FIC: Pokémon Expeditions - Part One. [Stargate: Atlantis/Pokémon]
Title: John Sheppard - The High Flying Runaway
Series: Pokémon Expeditions: The History of the Dual Masters of the Sunset Gym
Author: plsteward
Genre: Gen, Adventure, Drama
Fandom/s: Pokémon & Stargate: Atlantis
Rating: G
Characters: John Sheppard, David Sheppard, and Colonel Sheppard [SG:A] Dratini (and evolved forms), Eevee, Fearow, Taillow, Pidgeot, Staraptor, and Swellow [PM]
Spoilers: For any and all Pokémon games & series. Stargate: Atlantis- Season Four: Outcast.
Notes: OMG, this is a long header. It's easier when I choose to be lazy about it.
--__--
When John Sheppard was five, his mom left the Sheppard Mansion, in Lavender Town, and never came back. His dad, the former Colonel Joseph Sheppard, said she went to help a friend or that she just needed to take a break for a bit from being a mom. He didn't say much about her, but John could see the anger in his eyes and hear the hurt in his voice.
The cook said that his mom was wind and his dad was stone and that no matter how heavy the stone cant hold down the wind. John always thought that it meant that his mom was now air or some kind of pixie. It was a cool thing to picture.
His baby brother, David, never really knew her and didn't care because he had Rachel, the au pair, to play with him. He noticed that after a month, her photographs vanished and her things were all locked away in a caged corner of the attic. John tried to pick the lock, but after every try, the lock would be upgraded to something harder to figure out.
The bare spots, left over, were slowly filled in with photos of David, his dad's radio stations, or just the sunset at Pokémon Tower and other famous sites of Lavender Town. Their home became just a house and their dad was never there.
John thought he understood everything, but really, he didn't figure out anything out of the mess their lives had become. The only thing he ever figured out was that, without his mom, there wasn't a family under the Sheppard roof.
--__--
The night John turned six, he found the first pokéball he had ever seen for real (and not just on a TV screen or advertisement in his mom's old magazines) under his pillow and a note in an unfamiliar script, that told him that if he took care of what was inside it, he'd find a true friend.
Inside, was a small blue baby dragon with no limbs but big eyes and a blue orb on her tail. Quickly, he looked her up online and found out she was a rare pokémon called a Dratini. After that, he spent the whole day in the pantry trying to figure out what she'd like to eat.
The next evening, John named her after the only thing she'd eat or drink that first day out of her ball. Lemonade.
--__--
When John was eight, his dad found Lemonade swimming in the indoor pool. His dad let him keep Lemonade but forbade him any other pokémon. He also made John promise never to let David help train her or let him know she was anything other than a pet. John never understood why his dad looked at him so sadly from that day on.
--__--
When John was ten, Lemonade and he won small battles all over town against the kids in the pokémon clubs. He had to sneak away from everyone to do so because the last time his dad saw Lemonade and him battle he grounded John for a month and kept Lemonade in her ball for a whole week. John hated his dad for his treatment of Lemonade more than anything and stopped talking to his dad about stuff other than what he had to.
--__--
When John was thirteen no one else in town wanted to battle him. They all liked him and Lemonade, but everyone knew that Lemonade was too strong now for them. The only kids in town who would have, had left to become real pokémon masters or breeders.
Now it was the trainers who were just passing through would take him on in one-on-one matches and keep him and Lemonade entertained. Nurse Joy told him to stop hurting the out-of-towners soon and threatened to tell his dad that Lemonade had been bullying the other pokémon (which was a dirty rotten lie.)
In that year, Lemonade also changed, grew up from a Dratini into a Dragonair, which was very cool. She was bigger and more interesting to look at. To John, he made all the other pokémon look boring. She still had her big glassy eyes, but now she had a horn that looked like spun silver and wings on the side of her head that had feathery scales with silver and golden tips.
She also learned ice and water attacks with more ease, but dragon type moves were what she felt the strongest doing. Her Dragon Dance was beautiful and when she was stuck in Outrage, no one in town but John could stop her destructive confusion.
--__--
When John was sixteen, three out-of-town trainers stopped him in the middle of him and Lemonade teaching the smaller kids and their pokémon how to use Double Team. They asked him for a fight to earn the town gym's badge and the kids laughed. Mitch, the smallest of the lot informed them that the town didn't have a gym.
"But, we heard stories about the gym leader with a super strong Dragonair. And he's teaching y'all like a gym leader," said the skinny boy with pink hair and leather pants. He tossed a pokéball up and caught it in his other hand.
"But I'm not a gym leader," John said with a shrug. "The next League town is Saffron City." Lavender Town wasn't the kind of town to host a gym. The people loved pokémon, but hated to hurt them.
Away from the center of town & the Tower Temple, you'd find trainers and breeders. However, in town, people had only had pokémon as pets or whatever. "You'll have better luck in Saffron or Vermillion." John shrugged and turned back to the kids and started talking them through drills for them and their pokémon to run. He was surprised to see one of the trainers, join the kids.
"I've never taught my Eevee to use Double Team. I never really understood why it was used," explained the woman who was running the drill with her Eevee, "So, even if we can't win anything, we can take something away from this trip." John agreed and allowed them all to join in or just watch as he finished the session up before sunset.
That night he thought about the trainers.
The next day he talked with Lemonade.
The next week he ran away from home, after he finished sitting his high school graduation exams.
A month later, he understood why his mom left their pretentious home outside of dreary Lavender Town. The world was alive with people and pokémon. There were so many things to see, pokémon to battle and to catch.
John also knew he couldn't stay in Kanto for too long so he hopped on the Mag-Rail as soon as he won enough money from informal battles and went to Johto, then the outer most Orange Islands to escape his father's attempts to bring him back to Lavender Town.
--__--
John found out after three years of travels, that he tended to prefer to train bird pokémon, or at least flying pokémon.
Lemonade was playing freeze tag with a flock of Taillows and Swellows that had followed him from Johto. The flock was slowly getting pokéballs and names, but only by their choice, because John wasn't sure what he could do with seventeen Taillows and five Swellows.
She was most at home in the air now that she was a Dragonite and boy did he love traveling on her back. She speeds she went, the stunts, the joy of the sky; John couldn't think of anything more fun than riding her over the ocean and skimming the surface, then touching the clouds an instant later. It was his first ride on her that he figured out just what type of pokémon he understood the best.
He started to stop just traveling to collect badges and battles. Instead, he was seeking out the birds and the winged ones to study and train if they let him. So far, he had an aviary worth of pokémon who stayed around him. It was hard work to keep them all liking the others, because it seemed that territoriality was a trait that most bird types and a good portion of the flyers had.
He pondered over whether or not he actually could settle down as a breeder or researcher. He had quite a few pokémon, and unless they were solitary, he tended to end up with whole flocks at once, which was not conducive to travel. Especially, not when he had spent time on the run.
His father had not quite disowned him, but defiantly stopped looking for him when he was eighteen. It was hard for John to admit that somewhere inside that hurt, but for the most part, he was glad for the reprieve. It had been difficult trying to travel around while on the run from his father's buddies, detectives, and bounty hunters. He had to spend most of his time in either crowded cities or in the middle of nowhere and couldn't settle for a bit to do the more intensive training, which he and Lemonade used to do at home, with his newer pokémon.
John camped out on one of the Seafoam Islands, watching as his Pidgeot, Staraptor, and Fearow raced over the waves of the rocky coast. It was awesome how easy they moved through the air.
For the moment he was settled enough, just watching his winged friends.
ETA: A concept drawing of the flying/ dragon type pokémon master John Sheppard
Series: Pokémon Expeditions: The History of the Dual Masters of the Sunset Gym
Author: plsteward
Genre: Gen, Adventure, Drama
Fandom/s: Pokémon & Stargate: Atlantis
Rating: G
Characters: John Sheppard, David Sheppard, and Colonel Sheppard [SG:A] Dratini (and evolved forms), Eevee, Fearow, Taillow, Pidgeot, Staraptor, and Swellow [PM]
Spoilers: For any and all Pokémon games & series. Stargate: Atlantis- Season Four: Outcast.
Notes: OMG, this is a long header. It's easier when I choose to be lazy about it.
--__--
When John Sheppard was five, his mom left the Sheppard Mansion, in Lavender Town, and never came back. His dad, the former Colonel Joseph Sheppard, said she went to help a friend or that she just needed to take a break for a bit from being a mom. He didn't say much about her, but John could see the anger in his eyes and hear the hurt in his voice.
The cook said that his mom was wind and his dad was stone and that no matter how heavy the stone cant hold down the wind. John always thought that it meant that his mom was now air or some kind of pixie. It was a cool thing to picture.
His baby brother, David, never really knew her and didn't care because he had Rachel, the au pair, to play with him. He noticed that after a month, her photographs vanished and her things were all locked away in a caged corner of the attic. John tried to pick the lock, but after every try, the lock would be upgraded to something harder to figure out.
The bare spots, left over, were slowly filled in with photos of David, his dad's radio stations, or just the sunset at Pokémon Tower and other famous sites of Lavender Town. Their home became just a house and their dad was never there.
John thought he understood everything, but really, he didn't figure out anything out of the mess their lives had become. The only thing he ever figured out was that, without his mom, there wasn't a family under the Sheppard roof.
--__--
The night John turned six, he found the first pokéball he had ever seen for real (and not just on a TV screen or advertisement in his mom's old magazines) under his pillow and a note in an unfamiliar script, that told him that if he took care of what was inside it, he'd find a true friend.
Inside, was a small blue baby dragon with no limbs but big eyes and a blue orb on her tail. Quickly, he looked her up online and found out she was a rare pokémon called a Dratini. After that, he spent the whole day in the pantry trying to figure out what she'd like to eat.
The next evening, John named her after the only thing she'd eat or drink that first day out of her ball. Lemonade.
--__--
When John was eight, his dad found Lemonade swimming in the indoor pool. His dad let him keep Lemonade but forbade him any other pokémon. He also made John promise never to let David help train her or let him know she was anything other than a pet. John never understood why his dad looked at him so sadly from that day on.
--__--
When John was ten, Lemonade and he won small battles all over town against the kids in the pokémon clubs. He had to sneak away from everyone to do so because the last time his dad saw Lemonade and him battle he grounded John for a month and kept Lemonade in her ball for a whole week. John hated his dad for his treatment of Lemonade more than anything and stopped talking to his dad about stuff other than what he had to.
--__--
When John was thirteen no one else in town wanted to battle him. They all liked him and Lemonade, but everyone knew that Lemonade was too strong now for them. The only kids in town who would have, had left to become real pokémon masters or breeders.
Now it was the trainers who were just passing through would take him on in one-on-one matches and keep him and Lemonade entertained. Nurse Joy told him to stop hurting the out-of-towners soon and threatened to tell his dad that Lemonade had been bullying the other pokémon (which was a dirty rotten lie.)
In that year, Lemonade also changed, grew up from a Dratini into a Dragonair, which was very cool. She was bigger and more interesting to look at. To John, he made all the other pokémon look boring. She still had her big glassy eyes, but now she had a horn that looked like spun silver and wings on the side of her head that had feathery scales with silver and golden tips.
She also learned ice and water attacks with more ease, but dragon type moves were what she felt the strongest doing. Her Dragon Dance was beautiful and when she was stuck in Outrage, no one in town but John could stop her destructive confusion.
--__--
When John was sixteen, three out-of-town trainers stopped him in the middle of him and Lemonade teaching the smaller kids and their pokémon how to use Double Team. They asked him for a fight to earn the town gym's badge and the kids laughed. Mitch, the smallest of the lot informed them that the town didn't have a gym.
"But, we heard stories about the gym leader with a super strong Dragonair. And he's teaching y'all like a gym leader," said the skinny boy with pink hair and leather pants. He tossed a pokéball up and caught it in his other hand.
"But I'm not a gym leader," John said with a shrug. "The next League town is Saffron City." Lavender Town wasn't the kind of town to host a gym. The people loved pokémon, but hated to hurt them.
Away from the center of town & the Tower Temple, you'd find trainers and breeders. However, in town, people had only had pokémon as pets or whatever. "You'll have better luck in Saffron or Vermillion." John shrugged and turned back to the kids and started talking them through drills for them and their pokémon to run. He was surprised to see one of the trainers, join the kids.
"I've never taught my Eevee to use Double Team. I never really understood why it was used," explained the woman who was running the drill with her Eevee, "So, even if we can't win anything, we can take something away from this trip." John agreed and allowed them all to join in or just watch as he finished the session up before sunset.
That night he thought about the trainers.
The next day he talked with Lemonade.
The next week he ran away from home, after he finished sitting his high school graduation exams.
A month later, he understood why his mom left their pretentious home outside of dreary Lavender Town. The world was alive with people and pokémon. There were so many things to see, pokémon to battle and to catch.
John also knew he couldn't stay in Kanto for too long so he hopped on the Mag-Rail as soon as he won enough money from informal battles and went to Johto, then the outer most Orange Islands to escape his father's attempts to bring him back to Lavender Town.
--__--
John found out after three years of travels, that he tended to prefer to train bird pokémon, or at least flying pokémon.
Lemonade was playing freeze tag with a flock of Taillows and Swellows that had followed him from Johto. The flock was slowly getting pokéballs and names, but only by their choice, because John wasn't sure what he could do with seventeen Taillows and five Swellows.
She was most at home in the air now that she was a Dragonite and boy did he love traveling on her back. She speeds she went, the stunts, the joy of the sky; John couldn't think of anything more fun than riding her over the ocean and skimming the surface, then touching the clouds an instant later. It was his first ride on her that he figured out just what type of pokémon he understood the best.
He started to stop just traveling to collect badges and battles. Instead, he was seeking out the birds and the winged ones to study and train if they let him. So far, he had an aviary worth of pokémon who stayed around him. It was hard work to keep them all liking the others, because it seemed that territoriality was a trait that most bird types and a good portion of the flyers had.
He pondered over whether or not he actually could settle down as a breeder or researcher. He had quite a few pokémon, and unless they were solitary, he tended to end up with whole flocks at once, which was not conducive to travel. Especially, not when he had spent time on the run.
His father had not quite disowned him, but defiantly stopped looking for him when he was eighteen. It was hard for John to admit that somewhere inside that hurt, but for the most part, he was glad for the reprieve. It had been difficult trying to travel around while on the run from his father's buddies, detectives, and bounty hunters. He had to spend most of his time in either crowded cities or in the middle of nowhere and couldn't settle for a bit to do the more intensive training, which he and Lemonade used to do at home, with his newer pokémon.
John camped out on one of the Seafoam Islands, watching as his Pidgeot, Staraptor, and Fearow raced over the waves of the rocky coast. It was awesome how easy they moved through the air.
For the moment he was settled enough, just watching his winged friends.
ETA: A concept drawing of the flying/ dragon type pokémon master John Sheppard