Chapter 4

30 Minutes Later

Alex could be seen sitting in a class but he was half asleep but the weird thing is that the rest of the students in the class seemed to be 12 years old and they were paying full attention to the class, going as far as writing notes. All in all, it looked like a lazy slacker had somehow found his way into the scholar's class.

The teacher had just finished the topic when the door of the class opened and a scrawny student walked into the class.

", Alexander Creeds presence has been requested at the principal's room"

The teacher looked a bit surprised but he gestured for Alex to leave.

Hearing this announcement Alex's eyes opened as he stretched out his arms and put on his backpack as he walked out of the class following the scrawny kid to the principal's room which he had only seen during his early rank jumping years.

Once the boys had reached the room the scrawny kid pointed towards the door went on his merry way. Alex simply rolled his eyes and walked into the principal's room and was surprised to find not the principal but professor oak standing inside the room.

"Come in Alex. I have a proposal for you."

Alex's eyes quickly zoomed around the room and found that the principal was nowhere to be found.

"Don't worry about the principal, when he realized that I had a proposal for one of his students, he voluntarily let me use this room as a meeting room."

Alex was still on guard as he asked,

"May I ask what you want from me?"

"Well, the thing is as you know the legal age at which one can start their pokemon adventure has been pretty controversial as most children at age 10 are simply not ready for a pokemon journey. And so the league is divided into two, one side arguing in favor of training and toughening up trainers from a young age while the other side says that we need to nurture the talents properly."

Alex nodded as he wore a serious expression and stated

"Nurture vs Nature"

"Yes, however, the nature part of the league lead by Blaine is demanding a 'trial run' so to speak. In this run, we will give 3 children from across this region a chance to be pokemon trainers if they are 8 years old or above. If even one of these trainers can reach the top 16 in the league competition in the next 2 years, the debate will be closed. And the thing is that I owe Blaine a pretty big favor"

"I understand, as you most likely know I can train up a caterpie into a transitioning butterfree in just 1 year so you want me to join this initiative as I am in the Prime age group, turning 8 in a month."

"Yes"

"Well then, what are my benefits?"

"Isn't going on your journey early benefit enough?"

"No! Nope. I am gonna go on a journey soon enough anyways, I waited for 4 years, I can wait for another 2 and with my scores, I can get a sponsorship easily. So I ask you, Professor oak, ex-champion of Kanto, what's in it for me?"

Unexpectedly Professor oak broke out into a laughing fit. If anyone else heard what the boy said they might have spit blood, Professor oak is world renown for sponsorship. Every single person he has sponsored has reached a very high level and he sponsors only when feels the need to and he has given out only 5 sponsorships in his 60-70 years.

But the boy was right to an extent and oak admired the guts it took to milk more benefits from him. And Alex could easily get a sponsor and he was patient enough to wait for 2 years more when most of the population would have jumped on this opportunity.

At this moment an idea popped through oak's head. A sinister idea but Alex agreed in nature over nurture so a small test should not be a big deal, right?

"Hmm, how about a test, if you pass you get a benefit that would make even Lance drool but if you fail, I won't sponsor you if you choose to start your journey at age 8. You could easily find a sponsor right."

Alex sighed cause he knew a reward that could make Lance drool would also have a test difficult enough to justify the reward. But he was always a risk-taker and he didn't get here, with Professor oak offering him an early journey and a sponsorship, by sticking his head into the sand and not taking any risks.

"I agree to your test."

Oak smiled in a way that Alex couldn't read.

"The test is to remain conscious for 10 seconds. Start"

Alex was confused on hearing oaks test but the moment professor oak said to start, the back of his hair stood up and his knees grew weak but that was nothing compared to the primal fear that Alex felt, it felt like a monster among monsters had descended upon him and he felt powerless like if he used everything he had, the monster in front of him wouldn't even budge.

"1"

Oaks word rang through my ears and I realized that only one second had passed. Alex had already fallen to his knees and his mind felt like it would break, he couldn't move, his body didn't respond-

"2"

Just as my face was about to hit the ground, I remembered the day I had tried to never remember in my head. The powerlessness that I felt, the darkness, everything reminded me of that day.

"3"

Seeing the near unconscious boy in front of him, Oak was about to let go but something changed in the boy, the boy's fists clenched and his head started rising, slowly.

"4"

In Alex's mind, one moment kept on replaying again and again. A younger version of him was standing behind a butterfree that had a hole in its side but inside that hole was a horn that had been stuck. The horn belonged to a large Pinsir and in Alex's mind one sound rang out, 'do it master, kill him'

"5"

'I'll die happy, DO IT-" the mental sound was cut off as the younger Alex's hand blurred through butterfree's body and hit pinsir in an open wound. The pinsir roared in pain before dying but the butterfree passed in silence, leaving a final 'thank you that echoed in young Alex's mind as Alex just stood there

"6"

Young Alex just stood there, his hand still going through his first friend and into the heart of his most hated enemy, 3 minutes passed as his eyes turned blood red at the edges and a few lines of crimson fell from his eyes.

"7"

In his grief, Alex didn't realize that a pack of beedrills had encircled him. As the first bee drills attacked, his butterfree's still warm corpse got both of its wings cut off. Alex's mind shut down but his body grabbed his dead friend and ran and ran.

"8"

He jumped off a cliff with his buddy's corpse in his hand however just as he jumped off, butterfree was yanked away by the beedrills as Alex fell into the ravine, and the last thing he saw before fainting was his first pokemon's head being ripped off and eaten by a beedrill.

"9"

Seeing his past self's helplessness and his current situation, Alex decided no more. No longer will he be pushed around by anyone. No one will define his fate by anyone but him. Not even Arceus himself would cross me.

And before the 9 the second could every single muscle in Alex's body tensed as Alex launched himself at Professor oak from his near fainted position. His hand formed a blade hand as it went at Oaks neck.

"10"

The final second elapsed and the pressure disappeared and at the same time, Alex fainted, his blade hand harmlessly flopping on the ground a few feet before professor oaks feet.

Oak looked at the fallen youth in front of him and decided that he may have gone a bit overboard, releasing the aura on the level of Elite trainer which is equal to a peak advanced Pokémon's full aura. But in the last second when Alex had unexpectedly broken through the pressure and his eyes were more than just feral, they contained a wave of feral anger but also a killing intent. The knife hand was going to hit his jugular if Alex hadn't fainted, a fatal attack that caries both feral fury and cold killing intent.

Oak chuckled a bit as he called up Blaine.

"Hello Blaine, I found someone you might like."

Now oak had to do one final task, the most monumental one of them all, convince his Charizard to give Alex the chance to get one of his eggs.