Blue Begins
Despite having had to get up early to make it to Vermillion City in time to board the S.S Anne, Gary was glad to be with his Uncle. He had always been jealous of Harry, since he was young and he realized that his parents weren’t really the best at caring for him, and Harry had more attention from Gramps than Gary could ever have. He hadn’t understood it, not really but the past week had clarified a few things for him. Sure his mom had always been around but she cared more about image than about him as a person. She’d bought him a driver and a car just to go on his pokemon journey, and even cheerleaders. She’d once told him that by making it clear that he was someone important before anyone even knew his name he could have anything he wanted. He’d thought that sounded awesome. His father hadn’t even called to wish him good luck on his journey, had not even called for his birthday a few weeks before. Then Uncle Harry kicked his butt so hard and made it look so easy.
He’d cried knowing that his pokemon were so hurt, that he’d failed them as a trainer already. He couldn’t help it, but instead of laughing at him or looking down on him,
his Uncle had held him. Had told him about how he was adopted and came to be an Oak, something Gary had teased him about so often without even knowing the full story. He’d even offered to take Gary with him on his journey. Harry James Oak, renowned as the youngest Pokemon Professor across every Region, even the Independants, had offered a place alongside him on his journey. Sure Gary was his nephew, and he hadn’t really earned it, but if he went with Harry he could find a way to earn it.
Then Harry had gotten hurt defending him and Ash and even that girl he’d never even met before, Misty. Gary had realized that maybe the world wasn’t as easy and carefree as he thought either. In the span of a single day his entire worldview had shifted. Now he was here, in Vermillion City, with his Uncle, who was not only taking Gary with him on his journey but had even promised to give Gary a pokemon egg of his own.
“Here you go,” Harry said, passing Gary a bowl of rice with cooked seafood, and a skewer of eel to go with it. Gary quickly snarfed down his food, hungrier than he’d realized as he watched his Uncle feed the two baby Dratini pokemon pieces of seafood by holding little pieces up to his shirt hoodie-like pocket where he’d tucked them. When he was finished Harry took the cardboard bowl from him to dispose of while Gary, Octavian and Goldfyre watched their bags. Both Gary and his Uncle had recalled their second pokemon after feeding them, neither Zephyr nor Dorothy having had enough experience around groups of people for them to feel comfortable with the size of the crowd that was forming. There were quite a few people on the pier, some of them clearly with tickets of their own for the luxury cruise liner, others just wanted to get a glimpse of the biggest cruise ship in Kanto. Harry returned and settled against his bags. Gary was just about to suggest they play a game of Go Magikarp when a father and his two children approached them both.
“Can we pet your pokemon?” the little girl asked. Gary bit his lip, he was proud of Octavian but would his Uncle think him arrogant if he was too excited about the prospect of someone else gushing over him. That answer to that unvoiced question was given to him moments later.
“You can pet my Growlithe,” his Uncle said, patting Goldfyre who lay stretched out beside the green eyed man. “He’s quite gentle with children, his name is Goldfyre, you’ll have to ask Gary about Octavian in his lap there. As for these little ones,” Harry gently ran a finger over the heads of the two Dratini. “They’re a little too young to know not to bite yet,” his Uncle said. Gary looked at his Squirtle. Since he was a League-Bred Starter Pokemon, Octavian would certainly not mind a few pats. Still sometimes children weren’t very nice.
“You can touch Octavian,” Gary said. “Just be gentle.”
“Thanks,” the father said as he ushered his little girl forward to pet the fire and the water type pokemon. The little girl seemed fascinated by the small soft scaly leathery skin as she touched Octavian’s bald little head and ran her fingers over the ridges of his hard shell. The little boy however, still in his father’s arms, giggling delightedly, thrust both hands through Goldfyre’s cream-colored chest fur.
“Passengers of the S.S Anne please prepare for boarding, Platinum Ticket Holders please proceed to the designated line as boarding will begin in five minutes. Remember all pokemon will need to be recalled to their pokeballs for the duration of the boarding process. Thank-you for choosing the Kingdra King of the Seas Cruise Lines, and enjoy your time aboard the S.S Anne,” was heard over the intercoms that lined the pier.
“That’s us,” Uncle Harry said, “The tickets Giovanni gave me were Platinum, we're going to be in the first boarding line.” Gary wondered if Giovanni was just that stupidly rich that he gave his Uncle, someone he hadn’t even known a full week, tickets that he could sell for millions of pokedollars without a thought, or if the man wanted something in return, that was as of yet unspoken. Gary wasn’t all that sure he liked Giovanni, even if he did give expensive gifts. Maybe it was the rumors that the man was once a member of Team Rocket, maybe it was because he dressed like one of those old timey, 2770’s mafia bosses. Maybe it was because he seemed to have his Uncle’s attention and Gary was jealous. It wouldn’t be the first time Gary didn’t like someone out of irrational jealousy, after all he’d been jealous of his Uncle for having a dad who cared and just look at what happened between him and Ketchum. He’d been best friends with Ashtred, until his own jealous words over the other boy’s doting mother, one who cooked home cooked meals, who attended all his footie games and tucked him in at night, pushed them apart.
Their luggage, as little as they actually had, was carried for them as two black and silver uniformed housekeeping workers led them towards the single Premier Suite on the highest passenger deck of the S.S Anne. The room was awesome, and though there was only a single bed, it was a huge Sinjohian King bed that he and his uncle could easily share. The detailing of the room was gold to contrast all the dark colored wood and soft grey marble. It was opulent, something his mother might purchase for him without thought or any real care put into the gift beyond how rich, indulgent, or generous it would make her look. Somehow, this was better. Sure it was still a gift, but it wasn’t given without thought. Harry didn’t have to bring him along on this fancy vacation that he had personally been gifted, but he did, not out of obligation or as a way of purchasing his affection, but because he cared about Gary. He jumped on the bed excitedly, trying out the bounce of the bed. His excitement clashed into his near daily melancholy about his parents.
Gary had to fight back the sudden surge of tears welling up in his eyes as they left the suite. He managed not to cry by paying very close attention to the safety meeting, listening as they gave directions on how to properly put on the provided life jackets and where their lifeboat was. When they returned to their room Gary copied his Uncle’s actions and let his pokemon loose. Zephyr flitted around finding a perch on top of the headboard as Octavian borrowed his pokeball to play a simple game where he rolled it across the rich dark hardwood to Dorothy and the little Totodile rolled it back. His Uncle emptied out the complimentary basket, while Gary opened the terrace door and let the sharp sea air of the bay into the room. Gary couldn’t help but smile at the adorable image the baby Dratini made curled up together in the basket. His Uncle had padded it with a fluffy white hand towel and sat on the bed beside it so he could gently pet the white one, Pollux with a single finger across his tiny baby scales.
Goldfyre settled in the patch of sunlight that streamed in through the sliding door and Zephyr fluttered down to snuggle into the fire type's furry side. Uncle Harry lit up his Pokedex, it was far more sophisticated than even Gary’s top of the line ‘dex, but Gary knew that was because Harry had been the one to make it in the first place. Even his mother, an heiress of the Sashkomi Family, didn’t have the pull to get her hands on a Masterdex. As far as Gary knew, Harry was the only person in the Eastern Republic that had a Masterdex for personal use, all the rest were League owned and only used within major labs.
A holographic map of Kanto, complete with the correct topography appeared above the Masterdex that his Uncle had set on the bed. Although extremely excited about the piece of technology Gary tried to play it super cool.
“Can’t we just follow the road and challenge the League gyms in each city?” Gary asked. He was a little concerned and a whole lot of confused as to why they needed to plan their route so minutely.
“No,” Uncle Harry said. “You didn’t research anything but pokemon before you started your journey did you?” Now Gary was even more confused. What else was there to research? What events happened where? He’d learn if there was an event in town when he was in that town.
“I didn’t see the point,” Gary answered truthfully, and he could see his Uncle withhold a sigh, breathing it out slowly through his nose.
“Well the first problem of just traveling the route and challenging Gyms, is that Giovanni, who’s the Leader of the Viridian gym which when starting from Pallet Town is the first on the route, doesn’t take challenges from anyone who doesn’t already hold five gym badges from a single Region, Sabrina of Saffron requires her challengers to be considered tier four trainers which mean they hold at least two or three gym badges from a single Region and Koga only takes trainers who can display patience and determination, by taking several defense classes before he’ll take a trainer’s challenge,” Uncle Harry said. “That doesn’t even touch the factor that I am sixteen.”
“Oh, so you can only get five badges before you have to go for Ranger training?” Gary said. He’d forgotten about that since it wasn’t something that applied to him. At least it would be a while before they’d have to split up.
“Four,” Uncle Harry corrected. “My doctorate in pokemon studies makes me a tier two trainer as opposed to the tier one that most League trainers start as.”
“Oh,” Gary said. He’d also forgotten about that. Even less time then. “So we can only travel together for a little bit then?”
“Yes,” Uncle Harry said. “But rather than think of that right this minute why don’t we map our route out for when we return to shore. Then perhaps tomorrow morning we can check out the ship's training grounds. There’s a doubles battle tournament we can sign up for that’s set to run in a few days, but we should practice together, plus out of all our pokemon, only Goldfyre truly knows how to battle.”
“Alright,” Gary said. “We would challenge the Vermilion City Gym first, right? Since we’ll be there already.”
“Yes,” Harry answered. “Though we may have to stay in town for a week, the Gym Leader Lt. Surge is one of the League’s few Master Electricians and gets sent out to help set up major electrical machines. He was actually the one to set up the scanner at my temporary lab when I was in Lavender Town.” Uncle Harry tapped the hologram, touching Vermillion city, causing the map to change to a close up map of the city proper. Uncle Harry tapped again directly on the displayed gym building. Several options came up and Uncle Harry quickly clicked the option to see information on the current Gym.
“That’s Lt. Surge? He looks kinda old,” Gary said honestly, when an image of the Gym Leader appeared on the screen, of a grey haired and mustached man, in navy blue dress pants and a dark red Kantosian military jacket with several medals pinned over his heart.
“Don’t let that make you underestimate him,” Uncle Harry said. “He only took the name Surge when he became the Gym leader of Vermillion and chose electric as the Gym’s specialty. You’ll recognize his true name from your history classes.” Harry tapped the image of the Gym Leader and all the information on the man available to the public, as well as a little more due to Harry’s status, came up.
“That’s Lt. Curtis Mulligan!” Gary exclaimed excitedly as he read the full name displayed by the hologram. “He carried Colonel Nathaniel Tarragon six miles across enemy territory during the second war with Kalos! He’s a war hero.”
“He’s an experienced war pilot as well,” Uncle Harry said. “He had a young Pikachu that once saved his plane from going down during the Battle of Almia Bay during the second war with Kalos as well. That Pikachu is now a Rachiu if rumors are correct, and a member of his personal team.” Gary knew that too. Kanto’s war history was one of the few things that could keep his attention for longer than a few minutes. That and the Battle of Almia Bay was the last battle to be fought with the use of war machinary instead of pokemon. The only other topic in school that kept his attention; pokemon of course.
“How are we going to beat him?” Gary said. “He’s going to be way stronger than us.”
“You really didn’t look up anything,” Uncle Harry said, slightly exasperated. Gary blushed. It wasn’t entirely true. He’d tried, he’d just got distracted a little and next thing he knew he was reading all about Wailords or Drowzee. “When you challenge a Gym, both the amount of badges you have along with your Trainer tier level are taken into account. So when we challenge Lt. Surge he won’t be using his personal team, he’ll be using a League sanctioned team that caters to our perceived skill level. You can request that he use his personal team but I suggest you only do that after you already have a few badges. You can always come back and rechallenge a Gym Leader after beating their League sanctioned team.”
“Oh,” Gary said. “So where do we go after we challenge Lt. Surge?”
“Well once both of us have our badges, which you will have to train hard for, and when we get back to land you should attempt to catch another pokemon. Both Octavian and Zephyr have typing disadvantages, you could train them to be stronger against electric types if we had an electric pokemon between us.”
“Won’t it take you a long time to get the badge too? I mean Dorothy is a water pokemon like Octavian, and Goldfyre doesn’t have a type advantage even if electric pokemon aren’t strong against him like they are water and flying,” Gary asked. Sure Uncle Harry had one hit KO’d both of his pokemon but he’d just said that Gym Leaders would cater to strength level.
“While it’s true that Dorothy has a type disadvantage, Goldfyre is exceedingly strong due in large part to the fact that while I was not a League registered trainer I trained with him nonetheless. We’ve created moves that are not League recognized and are able to communicate without words,” Uncle Harry answered. “That’s not to say that I won’t be training hard with my pokemon as well but, I’m not as worried as you need to be.”
“Alright,” Gary asked. No wonder Uncle Harry had kicked his butt so easily. “Where will we go after Vermillion?” Uncle Harry returned the hologram to its original map of Kanto and began highlighting a route.
“We should go from Vermillion to Fuschia City,” Harry said. “We’ll have to stock up on food and first aid supplies before we head out, it’s a rather long route. We’d take Route 11 west to the coast before heading south on 13 to 14 and take that east till it changes into 15 and continue all the way to Fuschia City. It will give us an opportunity to fill out our teams a little and also visit the Safari Zone.”
“Koga is the leader in Fuchsia right? Does he use fighting types since he requires his challengers to take defense classes before he accepts their challenges?” Gary asked, trying to show that he did know a little even if he wasn’t as prepared as his Uncle had clearly expected him to be.
“Actually Koga is a master of poison type pokemon,” Uncle Harry said. “Poison is vulnerable to water pokemon due to their body composition allowing them to filter poisons, so I'm not worried about our current teams against him.” Gary nodded.
“Plus we’d have caught new pokemon,” Gary said, adding another point.
“Yes, we likely will have,” Uncle Harry said. “From Fuschia we head north on the cycling road, we have our bikes, and it’s a known hang out for trainers so we can get a good amount of battles in. We’d have to keep our eyes open, it’s a known stomping ground for several biking gangs. Most of them will leave us alone but a few occasionally cause issues on the route.”
“That brings us to Celadon then?” Gary asked.
“Yes, who’s current Gym Leader is Erika Serenity, she’s a master of Grass pokemon, which also makes her a master in status effects due to grass pokemon’s inherent mastery of spore type moves that poison, paralyze, cause sleep, and even a few that cause irritating burns,” Uncle Harry said really quickly, as if hurrying to do so before Gary could disparage the grass type leader. Gary knew that many people often thought that grass type pokemon were the weakest of pokemon types even more so than normal types due to their often gentle natures. His own father was a very vocal disparager of grass types.
“That actually sounds kinda hard,” Gary said. He could hear the defensiveness in his Uncle’s voice and wondered if his Uncle thought that Gary didn’t like grass type pokemon like his father.
“We’ll worry about that when we get a little closer to Celadon. After that we’ll go to Saffron, we’ll both be at least tier four and can challenge Sabrina. Both her pokemon and she have psychic abilities which will be interesting. From there we’ll be separating as that will be my fourth badge, and I’ll be a tier six trainer and I’ll have to report for Ranger Training and mandatory service,” Uncle Harry said. He must have seen the emotion on Gary’s face as he added, “We have plenty of time before then. Besides, you’ll have some experience behind you, and be ready to travel on your own. Now shall we get dinner?”
“Can we order room service instead of going out tonight?” Gary asked. Gary couldn’t help but think that there really wasn’t enough time for him and Uncle Harry to really travel together. He had wasted so long just being jealous of the other and he couldn’t help but think that Harry wasn’t really an uncle but really more of an older brother. The thought of having to continue his journey without his brother was a bit of a scary one. That he supposed was part of the reason he was so happy that his mom had hired people to travel with him, he didn't have to be alone.
“Of course,” Uncle Harry said. “We can eat on the terrace.” The evening went quickly, they’d ordered burrito bowls with fiery spices and Uncle Harry laughed when Gary moaned upon tasting the cooling vanilla flan. With their pokemon fed and watered and bedded down for the night Uncle Harry and Gary changed into their own bed clothes before bedding down together in the Sinjohian king bed.
The morning came far too soon for Gary. His Uncle was an evil man. Six in the morning was too early to be awake let alone doing something as terrible as running. He was sweaty and panting by the time his Uncle had determined that they had gone around the track enough times. Despite his complaints, Gary knew that his Uncle was right, maintaining the willpower to train himself would help him when it came to his own pokemon. He anticipated that he’d be having plenty more of these mornings when it came to traveling with Harry.
It was not to be. Only a few hours after his first real team battle alongside his uncle Gary was arriving back at Pallet Town with his grandfather, technically no longer a trainer, and pokemonless. Although, Gary supposed that given his Gramps was the Kanto region's premier Pokemon Professor and the lead Professor of Kanto’s biggest lab, and he would at least get to be around his pokemon on a daily basis, it felt like the end of the world nonetheless.
He spent most of the next three days in a wallow. Gramps had set him up on the couch, making a makeshift bed there until his dad could make it home from where he was stationed in Sinjoh. His mom had been arrested the morning after he’d arrived back in Pallet Town and Gramps was very vocal on not letting him stay in his house alone even if it was only two houses down. He camped out on the couch morning through till the night obsessively reading the school survival textbooks the trainer tests would be taking their questions from. After three days it seemed that Gramps had had enough of Gary’s pity party, and Gary learned just where his Uncle learned his evil early morning ways.
“Up! Up! Up! Boy!” Gramps shouted as he shoved at Gary. “It’s a beautiful day, up and at ‘em!” Gary groaned and tried to turn over while pulling the blanket over his head. “Nope, nope, nope, not today my dearest grandson,” Gramps’ voice was sing-song, as he pulled the blanket away from Gary and began bodily pulling the ten year old up from the couch.
“Gramps!” Gary couldn’t help but whine.
“Gary!” his grandfather echoed with the same whine.
“Ugh!” Gary groaned, before suddenly back tracking when he saw his Gramps mischievous smile. “Okay, I’m up! I’m up!”
Gramps was an interesting cook, the man could either be a genius in the kitchen or a disaster and there was no inbetween. This morning it was genius, soft crepes with fresh sliced magost and pecha berries, vanilla whipped cream and syrup. Much better than yesterday’s spicy egg smoothie concoction. Gary dug in with gusto even taking seconds while Gramps puttered around the kitchen cleaning up. Gary rinsed his dish and put it in the dishwasher’s rack before heading back to the living room.
“And where do you think you’re going, young man?” Gramps asked.
“To study on my ‘dex, and then I’ll visit Octavian and Zephyr in the back paddock,” Gary answered, confused.
“Nope!” Gramps said. “Today you’re getting some hands on learning. Grab your ‘dex and your trainer bag. You’re going to work alongside my other slave er, assistant today. I believe you know young Ashtred?”
“Ash! Ash Ketchum?!” Gary exclaimed. “I’m not working with that…”
“Gary!” Gramps cut Gary off. “Young Ashtred is a fine young man who has gone through a difficult time just like you. You don’t have to like one another but you will get along in my labs. You’ll both be coming in every Tuesday and Thursday for four hours and then you will come in every Monday as well while he comes in every Friday. I will pay you both the same, minimum wage for right now so 200 pokedollars an hour. This way you will learn both about pokemon and about responsibility as well as have a little cash that you’ve earned yourself. Gary held off his sigh. It seemed his Uncle hadn’t fallen far from the tree even if he wasn’t biologically related to Gramps.
The walk to the lab wasn’t long, barely even ten minutes. The air was crisp due to the morning cool but Gary knew that it wouldn’t take long to warm up. It was still only a month or two into summer and as one of the southernmost settlements in Kanto, it never truly got very cold even in the winter. In fact the last time it had snowed in Pallet Town had been the year before Gary had been born. He doubted it would be a snowy year this year, but one never knew. The lab was as it always was, clean, smelling vaguely like antiseptic, and very very white. It was also temperature controlled, warmer than outside but still air conditioned well enough to ensure that lab machines remained in an optimal temperature to be run. Gramps led him all the way to his personal lab area where Ash was already waiting.
“It is good to see you not just on time this morning, but actually early young Mr. Ketchum,” Gramps said.
“Mom bought me an alarm clock yesterday and showed me how to set it, Professor,” Ash said, practically bouncing with unholy, morning person energy. “I won’t be late again I swear! It’s set for six o’clock every morning.”
“That is good to hear,” Gramps said. “As you can see, I have brought my nephew today, he will be joining you every Tuesday and Thursday, while coming in alone on Mondays. You will still be alone on Fridays. If you wouldn’t mind showing Gary how to sort and deliver the daily mail to the right cubbies, then feed the pokemon in pen twelve. Finish by ten and then come to my office, I'll have more for you to do by then.”
“Of course Professor,” Ashtred said, bouncing up on his toes.
“Good,” Gramps said. “Show Gary where to store his trainer’s field bag and hop to.” Gramps all but spun around on one foot as he left Gary and Ash alone in the lab room.
Gary couldn’t help, he just had to poke at the other boy, at least a little.
“Hey Red,” Gary said with a smirk knowing the irritation the nickname caused. That smirk was wiped away a second later.
“Hello Blue,” Ash said.