The Tale of Two Halves - Chapter 1

[Loupeitak]

Hey everyone! I've been a long time member of these forums, but I've never really posted much. I've mostly lurked around fanfics, as I've always enjoyed reading them.

Something that I've always wanted to do is a pokemon fanfic, specifically a trainer one. This desire started way back when I read Captain Pringle's two journey fics, "Michael's Pokemon Journey" and "The Emerald League". At the time I was very young and immature and had no skill whatsoever to write, so I never really managed to make one.

I kept reading a few fanfics, but none were really all that good. One that did stick out, though, was "Pokemonese" by Dark Sage on these forums. But even then, I still didn't get any original ideas for a fic, so I didn't want to create something boring that nobody would read.

A few days ago, however, out of the blue, an idea popped up and my desire of writing a pokemon fanfic was awaken again. After that I searched for guides to writing fanfics and stumbled upon "The quest for Legends". Read through it all in two days and was definitely pumped for writing my very own trainer fanfic. Thanks for the guide, by the way, Dragonfree .

So anyway, I stopped following the anime after season 1, since they never showed it on TV anymore. I also stopped playing the pokemon games after Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. For this reason, I will not use many pokemon from the newer generations, if any at all. There are simply too many pokemon and new moves for me to look up, which I do not have the time to do. The only thing I take from the newer generations is how some moves of the same type can be Physical and others Special (Such as waterfall being physical, but Surf being a special move).

I think that's pretty much it. This fic will take place in another region to not interfere with happenings in the anime and will take place in an alternate universe where Ash and the rest of the crew have grown up and finished their pokemon journeys.

I hope you enjoy the fic and have many suggestions for me to improve my writing. Afterall, that's also one of my goals .

Have fun!



Prologue:

He looked around him. There wasn't much left... A few pieces of rubble still slowly burning... Some human corpses lying around, still twitching... Various species of pokemon immobile... It was complete destruction except for one small detail.

In all the destruction lay a cylindrical chamber-like device, various tubes and electrical wires sticking out from behind it. He approached the chamber's glass slowly, knowing perfectly well it could pop open just as easy as his had done a few moments earlier.

As he peered into the machine, he was met by a golden reflection. As he looked into his own eyes, he could sense the power within. The charred remains he still held fell to the ground with a light 'pling' sound and the beast clenched his fists. The muscles on his arm popped out, veins bulged. He looked at his open hands now, three golden fingers on each one. With a flick of the wrists, his left hand produced a small crimson ember as the right one cackled with electricity.

He had to have more...

Looking past the reflection, he saw even more power. In the water, floating and dangled by various tubes, was a small baby boy. He could sense this boy's power. He had to have it.
He looked at his right hand again and concentrated. In a matter of seconds it started to distort and morph. His fingers retracted into his hand, and his whole arm extended. The top half maintained the beast's natural golden color, but the bottom half turned into a long sharp blade.

With a simple swipe, he had cut the chamber's glass open. Water quickly flooded out from the hole as his arm and hand returned back to normal. He grabbed the little boy, yanking him out of the chamber, and held him up. He took his first breath and started waving his limbs as he was dangled by the waist. There was definitely immense power within him. The beast had to have it for himself.

He concentrated and his eyes glowed purple as a purple aura enveloped him. As the aura reached the boy, he let him go, and the boy simply floated in mid-air. The purple aura intensified and the baby started squirming and crying. The beast simply smirked at the sight of pain.

Suddenly the beast's concentration was broken as a black sphere of energy hit him from behind. He was propelled forward and crashed to the ground, landing beside some building's charred remains. His vision was blurry, but he could make out two other creatures, a small bright pink one moving towards him and another bigger, bulkier one with a long white and purple tail moving towards the small boy. He roared in agony as the pink creature released another sphere of pure dark energy, hitting him directly on the chest.

Reaching for the remaining energy he had left, the beast looked up in time to see the two creatures pick up the small boy and simply vanish in thin air. With one last roar, he collapsed...

[Loupeitak]

Chapter 1:

"Come on... I can do this... Just one more set..." Ryan thought to himself.

The sixteen year old approached a black punching bag dangling from the ceiling by some old, rusty chains. The bag itself showed great signs of age and use, as the leather covering it was battered and had various tears with fabrics from the deeper layers sticking out.

By now, Ryan was feeling exhausted, panting heavily, sweat dripping to the soft, rubbery mat he was standing on. He checked the blue bag gloves he was wearing, making sure they were on tight. With a big breath, he went for it.

Jabs, cross punches, hooks, uppercuts and various punches were sent flying towards the bag. Always moving and dodging imaginary strikes, Ryan delivered the punching bag a beating. The bag swayed with every punch, the chains screeched to keep a hold on it, every sound echoing throughout the whole warehouse. With one last right hand strike, the set was over.

The boy backed off from the bag, letting it finish swinging. With heavy and deep breaths, Ryan removed his gloves and slowly stretched his fingers. He finally looked around him, at the poorly illuminated warehouse. It was an amateur mixed martial arts gym, where rookies and veterans went to learn and train how to fight. Some people came for the exercise, some came for the discipline, others came for self-defense. Some came for the pure potential for bloodshed.

Ryan went up to a special section of the warehouse where pokemon trained. Various fighting types were scattered around the machines and punching bags, but Ryan was interested in the four sided ring right in the middle of the pokemon zone.

Inside were two pokemon sparring, both humanoid shaped. One was a mix of blue and grey, with a face resembling a lizard, three parallel spikes on its head, along with a small tail sticking out from behind. This Machop was on the mat, behind the other pokemon, holding onto the its neck, in a rear naked choke. The pink pokemon, wearing red shorts and boots, unlike Machop, who was naked, struggled with the submission maneuver, not wanting to tap out and lose the friendly battle. Grabbing the Machop's arm around his neck, the small Tyrogue yanked it while at the same time using the small pink spikes on its head to bash against the Machop. With a yelp, the blue fighter let go of the smaller Tyrogue, that quickly got up in a fighting stance. As soon as Machop was on its feet, the pink Tyrogue showed its amazing quickness, turning into a blur as it struck the poor Machop's abdomen hard, an amazing Mach Punch attack.

With Machop on the ropes this time, Tyrogue delivered punch after punch to the disoriented pokemon. With one final uppercut, Machop crashed to the mat of the ring, definitely fainted. The pink Tyrogue held his arms up in victory, as various Mankey, Machop and Torchic that were spectating, applauded. Ryan merely smiled at his victorious pokemon.

"Come on Tyrogue. It's getting late, we need to get back home!" He shouted to his pokemon. The pink humanoid simply nodded as a red beam engulfed and dematerialized him. The beam retreated into a red and white pokeball that Ryan now held in his right hand.

The teenage boy went into the gym's locker rooms, picking up his black trainer belt along the way. After minimizing the pokeball he held, he clipped it onto the first of ten slots on the belt. A few years back the League had decided to allow trainers to carry more pokemon with them, getting that number up from six to ten.

As Ryan reached his locker and stored his gloves and belt, he removed the big white towel he had inside. A quick shower and he was ready to get back home. As he closed his locker and put his bag around his left shoulder, Ryan saw his reflection in the mirror at his side. His deep brown eyes surveyed his messy, short, dark hair. At the sight of some hair sticking out weirdly, Ryan smiled slightly and tried to straighten them out with his hand.

Outside was already pretty dark. It was about eight in the afternoon, so the sun had already set. It wasn't cold, but there was a small breeze.

Ryan lived in Pewter City with Brock. They weren't father-son, or even family related, but Ryan treated him like he'd treat his own dad. According to Brock, he was left on his doorstep one day as a baby. Being a pokemon breeder and being around baby pokemon all the time, Brock couldn't leave the boy unattended and decided to adopt him. In a way, Ryan also helped Brock since he had never found his special someone and lived alone. Taking care of Ryan gave Brock some company and something to be proud for, other than his career achievements.

The road back, wasn't really long, but not many people passed through it at this time of the day, making it a not very safe road either. However, Ryan was confident nobody would really try to mess with him. He stood at six foot three, was in pretty good shape and definitely knew how to fight and defend himself if he had to.

"Brock, I'm back!" He said as he walked through the front door. Ryan immediately felt a nice aroma of roasted beef. Brock always was an excellent cook.
"Hey Ryan. Help me out setting up the table" he replied.

***

Ryan and Brock both put down their forks, finishing up their last bite of the meal. Ryan was completely stuffed. Workouts always made him really hungry which led to overeating.

"So Ryan..." Brock started, breaking the silence of the meal "Have you decided about Diamond League yet?"

Diamond League was a new league that had just finished being set up. During a thunderstorm, a fishing boat ended up being thrown off course and found itself on a completely new region. In all, the Vane Islands, named after the captain of the boat, Lance Vane, was composed of a big island with various cities and town built on it, along with some smaller Islands surrounding it. New species were discovered on these islands and pokemon that were considered rare, turned out to be quite easy to spot.
In order to get the new region more populated, a new Pokemon League was created with gyms scattered along the islands. Newer trainers all over the world decided to take part in this new challenge in hopes of uncovering new secrets that they couldn't in Kanto or Johto as every corner of these regions was already discovered.

"I think I want to try it out. It could pose a nice challenge for me and Tyrogue. But don't you think it will be a bit weird seeing as I'm older than everyone else?" Ryan replied.

Ryan was sixteen. Most beginner pokemon trainers started around ages ten to twelve when they received their first pokemon. Brock, being one of the top pokemon breeders around, managed to get an extra Tyrogue egg from a client's Hitmontop, which he gave to Ryan for his birthday. However, the teenager didn't really feel like it would be much of a challenge to beat the well known gym leaders, so instead of going on a journey, he undertook fighting, more specifically, boxing, along with his fighter pokemon.

"I don't think it's weird. After all, you're looking for a challenge for your pokemon journey. And you always said you wanted to uncover secrets like I did with Ash when I was younger" Brock said
"Well yeah... I guess you're right. I guess Tyrogue could also do with some proper pokemon battling instead of just martial arts with inexperienced Machop and Mankey."
"It's settled then! Tomorrow we can get started with the paperwork and your trainer license!"

***

The next few days were interesting. Getting a trainer license wasn't the hardest thing, but it did require taking a pokemon basic knowledge exam. Ryan didn't have too much of a hard time with it. The hardest part about preparing for a journey was buying supplies and making sure you didn't forget anything. From sleeping bags to water bottles, from repels to potions and pokeballs. It was a lot of items to buy and forgetting a small one could be disastrous. In the end, looking at the list again, Ryan was sure he had everything packed and wasn't missing anything.

Putting on his trainer belt, now loaded with ten pokeballs, albeit only one with a pokemon, the amateur boxer checked his pockets to see if everything was there. He pulled out a small silver rectangular shape out of his right front pocket. It was one of the newer pokedex, an invaluable tool for any aspiring pokemon trainer. Sliding the top half to the side, much like a PDA, opened it up. Immediately on the touch screen, Ryan's picture popped up along with his details, name, age, hometown, phone number. This was his trainer license. There were various other applications that Ryan could choose from. A phone application, various maps, GPS tracker, Pokemon information, it had it all.

With his backpack on, trainer belt strapped, wallet and pokedex in pocket, Ryan was ready. Brock was waiting for him by the door to say goodbye. As Ryan reached the door, the two men hugged each other.

"You go get 'em, tiger. Nobody can stop you. They never could." Brock whispered in Ryan's ear.
"I'll make you proud."

And with that, Ryan was off, a cab waiting for him outside to take him to Vermillion City where he'd board a ferry to Amber Island, the first discovered island of the Diamond League.

***

The trip to the ferry was short. With all the advancements, shortcut roads were created between cities and towns in Kanto and the ride to Vermillion didn't take all that long. Trainers used to have to gruel into caves and tunnels just to go to Cerulean City, but nowadays there were much shorter paths everywhere.

After arriving at the ferry, Ryan was assigned a room, as the ride to the Vane Islands was still long. The ferry wasn't anything grand like the S.S. Anne, but it wasn't all that shabby either. Pretty much an ordinary ship with rooms for trainers and some more entertaining areas for people to have fun in. It even had a small arena if trainers wanted to do some friendly battles, however a ton of people wanted to battle, so there was a huge waiting line.

As Ryan walked around exploring, while looking for his room, he could hear all the newer trainers running around laughing and generally having fun. Seemed like a few of them had already made some friends to help along their journeys. Ryan wasn't really the type to hang out with people he didn't know, and his social skills weren't exactly the best either. In school, he pretty much kept himself to a small group of friends he knew since he was little and didn't stray off. Instead of partying and getting girls, Ryan kept to himself and his martial arts. Not only that but these kids were much younger than him.

At last, Ryan found room 419. Sliding his keycard in, the door unlocked. The room wasn't anything fancy. It was a basic white room with a single bed, a small TV in front of the bed and a nightstand. It also had a small modest bathroom with a shower.
It would have to do.

The teenager simply put down his backpack, turned on the TV and lied in bed. The rocking from the boat and the white noise from the television slowly put him to sleep... The next day he would finally start a pokemon journey. One that he'd hope was full of challenges awaiting him. In his sleep, Ryan smiled.

[Gavin Luper]

Welcome back to the forums, mate. I remember your name from years ago. Nice to see you back here and writing again.

I don't have much time to read, but it's really cool to see a classic trainer fic pop up on these boards again. You write adequately and the formatting is clear, so there is some promise here. Make a concerted effort to build on characterisation: ask yourself "what would this character do in this situation? how is this different to another character?". Also pay close attention to plot: try to keep it original; good trainer fics, even with the Kanto region setting, can be stellar if interesting developments are made by the author - and as this looks like it's heading for a new region, you have even more room to move and experiment.

Just to let you know, I've also merged the first two posts here - it's a requirement on this forum that the first post you make must contain the first part of the fic (in this case, the prologue).

Good work and best of luck with your writing!

Cheers,

Gavin.

[Loupeitak]

Hey there! I'd like to thank you for taking the time to reading the fic and giving me some nice suggestions to improve.

I'm aware the classic trainer fic is a dying breed as they tend to be boring and repetitive with the get all the gym badges and go to the pokemon league. However, it has always been something that I've wanted to do since reading them during their golden age. I'm trying to give them a twist and get a different plot in while still maintaining that gym/league skeleton. We'll see how that turns out.

About the characters, you're right, they don't have much of a personality so far. Those haven't developed yet simply because I'm still working out their kinks so as to avoid a classic Mary-Sue type of character. Wouldn't want to fall into that trap...
About the different region, yes, I am trying to find original and exciting content to uncover during the fic. They'll pop into my head eventually, I'm hoping, haha.

I wasn't aware that the first post had to have content, I do appologize for that mistake.

Thank you very much, once again, for taking the time to post. It's definitely more motivational knowing that people are actually reading your work .

[Gavin Luper]

Hey there! I'd like to thank you for taking the time to reading the fic and giving me some nice suggestions to improve.

I'm aware the classic trainer fic is a dying breed as they tend to be boring and repetitive with the get all the gym badges and go to the pokemon league. However, it has always been something that I've wanted to do since reading them during their golden age. I'm trying to give them a twist and get a different plot in while still maintaining that gym/league skeleton. We'll see how that turns out.

About the characters, you're right, they don't have much of a personality so far. Those haven't developed yet simply because I'm still working out their kinks so as to avoid a classic Mary-Sue type of character. Wouldn't want to fall into that trap...
About the different region, yes, I am trying to find original and exciting content to uncover during the fic. They'll pop into my head eventually, I'm hoping, haha.

I wasn't aware that the first post had to have content, I do appologize for that mistake.

Thank you very much, once again, for taking the time to post. It's definitely more motivational knowing that people are actually reading your work .

No worries at all! I don't often have time to read, but I'm happy to provide feedback when I can. Good luck with it, and keep writing!

Cheers!

[Loupeitak]

The second chapter has taken quite a while to be developed because I went back to my family's home and have, unfortunately, left my notepad with this fic's information and notes behind. So I've had to re-write them all. I'll get it moving soon, hopefully.