This story is kind of a fusion between Pokémon Red/Blue and Pokegirls. I liked the concept of Pokegirls, but didn't like the one-sided nature of only girl monsters, and absolutely hated the ridiculous naming scheme. For purposes of this story, every human having sex is over the age of eighteen.
******
"Welcome, Tamers! Today begins your training in the most honored of all professions! My name is Professor Oak, and I will personally be handling this two-week course!"
I looked around at the other 'Tamers', three guys and two girls, all of us drafted immediately after turning eighteen. None of the others looked as terrified as I felt. Especially Gary, he looked as confident and brash as he always had.
I'm going to die. I won't get as far as Cerulean before I'm dead.
"Testing for Blood Gifts comes first! Then you may choose your starter Pokemon based on what those gifts are! If you do not have a gift that will let you tame a Poison-type, trying to tame one can and will kill you! Stay within your gifts!"
Oak looked like a congenial old man, but he bellowed like the Drill Sergeants of old. He was flanked by two assistants who looked as intimidating as Oak sounded.
"If you have lived a completely sheltered life, or slept through every one of your history classes, I will give you a brief history! You are welcome!"
"Three hundred years ago, a madman named Sukebe unleashed the Pokemon upon the world. Landscapes were rearranged, most of the world's animal populations were out reproduced and out competed, and humanity was nearly wiped out."
"Then, by some miracle," he continued a little softer, "it was discovered how to tame the feral Pokemon. Using tamed Pokemon to fight back, humanity has clawed its way back from the brink of extinction. We have adapted Sukebe's own tech to leverage this, our only advantage, which is where every piece of gear you will be issued has come from."
"The Tamer is the first line of defense to keep our small settlements from being overrun by the feral Pokemon. Your calling is more important than you can realize."
A calling, he called it. I had no interest in being a Tamer. Everyone was drafted at eighteen to do their part, though. Many didn't survive the two-year term. All I had ever wanted to do was to be an archeologist, to help to recover the lost way of life of yesteryear. That was a distant dream that seemed a million miles away at the moment.
"Now, let's start with the best part! Let's see... you," he pointed at me, "what's your name?"
"Uh... Travis. Travis of Pallet Town."
"Good! Come up here, and let's see what kind of Blood Gift you have, hmm?"
I glanced side to side at my fellow trainees briefly before shuffling forward. I wasn't all that enthused about going first.
Oak held a device out to me, a small red metallic box with a depression in the center around a small, sharp spike. "Press your thumb here, young Travis."
I pressed my thumb into the depression, wincing as it pierced my skin to take a blood sample. The wound was immediately put into my mouth to stop the bleeding... or at least to contain it.
Oak studied the readout for a few moments, before turning to his assistants and speaking in a much softer voice. "You two will need to get the others set up. Travis, come back to my office with me, please."
I didn't dare turn around to look at the reactions from the others. I simply followed Oak through the door at the rear of the room, into a much larger lab filled with computers, machinery, and thick cabling that I couldn't make heads or tails of. Maybe my blood test was bad? Maybe I wouldn't have to do this after all!
"Have a seat, son," he gestured at a chair in front of a desk that looked exactly like all the others in the room. His tone had completely changed from the bellowing commander to the pleasant, heavy-eyebrowed old man that he looked like. Whatever my blood test had told him... I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or bad.
I sat and pulled my thumb from my mouth, finding that the bleeding had stopped. At least that was going my way.
"Your Blood Gift... You have a Morphic gift."
Well, that made sense, I suppose. "My Dad's a Ditto."
Oak leaned over the desk. "Do you know what this means? You can tame any type of Pokemon.
All of them."
"Oh." Looks like I really wasn't getting off the hook after all.
"Mmm. You have in you the potential to be one of the great Tamers, Travis. Most Tamers are confined to one or two types, but you... you can field a diverse team that can handle anything, if you do it right. So, first things first, where did I put that..."
I watched in silence as he dug through his desk drawers for long minutes before finally removing a long wooden box with hinges on one end. He opened it up, revealing two rows of what looked like badges with three on one end missing.
He removed one and held it out to me. "Your Tamer's badge, Travis."
I held out my hand, and Oak placed it in the center of my palm, depressing a disguised button in the middle of it. The badge dissolved into dust and absorbed into my skin.
Understandably, I began to panic.
"Everything is just fine, Travis. Calm yourself, if you please."
I took a deep breath. "What was that?"
"Nanites, Travis. Nanites." At my uncomprehending look, he elaborated, "Pokemon are strong and powerful beings, young man. In order to Tame them without harming yourself, we give you a nanite reinforcement. The short version is that they're an infusion of microscopic machines that toughen you up. The beginner's Taming Badge will let you Tame Pokemon up to level fifteen or so."
I flexed my hand, trying to feel if anything was different. "Level fifteen?" I wondered.
Oak chuckled, "Tamer jargon. Here, let's get you your starter equipment, and I'll try and explain the basics. Most of this will be covered in your training."
Oak wandered over to a locker system and removed a padded briefcase, bringing it back to the desk and opening it up. Inside, in specially hollowed out depressions, were a multi-compartment backpack, a belt with special clips and holsters, some sort of handheld device, six tiny red and white pokeballs and one black one.
"Okay, Tamer's equipment. One backpack to hold all the items you gather on your travels. One belt to hold your pokeballs and Pokedex at the ready. Six standard pokeballs. One Black Ball. And, of course, your Pokedex."
He picked up the handheld device and held it for me to take. "This Pokedex is your greatest tool. It holds a map of the entire Kanto region, and your location in it. It holds all the information we have on every known Pokemon. It also gauges a Pokemon's power and health and converts them into easy to interpret numerical levels."
"Now, Pokemon gain power in two ways, Taming and battling other Pokemon. Gyms are scattered around the various settlements, and by winning a battle against the Gym Leader, you will earn badges that will further reinforce you, allowing you to tame your Pokemon to higher and higher levels without shattering your pelvis," he chuckled.
"Oh... Why don't they just give it to us all at once?" I wondered.
"Because it's expensive," Oak stated bluntly. "So much time and materials, invested into Tamers who will either plateau or die? No, you have to earn them as you go."
I didn't want to think about dying anymore than I already was. I decided to just move on. "A-and the black ball?"
"Your primary job as a Tamer is to reduce the feral Pokemon population. Should you defeat a wild Pokemon, and not want to keep it as part of your team, you capture it with the black ball. Once you do so, the Pokemon is irretrievable. The Black Ball can hold eighty-seven digitized Pokemon before it is full. You can then empty it at a Poke-center, and the league will give you credits depending on the rarity and power level of the captured Pokémon."
"W-what happens to them after that?" I worried.
Oak leaned back in his chair. "They're kept in stasis until a Tamer claims them. Class S and Class A, they're kept in central storage. That's where a Tamer's first Pokemon come from. The numerous, low-grade Pokemon, though... best not to think about it. Let's just move on to why I brought you back here in private, shall we?"
I quickly nodded, anything to get away from the dark subject matter.
"When I was a young man, I fielded a diverse team. Good, rare and powerful Pokemon. Together, the seven of us were very successful. But then, young Travis, the worst thing happened to me. I got old."
"I couldn't keep them all Tamed. One by one, they started to go feral. I couldn't let them go free, they were too strong and once the animalistic nature took over they'd be a threat to everyone and everything they came across. One, I kept, and she's been a fine companion all these years. The other five, I put into stasis and used the League's power-stripping protocols to reduce each of their power levels down to one. Perfect for a beginning Tamer. I have three left, and I'd like for you to take one as your starting Pokemon."
It seemed like he was giving me a huge honor, though the particulars were lost on me. I queried, "Sir?"
"They were my
friends,
Travis. I won't put them into the system, but neither will I hand them off to some random new Tamer without any potential. You can be
great,
Boy. Choose one. Care for her, and she'll care for you right back."
He typed into his keyboard for a minute, and three holographic displays projected from the desktop.
One was a Bulbasaur, thin, small breasted, green skinned and slightly reptilian with a closed flower bulb and vines hanging from her back. Her long hair was a dark green and hung over her shoulders yet managed to hide nothing of her naked appearance.
Another was a Charmander, red-skinned with strategic patches of tiny, shiny scales, average breasts and a very large ass and wide hips. She was draconic looking with a thick tail protruding from her backside, a small flame on the tip of it. Short orange hair rose straight up from her head mimicking a candle flame.
The last was a Squirtle. A blue-skinned anthropomorphic turtle-girl, wide and plump with very large breasts and a turtle shell on her back. Her short black hair curled up and over to one side, simulating an ocean wave.
This was a big, big deal. These were S-Class Pokegirls, second in potential power only to the legendaries. Starting with any one of them would raise my chances of actually surviving this thing from abysmal to a decent shot. It's not like I was going to tell him 'No thank you' and start with a Rattata or something.
