I groggily woke up to the wonderful aroma of sizzling bacon and waffles. I got up, dressed, and headed out to the front door to leave. However, the man, whose name is apparently Benjamin, stopped me.

"I hardly ever get guests," he told me, "so would you like to eat breakfast with me?" I could not object; the buttermilk waffles smelt absolutely wonderful.

After eating my third strip of bacon and my fourth waffle, I kindly thanked him and left the fancy building. He bid me farewell and I thanked him once more, then walked off to the town's gym. I have heard from many people that the leader was tough and in some people's minds, unstoppable. I stepped inside the building, walking towards the back of the room. However, before I could reach him, somebody else walked up to me.

"If you want to battle the leader, then you'll have to battle me, too!" He sent out a Sandshrew.

"Okay, if you insist. Go Treeko! Use absorb!" I ordered my green ally. Sadly, the Sandshrew dodged, and Treeko had to retry. "Use absorb once more!"

"Dodge that again, Sandshrew! Then use pound!" The sandshrew couldn't dodge the attack but managed to pound at Treeko's head. Treeko tackled Sandshrew, knocking it out. The boy, about my age, gave me the prize money for beating him.

Finally, I Made it to the gym leader. She turned to me. "Hello, I am Roxanne, the Rustboro Pokémon Gym Leader. I became a Gym Leader so that I may apply what I learned at the Pokémon Trainer's School in battle. Would you kindly demonstrate how you battle, and with which Pokémon?"

"I will. However, do not expect me to take you lightly." I told her. "Let's begin! Go Treeko!" The lizard appeared from its Pokeball as Roxanne threw a PokéBall to reveal a Geodude.

"Geodude, use rock smash!" the floating rock Pokémon flew towards Treeko with incredible speed and smashed the ground as hard as it could, flinging chunks of the gym floor everywhere, some hitting treeko.

"Treeko, use absorb!" I commanded. Treeko dashed forward, and latched onto geodude and absorbed some of its energy. Geodude tried to throw the gecko Pokémon off its back, but treeko stayed on, clinging to it. "Ok, great! Now use razor leaf!" Treeko let go of geodude, jumped into the air and used the Grass-type move. The geodude fainted, and then Roxanne brought out another one.

"Geodude, use tackle!" Roxanne ordered the rock Pokémon. It grabbed treeko, and slammed him into the ground, fainting it.

"Treeko, return! You did a great job." I said. I only had tailow and Wurmple, and both of those were a bad choice to send out. "I concede!"

"All right then, maybe next time," Roxanne said.

I left the gym and headed towards the PokéMart And bought some potions, a couple of Pokéballs, then headed towards the forest to catch some more grass Pokémon.

As I entered the forest, I could see a small mushroom-like figure moving away from me. I ran towards it and pulled out tailow. "Use Peck!" the bird Pokemon flew down at the pokémon and started pecking until it got weak. Then, I threw a Pokeball at it and waited. Once, twice, and then three times it shook. Suddenly, it stopped. Yes! I opened my PokéDex and found out that I have caught a Shroomish.

Instead of going back to the gym leader, I decided to take a break and feed my Pokemon. I was not quite a match for Roxanne, so my Pokémon needed more training so that they could withstand the tough rock Pokemon she had.

"Just take your time." I kindly told my pokémon as they ate. "We have all the time in the world. Then, you can play with one another when you're done." For a person that didn't want to go on a Pokémon journey, I didn't understand why I felt so connected to Pokémon. They seemed to like me quite a bit, even though I had only been with them for less than a day.

The Pokémon finished eating, so I headed off to my next destination. This time, I bought food and planned to camp in a field next to the forest I explored. I trekked along the road towards the forest, got to the other side, and set up camp. After that, I went to look for other Pokémon to add to my collection.

By the time it was nearly ten o'clock, I had come back with a Koffing, a Skarmory, and a Shuppett. My Treeko had also evolved into a Grovyle. I sent my Wurmple into the PC because I could only have six Pokemon in my party, for some ridiculous reason. There were hundreds of Pokemon to catch, but you can only have six?I was tired because of the many hours I spent getting the badge and catching Pokemon.

I crawled into my tent and drifted off to sleep. That night I had no dream, at least, that I could remember. I woke up a couple of times from the sound of thunder, and on the tent walls, I could hear the rain tapping all around me. It was a ginormous storm, and the constant booming told me that It wasn't going to stop anytime soon. I tried to sleep, but something made me stay alert.

A few minutes later, I heard light footsteps that crept toward my tent. A moment later, a hand grabbed the zipper, and my instinct told me to grab the nearest PokéBall in my possession: My Skarmory. As soon as the tent flap opened, I shouted, "Skarmory, use Steel Wing!" The giant metal bird dive-bombed towards the intruder and slashed at it with its sharp wings.

The stranger, now bleeding a great deal on the cheek, grabbed an Ultra Ball, and threw it onto the ground. It was a shiny Charizard. "Use Flamethrower!" A bright light filled the air as a beam of fire hit my Steel-type Pokémon. To my dismay and sorrow, Skarmory died. My heart shot to my feet as I rushed out and grabbed hold of it.

Another voice announced that that man wasn't the only person there. "Hand over your Pokémon. Or you'll have to face the consequences," The menacing, gruff voice growled at me. Many other shadows started surrounding my tent.

"Why should I? And who are you guys?" I shouted out between sobs of despair. I hoped that it wasn't Team Thunder. My heart was pounding, my blood racing around in my body. My brain panicked as it flooded with the many results that could happen.

"You'll want to hand over those PokéBalls, just trust me. Hand over your Pokémon, and we'll do you no harm." The intimidating, deep voice answered.

"I asked you a question! Answer it!" I shouted defiantly.

"Haha! We have a feisty one here, boss. Should I tell him?" It was probably a grunt. The large silhouette nodded. "We're Team Thunder. We want all of your Pokémon, or we'll kidnap you, getting your Pokémon anyway. The choice is yours."

My heart seemed to stop beating and launched into my throat. I couldn't breathe for what seemed like an eternity. Then I answered, "No! I'll never give my Pokémon to you! Why should I, when you just killed one of them!?" I was seething with anger and fear, the sadness of the loss of Skarmory inching away.

But what came next terrified me more than anything else. "Alright, then. This is all your fault. Go Zekrom, knock him out!" The boss shouted. I jumped up, grabbed my Pokémon tool belt, and sprinted out for the forest. But before I could even run five feet towards it, the massive black dragon tackled me to the ground. I almost blacked out.

I managed to grab a PokéBall, despite my lack of energy. " Go Grovyle! Dragon Claw!" The green lizard scratched at the legendary Pokemon with the Dragon-type move, but nothing seemed to work. Zekrom then electrocuted my friend, and then gave me another blow in the face. I struggled to stay awake, but then I passed out.

* * *

I didn't wake up for what seemed like years, but when I did, I was in some sort of lab. There were several scientists around me, all mumbling and whispering to one another as they picked up and put back strange-looking tools. I tried to move my hands to check if my tool belt was still on, but I couldn't; my hands were chained down. So, I leaned my head forward, and my tool belt wasn't there. In fact, I was wearing some odd jumpsuit.

Then, one of them whispered, "how long... the... take?" I couldn't hear the entire thing he said because I was on the verge of blacking out again. Wait, what? What were they doing to me?

"It takes quite a... But trust... it's worth... Wait. Well... for the... it has," another replied quietly. Am I in a dream?

A third then spoke, "Get me that sleeping gas; he's awake again." One of the scientists handed him the sleeping gas mask, and he put it on me. I started feeling groggy.

It took me only seconds to fall into a deep slumber. However, it still seemed like I was still awake: I couldn't use my senses, but I could think. What had happened to my Pokémon? What were they doing to me? These questions were still running through my head when all of a sudden, my mind went blank.