*Closed due to thread necromancy. Cal, just reopen it if you want people to review again.~Apollo
Chapter History:
Prologue: In this post.
Chapter 1 - And so it begins...
Chapter 2 - The Journey Unfolds...
Chapter 3 - Reunion at the Pine City Gym!
Chapter 4 - Old Rivalries Remain Strong...
Chapter 5 - Protect the Pendant!
Chapter 6 - The Maze Room Emerges!
Chapter 7 - A Leafre Showdown!
Chapter 8 - Masters in the Making
Chapter 9 - An Ever-Evolving Tragedy...
Chapter 10 - A Shadow Game?
Chapter 11 - The Darkness of the Void
Chapter 12 - Preventing the Catastrophe
Chapter 13 - The Prophecy Unfolds...
Chapter 14 - Shaping Destiny
Chapter 15 - Searching The Blaze
Chapter 16 - Fight Fire With Fire
Chapter 17 - Nerves of Steel
Chapter 18 - Taking Revenge?
Chapter 19 - Confronting Yourself...
Chapter 20 - Ocean's Calling
Chapter 21 - Origins...
Chapter 22 - Fates of the Chosen Ones
Chapter 23 - Battle with Destiny
NOTE: The more I go into this, the more it's becoming a short novel of sorts. I've already spanned 62 Word Pages (using standard font size etc) with just the prologue and 9 chapters. With what I aim to do with this in its completed form... let's just say it appears to be leaning towards anything between 30 and 50 chapters OF THIS LENGTH. If it's closer to 30, you can bet that the story itself will be unfinished, and I'll need to go back to it at a later date to do a sequel. I don't want to put people off, but if you're going to read this, note that it is a LONG read... once it is completed in the months to come, I plan to put the finished word document in this post so that anyone who wants the undisturbed story (meaning without comments at the end of chapters and rubbish) can view it in that style instead.
My aim with this is to take a slightly different approach to the whole story thing than what most have. Most have gone for a completely different idea from what one would see in the games - like the idea of the PMC or the idea that a human could transform into a Pokémon. My idea is not to take this approach, since that would require an extremely imaginative idea that I simply don't have the time to formulate. Instead, I'm planning on going through what you might call a game's storyline. To make it simple, I aim to go through (loosely) what you would go through in a game, but with my own ideas added to spice things up. The idea behind this is that bonds between the trainer and his Pokémon are formed as the story progresses, and it is this bonding that forms the core of my story.
See, there's a good reason as to why I thought about writing this - upon seeing a thread about inseparable Pokémon once upon a time (which I remade to provide further inspiration for this story - find it here) it inspired me somewhat. To think that other people could also form partnerships with pokes they liked in game was good… there are several I really love and share a positive interaction with when I use them. As a result, this is more or less a dedication to those who are passionate about the games, to the extent where they actually DO bond with those that they use. I'll be honest; all of this DOES sound a little nerdy. But it's the truth. People "can" interact with "virtual" things and not be a loser. After all, they're real to someone out there
Right, now that the reason why is out in the open, it should be clear enough that I will NOT be accepting main character bios for this one. I have all the characters I'll have in the story already lined up, based on real people I know (loosely). However, if I need side character bios (such as for Gym Leaders etc), I will ask for them. They will probably be needed, but I won't ask until closer to the time.
What I WILL consider though is Pokémon stories, but NOT if they are posted in this thread. I will only consider them if they are PM'ed to me (but only do that if it is absolutely necessary) or if they are posted in the topic I have made in the Fan Creations Forum. I will NOT be including random pokemon for the sake of it; they will have to fit the story as I go along. But I will consider any and all entrants (that are written to the topic's specifications that is) in the thread.
The prologue is a little… long. But it sets the stage for the events to unfold on, so I apologize for it being a little... wordy at times. It DOES however set the standard for what I expect to produce. For as long as I have the time to commit some hours to this, the chapters will be of this kind of "quality". Whether the quality is good or not is up to you, the readers... well, on with the show!
Prologue:
There are so many questions in this world that cannot be answered... why are we here? What is our purpose? What is "reality"? That last one is defined individually from person to person. However, most agree that something is "real" if you can physically sense it - it can be seen, heard or touched. That may not be the only way to define something as being real though. After all, data in a computer is very real, but you cannot SENSE it in the way you can sense objects in the world. Emotions are also real, but you don't use physical senses to define these.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, imagine a world that bypasses the common conceptions of reality, a world where the surreal occurs everyday. That's right, the world of Pokémon. In THIS world supernatural events dominate, with fierce battles using majestic, seemingly magical creatures take place. Of course, not all battles are fought in the fun-loving manner that they SHOULD be. There are the usual battles between good and evil, with "world domination" at stake of course. But... if this world is merely computer data, is it real? Can you truly get feeling from this? I suppose that once again this comes down to the individual. Hopefully, after listening to this some more of you can understand that these computer game worlds can be just as "real" as our day-to-day world, and that it isn"t only computer-obsessed nerds that can get some meaning from these worlds. If you open up to something, anything can happen... just try sometime, OK?
"Thank you Calum," said Professor Clark, looking a little puzzled at the choice of subject. The class clearly shared this confusion. They were unsure whether to laugh and jeer, or actually try and understand the boy's predicament. As a result they simply stared in bewilderment at the professor, as if expecting commands as to what they were allowed to do. He was focused on other matters though.
The boy whom the professor addressed was a 16 year-old of average height, with thick shoulder-length brown hair, slightly lanky build and sporty attire. It seemed to clash with his narrow glasses on his face however - this gave him a kind of mismatched appearance, almost like a misfit. This suited Calum well, as the year group he was in treated him like an outcast anyhow.
"No problem Professor," Calum answered. "That topic has been clawing at me for a while. It was a good thing you gave us this assignment; I might have never got that off of my chest if you hadn't."
His murky green eyes shifted towards the corner of the room, a little discontent at the response the class had given him. In his mind, this was expected. His year group never understood him - everyone shrugged him off as weird for spending time on a video game that supposedly went "out of fashion" a while back. If only they could see the passion one could have playing a game where strategy was everything... but he knew that this was beyond his age group's narrow frame of mind. "If you weren't into the latest trends, you were a nobody..." that was the sad reality of his predicament. Still, he DID have some supporters, but they were few and far between. Along with these friends, he had formed a clan based on their pastime - somewhere that they were all in their element without the rest of the school ridiculing them. It was here that Calum came alive; it was here where he was understood.
They had their own room for after school activities set up. The principle allowed Calum and his clan to use the computer room, along with its Wi-Fi Internet connection, for a couple of hours each night. As a result, the clan held vicious Pokémon battles and tournaments every day, each player honing their skills in an attempt to become the ultimate battler in time for the regional championships coming up.
"Man Calum, you blasted my Skarmory beautifully there! Who would have thought you'd use Fire Blast after Dragon Dance... beautiful! I think you have a real chance in these regionals, I tell you! Your prediction skills are immense nowadays - it's almost impossible to beat you!"
"Aww, shucks, you're embarrassing me Gregor!" Calum blushed a little as the final match ended. His best friend Gregor had complimented him on dealing the final needed blow to secure victory in that day's tournament. Slightly older than Calum, Gregor had much shorter black hair, with crystal clear blue eyes and the true competitive spirit burning within him. He chose more casual clothing, preferring not to associate too much with sports. After all, it had been a while since any sporting activities had been done by the clan... the last three attempts had saw people from the school coming along and bullying them for hours because of it. When it came to games however, Gregor was second to none - his will to win was as large as Calum's and then some. After a quick shake of hands, the two rivals headed off to grab a meal at the local café.
"So... any ideas as to what team you'll use yet? I know you must be psyched about the tournament," Gregor inquired as he sipped his Coke.
"Actually, I'm not too sure," Calum replied. "I was thinking of going with a Choice Scarfed Gardevoir, since nobody would expect that, but I haven't decided yet."
"Well, when you do decide I'm sure it'll be an awesome set-up as always! We have a week still, so no worries yeah?" At this point Gregor was merely trying to calm the nerves of the two allies.
"Yes, no worries," Calum answered. He wasn't sure himself though... he didn't feel right about this one. Something was different from the preparation to the other recent tournaments - there were so many more fliers around than normal. Advertising a Pokémon tournament was never high on the list of any venue's agenda, but EVERY place in town had posters up for this one. Something was amiss... and nobody else was paying enough attention to figure it out.
"Is the device ready for testing?" a rough sounding voice said over the telephone.
"Yes sir," a female voice spoke back. "We can begin testing whenever you are ready. Any time in particular, if I may ask?"
"There's a Pokémon battle tournament this Saturday; I think that would be the perfect time to test our little machine out. It's quite the engineering feat actually - I'm almost surprised your team managed to construct it. And under budget too! That has to be a first for this company... How many do you have ready?"
"Ten sir. Shall I give the order to move them to the tournament location?"
"Yes, that would be ideal. You'll be moving the gadgets to a warehouse-type building in the northeast of town... I'll meet you there to discuss the plan further."
"Roger that. I'll be there in two hours."
That Saturday, Calum and his clan met up at the modern style warehouse for storing the latest computers made over the Internet, to ship out to people around the world. With all the electronics and gadgetry about, this was the prefect place to hold a Pokémon battle tournament.
"Can I have your attention please!? The final match between Calum and Gregor is about to begin!" The commentator was a knocked-out player in the tournament; you could guarantee decent, informed commentary from him. The final match once again pitted the two biggest rivals of the competition against each other, only this time the stakes were higher - prizes were involved.
"Don't think it'll be a walk in the park THIS time Calum!" Gregor exclaimed. "I learnt a few things from our last battle, so it's fair to say that you won't catch me out so easily THIS time!"
"That's the fun part of all this," Calum remarked, hoping to spark a reaction out of his partner. "After all, it would be boring if all fights were as easy as the last one!"
"Hmph, we'll see. I'll get you back for that today, in front of the whole Pokémon community!"
"Always the way with him..." Calum thought to himself. He knew that today was not a day for lack of concentration though; he HAD to win. His reputation was on the line after all.
Half an hour later, the battle was over. After an extremely close match, coming down to the last Pokémon on both teams, Calum emerged as the victor. As the commentator announced the victory the crowd applauded both combatants for a marvellous spectacle, until the tournament organizer came out to congratulate the finalists.
"And now, if the top 10 ranked players in the battleground would care to follow me into the back here? I have a special surprise waiting for you..." Without giving away any more details, the TO headed briskly towards the back room and unlocked it. Calum quickly followed him, along with Gregor and the other 8 players summoned.
"You're probably wondering why I called you here, aren't you? I can see the puzzled expressions on your faces you know. Well, my company (the one who organizes the tournaments around here) has been looking for a while to find a way to bring the world of Pokémon to life a little more. You know, virtual reality and the like. Anyways, we think that we have done it, and we want to test it out. Care to try?"
The players simply stared at each other in amazement for several minutes. To think that they were going to be testing a brand new type of game that NOBODY had ever even heard of being produced! One where the player would actually be truly immersed in their environment, one where they would be in sole command of what path they took. After getting over this initial shock, most of the people in the room rushed over and hurriedly agreed to test the system. After careful deliberation, and much discussion between themselves, Calum and Gregor decided to go along with the idea as well.
"Excellent!" exclaimed the TO. He was clearly overjoyed by the unanimous vote of confidence for his system. "See these pods over here? They're large enough for each of you to fit into. The possessions that you currently have are placed into the pockets in the sides of the pod. You games machine is inserted into the front - that's what allows the system to recognize what game it is being requested to run. Naturally, we only have Pokémon loaded right now, but in time other virtual worlds will be created also. Oh, and incase you are wondering, my technicians will be on hand the whole time you are in the game world, so if anything starts to go wrong you will not be harmed."
Everyone loaded their possessions where indicated to and lay down in the pods, ready for the testing to begin. Calum and Gregor looked at each other with excitement written all over their faces - they were really testing the first truly immersive virtual reality game involving Pokémon... it was too good to be true!
And indeed it was...
"OK everyone, start the system! May you find your true meaning within this world!"
"What is that supposed to mean?" Calum thought to himself as the system went online. Then, after a brief moment the players vanished from the pods! But of course, they didn't know that... for all they knew it was merely a part of the "game".
The TO turned around. He was facing a woman looking at the computer screens behind him. "Well?" he asked.
"There's no trace of anyone here sir. The device must have worked."
"Excellent. Such a fine achievement your team has made Kara," the TO smiled. "Can we locate any of them in the other world?"
"Not yet sir; we haven't managed to create a tracking system yet. However, each of them has their own ID thanks to the games system the input into the device - once we figure out how to use this to find a person, it'll be easy to see where they have gotten to."
"Brilliant. Make sure you finish that task as soon as possible - I need to see if it is at all safe in this other world. If it is, we can proceed with our plans."
"Of course. I'll get right to it." Upon saying this, the woman got up and left the building, hammering a number into a phone as she left.
Meanwhile…
"Calum, wake up! You'll be late for your meeting with the Professor! It's important that you get up today, remember?" A middle-aged woman's voice called out to him from downstairs. It had a maternal feel to it - this person clearly cared for Calum.
"HEY, are you LISTENING up there - wake UP!"
Calum didn't respond. Sighing, the woman went upstairs to see what was taking so long.
"He just doesn't learn, does he? All those late nights... Clefairy, you know what to do." At that moment, a flash of red light revealed a pink fairy Pokémon, who proceeded to use Wake-Up-Slap on Calum!
"Ouch... what on earth happened?" Calum exclaimed, holding his cheek from where he was slapped. His eyes widened when he noticed Clefairy bouncing up and down on top of him however. "What the! There's a Clefairy on me! What is this, some kind of joke!?"
"Oh come now dear, you know Clefairy... I've had her for a long time, and you two are best pals right?"
"Uhh..."
"Gee, maybe she hit you too hard this time. Are you OK? You're out of sorts today... and today of all days too."
Calum was puzzled. "What's so special about today?"
The woman's expression became stern. "Don't tell me you’ve forgotten about it? You have a meeting with Professor Willow today!" Upon seeing my blank expression, she continued. "To get your first Pokémon! You're far too late as it is! Get going already!"
"Wh-what!" Calum exclaimed, not quite knowing how this all happened, or even who this woman was. All he knew was that he had to get down to the lab to meet some professor for a pokemon, and fast! After all, they may all have already gone!
As he raced out of the door, Calum heard a voice calling. "Don't forget to come back after you get your Pokémon... I have something to help you out before you leave on your journey through Foretta!"
I'll post the first chapter (the true start of the journey) once I get some reviews on this. I hope you found that somewhat entertaining... it was hard to write since I didn’t particularly like how I was forming it at times, but it’s not THAT bad I guess...
EDIT: I apologize if anyone was reading that just after I put it up - I tried to edit something and it removed all the apostrophe's, hyphen etc. that I used in word... it was pretty illegible, but I've fixed that now. Remind me never to edit the post on here first... oh well.
Chapter History:
Prologue: In this post.
Chapter 1 - And so it begins...
Chapter 2 - The Journey Unfolds...
Chapter 3 - Reunion at the Pine City Gym!
Chapter 4 - Old Rivalries Remain Strong...
Chapter 5 - Protect the Pendant!
Chapter 6 - The Maze Room Emerges!
Chapter 7 - A Leafre Showdown!
Chapter 8 - Masters in the Making
Chapter 9 - An Ever-Evolving Tragedy...
Chapter 10 - A Shadow Game?
Chapter 11 - The Darkness of the Void
Chapter 12 - Preventing the Catastrophe
Chapter 13 - The Prophecy Unfolds...
Chapter 14 - Shaping Destiny
Chapter 15 - Searching The Blaze
Chapter 16 - Fight Fire With Fire
Chapter 17 - Nerves of Steel
Chapter 18 - Taking Revenge?
Chapter 19 - Confronting Yourself...
Chapter 20 - Ocean's Calling
Chapter 21 - Origins...
Chapter 22 - Fates of the Chosen Ones
Chapter 23 - Battle with Destiny
NOTE: The more I go into this, the more it's becoming a short novel of sorts. I've already spanned 62 Word Pages (using standard font size etc) with just the prologue and 9 chapters. With what I aim to do with this in its completed form... let's just say it appears to be leaning towards anything between 30 and 50 chapters OF THIS LENGTH. If it's closer to 30, you can bet that the story itself will be unfinished, and I'll need to go back to it at a later date to do a sequel. I don't want to put people off, but if you're going to read this, note that it is a LONG read... once it is completed in the months to come, I plan to put the finished word document in this post so that anyone who wants the undisturbed story (meaning without comments at the end of chapters and rubbish) can view it in that style instead.
My aim with this is to take a slightly different approach to the whole story thing than what most have. Most have gone for a completely different idea from what one would see in the games - like the idea of the PMC or the idea that a human could transform into a Pokémon. My idea is not to take this approach, since that would require an extremely imaginative idea that I simply don't have the time to formulate. Instead, I'm planning on going through what you might call a game's storyline. To make it simple, I aim to go through (loosely) what you would go through in a game, but with my own ideas added to spice things up. The idea behind this is that bonds between the trainer and his Pokémon are formed as the story progresses, and it is this bonding that forms the core of my story.
See, there's a good reason as to why I thought about writing this - upon seeing a thread about inseparable Pokémon once upon a time (which I remade to provide further inspiration for this story - find it here) it inspired me somewhat. To think that other people could also form partnerships with pokes they liked in game was good… there are several I really love and share a positive interaction with when I use them. As a result, this is more or less a dedication to those who are passionate about the games, to the extent where they actually DO bond with those that they use. I'll be honest; all of this DOES sound a little nerdy. But it's the truth. People "can" interact with "virtual" things and not be a loser. After all, they're real to someone out there
Right, now that the reason why is out in the open, it should be clear enough that I will NOT be accepting main character bios for this one. I have all the characters I'll have in the story already lined up, based on real people I know (loosely). However, if I need side character bios (such as for Gym Leaders etc), I will ask for them. They will probably be needed, but I won't ask until closer to the time.
What I WILL consider though is Pokémon stories, but NOT if they are posted in this thread. I will only consider them if they are PM'ed to me (but only do that if it is absolutely necessary) or if they are posted in the topic I have made in the Fan Creations Forum. I will NOT be including random pokemon for the sake of it; they will have to fit the story as I go along. But I will consider any and all entrants (that are written to the topic's specifications that is) in the thread.
The prologue is a little… long. But it sets the stage for the events to unfold on, so I apologize for it being a little... wordy at times. It DOES however set the standard for what I expect to produce. For as long as I have the time to commit some hours to this, the chapters will be of this kind of "quality". Whether the quality is good or not is up to you, the readers... well, on with the show!
Prologue:
There are so many questions in this world that cannot be answered... why are we here? What is our purpose? What is "reality"? That last one is defined individually from person to person. However, most agree that something is "real" if you can physically sense it - it can be seen, heard or touched. That may not be the only way to define something as being real though. After all, data in a computer is very real, but you cannot SENSE it in the way you can sense objects in the world. Emotions are also real, but you don't use physical senses to define these.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, imagine a world that bypasses the common conceptions of reality, a world where the surreal occurs everyday. That's right, the world of Pokémon. In THIS world supernatural events dominate, with fierce battles using majestic, seemingly magical creatures take place. Of course, not all battles are fought in the fun-loving manner that they SHOULD be. There are the usual battles between good and evil, with "world domination" at stake of course. But... if this world is merely computer data, is it real? Can you truly get feeling from this? I suppose that once again this comes down to the individual. Hopefully, after listening to this some more of you can understand that these computer game worlds can be just as "real" as our day-to-day world, and that it isn"t only computer-obsessed nerds that can get some meaning from these worlds. If you open up to something, anything can happen... just try sometime, OK?
"Thank you Calum," said Professor Clark, looking a little puzzled at the choice of subject. The class clearly shared this confusion. They were unsure whether to laugh and jeer, or actually try and understand the boy's predicament. As a result they simply stared in bewilderment at the professor, as if expecting commands as to what they were allowed to do. He was focused on other matters though.
The boy whom the professor addressed was a 16 year-old of average height, with thick shoulder-length brown hair, slightly lanky build and sporty attire. It seemed to clash with his narrow glasses on his face however - this gave him a kind of mismatched appearance, almost like a misfit. This suited Calum well, as the year group he was in treated him like an outcast anyhow.
"No problem Professor," Calum answered. "That topic has been clawing at me for a while. It was a good thing you gave us this assignment; I might have never got that off of my chest if you hadn't."
His murky green eyes shifted towards the corner of the room, a little discontent at the response the class had given him. In his mind, this was expected. His year group never understood him - everyone shrugged him off as weird for spending time on a video game that supposedly went "out of fashion" a while back. If only they could see the passion one could have playing a game where strategy was everything... but he knew that this was beyond his age group's narrow frame of mind. "If you weren't into the latest trends, you were a nobody..." that was the sad reality of his predicament. Still, he DID have some supporters, but they were few and far between. Along with these friends, he had formed a clan based on their pastime - somewhere that they were all in their element without the rest of the school ridiculing them. It was here that Calum came alive; it was here where he was understood.
They had their own room for after school activities set up. The principle allowed Calum and his clan to use the computer room, along with its Wi-Fi Internet connection, for a couple of hours each night. As a result, the clan held vicious Pokémon battles and tournaments every day, each player honing their skills in an attempt to become the ultimate battler in time for the regional championships coming up.
"Man Calum, you blasted my Skarmory beautifully there! Who would have thought you'd use Fire Blast after Dragon Dance... beautiful! I think you have a real chance in these regionals, I tell you! Your prediction skills are immense nowadays - it's almost impossible to beat you!"
"Aww, shucks, you're embarrassing me Gregor!" Calum blushed a little as the final match ended. His best friend Gregor had complimented him on dealing the final needed blow to secure victory in that day's tournament. Slightly older than Calum, Gregor had much shorter black hair, with crystal clear blue eyes and the true competitive spirit burning within him. He chose more casual clothing, preferring not to associate too much with sports. After all, it had been a while since any sporting activities had been done by the clan... the last three attempts had saw people from the school coming along and bullying them for hours because of it. When it came to games however, Gregor was second to none - his will to win was as large as Calum's and then some. After a quick shake of hands, the two rivals headed off to grab a meal at the local café.
"So... any ideas as to what team you'll use yet? I know you must be psyched about the tournament," Gregor inquired as he sipped his Coke.
"Actually, I'm not too sure," Calum replied. "I was thinking of going with a Choice Scarfed Gardevoir, since nobody would expect that, but I haven't decided yet."
"Well, when you do decide I'm sure it'll be an awesome set-up as always! We have a week still, so no worries yeah?" At this point Gregor was merely trying to calm the nerves of the two allies.
"Yes, no worries," Calum answered. He wasn't sure himself though... he didn't feel right about this one. Something was different from the preparation to the other recent tournaments - there were so many more fliers around than normal. Advertising a Pokémon tournament was never high on the list of any venue's agenda, but EVERY place in town had posters up for this one. Something was amiss... and nobody else was paying enough attention to figure it out.
"Is the device ready for testing?" a rough sounding voice said over the telephone.
"Yes sir," a female voice spoke back. "We can begin testing whenever you are ready. Any time in particular, if I may ask?"
"There's a Pokémon battle tournament this Saturday; I think that would be the perfect time to test our little machine out. It's quite the engineering feat actually - I'm almost surprised your team managed to construct it. And under budget too! That has to be a first for this company... How many do you have ready?"
"Ten sir. Shall I give the order to move them to the tournament location?"
"Yes, that would be ideal. You'll be moving the gadgets to a warehouse-type building in the northeast of town... I'll meet you there to discuss the plan further."
"Roger that. I'll be there in two hours."
That Saturday, Calum and his clan met up at the modern style warehouse for storing the latest computers made over the Internet, to ship out to people around the world. With all the electronics and gadgetry about, this was the prefect place to hold a Pokémon battle tournament.
"Can I have your attention please!? The final match between Calum and Gregor is about to begin!" The commentator was a knocked-out player in the tournament; you could guarantee decent, informed commentary from him. The final match once again pitted the two biggest rivals of the competition against each other, only this time the stakes were higher - prizes were involved.
"Don't think it'll be a walk in the park THIS time Calum!" Gregor exclaimed. "I learnt a few things from our last battle, so it's fair to say that you won't catch me out so easily THIS time!"
"That's the fun part of all this," Calum remarked, hoping to spark a reaction out of his partner. "After all, it would be boring if all fights were as easy as the last one!"
"Hmph, we'll see. I'll get you back for that today, in front of the whole Pokémon community!"
"Always the way with him..." Calum thought to himself. He knew that today was not a day for lack of concentration though; he HAD to win. His reputation was on the line after all.
Half an hour later, the battle was over. After an extremely close match, coming down to the last Pokémon on both teams, Calum emerged as the victor. As the commentator announced the victory the crowd applauded both combatants for a marvellous spectacle, until the tournament organizer came out to congratulate the finalists.
"And now, if the top 10 ranked players in the battleground would care to follow me into the back here? I have a special surprise waiting for you..." Without giving away any more details, the TO headed briskly towards the back room and unlocked it. Calum quickly followed him, along with Gregor and the other 8 players summoned.
"You're probably wondering why I called you here, aren't you? I can see the puzzled expressions on your faces you know. Well, my company (the one who organizes the tournaments around here) has been looking for a while to find a way to bring the world of Pokémon to life a little more. You know, virtual reality and the like. Anyways, we think that we have done it, and we want to test it out. Care to try?"
The players simply stared at each other in amazement for several minutes. To think that they were going to be testing a brand new type of game that NOBODY had ever even heard of being produced! One where the player would actually be truly immersed in their environment, one where they would be in sole command of what path they took. After getting over this initial shock, most of the people in the room rushed over and hurriedly agreed to test the system. After careful deliberation, and much discussion between themselves, Calum and Gregor decided to go along with the idea as well.
"Excellent!" exclaimed the TO. He was clearly overjoyed by the unanimous vote of confidence for his system. "See these pods over here? They're large enough for each of you to fit into. The possessions that you currently have are placed into the pockets in the sides of the pod. You games machine is inserted into the front - that's what allows the system to recognize what game it is being requested to run. Naturally, we only have Pokémon loaded right now, but in time other virtual worlds will be created also. Oh, and incase you are wondering, my technicians will be on hand the whole time you are in the game world, so if anything starts to go wrong you will not be harmed."
Everyone loaded their possessions where indicated to and lay down in the pods, ready for the testing to begin. Calum and Gregor looked at each other with excitement written all over their faces - they were really testing the first truly immersive virtual reality game involving Pokémon... it was too good to be true!
And indeed it was...
"OK everyone, start the system! May you find your true meaning within this world!"
"What is that supposed to mean?" Calum thought to himself as the system went online. Then, after a brief moment the players vanished from the pods! But of course, they didn't know that... for all they knew it was merely a part of the "game".
The TO turned around. He was facing a woman looking at the computer screens behind him. "Well?" he asked.
"There's no trace of anyone here sir. The device must have worked."
"Excellent. Such a fine achievement your team has made Kara," the TO smiled. "Can we locate any of them in the other world?"
"Not yet sir; we haven't managed to create a tracking system yet. However, each of them has their own ID thanks to the games system the input into the device - once we figure out how to use this to find a person, it'll be easy to see where they have gotten to."
"Brilliant. Make sure you finish that task as soon as possible - I need to see if it is at all safe in this other world. If it is, we can proceed with our plans."
"Of course. I'll get right to it." Upon saying this, the woman got up and left the building, hammering a number into a phone as she left.
Meanwhile…
"Calum, wake up! You'll be late for your meeting with the Professor! It's important that you get up today, remember?" A middle-aged woman's voice called out to him from downstairs. It had a maternal feel to it - this person clearly cared for Calum.
"HEY, are you LISTENING up there - wake UP!"
Calum didn't respond. Sighing, the woman went upstairs to see what was taking so long.
"He just doesn't learn, does he? All those late nights... Clefairy, you know what to do." At that moment, a flash of red light revealed a pink fairy Pokémon, who proceeded to use Wake-Up-Slap on Calum!
"Ouch... what on earth happened?" Calum exclaimed, holding his cheek from where he was slapped. His eyes widened when he noticed Clefairy bouncing up and down on top of him however. "What the! There's a Clefairy on me! What is this, some kind of joke!?"
"Oh come now dear, you know Clefairy... I've had her for a long time, and you two are best pals right?"
"Uhh..."
"Gee, maybe she hit you too hard this time. Are you OK? You're out of sorts today... and today of all days too."
Calum was puzzled. "What's so special about today?"
The woman's expression became stern. "Don't tell me you’ve forgotten about it? You have a meeting with Professor Willow today!" Upon seeing my blank expression, she continued. "To get your first Pokémon! You're far too late as it is! Get going already!"
"Wh-what!" Calum exclaimed, not quite knowing how this all happened, or even who this woman was. All he knew was that he had to get down to the lab to meet some professor for a pokemon, and fast! After all, they may all have already gone!
As he raced out of the door, Calum heard a voice calling. "Don't forget to come back after you get your Pokémon... I have something to help you out before you leave on your journey through Foretta!"
I'll post the first chapter (the true start of the journey) once I get some reviews on this. I hope you found that somewhat entertaining... it was hard to write since I didn’t particularly like how I was forming it at times, but it’s not THAT bad I guess...
EDIT: I apologize if anyone was reading that just after I put it up - I tried to edit something and it removed all the apostrophe's, hyphen etc. that I used in word... it was pretty illegible, but I've fixed that now. Remind me never to edit the post on here first... oh well.
