Prologue

The world of Pokémon: where the life between humans and Pokémon is much stronger than anywhere else. In the past, there were humans who could use this life force (called aura) to connect with nature's aura, do amazing super human abilities, establish justice, and protect all living things. These Aura Guardians were always accompanied by their most loyal and trustworthy Pokémon. However, as society developed, humans lost touch with nature's aura and began to build buildings that destroyed their forests and rivers; thus Aura Guardians became rarer and rarer until the verge of extinction. Today few Aura Guardians exist…

This story begins with two brother aura guardians as they walk together in a forest, on their way to a Pokémon championship. One of the brothers is a renowned Pokémon master that goes by the name Tajiri, and is holding a tiny Pikachu in his arms. The other is his older brother who goes by the name Jonathon and is holding a Meowth in his hands. They were both going to a Pokémon championship (at the request of Tajiri's son) so that they can show off their skills. In order to get to their city, they had to pass a forest that seemed never-ending. Like always, Tajiri was being whiny and complaining about everything.

"So Jon, are we ever getting there? I'm impatient!"

"Patience, patience. Don't you want your son to see how patient you are?"

"No. I want him to see me win!"

"Hehehe, classic Tajiri. I feel sorry for your new Pikachu. I wonder if it can stand your complaining."

"Don't worry. Once my son turns 10, Pikachu will have to put up with his stubbornness."

"Pika?"

The brothers kept walking, until Pikachu sensed something wrong…

"Pikachu?"

"Huh? What's wrong Pikachu?"

Suddenly, a bang was heard in the air.

"Was that a gunshot !" Tajiri cried out. But he didn't have time to worry more about that: he saw Jonathon was lying on the floor with his hand on his arm.

"Jonathon?"

"Run away! Someone's shooting at us!"

"I can't leave you like this!"

Two more bangs were heard, and Tajiri and Jonathon started to run away.

"Just run!"

However, with so many trees, Tajiri and Jonathon got separated.

"Jonathon?"

"Pika?"

Suddenly, a Tajiri felt a hit and was blacked out.

"….."

A few hours later, Tajiri was slowly gaining consciousness. His hands and feet were tied up, making it impossible for him to escape. He saw Pikachu tied up as well beside him, unconscious, and was thinking to himself:

"Damn, I got hit pretty hard. Where am I?"

He realized that he was in an open field, away from the forest and saw behind him that the ground stopped.

"So I'm on a cliff. But how did I get here? And where is Jonathon?"

"Don't worry. You should give up on your brother already."

A man in a sharp suit and brown hair came out of the forest and approached Tajiri. He spoke in a sinister voice and looked intimidating.

"Fufufu, so you're Tajiri the Pokémon Master, huh? My, my not as intimidating when you're tied up, huh?"

"…, why did you do this to me?"

"What? I can't ask you for a battle like a normal person?"

"Where's my brother!"

"Oh honestly. I suggest you control your anger, if you ever want to see your family again."

"At the mention of his family, Tajiri quickly quieted. He knew he was facing a dangerous foe, one that could threaten the safety of his family. He let the mysterious man keep talking, even though he could not pay attention to anything. Then, he said,

"All right, I'll battle you."

The mysterious man gave him a cruel smile and said

"Excellent. For our battle, you'll only use your Pikachu and I'll use one other Pokémon. Oh and if you ever think of escaping –"

He snapped his fingers and suddenly men and women wearing dark uniforms came out of the forests as well. Tajiri realized he was trapped.

"And if you were to miraculously to escape, remember that your family will also be targeted by us, Team Rocket! Now, someone unbind them."

After being freed from the ropes, Pikachu was recovering consciousness, but did not know what was going on.

"Pi? Pika?"

"Listen Pikachu." Tajiri crouched down for Pikachu to listen.

"Although you've never been in battle before, you have to trust me and do what I say. If we don't win this, I'll probably never see my son again."

At this point, Pikachu was wondering why his new master was leaking water from its eyes. But Pikachu knew that it would do anything to make sure its master would stop leaking.

"Pika!"

Tajiri grinned, thankful that Pikachu was willing to battle despite the fact that it may not win against whatever Pokémon the man would send out.

"All right then Pikachu. Whenever I tell you to do something, you do it, ok?"

"Pika!"

Tajiri stood up and turned to face his enemy. There was barely anything remarkable about the man. His hair was short; he wore an orange suit, and had a normal build, like his brother. It was as if he was somewhat more important than his henchmen. But his eyes. There was a cold dark look in his eyes, yet it gave Tajiri a familiar look. Why?

"All right then, let us begin our battle!" the man cried out.

"Yes. By the way, what is your name? If I'm going to battle you, I might as well know your name" Tajiri boldly asked. The man didn't look at him, but just took out a Pokeball, and threw it. And out came the last Pokémon Tajiri wanted to see – a Meowth.

"My name…is Giovanni!"

Then, everything went too fast for Tajiri. The Meowth pounced on Pikachu, and started to Bite it. Pikachu tried to use Thundershock, but it wasn't strong enough. Then, to Tajiri's horror, he saw that Meowth suddenly evolved into Persian!

"Now Persian, use Power gem!"

That was all Tajiri could hear him say. He was beaten by the rocks until his muscles and bones ached all over. Pikachu was even worse than him. The little electric mouse was very tired and hardly had any energy to stand up. Tajiri knew he had to get it in a Pokeball, even though it has never been in one. Suddenly, an idea struck him. Before Giovanni could command another attack, Tajiri suddenly picked up Pikachu and released his Pidgeot.

"What's this? You know that this is a one-on-one battle, right?"

"I'm through with this battle! Pidgeot, use Sand Attack and Twister combined!" Pidgeot did as it was told, resulting in a cyclone of sediments.

"Crap! I can't get near him! What is he doing?"

What Tajiri was doing is that he was getting Pikachu into a Pokeball.

"I know you might not like being in there, but it's the safest place to be." He proceeded to taking off his belt with all of his Pokémon and put them on Pidgeot.

"You'll have to fly back to Pallet Town without me Pidgeot. I'll make sure I cause a distraction while you fly away"

"Pidgeot…" Pidgeot was not happy with his trainer's command; after all, Pidgeot was the first Pokémon Tajiri ever caught. But it knew it had to obey its master's orders. After the cyclone cleared, Giovanni saw that Pidgeot was flying away. But he didn't care. His major concern was still there in front of him.

"Fufufu, you are pretty courageous. Or foolish. It doesn't matter. As long as you are still here, I won't go through the bother of hunting you down."

"I don't care what you do to me Giovanni! If you hurt my son, I'll make sure you'll pay!"

"Oh don't worry. He's not much use to us now. We'll just wait patiently until he turns 14. Then, he'll be able to fulfill his part out for us."

"Why you bastard! You really are him. You're –"

But before Tajiri could finish, Persian came out of nowhere and used Faint Attack. Before Tajiri could recover, he was grabbed by Giovanni and could barely hear him whisper something that sounded like "I'm sorry". Giovanni then pushed him off the cliff. As he was falling, Tajiri tried to grab a photo of his family and son, but not before Giovanni managed to grab it.

"Farewell, Pokémon master."

As he saw Tajiri fall into the ocean, he couldn't help but noticing how happy Tajiri looked in the photo with his wife and his son. His spiky headed son with hair the as dark as his father's and eyes as soft and brown like his mother's.

"It won't be long for you either, Ash."

He then took out a lighter and started to make the photo burn with the flames.

"It won't be long indeed."

Meanwhile, a certain spiky haired little boy, who was barely nine years old, was staring outside his bedroom window. He was waiting for someone, but he just hated waiting. He felt as if he could have done better things during all that time, but he would wait night and day for this person. Even if it meant staying up after his bedtime, he would wait for him. He started to slowly get sleepy, up to the point where he dozed off. He was then awoken to the sound of a car driving out of the driveway.

"He came!" He thought to himself.

He then started to get off his bed, put on his sandals and open the door, running all the way to the living room. When he got there, however, the person he saw was not the person he was waiting for, but rather his uncle, who had his arm in a sling. He could also see his mother sobbing large tears, as if she was told some horrible news.

"Mom, why are you crying?"

"I should tell him" said his uncle. "Ash, your father is never coming back."