บท 100: C100 - The life of Ryan: Pete's 'original' MC
AN: We're interrupting your program by bringing you a story about Ryan. If you have already forgotten about it since it was written in Chapter 1 (same as the fact that mega evolutions are permanent in my novel unless mortal wounds are inflicted and the mega evolution is used up as a second life more or less):
I used the fact that Pete wrote a novel about this world he is in as the basis that he gets to live in it after death. The original story does not exist. It is merely a plot device that allowed me to explain Pete's extensive knowledge about Pokemon as well as this AU.
You did not know Ryan's name before because it is mentioned here for the first time, but I have written a little bit of what he WOULD go through if Pete wasn't in the picture.
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Living in an orphanage in Viridian City used to be hard. It's still not what I would truly call a walk in the park.
But some time ago, when the news were littered in Team Rocket bases all over Kanto and Johto getting raided by Champion Lance and the police, life for us kids changed.
The matron and most of the staff at our orphanage were replaced in the wake of all of that. The new staff wasn't very friendly - they were always rushed and complained a lot, but at least none of their actions were out of malice like with the last matron.
The men and women from before were abusive, and they were trying to make us feel like we were... less. So I guess whatever came after would be an improvement. And the biggest reason behind the improvement? Assistant Professor Pete Lang.
As an orphan, you never really 'owned' anything. Not even your clothes since they were usually not even second-hand. And they would live in the orphanage for a long time later, too.
That changed when a whole bunch of donations from 'Professor Elm's lab' came in. Professor Elm himself made sure we all received a notification on the tablets we were given, though. And, the notification repeatedly told all of us that all of this was paid for by Pete Lang's recipe books.
Few of us even knew what that meant, but having access to a tablet rectified that quickly. The young man was only a little older than me, yet he accomplished so much already. He found all of these hidden evolutions. He discovered so many ways how pokemon could use their incredible powers outside of battles... in short, he became a role model for a lot of us children.
Becoming an upstanding citizen or a league trainer with a future used to be a pipe dream before because the schools in the orphanages I have been to barely covered essential topics like reading, writing, and math. But with us getting these tablets that allowed us to browse so much knowledge, the dream was no longer impossible.
A few weeks ago, I contacted Pete Lang on how I could go about getting an expensive pokeball the easiest because I found a Poliwag in the wild that I wanted to train. I didn't expect much as a response - a link to a discount second-hand store at best. Instead, a majestic Reuniclus teleported to the entrance of our orphanage an hour later with a box filled with fifty used pokeballs.
Attached to it was a handwritten letter from the assistant professor, where he thanked me for reaching out, and that since I showed initiative I should be the one to distribute these pokeballs to other orphans living with me.
Futhermore the assistant professor told me... more than once in the two page letter, what to look out for when approaching wild pokemon when you didn't have one on your own, and even a tip on how to feed a Poliwag to increase its fondness for me. It even had a basic outline for potential training and resources I could look up to find out more on the evolution line of my future pokemon.
All Pete Lang wanted as 'payment' were regular updates on Poliwag's progress, and that I should help out my fellow orphans with catching pokemon themselves if I think they are worthy of becoming trainers once I have my first pokemon...
What was even crazier about all of this was that the soon-to-be professor - as I learned a little later - promised to send me a high-quality water stone or King's Rock depending on my pokemon's preference. There were strings attached for that, though. I needed to attend online courses from Melemele Island's Pokemon School in Alola, Jubilife City's Trainers' School in Sinnoh, or Hoenn's Rustboro City Pokemon Trainer School.
Those three schools were currently the only ones offering online courses, and Pete Lang made me sign up for the basic course as well as one advanced course of my choice.
There were contest training, battle training, breeding knowhow, beginner and advanced pokemon doctor, and even advanced grooming courses, among many others. In the end I enrolled in the online courses at Melemele Island's school for the beginner course and simultaneously the battle training and specialized typing courses for water, rock, fighting, and grass in Rustboro City's Pokemon Trainer School.
Pete Lang was the one who paid for all of that, and when I made my choice known, he only sent back a good luck as well as a thumbs up emoji.
What made him pay so much attention to me? Why would he go out of his way to pay for all of this for someone he didn't even know? But then I asked around... I wasn't special in his eyes. Pete Lang paid for every single orphan that asked about getting a better education. He paid every single admission without asking for a penny in return.
It was just that I somehow was led into enrolling by asking about catching a pokemon first. Though, one thing was different from the rest. I was the only one he didn't discourage from catching my first pokemon. He did that to plenty of the others, telling them to wait a bit and gather more knowledge or perspective first.
It might have been my age because I was close to getting kicked out of the orphanage, but I hope it was because he saw something in me. It might have also been because I had a concrete plan and I had a pokemon in mind I was already familiar with.
One younger boy showed me the conversation between him and the assistant professor, and the boy wrote that he wanted to go out and catch a wild Dratini! He had heard stories from his parents that his great grandpa used to be a trainer of a powerful Dragonite, after all. But Mister Lang dissuaded him and linked him several articles about how hard it was to train dragon pokemon and all of that.
The answers he gave not only to me but to everyone were always fleshed out and constructive, I noticed. Not once did he brush someone off, though he did sometimes take a full day to respond. He answered mails for at least fourty orphans living here, so it was comical to me that he still always apologized for a late response.
He didn't even make a big deal out of it, but if you knew where to look, you could easily find out that he did the same thing for orphanages in all three regions he lived close to: Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn.
I made sure to tell the other orphans to always be polite regardless of 'how long' they had to wait. After all, he WAS a busy assistant professor with important research and a life. He didn't owe them anything and still took so much money into his hands and so much time out of his busy schedule to talk to us.
Pete Lang also had a funny streak, I noticed. The first time I sent him a picture of my color variant Poliwag I caught with his help, he profusely congratulated me on getting such a special helper. But then, he sent me four pictures: a normal Poliwrath, a color variant Politoed, a normal Politoed, and a color variant Poliwrath.
The pictures were all connected with blue and green arrows with a lot of question marks over it. It didn't take me long to get it and started smiling. A shiny - as he called them - Politoed became blue, same as a regular Poliwrath. And a shiny Poliwrath became green, same as a regular Politoed. It was like they switched their evolution's color scheme.
The colors were a bit off, but the observation still made me laugh - especially since an important assistant professor would make it. How did he even think about something like that?
He wasn't even above making fun of himself. When I asked him if it was okay to bother him yesterday, he sent me a picture of himself getting buried at the beach in Hau'oli City by his Nidoking who made his head into the ornament of the tower of a giant sand castle the pokemon built. Needless to say, I didn't bother him at the end.
I was in the wild with only Poliwag and a few berries I found and was currently doing my best to go home with gains instead of losses.
Right now, I'm squatting on a branch of a tree hanging over a river, doing my best not to make the Beedrill notice me. But what I'm really trying to do is trying to get the attention of a small Larvitar. I never knew that Viridian Forest even had the species, but maybe it was lost?
I want to help it, but I don't know if I'm equipped to go there between the Beedrill patrols. Poliwag, as strong as he is, can't fend off more than one of them, but they are always in a group of at least three or four.
And if I do manage to get over? What happens if it doesn't want to follow me to what I think is safety? Because the way I see it, this Larvitar isn't getting bothered at all.
Just as I was thinking about going home, my tablet started ringing.
"P-professor?"
"Oh hey Ryan. This is the first time we're talking, right?"
"Y-yes!"
"Calm down, I'm just a human. Not even a professor yet. You sounded like you had something on your mind yesterday, but you didn't respond. I was getting worried. I mean, you didn't even acknowledge my Nidoking's amazing sand castle with a response."
Wow, does he really check if some random orphans stop answering? I should really stop myself from saying what I'm thinking. Because I really wonder why he would even bother being so nice to literally everyone.
"Do you see my camera feed, Mister Lang?"
"I do, and it's not Mister Lang and certainly not professor. Just call me Pete."
"Okay, wait, let me point correctly.... there. Can you see that Larvitar over there? It's all alone, and when I came through here yesterday, I thought about trying to catch it... but there's a lot of Beedrills here, and my Poliwag and I are hopelessly outnumbered if we were to fight."
[Short POV Change to 3rd person]
Pete's eyes started shining. He changed so much about the story, but his MC still gets to have his future ace just by sheer coincidence alone. If his story was not completely derailed by him, Ryan would have left the orphanage after a fire caused by a young kid who caught a Slugma.
The Slugma would scorch an important item of the matron who was secretly a Team Rocket grunt. Her Golbat would make everything worse by increasing the fire's intensity with a Wing Attack, and from there his MC was released into the world by teaming up with the shiny Poliwag he played with before the incident. He stole four pokeballs, a potion, and a bag during the chaos of the fire and starts his rocky journey through the pokemon regions by contending in regional circuits and tournaments all over the world.
Now, Pete will see the start of a hopefully smooth journey with his own eyes. His huge smile at that moment looked very genuine - not that Ryan knew any of that.
[Back to Ryan's {'original' MC} POV (original = only plot device, 'original story' doesn't really exist. And mega evolutions are still permanent, stop asking)]
"Have your Poliwag walk over instead of going yourself! Tell him to try convincing the Larvitar to come closer to you so that you can catch him and remember to click the return feature on the ball since you don't have a psychic pokemon as far as I know. You won't reach the pokeball otherwise," Pete suggests before continuing, "As for what would convince Larvitar... you could promise it better food, a family with you and your pokemon since it's alone... or you convince it by promising it strength. After all, most pokemon are aware that a trained pokemon has a shortcut to power because of dedicated resources and the fact that they fight all over usually and not just stay in their tribe's territory."
I knew I was right in contacting him. I have a vague idea of what I could do, but I didn't come close to what Profe- to what Pete suggested.
"Thank you so much! D-do you want to watch, or do you want me to end the call?"
"Keep it open! Worst case scenario, I'll call Jasmine and have her hurry over to you with my Farigiraf and her Claydol. Though, you better stay vigilant. As strong as they are, they would still take two or three hours before they find you."
"O-okay!"
It was a real nail-biter. But it didn't take long for Poliwag to sweet-talk Larvitar to come to me. I would later learn it was because of the promise of strength since his tribe was annihilated by a powerful Aggron tribe and he wanted revenge. That was his main motivation behind training fighting and ground moves especially hard all his life. They were what Pete called 'quad-effective' versus Aggron.
But the genuine elation in Pete's voice as he congratulated me was what really stuck with me from that encounter.
I still live in the orphanage. My journey won't start until several weeks later. But now I have with me a powerful Larvitar, future physical attack menace Mega Tyranitar, and a shiny Poliwag, future all rounder and good soul of my team. Nothing could stop me from becoming the champion in the future!
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