The sun shined brightly over Pallet Town. Pallet Town was a small place of residence, set in the Western valleys of the Kanto Region of the continent. With a population reaching just over a hundred, it was certainly a small place that had a serene atmosphere, a nice quiet abode for its residences to enjoy the natural settings around them. The mainly wooden houses that made up the town complimented the background, being made up of a pristine white that had red roofs lining the small town. Being so small, most of the residents knew each other on a first name basis that only added to the friendly atmosphere of the town.
Nevertheless, the town was well known, however small it may appear. This was for three reasons - Pallet Town was the only place around for miles in the Kanto countryside to stop and rest at within the valley landscape. It was also the end place of Route 1, with just a short walk to the dock afterward from the town to the only place within the region that took you to Cinnabar Island, a popular destination for tourists with its pristine beaches and unique little ecosystem. Suffice to say, Pallet Town received a lot of foot traffic with tourists and trainers alike that made up the majority of business and jobs within Pallet Town.
But the thing that put Pallet Town firmly on the map was not its tourist industry - rather, it was the Pokemon laboratory that was on the edges of the town. Professor Oak, the leading expert on anything Pokemon within the region, was what made the Town what it was. He was an expert within several fields, with such topics including Pokemon evolution and adaptation, and when his time was not taken up by his research, it was spent being a mentor to the few trainers that came out of Pallet Town and looking after his grandson, Gary Oak. His stated greatest field, though, was researching the relationships between Pokemon and humans. It was a privilege for anyone to spend time with the great mind, to the lucky trainers to come out of Pallet Town to the employees under his management who would confer problems in need of a solution to him. If two thirds of the Town was employed in tourism, then the remainder was undoubtedly taken up in the services of the laboratory - from caring for the hundreds of Pokemon within the lab's ranch, to acting as assistants to Professor Oak's research.
Delia Ketchum was one such assistant to Professor Oak - and not just any assistant, but rather one of his senior researchers that he would talk to on a daily basis to discuss experiments, Pokemon and the trainers that Professor Oak acted as a mentor to. She was particularly involved in caring and analysing the Pokemon that had their homes in the ranch behind the lab, in the several dozen acres of Kanto countryside that Professor Oak had turned into a multitude of biomes to suit the variety of Pokemon on his ranch.
She was proud of her job, feeling as though she was making a great impact in the world of Pokemon by not just caring for them, but by better researching them so that they may be better understood. Combined with the fact that her efforts were only assisting Professor Oak who was a man of such influence that the research out of his lab was studied worldwide, and Delia was content.
But the pride of her life was her son. Ash Ketchum, a seven year old boy with a personality that brought a smile to anyone's face in Pallet Town. With short raven hair and a pair of brown, excite-filled eyes, Ash was instantly recognisable across the town to whoever he bumped into. Energetic, goofy but most importantly happy, the seven year old would dash all over the hills and hollows of Pallet Town proudly exclaiming his dream of becoming a Pokemon master.
It had been an interesting start to his dream. A year before, Ash had fallen into a pond after racing about a field too hard. Being as young as he was, Ash could not swim - and so struggled valiantly before he was timely rescued by a group of magikarp. As dull as the red fish seemed, Ash had instantly taken to the Pokemon who had saved his life - thanking them profusely. After a talk with his father, a rare thing indeed for such a busy man, Ash's dream of becoming a Pokemon master had been born.
He was currently running about town that very morning, running down the small street that accounted for a high street equivalent in the semi-quiet town. "Thanks, mr baker!" Ash shouted out in a chirpy voice to a man currently tending to some wooden baskets outside his shop.
"Oh, no problem Ash!" The man waved back to the boy, having given him a piece of bread to enjoy before Ash then dashed off to the lake in the park that resided in the middle of Pallet Town.
As usual, there was his best friend and rival - Gary Oak. Ever since Delia had started working with Professor Oak, she had occasionally brought her energetic son to work with her to admire the Pokemon that Oak had. Being the huge fan of Pokemon that the young boy was, he had always come when he could. His favourite had always been the rocky enclosure area, where the sturdy rock types liked to hang out - and the bigger Pokemon liked to battle, given the durable terrain. There, of course, he had bumped into Gary Oak - who came just as often as Ash did to see his grandfather, and of course, the Pokemon too.
"Ashy boy, you're late!" Came Gary's slightly deeper voice. Just as Ash had expected, Gary was sat on the little wooden pier that extended a few metres into the lake - and holding a simple stick with string tied to it dangled into the small lake.
"Sorry Gary, I was just caught up in town, that's all!" Ash apologised as he bounded down the little pier and plopping down beside his friend.
"Whatever, let's just get fishin' Ash!" Gary stated as he passed over another stick-and-string contraption to his friend.
"Thanks Gary!" Ash replied as he took the simple rod and cast it himself into the lake. The body of water was mostly just filled with Magikarp, along with much smaller non-Pokemon fish. It was likely they wouldn't catch a thing with the contraptions they were using, but since when did that matter to two young friends?
It had been a little over an hour when Gary frowned and looked up, shielding his eyes to roughly guess the time. "Sorry Ashy boy, looks like it's time for me to go now. I promised Grandpa I'd have lunch with him soon, and by the looks of it, that's real soon!"
Ash stood up with Gary, giving his friend a high five. "No problem Gary, I should probably get home too. Cya around!" With that, Ash dashed off down the pier and out the park, leaving Gary behind who gave a laugh at the sight of his friend.
Racing towards the edge of town, near the forested area, Ash made his way back home. An average-sized house came up before him in the same classical red-and-white style the rest of the town employed. It was surrounded by a white picket fence with a small front garden, a nice three-bedroom house for just him and his mother. Quickly opening the front door and barging in, Ash announced his entrance rather loudly.
"Mum! I'm home!" Ash shouted out to the house, only to hear nothing back. Rolling his eyes, the young boy closed the door - his mother was obviously working late again at the lab.
Grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl, Ash proceeded to take a bite from it as he moved to go upstairs and into his own room when an open door caught his eye. The door beneath the stairs, leading to the basement, was wide open. Ash swallowed the bit of apple he was chewing as he contemplated on what to do. True, it was his mother's private workspace that he had clearly been told to keep out of, and it likely meant his mother was home if the normally locked door was open. However...
His young mind was very interested in knowing what was going on in the basement. Especially when Pokemon were involved.
Still indecisive, Ash settled on peeking his head round the door and viewing the concrete steps that turned left at the bottom, light brightening up the fat bottom step from the basement lights being on. "Mum? Are you there?" He called down them, and frowned when he got no answer. That then turned into a shrug as his curiosity won over - besides, he always had the excuse of checking up on why his mother wasn't responding.
Slinking his way quietly down the stairs, Ash peeked his head round the corner once more - and gave a small gasp at what he saw. It was a large space in the basement, not entirely the span of an entire floor but still a bit bigger than the living room. Two hanging light bulbs lit up their opposing sides of the basement, one close to the wall which the stairs came from.
The entire floor was made up of concrete just like the stairs, making Ash briefly ponder on how much he would not like to fall onto that before he looked around some more. Shoved against the back wall was a lot of wooden furniture, from old tables and chairs to even a door propped against the wall - including; to Ash's displeasure, his old chest of drawers his mother had 'binned' a year ago. The wall to the left of that was sparse, just a plain poster with a squirtle hanging upon the centre of the wall.
However, the wall that the stairs came from had much more interesting things to take note of - lots of machinery stacked up against it. A lot of it was a load of mumbo jumbo to Ash, having a few blinking lights on it here and there with quite a few panels of buttons attached to the metal boxes. Trailing wires could be seen over a bit of the floor and wall, leading to said boxes to power them - giving two of them the elec-tri-city they needed to power their screens. One was just a bright blue, whilst another had a squiggly line going across it, a blip occasionally appearing on it that entirely re-drew the line as it went up and down in the same fashion over and over. A few numbers were in constant fluctuation beneath the line, giving Ash the impression that whatever the screen was showing, was meant to keep an eye on something. And there, over in the corner, looked like the same setup of computer his mother had upstairs, except perhaps more powerful given the bigger box connected to it.
But what had drawn Ash's eyes ever since he'd put his head around that doorway was the big machine situated in the centre of the room. A large standing machine, it stood just over seven feet tall at a slight angle towards the wall, with the metal back of it reflecting a dull grey. Ash could see quite a few tubes and wires running from the banks of machinery along the wall he was standing behind to a spot in the centre of the metal back of the machine; just beneath the big fan that whirred quietly. The beginnings of a glass sheet could just be seen, and Ash's curiosity flared up to greater heights - his adventurous spirit just had to see more. Especially since his mother wasn't here to scold him, after all.
Quietly but quickly, Ash strode round and stood at the side of the machine, looking at the machine just right to see the other side of it - only to scowl. For the glass sheet was not only thick and quite unbreakable in Ash's mind, but it was opaque too. The scowl quickly faded though, as Ash saw a figure within the machine - it was a shadow depicting somebody with a head, arms and legs, but then again plenty of Pokemon had such human-like limbs. Like Hypno, for instance. Whoever it was, Ash saw they were in the machine and was now slightly concerned.
For one thing, it didn't make sense. Who on earth could be in the basement? Why? And then there was the concern Ash had for whoever was inside - they were trapped inside of the machine like it was a prison. And Ash didn't like prison, it sounded like a scary place from books.
It was as Ash was pondering staring at the shadowy figure that whoever - or whatever - they were gave a twitch inside the machine. Ash cocked his head slightly to the side as he saw that, fully breaking him out of his ruminations as he saw the figure move. Seeing that the figure must be awake, Ash wanted to take a closer look.
Knowing that these glass sheets could go clear, as he'd seen his mother do it on holiday, Ash took another look at the machine to see where the button was. Taking a glance a little upwards from his small stature solved the mystery - a thin panel of buttons could be seen on the side where the glass sheet ended. He did hesitate a little, but another twitch from the figure ended that resistance. Whoever it was, was probably in trouble - and Ash only wanted to see if they were alright.
Sticking his tongue out, Ash reached up, the young child reaching up and jumping a little to reach the panel of buttons. He missed the first few times, but eventually he managed to push his target choice - the big red button.
At first, nothing happened, getting Ash to frown as his efforts led to nothing. But then suddenly, he fell backwards in surprise as the dark inside of the machine suddenly lit up a bright white like the flare of lit magnesium - the audible crackle of electricity sounding out across the room.
"Completion of building sequence initiated. Please ensure all restraints are fastened securely." A computerised voice rung out from the row of machines then, the light voice fading as the whir of fans notably increased in power.
The crackle of electricity sounded out again then, lighting up the inside of the machine a bright white once more.
"Starting fluid injections in 3.."
"Hey, what's going on down there?" A feminine voice called out from the top of the stairs, with the audible clattering of someone walking down the concrete steps.
"2." Ash's eyes widened as he realised his mother was coming down the stairs. "Mama!" He called out, scrambling up and starting to run towards the stairs.
"1." Delia Ketchum's face emerged from around the corner of the stairs, auburn eyes going wide with worry at what was occurring. Ash was still running across the room when the computer spoke the word that only kicked the process up to a higher gear.
"Beginning."
Immediately, the Pokemon contained within the machine let out a deep, powerful roar, one that could be clearly heard despite the thick glass shield covering the machine - the soundwaves reverberating within the confined space and amplifying its power. Delia Ketchum quickly hurried over to the wall of machines as she recognised the roar for what it signalled - a deep shout of agony. Whatever Pokemon Delia knew to be in the machine, it was currently in a deep amount of pain. "Oh, dear Arceus, no..." Delia let out, very much concerned and worried as she reached the computer and began inputting commands into the machine.
The electricity flared up to even greater heights, burning brighter and crackling with a cacophonous effect that rung in the ears. The agonising roars continued unabated, the audible slamming occurring within the machine alerting Oak's senior assistant to the Pokemon's spasms within the machine from what it was undergoing. Not that the Ketchum family could see it, but they could certainly hear the Pokemon thrashing about in the metal contraption.
"Abort command failed." The computer's voice stated. "The process cannot be reversed or undone at this stage. Please do not shut down the process."
Delia was about to do just that, about to duck towards the trailing tubes and wires and somehow disconnect them, tear them out to manually abort the process when something else happened. The machine began to glow a bright blue, with the audible sound of something charging within the machine.
Delia knew then that the computer had been right - it couldn't be undone. She knew what was coming, and so simply took the next best precaution.
The mother grabbed the son, and sent them both hurtling to the floor as a burst of energy unleashed itself from the machine, a sheer tsunami of blue energy that shattered the glass the instant it hit it, and continued forth.