Chapter One

Penny eased her eyes open and immediately put a hand to her throbbing head. What had she done, hit her head on a rock? It was killing her! She lay in the soft, squishy bed for a minute before she realized something: this was not her bedroom. "What...?" She bit her lip and slowly eased herself up into a seated position. The room was decorated in dark, navy blue hues with ivory walls. Everything was meticulously in its place, it seemed, and the area was quite spacious. The bed she found herself in was huge, enough to sleep probably three people and even a child if it were necessary. She was tucked in, she noticed. Where was this place? After sitting in the bed for a moment, she slipped her feet out from under the navy blankets and onto the cold tile floor; it was also navy. The door to the bedroom was cracked open and she heard a voice coming from somewhere on the other side of it. Had she been kidnapped? Her heart began to race as she carefully opened the door and peered into a short hallway. The navy tile extended into the hall and the bright room beyond and Penny did her best to creep along it without making any noise.

"Hm? What is it, buddy?" A male voice came from somewhere in the next room and Penny froze as she heard the tiny clatter of feet on the floor, more specifically paws. If there was a dog in here and she had been kidnapped, this dog might be aggressive. She took a step back, wondering if it would be best if she hid in that bedroom but she was unable to make such a decision as a yellow head poked itself around the corner and she found herself staring eye-to-eye with two onyx colored orbs of a bright yellow dog-like creature with spiky fur. It barked and made her jump. "Jolteon?" The male voice said a word that made as little sense to Penny as the visual appearance of the animal and she scrambled backward, further intriguing the creature before her.

"N-No, stay back!" She yelped. The next instant brought a man into her view as he stood behind the animal who was sniffing at Penny's toe.

"Oh, it's you. You finally woke up." He said and ran a hand through his vibrant blond hair that was almost as spiky as the fur on his... wait what had he seriously called this creature?

"W-Who are you?" Penny stammered and stood shakily in the middle of the short hallway. The man arched a brow and looked between her and his pet as he reached down to affectionately pet it.

"Surprised you don't already know me. Volkner. Sunyshore's gym leader." He ruffled the fur on his creature for a moment. "This here's Jolteon. He's the one who sniffed you out." He patted Jolteon's head and it barked.

"J-Jolteon?" She shook her head. "Jolteon's don't exist, you're insane." She bit her lip and took another step back as the man stood back to his height that was quite taller, a half-head more so, than her own.

"Are you insane? There's one right in front of you. You've never seen a Jolteon before?" He folded his arms in his grey track jacket and observed her through his icy blue eyes; she was frightened, terrified, even.

"Of course not! You think this is normal?!" She shook her head again. "You said you were a gym leader? What is all of this, some practical joke? Because this isn't funny, Volkner." She attempted to lace her words with poison but her shaking was audible in her voice.

Volkner's brows knit together as he gave a heavy sigh. "Alright, alright just calm down. Seems like you hit your head. Jolteon, go lay down in the living room buddy, give me a minute here." He instructed and the creature yipped a little and trotted off, its claws clicking on the tile. Volkner turned his attention back to the shivering girl and sighed. "Okay. Now, he's gone. I didn't realize you'd be so afraid of a pokemon you'd never seen before." He shook his head a little, attempting to set some of his hair in place.

Penny's eyes widened for a moment. "Poke...mon?" She breathed the word out and this gained her another raised eyebrow from Volkner. "That thing isn't a pokemon, pokemon don't exist." She said, looking wild-eyed at him.

"Clearly they do. Listen, are you alright? Maybe I should've taken you to the hospital instead of bringing you home with me." He frowned as he thought aloud, scratching his chin.

Rai-rai...? A small, scratchy voice at the end of the hallway caught their attention and Penny almost screamed: there, where she'd first laid eyes on the 'Jolteon' before, stood a two-foot pudgy orange and yellow mouse-like creature with large pointy black ears.

"It's alright, she's just scared, Raichu." Volkner said, glancing back at the little creature, whose nose was wiggling around in the air as he sniffed about.

"Raichu...?" Penny mumbled and stared at the creature as it blinked its sparkling black eyes at her.

Rai! It chittered happily and hopped a little toward her.

Penny yelped and stumbled backward, shaking her head. "No, w-wait, stay back!" She whimpered, her eyes suddenly filling with tears.

Volkner observed this reaction with grave concern and held a hand up to stop his Raichu. "Hold on, Raichu. I don't... think she wants to play with you right now. Go find Jolteon." He said and walked over to the whimpering girl. "Come on, I think we need to go to the hospital." He was surprised when she latched on to his arm with a tiny nod. "It'll be okay... just come on." He awkwardly patted her head and swallowed hard; this was the strangest girl he'd ever met before.

〜〜〜

"Where is everybody?" Penny's voice rang through his penthouse and she heard the skittering of paws on the tile. This time, however, that sound made her smile. Penny had been with Volkner in his penthouse above Sunyshore Gym for three days and over the course of those three days, she'd learned that she was not insane and neither was Volkner: she was now living in the world of pokemon. The hospital had confirmed that she was completely healthy and Volkner chose to conceal the fact that he'd found her unconscious on the beach from her until they returned home afterward. He learned that she came from a world where pokemon did not exist in the flesh, but merely as fun, cartoon versions of the real things. The two of them had had a discussion over dinner of whether the creators of pokemon in her world had somehow visited his world and that was how the knowledge had passed on to where she lived. Finding the occurrence so completely bizarre, Volkner decided to call in a few friends to see if they'd ever heard of a person coming from another world before: the pokemon G-Men. The G-Men was an organization that operated like a secret, undercover government body to fight crime, terrorism and solve mysteries of the pokemon world to better protect the people and pokemon that lived there. Volkner, he informed Penny, was part of an elite group of men who served right under the field commander, a man by the name of Lance. Because of the information Penny knew from her world, she miraculously knew the names of all of Volkner's friends and had a vast working knowledge of pokemon as well. Unbeknownst to Penny, Volkner and his team had also discussed the possibility of Penny's possessing her own pokemon to look after in order to help her acclimate better to living in this world while they all attempted to figure out how and why she'd come to live there.

Jolt! Jolteon yipped at her as she entered the living room and scurried over to her.

"Hey, handsome." She giggled and kneeled, letting the pokemon lick her cheeks as she gave him affectionate pets.

"Hello, yourself." Volkner's velvety voice was full of amusement behind her and Penny glanced back at him.

"I was talking to Jolteon, Volkner." She gave him a look and stood up, putting a hand on her hip. Volkner smirked and stepped up to her, leaning down so his face was inches from hers. Penny felt her cheeks heating up and she glanced to the side. He'd gotten quite friendly with her a lot faster than she felt comfortable with him. It was clear early on to her that Volkner was one heck of a playboy.

"So you don't think I'm handsome at all...?" He almost purred to her. Penny frowned a little. What was with all of this sexual harassment? It was alright, though, because it usually stopped when... "OW! Jolteon!" Volkner hopped back and scowled at his pokemon who had delivered a tiny volt of electricity to his own trainer.

"He doesn't like it when you flirt so openly with me." Penny giggled and leaned down to pet the happy electric pokemon.

Volkner rolled his eyes. "He's jealous." He scoffed and headed toward the kitchen. Just then, a pleasant ding filled the penthouse: the doorbell. "Get that, will you?" He called, continuing onward to the kitchen.

Penny and Jolteon exchanged glances and she shrugged, going to the door with Jolteon at her heels. Volkner was always getting packages, it seemed, as he was an inventor; he'd shown her all of the solar tiles and electronics he had invented for the operation of Sunyshore City. While she had been greatly impressed, the entire city almost felt like Volkner's personal science project at times. She opened the door with a polite smile, holding a hand out for the pen and clipboard she knew were coming so she could sign for his items. Instead, a hand grasped hers in a strong, tight grip and her eyes shot up to a pair of chestnut ones that glittered with intrigue. The flaming carmine hair that accompanied these eyes stuck up in gravity defying spikes that almost mirrored flames themselves. "O-Oh!" Penny stammered and blushed. "Sorry, I thought..." She cleared her throat as the man shook her hand.

"You must be Penny." He said, an amused grin on his face; a face Penny quickly realized was extremely handsome. Leave it to Volkner to be acquainted with someone equally as attractive as he was; he was vain, after all.

"Oh um, yes. I'm Penny." She nodded a little and suddenly was aware that there were more people outside the door aside from this mystery man.

"Penny, are you going to invite them in, or what?" Volkner asked, sipping on his Moo-Moo milk behind her. Penny pulled her hand back from the man and stepped aside, with Jolteon standing so close to her legs that his fur brushed against her skin. "I wondered what time you guys were going to get here. Then I got Falkner's message." He said, motioning for them all to enter. After the red-haired man came one with blue-black swooping hair that covered one eye and another with spiky, messy silver hair; apparently spikes were in in the pokemon world.

"You don't get much reception on the back of a Dragonite, Volkner." The red haired man chuckled and Penny paled; a dragonite?! The only pokemon she'd met were Volkner's and while they were clearly extremely powerful, none of them were excessively terrifying to her (except her first meeting with Electivire, who had frightened her with his bulk and size).

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Volkner said, waving a lazy hand for the group to follow him to the living room. "Penny, come on, I want to introduce you to some friends of mine." He said, slinging an arm around her shoulders and carried his milk in his free hand.

The group all settled on Volkner's two couches and Penny sat closer to Volkner now than she had the entire three days she'd lived with him. Volkner sipped on his milk for a minute before putting it on the glass table beside the couch. "Alright, Penny. 'Round in a circle here, there's Steven, Falkner and Lance. Where's Mort?" He arched a brow at the man named Falkner, who waved his hand in front of his face.

"He had business in Ecruteak. His visions have been giving him concern he said." He shook his head a bit.

"What kind of visions?" Lance asked.

Falkner shrugged a little. "That's all he would say. He said he'd give me more information as it became clearer to him." The quartet of men all seemed to understand this vague conversation, but Penny was still processing the names and appearances she'd just been given. Steven... This silver haired man was Steven Stone, the heir to the Hoenn region's Devon corporation and the steel-using champion of the region's League. There was Falkner, the master of bird pokemon and the leader of the Violet City gym in the Johto region. And then... there was Lance. Lance was by far the most intimidating one of them all to her. He was once an elite four in the Kanto region and was also the champion of Johto as well as the master of dragon pokemon, a ferocious type to be certain. Come to think of it, Volkner had also mentioned his G-Man boss was named Lance... that meant that Lance was the field commander of the entire G-Man force. Penny found herself staring at him with dusty pink cheeks; this man was seriously intimidating.

"Hey. Rosie-cheeks." Volkner nudged her and Penny flushed brighter.

"What?" She snapped, amusing him.

"I asked you if you wanted to see what the guys brought for you." He smirked.

Penny blinked in confusion. "Huh? You... brought something for me?" She glanced around at all four men in the room and Volkner chuckled at her, making her nudge him with her foot.

"Volkner called us here to meet you, actually. We know you're not from our world, Penny, and we came to help you." Steven answered with a smile. Penny rubbed her arm a little and smiled bashfully. These guys might have been rough and tough in battle and in their professions, but they were proving to be kind, at least to her.

"We talked and decided it would be best if you tried to acclimate yourself to this world until we can find out why and how you managed to get here." Lance said.

"Oh, well yeah... I guess that's a good idea, huh." Penny nodded a little and her smile brightened a bit.

"Good. It's settled then." Volkner downed the rest of his milk and stood up, Steven, Falkner and Lance following suit.

Penny slowly rose to her feet merely because everyone else had and she looked around at them. "Huh? What's settled?" She bit her lip as she watched Lance produce a pokeball from under the cloak he was wearing.

"Your first pokemon."