Team Rocket
In the early morning, the southern wind breeze through Vermilion city with the sea inlet's refreshing scent, and the sunrise indicates the coming of a brand new day.
A young man with medium and wavy hair stood outside a concrete building with blue stripes, a glass door and windows. He wore a black vest with yellow outlines, a white undershirt with short sleeves and a gray stripe, black shorts with blue outlines, and black sneakers with blue highlights. On his back is a blue backpack with black stripes.
"PokeMart, here we come" Folker muttered with a low voice as he opened the glass door with a steel doorknob. He went inside and looked at the surroundings in awe. The slight smell of fresh potions stuffed inside bottles combined with the fresh smell of cartons amused him.
After encountering a strong Pokemon, with no way to beat it, he had to run away. He thought that if Scyther failed to escape, it would be dangerous. There were cases of trainers who overestimated themselves and died in the wilds.
Thinking about it, he felt stupid for actually trying to train in the wild without medicines and another Pokemon to switch with his current Pokemon. Medicines and items are must haves for trainers, especially in the wild where danger is everywhere.
Good thing he was able to realize this before he ended up in a worse situation than he had.
"Welcome to Vermilion City Pokemart. What would you like to buy sir?" said a young adult with a blue suit, a white dress shirt, and a tie as he stood in the cashier area.
Folker looked at the cashier man with a calm expression but internally, his mind was proudly thinking excitedly about the cashier calling him 'Sir'. This is the first time someone called him Sir. He's just 12 years old after all.
"I'd like to buy 10 Pokeballs, 10 Potions, 5 Paralyz Heals, 5 Awakenings, and 5 Antidotes" Folker said with a calm expression.
"That would be 7,750 Pokedollars Sir" said the cashier. Folker handed over exactly 7,750 Pokedollars to the cashier. He then put them in his backpack.
Looking at his remaining money, from his initial 12,000 Pokedollars, he only had 2,250 Pokedollars left. He sighed and walked away from the PokeMart. He spent his other 2,000 Pokedollars for his food and Scyther's diet.
Meanwhile, inside the PokeMart, a 5'8 man wearing a red striped white shirt, a black shorts, and a black cap stood within the eastern corner as he silently looked at Folker walking away.
"What a naive kid" Eric muttered silently.
Eric is secretly a member of Team Rocket. A notorious criminal Organization spanning across the Kanto and Johto regions. While its main focus is stealing or capturing rare and strong Pokémon, and subsequently selling them, it also funds and conducts cruel experimental research on Pokémon.
At times, it has even killed Pokémon. Their oath, as posted on the wall of one of their many bases, is "Steal Pokémon for profit. Exploit Pokémon for profit. All Pokémon exist for the glory of Team Rocket." Their ultimate goal is to take over the world using Pokémon.
Eric is wearing regular civilian clothes. Of course he wouldn't just blatantly wear the iconic Team rocket uniform in public. That would be tantamount to inviting some officers to arrest him.
Eric was just browsing for some items in the PokeMart. He didn't actually have any plans to purchase anything yet as he doesn't have enough cash. His pokemon was just injured during a Team Rocket mission and had to use up all his remaining money to have Nurse Joy heal his Pokemon at the Vermilion City Pokemon Center.
He wanted a Black sludge so that his Pokemon can regenerate on its own but he doesn't have enough money for now. He's just a grunt member of Team Rocket with quite a low monthly wage.
Team Rocket gives monthly wages for its members. On top of that, it also provides missions with decent rewards in order to attract more members. After all, it's a criminal organization. To keep its members, it has to satisfy them with lucrative rewards.
Despite being a member of Team Rocket, Eric doesn't have that much success. On top of his Pokemon's expensive training and diet, he's quite low on money for now.
Hence, he had to target some weaklings that were spoon fed with cash from their parents. Folker coincidentally just happened to be his target for today.
"Time for some quick cash" Eric muttered with a smirk as he stealthily followed Folker.
...
At this time, in an alley somewhere in Vermilion City, there were old wooden boxes alongside trash cans. With a slightly smelly odor coming from the trash can, a Ratata seems to be licking what seems to be what's left in a thrown bottle.
A young man went through the alley but his eyes suddenly lit up and stopped walking. He reached for his pocket to grab a Pokeball and turned around.
"Isn't it about time you show yourself? You've been following me for a while" Folker said in a loud voice.
"Quite perceptive, aren't ya, kid? Did you really just lead me here to take me out? Hahaha I like your confidence" A figure suddenly appeared with a smirk in front of Folker.
"For a kid, you seem to have quite some cash there. Why don't you lend your Daddy some?" Eric said with disdain. He then reached out to his pocket and grabbed a Pokeball.
'Should I go for it or should I just run?' Folker thought to himself.
He suddenly thought about his last battle in the wilds wherein he had to run away. Despite his carefree attitude outside, he actually felt unpleasant about it internally.
'I should just go for it. This is gonna be my first trainer battle. Worst that could happen, I'll just lose my items and my remaining money. I could just ask Lt. Surge to lend me some money' Folker thought to himself and felt confident.
"I choose you! Scyther!" Folker let out a scream and released his Pokemon, Scyther. He looked at it confidently with a smirk and said "Time to kick some ass".\
...
AUTHORS NOTE:
I edited MC's age from 10 years old to 12 years old. Starting a journey at 10 is just too young. 12 is young too but at least it's more mature than 10.