Inspirations and Jolt League Preview

This is where I get to tell you how I came up with the characters of A New Journey! Happy day! ^_^

      The fanfic originally started in KFC. Yes, KFC. Pokémon had just hit the US, and I became obesessed almost immediately. Then I got my first toy, a plush Zubat. That's when the ideas of my fanfic started coming in, well before Pallet Gym started. Some of the stuff are based off the current product I buy when I think of it. I tend to get a bit obsessed (Now THERE'S an understatement) when it comes to collecting things based off my favorite TV shows. It started with G.I. Joe (my first vehicle was the Skyhawk, then got like 50 more vehicles.), then Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (I got almost every figure around, even some of the Transforming ones, the sports ones, and the "Toon Turtles!"), then Hot Wheels (I had about 100 different cars.), and finally, Pokémon. Anyway, like I usually do with these things (my other two completely made up fanfics: Digimon and Arkana Force) I didn't mess much with how the character looked, thus the scarce details given about the characters looks. -.-' I also tend to rush things, thus combining two chapters into one (Chapters 17, 19 & 22 are good examples) and not being able to convey fear and sorrow. I find it very difficult for a fanfic writer to convey fear and emotion, since they often use a smaller amount of detail than professional book writers. What a professional takes 20-30 chapters to do can be done in about 2-3 for fanfic writers. Anyway, there were many gaps I had. First was after Fuschia Gym. I had the terrorist thing in there, but I couldn't figure out what I needed. I eventually decided to place it on Cinnabar, have Blaine on there, and introduce Megan. Then everything flowed until Kataki with Mewtwo vs. Grand Masters. I had nothing. Eventually I decided on a really big event as well as some new characters and Pokémon for the trainers.

      Matthew: This is, of course, named after me. O.o You really thought I was named Duke? Silly you! Anyway, when I started, his Pokémon were WAY out there. Raichu was in there from the start, but I was gonna have him catch a Pikachu then evolve it into Raichu in Vermillion. I scratched that and came up with Amy. (Note: All this happened about a year before this thing appeared on Pallet Gym.) I believe his first team was Zubat, Raichu, Mankey, Beedrill, Ninetales, and Kabutops. As you can see, I have not followed that completely. I wanted Matt to have a Fire-type that wasn't all that common. That meant no Charizard, no Arcanine, and no Ninetales. (Backups were OK.) Thus, Flareon. I wanted him to have a Ground-type, and the Geodude family was my favorite of that type, so I gave him it. Spearow I gave him instead of Pidgey, for obvious reasons. Rattata I gave him because I was a big Raticate fan at the time. (had him in my PokéCup team in Stadium 1) Gyarados was there as the typical uncontrollable Pokémon. Beedrill was sticked in there because he had to catch something from Viridian Forest. Kingdra got in there because I liked how he looked and he was part Dragon. (Plus, I got a Seadra toy in my Burger King meal. ^_^) As for his backups, originally I just went crazy, but I came up with a use for them near the end of the Jolt League.

      Zach: Zach is the typical wiseman of the group. At first, Matt was going to be by himself, but that was gone quickly as I couldn't come up with any adventures. Zach became a former trainer because I felt it was different than other fanfics, where the wiseman wanted to be something. Zach is just along for the ride. Golem I gave him because I knew Zach was going to have the "Brute Force" Pokémon and Golem was the natural choice. Same for Rhyhorn. Scyther & Pinsir I chose because they looked cool. No really, that's true. Lapras I chose because Zach had to have SOME diversity. As for his former Pokémon, Parasect, Growlithe, and Starmie, those were chosen randomly. True!

      Josh: Josh, despite what you may believe, was NOT named after Josh Nickerson. Actually, he was to be a fellow trainer, wanting to be a master, but that was scratched. Eventually I just stuck the Pokénthusiast for the hell of it and it stuck. I knew he wasn't going to see a lot of action, so I decided to make him really smart, like Zach. As for his Pokémon, well that was a lot easier than Zach's or Matt's. Nidorino & Butterfree & Sandshrew I chose because of their locations. Josh is from Viridian, and Nidoran and Caterpie live near there, so I made him have those. Sandshrew was so that he could have a stable team. Originally Sandshrew wasn't gonna evolve until much later, but I figured Sandslash would help out earlier, so I changed it. Pidgeot came about because I wanted the guys to have something to fly on in times of need. Poliwhirl I chose because it was a Water-type that could fight on land, yet was not often used. (This was made before I knew Misty caught a Poliwag.)

      Scott: Scott I had in there so that he could lead the kids to safety when they were trapped on the island. I was fascinated by Mewtwo Strikes Back. Of course, that was just from summaries I had read, since it had just come out in Japan then. I decided to extend the cloning sequence some. So that the main three didn't just seem to just know where everything was located, and to cut down on filler, Scott was made. Originally, I was not going to have Scott come back, but then Hell Fire came along....

      Megan: Megan was the last piece of the puzzle I needed to complete the Hell Fire/Cinnabar arc. I always wanted a terrorist figure in Pokémon because it was different. Also, this was the first "movie-like" event in the fic (I always picture everything in TV show frame) so it needed it to be big. However, I had no way to get the guys to the island when Scott was captured. Enter Megan. I was originally going to have Megan & Scott leave after Cinnabar, but that was just too...no. Then I came up with Hell Fire killing Scott, and had Megan tag along because it just seemed fitting. For her Pokémon, I chose Nidorina because Josh had a Nidorino. I know, clichéd. Pichu was there because I just couldn't figure out what to give her. I didn't want her to have any of Matt's Pokémon, but eventually I just decided to copy off of Misty and give her a baby Pokémon. Enter Pichu. Machop, Vulpix, and Dratini were given at random to give her a decent team. Since I figured her major battles would be full-power attacks, I decided to just slap Pokémon on her team. Although Machop will have a big battle in the future...

      Randy: Randy is your typical main-hero rival. I gave him Farfetch'd since it wasn't a Pokémon most people use as a starting Pokémon. (Zubat too.) His other team members were chosen randomly, just like Matt's Storage Pokémon and Megan's other three. Although he hasn't really been featured, he will stick around Matthew for a little while longer than usual...and almost gets killed for it.

      Mom & Dad: Umm. They're his Mom and his Dad. Not much went into them, because they wouldn't show up very often, unlike Ash's mom. O.o

      Amy: Amy was created as an excuse for Matt to catch a Raichu. That's it.

      Duke: Duke is my character's name in Pokémon GT. My original team was Blastoise, Kingler, Ninetales, Machamp, Nidoking, and Raichu. Over the various redos, I managed to get Charizard, Golem, Beedrill, and a really scary Raticate (It had like 10 different types of attacks, thus was my wild card. It also made my opponets afraid because it knew Ice Beam, Hyper Fang, Super Fang, Dig, Thunderbolt, Toxic, Focus Energy, Bubblebeam, & Bide. Nidoking was similar as well, it had the same variety plus Submission and Surf). I decided to stick him in the League for comical purposes. Blastoise & Kingler are mainstays on my team. Blastoise is my fav overall and Kingler beat Surge & Sabrina for me! (Sabrina battle was VERY close. I almost had a heart attack!) Jolteon was chosen because Raichu was sorta my mainstay electric type, and since Matt had one, I didn't want Duke to have one.

      Kouru: Kouru is my rival in the GT. Originally, his top Pokémon was a VERY tough Mr. Mime and was a guard of Route 5 we had to beat before getting into Vermillion, but it was changed to a Venomoth and he became strictly my rival, since I had the most difficult time beating him every time he showed up afterwards. When we started the Gold/Silver edition, he got Heracross as a starter, and thus is his #2 Pokémon in the fic. Just like Duke, Kouru was put in there for comical purposes.

      Jason: Jason was what we thought was Giovanni's son in Gold/Silver (it had just came out in Japan, and the site manager, Gokou, got a ROM of it.) and a fellow RPGer chose him to be his character during the first Gold/Silver GT (in which we were at level 70 by Goldenrod. We gave out too many levels since we didn't know our way around the world yet.) When I decided to make a new boss for Team Rocket, I decided to have Giovanni's son instead of the Rocket Executive (Who some of the GT guys swore was Butch.) I went with the made up character from the RPG and named him Jason. While he hasn't shown any Pokémon yet, he still played an important role in the fic. In the future, his death will have great consequences for the team. Believe me....

      Kataki: Kataki's original name was Zanshi, which basically was another term meaning "evil." I decided against creating another duo, like all the other fanfics, (Thus the lazily return of Jesse & James as well as Butch & Cassidy.) and wanted to create a villian that was not only much stronger than the main characters, but almost as strong as the Grand Masters. Thus, I had him have great strength and powerful Pokémon, and the main four needing medical help after every encounter. As for his team, it was mostly just based on what I thought would fit with him. Obviously Chansey and Dewgong would not be this guy's style, but dangerous Pokémon like Sneasel and Nidoking would be. So basically, I just picked six Pokémon I thought would suit him. Plus, Sneasel and Houndoom looked just plain cool.

      Mr. Jones: Mainly created as an excuse for Matt to get Flareon. I had to have some kind of event happen, since Eevees aren't exactly as common as Pidgeys or Rattatas, so I came up with the whole "rogue Venusaur" thing. I also managed to create Matt's #1 back-up, as if he ever uses them to begin with. -.-' It also provided a dandy place for Matt to release Flareon, and provides a place where Matt may want to pick up his fire pup if he wanted to. ^_~

      Any other made-up characters you see in the fic are there for adventuring and Gym Leader reasons. That's it. If this fic gets that long on this site, (I doubt it.) then I will add to some of the inspirations.

      Now is a very special treat! I will now give you a special sneak peek at what's to come! Some intrepid explorers will find a more detailed preview.

--A few characters will return for very long cameos in the Jolt League.
--Never assume people are dead in the Pokémon world.
--A force more powerful than Mewtwo will arrive, and it ain't friendly...
--That same force will also gain more power, giving Celebi a fight it could never win alone.
--One of the four characters will have a drastic change happen to them. How drastic? Well, he/she almost kills the others because of the change.
--The Jolt League Tournament will be a LOT longer than just simple field battles. And a lot harder.
--Something you never thought a Pokémon could do will happen.

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