Sorry about the really long time it took to upload this, but no one read anything anyway, so...

Chapter 8: Ace

I slowly opened my eyes to a hot spring near the top of a mountain. My joints were stiff from sleeping on rocky ground. I yawned, sitting up and stretching. How long had I been asleep?

"Hey there, nice to see you've finally gotten up!"

In a split second I'd turned around to face the speaker, a guy probably ten years or so older than me, wearing a red and white jacket over a black t-shirt, jeans, and a red baseball cap backwards so his black hair stuck out. I quickly pinned him up against the cliff wall using the Force, getting him a foot off the ground for a little bit more control. "Who are you?" I asked as menacingly as I possibly could.

He smiled at me. "Oh, I'm just the guy who took care of you while you were sleeping."

Okay, that was unnerving. "What's your name? Or am I just going to call you 'Guy'?

He looked up at the sky. "Sheesh, you guys are tough. My name's Red, and I'm a Pokédex holder from Pallet Town."

"Red to match your outfit, huh? And what's a Pokédex? I'm not an idiot, you know."

"What, you don't believe you're in the world of Pokémon?"

I hesitated just a second, but it seemed enough for him. "Come on out Pika! And don't hurt the girl, she's just a little confused."

A little, yellow, sleek ball of fur with a lightning-shaped tail came running out of the bushes to growl at me warily, although it obeyed its master's commands. Even I knew enough about Pokémon to figure out that thing was a Pikachu.

"Okay, you got me on that. But first tell me, where am I and where are my friends?" I hadn't seen Maria or Justin anywhere.

"You're on Mount Silver in the Kanto region, and you mean human friends, right? They're not here. All I know is you dropped out of the sky in a flash of light. I don't know how you're doing this, but could you please let me down? I won't try to hurt you."

I reluctantly released him, letting him drop the foot to the ground. Unfortunately, he didn't even stumble when he hit the ground. The Pikachu, I guess it was called Pika, bounded over to him and hopped up on his shoulder.

"Now, this doesn't mean I trust you. I can have you up a wall if I want to."

He laughed. "I could make threats to you, but I've learned it's not very good to intimidate a student too much."

I crossed my arms, masking my face so I didn't look surprised. "Who said anything about you teaching me? For goodness sakes, what can you even teach me?"

His eyes glittered, and I noticed they were red. "You came here to learn, didn't you? I can teach you a lot. Bet you've never caught a Pokémon before, considering where you came from."

"Where I came from?" What did he know about me?

"You're from another world," he said matter-of-factly. "All of my trainees are these days." I must have looked startled beyond belief because he laughed. "Anyway, we need to start your training. Can't have you behind the other two, can we?"

"How did you know there were three of us?"

"There are always three. I don't know why, but you guys always come in groups of three. But we're kind of short on time, so what's your name, now that you've thoroughly interrogated me?"

"Ace."

"Well Ace, here you go," Red said, pulling out a small Pokéball and handing it to me. "It's a Mareep, a present from the trainers in Johto. Your first Pokémon."

I looked into the ball at a tiny, fluffy, yellow sheep. It seemed to be smiling at me. I looked back up at Red. "Do I – do I get to keep it?"

"Yes, of course. We don't just give you friends, then take them all back."

"Thank you." I smiled back down at Mareep.

"Okay, open the ball and let's start your training!"

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