Copyright Disclaimer:

The content creator believes this work falls under Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107 of United States Code, which states that Sections 106 and 106A are subject, and thus any person may reproduce a work for purposes such as comment and criticism. While it is not directly stated, due to the fact that it states the entirety of Sections 106 and 106A are subject: "Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A...", it can be safely assumed and is even implied that Section 107 also applies to the making of derivative works: "The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the [below] factors." "[F]actors to be considered shall include—

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

©/® 2002 – c. 2016 (e.g., present) Pokémon, ©/® 1995 – c. 2016 (e.g., present) Nintendo / Creatures Inc. / GAME FREAK inc.; with consideration given to articles found within the public domain; as well as to original content, whose rights are withheld by the content creator.

No copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

"Normal/Aura Speech, Emphasis"

"Pokémon Speech, Emphasis"

'Thoughts'

'Telepathy'

Chapter 1: The Calm Before The Storm

"I'm not usually superstitious, but considering why we are heading to MIT, I consider it a bad sign."

Evan and Ben were both college freshman at Columbia University, Ben for Applied Mathematics, Evan for reasons Ben didn't quite understand. All Ben got out of Evan regarding the subject was, "MIT might be the best school for my two preferred majors, Computer Science and Computer Engineering, but you're my friend dammit, and there's still graduate school."

Evan just gave his best friend Ben his patented "which-one-of-us-should-be-trusted" look, because Ben was never one to trust when it came to matters such as superstition. As their fields were (somewhat) relevant, Columbia was relatively close to MIT, and because Evan had pulled some strings, the two of them had left earlier that morning to go to the first public test of MIT's Small Hadron Collider, as powerful as CERN's LHC, but only a fourth the size. Because of it's huge power but small size, if something went wrong...

"Just because the song 'Get Out Alive' was playing when we turned the radio on," Evan stated matter-of-factly, "Does not mean the SHC is going to explode."

"Then switch the station," Ben said.

"Fine, you superstitious wimp," Evan said, exasperated. Upon doing so, he immediately wished he had switched the station up instead of down.

"It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the-" the radio played, before Evan shut it off. The two freshman looked at each other.

"Well," they said in unison, one sarcastically, one literally. "We're doomed."

The two of them had gotten a hotel room for the night. However, while Evan was trying to sleep, Ben was...

"Ben! I like playing Pokémon as much as you do, but please, I'm trying to go to sleep! Could you at least plug in some headphones?" Evan half-shouted.

"Fine, I'm just too awake to sleep."

Evan muttered something about how light and sound affect sleep.

Ben, however, didn't notice. "I mean, I get lots of cool ideas at night," then he gasped. "I just thought of a good fan fiction idea! What if our world merged with the Pokémon world because lots of energy was in a compact space and a malfunction in a trivial piece of machinery caused a reality barrier to disintegrate and..."

At this point, Evan tuned Ben out. His best friend could be... "imaginative" at times. Usually, he would dismiss this tangent as Ben being Ben, but with the conversation that had occurred in the car, and the fact that the SHC was an intricate machine that handled a lot of energy...

'No,' Evan thought, 'Punching through reality barriers would take more than that, and that's if they even exist. Everyone knows they're fictional.'

'Right?'

The next day, the two of them had breakfast at the hotel, then went to the lab. They arrived much earlier than they needed to, but this was so they could get "good seats".

"You know," Evan said, "It's kind of weird that they would open it up to journalists."

"It's weirder how you got us in, considering it is for journalists," Ben looked in askance at Evan.

"Remember my accomplishments?" Evan asked. Ben shook his head to signify that no, he didn't remember. Evan just sighed. "Let's just say to skip a very long monologue, I am very skilled in academics," An inhale, an exhale. "Regardless I was able to get us spots, myself some of the computer code that runs the show, and both of us some scholarship money just by pledging that I'll come to MIT for graduate school."

Ben sighed. "Whatever. Why do I have to be here?"

"Excuse me, are you two Evan and Ben?" asked a girl wearing glasses and a lab coat.

"Yes, we are, and you are...?" Evan asked for both of the freshman.

"Cecelia," she said, simply.

Evan cursed something under his breath. "Even if it's not you, I can't help but think that it's been a damn long five years..." Fortunately, no one noticed. If they had, he would have a lot of explaining to do.

"What do you need us for?" Ben asked.

"Well, I was to give you the code for the 'light show', the hardware specs, and," Cecelia started, "I was also instructed to give you a private tour."

Evan looked confused. "It appears I pulled more strings than I intended. Oh well, we have nothing better to do. Come on Ben, let's go."

The tour was slightly dull, but educational. They got to see not only the SHC, but some of the other labs in the building. Ben admitted that it was interesting, but still wondered why he had to come.

"You haven't told him yet?" Cecelia asked Evan.

Evan chuckled hesitantly. "I wanted to say 'Surprise!'"

Ben looked confused. "Surprise? Define 'Surprise'."

"Surprise! You get to be the one to push the button! It's even big and red. You're lucky, I only get the power lever..." Evan looked genuinely disappointed.

Ben was flabbergasted. Once he could make interpretable speech again, he thought long and hard about what he wanted to say. "So... I get to push the button that actually launches the particles?"

Evan smiled. "Yep!"

Ben decided that fainting was the option with the best outcome.

Cecelia giggled and sighed. "Oh dear..."

Once Evan and Cecelia got Ben to be significantly less unconscious, the three of them went down to the control room, and began to converse as they waited for the time to showcase the SHC to come.

"You can't be who I think you are, can you?" Evan asked in an aside to Cecelia.

Cecelia giggled. "The problem is, I am. Hello again, 'I'll Plead Out Because It's The Right Thing To Do'."

Evan sighed. "Of course you would say that. How is your sister?"

Cecelia grinned. "She's fine. She's well on her way to becoming – oh, well, you know. How are yours?"

"Yes, I do know. They're doing fine. They took a gap year to reunite with our parents," Evan grinned. "I bet the cousins are fine, but how are the twins, Ruby and Sapphire?"

Cecelia frowned. "Haven't heard from them in a while. I'll go call them," she then got up and left.

Ben nudged Evan. "Where's she going?"

Evan responded the only way he knew how. "The airplane wing is tilting."

Ben was confused, then shrugged it off. 'She must remind him of someone,' Ben thought, 'Someone from five years ago, I suppose. He never did tell me much, other than his supposed-to-be-dead sisters were alive and kicking,' then he noticed something. "Evan, should the machine be doing that?"

Evan looked up. The press hadn't arrived yet, so he had to distract himself instead of doing an interview to pass the time. "No..." he eventually said. "No, it really shouldn't."

The SHC had decided that now would be the perfect time to crash and burn. The screen that output the readings had a blue screen, a telltale sign that the computer had hit a very, very bad error. In addition, the machine was emitting an ever higher pitch and volume whirring sound.

Cecelia walked in just at that moment. "Evan, we got a problem!" she shouted.

"We noticed!" Ben said in response.

"No! Well, yes, but – Evan, they're gone!"

Evan turned around. "What?!" he shouted. Then he whirred his head back around. He knew the machine was about to go critical, and saw a button labeled "Emergency Discharge". He ran over, lifted the molly guard, and pushed the big red button.

Nothing happened. Evan pushed it again. When nothing continued to happen, Evan pushed it a third time. He then noticed the wires connecting the button to the machine were exposed and frayed. They even looked chewed through. 'Damn weasels...' The warning klaxons and sirens began to go off. Evan frowned. 'Wait, what was Ben going on about again last night?' Evan thought. 'Oh yeah! Lots of energy in a compact space plus trivial pieces of machinery failing equals...'

At that point, the sirens and klaxons stopped. This may have been due to the fact that everything had exploded.

A/N: Hello! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Soul of Silver! The next chapter will introduce more of the main characters, and actually have Pokémon in it. As for where the story is going, I have a general idea of where I want to take the story, but I am open to suggestions in PMs or reviews. And to answer any questions regarding any of the characters I mentioned in the aside – as well as the apparent trial, know that it will be explained eventually, but not in this story, and the story won't be written for a while.

Hope to see you next chapter!

Edit: I forgot to mention, but please review or PM if you find any errors. I know I will get ideas and type up specific parts of chapters weeks or even months before they will be released, so inconsistency is bound to occur. I will usually edit the errors when I post the next chapter. As for this chapter, from thinking to writing to typing to schoolwork, it took about eight months to complete this chapter, so there are inconsistencies.

If I get informed of an "error" but do not edit it, then likely one of four things has occured:

1. I typed the sentence the way I wanted it to be typed, and don't believe it was an error. (If you don't like Oxford commas, then that's your problem.)

2. The error is too broad or too specific. If I can't spot or understand the "error", then unfortunately I won't be able to fix it.

3. The turnaround would be longer than a week. If I see the error, but can't think of a good way to fix it (such as an entire section being difficult to understand), then I may not fix it when I upload the next chapter. I will most likely acknowledge if this is the case, however.

4. It's not an error at all. If a superfluous description is the "error" (such as "...switched the station up instead of down" in the sixth paragraph), then it most likely falls into this category. Instead, it may be a Chekhov's gun or a red herring. It may be referenced later in the story, six sequels from now, or never.

I'm also sorry if I sound blunt or upset when respondiong to PMs or reviews. I appreciate the constructive criticism, it's just that in the past said constructive criticism wasn't so constructive... but hopefully I can get past that with your help!

As I said earlier, I hope to see you for future chapters!