Haji Background 1st Draft - Pokemon Blast Off
+background Haji's parents and grandparents and 6 big brothers and sisters all train ghost and dark type pokemon. They run a shrine on the far edge of Eterna City. But Haji's interests were never in the spiritual realm. Soon as he picked an explorer kit at the tender age of 8 he'd spend hours in the underground digging up stones and treasures and the occasional fossil. He'd sell the stones and other things for his allowance as a kid, his parents have never had to give him a dime in his entire life. He even has a savings account he deposits the money he earns from them into. However, he saves at least one of every species of fossil he's ever found. %r %r
By the time Haji was ten he was almost ready to go on his trainer's journey. He had money saved up so he could take a boat or train somewhere if he wanted to. Then one day he's selling his stones at a local flea market and a tallish girl and her zangoose introduce themselves as Grace, and the zangoose is a battered looking old fellow covered in scars named Urle. They're looking for a dusk stone. Well dusk stones are relatively rare, and the girl just shakes her head when he doesn't have one. Then she asks. "Tell me kid, did you dig up all these?"
"Yep, saving up money for my trainers journey." Haji responded. "I had a dusk stone but it sold already."
"Got any pokemon to use them on?" Grace wonders as she pokes around the items Haji has in his stall.
"not yet ma'am."
"Well you're too small and scraggly to go underground on your own, I'm surprised you've got this many."
"Uh, well... my parents run a shrine, they won't let me come with them."
"ah, I see. Tell you what. I know a guy who gives beginning trainers a first pokemon, see him over there? His name is Rowen. I can introduce you to him if you'd like. I'm sure he'd be impressed with your haul of stones."
"Really?" Haji didn't know who Rowen was. Not then at least.
"Uhuh, lemme go grab him." Grace left Urle sitting near the booth and tapped Rowen on the shoulder. A few seconds later a stern looking man with a mustache was looking down at Haji's table. "Rowan-sensei, this is the little brat selling stones and underground items. Not a bad haul he's got here. And I suspect he's got a bunch squirreled away at home."
Professor Rowen managed to make Haji feel like he'd somehow done something wrong in the middle of class and was going to get detention. But he had a Chimchar with him who hadn't been claimed by the last round of trainers to come to his laboratory for a first pokemon. And so Haji closed up shop earlier than he'd been planning to to invite both to his home. His parents had a long talk over tea with Rowen with Haji and his sisters purposefully sent away from the living room so that he couldn't hear what they were saying. Haji was especially suspicious of the fact that about half an hour into the conversation his mother asked him to go get his fossil collection from the box he kept it in in his closet.
Though Haji never found out what went on, Professor Rowen had mentioned that the Oreburg Gym and Museum had been starting a student internship program at Oreburg City for trainers interested in fossil studies. Internship students would stay at the Oreburg Gym's dormitories, go to normal school classes at a local private elementary school /just/ for beginning trainers, spend their weekends exploring the underground with Grace and Urle (who just so happened to be Researcher in training with Professor Rowan himself) and three days a week helping out at the laboratory at the Oreburg City museum as a research assistant. At the end of it students would participate in a tournament with a cash prize and a fossil pokemon to each of the top 5 students in the tournament. The catch was that students to be enrolled in the program had to be sponsered by a researcher who operated within the sinnoh area. And they had to have parental permission first.
Haji's parents had always been concerned about their son's trips into the underground on his own. It wasn't /natural/ for a boy to go that deep underground on his own for hours at a time. True to their old fashioned nature, they wanted Haji to follow in their footsteps and the footsteps of generations of shrine priests and priestesses before them. And they had been planning for Haji to follow their preconcieved notions of what THEY THOUGHT he should want for his life, rather than what he actually /wanted/ to do. And they wanted him to train dark and ghost pokemon just like they did.
Haji wanted to go, he didn't like taking care of the shrine. He wanted to do something else with his life. It took forever for Professor Rowen to convince his parents that Haji would be able to use the internship program as an 'in' should he decide to go to college or apply for a pokemon related job later on in life.
In the end, Chimchar was Haji's, and at the end of the summer vacation he was on a bus to Oreburg City with a bunch of other students. Some were from other Sinnoh cities and towns, others were from regions as far away as Johto. He was greeted at the Gym by one of Roark's subordinates, a burly mining engineer named Duke and his Armaldo, Wayne.
Work at the internship was tough, but Haji loved every second. Rowen had given him a set of pokeballs and a pokedex before turning Haji over to Grace and Wayne's tutelage. Haji tried over the course of the internship to catch different pokemon in the area. They all knocked out his Chimchar before he could grab one.
His first solo capture came when a Misdreavous got into the dormitory wall. The gym was patroled by Wayne and Urle at night. This misdreavous was what some naturalists call a "nuisance pokemon." A Pokemon that has made itself a pest by stealing from humans or destroying human property. The only way to stop the thievery is to catch the pokemon (some wildlife officers let them go free outside of human settlement) or defeat it in battle. When Wayne caught the misdreavous using its confusion attack to open the fridge and was eating some of his trainers favorite imported pasta from a local 5 star itallian restaurant, pasta that Duke had spent the equivalent of 15 USD to buy, he got mad.
Wayne chased the Misdreavous through the halls of the gym, launching aerial ace attacks at the creature's heals! The misdreavous zipped upwards towards a ventilation shaft, and Wayne collided head on with Urle. The two pokemon bickered and then went HUNTING through the gym's passages one by one to drive the thieving ghost pokemon out of /their/ home. When the Misdreavous didn't show up anywhere in the Gym, they went to get their trainers to complain about an intruder in the gym. The Misdreavous hid in the dormitory under Haji's bed, and a sleepless Haji meanwhile got up to root around the containers under his bed for a can of Caterpie cola. The Misdreavous squealed when Haji accidentally grabbed its nose, in his groggy state thinking he'd somehow grabbed someone's stuffed toy, Haji pulled on the poor creature, only to get a Psybeam to the face!
That woke up the other students and started a comedic chase of children and pokemon trying to trap the poor creature with their pokeballs. The misdreavous made several quick calculations. Haji was quiet, Haji was trying to catch it yes, but the children were smelly, rowdy, and in its eyes far too irritating. Haji seemed the lesser of two evils. The Misdreavous darted to the one pokeball dangling from his pajamas and poked the button with its nose.
Misdreavous wasn't Haji's only catch that year. Nearing the end of the internship Grace took the group to a nearby picnic area to search for pokemon, armed with fishing poles, net balls, and sandwiches the class was enjoying their day off. Grace had given Haji a package of sweet buns for lunch when. "Muuuuuuuunch!" The Munchlax dove on the picnic area. Now Urle had been guarding the lunch area while the other students were fishing, and he grabbed the Munchlax by the back of its fur in a comical attempt to keep it away from the food.
Haji didn't feel like fishing. He'd already been butted by an angry Goldeen that day and he just wanted to eat sweet buns and watch the river flow. Urle meanwhile, still trying to save the food, was being dragged around the picnic area on his butt. When the Munchlax ate the rest of the food, it started looking for more. That was when it smelled the sweet buns. "Muuuuunch!" it took off again, Urle on its tail, literally, towards Haji.
Haji blink, blink, blinked, getting to his feet and holding the sweet buns out of the hungry pokemon's reach. Urle circled the boy, powering up an ice beam (TM 13), to try and get a good shot on the munchlax. Haji watched as the munchlax started hopping up and down to try and get the sweet buns. Hop! "Munch!" Hop. "Munch!" Hop. "Munch" Hop. "Munch!" Haji didn't fancy being frozen by an ice beam, he had to stop the munchlax quickly! Haji eyed Urle. "Hey, lemme take care of this!" He climbed up into a nearby tree, taking the box of sweet buns out onto a low level branch. The munchlax hopped up and down beneath the tree. Haji took a sweet bun in one hand, a pokeball in the other, and held the sweet bun /just/ inside the munchlax's reach. Hop, "MUNCH!" It got the sweet bun, and in the exact second that it ate it Haji beaned it on the head with a nest ball. "WHEW! there we go!"
Haji swept the end of the year tournament with flying colors, and at the end of the year he was on his way home with a pet Cranidos of his very own.
~
For the next six months, Haji tried very, very hard to leave for a journey of his own. His parents however, always found some way to keep him at home. Then after about six months of battling with his crew of pokemon, and having managed to win the local badge in a match, a pokemon contest came to Eterna city. Haji's brothers and sisters and parents wanted to enter, Haji wanted to enter, his /parents/ wanted to enter. With the whole family entering the pokemon contest, the eterna contest was going to turn into a family feud. Worse yet, Haji's overbearing mother had a Grand Festival under her belt. True, his mother had /lost/, but she was a much stronger coordinator than Haji.
Haji made a bet with his mother, if Haji won the pokemon contest, she'd let him go on his journey. It was a bet his mother was certain she'd win. Haji had one month to practice, and a call to Grace brought the research assistant running from her job at Professor Rowan's laboratory. Grace and Urle offered to train Haji and his pokemon in Eterna forest for a week.
Haji was at a disadvantage where his mother was concerned. He needed a strategy tailored to fighting ghost and dark type pokemon. His mother's Banette was probably the worst possible opponent, but there were any number of ghost or dark type nasties that his mother could unleash on him. It was here that he learned how to use TMs. He bought several long range, fighting and ghost type tms from Grace, putting his savings to work buying the techniques he'd need to thoroughly destroy his mother's pokemon on the battlefield.
Haji also made one serious pokemon catch, a Murkrow that had attempted to steal his munchlax's meal and a wonderful stroke of luck, a Feebas that he and Grace caught fishing. Haji began training his entire team, now a team of six, near constantly. When his Milotic finally evolved and his Chimchar managed to take down and capture a rogue Skarmary prowling the forest for bug pokemon he knew he was ready.
Just as Haji had worried, his mother was using her Banette and powerful Weevile in battle. These two were his mothers oldest and most dangerous pokemon. Haji used his Murkrow in his first round, using nightshade and aerial ace into an incredible display of agility and accuracy in battle. The only coordinators who scored higher than he was the Empoleon in a tuxedo ballroom dancing with his coordinator to Van Morisson's "Moondance." The second round came and Haji's Munchlax took the field with a slew of fighting type and long range techniques such as ice beam, solar beam, water pulse and thunderbolt. The Brick Break that Munchlax used actually left pits in any surface it struck, showing off its physical brawn.
Haji's confidence in his pokemon and in his best laid plans brought him to the semifinals against his mother. His mother's high powered Weevile did its best, but his munchlax turned every attack against it with a devastating brick break and slowed it down with a thunderbolt that reduced the dark and ice type cat into a twitching, quivering heap on the ground.
The final battle was against the tuxedo wearing empoleon. Munchlax held its own against the much larger pokemon, showing surprising speed for something so fat. But the empoleon was dancing his way through the final round. Between the brick break, thunderbolt and solar beam hammering on the empoleon's weaknesses, in a match his brothers and sisters hailed later as "David and Goliath" it wasn't long until Munchlax took down his enemy and earned Haji the Eterna ribbon!
Haji was gone the next day, and while he later regretted not saying good bye to his mother, the next contest was at Celastic town in three weeks. He had to get going to make it in time.
~
Over the next year or so, Haji won five ribbons and entered the Grand Festival. His Chimchar became a Monferno, his Munchlax refused to evolve into a Snorelax. His misdreavous and murkrow evolved into a Mismagius and a Honchcrow. His cranidos evolved into Rampardos, giving him a powerhouse pokemon to use in a fight. The skarmory he'd caught took half of his contest circuit to tame, as at first it refused to obey him in a battle. It only obeyed him when he began collecting badges.
Haji got a poketch and poke gear as a gift from Grace for his birthday. Haji won a pokemon style contest with his misdreavous, and he won a pokemon kareoke contest and some pretty ball seals as his prize. He made it into the elite eight (the last eight players) before losing. Grace, Duke and Professor Rowen were in the crowd during his last match.
Haji attended Rowen's special pokemon summer camp, passing with flying colors, and then he took a Grey Houndoom Bus to the port at Canalave Town. Grace had gotten him a ticket to Hoen and an errand, escort a special disk with Sinnoh pokemon data and an exceedingly rare pokemon to Professor Birch's Laboratory. Team Galactic had already tried to steal the Rotom he'd be escorting once before. There was a good chance they'd try /again./
Haji was unable to make it to Birch's before dark. Struggling up the road in the dark, Monferno his only guide in the blackness, he was ambushed by a pair of Galactic Grunts who had chased him all the way from Sinnoh to get the Rotom. Until then Haji had never had to fight for his life. A badge, yeah, a tournament, yeah, a contest, double yeah! But the Grunts weren't about to let him go. His Monferno and Munchlax got badly beaten in the effort, but they won, barely. The Grunts had just taken out a knife and were ready to use it when the barking of a crew of poochyena and flashlights from the direction of Birch's lab. A frightened Haji was relieved when Birch and his assistants scared the grunts away.
With the exception of an Earthquake near Lavaridge town, Haji's turn of the Contest Circuit was a blissfull run. He won badges wherever he went, but preferred to play in contests. He won two weekend tournaments at La Rousse City's battle tower, with his performance all over TV. The Wallace Cup came to Sootopolis City towards the end of his run, and Haji won by a landslide. He took especial joy in winning the Sootopolis badge, as Juan was a grand festival champion, and he fought his gym matches like one.
He made it to the Final Four of the Grand Festival that year, and turned fourteen three weeks after he lost. He did some heavy training at Hoen's pokemon ranger academy as a guest, and competed in a Pokemon Ranger sponsored mock dogfight that they held every year, riding his Skarmory for the first time as a coordinator. Soon after the dogfight he was approached by a guy with curly hair and sunglasses calling himself Scott. Scott invited Haji to compete in his battle frontier.
Haji was not sure at all he wanted to compete in the Battle Frontier. But he doubiously headed out to Kanto's battle palace to give it a try. Spencer made him /love/ the battle frontier, the tanned and weathered man with tattoos and a staff struck Haji as very peculiar, but a very warm and wise personality. It was during battle against his Venusaur that Haji's Monferno FINALLY evolved into an Infernape, earning Haji the win at the Battle Palace and its sign.
~
Haji decided that he was going to challenge the battle frontier. Along the way, he made friends with a slightly older trainer, Aeyro. The two hit it off easily. Haji swept the battle frontier, sweeping six of the seven frontier brains and at the same time winning his way into the Kanto grand festival. He was soundly beaten in the elite eight, and then barely eeked out a win against Brandon.
Haji turned down Scott's offer to become a frontier brain, though he said he might take it later on, he wanted to beat at least one Grand Festival before he took the job as a Frontier Brain.
Haji was actually not quite as sure of what he wanted to do next. Now fifteen, he returned to Sinnoh with Aeyro in tow in Search of a new challenge. He worked his way around the contest circuit, he helped Grace with her research for a few weeks. And he refused to go to Eterna City, still bitter with his mother and father for their refusal to let him go on a journey as a boy.
It was during an extended stay in Twinleaf Town to train with Grace and Urle that things exploded with Aeyro. Aeyro brought Haji to a house party at one of the local houses. Haji got drunk, sickeningly so. Aeyro and Haji ended up making out in the woods. Nobody is sure really what happened that night besides Haji and Aeyro, but Aeyro left Haji a week later.
So now, on his own, looking for love and creative stimulation, Haji travels the world of Pokemon with his team, competing at contests and fighting gymleaders for badges.
First Draft of my character Haji's background, needs wizcorps approval. (Wizcorps check it over if you please?)