Pokemon Odyssey
[By Flygon]
Chapter 1

Legal stuff: I do not own Pokemon, Game Freak, Creatures, Nintendo, or any of the Affiliated companies. This fic is pure free stuff for you to read. I do hope that you enjoy it. It will be a long one.

Authors Notes: This story deals with some issues that I think may not have dealt with by other fics here. Hope that I can do a story about it that is enjoyable and logical. Again, I will reiterate, I do not put myself into these stories (yet).

********

Human Evolution

Jason Thorne, or Jase, to his close friends and family was sitting on the front porch of their house in Sandjem Town. He watched the other kids playing, and the neighborhood pokemon either playing or doing some chores for the people they were attached to. He sat there, not smiling, and mechanically would wave back to those that passed and waived to him. The weather was warming up a bit, but it would be a few more months till the beginning of summer but even that didn't cheer him up. Jason went over, for the sixth time that day, what had happened just three months after his eighth birthday.

He had just gotten through taking care of the pokemon at Professor Rowan's lab and was heading home, He had checked the streets and saw only one car, and it was past the T intersection and there was a red light too. He began to cross, thinking about the new amount of space the lab had now the League and the Town council had approved the expansion of the grounds. He heard a squealing and quickly looked down the street, seeing nothing there. He had looked in the wrong direction. He had woken in the hospital, his hip broken in six places, and the muscles in his legs damaged. All because a driver had been so drunk he didn't realize he was in reverse when he hit the gas pedal and hit him.

The doctors had told him a month later that the hip was healed fully, but the damage to the muscles in his legs would take a lot longer to heal. Almost twelve years with the medical treatment, and even then, they told him that he may not heal to one hundred percent, but there was always hope. They told him that at the worst, he would have a heavy limp, but they also told him that things could improve. He didn't care though. His one dream was taken from him. He would not be able to go on a pokemon journey till he healed and maybe not even then.

His family and many of his friends came to visit him and he put on a mask so they would not feel sorry for him. Truth is, he thought, he was feeling sorry for himself. Lisa Eldon, his best friend and next door neighbor had planned to go on a journey together since they were seven. They had planned out every move. How they were going to go for it all. He battling pokemon, and her competing in contests with her pokemon. They wanted to do all that together, just as they had done a lot together since they met when they were three years old. They had gone swimming together, hiked, gone on family picnics, and played together. They had slept over at each others house, in the same room together, along with Jasons twin sister Allison. Two of the other kids in the neighborhood, once, and only once, made fun of him because he hung out with two girls instead of joining all the boys in their united 'I hate girls' effort. Those two found that the somewhat smaller boy was quite capable of defending his friends and his own honor.

When he was six, he had started to help out at Professor Rowan's lab which was at the end of the block he lived on, and that made him an instant popular person with all the kids. He got to work with pokemon all the time. He fed them, he groomed them, he even watched as the Professor and his assistants did their research on them. He watched as trainers arrived and chose their pokemon, and got licensed as trainers. He also learned more about pokemon then anybody in the neighborhood did. He had helped many in the neighborhood figure out what might be wrong with their friends. And at the same time, he kept learning. Now, though, he thought little of that. That one drunk driver had taken his dream of his first journey and smashed it. He would not be able to go on a journey when he was ten, He would be in his twenties when he could walk.

Bradley Thorn, looked sidelong at his brother on the porch, and for the thousandth time cursed that drunk driver, as he worked on his car. His once high spirited brother was now a shadow of his former self. Bradley fully admitted to himself, and others, that Jase was a lot smarter then he was. The younger brother could figure out things and build and create things that others would be hard pressed to duplicate. He looked at his brother now and felt a sadness. He wished that he could do something to help.

Jason sat there glancing down the block to where the Pokemon Lab was and caught sight of Lisa, she saw him looking at her and gave him a big smile and waived. Jason couldn't believe it, she still liked him, even after the big fight they had yesterday.

Jason had been sitting in his room, actually one of the attached carports to the House, that he used now as a room and work shop. Lisa had come over and was trying to talk him into sending his name to Professor Rowan so he would be able to pick up his started pokemon in six and a half months when all three of them turned ten. That was one more thing that Jason, Allison, and Lisa had in common. The same birth date. He remembered his response, and even now it played in his head, he winced as to how he sounded.

"To what point, Lisa." He had nearly snapped. "I can't go on a journey till I am healed, and that's not a sure thing." He slapped his chair. "That won't happen till I am in my twenties. I wanted to go with you and Alli." He had used his nickname for his sister.

"You could use the electric wheelchair." She pointed out, "You do real good with that, I've seen you go real fast, at one time."

"One, Range." He gave her a small smile. "The battery on this is good for about fifty to sixty miles, then it goes." He winked at her. "Just imagine if we are still about eighty miles from any-place, and this thing goes. I can't recharge it by plugging into a tree." He brought up two fingers. "Second, this thing does great on roads, and flat even ground, but the only pokemon that are going to be on a road or near the road are starlies, bidoofs, and shinx. All the real neat and cool pokemon are off the road and in the grass, and in uneven terrain. This thing would hit one large bump and this would flip over." then he put up a third finger. "And can you see me going into a gym with this thing to battle a gym leader?"

"I would hold you up, Jase." Lisa had said with a determined look that surprised him. "And so would your sister. If you ran out of power then we would take turns to push your chair around for you."

"Thanks Lisa," he had said. Then he frowned. "But that still doesn't do anything about the pokemon." He stated. "This chair can't deal with the off road conditions it would need to. Not like my little dune-buggy there." And he had pointed out the balloon tired go cart for racing on rough terrain. "Let's face it, Lisa. I don't have a chance at going on a journey when I am ten. You go with Alli then, and we can go again when I am able."

"What happened to you Jase?" She had said.

"I got hit by a drunk and turned into a cripple." He had wince with that last word.

"That drunk only took your legs." she was near tears. "and not forever either. What about your brain? What happened to the Jase I knew who wouldn't give up? The Jase that would think of something to do when nobody else could? What happened to the Jase that could make all sorts of things. The one who built all of us bikes from scraps? The one who build this cart from junk-yard parts that nobody wanted?" And to drive her point home she had kicked the balloon tire. "What happened to my best friend, Jase? Is he still in there," She headed to the door, and he had seen that she left a little trail of tears on the concrete floor. "I hope he is still there. But remember this," And she looked over her shoulder at him. "I will go on my journey, only with you. If you don't go, then I don't either." She had left then and Jason had begun to cry.

He gave her a small smile and waived back. He was about to do more when he noticed a man in a suit walking up their side-walk to the porch he was on. He watched as the man came up. The Man wore a sky blue suit, with matching shirt and a light gray tie. His hair was close cropped, brown, and had not one strand of gray in it. His eyes were almost the same color of his suit, and there was a slightly annoyed look in it. He stepped up to Jason and looked at him for a moment.

"I was at the lab, just a few minutes ago." He began in a strong tenor voice. "I'm from Jubalife Magazine, and was supposed to get a basic tour of the place today. None of the people there seem to have the time though. One fellow in a lab coat told me I could find someone at this address to give me the tour. Said his name was Jason Thorn. Could you get Jason for me, son?"

"I'm Jason." He replied.

"No, I mean your dad, or older brother, the older Jason." The man seemed to be slightly more annoyed.

"Sir, I'm the only Jason in this house." He thought about it for a minute. "In fact, I think I'm the only Jason on the whole block. My dad is named Sean, and my older brother is Bradley."

"Damn it." The man snorted.

"Can I help you with anything?" Bradley said as he came up the walk, wiping his hands and carrying a tire iron.

"Not really." The man ground out. "I was supposed to get a basic tour of the lab and the grounds for an article for Jublife Magazine, and it seems that one of the lab attendants decided to pull a big joke on me."

"Not really." Jason responded, unplugging his chair from the outlet on the porch. "I can give you that tour, real easy."

"Excuse me, son," The man said with a patient smile on his face. "I am talking about the Pokemon research lab, not a local playground."

"And I am talking about the pokemon research lab, too." He gripped the hand control and manoeuvred his chair down the ramp. "Brad, could you tell mom where I am so she doesn't freak?"

"Sure thing bro." he said, staring at his brother who was smiling.

Jason gave the man a signal to follow and started down the block. The man followed, grumbling under his breath. Jason got to the corner and he made sure to check carefully in both directions, there was no traffic at this time, so he started real slowly across.

"Is anything wrong, son?" The man asked.

"Not really," was Jason's nervous response. "It's just that this was the intersection where I was hit just after my eighth birthday."

"Sorry," He replied quickly looking at this boy who was leading him.

"You don't need to be sorry." Jason said focusing to his right for a moment. "You didn't hit me." He saw a break in the fence and then some movement near the side of the road. "Great, Sorry, this will only take a moment." and he turned his chair onto the side-walk and headed toward the fence.

"Son, The entrance is this way." The man pointed to the left slightly.

"Yea, I know," Jason tossed over his shoulder. "But I need to check this out." He heard the man mutter something about who was supposed to help who. "That second light post there." he pointed down the road a little. "Used to be the marker for the original Lab grounds. Now almost seven extra miles were added on." he got to the break in the fence and so did the man when a pokemon appeared, seeming out of nowhere. "Spooky," He called out quickly, when he noted the man had jumped back in fright. "How many times have you been told, not to leave the grounds, even if there is a break in the fence?"

"Haunter, Haun huan huan." the pokemon big smile turned to a frown as the haunter looked down at the ground.

"Go back to the tower on the grounds and play with your friends." he admonished the ghost pokemon and watched as it floated through the fence and kept going. Then he saw the eggs. "That explains it."

"What?" the man asked hesitantly as he followed the boys gaze. "What in heaven's name are those?"

"Pokemon eggs." Jason replied as he pulled a pillow out from behind his seat and dropped it into the basket on the front of his chair. "Could you put them in the basket, for me please?" He asked.

"Sure," The man said quietly and carefully placed the eggs in the basket on the pillow.

Jason saw one was a dusky gray, with some white in it, another was black with some red spots around the middle, and the other was black white and had a touch of red in it. When the eggs were in the basket he turned the chair around and headed to the lab.

"Sometimes a large truck will jump the curb here and hit the fence." He explained as he went slightly slower then he did before. "when that happens, sometimes the pokemon will wander off the grounds. A lot of times they will simply wander around out here until they get bored. A few times, like now, they will leave their eggs around outside." He hit the button to open the door and wheeled himself into the lab foyer.

"Jason," Nancy, the receptionist said with a huge smile. "Glad to see you back. Do you want me to have your coat brought up? It is in the storage room."

"No, Nancy." he responded. "I just came in to give..." He looked at the man. "What is your name, anyway?"

"Morgan Lafferty." He said with an embarrassed smile.

"I just came in to give Mr. Lafferty the basic tour." He finished.

Just then one of the doors opened and Professor Rowan, a lab assistant, and another man in a rumpled lab coat that looked like the man slept it the thing came out.

"Just remember Professor Elm," Rowan was telling the rumple coated one. "You will need to use form two forty B for the league, and form two forty for the town council." Then he noted Jason. "Ah, Jason. Glad to see you up and about." He steered the man over to Jason and Morgan. "Jason, I would like you to meet Professor Elm from the Johto region. Elm, this is that young boy I told you about, the one who helps us with all the pokemon, Jason Thorn."

"Pleased to meet you, Jason." He shook hands with the man, who took one look in the basket of the wheelchair and dropped to one knee. "I almost forgot." he grinned at the professor, feeling a bit happier now then he had since he got back from the hospital. "There is a break in the chain fence about twenty feet east of the intersection, and I found these there. I also had to tell Spooky to go back to the tower, he was floating around the area outside the grounds."

"Hm," Rowan began. "the crew is going to be here tomorrow to finish pouring the new fence so that should take care of that. I think that I will have Henry go and put some chain on that section to keep any pokemon from leaving." He looked at the eggs. "Elm, any Idea what they will be?"

"Yes," The younger professor stated and pointed to the black with red spots "This is most likely a misdreavus egg, you can tell by the symmetry on the red spots and how they are spaced around the middle of the egg. This one," he laid his finger on the dusky gray and white one. "Is most likely a Duskull, again the colors and the image of a skull on the outer shell in white here," he traced the outline. "Give it away. This," and he touched the black, white egg with a small trace of red. "I have seen many times, it is a Houndour egg."

"Hm, very impressive beginnings for your team, Jason." Rowan said to the boy, then turned to Nancy. "Could you call Henry and ask him to patch that section of the fence? Also, if he could, bring up one of those egg vests that we carry, and three lab balls so that when they hatch, Jason will have something to put them in?"

"Of course, professor Rowan." And she was on the intercom a moment later.

Jason, who was reaching for one of the eggs, with the intention of giving it to the professor gaped at him. He could not have heard that right.

"Sir," He began, "The eggs must belong to the lab. I think it was one of the trainers pokemon that may have put them there, I can't keep them." He stared at the man, who arched both of his bushy eyebrows into his hairline.

"Not only can you keep them," Rowan retorted, "You must. You found these eggs off the grounds, even if they belonged to my own personal pokemon, the law states that they are yours. If they had been found on the grounds, that would be different." He smiled behind the huge bushy moustache he wore. "It will compliment any choice when you choose your started in a six months."

"Professor Rowan," Jason complained weakly. "I'm not choosing a starter till I am healed, and that will be in a dozen years or so. I can't go on a journey, in this." he touched the chair, but he was already feeling like he could do anything.

"Nonsense." Rowan snorted. "Jason, I have seen you do things that even many of my assistants couldn't. You have a drive that I wish I still had now, and a will to do that I never had at times. You can do anything you set that mind of yours on, and in six and a half months when you turn ten, I had better see you here with your sister, and that nice young girl, Lena."

"Lisa, sir." He corrected, and was ready to deny all the above.

"Ah, Lisa." He echoed. "You three are to be here, at nine in the morning, the day after your collective birthdays, or I will be somewhat cross with you all. You may have gone through some nasty shocks in the past, but with your mind, a problem like this," he indicated the chair. "will be a minor one at best. You had more of a problem with the suspension bridge in that wind storm when you were two days past your eighth birthday, if I recall."

"I remember that." he gulped audibly.

"Now, if you would, you could give this man his tour," he looked at the man and smiled. "Yes, I recognised you, Morgan. I would give the tour, but I must take professor Elm to the airport so he can get back to his region."

"If your that confident in the young mans abilities, professor, then I am too." Morgan stated quickly.

"Oh Jason," Rowan told the boy. "Stay clear of the egg building for now. We have a trio of aggron in there ready to lay their eggs and we don't want them upset."

"Yes sir." Jason's eyes were almost as large as saucers. "Uh, sir, are you Sure about this?"

"About the Aggrons?" Rowan responded with his eyebrows high.

"No sir," he said, stumbling across his words somewhat. "About me, and this journey. Lisa seems to believe in me, but I don't know if I can."

"Trust this Lisa," Rowan told him. "You have a mind that can figure out almost any problem. I am sure with the help of your brother, Bradley, and the trust of Lisa, you can accomplish anything. And," Rowan was near the door, "I believe in you also, Jason. And I am sure your family does too."

Jason sat there for two minutes staring at the door. He was right. He had people who believed in him and all he had to do was trust them and start believing in himself. He looked up with the first genuine smile he had worn, since he had gotten out of the hospital. He noticed that Nancy had removed the eggs and they were on her desk and he saw an expectant look from the man.

Two hours later he was finishing up the tour by showing him the bridge that spanned the small lake. Dozens of water pokemon were jumping around in the water and near the shore.

"Is that the bridge that professor Rowan mentioned?" Morgan asked his young tour-guide.

"Yep," Jason replied with a shudder. "I was crossing from the other side when a sudden storm hit." he told Morgan. "I was about three quarters across when a loud clap of thunder spooked one of the Gyarados and he coiled around the bridge piling. That caused one side to raise and the other to lower . I was hanging onto a suspension cable to keep from getting thrown into the water. That was the second most scariest time in my life."

"I can imagine." Morgan said. "Why didn't you just drop into the water though? Can't you swim?"

"I can swim like a seaking." he grinned. "But during storms, tentacool and tentacreul get in close to the bridge, so you don't want to fall in with them there. I had to wrap my arms and legs around the suspension cable to keep from falling. I was suspended from a suspension bridge..." his voice trailed off as his eyes grew wide.

Lisa was on her porch watching Bradley work on his car and trying to figure out what she could do to help Jason when she heard a loud, "YAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOO" From the end of the block near the Pokemon lab. She turned and nearly fell over when she saw Jason speeding as fast as the little eletric wheelchair could go, right toward his house. His coal black hair was flying back, since he was going into the wind, and he was smiling. She had to look twice to make sure. He had a huge smile on his face and he was also wearing a vest of some kind. He went by her house and she saw him wave at her wildly as he sped by. She did a double take, he was smiling. that seemed to echo in her brain as her feet seemed to carry her down the steps and toward her friend, Jason was smiling. She sped up.

Bradley watched as his brother came ripping up the side-walk, got to their driveway and did a very daring turn onto it. His heart went into his throat as the electric wheelchair went onto two wheels as he turned and then back onto four. Through all this, he saw a huge smile on his brothers face. He said a general thank you to whatever or whoever had caused that smile. Then he saw the chair slow, as it hit the heavy incline, and begin to stop. He heard his brother begin to chant.

"No, no, no." Jason couldn't believe this thing couldn't hold that much juice. "Shit." he slammed his hand on the arm rest, and hit the parking brake on the chair to avoid rolling back down the hill, then he saw Bradley and Lisa coming up to him.

"Jase, what happened?" Bradley asked.

"Blasted bloody chair can't hold a charge is what." Jason answered, though he thought that wasn't what his brother had meant with his question. "Just another thing on the glitch list for this thing and something that I have to figure out a solution to."

"What list?" Lisa huffed out, winded by her run.

"Well, with this added on to it, the following," Jason replied to Lisa. "To increase the range of this thing, or to figure out how to keep the battery or batteries topped off." He held out his thumb. "To get a bit more speed out of this," His first finger joined the thumb. "figure a way to keep this thing level, To make it capable of off road travel without killing myself over each bump. I need to find a way to narrow the seat a bit, and get a harness to keep me from falling out of it. I also need to have some kind of electronics set up so I can plug things into it."

"Why, all that, bro?" Bradley asked, though he didn't really care. He saw a gleam in Jasons eye that had not been there for a little over a year.

"First, the tipping problem and the off road problem." Jason responded to his brother. "I need to be able to pull hard turns and handle rough terrain. They don't hide on the road, and I need to go to them. I may need to move quickly to chase one down. I can't throw worth a darn with this wide seat. And I sure need something to hold me into seat during any movement on rough terrain. And I can't keep stopping to check readings on any electronics that I have, so I need a way to tie it all together, probably through one of my older laptops. I mean, I have to be identify them as well as catch em."

Lisa listened to him, talking a mile a minute, like his old self. He was smiling too. Then she caught what he was saying and her heart suddenly started to beat a bit faster. Off-road, extra speed, throwing. Then catching, and identifying? She felt her eyes begin to fill slightly. He couldn't mean what she was hoping and praying he did. Or could he?

"Why would you need to go in rough terrain?" Bradley asked, hoping that he was not seeing things with that gleam. "And what is 'them'?"

"Pokemon, of course." He answered with his usual excited grin. "They hide in the woods, and tall grasses, not on the roads." He slapped the chairs armrest. "I can't go on a journey in this thing. But if you can help me a bit, maybe I can modify it to deal with those problem?"

Bradley looked at his brother in wonder and he heard a small gasp from Lisa. He saw her with both hand covering her mouth and her eyes were flowing. He blinked back a few tears too. His brother, who had solved problems with his head, was now back.

********

Chapter done. I will work on this story and one of the others for a while. When I get hit with inspiration, I just write. This story hit me years ago, when I was playing Gold, Silver, and Crystal. I just updated the concept to Sinnoh. Hope that you will like it.

NEXT: Jason and Bradley put their heads together to try to work on Jason's problems.