Author's Notes: Chapter 1 seems to have gotten relatively positive responses. Please bear with me as I introduce the main characters and set up the major premises of the story in these next few chapters. The action will pick up in a few chapters.

Chapter 2

It was a quiet afternoon in Fuchsia City's Safari Zone. Rhyhorn munched on grass, herds of Tauros stampeded across the plains, mother Kangaskhan fed their babies. Everything was peaceful. This calm was brought to an abrupt end with the shattering of glass.

"Cuuuuubooooone!" a baby Pokémon cried from within its cage. A few feet away, several Safari Zone attendants emerged from a building with a broken window, one of whom carried the bone typically used by the Pokémon's species.

"It's that Cubone again!" one of the attendants shouted to the others over the sound of the Cubone's bawling. "Ever since its mother disappeared, it's been crying and throwing fits."

A female attendant picked up the baby Cubone and began rocking it in her arms, but that only caused it to cry twice as loudly. Several attendants clamped their hands over their ears in order to try and block the piercing noise.

"Where is Ayako?!" the Safari Zone Warden demanded. "This Pokémon is her responsibility!"

Just then, a girl with long brown hair and hazel eyes ran to the Cubone's cage, panting heavily. The girl wore a blue t-shirt and black pants. She held a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. Upon her arrival, Cubone's crying ceased as he jumped out of the attendant's arms, grabbed his bone from one of the other nearby attendants, and leapt happily into the arms of the girl.

"It's about damn time!" the Warden ranted. "You know Cubone is your responsibility!"

"I'm sorry," the girl replied. "A ton of new Pokémon just arrived and I'm trying to get them all comfortable." She began to massage Cubone's muscles, soothing the Pokémon and putting it to sleep. "If he cries again, give him this." Ayako reached into her pocket and pulled out a bottle of milk, which she then handed to the Safari Zone Warden. She then set the sleeping Pokémon down in its nest and ran off to tend to the newly arrived Pokémon.

Ayako looked down the list on her clipboard, writing a check next to the name of each Pokémon as she tended to it. Her tasks involved finding a containment facility for each Pokémon based on its type (for example, if it was a Water type, she would have to find it a cage containing ample water for it to swim around in), supplying the Pokémon with ample food and water, and determining if some Pokémon, based on their health upon arrival, would need to be euthanized. Though the Safari Zone itself was peaceful for the most part this afternoon, the zoo outside of the Safari Zone was rather hectic due to all the new arrivals, and Ayako was working harder than any of the other attendants there. On one hand, she loved Pokémon and enjoyed taking care of them. On the other hand, her boss and co-workers were lazy and ungrateful for the hard work she put into her job. After several minutes, Ayako finally reached the last Pokémon on the list: a Hitmonlee. Next to his name, a note was scribbled reading "deformed, may need to be euthanized." Ayako certainly hoped not. Though she had been doing it for years, it never became any easier having to end a Pokémon's life. Ready to finish her day's work, Ayako entered the Safari Zone office building to retrieve the Poké Ball containing the final Pokémon of the day. She took the ball and sought out an empty cage in the Fighting Pokémon portion of the zoo. In each of the cages, the Primeape and Machoke and Poliwrath and other Fighting Pokémon were accompanied by a dummy so that they may practice boxing. Eventually, Ayako came upon an empty cage, at which time she tossed the Poké Ball and released the Pokémon inside. Out emerged the green Hitmonlee with the round eyes, the large pupils, and the bushy eyebrows.

"Wow! A shiny Hitmonlee!" Ayako exclaimed. "His face is very strange, but his defects don't appear to be detrimental to his health."

"I do not appreciate having my appearance ridiculed," the Hitmonlee scorned. "To me, you are strange-looking as well."

Ayako gasped. "You can talk?!"

"As you may have guessed, I am no ordinary Pokémon. Now may I please inquire as to my whereabouts?"

"This is the Safari Zone. My name is Ayako. I'm your attendant. I will supply you with food and water on a daily basis. This is your cage. You can practice sparring with that dummy over there."

Hitmonlee looked around his cage. "You expect me to stay confined within this cage?"

"It's not considered safe for Pokémon to wander freely around the zoo. Humans often come here and they may feel endangered by Pokémon being loose in the zoo."

Lee's expression grew angry. "Humans feel endangered by Pokémon?! It is humans who have done this to us! And now you lock us in cages because you are afraid of us?! That man told me that he would rescue us! And yet you want to trap us inside cages as well! You are no better than Team Rocket!"

"That's not true!" Ayako pleaded. "Many humans are friendly to Pokémon! It's just that… I can't let you out of here for right now, but I promise I'll be back to feed you!"

Ayako locked eyes with the Hitmonlee. He still did not trust her fully, but he could somehow feel that she was different from the humans he had previously known.

"Perhaps… it is fate," said Hitmonlee as he sat down in the corner of his cage. "This is the life I am destined to live. I was born a failed experiment and that is how I shall die."

"That isn't true," Ayako tried to reason with the depressed Pokémon, but he would not listen.

"Just leave me alone," he said. Ayako sighed and did as she was asked, locking the cage door before heading back to the office to clock out. Hitmonlee looked at the dummy in his cage. In his anger, he kicked the dummy as hard as he could, barely causing it to bob back and forth. "I am incredibly weak," he sighed.

Ayako stepped out of the office just as the sun began to set in the direction of Cycling Road. As she headed to her house, which was located directly in front of the Safari Zone zoo, very near Cubone's cage, she heard a faint but familiar sound coming from the sky. The sound had begun to bring joy to her ears due to the association she held with it. Slowly, the sound grew louder.

"Pidgeohhhhhhh!" she heard as a Pidgeot grew closer to the ground. From the north emerged the large bird with a human on its back. Ayako's frown shifted to a smile after a long, stressful, and depressing day of work. It was the highlight of her night.

"Isamu's home!" she shouted as her eyes lit up.

Pidgeot landed in front of Ayako as Isamu slid down her back. He then withdrew the giant bird into her Poké Ball.

"I'm back!" he said happily as Ayako ran into his arms and the two shared a hug and a kiss. "So, how was your day?"

"Busy," Ayako replied. "About half of the Pokémon you sent back had to be put to sleep. More than anything, though, I just can't get over this one Hitmonlee."

"The talking one?"

"Yes."

"He's quite an interesting case. How is he?"

"His spirit is completely broken. I feel bad for him. I wish there was something I could do for him. If only there was some way he could live a normal Pokémon's life. He doesn't seem like a failed experiment to me."

"Well, Kai certainly thought so. All the Pokémon at the Celadon Game Corner were deemed by Team Rocket to be failed experiments and were to be killed."

Ayako clenched her fists. "I'll never forgive Kai for everything he's done. He's the cause of all of this."

"And he damn near killed Kinnosuke and me," Isamu added. "Let's go inside. I'll tell you everything."

Isamu put an arm around Ayako and walked with her into their wooden house as the sky dimmed into the darkness of the night. All night long, Ayako could not stop thinking about the talking Hitmonlee. What could she do to change his mindset?