Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you may recognize from the Pokemon
video games, television show or movies. I do however own the plot, Kelsey,
Ella and Ian. Rachel and any other real world trainer belong to themselves.
Please do not use any of the characters without permission from the
creator.
Welcome
Chapter 2
The pile of limbs, clothes and tangled brown and blonde hair twitched. With a painful groan the two girls tried to separate from the position they had landed in. As their hair knotted and brought them stumbling back down in pain there were yelps to be heard. After several minutes of fiddling and yanking the two of them sat back, free from the others hair.
The teenagers sat across from each other and stared with wide-eyed surprise. Kelsey was sufficiently surprised to find herself in a small forest clearing instead of her familiar basement. There wasn't even a forest within a mile of her house. Facing off against her was around her age. Her brown hair was cut to around her shoulders, and it looked slightly wavy. It was hard to tell, though, as it was suitably mussed after the fall and the following battle of hairs. Bright blue eyes stared right back at her.
"Hi." It was lame, but she said it. Kelsey was at a loss for any other words at the moment. The situation had weirded her out, and it looked like it had done the same to the other girl. The girl jumped a little at the greeting and then paused for a second.
"Hello," the reply was hesitant and soft-spoken. After debating with herself for several seconds she continued, "I'm Rebecca." She then closed her mouth and returned to the staring the two of them had chosen as the activity of choice.
She smiled shakily at the girl, Rebecca, before answering. "I'm Kelsey. Nice to meet you?" The last part was added as an uncertain pleasantry. Neither really knew how to react in such a situation and felt decidedly out of place. Nothing they had ever done before had prepared them for this.
The other girl smiled at her and they were left in an uncomfortable silence for several minutes. They looked around, confused at the surroundings. The forest was lush and green. It didn't make sense; the trees should be just budding right about now. By the looks of it, it should be early summer here.
"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," the expression was out of her lips before she could stop it, and she felt a blush rising on her cheeks as Rebecca turned back to her. Sometimes she let her mouth get ahead of her head. She waited to see Melissa's reaction.
"Maybe we should follow the yellow brick road?" The two of them shared small smiles. Kelsey wasn't that good at interaction, but at that moment, she was glad she had someone here with her. It would have been terrible to land alone.
A crashing in the bush suddenly drew the girls' attention away from each other. Twigs crunched as two oddly dressed people came thundering through. The woman's hair was done up in a style that defied all rules of gravity that Kelsey had ever learned, and she found herself fascinated by it.
Her partner turned to regard the two teenagers and he let a triumphant smile cover his face. "Found them! I knew they were around her somewhere!" The man turned triumphantly to his partner, "And you wanted to double back!"
"Okay, okay. They're here." She conceded, an annoyed expression on her face, "Let's just get them and go. Why do we have to do this stupid babysitting assignment anyway?" The bored expression on her face told that she would much rather be doing other things.
"You know how important this project is to the boss, Ella," the man explained patiently, practically ignoring Rachel and Kelsey, "He went to all the trouble of tricking these kids into this dimension so he could mould them into the perfect agents."
The female Team Rocket member, Ella, sighed. "He doesn't need them. Honestly, can't he just be happy with what he had? We're great agents." Her face was set stubbornly. "How did he manage to bring them here anyway, Ian?"
"Who knows?" Ian replied, "You know the boss. If it's not one thing he's experimenting with, it's another. There was that whole cover up about New Island..." He looked around nervously, "No one even talks about it anymore because they're so afraid of him. Just don't ask questions."
Kelsey, meanwhile, was staring in dumbfounded shock at Ian and Ella. Her brain wasn't processing the information correctly, she was sure of it. It wasn't possible. "Team Rocket?" The words came out in a high-pitched squeak.
Rachel laughed shakily at the comment, also staring at these two strange youths. The sight of that odd Pokemon website flashed through her memory. There was no way that could have possibly... "What is this, some kind of joke? It's not funny."
Ian stared at her with raised eyebrows before rolling his eyes. He sighed. "Welcome to the Pokemon World. If you cooperate with us you will be offered the chance of a lifetime. As new recruits to the wonderful Team Rocket you will be offered..."
"What?" The girls' exclamation was simultaneous as the panic first began to settle in the pits of Kelsey's stomach. If this was what she thought it was, then they were in a lot of trouble. She slowly began backing away, tugging Rachel along with her. She had the feeling that they had to get out of here, and quick.
Ella saw the movement and smiled, reaching for her belt. "I love it when they try to run." Kelsey and Rachel exchanged scared looks as they continued to scramble backwards. "Gloom! Go!" The blue grass and poison pokemon exploded from its pokeball with a flash of bright light. The girls stopped in their tracks, amazed at what they were seeing.
"A real, live pokemon," Kelsey whispered in awe, transfixed by the overgrown weed. It was almost to good to be true, if they forgot that two Team Rocket agents were confronting them after being sucked from their world.
Of course, they weren't allowed to forget for long, as Ian followed by releasing his Primeape. The monkey like pokemon scowled at the two girls, causing them to jump back before once again beginning to scramble away. Ella quickly took action.
"Gloom! Use sleep powder attack!" The pokemon waddled a bit before releasing a cloud of pores that began drifting towards the girls. Even if they hadn't known what the attack would do, they would have gotten the drift from its name.
Rachel was the first to speak in the situation, "Run!" The two teenagers immediately turned tail and dashed into the undergrowth. They crashed through, unheeding of the branches, rocks and debris that served as obstacles. Their bare arms were scratched repeatedly as they paid no attention to wear they were going.
As Rachel and Kelsey continued their mad dash through the forest they could hear Ella and Ian pursuing them. The minutes wore on and Kelsey could feel the burn growing in her chest from exhaustion. "I am so out of shape." The words were wheezed out between her desperate gasps of breath.
It seemed like an eternity before the two exploded into open space, and right into someone else. Their momentum forced Kelsey and Rachel to bring themselves and whoever they had run into to the ground in a heap of tangled limbs.
"What is going on?" The voice from underneath the two teenage girls was decidedly male and they quickly scrambled off of him, still struggling to catch their breath. Sheepishly, they pulled the young man to his feet. He looked to be around their age; tall, with brown hair and the most familiar looking yin-yang pendant around his neck.
"Well, you see..." Rachel began, a blush staining her cheeks. She didn't get to finish as their pursuers emerged from the forest, short of breath and very annoyed. Their formerly clean and pressed uniforms were now dirt splattered and ripped from the chase through the forest.
"Look what you did to my uniform." Ella was practically purple with rage at the girls. "Screw handing you over to the boss. I'm going to kill you." The conviction in her voice was scary, and Kelsey and Rachel quickly stepped behind the teenage boy who was now staring at Ian and Ella in annoyance.
"Team Rocket?" he scoffed. He clearly didn't have a very high opinion of them. Not that the girls did, but they were afraid enough that they weren't talking back much. This guy's stance screamed arrogant as he snorted at the pair. "As if."
Ian scowled at the man before turning to his Primeape. "Primeape, show them what you've got! Use Fury attack!" The Primeape scowled and began running towards the three. Kelsey and Rachel closed their eyes; they didn't want to see what was about to happen to them. So, she didn't see the boy reach to his own belt and pull off a small, red and white ball. Tossing it into the air, the bright light it released formed a sleek black form, gold symbols bright on its fur.
"Umbreon!" His voice was strong and without fear, "Use growl." Opening its mouth, the pokemon produced a deep noise that seemed to reverberate throughout your body. The girls snapped their eyes open to see what was happening. Primeape froze at the sound, and seemed to almost shudder. "Now, Umbreon! Use faint attack!"
Umbreon seemed to fade away right in front their eyes before reappearing behind Primeape and hitting him with a powerful takedown. Primeape fell to the ground and did not get up again. Ian growled quickly before returning him to his pokeball and glaring at the Umbreon trainer.
Ella stepped forward and pointed at Umbreon. "Gloom, use vine whip on that Umbreon!" Green vines seemed to lash out from the flower-like pokemon and whip forward to lash at Umbreon. Kelsey let out a sound of worry as she saw the beautiful Eevee evolution flinch.
The teenage boy didn't even blink. "Use Focus Energy, you can do this Umbreon!" As they watched, the symbols on Umbreon's body and he's eyes began to glow with power, getting brighter by the second.
Ella watched with contempt. "Don't worry about it, Gloom! Use tackle attack to take that stupid dog down!" Gloom began waddling towards Umbreon; it was actually pretty fast for something with that short of legs. When it was close enough, Gloom leaped into the air and came towards on Umbreon hard. The boy simply smirked at this turn in the battle.
Just as Gloom connected with Umbreon, the energy that it had collected lashed out and entered the grass and poison type. There was a small explosion, and Gloom flew back, landing in a heap at her trainer's feet. Gloom had fainted.
Ella recalled Gloom and glared at the girls' mysterious saviour, who was petting the head of his Umbreon and wishing him a job well done. She then turned on Rachel and Kelsey. When she spoke, her tone contained pure venom. "This isn't over."
The boy opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted as Ian threw something to the ground. Smoke began to rise around them, and vision dropped to a zero. The last words they heard from Ian and Ella were, "Team Rocket's blasting off again!"
When the smoke cleared, they were alone in the field, Team Rocket nowhere in sight. Rachel and Kelsey looked around for the missing bad guys, but their hero just shook his head as he recalled his Umbreon. "Amateurs. It was barely worth the effort." He then turned towards the two girls, smiling in a charming, but arrogant way. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Gary Oak."
There was a gasp of surprise from Rachel as Kelsey managed to force out words, "The Gary Oak?"
"Professor Oak's grandson?"
"From Pallet Town?"
"Ash's rival?"
Gary sighed and let a drop of sweat roll down his forehead with embarrassment. "Oh, it's you people again. You just keep popping up, don't you? Come on, I'll take you to Gramps..." He turned and walked off, leaving the girls to stare in his wake. They quickly came to their sentences and jogged after the guy who, up until a couple of hours ago, they thought was a cartoon character.
~
Next on Welcome: Kelsey and Rachel get an explanation and their first Pokemon. Another confrontation with Team Rocket brings a new ally and they get an idea of what would have happened to them if they hadn't got away from Ian and Ella. All that and more! So tune in for the next instalment of Welcome!
Okay, that was fun. This is actually a really fun story to write. Thank you all for the enormous support. As I write this we already have 16 trainers, including me. I have an idea for every one of you, as well. Of course, not all of you will be main characters, we have about six of those, but all of you will be featured at one point or another. Some of them may be short cameos, but I do what I can.
If you'd still like to be involved, keep sending your characters. There are always more people to meet. I just need you're name, age, appearance, personality and any Pokemon you want, within reason. No ruby/sapphire pokemon.
Note: I may change some Pokemon line-ups minutely. If I do, it won't be by much. I'm just trying to make the story somewhat believable and fun for everyone involved.
Welcome
Chapter 2
The pile of limbs, clothes and tangled brown and blonde hair twitched. With a painful groan the two girls tried to separate from the position they had landed in. As their hair knotted and brought them stumbling back down in pain there were yelps to be heard. After several minutes of fiddling and yanking the two of them sat back, free from the others hair.
The teenagers sat across from each other and stared with wide-eyed surprise. Kelsey was sufficiently surprised to find herself in a small forest clearing instead of her familiar basement. There wasn't even a forest within a mile of her house. Facing off against her was around her age. Her brown hair was cut to around her shoulders, and it looked slightly wavy. It was hard to tell, though, as it was suitably mussed after the fall and the following battle of hairs. Bright blue eyes stared right back at her.
"Hi." It was lame, but she said it. Kelsey was at a loss for any other words at the moment. The situation had weirded her out, and it looked like it had done the same to the other girl. The girl jumped a little at the greeting and then paused for a second.
"Hello," the reply was hesitant and soft-spoken. After debating with herself for several seconds she continued, "I'm Rebecca." She then closed her mouth and returned to the staring the two of them had chosen as the activity of choice.
She smiled shakily at the girl, Rebecca, before answering. "I'm Kelsey. Nice to meet you?" The last part was added as an uncertain pleasantry. Neither really knew how to react in such a situation and felt decidedly out of place. Nothing they had ever done before had prepared them for this.
The other girl smiled at her and they were left in an uncomfortable silence for several minutes. They looked around, confused at the surroundings. The forest was lush and green. It didn't make sense; the trees should be just budding right about now. By the looks of it, it should be early summer here.
"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," the expression was out of her lips before she could stop it, and she felt a blush rising on her cheeks as Rebecca turned back to her. Sometimes she let her mouth get ahead of her head. She waited to see Melissa's reaction.
"Maybe we should follow the yellow brick road?" The two of them shared small smiles. Kelsey wasn't that good at interaction, but at that moment, she was glad she had someone here with her. It would have been terrible to land alone.
A crashing in the bush suddenly drew the girls' attention away from each other. Twigs crunched as two oddly dressed people came thundering through. The woman's hair was done up in a style that defied all rules of gravity that Kelsey had ever learned, and she found herself fascinated by it.
Her partner turned to regard the two teenagers and he let a triumphant smile cover his face. "Found them! I knew they were around her somewhere!" The man turned triumphantly to his partner, "And you wanted to double back!"
"Okay, okay. They're here." She conceded, an annoyed expression on her face, "Let's just get them and go. Why do we have to do this stupid babysitting assignment anyway?" The bored expression on her face told that she would much rather be doing other things.
"You know how important this project is to the boss, Ella," the man explained patiently, practically ignoring Rachel and Kelsey, "He went to all the trouble of tricking these kids into this dimension so he could mould them into the perfect agents."
The female Team Rocket member, Ella, sighed. "He doesn't need them. Honestly, can't he just be happy with what he had? We're great agents." Her face was set stubbornly. "How did he manage to bring them here anyway, Ian?"
"Who knows?" Ian replied, "You know the boss. If it's not one thing he's experimenting with, it's another. There was that whole cover up about New Island..." He looked around nervously, "No one even talks about it anymore because they're so afraid of him. Just don't ask questions."
Kelsey, meanwhile, was staring in dumbfounded shock at Ian and Ella. Her brain wasn't processing the information correctly, she was sure of it. It wasn't possible. "Team Rocket?" The words came out in a high-pitched squeak.
Rachel laughed shakily at the comment, also staring at these two strange youths. The sight of that odd Pokemon website flashed through her memory. There was no way that could have possibly... "What is this, some kind of joke? It's not funny."
Ian stared at her with raised eyebrows before rolling his eyes. He sighed. "Welcome to the Pokemon World. If you cooperate with us you will be offered the chance of a lifetime. As new recruits to the wonderful Team Rocket you will be offered..."
"What?" The girls' exclamation was simultaneous as the panic first began to settle in the pits of Kelsey's stomach. If this was what she thought it was, then they were in a lot of trouble. She slowly began backing away, tugging Rachel along with her. She had the feeling that they had to get out of here, and quick.
Ella saw the movement and smiled, reaching for her belt. "I love it when they try to run." Kelsey and Rachel exchanged scared looks as they continued to scramble backwards. "Gloom! Go!" The blue grass and poison pokemon exploded from its pokeball with a flash of bright light. The girls stopped in their tracks, amazed at what they were seeing.
"A real, live pokemon," Kelsey whispered in awe, transfixed by the overgrown weed. It was almost to good to be true, if they forgot that two Team Rocket agents were confronting them after being sucked from their world.
Of course, they weren't allowed to forget for long, as Ian followed by releasing his Primeape. The monkey like pokemon scowled at the two girls, causing them to jump back before once again beginning to scramble away. Ella quickly took action.
"Gloom! Use sleep powder attack!" The pokemon waddled a bit before releasing a cloud of pores that began drifting towards the girls. Even if they hadn't known what the attack would do, they would have gotten the drift from its name.
Rachel was the first to speak in the situation, "Run!" The two teenagers immediately turned tail and dashed into the undergrowth. They crashed through, unheeding of the branches, rocks and debris that served as obstacles. Their bare arms were scratched repeatedly as they paid no attention to wear they were going.
As Rachel and Kelsey continued their mad dash through the forest they could hear Ella and Ian pursuing them. The minutes wore on and Kelsey could feel the burn growing in her chest from exhaustion. "I am so out of shape." The words were wheezed out between her desperate gasps of breath.
It seemed like an eternity before the two exploded into open space, and right into someone else. Their momentum forced Kelsey and Rachel to bring themselves and whoever they had run into to the ground in a heap of tangled limbs.
"What is going on?" The voice from underneath the two teenage girls was decidedly male and they quickly scrambled off of him, still struggling to catch their breath. Sheepishly, they pulled the young man to his feet. He looked to be around their age; tall, with brown hair and the most familiar looking yin-yang pendant around his neck.
"Well, you see..." Rachel began, a blush staining her cheeks. She didn't get to finish as their pursuers emerged from the forest, short of breath and very annoyed. Their formerly clean and pressed uniforms were now dirt splattered and ripped from the chase through the forest.
"Look what you did to my uniform." Ella was practically purple with rage at the girls. "Screw handing you over to the boss. I'm going to kill you." The conviction in her voice was scary, and Kelsey and Rachel quickly stepped behind the teenage boy who was now staring at Ian and Ella in annoyance.
"Team Rocket?" he scoffed. He clearly didn't have a very high opinion of them. Not that the girls did, but they were afraid enough that they weren't talking back much. This guy's stance screamed arrogant as he snorted at the pair. "As if."
Ian scowled at the man before turning to his Primeape. "Primeape, show them what you've got! Use Fury attack!" The Primeape scowled and began running towards the three. Kelsey and Rachel closed their eyes; they didn't want to see what was about to happen to them. So, she didn't see the boy reach to his own belt and pull off a small, red and white ball. Tossing it into the air, the bright light it released formed a sleek black form, gold symbols bright on its fur.
"Umbreon!" His voice was strong and without fear, "Use growl." Opening its mouth, the pokemon produced a deep noise that seemed to reverberate throughout your body. The girls snapped their eyes open to see what was happening. Primeape froze at the sound, and seemed to almost shudder. "Now, Umbreon! Use faint attack!"
Umbreon seemed to fade away right in front their eyes before reappearing behind Primeape and hitting him with a powerful takedown. Primeape fell to the ground and did not get up again. Ian growled quickly before returning him to his pokeball and glaring at the Umbreon trainer.
Ella stepped forward and pointed at Umbreon. "Gloom, use vine whip on that Umbreon!" Green vines seemed to lash out from the flower-like pokemon and whip forward to lash at Umbreon. Kelsey let out a sound of worry as she saw the beautiful Eevee evolution flinch.
The teenage boy didn't even blink. "Use Focus Energy, you can do this Umbreon!" As they watched, the symbols on Umbreon's body and he's eyes began to glow with power, getting brighter by the second.
Ella watched with contempt. "Don't worry about it, Gloom! Use tackle attack to take that stupid dog down!" Gloom began waddling towards Umbreon; it was actually pretty fast for something with that short of legs. When it was close enough, Gloom leaped into the air and came towards on Umbreon hard. The boy simply smirked at this turn in the battle.
Just as Gloom connected with Umbreon, the energy that it had collected lashed out and entered the grass and poison type. There was a small explosion, and Gloom flew back, landing in a heap at her trainer's feet. Gloom had fainted.
Ella recalled Gloom and glared at the girls' mysterious saviour, who was petting the head of his Umbreon and wishing him a job well done. She then turned on Rachel and Kelsey. When she spoke, her tone contained pure venom. "This isn't over."
The boy opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted as Ian threw something to the ground. Smoke began to rise around them, and vision dropped to a zero. The last words they heard from Ian and Ella were, "Team Rocket's blasting off again!"
When the smoke cleared, they were alone in the field, Team Rocket nowhere in sight. Rachel and Kelsey looked around for the missing bad guys, but their hero just shook his head as he recalled his Umbreon. "Amateurs. It was barely worth the effort." He then turned towards the two girls, smiling in a charming, but arrogant way. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Gary Oak."
There was a gasp of surprise from Rachel as Kelsey managed to force out words, "The Gary Oak?"
"Professor Oak's grandson?"
"From Pallet Town?"
"Ash's rival?"
Gary sighed and let a drop of sweat roll down his forehead with embarrassment. "Oh, it's you people again. You just keep popping up, don't you? Come on, I'll take you to Gramps..." He turned and walked off, leaving the girls to stare in his wake. They quickly came to their sentences and jogged after the guy who, up until a couple of hours ago, they thought was a cartoon character.
~
Next on Welcome: Kelsey and Rachel get an explanation and their first Pokemon. Another confrontation with Team Rocket brings a new ally and they get an idea of what would have happened to them if they hadn't got away from Ian and Ella. All that and more! So tune in for the next instalment of Welcome!
Okay, that was fun. This is actually a really fun story to write. Thank you all for the enormous support. As I write this we already have 16 trainers, including me. I have an idea for every one of you, as well. Of course, not all of you will be main characters, we have about six of those, but all of you will be featured at one point or another. Some of them may be short cameos, but I do what I can.
If you'd still like to be involved, keep sending your characters. There are always more people to meet. I just need you're name, age, appearance, personality and any Pokemon you want, within reason. No ruby/sapphire pokemon.
Note: I may change some Pokemon line-ups minutely. If I do, it won't be by much. I'm just trying to make the story somewhat believable and fun for everyone involved.