Part I

Chapter 1: Masterful Aspirations

"Adam Harper! You come down here this instant, young man!" Sherry Harper shouted up the stairs to her nine-year-old son Adam.

Adam stretched and sat up in bed. "I wonder what I did now." He pondered as he ran his fingers through his messy brown hair. He often talked to himself, a trait he had inherited from his father. "She must be really pissed to be waking me up this early." He stretched and stood up yawning.

"You're going to be late!" He heard his mother shout. Late? Late for what? He wondered. Then he realized what his mother was talking about. Oh crap! Today was the big day.

"Today I start my training at the Pokémon Academy!" He got dressed quickly, threw his hat on, ran downstairs, hugged his mom, grabbed his lunch, and dashed out the front door. He leapt into the air as he ran. "My first step to becoming a Pokémon Master!" He was so excited he crashed right into another boy his age.

"Hey! Watch where you-!" the other boy paused as a sneer came across his face. "Well, look who we have here. It's little Adam. Where are you in such a rush to? Surely you're not heading to the Academy. That's where people like me, with hopes of becoming a trainer go to start their training."

"That's right, Mat. I'm gonna train to be a Pokémon Master!"

"Heh, as if." Sneered Mat, "You lack what it takes to be a trainer, let alone a Master. That title is reserved for geniuses like me. My grandfather is Professor Oak after all."

"I don't care who your relatives are. It doesn't make you a good trainer."

"Maybe not," Mat admitted, "but it does give me an advantage. He's passed down all his wisdom and know-how to me Matthew Oak: Heir to the Pokémon Laboratory!"

A girl's voice laughed nearby. "You wish, baby brother." A brunette with golden-brown eyes who was a couple of years older than them said as she approached them. "You wouldn't know a Pokémon if it bit you in the rear end." She said slapping her butt playfully.

Both Adam and Mat blushed: Adam out of lust; Mat out of anger.

"I would too, Lily!" shouted Mat.

"Fine," Lily challenged "At what level does Poliwhirl evolve?"

Mat stopped and thought "err… Level 36?" he asked dumbly.

"Wrong. Do you know the answer, Adam?"

Adam blushed even deeper "Y-yes. Poliwhirl can't evolve by leveling up. Only with the inducement of the Water stone can Poliwhirl evolve into Poliwrath.

"Very good." She winked at him then turned her attention to Mat. "Adam's already smarter than you, punk." She teasingly sneered at him.

Mat's face turned red hot again. "Hmph! We'll just see how far that gets him at the Academy when I become a trainer and he doesn't!" And on that note, he stormed off.

"Sorry my little brother can be such a prick sometimes." Lily said running her fingers through her hair. "He's really a good kid deep down." She pleaded.

"Eh, I'm used to his attitude." Replied Adam as he watched his rival walk away from them and disappear over the horizon. "Besides, I'll show him when I become a Master Trainer!"

"Yeah! That's the spirit, Adam!" she said hugging him as he blushed a deep crimson. "Good luck!" she let him go.

"Th-thanks, Lily!" he said and he dashed off again.

After Adam was out of earshot Lily said to herself "That kid's gonna be great someday. But so will my little brother. I just hope when the time comes for their big battle they can finally be friends."

As Adam neared the school he stopped abruptly and his eyes widened. On the ground near the gate lay Mat. He was laying on his back and blood was trickling down his face from his forehead. Adam knelt down next to him. "What happened here, Mat?"

"Got… jumped." Was all Mat could mutter.

"What?! Why?!" Adam's eyes grew even wider with fear. Who could do this to another nine-year-old boy like him?

"They… wanted… information about… Grandpa's research. Didn't know anything… They got… mad… attacked with… Pokémon and… headed towards the… lab."

Adam removed his backpack, pulled out some bandages his mother packed "just in case" (geez that woman was paranoid, but at least it worked here), and wrapped Mat's wounds up. "C'mon, we'll stop them." He assured Mat. He then helped him up and put him on his back. Mat was heavier than expected, but not too heavy to carry. They set off as a fast walk.

"Thank God we're close," said Adam "You're heavy."

"Oh shut up." Mat said simply.

They arrived just in time to see the lab burst into flames.

"Professor!" shouted Adam.

"Grandpa! No!" screamed Mat.

"Stand back." Said a firm voice from behind them. It came from a cloaked figure holding a pokeball. He threw the ball unleashing a blue, ferocious, almost serpentine, dragon with red eyes. "Gyarados, use Hydro Pump!"

The giant water dragon let out a roar and unleashed a stream of water drenching the flames. The cloaked trainer then unleashed another Pokémon. This one was a golden dragon with turquoise wings. The cloaked man climbed on its back and offered his hand to Adam and Mat. "Climb aboard, fellows!" he said revealing his face. He had brown eyes and red, spiky hair. He stood majestically, kind of like a superhero, between his Dragonite's wings.

Adam let him help Mat on first and then climbed on as well. They both clung to his cape on either side as Dragonite took to the sky. The flew above the burning lab.

"If you don't mind me asking, sir," Adam began politely, "Who are you?"

"My name," he replied "is Lance."

"Lance?" questioned Mat. "As in Lance Draco: The Dragon Tamer?!"

"The very same." Confirmed Lance.

"Whoa! You're basically a legend!" exclaimed Mat. "What are you doing in a sleepy little town like this?"

"I was asked to be here to help open the Trainer's School this year by Professor Oak. Replied Lance as they descended into the blaze. Dragonite used Ice Beam to make its way through the fire as well as shield the three on its back.

"Awesome!" exclaimed Adam. "I can't wait to start my training!"

Well, I'm afraid you'll have to." Dragonite neared the ground and Lance leapt off its back. When he landed, he came face-to-face with a man and woman wearing black uniforms with the letter R on the shirt. They stood between him and Professor Oak who seemed to have been having an argument with them. Dragonite landed next to Oak and the boys scrambled off.

"So it's you two, huh?" Lance asked rhetorically with a fierce look in his eyes.

"Well, well! If it isn't lil Lancy!" sneered the girl. She had silvery-blue hair which matched her icy eyes. Her shirt was ripped at the bottom in a zigzag pattern that lay right above her bellybutton.

"Grandpa, who are these people?" asked Mat. "They ambushed me."

"Is that so…?" he trailed off noticing the bandages on his grandson's forehead.

"Will and Karen." Lance both answered Mat's question and addressed the two.

"A pleasure to see you again. It's been a while." The man, Will, said cordially. He had purple hair that came to the bottom of his face on each side and a mask that went around his almost transparent eyes.

"What has he ordered you to do this time?" asked Lance, not bothering to elaborate on who "he" was.

"Why, lure you here of course." Smirked Will.

Suddenly, Dragonite was surrounded my a purple glow and thrown back into a blazing wall which collapsed under its massive weight.

"Good job, Alakazam." Will commended his golden psychic Pokémon which stood behind Lance.

Lance spun around to face Alakazam and was suddenly attacked from behind by a purplish-black blur. Somehow, Lance and the blur were phased through the floor. He landed with a thud! On the next level down and looked up into the red eyes of his assaulter. It was black with a purple aura around it. jagged spikes swayed behind it from it's back. It was one of the three ghost Pokémon of the Kanto region. It was a Gengar. A highly trained Gengar. Karen's Gengar.