I'll have to be honest here.

My roommate, who just may be much nerdier than me, reintroduced me to Pokémon a few months ago, and I got hooked. This thing I wrote here is kind of the bastard child of that reunion. The idea behind it is that the central character is very much like me, and in this story is going through a process of rediscovery that is blatantly and unapologetically analogous to my own sudden return to the old Pokémon.

Some things I feel I ought to clarify for this story before going any further: I'm following the game canon for pretty much most things, and only really drawing on the anime to fill in vague details if I have to. I'm aiming to preserve the charm and surprising depth that is ubiquitous to Pokémon, while still presenting it in my narrative voice. I'd say this story takes place shortly after the events of the 6th generation games, and I'm figuring the timeline of past games lines up with the times of their past releases. So, this would be roughly 16 years or so after Red/Blue, for example.

Anyway, that's enough blathering from me. I hope you will find much to enjoy in my first foray in writing for Pokémon.

Prologue:
Give Me a Sine

It was dark, mostly.

The light from the computer screen revealed only the lightly bearded face of Peter Sine, staring intently back at the screen. None of his facial features were especially notable, aside from perhaps a slightly lower brow and deeper set eyes, which only accentuated the intensity of his gaze. In fact, more than any other single aspect that could be seen of him, what stood out the most about this man was the sheer intensity with which he observed and scanned the images on that computer screen.

It was a DAW program: Digital Audio Workspace. It showed a series of audio tracks, all spread out and lined up alongside one another. Occasionally Peter would open another display window, allowing parameters and details for each track to be altered. What was of far more interest though was not what Peter saw, but what he heard: what all those audio tracks represented.

Through the professional studio-quality headphones clasped over his ears, there was music. It wasn't finished music though, barely started in-fact. He'd transcribed a few melodic and rhythmic ideas he'd come up with so far, but nothing more than a few lines in a few tracks. Apart from expanding those musical ideas, he still needed to experiment find the right voice to carry them: synthesizer or instrumental, heavily or lightly modulated.

To conduct these experiments, Peter had one hand on the computer's mouse, and another on an electronic piano keyboard. The hand on the keyboard played the notes, produced the tones, repeated the melodies and rhythms in Peter's mind, while the hand on the mouse altered and tweaked the voice of the tone itself. He experimented with either sharpening or softening the tone, modifying the waveform, applying filters and reverb, and several other minutia.

For Peter Sine, half of challenge and joy of composing music in an electronic medium was the genesis of a completely new voice itself. Composers who worked with primarily instrumental material have the limitations of the instrument itself, as well as what a human can and cannot do with it. Those same limitations though did provide a familiar structure for the composer to work with. In an electronic synthesized medium however, it truly is an audio blank canvas, with no limit to what can be produced aside from the imagination and ingenuity of the composers themselves. There's a reason it's called a "synthesizer" after all. In creating this unique and original voice, the artist quite literally synthesizes a new tone from raw waveforms. However, creating the tone is only part of the challenge: the newly created voice must then be integrated into a chorus of other voices, as pat of a kind of audio team, to contribute to the music–

* Ring! Ring! *

Peter's work and train of thought respectively were interrupted, by an incoming video call. A new window for the video call overlaid itself on top of the DAW program, imploring him to answer, which he had to. The incoming call window said it was from his boss, which was odd at this hour, at 4:30 am. Still, it must've been important.

After quickly saving his work and closing the DAW program, Peter accepted the call. The window then showed a video feed of a portly, somewhat haggard middle-aged man with curly black hair. He was Donovan Joule, manager of the Kanto Radio and Communications Service, the Viridian City branch, and also Peter's supervisor there. It was a decent enough job, working maintenance on the regional radio and telecom gear. It was the kind of technical-mechanical work Peter enjoyed and was reasonably skilled at. It also often had him working outdoors, for better or worse. The hours though could sometimes come at strange times, like it did just now...

"Good morning Donny." Peter greeted, "What's up?"

"Pete! I'm so glad you're awake!" the older man exclaimed with a kind of energized relief, "Something urgent has come up, and I need your help to fix it."

"You make it sound so ominous, boss." Peter replied in a sort of half-joking tone. It could get somewhat frantic for the clients, when their radio and communication gear fail on them, but it was hardly life-or-death situations. If it was for certain vital relay stations though, well...

"It's the radio transceiver at the Professor's lab in Pallet Town, it's gone out." the supervisor explained, "We're off to get that fixed."

"At this hour? What about Ethan? Isn't he on call for the off-hour emergencies right now?" It was supposed to be his day off today, which was why Peter was even up at 4:30 in the morning, knowing he could sleep in later. It must've been bad if he was being called.

"I haven't been able to get a hold of Ethan." Donny answered, "It's why I called you: I know can count on you, even in these awkward inconvenient situations."

"Ah, well, thanks for the vote of confidence." Peter responded as he absentmindedly scratched the back of his neck.

That was another aspect of Peter: that he'd always be willing to take the tasks nobody else wanted. He knew they had to be done, and when nobody else would step up to do it, Peter would be there to see that it was completed. Don had caught on to that, and over time Peter Sine became the go-to worker of the Viridian City service crew for such unpleasant jobs, like this pre-dawn adventure to nearby Pallet Town he was being called on.

"Look, don't even worry about coming into the shop, Pete." Donny assured with an easy wave of his hand, "I'll be over at your place to pick you up in about fifteen minutes. Can you be ready to go by then?"

"Yeah." he answered, "I'll be ready."

"I'll see you there." and Donny's image winked out in the window as he ended the call.

A deep sigh escaped Peter once the call finished. It'd be another tough day, doing work when he least suspected he might. He'd put up with it though, not just because it's his job, but because it had to be done, and it's fallen on him to do it yet again. Such was the life of a commercial radio maintenance worker.

The young man hoisted himself out of the swiveling computer chair, and felt for the familiar light switch nearby. In an instant the darkness was obliterated by the sudden wash of light, and Peter took a moment to let his eyes adjust to it.

Peter's apartment was meager, but cozy enough for a bachelor like himself. It had the usual necessary amenities: a place to sleep, a place to prepare meals and eat, and a place to relax, just like so many other units in his building, like so many other buildings in his neighborhood. Even so, Peter had done one thing to his modest living space that he felt stood out: he made a small studio for himself. In addition to the electronic piano keyboard at his desk, there was also a higher-end microphone, which was in-turn connected to a small audio mixing board and amplifier setup. Where other people may have hung pictures or meaningful posters on their walls, Peter had instead installed a series of foam acoustic panels, so he'd get a cleaner sound going into the microphone and coming out of his speakers. It was nowhere near as complex or complete as a professional studio, but Peter was reasonably satisfied with his setup. It got the job done, and that was enough for him.

However, there was one notable non-functional item in Peter's studio: a thunder stone, set on a small display stand. A plaque in the stand read, 'Employee of the Month: March 2013'. Donovan Joule presented the stone after a particularly nasty storm had torn up half the radio gear this side of Kanto, and put the service crew through the wringer for weeks on end. Peter remembered being surprised to receive it, since at the time he figured he was simply doing his job. Nonetheless, it was a small token of appreciation for his work, and Peter had to admit, he kind of liked having it in his little home studio.

In a few moments, Peter had briskly tidied himself up, and changed into a set of sturdy clothes suitable for work, including a hardhat, a pair of heavy boots, and bright safety vest. Much like his face, Peter's physique was likewise rather mundane: neither tall nor short, neither skinny nor chubby. One could make the case though that he was somewhat strongly built. Peter himself would often claim that his body was built to be much thicker and stockier than he actually was, attributed to his lifestyle of physical labor and meager eating habits.

About fifteen minutes had passed through Peter's preparations, and the young man unceremoniously stepped out of his apartment and went to the street. It was still dark out at this hour, with barely a glimmer of grayish light peeking over the eastern horizon; not enough light to see much of Viridian City itself. The air outside was cool and damp, as would be expected on a morning this early during the springtime, with just a hint of a breeze wafting though.

Waiting at the street, just like Donny said he would, was a small utility truck idling in one of the nearby parallel parking spaces. It was one of the company vehicles, with the words 'Kanto Radio and Communications Service' painted on the side, along with the logo: a stylized radio tower and concentric circles that were supposed to represent the radio waves.

After crossing to the passenger side, Peter opened up the door and climbed inside the truck where the smaller, portly figure of Donny Joule was waiting for him. A distinct bitter scent of coffee hit Peter's nose as he settled into the seat, and he saw a pair of paper coffee cups in the truck's cup holders in the dashboard.

"Here, this is for you, as well as the coffee." Donny Joule said, handing Peter a paper bag. It was breakfast, probably from one of the convenience stores in the area.

"Thanks." Pete bluntly replied as he received the bag, and fished out a simple biscuit sandwich and unwrapped it.

"It's the least I could do for calling you in at this hour." the older man said as he put the truck into gear and drove off.

"So what's the big deal about this Pallet Town job anyway, boss?" Pete asked just before biting into the sandwich. It wasn't much as far as food went, but it was welcome nourishment all the same.

"The Professor's laboratory is kind of a high-priority job in the first place." Donny explained, keeping his eyes on the road ahead of him as he spoke and drove, "Still, we'd s normally wait until regular hours to go to work on something like it. Today is a bit of a special case though, and we gotta have the radio up and running ASAP."

"Special case?" Pete questioned, taking a sip of the steaming coffee, being careful not to spill the hot bittersweet liquid while the truck moved.

"Today, Pete, is the day that the new batch of kids arrives at the lab for orientation, and then head out on that junior-trainer journey every kid tries so hard to be part of." Donovan Joule answered, offering a quick aside glance, "When I was that young, like most kids that age, I used to absolutely obsess over getting to be one of those lucky few picked by the Professor. I must've written hundreds of letters trying to get on that short list." his words carried a strong, sense of nostalgia

"But you didn't make the cut, right?" Pete asked between bites of the breakfast sandwich, "That's why you're with the maintenance crew, and not a professional Pokémon trainer."

"True, maybe, but that doesn't mean I've stopped training the Pokémon altogether." the older man said with a small shrug, "Heck, I'll be entering the company tournament next month, and I bet I've got a shot at placing high this year with Amp backing me up."

"Amp?! That rusty junk-pile of a Magneton?" Peter asked, almost in disbelief, "We use it for radio and telecom maintenance. It's trained to be a power supply, and to help us with signal testing, not for battling."

"Oh ho! You'd be surprised just how much fight that 'rusty junk-pile' has in it." Donny exclaimed with a hearty chortle, "I think the potential was always there, it's just been left untapped all this time, being in this humdrum life of service." he offered a small aside glance to Peter, and asked, "So what about you? You gonna enter the tournament?"

"I don't train Pokémon." Peter confessed, shaking his head, "I haven't been interested in it for years, not since I was, well, that age."

"That age?" Donny questioned.

"You know, around ten to eleven, when every kid thinks they can take on the world with Pokémon." Peter explained sheepishly.

"Yeah I gotcha." the other nodded, "So why'd you stop?"

"I just... grew up, I guess." the younger man answered, then paused for a few moments, looking out into the dense Viridian forest pass by outside the truck window, "I mean, I figured a long time ago I wouldn't be good enough at training and battling to make it worth it for my living. Besides, I'm better at this anyway, and my music."

"Oh yeah? Then maybe you should get the radio station play some of your tunes sometime." Donny suggested, "I'm sure they'd be happy to oblige."

"I'll send it their way when it's ready." Peter responded, "It's not good enough to put out there yet, it still needs work."

"Good gracious, there you go again with the whole 'not good enough' routine." Donny scoffed with a sigh, "I've heard your stuff Pete: it's great, better than most of the new garbage from the so-called 'musicians' these days. Heck, if you put even half as much effort into training Pokémon as you do your music... Well, lets just say I didn't just give you that thunder stone to sit idle on its display stand somewhere."

A somewhat embarrassed tinge struck through Peter at that moment, knowing that's exactly what he'd done with the thunder stone, "I... just want to get this job done."

"Alright, I didn't mean to pressure you like that." Donovan relented, "It's just something to think about is all."

"Yeah, something to think about..."

The rest of the short drive to Pallet Town was quiet and uneventful. Donny Joule didn't say anything more, and neither did Pete.

It was true, what Peter had said, about how his interest in Pokémon dropped off early, despite how ingrained the creatures were into modern living. You practically couldn't go anywhere or do anything in the world without using or running into Pokémon doing something; even the radio maintenance work Peter did often included Pokémon, like the Magneton named Amp he mentioned earlier. Yet even with the world teeming with so many Pokémon, with such close cooperation with humans, Peter Sine had managed to pursue other means that didn't involve them, namely in his music. There wasn't a real need or viable use that he could think of for them, and he felt content with it. Shouldn't that be enough? What good was it pursuing those idyllic childish dreams, when there were radio antennas to be repaired, cables to be re-hung, connections to be made? Life, and the world, simply cannot wait for such wants.

Peter and Donovan soon arrived in Pallet Town itself, just as the light of the sunrise began to bathe the area in a warm, golden light. It was a quaint little town, nestled in the rolling foothills of the imposing mountain range that formed the border between the Kanto and Johto regions. Peter had only been here once before, passing through for work. It was an instance when the major radio relay station between Kanto and Johto needed some of its gear replaced. They didn't even stop in Pallet town then, and simply drove right through. That meant this would be the very first time that Peter would be up close to the resident Professor's laboratory.

A few minutes later, after a short drive up a gentle hill, the utility truck pulled up to the laboratory building itself. From what Peter could see on the approach, the radio transceiver array for the lab was installed on the top of a tower structure attached to the building, sharing that structure with a distinctive wind turbine. He already anticipated some major exterior work, with sensitive tools and equipment, and a safety harness. Good thing he had a breakfast and coffee in his system.

As Donny Joule turned the truck off, a lone figure could be seen stepping out of the laboratory building, and making his way toward the truck.

"Looks like the Professor is here to receive us." the older man observed, and climbed out of the truck, along with Peter.

The man who approached them could only be the resident Professor. He was a very tall, round faced gentleman who sported a beaming smile and wire-rim glasses, wearing a bright floral print shirt with the ubiquitous labcoat over it. He clearly wasn't the famous Professor Oak, who'd normally taken care of the Pallet Town laboratory in the past. He was somewhat younger, with seemingly boundless energy and goodwill...

"Ah! There you are Donovan!" the tall rosy-faced man greeted happily as he shook Donny's hand, "Thanks again for coming on such short notice."

"It's no trouble at all Professor, just doing my duty." Donny Joule replied politely.

"Nevertheless, your work is so appreciated–" the professor stopped himself mid-sentence when he spotted Peter, and immediately approached him, offering his hand, "You're new here? Welcome! I'm Professor Jeremy Rose."

He positively towered over Peter, who strained his neck making eye-contact.

"Peter Sine, just a worker with Donovan." the young man replied, returning the hearty handshake that Professor Rose had offered, then asked, "Isn't this supposed to be Professor Oak's place?"

"It is, or was." the professor answered, gesticulating widely as he spoke, nearly creating a hazard at his size, "Oak's celebrity status keeps him away from the lab so much; with radio shows, interviews, TV appearances, guest lectures. He's been needing someone to run the day-to-day functions of the lab for a while, which is where I come in, doing exactly that."

"Ah, okay." Peter said with a nod. It made sense; even someone as tuned out of the news as he was knew at least a little about the famous Professor Oak of Pallet Town.

"Anyways, I don't mean to be brief, but I would like to get the radio back up and running again as soon as possible. We can chat later if you like, but for now, let me show you fellows out to the back..."

At a brisk pace, Professor Rose led Peter and Donovan around the laboratory building, to a large field behind it. The structure Donovan and Peter were interested in of course was the tower: a tapering conical structure attached to the rear of the laboratory building. The wind turbine had been disabled for the moment, for safety of course. Large spinning turbine blades would be an obvious hazard to any worker scaling the tower to the radio transceiver antennas at the top.

In the meantime, Donny Joule had briefly questioned the professor about the radio issues, "... and you're sure it's not interior connections?"

"Tested all the points I safely could myself." Professor Rose confirmed, "I figure it's something exterior, at or near the top of the tower."

"Makes sense. The weather or other factors frequently damages exterior components..." Donovan responded, while he peered up at the tower through a pair of binoculars, "Yup, I think I see the break already: transmitting and receiving coaxial cables look like they've been torn loose at the antenna base. We'll have to go up and reattach that." he turned to Peter, "Pete, suit up and get ready to climb."

"I see." the rosy-faced man said with an understanding nod, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Once we're ready, you can show my assistant to the maintenance access point, and he'll go to work." Donovan answered, giving the young man a hearty pat on the back as he sent him on his way.

Peter gave little response to the activity, and simply opened up the back of the utility truck to make the necessary preparations. The young man fished out a safety harness, an attachable tool pouch and two-way radio, as well as a coil of nylon rope he could use to hoist equipment up and down the exterior of the tower as he needed. Hopefully he'd be able to check over a copy of the building's schematics so he'd know what to expect up there, but it seemed straightforward enough.

Once he had the harness fitted, Peter checked the tool pouch to make sure it had everything he'd need: multimeter, hand-tools, soldering kit. He might need a few pieces of specialized gear or replacement parts, but until he could get a good look at the actual damage, there'd be no way to know for sure. He'd just radio Donovan with any details then.

Satisfied, Peter stepped away from the truck and joined Professor Rose, who was waiting for him near the front door of the laboratory.

"Right this way." he led the young worker inside, explaining as he spoke "We'll ascend the tower from the inside mostly, and..." Professor Rose stopped for a moment, noticing that Peter had fallen behind him.

The young worker was simply taking in the sight around him, and had slowed considerably in the process. The space itself was quite expansive, two floors high with an inner-balcony occupying the second floor. There were a number of tables lined up around the area with samples, cases of Poké Balls, research materials, notes, not to mention lots and lots of Pokémon equipment that Peter didn't recognize. The most sensitive Pokémon-related equipment Peter had worked with so far was some of the components of the transfer and storage system, when he did some work for Bill's firm. Even in that case, most of the equipment itself was proprietary, and the employees of Bill's firm performed the sensitive maintenance. The regional service crew were simply extra labor for the more mundane tasks, such as cable running and installation...

"It's an impressive setup, isn't it?" Professor Rose said, standing conspicuously over Peter.

"Yeah, sorry." the young worker responded

"There's no need to apologize." the professor said, shaking his head with a small chuckle, "I had the exact same reaction myself the first time I walked in here, when I was just starting off as a lab assistant for Professor Oak. The tower access is right this way..." and Professor Rose climbed a staircase up to the inner balcony.

Peter followed closely, and asked, "You know Professor Oak?"

"Of course, I spent nearly ten years under his tutelage after all." the Professor answered, as they continued across the laboratory's inner balcony, "He can be a little absentminded at times, but you'll find few people as devoted to Pokémon research and expanding our knowledge of them as Oak. Nowadays though he's more and more involved in the public promotion of research, in being a celebrity scientist, as opposed to actual research..."

They soon arrived at a small door with a number of warning labels, which Professor Rose showed to Peter, "But anyways, here's the tower access. Be safe out there!"

The worker gave him a short nod and stepped through the door, into a tight spiral staircase that he began to climb. Soon it became too narrow for stairs, and gave way to an interior ladder that squeezed past the wind turbine's generator, right until the ladder came to a stop at an outer access hatch. Carefully, Peter unlatched the hatch, and swung it open, revealing the same rolling foothills of the area he'd seen earlier, but from a much higher vantage point. There was a little more wind out here, not enough to be a safety concern, but it was more of a gust than a mere breeze up here. The weather was just about perfect otherwise, without a single cloud in the sky. In the distance there

Before doing anything else, Peter found the outer safety rail, and attached the carabiner of his safety harness to it. Then he set about climbing the exterior ladder of the tower to the radio mast, which was just a few feet further up. It was a good thing Peter wasn't too afraid of heights, else he'd never have gotten this job in the first place. Others would be justifiably terrified to be it Peter Sine's place, with at least a good hundred feet drop or more to the ground, and the buffeting wind wouldn't have helped matters. For him though, it was just another day at work, another tower to climb, another radio antenna to fix.

The two-way radio attached to Peter crackled to life, and Donovan's voice came through, "How does it look up there, Pete?"

At the top of the tower, Peter finally got a good close look at the damage Donny had spied earlier, and gave the details back through the two-way radio, "It's the coax cables alright: ripped right out of their connections in the junction box. Looks like it might've been some bird Pokémon by the damage to the cables themselves..."

Indeed, the two sen/receive cables connecting to the antenna mast were completely frayed on one end, and there were clear claw marks where something tore them out.

"We could rewire them," Peter continued, "but if the cables are taking this kind of beating, I think we'd be better off just replacing them with heavy-duty reinforced cables, make this less of an issue in the future."

"Good thinking." Donovan replied from the radio, "I'll send Amp up with the stuff."

Way below, Peter could see the distant flash of a Pokémon being released from its ball, and a small glint that was Amp. That old Magneton was kept in Donovan's tool kit most of the time from what Peter could tell, right next to his wrenches and wiring gear. He still couldn't believe Donny was actually going to use it for battle, even if it was just a small-time company tournament.

A cry was heard somewhere overhead. When Pete looked up, it looked like there was a bird Pokémon lazily gliding above, possibly a Fearow by its outline. He was almost willing to bet it was the very Pokémon that had ripped these cables out in the first place...

In a few moments, a whirring hum steadily rose from below, and the triple-sphere and magnet body of a Magneton floated right up next to Peter, carrying a pair of short, sturdy coaxial cables. This was Amp, and its age showed, with it's rough, dented, and partly corroded surfaces in places.

Peter reached out to retrieve the cables, commenting, "Donny's really got you battling, does he?"

Amp just swayed a little bit in the air, and offered a kind of tinny metallic squawnk as it's response.

"As long as you're here, I suppose you could keep an eye out, make sure that bird overhead doesn't interfere." Peter said, pointing up to the circling Pokémon above them, "Maybe you'll even get a little practice in if you're lucky."

The Magneton tilted itself up, to look at the Pokémon Peter supposed, and gave another squawnk.

"... right." was all Peter could think of to say, and he began work.

It was fairly straightforward: a simple mater of removing the damaged coaxial cables and jacking in the fresh ones. Honestly this was about as routine and humdrum a job as ever. Anyone in-theory could do a job like this, even that happy-go-lucky Professor Rose if he put his mind to it. The only real limiting factor here was that it was an exterior repair at the top of a tower, and that it just might have been more complicated than it was. Nevertheless, this was the kind of work the techs at the Kanto Radio and Communications Service, like Peter Sine, did on a daily basis.

A few minutes later, and the cables were all swapped out.

"I'm all finished up here Donny." Peter announced into the two-way radio, "I'll have Amp test the reception and–"

* Squawnk! *

"What is it?" he asked to the Magneton.

Amp was positively going haywire: spinning its magnet and bolt appendages wildly, jittering and shaking in the air, all while emitting a rising whining hum. Peter had never seen this beat up old Pokémon acting so strange before.

"Amp, I don't underst–"

* Crack! *

A lightning strike? But there's not even a cloud in the sky...

And that was that!

I wanted to carry this over into the next scene, and not leave it on as blatant a cliffhangover as this is, but it was approaching my personal 5k wordcount cap, and I'd rather not have a first chapter/prologue that drags on for that long. In any case, I hope you were able to find something enjoyable and/or interesting in that. And even if you didn't, any feedback you can give will be most appreciated. There is more stuff planned to come after this, and I hope I'll see you there!

For anyone that is still following my other stories, I do still plan on working on them, and will hopefully get to them very soon. In particular, I've done a lot of work on the next chapter for Star Fox: Legacy that I want to finish up and get out there.