A/N: This is a mostly OC-centric story, set a generation after the current TV series. As suggested by the summary, Human-Pokémon transformation is what this story is mostly about.

GIANNI

Prologue

A victorious smell of smoke was in the air. I looked down at the arena, which was still smoldering. It was completely destroyed, but that wouldn't matter much. The rush I had was starting to fade away as I became human again, breathing heavily. I was exhausted but at the same time I wasn't tired at all. It had all felt so great.

He was finally dead. No, it was finally dead. To think, that thing had actually tried to command respect from us. We created him, and we had every right to destroy him. Now there was nothing stopping Team Rocket from taking over the region-no, not just Kanto, we could take over the whole world. I was going to go down in history as the one who made it happen. And I was damn proud of it.

I heard footsteps on the metal staircase behind me, and didn't need to here a voice to know who it was. He got closer to me, while I remained stoic...and, for the first time in my sixteen years of life, my father...tousled my hair. The people I had called "parents" my whole life had seemed scared of laying a finger on me.

It was that single movement, just feeling his fingers scratch my hair, that seemed to make everything fall perfectly into place. I knew who I was now, I knew my place in the world-I was a key figure in the biggest criminal organization that existed. And I had never felt better.

"Well done, son," he said. "Well done."

And for the first time in a very long time, I felt the corners of my mouth curl up into a smile.

Chapter 1

Moving

Moving seemed like a great idea at first. I never cared for Driftveil, and I doubt most people did. It had only took about thirteen years of constant rain, hearing gunshots outside, and two home burglaries for my family to realize that the City of Billowing Sails wasn't the place for us. I knew I wouldn't miss it too much.

But when my parents announced to me and my brother that we were moving to Pallet Town, Pallet Town, of all places, only then did I actually start to like Driftveil, and I even for a while tried to get them to stay. But it was too late. Believing, justifiably, that we all couldn't wait to get out of Driftveil, my father had accepted a job in Viridian, and now here we were, on a flight bound for Southwest Kanto Interregional Airport. I was going to be neighbors with freaking Ash Ketcham.

The Pokemon Master. Possibly the greatest trainer who ever lived. Most aspiring trainers would probably be thrilled to be moving near him, but not me. I don't feel inspiration. I just feel jealousy.

The flight was an overnighter, but I knew I wasn't going to be sleeping. There was too much on my mind. I had an aisle seat in the center row, while the rest of my family was across from me, with my father having the other aisle seat.

It was almost completely dark in the cabin. From the little starlight coming in from the windows, I could make out the features of my father. He, like the rest of the people on the plane, was sleeping peacefully.

James Fatale was a rather effeminate individual, with graying purple hair that parted from the center of his forehead and a perpetual foppishness to his character, especially his voice. He was born to a terrifically wealthy family in Kanto, but lost all contact with them after he refused to agree to an arranged marriage or something like that. He met my mother in school and for a long time they worked together as machine operators or something (they never talk about it), doing a lot of travelling. They eventually settled down together and he got a job at the port in Driftveil, while my mother became a part-time nurse.

My gaze drifted to my mother, Jessie, sitting next to him, also asleep and snoring a little. She was a slim woman with long, magenta hair that curved like a big saber and was unnaturally bright due to excessive dyeing (it practically shined in the moonlight), and her face as a whole did not show much aging. She was one of those people who couldn't bear to look old, therefore she always wore a few layers of makeup and had no problem dressing a little revealingly. She had been orphaned at a young age and grew up in poverty, and would always have something to say about her "miserable orphan life" if me or my brother dare complained about our lives.

Finally, my eyes moved to my younger brother, nine-year-old James "Jimmy" Fatale, Jr., sitting in the window seat and resting his head against my mother's shoulder. He was annoying, hyperactive, and basically like any other younger brother. He looked a little like both our parents, with our father's face but our mother's red hair.

People had a habit of questioning of as to why I, the elder son, wasn't named after my father. Apparently, my parents never originally planned on naming a son after my father, but Jimmy had been born during a time when my father was extremely ill and flirting with death, so my mother named him in his honor, thinking he was going to die, or so I'm told. Honestly, I really couldn't care less.

I had my father's green eyes. Other than that, I looked absolutely nothing like my parents. I had tan skin and wavy dark brown hair that fell over the right side of my face. I'd come to the conclusion that I must look a lot like my maternal grandfather, who I had never seen and whose whereabouts were completely unknown.

Bored, I began to think about how I wasn't going to be starting as a trainer in Unova. About a decade ago they moved the legal age of being able to get a Trainer's License from ten to thirteen, and I had just been about to begin my journey in Unova, looking forward to getting a snivy. But that wasn't going to happen now. To pass the time, I began thinking about bulbasaur, charmander, and squirtle, and which one I would like best.

I had finally begun to get tired when the pilot's voice sounded on the intercom. "Attention passengers, we will be landing at Southwest Kanto shortly-"

I didn't get to hear the rest of the announcement before Jimmy burst into activity.

"OH BOY! OH BOY! OH BOY! WE'RE HERE!" My brother was actually excited about moving to Pallet Town, having practically worshiped Ash since he could talk. I did...sorta...beat him up a few times for his excessive enthusiasm and my parents were always on his side, of course. I admit, I had been harsh on him. But now even my parents were seeing that this kid had, like, some serious problem.

Dad had awoken too and immediately tried to calm him down. "Jimmy, please, you don't have to wake up the whole plane!"

But the boy didn't listen and continued yelling. Unfortunately, as I had learned, there was no calming him down unless…

"JIMMY, YOU STOP RIGHT NOW! YOU'RE MAKING A SCENE!" Mom, who only a moment ago had been in a deep sleep, practically breathed fire. Thankfully, this shut the twerp up. Mom turned around and realized she had made much more of a scene by screaming like that, as the whole cabin was staring at her, and I stifled a laugh at her embarrassment.

In a few minutes we were landing, and my brother seemed so jumpy that it was actually quite amusing. Our parents just seemed tired. I wasn't really excited either, nor was I depressed-just a little tired. I was always a very apathetic person, and that wasn't going to change anytime soon.

We arrived at the gate and got off the plane. Mom grabbed Jimmy's hand to make sure we stayed together as we navigated through the bustling terminal. She tried to take my hand but I refused and kept my hands in the pockets of the hooded sweatshirt I was wearing. She seemed irritated for a moment but didn't say anything.

As we exited the terminal our father separated from us, having to leave for Viridian to go meet up with his new boss.

Before I knew it, my mother, Jimmy, and I were in a cab headed for Pallet Town. I rested my head on the back window; at this point I had to fight off sleep. I tuned out the conversation my mother and brother were having about the flight and just looked out the window at the roadside.

We were soon on a road that wounded through a forested area. Tall trees surrounded the road on both sides. After about half an hour, the trees on one side disappeared, with a ledge taking its place The sky was just beginning to lighten, but not until the cab rounded a bend did I see the sunrise.

I saw the Viridian skyline below us. The sunrise cast a golden shadow on the city that was just waking up. It was, I have to admit, a really pretty sight. The three of us all took the sight in, remaining quiet for a moment.

"Looks like the beginning of a new day for the world...and the beginning of a new life for us, hm?" Mom was apparently trying to sound philosophical, but she just sounded corny. I rolled my eyes, but she didn't seem to notice, or maybe just didn't care.

"Gianni, I haven't heard you say a word since we left Driftveil. Is everything alright?"

I turned to face Mom. She seemed genuinely concerned. "Yeah...I'm fine...just the whole moving-halfway-around-the-world thing's made me a little tired, you know."

She apparently did not see my attempt to start a deep conservation, and I shouldn't have expected much more. My parents were very shallow people. "You didn't get any sleep on the plane? Well, you can get some sleep when we get home, alright?" she said pleasantly, and a bit overly-motherly.

"TIRED?! Gianni, how could you possibly be TIRED? This is the most exciting day of our LIVES! We're gonna live near ASH KETCHUM! We might even see PIKACHU!" Jimmy went off again, but this time Mom was just as resigned as I was…

After fifteen minutes or so we were on a road travelling through wide open spaces and rolling hills. A building with a wind turbine came into view. "What's that?" I asked.

"That over there is the Pokemon Professor's Lab," The taxi driver responded in a gruff voice. "We're just crossing into Pallet Town now."

A few houses started to pop up along the roadside, getting closer and closer together as we entered the rural village. Though the area was fairly nice, I became sure that I had moved to the most boring place in the world…

As I was busy lamenting inwardly, the taxi came to a stop in front of the new house. Jimmy opened the door and hopped out, and Mom and I followed. The taxi drove away, leaving the three of us standing for a moment, just "taking in" the sight of our new home.

A white picket fence stood in front of us, and behind it a small path cut through the green front lawn, before meeting a gray patio. The house itself, a single-level ranch house, appeared to be relatively new but was quite small. It was clean white in color with red roofing.

Jimmy was unimpressed. "Our old home was bigger…"

"Our old home was in the ghetto." I retorted. He stuck his tongue out at me.

"Boys, stop it, please! You can't keep acting like this, especially since you'll be sharing a room together!"

Jimmy and I were silent for a moment. There was no way that was going to work out and we both knew it. "I'll sleep on the couch."

"Gianni, you don't have to-"

"Believe me, Mom, I want to."

"Oh, alright. Jimmy, what do you say?"

"Thanks, Gianni." He opened the gate and we started walking up the pathway. "Hey, I still got reasons to be happy we're here-we're living in the same town as ASH KETCHUM! I can't believe it!" He continued to talk on as we walked on to the patio and Mom opened the door. "I wonder where he lives...maybe its a mansion! We gotta go see sometime, right!"

I walked into the house behind my mother and brother. I dove onto the sofa and kicked my shoes off. At this point I was needing nice, comfortable sleep desperately. My brother was still babbling away.

"Kill me now."

I hope you enjoyed the prologue and this chapter. Chapter 1 was a bit fast-paced, I hope not too much.