So, here's my first attempt at a fanfiction! Hope you guys like it :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, no matter how much I want to.
"Something's wrong," said a woman with short, brown hair and dark eyes. She was wearing a white lab coat and typing furiously on a keyboard attached to a complicated-looking computer. She chewed her lip as more red lights flashed up on the screen.
"What do you mean?" asked a man with bright red, spiky hair and brown eyes just as an alarm sounded in the background.
"I don't think this one is going to make it," she explained.
"No! This one has to make it! Bode's not going to be happy if we fail again!" The panic was evident in his voice. He moved to a different computer, hoping that he might somehow be able to help.
"I know, Hoag! I'm doing the best I can to save it!" the woman snapped.
After a few minutes where the woman and the man named Hoag typed frantically, all the alarms and flashing lights stopped. Silence reigned for what seemed an eternity before Hoag dared to ask:
"Did it work?"
"I-I don't know," the woman said hesitantly. She stood up and went into a different room. Hoag waited impatiently while the high-tech computers hummed contentedly around him. The woman soon returned. Hoag didn't need to ask again; the answer was written all over her distraught and disappointed face.
He sighed in defeat. "I guess we'll have to try again, Mayal."
"And this time it'll work."
Mayal and Hoag turned to the entrance to see a man with black, shoulder-length hair and strange, violet-coloured eyes.
"Bode! I-we tried to-" Mayal started to say, but Bode cut her off.
"I know. I also know that the next one will be successful."
"How could you know that?" Hoag asked cautiously.
"Because I've figured out what we've been doing wrong," Bode said calmly. He walked over to the computer and started to type. "You see, if we do this instead of what we've been trying, then we will finally succeed."
Mayal and Hoag looked over what Bode had typed, before agreeing that he was probably right.
"So who's next on the list, Hoag?" Mayal asked.
Hoag pulled out a small, hand-held device from his pocket and consulted it before replying.
"Orphan girl. Her parents were killed in a storm while travelling to the Kanto region via boat. Apparently the girl didn't really like the orphanage she wound up in, so she ran off. Which, of course, makes her harder to find, but it also means the authorities are less likely to notice she's missing. Our sources say she's living on the streets of Saffron City. Blonde hair, hazel eyes. About 12 years old. Her name's Clare."
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A girl with long, blonde hair and hazel eyes scrambled over the top of a fence, closely followed by a small Pokemon with thick, chestnut brown fur, a cream-coloured collar and matching tip on its otherwise brown, bushy tail. Clare crouched behind the fence, breathing heavily. The Pokemon sat beside her, its rabbit-like ears paying close attention to the slightest sounds while its brown eyes gleamed with excitement.
"Do you think we lost him, Aethra?" Clare asked the Pokemon.
"Eevee, ee!" it replied in a high-pitched voice.
Clare rose to her knees and peered through a crack in the fence. A large man was rushing past the entrance to the alleyway, looking extremely harried.
"Blasted child. Why does she always steal from me?" the man muttered furiously, before disappearing from sight.
Clare grinned at her Eevee in triumph. "C'mon," she said, "Let's go meet Awlie."
"Eevee!" it said happily. Aethra jumped up and bounced down the alleyway.
They travelled in silence, keeping an eye out in case the man from earlier was nearby. Eventually they arrived at an old, run-down warehouse. Clare and the evolution Pokemon checked to make sure no-one was watching before they pushed open the creaking door and slipped inside.
The sunlight struggled to filter through the dust-covered windows, making it rather dark inside the building; the holes in the roof didn't help to add much light. Clare allowed a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. The only thing in the warehouse was a pile of sheets in the corner that was the least likely to be rained on. These sheets served as a bed.
Clare and her Eevee carefully navigated their way across the rotting floor. Some sections of the wood had completely given way to reveal the dank basement below. They sat down on the sheets and Clare proceeded to take the three stolen apples out of her pockets. She handed one to Aethra and started to eat a second.
A small, blue, dog-like Pokemon leapt nimbly down from a hole in the roof and landed next to Clare. Its legs and torso were coloured black, and it had a yellow collar around its neck. The Pokemon handed Clare the loaf of bread that it was carrying in its forepaws.
"Thanks, Awlie!" Clare beamed at the little Riolu and handed it an apple. Awlie's red eyes lit up at the prospect of having more food than what it was used to, and quickly started to eat the apple.
Clare tore the loaf into three relatively even pieces and gave one to each of her Pokemon. They ate in silence, enjoying each other's company despite the less-than-comfortable living conditions they shared.
σσσ
"There's Saffron City," Hoag said as they drove to the top a hill and looked out at the large city below them.
"Very observant," Mayal said drily.
Hoag glanced at her in annoyance, but decided not to say anything about it. "C'mon. Let's just find the girl quickly. I'm sure Bode is eager to see if his theory will work."
"It'll work. It has to work. I'm tired of collecting the child rejects of the world for this experiment."
"For once, we agree," Hoag said with a hint of sarcasm. Mayal simply ignored him and proceeded to drive down the hill to the city.
φφφ
Clare walked down the street, enjoying the sunlight of the warm day. As usual, she wished that there was more to eat, but on the whole today was turning out to be quite a good day. She stopped outside the Saffron City Contest Hall and looked longingly at the entrance.
"It would be cool to be a Pokemon Trainer or Coordinator, don't you think?" she asked her two ever-faithful Pokemon.
"Eeeevee!" Aethra said in agreement, while Awlie merely nodded its head, a slight smile on its face.
"Nothing's stopping you from entering," said a voice from behind Clare.
She turned around to see three people standing behind her. The boy who spoke had black, spiky hair underneath a red and black baseball cap. He looked about 14 and had a Pikachu riding on his shoulder.
"You would probably need something nice to wear, though," said a girl with red hair tied up at the side of her head. She looked to be about 15 years old.
Clare glanced down at her clothes and blushed. She certainly did need new clothes; hers were extremely dirty and ragged, but she didn't have any money to buy more and it was a lot harder to steal clothes from a shop than it was to steal fruit from a fruit stand.
"So I guess we'll just have to help you choose something," said a man who looked to be about 20 years old and had spiky, brown hair, tanned skin and squinty eyes.
"Um, thanks for the offer, but I don't have any money to pay for the clothes," Clare said, her embarrassment increasing.
"In that case, we'll pay for them, too!" said the red-headed girl. The girl grabbed Clare's hand and started dragging her in the direction of the nearest shops.
"I-I really appreciate all this, but I can't acce-" Clare stammered, her cheeks now bright red.
"Stop being so stubborn!" said the boy with the Pikachu, "We're going to help you win this Contest! Just you wait and see. By the way, I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, and this is Pikachu."
"Pika!"
"I'm Brock."
"And I'm Misty," said the girl dragging Clare down the street.
"Uh, it's nice to meet you all," Clare said, not entirely sure how she'd ended up in this strange situation, "my name's Clare. This is my Eevee, Aethra and my Riolu, Awlie," she gestured to her Pokemon who were tagging along behind, just as surprised as Clare was.
"Hey, cool! You have a Riolu. They're really rare," Ash said excitedly.
"Have you been feeding them the proper food they need?" Brock asked, a hint of suspicion in his voice.
"Well, um, I..." Clare hated the fact that she could never give her friends the proper food they needed.
"Brock, give the girl a break! She can't even afford decent clothes! I'm sure she does the best she can for her Pokemon," Misty snapped.
"Humph," Brock said, but he let the topic go.
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Several hours later, Clare was eating her way through the most food she'd seen in a very long time. Brock had whipped up some Pokemon food for all of the Pokemon, including Aethra and Awlie. Her two Pokemon were really enjoying the specially made food. No less than seven shopping bags sat on the ground beside the table; Misty had refused to stop at just one outfit.
"So, the competition starts tomorrow. I guess that means you'll sign up today, and we'll start showing you some moves," Ash said. He seemed to really enjoy the thought of teaching someone else a few things about training Pokemon.
"I don't know..." Clare said. She'd always dreamed of entering Contests, but she'd never thought that it would happen. Especially not so quickly as it was happening today. "I doubt that I'd be any good."
"Stop being so negative!" said Misty, "If you just listen to our advice, I'm sure you'll do a great job!"
Clare pushed away her food, completely full, and stretched. Her new T-shirt and shorts felt strange after wearing rags for so long. It was even stranger wearing socks and shoes. She still found it hard to believe that three complete strangers would be so nice and willing to spend so much money on her. All so she could make an attempt at a dream she'd thought impossible.
ΦΦΦ
"There she is," Hoag said, relief flooding his voice. He was standing on top of a building, peering through a set of binoculars.
"Really? About time! Where is she?" Mayal turned her own binoculars in the direction that Hoag was looking.
"Right there. See the blonde girl sitting with three other people?"
Mayal peered intently through her binoculars for a few seconds before spotting the girl. "I see her. She's quite pretty. Such a shame." It didn't sound like Mayal cared in the slightest. "Let's just get her quickly. I'm tired of this whole job. I don't know why Bode is so obsessed with this little experiment."
"Alright," Hoag said, putting his binoculars away and pulling out a Pokeball, "Time to finish this job." He quickly climbed down from the rooftop, Mayal close behind.
ΩΩΩ
"Have you always lived in Saffron City?" Misty asked. They'd finished eating lunch and all the Pokemon had been returned to their Pokeballs except Pikachu, Aethra and Awlie.
"Um, no. I came here about 4 or 5 years ago from the Sinnoh region. I had Awlie with me, and I met Aethra about 2 years ago," Clare replied.
"What about your parents?" Ash asked.
Clare hesitated, feeling tears prick her eyes. "Th-there was a storm. I made it, but my parents..." Clare felt a hard lump in her throat, and had to struggle to keep the tears back.
"Oh. I'm sorry," Ash mumbled, regretting bringing up the subject.
"It's okay," Clare said in what she hoped was a reassuring voice and forced a smile.
"I'm afraid that I'm sorry, too," said a sarcastic voice.
They all turned around to see a man and a woman standing there. The woman had brown hair and dark eyes, while the man had bright red, spiky hair and brown eyes. They were both wearing black clothing with a silver, spiky 'V' on their shirts. Their gloves were black with a silver ring around the edge, and their knee-high boots were black with a silver stripe down each side.
"Who are you guys?" Ash asked, instantly getting to his feet. Pikachu ran in front of Ash, clearly ready to fight. Both had the feeling that these two weren't here for a friendly chat.
"We are Team Void, and we have no interest in you, little boy," the woman said, "We just want the girl."
"Houndoom, time to fight," the man threw his Pokeball into the air.
"Take them down, Absol."
A large, black, dog-like Pokemon appeared, and soon after a dark blue Pokemon covered in white fur, with a ruff around its neck and chest joined it.
"It would be best if you got out of our way," the man said. "It'll be rather annoying having to get rid of all three of you when we just want Blondie over there."
"Like that's gonna happen!" Misty shouted, quickly selecting which Pokemon she was going to use.
"Yeah! What makes you think we're just going to stand aside?" said Brock as he pulled out his own Pokeball.
"Pika!" Pikachu said fiercely.
"Politoed, come on out!"
"Donphan, I choose you!"
"Steelix, we'll be needing your help, too!"
Three more Pokemon appeared: a green, frog-like creature with yellow hands, belly, throat, and toes , a light-grey, elephant-like Pokemon and a huge, iron snake that was made up of rock-like sections.
The man sighed, sounding quite bored. "Foolish, stubborn children," he muttered under his breath. He then said in a clearer voice: "Houndoom, use Flamethrower."
"Sucker Punch, Absol!"
Both Pokemon instantly leapt into action; a stream of fire was aimed at Brock's Steelix, while the Absol aimed for Donphan and Politoed.
"Donphan, dodge, then use Rollout!" Ash shouted.
"Dodge it, too, and use Water Gun, Politoed!"
"Use DragonBreath, Steelix!"
Donphan and Politoed both managed to avoid the Absol's attack; Politoed also directly hit it with the Water Gun, but Donphan narrowly missed and knocked over a table. Steelix wasn't so lucky; its DragonBreath completely missed, and it got the full brunt of the Houndoom's attack. The Absol was knocked down from the force of the Water Gun, and Steelix was forced backwards.
"Quickly finish of that weak Pokemon with your Inferno, Houndoom," the man said, still sounding as if the whole battle was boring.
"Get up, Absol, and use Night Slash!" the woman snapped impatiently.
The Absol quickly got up and slashed at Misty's Politoed, knocking the Pokemon to the ground. Flames engulfed Steelix as the Houndoom used Inferno on it.
"Politoed!" Misty cried, rushing forward to see if it was okay.
"No, Steelix!" Brock pulled his Pokeball back out and withdrew Steelix from the battle.
"Donphan, use Giga Impact!" Ash said, fury gleaming in his eyes as Misty returned Politoed to its Pokeball.
"Ice Beam, Absol!"
"Houndoom, you use Shadow Ball!"
Donphan charged towards the two Pokemon, rapidly gaining power; a white-blue beam shot from the Absol's mouth while the Houndoom launched a dark purple sphere at Donphan. The two attacks hit Donphan at the same time, throwing the Pokemon back.
"Donphan!" Ash rushed to his Donphan's side, hoping that it wasn't hurt too badly.
"Pika, pika!" Pikachu was just as worried as Ash was.
"Right, now that you three nuisances are out of the way, we'll just be taking the girl," the woman said, walking towards Clare. Clare took a nervous step backwards as Aethra and Awlie moved forwards to protect her.
The same dark purple sphere that the Houndoom used appeared in Aethra's mouth, and a shimmering purple coated Awlie's front paw and forearm. The Shadow Ball hit the Absol, and Awlie struck the Houndoom in its shoulder.
"Uggh! This is getting annoying! Absol, Quick Attack!" said the woman, clearly frustrated.
"Houndoom, you use Flamethrower. Get rid of those pesky Pokemon."
The attacks hit Aethra and Awlie hard, and they flew back, right into Clare. The three of them hit the ground; Clare managing to protect her Pokemon from further harm by cushioning their fall with her own body.
"Pikachu, use Thunder!"
Bright yellow lightning sparked from Pikachu in large arcs.
"Double Team, Absol!"
"Get the girl, Houndoom!"
Instantly there was about thirty Absols instead of one, and the Houndoom launched towards Clare.
Aethra and Awlie tried to get up, but they weren't used to battling, and both were injured from the earlier attacks. Clare stood up and tried to run, but the Houndoom was fast. It easily caught her and dragged her back to the Team Void members. The Thunder attack struck the pseudo-Absols, but the real Absol avoided the electricity and made its way back to its trainer.
"It's been great battling with you, children. We'd love to stay and chat, but we have more important things to do," the woman said, returning Absol to its Pokeball as soon as it reached her side.
The man took Clare from the Houndoom and slung her over his shoulder. Clare kicked, desperately trying to escape from the man's clutches. He then returned Houndoom to its Pokeball and pulled out some sort of gadget.
"Don't bother trying to find us. You won't succeed," the man said and he pressed a trigger on the gadget. A thick cable launched from it and attached itself to the nearest rooftop. The woman grabbed a hold of the gadget, and they both easily flew to the rooftop, Clare still fighting to escape. A few seconds later they were gone from sight.
"Oh no," Misty moaned, "We have to go and save her!"
"Right," said Ash, looking determined, "Staraptor, I choose you!" A large bird-like Pokemon with brownish-grey plumage appeared. It had a downwards-facing, red-tipped crest on its head.
"Staraptor, see if you can find Clare. She'll be with a man and a woman," Ash said. Staraptor instantly took off in search of the girl.
Hoag opened the back door of the car and shoved Clare inside. He then pulled out some rope and tied her hands and feet together. It wasn't easy, though; Clare kept trying to hit him and scramble out the other door. He got in the back seat once he'd tied Clare up, and Mayal got in the driver's seat and turned on the ignition.
"Make sure she doesn't escape, Hoag," Mayal said as she pulled out of the park and drove to the towards the city exit.
"I know what I'm doing, Mayal," he snapped.
"Let me go, you freaks!" Clare shouted, finally finding her voice.
"Shut up," Hoag growled, and he backhanded her across the face.
Clare shrank into the seat, shocked. Hoag pulled out a length of material and gagged Clare, making it impossible for her to talk anymore.
"Try not to hurt her too much. I doubt Bode would want this one too damaged," Mayal said tiredly.
Hoag huffed and crossed his arms, looking rather childish. "Whatever, Mayal."
Staraptor returned to Ash a few hours later with no news of Clare's whereabouts.
"You couldn't see where they went at all?" Ash asked desperately. Staraptor shock its head, clearly disappointed in itself.
Ash sighed. "Alright, Staraptor. You did the best you could." He pulled out a Pokeball and returned Staraptor.
"What do we do now?" Misty asked.
"We go to Officer Jenny, of course, and report a kidnapping," Brock answered.
"Alright. Let's hope Officer Jenny has better luck than we did. I wonder what they wanted with Clare?" Ash asked of no one in particular.
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They drove for several hours; the sun had almost set by the time they'd reached their destination. They pulled into a cave and Mayal got out. Hoag was watching Mayal, so Clare made another attempt at escaping. She managed to quietly open the car door, but no further.
"Oh, no you don't," Hoag growled, and he dragged her back and closed the door again.
Mayal got back into the car as the cave wall disappeared, revealing a car park filled with vehicles of every sort. Everything from huge trucks to flashy convertibles were all there. Mayal drove inside and Clare looked behind her to see the cave wall re-materialise. Mayal found a spare parking space and turned off the engine. They all got out; Hoag dragging Clare out of the car and then slinging her over his shoulder again. They walked towards an elevator at the far end of the car park and got in. Mayal pressed the lowest button, and the elevator started its descent as soon as the doors closed.
When the elevator stopped and they got out, Clare tried her best to look around. All she could see was a lot of complicated-looking computers.
"Where's Bode?" Mayal asked, frustrated.
"I don't know. But we can easily do this ourselves. He didn't change it too much."
What are they going to do? Clare thought, panic rising more rapidly.
Clare felt herself being swung off the man's shoulder, and she started struggling anew. She hit a hard, metal bench and Hoag proceeded to untie her and then strap her to the metal bench.
Clare whimpered in fear. She could see a computer screen that had pictures of four different Pokemon: a cat-like Pokemon with oversized ears and a tufted tail, a dragon-like Pokemon that stood on all fours, a sort of horse with a long, fish-like tail and a bird-like Pokemon with a long, fancy tail. All of the Pokemon were coal black with coloured markings. The cat-like Pokemon had brown markings, the dragon-like Pokemon had bright red markings, the horse-fish Pokemon had deep blue markings and the bird-like Pokemon had silvery-white markings.
Mayal entered Clare's vision holding a long needle. Clare made a futile attempt at escape again.
"It'll only hurt more if you keep struggling, you foolish girl," Mayal snapped impatiently as she injected the needle.
The effect was instantaneous; Clare felt her eyes close against her will as darkness overtook her.
And there's chapter one ^_^ Tell me what you think!