Observing Leaf's silence, he chose to talk first
"Leaf, I heard you are graduating at the top of the class. Congratulations. I heard that quite a few Professors are stumbling over themselves to give you a scholarship once you turn 13."
Leaf looked offended for a split second before replying.
"Most of those professors are minor professors with mediocre starters but that's not important. I saw you with a Charmander that KILLED a Pokémon!"
Seeing Leaf's expression, Alex just sighed before explaining,
"It's not as bad as you may think. There is no mercy in the Pokémon world. Pokémon eat the corpses of their own kind and if I hadn't killed it then it would have killed me and my Charmander. I know you wanted to become a trainer when you were ten years old but no one would sponsor you, even the low-level assistant researchers who want to ride your coattails wouldn't give you Pokémon. Do you know why?
Because trainers kill. They kill Pokémon, and sometimes each other."
Hearing this Leaf was conflicted, she knew about the brutality of Pokémon and that she would at one point have to kill. But seeing such a brutal demonstration had shaken her up. She aspired to become a trainer, its what dad did before he went missing, its how mom and dad met but she wanted to be like her mom who cherishes her Pokémon, and have a great adventure.
But the conflict in her heart didnt stop her from realizing something, Charmander was in a Pokeball. A Pokeball that was in the hands of Alex, an eight-year-old.
"Why do you have a Pokeball?"
"None of your business. I will be taking my leave."
Alex finished speaking and recalled Charmander into his Pokeball as he started walking away from Leaf but Leaf wasn't going to let Alex leave without answering her questions. She grabbed Alex's shoulder, preventing him from leaving. Alex wanted to slam her into the ground but stopped himself from reacting on instinct.
"Tell me, why do you have a Pokeball with a Charmander in it?"
This time Alex decided to grace Leaf with a response before leaving.
"Because I can handle it."
Alex proceeded to walk back into town before Leaf could get out of her shock, he has had enough of this place. Charmander had matured and he wasn't going to get much stronger by staying here. The forest had always felt like more of a home than anywhere in this town
The next day he headed into the forest to forage some berries and stocked up on all the essentials he needed for his journey before sitting down to plan his route. If he followed the 'official' gym order, he would have to go to Pewter city to fight Brock who was known as a rookie crusher titled as the 'First Wall'. Then to Cerulean to fight the 'Sensational Sisters' and so on. But looking at the map, he could easily cut across an Ursaring territory to head directly to Surge's gym and then reach Saffron in less than a month.
The only problem with the plan is that Surge doesn't offer rookie battles. The way the system is set up, the first 2 gyms offer Rookie challenges(1 star) where they use Basic Pokémon as well as Advanced challenges(2 stars) but the other 5 major gyms offer only Advanced challenges(2 stars) and Apex challenges(3 stars) while Giovanni offers only Apex challenges(3 stars).
The minor gyms splattered across the map only had the authority to grant 1-star gym challenges but Alex would need either 25 1-star badges or 5 2-star badges to qualify for the Junior Indigo League let alone the Senior Indigo League. Alex's plan was to win the junior league on his first year, already far beyond the requirements for Blaine's proposal of top 16, not that Alex cared. The junior league is limited to Attuned Pokémon and Alex has 13 months to train Charmander, the offspring of one of the most powerful Pokémon in the region and gather at least 3 more Pokémon to meet the requirements.
However, Alex had learned an interesting thing from the rumors. The new grass-type gym leader, Erika who just happened to be located on a small detour from Surge, in her 2-star challenge, was using 2 normal Pokémon and only 1 Attuned Pokémon due to the recent retirement of one of her Attuned Pokémon.
Considering his current strength, he would lose to even this handicapped grass-type gym leader, however he planned on catching at least one Pokémon by the time he reached the gym and with the elemental advantage, after some more consideration he finalized his route.
Just as he decided on his route, he stopped for a moment remembering what had happened last time he took a risk with the goal of more strength. He hadn't taken a big risk but he had taken multiple smaller risks that lead up to that day... Maybe he should?
His gaze drifted to Charmander who was doing his training with utmost dedication and purpose and for a moment, even though the Pokémon were completely different in every way possible, for a moment he saw a little Caterpie in Charmander's place, eager and brimming with determination.
He shook his head dispelling his thoughts before they could drag his mind back to that day. He would carve out his path, no matter who or what stood in his way. This time he even had Charmander, a strong Pokémon with immense potential and he had grown since then.
He will be stronger this time, he won't lose. Never again.