Chapter 1

Chocolate is Amazing

I am Chase. I was born on October 31, 2009 at midnight in the light of the full moon. They say that's why I was silver when I hatched. And by they, I mean every one who I've met.

I looked up at the moon, wondering why it was staring back at me. I looked around me. Some of the shards of my egg remained, glittering like small gems. There were some moving shadows just beyond the bushes to my right. To my left, there was some large sleeping being. (Well, large to me anyway) I crawled over and looked at its face.

I think that she had been trick-or-treating a little bit too late. Chocolate was smeared all over her face. I couldn't really tell what her costume was- I think that it may have been Azumarill, but being as I just hatched- I had no idea. I looked around again. There were other sleeping beings around too. Once again, I had no idea what they were at the time.

One was green and yellow and had two little bushes on her back. She had some black marks on her face and I realized that someone had used a magic marker on her. Another one was black and had shimmering scales. He also had two big wings that were folded up behind him.

There were some others, but there was only one who was awake. He was just staring at me like some freak. Eventually he came over to me and sat down. He was blue and black and had red eyes. He opened his mouth and made noises come out. I cocked my head to the side, wondering what he had meant. He made the noises again, and I was still clueless. He sighed, exasperated. He touched my forehead and then I could hear his voice in my head.

"Woah," I thought. "How did you do that?"

"I learned it over time," he said out loud. "Eventually, you'll figure it out too,"

"Oh, cool," I thought. "So… Um… Who are you?"

"I would ask the same, but Ino hasn't even named you yet. But any way, I'm Jason the Lucario. Well, I haven't always been a Lucario. I used to be a Riolu like you,"

"What's a Riolu?"

"That's what you are- except Riolu are blue, not silver. Even shiny Riolu are gold…"

"What's gold?"

"Oh dear… Um, it's a color that's kind of like yellow, but is a little darker and rather shiny,"

"What's shiny?"

"Great Arceus… Um, it has two definitions around here… Um… Well, Cogidubnus over there is a Shiny Pokémon, and then the other shiny is glittering."

"Who?"

Jason sighed and called out for the big black being. It snorted a little bit and then opened his eyes. They were blue, but not the same as Jason's body. He looked over at me and smiled. "Hey, it hatched!" he said. The other Pokémon started waking up and looking at me. By now my brain was actually functioning at a reasonable rate and I could distinguish at least some of what they were saying. There were three boys and two girls, and I discovered their names soon enough.

Wenatachee the Grotle, Jason the Lucario, Cogidubnus the Charizard, an unnamed Milotic, and Rocky the Cranidos were they. "And that, my little friend," said Wenatachee, "Is Ino."

"Oh, that?" I asked. "What kind of Pokémon is that?"

Everyone burst out laughing. "She's no Pokémon, child," Milotic said. "She is a Pokémon trainer and coordinator. A very talented one, at that!"

"Anyway, we're her team," Rocky said. "The best of the best, the tip of the top, the-"

"We get it, Rocky," Cogidubnus growled. "Err, sorry 'bout him. He gets over-excited. All the time."

"Oh, ok then," I said. "Does Ino have any other Pokémon?"

"Why, of course!" Jason said. "There's Rhapsody the Skarmory, and Angora the Scyther…" And he continued to name dozens of other Pokémon that were owned by Ino.

"And, lastly but certainly not least, are your nine brothers: Dean, Collin, Denton, King, Bo, Allan, Parker, Loquax, and me."

"I have a brother named Me?" I asked.

"No. I am your oldest brother," he said. "So you're number ten, the youngest, a girl, and a special color above all that,"

"Oh…" I said. I was still bewildered. "So, do I have a name?"

"No, not yet," Wenatachee said calmly. "Once Ino wakes from her sugar-induced-slumber, she will name you,"

"But until then, we do need to call her something," Milotic said.

"We certainly can't just call her Riolu, now can we?" Rocky said.

"Well then, we'll just have to call her something." Cogidubnus said.

"Why not call her the great Something? Or maybe It." Wenatachee said.

They settled on calling me It for the time being.

"Ok, It, get some sleep tonight," Jason said.

"But I'm not tired," I said. "I mean, I have been- in a sense- been sleeping for a long time,"

"Well, at least be quiet while we sleep, m'k?"

"Ok then," I said. "I'll be quiet. Good night, all of you,"

I curled up in between Cogidubnus and Ino, but I didn't fall asleep. I had many things to ponder. Eventually though, I did yawn. My eyes fluttered shut, and I fell into a peaceful sleep.

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I was awakened by squealing the next morning.

"OH OH OH! YOU'RE SO PRESCIOUS!" The voice said. I had the sensation of being squeezed tightly.

"h-help?" I managed to squeak.

I heard Jason tell whoever it was to stop squeezing me, and the pressure released. I looked up at the beaming face of Ino, who still had chocolate on her face from the night before.

"You are so ADORABLE!" she said, and she squeezed me again, closer to her face. I could smell the chocolate around her mouth, and it smelled good. I stuck my tongue out and licked it.

It was amazing.

Unfortunately, Ino was so shocked that she dropped me. I landed on my back, rolled over, and scampered over to Jason. I hid behind his leg, peering out at Ino.

"I'm so sorry," she said, kneeling in the grass. She reached over into her bag and pulled out a piece of chocolate.

Ino held out her hand with the chocolate in it. "Here, you can have it," she said softly. I didn't know if I should trust her. She squeezed me and she dropped me, but then I remembered how amazingly wonderful that chocolate tasted. I tentatively reached out and took it. Peeling off the wrapper, I could once again smell that delicious brown candy. Unable to resist, I took a bite. The next bite it was gone.

My logic at the time told me that if I trusted Ino, I would get chocolate. I willed myself to get closer to Ino, and she gently took my paws in her hands.

"I promise, we will be best friends," she said. Her smile was sincere, and I trusted her.

"Well, now that we've gotten that done, let's find you a name," Ino said. I remembered what Jason had said about names- and I wanted to know more.

"Can I change my name if I don't like it?" I asked Ino. She looked my way and smiled, but didn't answer me. I asked her again, and this time Jason came over to me.

"She can't understand you," he said.

"Why? We can understand her,"

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain," Jason said. He smiled kindly down at me. "But someday, I'll teach you how to talk to humans so they can understand you,"

"Really? How?" I asked.

Jason was starting to lose his patience, I could tell, but he responded to that final question. "We as Lucario and Riolu can use our aura to communicate,"

I knew he would probably throttle me if I asked him another question, so I left him alone after that for a while. Meanwhile, Ino had gotten out a small book and had started flipping through it.

"How about 'Sebrenta'? That means silver, but it's so long and hard to pronounce…" She flipped a few more pages and then shouted "I got it!" she came over to me and picked me up. I struggled feebly as she screamed my new name- "Chase! Her name is Chase!"

"Please put me down," I said. I knew she couldn't understand me, but I said it anyway.

Soon enough, she did put me down. The other Pokémon were already awake (probably from Ino's screaming) and scurrying around the campsite. I went over to Rocky and asked him what he was doing.

"We're clearing camp," He said. "You can help out, you know,"

"What do I do?"

"Uh," he said. "Well, for starters, you can pack up Ino's bag or something,"

So, I went over to Ino's bag. I was tempted by the delicious smell of chocolate, but I had enough sense to know that if I took some I would be in trouble. So, I packed it up and waited further instructions.

"All right, everyone," Ino said. "Back to your Pokéballs now," she said. She then looked over at me. "Oh yeah, I forgot," she said. Ino made her advance on me. Rougher than I would have liked, she grabbed me. "All right, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way,"

I squirmed and wriggled and tried to break free of her grasp as she reached into her bag. "Looks like it's the hard way then," she said. I heard a click behind me, and watched in amazement as a small red and white ball opened up. I had the strangest sensation of being pulled into it, and I resisted it as best as I could. Finally, I gave way and was stuck inside the ball. I threw myself up against the sides, but nothing gave way. I was trapped!

It was the weirdest thing, being trapped inside of a Pokeball. There was nothing to do. It was dark. But I was strangely comfortable. And time seemed to pass incredibly quickly.

I hated it.

I hated that Pokeball and I never want to go back.

Finally, finally, Ino let me out. It was similar to going in, but it was reversed. Anyway, we were in a new place. There were many new smells, new sights, and bright lights. I shielded my eyes against them and instinctively curled up.

"Ino, I have to hand it to you," Said a new human voice. "That is indeed one rare specimen,"

"It's just like I was telling you, Professor!" said Ino. "I still think that it has something to do with the fact that yesterday was Haloween!"

"Ino, superstition has no effect on this Riolu's color. I thought I taught you better than that,"

The other voice was old and kind sounding, so I looked up. It was an old person, and he had hair on his upper lip and on top of his head that was closely colored to my own fur. He reached down and gently picked me up.

"But I will admit, it is a strange phenomenon," he said. He looked at me for a few seconds then set me down on a cold table. I just sat, unsure of what was going on. The older man put his hand on Ino's shoulder and led her out of the room, whispering things that I couldn't hear. The door closed behind them, and the room became dark. I called out for someone- anyone- to answer, but there was nothing. I curled up tighter and laid on my side. I suddenly felt very tired, so I let myself go to sleep.

I woke up very soon afterwards. It was still dark, but I could still smell things. So, I hopped off the table and followed my nose. I eventually found a large sack. I used my teeth to rip it open, and some small round things came out. I picked one up and ate it. It was good- though not as good as chocolate- but I kept eating until I was full. Then I started to investigate my surroundings. I quickly located the door. I reached up and fumbled around with the handle a bit before it finally opened.

It was much brighter in the hall. I strutted right on through, wondering where Ino, Jason and the others were.

That's when I decided to try something. I closed my eyes and tried to find them with that aura stuff Jason had talked about. It was kind of like looking for a flash light in the fog. Luckily, the flashlight was on. I opened my eyes and started running down the hall. I knew exactly where I was going.

I jumped up and grabbed a hold of the door knob. This one was circular, and it took me a while to finally get it to turn. The door squeaked a bit as it opened, and Ino and the other person turned my way.

"Oh, Chase?" Ino said. She ran over and picked me up. I feebly struggled, but it was no use. Ino's grip was really tight as she sat down on the couch again.

"As I was saying Ino," The older person said. "I would suggest that you keep tabs on this Riolu. She is indeed special, but I feel that there is no need to conduct any tests,"

"Really Professor?" Ino said. It was starting to get hard for me to breathe. I finally managed to kick Ino's gut. I tumbled to the floor and headed for the exit. I heard both Ino and the Professor stand up to give chase, but I was already too far gone.

I ran as fast as I could, searching for any sort of exit. At one point, I collided with another person. He looked at me for about half a second, then reached out and tried to grab me. I dove between his legs and made him fall over.

Up ahead there was another door. It smelled like grass, so I knew that it was my chance at escaping. But right as I reached it, another person, this one a girl, ran to block my path. I squealed to a halt as she reached out for me. I started running to the right. Up ahead, I spotted a window.

"There!" I said to myself. I hopped from a chair to a table to a bookshelf, and clambered out the window.

I had made it to freedom!

But at what cost?