I don't know what I had been thinking, volunteering for this. They had told me it would be a revolution, a champion of the common man to enter into the elite world of Pokemon. They told me I would be a legend, an unbeatable fighter, the first peasant to rise to the ranks of the Elite Four in a century. They told me I would be the bridge, the connector to a world that the average person hadn't been a part of in generations. They told me I would bring Pokemon back to the world.
They glossed over that it would be "we" that did this, not "I". And "we" was fifty thousand people.
The voices were so loud, overpowering my own thoughts and drowning them in a sea of commands.
"RUN TO THE GRASS!"
"GO!"
"GET TO THE POKEMON CENTER!"
"NAME YOUR POKEMON!"
"GO!"
"GO!"
I tried to close my mind to the deafening roar of signals, coming through the specially-installed device in my brain. Anyone near a computer could send their input to the situation to me, anytime. A true People's Champion.
I looked down at my twitching hands. Around my wrist was the metal band they said would allow me to mentally control Pokemon, as long as I had trapped them in a specially coded Pokeball. It had cost more money than any single person in Pallet Town could ever hope to raise in a lifetime, but between all of them they had managed to purchase two. After codename "Gary" ran off with the other one without waiting to be hooked up to the city, I was the last chance any of these people had to join into this world and experience it for themselves.
That thought strengthened me, and helped me shield my mind from all the shouting voices. I had to do this, I had to be successful. My success was my city's success, a victory for everyone I had ever known. I would do this, I would become the champion they needed. The road would be long and hard, but I would triumph.
I took a deep breath and raised my foot for the first step on the road to the Elite Four, and glory.
My foot swung itself backwards into my back and I slammed face-first onto the laboratory tiles. Out of my pocket, the Pokedex I had been given fell out, and started spouting off facts about Bulbasaur.
This would be a long journey.