To those interested in wondering what this is: This is a rewrite of the original story I wrote, titled HGSS: Johto Saga, back in 2010. Four years is a really long time, and I was rather young then so the story was not all it could be. Fortunately, I've made somewhat of a return to the site and decided that I'm really interested in trying to see where I can go with using the original story as a framework and building around it. I hope that the rewrite is more satisfying than the original and that it doesn't feel like too much. I tried my best and regardless, it's good to be back!

Not much will be safe from changing, except maybe the characters involved. Some names might change here and there, and I'll try to stay true to the Pokemon captured and owned in the original story, but as a rewrite this won't be so much of a revamp as an actual reconstruction. Again, hopefully it's better. If not, oh well, sorry I let you down.

Enjoy.

a tale of Origin

A quiet, serene setting was typical to the start of a New Bark Town week, given the small population that awoke slowly before going their separate ways, be it to work in the laboratory or a commute to their daily job in the neighboring Cherrygrove. One boy, however, was not embarking on a commute to a job, but a grander adventure. One that was about to unfold with the retrieval of his first Pokemon!

Of course, no progress would be made if the infamously lackadaisical Ethan Goldman laid in bed all day. Contorted in awkward and impossible-to-replicate positions, Ethan was far and away lost in his dreams. The comforter had been drawn over his eyes to block out the morning sunlight, rays that were simply trying to help awaken him. The clock struck 8:17 and the window above Ethan's bed shook and rattled before exploding in a rain glass surrounding a large brown blob. The blob thudded against the ground, sliding in the shards of glass and resting against the bedroom door. Without a moment's notice, it was on two long, pale yellow feet and darting around the room in a panic.

The commotion awoke Ethan, who, in a similar panic, threw himself out of bed, searching the room for the cause of the mayhem. The brown blob was slamming into everything in sight. The closet door, bedroom door, bed posts, nightstand - and there goes the alarm clock - not even the mirror hanging on the back of the bathroom door was spared, as the force of the impact on the front side caused it to bang violently against the wall.

Ethan rubbed his eyes as his room was destroyed, as he had not yet registered what was happening. As soon as he did and the blob came near enough to tackle, he did so, though not nearly as gracefully as he'd expected, as the two went sliding through the glass once more, not treating Ethan's legs very kindly. Only then, though, did Ethan realize that the soft, fuzzy fur he was grasping onto with all his strength belonged to a baby Doduo.

"You're a real fat little shit, you know that?" Ethan grunted as he hoisted the bird over his head and through the broken window. The already overweight bird eventually threw one of its legs over and strained to roll its weight onto the roof. Ethan gently guided one of its two necks through the window frame. He actually smiled when an impromptu sneeze coated his face with a vile layer of bird mucus. Had a human does this, their nose would have been broken in two places.

As soon as the bird was outside screaming at the top of its lungs for mother Dodrio, Ethan stretched and rubbed his eyes, looking towards his alarm clock for the time. At least, where his alarm clock would be had it not had its parts spread out across the floor. That's just great. Ethan surveyed the broken clock and remainder of his window all over his room. Shrugging, he grabbed some clothes from his closet, gave a resounding yawn, and headed into the bathroom for a shower.

Once in the shower, a knock came at the bedroom door. With no answer, the stranger let themselves in and immediately yelped. "Ethan!" his mother's high-pitched voice rang. "What's happened here?" The loud shower offered no leeway for her question, so she rushed downstairs to find a broom. What ever will I do with that child? You'd think he'd have more responsibility for himself... She sighed no less than seven times in the short walk from Ethan's room, downstairs, and to the kitchen for a broom. In fact, it was an even shorter amount of time considering how quickly she was moving. "If you break something, always tell an adult!" His father told him. But did he listen? Of course not! He was too busy collecting berries and counting the amount of times a Pidgey flapped its wings in a minute. What little boy even cared about that? Why was he not wanting to dive with Tentacruel and ride Skarmory? She stopped once she reached the third to top step. Not that I'd ever allow such dangerous activities.

Upon entering Ethan's room again, the glass had been swept into the middle of the floor, and the pieces of alarm clock had vanished, most likely into the nearby trash can. His mom was taken aback, looking around the room for signs of more mess, but there was nothing except Ethan's smirking face as he situated a black hat with a large yellow stripe down the center on his head. A shock of jet black hair protruded from where the cap met his forehead.

"You look like a thug, you know," his mom commented wryly as she stared into the mirror Ethan was readying himself with. "Do you think other boys your age will go out in jams and backwards hats?"

Ethan scoffed. "First of all, why does what I wear matter to you?" Ethan straightened the sleeves of his red hoodie. It seemed to be without creases, except when he put his arms down and at least ten creases appeared in the side and chest area. Trying to smooth them down was impossible, to Ethan's never ending frustration.

"Well, I guess it doesn't..."

"Secondly," he continued, not wanting to be interrupted, "I am fourteen years old and highly doubt I need my mother's supervision when it comes to anything but maybe how to get rid of acne. But as you can see," he smiled, motioning to the nearly flawless skin on his face, "I have no problems with that."

"Yet," his mother said curtly. She pulled his shirt down down slightly in the front, which seemed to even out half of the creases.

"I don't plan on encountering acne any time soon, thanks." Ethan's voice was even the entire time he talked, as not to aggravate his mother. He knew that if his voice had the tiniest bit of inflection with the wrong attitude, he wouldn't hear the end of it. They had a cool relationship, but she was easy to piss off, he learned from fourteen years of experience.

"Don't get too far ahead of yourself," his mother chided. She knew Ethan was the sort who would boldly make choices without considering his other options or the consequences of his actions. In fact, this had gotten him in trouble many times in the past and she couldn't imagine a world in which her son didn't make these kinds of terrible mistakes. He would learn from them, though, and grow in that way.

Ethan turned to her and smirked. "The only way to go is forward, you know." And he thought this to be true. If he was going to be out on his own on an adventure - though he was the only one that didn't think of it as an "adventure," but an exploration in order to help him learn more about the world around him - then he would have to learn for himself what were the right and wrong ways of doing things. The world of Pokemon might have many different rights and wrongs, and Ethan was bound and determined to experience them through and through.

The long dirt paths of New Bark Town were know match for the bicycle Ethan controlled. The gravel crackled underneath and a thin cloud of dust was left in the boy's wake. The wind was always blowing rather vigorously within the confines of the small city, and that was mainly due to the fact it was positioned adjacent to Route 27, a somewhat watery route that would cast winds leftover from the roaring Tohjo Falls. As a result, the town was prime for collecting energy through wind turbines. This always fascinated Ethan, how wind created motion in the turbines, and if the wind was strong enough, the turbines spun fast enough to create even more wind, so it was like a never ending machine. Very efficient, one could say.

The bike ride to Professor Elm's gave Ethan a little extra time to decide what Pokemon he would be accepting. He wasn't exactly sure what Pokemon would be presented as starters, but he could imagine: Wooper? Bellsprout? Growlithe? Water, Grass, and Fire were common types for starters and given the little research he'd done, those were likely candidates. Not too weak, not too strong, really great Evolutionary lines...

But then, he remembered that he'd learned in Trainer School that starters can be special Pokemon, too. There were numerous names thrown around in the textbooks - Bulbasaur, Piplup, Treecko, Cyndaquil - but none had ever specifically detailed which ones would be available to trainers in Johto. Maybe going to a school in Kanto wasn't the best choice for me... He'd begged his parents to move away from Kanto, and after that there was hardly money left for a private school, among other things.

"I love the school here, I really do," he'd began, "but the Johto region's so much prettier! And the Pokemon there are tons cooler. Mom's from there, she would know, daddy."

His dad grimaced at the Pokemon comment. "Are you saying your mother's Misdreavus is cooler than my Haunter?" He seemed to have been genuinely offended.

"Well..." he muttered under his breath.

"Come now, Franklin. The Johto region does offer a host of different possibilities for Ethan. The culture is very widespread, with events like the annual Bug Catching Contest, advanced technology like the Magnet Train, and the amount of freelancing hair stylists there is insane. Just think of all the cuts Ethan could get besides that odd shock of hair in front of his..." Ethan's mother caught herself being viciously stared down. "Anyway."

"I could really care less about all that. I just want to see more Pokemon than what's available in Kanto. There's a lot of Kanto Pokemon in Johto, too, so you can't say I'd be missing out on much!"

These discussions usually ended in his dad grunting, and one night he didn't grunt and just days later they were on a plane Johto-bound. Ethan couldn't have been happier. However, it was summer and school had just ended and it cost a chunk of money to move, so when they arrived in Johto, Ethan was unable to enroll in another private Trainer School.

"Unfortunately... we could only afford to live in New Bark Town, and that's only because your father is friend's with the local professor and he was able to spot us a grand deal. That means, though, that it's far too distanced from the nearest Trainer School in Goldenrod for you to attend, dear. I'm sorry," his mother had consoled.

Ethan wasn't too bothered, until he learned that with a delayed education meant that he would be unable to start traveling with a Pokemon until he was fourteen. At least, legally.

"Mom, I could just... catch a Pokemon and start traveling, couldn't I?"

"Ethan, if you were to be caught, you could be fined, have your Pokemon wrested from you, and have your license delayed another three years! You absolutely don't want that, do you?" And he most definitely didn't. So he waited the grueling three years until he turned fourteen to start his journey. The wait involved working at the laboratory for Professor Elm doing odd jobs like sorting text books and beakers, labeling Poke Balls, washing lab coats, and organizing the work desks.

Elm was close friends with Ethan's family, so he trusted the eleven year old to do a good job. The job got tedious after awhile, though, and Ethan requested to start working with Pokemon. He'd never seen any Poke Balls around labeled "starter" or been asked to label any in such a way, so he was curious what that was all about. He knew trainers had come in before, but they always either went into Elm's office or out to the fields with him.

Elm, however, declined Ethan's request to work with Pokemon, leaving a sour scowl on the boy's face. "I just don't think it's a good idea to get attached to any of the Pokemon here. You're going to be leaving in just over a year anyway!" He was trying to explain himself to a thick-skulled thirteen year old boy. It wasn't working.

"I just want to see the starter Pokemon," was Ethan's only argument, which somehow provided Elm a smirk. He waggled his finger and that was the end of the conversation. He never asked again.

Before Ethan knew it, he was laying his bicycle against the side of Elm's lab, where he left it every day before going into help with the usual menial tasks, and he was still unsure what starter he would choose. If there's a Mareep, I'm definitely choosing that. But if there's a Wooper or Hoppip... Then a despicable thought came to mind. What if Elm is in a bad mood and offers me a Weedle?!

Ethan wasn't concerned with having a weak Pokemon, per se, but he was vehemently opposed to using something that he could easily have caught in Kanto because then he'd have proven nothing to his parents.

"G'morning, Ethan!" one of the scientists greeted. It was one of Ethan's friends, Hope. "Elm is waiting for you in his lab."

Ethan strode down a metallic hallway that ended with a glass door with Elm's nameplate on it. He entered it slowly, not yet prepared for what Pokemon might be waiting beyond.

"Chiko!"

"Qwaaa!"

"Cyn, cyn!"

A harmonious cry rang out as the door opened, taking Ethan by surprise. Elm stood in the center of the room, by his desk, which was completely empty (for the first time in years) except for three Poke Balls and the Pokemon who belonged to each. What the hell are those things?

"Ethan? You look surprised."

"Yeah, I've never seen these Pokemon in my life."

"Seriously? Never? That's pretty odd." Elm scratched the back of his head. "That's okay! Now you have and now you can pick from them." He gestured to the one on the far left, an oddly-proportioned, pale green dinosaur-looking creature. "This is Chikorita; she's a Grass-type. Next to her," he began, referring to the small, mousy one, "is Cyndaquil, who is a Fire-type. And finally," he moves his hand to rest on top of a blue crocodile, "this is Totodile! He's a Water-type, as you can tell."

Ethan grit his teeth. "Honestly I wasn't expecting... this." He crossed his arms and sighed. The Pokemon on the table looked absolutely dejected. "Not that I'm disappointed! I just... I'm just caught off guard, okay?" His shoulders slumped and he stared hard at each Pokemon. Each one seemed to have its better qualities, and some pretty bad ones. What's with the necklace on Chikorita? Why are Totodile's eyes bigger than everything else on its body? And why are Cyndaquil's eyes closed?

"They're all great, but I think I'm going with Cynda-" Ethan began as the door behind opened a crack. A girl's voice leaked in, sounding as if air was being released from a balloon.

"Professor Elm?"

Elm's eyes lit up. "Ah, yes, Lyra! Come on in." He walked over to the door, stretching his arm over Ethan to hold it open for the girl. Ethan turned to her, and his eyes immediately fell to her high-waisted shorts held on with long overalls, accented by the longest pair of kneesocks he'd ever seen. The girl smiled at him with teeth that partially blinded Ethan.

"Hi," she said meekly. Great, his eyes are like some sort of gorgeous storm clouds. Maybe I should've come a little later... The volume of her voice didn't match her seemingly expressive features, but that didn't bother Ethan. He simply waved and grinned.

Elm smirked. "Guys, over here." He snapped his fingers to grab their attention. "Ethan, you were saying?"

"I think I'll take Cyndaquil," he said as if in a dream-like state. His attention was Elm's, but his eyes were on Lyra. More specifically, on her peculiarly high socks and large white hat that he'd only just then noticed.

As Elm retrieved Cyndaquil's Poke Ball, he glanced at Lyra. "And you, my dear?"

She grinned and clasped her hands together. "Chikorita it is!" She rushed forward and pinched the creepy dinosaur's (that's what Ethan referred to it as thereafter) cheeks. Its expression made it seem as if it might lunge up and slap Lyra with the leaf on its head.

The small mouse thing jumped into Ethan's arms as he approached and crawled all around his body until it reached his head, where it perched for the remainder of his stay at the lab. "Uh, what are you..." He began to remove the Pokemon but it refused to move from its position, threatening him with a small ember at the opening of its mouth. "I guess you're fine."

Ethan didn't consider his adventure - "No, Lyra, it's an exploration" - started until Elm presented him his Trainer's License, the piece of plastic he'd been waiting three years and beyond for. Organizing textbooks and PC boxes had all lead up to this moment.

Today, Ethan would begin the exploration of his dreams, venturing through the unknown that was the Johto region with his partner, a Cyndaquil that didn't seem to like him for anything but his hat.

"Lyra, what are you gonna do from here?" Ethan asked as he mounted his bicycle.

"I need to figure out how to get some money, is what I need to do." Lyra rolled her eyes before riding towards Route 29.

Money. Money.

-.-.-

The phone in the Goldman residence began ringing, and Ethan's mother picked it up. "Hello? Ethan, how did it go? You need what? ... How much? How much?!"