open, ready to take a big bite. Dratini swiftly moved to the side and as the Croconaw closed his jaws missing the bite, Dratini jumped forward giving the Croconaw a head butt to the side of its head.
Derek’s Croconaw barely felt it as it quickly grabbed Dratini by its tail, by using one of its claws, to swing and smack Dratini to the ground.
“Keep at it Croconaw! You’re doing great!” Derek shouted happily impressed by the brutal ways his Croconaw was fighting.
But Dratini ignored the pain caused by the impact when it hit the ground and immediately started projecting electro static energy, forcing the Croconaw to let go and get paralyzed for a second or two. More than enough time for Dratini to get away, and keep distance, from this big, strong and dangerously aggressive Pokémon.
For a second, Grey was overwhelmed by the aggression and brute strength Croconaw used to fight its opponent. This was one serious Pokémon battle but there was no way he was going to back out of this, he just had to come up with an idea to take this powerful Pokémon out.
“Dratini use the environment! Use the beach to tire him out! And keep your distance!”
Dratini, with it’s snake like body, could maneuver through the soft sand easily but the way heavier Croconaw had more trouble moving through the sand at a fast pace.
As the tiny dragon Pokémon slithered on the beach from left to right as fast as possible, the wild crocodilian Pokémon trying to catch it started to get tired by moving through the sand.
It was time to do something; Dratini quickly turned and swept its tail through the thin sand of the beach causing sand to fly in the mouth and eyes of Croconaw. As the big croc stopped moving, Dratini immediately took advantage of this moment; it jumped into Croconaw’s belly immediately followed by wrapping Dratini’s tail around one of it’s legs, paralyzing it. Dratini then used all it’s strength to pull the leg away making the heavy Croconaw lose its balance and fall flat on the ground.
“Use your dragons breath attack!” Grey ordered his Pokémon and Dratini positioned itself in front of the Croconaw, opened its mouth and fired a beam of purple colored flames towards its defenseless enemy.
But the Croconaw responded by rolling over sideways to make the dragon miss its attack, and used its front paws to lunge towards Dratini with respectable speed. It opened its jaws widely, showing it’s forty-eight sharp, hook-shaped fangs, as it slid through the sand as if it was water; its jaws slammed shut with considerable force locking Dratini’s body between them. Croconaw started shaking its head wildly making its prey hit the ground multiple times.

Grey helplessly watched his beloved friend be in pain and get beaten up pretty bad, trying to come up with a plan how to make his Dratini escape; but the result of this situation seemed inevitable.
Cari could hardly bare to keep looking, Dratini was in so much pain! What was Grey going to do now?
“Yeah!” Derek shouted, “This battle is over! Finish it Croconaw!”
Derek’s Croconaw smacked Dratini around a bit more. As it started to flex it’s muscular tail right before he let go of the hurting Dratini.
Then Derek’s Croconaw used its tail to slam Dratini away with full force. The slammed, beaten Dratini landed in the ocean water a few yards away from the beach they were battling at, and the battle seemed lost. Grey shouted semi-panicking: “Dratini! No!”

Just when Grey wanted to admit his defeat to Derek, who was smirking for winning yet another battle, Cari pointed towards the spot where Dratini landed in the ocean and shouted: “Oh my, look at that!”
An extremely bright light appeared in the water. The three surprised and amazed young trainers started staring at the beautifully lighted up spot in the ocean. Derek mumbled with fully opened eyes and mouth: Oh no! This is…”, at the same time only one factual thought was running through the overwhelmed mind of Grey: “I’ve read about this in Blaine’s books a dozen times but I never expected it to look this amazing! Is Dratini really evolving?”
The light coming from beneath the sea’s surface lasted for approximately twenty to twenty-five seconds, but to the young trainers it felt like a few minutes until the bright white light faded, and a long, light-blue colored, elegant looking, snake-like Pokémon launched itself out of the water.

It turned out when Dratini got slammed into the ocean, it realized it couldn’t defeat Derek’s way stronger Pokémon, Croconaw, but Grey helped Dratini when it got in trouble with the Cloyster, so now it was time to repay the favor. Dratini’s determination to do so prevented it from fainting. Instead, it forced the Dratini to evolve into a Dragonair, and this Dragonair had its mind set on just one thing, and one thing only: payback. Dragonair launched itself out of the ocean and landed in front of the surprised trainer Grey. Dragonair locked eyes with Grey, telling him its ready for it by nodding once with extreme determination sparkling in its mesmerizing big eyes.
Grey nodded back at Dragonair, smiled, and looked at Derek, who still wasn’t quite sure if he had to believe what he just witnessed or not.
“Derek! You haven’t won just yet! As a matter of fact, the battle has just begun!”
Derek’s face became pale and he anxiously started stuttering; “But…But I…I…this is not fair! Your Dratini was supposed to be knocked out by Croconaw’s slam!”
“Well, apparently it didn’t”, Grey said with a smirk on his face, “And I have to admit, battling against an evolved Pokémon was an interesting experience, I wonder if you’ve ever experienced something like it. Now! Make your move!”
Grey pointed his finger towards Derek’s Croconaw; “Dragonair! Go!”
Dragonair didn’t hesitate and rushed towards Croconaw with blinding speed, and when it got right in front of Croconaw, which hadn’t really got a clue what was going on, Dragonair suddenly stopped and quickly turned around. Dragonair’s speed caused its tail to slam into Croconaw making it roll backwards a few yards.
“Croconaw! What are you doing? Attack!” Derek shouted at Croconaw.
The rolling Croconaw jumped up, pressed his four paws into the ground to break its fall and slow him down.
“Dragonair! It’s time to finish this!” Grey commanded Dragonair, “Make it happen!”
Dragonair completed to turn around and faced Croconaw again.
Croconaw launched itself towards Dragonair, with its big jaws, filled with sharp fangs, wide open and ready to bite.
Noticing this, Dragonair fully opened his mouth as well. But Dragonair wasn’t planning on biting.
A bright, yellow light appeared in its mouth and Dragonair launched a giant, powerful hyper beam towards the incoming Croconaw, followed by an enormous explosion of energy on impact. The beach sand flew around like a giant wave sometimes seen at sea, causing the three young trainers to look away and cover their eyes.
When Grey looked up he saw a giant crater on the beach with, down at the bottom of the crater, Derek’s Croconaw lying there.
Derek fell down on his knees, silently staring at his fainted Croconaw.
“Croconaw…How is this possible?” Derek mumbled to himself.
“Hey Derek!” Grey arrogantly shouted to the defeated trainer, “Thanks for evolving my Pokémon! Ha-ha!”
“This…this was unreal…”, Derek replied while returning his Croconaw back in its Pokéball, “Don’t think this is over Grey! This is far from over!”
Derek then ran away, probably towards Cinnabar Island’s Pokémon Center, and his gang of defeated friends followed him.
Grey turned towards his Dragonair, “Great job buddy! You were totally amazing!”
Dragonair, satisfied by its own performance and its trainer’s grateful response, cuddled up against Grey making a soothing purring sound.
“Grey that was awesome! I’ve never seen anything like it!” Cari said when she came standing next to Grey, admiring his new evolved Pokémon. “You’re such a good trainer, Grey”, she continued, “And you were amazing too Dragonair!” And she smiled from ear to ear when Dragonair allowed her to give it a big hug.

Apparently the sound of the explosion Dragonair’s hyper beam created traveled a reasonable distance. The sound reached Blaine’s ears while he was working at the Pokémon Mansion. His equipment even started shaking for one or two seconds.
What the…?” Blaine said while quickly grabbing his coffee mug, which was about to fall of the edge of the table. “Will the damn kid ever learn to behave himself?” he said annoyed. He got up from his desk, hung his lab coat over the seat he just got up from, and walked towards the door.
“Are we going to run the first breathing tests now, or when the boss arrives, sir?” another man in a lab coat asked.
“No, not now. I’ve got to go for a minute, just run another software checkup”, Blaine responded as he entered an eight figure security code to open an airtight, thick titanium door. “I’ll be back when I’m back.”

“Bravo”, an unfamiliar voice said while calmly clapping his hands like he was applauding, “An excellent performance.”
Grey and Cari looked in the direction of where the voice was coming from. There they saw a man; this man was wearing a suit like he was a businessman, a long coat, and a hat, which covered the bigger part of his face, making it difficult for Grey and Cari to identify him or take a good look at his face. This mysterious person projected an intimidating impression and Grey was immediately on his guard. “And who might you be, sir?” Grey asked.
“That is an interesting Pokémon you got there, kid”, the mysterious looking man said, “and you’re quite remarkable as a trainer. Your skills are quite impressive for such a young brat.”
Grey looked at him, nodded, but didn’t say anything. He tried to peek underneath the hat this man was wearing, trying to catch a glimpse of his face.
“Grey!” A more familiar sounding man with an even more familiar white mustache came running towards the scenario. It was Blaine.
“What the hell happened here?” Blaine asked with a raised voice when he saw the giant crater at the beach, “I knew it had something to do with you”, he added without waiting for an answer to his previous question, “As soon as I heard that bang, I thought it was you getting in some sort of trouble again!”
Grey looked down thinking of a reasonable answer to give.
“Good afternoon dr. Blaine”, the mysterious businessman said, “I assume the tests tomorrow will have the results you promised me, I arrived a day earlier to enjoy Cinnabar Island’s beautiful scenery.”
“Boss?” Blaine replied like he was a little surprised en unnerved to see him, “Uhm…Yeah I believe the testing will go according to plan. But like I said before I never promised you anything”, Blaine continued semi-annoyed. “Sir”, he quickly added to finish his sentence.

All kinds of thoughts started shooting through Grey’s mind while beholding the conversation that took place in front of him.
…How does this man know Blaine? Or, an even better question would be: How does Blaine know this man? And what do they mean with ‘tests’? He works at the Pokémon Mansion studying Pokémon and their vital structures or something. And did he just call him ‘boss’? I thought he worked for Professor Oak. And this guy is definitely not Oak…
Grey was getting curious because something was not right here. Definitely not right, he could feel it.

“But Blaine, I thought you worked for professor Oak?” Grey asked.
“Yeah! That’s what I though as well”, Cari added while scratching the back of her head. She looked confused, just like Grey was.
“No, no, professor Oak and I are partners, that’s different”, Blaine answered.
“Professor Oak?” The mysterious man with the hat asked.
“Uhm, why don’t you and Cari go back to the house now, you’ve done enough damage to this island for one day!” Blaine quickly intervened, “I’ll be home soon and have Rhydon repair the hole on the beach tonight.”
After that being said, Blaine and the mysterious man started walking towards the Pokémon Mansion. They were talking to each other but Grey couldn’t hear what they were talking about.
So he and Cari started walking in the opposite direction, towards home.



“When we’re at your place, Marill and I will cook some dinner okay? What would you like to eat today?” Cari asked while the two trainers walked down the beach towards the house where Blaine and Grey lived.
But Grey didn’t respond in any way. He was too deep in his thoughts to even hear Cari talk.
…Who was this strange man he just saw? And why was Blaine acting so awkward around him? He’s never like this; he’s a gym leader for crying out loud! And what were these ‘tests’ they were talking about? And why did Blaine call this man ‘Boss’? And if this man is his boss, why did he act so surprised when he heard about Professor Oak? What is going on here? So many questions…

[Trainer Grey]

Sailing to Pallet Town


Grey was thinking about what quite a hectic day this day has been so far. Dratini evolved and they met this strange, mysterious man who, apparently, turned out to be Blaine’s boss. There was something weird going on but the young trainer couldn’t figure out what it could be.
When the two young trainers arrived home they thought their Pokémon deserved a relaxing break after today’s events.
“Let’s go to the beach”, Grey said to Cari, “Our Pokémon deserve a break.”
Cari looked at Grey with disbelief; did he just say he wanted to go to the beach?
“Well that’s a first”, she replied, “Since when do you, of all people, want to visit the beach?”
Grey looked at the confused girl and smiled.
“Since when do I, of all people, own a Pokémon?” was his reaction to the Cari’s question.

At the beach, Grey and Cari let out their Pokémon to let them enjoy a comforting time swimming in the perfectly blue colored, calm ocean with, at the horizon, the slowly setting sun giving the sky around it a light purple pink color.
“So, now that you turn out to be this talented Pokémon trainer, have you thought about entering the Pokémon League?” Cari asked Grey, smiling as she took a sip of her soda pop.
“Hmm”, Grey responded while rubbing his lower lip using his index finger.
…The Pokémon League held at the Indigo Plateau every year, the place where the strongest trainers from across the region gathered to determine who’s the best. Is it possible to achieve this? But first, eight gym badges must be collected before entrance is even allowed. It could be an interesting journey…
“I don’t know yet, Cari”, he answered after thinking for a short while, “I’ll have to think about that. It would mean I have to travel across the entire region, that’s not something to take lightly.”

The two trainers were sitting comfortably in the warm soft sand of the beach enjoying watching their Pokémon have a good time, when all of a sudden Cari stood up enthusiastically jumping up and down as she pointed towards the silhouette of a ship at the very end of the ocean.
“Oh my, look Grey, look!” she said almost screaming of joy, “That’s dad! He’s finally come back! Come on let’s go to the docks! Come Marill let’s go!”
Before Grey even got the chance to reply Cari was already running followed by her Marill wiggling behind her, hardly keeping up with her.
Even though Grey was curious about meeting Cari’s father, he wanted to talk to Blaine first. The thought of this Pokémon League thing Cari was talking about got stuck in his head and he wanted to know what Blaine had to say about it so he headed for the Pokémon Mansion.



Blaine was taking notes of some data appearing on one of the computer screens. Right before he took a sip from his coffee, the man in the suit walked up to him and grabbed his mug.
“An interesting Pokémon the kid possesses, dr. Blaine”, he said while taking a sip from the coffee he just took, “I’ve learned dragon Pokémon are one of the strongest kinds.”
“A little too much sugar for my taste”, he added, moving his tongue over his lips.
“I suppose they are”, Blaine responded while following his mug going back and forth from the man’s lips rather than looking him in the eye, “The kid is lucky to have caught such a rare species.”
The mysterious businessman looked at Blaine with a mean looking smile on his face.
“Very interesting indeed. I think I want it.”
Blaine looked the man in the eye. He knew what he meant but pretended not to understand it.
“You’ll might have a hard time looking for one, boss”, Blaine said.
The lab’s titanium door opened and a woman in a lab coat stuck her head through the barely opened door, as two men wearing identical outfits prevented her from opening it any further. “Dr. Blaine? A boy is waiting for you at the entrance hall, sir.”
Blaine figured it must have been Grey and wondered what he did here. He told him before that he didn’t like being disturbed while he was working. But he considered this as a good timing, giving him a reason to end this conversation.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I think its time for lunch.” Blaine grabbed a sandwich sealed in plastic from one of is pockets and left the lab to follow the woman up the stairs towards the entrance hall of the mansion.

“I thought I told you not to disturb me while I’m working”, Blaine said to Grey, taking a bite from his sandwich at practically the same time. He walked with him as he subtle escorted Grey out of the Pokémon Mansion.
“I’m on my lunch break and I don’t want to have it here”, he said holding the glass door open, waiting for Grey to pass.
“I want to have a Pokémon battle against you Blaine”, Grey said with confidence in his voice.
Blaine immediately spit out the bite he just took from his sandwich and started coughing. “You what now?” he asked while picking pieces of his bite out of his white mustache.
Grey continued with a serious look in his eyes.
“I want to challenge you and earn a volcano badge”, he said with a calm tone, “I think I want to participate in the Pokémon League. So, what do you say?”
Blaine didn’t respond right away and it remained quiet for a minute as he finished eating his sandwich.
“Well that’s something you might want to give a little more thought. It’s not an easy challenge. And it requires a lot of skills and training to beat a gym leader, let alone take the Pokémon League challenge”, he said as he swallowed the last bite.
Blaine looked at Grey and saw how serious he was about this. He also was quite convinced that this young boy he took in a few weeks ago had quite some potential becoming a respectable trainer.
“Here’s an idea”, he continued, “I have a letter that needs to be brought to professor Oak. Why don’t you take it to him? Since you’re so thirsty for adventure and I’m too busy to leave the island. He lives in Pallet town.”
According to Blaine, professor Oak was a man with great knowledge about Pokémon and Pokémon training. He told Grey that if he succeeded bringing the letter to the professor, he could ask Oak a thing or two about his sudden plans to travel through the region, making the decision to do this, or not, easier.
“Okay”, Grey said enthusiastically, “So how do I get to Pallet Town?”
Blaine looked at the young determined trainer as he rubbed his chin.
“Riddle me this: How does a man cross an ocean too big to swim, and too wet to walk on?”
Grey looked back at Blaine not understanding a thing he just said.
“You’re the adventurer now, you figure it out”, Blaine continued, “I have to get back to work.”
He reached into the same pocket he got his sandwich from and revealed a grey envelope, sealed with a red stamp in the form of a flame. He handed Grey the envelope and told him to deliver it and not to read it. Grey stared at the envelope as Blaine returned back inside the Pokémon Mansion.

-How does a man cross an ocean too big to swim, and too wet to walk on?-
Blaine’s riddle was all Grey could think about as he walked towards Cari’s house, to tell her he was going to leave for Pallet Town.

Grey arrived at Cari’s house seeing her Marill play in the little pool in their front yard.
When Grey opened the fence, Cari’s dad came outside the house.
Cari’s father was a tall muscular man wearing a white and blue colored sea captains cap and on his left underarm he had a tattoo of an anchor
He had a full black beard, a big nose and thick black eyebrows above his gruff looking eyes and as like a true pirate he wore an eye patch over his left eye.
Some townspeople speculate about how he lost his eye. Some say he traded it for a mermaid’s kiss while others believe he never even had an eye.
“So you must be the dragon trainer my daughter can’t stop yappin’ about”, the man said with a loud voice. Because the captains spend most of his days at sea, he’s used to talking loud. “ Nice to meet you! Come in, come in, have some tea with us, Cari is making some as we speak!” He somewhat ordered Grey.
While having tea with Cari and her dad, Grey told all about his plans to head for the Pokémon League and how Blaine wanted him to deliver this letter to Professor Oak.
When he told about the riddle Cari’s father burst in a loud laugh.
“Blaine and his riddles”, he said laughing, “Well let me make this one easy for you!”
He told Grey about how the only way to reach Pallet Town was obviously by boat and that he would be setting sail for Pallet Town tonight and Grey was welcome to come with, if he promised not to throw up on his ship. “Sea sickness is for wimps!” the big man yelled, laughing loudly again.
“Oh my, you’re adventure sounds exciting Grey!” Cari said with sparkles in her big green eyes, “Can I go with him daddy? Please daddy, please?”
“HAHAHA! Of course you can!” the loud sea captain said, “I can’t have this wimp on deck without somebody telling him what to do!”
Cari jumped for joy when she got her dad’s approval. “Oh awesome! I can’t wait!”
Grey was glad for getting this easy free ride to his destination.
…If this went this smooth, what could possibly go wrong? Pallet town was within reach. This couldn’t become anything other than a success…

That evening, when Grey arrived at the docks where Cari’s dad’s ship was bayed, he looked up to this big ship as his adrenaline got pumping. This was one big ship!
Grey got on boarded the ship and looked around; he noticed a few sailors and a Machoke working hard moving some heavy looking crates on the ship and a Poliwhirl turning a big steel wheel lifting up the ship’s anchor. At the top of the mast in de middle of the ship was a small plateau where a Sneasel was on the lookout. When the ship started moving from the docks towards the huge, wide open sea, Grey was overwhelmed by the immense size of this ship and all the things that happened on it.
“Grey! Over here!”
Grey looked up the bridge where he saw Cari waving at him, standing between her dad and a Poliwrath, which was holding the steering wheel.
He walked up a round slippery staircase to greet them and thank Cari’s dad for letting him travel with him. “Pika!” A small yellow electric type mouse Pokémon jumped on the captain’s shoulder. It was a Pikachu, also wearing an eye patch over one of its eyes.
“This little friend here helps me keep the Seagull away from stealing fish from some of the crates”, the captain said laughing, “and a true pirate this one is! HAHAHA!”
Then the laughing, bearded, big muscular man looked very serious as he watched the skies turn darker.
“You might want to stay away from deck, I believe storm is coming,”
Grey looked at the sky but didn’t think it looked that bad.
“I’ll be fine”, he said.
The captain threw him a long black heavy coat and told him to wear this if he planned on staying stubborn and remain on deck.

When the ship was getting further into the ocean, leaving Cinnabar Island behind as a small bump at the horizon, it started raining.
Grey put on the long black coat the captain gave him and walked on deck, all the way to the front of the ship.
The ship was crashing through the big waves at sea and Grey was trying to look as far as he could with his eyes pinched, trying to catch a glimpse of Pallet Town that had to lay somewhere behind the horizon. But it was impossible to see far as the clouds turned darker and the rain became heavier. Grey even heard the skies starting to roar. Storm was coming indeed.