I've been planning to do this for some time and finally found the time to write my fanfiction.
I don't really have much to say beforehand, other than that the dark scene in the prologue is not typical of the rest of the story.
Although the two storylines may seem separate now, I trust you there is a connection later.
Also, a review/criticism of any type is greatly appreciated! I don't want the embarrassment of having my thread stagnate with only my posts...
So here we go!
*****
PROLOGUE
"Nia," a tall man with bushy black hair motioned for his twelve year old daughter to come join him, "Why don't you take Turtwig, Piplup, and Chimchar out for some fresh air?"
The young brunette groaned audibly, yet still accepted the three pokeballs that her father picked up off the laboratory table.
"But Dad!" Nia complained. "You know they don't like to play with my other pokemon!"
Mr. Willow sighed, knowing Nia's pleading look all too well. She had learned it from her mother, who Mr. Willow looked across the room to see packing up some old pokedex assembly equipment into a box.
"I promise you we'll have a lab assistant soon," he told his daughter. "But for now I just need you to help out a little bit. Okay?"
Turning on her heel, Nia left the open laboratory area for the small entry room at the front of the building. The starter pokemon could sit on the beach and watch as Horsea and Goldeen trained, she decided.
Unexpectedly, there was a man waiting in the entry room. His black suit contrasted sharply with the stark white walls lining the whole building.
"Excuse me," the man had a low, gruff voice, "can you tell me where Professor Willow and his wife are? I have a few questions."
"Back in there," Nia refrained from adding a commend about her dad's current stress level, instead simply gesturing backwards with her thumb.
As the man walked past, Nia could see gray hair poking out from underneath his black top hat. With a second glance she noticed he was actually much older than he had first appeared. It wasn't until stepping outside that Nia realized the complete oddity of him. Her parents weren't expecting a visitor at all today, and there would be no real reason for someone to ask for her mom either.
Although Nia assured herself that the man was likely just an old family friend, she found herself spying anyway. A pair of light brown eyes peeked through the large window on the west side of her parent's lab, only to find an interesting conversation going on.
"I dolt you we don't know where they are," Mr. Willow's firm voice carried easily through the thin laboratory walls.
This answer apparently did not please the man in the black suit, for his eyes narrowed and he produced a pokeball from a side pocket and released a purple ghost-like pokemon in a flash of red light.
"If you don't tell me where the Ultimate Attack Starter Pokemon are in the next couple seconds, the woman dies."
Nia watched her mother look desperately to the professor, who seemed to be going through a mental crisis.
"I... they..." he stammered. "S-someone else has them."
The man shook his head and pointed toward Mrs. Willow.
"Not good enough. Haunter, use Lick on her!"
The ghost-type vanished and reappeared in front of the woman's face before she could even react. Two disconnected limbs resembling hands held her in place by the shoulders while pokemon's long pink tongue extended to press into her face. As soon as it made contact, Nia's mother let out an earsplitting scream and her body began convulsing for a few seconds until she slumped to the floor.
Nia covered her mouth to conceal her own scream. The wide, unblinking eyes of her mother stared off into space, and Nia knew she was surely dead.
Mr. Willow also cried out in horror, and even the Haunter itself appeared a little startled. The man in the black suit, however, wore a smug expression on his face.
"Last chance," he addressed the sobbing professor. "Tell me where the Ultimate Attack Starters are."
Mr. Willow happened to glance out the window at that moment, and his eyes met the spying ones of his daughter. At this moment it occurred to Nia that the Ultimate Attack Starters, whatever they were, were the ones she had in pokeballs on her belt. Her father then turned to the man with the Haunter.
"I don't know."
Nia took this as her cue to run, and did she ever. She was a good fifty feet away from the lab before the screams of her father reached her ears. Knowing it was only a matter of time before she was the next target, Nia sprinted all the way across the rest of Sandgem Town and down to the beach, tears blurring her vision.
From the belt of her jean shorts, she took Horsea and Goldeen's pokeballs and released the two into the water.
"W-we need to get far away from here... quick!" she told the two, leaping into the water with them.
When Nia was swimming south away from Sandgem Town safely in the wake of her pokemons' Surf attacks, more tears came to her eyes, but it was okay because the water quickly washed them away.
No time to be sorry anyway, she thought.
END PROLOGUE