A/N: I know what you're all thinking! "She's starting another story, even though OHAH isn't finished, and now she's making an authors note about it, claiming that starting a second story isn't going to derail from her main project." Of Hoops and Holists isn't going to go under a hiaitus or anything of that nature; in fact, it's still going to update as scheduled if not sooner. HOWEVER, this story had been in my brain for awhile now, and I owe it to tumblr user pokemonsavvy, as she and I had a bet awhile ago, and I still owe her a story of her choosing.

The installments for this story are also going to be much shorter than Of Hoops and Holists. While this prologue is still shorter than how long I'm wanting chapters to average, my current guess is this story will be about 10 chapters, but each chapter maybe 1.5-2k words long. So, nothing compared to the 6-8k word chapters of Of Hoops and Holists! My intention is also for this story to be lighter and breezier than OHAH, so please, enjoy this tale of our favorite steel/psychic Pokémon!

Please enjoy this prologue, and let me know what you think!

We were always just chilling in this sandstorm. Ha, chilling. We're always chill, even in this desert heat. We're made of iron. Hanging out in a sandstorm was the best place to avoid a lot of trainer traffic, because the harsh affects don't bother us at all.

Well anyway, it was like any other day, all us Beldums just swarming like we always did. It was just kind of what we did, I don't know if there was any rhyme or reason for it. It was usually before meal times. Something about our magnetic charges and the formations we needed to take to prepare in order to eat, I think.

We had been swarming when it happened. Specifically, when it had happened to me. Specifically, well, I actually can't get that specific, because I couldn't tell you exactly what had happened to me that day.

I can make an educated guess based on what I know now that it was probably due to my magnetic energy not having yet been fully charged, something like that. But I didn't know that then, and was too weak to fight it. Was that why we always swarmed like that? To stop trainers from catching us by surprise? Whatever the reason, I don't know that I horribly miss it.

Because I get to eat lots of rocks now, and I don't even have to forage for them by myself. I mean, sometimes my trainer takes me with him to forage for rocks for my meals, but even then, he usually collects a whole bunch to take back to our home as a supply for awhile.

Although, I will admit, though I'm not proud, that I had learned the hard way not to eat the minerals or stones in the glass cases, but that's a story for later. I was talking about how life had been pretty good for me, mostly. I was beginning to pick up on human speech, and I could conceptualize what was going on around me outside of my containment chamber, or as my human calls it, a Pokéball.

I guess I should talk about my human a little bit anyway. I soon understood that he went by the title "Steven," and he would take me exploring in caves a lot. He did a lot of research when we went to caves, but I got to eat a lot, and sometimes we would train. He'd tell me I had all this "potential" and that one day I'd evolve into a "cool and large Metagross," and honestly, just him saying that made me feel good, and him taking me out to train and get stronger made me feel like there was something big out there for me.

I don't even know if I wanted to be a Metagross back in those Beldum days. I knew I had had one for a mom once, but I barely remember her. Sometimes I worried Steven didn't like me the way I was when I was a Beldum, but even now I'm not so sure that was the case. I think it had more to do with us reaching our full potential together, and maybe I was just too trusting because, really, he fed me really well.

Either way, I got pretty lucky with this guy.

When we weren't exploring caves, we were back at his home, where his human male friend, Wallace, I believe, visited often. It was thanks to Wallace that I started to pick up on human conversation and speech. Other than Wallace, back in those days, Steven hardly spoke regularly to anyone. Sure, there had been the occasional exchange with trainers who wanted to battle with him, because apparently he was incredibly strong even before I became strong, but I don't remember those battles ever lasting that long, even from just a spectator's perspective. He didn't really use me regularly for battles until that day.

However, it had been that day that his habits had started to change in general and entirely.

That day, the day we went to a cave to explore and I was itching so badly to come out of my Pokéball, and Steven only continued to tell me "soon." Any minute now. Any minute now, I was going to break free and eat all the rocks I wanted, and put a couple Zubats in their place. At least, that had been the plan. That had always been the plan. Back then, I hadn't really known anything different, because nothing really different from that had ever been an option to life. All I knew was what Steven showed me.

And I'll never forget it, the reason why I didn't get to come out of my Pokéball that day in the cave, until much later, long after Steven had left the cave I was supposed to have lunch in.

That was the first time Steven had met May.