Pokemon Origins Volume One

Chapter One (Untitled)

The rain fell hard, splashing at my face from the flooding ground beneath me. I stood on what seemed like an ancient graveled road, surrounded by an old, neglected, forest. From the obvious tire tracks ahead, it looked like a large utility vehicle had passed through here disturbing what would normally be unkempt foliage growing out from each side of the thin stretched road. Divots in the earth where the heavy vehicle had shifted the thick, rocky, mud told me it must have passed recently. The overgrowth spewing from behind barbed wire fences on either side now lay scattered, flattened with bits of broken debris spread around leaving jagged tree branches in shards. Water flowed through the tracks and converged to form a stream that stretched toward the bottom of the road behind me.

The whole scene felt thick and ominous as I gazed down the twisting path. Sweat rolled down my brow, mixing with the rain, stinging my eyes. I wiped the sting away, but my hand came back bloody. Surprised, I felt my forehead again, and found a laceration above my right eye, but from the absence of pain and small amount of blood, I gathered it wasn't too bad. Rain washed the blood away, and it dawned on me that my hands weren't, er, mine. Well, they were, but they were older, broken in and coarse, almost like a mechanic's hands after years of hard use. A large V-shaped scar textured the back of my right hand. Scar tissue traced the bones from the knuckle of my right forefinger and thumb for about an inch and a half before converging to a point. It was an old scar. It had clearly healed long ago, but how did I get it? I studied the scar for a moment, perplexed, trying to remember what had happened. The last thing I could recall was going home after a hard days work at the lab.

To my sides all I could see was forest, and ahead of me the road turned out of view. It was pretty dark. I turned to see my watch, but my wrist was bare. That was odd, because I always wore my watch - it was my father's. He died before I was born, and my mother never really talks about him. The watch is the only thing I know that was his, and so I wear it. I hope I didn't lose it.

The storm along with the tree line made it hard to tell the time of day, although I guessed it was close to dusk, based on the light available. I took a quick look at the rest of myself. A sheepskin leather hat I've never seen before sat on my head, with a bill wrapping all the way around that kept me from having to wipe my eyes every few seconds to see through the rain. I was also wearing a leather duster i didn't recognize that extended down over some black denim jeans several inches below my knees. Even in the heavy rain, I felt pretty dry under the jacket and hat, and I was starting to feel like a real badass. My feet were fitted with heavy walking boots, and were also pretty dry, even though my left boot was almost completely submerged in the now fast-moving stream covering most of the road. Then I noticed I was wearing a peculiar, er,... belt, er, thing. From the looks of it, it was made entirely of a thin, light, gold-colored metal, with red trim around the buckle, and several compartments for holding equipment.

"Now I'm officially a badass," I thought as I opened a few compartments on my left hip, withdrawing a compass and a pretty sweet utility knife, loaded with everything you'd need in just about any situation. Even a toothpick. They both had signs of heavy wear. The brand name on the knife was almost completely buffed smooth, leaving only most of an "S," telling me it must have seen some heavy use.

The wind picked up, and forced me to hold my hat tight to my head for fear of it flying off. The duster blew open, revealing something shining inside my left lapel. When the wind subsided, I opened my coat to see six colored metal pins in two neat rows inside. I instantly recognized them. These weren't just any old pins, these were badges. You see a badge was earned when a person and a pokemon completed a trial using one of the eight known energies: Earth, Water, Lightning, Fire, Ice, Forrest, Ghost, and Psychic. These badges indicated that I had completed each trial and mastered almost all of them.