Alan Draco sat in his room, late at night, researching the most important thing in his life. Finally, tomorrow I can catch my first pokemon. I've been waiting for six years and now the day has come. But what pokemon do I want as my starter? This was the question Alan had been struggling to decide. I don’t want a Fire, Water, or Grass Type. The professor only gives lab starters of those types and I want to stand out. Well not too far out, I don’t want that much attention. After hours of speculation and back and forth, Alan finally settled on three options, Psychic, Normal, or Ground types. Ground types had powerful attacks and usually were pretty strong. Psychic pokemon were just awesome, and if he could train up a Gardevoir he could even have someone to talk to since some Psychic Types were telepaths. Finally, Normal Types were an option because Alan thought that people would underestimate him, but since Normal Types are no weaker than any other type it wouldn’t weaken him. But Alan was hesitant to choose Normal Types, he had no special affinity for them and one of the hardest early Gym Leaders was a Normal Types Specialist. That left him with Psychic or Ground. After mulling it over a bit Alan kissed his dreams of telepathic pokemon goodbye. Psychic pokemon were rare and telepaths even rarer, and he didn’t want to have only one pokemon against the first Gym Leader. With this mind set, he turned his gaze to the list of possible Ground Type pokemon.

  When Alan opened his eyes again he found morning light shining through his window and quickly realized he was not in his bed, but slumped over at his desk. I must have fell asleep, Alan thought as stood up and stretched. The chair had not been kind to his back, and Alan was sore and aching. Not the best way to start your pokemon journey, but it will work.

  Alan changed into clean clothes, grabbed his already packed bag and headed out the door. He opened it and was about to step through when he turned around to survey his room. He had lived in this room his whole life. The familiar white walls covered in pokemon posters, old wood closet, and the desk he got when he entered pokemon school. Finally, he turned to look at the thing he would miss most of all, his bed. He sighed and turned, closing the door behind him. A grin spread across his face as he ran down the stairs into the kitchen of his house. His mother was making her famous pancakes. Well they’re famous in our house. Alan thought.

  His eyes widened as he saw a massive pile of pancakes, standing ready to be devoured. Also arrayed on the table were multiple bowls of toppings, berries, sugar, syrup, and everything else you could ever want on a pancake.

  “How many people are you trying to feed, Mom?” Alan asked in disbelief, as he openly stared at the piles of food.

  “Well…I might have invited a few people over for the start of your journey,” his mother said innocently.

  “Oh, no '' Alan's face went white, then there was a loud knock on the door. “What have you done?”

  “Why don’t you let in our guests, Alan,” his mother replied with a sweet smile. But he could see the silent laughter in her eyes.

  Alan sullenly walked down the hall, like he was walking to his death. He plastered on a fake smile before opening the door. In the doorway were his grandparents on his mother’s side. They only came to see them on his birthday, or if something terrible happened. This is going to be a bla-. He was only able to get out half the thought before he was almost knocked over from a pat on the shoulder from his grandpa. Both of his mom’s parents were Fighting Type trainers, and even in their old age, they were stronger than most in their twenties. Alan stepped to the side as his grandparents filed in through the doorway. Don and Laura always insisted on getting wherever they went early, which only prolonged Alan's suffering as he had to wait at least half an hour for others to arrive and distract them. Alan followed his grandparents down the hall back into the kitchen.

  They sat down at the table and Alan sighed, internally preparing for the onslaught to come.

  “So Alark what starter do you want, a Tyrogue, a Machop, maybe even a Makuhita?” Don said. He refused to call Alan, Alan. Believing that he should have been named Alark, he got it into his head that if he called Alan, Alark he might start to think his name was Alark. Unsurprisingly this plan did not work, but he never stopped trying.

  “Well, I want a Trapinch. They’re good diggers and when they evolve into Flygon they can fly me around,” Alan said nervously.

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  “WHAT!” Don shouted. “You would choose to forgo the ancient traditions of our family over a wimpy, digging, bug!” Don went silent, his rage turned into a brooding expression as he regarded Alan. “Fine, but I won’t be surprised when you return in defeat because of your beloved Ground Types.”

  “Cool,” was all Alan said before starting to dig into his pancakes. They all ate in silence, other than the occasional grumble about so-called “dirt types” from Don until the others arrived. There weren’t many people that came, but they were all close family. His other grandparents, his father, and some family friends. They talked pleasantly for a while before someone made the mistake of asking Alan about his plans for his journey. Don jumped on that question and started bombarding Alan with questions. Alan originally was going to take Route 105 up to Petalburg, then follow Route 108 to Rustboro and challenge the gym there. But after a long lecture about following tradition, Alan was forced to change his plans so he went to Oldale Town first before heading to Petalburg. Apparently, exploring Oldale Ruins was a beginning trainer “tradition” though Alan had never heard of that. After that, his plans were largely undisrupted which Alan was grateful for.

  Fortunately, everyone left except his father after an hour, leaving him sitting in the kitchen alone. His father had been delighted to hear that Alan chose Trapinch as his starter. His father’s starter had been a Trapinch as well, though his father was a Dragon Type specialist instead of a Ground specialist. Alan chose to become a specialist because he could keep his personal team when he became a Gym Leader, which was his goal when he was strong enough.

  Alan sighed, then stood. “Well, I now have to go find a Trapinch.” His father also gave Alan a grin and tossed something red and white to Alan. He looked down to examine what his father threw at him. It was a Pokeball, he had seen them hundreds of times and could easily recognize them.

  “Your mother found Trapinch’s info on your computer but didn’t want to wake you so she let you sleep in your chair. We thought that’s what you wanted based on your notes, and she asked me if I could pick one up on my way here. So there may or may not be a Trapinch already in that ball, but please go outside before you check. Trapinch likes to dig and we don’t want a hole our floor do we?”

  Alan let loose a laugh and shot outside into their backyard. As soon as he was outside he chucked the Pokeball into the air. He let out another joyous laugh as an orange, insect with massive jaws materialized out of the Pokeball. It looked around at its surroundings with curiosity before running over to Alan with a happy “Trapinch”. Alan instantly started rolling around and playing with Trapinch, still laughing happily. After a few minutes, Alan picked up a content Trapinch and carried him inside.

  “Hey, Dad, what moves does Trapinch know?”

  His father chuckled, before replying. “I knew you would ask soon, it knows Dig, Bite, Mud-Slap, and Sand Attack.”

  “Thanks, Dad,” Alan shouted as he ran outside again to keep playing with Trapinch. Sadly, after an hour it was time to get going and start his journey, it was already 9:00 am and the others would be leaving now and he didn’t want them to have a head start. After tearful goodbyes to his family, Alan returned Trapinch and stepped out of the front door to start his very own pokemon journey.

  As Alan jogged to the edge of town he looked around the town one last time, familiar buildings had changed over the years, but they still looked the same as he watched them go by. It was a small town and you could easily get around on foot. With a final glance at his hometown, he stepped onto Route 101. Alan was happily watching the forest pokemon as he strolled down Route 101, he had only been walking for a few minutes when a voice called out from the direction of the forest.

  “So you're finally up and about, took you long enough. Is the despair of competing with me in the league weighing you down?” Gabe said sneeringly as he stepped from behind a tree. Alan despised Gabe, he was a jerk who stole his spot for a Lab Starter at the last minute and then rubbed it in his face. He was almost guaranteed a mudkip before Gabe came from the Galar region with crazy high grades and took his spot for a Lab Starter. Then he bragged about it all the time, like stealing the chance for someone to get their favorite pokemon was something great.

  “Nah, I just had some family stuff to do before I left. I’m sure you don’t care about it, but if you don’t mind I’m going to leave and enjoy the forest again.” Alan started walking down the road again turning his back to Gabe.

  “Hey you, get back here, I challenge you to a battle!”

  Alan lazily turned around, pretending to consider it before he spoke. “Alright, I guess you’ll get some good practice.” Gabe’s face turned red before he angrily threw out his Pokeball.

  “Alright, Torchic, let’s destroy this fool.”

  “Let’s go, Trapinch.”

  “You chose a bug for a starter, you really are lame. I guess you couldn’t get too good a pokemon when I got your chance to get a lab starter,” Gabe taunted, sneering all the while. “Let’s get this battle started. Torchic, use Ember.”

  “Dig.”

  Gabe laughed. “I guess a coward trainer uses coward tactics.” Alan ignored him watching Torchic intently. Torchic only let out one scared “Torchic”, before Trapinch hammered into it from underground.

  “Alright, catch it with Bite,” Alan shouted triumphantly at the look on Gabe’s face. It was a look of indecision and panic.

  Trapinch lunged from its hole and caught Torchic midair in a brutal bite, slamming it into the ground when they fell. Torchic collapsed on the ground, unable to battle.

  “You monster, look what you did to Torchic,” running over to Torchic and spraying on an expensive Super Potion.

  “You’re the one who challenged me, anyway I have a town to get to,” Alan called over his shoulder as he picked up Trapinch and walked away. Once they were out of hearing range, Alan proudly congratulated Trapinch.

  “You were amazing out there, in only two moves you took out a lab starter. I can’t wait until we get stronger and dominate everyone.” I can't wait for our next battle.

  Done with his first battle, Alan once again walked down the road that got him to Oldale Town, the home of the mysterious Oldale Ruins.