AgeOfShadows: Sorry for the long wait, been having internet problems -I hate Bt...- I've had to post this from the libary. I've finally figured out how to add line breaks aswell! Might be useful... This is gonna be the average length I'm aiming for. Scrap 10,000, that's just ridiculously long... Also, this is where the action starts! WooT!1! Torturing helpless characters is fun :) Writing this was fun :) Enjoy, and leave feedback. You knoooow you want to...

Chapter 1 - Ryden

Amnesia

Ryden awoke to a dim, musky scene. He was lying in the middle of a small forest clearing and the air above him was filled with a black, suffocating fog. He took a deep brath and was instantly sent into an uncontollable coughing fit. The taste of ash was heavy on his tounge and he started to feel a blistering heat creep towards him to his right.

'Not fog,' he thought, 'Smoke.' He tried to think of how he got there, but soon realised he couldn't remember a thing, he could barely remember his own name. He started to panic. Another deep breath bought on more spluttering coughs.

'Hold on, where there's smoke...' The heat at his side was getting less bearable by the second. He looked to his side to confirm his suspitions. ''Fire!" He shouted in a paniced, raspy voice as he scrambled to his feet. Fire was spreading through the trees in the densly packed forest to his right like lightning. Ryden turned to his left and started to run, as fast as he could, adrenalin coursing through his body from the panic over his lost memory and the fire spreading behind him. He sprinted through the trees, jumping over protruding roots, dodging expertly around branches and logs, and keeping his footing on the loose dirt beneath him, all the while being pushed on by the bullying heat behind him. As he sarted to lose his breath he realised the air around him was cooling, and the smoke clearing slightly. He slowed to a stop at a tiny stream dotted with pebbles and cupped some water in his hands, dirnking it and quenching his dry throat. Panting, he tried to make sense of his surroundings. Trees in all directions. They all looked the same. He washed his face and arms of the black soot the smoke had left on him and kept his head low, just above the stream, to avoid breathing in more smoke.

'That's it!' He thought. 'The stream.' It was the only change in the landscape around him and the fire was starting to catch up, so he took a deep breath and started sprinting downstream.

As he was above water, the air was cooler, and Ryden didn't notice the air starting to become warmer, or the smoke becoming thicker. His sole focus was to get out of the forest, and when he saw a blinding light poking through the trees, he thought he was almost there. With renewed vigor, he started running faster, despite his now aching feet and his lack of breath. As he came nearer, he noticed the air was becoming blisteringly hot again, despite the cool of the river, and he saw embers floating in the air around him. "Shit!" He cursed, realising the light was not a way out but instead more fire. He turned around and sprinted upstream, hoping to find a way out, but was soon met with more blazing trees. He was becoming light headed from the running and the smoke, and he could barely see now. Fire was closing in on him in all directions as his fatigue finally got to him and he collapsed into the stream, blacking out instantly.

When he came to, Ryden was lying on a cold bed, half his body in bandages and all of his body sore. He looked around the sterile, tiled white room, seeing beeping machines with flashing lights of all shapes and sizes, but couldn't make sense of a single one of them. There were 5 other beds in the room matching his own, with open curtains separating all of them, and they were all unoccupied. He tried to sit up but it hurt too much to move. He clentched his fist in pain as he settled to his original position, and felt something in his palm. He looked and saw a small button attached to a wire, which he followed to a machine next to him. Curious of what it did he pressed the button and a buzzing noise came from the machine next to him. Moments later a door at the far end of the room opened and a nurse walked through. She had pink hair tied in a massive bun and a cute, babyish face. She was wearing small pink heels that clicked on the tiled white floor as she walked over to him.

"So, you're finally awake," she said in a soft, kind voice. "You're lucky to be alive, mister. I'm Nurse Joy."

"Wha-what happened?" Ryden choked out.

"A trainer found you unconcious in a river in Viridian Forest, right in the middle of the area that the fire had burnt down. Lucky thing you were in that river or you would have burned too. Can you remember how you got there?"

Ryden shuddered. He tried to think back, how he got to that forest clearing in the middle of the fire, but he had no idea. He still couldn't remember anything. "All I can remember is waking up in the clearing. Other than that, I have no memory at all."

The nurse studied him for a second. "So you have no idea how you got there?"

"No, not at all."

"Can you remember anything at all? What year it is? Freinds? Family?"

"No, nothing."

Nurse Joy sighed. "You must have developed amnesia, but I can't see how as you have no head trauma, and your only injuries are light burns." She whistled and the door opened again, this time to a pink and white egg-shaped creature that had a baby face which appeared to be part of it's body, and was carrying a large egg in a pouch on it's chest. Ryden screamed and scrambled into the corner of his bed, back against the wall and pulling the duvet he was under up over his body, covering all but his face and completely forgetting the pain from his burns.

"What the hell is that thing!?" he screamed, pointing an accusing finger at the egg-thing across the room. It looked confused and slightly scared from his reaction, but kept waddling towards them.

Joy looked confused. "Amnesia shouldn't affect your memory of what things are..." she muttered to herself. "This is a Pokemon," she explained to Ryden, jesturing toward's the egg-like thing. "This one in particular is called Chancey. Pokemon are a race of creatures with special powers. Each species has different powers and ability's, and the Pokemon in the species can be just as varied as humans, in looks, personality, etcetera. At the moment, we know 659 different species, but more are being dicovered daily by professors who study these creatures." She went on to explain everything she knew about Pokemon to Ryden, and the more he heard the more relaxed he bacame, but stayed constantly wary of the Chancey at Joy's side.

"So," Ryden continued when she was finished, "Some of these creature's are wild? Doesn't that mean they'd attack humans?"

"Yes, but only under certain circumstances. Well... Until recently that is." Ryden waited for Joy to continue. "Over the past few months, wild Pokemon all over the world have begun to attack humans without reason. There have also been cases where trainer's Pokemon escape, and destroy their Pokeballs before attacking their trainer. Wild pokemon have been getting smarter too, they've been attacking in pack's outnumbering their targets, ambushing them, and they've become ever more lethal. Last month, there were 57 deaths in Kanto alone relating to Pokemon attacks. The Professors have been working day and night to figure out what's behind these attacks, but to no avail."

"But surely they must have figured out something by now?" Ryden argued. "There must be something able to be done about this."

"I don't know," Joy admitted sadly. "I only know what I've heard from T.V and the few traveller's I've had. Professor Oak of Pallet Town might be able to tell you more. He's the oldest, and the smartest of the world's scientists. Pallet Town's a day and a half's walk south of here if you want to go."

"I think I might, but what if I get attacked by wild Pokemon and have nothing to defend myself?"

"Hmm..." Nurse Joy considered the question for a while before responding. "Professor Oak could give you your own Pokemon when you reach Pallet Town, but you might be attacked on the way..." She thought a little harder. "Oh," she exclaimed, "I know! One of the Professor's Aid's, a girl called Jane Cazack, came here to retrieve a package from the Poke Mart. She's staying here in the Pokemon center, room 29, third floor. She leaves for Pallet again in three days time, plenty of time for you to recover. I could ask her if you could tag along?"

Ryden breathed a sigh of releif. "That would be great, thanks. And it's nice knowing I don't have to go it alone."

"She's a nice girl and about your age too, so you'll probably get along well." Nurse Joy gave Ryden a comforting smile.

"Wait," Ryden said, now confused. "My age? I... I can't even remember how old I am."

Nurse Joy looked shocked. "About 19?" She suggested. Ryden considered that. "Oh yes, I never got your name."

"Ryden Linstone. I think." He cuckled slightly, then wiced as feeling, and pain began to return to his body. He returned to his original position with some difficulty.

"Okay Ryden. Chancey here will be keeping an eye on you until you heal. I'll occasionaly check in on you aswell. Feel free to watch the tv," She passed Ryden a remote and a T.V slid out of the wall infron of his bed, "and I'll pop by later to tell you what Jane says about you tagging along." Joy turned and started to leave. "And try and get some rest."

"Thanks Nurse Joy." Ryden smiled at her as she and Chancey left the room, leaving Ryden with only his own thoughts and the T.V.

Ryden waved goodbye to Joy as he left the Pokemon Center and was momentarily blinded by the morning light. He shouldered his new pack and rolling his arms to help ease the stiffnes his burns had left him with. Nurse Joy had given him everything he would need for the journey, fresh clothes, food, drink, a first aide kit, and some money, 3000 poke, just incase he needed anything. He was to meet this Jane girl at Viridian's south gate, and they would travel together to Pallet Town. It was a day and a half walk, and they would set up a camp at night, instead of travelling through. Jane had a spare sleeping bag for him, which he was grateful for. He hadn't seen this girl yet, but Joy had given him a photo. Short, choppy red hair, young, quite pretty but a little goth-y looking, not the sort of girl you'd expect to be a scientist. 'Well, Aide.' Ryden's thought train screeched to a halt when he saw her. She seemed familiar somehow. They locked eyes and she started to walk over to him. "Ryden?" She asked from a distance.

"Do... Do I know you?" Ryden stuttered.

"No, I don't recognise you, and I'm good with faces." Jane said. She had a soft voice, kind and one that didn't go with her goth-y looks. "I'm Jane Cazack, but everyone calls me Zackie."

"I'm Ryden Linstone. Sorry, I just thought you looked familiar."

"It's okay. Are you ready to go?" She motioned at Ryden's backpack.

"Yeah, I'm all set..." A bolt of pain shot through Ryden's mind. He doubled over, hands gripping his temples. He heard a voice say his name. It was familiar, soft, loving, but with a rough edge to it. It spoke again as a small image of Ryden chasing a red-haired girl into a small woods flashed before his eyes. "Come on, Ryden." He heard his own voice call out after her, "Slow down Chris!" He head the two of them laugh, before the image faded away and the pain in his head started to ebb away. It only lasted for a split second, but it burned into his brain, tormening him. He had no idea who it was, or what they even looked like, but it was the only memory he had. He felt a hand on his back and saw Zackie's face appear infront of his. "Are you okay?" She asked alarmed, her voice reminding Ryden of the girl in the flashback.

"Y-yeah," he managed weakly. "Just a headache."

Zackie wasn't conviced but decided not to press the issue any further. "Come on," she said. "Let's get going then." They set off through Viridian's south gate and on to Route Two.

Ryden was weary. His three-day rest in the Pokemon Center was taking it's toll, his body was not yet used to being active. His whole body was aching from a mix of fatigue and sensitive skin left by his burns. Yet the worst thing about it was, they'd only been walking for about an hour. Zackie was perfectly fine, she had barely broken a sweat, despite the harsh mid-day sun, and she was carrying all of the gear. She had offered to take Ryden's pack when she saw him struggling with it after 5 minuites of walking. He now held the package instead.

"So, what's in this thing?" He asked, holding it to his ear and shaking it slightly. It was a simple cardboard box covered in almost a whole role of tape, and whatever was inside was very light. It made a solid thud when he shook it.

"Don't do that!" Zackie exclaimed. "You might break it!" Ryden mumbled an apology under his breath and lowered the package. Zackie let out a fustrated sigh. "It's a machine that one of the Professor's friends wanted him to look at. So far, no-one has figured out what it does, but it looks like a Pokedex and has a trainer card slot. They haven't managed to open it so no-one knows what it's for."

''A what?" Ryden said confused. "What's a trainer card? And a Pokedex?"

Zackie looked at him confused, then remembered Nurse Joy warning her of his amnesia. She explained what they were. They still had a long way to go, so she started showing him through her gear too, explaining each piece as she went. She showed him Pokeballs, medicine items, a few synthesis items, like charcoal and silk soft sand, and showed him her Pokemon too. She had a Magnemite, a Beedrill, and a Charmeleon (which really freaked Ryden out). What really intruiged him though was the fact she could fit all this into a tiny backpack that barely weighed anything. When he inquired about this she shrugged.

''I don't know how it works either, I'm not gonna try and figure it out either. Don't wanna jinx it.''

They travelled the rest of the day and by nightfall reached a forked road with a sign planted in between the branching roads. They hadn't seen a single Pokemon all day, which was apparently very strange. ''This place is normally crawling with them.'' Zackie explained. ''They're usually weak and quite docile around here, but they should still be everywhere.'' They stopped to rest for the night just off of the road, slightly behind the tree line. They started to set up camp, Ryden laying down the sleeping bags and Zackie setting up a circle of stones for the fire to sit in. When they had finished, Zackie went off to gather some kindling for a fire leaving Ryden with some time to think.

'So much has happened today... I wonder how I got here. I can't remember anything.' He got up and started pacing. 'I had that image in my mind. It must have been a flashback, but what could it mean..?' Ryden's thoughts were interrupted by a nearby rustling in the trees. Assuming it was Zackie, he sat back down and started drawing shapes in the dirt with a stick that he found. It was a nice, middle sized stick, quite sturdy and difficult to draw with but it had a...

'There it was again...' Another rustling broke his train of thought and made Ryden swivel his head round to face the sound. ''Zackie?'' He called out. 1 second, 2 seconds, 3... No response. The rustling had stopped. He heard another noise from the other side of the camp, in the undergrowth further behind the trees. A snapped twig. A rustle of leaves in the trees above him. Ryden's instincts kicked in and his eyesight grew sharper, his hearing clearer, but no more noises and no sight of anything there. Suddenly, something smacked him in the face and blocked his sight. He jumped out of his skin, clawing at his face for his life, and finding nothing but a large leaf in his hands. 'That's it,' he thought. 'Just the wind.'

Ten, twenty minutes went by. The only sound was the soft rustle of leaves in the wind. No sign of Zackie either. Ryden started to worry. 'She'll be fine,' he reassured himself, 'That fire lizard thing looked seriously powerful.' Ryden felt tired so decided to lie in his sleeping bag to wait for her. He kept the zip undone, and the stick close by, 'Just in case...' he thought. 'Though what good a stick would be if something decided to attack, I don't know...'

He relaxed for another ten minutes although something told him to keep an ear open. Even despite this, he couldn't hear something creeping up on him, silent as a whisper. It had been waiting a long time for food, and it's pack had been going crazy from starvation. It was finally time to feed. Just as it was tensing it's legs to pounce, loud heavy footsteps started to approach from behind it. Quiet as a mouse, it slid behind a nearby tree and hoped the rest of it's pack would hear their food approaching and do the same.

''Ryden?'' Zackie called as she entered the clearing, arms full of firewood. She noticed Ryden in his sleeping bag as she dumped the firewood next to the circle of stones. ''Wake up sleepy head. We've still got dinner to have. Come on out Cinder, help me light this fire.'' Ryden got out of bed and walked over to Zackie as she sent out her Charmeleon. She set up the sticks before Cinder used it's tail to light the fire.

''Umm, awkward question...'' Ryden started. ''Do these Pokemon have genders?''

''Of course they do,'' Zackie replied. ''How do you think they reproduce?''

''Oh yeah, I didn't think of it like that.'' Ryden hesitated. ''So... How do you know which ones which?''

Zackie blushed deeply. ''Well... I... Anyone with a Pokedex can scan it with that to find out with that, but the rest of us have to... ya know... check the old fashioned way...'' Ryden noted that Zackie didn't have a Pokedex and was blushing even deeper.

''Ok, I won't ask how you know but what genders are your ones?'' Ryden said with a wink, making Zackie turn extremely shy.

She opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, Ryden screamed out in pain, a burning sensation tearing apart at his ankle. He looked down to see a small purple rat with beaver-like teeth crunching his ankle. Ryden's vision started to blur and he could barely hear Zackie bark out an order to Cinder before a stream of red blew the rat off his ankle, but tearing out a chunk of flesh in the process and making Ryden collapse to the floor in pain.

Two more red beams followed the first, but this time hitting the floor and materializing into a Magnemite and a Beedrill. The latter immediately dashed off after the fleeing attacker whilst Zackie and the two remaining Pokemon rushed to his aid. ''Behind you!'' He shouted. They immediately turned around to face 5 more of the rats. Ryden remembered the stick he had before and, clenching his teeth to brace against the pain, he crawled over to the sleeping bag he was in before.

Through his blurred vision, he could see 3 more rats being chased by the Beedrill, who launched purple pin-like missiles at them. Flashes of red and yellow light were all he could see of the battle behind him, but he ignored it all. That was until he was almost there, when he heard a small growl behind him. He turned around to see a small group of four advancing on him. He panicked, doubling his pace to the stick, the rats slowly stalking him. They knew they had won, but if he could just reach that stick...

He was so close, he could almost grab it, but the rats had waited enough. The first one dived, and Ryden kicked it away with his good leg. He lunged forward and grabbed the stick as two and three dived, and he twisted his body, swinging the stick at them as hard as he could, hitting both of them and knocking them out straight away. One jumped again and got another foot in it's face. Patient rat number four pounced just after Ryden had kicked number one away, giving Ryden barely enough time to raise the stick to defend himself. It's fangs embedded into the wood and stuck fast for a second, allowing Ryden to throw the stick away, and the rat with it. He turned and started to crawl away, hearing number four snap the stick and free it's fangs. He tried to get up to run, but the pain in his ankle was so unbearable that he almost blacked out. He fell onto his back, and the rat jumped on to his chest. This time, it knew it had won. This time, Ryden had no way out. It bared its fangs and moved forward to attack, but it never made it. A drill-like object exploded through the creatures chest, showering Ryden with blood and gore. It was tossed aside and Ryden saw the Beedrill and breathed a sigh of relief. The pain was becoming too much for him, and the last thing he saw before blacking out was Zackie and Cinder rushing over to him, whilst yellow flashed in the air behind them.

AgeOfShadows: Once again, sorry for the long wait :/ I'll try and get the next one up on time (sat after next). Hope this one was action-y enough for ya, there'll be more to come next episode!

To be continued...

Oh btw, this takes place after the Johto episodes, as if Ash hadn't gone to Hoenn (in other words, just after Misty returned to become a gym-leader again)

Remember to review :)