This is the begining of a new pokémon fanfiction. It's an OT story with slightly more grown up characters, it's rated R for violence and swearing and some mildly suggested themes. It could probably stand as a PG13 though.

Prologue

The city that once stood was a grand one. Full of skyscrapers, bright lights, noisy streets and busy buildings. Its populace was one that lived prosperously amongst the urban backdrop of consumerism and individualism. This was no longer the case.

Now what stood taller than the buildings were two great lizards, one with a scaley skin the colour of fire, the other's skin being as hard as rock, green and black in its colour. They stood upright on two legs each as they raged at each other, spat fire, called down lighting from the sky, tore each other with their bare claws and unleashed every ounce of fury they had in their bodies. It was as if they were born for this moment. Up until now, everything had just been gearing up for this moment. Their day of reckoning. Fire breathing one, clung a young man, who's skin was scarred from burns of fire and electricity, from falling rubble and pure physical abuse. He was as battered and as bloody as both lizard. He clung not just to his reptile's back, but to his own dear life. The fire and smoke that tore through the city blurred his vision until all seemed to fade to black.

It seemed so stupid at the time how anyone could think that what I was having was anything more than a series of bad dreams. Yet they would happen, time and time again. I'd wake up in that cold sweat that made me feel like I was trapped in an ariados web. I'd wake up feeling like my chest was going to cave in on itself. It hurt like to breathe. The guys would always recall a couple of things they picked up in a school psychology class whenever I brought them up. You know the guff; repressed memories, Freudian psychoanalysis and inner fears. Like I'd ever had memories of two fighting giant lizards tearing up a city. My Mother wouldn't even let me watch Godzilla movies till I was eleven. We all knew though that we were just waffling anyway. Qualified professionals we were not, adept ters; maybe.

Ack.. it didn't matter anyway. After my morning smoke, I'd be fine. It was strange that - I didn't smoke any other time than in the morning, but a single cigarette would just hit the spot when I woke up. You'd think that with the shortness of breath from the dreams, fresh air on its own ought to suffice. But not for me, a few extra cancer cells ought to do the trick. I always kept an emergency packet of Luckies on me, just so I could feel like I was an American GI in a Vietnam movie. Lt Surge or something like that. To be fair though, the flavour, too was good, always calmed me down after one of those dreams. They wouldn't be so bad if they didn't feel so real, like I was actually living them. Perhaps the fact they had happened every night for an entire month didn't help much either. There was always that tiniest of inklings that nagged away at me - "What if this means something?". A shrug of the shoulders and another puff at the cigarette and I'd be grand, back to my usual cocky as hell self.

That morning, the nightmare had woken me particularly early. The fresh dew had the effect of turning the grass a turquoise colour and the sun was still on the rise. Both Si and Chris weren't up at this point in time so for my smoke it would have to be just be myself and Gengro. I tossed his pokéball from my belt down to the ground to release him and let him into the open air. He hovered several feet above the ground, traveling through the air like a free spirit, at his own will. In height, he was around five foot, but it didn't look it due to its levitation. That and its width. If anyone were to look at it from a third of a mile a way, all they'd see is a pointed square of purple gas. Pointed in that it had odd looking ears, gaseous hands it could scratch with and two stumpy legs. Maybe it was its care free personality that made it such a good smoking buddy.

Though as you'd expect, being an ethereal spirit made out of gas, my gengar didn't tend to smoke. You can probably guess, Gengro tended to be a bit lacking in the respiratory system for that business but he'd always keep me company. I loved the ghost to bits, especially on mornings like this. He had a sick sense of humour, always telling dead baby jokes that you knew full well you shouldn't laugh at. I guess it was just the way he told them, that sarky grin that stretched right across his face that said it all. We waked around the campsite for a little bit as I smoked, at that point in time I was only half dressed, still padding around on the balls of my bare feet, probably getting them covered in wurmple poo. Nice. Chris, Si and I had set up the make-shift campsite around a nice freshwater lake, though barely big enough to call it that. It was more like a rather large pond, but we weren't complaining. It was a pretty bit of greenery, a clearing right in the middle of the forest. Quiet and away from anything threatening like hives of beedrills, but with the odd twittering from pidgeys to let us know we weren't all by ourselves. We could refill our canteens full of water and even do a little bit of light fishing. Not enough to disturb the eco system, but enough to keep us fed for the night and morning that we camped there.

I gazed down at myself in the reflection. Only Si was vain enough to have a cosmetic mirror with him, so it wasn't often that I got to check myself out. I Not bad I thought. My brown hair was getting thicker and longer. Not 'hippy' or 'metal fan' long, but probably a bit 'stoner-ish' in its way. My eyes, clear blue for a change. No bloodshot tinges from drinking or smoking as they often would in the evenings. I even had a little bit of stubble. Now that was a turn out for the books. In terms of physique, obviously with the walking most of the days and the training we did with the pokemon, we were gonna keep in trim shape, despite the odd excess you'd expect with us being students. Was always good to have that little extra bit of confidence to know you didn't look that bad. I especially had this tall leanness to me. Naturally a little bigger built than Chris or Si, I had a bit of a big rib cage on me, but traces of the bones always poked through the skin, so in an odd way I almost looked skinny. I was never a born athlete but through time I suppose I toned up to be a "strappin' young lad" as my Grandad would put it.

"Whaddya reckon Gengro? Am I a sexy beast or what?" I said in a jokey fashion, flexing a little to my reflection in the water.

The ghost just chucked. You had to love how diplomatic he could be sometimes.

"Well then, we're just gonna have to wake the other two up, I'm sure we could all do with finding some floozies to chat up when we get into the city," I said as a quip. "Besides, I'm dying to have a sparring match with Si's Blaziken. I guarantee you, he may be a six foot tall blazing chicken of death, but I'm telling you I can take him!" I said cockily.

Gengro just chuckled heartily again. I put my cigarette out and went to wake the other two.