Pokémon story prologue pt.1

Prologue

“These Slowpoke are all about equal in strength. They know Tackle, Curse, Growl, Water Gun, Yawn and Confusion. You have one day to catch a pokémon, familiarize yourself with it and show up here for your first battles. Whoever wins, becomes this year’s sponsored trainer.” 

Those words had preceded the three most frantic hours in Ran’s life. Well, the most frantic hours thus far, at least. He’d taken off like a startled Zubat, jostling for position with the other five kids who’d made it to the penultimate step of the Azalea Gym Sponsorship process. But where they’d all taken off for Ilex Forest, Ran had taken off in the opposite direction, racing towards Route 33 eagerly.

He’d been forced to slow down long before getting there of course, with Route 33 being quite a bit further away than he could comfortably sprint. He assumed the others had come to similar conclusions in their own sprints towards Ilex, but with them being closer to each other, they’d likely try and overdo it just to be the first to make it to the forest and get the ‘best’ chance at a destined encounter.

Going towards Ilex made sense, of course. Filled with Bug types, renowned for their fast early growth and relative ease of capturing, they offered an obvious opportunity to the young trainers-to-be. But Ran had discarded that option long ago. After all, it was well-known that in Azalea Town, to get the Gym sponsorship, you’d be loaned a Slowpoke. Slow, part-Psychic Slowpoke. 

Especially with weak pokémon, type (dis)advantage often proved crucial. With only one pokéball, one loaned Slowpoke and twenty four hours, Ran wasn’t willing to risk it. Instead, he was headed towards the grasslands that led to Union Cave. There, most of the usually present pokémon offered better match-ups: Rattata, Pidgey and Spearow’s lack of bulk, Geodude’s severe weakness to water (if one wandered out from Union Cave) plus Zubat and Ekans’ weakness to Confusion. All of them at a disadvantage against Ran’s loaner and, just as important, barring Rattata all of them were strong against the Bug types the other three would likely be tying their fates to.

As he finally wandered into the Route properly, Ran was barely aware of his own eager grin. He’d capture his destined starter, defeat the other candidates and before the week was through, set out on the road and start his journey. 

His journey, the well-deserved reward for making it through the Azalea Gym Sponsorship process. There’d been twenty of them at the start and only he, Ran Carr, would be setting out on his journey at the age of twelve without a care in the world. The others would be stuck in Azalea, trying to scrounge together enough funds to give full-time training a real shot. 

Getting stopped right at the start was, unfortunately, the fate of the vast, unimpressive majority of aspiring pokémon trainers. There was a lot of money to be made as a trainer, but the start-up costs were substantial as well and for inexperienced trainers, it was very easy to run at a loss rather than a profit.

Fortunately, as Ran finally wandered off the beaten path and into the tall grass, he could soon put the depressing thoughts of those trainers who had to claw their way up without a sponsorship out of his mind, as he caught a faint rustle in the grass ahead of him. Thumbing the pokéball at his side, Slowpoke materialized in front of him just as, with a rattling sound, two yellow eyes rose up from amongst the grass.

“Perfect.” Ran muttered, as the Ekans in front of him drew itself up with a threatening hiss.

“Slowpoke, use Confusion!” He cried out enthusiastically, as a feeling of rightness settled into his chest. Ekans would do perfectly.