AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hello everyone! I finally worked up the courage to post a fanfiction *parties like it's 1999*

So, this isn't my first fanfiction (in fact it must about my 20th or so) but it's the first written Pokemon-related fanfiction I've ever posted online :3

Now, a few Copyrights...

If you know me on deviantART my name is Sooty123 and, yes, I do use the main character in this story (Shivu) there as well in my Pokemon Black and White Comic (named "Counting Stars" after the great song :D) like, in this story, as a human.

Shivu's wolf counterpart also appears as the main character in the separate series World of Wolves (gold star for my creative names)

Now, this story is meant to take place 4 years before the events of the Counting Stars and is completely unrelated, as with Counting Stars, to World of Wolves.

Since, then, Shivu's human-self is actually based off of his wolf-self I have given him attributes of an animal- you'll see later he growls and cowers down when he's scared and bites and so forth (I hope that's not too strange for you guys ^^; I kinda like putting these attributes on my characters :D)

Although I've classed the story in the manga world it sort of varies- the story is a mix between the anime, game and manga as well as my own additions here and there.

I may have swapped the characters personalities around a little- mostly you'll find a lot of the stuff in here revolves around Pokemon Adventures so just bear with me ;D

If you notice any mistakes or plot-holes, please let me know ^-^ I'm here to learn and improve, after all- although I've tried to proof-read it to the best of my ability :D

Bear in mind, however, I do tend to mix my UK spelling with American spelling- this is just to make it reader-friendly and means we're probably going to both understand it better x3

Also I've done my best not to use any colloquialism (sometimes I use it without even realising it) so if you see anything you don't understand also tell me- I'll try to fix it :D

Aaaanyway, without further ado ladies and gentlemen and everyone in-between I give you... POKEMON- CLIMACTIC GALACTIC (seriously, help me find a better name- I'm good at naming chapters... Not so good at naming stories!)

Chapter 1; Stuck in a Truck!

"Come on, Dad! Let's go; it's time to go so why aren't we going?"

The loud voice that sent a flock of Starly flapping hard out of their tree perches was that of Barry.

Around his neck and flapping wildly because of his leaping about was his trademark green scarf he always wore.

He was leaping around his father, Palmer, who was carrying a box out of his house- soon to be his old house. Palmer had the same blonde hair and orange eyes of his son but wore a long green coat and had a much calmer personality.

It was moving day for the family and the last few boxes, including this one, were all ready to go.

Barry looked around one last time as his old home; the house itself was a terrace with a small front garden that opened out on to the quiet road.

Barry would have figured that this day would have been rather sad- after all, every bit of his childhood was spent living on this little row of houses near the country. However Barry had been excited about moving for months now.

The main reason for his happiness walked out behind him. Shivu; he was Barry's best friend and matched his age at 10.

Shivu had blue spiky hair and wore a white and dark blue shirt along with a lighter blue scarf similar to Barry's (it was Barry who had insisted they both were a scarf to symbolise their friendship).

Shivu was no quieter than Barry and was just as enthused about the move as he was, since Barry's new house was right next to his in Twinleaf Town.

Despite its name, the town could have been considered more of a village, as it only contained a handful of houses at best. However, the buildings were much larger and detached so both boys would have much more room to play about.

"Yeah, come on!" Shivu grinned, "Let's go, go, go! Alons-y, vamos a ir, hebu kwenda!"

Palmer rolled his eyes good naturedly, "Alright mister multilingual- how about être calme?"

Shivu shook his head, "No way; don't tell me to be calm!"

"Shivu, 'calme' means 'quiet' not literally calm," replied Palmer pushing the box into a white van that was parked outside.

"Either or," snorted Shivu, "I don't want to be quiet or calm! What I want is to be on the move!"

Palmer shook his head, "I just have a few more boxes to get, and then we can leave. Why don't you hop into the back of the van, Shivu? I'll leave you home."

Shivu had begun to follow him back into the house, "Alright!" he bolted off down the path.

Barry looked up at his father, "Then can we go?" he chirped.

"Yes!" cried Palmer over-dramatically, "For the love of Arceus and all the plates; yes!"

Shivu hopped over the closed gate and was about to get into the back of the van when he heard the rumbling of another vehicle approach from in front of Palmer's.

Shivu tipped his head and listened. Deciding it was just one of the neighbours he shrugged and hopped into the back then settled down amongst the many boxes piled there. He had just gotten cosy when he heard scuffling from the back of the truck.

He opened his mouth to call a greeting and peered over the boxes expecting to find Palmer and Barry again; instead, however, he saw two very different people; a man and a woman.

They were both dressed virtually identical; with turquoise bowl-cut hair, white shirts with a black stripe on either side and grey sleeves and leggings. On the centre of their shirts was a golden 'G', slightly slanted.

They quickly jumped in and began snooping around. One pulled out what looked like a metal-detector and began scanning each of the boxes in turn.

It didn't take long for him to find what he was looking for; the small device beeped and the two immediately ripped open the box and began checking the contents inside.

Shivu was appalled; what did these people think they were doing?

They pulled out a small rectangular box; they opened it and quickly checked the item inside before closing it and stowing it in a small bag that was slung over the man's shoulder.

Shivu found it odd that neither spoke, nor exchanged any form of communication yet they moved almost in complete unison, almost as if they were on some kind of autopilot.

Together they turned and then they made their escape the way they'd come in.

Shivu's confused expression gave way to one of anger; no one stole from his friends! No matter that he didn't know what exactly they'd stolen…

He hopped from the van and followed the two stealthily to their truck- similar to their uniforms it was grey and bulky with the same golden 'G' on the sides.

Oddly neither of the two noticed him creeping a few steps behind- they seemed completely focused on the task at hand, which seemed to be to put the small box in the back of the truck and to start the engine after getting into the cab.

Shivu crouched at the front of truck as they got in and then crept to the back, keeping close to the sides so the driver wouldn't see him.

Shivu would have taken them on himself but even though he was 10 years old he wouldn't get his first Pokémon till the following September (which was, in fact, Shivu's 11th Birthday) when Professor Rowan had told him and Barry the next batch of starter eggs was due to hatch.

Stopping at the truck's bumper, Shivu was about to call Palmer for help when he caught sight of the bag, stowed in the back of the vehicle.

He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully; all he needed to do was grab the bag and run. Nobody really needed an adult's help or even Pokémon for that.

Quickly he scrambled in. He lifted the bag and was just about to turn away when he noticed the inside of the van beginning to darken.

He looked around; he was sure the sky had been clear earlier so why was it…? He turned just in time to see the automatic door almost completely shut; the last crack of light was just visible.

Shivu jolted, "Oh no!" he cried, leaping at the door but it was too late; he hit it with a bang and slid to the floor, his eyes crossed over.

"Ow…" he winced, rubbing his head as he peered at the closed door; without any light entering now the truck had been plunged into almost complete blackness.

Shivu whimpered; now he was in trouble.

He pawed at the door, trying to get out. He didn't want to let the two robbers know he was there or Arceus only knew what they'd do to him. He sat down heavily and sighed; then his only option was to stay put and "calme" as Palmer said until the truck stopped and the doors opened again. Then, he decided, he would take the bag; make his great escape and find help if necessary.

It was a bumpy ride to his unknown destination; he was worried the duo already knew he was in the truck and were going to jump him instead as soon as they arrived. More than once the vehicle stopped for whatever reason (likely traffic lights or a turning) and Shivu's over-active imagination had him believing they were coming round to get him; however each time it was nothing and Shivu would be left to wonder just where he would end up.

Perhaps the van would board a ship and they would travel overseas; what then?

Or maybe the two intended to drive the van over a cliff to throw the police off their trail?

Or, worse still, what if something went wrong and the driver crashed sending Shivu into an early grave?

He shook his head. These thoughts weren't helping, he decided. He put his over-active imagination on hold and instead occupied himself by looking around; in the truck were a variety of wooden crates. Shivu peered at the label, finding it tricky to read in the dim light.

He frowned; it looked like "CAUTION; LIVE POKÉMON" but surely that couldn't be right? The crate lids were nailed down but Shivu had another way of checking; he held his own breath and listened carefully… "There!"

He had read correctly because if he listened he could hear deep breathing coming from most all the crates around him.

He reckoned the thieves had stolen Pokémon and must be planning to sell them on the black market. Shivu had often heard of these sorts of things on the news. A simple tranquiliser must have been keeping them quiet for the journey.

Shivu waited for what felt like another whole day before the truck finally slowed and began trundling up a rough path. Shivu jolted as the sound of a man's voice drifted through the walls of the vehicle.

Shivu tried to decipher what he was saying but couldn't understand a word of it; in fact, he was sure they weren't even speaking English but even at that he couldn't identify the language in which he spoke.

The van began to move again but slower than before as it twisted around in an arc before finally the engine was switched off. Shivu stood up and slung the bag over his shoulder and around his head. It was time and Shivu's heart was in his mouth from fear of the unknown that kay beyond the door.

The van doors creaked opened with an ominous automatic whirring and Shivu braced himself as the moonlight, now it was dark outside as well as in, began to shine light into the darkness.

"Ready…" Shivu thought with a gulp, "Set… GO!"

FURTHER ADIEU

Hello there, mon compain (ma cherie)! So, you made it to the end? Good for you!

Shivu's quite the crazy little character isn't he? He's partly based on myself which... Probably isn't a good thing *shrug* ah well XD

How about some Trivia? (Totally not stolen from TrainerNaps no no)

* As stated above, Shivu is based on the main character of another of my creations World of Wolves in which he appears as a wolf- Shivu-wolf also appears in many other of my works, some of which have been posted on my deviantART. Because of this, I made Shivu's second name "Wolffe"

* Originally, I had Palmer tell Shivu to go to the back of the van and he would leave him home (as he does here) however Shivu accidentally went to Team Galactic's van and then very stupidly fell asleep in the back only to awaken later at their base and freak out. The mysterious item didn't exist in this draft.

I removed the idea because I thought it was simply too dumb to bear- Shivu's idiotic decision to try and get the item back without anyone's help was acceptable but being stupid enough to mistake one van for another when it had completely different things in the back was just inexcusable XD

* In Counting Stars Shivu is 14 (he is 10 in this story) and wears different clothes- in this story I tried to match his clothes somewhat to Barry's and Lucas' while also basing them on clothes I wore when I was this age.

* The story originally took place in Autumn and Shivu's age was 9 (since his and my Birthday is in Autumn) and he then had got his first Pokemon (a Turtwig) in a prologue but I got rid of the idea since Shivu needed to be completely defenseless when facing Team Galactic, not to mention having a Pokemon seemed to have no link to the story (barring a few worried mentions of his whereabouts from Shivu) so I thought it was just too un-needed. In case you're wondering, in the games anyway, my Turtwig is called Shatter (some idea I had that he would have some battle scars on his shell)

* The story was originally called "Enter Team Galactic!" but I decided it was too similar to the episode name "Enter Galactic!" and may put people off reading it.

*The chapter was originally called "Wrong Place, Wrong Van" in relation to Shivu getting into the wrong van but I changed it to its current name "Stuck in a Truck" for a variety of reasons- I wanted something that would be easily remembered and catchy too along with something that related to the chapter better. Also, I went with calling Palmer's moving van "the van" and Team Galactic's "the truck"

To me, truck sounds more... I don't know... bad...? Than van anyway (don't ask...)

*The languages Shivu uses are (in order) French, Portuguese and Swahili and they all simply mean "Let's go!" All were from Google Translate so I apologise if they're not grammatically correct :3

The languages are in relation to two counties I've visited and particularly liked (France and Portugal) and the third is in relation to my love for The Lion King :D

*Similarly, Palmer's words are "Be quiet" also in French.