Chapter 9

Seeing that Leaf wasn't going to talk to him, Alex spoke first,

"Leaf, I heard you are graduating from school, congratulations. I heard that many a Professor are stumbling over themselves to give you a scholarship once you turn 13."

Leaf looked offended for a split second before replying

"Most of those professors are minor professors with mediocre pokemon but that's not why we are here. I saw you with a Charmander that KILLED a pokemon!"

Seeing leafs expression, Alex just sighed before explaining,

"It's not as bad as you may think. There is no mercy in the Pokémon world. Pokémon eat the corpses of their kind and if I hadn't killed it then it would have killed me and my Charmander. I know you wanted to become a trainer when you were ten years old but no one would sponsor you, even the low-level assistant researchers who licked your boots wouldn't give you even a weedle. Do you know why?

Because trainers kill. They kill Pokémon, and sometimes each other."

Hearing this leaf was conflicted, she knew about killing and that she would at one point give to kill but seeing such a brutal demonstration had shaken her up a bit. She wanted to become a trainer, that's what her dad was before he went missing, that's how her mom had met her dad. She wanted to be like her mom, cherish her pokemon, and have a fun time.

But she realized something, Charmander was in a Pokeball. A Pokeball that was in the hands of Alex, an eight-year-old.

"Why do you have a Pokeball?!"

"None of your business. I will be taking my leave."

Alex finished speaking and pulled Charmander back into his Pokeball as he started walking away from Leaf but leaf wasn't going to let Alex leave without answering her questions. She grabbed Alex's shoulder, preventing him from leaving. Alex nearly slammed her into the ground but stopped himself from reacting on instinct.

"Tell me, why do you have a Pokeball with a Charmander in it?"

This time Alex decided to grace Leaf with a response before leaving.

"Because I can handle it."

Alex proceeded to walk back into town before leaf could get out of her shock, he realized that he had stayed long enough in pallet. Charmander had matured and he wasn't going to get much stronger by staying here.

The next day he headed into the forest to forage some berries and stocked up on all the essentials he needed for his journey before sitting down to plan his route. If he followed the 'official' gym order, he would have to go to pewter to fight rock then to cerulean to fight misty and so on. But looking at the map, he could easily cut across an Ursaring territory to head directly to Surge's gym and from there go on to saffron in less than a month.

The only problem with this is that Surge didn't offer rookie battles. The way that the system was set up was that the first 3 gyms offered rookie challenges(1 star) where they used normal Pokemon as well as advanced challenges(2 stars) but the other 4 major gyms offered only advanced challenges(2 stars) and elite challenges(3 stars) with Giovanni offering only elite challenges(3 stars).

The minor gyms only grant 1-star gym badges but Alex would need either 25 1-star badges or 5 2-star badges to qualify for the junior league let alone the senior league. Alex was planning to win the junior league this year as elite Pokemon aren't allowed and he had 13 months to train up a team of 4 as per the minimum requirements.

However, Alex had learned an interesting thing from the rumors. The new grass-type gym leader, which just happened to be a small detour from Surge, in her 2-star challenge, was using 2 normal Pokemon and only 1 advanced Pokemon due to the recent retirement of one of her advanced pokemon.

Considering his current strength he would lose to even this weakened grass-type gym leader, but he planned on catching at least one pokemon by the time he reached the gym and with how much stronger Charmander would be, so he decided to risk it and go for the gym.

Just as he decided on his route, he stopped for a moment remembering what had happened last time he took a risk with the goal of more strength. He hadn't taken a big risk once but he had taken multiple smaller risks that lead up to that day... Maybe he should?

His gaze drifted to Charmander who was doing his training with utmost dedication and purpose and for a moment even though the pokemon were completely different in every way possible, for a moment, he saw a little caterpie in Charmander's place, eager brimming with determination.

He shook his head dispelling his thoughts before they could drag his mind back to that day. He would carve out his path, no matter who or what stood in his way. This time he even had Charmander, a strong Pokemon with immense potential.

He will be right this time, he won't lose. Not again.