Chapter 1: Outside

Finn waited patiently while gazing out of his bedroom window. The night sky was cloudless, allowing the brightness of the full moon to cast elongated shadows across the grass below. Lunar light flitted through the surrounding trees' barren limbs. In the coming weeks, the cold would begin to fade away and the tree's would sprout anew. Next to him, a worn leather satchel lay ready.

The green-lit digital numbers of his watch read 12:48 a.m. when he heard it. Reverberating from the other side of the house, the sound of his stepfather's newfound slumber reached his ears; the snores signaling that it was finally time to go.

Cautiously, he pried open the window's metal latch, careful to avoid any unnecessary sound. A rush of cold air greeted his face as the window swung open. Knowing that one misstep could spell ruin for the night, he gently scooped up his bag, and like a gargoyle he perched himself upon the window frame.

Then, with practiced ease, he leaped out into the open air and grasped the branch of a rather conveniently placed oak tree. The sturdy limb—strong enough that it wouldn't snap, but not so robust that it could completely carry his weight—gently sagged low enough for him to safely drop onto the mulch covered ground below.

Recovering from a crouch, he stood tall and hurried out of the immaculately manicured yard. Once clear of the townhome's vicinity, he fell into a steady jog alongside the dark neighborhood road, the familiar rhythm calming his nerves.

Minutes later, he spotted the silhouette of a teenager impatiently tapping his foot on the ground, his back resting against a light post. The teenager's bearing held a subdued sort of excitement, which made sense in a way, what they were doing was not strictly legal.

"Whelp Finn, it sure took you long enough," said Alan O'Toole, smirking. "You do remember what that means?"

"Yeah, sure, I know—you get dibs on the first pokémon we see," said Finn slightly out of breath, sharing a look of conspiratorial camaraderie. "It took forever for Vince to go to sleep. How long have you been waiting?"

"Around 30 minutes," said Alan, running a hand through his dirty blonde hair. He was dressed in similar fashion to Finn, wearing a dark brown wool jacket buttoned to the top, worn jeans, and a pair of scuffed sneakers. The attire almost made the other boy look like one of the hikers that commonly came to Blackthorn for work.

"Do you have everything?" Finn asked.

"Sure do," said Alan, patting a traveling bag on his shoulder. A slight wrinkling of his brow told Finn that the other boy was not as confident as he was letting on.

"Perfect, let's get on with it then," said Finn.

Finn quickly led them down the road until they reached a small bridge that crossed over a meandering creek. He motioned for Alan to follow him off the side of the road. "We'll follow the water until we get to the south facing wall. That's where Orion said the opening is supposed to be."

"Are we sure about this? What if he is just trying to get us into trouble?" said Alan.

"I'm pretty sure. I mean, how else did he get that massive geodude of his? I know he wasn't selected the typical way, it would've been in the paper."

Alan shrugged in acknowledgement, and began descending the embankment to the creek bed. Falling in step behind the other boy, Finn scanned the thin copse of pines that grew alongside the gurgling water, looking for anything that might resemble a pathway.

The cloudless sky and full moon allowed for as clear a view as one could hope for at this time of night. It was not long before he noticed a grouping of slightly worn stones that were almost entirely concealed by pine needles and moss. The pattern was one that would only be obvious to those who were looking for it. "Hey, look over there! I think that's it," he said.

"Good catch," said Alan, climbing towards where Finn had pointed.

Finn could see his breath in front of his face as he ambled along the sparsely traveled pathway. Wild blackberry canes and thistle grew rampant throughout the underbrush, occasionally catching at his clothes with their thorns.

This area was probably one of the least traveled parts of Blackthorn city. It was a small park-like area, where plants were allowed to grow in their natural state. It was a glimpse of nature for city folk who were not able to regularly venture outside the city walls.

Blackthorn was a sprawling city within Johto that cleverly incorporated the surrounding mountainous terrain into its structures and protections. The city was famous because it was home to the current League Champion, and an ancient clan of dragon-type pokémon masters resided there. On a more foundational level, Blackthorn happened to be home to one of the region's most successful apricorn processing plants. Apricorns were the key ingredient to creating different versions of pokéballs. To the city's north and east were the Silver Mountains, which spanned all the way down to New Bark town splitting Kanto and Johto. To the south—where Finn and Alan were currently headed—was a massive wall made of stone that was erected to protect the city from the powerful creatures that lived in the outside world.

Looking up through the pine needles, he saw that the path was quickly coming to an end. The rows of trees along both banks of the creek ceased abruptly, abutting a towering wall of stone. To their left he could make out the glimmering water of the creek passing through a weather worn metal lattice. Sticks and leaves too large to pass through bobbed up and down at the exit.

"Looks like we're here," said Finn, in a whisper.

"Now what?"

"Well, Orion said that the opening was down by the water so we should probably start there."

The two teens carefully maneuvered their way down to where the masonry met the ebbing water. This near the wall they had to be sure to keep silent. Sentries often stood guard at random points along the wall. Urban legends told of horror stories of what the guards would do to the teenagers who tried to leave without permission.

The reality was probably worse for Finn. Fines for being outside past curfew were steep; the fines for sneaking outside the wall without a license were even steeper. Finn knew that these laws were for everyone's protection, but it did not make them any less restrictive, especially for the stepson of an apricorn farm-hand who had never been outside city limits.

Up close the metal barrier looked incredibly sturdy. Shaped like a loosely woven apple pie, he could see faint ripples in the shiny surface that looked similar to the feathers of a bird. At the right edge of the barrier, the metal was roughly peeled backwards forming a hole large enough for a sufficiently determined person to slip through. This must be it.

"You ready? Put a repel in your pocket just in case," Finn said.

Finn quickly slipped through the small opening. After only a foot or so he could feel the beginnings of a stone ledge that ran alongside the creek. He followed the stone until he was looking out from under the archway into a moonlit clearing. Never having seen it before, Finn had almost forgotten that the city kept the trees cut back to increase the visibility of any approaching threat. This somewhat complicated matters. If a guard happened to look out their way while they crossed the field, they would be easy to spot. Finn just hoped that what they were doing was common enough that even if they were spotted, the sentries might look the other way.

"Let's make a run for it? Maybe we should follow the creek for extra cover until we reach the woods?" said Finn, voice wavering uncertainly. He had not expected to feel so vulnerable once outside the city walls.

"Sounds good," said Alan, "If we're caught, we'll just have to try some other way. I mean—there's always waiting for a League subsidized starter? Sure it would take a while, but we'd have time to save up some money before starting off," Alan sighed, looking at his surroundings. "Though, we're already out here, aren't we?"

From above, the telltale murmur of conversation quickly put an end to Alan's talking. Stiff and ashen faced, they sat underneath the archway hoping that the sentries would pass. Only after a couple minutes, when the voices began to fade away did he begin to speak again.

"Ok. I think we're clear," said Alan.

Finn nodded, and readied himself. He rubbed his gloved hands together for warmth.

Technically, in order to pass freely outside the city walls all that was required was to have a pokémon trainer license and a pokémon partner. The latter part was the complication. Unless you had a lot of money to purchase from a breeder, or won the Blackthorn Gym's lotto you were typically out of luck. Recently, the lotto had been taking so long that sometimes an entrant could wait years before they received a partner. Finn and Alan had decided to try a more risky approach.

The giant bear pokémon ursaring often prowled the forests surrounding Blackthorn at night, while skarmory, the sharpedo of the skies, hunted during the day. Repels were effective, but amazingly expensive. Finn and Alan had saved for months to be able to purchase the six-pack of repels and pokéballs for tonight's journey. Finn had worked by cutting lawns in the more expensive part of town, and Alan by working at the local ice cream shop.

Without looking back, both teens sprinted out of the tunnel. Out under the fullness of the moon Finn felt exposed, naked to the outside world. His arms pumping madly, he was both terrified and exhilarated at the same time. It was a freeing feeling that he was unaccustomed to, and he was able to take in the untamed beauty of the wilderness for the first time.

Although the run seemed to stretch on forever, it could not have taken them more than thirty seconds to cross the clearing. He panted, leaning up against the bark of a nearby pine, and turned his gaze back towards the city. The semi-circular wall stretched as far as he could see in either direction with small fires alight at intermittent points along its crown. Spotting neither excess light nor movement on the ramparts, it appeared that they had made it without being discovered.

"Alright man, I guess it's time for the hard part," said Finn, pulling out a canister of repel from his pocket.

"We should keep following the creek. The water probably attracts some pokémon, and it'll give us a point of reference to make it back to the city," said Alan.

Looking deeper into the forest, he felt a deep unsettling sense of foreboding well up inside him. It was incredibly dark. The trees towered and blotted out much of the moonlight above. The knowledge that he was out here with only repels to protect him from deadly monsters put him on edge.

He probably should have brought a knife, or really anything else that could be used in an emergency.

They began to walk along the bank of the stream, keeping an eye out for any sudden movements. "Have you given any thought to what pokémon you might like to catch?" whispered Finn.

"Are you kidding? We don't have that kind of luxury. If we see anything that seems catchable I'm going for it."

"True enough. I know that, but it's fun to dream. It'd be a shame to come back with something like a rattata. It seems like they're the most common pokémon that Blackthorn gives out in the lotto."

"Not having to wait more than makes up for it. We should probably try to stay quiet though, we don't want to scare anything off." said Alan.

"Yeah, that, or attract anything scary," muttered Finn, thinking of the documentary he'd seen on nocturnal pokémon, and their keen sense of hearing.

The first capture of the night was anticlimactic. They had walked without speaking for quite a while, occasionally stumbling on some of the larger rocks that littered the stream bed. With only the sounds of the creek and some nocturnal insects they continued on. It was not much later when a crooning sound coming from across the water caught their attention. Eyes closed, resting against a fallen log, sat a rather small amphibious pokémon, with half of its body hidden in the silty mud. Navy blue with slimy skin, the creature was only about a foot tall and had a spherical body. Its bulbous eyes were closed, and a black and white spiral patterned stomach gently moved up and down in time with its breathing.

As per their agreement, Alan had dibs. The other teen stilled, and held up a hand, signaling Finn to stop.

Finn had to quell a pang of jealousy from rising up. Poliwag could eventually evolve into poliwrath, and he had seen Elite Bruno's destroy plenty of opponents. Alan dipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a red and white orb the size of an acorn. Clicking a button at the center, he increased the sphere's size to that of an orange fruit. Quickly, Alan threw the pokéball.

Finn was tempted to laugh, as the ball nearly missed, but luckily for Alan, the pokéball slightly grazed the blue skin on the creature's right side causing it to become enveloped in a radiant red light that coalesced into a shining blob. The light retreated back into the ball, which immediately began shaking violently. This lasted only about three seconds before it fell still.

"Yes!" Alan shouted, wading across the frigid creek to claim his prize.

Alan's sudden shout—while somewhat warranted—instantly put Finn on edge, causing him to look nervously around the forest.

"Awesome Alan, but really, we should keep moving. That shout probably attracted every predator in the whole forest."

As if on cue, a gruff grunting noise came from their right. About fifty feet down stream stood a massive ursaring on its two hind legs, staring them down. The creature was twelve feet tall covered in thick brown fur with the species' trademark cream colored circle adorning its stomach.

"Hurry it up over there!" Finn said, hastily pulling out a repel canister from his pocket.

The ursaring opened its maw, forming a glowing sphere of energy in its jaws.

With a growing sense of horror, Finn realized what was happening. He had seen it enough times watching Gym leader matches and the Indigo League Championships on television. Heart hammering in his chest, he immediately broke the seal on the repel and twisted the top with a hiss. Finn then threw the canister as far as he could towards the creature.

"Move, now!" shouted Finn.

As if in slow motion, he saw Alan pick up his pokéball and sprint back across the stream, hopping from rock to rock as the hyper beam impacted the location the other boy had just occupied. The blast knocked both of them off their feet into the ground. Steam hissed up from where the edges of the small crater formed by the attack met the water.

Just as the ursaring made to move closer, the repel he had thrown exploded into a cloud of gas. The fumes quickly dispersed and reached the pokémon, causing it to roar and flee back down the creek.

That was entirely too close.

The chemical components that made up the repel canister trigger a flight response in all pokémon. Barring a stealth attack, a normal person could travel in the wild so long as they had a sufficient supply of the stuff. Most trainers who took on the gym circuit carried at least one repel on them in case of dire situations. Finn and Alan had saved up enough for six of the items—now five.

Alan sat for a moment to catch his breath against the sandy bank. "Holy shit dude, I can't believe that just happened," said Alan, hands trembling.

The other teen looked shaken, and Finn couldn't help but feel the same. They had almost died, and for what? A chance to leave Blackthorn? Did he really need to leave that badly?

Finn had known of the dangers that they would face in the forest, but they had always been theoretical, something that he would only encounter in the future. Now, with the crater across the creek still smoldering, it was beginning to feel all too real. Every shadow around them seemed more malignant than before, every bramble another point of ambush.

Finn thought about his crappy home life, and his prospects outside waiting on the Blackthorn Gym's lottery system for picking new trainers. Yes, It was definitely worth it.

"Do you want to keep going or head back? That was pretty intense," said Finn.

"Um… no—I think I'm alright—but let's head back towards the north. That way if anything happens we are a bit closer to the city," said Alan.

"Sounds good. I'm starting to think we may be a bit in over our heads though. We only have five more of those canisters left. Who knows how many of those things we might run into?"

Alan nodded beside him, remaining oddly quiet. Finn was now all the more aware that his lack of a capture was the only thing keeping them from returning to the relative safety of Blackthorn.

They tracked northward for some time, following the moss covered sides of the towering pines. The landscape became hillier as they moved through the forest. Alan had to use one of his repel canisters when a particularly terrifying ariados descended from a tree above them. Its bulbous spider body was as large as he was, and its clicking pincers were five-inch razor blades. The burst of smoke caused the creature to skitter away into the night. After that, they only had four of the items left.

Panting as they climbed up a particularly large hill, Finn could hear the sounds of a pokémon battle waging. They were only around two miles from the city, so it was odd to think such a loud battle would be occurring this close by.

He put a finger to his lips in signal to Alan, and then waved for him to follow. The two of them slowly climbed through the underbrush until they reached the crest of the hill.

Peering over the rocky outcrop, the scene below them was both fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Illuminated by the moon, a massive herd of donphan, piloswine, and their offspring were being funneled into a valley meadow by a pack of houndour. There were a few other types of pokémon scattered throughout the herd. The jet-black hounds were shooting bouts of fire from their mouths in an attempt to direct the other pokémon into an area that was ideal for an ambush. He could see them fading in and out of the shadows with a startling amount of coordination. The elephantine pokémon were trumpeting in alarm, trying to place their vulnerable young underneath their protective legs. Waves of soil and rock were thrown towards the canine predators, but with little accuracy in the darkness of night.

Overhead, two or three gligar were attempting to get in on the action. One of the flying scorpion pokémon had a writhing bidoof in is pincers as it flew through the trees and off into the night.

This was my chance.

"I think I have a plan," he whispered.

"What? Are you crazy? Even if you managed to catch anything down there how would you get the ball back with all of those pokémon around?" said Alan.

"Simple, I'll throw all three of my pokéballs and then we'll use as much repel as we can manage to scare them all away," Finn replied.

Alan shot him an exasperated look, "That is not simple Finn."

"But it's the best idea we've got," he said, thrusting his arm into his pack and pulling out the three pokéballs, "and I'm more than ready head back to the city."

Finn surveyed the absolute havoc that was occurring not twenty yards away from where he and Alan lay hidden. Houndour were notoriously hard to train, but were undeniably a strong species. He figured it was worth the chance. Finn knew that even if he failed to tame a wild houndour, he could still sell it for a tidy sum and then use the profits to purchase a more reliable starter. Dark types were rare.

He took aim and tossed the ball towards the back of the herd, where the dark type hounds were gathered. Finn watched as the ball got lost in the throng of pokémon. When a young bidoof's body converted into red light, the rest of the pokémon in the clearing visibly recoiled in confusion.

Disappointment gnawed in the back of his mind. Bidoof were not only a common source of food for humans, but percentage-wise, it was right up there with rattata as the starter pokémon that most failed trainers began with. Finn knew that you normally needed to weaken a pokemon before catching one, but bidoof were so weak it should not be an issue.

It seemed that life was trying to be contradictory, for the capture device again exploded with light as the bidoof fought its way to freedom. Except, when the bidoof reformed itself onto the grass, one of the more opportunistic houndour found it to be easy prey, and scooped it into its flaming jaws.

Finn stared, shocked. Essentially, he had just killed that pokémon. The wilderness was just as unforgiving as he had been taught throughout his childhood. Even though people regularly ate bidoof for food, seeing the food-chain in its gruesome finality gave him pause.

After a second of contemplative remorse, Finn recovered, and primed another pokéball. He couldn't fail this time.

The second attempt didn't even hit a target, but was instead crushed beneath the foot of one of the enormous donphan. The sensor node on the ball did not touch the large pokémon before it disappeared from sight.

Intensely aware that he only had one pokéball left, he sat back down and leaned against the boulder that was hiding their location and took a deep breath. Then, he retrieved the last ball from his bag. If this one missed, he was shit out of luck for however long it would take him to make enough money to get another set of pokéballs. His pride wouldn't allow him to ask Alan for one of his leftover balls. They were too expensive and Alan would probably sell the ones he had left to finance his travel to Cherrygrove.

After taking a moment to regroup, he stood from behind the rock and took aim at one of the smaller houndour in the back of the pack. Then, he hurled his last chance into the air. His aim was off, and the ball went careening towards the group of herbivorous pokémon. In fascination, he watched as the ball arched through the air towards the pandemonium below. The pokéball landed somewhere in the throng, but no burst of red light occurred.

Shit. Blood drained from his face as he stared at the spot where the ball had disappeared. He stood still for a moment as the horror of the situation made itself known. Finn would miss the rookie start to the season and his only friends would leave town and start their journeys without him.

Then, a small burst of red light shown from the herd. Something must have brushed past the ball in exactly the right spot, but he could not see what creature had been captured.

Finn could hardly believe what had just happened. His first thought was to run down the slope and grab the ball, but knew that would be tantamount to suicide at the moment. He waited for the tell-tale sign of a failed capture, but there was no second flash of red light.

"Wow, ok, so that just happened" said Alan, shaking his head in disbelief, "So now we start throwing the repels?"

"Erm, I guess—," said Finn, grinning wildly, and grabbed a repel from his pocket. "How many of these do you think it will take? There must be a hundred pokémon down there."

Alan shrugged. "I guess we'll see."

The ruckus caused by the first repel canister was astonishing. A stampede of pokémon charged through the thin trees into the meadow beyond, as it was the path of least resistance. He could feel the earth shaking beneath him as the countless ground type pokémon lost control. Finn saw one bibarel with a houndour clinging to its back for dear life, blood streaming from a maw shaped wound on its neck. The blood that would have looked a crimson during the daytime appeared as a shiny black ichor in the night.

Looking to his right he noticed that the wind had only carried the gas so far, and there were still some unaffected pokémon.

"I'm going to throw one more upwind and then I say we make a run for it back to town. That way we each have one repel left for the way home," he said.

Alan nodded in assent, and Finn primed and then hurled another canister, which prompted a similarly frantic response from the few creatures that remained.

Then they ran.

Finn quickly jumped up from their vantage point and made a beeline through the still hanging cloud of repel gas for his pokéball. It took him a moment to find the ball which had been embedded in some soft dirt where another pokémon had stepped on it. Luckily, the device had not been crushed like his first ball. Lifting it up and placing it into his bag, he made a silent prayer that the pokémon was something he could work with. He took a glance at his compass and turned northeast where he could see Alan already hurrying along a ridge.

It was five minutes before they realized anything was wrong, but they eventually began to hear yipping and barking coming from behind them. Dark shapes darted through the shadows of the trees. Somehow, the repel from earlier had missed a couple of the houndour and they had decided to pursue the two teenagers. Still running, Alan shouted over to Finn, "Any big ideas buddy?"

Finn looked over his shoulder behind them, panic swiftly set in as he saw the hellhounds approaching. Their dark fur contrasting with the bone white crests on their foreheads. Ideas came and went in his mind, but Finn knew that the superb maneuverability of the dark type pokémon gave them an incredible advantage over the humans.

"Repels now! We'll need to try and hold onto them while we are running."

Finn pulled his last canister out from his pocked and twisted the cap, and he saw Alan do the same. Up ahead, a canine shape materialized onto a boulder to their right. Just as the repel began to spew its gas, and quicker than he could have imagined the houndour disappeared from the boulder and then emerged from a tree's shadow to his left, and pounced. Finn covered his face with his arms and felt the razor sharp jaws close over his forearm, a staggering amount of heat sizzled the skin on his arm. The intense pain was all he could feel in that moment. As the surprising weight of the hound threw him to the ground, he tried to catch himself with his other arm.

Thankfully, the gas from the repel quickly enveloped them and the creature bolted into the nearest shadow, disappearing and loping back to the rest of the pack, which were now turning away from them and running into the night.

Alan ran over to him and checked his arm, which was strangely not bleeding because the hound's jaws had been hot enough to cauterize the wound. Finn shook his head to try and get a hold of himself, but the odd stench of repel mixed with sulfur did him no favors.

His jacket had been burnt off in the shape of the houndour's mouth, and there was a black char outline of the creature's jaws imbedded in Finn's skin. The burning pain was the worst Finn had ever felt in his entire life, and he was struggling to regain his bearings.

"You're lucky, it looks like it pulled back once it got a taste of that repel. I know it sucks, but we're wasting gas. We have to keep moving and get back to Blackthorn and get your arm looked at before something else finds us," said Alan, furrowing an eyebrow as his eyes shifted to look at the surrounding forest.

Finn groaned, and staggered to his feet and began a tentative jog, cradling his injured arm to his chest. Adrenaline was pumping through his body, and each step felt like an eternity, but somehow they made it back to the creek. From there, they made it back to the metal lattice, and then into Blackthorn proper.

Finn could only remember flashes of that last part of the night, but somehow they'd made it back home. Alan had cleaned and bandaged his arm as best he could with their small medical kit, using the only burn heal they had. While burn heals were not strictly meant for human use, it had been somewhat effective. His skin was a bright cherry red and raw where the blackened flesh had peeled away, but it would eventually heal. Finn would need to keep it bandaged for a few weeks. Long sleeve shirts would be a must in order to keep the night's events from Vince, his stepfather.

Finn may not have come out unscathed, but they had done it, and he couldn't help but grin up at his bedroom ceiling as he drifted to sleep thinking about his newfound independence.