AgeOfShadows: -Exited face- This is my first FanFiction story so go easy on me guys. I got the idea for this from a mixture of Family Guy, childhood dreams, and a couple of other amazing stories on here (The Sun Soul by 50CaliberChaos, Silver Blood by NeonWolfUltDfndr, and Pokemon Master by Acey). It's rated M for violence, language, mature themes and potential lemons/limes in later chapters. This is gonna be a long story, and (hopefully) it should have regular updates. This prolouge may be a little slow, but just give it a chance. It is, after all, a prolouge. Other than that, enjoy, and be sure to leave feedback. Its the big button at the bottom. You can't miss it.

-Muderous twinkle in eye- Seriously. Leave feedback... Or I'll get you... And I'll make it look like an accident...

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN POKEMON (yet...)


Edit: (Message to people who have already read this) Thought the intro was a little cack so I've changed it to something I think works a little better. You don't need to read it again to carry on with the story as only the bare minimum of things change so go ahead and skip this out if you want.


Prolouge: The Offer of a Lifetime

"The device is ready for it's first test subjects, sir."

A young-ish man in formal evening dress with short brown hair, gelled loosely into tousled spikes, turned around to face the assistant that spoke to him.

"Have all other tests been run? No danger of power fluctuations or the like?" The man spoke in a deep, quite rough voice that, combined with the hint of alcohol on his breath, gave away the fact he'd been drinking.

"No Ryden, there aren't." A slim woman with long brown hair in a long, white scientist gown stepped into the room from the doorway she'd been standing in. "You doubt my work?"

Ryden chuckled. "Not at all, Fennel. I was just making sure. Don't want any mishaps now, do we?" Fennel sighed.

"Have you chosen the two test subjects yet, sir?" asked another scientist who entered the room.

"No, I'll find some people soon. Give me about a week."

"But Ryden, we should run the tests now..."

"Just, give me some time. You know tonight is stressful enough for me, without needing to worry about finding suitable specimens for this experiment."

"Oh yes, the reunion." Fennel looked away for a moment. When she looked back, she seemed a little somber. "Well, don't wait until last minute and pick two random people off the street like you did for our last experiment. And be careful. Don't go starting any fights or anything. Promise me. I know what you're like."

Ryden chuckled again. "Yes, mother."

Fennel couldn't help but smile. "I'm just looking out for you."

"I know, I'm only messing. I promise. Now..." Ryden turned towards the double doors at the front end of the room. "Now, I really must be going. I'll see you guys later." With that Ryden strode out of the doors, adjusting his tie in the process.


Ryden felt uncomfortable in the crowd. He was surrounded by familiar faces, but none of which he'd seen for at least 16 years. He had only come to his high-school reunion to represent his businesses and hopefully find suitable test subjects among his old friends. As CEO of one of the world's biggest business empires, he rarely had time for things like this, but he saw it as a chance for a little relaxation so took the time off to come.

Ever since he was 19 and he started building his empire, he hadn't had much time for relaxation. He started by creating his own game business, and after releasing a string of best-sellers and keeping almost all of his shares of the profits aside, he started buying out and managing other companies, until eventually, at the age of 30, he owned most media companies, including television and music, and owned most of the worlds most acclaimed science research centers, as well as hiring the smarted minds in the world to create things he'd always dreamed of.

Two years later, Fennel was one of the minds he had hired and was helping him create his childhood dream of a virtual reality system that fully immersed the user inside the game, and made them take place of the protagonist if there was one. All the other characters would be controlled by an advanced AI system that would make them grow and evolve like real people would in that situation. It would be the perfect way to escape from reality, as a whole lifetime could pass in the game, and only a day would pass in the real world. All he needed were some test subjects to make sure everything worked as planned, and if it did he could mass produce it.

'Test subjects,' Ryden thought, snapping him back to the present. 'Thats why I'm here, so I should get looking.'

He scanned the crowd for any faces he recognized as very good friends in his youth. Seeing none, he made his way over to the refreshments. He grabbed a drink of punch and a sausage roll and looked around again. In truth, he was looking for a single person in particular, a girl whom he used to be best friends with until it turned into more. They ended a small time later, but not on a bad note, and kept in touch for a while afterwards. They eventually drifted apart, from never seeing one another, but he hadn't forgotten her, even after 16 years. The time he spent with her was unlike any he had spent since, and had ended numerous 'girlfriends' because he still thought of her. He eventually spotted her face in the crowd, still recognizable after so long, and his heart almost stopped.

"Christina..." he muttered. "Finally..."

Ryden made his way through the crowd, gently pushing people out of the way, towards the familiar face. "Christina," he called as he neared her. The girl turned around and looked straight at him. Her gaze stopped him dead. He stood there, paralyzed, staring, for a moment, until he realized that she was staring back with a confused expression on her face.

"Umm... Hi..." she said in a soft but rather low voice. "Do I... know you?"

The question bought Ryden back to his senses and he lowered his gaze, blushing slightly. "It's me, Ryden."

Her expression stayed the same for a moment. Ryden realized there were 4 other girls with her, all of which he recognized as his and Christina's old friends, and all of which had the same expression. Suddenly their faces widened, as one, as they realized who Ryden was.

"Oh my god!" one of the girls shrieked. "Ryden! It's been so long!"

Christina just stared, a look of disbelief on her face. "You... You look... so... different..."

The group of girls hugged him in succession, with Christina hugging him awkwardly last.

"So," Ryden said. "How have you guys been?"

Ryden was starting to get quite drunk. He had arranged beforehand for the hosts to provide a large amount of alcohol, in return for one of Ryden's companies helping to fund the event. He had stayed with the group of girls for a while, but eventually, the others drifted off one by one, leaving just Ryden and Christina alone.

"So," Christina started. "You made it then, just as you said you would."

"Yeah." Ryden replied. "Despite the fact that no-one believed I could." He gave her a joking glare.

"I only didn't because you were so lazy back then. I never dreamed you'd be able to cope with owning loads of businesses at the same time."

"What can I say? People change. And I'm special." They both laughed. "So, how's your life been since we last spoke?"

A painful memory of the last time they saw each other shot through Ryden's mind. It was exactly like this, but at the high school prom, instead of a reunion. It was only a couple of months after they had split, but they were just as friendly as always, despite it being a bit awkward.

"Nothing too exiting. I'm a children's author now, and I'm doing quite well with it. I've recently started up art again..."

Ryden and Christina continued to talk for a long time, until they decided it was time to head home. They exchanged numbers and went their separate ways, Christina going back to her friend's house in the area and Ryden to his room above the lab, not too far from the reunion's venue.


A dark, shadily dressed man approached a woman in the high street. Surveying from a distance he checked off all of the girl's attributes on a mental checklist. 'Short, red hair. Short. Slightly chubby. Freckles under left cheek. This is her.'

The shady man walked over to the woman, drawing an envelope on the way.

"Excuse me, miss," he said, gaining her attention. "Are you Christina Abbots?"

"Uh, yeah, I am." The woman replied, putting her phone away in her pocket. "Why?"

"I have a letter for you, courtesy of Mr. Linstone."

"Umm, thanks." She took the letter off the man and looked at it. Looking back up, she started to ask if she needed to pay him anything, when she noticed the man had gone.

'Strange...' She thought. She opened the letter and inside was an fancy gilded invitation. It read:

'Christina Abbots, you are formally invited to take part in an amazing opportunity to advance the thresholds of modern science. You are invited to take part in a highly classified experiment. The experiment will take place over three days from the date given below. Lodging and catering will be provided. Further details will be given on request. Please arrive to the given address punctually as time is an important factor in this experiment. Thank you.'

A hastily scribbled address, time and date sat on an open space at the bottom of the invitation. Christina recognized the address as a laboratory in Downtown. The time and date were for 7.00pm tonight. 'Okay, I'll bite. There's only one person this could have been from, and he's completely ignored me the last week. Lets go see what he wants.'


Christina entered the dark room through a set of unlocked double doors. 'This is the place. Now, where is he?'

A door opening on the far side of the room caught her attention. A shaft of light broke the darkness through a crack in a half open door. From the light, she could see a device that looked somewhat like a vacuum cleaner crossed with a hospital heart rate monitor, all attached to a large string of computers littered around the room. Other than the door she came through the only other door in the room was the open one opposite her. Christina decided to head for that but as she was taking her first step, the door suddenly swung open and two silhouetted figures stepped in. An unfamiliar voice seemed to continue a conversation the two were having before they entered the room.

"Are you sure she'll be up to it Ryden? I wouldn't be happy with just you going in on your own."

"I'm sure she will. She'll definitely come after that invitation, if not just to see what it's about." Ryden clapped his hands and the lights flickered on, revealing another two machines mounted on tripods either side of the vacuum cleaner machine. The machines on the tripods looked like some sort of alien laser gun that Christina had seen in a Sci-Fi film, they had antenna-like muzzles pointing out over two large blue aerobics mats in front of them. "She's a curious one anyway..." Ryden started before noticing Christina. "Oh, your here. Hi." Ryden shuffled uncomfortably but tried to put on a smile. "Your 10 minutes early. We're not fully ready yet. Over here, take a seat."


Christina looked at Ryden quizzically. "Okay, I didn't get a word of that. So the experiment is basically being put inside a game?"

"Yeah. That's about it." Ryden replied. "The machine breaks down your atomic structure, analyses the pattern of your DNA and brain waves and copies the data into a digital field, where it virtually reconstructs your data and creates a replica of you 'inside' the game. That's the short version."

"Alright... I still have no idea what your talking about but if we're going into a game that's all I need to know." They sat in silence for a minute before Christina spoke up again. "So why me? And why have you been ignoring me?"

"Well," Ryden started, "The test requires two people to be placed into the same game, to check the multi player capabilities and support each other if something goes wrong. The 'game' we're going into is relatively harmless. I chose Pokemon because it's got a wide, open world and no truly malicious enemies that could potentially kill us, because for this test the hazard boundaries are off, which means if we die in the game, we die in real life. The test will be the subjects, us, being placed into the game and our data will be manipulated to make us a certain age, 19, and we'd be living out a period of three years in there, which I wouldn't want to do that with some stranger that I have no idea who they are." Ryden picked up a biscuit off the platter in front of them and dunked it in his tea before eating it.

"And why have you been ignoring me?"

"I haven't. I've just been very busy," Ryden lied. "Besides, you sent me 27 texts and tried to call me 9 times in the week it's been since the reunion, so I thought you'd be more likely to show up to try and talk to me if I didn't reply. Looks as if it's worked."

"You're the sad one that's been counting," Christina grumbled which made Ryden blush. "And it's called trying to become friends again, you dunce." She sighed.

Fennel came over with an annoyed look on her face "Sorry to break up the heart-warming reunion but we're ready to go now."

Ryden looked relieved for the chance to escape. "Okay. Let's get this started then."

The two took their places on the aerobic mats whilst the machines fired up. Over the time they were talking, about 15 other people had entered the rom from the door Ryden had come through and had started working on the device and tapping away at computers. The muzzles on the device were glowing blue as they warmed up, casting a strange ambiance over the rest of the room.

Ryden kept his eyes straight ahead, his expression hidden by the dark blue glow. "You know, after all this time, I still think of you sometimes..."

Christina was slightly shocked. She looked at Ryden to discover he was looking away. "You... you do?"

"Of course," Ryden said softly, but instantly regretting. When he realized what he was saying he started to stammer. "I... I've had other girlfriends s-since but I... Uhh... They weren't you so..." His blush deepened and he realized he was digging himself a hole. "A... Although, with the amount of time I've had to put into work, I haven't had time meet someone new properly. Might forget you completely if I do..." He rambled, but tried to stop himself before making the situation any more awkward.

Christina sighed. "You're charming, you are."

Ryden chuckled nervously and Christina couldn't help but smile.

"Okay, are you two lovebirds ready?" asked an annoyed Fennel, snapping the two back to reality.

"Yeah, lets go." They both said in unison, ignoring Fennel's comment.

"Device is warmed up and ready, commencing beta field test in 3... 2... 1..."

A blue pulse fired from the antenna like muzzles of the machines and the two bodies on the mat burst apart into a cloud of atoms. They were quickly absorbed by the vacuum nozzle whilst lights started flashing on computers all over the room.


AgeOfShadows: Phew, boring introduction out of the way. Action starts in the next chapter guys, things don't go as well as planned ;) Hope you enjoyed it so far (probably not but still, it gets interesting in the next chapter). Also, this is a short chapter comparing to the rest. I'm aiming for them to be about 5,000 each, if not more.

Don't forget to leave feedback!

Or I'll find you.

And get you.