[Approximately 50 years ago.]

Sakaki looked out indifferently over the shoreline. He spotted some pokémon he didn't know the name of, each one purple-shelled with what appeared to be a bright red tongue sticking out. Some of these clams were flapping their shells in an almost comical fashion, while others were using their tongues to dig into the sand on the beach. Amusing, but fundamentally dull, Sakaki decided.

The trip here to this remote area was pretty boring, too. Many young kids were travelling with him, some on the edge of adulthood while others were just hitting their growth spurts. Sakaki himself noticed with increasing worry his own entry into adolescence – his somewhat diminutive frame becoming bigger and heavier, more defined and muscular, needing to shave to keep his boyish looks, but when his voice broke a few weeks ago, that was when he knew things in his life had to change along with his evolving youth.

His parents had come to rely on his baby face and endearing manner to swindle unsuspecting marks, but as time went on it became clear that this tactic was becoming less and less effective. Their little racket was exposed too easily, and his family took out their frustrations on him. It was difficult to separate the natural experience called puberty from the blame he shouldered when a con went south.

So when Sakaki heard of a special trial involving some new technology, the gears in his head started to turn. It wasn't that much different from some of the more mundane tricks his family used in making a quick buck. It was mildly challenging to ensnare a target's pokémon, knock it out with sleeping powder, and then pretend to find it and return it once its owner realised it was gone. The reunion almost always resulted in a reward, but the trick couldn't be used more than two or three times before the townspeople caught on. Sakaki and his family would have to leave once the police officers started sniffing around with their growlithes.

But this new innovation would make it so much easier. Instead of going through all of that hassle, he could simply pinch the round device housing the pokémon and come up with some spiel about forgetful owners. Or, better, it would be a piece of cake to transport and sell stolen pokémon if they were all in conveniently-sized orbs. That was the promise of this experimental device. If Sakaki could get his hands on it, it would prove to his parents he could still be useful to them. They would look upon him with love and respect instead of resentment and wrath.

"Shellder are pretty amazing, don't you think?" a voice said, breaking Sakaki out of his musings.

He yelped in surprise, but quickly regained his composure and glanced to the side. A boy who was slightly shorter than him was standing next to him holding a sketchbook and shading a drawing of the pokémon with a small pencil. It was practically a stub, barely enough to grip with his fingertips. The boy seemed to realize this and pocketed it. Sakaki looked on in interest as the boy produced another pencil from within his long brown side-fringe hair and used it to complete the drawing. He studied his work and then turned the sketchbook Sakaki's way.

"There, all done! What do you think?" he asked, smiling brightly.

The illustration was impressive, almost lifelike in its attention to detail. The boy had talent, and Sakaki suddenly felt appreciation well up inside him by being asked for his opinion. The boy's eager face made him chuckle internally, so he gave his honest appraisal.

"It's great. You really nailed the expression on its face, lopsided tongue included."

The boy glimpsed his subject on the beach, then took a peek at his sketchbook, comparing.

"You think so? Well, thanks!" His look of unabashed pride suddenly flickered to one of bewilderment, and he stuck out his hand. "My manners! I'm Sam, by the way. Nice to meet you."

Sakaki took it in his own, and without thinking said, "Sakaki." He realized his mistake almost immediately and hastily broke the greeting with a stifled cough. He'd given his real name. He never did that while on a job. This boy, Sam, had made him feel warm and comfortable, striking up a conversation and disarming him so easily. Sakaki peered at him with renewed caution, but Sam seemed instead to be admiring his artwork, and had missed the moment completely.

Just then, a voice reverberated on a loudspeaker:

"Volunteers, please make your way to the assembly area. We are about to begin the trial."

A voice whose inflection made it clear that she would not tolerate tardiness. Sakaki and Sam walked together towards the pop-up tents dotting the field. It was a meadow, really, with patches of flowers and little bushes meandering over lush grassland. To the north was Viridian Forest, which they had travelled through to get here. Some of their group had broken off there, with the rest of them forming this final party.

Sakaki and Sam joined the throng. A mix of field technicians, pokémon rangers with their partner pokémon, and even laboratory engineers in their white labcoats began handing out some sort of harness with little pockets. Murmurs and quiet gasps as the kids realized the pockets contained small orbs. Sakaki popped one off and examined it. So this was the much-vaunted new technology. It was quite plain: a fully slate-grey exterior with a small circle extruding slightly – almost like a button. Curious, Sakaki pressed his thumb on it and almost dropped the thing as it expanded into his palm. He assessed the sphere, brushing his fingers over it and jostling it a little. It had a bit more heft to it than he expected, more than the weight of a tennis ball, but it fit snugly in the palm of his hand.

"Good, you've all figured out the first stage of activation," said a familiar voice, loudspeaker deemed unnecessary this time. The woman stood on a small platform with a clipboard in hand. It did not provide much height, but her demeanour made up for it.

Sakaki straightened his back a little in spite of himself.

The woman looked over the group of kids, her eyes quick and sharp. She wore a modern two-piece business suit, inspired by an old-world kimono, with a rather large obi in the front. As she adjusted her distinctly gold top-rimmed glasses, Sakaki noticed a jade pin in her hair that looked highly valuable to his well-trained eyes. The ensemble was clearly expensive, and the woman had a regal air about her that exuded authority. In fact, there were three other people among the rest of the field team who stood out dressed in extravagant clothing and wearing ornate accessories. But the woman was speaking, so Sakaki filed these observational tidbits away for later.

"Today, we begin the final field trial for Project Indigo. As you all know, we are testing a revolutionary – and I do mean revolutionary – new device we are tentatively calling the Pokémon Sealing Orb, or PSO." The woman paused, possibly to weather her distaste at such an awful moniker. The crowd whispered nervously; some even chuckled and physically facepalmed. Sakaki's disbelieving face grew a smirk that twitched for a good few seconds.

One of the other three distinctive figures, a young woman, was berating a scientist who was probably the main supervisor for this whole thing. The portly man stood just behind the four people of importance, and his squeals of apology did little to placate them. Sakaki frowned. He was unsure if the man deserved such treatment for something so minor. A more desirable name could be decided on later.

Sam, seizing the opportunity, stepped forward with one of the orbs expanded in his hand.

"I have a better name for this, I think," he said diplomatically.

The woman with the clipboard looked affronted, but Sam did not notice. His eyes were fixed on the device, contemplating. A tenuous silence followed, and a light breeze blew over the field as everyone cast nervous glances all around.

Finally, Sam spoke:

"This is a Pokéball, used for catching pokémon."

He blinked, nodded, then extended his arm up towards the woman, presenting both the ball and his idea to her for her appraisal. She stared at it and at him, baffled. It was obvious "PSO" was the scientific designation, and there surely were other candidate names, but this one was outstanding. From one of the volunteers, no less!

Sakaki was overawed. Pokéball. That was one catchy name. It fit perfectly. The others seemed to realise this as well, and a roar of admiration burst out over the field, whistles and cheers for Sam, who initially became beetroot red at the attention.

Emboldened by the reception to his idea, he turned around to face the group and raised his arm and shouted "Pokéball!" with his biggest smile yet.

The woman, recovered from her initial shock, reigned in the crowd with a loud clearing of her throat and an admonition for silence. The kids' hoots and cries died down quickly after that.

"What is your name, young man?"

"Oak. Samuel Oak."

"Oak." The woman jotted something down on her clipboard that was definitely longer than his name. "We would like to speak with you after the trial."

Sam bowed his head in deference, and the woman continued.

"We are here to test the experimental new device called the Pokéball. I'm sure we don't need to remind you about the agreement you all signed in order to participate–" Sakaki suppressed a snicker; he had stolen the papers that got him in. "–so we expect you all to honour it once the trial is over.

"Now, it is no stretch of the imagination to call you pioneers. What we aim to achieve will change all of Kanto, if not the world. But I must caution you because the world remains dangerous regardless of the potential this technology promises.

"I am sure that if my grandfather were here, he would deliver a rousing speech and wax lyrical on our progress from old folklore about magical beings to keeping said magic in one's pocket. While this is remarkable, I think it's important to realise the destructive power granted by the pokéball."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

A pause. The woman seemed to be thinking, her eyes journeying to some far off place. Then her vacant look was dispelled, replaced with a fiery glare and an almost malefic change in tone as she went on with her speech.

"Pokémon are wild animals. It takes months to years to fully tame one, and even then there is no guarantee it won't brutally rip your arm off if you are not vigilant."

A few people, including the rangers and scientists, flinched at the woman's seething enmity as she spoke the words. It was shocking, yes, but Sakaki sensed something deeper than that. One of the other well-dressed individuals wore an expression of incredulity, confirming his suspicion that perhaps she was skirting too close to some dark truth.

A short moment passed.

"The harness you received contains ten pokéballs. In a few minutes, you will be asked to enter the tall grass just beyond this field and attempt to capture any pokémon you may encounter. In the interest of safety, you will travel in groups of three: two volunteers and one ranger."

The rangers all raised their hands; Sakaki counted eight.

"Capture is not guaranteed. Any pokémon you do manage to ensnare will go through a basic conditioning programme the instant it enters the pokéball. If it breaks out, the conditioning is considered lost. Conversely, a successful catch indicates an essentially tamed pokémon, and it will follow rudimentary commands."

There were some excited rumblings from the volunteers. They were eager to begin the field test, and Sakaki found himself feeling excited by the prospect of subjugating perilous beasts and commanding them to do his bidding. He stopped himself before he could be swept into the pokéball fever thrumming through the group. He had a plan. He would participate in the trial, but the real work would begin afterwards. Ten pokémon would be good, and might stir his demanding mother a little, but a hundred more would exceed her tremendously high expectations and would truly impress her. Sakaki fidgeted with the straps of his nearly empty backpack, and waited.

Sam looked like he was about to say something, and Sakaki could easily guess the question from his expression.

"I thought you'd never ask," he smiled. "Sure, let's team up."

Sam grinned and wrapped his harness around his waist, clipping the ends together at the front. Sakaki looped his diagonally over his torso, and fastened the ends with a satisfying click. One of the rangers walked up to them and they exchanged short greetings.

The woman checked her watch and nodded at the rangers, while the technicians flurried about behind her. She raised her arm up high. "Pioneers! It is time to begin." A tiny smile tugged at her mouth, and she dropped her arm in one quick motion. "Proceed!"

It was like an invisible barrier had been lifted. The horde let loose. Everyone bolted out towards the tall grass on either end of the meadow. The singular tranquility of the countryside was broken by frenzied shouts as the kids encountered wild pokémon.

"There's a rattata here!"

"Don't let that weedle escape!"

"Kid, get over here! That spearow doesn't look too friendly."

Sakaki's group walked earnestly through the grass. Cries of exasperation filled the air as the first pokéballs were used. The steps to use them had been sent out with the packet of documents that included the non-disclosure agreement. A fancy laminated page was dominated by an infographic illustrating three simple steps: 1) throw at target; 2) make contact with target; 3) target acquired. It sounded simple in theory, but from the grumblings Sakaki heard around him, it was vexedly difficult in practice. It was easier to hit a stationary target, after all.

Their ranger, Elio, was a grisly old man with a staunch demeanour. He pointed out a small patch of grass up ahead. Sakaki and Sam avidly peered into the brush. There, a caterpie was foraging, but it stiffened and turned around as they approached. Sakaki pulled out a pokéball and expanded it in preparation. He'd capture it before it could flee. From this distance, he was confident he could hit the bug, so he threw the pokéball at it with surprising deftness. The pokéball sailed through the air, the group watching its trajectory with bated breath. The pokémon did not move, and instead shot something out of its mouth. The gooey substance covered the pokéball, and it fell short of its target, less than a meter away.

"O-ho, we found a spunky one!" Elio said.

Sam chuckled and started drawing the pokémon in his sketchbook.

Sakaki was not amused. He walked over to pick up the device, but the caterpie stood its ground, eyeing him, utterly unfazed by his presence. He examined the ball. It did not look damaged, but the sticky white strings had disabled it. It couldn't even compress into its tiny form. If this was all it took to break a pokéball then the lab technicians would need to go back to the drawing board. Sakaki had expected possibly an electric-type attack to do this, not whatever the crude attack was that the caterpie had used.

The caterpie had started to make threatening noises and Sakaki would have thought it laughable if he didn't feel so disrespected. He glowered at it menacingly, and it seemed to tremble slightly in response. Good. He brandished a second pokéball and flung it at the pokémon, thinking that catching it off-guard would be to his advantage. The caterpie swiftly flattened itself against the ground, dodging the ball through pure instinct. Sakaki felt heat rising under his collar, but there was a sudden hand on his shoulder which dissipated the well of irritation in a trice.

"Maybe we gotta weaken it first, son," Elio said calmly.

The realization that it would be easier to catch a worn-down pokémon dawned on him; it was axiomatic to the entire point of the trial. He had discerned that the rangers were there for more than the safety of the volunteers when he had first seen them back in Pewter. That they were also meant to help in capturing pokémon had completely escaped him while he endured the maddening episode with the caterpie.

"Ekans, poison sting."

Elio's partner pokémon suddenly revealed itself from its well-hidden spot in the grass, slithering with great speed towards the caterpie. It raised its head up and spat out a thin projectile that Sakaki could barely make out. The caterpie dodged that, too. Figures. Sakaki watched as the two pokémon battled, enthralled by the curious dance unfolding before him. He had never seen a battle up close, and did not expect to have to run to keep up with the pokémon as the ekans chased after the caterpie. It had decided to make a break for it but Elio's masterful instruction to his partner kept it hemmed in. There were so many exchanges between them that Sakaki lost count, but it became clear that the ekans had superior stamina. It could still snake around the grass at a tremendous pace. Its opponent had been worn down, its movements sluggish by comparison.

Sakaki wondered briefly if all of this broke some ranger code, and then further wondered why the rangers were even here in the first place. Pokémon rangers defended nature by harnessing the power of pokémon without actually owning them. Capturing and conditioning pokémon to the point of servitude did not gel with the ethos of the rangers.

Even so, here they were, doing exactly that.

But this was not the time to dwell on it. This whole encounter was exhilarating. Sakaki pursued the caterpie through the tall grass, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. It wasn't even about the con right now, his entire focus was on catching this pokémon. Sakaki and Elio shared a look, and he readied his third pokéball.

"Ekans, glare!"

The caterpie stood paralyzed. It was a moving target no longer, and it could neither evade nor attack. This was the perfect opportunity to catch it. Sakaki hefted the ball in his hand and threw it in an arc at the pokémon.

"Go, pokéball!" he yelled, breathless as he was from all of the running.

The ball hit its target and hovered in mid-air for a second as it opened up. The caterpie dissolved into pure energy, bluish-white in colour, and entered the ball. It fell to the ground and started shaking – the pokémon was presumably fighting its way out – but to no avail. The ball stopped shaking, beeped once, and lay still.

For a few seconds, Sakaki's mind went blank. There was a well of feeling bubbling up within him, but he didn't quite understand what it was. Was it joy? Triumph? Satisfaction? He blinked and let go of a breath he didn't know he was holding.

Then it hit him.

He had successfully captured a pokémon! The realization opened the floodgates and he let all of his emotion wash over him. He felt both elated and exhausted, accomplished and gratified. Despite himself, he jumped up a little and whooped loudly.

He picked up the pokéball and stared at it. That damn caterpie was in there. He almost couldn't believe it.

"Good job, kid," said Elio. He didn't look the least bit winded. "Your friend wandered off somewhere over there."

Elio gestured vaguely to the north. Sakaki experienced a momentary worry for Sam, but then his eyes glimpsed his backpack and they jogged over.

Sam was crouching down on one knee a few paces away from a nidoran. A male one, given its purple hue. It was much smaller than Sakaki thought; it looked like a runt. It seemed extremely skittish, but curious about something held in Sam's open hand. He leaned forward a bit, but the nidoran shrunk back, scared.

"Alright, I'll just leave it here, buddy," he said, so quietly it was almost a whisper.

He took a few steps back, leaving what Sakaki realized was a trail of kibble for the nidoran. Then he grabbed a few more and cupped it in his palm, and waited.

The pokémon sniffed the air. The scent of the food proved overpowering, and it nipped forward and gobbled down the first pellet. Its eyes lit up, so it scoffed down the second one, then the third in quick succession. It sensed that it was closer to Sam now, but it didn't seem quite so afraid. It twitched its ears, rubbed its face with its paws, and stole a gander at Sam, who maintained a serene composure. The nidoran edged even closer, right up to him, and sniffed his open hand.

"Go on, little one," Sam said mildly.

It looked up at him again, a little longer this time, then climbed onto the palm of his hand, and began eating the kibble. Sam gently petted the pokémon, a pleasant smile lingering on his face.

Sakaki wasn't sure what to make of this. The nidoran was clearly a wild pokémon, a class of pokémon that had a reputation for random attacks on people who happened to get too close to one. It would sooner gouge the poor bystander to get away from an imagined threat than allow anyone near it, food or no food. Elio scratched his beard, considering the same.

"Let's be friends," said Sam, pulling out a pokéball and expanding it. The nidoran shook, frightened by the ball, but did not move. It jerked around slightly, gaining courage. Curious, it nosed the device, deliberating, and arrived at a decision. The nidoran looked up at Sam a third time, no trace of fear in its eyes. In that moment, it booped the button on the pokéball and entered it without objection. Sakaki gasped; Elio grunted in surprise.

Sam got up and turned to look at his companions. "I caught a nidoran!" he said cheerfully.

Sakaki's thoughts were vacillating wildly. While his face held a look of amazement, his emotions raged on in malcontent. Sam had caught a wild pokémon using an idiosyncratic method, one that did not involve hunting or battling, because of course he did. And he made it look so effortless, too! It felt like an affront for Sakaki, who had pursued his quarry so doggedly, and had diminished all of the effort he had put in. Sakaki tasted bitterness in his mouth, but he stopped the grimace before it showed on his face. He congratulated Sam and shared his own experience about his first catch, but deep within the ire of his indignation burned.

The rest of the day expired uneventfully. Sakaki and Sam both caught more pokémon in the expected fashion, Sakaki one more than his comrade, which pleased him and helped him cool off. Everyone returned to the meadow, handing back their harnesses containing the remaining pokéballs with pokémon in them. Sakaki paid close attention to where the field technicians stored the balls. First, they placed them in some sort of receptacle that blasted a bright light on them for a few seconds. Then, they collected them in boxy grey briefcases and took those away behind a large curtained area. Sakaki wasn't sure what the light was about, but he'd discovered the holding area, so he mentally ticked off step one on his heist plan.

He couldn't help but smirk as he was ushered away. His eyes suddenly met those of one of the well-dressed people, and he recognised her as the young woman who had been berating the supervisor that morning. She was staring at him, holding his gaze for only a heartbeat, but long enough and with such intensity that his smile faltered. The moment passed – she had nothing, Sakaki was sure – and he joined the rest of the volunteers around the campfire.

A few hours later, in the dead of night, Sakaki snuck into the holding area and filled his bag almost to the point of bursting with the pokéballs used in the trial. The bag weighed a ton, but Sakaki managed to hoist it onto his back and haul it all through Viridian Forest and in to Pewter City without being caught.

He could not have known that this little act of thievery would be the inflection point that would shape the rest of his life.