Well, here it is: the beginning of my very first story. I've had all these ideas ready for months, and now I finally have them ready for reading. I've worked hard on this, so I hope you like it.

Keep in mind that I had to divide this chapter into two. It was way too long in Microsoft Word, and I thought that might turn some people off to reading it, so I made it into two chapters. Go ahead and read that once you're done with this.

So, without further ado, sit back and enjoy the first chapter of Legends of Existence!

Chapter 1: Fun at the Zoo: Part I

"The zoo? Isn't that the trip you take in third grade?" I said.

My name is Reese. I was in tenth grade about that time, studying before I officially went on my Pokemon journey. The school year was almost over, and since I was in tenth grade, it was nearly time to graduate. In the Sevii Islands, the trainer schools only go up to tenth grade, so many trainers start off sooner than others.

I was walking home with my best friend, Tobias. We had been friends since before we became trainers, but eventually we would part ways when we began our respective journeys.

"Yeah, I agree with you there," said Tobias, "but that place has the battle simulators, so you can go crazy with those after you're done with the project."

The project he was referring to was the final project of the year. At the Pokemon Exhibit Park (most people called it the zoo, because really, the place is no different from one), each student had to pick at least three pokemon to study, take notes on the behavior of, and write a five-page report about when they returned home. I know it's the last assignment of the year, but couldn't the teacher have just cut us a little slack?

"I guess so. With the simulators, I can finally get some experience battling with some strong pokemon for once." I gestured to the pokeball I was holding.

"What's with your obsession for strong pokemon? For a long time, you've only wanted to be better, so much so that you've lost faith in your own starter! He'll grow to be stronger if you train him right. In fact, I'm pretty sure the Feraligatr he'll evolve into is one of the best main starters of all the regions!" I think you can figure out that I had a Totodile.

"Strong pokemon are the only ones that will allow you to beat others and win badges. I need them so I can win the Pokemon League Challenge." I looked at my pokeball again, then at Tobias. "You have a point though, he is one of the best starters. He can easily enough defeat your pathetic little Turtwig." I said this with an exageratedly snide tone.

"Should I consider that a challenge?" Tobias reached for the pokeball that contained his Turtwig.

"Save it for tomorrow, once we've both finished with the project. I'll destroy your weak little turtle then."

He sighed. "Whatever you wanna do. Just remember that we'll be prepared for you."

"Hmph. Well good for you. We don't need to be prepared for you, though. Totodile is strong enough to beat you three times in a row." We reached my home by this point.

"Keep holding on to that cocky attitude, tell me where it'll get you in life." I started walking up the driveway.

"Whatever, bye."

"See ya," Tobias said. As I walked away, I heard him mumble something too quiet for me to understand, but I didn't think much of it.

I walked up to the house and stepped in through the unlocked door. My grandparents always left it unlocked. If I didn't know any better, I would think they were begging to be robbed. Why was I living with my grandparents, and not my normal parents, you might ask? More on that later.

"Anybody home?" I shouted. As usual, my call was left unanswered. Both my grandparents worked late; grandfather at the general store down the street, and grandmother at the dry cleaners. Needless to say, they never made much money. I took a Pecha Berry from their fruit basket, took a small bite of it, and walked into the garage. I grabbed the box of tennis balls I used for training, which were clearly worn and beaten over years of practicing with them.

"Oh, I almost forgot." I ran back into the house and grabbed the Sharpedo-tooth necklace, the one I had received from my father. I always wore it, especially during training sessions. It somehow made me feel stronger, more powerful.

Walking into the wide expanse of a backyard we had, I took another small bite of the berry and released Totodile from his pokeball.

In a bright flash of light, Totodile appeared, shouting its name over and over again.

"Totodile! Toto to dile to totodile!" That sounds gets more annoying than you would think it could after hearing it for years on end.

"Get serious, we're going to start our training now," I told the little crocodile sternly. Its playful demeanor visibly turned into a somber one. "Wipe that look off your face, you need to become more powerful. And to do that, we need to train. We've been doing this for years now, you know the drill well enough." With that, he put on a determined face, though I could tell it was plastered on there. I took another bite of my fruit and grabbed a tennis ball from the box.

"Okay, we're doing our normal accuracy practice," I explained. "You know the how to do it. Hit each ball with a Water Gun attack while it's in the air. Ready?" Totodile gave a slight nod. "Good. Now, begin!"

I tossed one of the balls up high into the air and, as directed, Totodile shot a well-aimed Water Gun at the ball, blasting it across the yard. I tossed up another one, and it shot it again, easily enough. The next ball was thrown low to the ground, so it quickly launched another Water Gun at the perfect angle, which made the ball go high in the air and land close to the other tennis balls. He continued doing this for a few more tosses.

"Looks like you're finally starting to show some worth, Totodile." I said. It was a compliment, but for some reason, the Pokemon seemed to be upset. I don't really get it. I threw another ball as high as I could throw it. He shot another Water Gun, but missed this time. "Maybe I spoke too soon." I launched another ball into the air. "This time, don't miss."

Panting and sweating, the practice clearly exhausted the little alligator. Now, for the evaluation. There were about thirty tennis balls in the box I was using. Out of all of those, Totodile hit exactly twenty-three of them.

"Only slightly more than two thirds of them. You should've done better." I scolded the little Pokemon. It started to look even more disappointed of himself than before. I couldn't blame him; I was disappointed in him too. "How do you expect to beat fast pokemon, like Ninjask, when you can't even hit all the slowly moving targets?" He just hung his head low, ashamed. "Whatever, let's move on to the strength training."

"You've changed, Reese."

That was all Tobias said as he watched his old friend walk up to his home. With a sigh, he turned around and continued his walk to his own home. About a two minute's walk down the street was Tobias' home. However, he did not stop there; he continued down the street to the old playground, where he and Reese always used to play together.

Once he reached the playground, he took in the sights. The metal bars that used to be the monkey bars were broken: many of the rungs were missing, and as for the rest, only small chunks of metal remained. The slide had grafitti sprayed all over it, and in a few places one could read the clearly misspelled words: "Hale Satin." The balance beam, like the monkey bars, had a large missing chunk in the middle.

The swings were the only parts of the playground still perfectly intact. Tobias walked over to them and sat down on one, while unclipping his Turtwig's pokeball from his belt.

"Come out, Synth," Tobias said while releasing his Turtwig. The Tiny Leaf pokemon appeared with a smile, and jumped into Tobias' lap. "I haven't come here in a long time, years, maybe. I know it was at least before I got you." He smiled and pet Synth's head. The Tiny Leaf pokemon responded with a happy "Twig!" and continued to listen to Tobias talk. "Reese and I had a lot of fun here when we were little…" He said, as memories came like a flood into his head…

Reese and Tobias swung on the swings they loved so much, having as much fun as they possibly could.

"Bet I can swing higher than you!" Reese told Tobias.

"Oh, should I consider that a challenge?" Tobias began pumping his legs back and forth and started to swing.

"Definitely!" Reese shouted. He had already begun swinging as well, and soon was already higher off the ground than Tobias. "I'm winning!"

"Not for long!" countered an annoyed Tobias. He swung his legs harder than he had before, and quickly overtook Reese. He was so ecstatic about their competition that it took him a second to notice that the rusty chains of the swing broke off, sending him flying high through the air.

"Uwaaaaaaahhh!" screamed Tobias in terror. With nothing to stop him, he plummeted to the ground and slammed right on his back.

"Tobias!" Reese stopped himself as fast he could and ran over to his downed friend. "Tobias, are you okay?"

"Ugh… that hurt…" came the slow reply.

"Oh, good, you're okay. That was a big fall you took. You're lucky you're not hurt too badly."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Reese reached out his hand and helped Tobias stand up. "It wouldn't have happened if you didn't challenge me to a swinging contest."

"Oh, so this is my fault?"

"Of course it is! You're the one who started it."

"Well, did you have fun?"

His answer came slowly. "…Yeah, I guess I did."

"Good. Then if you're okay, there was no harm done."

They both chuckled a little, until they noticed a small bird flitting around them. "Hey, it's a Pidgey!" Reese exclaimed.

"Gee, I couldn't figure that out."

"Quit it with the sarcasm." The Pidgey lowered near Reese's pants' pocket and began to peck at it. "Ow! Hey, what do you want, bird?"

The Pidgey stopped pecking Reese and landed on the ground by his feet. "Pid Pidgey, Gey Pidey!" it started saying frantically.

"Maybe it wants that candy bar you saved from lunch today." Tobias proposed. "I think it's in that pocket." Reese reached into his pocket and conjured up his chocolate bar he bought at lunch from school earlier that day. Sure enough, the bird's eyes lit up in excitement.

"Gey, Pidgey! Pidgey, Pid, Gey!"

"I think you're right," said Reese. He peeled off the wrapping of the chocolate and broke off a tiny piece for the bird. "I probably shouldn't be giving a pokemon chocolate…" The bird visibly saddened. "but I guess it's alright, this once." He opened his palm with the candy and lowered his hand to the ground. The Pidgey excitedly gobbled it down in one bite while Reese patted it on the head. "Did you like it, little guy?"

The Pigey gave a confirming "Gey!" and proceeded to fly off into the sky.

"When we're Pokemon trainers," began Reese, "We'll get to see Pokemon like that every day."

"Yeah… I can't wait to start my own Pokemon adventure." Tobias responded.

"Yep, me neither."

Tobias sat on the same swing he fell off of all those years ago. "Yeah, that was a pretty big fall," he said to nobody in particular. "I'm glad they fixed it. They certainly could've fixed up the rest of the playground, though.

"But I just don't get it!" Tobias began to raise his voice. "Reese used to care about pokemon, he loved them! Now, he only sees them as tools to prove his own strength. God, what made him that way?" He looked down at Synth, who was giving him a quizzical look. "I need to stop talking to myself like that, don't I?"

"Twig," the Tiny Leaf pokemon said in agreement.

"Well, thanks," Tobias said sarcastically. He stood up. "I've ranted long enough." "Let's go home." He recalled Synth back into his pokeball and walked back in the direction he came.

Strength training consists of destroying a target number of wooden boards in a certain amount of time. Completed with the exercise, Totodile was extremely exhausted

"Let's see… in two minutes, you destroyed twenty-one boards," I told Totodile. "The target was twenty-five boards." I sighed. "Is all of this training going to go to waste? If you can't even hit the target number, how can you expect last long enough against stronger enemies?" The Big Jaw pokemon was too tired to respond. "Whatever, we're done for today." I began walking back toward the house. "Let's go." He finally stood up and dragged himself into the house along with me.

Once we were in, I readied his dinner: simple pokemon food with more water than food (Water types like Totodile need much more fluids than normal pokemon). On days when he did an exceptional job in training, he would get an extra treat: a small piece of chocolate from the bar I always kept in the fridge. This reward system usually worked well. If he didn't get a treat one day, then the next day he would try extra hard and get some. But this was not one of those days.

As for myself, all I ate was the rest of the Pecha Berry I had taken earlier, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and my own piece of chocolate. I sat at the table, while Totodile ate in his own specified corner. Of course, when he lifted his head up and noticed the sweet candy I had, he instantly forgot about his exhaustion from training and ran up to me with that wide smile of his and his tail wagging faster than a speed boat's motor.

"Sorry, Totodile," I said, taking a large bite of my sandwich, "but you didn't do good enough today. Tomorrow, if you do better, you can have some candy." The little crocodile's face slowly reduced into an upset one. Depressed, he didn't even bother to finish his food or water, he just walked out of room and off to some other spot in the house. I don't know where, I didn't bother to look for him.

Anyway, in a few minutes' time, I finished my food and moved to the next room over. I sat down at the computer desk with a pencil and paper, aiming to get a head start on the project

"What pokemon should I choose" I wondered aloud. "Since I'm going to Johto after I graduate, I should probably choose some pokemon from there."

Let me explain something. Since the Sevii Islands had no established Pokemon League, any trainers from here had to choose another region to go to to begin their journey. I was one of the few who were going to Johto, though I don't understand why others were not going there too. It was one of the best regions temperature-wise (everyone complained about the climate in other regions) and it had some of the rarest and strongest pokemon in the world. But I digress.

"I think Skarmory will do nicely. I definitely need to study Tyranitar, it's the most powerful non-legendary pokemon from Johto. And for the last…" and that's when Totodile walked in.

The first thing I noticed about him was that he looked sad- much worse than I had previously seen him. At the same time, he seemed apologetic, like he wanted to beg forgiveness for his poor performance today.

"What do you want?" I asked scornfully. I didn't feel like talking to him- I was busy, and he didn't earn any attention today.

"Totodile, to toto dile, to…" he started to say. As I said earlier, that constant blathering of his species name gets irritating after hearing it for too long.

"Whatever you're trying to tell me, I can't understand you. Just leave me alone, I have schoolwork to do."

"Toto, to dile totodile dile, to to dile, to-"

"Ugh, I don't care! I just told you, I don't know what you're saying!"

Now the annoying little alligator started getting mad. "Totodile! Totodile, to dile to to dile, toto dile, Totodile!"

"God, that's it!" I shouted. First he wouldn't train properly, and now he won't shut up? Holy hell, no one told me that pokemon could get so annoying! I grabbed his pokeball from my waist and pressed the button to recall him, jaws blathering the entire time. "Now shut up and behave in there." With that, I tossed the ball into the wall, hard, and listened as it fell into a pile of laundry in the corner. I picked up my pencil and got back to work.

"Finally, now maybe I can start studying some good pokemon for once…"

Yeah, not much happened here, the next chapter is where we really start to get into the good stuff :) I know some things here may seem unclear, but they will be explained later in the story.

By the way, since I only consider this half of a chapter, I ask you to please save all reviews until after you've read the second one. Trust me, it's much better than this.

-Finalsmasher13