And here's chapter 1. If you read, please review. Game novelizations aren't easiest things in the world to write well and I want to know if there's anything you think I should pick up on.

Chapter 1: The Red-Haired Thief

New Bark Town was a tiny village set into the hills of the eastern Johto Region, resting peacefully at the foot of the Silver Mountain range. The wide plains were unindustrialized, and relaxing breezes blew down from the peaks, keeping the air clean, healthy, and even tasty. It was a popular vacation spot for people wishing to wind down and enjoy a nice, refreshing rest before returning to their busy lives. Many injured athletes would come to New Bark Town during their rehabilitation, and it was the town of choice for retired people.

Of course, it wasn't known for its exciting sights and sounds. Twelve-year-old Silver knew this only too well. He often found himself wondering why there was even a school planted among the old redwood houses the dotted the grassy area. Any kid would be, as he put it, "bored out of their freaking mind," since his parents didn't like hearing him say the "other" word, for living in such a quiet town. He was one of the more popular kids in his sixth grade class and many of his followers agreed with him, but certainly didn't voice their opinions on the matter as much as Silver did.

On such occasions when Silver would be particularly "bored out of his freaking mind," he would conveniently decide to liven up the town to his liking at whichever spot he happened to be at the time. Such antics have, of course, earned him a rather demeaning reputation among the elderly living in New Bark Town. They all agreed that he was a brilliant little boy that would, hopefully, one day grow up to be something useful to the world. Unfortunately, he was currently too busy rearranging price tags at Dan's Supermarket or hacking intercoms to play "Baby Got Back" when the city council wanted to make a public service announcement. It was becoming increasingly difficult for even Mrs. Fern, the strict secretary at the local nursing home with her gray hair always tied back in a bun, to tell him off with a straight face when listening to "the mayor" proclaiming his love of big butts for the umpteenth time.

New Bark Town wasn't only a favorite resting spot for residents of the Johto Region, but Pokemon also frequently visited the villagers. Sometimes pokemon and people even helped each other out throughout the town. Pichu cheerfully provided their electricity to the power plant and some pidgey would even volunteer to carry signs advertising the newest and greatest products in a line of toothpastes or running shoes. Some of the local pokemon researchers would help injured pokemon in the wild or try and settle disputes between different pokemon tribes. Amongst all this, the gem of New Bark Town was the small laboratory Professor Elm had built to research pokemon evolution abroad for Professor Oak.

Silver brushed some loose black locks sticking out of his gold-and-black baseball cap away out of his eyes as he ducked down behind a pile of crates beside Professor Elm's Lab and looked up to see one of the advertisement pidgey flutter past across the clear blue sky, bearing a bright banner for the latest radio applications being developed in Goldenrod City for pokegears. He couldn't help but grin as he, once again, visualized his grand master plan for a welcome back for the professor. As punishment for the majority of his little pranks, he had been sent to Professor Elm's lab to take on one of the professor's more tedious tasks, such as helping one of his assistants catch a wild pokemon for closer study or to pick up one of his orders that had just arrived in the neighboring Cherrygrove City. Due to these frequent trips, he knew many of the tricks the building held. For example, the front door had a notch in the frame and the plate around the latch was loose. Using his father's screw driver which he had swiped from the garage, he had twisted the plate to stick into the notch. It would take Professor Elm a number of frustrating hours to even figure out why his door was stuck.

"What's wrong with this damn door?" Silver stifled a snicker as he heard the voice but even as he listened, something clicked in his mind and he realized the voice was way too deep to be Professor Elm's. Curious, he crawled over the crates he was hiding behind and sidled against the wall, stepping lightly to avoid making any noise. He craned his neck around the corner of the building and saw a boy standing in front of the lab. Silver considered the boy for a moment, but no matter how much he thought of his classmates, he couldn't recall anyone with long red hair.

The boy scowled before Silver could further think about him. "I guess I'll have to find another way in," he mumbled under his breath. He turned his back on Silver and started walking toward the other side of the building. "I will take those pokemon and get a Legacy for myself." Abandoning his better judgment, Silver jumped out of his corner and dashed for the stranger. He reached out to grab his shoulder, but whatever he was planning to do was pushed out of his mind. The boy turned around at his touch and Silver had to crane his neck to look him in the eyes, or else he'd just be staring at the front of his dark purple polyester shirt. "What do you want?" the boy asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Silver shook off the initial shock of the stranger's height and glared at him. "I heard what you said," he answered firmly and pointed a finger in the boy's face to emphasize authority. "I won't let you steal from Professor Elm!" The boy snorted and answered by shoving Silver over. Rubbing his butt, Silver growled and looked up to see the boy disappear around the corner of the building. "Hey, wait!" he shouted, leaping to his feet and running after him. However, the boy was nowhere in sight. He surveyed the building but didn't see any broken windows. He walked along, peering into the dark lab, but didn't see anything. He sighed and turned to face the thick forests that bordered the lab to the north. Deciding the boy must have ran off, he decided to head home.

Silver walked along the tidy roads of the town. If New Bark Town couldn't have been more boring, the people who built the town had arranged the houses into neat blocks lines with colonial houses of assorted colors, the side paneling and the bushes in the front yards kept well groomed by their proud owners. The late afternoon air was filled with the scent of fathers busy over their grills while kids and young pokemon played in the driveways, supervised by their mothers. He spotted a few of his friends and returned their waves. "There was a jerk skulking around Professor Elm's lab," was his answer when they asked why he seemed so angry. It was just another typical day in the neighborhood, and no typical day was complete without a call from his neighbor across the street, Crystal. Silver looked up into the large leafy tree standing beside the white one-story house to see his blue-haired friend perched on a branch, her legs swing back and forth carelessly, and waving at him.

Silver gave her a smile and walked over. He climbed up the tree and hung over the lowest branch. While the two of them started talking, Silver's mind drifted off to thoughts of his best friend. He and Crystal had known each other for their entire lives. Living across the street from each other, their parents were close friends and they saw each other nearly every day. As they grew up, Crystal became one of the toughest girls Silver ever knew. She was relentless to those who hurt her or her friends, but was also very sweet to those close to her, and Silver just found it too irresistible.

"So, what have you got planned today?" Crystal asked in her soft voice. Silver knew she was referring to his daily pranks. She loved to hear what would happen.

"Well, Professor Elm is coming back from his trip to the Union Cave today," Silver answered simply. "I tweaked the door latch to stick." Suddenly he remembered the boy who had been trying to get into the lab. "Hey Crystal, do you know a boy about our age with long red hair?"

"A boy with long red hair," Crystal repeated and held a finger to her lips, humming to her thoughts. She leaned back and forth precariously in the tree but didn't show any sign of being afraid of falling. "No, I can't think of anyone. Why do you ask?"

Silver rolled his shoulders to readjust his grip on his branch, merely staring as his dangling feet. "There was someone trying to get into the lab," he answered and closed his eyes, trying to remember what the boy had said. "He wanted to steal something from the professor and get revenge on something that happened to his dad."

"Wow, that sounds serious," Crystal replied and Silver could picture the look of shock on her face. While it was true no one really knew the professor personally, everyone figured him to be a peaceful man because he typically kept to himself, usually buried in his studies in the lab. "Well, Silver," Crystal continued and he looked up to see her point at his house, "the professor's at your house right now. You could ask him."

Silver looked at the short driveway across the street set beside a two-story colonial house, which was painted a pleasant green. "Really, he's back?" Silver said excitedly and dropped down from the branch. "That must mean Dad's home, too! Hey Crystal, I'll see you later!"

They smiled and waved to each other as Silver ran across the street and opened to door, walking through the threshold into a beautiful and comfy living room lined with a fluffy white carpet, giving the illusion of stepping onto a cloud. Silver reached down to untie his laces. Of course, his mother was quite picky about keeping the house clean, but he couldn't complain. The hominess of it all was well worth it. However, he immediately noticed something wasn't the same home sweet home as always. Halfway thought pulling his shoes off, he heard sniffling and looked around the room. His mother was sitting on the couch dressed in her favorite apron with a soup ladle lying on her lap. Her face was buried in her hands and her black hair, which she had tied back in two large loops.

Silver's eyes wandered to the side and he saw Professor Elm seated next to her, rubbing her gently on the back. He looked up and gave Silver an awkward, shaky smile that he meant to be friendly and assuring and turned back to his weeping mother, who wouldn't move. Almost tripping out of his shoes, Silver regained his balance and walked toward them. "Professor?" he said, his voice cracking a bit as his heart started to uncomfortably beat like mad in his chest. "What's wrong with Mom?"

The professor looked up again, this time not bothering to try and hide the grief in his face. "Silver, I don't know how to say this," he started. Silver's mother gave a couple loud cries as Elm spoke and he rubbed her on the back again before continuing, "Silver." He stopped again, hesitant. He closed his eyes and faced the floor, speaking slowly. "Silver, there was an accident at Union Cave. He was attacked by a wild lapras."

Silver just stared at him, not knowing what to think. Maybe he couldn't think at all. He felt distant, like he was watching the professor on a television screen. He wanted to hit the power button and just sit in darkness. Everything around him felt like it was falling apart, that he was being dragged into the earth. He cringed, sniffing and choking back tears, and dashed for the door. He only stopped to hastily replacing his tennis shoes and flew out the door, ignoring the professor's cries for him to come back. Even Crystal's calls only touched deaf ears when he ran across the yard and down the street.

Where he was going, he didn't know nor care. The quiet town of New Bark vanished from his sight in a colorful blur as it flew by him, ignorant to his thoughts. He wanted to get away. He wanted to find his father. He knew Sterling had to be hiding somewhere. This was all a joke, and a cruel one at that. Never before had he wanted to prove someone wrong as much as he did now. The blurred houses were gone now and the outline of Professor Elm's lab slowly materialized before him.

Silver just stood there for a couple moments, staring at the tan building. Suddenly, a shrill buzzing noise broke him from his reverie. He saw the blink of a red light through the front windows and a thin, tall figure formed around the corner. The red haired boy was running for the western outskirts of New Bark Town, clutching a palm sized red-and-white ball that glistened in the late afternoon sunlight. Silver simply watched. Whatever anger he held toward the stranger had been flooded out by the overwhelming anxiety and resentment toward Professor Elm's words.

He jumped in surprise as the middle aged professor's words finally reached his ears. "Silver, who was that?" he said with shallow breathes but didn't wait for the answer. He jogged past Silver toward the lab and Silver followed him absentmindedly. Professor Elm dug in his lab coat pocket and pulled out a ring of silver keys, swinging randomly against each other and tried one, trying to pull the door open, but to no avail. "What's wrong with this door?" he yelled to no one in particular.

Silver, walking up behind him, shook his head and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that, professor," he said, pulling his father's screw driver out of his shorts pocket and sticking it between the wall and door, working the latch loose from the wood. After pocketing the tool again, he looked up to meet Professor Elm's blank look. "Well, it was my welcome back prank for when you came back from you trip," Silver answered the professor's unasked question. "It worked, huh?"

Professor Elm sighed pitifully and pulled the door open. "I'll be angry about that later, Silver," he said as he walked into the dark room with Silver behind him. His ears were filled with the noise of the alarm and he could barely make out the outline of the room from the dim flashing red light. The professor pressed a button, turning off the alarm, and flicked a light switch on the wall and the dark room materialized around them, its chromed surfaces glittering brilliantly. The walls were lined with crammed book shelves and large computer displays. A couple cylindrical glass cases stood at either corner of the opposite side of the laboratory. Inside, countless pokeballs, like the one the red haired boy had just run off with, rested on the spiral racks that crawled up the inner walls of the machines. A metal table with dips was connected to one of the computer monitors – a machine, commonly used in pokemon centers, designed to instantly recover most minor injuries on pokemon.

The professor ran toward a simple wood table in the back that looked shockingly out of place alongside the computers dotting the room. It was covered in stray papers scrawled with notes and formulas, pens and calculators, and, on top of the mess, rested two pokeballs. Silver followed the professor and, when he looked at his face, noticed that Elm was frowning. "Silver, do you know who that kid was?" he asked.

Silver looked glanced past the professor and noticed the window farthest back along the western wall was shattered. "No," he answered, turning to face the professor again. "I don't know who he is, but I have seen him before. He was trying to get in here earlier and he said something about getting revenge on you for something that happened to his father."

The professor dropped his head before replying, "He must be Aureate's son, Gold. Your father wasn't the only one to die on that trip. There was another man named Aureate who tried to save Sterling, but they both became trapped by the lapras's freezing attacks. I heard from his wife that Gold ran away from their home in Cherrygrove City after he heard the news." He looked up, picked up the two pokeballs on the table, and turned to Silver again, holding one of them forward. "Silver, these are new pokemon Professor Oak recently discovered and entrusted to me. Gold took one of them. Will you take this one and help me catch him?"

Silver looked at the ball blankly for a moment, not thinking but just staring at it as if it were going to do something. He absentmindedly reached out and took it, rolling it around in his palm, inspecting it as if he were confused what it was. He looked up at Professor Elm questioningly.

"I know this is sudden, but I trust you," the professor said, "and I'm sure you want to get that pokemon back just as much as I do. Silver, these pokemon are important to our research. If we lose them, your father's death will have been in vain."

Silver's mind suddenly snapped away at that and he nodded, fully aware of his surroundings again. "You're right, professor," he said, closing his grip around the ball, feeling a renowned sense of attraction to it. He could feel the pokemon inside move around, perhaps feeling as anxious as he did, as the pokeball began to vibrate violently. Before his eyes, it burst open, emitted a blinding beam of white light that hit the floor at his feet and took a stubby shape with a long mouth standing on two legs before vanished to reveal a two-foot tall, blue-scaled alligator glancing up at him curiously.

"This is the water pokemon, Totodile," the professor said simply to answer Silver's questioning stare. He knelt down and gave the blue pokemon a stroke on the head, saying, "Totodile, this is Silver. Please help him in any way you can today." The totodile smiled broadly at Elm and started to hop around excitedly. The professor chuckled and stood up again to face Silver. "He sure seems excited to be out," he said and sighed. "Pokemon love to roam around freely, but my research prevents me from spending much time with each of our pokemon individually and they spend most of their time in their pokeballs. Anyway Silver, let's head out to Route 29 and look for Gold. We'll meet up in Cherrygrove City in two hours."

The three took off out of the lab and made for the wooded plains stretching out against the sun hanging low in the sky. Silver had been here many times on Professor Elm's errands, but the orange tinge settling over the rolling green hills and the thought of the mysterious thief out there, running down the dirt path toward Cherrygrove City with Totodile by his side felt entirely different. But that feeling of thrill wore off after about five minutes or searching thoroughly through tree branches and bushes. Trying to find Gold seemed to become more impossible as he went, and he was becoming, once again, "bored out of his freaking mind."

While Silver was bent doubled over, his face buried in leaves and branches looking for any sign of Gold, he heard a buzzing noise and pulled himself out as a beedrill flew past him and perched on a branch above. Silver sneered and turned to Totodile, who was searching in another bush nearby. "Hey Totodile, quick, up there!" he shouted and the water pokemon jumped out of the bush without delay, blindly shooting a jet of water in the direction Silver pointed. The water gun attack hit an apple dangling above the beedrill, knocking it loose and sending it falling onto the bug pokemon's head. "Nice shot," Silver called, running to Totodile's side with a hand out, "high five!" Totodile smiled and leapt up to slap his hand.

The buzzing picked up again and the two stopped their laughing to look up. The beedrill had taken flight again, glaring at them angrily. Silver grinned. "So, you want to battle?" he said and turned to Totodile. "Totodile, hit it with another water gun!" Totodile nodded, opening his mouth wide, and shooting more water at the bug pokemon. It passed by the beedrill, harmlessly pushing it back a bit. Silver gulped as its eyes seemed to glow and it dived toward them. With a cry, Silver and Totodile turned around and took off in a dead sprint, forgetting which direction they were going in.

Silver ignored everything else around him as they ran, only focusing on the buzzing noise which he started to notice was growing louder. Chancing a glance behind him, he noticed the beedrill had called some friends. "I don't think we're going to escape this one, buddy," Silver said through panting breaths. "We're going to have to fight them somehow. But - ouch!" With his attention behind him, Silver hadn't seen the stone cliff ahead of them and ran head long into it with Totodile. They staggered backwards, rubbing their throbbing heads. "We had to run north, didn't we?" Silver groaned, realizing they had run into Route 46, the mountainous region heading to Blackthorn City.

The two of them turned around to face the swarm of beedrill as they formed a circle around them, closing them in against the cliff. "I guess we're out of options, Totodile," Silver said, backing against the rocks. "If water won't work against them, tackle them to the ground!" The water pokemon nodded and lunged toward one of the beedrill in the ring, grabbing it around the torso and pushing it into the grass.

"Watch out, Totodile!" Silver shouted as two of them flew down toward Totodile, aiming their needles at him. Totodile leapt over the oncoming pokemon with a back flip. Caught off guard, the two beedrill ran into each other and fell in a heap on top of the first one. Silver chuckled at the sight and gave Totodile a thumbs-up. "Right on!" However, he didn't notice the beedrill that had aimed toward him. Totodile growled and fired a jet of water at it, pushing it into the wall behind them. The beedrill groaned and fell to the ground, its wings crumpled up from the attack.

Silver smiled at Totodile but saw him frowning. More beedrill were approaching from the trees to replace the ones that had fallen. They started dive-bombing Totodile from all sides in groups of twos and threes. Totodile started to dance around, dodging the attacks, and firing his own when he got a chance, but Silver could see him panting from the effort. How long the little water pokemon would be able to keep this up, Silver didn't know.

Suddenly, the clearing lit up brilliantly, stunning all of them. An earsplitting sound erupted around them and a beam of bright golden light shot through the beedrill. The beedrill cried in pain, some falling to the ground, unconscious, while the others fled in fear. Totodile had ducked up the beam and slowly pushed himself back to his feet when the area had returned to its regular dim, red lighting. Silver lowered his arm which he had used to shield his eyes. The two of them just looked around to see the several beedrill that had fallen victim to the sudden attack. "What was that, Totodile?" he asked softly, finally finding his voice.

The sound of crunching leaves answered his question and he peered into the trees to his right, where the attack had come from. A small green pokemon trotted out, the leaf on its head swaying from side to side with each step. Silver's eyes widened as a slim figure materialized behind it. The red-haired thief glanced around the air, his eyes stopping on Totodile, and spat. "Figures I'd miss the actual target," he said and then looked to the side and noticed Silver still sidling the cliff. "What? Why do you have that totodile?"

Silver shook his head, regaining his composure and glaring at Gold. "Professor Elm gave him to me to help track you down," he said firmly and pointed at the pokemon at Gold's feet. "Now give back that pokemon! Professor Elm needs it back!" Totodile jumped in front of him, glaring daggers at Gold.

Gold sneered at this. "You have no idea what these pokemon are for, kid," he said, "and even if you did, you're too much of a wimp to do it. So then…" He took a step forward and held a hand forward. The green pokemon followed him. "I need all three of them - Chikorita, Totodile, and Cyndaquil – and you have Totodile. Hand it over now!"

Silver furrowed his eyebrows and stepped forward as well, sizing himself up. "You think I'd just give Totodile to a thief like you?" he declared and pointed at Gold. "Let's battle right now! The winner will take both pokemon!" Totodile cried out and started walking forward.

Gold scoffed and nodded to the green pokemon, who started to walk forward as well. "Fine, if you really want to go through with that," he said. "But I won't lose to a wimp like you who has no power! Totodile and Cyndaquil will mine, and bring me the ultimate power!" He started to laugh maniacally as the two pokemon met each other halfway between the two boys. They stared each other down under the red evening sky.

Alright, so this is all I have written so far. I'm going to alternate between updates of Run for the Sun and this, so the next chapter should be done in about 2-4 weeks. Cya then!