"Hello," I whispered into the quiet air as the grey sky of my dreamland slowly spun around my fading body.
"Hello," A mysterious voice answered as I quickly shot up from my small mattress. I put my hands together very quickly afterwards, and sat in a strange position for a while as I pondered what in the world had just happened.
My small hands were covered in yellow fur, as was the rest of my tiny form. I was a pichu. Quickly, I ran downstairs as I saw the time. It was thirty minutes after seven in the morning. I intended to have woken up an hour ago, and I was now late for school. I was the only pokemon attending human school, and that was because I could speak English. People also said that I shared the same amount of intelligence with the humans around me.
My fur blew around my body quickly in the mid-November air as I ran as quickly as I could across the small town of Palette, and for just a second, I pondered on my future as a pokemon with the intelligence of a human. Would I be caught and trained? Then it occured to me that I already was, though there was no pokeball involved.
I lived with an elderly man named Professor Oak, who had a strange fascination with both pokemon, and with odd things, odd things like me. As I reached the human door, I leapt up, and knocked on it as loudly as I could. It was loud enough, and the door was pushed open.
"You're late, Lulu," the tall man who taught the class smiled. Across the classroom, I saw Gary Oak chuckling lightly. That must be why my alarm never went off. Of course it's why my alarm didn't go off.
I nodded in apology to my teacher, who was six times my height, and I rushed across the class, and leapt into the raised seat beside my adopted brother, Gary.
"Why did you turn off my alarm?"
"I didn't," he claimed,"It turned off automatically after ten minutes, you were just sitting in bed the entire time, shaking, moaning in terror.
"I dreamt about a mystery man speaking to me," I looked to Gary,"but I forgot most of it. That doesn't matter though because my alarm doesn't turn off automatically, and unless somebody turned it off, it would have still been going when I woke up."
"Oh Lulu," Gary tsked,"Younger than every human in our class, but not smart enough to realise the obvious; Grandpa turned it off," Gary smiled, content with his lie.
All that I did in response was take the papers for the test that I had missed earlier in the morning, grabbed my pencil, held it as best as I could, began filling in answer bubbles, then lightly electrocuted the delinquent beside me.
"Jerk!" Gary complained.
I ignored him, and continued on my test, at least until he grabbed me by the tail,"I am Arceus compared to you!" he yelled,"Asinine little girl in the wrong body! Weakling! Orphan!" he finally screamed, gaining my attention.
"You are being raised by your grandfather," I finally responded quietly,"Call someone an orphan once you figure out where your own parents are."
"Where is your whole family?" Gary corrected himself.
"I don't know," I answered,"Your grandfather keeps claiming to know, and claiming that he will tell me once I am old enough to understand, but I am beginning to not believe him anymore, I am starting believe that they are dead, but all I want to know.."
"All I want to know is why you exist," Gary cut me off.
"All I want to know, is how," I turned back to my test,"and who is responsible."
"Now is the time to pay attention!" my teacher stomped as he spoke loudly from the front of the class. I dropped my pencil, and just looked forwards,"Today is our lesson on the recent war."
"There is no way that this is important," Gary turned to the side, as he began leaning back comfortably.
"As some of you may already know," our teacher spoke loudly,"The war lead to over ten-thousand human deaths, and many more pokemon deaths. The war started when a group of mysterious men marched into the great hall on the Indigo Plateau, and murdered a member of the Elite Four at that time, her name was Ellen, and she had trained fire pokemon. A group of men lead by two brothers who both studied as pokemon scientists, Ryan and Kaleb Xyen lead a search party for the group of brothers were known for their great friendship, and for their fierce rivalry. The two of them fought to be the champion of the pokemon league nearly ten years before their meeting during the beginning of the war resulting in Ryan taking home first prize after beating his older brother in a surprising comeback. The Xyen family was believed to be cursed, the boys' grandfather, Jack Grey, had made the choice to betray a woman named Sarah Dixson, and once Jack's daughter, Ella Grey, married Michael Xyen, Sarah came from out of nowhere, and brought called out to what had happened on the night of a new moon, she called out to Giritina for vengeance on the family, and a curse was given.
"He will have to watch as his family is ruined," the voice is said to have replied,"The son-in-law, murdered, the daughter, lost in pity, the elder son betrayed, and the younger lost to insanity. The elder son's child to be taken, and the elder brother's wife, dead soon after meeting her own child. Soon after, Grey's debt will be paid." This curse is not believed to be a tall tale because Ryan and Kaleb's father was killed by a lunatic before their mother took her own life. This all happened just before the two boys returned from their pokemon journey, to see their sister, alone. This sister, Kelly Xyen, is known for not being included in the curse. The story of the curse continues on further with the war, or I would not have spent so long on the Xyen family history," our teacher then laughed,"The brothers then lead their party through the forest by flashlight during the night of a new moon. Before they could get far, clouds rolled in quickly, and with them, a heavy rain began pouring down. The brothers' party ran for shelter, but the two were determined to find the murderer. Whether they were determined by their own sense of justice, or if they felt that by catching a group of murderers they would be avenging their own parents is unknown, but they persisted through the storm, even when lightning began striking the ground around them. As they were traveling, the winds caused the large part of a tree to fall down on top of Kaleb. He was injured, and pinned to the ground, but Ryan was unable to push the fallen tree off of Kaleb even with the help of all of his and Kaleb's pokemon. Suddenly, Kaleb released his butterfree to go and look for help. The butterfree rushed through the storm, looking as quickly as it could to find any pokemon that would be willing to help. It is said that the butterfree was unsuccessful in its search until it was nearly back, and a small pichu saw the bug type about to be struck by lightning. The pichu leapt above the butterfree, and was hit by the stray bolt of lightning sending the small pokemon to the ground. The butterfree, thankful for being saved, carried the pichu back to Kaleb and Ryan, where Ryan gave the pichu a single oran berry. The kindness shown by the humans instantly turned the pichu to their side, who quickly evolved to help push the fallen tree off of Kaleb. The two, and the pikachu then fought their way through the storm even longer until they were confronted by a group of five cloaked men. The men held firearms up, but were disarmed, as the pikachu quickly rushed through the gang, and electrocuted all of the armed men. Soon after, the murderers were apprehended, but as Kaleb and Ryan began working on their next project together, somebody attacked their lab, and attempted to kill Kaleb and Ryan, but the two defended themselves valiantly, and chased their attacker back to his hideout. The hideout was the ruin of a large, black colored castle hidden deep in Viridian Forest. The exterior was covered in large banners marked with the letter S. The brothers then looked inside to see a large military force training inside of the ruins, and rushed away as quickly as they could before reporting the apparent danger to the police. Before the mysterious army could attack anywhere, the Kanto region was prepared, and the first real battle occured in Vermillion City. In this battle, hundreds of people died on both sides, but the ending was as close to a stalemate as possible when both sides backed down. The subsequent battles all happened twenty-eight days apart. In the course of a year, the strange attackers were defeated, and their survivors fled, but the war end of the war came with great cost, as the final battle ended with more than a thousand casualties on both sides. After the war, the Xyen brothers continued their studies with the pikachu at their side when it was reported, and nobody ever knew what happened, that something had gone wrong. Days later, the police caught Ryan Xyen as he attempted to flee Kanto, and discovered something odd,"Something about him," the police report read,"was just strange, his way of talking, an odd coldness everywhere around him, and the fact that something about him just seemed, dead. We asked him why he had to leave Kanto all of a sudden while working on his project, and he just froze up, so we went to go and get Kaleb's permission to search the lab, but Kaleb didn't answer, then Ryan told us to stay outside for a few minutes as he went in to grab something that he had forgotten. Ryan was never a forgetful person when I knew him." When the door opened again, the stench of death filled my nose, and I, despite regular protocol, snuck into the house after taking Ryan back to the station to see if he was alright. Inside of the house, I found no sign of Kaleb, just a dead pikachu. A female pikachu, lay knocked out beside the dead male. Later, we saw that he had been hiding a feinted, newborn pichu. When the pichu woke up, it began crying. Ryan, however, was not found guilty of murder, and was let free. Nobody knows, to this day, what happened to Kaleb, but he is assumed to be dead," My teacher finished his lecture, then put a documentary about pokemon on the television.
After class, I walked back to my home of Professor Oak's lab, and made my way to the elderly human,"Did you know the Xyen family?"
"Who?" Gary asked as he walked through the door.
"The Xyen family," Oak answered,"were great people for the most part, even though Ryan is now a hermit living somewhere in the vast realm of Kanto, and Kaleb disappeared eight years ago."
"If it was eight years ago, this was all just before I was born," I said quietly.
"Right around that time, yes," Oak replied.
"I remember," I said,"When I was younger, you used to call me Little Xyen."
"That is what Kaleb would call the pikachu that saved him just before the war ten years ago," Oak said.
"I never saved you from anything, nor did I ever evolve," I pouted.
"You saved me from boredom," Oak smiled.
"Hey what about me?!" asked Gary.
"You brought about your own answers to boredom," The professor rolled his eyes,"Now you'd better start preparing for your pokemon journey beginning tomorrow!"
Gary ran upstairs.
"Hey," I then noticed something,"Why haven't I evolved yet, all of the other pichu in the yard evolved at age 5 or younger."
"You must be a late bloomer," Oak said quietly.
"Stop being so evasive," I looked at him,"Please, I want real answers."
"You are not fully pokemon, nor are you fully human," Oak spoke,"The rest you will learn in time, but more importantly, you have to do something for me tomorrow."
"What do you need me to do?"
"Lulu, you must have heard of Jack Grey when your teacher spoke of the Xyen family, I believe that the man still lives, you have to go and find him as soon as possible."
"I'll find him," I promised,"But I'm not going on my own, am I?"
"I intended for you to go on your own, but if you are so afraid, then you may find some assistance in the tall grasses, just don't press the button yourself," Oak rolled a pokeball over to me.
"No!" I protested,"I won't go and catch another pokemon."
"Well if you insist," Oak bent over and grabbed the metallic sphere.
"Alone, I'll be hoot hoot pellets by the first night," I pouted.
"You either are alone, or with another pokemon, but you must go."
"Alone!" I answered,"I'll leave first thing tomorrow, alone."
"Good luck!" Oak smiled.
I spent the rest of the night preparing myself physically and mentally, as well as saying my goodbyes to my friends.
When I eventually went to bed for the night, I was totally exhausted.
"Hello," I heard as the grey sky from the night before surrounded me.
"Who are you?" I asked, starting to feel cold.
"You will know when we meet in person," A human figure just stared at me with its head tilted towards the ground. Its eyes were cold and unblinking, its skin was pale, and broken, its voice was strange, and it wore a large black cloak.
I woke up, startled, but it was already morning. I walked downstairs to see Oak, and he handed me a small orange backpack filled apparently filled to the brim with berries. Gary was gone already.
I looked up at Oak again,"No, it was just a dream," I muttered before just smiling and saying,"Goodbye," as I walked out of the open door.
"Goodbye," Oak said happily,"and beware the new moon!"