Chapter 1

A/N: This is based on my favorite Pokémon games Black and White. I just find the characters really interesting, especially the characters like N. I found the idea of liberating Pokémon as a premise for an evil organization. I honestly think Team Plasma could have made an interesting case if they weren't completely evil. I also took some ideas from the anime and the movies.

I hope you enjoy this and if not… well that's okay too!

The sun gleamed brightly through the window and gently descended onto my pillow… right where my head and eyes were. Great. It was the beginning of May, the end of school and for once I would like to attempt to sleep in. Normally I'm a morning person and I would have probably already been dressed by now, but I believe there is some unspoken rule that on the first day of summer vacation all teenagers should sleep in. Suddenly I hear a crash from across the hall which causes Nightstar, my shinx that I got from my Grandpa after his business trip in Sinnoh, who accidently sends a bolt electricity through the air which effectively electrifies me.

"Eek!" I yell as Nightstar instantly comes up to me and nuzzles me apologetically. I rub the shinx's soft fur, laugh and say, "Well I guess that's one way to embrace the summer." Again, another loud crash is heard in the room across the hall. What on earth could my brother possibly be up to this time in the morning? I may be a morning person, but Hilbert was certainly a night person and he would often stay up long into the night hanging out with his friends or even just playing video games. I push myself out of bed and I tie my thick brown hair into its usual ponytail before I make my way over to Hilbert's room.

Nightstar immediately jumps off the bed and follows me over to my brother's room. Nightstar comes with me everywhere which makes sense seeing as we are bonded to each other ever since we were both young. I can hardly remember a time without Nightstar and I couldn't imagine life without him. As I knock on the door, I can hear muffled rummaging and curses from Hilbert. What on earth was he doing? When he doesn't respond, I merely push the door open to reveal a trashed room with an eighteen-year-old boy in sweats and a t-shirt tearing through his closet.

"Um… what are you doing? You do realize that it's like six in the morning and that it's the beginning of summer vacation, right?"

"For you maybe," the hunched over figure grunts as he pulls out a box of old momentous dad had given him over the years, "but for me it's going to be the start of my Pokémon journey, and I've got to be prepared! Graduation is today and we'll be getting our Pokémon! Now have you seen my hat that dad gave me? I've been looking all over for it."

That's right, Hilbert is graduating from high school today and with that he begins his Pokémon journey like a lot of the other graduating students. I understand why Hilbert is so nervous, but honestly why does he have to get up this early when the ceremony isn't even until later this afternoon. "Um Hilbert," I interjected as I saw Hilbert start to throw his clothes on the floor "don't you remember that you left your hat, your backpack, and your x-transceiver downstairs on the kitchen table last night just so you could avoid situations like, oh I don't know, this one."

Immediately Hilbert starts to blush as he mutters "Oh that's right." I've never seen Hilbert this nervous. A nervous Hilbert is an oblivious and clueless Hilbert which is so different that his usual confident and almost cocky demeanor. Hilbert's always been the one with a ton of friends, super involved in school, and always off on an adventure. Needless to say, Hilbert was super popular in school and almost everyone loved the kid. School wouldn't be the same without my hotheaded brother around to rile everyone up or get them excited for pep rallies, but maybe that would be okay. Maybe it would mean that it would be my time to shine. I wasn't unpopular and I had a nice group of friends, especially Cheren and Bianca, but they were graduating this year and I would only be going into my Sophomore year. Maybe this year I could break my quiet bubble and become something more than just the "Pokémon whisperer" or my personal favorite "Hilbert's kid sister." Maybe next school year people would see me for me and not just a title.

"Anyway," I say to break the awkward silence, "I know you're going to be a great Pokémon trainer, you'll beat Alder and all the league, then you'll beat all the other league's in the region, and then you'll capture Arceus and all the other legendary Pokémon and basically become God."

"Why thank you, dear sister for having such great expectations for me," Hilbert said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes "I always knew that you understood my destiny to become the very best like no one ever was."

We both laugh and finally I say, "but seriously are you going to choose Oshawatt as your starter Pokémon?"

"Of course! You know that water types are great, and I think the little guys are cute!"

"Hmm… I guess I always took you for more of a fire-type kind of guy. You know you can be really fiery and hotheaded at times. Not to mention the fact that your name means 'battle.'"

At this remark, my brother again rolled his eyes before saying "Whatever Ivory. Despite your slandering of my name and personality, I do want to actually beat the league and I won't be able to do that if I don't choose my starter Pokémon carefully. You know that water types are a really good choice and that they are the easiest to train. Plus, you only get six Pokémon so…" He paused after saying this before tacking on "Oh wait you probably don't know about that, or very much about gym battles in general do you."

I smile and shake my head "Of course not dummy. Pokémon whispers aren't allowed to compete, which is fine by me. So, I was wondering, are you planning on becoming the new Unovan champion like Cheren or what?"

"Don't be silly Ivory, of course not. I just want to beat Alder, not take his place. If I did become Champion that would mean I would have to go to a University and study politics all the while training my Pokémon to be even stronger," Hilbert visibly shuddered after saying this, "besides I would hate all that responsibility. Everyone knows that along with being the Region's primary defense, the league officials are basically the most important part of the government. Most people would go as far to say that the Champion is more powerful than the President. Like I said, way too much responsibility and worry for me. Cheren can have the position all he wants in my opinion."

"Well if being Champion is not what you want, what do you want? Are you more like Bianca? She told me she doesn't really know what she wants to do so she's applying for an exploratory Pokémon journey so she can find out what field's she's interested in."

"I know. Bianca already told me about that. She's going to be lame like the majority of the Region are when it comes to Pokémon journeys."

"Hey! I'm sure it's not that lame," but it was true that the most Pokémon trainers went on exploratory journeys rather than the hard core and glorified "Master" journey. The exploratory journey made competing in the league and gyms optional, although it was still highly encouraged so that the young trainers could get some experience and become stronger, and at the same time it allowed trainers to see all the different fields of work and study involving Pokémon such as breeding, being a Pokémon Professor, or even musical performances. It even offered more political and dangerous opportunities like the Police force that used specialized methods of battle or Pokémon equal rights activists like Team Plasma. The biggest appeal though was that it offered a safe and supervised journey throughout Unova where kids could see all the sights and learn stuff about Pokémon at the same time. This is the main reason so many parents try to pressure kids to go on exploratory journeys. Other journeys were usually more specialized like the Police Academy track where kids would battle gym leaders and learn special tactics for battle so that they could actually fight criminals who would inevitably break league rules like only using one Pokémon for battle or only using a set number of potions and revives.

"Yeah, whatever. Anyone could do an exploratory journey if they have a car," Hilbert interjects, interrupting my thoughts, "I want to go on the Master journey and actually become a good Pokémon trainer. My goal, sis, is to become a Pokémon Master!"

I stare at him for a moment. Becoming a Pokémon Master was extremely difficult. It took years and years of training to even reach that status and even then, you would still have to work hard to keep learning and becoming better. Not to mention that a lot of people died on Master journeys. Wild Pokémon could be fairly vicious and at one point in time they were considered humanities greatest threat. One of the reasons Pokémon journeys were so highly encouraged was so that people could defend themselves in the case that a wild Pokémon did attack. "Well okay then. Just don't go and die on me while you're out there."

"Don't worry! Besides if I ever run into a tight spot, I'll be sure to call you to come rescue me."

"Yeah. I can see that working out now. You're on Victory Road and I'm here in Nuvema and you call me on my xtransciever: 'hey Ivory I'm being attacked by Zweilous come help me out here' and then I'll tell you 'Sorry Hilbert, but it's physically impossible to go all the way out there and save you.'"

"Well by the time I get to Victory Road I hope I'm strong enough to defeat a Zweilous without the help of a Whisperer."

"Good. Maybe then you'll be able to go into Discordian Wood without me," I say cheekily.

Hilbert sticks his tongue out at me and walks past me to leave his messy room. "Maybe I'll run into your three imaginary friends in there and gossip about you."

"No can do. They're not there anymore remember," I say so quietly that Hilbert can't hear me. Nighstar, on the other hand, looks up at me and gives me a sympathetic look.

I follow Hilbert downstairs and watch as he fiddles with his bag and straps and checks his things once more to make sure he has everything. 'Everything's going to change,' I think quietly to myself.

"I can't believe my boy is all grown up!" mom says as she hugs Hilbert and dad takes a picture of the two. Hilbert is all decked out in travelling gear with a bag slung over his shoulder and a pair of running shoes on his feet. "Are you sure you have everything Hilbert!? A town map, your xtransciever, your pokedex"

"Mom I don't have my pokedex yet. I still have to go to the lab with the rest of the kids to get it and my new Pokémon. Which I should be doing right now," Hilbert says as he tries to worm his way out of our mom's tight hug.

Mom glances over at all the kids filing into the Nuvema lab before she finally lets go of Hilbert and says: "alright. I'm excited to see your new Pokémon, whatever it will be."

"Aurea told me she thinks this years Pokémon are great and have a lot of potential so I'm sure you'll get a great one no matter which one you pick," dad says happily as he waves Hilbert off. Sometimes it was nice having a dad that worked at a Pokémon lab. He was able to give Hilbert a lot of useful tips for his future journey. It kind of made up for the fact that he was always abroad in different regions researching different types of Pokémon.

I watched as Hilbert joined the crowd of soon to be trainers and met with Cheren and Bianca. They looked so excited to go. "What's a Pokémon journey like?" I suddenly ask out loud to my embarrassment. "I mean… um… well… yeah. What is a Pokémon journey like?" 'Wow that was brilliant. I couldn't possibly have sounded any stupider' I hear Nighstar, who's on my shoulder, start to laugh. 'Great.'

My dad glances down at me and then laughs "Oh they're grueling and overrated. Why do you think so many people come home after only getting five badges? Don't worry, you're not missing out on anything." My mom also smiles and nods in agreement.

I know that they're lying, but it was kind of nice to hear them trying to downplay the journey seeing as I would never actually go on one. No Whisperer ever did. Even though it was true that most people stopped at the fifth or fourth badge, most people came back from their journeys happy and full of stories. Everyone that I had ever asked told me that they saw the world in a whole different way by the end and that the decision to go on a journey was the best choice they ever made. Many people long since returned home from their journeys would talk about their adventures and how great it was. 'I'll never have that,' I thought quietly to myself.

Not that it was all bad. Whisperers got to do amazing things that no one else could. I had already been to several different areas in the Unova region as an intern. Last summer I had gone to Floccesy town to help the Rangers keep the wild Pokémon from attacking the locals as well as the domesticated farm Pokémon. The summer before that, I had assisted Professor Juniper in her investigation into the origins of Pokémon and just over spring break I had gone to Castelia city to help Team Plasma treat and rehabilitate the Pokémon they had rescued on one of their raids of Team Rocket. I had loved all of those internships and I hoped I could do some of them again, but it wasn't the same as being on your own and exploring whatever and wherever you wanted.

"Let's go back home and wait for Hilbert to get his Pokémon," my mom said as she ushered me and my dad back towards town, "Aurea said that when the orientation for new trainers is complete, we should come back to the lab to meet Hilbert, Cheren, and Bianca's new Pokémon."