Chapter 1
The world is a big place. Essentially, it's a collection of big places that are glued together or float amongst each other. Landmasses can contain numerous regions, and the ocean is full of these continents. Each one contains enough tangled space full of forests, mountains, islands, deserts, grasslands and decreasingly smaller versions of cities, towns, and villages to get lost, find yourself again, and then get lost again every day of the week for a lifetime. That, of course, happens more to folks with itchy feet that can't stay in one place for too long. That's the world.
Matters are more complicated when one accounts for the surrounding layers of intangible planes, dimensions, and satellite gray space which solely exists either in the human mind or through human invention. Some of that stuff is debatable and the subject to a lot of human squabble, while the rest is unquestionably real. It's just very hard to get there and see it, if one wanted to. When it comes to the space that was created by mankind, the digital gobbledygook and quantum hoo-ha floating in and around the great landmasses of the planet, there are machines that can link to and access the alternate world which was set up a long time ago, through blinking bright interfaces and a few keystrokes. Thus the world is a bigger place than the naked eye can see.
Lewis found time and time again that the world seems much smaller when one is running for their life. Going faster results in more ground covered, and less time spent getting lost and finding oneself again within a day. Lewis was the type to get itchy feet, and rarely was in the same forest, city, mountain, or village for long. He often claimed that this wasn't so much his fault as the fault of the entity chasing him away from wherever he had last stopped. The entity, if capable of speech, would probably first adorn Lewis with several nasty titles and epithets, but eventually they would point out whatever object that Lewis had stolen, broken, set fire to, desecrated, drawn an unflattering mustache on, or his attempt at any of this and more. If not capable of speech, the entity would roar, stomp on the ground a bit, froth from the mouth, and then run for local government. If their campaign was anti-Lewis, they would likely get elected, whether they were a human being or a Pokémon.
Needless to say, the amount of civilized space which Lewis was able to slink through tended to be very limited if he didn't move very quickly, thus his current predicament.
The man chasing him was named Brown. He was frothing and quite mad and was hurling very rotten language at the retreating backside of Lewis, but was only a rancher. The Tauros he was riding, bareback, was decidedly calmer despite the hulking man on its back kicking it in the flank. It groaned to let its rider know that it meant to do anything it asked, including riding down the young man on the path ahead, but would prefer it if said rider stopped kicking and tugging its horns.
Brown ignored the low protest, his bloodshot eyes piercing into the backside of Lewis. "You varmint! You darn robbin' pest! I'll run you right down, you hear me! I'm coming for you!" It is important to note of Brown's appearance that he was covered in mud and the unmentionables of his own Tauros, allowing him to live up to his name. Also noteworthy was the fact that he was rapidly gaining on Lewis.
If Lewis would have needed to state his case before a police officer—which was a scenario he rehearsed in his head nearly on a daily basis—he would have said that Brown was overreacting, that he only had meant to take a few steaks and had the best intentions to pay the rancher back for them. He had, at the time of fleeing, eight steaks wrapped in butcher paper stuffed in his backpack, which was bouncing along on his back as his feet pumped, carrying him to the woods where he could lose Brown. The fact that much of Brown's herd had stampeded and destroyed a large section of their pasture's fencing was a complete accident, Lewis would claim. If Brown hadn't chased him around the ranch with a pitchfork, jumping over troughs and slumbering Miltanks, agitating his herd of cattle Pokémon and eventually tripping right into a big pile of dung, his Tauros wouldn't be tearing through the nearby town causing who knows what manner of devastation. The trip did, however, buy Lewis enough time to get a decent head start away from it all, but that was getting slowly devoured by the Tauros' hooves.
Lingering ahead of him was the tree line, spreading out with boughs of welcoming arms and offering brambly bushes and lifted roots to trip up less agile persons. Before that though, Brown had mowed a long green stretch of pasture leading up to a dirty little stream. Lewis pumped his knees to reach it, but the thunder of hooves behind him was catching up. With it came the maniacal banter of Brown, which was now an unintelligible garble. This frightened Lewis more than the intelligible things Brown had to say.
Lewis reached down to his belt and plucked off one of the red and white spheres clipped on there. He pressed a button on the front of the pokeball and aimed it ahead of him.
"Krokorok, help!" he said.
The pokeball opened up and a beam of light flew out to touch the grass ten yards ahead of him. The light formed into a reptilian creature standing on its hind legs. It was tan, with dark banding from its snout down to its tail and a light colored stomach. It crossed its arms in front of it and made an irritable growl as Lewis darted past.
"Sandstorm, Krokorok!"
The Krokorok tilted its head at the charging Tauros, which was now about as far away from it as it was from Lewis—not very far at all. The reptilian Pokémon leaped back, raising its clawed hands up, and from out of the ground the dust of the earth rose and swirled around it, cascading all around the Tauros and its rider, both of whom screamed and thrashed in the sandstorm. Krokorok nodded to itself, and then high-tailed it to where Lewis was waiting, aside the muddy stream.
"Nice work, Krokorok. That should slow them down." Lewis aimed the pokeball again and Krokorok became a mass of light once more, which was sucked inside of the pokeball. Lewis attached it to his belt again, and jumped over the stream.
"Not so fast, you maggot!" Brown was charging at him on foot now. His Tauros was running around in circles, bellowing within the sandstorm. "You're gonna pay for all you did, you runt. Go, Stantler!" Then Lewis saw that Brown had a pokeball in his hand as well, and that it had opened and a light was rushing out of it at him and then he turned to run.
Brown cried out instructions to run Lewis down, which Lewis noted to himself as he began leaping over brambly bushes and skirting raised roots, sometimes switching these things up. He ran for a few minutes, deeper and deeper into the woods and finally stopped behind a tree, panting, his head hanging. A couple of Spearows fluttered away, squawking unpleasantries at him. He reached for another of his pokeballs and called out its inhabitant. "Grovyle, I need some help."
The beam of light from this pokeball became another reptilian Pokémon, a slender green lizard with a red underbelly and golden eyes. At its wrists and tail were a bunch of leafy protrusions, with one long blade flowing from the top of its head. It stared at Lewis, its face fixed into a smirk. Lewis was fairly sure that Grovyle's expression never changed.
"Okay, here's the scoop," said Lewis between breaths. "Nasty guy chasing me. Using Pokémon to chase me. A Stantler, I think. Need you to trip it up. Pokémon, not the guy. The guy too, actually, if you can. Wait here, it'll show up. Okay?"
Grovyle nodded once, and leaped into the branches of the trees. That's when Lewis heard hoofsteps again, coming for him. He made to take off in one direction, but it sounded like the hooves were coming from that way. He spun around and made to go the way he'd come, but again, the thumping sounds came from that direction. He made as if to go in two other directions, plus one which he'd already made a start on, but the sound was all around him.
"Grovyle, where is it?" There was no answer.
Lewis grabbed another pokeball and called out another Pokémon. It was Furret, a slinky furry brown thing which bounded around in the undergrowth before curling around Lewis' ankle, staring up at Lewis with gleeful black eyes.
"Furret, get ready to attack. That means get out there and look menacing. No, don't look at me, they're coming through the trees."
The hooves sounded nearer and nearer, growing in volume until it sounded like a whole herd of the creatures was about to close in on Lewis. Then, from behind a single tree, the Stantler appeared, and the thundering sound diminished. Brown appeared just behind it, a big grin plastered on his face.
"Well, now. Guess you're not so smart as you probably think you are, kid. Stantler's confuse ray give you any problems?"
The Stantler, a lithe, four legged creature with a pair of antlers like special antennae, regarded Lewis, then the Furret curled around Lewis' ankles. Sunlight dappled the fur on Stantler's back. Furret squealed and hid behind its owner's shoe.
"What is that, a challenge?" said Brown. "That little thing's right terrified out of its mind."
"Shows what you know," said Lewis. "He's just charging his power. Come any closer and you'll be in a world of hurt."
"Ooh! A world of hurt, huh?" Brown took a few steps closer. Stantler did the same, lowering its head menacingly. "Hope your bags are packed, cause I'm about to put you on a rocket ship straight to that world."
A green flash shot out of the bushes and collided into Stantler's side. Brown grunted as another green blur whipped his feet out from under him and he fell into a bush. Grovyle leaped over to Lewis to face off the challengers, still smirking.
Brown scrambled to his hands and knees in a black rage. "Two against one, huh? You're not no trainer, you little punk. You're breaking the rules!"
"You're right, I'm not no trainer. So the rules don't apply to me, do they?"
Brown glowered and growled as the Stantler found its footing again. "Take them down," he said.
Stantler dashed forward. Its antlers seemed to vibrate just slightly, enough that staring at the brown Pokémon made Lewis' eyes water. He took a step back as Grovyle attacked once again, meeting its opponent. One of the antlers connected and Grovyle flew back with a low hiss, landing in the dirt. It got up on its feet as the Stantler came down again, just barely missing Grovyle this time.
"Grovyle, use absorb, get your strength back!"
Grovyle did so, holding out its arms as it dodged another attack. A green haze grew around Stantler, which shuddered as the haze transferred over to Grovyle.
"Stantler, hypnosis!" yelled Brown.
"Dodge it, Grovyle!"
The grass type Pokémon jumped into a low branch as Stantler's antlers began to vibrate again, their symmetrical points aimed at the other Pokémon. Grovyle darted around for a moment within the trees, until it flew down at the challenger and struck it with the blade of grass on its head, breaking the spell.
"Furret, now's your chance!" said Lewis. He pointed a command at the fuzzy Pokémon cowering at his feet. "Wrap up its legs and trip it, hurry!"
"Don't you dare!" said Brown. However, he didn't make any other move to put a stop to it, meaning he was going to play according the rules, or he was plum out of Pokémon.
Furret crept up to where Grovyle and Stantler were now trading blows. They were both wearing each other down, it seemed. Furret slunk up to the stamping hooves of Stantler, and tackled the larger creature. Stantler took one look down at the Furret. Its eyes were wholly dispassionate as it brought a hoof up, and slammed it down again on the little things back, stomping it. Furret squeaked and went limp.
"Furret, no!" said Lewis. "Return, return!" He held out his pokeball and pulled the broken creature out of the battle.
"Something went wrong, it looks like," said Brown.
"Grovyle, finish it!"
Grovyle ducked under a swipe of antlers, dodged a fierce kick of hooves, slipped under the Stantler's belly and slashed with the leaves on its wrists, which went so fast they could have been knives. The Stantler backed off, cringing, and bumped into a tree. It made a low cry somewhere between a shriek and a bellow, and then collapsed.
"Stantler, no!" Brown rushed over to the fallen beast. "That filthy maggot… Lewis!"
Lewis had taken this opportunity to retreat. He ran through the woods as fast as he could, with his Grovyle keeping up with him in the tree tops.
"That was a cheap move, Lewis! You hear me? You are a dirty lying thieving cheater!" Brown let out a loose rage of obscenities before putting the Stantler back in its pokeball and trudging back to his farm in defeat.
Had Lewis' battle with Brown had any witnesses, Lewis likely would have been carted off somewhere official looking to have his Pokémon taken away. This was on the condition that they caught up with him first, and didn't charge him for a long list of other petty crimes first. Regulation Pokémon trainer matches require an even number of Pokémon on both sides, at least to start with. Lewis would likely claim that the number had in fact been even to begin with; Brown's Tauros and Stantler against his Krokorok and Furret. It's possible he could have gotten away with the argument, but not likely. In which case, he would tell whoever the acting authority was that he wasn't a Pokémon trainer at all. This could go either way for him as well.
What would really tip the scales against him was the way in which his Furret was utilized. Throwing out a Pokémon—which is, after all, a living creature with feelings and blood and some people would even say a soul—only as a quick distraction to allow it to get pulverized was certainly unethical on top of all the other tactics Lewis employed.
These sorts of thoughts flew unbidden like flies around the dumpster of Lewis' mind. He would have swatted at them, but could only do so mentally. Chief among these thoughts was the fact that he was now in the middle of the wilderness and he had to reach a Pokémon Center to heal his Furret. Accompanying this was the idea to just leave the creature in the wilderness, though this was swatted away; Furret was simply not a battle ready Pokémon. It was much better used in reconnaissance of a store, distracting the owner while Lewis plucked out some bit of merchandise he required but didn't have money to pay for, and squirreling away goodies which it gained by giving good hearted people big said eyes. Lewis knew that catching and training another Pokémon to do all of this was a bit beyond his patience. He was fifteen, just on the cusp of sixteen, and the hours required to train a Pokémon were time he needed to ramble, steal, and cause any other mischief which might do him some manner of good and someone else misfortune.
Presently he found a path that would take him to the nearest city. To his knowledge, that would be Olivine City, some ten miles south of him. With his Pokémon tucked in their pokeballs, he squared his shoulders to settle his backpack, cracked his neck, lifted his foot to take his first step on the journey, and was startled by the shriek of a girl somewhere behind him, sending him whirling around.
The road rose over a small hill behind him. He stepped off into a ditch, shrouded by cattails, and waited. Sure enough, a girl about his age came running over the hill in a great hurry. She was wearing a colorful dress of multiple patterns seemingly sewed together in patches, to create a not unpleasing effect. An equally colorful shawl trailed behind her as she ran past where Lewis hid, her brown boots kicking up dust behind her. She jingled with each step, and Lewis saw the gleam of bells tied into her hair, among tassels and ribbons of different colors. She was red in the face, apparently having been running for quite some time.
"You come back here, girl!" Lewis thought that Brown had found another victim, until he saw two men storm the brow of the hill and beat tracks after the girl. They were wearing identical uniforms of a drab shade of indigo with gray belts, boots, and hats.
Lewis waited, watching, until the entire party had moved on and the dust had settled. He then came out of the ditch and continued on his way in the direction the girl and the men had run.
An hour later the sun was preparing to settle down on the western horizon. Lewis looked out at it, feeling its fleeting rays fall on his face. The road was empty of travelers by then. He kept an eye out for the girl and the men pursuing her, but it seemed that they were long gone. Half an hour later, in the midst of dusk, he saw a part of the bushes along the road where someone or something had crashed through them. The dirt path he was on met up along the paved roadway that connected Olivine and Ecruteak city. Route 39
He inspected the road and found that two sets of tracks ran ahead to meet up with route 39. Three sets of tracks came before the part of the bushes that had been disturbed. He carefully moved aside a branch between the bushes. Then, he was on his back, groaning.
"Don't come any closer! I don't want to hurt you, but you're giving me no choice!"
Lewis tried to respond, but only got so far as "Wuthg?" which doesn't really mean anything unless you've been smacked in the face with what may have been a tentacle, in which case it means "Was that a tentacle that just hit me or am I imagining things? In fact, don't answer the question since you probably don't understand, and I'm sure that the answer, since I'm on my back and am incapable of proper communication, lies along the lines of the first possibility."
The bushes moved aside and out popped a blue little snakelike Pokémon. It had large black eyes, a bulbous snout, and small fins where ears ought to be. It peered at him with a curious expression, which seemed to be the default for it.
"Dratini, come back! Don't get any closer to him!" The bushes moved aside again and a girl's face looked out. She saw Lewis lying on his back, and then her expression changed from outright fear to something resembling fear, but mixed with shocked concern. "Oh… oh, no, Dratini!"
Lewis soon found himself sitting up. He shook his head, which always seems like a good idea when you've been given a quick knock on it, but really only shakes things up even further. The action did give Lewis time to pull up the right words for the situation. "What the heck was that for?"
The girl emerged from the bushes all the way, looking down at him. The Dratini slithered up alongside her feet. Lewis saw two of everything for a moment, and then finally the images combined into one, and he saw that it was the girl that he'd run past earlier. She was holding out her hand, and Lewis took it, and soon was on his feet.
"I'm so, so sorry about that… I had told Dratini to stand guard in case anyone came by. She can be… she can be protective of me, very protective."
"Uh huh. Guess it's my fault for sticking my face where it doesn't belong. You're hiding from someone?"
"Well, I was trying to heal my Pokémon. I was in a battle earlier and it was injured."
"Couldn't wait for the Pokémon Center?"
"And, I was hiding from someone, yes."
"Those bozos in the weird outfits?"
The girl nearly jumped back into the bushes. "Where are they?"
"Relax, so far your cover's only been blown by me. What's the deal with them?"
"Where did they go?"
"Uh, as far as I know, they're still running all the way to Olivine…"
"You saw them chasing me." Her stare made up for the fact that she held off on the obvious accusations that accompanied her realization. Lewis felt his cheeks swelter under her brown eyes.
"Yeah, alright, I did. Look, I came after you because I wanted to make sure they didn't catch you, you know? What did you do to them, anyway, refuse to pay up after they beat you in battle?"
"Of course not! And they didn't challenge me to battle."
"Right, I figured. I've seen the look those guys had on their faces. You take something from them?"
The girl paled. "Heavens! Of course not!"
Lewis held back a snicker as he brushed off his jeans. "Hah, yeah, I guess not. 'Heavens to Betsy, Ah'd neva do such a thang!'"
"If you have to know, those guys were part of Virus. They're Pokémon thieves, and they do nasty things to people that get in their way."
"Oh, brother. Everyone wants to be the next Team Rocket. Well, I'm glad that they didn't hurt a hair on your pretty little head, regardless. I have to be going now." Lewis turned away without another word. The girl made a noise that might have been the beginnings of a retort, but decided not to waste it on Lewis, and so fell quiet.
As he approached the intersection onto route 39, he saw something that made him want to take his shoe, boil it, serve it up with spaghetti sauce, and drop it over the side of the nearest bridge. The two men in indigo uniforms were coming toward him from the direction he was planning on going. They seemed a bit frazzled; their uniforms were rumpled, their boots dirty, and a boiling rage festered in their eyes, which prowled the sides of the route like hungry predators. Lewis stood where he was on the side of the dirt road, bit his tongue a few times, and then turned around back to the line of bushes.
The girl was still there. She appeared to be tying a length of ribbon into her chestnut hair. She noticed Lewis, and then quickly acted like she didn't notice him.
"Are you going to have your Pokémon hit me again?" he asked.
"Do you plan on being an even bigger idiot?"
"Actually, no. That's why I'm here. We need to get off the road."
She regarded him then. There was a measure of suspicion that made Lewis' skin crawl, knowing that he was about to actually help her. "Why?"
"Your friends are coming back, and if they looked mad before, they're two steps past that now."
The girl dashed back into the bushes without another word. Her Dratini followed. Lewis held in a groan and looked back to the road. One of the guys was visible, but hadn't appeared to notice Lewis yet. Lewis slipped against the bush and pulled out one of his pokeballs.
"Okay Sneasel, you're up." The light from this pokeball coalesced into a night-colored bipedal creature with long red ears and two long fingers that ended in sharp hooks. It regarded Lewis frostily, but that was only because it was an ice type. It may have also been because it was a dark type.
"Icy wind. Slow them down for us," said Lewis.
Sneasel made a shrill purring hum, and crept up to where the two men stood, now conversing with one another, still looking very angry. It froze—which actually isn't meant to be a pun—and concentrated, until the two men started shivering. They looked around as a faint blue mist began to swirl around them, ice particles striking their exposed faces. One of them pointed at the Sneasel and shouted. The other saw Lewis and also shouted.
"Sneasel, we're gone!" said Lewis. He jumped into the bushes and ran right into the girl, both of them falling over.
"Is this your idea of getting back at me?" she said.
"What are you still doing here!" said Lewis. He was on his feet and helping the girl onto hers in a flash. Her Dratini was wrapped around her shoulders. "Let's go, go! They're coming!"
"We can't just leave, your Pokémon is out there!"
"For crying out loud, he'll be fine! Come on!"
He took the girl by the hand and launched the two of them into the woods. She made sounds of protest while he guided her on a winding path between trees, brambles, and a sense of déjà vu dawned on Lewis as he finally stopped under a big tree, panting.
The girl appeared to be just fine, breathing wise. "How could you leave your Pokémon behind like that? What if those Virus agents hurt it!"
"You're welcome," managed Lewis.
"I'm serious, for a Pokémon trainer you really don't seem to care at all about your Pokémon. Didn't you hear what I said before, they'll steal it and you'll never see your Sneasel again!"
"Luckily, I'm not a Pokémon trainer. And Sneasel is used to this kind of strategy, see? I run away, he covers my tracks, he catches up with me later. Nothing to worry about."
The girl stared at him. Lewis wasn't sure if he was getting used to it or getting sick of it. "You're awful."
"And you're… well, you're not in the hands of those crazy guys. Still not going to tell me why they're after you so bad?"
"I won't. But, you did try to help me this time…"
"Exactly. Glad to get some recognition."
"Why?"
Lewis wiped his hands over his face. It was sweaty. He chewed on his tongue while trying to come up with a good answer, but was spared by Sneasel crashing through the trees and skidding to a halt next to Lewis. It tapped on Lewis with its claws, making a frightened squall.
"Well, guess it's time to move," said Lewis. "Do you plan on coming or want to stay here in the woods?"
The girl crossed her arms. "I'd love to see you get us out of this, to be honest. We're in the middle of the woods, and I take it those guys are chasing us now?"
"Slowed down, thanks to Sneasel. Right Sneasel?" Sneasel gave Lewis another chilly regard. Lewis put Sneasel back in its pokeball.
"Oh, please. If you get us out of here, I'll heal your Pokémon myself for a year.
"Sounds like a deal, as long as you can be quiet for a year."
The girl made angry sounds as Lewis pulled out another pokeball. "Noibat, this one's your game. Show us the way out of the dark, scary woods." The light from this pokeball became a fluttering bat with a dark body and lavender wings and head. It had big saucer shaped ears which twitched side to side as it gathered its surroundings.
"Oh, but you're not a trainer, right?" said the girl.
Lewis ignored her. "Noibat, take us to Olivine city. South. Uh, that way. And avoid the guys following us, right?" The creature fluttered around in all directions before heading in the way it was directed, twisting and winding around trees.
"That thing is going to lead us right to Virus headquarters," said the girl.
"Are you coming or not?" said Lewis. He followed the Pokémon. The girl finally did the same, picking her way over brambles and roots.
