Chapter two: A plan is hatched.
Ivan Lore had finally made it to Accumula after wandering through route one all night in no hurry. He looked at the picture of the boy he was now looking for, he was using it as a bookmark so he wouldn't forget the face. As usual he crashed into something but when he looked up he was surprised at the crowd that had gathered. He looked up as a group of police brought down a burned man.
"Did you find any signs of the Pokemon that did this?" another officer in the crowd had shouted.
"No, there was no Pokemon anywhere on the scene the guy isn't even carrying any Pokeballs." Someone answered.
Kyle woke up painfully, he felt like he had shattered all of his bones. He still couldn't think straight but he felt like he was on fire. He looked at his chest and saw his egg glowing softly as his shirt was smoking. He yelled and put it on the ground painfully but gently. Now he was separated from Accumula and until his egg hatched he was defenseless, and even once it hatched it would be too weak to battle. Eventually his egg cooled down and Kyle picked it up feeling the Pokemon inside moving energetically.
He turned around and yelled when he saw someone had been watching him. The person was dressed in black and watching from the shadow of one of the large trees. As Kyle yelled and backed away the person came out waving their arms.
"Calm down," the man begged. "I was going to investigate the incident in Accumula and saw you."
"Who are you?" Kyle asked suspiciously.
"I'm one of the Gym Leaders of Striaton City, my name is Chili." the Gym Leader explained.
Chili? Kyle thought critically.
"I'm glad to see you're uninjured, that fall could have been a lot worse and your lucky that egg survived," Chili said relieved.
He offered to escort Kyle back to Striaton and he accepted gratefully. Kyle limped into the city surprised by how large the buildings were when compared to Nuvema. Chili took Kyle to the Pokemon center to have his egg examined thoroughly.
"Hello Chili," the Nurse Joy called cheerfully. "Back again so soon?"
Kyle looked at the Leader curiously leaving his egg with the nurse.
"Well just a few days ago we took several challenges and lost all four of them…" Chili laughed awkwardly.
Four? Kyle thought. The trainers from Nuvema must have passed through. Kyle wondered why it would have taken them so long to get this far. Once he got his egg back Kyle relaxed and asked how long until it hatched.
"Well it looks like it could hatch any second now but something is stopping it," the Nurse Joy explained curiously.
Kyle was upset by her explanation and she recommended that he go ask the local Pokemon Professor. Kyle remembered that Professor Fennel's lab was nearby and smiled at the irony. Fennel's research was the reason they had held the egg giveaway and now he would be asking about the same egg. Chili offered to come curious about the egg's refusal to hatch and showed him the way to the lab.
As Kyle and Chili reached the lab they heard something crash inside the building and they rushed inside. Kyle watched as two freaks dressed in matching outfits were trashing the lab angrily.
"We want the Dream Smoke those little punks stole from us now!" the freaks were shouting.
"Hey!" Chili shouted. "What do you two think your doing, aren't your kind supposed to be talking about Pokemon liberation?"
"T-that's exactly why we need the Dream Smoke," One of them stuttered.
"Y-yea, we're going to use to rescue Pokemon from Dream World." the second freak added."
"Why would you need to rescue Pokemon from Dream World?" Professor Fennel asked accusingly.
"None of your business!" the freaks shouted together.
"That's enough," Chili said angrily. "I'm tired of you two idiots messing around in my town. I'll show you the true power of a Gym Leader!"
Chili released a Simisear and one of the grunts released several Pokemon to battle him. Kyle watched as the Gym Leader battled fiercely and didn't notice as the second criminal snuck up behind him. The trainer released a Pidove before Kyle could notice.
"Quick attack!" the trainer ordered over the chaos of Chili's battle.
The bird slammed into the still injured Kyle throwing his egg into the middle of the Gym Leader's battle just as his Simisear unleashed a Flamethrower. Kyle yelled and tried to run towards his egg but the Gym Leader held him back. Kyle screamed as his egg disappeared into the flames.
The freak that had snuck up behind him laughed and ordered his Pidove to use Quick Attack on Kyle again. Kyle glared at the trainer hatefully, but was surprised when a Pokemon jumped in front of the attack. A small blue flame burned on the small Pokemon's head as it defended its trainer.
"What in the heck?" Kyle asked not recognizing the Pokemon.
"It's a Litwick," Chili explained. "The fire attack must have given it enough energy to break out of the egg!"
Kyle remembered how the egg had burned him awake earlier that morning and wondered if the tiny Pokemon had used all of its strength keeping Kyle warm after he had fallen last night. The Litwick's odd blue flame glowed ominously disproportionate to its small stature.
"It must still have energy leftover from absorbing my fire attack," Chili exclaimed. "Now use a fire type attack!"
"I don't know any!" Kyle yelled nervously.
"Fine use incinerate, it should be able to handle an attack like that," Chili explained.
Kyle ordered his Pokemon to attack and the Litwick unleashed its otherworldly blue flame. Empowered by its Flash Fire ability Litwick managed to finish off the odd vandals Pokemon.
The two freaks saw their Pokemon get taken down and tried to escape but crashed into two new trainers blocking the door. They looked up afraid and saw the new trainers were wearing outfits that matched Chili's.
Later after police finally managed to extinguish the fire Kyle and Chili had caused they discovered the two freaks had gone missing in the confusion. Everyone assumed they had escaped in the chaos of the fire.
"Who were they supposed to be?" Kyle asked critically never leaving the side of his new Pokemon.
"Team Plasma," Chili and his brothers took turn explaining.
Kyle listened to their explanation but didn't particularly care about their motives. He was surprised to hear the other Nuvema trainers had gotten involved and wondered how far they had gotten now.
"Now then what are you going to do?" Chili asked Kyle seriously.
"What do you mean?" Kyle asked.
"You don't seem to have real experience battling and don't know any of your Pokemon's skills," Chili explained.
"Wing it?" Kyle joked. "A ghost type should give me the advantage right?"
Chili glared at Kyle ominously.
"Luckily for you I know about fire types and our Gym specialized in the basics of Pokemon. I think you should take our training course, although as Gym Leaders we wont go easy on you," Chili laughed.
"I think I'll just risk it," Kyle said backing away from the Gym Leader.
Suddenly both of Chili's brothers grabbed his arms from behind.
"When- How?" Kyle stammered.
"You do realize you started a fire in Professor Fennel's lab and are now our top suspect in the assault in Accumula," Chili smiled craftily.
"You started the fire and I didn't have a Pokemon back then!" Kyle complained.
"Oh really?" Chili asked. "Cilan is that what you saw?"
The green haired brother shook his head.
"Cress?"
"I seem to remember blue flames standing out in the fire." the blue haired brother explained thoughtfully.
"Looks like your busting tables," Chili laughed. "It makes for great training,"
"I hate all of you…" Kyle complained.
Later that day Ivan arrived back in his hometown and headed back to the lab to ask Fennel if she had seen a trainer with no Pokemon. He wandered around the city and having grown up there avoided crashing into things. He walked to the lab and looked up confused when he didn't crash into the lab door as usual. He realized the door had burned down and the lab was scorched.
"Wow I really need to start paying attention," he complained.
Eventually he found Fennel at the police station working chaotically to repair the Dream Sync system after the attack. Ivan asked if she had met a trainer with no Pokemon and tried to show his teacher the picture but she just said she hadn't met a trainer without any Pokemon.
Ivan sighed and explained that there should be a boy his age wandering around without any Pokemon to protect him. He told Fennel he would have to try and find the boy as soon as possible and would head down route three. Fennel just nodded and continued her work.
As Ivan left down the road out of town he continued reading as usual and failed to notice Kyle dressed as a waiter cleaning tables at the Gym Leader's restaurant.
That night in the depths of the Dream Yard the two Plasma Grunts were hiding out waiting for their chance to report back to Ghetsis. Suddenly three shadows appeared behind them silently.
"T-the Shadow Triad," One of the grunts stammered.
The three shadows stayed totally silent as the grunts explained a very obscure version of the earlier events. Once they finished they looked at the Triad expectantly.
"You three can handle the Gym Leaders right! We can use that to take that boy's Litwick it was an odd color and probably valuable!" The grunts explained.
"Failures…" was all the Triad whispered emotionlessly.