30 Birth of the White Charmander

As the first rays of sunlight peaked over the mountains, they began to illuminate a small town nestled between them by the name of Pallet.

And as the first rays of light illuminated this town, they revealed a solitary figure rushing through the streets with more haste than the people living there usually had. The Pokemon professor in question couldn't help his excitement though.

He LIVED for researching and discovering new things about Pokemon, and, by his calculations, Ace's interesting Charmander should've hatched during the night.

Even though the most likely explanation was that Ace's Charmander had a stronger inner flame than usual, professor Oak still couldn't help but to get excited to hear from from his student about it.

Arriving at his lab earlier than he usually did, professor Oak opened the door to hear his phone going off while the light was blinking indicating that there were several messages waiting for him as well. His curiosity and excitement peaking at the urgency that Ace seemed to be trying to contact him with, the professor hurriedly answered the call without even taking his morning coat off.

"Professor!" Ace exclaimed as his face came into view. "You finally picked up!"

"Well you know I don't usually get into the lab until a bit later than now anyways Ace. So what's the verdict?" Rather than directly answer, Ace moved the camera on his Pokenav to show him. And what professor Oak saw made his jaw drop.

There, suckling on one of Miltank's udders, was a pure white Charmander.

Professor Oak looked away from the screen and roughly rubbed his eyes, trying to get the last remnants of sleep out of them, and looked back at the screen to see that the Charmander's appearance hadn't changed in the slightest.

The longer he looked though, professor Oak noticed that it wasn't quite appropriate to say it was 'pure' white.

As the morning sunlight caught the Charmander's scales they reflected numerous shimmering colors reminiscent of a rainbow, matching the flame on the tip of its tail that indicated their life force. And as he watched the little lizard drink its meal, all he could udder was,

"Beautiful..."

But even as he stood transfixed by the beautiful Charmander, the researcher within him was still racing through various how's and whys.

As any Pokemon professor worth his salt would, professor Oak had naturally researched the rare variant colored Pokemon that occasionally appeared, more commonly known as 'shiny Pokemon'. And from what he'd managed to research, they weren't nearly as 'rare' or 'special' as the vast majority of trainers thought.

Though they were still considered rare, that was mostly because shiny Pokemon tended to avoid encountering people and other Pokemon far more than a normal Pokemon. However, professor Oak had noted from observing the Pokemon that mated in swarms, typically bug Pokemon, that there were usually several shiny Pokemon that could be seen within the swarm.

And as for the popular opinion that shiny Pokemon were stronger than their 'normal' counterparts, Oak had long since concluded that was because their different coloration made their lives more dangerous and harder to survive. Harder to blend in, harder to hunt, both of which means that the Pokemon in question would need to develop better skills in defending themselves and hunting in order to survive to adulthood.

Ace's Charmander however was unlike any other shiny, let alone a shiny Charmander, that professor Oak had ever seen.

A typical color variant Charmander only had slightly different coloration from their normal counterparts, so much so that one would only be able to recognize them if they were side-by-side. Unless they were a researcher like professor Oak.

Questions flooded his mind as his eyes scanned every inch of the Charmander analytically, even as he asked,

"What can you tell me about him Ace?" As if waiting for that question, his student answered,

"Firstly that he's male, and that his body runs extremely HOT. I woke up feeling like I was about to die from heat stroke and dehydration this morning because he hatched last night, and curled up on my chest. Everything else can be found in the scan when I registered him in my Pokedex."

As Ace said that Oak readily went to a different monitor and pulled up recent entries from the three Pokedexs, archiving the ones that Gary caught last night, and scrolled to the most recent one by Ace.

~~~

Charmander- fire lizard Pokemon

Type- fire

The flames at the tip of its tail are alight from the moment it is born, and represent its emotions along with its life force. If the flames go out, the Charmander will die. This Pokemon has the Blaze and Flash Fire abilities.

Moves- Scratch, Growl, Ember Smokescreen

~~~

Professor Oak blinked several times as he read the information on Ace's Charmander, his eyes immediately going to the differences between itself and a normal newborn Charmander.

Firstly was that it had the Flash Fire ability, an ability common amongst fire type Pokemon, but not the Charmander line. Secondly, it already knew the move Ember, which Charmander didn't typically learn for the first week or two of their life.

With each second professor Oak felt his excitement build as his mind and soul demanded more data. Unfortunately he couldn't get any from the lab.

"Ace, I'll meet you in Pewter city." Oak said suddenly, surprising his student as Ace looked up suddenly.

"You will?"

"Of course! How can I stay away from such an interesting Pokemon!?! We'll be in Pewter in a couple days!" Saying so, professor Oak ended the call so he could pack. At that moment the door to his lab opened, allowing Daisy and her Vulpix to enter.

"Good morning grandpa! Why are you here so early?" Daisy asked curiously, but her grandfather told her instead,

"Daisy, pack your bag!"

***

"Haaa..." I sighed after the call with professor Oak ended, though I did feel somewhat relieved that the professor was coming to Pewter to check on Charmander personally. I didn't think anything was wrong with him, but it was always better to have a professional opinion.

I looked back to the newest member of my team, just in time to see him stop sucking milk from Miltank and look back at me.

"Bac!" The little white lizard belched from his first meal, making me smile wryly.

"Char char!" Charmander declared as he ran up to me happily, his flaming tail wagging happily while the rest of the Pokemon and the girls watched him curiously.

"I don't get it..." Misty uttered.

"Get what?" Dawn asked.

"I've NEVER seen or heard of a Charmander like that!" Misty declared while pointing at my Charmander in exasperation.

"I think I have an idea why that is though." I said quietly, making all three girls look directly at me.

"What is it?" May asked with interest.

For a moment I didn't answer as I scratched Charmander under his chin, before saying finally,

"I think it was Ho'oh..."

"""..."""

Naturally, no knew what to say to my hypothesis, which was completely and utterly ludicrous. But, when one saw the way the light shimmered off of Charmander's scales, or the different colors of the flame on his tail, there was no denying the uncanny similarities.

"Are you sure?" Dawn asked hesitantly.

"No, which is why I didn't immediately mention it to the professor. But we'll see him again when we get to Pewter city, so I can mention it there. Plus I don't trust saying something so important over a telephone."

The girls nodded in agreement since we'd all heard of it becoming more common for people's phones and such to be hacked, at the suspected hands of Team Rocket no less. And as I'd emphasized before we entered Viridian city, we did NOT want anyone learning we'd see a Legendary Pokemon.

At that point I took out another bottle of the milk I'd milked from Miltank last night, which had been nice and chilled by this point, and quickly downed it as I tried to recover from nearly dying of dehydration last night.

When done I slammed the bottle down in front of me, though not hard enough to break it.

"Aaaaah.... That hit the spot!" I exclaimed in relief, before turning to Riolu, "You ok leading the morning's workout?"

"Lu!"

"Thanks. I'm going to go wash some of the sweat off from last night."

"Ri!" Riolu said as I turned away from them to go to the river, leaving the girls to prepare breakfast while Charmander followed me.

I stopped only long enough to fish a towel and change of clothes from my bag before going to the river, where I was slightly surprised to find Sharpedo still there.

"Well good morning Sharpedo!" I told her with undisguised surprise.

"Shar!" She growled back at me but she lacked the same aggressiveness from yesterday.

Even when I stripped down and jumped into the water with her she didn't move, only watching me intensely while Charmander sat on the shore. Once I got past the chill of the water I swan across the river a couple times before fighting the current as I tried to swim upstream, challenging myself to make up for not training this morning.

The entire time I could feel Sharpedo and Charmander watching me, the latter with interest, while the former was scrutinizing me. It was only when I felt as if I'd gotten a decent enough workout that I approached Sharpedo, who regarded me warily, until I asked,

"Should I teach you a new move?"

THAT caught her attention as Sharpedo looked at me sharply.

"Breakfast is ready!" Dawn cried out a little bit later as she came running from camp, making me look up from the now freezing water as I replied,

"I'll be right there!"

"Shar!"

"Don't worry. If there's one thing you'll get a lot of with me, it's training. Just keep working on it for now on your own. And when we set up camp tonight we can keep going."

Sharpedo didn't say anything as she just looked at me while I crawled out of the water, with my wrinkled hands and feet, and pulled on a clean set of clothes before going up to eat.

...

The next few days were fairly routine as we traveled through the forest towards Pewter city, making a new camp each night near a river or pond large enough for me to let out Sharpedo for the night. Even if our time wasn't the greatest I wasn't concerned since my goal while we traveled through the forest was to train my Pokemon anyways.

And boy did they train.

While the newbies all struggled a bit the first couple days, they quickly started getting into the swing of things as we got closer to the other end of the forest. I also managed to get Sharpedo to accept me more, though she never openly admitted it. I have two tsunderes on my team.

I also somewhat began Charmander's training as well, though not nearly to the same extent as the rest of my Pokemon, only enough so he didn't feel left out.

Every one of them, Charmander included, got plenty of real battle experience though.

For some reason we were hounded by swarms of aggressive Beedrill that attacked everything in sight, scaring the shit out of Misty and May, but giving our Pokemon very valuable battle experience. If this were the game we'd would've been grinding serious experience points, and several of our Pokemon would've evolved already.

"What is with them!?!" May demanded as we ran from yet another angry horde of Beedrill.

"Something pissed them off..." I uttered even as we ran.

"NO SHIT!" Misty roared as she sprinted ahead of the rest of us, her fear of bugs fueling her speed.

"Your turn Dawn." I told her calmly.

"Piplup! Shinx!" Dawn cried as she tossed out Shinx's Pokeball, and Piplup leapt out from her arms. "Piplup, Bubble Beam! Shinx, Thunder Shock!"

At her command Piplup spewed out a widespread shot of bubbles that soaked the swarm of Beedrill, before Shinx released a bolt of electricity that electrocuted all of them. And with the Beedrill being soaked from Piplup's Bubble Beam, the power of shines attack was multiplied so that numerous Beedrill fell from the sky.

"How many is that now?" May asked as she hurriedly made sure the Beedrill didn't fall near her.

"About seven swarms." I answered before pulling out my Pokenav and activating the map function.

"I don't understand..." I uttered as I studied out current position, as well as a certain land marker on the map.

"Understand what?" Misty asked.

"Look here." I said as I pointed to the landmark I was looking at. "That's the Beedrill hive that rules over Viridian forest." Both Misty and May turned completely green when they saw that, but I just continued as I pointed out a certain area around the hive.

"This is their territory, which swarms of Beedrill regularly patrol. And while it's not too unusual to find them outside their range, the number of Beedrill we've seen is far outside the norm..."

"So what does that mean?" Dawn asked.

"I don't know...." I replied as my mind raced with possibilities. There was one in particular that came to mind, I just hoped that wasn't the case.

Instead I pointed to another location on the map that was closer to the northern edge of the forest, and said,

"Let's head here to make camp for the night, and we should be able to get out of the forest tomorrow."

None of the girls contested my plan since we were all a bit ready to get out of Viridian forest before the Beedrill attacks escalated, and the location I'd pointed out took us further from their territory. And by 'a bit ready', I mean both May and Misty praised the ground I walked on once I mentioned leaving the bug infested forest.

So our group hurried through the trees and brush as we tried to avoid encountering another Beedrill swarm, and as we ran I could see a particularly large tree rising up in the distance.

"There!" I exclaimed, pointing out the landmark of our next camp, which was also a fair distance away from the Beedrill hive. But as we got closer, I could hear a distinct buzzing sound filling the air.

"They're back!" Misty exclaimed fearfully.

"No..." I said slowly, sensing no actual hostility, yet.

Instead the aura I sensed was different from the Beedrill, which confused me even more since they sounded alike, but my confusion immediately cleared the second we stepped out into the clearing surrounding the tree.

"Holy shit....." I uttered in awe, as the girls and I beheld hundreds of Combee lazily floating through the air.

"Since when do Combee live in Kanto?!" Dawn exclaimed in alarm.

"They don't." I replied with tension in my voice, as I realized my earlier theory was one hundred percent true.

"What's wrong Ace?" May asked worriedly.

"I think..." I began slowly as a large figure exited the top of the large tree, just as hundreds of buzzing Beedrill filled the sky from the south.

"We're in the middle of a turf war..."