Alarms blared throughout the entire city of Virian. Although it was currently the middle of winter, the air was burning hot and bone dry, with several fires raging across entire districts. Flying above the skyscrapers that dotted the city was the instigator of the entire incident, a rouge Ho-oh currently on a rampage. Atop the roofs of the tallest buildings in the financial district, ready to intercept the giant bird pokemon and put a stop to all of this was Joseph Parris, Captain of the city's Omega Defense Force, and his men, their rifles aimed and their partner pokemon ready to engage. The receiver in his ear buzzed before giving way a woman's voice and new orders from command.

"Give the order to engage the Ho-oh as soon as it crosses over the Corrison building."

"That far away?" Captain Parris replied in shock, "The rounds we're using would barley pierce it's feathers at that range, and we'd give it plenty of room to dodge any attacks."

"Waiting any longer than that would give it plenty of time to charge up another Sacred Fire. Hopefully putting a little heat, excuse my poor word choice, on it will interrupt it."

"Understood" he grumbled.

"Good luck."

With that he repeated the order to his men, raising his hand above his head in preparation to give the signal. His partner Ramses, an Ampharos, stood by his side and awaited it's command. As Ho-oh quickly approached the target line, the air's temperature only increased, spurred higher by the heatwaves produced by it's wings.

One thousand meters... Nine hundred... Eight...

Sweat poured down his face. Whether it was due to the heat or his own nervousness, he couldn't tell. This Ho-oh was large, even for it's own species.

Seven hundred... Six hundred... Five... Four...

The sound of sparking electricity came from beside him as Ramses prepared himself.

Three... Two... One...

"Now!"

Parris shouted, dropping his arm. The thunderous roar of gunfire followed. Before he could even do a damage assessment he bellowed the command to attack with the partner pokemon. Powerful jets of water and jolts of high powered electricity shot towards their target. Several fell short, but it looked like the attack did some damage at least. The Ho-oh teetered in the air before righting itself. What looked to be blood fell from it's body, meaning at least some of the bullets made it through the hardened feathers.

But the legendary pokemon did not retreat. The feathers on the inside of it's wing began to glow white hot, and small flames began to dance on their surfaces. The worst case scenario was about to happen again.

"Hit the deck! Cover your eyes! It's Sacred Fire"

He dove for cover, covering his eyes from the bright glow of the growing flame. The worst case scenario kept coming to his mind, in a few seconds this building and everything within a three block radius would be coated with fire. Even the best case scenario had a massive list of casualties from this one attack. Fearing the worst, he listened. He listened to his heartbeat, the far off sounds of raging fire, the beating of massive wings. He listened something that he never expected to hear in this situation: an explosion.

He looked up and saw what looked like a miracle, it looked like the Sacred Fire had backfired. Ho-oh was covered in his own flames, falling a sizable distance before managing to recover.

"Hit it again!" An unknown voice shouted from the distance behind him. "There's a recovery period after Hyper Beam, I'm vulnerable too."

Parris looked in the direction the voice came from. A man stood atop another large building, dressed in casual civilian clothes. Beside him was a large dragon pokemon, Salamance, breathing heavily. Where did he come from? He wasn't standing there a second ago.

Not wanting to miss this opportunity to finish off the Ho-oh, he order his men to their feet and to fire at will. Gunshot after gunshot were chased by more water streams and bolts of electricity, pounding the massive bird pokemon, as it continued to teeter in the air, unable to aim another attack. After a few seconds of this barrage it turned and began to quickly off into the mountains east of the city. They had driven it back.

"How are you Captain Parris? Any injuries?" The man yelled.

"We're fine, thanks. More importantly, who are you?" Parris shouted back in response.

The man began to climb atop the Salamance in a hurry, ready to leave as quickly as he arrived.

"I guess you can call me Riley, but that doesn't matter."

"Where are you going? I have questions!" Parris demanded, infuriated. It was all a little too convenient, no one could have arrived and charged an attack like Hyper Beam in the time between when he last checked behind him and the Sacred Fire. At the very least they would have been heard or spotted.

"I'm afraid I don't have answers for you, at least, not yet."

With that Riley took off into the skies, Diving a disappearing into the maze of buildings.

Parris didn't follow, trying to put out the fires in the city were more important right now than chasing after some man who could probably out speed him.

Due to his "quick thinking", Parris was hailed as the hero of the day, responsible for defeating Ho-oh, but Parris cited his success on a man named Riley saving him. Checking the records of the city failed to bring up anyone who matched the description of the man who appeared that day. Over the next fifteen years Riley continued to show up at unexpectedly in Parris' life, whenever a job would get botched, Riley would appear to give a hand. At first people were ecstatic, and many groups came together to try and find the identity of Riley, but as time went on they were dismissed as hoaxes. Riley apparently showed no signs of aging. But despite this, Parris still claims that all the occurrences are genuine.

15 years later, in a city far from the infamous event in the city of Virian, but still within the borders of the Kingdom of Caelania, a kingdom that is actually a republic, a young man wakes up on the day that he hopes will jump start his life. Today is the day the local laboratory selects it's field researchers. While the job itself was relatively low pay, and the necessary requirements were quite low, it's the only way to travel the nation and get paid.

Leaving his cheap apartment for good, he handed in his key. Today will make or break him.

(Author's Note: I'm Sorry if that change might seem a little abrupt, the rest of the story hopefully shouldn't change tracks as quickly as the intro. Leave a review if you'd please. Even if the main story hasn't kicked up yet, a little feedback goes a long way.)