Night-time in New Bark Town. Silence hung over the town like a blanket. Deafening. Unbroken. Expectant. In one small park, the air crackles. Reality frays. Then, with a whoosh of expanding air, a tall, dark figure appears alongside a large wooden cart with a tarpaulin over it. The figure turns, his long coat swaying slightly in the breeze, and glances over at a nearby signpost.
"So, we arrived in New Bark Town eh, Abra? How fitting. This certainly feels like a new beginning." He tipped the brim of his brown fedora, settling it against the gentle wind. "This should be interesting."
Professor Elm was typing furiously on his computer, working on a new theory.
"Yes Professor Oak, I understand that your experience suggests that Tauros stampede simply in response to external stimuli, but in studying them in action I have noticed that sometimes they stampede due to emotional stimuli..." he looked up from the screen and his eyes gleamed. "Yes, that will force him to listen to me!" then, in his moment of distraction, he noticed a noise coming from downstairs. "Oh no, not again. That new Totodile is a real handful." He headed downstairs, brushing aside piles of study documents and video tapes that had not been disturbed in over a day. It was at this point he heard voices, faint but very annoyed.
"Stop calling me Biff! My name is Butch!"
"Biff, Butch, whatever. Just grab those Pokeballs! I've got the research documents." Elm broke into a run, slipped on a stack of folders on the stairs, and bumped and rolled down to the feet of a golden-haired woman in a black outfit with a red capital R on the shirt. She looked down at him in surprise and disgust. "Oh great. He heard us. This is all your fault, Butch! Never mind," she said, and flicked the professor away with one foot. "We've got what we came for. Let's go!" She ran out the door with a large bag of documents over one shoulder, followed by a green-haired man in a similar uniform.
"Come back with those documents!" Elm yelled, scrambling to his feet and heading after them. Then, after a moment, he continued, "The Pokeballs too!" Cassidy, hearing this, smirked.
"I don't know why Namba wants this bag of paper, but it belongs to Team Rocket now, so why not just forget this whole thing." she said, reaching for where she had hidden the jetpacks. Then she heard a rattling noise coming down the street. She turned, and saw a large shape moving in the darkness. Pulling out the jetpacks, she glared at the shape. "Who's there?" she snarled threateningly. As the shape passed a streetlight, it could be better seen - a figure in a long brown coat and a brown hat, his face hidden in the shadow of the brim.
"Don't mind me, just passing through." He said. As the wooden cart he was pulling passed through the light beam from the streetlight, a gleam came from a gap in the tarpaulin. A red gleam. The greed in Cassidy's heart put an identity to that gleam.
"Hey Butch, that guy has a cart full of Pokeballs! He must be delivering them to the lab - let's grab them as well!" Butch sighed as Cassidy turned back to the figure, who had stopped just beyond the streetlight. "All right, hand them over!" she shouted, grabbing a Pokeball from her belt. "Go, Houndour!"
"Go, Hitmontop!" Butch yelled, releasing his Pokémon. The two Pokémon materialised - Houndour, the dog-like Pokémon with short, black fur, and a red underbelly and snout, with white bands on legs and back, and a white skull-pattern on its forehead, and Hitmontop, a blue spherical body with an inverted brown triangle on its chest, two legs with very round feet and a tail almost indistinguishable from a leg, topped by a wide, pointed head.
"You'd be best off just handing all those Pokémon over." Cassidy said with a cruel smirk. The stranger sighed.
"The first battle I have in the Johto region, and it is against two fools. Go, Ninjabyss. Take care of them." The streetlight flickered and went out. Shortly afterwards, the silence of New Bark Town was broken by two chilling screams. Flying through the air while cradling her unconscious Houndour, Cassidy turned her head to her partner holding a wounded Hitmontop - a deep scar was visible on one side of its head.
"What... was that, Butch?"
"Don't ask me. I didn't even see it."
"We'll ask Professor Namba when we land. After we get our Pokémon looked at!" The water of a river rushed up towards them, and they flew to meet it.
Meanwhile, Professor Elm had finally caught up to where they had been, and stopped with his hands on his knees.
"I could really do with spending less time working and more time working out." he wheezed.
"Ninjabyss, return." Elm looked up at the red flash of the Pokeball's beam. As the unseen creature returned to its ball, the streetlamp flickered back to life. "I assume these are yours." Elm continued gasping for breath as the two bags were dropped in front of him.
"Tha-thank you." Elm gasped. "Who-who are you?"
"My name is Alcazzar, and it was really no trouble. Could you perhaps direct me to the nearest Pokémon Gym?"
"Oh, that would be in Violet city! It is west of here. Of course, you need to register for the Pokémon League at the Pokémon Centre first."
"I do not intend to enter the Pokémon League - I will simply be challenging the different Gyms. Thank you for your help."
"N-no problem!" Elm stammered, as Alcazzar went back to his cart, lifted the front and pulled it down the street and out of sight. "What a strange man." Elm muttered as he slung the bags over his shoulders and headed back towards his lab.
