A/N: According to the responses I've been getting, I'd say this story hasn't gotten too interesting…yet. Note that last word. So don't give up on me yet!! You might be very surprised.

Disclaimer: I don't own the related characters, yeah yeah yeah, blah blah blah. Let's get on with the story.

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No sooner did I step into the house when the phone rang. The phone, which happened to be situated in the living room of the house, and had an annoyingly plaintive jangle that no one could exactly ignore. I glanced at Red, who was looking around for the source of the ringing as he entered through the front door behind me. "That's our phone," I informed him quickly, though anyone could have guessed that. Feeling slightly flustered, I gestured to a sunken couch that sat against a wall nearby. "You just sit down for a minute and relax; I'll take care of it."

Red simply nodded and made for the couch, an awkward expression on his face as he took in the place that was my house. I made for the phone, which happened to be on the other side of the room, and picked it up, bringing its jangling to a grudging halt."…Hello?"

"Taylor!" The loud voice of one of my best friends nearly broke my eardrums. I jumped violently.

"Salem! What…what did I tell you about shouting into the phone…?"

Salem Cassidy, whose real name was in fact along the lines of Samantha Emily Cassidy, didn't seem to hear a word I was saying. She sounded breathlessly excited on the other end of the phone. But then, she had always been an excitable type of person. I could just picture her now, perched on the edge of her bed with its white sheets, phone pressed to one side of her head while she anxiously wound a lock of her long, bright yellow hair around one of her fingers, which was her customary indicator of agitation or excitement. Her bright green eyes were probably flashing like emeralds even as she spoke now.

"Oh Taylor, oh my gosh, you won't believe what's happening here right now…"The words tumbled from the receiver of the phone like a miniature waterfall, riddled with puffs of static breath. She must have been talking with her mouth almost pressed against the mouthpiece or something. I frowned.

"Um, Salem, if this is about some guy that might be asking you out again…"

"No, no, it's not that, not at all!" Salem was probably biting her lip now. She sounded almost nervous. And for the first time I thought I could actually hear something in the background…were those police sirens?

"Salem, what's going on back there?"

"Taylor - oh, Taylor, it's crazy! There's some kind of weird person in blue on the loose in the neighborhood right now - that's what the police have been saying -"

She was talking fast again. I sighed inwardly.

"All right all right, let's slow down a little here. What do you mean, weird person?" Not that I was particularly worried about my own well-being. Salem lived on the other side of town, close to our middle school.

"I'm not really sure, Taylor, but there are police cars and squads and everything…" There was suddenly a choking intake of breath at the other end that nearly deafened me with a small implosion of static. Salem's phone service had never been that good to start with…

"Oh my god!"

"Salem, what the heck's going on back there?"

"I - oh, Taylor - he's here - oh - he's on the front lawn now - but -"

"What?"

"…He's carrying…a sword…whoa…"

If this had been a normal Saturday, I would have laughed. But now something in the pit of my stomach dropped slightly. I snuck a glance at Red, who was sinking deeper into the couch and listening to the confusing talk on the phone with interest.

"Salem I - Salem?" I blinked. It seemed unnaturally silent on the other side of the phone, but I could still hear some quick breathing all the same. Salem was still there, but...

"I - Taylor -" Her voice was no louder than a whisper. "They're - oh, god!"

She had probably jumped, and so did I. For there had been a loud, piercing bang that even I could hear. The crack of a shotgun.

"Salem! Salem, start talking, now! What happened?!"

"Taylor - Taylor, they tried to shoot him - oh - I think it missed but - he doesn't look well…he's running away!"

I was practically kneeling over the phone by now. Several breathless seconds passed. And then Salem's voice came again, uncharacteristically faint.

"He…he's gone. The police are driving away, but…they can't find him anymore. He ran away down some alley and they weren't looking. Oh gosh…this is so weird…"

I swallowed. "Salem…e-mail. Now. Get Alex too. And Haley. We need to talk."

For once she didn't argue. "All right."

Then she hung up.

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"So…this is e-mail?"

I cast a quizzical glance back over my shoulder to the curious boy who stood behind me.

"Um…yeah."

"…Is it some sort of new computer program? We wouldn't need it, would we…aren't there still the screen phones…?"

I had no idea what a screen phone was, but I ignored that for the meanwhile. The fact that he didn't know what an e-mail service was supposed to be surprised me a little more. "Well, it's been around for about three, four years now. I wouldn't think so." I frowned at him. "Are you from Japan or something? Did you just move here?"

"…Japan?" The very word sounded unfamiliar and awkward as he spoke it. As though he'd never heard such a name before. "No, I was born here. In the Kanto region. Same as you, right?"

"…Yeah. Sure." I turned away from him, failing to notice his baffled face. This guy had a weird taste in jokes. Instead I bent my attention on the laptop screen, where the inbox had finally booted. Even as I looked, three e-mails popped up, each having been sent practically at the same time. Which was around seven-thirty. The time it was now. I selected the first one up, feeling resigned. This would probably have been easier if she had a forum in access or something, but her parents had been very strict about that. Oh, well. She'd make the best of it.

darksage: So, weird stuff happening? Inquiry for e-mails? I'm here. Reply welcome to come soon, or I'm dropping out. I don't usually have time for this.

Darksage…that was Alex Gaien. Or Alexandra, though she hated her full name. The darker, more secluded of my friends. Alex didn't have a single active bone in her body…she was a tall person, with pitch-black hair that she never did up or anything. The master of the art of laziness, though she was extremely intelligent. Figures she'd be grumpy on a Saturday morning. But that couldn't be helped.

I blinked, then clicked on the reply link and typed out my own message.

mad-scientistcreationist: Hang in there, Alex. We all here, or coming, There's big stuff happenin, but I don't want to talk about it till the others hear tell.

There, that would do it. I hardly blinked as I selected send and watched my e-mail disappear into the multi-electric threads of the net. Red, still apparently interested, shifted from where he stood behind me, but I once again ignored him. Instead I turned my attention to the two other e-mails. I checked out the first.

navyazurebleu: hello taylor. i got a call frm salem. sounds very intrsting. ready to hear whts up.

That was Haley McKenly. I ignored the misspelled words - Haley couldn't help such mistakes. In fact, she preferred to write in that kind of format, short and sweet. A blind person could only do so much. I could just imagine my quiet friend right now, hunched in front of her laptop screen, painstakingly feeling her way around the brail keyboard specially designed for people with her disabilities. Being blind did nothing to her personality, of course - Haley was your average-sized girl, with short light brown hair that curved around her cheeks in an appealing way, who liked to wear sweaters all the time, even in summer. Her eyes had always been opaque and cloudy as long as I had known her, and though she could not see, Haley did not like to make a big deal of it. She was, in fact, quite exceptionally accurate with her other senses, and could almost act like a normal kid when she really put her mind to it. The only difference was the fact that she always wore glasses, day in and day out, with the kind of lenses that dimmed in bright sunlight and cleared in dark rooms, to protect and hide her eyes, which were still unusually sensitive.

I checked out the second and final one which, predictably, had come from Salem.

dacassidy101: I think I've gotten everyone. They should have sent in their e-mails by now. Do we start?

I twisted my mouth, turning to Red. "Well, if you wanna say something, just let me know. We're about to chat. If you get bored you can hang out in the living room and watch tv or something. In fact, why don't you go and do that? This could take awhile."

"Well, if it's all right to you…I suppose I'd better." Red smiled half-heartedly and turned away, his footsteps rubbing the carpet as he made back for the living room. Not feeling too worried, I turned back to the screen and began typing rapidly, sending out my words in reply to each e-mail. And so the conversation began.

mad-scientistscreationist: Everybody here?

darksage: yeah, I am.

navyazurebleu: im here.

dacassidy101: Ready as ever.

I gazed at the responses that flooded back, almost all of them exemplifying terseness. My fingers poised, I began to rapidly type.

mad-scientistcreationist: Okay, we are meeting now because of several weird occurrences that have happened just a few minutes ago.

dacassidy101: Wait. Several?

mad-scientistcreationist: Yup, that's right. A weird thing happened to me too, this morning…about thirty minutes ago, in fact.

darksage: Sounds interesting.

navyazurebleu: plz contnue.

mad-scientistcreationist: Okay, here it is. This morning, there was this…guy, I suppose. He was kind of walking around. I think he was lost. So I'm letting him hang out at my house for a while, to find the place he was supposed to be at. But that's where the normal part ends. He's got these weird red-and-white balls attached to his belt, and he said he was looking for somewhere called Pallet Town, I think…

The message that came in bolted almost less than a second after I had selected send. Surprisingly, it came from Alex, who was usually sluggish about these things.

darksage: This guy…what does he look like?

mad-scientistcreationist: Well, let's see…he's got a yellow backpack and he's wearing a red and white cap. He's got a matching vest, too.

There was a pause in the flow of e-mails, as though each of her friends were digesting this information carefully. Then, finally, replies crept onto the screen hesitantly.

dacassidy101: Sounds like a normal guy to me…except for those balls. Maybe it's a new fashion style?

navyazurebleu: im afrad I know nothng about what these balls might be.

Then came Alex's, last of all.

darksage: Is his name Red?

I couldn't help but stare at the screen. Alex was smart, but…

mad-scientistcreationist: Alex, how did you know that?

darksage: I don't think you'll believe this.

I frowned.

mad-scientistcreationist: Well, I'm rea

There was suddenly a loud, shattering sound from the living room. I jumped violently, nearly smashing my fist on the keyboard.

"Red?"

The response was distracted. "Um, not to worry! It's just my -"

By this time I had stepped into the living room, feeling slightly irritated and hoping he hadn't broken anything. However, the sight that met my eyes made my stomach drop. I could only stare. Sure, something had broken all right. But that was no longer my main concern.

One of the antique vases that my mom liked to collect was, predictably, lying in shards on the carpet, the small table that it had stood on knocked over beside it. And standing beside the remains of the vase, holding one of the china pieces in one paw and glancing from Red to me uneasily, was a…a giant mouse.

I wasn't exactly the kind of person that was terrified of rodents, though I wasn't any fan of them either. But that was the only thing that the creature standing there, staring at me with wide, anxious amber eyes, could be described as. It was bright yellow and not much taller than the vase it had toppled, which had been about two feet, give or take a few inches. It had a jagged, brown-tipped tail and small hind-legs like a rabbit's, with dexterous forepaws. It also had thin, black-tipped ears, cocked at a right angle, and it had a wide, furry yellow face with a little black nose, a tilted mouth, and a perfectly round red spot on each of its cheeks.

Sure, it might have been cute. But it…it most certainly wasn't from around here.

I could only stare and swallow for several moments. It were as though the world were falling on my head, or perhaps laughing its head off at me. Either way, the sensation was not at all pleasant. And I had no idea what to make of the whole thing.

"Um…" Red looked uncomfortable, but then again, something told me that he considered that yellow thing to be perfectly normal, that he thought I was flabbergasted about the vase instead. As though the whole thing were supposed to be normal. "Er…yeah, sorry about that. Pikachu!"

The yellow creature ducked its head, looking slightly frantic, and gingerly gathered up all the pieces of the vase. Then it pushed the stand upright, dumped the pieces on top, and turned to me. "Pika!" It bowed its head, as though in apology.

I couldn't stop staring. Nothing made sense anymore. Finally, I could only manage a weak question.

"What…who the heck are you? Where did you come from?!"

Red could only stare at me, looking nonplussed.

"The…Kanto region?"

That was the last straw. I'm not sure what happened next, but I probably lost it. The last thing I remember after that was passing out against a chair, hoping it was all simply a very bad dream, a wacko illusion. Pretty interesting, but a little too real. Too weird.

How horribly wrong I was.

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Now I am going to switch perspectives a bit. I got the story you're about to read next from Haley much later, and managed to get some essential details. I'll write in a third-person point of view, so don't be alienated. This happened to be around the same time that I discovered the existence of the Pokemon called Pikachu. But don't worry - I didn't die of a heart-attack then. Expect to be back in my view very soon.