Disclaimer: I do not own Nintendo, Gamefreak or Pokemon

Author's Note: This fic will probably be pulled. Not by stupidity of the fic, hopefully, but by the setting this takes place in. The story, as you read in the brief synopsis, takes place in the real world. No real life pokemon that you catch with pokeballs or a setting in Johto. This is our world. But it is still a fic nonetheless because it is still one trainer who learns about what it takes to become a Pokemon Master with his pokemon. This story will play homage to all the manga series that can take a seemingly fun game or sport, such as Go or baseball, and turn it into a battle between wits. The prologue is just a prologue, but Chapter 1 and beyond will show that Pokemon, is not just a children's game. As a final word, this fic is dedicated to those who play Pokemon Gold, Silver or Crystal to win, to bring out some nostalgia from a childhood long gone, or to just have fun. Thank you. ~LibraSnakes13

Brian adjusted his black framed glasses on the bridge of his nose and looked down at his purple, Gameboy Color. He frowned and adjusted himself on the hard, carpet floor and tilted the purple device. The ceiling lights shined bright enough so he could see the scratched up screen. It was dim but that was good enough for him. The Gameboy Color binged several times and he saw the silhouette of Ho-Oh flying across the pixilated blue sky.

Start.

Continue.

The field of grass itched Brian's shins. He adjusted his pants as best as he could to protect the slim body part. Route 31, just east of Violet City, seemed to grow the wildest of grasses yet the tamest of all pokemon. Bellsprouts would just look at you as you pass by them. They stood tall and erect with their sweet, honey-glazed mouths fully open, ready to catch an unsuspecting pollinating insect. Their leaves were spread wide open and soaked up the warm rays of the sun. Brian had always been curious about these Venus flytrap-like pokemon. They are truly one of the great wonders of nature. For bellsprouts, even though they soak up clear, mountain water into their small and windy roots and absorb the energy packed rays of the sun into their deep green leaves, still catch live prey and digest it for nutrition.

"I wonder…" he said to himself as he stood in the field, "if there is a term that combines the idea of heterotrophic with autotrophic?"

His chikorita looked at him with wide and expecting eyes and gave a confused grunt, he didn't know the answer any better than Brian did. Chikorita probably didn't even know what a heterotrophic creature was. Brian laughed at himself, oh he loved Johto.

Brian's gastly made a low, wry chuckle and stuck out a rather large tongue that was half his size. Like most ghost pokemon, he had a playful streak in him. Just a moment ago, he was making faces to Brian's staryu to see if the no-face pokemon would react to his playful insults. The staryu seemed apathetic towards the ghost pokemon and seemed to find more entertainment in watching a stray caterpie slowly crawl its way through the dense underbrush.

A rustle in the bushes startled Brian and alerted his three companions. Out came a rattata which looked Brian straight in the eye and twitched its round nose. Seeing him as a threat to deal with, the rattata attacked. Brian looked at Staryu and said, "Staryu, let's go!"

Shaking off the weight of sloth and sluggishness, Staryu sprung into action with copious amounts of alacrity and assumed his attacking position.

"Alright Staryu!" said Brian, "Use-"

"Excuse me?"

A voice brought Brian back to reality. He looked up from the game and saw a girl of about his age peering down at him with eager, jelly bean-blue eyes.

"Yes…?" he replied having a good feeling what she was going to ask him.

"May I take a picture with you?"

Brian nodded his head and stood up from the bench.

He was somewhat tall, but he seemed only a little bit more by his slim figure, his striped suit and his poofy hair, which was now covered by a top hat that had brass goggles strapped to it. His face was in a shady area that resided in both the region of hollowness and handsomeness and his glasses only enhanced the confusion between the two.

However, what really grabbed the girl's attention towards him was his costume. Along with his brass goggles, Brian wore a suit with a vest that was studded with brass buttons and a pocket watch whose gears could be clearly seen through its glass case. A leather and worn belt held a grimy looking revolver that was actually a mishmash of two water guns, a Nerf gun and part of a small binocular.

His odd getup could be explained by the fact that he was at an anime convention. It was his first time at such an event and he was astounded by how many cosplayers there were. He saw a variety of characters ranging from Ouran Host High School Club to Naruto to others which he had no fathom what they were.

As for him, he was dressing up in his steampunk outfit. They had a special panel going on about this crazy sci-fi genre and he wanted to learn more about it. He was just a beginner at it so he wanted some ideas to get the juices in his head flowing. It was one of the main reasons why he went to it in the first place.

Which was why this girl wanted to take a photo with him. She was the fifth person to ask him for a photo. Not that he was complaining, mind you, for every time they asked him he felt somewhat happy that they recognized his hard work.

He slid his Gameboy Color into his pocket and bowed to her and said, "anything for you, madam."

"Yay! Thank you so much!'

She took out her camera and he took a jaunty pose, with his head held high and his hands resting on his hips. She took the photograph, squealed, and gave him a hug. He was also expecting that.

He looked at his stylized pocket watch and sighed. It will still be two hours before the start of the steampunk panel. He looked around and wondered how else he can kill time at the convention.

And through his somewhat dirty glasses, he saw a long line forming that trailed out a room and down the hallway. Curious as to what it was, he went up to a girl who was in line and said, "Excuse me, what is this line for?"

"Oh, this is for Danny Black! We're waiting in line for him to give out autographs! I'm going to have him sign my Warrior of the Moon t-shirt!"

The girl next to her, who was dressed up as Envy from Full Metal Alchemist nodded and said, "And I'm having him sign my poster of A Red Tulip in a Sea of Violets!"

Danny Black was a popular voice actor for English-dub anime. He had grown in fame over the years for his collection of voices and his ability to match his voice with the given character. Though Brian never did see A Red Tulip in a Sea of Violets, he was somewhat a fan of the show Warrior of the Moon and liked it for the fighting and the overall combination of science with magic.

Brian stopped and thought for a moment. He had two hours to kill before the steampunk panel started, he could just past the time by waiting in line for Danny Black to sign something of his.

But what to sign?

He patted himself down and his hand rested on his revolver. He shook his head, no, he didn't want anyone to sign his steampunk gear since that would diminish the aspect of the costume and overall his character. His right handed went into his pocket and pulled out the anime convention pamphlet. He bit is lower lip and shook his head again. No, that wouldn't do either. A pamphlet could easily be destroyed or damaged and it didn't hold any emotional attachments to him.

His left hand went into the other pocket and he pulled out his Gameboy Color. He looked at it for awhile and then turned it over so he could see the back. His Pokemon Gold cartridge was still in there, ready to continue on his pokemon adventure. He looked at it as if it turned into actual gold and said to himself, "Yes…that will do."

Without hesitation, he walked to the back of the line and resumed the battle with his unnamed staryu.

A few weeks ago, Brian had made a strong commitment towards raising a 2nd Generation pokemon team. After being part of a first generation tournament that he himself hosted, he decided to go to the next logical step which was to make a 2nd generation team that he was proud of.

He got out his Gold that he had since he was 10 and decided to restart the file and have a clean slate. However, before he did that, he caught a staryu, bred it with a ditto, and picked the best offspring from the eggs that hatched. He then traded it to his pokemon yellow where it was safely held while he restarted his whole Gold file. Once he traded it back, he started on his quest to become a pokemon master.

Thunderbolt…Thunderwave…Surf…Recover…

The four moves that Staryu will learn will make this pokemon a force to be reckoned with. He (…It?...Brian thought to himself) combined the idea of versatility with power flawlessly. He could be a key starter for his team, paralyzing opponents with his Thunder Wave and barrage them with Surf or Thunderbolt, depending on the opponent's pokemon type. Once hammered down, he could recover and easily start up again. His speed is what makes him essential as he could strike first and finish off the pokemon. Definitely one of the best water types in the game.

The line was moving at a pace faster than he expected and he had to keep looking up from his Gameboy Color to make sure he didn't fall far behind. 15 minutes in, he struck up a conversation with the person behind him who commented on his costume. They then got into a deep conversation about designing and making costumes and that helped pass the time even quicker as the line rolled forward.

A girl whose style looked like she came right out of the 80s also joined in as well and soon the three eventually talked about what they were going to have Danny sign for them.

The girl held out a button that had Danny's character on it and proudly exclaimed that she wanted him to sign this. The fellow behind Brian, who was dressed as Olimar from Pikmin, held up a t-shirt that the girl Brian talked to earlier also had. Though for this guy, it was several sizes larger. Folding up the shirt and stuffing it to the bag he asked Brian what he was going to have Danny sign for him. Brian laughed and took out his Pokemon Gold (he had saved earlier and turned off the game).

"I didn't really have anything for him to sign except this! I don't know, I kind of find it funny to have a famous voice actor's signature on my Pokemon Gold!"

The girl laughed and the Olimar cosplayer nodded and said, "Hey, I bet it's never been done before."

Brian laughed and said, "That's true…I wonder if Danny himself was once a fan of pokemon?"

"Hmm…probably not, he's like…40 something years old so he was past all of that."

"Yeah…you're probably right…"

The line shortened and he was only 10 people away from Danny Black. He didn't know why but Brian's heart thudded and he suddenly felt nervous. Why? He was just a voice actor for a show he watched some of the time...

And there, there he sat at the end of the table. His dark, thin hair was cropped short to his head and spiked up with still glistening gel. His face showed his age but his eyes flashed like he was a young lad of 18. He smiled at a girl and gave her his autograph on a plush doll of his character. When she left, Brian took another step and was now in front of the long table. He calmed himself down and was about to take out his Pokemon Gold when…

"Oh my God, is that a Gameboy?"

Brian's attention was drawn towards a girl sitting behind the table. She had long, dyed, black hair that was streaked with purple stripes. She had a cute face with long and curvy eyelashes. Her eyes glistened the color of nighttime blue and were wide, overflowing with both curiosity and excitement.

Brian nodded with an amused smile and said, "Yes, it is! I'm going to have Danny sign my Pokemon Gold!"

"Oh, my, God," she repeated putting emphasis on each of the one-syllable words, "That's awesome. And, wait, don't tell me, you're here for that steampunk panel right?"

Brian's smiled got a little bigger and said, "Haha, why yes I am, I'm kind of a fan of that genre and so I got out my gear to come prepared for it!"

"Nice! So you must be, like, a steampunk pokemon trainer right?"

"Right, again," replied Brian wondering if there was such a thing.

"Dude, you are so awesome!"

The girl then gave him a high five which he returned enthusiastically. The line moved forward and Brian took a few more steps. However, this made it easier for him to talk to the girl for he took a few more steps closer to her.

"So what are you doing here exactly?" he asked hoping to get to know the girl a little more.

"I'm helping Danny sell his albums that he has arranged and sung for over the years, if you buy one now, he'll sign the album along with your item too!"

Brian thought about it, well, he had been meaning to expand his music library since it mainly held Beatles, classical music and Lady Gaga, why not?

"How much?"

"Ten dollars."

Brian nodded to himself and said, "Eh, sure, I'll buy one. Which album do you recommend?"

"Ooooh…Silver Thunder is probably my favorite of his albums. I like the song Drier in Dyer."

"Alright…well, I'll buy that then."

The girl got out a spare album while Brian got out his wallet, he pulled out a twenty and said, "You don't mind if I pay in this, do you?"

The girl gave an alluring smile and her midnight blue eyes glistened upon the soft light.

"Not at all, Steampunk Trainer…"

Brian's heart gave a big thud like it did earlier when she said his title. He swore he could hear the capital letters in the name she gave him and the emphasis that each syllable so desperately needed. He gave her the twenty and she gave back a ten in one smooth motion. The tips of their fingers gently, but briefly, touched as the transaction was made. But even this was enough to know the sensation that her hands, if not her fingers, were smooth as glass. And with one last graceful motion, she then gave him the album that he bought.

Brian gave a jaunty salute and said, "Thank ya very much!"

Before she could say anything more, the line moved forward and Brian took several steps forward, and thus several steps away from the girl, towards Danny Black.

With him so near, Brian got his Pokemon Gold out and had his recently bought CD ready as well. When he was next, Danny looked at him straight in the eye and gave a nice smile and said, "Well hello, there!"

"Hey," Brian replied with all nervousness gone and destroyed, "Can you sign this for me please? Along with your album?"

He handed the game to Danny who took one look at it almost instantly, his face changed from that of a friendly smile to that which reminded Brian of one who would look at an old toy that brought fond memories of a youth that had long since past.

"Pokemon Gold? Ah…very nice…"

He signed the cartridge with his black sharpie and then signed the album's CD as well. He handed them back and said, "Thank you very much for buying my album."

Brian tipped his top hat and said, "Believe me sir, the pleasure, is all mine."

And with that he walked off allowing the Olimar cosplayer to have Danny sign his items as well. The album and cartridge he held firmly in his hands as if the very thought of letting them go was out of the question.

He turned around and just before he left the room, he saw the girl with midnight blue eyes gave one last wave to him before attending to the next person. Her smile made Brian smile as well as he too returned the wave. But his smile seemed more of self pity then actual happiness as he knew he would never see her again and even if he did, she probably wouldn't like him anyways.

He sighed.

"I'm a hopeless creature," he said to himself as he walked down the crowded and bustling hallway full of cosplayers, "Though I have met many great people here, when will I ever see them again?"

He held up the signed pokemon game and looked at it with wonder. He continued on to himself, "This…will be a memento to this convention…a symbol of both the past and future. A tribute to this event and the constant reminder that I…Brian Dragonfly…will be Pokemon Master of the 2nd generation."

He laughed.

"God, I'm an idiot."

He laughed once more and walked towards the soon to be starting steampunk panel, with his precious game clutched protectively in his hands.