Chapter One: Celadon Catastrophe

Hello reader. xD Uh… this is just the beginning of the story. More stuff will happen later. :3 Please review!

Lina's grey eyes stared up at the sky above her. It was cloudy, as usual, in her birthplace of Lavender Town. The whole village was small and grey, in a sense. Lavender-grey. A tiny valley town with no apparent reason for visiting it, Lavender was sleepy and slow. But what it lacked in excitement, it certainly made up in mystery: both in the town itself and its residents.

Lina was one of the only girls around her age who lived there. Of course, there were younger children, and a few adults, but most of the town was made up of older people. It was one of the biggest places to retire to in Kanto, though some did go to other towns as well. The only thing that made Lavender special was the huge tower in the northwest corner of the town. Pokemon Tower, where the ghosts of Pokemon rest, and only occasionally disturbed the town.

Oh, there was one more reason to visit. Lavender Town had the only Name-Rater in Kanto.

That Name-Rater happened to be Lina's father. Her mother was dead. Her maternal grandmother, strangely enough, was Agatha of the Elite Four. Agatha, though, barely spoke to Lina or her father. She blamed her daughter's death on her son-in-law, and Lina only saw the annoyed old woman at Christmas (decidedly not her favorite holiday).

Lina spent most of her days wandering around the town, or visiting Mr. Fuji, or helping her dad. In a place where there weren't many kids to befriend, she was very close to her strange, loveable father. She was almost always found spending time with him, if she wasn't currently being employed by Mr. Fuji on his random odd jobs. Now, though, she lay in the soft grass just north of the town, staring up at the clouds passing.

Her hair was blue-black, and long. It fell to the small of her back, and was perfectly straight. Rigid bangs framed her face, and she wore a black-rimmed pair of glasses that gave her the air of someone utterly erudite and intellectual. She was very tall, and too thin: Mr. Fuji was always telling her to eat more. She wore a black pleated skirt with purple flats and knee socks, along with a plain purple shirt and a baggy black hoodie over it. Her pale face and bony arms made her look perfectly suited for Lavender Town: the grey, listless town of the north.

Suddenly, her phone rang, and she jumped. She fumbled for it in her backpack, finally pulling it out. Her purple phone told her that it was her dad calling.

She answered it, a smile spreading across her face. "Hi, Dad."

"Lina! Mr. Fuji has a job for you, but he couldn't seem to find you."

"I'm up near Rock Tunnel," she said, sitting up. "Does he want to see me now?"

"Yup. He sounded almost agitated, though that can't be right."

"Hopefully not." Lina stood up, slipped on her backpack, and started to walk back towards town. "How's your day been?"

"Well, a man came in wanting to change his Slowpoke's name. It took me all day to convince him to give him a name that didn't have either 'slow' or 'poke' in it."

"What'd you decide on?"

"Sluggish-prod. He got out a Thesaurus."

Lina laughed. "You get the weirdest people in there."

"Hey, at least it pays."

Lina slowed as she saw Mr. Fuji's house. "Dad, I gotta go. I'm almost there. See you later?"

"It's a date. But in a positively non-creepy way."

"Got it. Bye!"

"Over and out."

Lina hung up her phone at the same time she knocked on Mr. Fuji's door. It flew open, and the old man standing there pulled her inside.

"Lina!" he exclaimed. "Oh, I'm ever so glad to see you. Please, you must do something for me. I need someone to take this message to my friend in Celadon City."

Lina's eyes widened. "Celadon?" She'd never been to Celadon City before, but she'd heard stories. It was the biggest city around. A small-town girl like her would be absolutely slaughtered in Celadon.

"Yes. I would take it myself, but I am too old. And decrepit."

"Uh, okay." Lina knew Mr. Fuji wanted to be young again, and she felt bad for him. "I guess I can, but – "

"Wonderful! Here's a map." He shoved a rolled up map into her hands.

"What about the message?"

"Oh! Tell him 'Recalled to Life'."

Lina hesitated, confused, before Mr. Fuji howled with laughter, making her jump slightly.

"Just kidding! Lina, I know you've read the classics."

Lina didn't actually know what he was talking about, but smiled and nodded anyway. It was best to do that when dealing with Mr. Fuji.

"The real message is this!" Mr. Fuji leaned in conspiratorially, making Lina do the same. Then Mr. Fuji threw a letter at her, and she caught it quickly, a bit startled as to where the letter had even come from. "That is the message! Look for the Man who Knows Everything"

"Okay! I'll go do that, then!"

"Be careful on the streets of Celadon." Mr. Fuji said, then started to sing. "It's hard out there for a pi – "

"Mr. Fuji!" Lina cried. Her ears would have burned and fallen off if he'd sung any more. "I'm going now!"

She hurried out of the house and towards the road to Saffron. She'd have to walk through the second-biggest city to get to the biggest, which was overly alarming and made her feel slightly dizzy with anxiety and nerves. The only reason she'd hurried so fast from her hometown was because Mr. Fuji was acting crazy again.

As she walked along the road, she realized she should probably call her dad again. Getting out her phone, she dialed his number.

"Lina?" he answered. "Did you go see Mr. Fuji?"

"Yeah. He's kind of acting insane again. I'm going to – "

"Sorry, honey, I can't really talk right now. I'm with a customer."

In the background, Lina heard a voice. "Deeeeeear, deeeeeear! Won't yooou get off the phoooone and help meeee naaaame myyy Meeeeeeeeoowwwwwwth?"

"Gotta go! Bye!" Her dad hung up.

Sighing, Lina looked around at her surroundings. Numerous trainers stood around the path, training and waiting far too eagerly for someone to battle. She kept her head low and her light eyes trained on the ground as she hurried along. She wasn't a trainer, and couldn't battle anyone.

Unfortunately, a boy noticed her. "Hey! You! Slow down!"

Lina did the exact opposite and sped up. But he ran after her and grabbed her arm. Trying not to show she was scared, but failing almost miserably, Lina turned around to face him. "Wh-what do you want?"

"You wanna battle?"

"No!" She shoved his hand off her arm and ran away as fast as she could, leaving the boy scratching his head, confused.

She looked behind her to see if he was still following her and crashed right into a bike, making it topple over along with herself. She sat on the ground for a moment before she got up and brushed herself off. "I'm so sorry!" she apologized, to the biker who was pulling his bike up.

He glared at her. "Watch where you're going, man!"

"Sorry! Are you okay?"

He shot her another glare. "No thanks to you."

Another biker rode up. "Who's this kid?" he sneered.

"I don't know, man."

"Hey, kid, what's your name?" the second one asked.

"L-lina."

"Luh-leeeena?" he repeated, making a face. "Well, Luh-leeeena, you messed up my buddy's bike here. You wanna repay us with your Pokemon?"

"Uh, I don't have any…"

"A pretty little girl like you all alone, without any Pokemon to protect you?"

"I'm just going to Celadon – "

"Celadon, huh? Going to do some shopping? There's a thought. Hey, why don't you give us all your money instead?"

"N-no," she said. She didn't have very much with her, but she still didn't want them taking it, no matter how scared she was.

"No? Well, then, I guess we'll just have to help ourselves," he said, leaning forward to grab her backpack. She grabbed it and hung onto it as hard as she could as he tried to pry it from her.

"Hey, man, leave her alone," the first biker said "She's just a kid."

The second biker let go and leaned in close to her face. "You're just lucky Rico here doesn't get mad easy," he said. She nodded rapidly.

He rode off on his bike. The first biker, Rico, frowned at her again. "You should be more careful," he said, shaking his head. "Lavender kids," he muttered.

"Uh, thanks for the tip! I will be!" she said, backing away quickly, not wondering how he knew she was from Lavender.

"Hey, man, if you're going to Celadon, you should go through the underground path," he said. "You can skip Saffron then. It's real busy with Team Rocket right now."

Lina nodded, turned, and ran away. Sure enough, she saw a small building north of the passageway to Saffron. In front of the northern building, there was a sign that read "Lavender – Celadon". Walking inside, she saw that there were stairs heading down. Biting her lip, Lina hoped this wasn't a trap laid by the bikers, and began to go downstairs.

Once she had descended all the stairs, she found herself in a dimly lit hallway that stretched on and on. It seemed she'd been walking for hours when finally she saw stairs heading up in front of her. Relieved, she rushed up them and out of the underground path. When she opened the door, she saw a huge city to the west, and with a small smile on her face, headed towards it.

Once she had reached the city, she saw that this place had some members of Team Rocket in it too. They lurked around the edges, and she shivered a tiny bit when she passed them. Lina hurried into the Pokemon Center and headed to the main desk.

Nurse Joy smiled at her. "Hello, may I help you?"

Lina gave her a tiny smile back. "Uh, I was wondering if you knew where the Man Who Knows Everything is?"

The nurse frowned. "Sorry, no. But the most commonly visited places here are the Game Corner, Celadon Department Store, the Mansion, Celadon Restaurant, and the Gym."

"Thanks," Lina said, smiling. She left the center and checked her map. "Okay, the Game Corner?" she said to herself. Locating it on the map, she walked towards it. When she reached the building, she opened the door. To her surprise, the Game Corner was full of slot machines! Lina stood there for a moment, staring around. Was she allowed to go in? What if they arrested her? What would her dad say?

An old man approached her. "Heh heh heh, hello, you young thing, you."

Lina gulped as he came closer. "Uh, hi. Do you know where the Man Who Knows Everything is?" she asked quickly.

"Heh heh, no. But if you want, I can tell you a secret."

"Uh… that's okay! Really! Bye now!" Lina fled the Game Corner, her face red. She looked back to see the old man coming after her. Lina kept running until she reached a house – the restaurant on her map! Then she flung open the door and ducked inside.

"Whew," she said. She turned around, expecting to see the restaurant, but instead found three men staring at her blankly. One was old and fat, and the two others were dressed in the uniforms of Team Rocket.

"Who are you?" the fat, balding man demanded.

"Is this… the restaurant?" Lina asked, thoroughly confused.

"No." One of the Team Rocket men smiled and came towards her. "Won't you join Team Rocket? Please? Please?"

"No, that's okay…" Lina began to back out of the house.

The other Team Rocket man sighed. "We don't have enough members of Team Rocket! We need more!"

Lina looked at them, confused. "So you just ask random people who walk by if they'll be in it?" she couldn't help asking.

The first man nodded brightly. "Exactly! Once we accidentally asked Officer Jenny, though…"

The other man shrugged. "Oops!"

Lina gave them a tight smile and left quickly. Once she got outside, she sighed. Where was the restaurant? Suddenly, she heard a familiar senile cackling behind her and she jumped, racing into the building beside the Team Rocket house. "Please let these people be nice and normal and – " She looked around happily. She had run inside the restaurant! It looked identical to the house she'd been in before from the outside.

"Do you need a seat?" a waitress asked her.

"No, I'm just looking for someone… do you know who the Man Who Knows Everything is?"

The waitress shook her head. "Sorry, no. You should probably check the Gym, though. A lot of the men around here hang out in front of it, trying to see inside." She rolled her eyes.

"Okay, thanks!" Lina dashed out again, not checking to see if the old man was still following her. Using her map, she found the path to the Gym. Unfortunately, a skinny tree was in the way.

Lina sighed. She was wearing a skirt, but that apparently didn't matter to Mr. Fuji and his all-knowing buddy. She climbed the tree slowly, almost falling twice. Finally, she leapt to the ground on the other side of the tree and walked toward the Gym.

In front, there was only one old man trying to peek in the windows. By now, Lina was extremely sick of old men (Mr. Fuji, her stalker, etc.) and when she saw him, sighed. "Are you the Man Who Knows Everything?" she asked him.

He turned around. "No, sadly enough. Then I could figure out how to get into this Gym!"

"Do you know where the Man Who Knows Everything is?"

"No, sadly enough. Then he could tell me how to get into the Gym!"

Lina exhaled and turned around again. This time, she did fall when getting down the tree. At least it was forward, so she didn't have to re-climb it. She scraped her knees and hands, but luckily she wasn't bleeding. She trudged toward the Department Store.

It was hard to miss: the building was at least five stories tall, and the only other building that rivaled its size was its neighbor, the Mansion (which still wasn't quite as large). It seemed ages before she even reached the store, then finally opened the door, tiredly.

"Welcome to the Celadon Department Store!" a woman greeted her. Lina looked up and offered a small smile.

"Hi, do you know who the Man Who Knows Everything is?" she asked.

The woman shook her head, still smiling vapidly. "No, but we have 50 off Pokedolls!"

Lina left sadly. As she walked to the Mansion, her last hope, a little kid running around a fountain sprayed water on her. Just her luck. But she didn't say anything.

The Mansion loomed in front of her. Where the Department store had been modern, the Mansion was strangely out of place. It looked like it should have been in Lavender town instead. However, though it had a Victorian look to it, the Mansion was painted a happy color that reminded her of the sun, or at least a Psyduck. When she opened the door, a small room was to her left. Peering in, she saw an old woman surrounded by Pokemon.

"Um, hello," Lina said, a bit confused. "Do you know where the Man Who Knows Everything is? Or who he is?"

The woman's steely eyes met hers. Lina shifted, nervously fidgeting with her horn-rimmed glasses. Was she going to kill her or something? She shut her eyes in expectation, hoping it wouldn't hurt much.

"Actually, yes," the woman finally said.

"Uh… pardon me?" Lina opened her eyes again, tentatively.

"I do know where he is."

Lina stared at the old woman. "Wh…what? You… do?" She was taken aback. The Man Who Knew Everything wasn't just a senile figment of Mr. Fuji's dusty brain?

The woman nodded. "Yes. Now, you must go to the Pokemon center. But do not enter! From there, you head north up the alley, and follow it until you reach a door. Then, you enter it, and climb all the stairs. You will reach this Man Who Knows Everything."

"Thank you!" Lina exclaimed. Okay, so she wasn't a murderer. She was actually the most helpful person Lina had met so far!

She ran out of the Mansion and to the Pokemon center, racing as fast as she could up the alley and around. She had an idiotic smile on her face as she ran: she couldn't help but feel a little proud. She had come all the way to this city, after all, and hadn't gotten beat up or had her things stolen. Okay, so she had come close to both, but she had been able to avoid it. People who lived here probably were threatened with both multiple times a day.

She was almost so lost in her thoughts as she ran that she didn't see the door. She suddenly stopped to a halt: she noticed it. But… it was in the back of the Mansion? Shrugging, Lina opened the door, then scaled the first staircase. She continued hurrying up the stairs until she reached the top of the building.

She suddenly grew nervous again, as she clutched the envelope that had the message in it. Coming to a door, she read what the sign outside it said: "I Know Everything". A tiny smile on her face, Lina knocked on the door.

"Come in."

She slowly turned the handle and opened the door. It was a small room, with a table and a chalkboard filled with information. A man dressed strangely as a ninja stood in front of her.

"Um, hello. Are you the Man Who Knows Everything?" Lina asked.

"Yes."

"I have a message for you. From Mr. Fuji."

He nodded. "Mr. Fuji is my friend." If he was happy to get a letter from him, he didn't show it. Lina handed over the envelope, and he took it, tore it open savagely, and read it.

"I see." He suddenly ripped up the letter, then crumpled each piece up, and shoved them all in his mouth, swallowing them. Lina watched, puzzled and slightly scared. The Man Who Knew Everything continued: "Thank you for delivering this message to me. Now, I will need you to take a message to the Safari Zone Warden in Fuchsia City. I trust you have a map?"

Lina blinked. Had she heard him right? "Uh… what?"

"You do have a map to lead you to Fuchsia City, correct?"

"I don't think I can – "

"Why am I asking? I know everything. You must be careful, though. The Cycling Road is full of bikers who will steal everything from you if you do not fight them. Here, I will give you a Pokemon."

"Wh-what?" Lina's head was spinning.

The Man Who Knew Everything threw a Pokeball at her. Lina caught it and looked at it in her hands.

"There. Now, go. Tell the Safari Zone Warden that the time has come to begin. He will know what you mean."

"Uh…?" Lina finally found her speech. "Look, I have to go back to Lavender! I can't just keep running around the country doing errands for people – "

"You will find my bicycle outside, in the alley. Here is the key. You must have a bike to ride down Cycling Road."

"I can't do this!"

"I know everything. Go." He pushed her out and closed the door, leaving Lina standing there, confused and lost.

About an hour ago she'd been relaxing near her quiet hometown that she rarely left, and now she was in the largest, busiest city in Kanto! She wasn't exactly sure how it had happened, but however it did, it was fast. And now she had a Pokemon? She didn't even know what kind it was! Lina stared at the Pokeball, silently asking it for answers. Of course, it gave none. Why was Mr. Fuji making her do this? What did he tell the Man Who Knew Everything? Why was it so important? And what was the Safari Zone Warden going to begin?

Life certainly got more confusing outside Lavender Town.

That's it for the first chapter. :3 Next chapter is Cycling Road, hooray! xD Please review! Oh, and can anyone EVER hope to guess what Pokemon she got? I know, it's pretty hard. xD