Sebastian "Dragon Man" Wyvern passed away last night after a tremendous fight against his mysterious illness for three months. He was a brave man with an amazing life full of action packed pokemon battles. His last days saw him still with a proud fighting spirit. At the age of 89, he had a long and happy life. Before he died, he left one last never-before-seen recorded message to the people of the United States of America. We go now to the recording:

An elderly man appeared on the screen, though he an appeared frail and weak his voice was strong, and his eyes fierce. There was certain elegance about him, like he was a fallen king.

People of the United States of America:

I need not restate the obvious, please do not mourn my death. I have asked the news to run this film the day of or after my death so I could leave a message: use this opportunity! I have spoken with the other Elite Four members and we came to an agreement; we need a new member. So a tournament shall start exactly a week after today. I do not know what the name of the tournament will be, but I do know that it will be huge! Every store will have a new item for sale after I die: a device called the Poketch. This will be your ticket into the tournament. The rules will be explained on a sheet that the Poketch comes with. After that, you're on your own. Good luck, trainers, and good bye.

Chapter 1

Mike sat up in his bed. That was a weird dream... As he thought about it more, he decided to use it for one of his fan fictions. "Not that I ever finish those..." he added to himself, chuckling.

He walked downstairs into the empty kitchen, parents already at work...again. He didn't mind eating alone, but he missed the days they ate as a family. Get over it Mike you're-what-fourteen? One more month and you'll be a full grown man! At least, that's what Dad always says. He ate breakfast and went out for a jog. Since it was summer and he didn't have to worry about school, he took his longer route.

He was jogging past the civic center, a rentable auditorium where events were often held. It seemed to be in use at the moment. The sign read, "Children's Pokémon Tournament. Apply today and tomorrow here or online!" He chuckled. My brother would flip for this. I should tell him; it will be a good way to celebrate his new Pokémon game.

"Hey! Mike, over here!" Mike turned around and saw his friend, David, jogging towards him.

"Hey what's up?" Mike said after David caught up.

"You going to pick up your pokémon?" He asked.

Mike assumed that it was a joke and laughed, but stopped when he realized that David wasn't laughing. "What do you mean?"

"You let them sleep at the Pokémon Center last night so they could be rested for our trip tomorrow, right?"

This wasn't a joke. David was horrible at lying. But then why is he talking about Pokémon as if they were real?

"Well, mine are rested and ready!" He said as he took some red and white balls (poke balls?) out of his pocket. "Come on out, guys!" Out popped a zangoose, a bastiodon, and a skarmory.

Mike yelped and jumped back. "H-how?" He uttered a couple other unintelligible noises.

"Are you alright, man?" David looked worried, the kind of worried one looks like when one has a crazy friend.

Suddenly, Mike thought of something and said, "Oh, I get it... I'm still asleep!" He quickly slapped himself...and saw stars dance before his eyes. "Whoa... almost knocked myself out there, but that hurt, so I'm not asleep?" Now he became conscious that David still had that worried look, and so did his Pokémon.

But suddenly David said, "Oh! You're probably surprised at my bastiodon, right? I forgot to tell you that he evolved last night!" Bastiodon smiled in pride and the other pokémon's expressions eased, convinced that this was the cause of his reaction.

Play along, thought Mike. I don't know what's going on but I can figure it out later. "Oh, y-yeah, that's it, plus I haven't been sleeping well, and that's why I thought I was still asleep."

"Oh, okay. Take care, Mike!" And with that he departed, but not before giving him a strange look.

%%%%

Ralts couldn't explain it. One moment she was fine, just looking for a berry to munch on. Then, all of a sudden, she felt confused. I might be sensing someone else's confusion. She shook her head. I need to get out of here.

She turned and walked in a different direction. But after a while she began to stumble. I... I think that... I... uh... I'm going towards it. She changed direction again and promptly walked into a tree. Ow... that hurt. Uh, I'm so dizzy. Poor thing is really confused. She got up and continued walking. I'm going to get lost, I just know it.

%%%%

"This is my home town, but it isn't. This forest wasn't here..." Mike continued to grumble to himself as he stumbled through the forest. He wasn't paying attention to where he was going. He only knew that he was heading to where he knew the acute care center was, except now he hoped it was the Poke Center. Or maybe he was hoping it wasn't. "I guess it makes sense. We could get check-ups and physicals there so I guess here it would be a po-OH!" He tripped over something soft and green and face planted.

He sat up slowly, turned around, and saw a dazed ralts. She got up carefully, seeming to have troubles with her head. "Oh, sorry little fella," he said as he brushed of some wood chips from her.

Ralts started as she realized that it was a human that knocked her over, but she calmed down after a second. No hostile emotions, he's just worried and a bit confused. She looked up at him curiously and realized, Maybe he's the one that was confusing me so.

"You alright? Anything broken?" She shook her head no. Oh, great! Now I'm talking to a Pokémon. How is this...?

Oh, no... Here we go again... She wobbled and almost fell, except she caught herself on his arm. Mike again turned his attention on her, ending the flow of confusing thoughts for a moment. I have to stop this or I'm going to throw up. Ralts gathered her thoughts and peered into his eyes, extending her mind towards his.

Mike started to feel a bit peculiar, and then he heard a voice that seemed to belong to a six year old girl. [What is it that is confusing you, human?] It said.

He looked around, but the only other living thing around was the ralts. "Whoa, how'd you-?"

[I am a psychic Pokémon, am I not? Now why are you so confused?]

"I... I don't... think you want to hear about it."

[Maybe, but your confusion is very... contagious. You might not know this, but I can sense emotions of others. Your confusion is so great that I'm having trouble even walking. I want to help you if I can so that neither of us has to suffer.]

"It's a long story"

[It can be told faster if you think it to me.]

After a pause and a few difficulties with communications he told her everything, right up to when he tripped on her. [I just don't understand how or why I'm here. But now that I think about it, I wanted to write a Pokémon fan fiction, and one of my characters had a zangoose, bastiodon, and a skarmory, and David had those Pokémon.]

She thought for a moment, then suggested, [Perhaps you have become part of this fan fiction of yours.]

[Well, that's helpful. Except that I was still brainstorming that. I haven't even started it. I was still working on another Fan fiction.]

There was another pause, then Ralts asked, [Please, what is a fan fiction?]

"Erk!" Mike flinched. He didn't know how a Pokémon would react to being told that they were made up. [It has to do with writing.] She felt him grow uncomfortable and let it drop.

[Well, is there anything else that you brainstormed for this fan fiction of yours?]

[Well...] He thought for a second. [I did have two Pokémon I wanted to use picked out, hitmonchan and yanma, so I guess those are the ones that I'm going to pick up from the Pokémon center. I suppose I can figure things out from there.]

Ralts smiled. [Good! I'm glad I could be of assistance,] she said, then got up and walked away.

[Wait!] She had already severed the connection. "Hold on!" he said out loud. She stopped. "What's your name?"

She reconnected and said, [We ralts don't have names; we have voices, speech patterns, and homes, so we don't need names. Good bye.]

Chapter 2

It felt good to talk to someone about my problems, even if it was a Pokémon.

Mike now walked a bit more confidently. At least I'll be able to have some fun in this world. Maybe I'll catch a fearow, make him really strong so he can fly me places.

He felt shivers run up his spine and grinned. While he wasn't the traditional adrenaline junky, he did enjoy dangerous situations, enough so that he had accumulated a decent number of injuries over the years. To keep himself from getting too hurt, he kept himself fit and healthy, and he took a martial arts class to learn how to tolerate pain. He even took a stunt man class one summer, mostly for fun, but he learned how to absorb some of the shock on falls.

He continued to fantasize about flying and again neglected to check where he was going. High above him, a swellow was being mobbed by a swarm of beedrills because it had a weedle in its talons. After a beedrill hit it on the head, it dropped the weedle right in front of Mike. Mike started and punted the already dazed worm.

"Man that scared me!" he said, then heard a noise above him. "Huh?" He looked up and saw four of the beedrills, obviously unhappy about the treatment of their kin, break off from the others and start charging at him. "Shoot!"

He sprinted through the forest, afraid for his life, and yet, and yet... he was having fun. Now that his adrenaline was pumping, he couldn't help but feel that strange, giddy happiness that always possessed him in his times of peril. Even now, a grin over took his face. "Well, Mike old boy... how're you gonna get yourself outta this one?"

They broke into a clearing, a parking lot. Up ahead, there was the Pokémon Center, with a hitmonchan and yanma hanging out nearby. My Pokémon...? He turned around to face the beedrills, now running backwards. Well maybe, if they are my Pokémon, they'll come out to help me; if not... well, I don't know.

He stopped himself with a skid, charged forward, and threw a mighty punch. It caught the lead beedrill completely off guard and on the head. Its momentum caused it to spin as it hit the ground, where it lay still. The other three seemed shocked that their prey had suddenly struck back, but they soon recovered and charged again. Now to test what I've learned from my martial arts class.

He kicked beedrill number 2 square in the chest, or thorax, and parried the stinger of beedrill 3. He swung it around and whacked beedrill 4 with it. He lunged at 2 again and executed a text book "superman punch": midair, downward hook. 2 was out cold. Mike jumped back up and quickly rolled out of the way of a twin needle attack from 3, but then found himself in between 3 and 4. Crap! 3 and 4 were attacking from both sides, and he was out of breath, too slow to dodge the attacks. He felt a stinger pierce his shoulder, followed by intense pain...

But before the beedrill could sink its stinger any deeper than that, it was cut off by a lightning fast punch to the head. Hitmonchan was in the fight, and when Mike turned around he saw that yanma had also joined, throwing sonicbooms at the other two bugs. Good, thought Mike, rubbing his burning wound, at least I'm not dead.

The beedrills finally retreated, carrying their injured with them. Mike was now alone with the pokemon. His pokemon? I guess there is only one more way to check..."Magnum?" Hitmonchan looked up at the mention of his name. "Bullet?" yanma landed on his head. There was no mistake, they were his. He had an almost uncontainable urge to yell "AWESOME!" at the top of his lungs, but refrained. That would have been weird.