The Pokemon Master - Chapter 1 The World Of Pokemon The Beginning Of Vex Masters

The sunlight shone down brightly, piercing straight through the sky and brightening up the dazzling green hillside where a lone young boy was lying unconscious. This, provided with the scenery of a town in the background made for a very picturesque landscape, as if it was a scene from a movie or cartoon. The sunlight reflected off the boy’s odd fluffy white hair and black beanie. Besides those two oddities, the boy looked average in every way, average height, clothes, looks…he was just bland and didnt look like he was anything special.

Vex Masters slowly opened his brown colored eyes, squinting as the light from the sun drilled into his eyes, unfettered by a single cloud. He felt really strange and slightly light headed, like he had been in a dream for a long time. The last thing he remembered was a flash of light, searing pain, and then a slow feeling of becoming cold and stiff. The whole thing was slightly traumatizing, it had given him the impression that he had actually died, but that didn’t seem to be the case. The cool breeze that blew over his face, the warmth of the summer sun, the feeling of grass beneath him, all of this served as a reminder that he was still alive.

The sky was so blue and beautiful out here, a color he had forgotten the sky could take as, for the past week, his hometown of New York City had been plagued by a number of mysterious storm clouds that had painted the sky a shade of black that Vex had never seen before. It had been a peculiar event, one that made Vex glad to once again see the endless expanse of a light blue sky. However, while he did want to enjoy a nice relaxing nap here on the lush grass beneath him, he had things that needed to be done and classes that he had to be present for. Pushing himself up into a sitting position, Vex took a look around and nearly passed out once again from sheer shock and atonishment, because what he saw denied him the possibility that he was dead.

He was on a grassy slope that overlooked a rather large scale town that had various scattered about like dice thrown across a game board. Though this didn’t prove he was dead, the mysterious creature looking like a rather large purple rat with square buck teeth that ran past definitely did. Either he was dead or having a dream, it was only one of two as there wasn’t any other possibility that Vex could think of in his current state of panic. He wasn’t that good with dealing with the impossible and usually only excepted the rational, completely rejecting the notions of anything that science couldn’t explain. This was one of those moments that he just couldn’t cope, that his senses just couldn’t handle. Honestly though, this was exactly how any normal person would react when faced with something impossible, denial or shock.

Vex took deep breaths, an attempt to steady his rapidly beating heart and help clear his mind from the never ending tide of thoughts and theories that were running through his head. His brain, like most normal humans, pushed away the unexplainable and then tried to rationalize them through various scientific, mechanical, or spiritual processes until the brain accepted whatever idea that made the most sense to that person. In Vex’s case, his brain came up with the brilliant idea that this was a simple dream and nothing more, that none of this was even remotely real. After his brain accepted that it wasnt real, his body started to slowly regain a modicum of normalcy, a perfect example of how one’s state of mind affected one’s body.

Once Vex had calmed down, he finally attempted to stand up, deciding that, since this was nothing but a dream, he might as well have a look around. He stood up, pushing himself off the ground and rose to his feet while brushing the dirt off the seat of his pants. The next step was to decide which way to go, though Vex didnt really like the thought of moving into an unknown area without proper preparations. However since this was supposed to be only a dream he didnt plan on stopping just to prepare for any eventualities that might occur. No one stopped to try to prepare themselves while in a dream, it just didn’t make any sense.

“Okay,” Vex said to himself turning around a full 360 degrees, “Which way should I go then?” He was having an internal debate, but managed to narrow it down to two places. The first direction was the town, the same path the large purple rat had taken, while second path was the building on top of a rather far away hill. There was a rather large building sitting on top of the hill with an old-looking wind turbine standing next to it and this made Vex feel quite curious about it. Just as he was leading towards the town, Vex noticed a rather old man in white lab coat off in the distance heading up the hill. This shifted his attention completely away from the town and made him focus on the building on the pinnacle of the hill. This lead Vex to his final decision as he began a steady jog towards the hill in the distance.

The hill was actually a lot farther away then it seemed taking Vex about twenty minutes just to get to the base even though he had been jogging the whole way. The figure in a white lab coat he had seen before had disappeared into the building at the top long before he had reached the base. There was a straight path that lead directly to the two story tall building and everything to the right of the path appeared to be nothing but forest. It appeared that the safest path up was the trail and since Vex wasnt really much of a risk taker he decided that the path was the better option.

Vex began a slow walk up the dirt path, enjoying the details that this dream held. It was by far the most detail oriented dream that he had ever had, amazed that his imagination could even be so vivid. It was just great that he had the chance to experience something as amazing as this and hoped he’d remember it when he woke up the next morning. It took him ten minutes to reach the top of the hill, but only because he had constantly stopped to appreciate the view the tall hill provided of the scattered buildings.

Turning his attention to the building, Vex admired the structure of it. Though it was nothing compared to the buildings they had back in his hometown of New York it still had its own appeal. However, he didnt stand there admiring it for too long as he approached the door of the building. The door was made of glass with a simple metal doorknob which probably meant that they weren’t too scared about breaking and entering. Vex put his face up to the glass and peered through it, attempting to see if there was anyone inside, but all he saw was big room with a small counter and a hallway off to the side with doors lining the side of it. When he didnt spot a single soul anywhere he tried the door, and surprisingly enough, it simply popped open with a single sound. It seemed that these people really didnt care about security very much.

Vex eased opened the door and slipped inside, silently shutting it behind him as he took a few steps into the room. From what he could see just from a quick scan of the room, this was the front room, a room where people came to visit. Vex was about to go exploring, still considering this nothing more then a dream, when a loud bang resounded throughout the room as a door was busted apart and a strange creature ran out. It was small and yellow, looking a bit like a mouse but had a crooked yellow tail at the end of it. The creature had straight longish ears that were black on the tip, a cute face with big black eyes and two red dots on either side of its cheek. This creature ran down the hall at a surprisingly rapid speed, skidding to a halt right in front of him.

Vex was confused, staring at the creature as the creature stared back, curiousity deep in its eyes as they held each others gaze. Right when Vex was about to kneel down and pet the weird creature, a shout rang out from down the hall and an elderly figure with gray hair and a kind face appeared from around the corner. The creature, after seeing the man, ran around Vex and jumped onto his back, climbing onto his shoulder, as if trying to encourage Vex to protect him. The elderly man glared at the creature, but it quickly turned into a smile as he noticed the young man who had walked into the building.

“I’m deeply sorry for the way that that Pikachu is behaving, he never climbs on anyones shoulder. He usually shocks them!!” The elderly man reached out to touch the creature he had called Pikachu but pulled back when something yellow flashed between the mans hand and the creatures cheek. “Ya see? Your the only person who he’s ever climbed on, whats your name kid?” He tried once again to grab Pikachu but the flash of yellow lit up once again, forcing him to retract his hand.

“My name is Vex Masters,” Vex replied, wondering what the strange light was. “What is this creature? Is it some sort of mutant mouse.” He reached out his hand cautiously expecting the yellow light, but when none came, he reached out hand began to rub his hand over the creatures head. The cresture named Pikachu closed its eyes and rubbed its head affectionately against Vex’s hand, completely stunning the old man. The elder turned around and darted back down the hallway from where he came, Vex decided to follow him, somewhat curious as to who this man was. The man had ran into the room whose door had been completely shattered by the Pikachu, but the inside of the room seemed to be perfectly intact. Drawers and cabinets lined one side of the room with a sink in the middle of it, even having a microwave on one of the countertops. On the other side stood peculiar and mysterious looking machines that Vex had never seen before, things he probably couldn’t just buy in any Amazon store.

The man was currently typing up on a thing that looked like a combination of a computer and an old school arcade game, like the one Vex used to play pacman on. “Vex Masters, Vex Masters,” The elder kept repeating the name over and over again, though Vex wasn’t entirely sure why.

“There aren’t any pokemon trainers who go by that name, nor any pokemon tamer, performer, breeder, or anyone related to Pokemon as far as my computer can tell.” The old man glanced at Vex, a curious look coming over his face. “Young man, do you know what a pokemon is?” The question clearly held a lot of weight to it, but once again Vex was confused. He didn’t know what the man was talking about, not understanding a word of his muttering or even when he spoke clearly to him.

Vex shook his head and readjusted the beanie on his head. “Sorry sir, really can’t say that I do? I’m not really familiar with the word Pokemon.” Vex didnt see any particular problem with this but apparently it greatly interested the old man as he began writing down something into his computer. The elderly man glanced at Vex again, his curiousity seemed to have grown even stronger. “Well before I start explaining tjings to you, you should know that my name is Professor Oak, a pokemon professor and the owner of that Pikachu which seems to have attached itself to your shoulder.”

Vex looked over at the creature and ot looked back at him with a smile which ruled out it being a mouse since he was sure that mice didn’t smile. “Pika Pika,” the Pikachu said, bit what Vex heard in his head was “What’s up Vex.” Remembering that this was a dream, he immediately accepted this and smiled back at the strange mouse like creature. He turned his attention back to Professor Oak, now really curious as to what a ‘Pokemon’ was. “You should sit before I explain in case you fall down from my explanation. Pokemon is my strong suit and I think I know what happened to you.”

Vex shrugged and sat down, the Pikachu sliding off his shoulder and moving to lay in his lap, the yellow ball of energy closed its eyes and became completely still despite its occasionally twitching tail. The Professor, still slightly amazed at this sight, brought over a whiteboard and an Expo marker before beginning his lecture.

“This world is inhabited by creatures that are known as Pokemon,” The Professor began as if preparing to dive headfirst into a long-winded speech. “Every Pokemon possesses abilities and powers special to each type and species. This could take a while so I’ll just sum it up and give you something thats similar to a shortcut.” The Professor turned around and picked up a red, flat, rectangular object with a big bulb near the top and three small lights to the left of it. “This is a Pokedex, a device thats not quite completed yet. Thats where I want you to help me out here.”

Vex was confused but he had long since started to just roll with things as he took the Pokedex from Professor Oak’s hands. The device had a button on the side and, when he pressed it, a panel popped open revealing various buttons and a tiny screen that showed his face, though when it had taken a picture of him he didn’t have any idea. This whole thing was more then a bit perplexing but, still using the excuse of a mere dream, Vex was able to cope with the changes as the Professor proceeded to tell him how to use the Pokedex. He then shifted to other topics regarding Pokemon like pokeballs and how one was supposed to catch a pokemon inside of it. This was when the concept of pokeballs first came into play as the Professor walked up to a weird machine in the center of the room and pressed a button on it. From that machine rose 3 perfectly round balls, but these were much more interesting. Each one was red on top and white on the bottom with a button that divided the two colors apart.

The Professor grabbed one of the balls and asked Vex to take a step back, though he was still sitting on the floor, so Vex had no choice but to scoot back until he felt he was far enough away. The Professor then pressed the middle button and the ball opened. There was a small flash of light, temporarily blinding him, before it disappeared rather quickly leaving behind a strange creature that resembled a turtle but was blue and stood on two legs. “Squirtle squirtle,” The creature said as he looked around.

‘Holy crap its a blue Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’ Vex thought as he looked on in amazement. ‘I’m gonna call him Leonardo.’ The Pokemon finished looking around before fixing its gaze on Vex, its look changing into one of intrigue, the same one Pikachu had when it had first looked at him.

“This is Squirtle,” The Professor explained as Vex looked on in wonder. “Do you get it yet Vex Masters? This world is inhabited by creatures that walk alongside us, that we try to understand each day.” The Professor closed the ball and pressed the button again. The blue turtle turned red and disappeared in a flash of red light. “We are surrounded by things we dont understand which is why we study Pokemon, to understand better. This isnt a world for only humans, this is a world for fantastical creatures. A world of Pokemon!!!”