Chapter 1 "Arceus chooses a Champion/ New life"

Huh? Where am I?

"Welcome, New Soul. Welcome to my World." I hear a voice call out. Then I see this creature that's pure white and gold, with what look like gems set into the gold ring around it's body.

"I am Arceus, the Creator. I invited your soul to this world. This world is a wonderful place, full of many creatures called Pokemon..."

Before he can continue, I cough. "Excuse me, sir? Ma'am? I can't tell. But I know about pokemon."

The large creature glares at me, before sighing and saying, "One moment." They then go all liquidy, and shift over to a desk that just appeared. And now, sitting at that desk, is a person. Still impossible to tell if they are male or female. They're wearing a white suit, with gold accents. But they seem to have curves, though even that's hard to tell. I'm thinking Arceus, as the Creator, can decide whatever gender they want to be, when they want to be it.

"Ah, I see," they say, after a minute, "Well, that makes things simpler. Shows I should read through all of the paperwork the first time. Well, that makes part of this much easier. This world is closer to the manga Pokemon Adventures, than the show or games. Granted, Ash and the others from the show are going to be in your generation. But I'm not putting you into the same region as them. Also, this world is much bigger than what is depicted in either the show or games. Taking ten days to get from Viridian City to Pewter City would be quite the feat on foot."

I nod my head. That was one thing I didn't like about the games. You never got a real feel for the distances involved. And the manga didn't help, because it didn't tell you time frames for anything.

"I'll let your new parents deal with most of your training. However, part of why I invited you to this world is that all of the legendary pokemon and myself are going to be having a bit of a competition. We all had to choose a champion to represent us, and those champions will need to compete to earn us points. The only stipulation is that you must be some form of Pokemon Trainer, and you need to earn the gym badges to compete in the various conferences."

"When our champions pass on, we'll hold onto them until all of the champions have passed on, and then we will hold an award ceremony. Of course, you won't know what you are being awarded for, until you get the award of course. But you will be given prizes that you'll be able to use in the next life. And we will continue this way, until you ask to be released to Paradise, or you have done so much bad that you can no longer be redeemed."

"Sounds fair to me. So I'm supposed to be your champion?"

"Yes you are. I'm going to give you a special mark on your fifteenth birthday, that will only react when you are near other champions. All champions have that mark, and it's what allows us to communicate with you while your alive. That mark will also let us do some other things, but we'll cover that once your of age. Also, you won't have your memories until you receive the mark. Levels the playing field as it were. Now, off you go. I expect great things from you."

And then everything fades to black again.

***** Several years later *****

"Arthur! Time for dinner!" a man shouts from the back porch of a ranch style home. He's Michael Goldenrod, my father.

"Yes, dad!" I shout back, as I get up from where I was at, watching the Tauros in their field. Our ranch has a decent sized herd of Tauros and Miltank, and I enjoy spending some time watching them before dinner.

I just turned eight years old, and I'm rather excited. Because I'm eight, my parents decided it was a good time to get me more familiar with pokemon that aren't part of my parents teams.

My dad's pokemon are pretty awesome. He really lucked out when he was younger and got a two breeding pairs of pokemon that aren't common to Kanto or Johto. Those would be my dad's Stoutlands, and Bolthunds. He also has a breeding pair of Arcanines. While he mostly uses their kids now to help manage the herd, he also still makes a donation every year to the New Trainer Choice Office of a Yamper, a Lillipup, and a Growlithe. Granted, the Growlithe normally ends up getting sent to the Jenny's, but they pay to get that one.

It's my mom's pokemon that are way more impressive. My mom is the Gym Leader of Goldenrod City. She's been the Gym Leader for six years now, picking up the position when I was two years old. He team is all Electric Type pokemon, and while she's not the strongest Gym Leader in Kanto, she certainly isn't the weakest. Her main team includes a Raichu, an Emolga, a Lanturn, an Ampharos, and an Electivire. Granted, she doesn't get to use her main team all that often, as most trainers know to challenge her either early on, or wait until just before the league.

With the typing advantages she has, she makes every trainer who challenges her gym work for it. But more than that, she mostly got the Gym Leader position to assist in a business project that a friend of hers brought to her. The Goldenrod Transmit Tower. Capable of transmitting all kinds of entertainment features across not just Johto, but into Kanto and Hoenn too! Of course, now that the Tower is complete, I've heard her talking with dad about either stepping down and helping dad on the ranch, or even going up to the Elite Four level.

Oh, my mom's name is Nicole. Nicole Goldenrod.

The other Gym Leaders of Johto are all really friendly as well. Granted, I'm not fond of the grumpy old guy Pryce. But Uncle Guy is super fun, not to mention Chuck. He's the only adult that I'm allowed to call by name right now. Everyone else is Aunt or Uncle. But Uncle Guy has some impressive rock types, and his daughter Jasmine is just a little bit older than me and already training to become the next gym leader.

The Violets are really nice people as well, Falkner being a bit too serious. But Uncle Hunter is an awesome trainer, even if everyone knows his gym is the weakest. He's got a bunch of Flying type Pokemon, but will still mess trainers up if they underestimate him. His Jumpluff is hilarious, as it has a lot of weaknesses, but it's so fast that people have a hard time hitting it. He's not allowed to bring that one out to often, as it's only for trainers at a higher level. Most trainers go to him first, then Bugsy.

But now that I'm allowed to see pokemon a bit more, I'm also allowed to watch the Gym matches and I've noticed that I don't see a lot of the pokemon I know are on my Aunt's and Uncle's main teams. In fact, most of mom's gym battles aren't with her actual team. When I asked about it I got the answer.

Gym leaders have a bunch of pokemon. They aren't allowed to battle newer trainers with a team that is so strong they'd just wipe the floor with the opponents. So they use the weaker teams to keep things fair. All depending on how many badges gym challengers have. Additionally, battling the actual gym leader is more prestigious than getting the plain badge for beating the gym. All that's required to get a gym badge is beating three gym trainers. But if a trainer beats the gym leader, they get the Engraved badge.

It's neat to think about, and those thoughts fill my mind as I get to the house.