Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. I've just loved it since before I can remember and I always will.

Chapter One

Alice observed the situation before her—three boys with a Pokémon apiece they must have gotten from their parents or something—a Raichu, a Golduck, and a Houndoom. The boys had jumped out on the path in front of her and demanded a match with her.

Alice couldn't even express her annoyance.

She was walking through the forest, maybe three miles from her home Pallet Town, returning after two and a half years for the second time since she had started her Pokémon journey four years previously. She had gone home in search of human company—she loved all five of her Pokémon, their trust and allegiance had been hard won and she wouldn't trade them for anything, but it had been months since Alice had run into any humans she knew. She had been looking forward to seeing her mother and father and spending some quality time relaxing. Her Pokémon would have been able to eat some quality food by her mother, who specialized in Pokémon cuisine.

Instead she was being harassed by these three idiots.

"Fine," she said. "Who's first?" The most cocky boy stepped forward with his Raichu. Sighing in irritation, Alice turned behind her and called, "Roxanne!" A Ninetales calmly trotted up to her Trainer seemingly from nowhere. Alice and Roxanne's eyes met, with the Ninetales understanding her Trainer's silent apology of the disruption of the peace. Turning her gaze forward, Alice flicked her hand and said, "Flame Wheel!" Before the boy or his Raichu could react, Roxanne shot forward like a bullet, a burst of flame streaming from her mouth. The Raichu didn't have a chance and fainted as soon as the attack was over. Roxanne calmly walked back to her Trainer, tails swishing. Alice smiled and murmured words of praise. Behind her, more Pokémon had started to gather—an Arcanine who was clearly watching over a Bulbasaur and a Joltik.

The next boy stepped forward looking nervous, but he boosted his own confidence by saying, "Ha! You've got no good Pokémon against Houndoom!"

Alice smiled enigmatically. "Don't I?" She two fingers to her mouth and whistled loudly. Almost instantly, a dark form shot over the trees and began to descend towards the group. A giant Aerodactyl landed in front of the boys, much to their terror. Shrieking like little girls, they ran off.

"You're welcome!" Alice called after them sarcastically. Her Aerodactyl turned to her with a grin some might have mistaken for wanting to bite her, but Alice knew better, and laughed. "You'd never hurt anyone, huh, Wolf?" she said, rubbing the beast's snout affectionately. In total trust, the tiny Joltik scuttled over and hopped onto Alice's arm, and from there, to the top of the Aerodactyl's head. "You're even Tiktok's special friend," she laughed affectionately. She turned to the rest of her team—Roxanne, Grape Vine the Bulbasaur, and Claws the Arcanine. "Come on, guys, we're almost there. Just another hour or two of walking. Unless you'd rather we flew and got there sooner? I know we originally decided to walk for the peace of it, but I'm not sure I want to run into any more idiots like that."

Roxanne, Claws, and Wolf appeared to confer for a while—Tiktok always went along with whatever Wolf agreed, and as for Grape, he had hatched from his Egg a mere three weeks previously, and was never included in decision making. He was there to learn. After a little while, Wolf spread his wings and bent down—a signal for Alice to climb aboard.

"All right," she agreed. "Into your Poké Balls for the rest of you." Once they were Returned, she clambered onto Wolf's back and they flew off towards Pallet Town. It was only a twenty minute flight, and Alice landed in her house's backyard.

"Alice!" her mother Dana cried, running out to meet her. "We weren't expecting you until later!"

"I ran into some Trainers," she said, annoyance plain in her voice. "We were enjoying our walk—well, Wolf was enjoying his flight—and suddenly these three kids were in front of me, demanding a match apiece."

Her mother laughed. "So you have some new Pokémon, I see." Her mother's Jolteon Zaza looked up at the Aerodactyl with interest.

"Oh, right, you haven't met two of them."

"Two? You've been busy." Alice smiled and released the rest of her friends from their Poké Balls, who Zaza imperiously walked up to in order to make their acquaintances.

Most Trainers would probably have caught several dozen or more in a two and half year period of time, but not Alice. She only ever took Pokémon into her team after a hardship or an adventure together, and only with their consent. Roxanne had started her journey with her (then a Vulpix) as a gift from her mother, Claws had been found less than a week later abandoned by an inconsiderate Trainer. A Growlithe at the time, Claws had taken an instant liking to Roxanne, following her around. Since Roxanne trusted Alice, eventually Claws trusted Alice too, and officially became a member of the team.

For the year or so, it had only been the three of them, training and battling, seeing the natural wonders Kanto had to offer. Then Alice teamed up with a boy named Hans and his Pokémon (a Squirtle named Tiber, a female Nidoran named Bella, and his Vaporeon named Shot) to stop some poachers, during which battle she gained Wolf the gentle giant into her team. She and Hans ended up traveling to the next city together, and the next, and the next. Eventually it came to a point where they never questioned traveling with each other.

"Where is Hans?" her mother looked around, frowning. Alice smiled sadly.

"I don't know," she said truthfully. Hans had left her side more than six months previously when she decided to travel to back to Hoenn and work on a ranch there to take a break from traveling. He had decided to stay in Unova, where she had found Tiktok in a different poacher attack, or rather Wolf had—every one of the tiny Pokémon had been taken from their enormous nest located in a cavern, but Wolf had somehow known that one was still there. The poor thing had been frightened to death, but Wolf took care of her and eventually she trusted everyone in the team, though she still had a special relationship with the immense Aerodactyl who could have crushed her underfoot without trying. As for Grape, Hans himself had found the egg and entrusted it to Alice, partially as a parting gift, partially because he already had six Pokémon in his team.

"No one will take care of it as well as you," he insisted. "Here. So you don't forget me."

"Alice?" Dana asked, waving a hand in front her daughter's eyes, making Alice snap out of her reverie.

"Sorry," the Trainer said. "You know Roxanne and Claws, of course, and Wolf. This is Tiktok and Grape Vine." The two littlest and newest members of her team gave her wary looks. "It's all right, honest," Alice laughed. "She's my mother. Go on, don't be shy!" Tiktok, who was friendly with virtually everyone, immediately leaped onto Dana's head and snuggled into her hair. When Grape still hesitated, Claws and Roxanne walked up to Alice's mother. Roxanne lay at her feet and Claws rubbed her leg, wagging her tail when Dana petted her affectionately. Since Grape trusted the older Fire types like they were his older siblings, he tentatively walked over to Dana and let her pet him after a few minutes.

"So," Dana said, looking up suddenly. Tiktok squeaked indignantly at the sudden movement and hopped into Alice's hand, where the Trainer began stroking the little Bug type absentmindedly. "Did you two fight?"

"What?" Alice said, the question completely catching her off guard. "No, no, we just ended up finally wanting to go two different places, that's all."

"After nearly three years, you just went your separate ways," her mother said, shaking her head. "It's a shame that—" But whatever had been such a shame, Dana didn't get to say. Everyone perked up their ears as an announcement came over the speakers located throughout town.

"Attention residents of Pallet Town," Officer Jenny's voice pronounced. "Two poachers are on the loose in the forest. These poachers are well known, experienced in their trade and very dangerous. Do not panic, I repeat, do not panic. The police force will handle it. I must request that no one go into the forest at this time, and keep your Pokémon with you." After that, the speaker crackled and went silent.

Dana knew the look in her daughter's eye, even if she hadn't seen it for two and a half years.

"No," she said sternly. "You heard them, the police will handle it."

"Mom, how many poachers does Pallet Town come across in the course of say ten years? Maybe one or two. The police aren't prepared for this, I guarantee it. Besides, there aren't a lot of Pokémon around here that are worth poaching, especially if these poachers are well known. There's got to be an unusual Pokémon, at least for this region, on the loose in the forest right now. That means the poachers have probably been chasing it for miles. If that's the case, those poachers will be willing to do anything." Alice was already clambering up on Wolf and her Pokémon had been hastily Returned.

"Alice, I don't know if you realize how dangerous this is!" Dana said furiously. "This isn't a game, you could get seriously hurt—"

"Mom," Alice said, turning to face her. "I've faced more poachers than I can count, and Hans wasn't always there to watch out for me. I know what I'm doing, although I can't say that the police force of Pallet Town does. They could take a half hour to get organized, and by then it'll be too late. There might be a hurt Pokémon that I can help, and I'll never forgive myself if I don't do something." With no further comment, Alice shouted a command: "Fly!" and Wolf took off at top speed.

Alice kept her eyes sharp, watching for signs of a high speed pursuit—a flock of panicked Spearow, perhaps, or the sounds of a stampede. What she wasn't expecting was to see smoke rising from an area close to town. Alice frowned in confusion. According to the police announcement, these poachers were experienced, not inept enough to set a fire that clearly gave away their location, even by accident. They might have been chasing a Fire type through the woods, but that didn't make sense to Alice—if that were the case, more sections of the forest would be ablaze. So what was she dealing with? She was thinking so much that she almost didn't see the streaking forms of a Pokémon being followed by two adult men on foot through the heavy undergrowth. She was close enough to hear them shouting to each other:

"That Mightyena is too wild, we can't catch it on foot! The forest is too dense!"

"It's so dense that in a few minutes the whole forest will be ablaze! Come on, let's get back to the truck!" The two poachers peeled away from their pursuit of the Mightyena and went in a different direction. Alice felt a hatred boil up in her stomach—she wanted justice for this crime.

"There, Wolf!" she said. "We'll land in that clearing." As he landed, Alice was already forming a plan. "Wolf, you've got to listen to me very carefully, understand? We can't let that fire get any more out of control. I need you to fly above the fire and get as close to the treetops as you can, and flap in short, powerful, controlled bursts. That should help stop the fire. Got it?" Wolf gave a cry to show he'd heard. "Okay, go!"

Quickly, Alice released Claws and Roxanne. Almost as an afterthought, she released Tiktok as well. There was no way she was going to release Grape, he was too young and that was that. "Tik, hitch a ride on Claws," she instructed. "Roxanne and Claws, I need you both to go find those poachers and try to trap them. Use your Bite attacks if you have to, but do not use any Fire type attacks. I know I can trust you. You've done this before. Tik, once they've cornered the poachers, wrap them up. Got it?" The Fire types stood, poised to run, and took off as soon as Alice gave the signal. She wasn't worried—they would be fine if the fire reached them, and she knew it wouldn't. They were too smart for that.

Meanwhile, Alice took off through the undergrowth herself with a goal in mind—to save the Mightyena the poachers had been chasing. Alice knew the behaviors of Mightyena like the back of her hand. She had worked on a reserve in Hoenn that was specifically designed for them. A single Mightyena in a situation like this would panic and be totally irrational, focused on their most primal instincts of running, and if necessary, attacking. She had seen the way it was running from the poachers—it hadn't been at the top speed it could have been even with the thickness of the forest, not even close. It had to have inhaled a lot of the smoke from the fire. There was no way it could have kept running—it must have collapsed by now.

Sure enough, within five minutes of running in the general direction she had seen it, Alice saw it—a Mightyena, clearly wild, collapsed. The fire was spreading quickly despite Wolf's efforts. She needed to get out of the forest quickly—there was no way possible that she could carry over a hundred pounds of dead weight, especially with all the smoke. There just wasn't a choice.

With a promise to release the Mightyena as soon as it was recovered, Alice reluctantly took out a Poké Ball and threw it at the Mightyena for capture. It only took a few seconds since the poor creature was so incapacitated. Once it was safely captured, Alice took one look at the racing fire coming ever closer and decided to run out of the woods.

What she saw once she got out astonished her. A boy about her age with brown hair, swimmer's goggles perched ridiculously on his head as always, and all-blue clothing was scolding a younger girl who looked like she was ten. And she knew the boy.

Hans? Almost as though he had read her thoughts, the boy looked up and saw her.

"Alice!" he said, just as shocked as she was. "What are you doing here?"

"Decided to come home, and then I heard about the poachers," she said warily. "You?"

"Poachers?" Hans asked, aghast. "There were poachers?" He turned to the girl. "So that's what you were 'practicing' for?"

"I sent Roxanne, Tik and Claws to take care of them. There was an injured Mightyena they were chasing. Wait, so what were you doing?" Alice finally registered the girl beside him. "Who's this?"

"She's the source of the fire, which I had Shot and Tiber put out, by the way. She told me she was 'practicing' with her Charmander in the woods, but I'm pretty sure—" here Hans looked the girl straight in the eye—"that she lied to me."

"I didn't do anything wrong!" the girl burst out. In her anger, she wrinkled her nose covered with freckles and her bright red hair appeared to stand up. She glared at the other two Trainers. "I thought good people were supposed to try and stop bad people! Besides, the other kids kept making fun of me! I had to prove them wrong!" Alice walked over to the kid, furious.

"What's your name?" she asked icily.

"Annie."

"Annie, do you have any idea what you've done?" Before the kid could answer, Alice went on in a raised voice, "You've just displaced dozens, possibly hundreds of Pokémon, poisoned a portion of the soil so that nothing will grow here for years, destroyed a food supply, and essentially disrupted an entire ecosystem. Wildfires are great when they occur naturally because they allow the earth to regenerate. Pokémon expect those kinds of fires, they're ready for them. This, on the other hand, was a man-made fire created by inexperience and recklessness. If you don't think there's something wrong with what you did, we've got a serious problem." Before she could go any further, Hans laid a hand on Alice's arm, signaling he wanted to talk. "Wait here," Alice said to Annie, and walked a few feet away with Hans. He wasted no time on saying what his piece.

"I want her to travel with one of us," he said in a low voice. Alice opened her mouth, but he put up a hand to stop her. "She had relatively good intentions, Alice. I think she has potential, but she needs a lot of guidance. It wouldn't be responsible of one of us to let her start her journey on her own." Alice saw his point and sighed.

"Where were you planning on going?" she asked. A thought occurred to her. "And why are you even here?"

"I was tracking those poachers. They stole Bella." Alice's eyes widened in shock and she put her hand over her mouth. Bella was Hans' Nidorina, and his ultimate Pokémon partner. She was a part of him. Alice couldn't imagine how devastatedHans had been when Bella had been taken.

"How long ago was this?" she asked shakily.

"About a month ago," Hans said, eyes flashing like steel.

"A month?!"

"These are pretty top-notch poachers," Hans sighed in frustration. "I've almost given up hope. Nidorina go for a pretty high price on the black market in places like Unova or Hoenn."

"Hans…is there anything I can do?"

"Well, I thought you were working on that preserve, but now that you're here…do you maybe want to travel together again so we can find her?" Alice gave him a hug in answer. When they pulled back from the embrace, Hans frowned. "Your backpack is a lot lighter." His face lit up in realization. "Did the egg hatch?"

"Yeah!" Alice said, taking Grape's Poké Ball from her belt and releasing him. The adorable Bulbasaur blinked his eyes and yawned like he'd just been taking a nap. "He's just a few weeks old," Alice said, eyes shining as she looked at the baby of her group. "His name is Grape Vine, well, Grape. Roxanne and Claws are so protective of him." Inquisitively and with the innocence of a child, Grape stretched up a vine to Hans' hand.

"I can't imagine a better family for him to grow up with," Hans laughed.

"Well, isn't this cute," a new voice said. It was masculine, rough—adult. Hans and Alice spun around to see the two poachers in the front seat of a truck. In the back were cages full of Pokémon—Alice's Pokémon. Roxanne and Claws were trapped in the same cage, and Tiktok was nowhere to be seen, as was Wolf.

"Let them go!" Alice screamed. She'd never had her Pokémon captured before, and it scared her that her two best fighters had been overpowered.

"I like that Bulbasaur of yours, girl," the taller poacher drawled. Alice instinctively shielded her little one, but before her second instinct—to Return him to his Poké Ball—could kick in, a giant Pidgeot had swooped in seemingly from nowhere and scooped up Grape, plopping him into the same cage as Roxanne and Claws. Now they couldn't use their Fire type abilities to break out or they risked hurting the Grass type in the cage with them.

No. They were not going to take her baby. Before she could do anything, however, Hans stepped in front of her and in front of Annie, who looked like she wanted to fight. A murderous gleam was in his eyes as he released his Blastoise Tiber, too large to fit into the cages.

"Hydro Cannon!" he shouted, pointing at the poachers. Tiber turned his cannons toward the poachers. Unexpectedly, the taller one in the driver's seat just pushed a button and a contraption like a waterwheel shot out from the underside of the truck, maneuvered to catch the blast and propel the truck forward. Laughing, the two poachers took off in their truck at top speed, carrying three of Alice's Pokémon away with them. Alice was aware of screaming and falling to her knees, and Hans beside her, trying his best not to cry and saying something to her. Eventually she realized he was saying "I'm sorry" over and over again.

"It wasn't your fault, Hans," she said, face streaked with tears. "It's mine. I let them go alone, I let Grape out of his Poké Ball."

"I wasn't thinking!" he said desperately. "I knew they had contraptions like that on that blasted truck of theirs, but all I could think of was Bella, and seeing your Pokémon like that—Grape's so young, he probably had no idea what was going on, and Roxanne and Claws looked like helpless parents trying to protect their child—"

"They think of him and Tiktok that way," Alice said, trying not to give in to hysteria. Then she realized—Tiktok. Wolf. Her other Pokémon. And the Mightyena in the Poké Ball at her belt who needed immediate medical attention.

"TIK!" she screamed, and whistled for Wolf. Her gentle giant appeared out of the sky with the tiny form of a Joltik clinging to his snout. Alice ran to them in tears. Wolf made whimpering sounds that his Trainer knew were apologies.

"I know, I know," she said, cradling her shivering Joltik to her chest with one arm and stroking Wolf's snout, wiping his tears away. "I know you would've helped if you hadn't been frightened. It's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm glad you and Tik are safe. Understand? I'm glad." Wolf still wouldn't look her in the eye.

"Why?" Annie's voice sounded behind her. Alice spun around in a fury. "If he's strong enough to save them, why was his being afraid and not helping okay?" Alice's expression darkened like a thundercloud.

"Alice," Hans warned. "We'll deal with this later. We need to get back to town and see if we can track the poachers." Throwing both Annie and Hans a murderous glance, Alice climbed on Wolf and gestured for Hans and Annie to do the same. Wolf was large enough and the trip was short enough that it wouldn't cause him too much of a strain.

"We need to go the Pokémon Center first," Alice said in a broken voice, remembering the Mightyena with a pang of guilt. The Aerodactyl flew off toward the Center with a mournful cry, tears once again slipping out of his eyes in sorrow.

Any advice? I'm inclined to continue it, but only if there's sufficient interest. Rate and review, please!