Full Summary: AU Pokespe. Green Oak is the Prince of Kanto, but when he finds out that his mother and sister have been kidnapped, this doesn't stop him from immediately going to rescue them, even if his grandfather is against it. At his side are his faithful manservant Red and the thief Blue and her protégé Silver, both of which helped them escape the city. Oh and don't forget the stable boy they accidentally kidnapped on the way out.

Shippings: Special, Oldrival, Mangaquest, Soulsilver, Frantic, Commoner, Agency

Author Note:

So, it never actually talks about Green's parents in the manga (unless I missed something), but in this they're going to be alive and around. Well, kidnapped, but you know, they were around to get kidnapped.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, just the plot.

Of Princes and Paupers
By: KiwiWizard

Chapter One: Of Kings and Kidnappers

June 13th

Kanto Kingdom: Viridian City, Castle Indigo

With Green

King Samuel, the king of Kanto sat upon his plush crimson throne, his eyes intent upon the latest townsman requesting an audience. There were four thrones arranged on either side of his throne, a place for his son, his daughter-in-law and his two grandchildren. Green was the only of one of these four in attendance. Green's parents and sister were on a trip to Johto, a trip that Green had opted out of, ostensibly to observe his grandfather, but in reality he thought their trip sounded tedious and boring.

Green's throne was much smaller in size than his grandfather's throne, and was also lacking the golden ornamentations. The two royal men had adopted similar expressions of concern, although Green's was only skin deep. Internally he actually couldn't care less about the person's appeal. It was just another person begging the king for things he most likely didn't deserve. Of course, he would be reprimanded if his grandfather or his parents knew that he felt this way, so Green just sighed mentally and worked on keeping up his façade of interest. Green's head felt weighed down by the thin, golden circlet on his brow and he wondered idly how much heavier his grandfather's thick, gem-encrusted crown must be.

The quiet audience was abruptly disturbed by the two huge doors to the throne room being flung open and an out of breath messenger sprinting up to King Samuel.

"King Samuel," the messenger huffed. "We received this note." The messenger took a deep breath than began reading aloud, "King Samuel, we have your son, his wife and your granddaughter in our custody. Give into our demands or you will never see them again…"

"What are the demands?" King Samuel asked, not allowing any fear to show on his face, though Green was certain he felt some.

"They want the kingdom," the messenger replied grimly.

King Samuel sighed, a dark and heavy sound. "That's obviously out of the question. Send out every knight we can spare. Rescuing my family is our number one priority now." The messenger bowed in respect, then set out to do his king's bidding.

"Grandfather," Green began once the room was empty again, everyone having been ushered out when the messenger arrived. "I think I should go look for our family."

"That's out of the question Green," Samuel objected. "You need to stay here in case the worst should happen and we cannot find our family. The most important thing is having an heir."

Green disagreed with his grandfather's sentiments, but he understood where he was coming from. Kingdoms without direct heirs were often drawn into bloody civil wars that could last decades. These were obviously to be avoided at all costs, however; Green knew that he was the strongest warrior in the Kingdom of Kanto, and consequently had the best chance of saving his family.

Abruptly, Green stood and took his leave of the throne room with a stiff bow to his grandfather. He roamed through the hallways, desperately trying to develop a way to escape the castle and save his family. The hallways were supposed to be empty, most people having left to plan the search for Green's family, which made Green immediately suspicious when he heard a rustling sound coming from the treasure room. Green crept to the doorway and peered around the corner.

Inside the room, sifting through the various piles of gold and jewels filling the room, was a girl dressed all in black. She was picking out the priciest pieces and shoving them into a large brown bag which was slung over her shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Green demanded. The girl paused for a second, then turned to Green with a large grin on her face.

"I'm the new treasurer!" she exclaimed, leaning nonchalantly on the table.

"I know you're not the new treasurer thief," Green spat, and he was about to grab her to take down to the prison when a thought occurred to him. Somehow this girl had managed to sneak past all the guards and get all the way to the treasure room unnoticed. To Green's knowledge, no one had ever made it into the castle uninvited. This girl had managed to get into the castle; surely she could help Green get out.

"Listen thief, if you help me escape the castle without being seen, I won't turn you into the guards," Green offered.

The thief considered for a few moments, then sauntered over to Green and shook one of his hands. "It's a deal. And my name's Blue, not thief."

"So how do we get out?" Green asked.

"Just a second," Blue stated. "You haven't told me your name."

Green's expression remained impassive, but inside he was quite surprised. It had never occurred to him that the thief actually didn't know who he was. But that did explain why she pretended to be the new treasurer, if he had just been a servant he might not have known that she wasn't the new treasurer. Although her shoving gold and jewels into her bag probably would've given it away anyway.

"…I'm Verde," Green lied, deciding against giving his real name. Sure, it wasn't very inventive, but it served its purpose.

"Verde? You don't look like a Verde." Blue said suspiciously. Green kept up his emotionless façade and finally she shrugged, grabbed his hand and led him through the hallways with such confidence it was obvious she knew where she was going.

The two made their way quickly and quietly through the hallways with no incident, when someone suddenly walked out in front of them and exclaimed, "Green!"

Green groaned, count on his personal servant Red to give away his true identity with the first word out of his mouth

"Wait," Blue said startled. "Green, like Prince Green?"

"Yeah!" Red answered. "And I'm Red, his manservant." Red and Green had known each other their whole lives and once he was old enough, Red had been assigned as Green's servant.

"When I heard about your family I knew you'd try to get out of here, so I packed a bag for you. And I'm coming with you of course," Red explained. This comment made Green notice that Red was in fact carrying a bulky bag and was dressed in a non-descript brown travel outfit instead of his usual servant's garb.

"Red," Green cut in before Red could reveal any more information. "This is Blue, she's a thief."

Blue gave him a cheeky wave.

"Here Green." Red said as he handed Green an outfit much like the one he was wearing. Green quickly ducked into one of the nearby rooms and changed out of his gaudy red and gold outfit into the new, dark brown travel clothing. He hurried back out into the hallway and was relieved to see that Blue was still there.

"Take this," Red added, handing Green one more item. It was a dark brown belt with six round slots, two of which were already occupied with Poké Balls.

"Scyther and Charmander?" Green queried.

"Of course," Red verified. Red had a belt similar to the one Green was wearing, which also had two occupied slots. Green knew that they would be Red's two favorite Pokémon, his Bulbasaur, Saur, and his Pikachu, Pika.

"So you guys ready to escape now?" Blue asked. "Of course, now that I know I'm helping the prince, I do expect some more compensation…"

"Just keep what you stole already, that should be more than enough," Green said.

Blue lifted her bag, as if judging the value of the contents, then grinned and nodded. "To the window!" she exclaimed, setting off with Red and Green trailing behind her.

"How did you get in here?" Green wondered idly. "We're going out a window, that's not how you got in is it? There aren't any windows on the first floor."

"The way in only works for one person, and it's hard to hide bags of treasure," Blue explained. As she said this her bag…winked at Green, then gave him a cheeky smile.

"The bag has a face!" Red yelled, pointing at the bag.

"It's a Ditto," Green corrected.

"Oh, that makes more sense," Red realized. Green deduced that Blue must've used her Ditto to change her appearance to a castle worker's to get in. Since she was using her Ditto as a bag, she must've been planning to escape through the window even before Green caught her.

We finally arrived at the window Blue had had her sights on. Blue reached into her Ditto bag and pulled out a Poké Ball. She released the ball and red light escaped, coalescing into a round pink Pokémon. "Jiggly!" the Jigglypuff exclaimed.

"Alright Jiggly, let's fly!" Blue exclaimed. The Jigglypuff jumped out the window and puffed up to multiple times its original size. Blue hopped up onto the window ledge and grabbed onto the floating Jigglypuff's leg.

Despite his misgivings, Green hurriedly joined Blue on the Jigglypuff, afraid that Blue would ditch them. Red followed after Green and latched onto Jiggly's arm. Jiggly gently descended and landed in a clearing directly below them. As they were falling, Green realized why Blue had picked that particular window. It was around the back of the castle out of view of the town and the guard towers. Green felt grudging respect for the thief, she knew her business.

They landed in the clearing and everyone hopped off of Jiggly who deflated to her normal size.

"Blue, who are these guys?" an annoyed male voice demanded. Green caught sight of the speaker. It was a boy whose bright red hair counteracted any stealth his black outfit brought him.

"Don't worry Silver," Blue calmed. "I made a deal with them. I get them out of the castle and in return I get to keep all this treasure." She showed Silver the contents of the Ditto bag as she said this. Silver's eyes widened slightly as he stared at all the treasure Blue had 'acquired.'

"So Silver and I are headed out of the city. You two want to come with us?" Blue offered Red and Green.

"What?" Silver exclaimed.

"We are headed out of the city, we should go with them Green," Red suggested.

Before Green could express how terrible he thought this idea was, Blue was already telling them about her plan. "Great! Silver and I already planned out the best route to the stables, and once we're there we'll steal a Rapidash or a Zebstrika or something."

Green had to admit (mentally anyway) that this was actually a very good plan. The stables were almost always empty and as long as they could there without being seen they should be home free.

So the four of them set out along Blue and Silver's preplanned route. Luckily, Silver and Blue were no amateurs; their path was perfectly planned, out of sight of all the guard towers and townsfolk. They arrived at the stables undetected and went inside thinking that they were free and clear. Unfortunately, one of the people working in the stables was unusually dedicated and spent much longer than the average stable worker grooming the Pokémon.

The four entered and the stable boy whirled around confused. His lemon yellow hair was covered by a straw hat. "P-prince Green?" he asked, his voice sounding very high pitched and sort of…feminine. He cleared his throat and spoke in a deeper tone, "Do you need something?"

Blue and Silver exchanged a look, then Blue ran at the boy, tackled him and pulled him up in front of her on the nearest Pokémon, which happened to be a Rapidash.

"Mount up everyone!" Blue ordered, keeping her hands securely around the boy to keep him from escaping.

Silver got on a Bliztle, Red a Ponyta and Green a Zebstrika.

Green had been expecting Blue to toss the stable boy off the Rapidash as they left, but Blue kept him in front of her as they rode off.

With Blue

The second the stable 'boy' had spoken, Blue had realized it was a girl. Only boys were allowed to work in the stables, so if a girl wished to get a job there she would have to pretend to be a boy. What Blue couldn't understand is why the girl would want the job in the first place. Being a stable boy (or girl) wasn't a particularly desirable job. Blue liked to collect interesting things, and deeming the girl an interesting thing, she made a split second decision to take the girl with them.

And so Prince Green's attempt to go and rescue his kidnapped family by himself, ended up as a four person (plus one kidnapped stable girl) entourage travelling across Kanto, their first destination (or Green's anyway) Johto, the place where his family was visiting.

But these four were not the only unexpected people Prince Green would meet, no his destiny would have him cross paths with many more unique individuals. Their fates changing the same day that Green's did.

Johto Kingdom: New Bark Town, Duke Elm's Estate

With Gold

"Come on Super Serious Gal," complained Gold, who was leaning haphazardly on one of the chairs in the kitchen.

The girl, who Gold referred to as 'super serious gal' shook her head angrily and grumbled, "Shut up Gold. I'm not going with you on your 'super awesome adventure.'" She said the last three words with air quotes and sarcasm in her voice. The girl was busy preparing a meal and was currently in the vegetable slicing stage.

Gold stood up and leaned over the counter to look the girl in the eyes, which wasn't the best idea as it put him in close proximity to the knife the girl was holding. The girl flicked her eyes pointedly to the knife. Gold got the message and backed up abruptly.

"Crystal, is lunch ready yet?" asked a short, blonde boy as poked his head around the door to the kitchen.

"Almost Emerald," Crystal replied. Emerald's head disappeared back behind the door again. "Gold, get out of here and get ready for dinner," Crystal ordered.

"You know, you work for me," Gold pointed out. Crystal violently sliced the tomato on her chopping board and Gold quickly retreated, deciding he'd bring it up again later when there wasn't a knife in her hand.

Gold, Crystal and Emerald lived in the estate of Duke Elm. Duke Elm and his wife were unable to have children, so they had adopted two children, Gold and Emerald. Caring for two children as well as managing their estate proved to be quite a bit of work, so they decided to hire an extra maid to keep the house in order.

Crystal was the maid they had hired and Gold had been bothering her ever since. Lately he'd gotten worse though. Gold had always talked of leaving and exploring the world, but now he was talking about it nonstop. Crystal had a bad feeling about this and was afraid that Gold was about to do something drastic and crazy. As it turns out, she was completely right.

Later that Night

With Crystal

Crystal was sitting in her assigned room reading a novel. She heard a shuffling noise outside her door, but she just ignored it. Gold and Emerald were known to walk around the house at night. So she was not expecting her door to open suddenly and for someone to dash in, cover her mouth and drag her out of the house. She struggled violently until her kidnapper whispered in her ear, "Calm down super serious gal. It's me, Gold."

Her terror was abruptly replaced with burning anger, but Gold was much stronger than her, so she gave up fighting him. Once they were so far from the estate Crystal could barely make it out in the distance, Gold released her.

"It's time for our super awesome adventure!" Gold exclaimed.

"No," Crystal stated.

"I've actually thought this through," Gold replied. "The law states women are not allowed to travel unaccompanied, so by law, you have to stick with me."

Crystal stared at him in horror, half because Gold had actually thought something through (and that was always bad) and half because of her situation.

"Come on! It'll be fun!"

"Sure it will be…" Crystal replied skeptically.

The Next Day (June 14th)

Back at the Elm Estate

With Emerald

Crystal had been late making breakfast, so Emerald went to her room make sure she was okay. There was no sign of her in her room. He anxiously went to inform his adoptive father Duke Elm, who in turn informed him that Gold was also missing.

Emerald immediately realized what must have happened. Gold had finally activated his plan and had dragged Crystal with him. Refusing to be left out, Emerald immediately made a plan to leave as well.

That night Emerald left the estate and set out after Crystal and Gold, unfortunately he didn't actually know which way they went, and ended up headed in an entirely different direction.

Back to June 13th Again

Kanto Kingdom: Viridian City, Guard Tower

With No One

"Everyone, locating the royal family is our number one priority," barked a tall man garbed in a suit golden suit of armor which marked him as an officer. He was standing in front of the all the soldiers stationed in Viridian City. Every soldier was wearing armor in the same style as the speaker, but theirs was colored silver instead of gold. Every soldier in the army looked exactly the same, the helmets they wore obscuring any differences between them. One of the soldiers was especially excited about having a mission, not that he was happy the royal family was kidnapped or anything, he just wanted to see some action. After all, he had worked harder than anyone to get where he was.

"Ruby," the man in golden armor said to the excited soldier. "We've just gotten word; Prince Green is now missing as well. Due to your exemplary record, I am promoting you and you are to locate and bring Green home." The officer proffered a sword towards Ruby. "This is your symbol of station, and people will now refer to you as Sir Ruby."

"Thank you sir!" Ruby thanked and saluted respectfully.

"We believe Green stole a mount from the stable, you should start there."

Ruby nodded and set out for the stables to look for clues.

Kanto Kingdom: On the Road

With Ruby

A group of people walked along the dusty road between towns, interspersed with covered wagons being pulled by sturdy Tauros and Bouffalant. The people all wore loose, colorful clothing and a lot of glittering jewelry. At the front of the group a girl walked, adorned in a red shirt and a flowing blue skirt.

"Lyra, where are we stopping today?" asked a Ruby, who was wearing his signature white hat and red clothing.

"I don't know yet Ruby," Lyra replied airily. "Let's just see where the road takes us."

Ruby sighed slightly exasperated. The group was a band of gypsies, but Ruby wasn't originally one of them. He had met them when they stopped at his hometown, and they had offered him the chance to travel with them after he made them new outfits. Ruby loved travelling with the gypsies, but getting used to not having a plan was difficult, especially since his father made plans for everything.

Lyra was the appointed leader of the gypsies, but Ruby really wasn't sure why. She was one of the younger gypsies and she didn't really seem to have astounding leadership skills. Not that Ruby had anything against Lyra, they actually got along very well; he just wasn't sure why she was the leader. Whenever he asked any of the others why she was the leader, they just laughed and said that it was obvious. So Ruby shrugged it off and figured it was a gypsy thing. Later he would find out that the appointment was in no way random, but, it would still be a while until Ruby discovered this reason.

Sinnoh Kingdom: Berlitz Estate

With Platina

The Berlitz's were an extremely powerful and wealthy family in the kingdom of Sinnoh. They prided themselves on being very knowledgeable about the world. In light of this, the Berlitz children embark upon a coming of age ceremony. This ceremony consists of a journey through all the kingdoms to better understand their neighbors. Platina's birthday was in a few months, so it was time for her to depart on her journey

Platina was standing before her father, her two personal guards, Dia and Pearl, standing beside her. She knew what she had been summoned for, and her father confirmed her suspicions.

"Platina, it is time for you to begin your coming of age journey. Dia and Pearl will accompany you on your way," her father stated gesturing to the two men. This wasn't a surprise to Platina either, after all the two had been her protectors for most of her life. After saying a fond farewell to her father, Platina and her guards set off towards Johto, the usual starting point of the pilgrimage.

"This is exciting!" Pearl exclaimed once they were off ofthe estate. "And these new outfits are great!" Platina's father had given Dia and Pearl new sets of armor in commemoration of the event. They had matching sets of armor, except that Dia's had a red tinge, while Pearl's was tinted yellow.

Dia nodded and reached into his bag, pulled out a sandwich and began to take a bite, but before he could, Pearl yelled, "Stop! We need to save that for later!"

Platina giggled resulting in Pearl demanding, "Did you just laugh?"

"No. I did not laugh," Platina refuted.

"You laughed!"

"No, I did not."

"Yes you did!"

Dia resumed in the consumption of his sandwich, Pearl having been sufficiently distracted.

Unova Kingdom: Castelia City, BW Bakery

With White

White resided on the second floor of a very small, but successful bakery in Nimbasa City. It was a boring life, but White didn't mind too much, after all she had it much better than many other people in the kingdom. However, if she was being honest with herself, her true wish was to work in theater. Unfortunately, the only people who got the opportunity to do so were almost exclusively nobles, and those who weren't nobles were still from incredibly influential families. A baker's daughter was by no means noble or influential, so White kept her dreams buried, trying to be content with her simple life.

White stood behind the counter, waiting for customers to arrive. She was wearing her usual BW white apron over a long navy blue dress. Her elbows leaned on the counter and her head was propped upon her hands. She inhaled the scent of fresh bread, but she was immune to it, growing up in a bakery had desensitized her to it.

That particular day was the anniversary of King Alder's rule. In celebration, the townsfolk were holding a parade and the nobles were having an extravagant party at the castle. White wasn't expecting any customers, especially since the food at the parade was free, but she had made a deal with her father to keep the bakery open every day that he was gone. Her father had left a few days ago on a bread tasting tour in the hope of baking better bread.

Despite all these occurrences that left her alone on this celebratory day, she was actually quite excited. A few weeks earlier a new customer had come into the store, and they had become fast friends. His name was Black and he had been brought to the city by the king. White wasn't sure of the details, but White knew that whatever his job was, it was important. Important enough aht he was invited to the party at the castle. Black had promised to come to the bakery right after the party and tell White all about it, so White was excited. She eagerly awaited her friends return.

Because of all of this, White was quite surprised when a customer did enter her store. "Huh? I-I mean welcome!" White greeted. The customer was an older man with messy green hair, wearing an opulent yellow and blue robe, which White found hideous.

"Hello dear," the man greeted. His voice put White immediately on her guard. It reminded her of snake and she sensed that he was a threat.

"Would you like something?" White asked politely, even though her instincts were screaming at her to get him to leave.

"I've heard that your bakery supplies bread for the castle. Is this true?" the creepy man asked.

"Yes, we take great pride in having the best bread in the city," White replied uncertainly.

"Thank you. Go Butterfree!"

"What are you –"

Before White could finish her question, the man had already given his Pokémon the order, "Sleep Powder!"

Powder flew from the bug Pokémon's wings towards White, who collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

Castle Castelia

With Black

A plot threatening King Alder had been discovered about a month ago. In light of this information, a taskforce had been put together to discover who was behind the threat on King Alder's life and prevent any attacks from reaching him. Black was one of the one's called in to join the taskforce. Bringing in someone that young was a controversial decision to some, but ultimately it was deemed necessary. Despite his youth, Black was already one of the greatest scholars in Unova and one of the smartest.

Black was currently attending the castle party for King Alder's anniversary. The ballroom of the castle was so full of people that Black couldn't even make out the walls of the room. Unfortunately, Black was unable to fully enjoy the party, as it was the perfect setting for an attack on the king. Really just cancelling the party would've been the best option, but king Alder categorically refused. He claimed that forgoing the party would be a sign of fear. Personally, Black thought that the king was being stupid, putting himself in a high risk situation just to appear strong. But he was the king and Black, no matter how smart he was, still wasn't anywhere near important enough to refute the king's decision.

There were more members of the taskforce dispersed throughout the crowd, trying to identify threats. Apparently one of them succeeded as someone screamed, "Everyone stop! The bread is poisoned!"

Immediately, everyone got as far from the bread as possible. Luckily it had just arrived and none had been eaten yet. Black was more worried about where the bread was from to focus on the attack though. "Where is this bread from?"King Alder demanded.

"BW Bakery," one of his aides replied.

"Well arrest the people working there!" King Alder ordered.

White! Black thought alarmed. He snuck out of the party as quickly as possible and sprinted down the side streets to avoid the parade, and thus hopefully beat the guards. Black knew that White was alone at the bakery, and there was no way she was responsible. She would never intentionally try to hurt someone. Soon, He arrived at the bakery and threw the door open. At first he didn't see anyone, but then he caught sight of White's unconscious body lying on the floor behind the counter. Black hopped over the counter and gently shook White awake.

"White! White! Wake up," he urged.

White blinked sleepily and mumbled, "Black? Is the party over already?"

"White, we have to leave now," Black ordered.

"Why do we have to leave?"

"You're bread was poisoned and used in an attack on the king. Come on," Black insisted, dragging White out of the bakery and through more quiet streets to get out of the city unnoticed.

"The man…There was a man who came in and put me to sleep. He must have been the one who poisoned the bread," White theorized.

"I know it wasn't you White," Black reassured. "But, it looks really bad right now, and there's no evidence supporting your statement. People are going to want to see someone take the blame, and right now you're all they've got. We have to get to another kingdom, you'll be safe there."

White nodded sadly. "Thank you Black…" The pair made it out of the city without incident and began running towards Johto, the closet kingdom to Unova.

All these people were simultaneously heading for the Johto Kingdom where, one way or another, their paths would collide. And it would be spectacular.

Author Note:

So all the main characters have been introduced except for Sapphire and Wally (and Yellow never had her name mentioned, but it should be obvious who she is) and Ruby being in two places was not a typo. Anyway, this story will update slower since I'm focusing on MAGE, but I'll still update it when I can.

Reviews are appreciated :)