Author's Note: This is the a new, edited version of the story, chapters 1-8, posted on 07/07/18. There will most likely be future edits, but nothing quite as drastic as this. Enjoy the story!

Inspired by "Pokemon: Chaotic World" by Revenatzero.

Prologue

In the past, pokemon battling was considered something of a sport or a game. Pokemon had usually been content to live in their habitats in the wild and accept the possibility that they might be captured by a traveling pokemon trainer. Of course, there had been incidents when species of more aggressive pokemon would attack travelers or towns, but they were usually taken care of by one of the many pokemon trainers or a member of the Pokemon League. Incredible advances were being made every day in the fields of pokemon studies and technology. However, all of this was before Team Rocket rose in power once more.

What had once been a diminishing power in the criminal underworlds of the Kanto and Johto regions, made a quick comeback under the new leadership of an unknown master. They quickly began to recruit heavily from the less scrupulous trainers, with no care for age limits. As for strong trainers who refused to join? Their recruitment pitch was ruthless. In a matter of years, branches of the criminal organization had spread from beyond their main bases in Kanto and Johto, spreading throughout all of the major regions: Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos. Other criminal teams throughout the regions were either annihilated by Team Rocket or taken over and absorbed into the fold.

Their major grab for power eventually culminated in an attempt to capture one of the Legendary Pokemon, and after managing to steal a master ball, the pinnacle of pokeball technoloy created by Silph Co., their plan ultimately succeeded. A long and drawn out battle soon took place in the Hoenn region between the organization's leadership, the top players of the Pokemon League, and the legendary Sky High Pokemon Rayquaza. At the conclusion of that battle, Team Rocket managed to capture the Legendary. Rayquaza, a dragon and flying type pokemon with the appearance of a flying green serpent, had a weakness to ice, fairy, rock, and dragon type moves, which had been ruthlessly exploited by Team Rocket. Its capture was the beginning of the end.

It started with the enraged Groudon and Kyougre, Legendaries that were part of the same legendary weather trio as Rayquaza. Their wrath was soon shared by the other Legendary Pokemon, before before spreading to infect every other pokemon throughout the regions that didn't have an extremely close bond with a trainer. What followed was a period of raging storms, earthquakes, flooding, and fires that seemed without end, and it had become a common occurance to see one of the Legendary Pokemon leading a rampage of destruction across the regions. By the end of it, the human population had been significantly reduced.

Finally, though, there did come a day where the Legendaries vanished back into obscurity. However, the human race was still faced with the continued threat of the common, everyday pokemon, who's rage and disdain for humanity was unabated. Even the pokemon species that had previously been considered docile had become hostile toward humanity. This period of time widely became known as 'The Cataclysm.' Though the instigators had been Team Rocket, who had been annihilated at the hand of the Legendary Pokemon at the start of the upheaval, the rest of the humanity was still left to deal with the aftermath of their grievous mistakes.

Our towns and cities were constantly plagued by pokemon attacks. There had been thousands, if not millions of casualties worldwide due to the attacks on the cities and the rebellion of the pokemon, not to mention the natural disasters and attacks from the Legendaries. As the death count continued to rise ever higher, the people began building up their defenses in order to survive the onslaught. Those that lived in less populated areas were evacuated to the nearest city, and thick walls made of the strongest known materials rose up around each city. But even when these walls were completed, humanity still struggled to deal with incidents of pokemon sneaking through the defenses by tunneling underground or flying above. Any attempt at travel was precarious at best and lethal at worst. Food needed to be grown within the walls, and pokemon that were kept for food or materials had to be held under complete control through use of powerful sedatives. Pokemon trainers were the only viable form of protection. However, very few trainers remained from the days before the Cataclysm, and there were fewer people still who were willing to become part of the new generation of pokemon trainers.

In the end, a new order was created, revolving around the remnants of the Pokemon League. Each city was appointed one of the strongest remaining trainers as a Gym Leader to be head of the city's security and all the trainers of the city. Trainers were to be ranked by their skill level in the new system, and would be subordinate to the Gym Leader, who would in turn be answerable to the League, which headed the government. Every year the Gyms accepted volunteers to become trainers, but despite the surge in hope that the new order had brought, there were not enough people who were willing to volunteer. The only option left to the League was to instate an annual draft to forcibly conscript pokemon trainers. So it began that on June 21st of every year the names of able bodied boys and girls from the ages of twelve to eighteen years of age were Reaped until there amounted to at least six new trainers every year. Most years, though, the number of children Reaped was higher.

In this new age, trainers dealt with a much higher difficulty in taming their pokemon than ever before, and they were the cities' best defense against wild pokemon. They came to be respected and feared in equal measure by the people, due to their partnerships with the fearsome beasts pokemon had become, and for their role in the protection of their cities. These days, all trainers live separated into one district of each city – universally called District 13. Located within each city's District 13 were the Pokemon Centers, Pokemarts, Gyms, a multitude of training grounds, and housing for all of the trainers in the city.

However, as the years passed and the fear of pokemon only continued to increase, there came to be less and less volunteers to become trainers. Eventually, it grew to the point that most years had no volunteers at all. Tomorrow will be June 21, 0114, the 109 annual Reaping since the Cataclysm.