[CW/Feedback] A Trainer's Blood Holds True - Chapter One

[SpartaLazor]

Hey everyone! As a writer, I thought I would share some of my work. This piece was originally planned to be the first chapter of a Pokemon Platinum FanFic I was writing, but never really got around to finishing. It's a couple years old, so it's not a good example of my latest works, but it's not as bad as when I was first starting out.

The story follows Pokemon Trainer Trevor White, a thirteen-year-old from Twinleaf Town who is hesitant to start on his Pokemon journey. Well, that is, until he meets a rather pretty fellow trainer...

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That One Day in the Summer

“Despite the exploration team's best efforts,” the narrator woman said on the TV, “the rare, oddly colored Pokemon eluded detection. The red Gyarados failed to appear, even fleetingly, to the crestfallen team.”

“Well, that sucks,” I muttered, turning the TV off and tossing the remote onto the bed next to me. It wasn't as if I had expected them to find the red Gyarados anyway. So far, this was their fifth attempt and still nothing.

That's pretty much how my summer was going, too. I'd get this great idea to do something fun, and call up Anthony to put the plan in motion. Nine times out of ten, the idea turned out to be less fun than previously thought.

“Geez, I really need to do something.” Most of my summer had been spent sitting in my room, watching TV and playing on the Wii. “Getting a life would be a great start,” I told myself, climbing off my bed.

I heard the phone ring downstairs. Please let that be something that can alleviate the boredom. Please, Arceus, let that be something fun.

“Trevor!” Mom called out as she climbed up the stairs. She poked her head into my room. “Anthony just called. He was wanting to know if you would help him work on that fort you two built in the woods.”

I blinked in surprise. Anthony and I had built that fort when we were seven years old. We hadn't been near it in over six years. However, 'working on the fort' was our code for 'doing something our parents wouldn't approve of.'

“Alright,” I said, “I'll get ready and meet him out there in a few minutes. I'll need to change into some actual clothes.” I gestured down to my pajamas that I was wearing. “Tell him to meet me there.”

“Oh, he already hung up,” my mom informed me with a smile. “You know how he's always been energetic and impatient.”

I nodded, grabbing a pair of blue jeans from my dresser. “What's worse is when he's had sugar. He starts bouncing off the walls.” Metaphorically. Anthony never really actually bounced off the walls. Except for that one time he had an espresso...

Mom laughed. “Tell me about it. Well, have fun and don't get hurt. Keep an eye for some of the wild Pokémon that live the forest. And, you know the other rule, right?”

With a quiet sigh of annoyance, I nodded. “Yes, I know. Don't go near the lake.”

“Right,” she replied, smiling. “Don't be out past dark, too. Dinner will be ready in a few hours, and you shouldn't let it go cold. We're having your favorite; homemade lasagna.” Mom left, closing my door behind her.

I quickly got dressed, pulling on my jeans and my black t-shirt with the white sleeves and stripe in the middle. Using my hand, I brushed down my messy red hair, which hadn't been combed since I woke up this morning. Man, I really let myself go this summer.

“Okay,” I called out to my mom as I headed down the stairs. “I'm gone!” And with that, I burst out the door and into Twinleaf Town.

The town was a lot smaller than most towns and cities in Sinnoh, but it was bigger than Pallet Town in Kanto and New Bark Town in Johto. Although, those towns were more famous since they had their regions Pokemon Labs in them. Rowan's lab was in the next town over; Sandgem town.

And since it was summer time, it was really hot outside. The sun was bearing down on the poor earth, scorching anything that was on the surface. Surprisingly, this was one of the hottest summers in Sinnoh ever recorded. Usually, we'd still have snow around. But now, we were having weather similar to that of the more tropic region Hoenn.

I headed across the street and down a few blocks to Anthony's house. It was made by the same architect that designed ours, so the two looked similar. In fact, I think they were almost identical. Score one for laziness. As I went to knock on the door, the door burst open and a flash of blonde hair appeared before I was knocked flat on my back.

“Oh...” Anthony said, staring down at me. “Didn't see you there. Sorry about that, Trevor.” He held his hand out to help me up.

“Meh, it's fine,” I replied, as he helped me to my feet. “Maybe you shouldn't rush around like that all the time. Maybe you should just take it slower.”

He spread his arms wide and shot me a look. “Oh come on! I've been trying to be more careful!”

“That's what you said the last time. And the time before that. And the time before that one.”

“Well, it's been working out. Notice that it's not happening daily anymore,” Anthony pointed out. “The last time it happened was three days ago.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I know. You ran over my sister. Ashlyn still hasn't forgiven you for that. Even though she still has that big crush on you.” I added that last part with a smirk. My younger sister, Ashlyn, was “deeply in love with a passion” as she put it, with Anthony. However, he didn't feel the same for her.

“Well, tell her to stuff it,” he muttered, his cheeks turning slightly red. Oh, and Anthony hated it whenever someone brought it up. Which is why I brought it up every possible chance I got. What are friends for, after all?

“Anyway,” I said, deciding that changing the subject would probably be for the best, “what was this big plan that you had? You said it was a Code Fort, so that has to be something good.” At least, I hoped it was something good. This was the first Code Fort we've had since we first established the code three years ago.

Anthony snapped his fingers as he perked back up to his normal, energetic self. “Oh right! You saw that show on TV, where they were looking for the red Gyarados, right?”

“Yeah. But they didn't find it, which was totally, totally, lame,” I told him. “And we all knew that they weren't going to find it. Which is also totally, totally, lame.”

“Now suppose, just suppose, that there's something equally awesome in Lake Verity, just to the north,” he said rapidly, making it sound as if it was it were all one big word. You could tell that he was excited by how fast he was speaking. To a normal person, they probably couldn't figure it out on the first go. However, being friends with this kid since we were in diapers, I had mastered it.

“There's always that possibility,” I admitted, with a slight shrug. “But I honestly doubt it. We're not that cool or awesome to have anything like that around here.” The bored part of me believed him, wanting to go out to find it, but my rational side knew that there was very little chance that there was even a normal Gyarados in the lake.

Anthony didn't seemed fazed by my remark. “Maybe not, but if there's something there, we'll be the ones to find it! Now let's go!” He took off running toward Route 201, while I just stood there and watched him. After a few seconds, he realized that I wasn't there and came running back. “Oh, right. Your mom doesn't like you going to the lake. Why is that?”

“I don't know...” I replied, suddenly realizing that I had never asked her. I would need to do that soon. I've been kinda wanting to know, too. “But I'm sure there's a logical reason. I'm guessing that's the reason it was a Code Fort, right?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Anthony answered. “Well, let's go.”

“Wait, we're still going through with it? I don't want to disobey my mom...”

Anthony folded his arms and a smug smile appeared on his face. “Since I knew we would have to put up with this, I've already got it covered. Our parents let us go to Route 201 all the time without supervision. And since the entrance to Lake Verity is on Route 201, then it would be easy to go to the lake, and simply tell them that we were on Route 201.”

“Well...” it was at this moment that I expected an angel me to pop up on one of my shoulders while a devil me popped up on the other to argue it out. When that didn't happen, I let the bored side of me win. “Alright, let's do this.”

He smiled. “I knew you would pull through for us. I just need to run back in the house and get a few things, so we'll meet up on Route 201 in a few minutes.” Anthony headed back to the door. “And if you're late, I'm fining you a million bucks!”

With an eye-roll, I headed back to my house to tell my mom the lie we'd concocted. She was a little curious as to why we were going to Route 201 since we'd just said that we would be working on the fort in the woods, but she didn't press. I found it amazing that I was actually going through with this, since most of Anthony's stupid ideas end up being a big boring flop.

But, when I'm bored, I do stupid things.

“We're here!” Anthony announced as we reached the edge of Lake Verity. “Now let's find us that red Gyarados!” He slung his bag off his shoulder and onto the ground. After digging around in it for several seconds, he pulled out his old camcorder. “We'll get footage of it, unlike a certain search team.”

“Um...right, yeah,” I replied. “Have you considered the fact that they had some of the newest technology available, along with with at least fifteen people on the team? We're just two thirteen-year-olds with an old video camera.”

“That's what makes it better!” He said. “If they couldn't do it with all that they had, and we pull it off with just this,” Anthony nodded to the camera, “then it'll make them look bad, and us better!”

Well, that's great. “Wait, what's our goal here?” I had to ask. “To become famous, or to rub it in the search team's face that we're better than them?” With Anthony, any of his ideas could be for anything. Like the time that we spent over thirty dollars on tickets to a raffle where the top prize was only worth twenty-five dollars. Anthony claimed that the real reason we did it was to get into the newspaper...which we didn't. No surprise there.

Looking out over the lake, I felt my stomach turn a flip. I could see clear to the other side of the lake, but something was off. There was something out there, I could just feel it. Something powerful...something mysterious.

“Does it matter?” Anthony asked back, snapping my out of my daze, as he began recording. He aimed the camera at the lake, and began sweeping across it. “Well...nothing so far.”

I stifled a groan. “That's because you started three seconds ago. Trust me, we'll never have the luck of finding a red Gyarados in three seconds.”

“Good point. I'm going to try zooming in, see if that works.”

It won't, I thought.

“Oh, hey!” he said, after his second sweep. “Guess what!”

“Don't tell me you actually found one,” I told him. There was no way. He was probably just pulling my leg or something with this.

“No, there's two people over there,” he replied, turning the camcorder off. “They're heading this way. Maybe they'll know something about a red Gyarados! Man, this could make a totally awesome interview!”

“Maybe,” I muttered to myself. “Or maybe they'll think you're a nutjob.” I know I sure did.

As the people got closer, I could see that one was an old man with white hair, wearing a blue vest over a white shirt. The other was a girl about my age, wearing a black tank top with a scarf around her neck and a yellow skirt. On her navy-blue hair what appeared to be a white beanie. She was lugging a suitcase around with her as she followed the old man.

That girl… I wish she would look my way… Why do I feel… Why do I feel so… what do I feel?

They either didn't see us, or they didn't care, since they stopped several yards away and turned toward the lake. The girl set down the suitcase the first chance she got. “Well, Professor,” she said, looking toward the old man, “there wasn't anything out of the ordinary here or on the other side.”

The Professor scratched his chin. “Yes, well...perhaps I was mistaken...There's just something that appears to be different than before...but I don't know what.” He shook his head. “No, it's fine. It's enough that we've seen the lake.” He looked over to the girl and patted her on the shoulder. “Come on, Dawn. We're leaving.”

The girl, apparently named Dawn, nodded. “Alright.” they started walking away. “So, Professor, how are you enjoying being back in Sinnoh? After four years, it must be great to be home, right?”

“Well,” the Professor said, scratching his chin in thought. “There is one thing I can say. There are many, many rare kinds of Pokémon that can only be found in Sinnoh, and nowhere else. Sinnoh will serve us well in our studies. That you can count on.”

“Please, excuse us,” the Professor said, as the two of them reached us. We had been absorbed in our search that we had neglected the fact that we were blocking the walking path. Well, Anthony was absorbed with the search, but I was still trying to figure out why I couldn't stop looking at the Dawn girl. Did I know her from somewhere or something?

“Um...hello?” said the Dawn girl, when neither Anthony or I moved.

Wow… even her voice is angelic. Whoa, snap out of it. I shook my head, and gently smiled, keeping my eyes on her.“Oh, sorry,” I said, stepping out of their way. Anthony did the same, and it looked like he was about to say something but didn't.

The Professor waved it off as he passed. “It's nothing.”

The girl, Dawn looked over at Anthony as she passed, and then over to me. Apparently, I've been staring at her since our eyes met. Her pace shortened and little, but our eyes remained locked. There was something about her...I can't place it. She smiled a small smile, and then tore her eyes away and quickened her pace to catch up to the professor.

Once again, my stomach did a flip. Why was she staring at me? Why was I staring at her? And she smiled? Why does that make me happy? Why do I want to...to...I don't even know what I want to think right now.

Anthony was the first to speak. “What was that all about. Those two people...” he trailed off as he looked at me. At first he laughed. “Trevor, did you see the way she looked at you? She was definitely checking you out.” There was a pause. “Trevor? Are you there?” he waved his hand in front of my face.

“Wha...what?” I asked, as I snapped back into reality. “Um...yeah. Whatever you said makes sense.”

Anthony burst into laughter. “Man, I asked if you noticed that she was checking out. Dude, it looks like someone may have the hots for you.”

I blinked. “She was checking me out? I didn't notice.”

“Yeah, that's because you were checking her out.”

“No I wasn't. I don't even know how checking someone out works.”

“It looks exactly like what the two of you were doing to each other.”

I sighed, and let him win this. If I didn't, it wouldn't end for a month. “Yeah, shut up. My sister has a crush on you.”

“Hey look,” Anthony said, pointing ahead to where the two people were standing moments ago. “They left the suitcase here.” He began walking toward it. “I guess we should probably return it to them. Then you'll get a chance to talk to that girl,” he added with a smirk.

“Um...Anthony? You realize that you're about to walk into some tall grass, right?” I asked. He was standing at the edge of a large patch of grass, where wild Pokemon could be hiding. “You really shouldn't go in there.”

He shrugged it off. “Oh, I'm way ahead of you. It's simple; just run right through it as fast as you can, and there won't be a chance for any Pokemon to jump out. Now come on, help me with this.”

I shook my head. “I'm not going into tall grass. If there's a way to avoid injury, then I'm going to take it,” I replied. “And besides, that suitcase doesn't look that heavy. I'm sure that you can lift it on your own.”

“Stop complaining,” he ordered. “It's not going to be that bad. My fool-proof plan is fool-proof. If you're fast enough, they won't jump out at you.”

I sighed. I couldn't believe that I was about to do what said I wouldn't do. “Fine. Whatever. But if anything happens to me, you're paying the medical bills.”

“Quit being a baby,” Anthony said, as I joined him at the edge of the tall grass. “Nothing's going to happen if you run in there, grab the suitcase, and run out. The wild Pokemon won't have enough time to attack.”

“Okay, then, you go first,” I told him, motioning to the suitcase.

He stood there for a second, opening his mouth several times to try to say something, but always thinking better of it. “Um...uh...”

“Right. Your fool-proof plan isn't wimp-proof.”

“I am not wimping out. How about we both rush in there at the same time?” he suggested. “That way, neither one of us can get called a wimp. Anyone who stays outside the tall grass is the wimp, and the other gets to rub it in his face.”

I shook my head. “This is stupid. But fine. We'll go on three.”

“Okay.”

“One...two...”

“Wait, on three? Or three and then go?”

“On three. It's always faster to go on three.

“Right.”

“Three!”

I ran forward, dashing into the tall grass. The green blades came all the way up to our thighs, and was thick enough to conceal many different wild Pokemon at the same time. My mind was a mess of thoughts. Oh, we're so dead. We're going to die. Death by Bidoof. What a great way to go. And even if I live, my mom's going to kill me when she finds out that I was near the lake. And she will find out. Somehow. Why do I ever listen to Anthony?

However, there was a feeling of a new freedom in my mind as well, seeing as how I was rebelling. Something about going against my mom really made me feel alive and good. Guilty too, but that was the weakest feeling of the them. I think that's just part of being a teenager, though.

“Got it!” Anthony shouted, reaching down and grabbing the suitcase by the handle. “Now out of the grass before the wild Pokemon have a chance to attack!”

He didn't need to tell me twice. I was already halfway out of the tall grass when he said it, anyway. “You know, that worked out a lot better than I thought it would be-ah!” my foot caught on a rock, and down I went, hitting the ground hard.

“Star?” A pair of eyes were looking down into mine, and the inward tilt of the eyebrows told me that the creature the eyes belonged to was slightly angered. Oh crap, that's a Starly. Well, I'm going to die now.

“Oh...I'm sorry. Did I disturb you?” I asked, slowly rising to my feet. “Just a mistake, nothing more. Sorry again. Bye!” I took off running, attempting to get away from the wild bird Pokemon as fast as I could in case it turned hostile.

Which it did.

The wild Starly flew up into the air, and then dive-bombed toward me. It slammed into my shoulder, forcing me to the ground again. The bird jumped on top of me and began pecking at my face and body, shouting “Star!” over and over again in what I assumed was some Starly swear words.

“Anthony! I could use some help!” I called out, throwing my hands in front of my face to guard it from the Starly's repeated attacks. Fortunately, I don't think that this Starly's beak was as strong and sharp as the others of its species; I didn't feel any blood. Yet.

My blonde friend had already made it out of the tall grass, and was watching the scene with horror. “Wh-wh-what do I do?”

“Kill it with fire!” I shouted, flailing my arms at the bird. “Or shoot it or something!”

“I...I...” Anthony stammered. “What you do want me to do?”

I tried to grab the Starly's head to stop it from pecking me. “I don't know! Find someone that could help or something!” When I moved my hands to grab at it, the Starly landed a pretty good head shot, just a few inches below my eye. “Ow! Dammit!”

“But...then our parents will find out we went into tall grass...”

“Now's not the time to worry about-ow!-that!”

Anthony hesitated for a second. He took several deep breaths, before balling his hands into fists. “Screw it,” he said, running to my aid. “I'm coming, Trevor! Hang on!”

“What else would I do!?”

My friend swung the suitcase, slamming it into the Starly. The bird screeched at us, before flying off in retreat. Anthony sighed in relief as he watched the bird go, and then held his hand out to me. “That was close, wasn't it?”

With a groan, I took his hand and he helped me to my feet. “Fool-proof, yeah right,” I muttered, running a quick self-check to make sure I was in one piece. There were just bruises and scratches along my arms, my chest was unharmed, but there was a trickle of blood leaking from my cheek. “Oh great, I'm bleeding.”

“Well, it could've been worse,” said Anthony, after thinking for several seconds. “You can just say that you fell out of a tree or something. I'm sure you mom would believe that.”

I rolled my eyes. “We'll worry about that later. Right now, we're in possession of someone's property,” I said, nodding toward the suitcase, “If we want to return it to them, then we'll have to take back to Sandgem Town. That's where the old man said that he was going, if you remember.”

“We don't have to go to Sandgem,” Anthony replied, already formulating another plan in his head. I could see the wheels turning, and I just wanted to jam them before he did something stupid. “We can just call them from our house and have them pick it up. He was Professor Rowan. His lab is in Sandgem. Shouldn't be hard to get his number. It's in the phonebook, or something.

“Yeah, I guess that could work. You see,” I said, wiping the blood off my cheek. “This is why I don't like Pokémon. I'm never becoming a Trainer. Ever.”

“You say that now,” he said with a smirk that I knew all too well; one that I had used on him many times. “But I think you will. That-”

Something small and gray and screaming slammed into Anthony before he could finish. “Star!” The Starly was back, and this time it had brought its friend for backup.

“Duck!” I shouted, jumping to the ground as the first Starly flew overhead. Anthony swung the suitcase at the other as it flew at him. There was an audible thump and screech as the suitcase connected.

“Star!” the second Starly swooped up, and then dove at Anthony. He swung the case again, but missed. The latches came undone, and the suitcase sprang open. Several papers flew out, as well as three small red and white spheres.

Are those… they can't be…Can they?

Anthony and I cast each other a split-second look. We knew what those we. Pokéballs. Our saving grace. “Here!” shouted Anthony, as he grabbed one of the Pokéballs and tossed it to me. “Use it to fight off the Starly!”

“Alright,” I said, releasing the Pokémon inside of the ball. “Go… um, whatever's in here!” A small, green, turtle-like Pokémon appeared. “Okay, now use… something… on that Starly!”

The Pokémon tilted its head in confusion. “Turt?” it asked.

“I don't know what moves you know, just take out that Starly! Please!”

Anthony rolled his eyes, and sent out the Pokémon in his Pokéball. His was much cooler. Metaphorically speaking. It was a small, brown, monkey-like Pokémon, which then proceed to breath a small flame. “It's a Chimchar,” realized Anthony.

The two Starly were watching us from several feet up in the air. Apparently unamused by the new development, they let out twin screeches and attacked, diving towards the Chimchar.

“Um,” Anthony hesitated, balling up his fists. “Chimchar, use Scratch!”

“Char!” Chimchar brought it's arm back and lashed out at one of the Starly as it got close. The bird Pokémon went down, rolling in the dust behind Chimchar. It got up, dusted itself off, and took off. It was done.

The second Starly apparently didn't like having his buddy ditching him, and took off after it, probably calling it some Starly curse words.

I just stood there for a moment. Then I sighed. “That's over,” I said, looking over at Anthony. “I didn't know you knew how to battle. I thought you would be just like me, you know, not knowing what to do and all.”

Anthony just stared at me. “Dude, my dad runs the Battler Tower, at the Battle Frontier. I've told you that a thousand times. Of course I know what I'm doing.”

“Oh, right.” I looked down at the turtle Pokémon in front of me. “So, what do we do about these guys? Do we return them to their Pokéballs, or what?”

“Um… yeah. Duh. They're not ours.”

“Right.” I looked down at the Pokéball in my hand, and then up to the Pokémon. “How do I do that?”

“Really, dude? It's not that hard.”

“Hey! What are you doing?” That Dawn girl was running towards us at full speed, concern written across her face. She skidded to a stop in front of us. Her eyes darted from the opened suitcase on the ground, to the scattered papers, to the Pokémon, to the Pokéballs in our hands, then to us. “What happened here? Why do you have the Professor's Pokémon?”

I decided to explain it all. “Well… uh, it's kind of a long story…There was this… and then, um… so yeah… ” Oh, nice one, moron. I hate myself sometimes.

Dawn glared at me. Then her eyes seemed to soften and she looked over to Anthony.

“Well, we saw that you left the suitcase by the lake,” Anthony explained, “So we thought we would return it for you. But, we got attacked by some wild Starly. I thought we were going to die, but...” Then he smirked and pointed at me. “But this guy, he jumps into action mode and saved my life. He's a hero.”

“Really?” Dawn looked back at me, with a hint of admiration in her smile. “That's awesome. You must be a good Trainer.”

“Um… yeah, I'm...I'm sort of a hero,” I replied, shooting a look at Anthony. You little... He smiled and shrugged. He wanted to make me look like hero in front of the pretty girl, I know that. “Here, I think this is yours,” I said, handing Dawn the Pokéball. “I'll help you, uh, I'll help you gather up the papers and stuff, if you want.”

She smiled. “That would be nice.”

Her smile made me smile. You know, maybe Anthony is right. Maybe I do feel something special for this girl.

Not that I'd tell Anthony that.

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Well... that's that. I guess. Like I said, it's older and probably not that great, but it's something that I'm thinking of going back and actually doing. This Platinum story was literally my very first attempt at writing. Not this piece exactly, but the story of my character going through Sinnoh.

Anyway, please leave some feedback. That's always appreciated. I don't know whether or not I'm going to continue this, but I might. I really want to.

[trippineverywhere]

I liked it a lot!!

However, following the game's scenario lacks originality, which isn't what you want to express when writing your own stories. I suggest that you should definitely implement random occurrences, stuff that you'd like to happen to you on your own journey, if you pick back up on this, of course. Anyone reading who has already played the game will understand the basis of the story and won't be as into it, if you know what I mean.

Honestly, I've debated writing a story about myself as a trainer going through regions, including Reborn as well. What turns me away is just the amount of writing. There's so much you'd have to include in order to make it effective, in my opinion at least, but maybe I'll try it myself soon someday.

I look forward to seeing you continue this story!

[SpartaLazor]

I liked it a lot!!

However, following the game's scenario lacks originality, which isn't what you want to express when writing your own stories. I suggest that you should definitely implement random occurrences, stuff that you'd like to happen to you on your own journey, if you pick back up on this, of course. Anyone reading who has already played the game will understand the basis of the story and won't be as into it, if you know what I mean.

Honestly, I've debated writing a story about myself as a trainer going through regions, including Reborn as well. What turns me away is just the amount of writing. There's so much you'd have to include in order to make it effective, in my opinion at least, but maybe I'll try it myself soon someday.

I look forward to seeing you continue this story!

Thanks!

Yeah, I was for sure going to add in some new stuff, for that very reason. Things like that are actually some of my favorite things to write. Things between characters that never actually happen in game. With writing, you have a large amount of freedom to expand upon things. There were a couple of scenes that I ad already planned out that never happened in game, as well as a back-plot that slowly developed over time.

And you should at least give it a shot, writing yourself into such stories, but it's kinda fun to put yourself in there and see what you'd do in those situations. Maybe if you don't want to do a full story, just writing out a single scene from a game? See how it turns out. If you like it, then expand upon it. Sometimes, I find it helpful to break down a larger story into smaller arcs. What I do is focus on the story up to the next Gym. Makes it much more digestible.

I think I might continue this. I know the second chapter already had some decent progress...