On cloudy days like these, Lance Neuman was always unhappy and bored with the gray, unchanging scenes in front of him, and sometimes he would not seem to notice when the day ended and the night began. If he had taken more time to look at the clock on his shelf before he left, he might have been more urgent when his mother asked him to go to town; but he kept going on, trying to tell the time by the position of the sun, which on days like this, did not work. Before he left the house, he took a moment to wash his face, and brush his hair. The reflection of the white, brown-haired boy stared back at Lance with bright brown eyes. His eyes fixated on an exact point in the reflection: a long black streak in his hair that traveled from the top right of his forehead, down to just above his left eye. Making some last second touch-ups to his hair, he smiled at his reflection, put the comb into the holder, and left the house.
His mother had asked him to go to the town to pick up some cooking supplies. He didn't know what they were; he had a list written down by his mother. As he closed the house door behind him, he began to look around nervously. Something, he felt, was coming. He looked first to his left. Nothing. Then to his right. Also nothing. This however, did not ease the nervous feeling he had. At that moment, he heard something. He quickly looked to his left again, to see a small collection of dust falling from the small roof above the door. He instinctively looked up, and found what was giving him this uneasy feeling. It was too late however. He yelled, and fell to the ground as a creature jumped from the roof onto Lance. The yells where quickly followed by laughter.
As Lance had expected, his fun-loving companion Totodile had been the cause of his feelings. The tiny blue alligator loved to be around Lance, but loved to play jokes just as much. This was just another one of them.
As Lance and Totodile laid on the ground laughing, the clouds above them began to darken slightly. Noticing this, Lance brought himself to his feet, realizing he should leave soon if he's going to beat the weather.
"Alright, you coming buddy?"
As if given an order, the Totodile stood straight up, and saluted to its trainer with a smile. This was their life: simple, unchanging, and yet still entertaining. The two of them would have it no other way.
The walk to the town was not long. The road from Lance's house was almost a direct line there, with a few curves in the road thrown in. The dirt path was a road that many people used, as it was the main road between the town center, and most of the residents. There had been a vote to pave the road not too long before, but it was decidedly voted against, citing that while it was the main road, not only did people not have a problem with the road, but that the town did not have enough money and popularity to warrant the creation of a paved road. The dirt road actually helped make the town seem smaller, and make people feel closer. It also made them happy to know that they where not damaging the surrounding trees and environment around them, keeping the Pokemon safe.
Lance and Totodile made their way into the town center, leaving the dirt road behind them, and entering a strange case of "technology". While the road was dirt, the town center was paved… poorly. It was cracked, and had many holes and dips in it. However, the sidewalks where taken care of beautifully. They still looked as if nobody had ever walked on them. Lance and Totodile changed that. They took a step onto the sidewalk, and immediately noticed that they left a plain dirty spot on it. The dirt road had dirtied their feet, as expected. The two shrugged it off, and continued to venture deeper into the town center. There were many buildings in it, but they all seemed to be crying out for some love and care, judging by their painfully old looks. Even the great Town Hall had a shade of dirty gray on it. The people walking on the streets and around these buildings where anything but gray however. The town had a flamboyant personality, with many people showing their pride in themselves with bright colors, farmer outfits, and even some town teenagers who wore band tee shirts. Lance was, according to the fashion of the town, a rebel. His plain black tee shirt and matching black jeans went completely against the mold, which did not seem to bother or even call for the attention of the others.
With a town as colorful as this, people didn't seem to care what others were wearing. Even with that, as Totodile and Lance made their way to the town center which contained the grocery store, Lance could not help but notice many people in the town. They all were wearing white pants and white shirts. On the shirts was a large, scarlet red "R". Figuring they where all part of a group celebrating some game, he continued to the store.
However, he couldn't help but notice that he did not know these people, which was strange for a town this size. Creston does not normally harbor tourists, and does not see many strangers. These "R" people gave an uneasy feeling to the town, but people tried their best to not think too much about it.
As Lance and Totodile got to the center of town he noticed that there were more and more of these strangers. It was unnerving, but nothing Lance couldn't try to forget about. He attempted to ignore these people, but try as he may these R's had pitched a tent in his mind. Such a strange costume, he thought. South Carolina isn't the fashion center of America anyway, and that was made obvious as Lance turned his gaze toward a short, fat man standing by himself, wearing a pink "I'm with stupid" tee shirt. "How disgusting." Lance thought to himself Lance's eyes quickly turned away from the pink ball, only to be met with another man with an "R" shirt. His mind was thrust back from the vulgar image of the man to the dark, cold, and emotionless faces of these seemingly out-of-place men. He kept walking, keeping his eyes on all of them, almost as if waiting.
Soon the two reached their destination: the grocery store. As he stepped to the front of the store and opened the door, another man with an R on his shirt walked out of the newly opened door. For reasons he didn't quite know, Lance kept his eyes fixated on the man, and kept his ears alert. It was something he would regret, for the man raised his arm and spoke two words into his wristwatch that would change Lance's life forever.
"Begin operation."
Lance and Totodile immediately turned around to face the man- but it was too late. They had barely fixed their eyes on the man's face before the loud, metallic sound of an explosion pierced their ears. Just outside Lance saw a massive ball of fire and metal rising up from what was once a car. At that moment Lance's hearing failed him. A low pitch, painful screech rang through his ears. Only the beating of his racing heart seemed to thud its way through the sound. Time seemed to be standing still as Lance looked to his left and to his right. The terrified faces of people and their Pokemon were everywhere. The image of the pink man was now stamped into his memory forever. He was lying down outside; a metal pole had pierced all the way through his body and drove itself into the ground like a stake.
Lance couldn't think; his brain had no way to process everything that was going on. He moved his eyes quickly and focused on the man that had previously spoken. His chest was moving in an out at a rapid pace, as if he was having trouble breathing. His mouth was wide open, and Lance expected him to say something. Just then, everything came flying at Lance. His hearing came back, and time returned to normal. The return of his hearing only gave him wrath. The man, the hideous man was laughing! Lance thought correctly; he was having trouble breathing. He was laughing so hard his lungs could hardly keep up. Lance ran at the man thinking he had to do something, anything. Just as he had begun, another loud explosion caught his attention. Grimly, Lance looked to his right to find a cloud of gray dust and rubble falling out of the air. Suddenly, something he had never seen before raced out of the dust.
A massive, white-and-red colored machine screamed through the streets. It was cylindrical in shape with another scarlet "R" on it, and rode on what seemed to be tank wheels. It had two large, machine-like arms and hands on each side of its body. An opening could be seen in the center, just below the R. It was a container! The arms were grabbing and throwing Pokemon into it. The surprised Pokemon were unable to defend themselves as they where violently tossed into the prison. Where was Totodile during this chaos?
Lance immediately took his attention off of the machine in search of his friend. If he had paid more attention, he would have noticed the emergence of fourteen, more of the machines-each doing the same job as the first. Lance found Totodile on the sidewalk in front of the store, screaming at the machines. He ran as quickly as he could, and grabbed his friend. Nothing was going to take Totodile away, absolutely nothing! Suddenly, Lance felt a sharp pain around him. He looked down at his body and found himself and Totodile had just been grabbed by one of the machines' hands. There was no time to react; the arm lifted the two of them into the air without showing any effort, and threw them into the chamber with the other Pokemon that had been stolen.
As Lance hit the floor of the chamber, he looked up and out of the machine. Tears rolled down his eyes as he saw the door closing. Slowly, the light began to fade from the prison, until for just a split second, only a small beam of light reached his face. It was the last time many of the creatures in this place would see the light of day…
The explosions and sounds of screaming people became more and more quiet after some time. Then Lance could feel the machine begin to move. The bumping and bouncing of the machine traveling over roads and hills caused many of the Pokemon inside to grow sick. Eventually, everybody inside got used to the ride. For what seemed like an eternity, Lance, Totodile, and the rest of the Pokemon sat in their prison, only able to make guesses as to what their future would be. The sounds of the weeping and crying Jigglypuffs, the angry, roaring Nidoking, and the weak cries of the rest of the Pokemon only added to the solemn atmosphere. Then suddenly, the machine stopped, and the door began to open.