Hey Guys. This is my first fanfiction and I'd appreciate any constructive criticism or thoughts you have, specifically on my writing style, grammar etc.

Enjoy

Chapter 1: The Ascent

"We come to you live from Pewter-"

"Whiskey." I slid a couple hundred Pokédollars across the bar to the bartender.

"Aren't you the guy who-"

"Whiskey."

He shrugged, pocketed the cash and went to pouring my drink while I looked around. It was a dingy place, poorly lit and even more poorly maintained. The smell of sweat and alcohol permeated the building and a small wireless radio adorned the counter top. After a few moments, the bartender slid the filled glass across the bar.

I downed it instantly.

"-in a shocking turn of events the museum was destroyed only an hour ago by a-" The radio crackled as the connection worsened.

"Another." I croaked to the bartender, still feeling the burn go down my throat.

"You sure buddy? You aren't lookin' too-" The bartender started.

"Shut the hell up and give me another." I slammed a couple hundred more Pokédollars down on the counter. The bartender looked at me for a moment, shrugged, and went to pouring my drink.

The radio sputtered as the connection came back, "-experiments with the Kalos region fossil Pokémon Tyrantrum-"

I gulped the whiskey down again.

"Another." I shoved the Pokédollars to him once more. "And turn that radio up."

The bartender took the money and made his way over to the radio, the room filling up with the crackling sound of static.

"-the unusually strong Tyrantrum is currently rampaging across the country, heading towards the Johto-Kanto border. The Indigo League is offering a reward to any person who kills or captures the Pokémon. If the Tyrantrum continues on its course, it will reach Mt. Silver within the next few hours. All trainers without at least eight badge clearance are strongly encouraged to stay away fro-"

I stood up sharply, heartpounding. The world spun for a moment as I knocked over the stool in haste. The bartender looked at me in shock, but I paid him no mind. I couldn't hear the radio anymore over the roaring in my ears, the steady drum of excitement beating a tempo that I thought I could never achieve again. Heat started to return to my clammy body as I felt something I hadn't in days. Hope.

I rushed out of the building without noticing the final whiskey sitting on the counter.

A deluge beat upon my shoulders as I stared up at the behemoth in front of me. Untamable, insurmountable, the beating heart of the wild. Mt. Silver. The most brutal mountain in the world, and the tallest barring Mt. Coronet. Only the best trainers were allowed to climb to the summit, and many thought it to be a spiritual experience. The Pokémon were the strongest in the region, the elements the cruelest, and the death toll was uncountable.

A mighty roar resounded down the mountain and a small light flickered at the peak before immediately winking out, returning the world back to darkness. I warmed, the cold spray faltering in the face of the inferno in my belly. This was my last chance, the only thing I had left. I palmed the only Pokéball I had, an empty Ultraball, and looked towards the cavernous mouth of the mountain. I saw a group of five trainers filtering in, all of them looking strong and chattering excitedly amongst themselves. They were here for the same prize as me.

I looked back towards the mountain.

I had no Pokémon, no ability to survive the horrific mountain, and absolutely no chance in winning the race to the top. For any sane person, this was the end of the line. This was the point where you bailed out, accepted your losses, and went back home to drown your grief.

I knew what I had to do.

I turned away from the mouth and looked towards the beaten Gogoat path leading up the mountain and started into a brisk jog. I had no time to brave the dark cave alone and helpless, racing a group of five trainers to salvation. The paths inside were treacherous and the Pokémon far too strong for me to take on alone. But I had come too far and lost too much to fail now.

I had to forge my own way up the mountain.

My jog soon became a walk as the path became too thin and treacherous to continue at more than a snail's pace, especially in the flood like conditions pouring down from the heavens. And that walk soon was slowed to a halt as I reached the end of the trail. A dead drop down several miles into an abyss which I would never rise. The rain swirled around me as a strong gust of wind blew off the top of the mountain, threatening to hurl me down into the darkness below.

I could barely see more than a couple feet in front of me and I knew it would be suicidal to attempt to climb the sheer cliff face in front of me. I could easily get stuck halfway up, running out of handholds, or I could slip on the slick, rain-covered stone and tumble to my death, or any other countless ways the mountain could punish me for attempting to overcome it.

I didn't care. Such is the nature of desperation.

I started the climb. I put one hand on a rocky outcropping and pulled myself up, grabbing another. And another. And another. My mind was empty, completely focused on the task at hand. My body burned with the fire of hope, purifying all exhaustion from my mind as I continued to pull myself up. Time had no meaning, no grasp on my existence. There was only the next rock, the next handhold.

Another roar rolled down the mountain side, shaking rocks free and breaking me out of my trance. My feet slipped off their holds as I frantically scrabbled for purchase on the wet stone. My left hand slipped as well and I was holding on by only my right, aching in protest.

I was so cold. So tired. The fire that had kindled my heart was dwindling. I looked down and saw the darkness. It called to me. It would be so easy to just let go. No more pain, no more grief. I wouldn't be a failure anymore if I wasn't anything at all. I could feel the void reaching out, summoning me from my precarious position. The howling of the wind quickly became whispers of ghosts drawing me in closer.

"It would be easy." They seduced.

"We could be together." They pleaded.

"You could be free." They whispered.

Another roar rocked the mountain. Another gout of flame rose from the peak.

I grabbed the next ledge and pulled.

As I continued the merciless climb, the periodic roars slowly grew in volume until they were so loud that they shook my eardrums and rattled my bones. After what felt like years of enduring molten muscles and frozen skin, I finally reached the last ledge. The only barrier between myself and justice. Redemption was at hand.

As I pulled myself over the ledge, however, my heart froze, and I understood the source of the roars: the Tyrantrum was already in combat. The behemoth looked to be fourteen feet tall, almost double the size of the average Tyrantrum, and angry enough to tear the mountain down around him. The broken corpses of several Pokémon were scattered around, and the burned body of a trainer laid in the distance. The reddish-brown monster roared as he chomped down on a Pidgeot careening past him, grabbing it in his massive jaws and shaking the bird like a chew toy. Blood spattered on his white, crested neck as he launched the massive bird into a wall with a horrific crunch. The Pidgeot didn't move again.

The group of trainers who climbed the mountain at the same time as me had beaten me to the monster, and they were losing.

I ignored the frantic commands of the trainers, drowned out the cries of Pokémon and turned oblivious to the din of combat. I focused on only the Ultraball I held in my hand. I only had one shot. If I failed here all of my suffering, all of the pain I had endured to get to this moment would be for naught. I wound my arm back, ignoring the fiery lance of pain erupting from it and prepared to throw.

"Flygon! Use Fissure now!" One of the trainer's suddenly screamed in desperation. The bug-looking dragon dove in response, driving itself towards the ground at full speed. As it slammed into the earth it let out a pulse of energy and a cloud of dust came up around it. A horrendous groaning sound came from the mountain, and tremors started to emit from the point of contact as a spider web of cracks appeared in the ground. Then the cracks started to break further, giving way to a large crevasse that seemed to seek out the giant, prehistoric dragon.

The Tyrantrum roared in defiance, letting out a line of purple dragon's breath towards the Flygon, but the Flygon was already back in the air and out of reach. The crevasse raced towards the Tyrantrum, knocking him off his feet and driving him into the deep crack. With a final cacophonous roar, the Tyrantrum attempted to pull itself out of the cleft earth, but it was too late. The two sides of the miniature canyon suddenly slammed back together with a large boom, instantly killing the behemoth.

I was too tired, too shocked, and too filled with despair to recognize the scene in front of me. I looked on in horror as my last hope, my chance for redemption, was snatched away from me in an instant. And with my arm still frozen in the air, holding my only Ultraball in preparation for a throw that would never be made, I succumbed to exhaustion and collapsed.

I awoke after a period of frozen slumber that could have easily been hours or days. My body trembled from the cold and still ached with exhaustion despite my rest. I looked around the mountaintop for some kind of reassurance that what I saw before my collapse was merely a fever dream but there was none. The morning sun revealed the broken bodies of men and Pokémon laid around me, and a rent in the earth thirty feet long was carved into the icy ground.

I shakily stood in disbelief as I further examined the scene around me. The living Pokémon trainers were nowhere to be seen, and I had to work quickly. Perhaps there was still some hope, perhaps, beyond all reason, the giant Tyrantrum lived through that attack. I went over to the former crevasse and saw the snout of the Pokémon poking out of the ground. I reached down to touch it and slid my hand across its scaly face.

It was ice cold.

The last fleeting hope I had was lost and the frozen air finally pierced my heart. It was over. I would never have my redemption, my restitution, my revenge. I laid on the frozen ground and prostrated myself to the heavens. I accepted my fate, that I was forsaken and abandoned. Hope would be thrust in front of me, only to be torn away at the last possible moment.

"Why are you doing this?" I screamed to the sky.

"Why me?" I sobbed to the Earth.

"How do I go on?" I whispered to the air.

It was then that I noticed something curious. On the far side of the peak, laying in the shadow of pile of boulders there was a gleam of refracted light shining back towards me. It was only the slightest glimmer, but it was enough to pique my interest. I trudged towards the object, swaying on my feet but keeping a steady pace.

My heart slowly started to beat again, cracking the ice around it as I recognized what the object was: a miracle. I realized that I was not abandoned, that the gods, that the legendaries, still had more for me to do. For on the other side of the peak, at the foot of a small pile of boulders in the shade, with only the slightest glimmer of sunlight reaching it, there was an egg.

It was large for an egg, almost three feet tall and nearly half as wide at the base, but the most remarkable thing about it was the color. It was a deep purple with rocky, reddish brown protrusions lining the outside. In that moment the ugly egg was one of the most beautiful sights I'd ever seen. It was a Tyrantrum egg.

I rushed over immediately and felt it. It was cold, but the slow, steady thump of life beat inside. I still had time.

I tore through my backpack, taking out things that I had bought for a former journey but never quite used and threw them away. After a few moments of frantic rummaging, I reached my Pokédex and pulled it out before carefully sliding the egg into the backpack in the hopes that the extra insulation would keep it warm until I made it back to town.

I sighed in relief, in exultation. There was still a chance for me yet. I hefted the now heavy backpack over my shoulders and slowly drug myself back to the cliff face that I climbed up from.

I wouldn't survive the journey down.

I was exhausted, with a bag significantly heavier than it was previously, and the climb down was far more dangerous than the journey upwards. The path that was formerly my salvation was now my damnation.

I looked towards the cave mouth the other trainers had come from. It was just as much a death sentence. I had no strength to make the miles long hike through the caverns, and that wasn't even counting the monstrous Pokémon within the depths.

I looked back to the cliff face with a growing sense of horror. A chill began to creep down my spine as lucidity started to return to me. I was stuck on Mt. Silver.

I was going to die on Mt. Silver.

I had just gained the keystone for my path of redemption, of reclamation, and now I was going to die.

I wracked my addled brain for an escape, a way down this horrid mountain, and I came up with none. I never had many contacts in my Pokédex, certainly none that had the ability to make it to Mt. Silver unscathed, and my battered body couldn't make the return trip.

Then a muddled memory started to return to me, a random lesson I walked in on in my ill-advised visit to the Pokémon Trainer's School. I grabbed my Pokédex, almost frozen to the touch with only a few minutes exposure, and stared at the digital keypad on the right-hand side.

I couldn't remember the number.

I started to laugh; I was going to die on this blasted mountain because I couldn't remember a three-digit emergency number.

I laughed harder. In that moment it was the greatest act of comedy ever conceived. I had bested the elements, overcome the limits of my own frail body, done what no man had ever had the strength to do and I was going to die because I couldn't remember the stupid number.

"Are you alright?" A voice called through the haze.

I'm not alright, I'm freezing to death on a gods forsaken mountain.

"Nine-Nine-Three. Pokémon Ranger Corps speaking, what is your emergency?"

What a simple number, why couldn't I just remember it?

"Listen to me. You can't fall asleep."

Sleep. What a wonderful idea. Just close my eyes and all the pain will drift away…

"Keep your eyes open. Stay awake, talk to me."

The voice drifted, my eyes fluttered, and then I knew no more.