2 What the Fuck?

In a small town named Woodcastle town known for its houses made within the trees themselves, a young boy of about ten years old, with curly black hair and black eyes, wearing black glasses, looked outside a window where he could see a pidgey flying across the sky before it landed on a small tree branch.

Everywhere one looked, the only thing they could see would be large trees with houses either made within them or on top of them.

The clear blue sky and tall green trees gave the town a mystical yet peaceful atmosphere.

"Alan, are you ready? We are leaving in a few minutes; if we are late, you might miss out on your starter," within this peaceful atmosphere, a loud shout woke Alan from his thoughts as he hurriedly went towards his desk.

"I am ready, mom!!" he shouted back before grabbing a small bag before running towards the stairs.

He wore a black shirt with a black zipper, pants, and boots. One look and someone could guess what his favourite colour was.

"Be careful, young man!" said a deep voice, and he immediately recognized who it was.

"Dad, you are home," he happily went towards the man sitting on the chair before giving him a tight hug.

"Are you excited?" asked the man, but he already knew the answer as he saw the impatient look on Alan's face.

"Yes, I can't wait to get my starter pokemon; who knows what it would be? When are we leaving? I am ready when you are..."

"Hold your horses; we can leave anytime but not before you finish your lunch," a woman's voice came from a different side of the house and then a tall woman in her early thirties appeared in front of Alan while holding a plate filled with food.

Her name was Ellie, she was a beautiful woman with blond and curly hair, with red eyes whereas the man's name was Alex. He was Alan's father and a pokemon researcher.

He was a tall man, almost 6 feet tall, with black curly hair and glasses over his deep blue eyes.

"I will pray to Arceus that you get a pokemon with great potential," said Ellie as she took a seat beside Alex.

"It's alright, mom; even if it is not a great starter, I will make sure to train it to the best of my ability," replied Alan with a small smile.

"You do realize how important your first pokemon is, right?" she asked when she saw the calm attitude of Alan.

"I know, mom, so don't worry. I will get a great starter, and I will make sure to show it to you as soon as we are back," he gave an assuring smile before he started gulping down his food.

"Sometimes I wonder who a parent is between you two," joked Alex when he saw how his son was calmer than his wife.

Ellie did not say anything but still showed a worried expression.

In this world of Pokemon, a starter was considered the most important pokemon one would choose.

Why?

Raising one pokemon could sometimes take all the money a trainer could gather. The amount of resources that goes into training a pokemon is more than one could even imagine; hence, even though pokemon trainer was the most challenging profession, it was also the one most people sought. Not many could reach its top, not because of talent but due to lack of resources.

It did not take long before Alan finished his food and was ready to leave with his father. Their destination was Arcelia city which was located almost five hours drive from Woodcastle town.

All those who needed a starter pokemon had to report to the nearest League Headquarters, which for Woodcastle city was in Arcelia city.

"Alright, we should leave before we are too late; we don't want to stay outside in the dark because of it," said Alex as he gave Ellie a goodbye kiss, reassuring her that they would get a good starter pokemon before they finally made their way towards the car.

"Drive safe, make sure not to stay on route and not wander in the forest."

"Ellie, this is not the first time I am going to Arcelia city," he shook his head at his overly worried wife, but he knew she was afraid for Alan more than she was for him. It was his first time out of Woodcastle city, after all.

"Are you excited, Alan?" asked Alex as he saw Alan poking his head out of the window to take in all the views he could.

"Yes, this is my first time going out, and I will also be seeing a lot of new pokemon. Even though I tried studying them, it is a whole different thing to see them in real life than in books or the internet," he replied with his head still lurking out of the window.

"Hahaha, I can feel your excitement; your mother was just as excited when she left for her starter pokemon. Now bring that head inside before a wild pokemon attacks you," he spoke with a stern voice, and Alan immediately brought his head back in.

Nothing significant happened during their journey, except for Alan, who was excited every time he saw a new wild pokemon.

It took them precisely five hours with a short break to reach their destination.

Arcelia city was at least a lot bigger than the Woodcastle town, with about 20 million people living in it, apart from the people who visited the city daily or on different occasions.

The gigantic buildings that reached the sky could be seen throughout the city; Alan had his neck almost snapped as he tried to look above. Unlike the peaceful and calm Woodcastle town, the Arcelia city was bustling with activity.

"This is so cool," said Alan as he saw the busy streets with people walking on the sidewalks, along with their pokemon.

"This is just the tip of an iceberg; this world has so many places to explore and many places to visit. Once you start your journey, you will see all the wonders of this world for yourself."

As he explained many things to the curious Alan, they soon reached their primary destination today, the League Headquarters and the Pokemon Centre of Arcelia city.

It was a tall building with at least more than 80 floors with a large board of PLH (Pokemon League Headquarters) mysteriously handing in front of the building's highest floor.

However, the lowest part of the building had an entrance in the shape of a Pokeball, a landmark that every person in this world knew about. Pokemon Centre.

This place served as a centre for healing and as a hotel and restaurant for the trainers, a pokemon market, a pokemon task centre, and a place for new trainers to get their starters.

As the duo entered, with Alex in the lead, they soon stood before a nurse working at the reception.

"Hello, I am nurse joy; how can I help you?"

"I am here to choose a starter for my son," said Alex as he pointed at Alan, who was standing behind him looking at everything with a newfound curiosity.

Giving a small smile after seeing Alan's behaviour, she spoke in a polite tone, "which tier would you choose a starter from between tier 2 and tier 3? or would you rather like to pick an egg?"

"I will choose tier 2," said Alex as he handed nurse Joy his piece of ID.

She gave a slight nod before entering all the required information into the system. Once done, a small token came out of the machine, which she handed over to Alex.

"Please take this token to the second floor; someone there will guide you to the starter pokemons. You will be paying after you have chosen a pokemon; you can also change the tiers at any point if you don't like anything from your current tier."

"Alan, let's go."

As he called Alan, they both started walking towards an elevator.

"Dad, what pokemon am I getting and what potential?" curious to what his starter was going to be, Alan asked his father.

"We have chosen tier 2, which is between green and yellow potential," he replied with a smile before asking, "you should know how the potentials are categorized, right?"

"Yes. From lowest to highest, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple with each divided into three sub-stages, Light/Normal/Deep," answered Alan before he took a breath and added, "Red and Orange come under tier 3, Yellow and Green under tier 2 while Blue and Purple come under tier 1. With an increase in the tier, the cost to get the starter also increases."

"Since we are getting a pokemon from tier 2, we will be paying 2 million pokedollars to 10 million pokedollars depending on the potential of the pokemons."

Alex, who heard Alan, was surprised, not from Alan knowing the potential grades but also their prices.

"How do you know how much a pokemon costs?" he asked while raising his eyebrows. He wanted to keep it a secret from Alan until he became a trainer, not to make him feel bad for spending so much money on his starter.

"I looked it up on the internet; it is easy to find things if you look hard enough," he answered with a big smile before adding, "I will return the money for once I have gathered enou..."

*Thuck*

"Did you think we gave birth to a kid without making preparations? Our responsibility is to get you your first pokemon, so don't dare act maturely on me about paying back. I will use all the money you would earn to buy me things when I get old, and I won't pay a penny back for it. We are family, and you don't bring money in the family."

As he said his piece, the elevator reached the second floor. They both walked out, and a beautiful girl greeted them right outside the elevator. She led them to a room where an older man dressed in a formal black suit was waiting for them.

"Welcome, my name is Jonas, and I will be helping you with selecting your started pokemon," he said while looking at Alan, "I would need your handprints on this device here."

As Jonas finished his words, Alan walked towards the machine where a small device was placed. As soon as he put his hands on the scanner, the smaller device lit up blue.

"Name: Alan Salvador; Woodcastle town. Age: 10. Background Check complete: No criminal offences found."

Once the mechanical voices stopped, the smaller device popped up, floating in front of Alan.

"This here is your Pokedex which will keep track of your accompanied pokemons as well as provide information on any known pokemon that is registered in this device. You can use it as an identity card during your league and gym battles as well. This is the latest model so you can use it for communication purposes as well...."

Jonas explained tons of different features of the Pokedex leaving Alan stunned and excited.

"Now onto the main course," he said and a large platform rose from the ground with fifteen pokeballs placed on top of it.

"These are the fifteen options you can choose from. One of them is deep green, two are green while three are light green where as the ones left are all deep yellow. You can take your time and chose a pokemon from among these fifteen pokeballs. Me and your father would be outside, waiting for you, go ahead and take your time to make your choice."

Alan who had completely ignored the man walked towards the pokeballs before he was right beside them. He could tell which ones were green while which were yellow from the note written below them.

'This is going to be my first partner, someone who will stay with me for my whole journey.'

As he thought about the possible future he once again became excited but he soon calmed himself down, this was not the time to think about future but rather to be concentrated and choose his starter pokemon.

He read through all the notes before he went into a deep thought. He had 15 options but not all were good specially the ones with yellow grade potential. No way would he choose a pokemon with yellow potential as the sheer amount of resources needed for promoting a pokemon in potential were enormous.

That and also the fact that the yellow grade pokemons were mainly, Pidgey, Barboach, Gulpin, Numel etc which were very common pokemons in the wild or could be easily bought in the market if one needed them.

With that he was only left with 6 choices.

1: Machop [Fighting] (Deep Green)

2: Lillipup [Normal] (Green)

3: Shinxx [Electric] (Green)

4: Poliwag [Water] (Light Green)

5: Budew [Grass, Poison] (Light Green)

6: Tailow [Normal, Flying] (Light Green)

As he went through his six options Alan could not help but get puzzled at what he should pick. All were good options for him as a starter, though he did not like Tailow much, there were still five more options which were either similar or better than it.

Not wanting to be hasty, he raised his hand and grabbed the pokeball of Tailow first. Just as he did, his felt his world spin as his eyes seem to turn blurry making his headache. He immediately closed his eyes as he could not bear this burning sensation.

The pokeball in his hand dropper as it rolled into a corner. After what felt like an hour but just below a minute, Alan opened his eyes once again.

Alan immediately took out his pokedex before opening the front camera on it to check his eyes.

"What the fuck?"

Everything was same but the colour of his eyes was not longer red rather it was vibrant red, glowing even in a brightly lit room.