I had spent my life playing it. I would beat it, restart, rinse and repeat. How could I help it, it was a great game. I was eight when I played Emerald, then I moved to the rest of the series in record time. I was strategic, I won a few tournaments, completed nuzlockes, and bested some of the most talented players in the world.

It was comfort. A consistent love of mine that was the only thing in my life that, without a doubt, every single day I could depend on. I didn't know my real parents, I didn't even know my race. As far as I knew I might've been Puerto Rican or Dominican, but that was it. I loved my adopted parents, but it just wasn't the same.

I excelled in my academics, A and B student most of the time. I had bad people skills unless I was communicating through the web, in which case I was the opposite of an introvert. There was so much time on my hands that I could waste my time completing a nuzlocke challenge of every pokemon game without losing a single pokemon. This was the day that I completed the final one. I had to find a new way to waste my life now.

I cursed to myself, the screen flashed and the 3DS made an ear piercing screeching sound before it turned black. This happened every single damned time. Every time I beat the game, the credits would roll, then shortly after it would crash. It was getting old; I was hoping to look back on all of my trophies in fond reminiscence, but the painfully annoying game was making this impossible for me. I sighed and got my clothes on, it was time for work anyway.

The building shook. I thought it was the rumbling of the train. Or a hurricane. But it continued, and I got worried. The curtains blew furiously. I ran to the window and shut it and switched the lock. I ran into the corner farthest from it, but the apartment was still shaking.

I quivered; my heart was beating faster than a drum solo. My foster father wasn't home at the time, he was at work and soon I would be too. I worked as an intern at a small clinic, and I figured that it would help me further my goal of becoming a doctor, or at least a nurse, in the far future. I was home alone, and I had no goddamn idea what was happening. If someone was there with me, at least I would know that I wasn't batshit insane.

The apartment was shaking more violently than it was before. I ran to the door, but it wouldn't budge. The wind was pushing it closed. I even struggled to stand up against the strong air current. I mustered up my strength and ran over to the bed frame. I held onto the bar for dear life and futilely screamed for help, but no one answered.

My arms grew weak, my fingers felt like they were gonna break. I scrunched my eyes shut and hissed in pain. The gust was carrying me and I was blowing like a flag. The bed-frame scooted across the wooden floor; it made a screeching noise that made me cringe. My wrist gave out against my will, I let go.

I expected to break my back when I hit the wall. But I melded with it. I went in easier than water, even though it was made of concrete. I could even breath in it, but I wasn't worried about that. It felt as if I was being swallowed up by a giant serpent and it's saliva was washing over me as I went further and further down its monstrous throat. Maybe that was how zebra felt when they were being taken down by a hoard of hyena. They fought and fought, but eventually they figured there was no stopping what was coming to them. I stopped struggling and let sleep embrace me.

XxXxXxXx

I woke in a daze. My body ached and I laid in a meadow on a grassy patch. I attempted to sit up groggily and rubbed my eyes. Where was I? I couldn't for the life of me remember how I got there. I suddenly got a burst of energy, and shot up to my feet.

The luscious flowers surrounding me on the grass were moving like there was a tornado approaching, but there wasn't even the slightest breeze. I flinched for a moment, I remembered the heavy winds in my room before this happened…was it a hurricane? I remembered flying into the wall, but my memory had a hole in it, like someone just cut some parts out of it.

An explosion threw me backwards; I fell on my ass a few feet away. I felt up my body for injuries, but I was okay from what I could feel. I got back up on my feet and looked at the spot where I was standing. A black specter floated a few feet off of the ground. It looked like the grim reaper, but eventually its robe turned into a black hoodie, and its black figure became more humanoid. The hood was pulled up over it's face, creating a black shadowy void over its features. It wore black cargo pants and black combat boots with black gloves covering its hands.

I thought I was going to die, and he was the grim reaper about to take away my soul. Judging by its voice it was male. The voice was deep and gruff, but oddly was very calm. "That's fucking disgusting; did you really piss your pants?" He laughed, I looked down on my shorts and low and behold there was a huge piss stain. I didn't remember pissing my pants, when I woke up I was completely dry. How did he do that?

"You need some clean clothes, you nasty piece of shit." He fanned his face and feigned illness. I looked down and my outfit had been completely morphed. My clothes were now the same as his, combat boots, gloves, and a black hoodie. But I had a black fitted cap on my head, unlike him.

"That's a lot more fashionable now, if I do say so myself. But piss on yourself again and I won't replace them." He skated over to me like the ground was ice.

"What are you?" I stuttered, my mouth agape.

"You mean who am I? I am...a being…who likes to watch a good show once in a while," The void-faced man said vaguely.

"That doesn't really answer my question," I grumbled. If he had a face I somehow knew that he would be smirking.

"My name wouldn't exactly explain what my intentions are, would it?" He pointed out.

"Then how about you take it upon yourself to tell me?" I asked. He laughed hardily; he stepped up close to me and put an arm on my shoulder.

"Call me… Mog." He uttered deeply.

"What kind of name is 'Mog.'?" I questioned. He took his hand off of my shoulder and placed it to his side.

"It's an acronym." He snorted. "The Master of Games is my title." He informed me.

"Alright, 'Master of Games,' why am I here? Where did you take me?" I asked, he turned around and faced me. I looked into the void in place of his face. It was black as night, and seemed to swirl in his hood. I quickly looked away, I thought I'd be absorbed into the blackness.

"You should probably find this place familiar, does Fifth Isle Meadow ring a bell to you?" It sounded very familiar; it was on the tip of my tongue.

"Is that in Europe somewhere? I'm not good with geography." He laughed at my answer; I was beginning to think someone was pulling a prank on me. But the clothes thing was too real, no one could fake that.

"More like Kanto," I laughed out loud. But he couldn't have been more serious.

"Kanto? You mean like that place in Japan?" I said dumbly.

"I mean like in the pokémon games. Y'know, the ones you grew up playing?" My heart skipped a beat at the mention, how did he know such a specific detail about my life? A better question would be what the hell did he mean by I was in the pokémon games?

"I'm not exactly following you. So you just teleported me to the pokémon universe? So if I go into that forest over there I'll encounter a beedrill hive?" I said sarcastically. Mog sighed and walked forward a few steps, and then the world went black again.

XxXxXxXx

We materialized in an exotic jungle. Everything was green and luscious, much different than the concrete jungles I was used to in Jersey. I turned my head to my right and found Mog standing next to me. I yelped and defensively jumped back in alarm, eventually my body settled after seeing who it was, but I was still very cautious.

"Now we're in Viridian Forest, I'm sure you're familiar." He said.

"Suuure…" I snorted; Mog looked at me with frustration.

"So I can make clothes materialize on your body, but you don't think I can do this?" He asked rhetorically.

"Inter-dimensional teleportation and manifesting clothes is a HUGE jump." I answered anyway.

"Good point, but you'll be choking on your words soon enough." He laughed and faded away, leaving nothing in his wake.

I shivered at it, I was under the impression by that point that I was in an incredibly realistic lucid dream. None of what was happening was even remotely lifelike. I walked into the dense overgrowth, swatting away small insects that got in my way. I brushed the long banana leaves out of my face and ducked under outstretching tree limbs. I coughed as a gnat flew down my throat, and sneezed when one went in my nose.

I mumbled curses to myself, I liked the outdoors, but I wasn't fond of it enough to have a three course meal worth of bugs flying down my throat. I groaned in annoyance, I thought back to what Mog said, if I really was in the pokémon world, would that even really be that bad? I loved that game my whole life and I had dreamt of being magically teleported to the world as a child. But as I grew up I only looked at the game as just that; a game.

I looked down at my feet and saw an extended banana leaf on the ground under my foot. It was placed oddly on the dirt, it was green as the rest of the forest, but was lying on the ground so you'd expect for it to be rotten. I leaned down and rubbed my fingers across the leaf. I smelled my fingers; it had a sweet scent, almost like tree sap. I traced the odd leaf with my eyes; at the end was a big yellow pitcher plant. It was large, about up to my waist and wide enough that I wouldn't be able to wrap my arms around it if I tried.

The plant had a pink rim on the opening; I walked over to it, and peered inside of the mouth. The stench made my nose scrunch up, and my eyes watered. I peeked over the edge. It had a big yellow rat inside of it, its fur was mostly decomposed by the acidic liquid in the carnivorous pitcher plant's mouth, but I was not delusional as to what the creature was.

I jumped back away from the plant and yelped. If that was what I had thought it was, then Mog was right. I hauled ass in the opposite direction, and didn't look back. This shit was real, and I couldn't fool myself anymore. Mog was obviously something else; something i'd never seen before.

My running was halted as I crashed into an invisible barrier. I fell flat on my ass, I jumped back on my feet and kicked the barricade. The familiar specter appeared and formed into the black hooded man whom I was even more frightened of than before. He cackled and I suddenly had a migraine that made me clutch my head in my hands. My anger shifted into tranquility and my heart rate calmed. I no longer felt the need to fight back against the man; I knew that I was being emotionally manipulated by him, but I couldn't find myself to be angered by it at all. I didn't even feel like talking.

"I told you I wasn't lying, didn't I? Mog knows best," he said condescendingly, I just stared at him.

"I was gonna let you about your way, I needed to prove to you that this is real," he stressed. "I'm the Master of Games; I'm in charge of the entertainment of humanity to distract from hardship around surrounding them. I'm nigh omnipotent; I can beam through dimensions with a thought.

"But I'm not gonna explain to you the entire concept of dimensional travel, that isn't what you're here for."

"Even I, Master of Games, becomes bored of life when given so much power. I've existed since humanities inception. way before pokémon, I was around back when people were rolling rocks around inside of caves to keep themselves busy," The deity joked. I stayed quiet, my mind was still running on the strange forced high that made me indifferent to my own emotions.

"I created a challenge; one of my favorite games is 'Pokémon.' Ever since it was created I became enamored with the concept. I'm sure you can relate," I completely agreed with him.

"The challenge was to beat a flawless nuzlocke of every main series pokémon title created, and you will be deemed worthy enough for the real game. You fulfilled it." He cackled, his deep voice echoed in my ears.

My mood changed once more, now that I could speak I asked, "So what about my family in the real world?"

"Time is a lot slower on Dimension 2814 than it is on Dimension 3923, you'll be fifty years old by the time one minute passes there. That just gives you more time to entertain me." The hooded specter explained.

"And what exactly do I have to do to 'entertain you'?" I asked, standing up and dusting myself off.

"Get some gym badges, beat the elite four, I don't give a damn. Just don't die like the rest, believe it or not, the last guy died within the first few minutes of coming here," he snorted. "He was mauled by a rabid linoone, those things are nasty."

"After I do that, then what?" I asked him.

"You either go home, or stay here," He told me. I frowned.

"Can I at least get a few million dollars to pay my way through medical school?"

"If that's what you want I can arrange for it happen." The Master of Games offered. "So, is that a deal? Not that you really have much of a choice, fit challengers don't really come about often and I won't just let such a good one go." He said.

"So, when do I start? Do you have a starter pokémon for me?" I asked.

"See, that's the thing; giving you a pokémon would be too easy. You'll have to do it yourself," the specter chuckled.

"At least give me a manual or something, it's like you want me to be killed," I deadpanned. I heard thunder in the sky, and a sudden downpour started. Mog somehow stayed completely dry despite the rain, I, however, became soaking wet.

"I gave you a hoodie and some waterproof boots, is that not enough?" He prodded. "Be lucky I gave you that much, at least now you won't get hypothermia."

"Here, you're gonna need this." He held out his palm and a pokeball materialized in his hand. He tossed me the ball; I caught it clumsily and shoved it in my pocket. "You'll need this too; you won't be able to train without one of these." He pulled a card from his pocket and pitched it to me. I attempted to catch it but failed, he laughed at my pathetic attempt.

I picked up the card; it had my birth date, a fake birthplace, and my name, 'Floyd North,' in blue letters on the top.

"You'll have to step up your game, slacker, if you wanna survive. Catching a card will probably be the easiest thing you do today," Mog cackled. His body began to seemingly dissolve. He spoke one final sentence before he disappeared. "This'll be exciting, trust me."

For new readers, this isn't the original version of this chapter, I fixed some of the mistakes I made originally. Also, this was gonna be a nuzlocke story at first, but I came up with what I feel is a better idea. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Please review/follow/favorite if you wanna see more.