Who I Am

Prologue

She absconded the lab in a cautious rush, but every click of her ballet-flat heels clanged against the bleached steel path and resonated in the glinting white chamber, unveiling her. Fortunately, the echo was omnipresent. It concealed her exact position from her pursuers, offering a fleeting moment of solace as she guessed the path through the nearly hypnotic, winding white maze to her escape.

The girl had never had to run so arduously before. Her exhausted body seared like a Blast Burn: her chest ached as she expelled each heavy hasty breath, her lungs felt as if they were bound with nylon rope, and her weak legs pleaded for rest. They were feelings that were foreign to her cautiously nurtured body. But she endured.

Frantically, the girl glanced back down the path with her terrified emerald eyes, beyond the messy billowing of her blonde hair. Two men were gradually closing in, an inevitability. Panic forced her overtaxed heart to convulse; her breathing stalled, winding her, but she ran faster, defying her breathlessness. She couldn't allow herself to be caught. Otherwise, her impulsive risk would be meaningless.

She reached the end of a white corridor, darted through an automatic door, and she found it: a triangle of blue lights embedded in the floor in the centre of a dangerously open room. The exit.

"She's over here!" A guttural male voice yelled, and the hunters in the room dashed for her.

Her body hurt, but a few agonising moments later she crossed the saving light. Stumbling to the control panel and fumbling with the buttons, the girl raised the barriers and the elevator ascended, distancing her from the men clad in white. She stood taut and trembling for a few tense seconds, panting, fearing for the impossible chance that the tenacious men would climb the scaffolding to reach her. When no such supervillain appeared, her shaky legs collapsed. She landed on her knees, panting.

A naïve act of curiosity had thrust her into her plight. That was all it was. She could not believe what she had seen. How could she not have known? Why wasn't she more careful? She didn't ponder the questions. She just needed to escape, no matter the improbability.

Dialga's generosity missed her as the elevator promptly stopped. She dragged herself up onto her legs made of jelly and patted down her white sundress, glancing left and right to determine her location under the blinding midnight curtain.

The room was large, paved with elevated walkways weaving over and between sections of healthy flora and streams, their beds lined with rocks. Sleeping Pokémon rested on the grass, in the trees, and beside the gently trickling streams, illuminated by the moon's ivory glow that leaked through the skylight roof. She recognised the room as the facilities' sanctuary and yet the trepidation frosting her veins made her feel everything the opposite of safe. Neither the tranquil atmosphere nor the harmonious, clustered tweeting from the nocturnal bird Pokémon could rest her nerves.

The girl traipsed through the room like it was a Fearow's nest in the reprieve of being hunted. Her breathing slowly evened, her relieved heart thanked her for the rest. She sneaked around a corner like a child in the dead of night, but a vigilant woman blocked her path. She backtracked, deciding to hide and wait out the brittle patience of those stalking her instead; or rather, stalking the being blinking through her unzipped bag with lambent sulphur eyes. It would be too difficult to walk around with so many people prowling.

She edged warily around another corner toward her chosen hiding place – a haven she remembered from her years of playing in the room as a child. As if passing through a portal, a thick forearm suddenly reached across the T intersection just in front of her. She flinched, the reflexive jolt making her narrowly avoid the ghastly hand that brushed her Pokéball duffle bag. She darted down the walkway, took a right turn and then a left. When it seemed like she might lose him in the dark, she froze as if hit by a Sheer Cold.

At the other end of the path, obstructing her route, stood two strangers clad in white and blue jumpsuits: a short girl with a long braid of ginger hair and a tall, sturdy boy with a curl of amethyst locks draped over his forehead from under his hat. She gasped, recognising them both. They had appeared a few weeks ago, emissaries from somewhere. She had avoided them because of a potent unease the air around them held. It was as if they exuded it.

Frightened, the girl backed away. She spun around, attempting to flee, but she saw the others approaching behind her, breathless. When they acknowledged the situation, their exasperated faces contorted into fanged, predatory grins, telling her she was trapped, taunting her. They advanced like Mightyena, slowly, as if revelling their power.

Overwhelmed and petrified, her mind concocting torturous consequences of her actions, tormenting herself with the prospect of being disciplined by methods far worse than what she had previously endured, the girl collapsed to the floor. Her body refused to move after that. She entered a state of shock. Her eyes tingled, then warm tears trickled down her cheeks as her hopelessness dawned to her. She shut her glistening eyes, surrendering, waiting for the inevitable.

Suddenly, a chime prompted her to open her eyes again, a celestial sound. Blue energy surging from the bag against her hip swirled around her, engulfing her fragile frame in a shining light. The pursuers retreated, repelled, shielding their eyes, grunting.

As if by magic, the mysterious energy whisked her body from the ground, ascending faster than a Thunderbolt. It phased through the glass dome without making so much as a scratch, climbed and disappeared from the night sky, leaving behind a glittering stream of twinkling stars that soon faded into the darkness.

Hi, everyone!

This is a short message to new readers. My idea for this story is to incorporate the underlying storyline of the Sun and Moon games and series into one, while building my own world around that central idea.

Thank you for giving my story a go! If you continue reading, let me know what you think, and I hope you enjoy the story!