Chapter 1 - The Girl and Her Linoone

Odd, how things happen really…

Three years ago I had had all the aspirations to be an adventurer, to travel the four corners of the world, to witness wonders that no one before me had ever witnessed. And to become a pokémon trainer, to win the pokémon league, to catch all the pokémon in the world, to have legions of memorable friends.

Now, I lay flat on my back, in my bedroom with no chance of anything like that ever happening. I had a broken back. I was paralysed.

To be exact I was lying on my bed in my bedroom. No longer was my room plastered with pictures and merchandise indicating an obsession with pokémon, but it was dull and drab, white-washed with the only thing of interest being the uniquely patterned curtains. They were drawn over a window which would have looked out over the valley that Pallet Town lay in, but, the view had practically tortured me and I had requested for them to be drawn. I wasn't under my bed clothes, merely on them -- when I was under them that meant it was time for me to sleep. I felt something brush my feet at the bottom of the bed and wished to know end that I could just peer down and see what it was.

My name was Matthew and I was fifteen. I had light brown hair which used to be very springy, but now, in accordance to my affliction it had gone limp and dry. A similar occurrence had happened in my eyes. They had been a vibrant brown and people had often commented how my eyes had been full of life… not any more. This had happened all over my body: My muscles had disappeared and I had become stick-thin -- undoubtedly I would also be very weak, if only I had the ability to prove it… I felt a tear trickle down my face.

Then I felt something brush against the side of my leg, (I had not lost feeling, merely movement) and this time I could see what it was out of the corner of my eye. A Linoone was lying next to me.

Now this was strange to me. First of all, I knew very well that neither I, nor my parents owned a Linoone. Indeed, I doubted anyone I knew had ever even seen a Linoone, given their absence in the Kanto region. I only recognised this elongated pokémon, with dark brown stripes on it's beige coloured body was from the rare chance my mum had time to hold up a book to me so I could read -- from pictures basically.

My confusion was even greater when I heard a girl's voice from behind me.

"Oh dear. Blimey, this can't be right…" She had a city accent which I subconsciously made a connection to Goldenrod City in Johto (I had been there on holiday once).

"Who's there?" I managed to mumble. I swallowed a lump in my throat which made me realise I was quite nervous.

"Robs? Was that you? I -- Oh my god…" Her voice trailed off.

"Who is that?" I asked, feeling a little stronger that she seemed equally worried about me.

"You -- you -- you can hear me?" she asked, stuttering. I grunted a 'yes'.

"But… can you see me?" she said, and then added, "Can you see Linoone?"

"I can see Linoone but, not you." I replied, my nerves once again fully intact. She side-stepped into my view and flourished her hands in front of my face. She had long brown hair which was tied back, yet still draped down her shoulders. Her eyes were bright blue and seemed very active, as if her mind was full of thoughts that I could never dream of thinking. Her face was not round but elongated slightly and her chin was thin. She looked to be about my age, yet she had an air of maturity -- not threatening, more friendly -- around her. She cocked her head to one side.

"Well?" she asked, "Can you see me?"

"Quite clearly…" I muttered.

It was this that brought the girl to her senses. Her eyes widened, horrified and she backed away.

"Linoone!" she called and the pokémon scuttled onto her shoulder. "Oh dear," she said, "You're not meant to be able to see me?"

"Why?"

"Because… oh god, Clara's gonna kill me anyway!"

"Clara?"

"Listen, umm, you stay here, yeah. Oh, who am I kidding, you can't move and, um, we'll get the, oh dear… Um… yes, yes, we'll…" Her voice trailed off and she put her index finger to her ear.

"What is it?" she hissed, slightly violently, startling me. Her attitude had changed vigorously.

"Listen mate, you don't scare me… I… oh…" She let the 'oh' ring in the air. It was actually quite ominous.

While she listened to some sort of person in her ear, I contemplated her sanity. She seemed sane enough, perfectly under control, but she did seem, at the exact same time, to be talking nonsense. Suddenly, I was aware of something slapping me and realised I had closed my eyes. I opened them. It was the girl.

"This is no time to sleep. We have a major issue at our hands." She fiddled with her ear some more.

"Git-head," she groaned to herself, "He's closed all lines of communication." Then she turned her attention to me.

"Okay, we need to move, before it's too late. Oh, I hope Clara's gonna understand why I have to do this…"

"I can't move," I replied, helplessly.

"I know!" she said, baffled that I had said such a obvious thing. She lifted up her top slightly, and revealed six poké balls.

"I cheat," she said, matter-of-factly, "I technically have seven pokémon if you include Linoone here," she gestured to the ferret pokémon perched on her shoulder, who seemed to enjoy acting as this girl's scarf.

"Anyway," she said, "No time for chit-chat. She threw her poké ball to the ground.

"GO ABRA!" she called, then shrugged, "I only shout for the effect." Abra was humanoid in shape, except the fact that everything seemed very disproportionate and yellow. It appeared to be asleep. "Abra?" the girl nudged the Abra, "Abra, wake up!" The Abra started, then looked around lazily, and saw it's trainer.

"Abra can you teleport me and Matt --" Abra looked across at me, while I pondered how the girl knew my name, "-- out of here, preferably to a secluded place where no one else is around. --" The Abra looked cheeky. The girl raised her voiced, angrily "-- on this planet, not in lava and not in the middle of the ocean like last time!" The Abra thought for a second, realised that there were no flaws in what the girl had said and dully said:

"Abraaaa!"

The room around me seemed to glow a pearly white. Until it became unbearable. I felt my back shift uncomfortably and painfully as if I had been picked up and whirled around. For a fleeting second, I saw an imprint of a red face, fire-like in appearance before it was gone and all the white flashed green, then was black.