"Haruki, you're going to be late!"

Haruki woke up groggily as his mother yelled up the stairs. Today was the day for the ten-year-old to become a pokémon trainer, and choose his first pokémon from Professor Oak. He sat up and messed with his black untidy hair, yawning loudly as he squinted his eyes to see out of the window. In an instant at seeing how high the sun was, Haruki was wide awake.

"Ah! I'm gonna be late!!" He jumped off the bed, his foot landing on his skateboard and he fell backwards, hitting his head on the post of his bed. "Wooah!!!" Haruki lay on the floor writhing and gripping his aching head, swearing under his breath. He scrambled to his feet, rummaging through a pile of clothes littering the base of his closet. "Grrr! My lucky shirt isn't in here…!" He threw his head back, and whined at the top of his lungs, "Ma, I can't find my lucky shirt!! Where's my lucky shirt?!"

"It's in your closet, dear! Hurry up, or all of the pokémon will be gone before you even get there," she called back. Haruki growled and banged his head against the back wall of the closet in frustration, rolling onto his back. This was not a good day for his mother to be playing any tricks on him…not on the day that was supposed to be the best day of his life.

He looked up and saw the orange shirt hanging up on a yellow hanger. "Oh…thanks, Ma!" He yelled sheepishly, pulling the shirt from the hanger. Haruki noticed a faint charred smell, and he sniffed his shirt curiously, retching at the stench. "Hey, Ma, what didja wash this in?! Charcoal?!"

"Sorry, dear, little Quilly had it stowed away in his house outside. I didn't have time to wash it…!"

Haruki mumbled as he slipped the charcoal smelling shirt down over his head, "Sure, but you had plenty of time to stuff it on a hanger…!" He also cursed Quilly quietly, how on earth could that Cyndaquil have gotten into his closet and drag his most prized shirt down into his soot-filled house outside without his mother noticing? He finished dressing and rushed out through the bedroom door, almost tripping over Quilly. "Ahh! Quilly!"

"Cynda! Cyndaquil!" Quilly pawed at Haruki's socked foot.

"No, Quilly, I can't play right now!" He looked and saw that the little Cyndaquil had drug his backpack up the stairs and dropped it beside his door. Haruki looked back at Quilly, "You brought my pack to me!" He reached down and stroked the pokémon's head. "Are you excited about me leaving? Didja come to say goodbye…?" Suddenly, a mouse scurried across the floor, startling Quilly. The Cyndaquil let out a yelp and its back flames ignited abruptly, scorching Haruki's pack. "No!! Quilly!!" He quickly picked up the back and blew out the small flame, thrusting his arms into the straps and ran downstairs. Haruki ran past his mother, and she lifted her head.

"What's that smell?" she asked curiously.

"Quilly roasted my pack!" he replied hurriedly as he slipped on his shoes. "Why did Dad have to send us that Cyndaquil anyway?! Most of the time all it ever does is set things on fire when it gets scared and the rest of the time it hides things in its scorched house!"

"Remember, dear? He sent it to us as an apology for not being able to make it back to see you on your big day…" she sighed and returned to her cooking. "Do you know what pokémon you want for your first?"

"Yeah, I want a Bulbasaur!" He said as he rammed his red sports cap on his head, twisting the rim backwards. "It's so cool lookin', and I bet it's the best one of the bunch!" He opened the door quickly. "Bye, Ma! I'll be back in a while with my new pokémon!" Haruki ran out so fast that by the time his mother rushed to the door, he was well out of earshot.

"Dear, you forgot to eat your breakfast!" she called out to him. He waved his hand, signaling that he hadn't heard her and he kept running. "You know how sleepy you get when you don't eat your breakfast!" He continued running, his mother's voice now fully out of range. Haruki ran down the road towards Pallet Town, and halfway there he noticed that he was getting very tired, unaware of a small shadow trailing behind him. He stopped and put his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

"Why…didn't I…bring my skateboard?" He panted, looking up and seeing Pallet in the distance. "Quilly…could've pulled me…there." He stood back up and yawned loudly, looking around and spotting a nearby tree, "I…don't remember that tree there…before…oh well…" Stretching, he made his way over to it, plopping himself onto the grass. Haruki yawned again, "Maybe…I'll just take a little nap…build up my strength…" He closed his eyes slowly, the warmth of the sun calming him as the slight breeze lulled him slowly to sleep…a small figure hovered in front of him as his eyes closed completely. The sounds outside faded out slowly and Haruki was submerged in darkness. He could feel himself falling. "But…I can't be falling…I'm sitting on the ground…asleep…" The feeling continued as his body began to tingle and heat up. "I…feel strange…" Suddenly, he hit something hard, but he didn't wake up.

"Look, over there!"

"Where?"

"Over there, asleep on that stump!"

"Woah, weird. What's he doing so far out here…? Do you think he's lost…?"

"I hope not. We're on a mission as it is…the last thing we need is another lost pokémon…"

Haruki woke up to the sounds of the voices. He opened his eyes and looked up; he let out a loud yell and fell off of the stump he had obviously been asleep on, and hit his head on the hard ground. "Ow!"

"Hey, are you okay?" Haruki felt hands lift him up to his feet, and he felt a hand try to press something into his mouth. He held up his hands to push the stranger away. "Come on, these will help you feel better…!"

"No!" Just as he opened his mouth, the stranger forced two small objects in and forced him to chew. His mouth was filled with the crunching of berries followed by a strange flavor, a mixture of dry, spicy, sweet, bitter, and sour. Now, suddenly, he was wide awake and his head didn't hurt. "Wow, thanks. I do feel better…" he looked up and saw a Squirtle standing over him. "Hey, little guy, where's your trainer?" The Squirtle looked behind him, and Haruki noticed another pokémon. It was a Meowth. "Don't you guys have a trainer?" He also noticed that they were wearing blue bandanas around their necks. "Nice threads, I prefer the color red myself, but hey. If that's what your trainer wants you guys to wear, whatever…"

"What do you mean? We don't have a trainer…" said the Squirtle as it turned back to face Haruki. Haruki backed up quickly, yelling in surprise,

"Woah! You can talk?!"

Squirtle looked confused. "Yeah, and so can Meowth…and you…and pretty much every pokémon around here-"

Haruki kept crawling backwards away from the strange talking pokémon. "I mean, you can really talk?! I can understand you!!!" This time the Meowth answered.

"Yes, all pokémon can understand each other. It's perfectly normal-"

"Wait, wait, wait! That can't be true, well, I guess it is, but-"

Meowth shrugged, "So what's the problem…?"

"I'm a human! That's the problem! I'm not supposed to understand you guys…at all!" Squirtle and Meowth looked at each other and began to laugh hysterically; Squirtle was laughing so hard that it fell onto its back, continuing to kick and laugh. Meowth wiped its eyes, calming down long enough to say:

"Good one. That's a good one." It looked towards Squirtle, "Says he's a human! Oh, that's rich!!" It returned to laughing hysterically, falling onto the ground and rolling around beside the Squirtle.

"What's so funny?! See, I'm human!!" Haruki held up his hand and discovered that it had changed shape and was orange, and he held up his other hand to find that it had also changed…and so had his arms. Haruki felt of his face, panicking as he fumbled for the hat that once had capped his black untidy hair…both of which were no longer on his head. He rushed over to a nearby puddle, noticing as he ran over that his legs were stubby and orange; he fell to his knees and looked into the small pool of water. He was definitely panicking now; because the reflection he saw wasn't his…it wasn't even human. "What…happened to me…?"

Squirtle finally managed to stop laughing, rolling over onto its front. "Yeah, you look like an ordinary Charmander to me…" It stood to its feet, brushing off dirt and grass from its bandana. The world around Haruki seemed to spin.

"I…I-I'm a Charmander…?"