We, Red

'Perhaps, I am destined to be a Spiritomb,' wondered Red.

'Maybe,' replied the fossil in his hand.

Prologue: I, Red

Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon.

a million minds

a thousand thoughts

a single man

such is my tale

They knew something was wrong with me, the moment I was born.

An unnatural spark of intelligence in my crimson eyes. Never crying, even when hungry. Never startled, never frightened.

Later on in life, when I became a teenager, my own mother would confess that she had been afraid of me; which lead to my confinement in Pallet for the first decade of my life.

How could I cry, how could I be frightened? I had the strength of a million men, within the confines of my soul. The uncountable sea of thoughts, nonsensical and chaotic, flowing through my mind. I am the boy who conquered the world; the one who fought for the salvation of our Lord.

We are many. We are Red.

I have accomplished a lot in life. But it was not easy.

A single body, was not made to handle thousands of minds. I begun to understand that, the moment I learned how to walk and move around on my own.

We are Red, yes. But that does not mean that we are the same. Each of us have individually differing thoughts and desires. Though we share the same body, our thoughts rarely coincided.

A part of me wanted to move left to grab the toy pokeball, while another wished to grab the Charmander plushy beside me. Another wished to dance, while yet another more wished to go streaking through Pallet. There was no end to the variety of desires we had.

In the darker depths of the sea of thoughts, some of us longed to kill those pests wandering around in the treeline surrounding the town.

One day, mother found us standing in the forest, shaking, moving and laughing hysterically with a broken tree branch in our hand. A number of young Rattata lied around us, bludgeoned madly to death.

It was wrong, but a part of me felt alive, almost euphoric.

I was six years old. And for the first time, mother understood that her disabled little boy was someone who did not comprehend the concept of innocence. I was confined to Pallet since then, till I became of age.

Uncountable thoughts flowed though my mind every second, and my body tried to respond in the only way it could; by responding to all at once. Thus, I was twitching and moving around randomly all day, controlled by my numerous whims.

But sometimes, very rarely, our thoughts all coincided. When seeing Professor Oak's wrinkly behind when he lost his pants in the swimming pool, we all simultaneously gagged. When tripping our best friend Gary, we all smiled.

When the ice cream truck came, we all wanted to hijack it.

Such is the tale of my childhood.

Even as a curious and stumbling infant, we knew of our calling in life. Perhaps it is the core of everything that defines Red, or perhaps, it was due to the dreams sent to us by the Lord during the sweet relief of sleep.

We wanted to take over the world.

It was that burning ambition in each and every one of our uncountable minds that held me together in my journey.

I wanted to dethrone the King; the fabled Lance Blackthorn, the Dragon emperor who ruled Kanto with an iron fist. I wanted to be at the top, where there would be just me and no one else; only the sweet sound of silence.

You see, I wanted to be the Champion.

And the time had finally come, when I reached the age of eleven. The end of childhood and the threshold of burning youth; eleven was the age when children were allowed to bleed and die in the name of their country- the age they allowed a child to become a Pokemon Trainer.

Mother pleaded to me many times, but we were not to be denied. I would not be some goddamned pokemart accountant whose ass was stuck permanently to his chair, nor some guy whose only job was to stand around all day to guide passing travelers and tourists.

I stumbled through the grassy fields of Pallet, never quite managing to keep on the road. Looks of pity and apprehension appeared, yet no one chose to approach me. An insane grin threatened to split my face.

Freedom. I could taste it.

I had never been allowed out of Pallet town in my entire life, being deemed unsuitable. But there was nothing stopping me now. I could run and stumble around in the wind, and walk a thousand miles without anyone stopping me. I would face Lance, and tip my cap to him for the first and only time.

"Stop."

But a hand on my shoulder stopped us. Sun burnt skin and white knuckles held me steady, and turned me around. A calm, shrewd gaze looked at me, and we could all feel some measure of concern. Would he...stop us?

Samuel Oak. The one man I've always respected- the former Champion and reigning regional Professor.

"You cannot walk into the wild without any pokemon of your own. Come with me," said the old legend. And I followed, unwillingly. He might not look it, but Professor Oak was incredibly strong and well built beneath the deception of the white coat.

We headed towards the large lab in the southern end of the town; the elderly man and the twitching boy drawing quite a few gazes. The steel doors were pushed aside, and we went inside Professor Oak's Laboratory; the place where I received my first pokemon...

...the place where our journey truly begun.

Perhaps the shifts between I and We is confusing. You are right to be confused; there's nothing to be done.

i|am|we

we|are|I

i/we are red

This is loosely based on Twitch Plays Pokemon and the Fire Red-Leaf Green version.

Spiritomb, a pokemon formed by the union of 108 spirits. Mirrors Red's concept in this story, except on a much smaller scale. Inspired by a comment on the livestream chat.

Our Lord. The Helix fossil.

Some guy whose only job was to stand around all day to guide passing travelers and tourists: Individuals contracted by the league to provide Pokemon Trainers and travellers with specific bits of information and guidance. Also known as NPCs.

Cookies to anyone who recognizes the source of the 'thirsting god'-reference in the summary.

Reviews are quite welcome, as this is my first attempt at writing a story.