Chapter 1 - The Very Beginning: New Bark Town

Todd got out of bed to a sunlight filled room. His computer lay on the desk, beeping to tell him about his new mail. His PS3 sat in the corner just as he left it last night after completing Final Fantasy XIII for the third time. Over in his bookshelf was stocked full of comics, how-to books in the Pokemon world, and the training guides he's been using to train his Pokemon. That reminded him, today is is 12th birthday and today he'll start his journey. He told himself that he didn't choose to stay home instead and train half a year for nothing. Today was the day, he would enter the Johto world, full of mysteries, surprises and most of all, memories with the Pokemon that he's known for half a year.

On Todd's tenth birthday, when asked by Professor Cedar, who took over after Professor Elm's journey to Sinnoh to research all the new Pokemon with Professor Oak, said that he would rather spend time getting to know a team he will catch himself. He told the Professor that the primary objective is to teach his Pokémon the most unexpected moves; moves they could not learn naturally, and even though they will suffer level-wise, they will still have perfect move sets. All the species would be found within his hometown, and he would start with his Bulbasaur, his graduation present, and his Dratini, which washed up on the shore of New Bark from the coast at the east. They would be the first of their species to do that. So he did; days on end, he spent training team. Now he picked up the 6 Poké Balls off his table. "Yeah, I'm ready" he thought.

Todd got out of bed to notice that his mom had already mopped the floor. This afternoon everybody in New Bark would gather by their house to celebrate a send-off party, in which Todd would showcase the fruits of his labor. It was time to show the crowd what kind of moves he was teaching his team. So his lineup was:

Houndour lv 5

-Flamethrower, Crunch, Sunny Day, Solarbeam

Poliwag lv 5

-Cross Chop, Surf, Ice Beam, Strength

Bulbasaur lv 5 (he got this as his graduation present)

-Razor leaf, Toxic, Sleep Powder, Sludge Bomb

Nidoran (female) lv 5

-Body Slam, Rock Slide, Iron Tail, Earthquake

Dratini lv 5

-Thunderbolt, Dragon Claw, Fly, Aerial Ace

Abra lv 5

-Psybeam, Calm Mind, Shadow Ball, Recover

So, now rather than drawing attention to his team, Todd is a tall strong boy. He had spiky black hair and a bandanna worn around his forehead. His clothes were simple, normally consisting of 2 or less colors. Today he had picked his favorite, white and blue trimmed shirt. He had jeans, along with an assortment of khakis, shorts and cargos. Also, as for his character, Todd was one who preferred beatdown style battling to strategy. He admitted that strategy is, yes, important, and a little bit is good, but taking out your opponent as fast as possible will eliminate any complications that may arise.

He changed into his clothes, sighed and belted his Pokemon, and jumped down the stairs to eat breakfast.

"Morning Mom!" said Todd

"Morning Todd! There's some toast for a quick breakfast so you can warm up outside" said Mom "Dad is taking Brissy to school again and he's heading for his new job at the Radio Tower in Goldenrod."

"Thanks Mom!" thanked Todd

He wolfed down his toast and milk and apple and left for the route outside New Bark. He threw the first Poké Ball, marked with a Fire sticker, into the air. A small dog with a red belly and a silver striped back popped out.

"Alright Houndour, today is our big day! So let's put some energy into this warm up!"

Houndour nodded coolly and began training. So went all the Pokemon until Todd called a halt. "Let's go back for some breakfast guys!"

They left back for the house and headed to the back yard which was already decorated. There were 4 balloons tied to each corner of the fence and tables set out. Also, the middle of the yard was dominated by a small battlefield. Todd sat down in his favorite corner with his Pokemon He fed them their favorite foods. For Houdour, a slice of turkey, for Poliwag, seaweed, for Bulbasaur, honey on a stick, for Nidoran, just some Pokéchow, for Dratini, a ham and cheese sandwich, for Abra, Todd's brainwaves.

As soon as they were finished, Todd retreated them to their Poké Balls. He left for his room and grabbed his swimming things so that he could go to the water to the east of his house and give his Pokemon a good bath. As soon as he got there, however, there was a battle going on.

Rattata was holding it out against a Pidgey. Todd whipped out his Battle Scanner, given to him by Dad. It is supposed to scan the real life battles and put them in graphics that show the Pokémon which have unique sprites, animation for their moves, and most useful of all, a health bar that is designed to track how close your and your opponent's Pokémon are to fainting. Rattata tackled Pidgey. and knocked it out. Todd felt a sudden spark to battle.

"Hey, you with the Rattata, whats your name?" asked Todd

"Yeah, my name's Brian." said Brian "You wanna battle?"

"Yeah, let's rumble!"

Brian called out a Rattata. But Todd wasn't worried, all it could do was Tackle. So Todd decided to toy with him for a while. He called out his Nidoran. Now you must remember that Todd taught them the moves they didn't know before.

Rattata, due to having more speed, charged at Nidoran, but Todd could only see Rattata Tackle his Nidoran. Nidoran dodged quite deftly.

"Now! Nidoran! Use Iron Tail!" commanded Todd

"Iron Tail??!!!" Brian was amazed and perplexed.

Rattata was knocked out in one swift, silver blow. So Brian called out his Cyndaquil.

"I don't know much about Pokemon, but I know that Iron Tail means a steel Pokemon! Go Cyndaquil use Ember!"

Nidoran was hit. It wasn't a very heavy hit, because Nidoran's health bar (on the Scanner) only went down 2 hp, due to Nidoran's high defense. Brian gaped. He had never seen so tough a Pokemon Todd decided he'd toyed enough. He switched Nidoran with Houndour. Brian only opened his mouth wider. Houndour dealt a quick Crunch attack and Cyndaquil was finished.

"How..What?...Where?...When?" said an amazed Brian

"Speed is of the essence. Speed and Power. They will lead you to victory." Todd patted Houndour on his head and retreated it.

He went back to his house to see some people had already arrive, the kids raring to battle.

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