I have no idea what the hell is going on right now.

To be completely honest, I'm not sure of anything at the moment.

After all, I had just been lying down in bed, getting ready to enjoy my sleep after making a fantastic late night egg sandwich… when I had an out of body experience.

Literally.

One second, I was getting ready to sleep. The next, I felt my whole world turning upside down in a vertigo inducing display.

I was so stunned by the sudden shift, that I couldn't even struggle properly?

The weirdest thing about this entire event, was the speed at which it happened! If I was being kidnapped, clearly they had given up on pretending to be normal.

By the time I even opened my mouth to scream in a panic, the entire thing was already over...

That didn't stop me from screaming though. I let out a bellow of shock that stretched out for a few seconds, before dwindling into a confused noise instead.

"Huh?"

…

Wait a second.

Who the hell just screamed? I didn't scream alot, but the few times I was tortured into watching horror movies... that wasn't the noise I made.

That's when the paranoia began seeping into my bones and taking root there.

My voice hadn't been this high pitched since before puberty. It wasn't the deepest around, but it was still respectably deep and this voice was not deep at all.

That was the first sign that something was very wrong. The second, was the fact that my body felt completely different.

I was light, with the exception of a strange weight near my waist that I ignored for the time being.

I wasn't talking about my weight here (I was pretty healthy thank you!)... my body just felt light... like gravity decided to lessen its force onto me.

Don't ask me how I knew that I was too light, I just did. My body never felt this light, period. Not even when I was a kid!

What was... I felt a wave of dizziness hit me as I began to steadily realize that everything about my body felt wrong.

It felt like everything had been moved just slightly enough for me to realize things were amiss.

If someone moved everything in your house by one inch, you would probably notice that something wasn't right with your home but you wouldn't be able to pinpoint just what it was.

If a person moved it by one inch every single day, you'd probably be driven to insanity without knowing the reason why. It was a nagging feeling in the back of your mind, letting you know something was wrong.

Well, it currently felt like that was happening to me... except it was my body in place of the furniture.

Nothing felt right. It felt like all my organs had been slightly misplaced. It wasn't enough for me to think I was dying, but it was enough for me to notice that it wasn't right and it was driving me insane.

And now I was noticing that everything was wrong. Just the way the freezing air brushed against some of my exposed skin (why was I so heavily layered in clothing?!) was wrong.

What was happening?!

I couldn't... hell even my thoughts felt different! They felt... faster? More focused?

This was... I don't know what this was. I would never be able to properly explain what I was going through right now but it was making me freak out.

It felt like I was about to throw up from sheer disorientation. Was this what body dysmorphia felt like?

I was stuck in this limbo of panic and confusion, as my body defied everything I thought I knew about it before.

The sensation of everything about your body being wrong, was so jarring that I had curled into myself, unsteady breaths leaving me-

Before everything suddenly clicked into place.

At once, it felt as if my body realized that it was my body... and stopped giving me grief.

I shakily stood up, looking ahead with a confused gaze that was far clearer than my vision used to be.

Had I been drugged? Did it wear off...? What type of drug was that?

Did it really wear off?

It couldn't have. I had to have still been drugged because right now, I wasn't in my room.

My house was a humble little thing, great for one person and easily able to accommodate a second or third if I wanted company.

I wasn't one for decoration. I'm fairly pragmatic and don't really need a lot of things to be satisfied.

That didn't mean I lived in a completely barren home, but it wasn't full of many luxury items that I bought just to buy or because it looked pretty.

No, I had all the essentials necessary to survive and gifts that I had gotten over the years from the more extravagant of friends and family who thought my house was too boring.

Despite how annoying they were, the gifts were nice and I appreciated them. So even with my pretty bad memory, I wouldn't just forget the gifts they gave me.

But I couldn't recognize a single object in the room I was currently in. Hell, I was hard pressed to even call this a home.

Panic began seeping into my body once more, as I confusedly glanced around the room I was in.

"Where the hell am I?" I thought wildly.

Who was arrogant enough to kidnap a 6 ft, 180 pound guy and not tie them up?

Was it because they knew I was stuck in here? Could I not make it out of this place?

Was I trapped?

But that didn't make any sense… whoever "kidnapped" me, had to have been some type of professional super assassin or God themself.

I didn't really believe the second one but seriously, I wasn't making much headway here.

For one, I had been moved way too fast. Seriously, I didn't even get to fall into a deep asleep before this clusterfuck of events began happening to me!

No one had touched me but considering the state I had been in earlier, I was probably drugged by my kidnappers and could no longer reliably process how much time had passed.

That would explain why my body was so light and I wasn't deemed worthy enough to tie up… but the drugs didn't hamper me nearly as much as they probably thought because after that rather traumatic moment, I could move just fine enough to kick every single one of their asses before they gunned me down for good.

Where did they move me?

Some type of lab? That's what it looked like to me… There were a bunch of weird devices and objects that were too advanced for me to identify and I scratched my head, brows furrowing at the feeling of fabric meeting hair.

Before I could dwell on the strange thought of my hands, horror suddenly filled my body.

"Why the hell am I in a lab?!" I thought in disbelief.

Were they… planning on experimenting on my body?! Wait... had they already done so? Was that why I was so disoriented?!

What the hell did I do to deserve this?! Did I accidentally piss off the wrong person…? Was it really so severe that they'd kidnap and attempt to traumatize me with that out of body experience?!

By now, I had sufficiently began freaking out and was currently looking in every single direction to find a way out of here.

There was no way I did something deserving of being experimented on.

I was a normal guy, living a normal life, who stayed out of all sort of troubles because it was too much to deal with…

Drama was only funny when you weren't apart of it, so I stayed out of it.

What could I have possibly done to deserve this?! This had to have been some sort of mistake. They had the wrong guy!

Even if they assumed that no one would notice I'm missing, that was wrong. I had a good relationship with my family and my friends were the type to barge in unannounced whenever they felt like it to make sure I had my human interactions for the day.

They would notice I'm gone before the next day ended.

Why not just grab a homeless guy off the street? No offense, but I don't think anyone would notice they were missing.

Why me?

It was while frantically glancing around for an escape, did I see something that made my blood run cold.

I was currently looking at some metallic lab equipment that worked very well as a makeshift mirror… and in that mirror was not someone I was immediately familiar with.

After all, I didn't look anything like this at all.

Looking back at me, was a red haired, pale skinned boy with a vivid shade of silver eyes that did not look natural whatsoever.

"What the fuck?" I said intelligently, blinking in confusion at seeing the reflection say that in a voice that I really didn't recognize.

Who the hell was this looking at me? WHO WAS THIS?!

I had a shaggy head of brown hair that barely reached my chin… not a head of red hair that went a bit past my back! Not to mention, my eyes were a very natural shade of blue! They weren't this peculiar color of silver!

Did people even have eyes this color?!

Not naturally… there were gray eyes but this shade of silver? No way… You'd have to have contacts to get this color. Same as the hair… Red this shade wasn't natural in the slightest…

Had I actually been experimented on? What the hell…? Where was my body? Who was this? Who was I? WHAT DID THEY DO TO ME?!

"Hello? Is anyone there? I heard a scream!"

I stilled at the sound of a door opening up, letting a beam of light shine through and felt a well of horror fill me, at the sound of my captor entering my temporary prison to continue whatever the hell they were doing to me.

"I need to hide," I hissed, straightening up as I heard the footsteps slowly approach me.

Moving on instinct, my body managed to miraculously find a perfect spot to hide me and see just who the perpetrator was.

From this angle, I could see that it was a middle aged man with a short brown hair, a white lab coat and a pair of glasses.

Typical scientist look...

Oh God. This was the asshole that experimented on me.

Instead of fear, I felt my blood boiling at the sight of person who caused all my problems, begin the process of searching for me to continue their sick and twisted experimentation.

"I could have sworn I heard someone scream…" He muttered to himself glancing around and missing piercing silver eyes glaring at him in hot rage.

"This bastard is the one who kidnapped me!" I snarled to myself, skin prickling as I ignored his musings.

He even had the typical scumbag scientist look! It was pissing me off just looking at him!

How the hell did he manage to transport me so easily? Did he have any friends?

He had to… this scrawny guy wouldn't be able to move me so easily…

No doubt, if he didn't find me, he'd go get his friends.

I gnawed on my lip.

On one hand, I wanted answers. I had no clue where I was and I had no clue what happened to my body... If it even still existed.

Who was that staring at me in the reflection?

...That couldn't be me, right? Why did I look like some kid? How was that even possible?!

How did I get my original body back...? Could I even get it back?

Was I stuck like this forever?

"I guess no one's here…" the man muttered to himself, looking puzzled as he prepared to walk away.

"No!" I thought in horror.

If he left, he'd probably come back with backup and my chances of getting out of here would go completely down the drain.

That couldn't happen. I wasn't going to die here!

A surge of adrenaline coursed through my body, as I burst out of my hiding spot and charged the man before he could leave my line of sight.

Mustering up the necessary strength, I didn't even give the guy time to turn around and delivered a heavy blow to the side of his head with this weird body.

My jaw slackened, as the man's body soared and crashed into a heavy bookcase, sending everything crashing with a thunderous noise that would almost certainly alert this dudes buddies to what was happening in here.

"What did I just do…?" I gaped in confusion, glancing at my gloved fist (that's why it felt so weird to scratch my hair).

Now, I wasn't weak by any means (in my original body at least)… but I was not strong enough to hit someone with that amount of force and send them flying as a result.

I had put enough power in that hit to knock him unconscious so I could get a feel for the area around me before taking what I could and escaping from this damned place.

Judging by the blood leaking on the floor, I did a little more then that.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! Did I kill him?!" I cursed, looking at the pool of blood forming with panicked eyes.

The man's body was hidden underneath the wreckage and the amount of time it would take to move everything out of the way, was not worth it to check if I killed this guy.

But I just… Did I just kill him?!

I never killed someone before and even though this guy kidnapped me, I at least wanted to get some answers out of him before calling the authorities to deal with this.

I didn't intend to kill him with these freakishly strong fists!

"What the hell… Oh man what the hell?! What do I do?" I muttered, backing away from the body with wide eyes.

I… could plead self defense, right? This guy kidnapped me. There was no way I was going to jail for attacking my kidnappers… but would I go for committing murder?

Well, maybe he wasn't dea-

My momentary lapse of freaking out, paused as something around my waist began shaking rapidly and I glanced down at my violet pants, under my navy coat, to see what the hell that was.

My jaw dropped in pure disbelief, at seeing a red and white sphere be the source of all that shaking.

...

...

...

Was that what I thought it was?

…

Nah. No way. There's no way.

Nope.

I refused to believe it.

There was no way I had an honest to god Pokeball on my waist that was currently shaking with enough force to make me instinctively grab at it.

Without really thinking about it, my body pressed the button and watched as a red beam shot out of it, forming into a small shape that filled me with more dread that I hadn't felt since I broke my leg chasing my older brother in the forest for stealing my Gameboy.

As I stared at the small creature, the pit in my stomach finally managed to pierce through my body and I could only helplessly say -

"What the actual fuck?"

----------------------------------------

So I was in the Pokemon world… Such a revelation didn't really confuse me more than I already was. In fact, it actually cleared up a lot of the questions I had!

1. I really did get kidnapped by a God. That had been mostly a joke but only some higher being could pull off such a dick move without a hint of remorse.

2. I finally recognized who's body this was after a second look. It was the main rival of the Johto games, Silver. The red hair, silver eyes, violet pants and navy coat, all belonged to the rival with a bad temper who only cared about getting stronger, until he got his ass kicked enough by the player or something.

3. That man under the bookcase who I just knocked out and potentially killed? Yeah, I had a sinking feeling that was the professor of the region. What was his name again… Elk?

I had just attacked Professor Elk in his lab after thinking he was my captor and that same professor was currently a bleeding mess.

On the floor.

In his lab.

"Fuck me," I moaned in horror, holding my face with both hands.

Turns out, I was the criminal and I was definitely going to end up in prison once they found out who did this.

"Zor?"

I glanced down at that noise and gazed at the source with a blank expression.

A slate gray fox with red and black accents looked up at me with a tilted head. Those large, forward facing green eyes looked at me with a curious expression and I nearly yelled in frustration.

It was honestly adorable as hell, but I couldn't really bask it all in considering my current situation.

If my memory served correct (My knowledge for Pokemon went up to Gen 6 with some Gen 7 knowledge), this was a Zorua, the illusion fox from the Unova region.

What the hell was Silver doing with a pokemon from Unova? Weren't these things super rare too? I was almost certainly in the Johto region so how did I have one?

Was I the version of Silver from Pokemon Adventures…? But no, his first pokemon was a Sneasel... I think?

Why didn't I have a Sneasel?

GAH! Now was not the time to be thinking about this! I needed to get the hell outta here and do some deep pondering later!

I chanced a glance at Professor Elk (was that seriously his name? Weren't they based on trees?) and regretfully decided that it was in my best interest to not be here when someone discovered the body of the man I might have killed.

It must have been Silver's half (I wasn't a great person myself but hey I was no murderer)… but I really didn't feel all that bad for what I just did to the poor guy.

It was probably because I had been intending on robbing this dude anyways-

Wait a minute.

I was just put in Silver's body, in the middle of Professor Elk's lab. Doesn't that mean this is the moment Silver steals himself a starter from the man?

...

Who's the funny guy that put me in a thief's body in the middle of a heist? Couldn't you at least do it after he finished the job?

I sighed, prompting Zorua to glance up at me a little fearfully.

It seems I was completely done freaking out so that meant I could think a little logically now.

I don't really know how I feel about being in the Pokemon world. If this wasn't some wild dream, then I was in a world that a lot of people dreamed and fantasized about being in.

Except I wasn't one of those people.

Living in a world where you're the weakest creature on it but instead of normal animals, you get super powered world ending threats instead, was really not my preferred way of living.

Oh well, seems like I didn't have much say in the matter. It is what it is.

But why Silver? He's never been shown in the anime (as far as I know. I hardly watched it past Kanto), has a pretty good role in the video games and has the most character in the manga…

Could be worse, they could have put me in Wally or Barry…

God, if they put me in Barry's body, I might have contemplated ending it all.

Honestly, Silver was probably one of the best choices of a body (I was trying my best to rationalize this). He was cool, with a cool personality and besides the hair style, he wasn't a complete dork like the other rivals.

If I had a choice of rivals, I'd probably have picked Blue (Gary? I dunno) to abuse that sweet Oak money and then Silver... and then no one else because they were all lame.

What version of Silver was I even? Logically speaking, I should be the one from the manga considering my first pokemon isn't one of the starters… and I have those unnatural silver hues.

But my first pokemon isn't a Sneasel.

Wait… was his first even a Sneasel? It's been alot of... years since I last read that manga. All I know is that it wasn't a Zorua because Zorua didn't even exist at the time.

Ugh, too many questions. I just remembered that the manga Pokeballs were see through as well and these didn't look it at all.

So no clue what world I'm in. Another question that I needed answers to and right now was not the time to dwell on it.

My main goal was to survive. To survive in the pokemon world meant one thing.

Become strong. To become strong, I needed to give myself any advantage possible.

Considering I had already committed such a serious crime, I might as well commit another one and complete Silver's original mission.

"Sorry Elk but it is what it is. I'll be taking some stuff to help myself out."

"C'mon Zorua," I said gruffly, heading to the back of the giant lab to begin pillaging.

"Rua!" The fox yipped, trotting after him and completely ignoring the body under the casing.

I had to admit, it was kinda cool to have an actual pokemon obeying and following me. I mean, who didn't dream of this at least once?

I never really cared for the Zorua line. Unova had a stacked array of dark types and I much preferred Hydreigon, Krookodile or Bisharp.

Not to mention, the foxes were insanely rare too. I don't think I ever actually used one.

Hell, Weavile was my favorite Ice type so I find it pretty funny that I didn't get the Dark/Ice type.

But, that didn't mean I hated Zoroark… I just didn't really think about them at all.

In fact, weren't these things really good at illusions? Was that why a thief like Silver had it? These things had incredible criminal potential.

How did Silver manage to secure one…? I don't think luck has a part to play here… You didn't just luck your way into getting a Unova pokemon while in Johto.

Yet another question that wasn't going to be answered yet. I nearly sighed again at the terribly confusing situation and just decided to focus on the mission at hand.

Securing things to survive.

It seems Silver choosing the lab, wasn't a bad idea at all. Unlike the video games, Elk's lab was massive and full of tons of provisions!

Not to mention Silver actually owned a bag too! After checking inside of it, I confirmed that he seemed to have the same type of bag we got in the game and balked at the contents inside of it.

What the hell? Silver was loaded! Why the hell was he even here? Did he want one of the starters that badly?

"Maybe his favorite pokemon is Totodile," I mused.

Whatever the case, I had no clue if Silver stole all these things but if he did, he was even better at his craft than I thought.

This bag didn't look cheap at all either so the fact he managed to get it…

Then again, you'd think a lab was heavily guarded and I was just inside of here, getting ready to steal one of the heavily prized starters that some poor kid was supposed to get in the near future.

Speaking of which, almost like they were being presented, 3 Pokeballs, shined to perfection, were resting inside of an advanced incubator-like machine. Nothing on the ball indicated which was what starter and I gazed at the Balls with a hint of awe.

I didn't fancy the Johto starters. I wish I had woken up in Hoenn or Kanto or Sinnoh or SOMETHING because I at least had a starter from the other regions that I preferred.

But Johto? I didn't really care for any of them. They were cool with incredible designs, but compared to the other starters I just found them lackluster…

Just like the region. I did not like Johto. Loved Soul Silver and Heart Gold despite that.

I'd never say no to one of the starters . It was still a pokemon and I was admittedly excited to have a starter mon.

But before I picked out one or two or three… I needed something else that was just as important.

I began rummaging through drawer after drawer, idly stuffing my bag with anything that I recognized (A lot of potions, empty Pokeballs, I even got some revives, a few great balls and an ultra ball!) before I finally found what I was looking for.

With a triumphant grunt, I pulled out the object of my desires and felt a small grin form on my face.

"Gotcha!"

Sleek, advanced and rectangular in design, the Pokedex shone in a way that showed it was brand new and I pocketed the encyclopedia without an ounce of hesitation in my body.

This was the most valuable thing I could have picked up from this lab. If I did happen to be in the Manga world, the Pokedex was so rare, those who had them were called Dex Holders.

And if I wasn't? Who cares! The Pokedex was still insanely valuable for anyone to have and I probably would never get one through conventional means anyways.

I'd be a fool to go into this world blind. Even with my helpful knowledge of Pokemon, that was still years ago and I'd be stupid to rely solely on that, when I didn't even know which version of Pokemon I was in.

The Pokedex would help me in my very confusing adventures.

With that settled, I slowly stood back up and made my way over to the main attraction of the lab.

The starters.

Now, if this were the Hoenn, Sinnoh or Kanto region, I would have taken all three without an ounce of hesitation in my body.

But this was Johto.

Should I take all three regardless? I'm sure they would fetch a hefty price if I ever went the sell them route…

But if I wasn't going to take all three, which would I even choose?

Cyndaquil, Chikorita or Totodile?

Totodile seemed like the most logical choice. The crocodile was a water type and it was aggressive and strong. Not to mention, it was Silver's signature starter and the one he was depicted with most often, so clearly the two had inherent synergy.

They seemed a bit rebellious by nature and if this guy figured out I kidnapped him, who knows what would happen?

Would I have to discipline it like Silver likely did? I wasn't really into animal abuse…

Alright, then what about Chikorita-

I snorted at the thought.

Yeah right.

What about Cyndaquil?

The fire type started off pretty meek by nature so getting it to listen would be easier then Totodile but once it evolved into a Typhlosion…

Personally, I would have chosen Cyndaquil as well. He was my favorite of the Johto starters, though that didn't really say much and I normally picked him when playing the games.

That reminds me… does Gold exist in this world? Most likely… isn't his main starter Cyndaquil?

Wait, why do I give a shit? If I wanted Cyndaquil, I'll take Cyndaquil.

For my own sake, it would probably be best if I took only one starter though. If some trainer was seen walking around with all three missing starters, I'd be in prison faster then I could properly learn this world…

Besides, why take all 3 starters when I could go and catch Pokemon I actually wanted? If this was a dream, might as well enjoy myself.

One was still suspicious, but with what I had started planning… it wouldn't be all that bad.

I nodded to myself and decided on my choice right there.

I'd take Cyndaquil. I had no plans for any immediate fire types but I already had a plan for a water type that overlapped with two other goals of mine.

It was perfect! This adapting to a new body thing was pretty easy-

"PROFESSOR ELM?! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" A male voice screamed in the distance, distraught in their tone.

Zorua, who had just been silently observing his trainer with a confused expression, and I both jumped high at that loud scream and I wildly whirled around.

"WHO DID THIS TO YOU?! T-THERE'S SO MUCH BLOOD!" A teary female voice screeched in horror.

"Fuck," I hissed in disbelief. I was really not cut out for this criminal stuff, especially with all this confusion going on right now.

Seriously, why was I dropped in the middle of a heist?

Those two voices sounded fairly young. I'd take a guess and say they're Silver's age… which meant they could only be two people...

Gold and Crystal... or whatever the hell their game names were. Ethan and Lyra?

I needed to get outta here. Especially if they both had their own first pokemon too.

"Zorua, it's time to go," I hissed to my pokemon, eyes darting left and right to look for an exit.

My eyes landed on a window and I nodded to myself.

"We're going through the windows," I barked. I grabbed the Pokeball on the left without hesitation, in my haste and rushed off to the window, blood pounding in my ears as I heard footsteps.

"Be careful Gold, w-we have no idea who could be here. I already called an Officer Jenny, she'll be on the way soon…" a fearful voice said as two sets of footsteps approached my location.

"We need to catch whoever did this, Crys!" An angry and brash male voice declared. "Who would hurt Professor Elm like that?! When I get my hands on them, there won't be anything for the Jenny!"

I cursed to myself and fruitlessly tried to get the window open as quietly as possible, nearly slamming my head into a wall at how little progress I was making.

Well this wasn't good at all. I don't think these windows opened.

Zorua at this point, was looking at his trainer like he couldn't even recognize him and glanced back at the noise of the voices getting steadily louder.

They weren't going to get out the window in time before being spotted at this rate…

"What the fuck is this window made out of? Why is it so hard to open?!" I thought in disbelief. By now I was growing more and more desperate as the footsteps got closer to my location.

A tugging at my legs, made me stop my fruitless attempts and I glanced down to see Zorua staring up at me.

"What? You have a plan?" I hissed quietly and the little guy nodded.

It waited for something and I blinked in confusion.

What was it doing? Why didn't it enact its plan yet-

Ah. Right, Silver was a dick to everyone.

"You have my permission to do your plan!" I urged the little guy as quietly as possible.

Zorua nodded and closed his eyes.

My eyes couldn't help but widen in interest, as the creature grunted and black energy began pouring off of it.

The haze of energy began increasing in frequency, before surging forward and wrapping around both Zorua and I.

I resisted the urge to struggle at the strange move and stilled my body and mind completely.

Despite standing in the middle of the room, when Crystal and Gold both walked in, they didn't seem to realize I was there at all and continued to search the area.

"Zorua put an illusion over me," I thought calmly, realizing they couldn't see me.

Much like me, Gold and Crystal looked exactly like their counterparts but I noted that Crystal wasn't the one from Heart Gold and Soul Silver.

No, she had blue hair and crystal blue eyes… much different from the brown hair that she has in the games…

Were they both also the manga versions? It had to be because Gold had a brilliant set of golden eyes, glaring piercingly into the room with a righteous anger befitting someone with main character syndrome.

They both looked about 14 and Silver should be about the same age as them… so was I 14?

Goddamnit, I had to go through puberty again.

A nudge brought me out of my musings and I saw that it was my slightly panting Zorua urging me to move.

I wasn't sure how long it could maintain the illusion and didn't want to really find out so I hoisted the little guy up and secured him to my person, much to its surprise.

Then, I took a deep breath and focused.

That's when the instincts (that I didn't notice were helping me so much this entire time) took over.

My body began moving on its own, quickly and without a sound as I deftly avoided the exploring Crystal and Gold.

"Should I ambush them? No, it's best if I just focus on escaping. I got what I'm here for so it's time to go," thoughts that were not my own, began pervading me.

"Gold look!" Crystal gasped in horror, pointing at the incubator machine.

The sudden movement, revealed the single Pokeball on her waist and considering Pokemon had a streak of releasing themselves... Yeah it was time to go.

"One of the Pokemon are gone!"

That caught Gold's attention and the main male of the Johto region, looked over to see what she was talking about.

His eyes went wide at seeing only two of the starter pokemon there and the two wasted no time rushing over to inspect the spot.

I watched the two give me the opening I needed and wasted no time rushing out of the back of the laboratory and into the room I "woke" up in.

There was a woman crying over Elm's (I knew his name wasn't Elk) body, steadying the bleeding man and I took a wild guess and assumed that was his wife.

He didn't look too good. I stared at the unconscious man with a frown and shook my head.

It was a terrible misunderstanding, but I refused to take blame for it. What type of person even puts someone in a situation like this? I refuse to think anyone else would have acted differently to being kidnapped and dropped in a lab!

Sure it might not have been him, but I was still kidnapped by something and put in the middle of a terrible situation so whoever did this to me, was to blame.

I shook my head. It was unfortunate but there wasn't much I could do about it. Revealing myself after attempted murder, would be bad for me no matter what.

I don't know the laws of this world, but I had to imagine nearly killing someone was still frowned upon.

My eyes caught an open window and I realized this must have been the one Silver used to break in, in the first place.

Good thing he didn't try with the ones in the back… real killers those windows are.

My body swiftly made its way over to the open window and I wasted no time sneaking through it.

By now, there was a small commotion outside that had me cursing to myself and rummaging through my bag.

I pulled out a hoodie and threw it on, making sure to hide my most prominent features and I dashed out into the forests of Route 29, making sure to avoid the eyes of everyone there.

"Good job, Zorua. You saved my ass," I praised the little guy as I sprinted at amazing speeds.

Silver's body was impressive as hell. I was sprinting at full speed and it was more then I would ever have gotten in real life.

Must have been fictional genetics at play. It was brutal knowing that a 14 year old was this much more athletic than me.

"Zor?!" The dark type gasped in surprise at his praise, looking at his trainer with a startled expression.

The trees outside of New Bark Town were as dense and heavy as the game made them out to be but even then there was just so much.

They littered the ground as far as my eyes could see and I even noted flying types nesting in the branches I could see!

It was surreal seeing a massive Pidgeotto tending to a tiny Pidgey and I paused as the evolved bird stared me down, looking more like a Pidgeot than the middle evolution, before taking its attention off me and fussing over its child again.

I shrugged, before continuing my pace, taking note of all the pokemon but not really paying attention to any of them.

You couldn't traverse this forest in a matter of minutes and just end up in a new area. No, the world was so far more vast then a video game would ever be able to encompass and I began growing tired from the running first, before seeing anything besides forest.

I huffed as I stopped and caught my breath, deciding I had run far enough.

"Think we made enough distance?" I asked Zorua idly, putting them down and wiping the sweat off my head.

Zorua pondered the question before nodding slowly.

"Dammit Silver," I cursed the original inhabitant of this body.

A resounding theme in Pokemon, was that treating your Mons well, was the way to go if you wanted to be a truly elite trainer.

Clearly Silver didn't get the memo until he got beat down enough times.

Well, time for a good old head start in the right direction.

I don't know how long I had this Zorua for, but I guess now it was time to make it up to the adorable lil guy.

"You did good in there," I praised, rubbing the little red tuft on its head. "I got a bit nervous after I hurt that guy but you kept my head on straight. Thanks Zorua."

Clearly this guy had never been thanked, much less praised before because it looked at me like I had just given it the world.

"Zor!" He barked, nodding vigorously with sparkling eyes.

I wasn't the most affectionate around but I wouldn't complain if it helped me in the long run... the little fox was also kinda adorable.

"Alright, let's let this guy out," I muttered, grabbing the Pokeball I stole with a contemplative expression.

It looked smooth to the touch and when I took my glove off to verify that detail, I was proven right.

I marveled at the coolness of it. I couldn't quite describe the sensation of it but… it was almost like I were holding a metal but not exactly. Maybe porcelain was a more accurate description?

A mix of glass, metal and plastic. That was best way to explain the sensation.

"Be ready, Zorua. If it puts up a fight, I'm counting on you to deal with it," I instructed the fox.

Zorua nodded and got ready for action.

I was a little nervous at the upcoming prospect. Hopefully Zorua didn't need me to order it around too much. I had no idea how I would even begin to act in a pokemon battle.

Maybe I just take a backseat and let the instincts take over… this body appeared to act on what Silver himself knew when I did that... and the kid was clearly way more talented then I currently was.

Damn, it was a good thing Gold and Crystal didn't find me. If they were anything like their important counterparts, I'd have to fight two genius battlers as a complete novice who was still a bit disoriented from the current circumstances of being shoved into a body that wasn't mine.

Well, it was time to meet Cyndaquil. Hopefully he didn't cause me too much grief.

I'd hate being mean to these little guys but I had no qualms against doing it if I had to.

I wouldn't really consider myself a good person after all.

----------------------------------------

"You have got to be fucking kidding me."

Despite my neutral expression, on the inside I was a fuming and embarrassed mess.

In my haste to get out of Elm's lab, I forgot a key detail.

That being, I didn't know which starter was in which ball.

No. In my genius, I had grabbed a random ball without really thinking about it and had taken off without a second thought.

I should have known my luck was once again going to bite me in the ass. I literally got transported into a body in the middle of a heist. Why did I think otherwise?

"Chikorita?" Chikorita tilted its head up at me with curious eyes.

I stared down at it with a blank expression. Zorua was in front of me in case it proved aggressive but the grass type was content to just observe me.

"Okay just be cool. It's not like you liked any of the Johto starters anyways!" I thought optimistically.

I was not optimistic but for this moment, I would be.

Sure, Chikorita was a pokemon I'd never in a million years use… but I could work with this!

It could be worse. I could have been dropped in Unova, who had my least favorite starters period. Chikorita instead of Cyndaquil or Totodile, wasn't nearly as bad.

Yes, I could work with this.

Nodding to myself a little unsuccessfully, I planted my piercing silver eyes on the Chikorita.

"Hey Chikorita. I'm your new trainer. I took you from the lab so you listen to me now," I said bluntly as an introduction.

Chikorita tilted its head at that before nodding enthusiastically with a "Rita!" of excitement.

My blank expression melted away in favor of confusion.

"Huh?" I said a little dumbly.

Was it not gonna put up a fight?

"You aren't upset? Not planning on rebelling?" I asked in disbelief, scratching my hooded head in a puzzled manner.

Even Zorua looked puzzled, stance loosening just a bit at the confusing acts of the grass type pokemon.

Chikorita shook its head at my questions and trotted up to me with an eager gleam.

I was properly stumped. Why was this Chikorita being so friendly with me?

Not just that… it seemed to recognize me too but I just released it out of the ball.

Why didn't it have a problem with the information I just revealed to it -

"Didn't Zorua want out of the ball when I started freaking out after hurting Elm?" I suddenly thought.

Could… pokemon tell what was going on in the outside world even while in the ball? Is that why Chikorita didn't seem all that shocked?

Huh… didn't that mean Totodile and Cyndaquil knew how I looked? That's not very good at all, especially considering their trainers were my in game rivals.

But that still doesn't explain why Chikorita would be happy that I picked it.

"Why aren't you more upset?" I asked bluntly, silver eyes burning in curiosity.

To my surprise, the cheerful Chikorita's expression turned bitter.

"Chiko chik rita!" It ranted in its tongue, a severe frown on its face as two little vines began waving angrily.

Then, it looked up at me and beamed, pointing one of its vines. "Chik Chikorita!" It exclaimed happily.

"I can't understand you at all," I thought with a sweatdrop, watching as it poured its heart out to someone who had no clue what it was saying.

Zorua nodded along with Chikorita's words, a hint of sympathy on its features, as it heard the story and he looked at his puzzled trainer.

Clearly he could not understand.

The dark type supposed it could help his trainer understand the grass types plight.

My eyes roved over to Zorua, as it began weaving an illusion and I couldn't help but marvel at how useful the ability of his was.

A picture of a Totodile and Cyndaquil showed up next to the huffing Chikorita and I watched as two figures showed up to pick up both the water and fire type, before the final person, reluctantly picked Chikorita.

Then, the illusion shifted over to me, in front of all three of the starters, picking up Chikorita first.

"Ohhhh," I thought in realization.

"You're tired of Chikoritas being overlooked in favor of Cyndaquil and Totodile," I guessed. "Those two tend to always get picked before you so you're glad that I chose you over them?"

Chikorita nodded vigorously, gazing up at me with admiring eyes as the illusion melted away.

Now I understood. Chikorita wasn't just one of the most unpopular starters in my original world… it must have been unpopular in this world too.

It made sense. When your competition was a fierce crocodile and a fiery badger with fire coming out of its back... it was hard to compete as a gentle grass Dinosaur.

Typhlosion and Feraligatr looked badass and would surely net far more popularity points then Meganium.

If the professors of each region continuously handed out the same starters, surely the pokemon themselves would notice a pattern.

Didn't Chikorita get picked last in the manga too? I'm pretty sure Crystal didn't even want it or something like that.

Huh, kind of a dick move Crystal.

Even after being a new batch, after so much time, Chikorita must have known that it was going to be the last one selected and probably by a person that got unlucky with their pick.

Getting chosen by a trainer who didn't want you... Damn, I couldn't be that cruel to the little fella.

My accident turned into a blessing for this little guy. I'd be an even bigger dick if I just pretended like Chikorita didn't exist.

I kinda felt bad now for being so upset... Chikorita didn't deserve that.

Well, guess no one ever needed to find out the truth. This was what you called a white lie.

I pat the grass type on the head and offered it a small smile. "They don't wanna pick you? I say fuck em. It doesn't matter anymore because I picked you and now that I'm your trainer, I'm the only one who matters now. If you follow me, I'll make everyone respect the Chikorita line by turning you into the greatest Meganium out there."

"Who is this person?" Zorua thought in disbelief, gazing at his trainer with wide eyes.

Silver was cold and calculating on the best of days. His trainer was belligerent and ruthless and wanted nothing but strong pokemon.

He was a person of few words and never offered praise, no matter how well Zorua did.

Everything was expendable to him, a tool for achieving whatever his goals may be.

Not only that, Silver was incredibly skilled. He would never have needed Zorua's help for the lab invasion but not only did he compromise the mission, he nearly got caught too.

What happened to his trainer? Did striking that human change him?

Well… Zorua wasn't complaining. He may have been less skilled, but he was nicer and he patted him and complimented him too.

Chikorita gazed up at her new trainer with pure adoration and nodded furiously at his words. The grass type hugged his legs and purred happily at his touch.

I looked at the grass type and sighed.

Well, it wasn't what I wanted but it actually wasn't all bad. After getting a better grasp of my new situation, I could figure out my plans for the future and whether I had Chikorita, Totodile or Cyndaquil, didn't change it too much.

Besides, I kinda wanted to see Chikorita succeed just as a massive middle finger to the people who doubted her.

People doubting her, now meant people were doubting me and I just wouldn't have that now would I?

"Alright, let's get you two checked out, then we can continue walking," I ordered, offering a shoulder for each of them to jump on.

Chikorita took the offer with no hesitation and happily jumped on his shoulder.

Zorua was far more hesitant but tentatively followed suit after I sent it a disarming smile.

----------------------------------------

Zorua: Male

Ability: Illusion

Moves: Leer, Scratch, Torment, Hone Claws, Extrasensory

Chikorita: Female

Ability: Overgrow

Moves: Growl, Tackle, Heal Pulse, Vine Whip

I hummed in contemplation at the information the Pokedex was giving me.

This wasn't bad. Actually, this was really good. I wasn't expecting them to have some of these moves.

I could work with this. Zorua and Chikorita were both promising and once I figured everything out, I could get started on them…

That's if I even decided to become a battler.

After fiddling with this thing for way too long and getting it properly setup, I finished scanning both Zorua and Chikorita and received a general rundown on my new pokemon.

The Pokedex was even more useful then I thought. It gave me the weight, height, diet and more of what I scanned!

The only problem… was that I wasn't too sure if this thing was tracking my location. After doing a quick check of the thing, I didn't see anything too obvious and considering the lab had been dreadfully easy to break into… I was going to assume the people in this world were all stupid and didn't think to add a tracker onto it.

I did see quite a few Pokedex in the cabinet where I got mine, so they didn't seem extremely rare. Them being so common, might work in my favor because that meant more trainers should have one.

No use dwelling on it. I wasn't throwing this thing away for the life of me.

Night had settled into the forest of Route 29 by now and after eating something quick, while feeding Zorua and Chikorita, I decided to call it a night.

Thankfully, Silver had sleep gear in this extremely convenient bag.

Making sure I was in a secured and hidden area, I setup my expensive tent (seriously, why was this guy so loaded?!) and beckoned both Zorua and Chikorita inside.

Chikorita took the invitation once more without any hesitation and easily snuggled into me with a happy sigh, while Zorua slowly trotted over with an unsure expression, yelping as I rolled my eyes and brought him closer.

As the three of us settled down, I finally decided to get my thoughts on the entire events of today, situated.

I took a deep breath and recalled everything that had happened to me.

While sleeping, I had been dragged, through unknown means, from the comfort of my home and was deposited in the body of a person who shouldn't exist, in one of the worst situations I could be put in.

In my mass confusion, I had wrongfully judged one of the most important figures in the Johto region as my captor and assaulted him with no hesitation, doing far more damage to him then he probably would have sustained if I were actually Silver.

I had no clue which version of the Pokemon world I was in and I didn't really know how I was going to find out either. There was so many different depictions of the game, anime, manga, that I could be in one that I hadn't even heard of yet.

It's not like I was an avid Pokemon fan either. I used to be really into it when I was younger but the last game I had really put a lot of effort into, was Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire because that was the last time I had fun playing the games.

Ultra Sun and Moon was played for a little but I didn't put much effort into it (I don't think I even beat the Elite 4) and I don't even know the name of the games afterwards…

Don't even get me started on the anime. I spent even less time watching that, though I did used to watch it as a kid.

The manga was probably what I was a bit more comfortable with, but it had also been years since I picked up Pokemon Adventures. I could only recall key details and maybe plot points?

I sighed.

This was ridiculous. I didn't even know how to process all of this but at the very least, I was done freaking out it looked like. I had plenty reason to panic and curse.

Especially considering I was a criminal, but right now, my mind was in a thoughtful lull. Maybe I wasn't freaking out because I used up all my freaking out with that earlier experience of me not feeling comfortable in my body.

Speaking of which, what was that? I felt completely fine now but earlier, I really thought I was going insane with how out of sorts my body felt.

I noticed the differences in this body but now... it wasn't negatively affecting me whatsoever.

But it was still so strange. Even the fundamental way I thought, felt different.

Maybe that's why I wasn't freaking out anymore.

Well, it wasn't the end of the world. At least I hadn't gotten caught yet and I intended to keep it that way.

No one wanted to get arrested. Losing my freedom was the worst case scenario. Even if I was in the wrong, I refused to accept that it was truly my fault and if that meant avoiding justice, so be it.

It was time to adjust and plan.

I wasn't going to waste time trying to find a way out of this world. If a God put me in it, chances are I wasn't getting out unless that God wanted me out.

Thankfully in this timeline, Gold hadn't caught sight of me yet but that didn't change the fact that anyone with a brain would be able to make some connections to my Chikorita…

Well, anyone in the Johto region at least.

It wasn't obvious, but Silver was way too arrogant.

This guy robbed a regional professor with his normal clothes and waltzed around the Johto region while under fire from the cops and a rival who would grow to become the strongest trainer in the region... that never turned him in.

Maybe Silver's arrogance, was circumvented by the fact that everyone else were idiots.

I didn't feel like going through all of that trouble of avoiding detection while in the Johto region. I wasn't some prodigy like Silver and I didn't want to rely on this bodies muscle memory for everything, no matter how useful it may be.

Thankfully, I had no qualms never stepping foot in the Johto region again.

No… I had a plan.

Despite not having his skill, I had to admit... the thrill of committing that heist was kind of intoxicating. The adrenaline rushing through my body, at the idea that I could get caught… I didn't hate that feeling.

This lifestyle was certainly more exciting… but I wouldn't push it. When I became confident in my skills, I'd consider coming back to this region but for now… I needed to leave.

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I already knew where I was going too.

A greedy gleam appeared in my eyes.

Since I was in this world now, I might as well make the most of it and what was the best way of doing that?

Hunting down and catching my favorite Pokemon of course.

There was no point freaking out about this abnormal situation. That wasn't my style. I preferred keeping a cool head and going with the flow.

"It is what it is," as I would so often say.

So I'd take advantage of the fact that I was put in such a talented person's body and capture a team that I wanted.

I don't know what Silver's original team is, but it's predominantly Johto pokemon and I didn't want a Johto team.

No, the only Johto pokemon I'd prefer to have on my team is a Tyranitar and I had no interest in hunting one down in Mt. Silver because I'd die and I hated the cold.

So what did I plan on doing?

Travel to the Hoenn Region.

I would need to head to Olivine City (I'm pretty sure that was the region with the ships) while honing not only my espionage skills, but Zorua's and Chikorita's power too.

They'd be my only pokemon for a while so I needed them to be formidable enough to help me accomplish my goals.

I didn't plan on staying in the Hoenn Region though… No, as much as I wanted to explore the region, it wouldn't help me out right now. I needed a region that would help me gather solid information about what world I was in.

Hoenn was just the region I planned on mostly filling out my team with. Afterwards, I'd head to Kanto and travel through the region like normal.

What? I wanted to go through them in order and get a feel for the world I now resided in. The first region of the Pokemon world was basic enough and didn't have the shenanigans that the Hoenn region would have.

Kanto was the region I knew like the back of my hand and though Hoenn was the same, I'd be able to spot more changes with the very first region of Pokemon.

If anything, I could use my time in Hoenn to see if anything particular is happening. I hoped their story hadn't started yet (if it even planned on happening in this world). That would be very inconvenient for me, a new trainer.

Once I landed in Hoenn… I could enact my plans and start catching my future team hopefully... all while letting the heat for Chikorita die down.

Right after I trained up myself and not just my Pokemon.

After the events of New Bark… I was admittedly very embarrassed by my abysmal performance and vowed to become even better then Silver at his own craft because if there was one thing I hated, it was being embarrassed.

Was I cheating by using his body? Who cared about little details like that. He should be thankful that I was planning on making this body better than anything he could achieve.

My goal for this world, was to build a strong enough team to become Champion level, so that on the chance my criminal actions caught up to me, I'd be able to properly defend myself.

With the team I was planning on having… it was plausible.

Should I go for gym badges? Hm…

Sure, why not. By the time I started getting badges, I should have my team and at that point, it would be difficult to make connections… especially in the Kanto region. I don't know how closely related Kanto and Johto were but I was sure Hoenn at the very least, couldn't have had that much connection.

It would be a great way to gauge how strong I was getting as well, if I captured Gym Badges... and a childish part of me must have wanted them as well.

Alright. I had a goal set. Now I should make sure I know what I'm doing and that meant sacrificing sleep to do some research.

I didn't know how I felt about being dropped in this world… but I'd roll with the punches and take advantage of what I had and what I knew.

Nothing else mattered to me but my own comfort and survival. If I had to make some enemies along the way, so be it.

----------------------------------------

It was as I was rummaging through my bag the next day, did I see a device that had me thinking.

It was an advanced looking device and looked a bit like a wristwatch with a logo on it.

It was black and when I flipped it open, the time (7 am) flashed on the screen.

"A... Pokegear?" I thought to myself, navigating the device and having my eyes light up at seeing the map feature.

This was great! It had the full map of the Johto region and even had my location on it in the form of a red dot flashing periodically over Route 29.

"Olivine is so far," I thought with a frown, inspecting the distance I'd have to traverse.

Despite looking disturbingly similar to the map in game, the estimated distance (it told me once I clicked the city!) from Newbark to Olivine was months.

Looks like I'd be staying in this region for a little while longer. I would need to travel quite the distance to make it to the lighthouse city…

Lame.

As I got ready to pocket my Pokegear so I could begin the trek, a thought occurred to me.

"Doesn't the Pokegear have a phone feature?"

I could gather a lot of information with just that.

It took me a bit to find my contacts and I stared dumbly at seeing not a single name there.

"Why the hell do I even have this thing?" I thought with a blank expression.

There was literally not a single contact on the Pokegear. There had been no calls made, no calls received…

Did I steal this? No, according to the Pokegear, this was mine and I had it for quite a while too.

I also had an ID. Turns out I was 12 and was born in Viridian City of Kanto.

Awesome. At least I was learning things about myself...

I have no idea where Silver got so many expensive things, but I certainly wasn't complaining.

Did Green not exist in this timeline then? I remember that her and Silver were quite close in the manga and made calls to each other rather frequently.

Hm… wait, did the internet exist in this world?

Turns out, it did! It was in the Pokedex and I once again praised myself for having the insight to snatch one of these things.

I winced at seeing news of Professor Elm being attacked almost immediately, but at least I didn't kill him. He was currently hospitalized and there was a warning to be on the lookout for a Chikorita, though it expressly stated not to report just any trainer who owned one.

Chikorita frowned deeply once I told her that. She really was hellbent on staying with me and I appreciated that.

Thankfully, it seems Chikorita wasn't as rare as in the video games. In the anime, there was quite a bit of them weren't there?

At the very least, if I didn't reveal my Chikorita until I left this region, I should generally be in the clear.

I hummed a tune of a song whose name I didn't know of, as I scoured the net. Using the internet for information, proved to be a great decision.

It helped clear up a lot of questions I had (It didn't make a dent to my list of questions... but it helped).

In particular, reading that Lance's years of dominance as the Kanto and Johto Champion, were being put into question due to the rampant growth of Team Rocket, answered a lot. Team Rocket was actually running amuck in both regions, though they dominantly operated in Kanto...

Red and Blue probably didn't exist in this timeline. Not only was Team Rocket (wow, Silver really hated Team Rocket. My body instinctively convulsed in anger every time I read their name) still at large in the regions but Lance was still champion and there was no mention of him having lost a match, besides exhibitions against other champions, since his reign started.

Hm...

Was this the games? Team Rocket didn't feel like a threat in the anime but they were quite prominent in Kanto... I think?

I don't remember anyone besides Jesse, James and Meowth. But in this world, one of the more wanted and known members of Team Rocket, was someone by the name of Executive Proton.

He was from the Johto games wasn't he? Hm...

Regardless, if Team Rocket really was running rampant, that was more reason for me to slink over to Kanto. They were painting a bigger target on their backs so they'd be under heavy scrutiny, giving me time to train up and get sufficiently strong.

Sounded like a plan. I also did some research on Hoenn and didn't see anything regarding Magma or Aqua, but I'd do some deeper research later to see if they currently existed, previously existed, or didn't exist at all.

"Alright, our goal is to head to Olivine City," I informed Zorua and Chikorita. "I don't plan on staying in the Johto region so we're going to take a boat to Hoenn first and then travel through the Kanto region," I explained.

Zorua nodded without hesitation at my orders and Chikorita followed suit.

"We'll need to train more. I don't plan on catching any pokemon until we land in Hoenn so I'll be focusing on getting you two strong. We'll need to get you guys impressive for what I plan on doing," I explained calmly, despite my excitement at the idea of training actual Pokemon.

"Zor!" Zorua barked in affirmation.

"Chiko!" Chikorita exclaimed.

Now how do I even start training them? I wasn't a pokemon trainer… where should I even begin?

"Alright, let's run through all your moves," I decided, not seeming to sure of myself.

If Zorua or Chikorita picked up on it, they made no move to mention it and my first pokemon stepped up.

"Leer," I began easily enough.

Zorua growled cutely and bared his fangs, glaring at me with venom in his gaze.

"That's adorable," I thought offhandedly.

I don't know how such a cute move would affect other pokemon, but I didn't comment on it, just nodding in approval.

"Scratch on the tree," I commanded.

The little fox took off at impressive speeds and raked glowing white claws against the tree, gouging it nicely.

"Torment," I said as soon as he finished.

Zorua growled and stamped its feet, shouting mockingly in his tongue as a dark energy roiled off him. I wasn't sure if it worked but he seemed fairly confident in it so I'd write it off as good for now.

"Hone Claws."

Zorua's claws began glowing orange as they extended in length. The dark type growled and rushed another tree, scratching into it with expert precision.

My eyes widened at how deep the gouges were in comparison to his first scratch attack.

"Alright, now for the most interesting… Extrasensory," I ordered.

The dark typed set his stance and focused. It didn't come out very quick but I attributed it to him being a dark type using the opposite type.

Gold energy began pouring off of Zorua, before he fired a rainbow-colored beam at the tree, blowing it off its roots and sending it crashing on the floor.

It made a thunderous noise and I jumped at the volume.

My mouth opened in shock at that, eyes bugged in disbelief as I gauged the state of the tree.

You know… seeing an actual pokemon move, really put it into perspective that I was in a brand new world with its own rules that differed from my old one.

I could die to an angry Rattata if I wasn't careful. Wasn't that just so surreal? An abnormal sized rat, mauling me to death with its gigantic teeth.

This was why I wasn't stoked to be in this world. Too many threats to my life. It was a marvel humans managed to tame Pokemon to this degree.

"Cool," I praised, rubbing the head of Zorua. "Well done."

He barked happily and accepted my pat, before settling next to me.

"You're up next Chikorita," I called.

Chikorita perked up excitedly and got into a ready position. A look of determination was set on her features and I smiled in amusement.

"Growl," I began, running through the moves once more. This was for my sake too. I seemed to have already memorized them (nice memory Silver) but who knows what would happen in the heat of battle?

Chikorita set her stance and narrowed her eyes, before letting out a cute growl that once again made me wonder how this would affect anyone.

"Tackle."

My grass type took off at a slower speed than Zorua before crashing its full body into a tree, jostling it from the impact.

"Vine Whip."

Two vines snaked out the buds around her neck and they extended before slapping harshly at the same tree.

"Heal pulse."

Chikorita opened her mouth and formed a pink ball of energy, before firing it at Zorua and I's direction.

I stiffened at that, but relaxed as the tension of my body left me. I let out a sigh of relief at the sensation and nodded in approval.

Heal Pulse was pretty cool.

"Perfect. Good job both of you," I praised with a small smile that naturally looked like a smirk on Silver's face.

Based on what I saw, Zorua was a fair bit stronger than Chikorita. It made sense considering I had presumably owned him for longer and just got Chikorita yesterday.

Just how long did I have Zorua? I was still stuck on the fact that I had a Unova pokemon on my team while in the Johto region…

Not only that, I was very clearly well off. Just who the hell were Silver's parents? Did they give me Zorua? Did they give me money?

I dunno. Since I had no contacts, I couldn't really figure out either. Clearly Silver wanted nothing to do with whoever his mom or dad was.

Eh, it was inevitable that I'd go to Viridian City one day. It did have a gym after all and if the games were indiciation, the strongest of the region.

Was Giovanni still the Gym Leader or was it Blue?

If it was Giovanni, I wonder if me revealing he was the boss of Team Rocket, would change anything. Does he ever actually pay for his crimes?

Judging by the way my body recoiled in disgust, I wasn't a fan of the Earth Gym Leader either.

Guess that answered that. Giovanni was probably the leader of Team Rocket and the Gym Leader... considering I was also born in Viridian, I wonder if I had personal issues with him.

I'd probably avoid visiting Viridian for the time being if so. Strongest Gym Leader of Kanto and all that.

Ah well. That was months away. The official Kanto gym circuit had started just a little over 2 weeks ago (it was January 17th) along with the Johto circuit but it lasted an entire year so if I wanted to tackle it, I had more then enough time to accomplish my goals before slinking away to my birth region.

"I'll cook up some training for you guys soon, let's keep traveling for now," I ordered.

They nodded in affirmation and we continued our journey to Cherrygrove City.

According to the Pokegear, it would take me 2 hours to make it to the City and maybe less if I upped my pace into a fast walk.

Perfect. I wanted to make it in and out of the city as soon as possible. I didn't need to stock up on anything and I didn't plan on starting training until I made it far away from New Bark.

As we traversed this dense forest, I took the chance to navigate my Pokedex more (I think it was the national variant) and see if it was really as useful as I thought it was.

Hint: It was.

The device was telling me all the moves the Zorua and Chikorita family could learn right now and thank God for that because I would have had no idea how to approach training without it.

Extrasensory and Heal Pulse were also egg moves, so that explained why they had them.

Fascinating.

I wanted Zorua to learn a dark move but that wouldn't be easy while it was still so young. Once it got closer to becoming a Zoroark, it should be able to learn the more difficult dark moves but for now, I had to settle for Pursuit and Feint Attack.

My goal for Zorua and then Zoroark was easy. Abuse its abilities to use illusions, confuse and eventually overwhelm opponents with trickery, speed and power.

Agility, Nasty Plot, Dark Pulse, Night Daze… I'd like to have it master Extrasensory too as if it were a psychic type. These were all moves I would eventually work on in the future.

As for Chikorita, I didn't have a set goal but I liked the idea of a control tank that controlled the pace of the battle.

She would dish out a lot of damage, and weather a bunch more, all while setting up the field in her favor. The Meganium family already had an easy time learning such moves like Synthesis, Reflect, Leech Seed and Light Screen so I wanted to take advantage of that.

Then I'd supplement her offense with moves like Giga Drain, Solar Beam and Petal Dance.

She'd be a drain tank. Someone who managed to keep herself in the battle by draining her opponents and healing it all back up.

Meganium would be unkillable! My opponents would need to expend a ton of energy to take her out and that frustration would make things even easier for me.

The idea that I could potentially have that, had me brainstorming a lot of ideas and I felt a sly grin forming on my face at how annoying I might end up becoming in the future.

There didn't seem to be a four move limit or levels either so that was nice. Though... that might likely mean I wasn't in either the game or the manga, since levels were confirmed there.

Honestly, I think I was probably in some weird amalgamation of all three. At the very least, this had to have been a mix of the games and the manga.

I had no idea what impact the anime had, if it had any.

That might have the potential to be the most nightmarish situation on the planet. A weird mash of all three worlds...

I sighed tiredly.

Man, I hope this training thing wasn't too hard. I needed to get strong fast.

----------------------------------------

"I challenge you to a pokemon battle!"

I let out a deep sigh of aggravation, that mostly stemmed from the fact I had only pulled a few hours of sleep last night.

Man, what the hell? I barely even got to take in the scenery of something besides the forest, before being bombarded.

Not even two seconds after finally stepping out of the forests of Route 29, I was instantly approached by some kid who seemed eager to battle.

They were literal NPCs. Who even camped out over here? What an inconvenient spot to choose as your base...

It was a bland kid with a pair of shorts, a white tee and a reverse hat on. He looked to be a few years younger than me, but I was clearly not good at identifying ages so I wouldn't make an actual guess.

Despite him camping my location (did multiple people come out of the forests?!) like he was a sniper, I couldn't stop the well of excitement from coursing through my body.

That intoxicating rush that I felt while robbing Elm, surged up at the prospect of my very first pokemon battle.

Sure I had barely even done any training, but that would just make this all the more interesting. The best way to learn, was to actually practice so this battle would be a great learning experience.

I had returned Zorua and Chikorita by now for obvious reasons and for even more obvious reasons, I wouldn't be using my grass type for this battle.

Logically speaking, battling right now wasn't the wisest of decisions... but I wouldn't be battling trainers for quite a bit. I would prefer to remain as anonymous as possible...

I'd be handicapping myself in my mission by not gaining the comfort of battling trainers... so I'd accept just this battle and then continue on my path.

"Alright. 1 on 1," I said shortly, running through plans and the battles I had seen in the anime from years ago.

Surprisingly, it came rather easy to me and I pursed my lips at that.

My memory was excellent now, a far cry from my forgetfulness in my old body.

The youngster grinned at me and pulled out a shiny red Pokeball before lobbing it.

"Sentret, let's go!" He shouted eagerly.

I gazed at the brown mammal with a searching gaze, not quite sure what I was looking for but shrugging all the same.

In terms of Pokemon, it looked rather basic and actually looked like it could fit in with the animals on Earth.

A Sentret...

I didn't say a word as I calmly released Zorua.

The fox materialized, just as silent as me and perked up slightly at seeing the Sentret across from it.

"Woah?! What's that?!" The kid asked in awe, eyes sparkling at my first pokemon.

I ignored him, too deep in my own thoughts to acknowledge him.

I wasn't sure if Silver and Zorua had battled before, but this was my first battle and losing to a youngster would be a blow to my confidence that my ego would want fixed as soon as possible.

Aka, training until I could crush all 8 gym leaders. I still planned on doing that but if I lost... I'd do that more.

There was a real chance, my inexperience with actual pokemon battles could make me lose this match.

Sure, Silver was absolutely a prodigy, but I wasn't really Silver…

...What am I thinking? I didn't have to be Silver. Silver was content to be second fiddle to Gold or Crystal. He was content to be a loser at the end of the day.

I didn't want to be second fiddle to anyone. Who the hell was content to be in second place when you had the skills to go higher?

Since I knew Silver was a prodigy, I'd exploit his talent and become something he couldn't.

Yeah... I'd be better than Gold and Crystal in any timeline. And if I were better than them, that meant I was better than Silver.

Scratch that. They weren't even on my radar. I had no intention of staying in Johto and meeting up with those two repeatedly, but if we did ever meet, I'd crush either one for my own satisfaction to prove to myself that I am better than Gold, Crystal and Silver.

A cocky smirk made its way onto my face, as my blood began pulsing.

Yeah that's right. I was going to take this body to places it had never seen before.

No losing every single battle to my rival. Just for you Silver, I'd show you how it felt to be the main star of the show. I'd show you what it felt like being chased instead of chasing people.

I'd gather and create my own army and I'd take out anyone who thought they could beat me.

Resolve set, I glared challengingly at the kid who was soon to become my first victim.

"Sentret, use scratch!" The kid shouted, snapping me out of my musings.

There was no way I was losing this battle.

"Zorua, dodge then test it with scratch," I said after a short while.

Credits to Zorua for not even hesitating to follow my orders. The little guy was a real soldier, deftly leaping to the left before lunging in like an assassin, landing sharp white claws directly on Sentret's midsection.

Red claw marks appeared on the normal types skin and it squealed as it flew back, collapsing on the floor.

…

Should I push my advantage?

…

Why wasn't the Sentret moving?

"Aw man you're so strong!" The kid said, returning his unconscious Sentret with a downtrodden expression.

…

"What?" I said dumbly, exchanging a confused glance with Zorua. "That's it?"

"Zor," he shrugged helplessly, making his way to my side.

I got myself that psyched up… for that? That whole speech earlier... about becoming the star and getting chased by people I'd normally be chasing... for this?

A one-shot… with my weakest attack move? No buffs or nothing… just a regular scratch…

And it was down for the count?

"Are you serious?" I said incredulously, gazing at the kid in confusion.

Was this kid taking me for a fool? Did he think he needed to go easy on me? Did I look like that much of a noob?

"You should have used your strongest pokemon, kid. Not some freshly caught one. At least get to know it better before challenging someone," I advised, looking a little annoyed.

What a waste. Getting myself hyped up for no reason. My excitement had been stopped cold at this disappointment of a battle and I couldn't stop the scowl from forming on my face.

"Huh?" The kid blinked, looking a little shocked at my words. "I-I didn't just catch Sentret! He's my first pokemon! I had him for 3 months now!"

…

What.

"You had that Sentret for 3 months?" I asked in disbelief, feeling a surging annoyance rise in me. "What the hell have you even been doing? Do you train at all? Are you just camped out in this spot for no other reason than to lose battles?"

The kid flinched back at my harsh tone, eyes wide in confusion at my annoyance.

"I took out your Sentret in one attack," I stressed, brows furrowed. I could practically feel the frustration pulsing through my body.

"How can you be so satisfied being so weak? That's just so damn embarrassing..."

I scoffed, snatched my prize money out of his hand (I read up on some rules last night about Pokemon battles!) and walked past the teary eyed kid.

"Waste of a battle. Waste of my time. C'mon Zorua, let's go," I muttered.

Stupid. Why did I expect a youngster to be worth anything? I bet the kid still wore diapers. Calling them actual trainers would be a disgrace-

"Hey."

I paused and if possible, my annoyance managed to grow.

I knew that voice. Wasting my time on this stupid youngster, put me in a terrible situation and I grit my teeth to avoid cursing everything around me.

Unfortunately for them, this first battle experience of mine had completely soured my mood.

"Fuck off," I said harshly, continuing my gait with Zorua by my side.

A hand on my shoulder, stopped me in my tracks and I slowly turned to face the idiot, murder in my eyes.

Silver eyes, as pale as the moon, clashed with gold eyes, as bright as the sun, both burning with a different type of anger.

Righteous for one.

Cold for the other.

"Stop being a dick first!" Gold snarled angrily, looking dearly like he wanted to punch me.

Seems like he and Crystal were traveling together because the girl was currently consoling the crying kid while glaring at me.

Surprisingly, I didn't even feel a little bad. I was just really annoyed because one choice by me, made things very quickly spiral out of control.

"Get your hands off me," I warned calmly, eyes narrowed as I stared at the slightly shorter boy.

"Not until you apologize to Jimmy for being completely out of line dude," the main character of the Johto region demanded.

I sighed and lunged, gripping his arm and bodily flipping him over me with startling ease.

"Anime strength is bullshit," I thought to myself as he landed back first on the floor from my effortless throw.

"!" Gold gasped, eyes going wide as the wind was knocked out of him.

I sneered down at the coughing trainer, a cold satisfaction filling my body at my actions.

"Gold!" Crystal shouted with a look of concern, rushing over to him and hoisting him up with a worried look.

At the same time one of his Pokeballs rustled furiously, before a Cyndaquil burst out, glaring at me with a surprising amount of fury.

Crystal's own Pokeball shook and a Totodile released itself. It snarled at me in some recognition and it basically confirmed my thoughts that like Chikorita, the starters knew who I was.

I gazed at them coolly, watching them growl threateningly at me but making no move to attack me yet.

I snorted, lab raised mons sure were gentle.

"What is your problem?!" Crystal asked me, eyes narrowed in fury as she pushed herself up and jabbed a finger to my chest.

She was also shorter than me, blue hair rustling as those crystalline blue eyes gazed up at me with a stern disappointment.

Yeah, no.

I easily grabbed her hand mid poke and squeezed with some force.

"My problem, is that you and your boyfriend keep touching me, after I just said don't touch me. Are you an idiot?" I stressed, squeezing tighter and tighter until she winced from the pressure.

I was already cursing myself for somehow running into these two without my hoodie on, thinking it would be suspicious to just walk around with it in a populated area.

Not doing that again. This hoodie was staying on regardless of what anyone else thought.

What were the odds that they were even in the area?! Was it that damn God making sure I run into my "rivals"? What type of heartless kids go on a journey one day after hearing their professor got sent to the hospital, with the starters!

This was way too convenient… I couldn't believe this terrible luck.

Well, whatever. After this meeting, I'd be moving at a pace that made sure we'd likely never see each other again.

This would be our first and last encounter… so I might as well make it one to remember.

I was still super annoyed at that first battle so -

"Battle me asshole," Gold demanded with a deep glare, as he snatched Crystal away from me.

A battle between Gold and I. An actual prodigy in battling if he was similar to any version of himself that was important.

Might as well see how I shape up to the real geniuses of the world. I planned on being better than all of them after all.

Also, I'll give Silver his first and only win against Gold. Least I could do for hijacking his body.

I rolled my eyes. "Up for another, Zorua?" I asked my first pokemon.

The fox's eyes lit up at the fact I was consulting with him and he nodded vigorously, barking as he got into ready position.

"Alright Cyndaquil, let's teach him a lesson!" Gold barked, glaring at me with a cocky smirk. "Once I win, I'll get you to apologize to Jimmy and Crystal."

I shrugged, mind running through how I planned on winning this.

Like it or not, this was the guy that had the potential to be a champion level trainer. It didn't matter if he just became a trainer, you either had the spark or you didn't...

But Gold was underestimating Zorua's strength.

"Zorua, leer," I began, testing the waters.

"Cyndaquil, leer!" Gold retorted.

At the same time, both pokemon began growling at each other and I had no interest in having this cute little stare off continue.

"Hone in," I said easily, eyes narrowed.

We hadn't trained much, but I did explain my goals for each of them.

My main goal, was for Zorua to become a master of his ability, Illusion, to the point no one could tell if he had them up or not. We were already practicing some keywords that let him know I wanted him to throw up illusions.

Hell we could even condition them into thinking we were using illusions and fake em out.

It was genius!

"Cyndaquil, Ember don't let him get close!" Gold ordered.

Cyndaquil opened his mouth and fired out some pellets of fire at Zorua that the fox dodged.

The fire type continued to fire at the fox, ensuing a chase of sorts that lasted up until the fire mouse let out a victorious growl at landing a successful hit.

That growl, turned into one of confusion as the fire flew right through my pokemon.

"Scratch," I smirked.

Gold's confusion turned into horror, as Zorua burst from the shadows and clawed Cyndaquil's back with ruthless precision.

"CYNDAQUIL!" Gold shouted in horror, watching the mouse tumble across the ground.

"Again. Make sure it doesn't get up," I said ruthlessly, pushing the advantage.

Zorua let out a disturbingly similar smirk to mine (I kinda liked it) and dashed off to finish his target.

"Cyndaquil let out a widespread smokescreen!" Gold ordered with narrowed eyes.

My eyes widened at the order. "Zorua back off!" I barked.

Turns out, Zorua and I were both pretty arrogant. We thought the match was as good as over.

The big fog of smoke said otherwise.

Zorua tried to pull back but the momentum carried him too far and he got a lung full of smoke in response.

"Zor!" He gagged, coughing harshly from the oily air.

"Tackle!"

"Cynda!" The mouse growled fiercely as it rushed and slammed its full weight into Zorua.

"Zorua!" I couldn't help but yell in slight concern as he was sent tumbling across the ground.

"You've got Cyndaquil all fired up! Let's finish this! Use Double Kick!" Gold barked, flashing a victorious grin as Cyndaquil began glowing with fighting energy.

"Double kick?!" I thought in disbelief. What the hell were these starters being fed?!

If that hit it was as good as over…

Not a chance in hell.

I paused as I noticed the prone Zorua and I felt my eyes widen.

"Zorua, hang in there! Move and use Extrasensory!" I barked out.

Nothing, all he did was twitch as Cyndaquil rushed him.

As the iron mouse got closer and closer, my face got more and more concerned…

Until it melted away in favor of a smug smirk.

Gold actually caught the shift in expression and his eyes widened. "Wait! Cyndaquil back off! It's a trick!" He shouted but it was too late.

"Zorua, Extrasensory!" I barked victoriously.

My little fox wasn't just a fair bit stronger than Chikorita, naturally he was stronger than all three of the starters. He oversold that Tackle on purpose like the little genius he was!

Zorua's play dead scheme worked perfectly and my dark type shot up with a vicious gleam, eyes glowing before he opened his mouth and fired a rainbow colored beam that hit the jumping Cyndaquil right in the gut.

"Quil!" Cyndaquil wheezed, getting sent flying back to Gold's side of the field like a deflated balloon. It crashed into the ground with a thud and laid there.

"No way… I lost?" Gold thought in shock, watching Cyndaquil not even let out a twitch.

My body stopped pulsing as the sweet feeling of victory coursed through me and I smirked a violent smirk.

"Nice, Zorua!" I praised, picking the dark type up and settling him on my shoulders. "You did fantastic playing dead there. That win felt good didn't it? Let's keep it up."

Zorua puffed his chest proudly and accepted my praise with a pleased grin.

Yes, this wasn't his old trainer… but he liked this version of him much more so he wouldn't complain.

"Gold lost?" Crystal said in shock, gazing at the cruel redhead with wide eyes. "But he's the best battler in New Bark!"

The gold eyed teen was looking at Cyndaquil in shock, not quite believing he had actually lost and considering who he was, he probably hadn't lost to anyone but Crystal back home.

That made me feel even better.

This battling thing would surely get harder but right now, I was on the same playing field. I had a bunch of time to improve and I'd use everything at my disposal to do that.

Now if only I watched the anime more… that was the source of pokemon content with the most creative methods of battling. I could have stole some stuff there.

I pulled out a potion from the medicine section of my bag and sprayed Zorua with it, noting that I didn't have to use the whole thing before he was fully healed.

"Neat," I thought in fascination, watching his wounds close up.

Still, if I'm right. That's the Cyndaquil that was just in the lab and already he and Gold were doing work.

If I used Chikorita to fight him… the type advantage might have made it a one-sided slaughter.

I scowled. I needed to get better. Winning felt good and winning convincingly, would feel even better.

"Give me my money," I demanded harshly.

Gold flinched at that and mindlessly rustled around for the amount, handing it off to me and not reacting as I rudely snatched it out of his hand.

Without so much a word, I began my trek towards Cherrygrove, glancing at a sign that confirmed that I was heading in the right direction.

That snapped Gold out of his daze and he glanced up at the one who defeated him.

"Wait! You still haven't apologized to Jimmy," Gold exclaimed, shaking off his loss and glaring at me.

I glanced in disinterest at him. "I have nothing to apologize for. He should apologize for ambushing me and then wasting my time," I said coolly.

As I was about to take another step, snarling interrupted me and Totodile stepped directly in front of me.

I stared at the pokemon that should have been my starter and noted the clear recognition in its furious eyes.

So I played the ignorant card.

"I'm not accepting anymore battles," I said, glaring at Crystal now. "Get it out of my way."

I idly noted that the little kid was gone now, probably running off to go heal that Sentret of his.

The girl jumped at that, not knowing how to react to someone so callous and rude before she hesitantly returned Totodile despite his protests.

Huh, that was surprisingly effective. This rude bit was a great way to avoid conversation and Silver had a natural resting bitch face.

Gold glared at me, fury filling him in a way that he probably couldn't explain.

"What is your deal?" He snarled, closing the distance again and threatening to butt heads with me again.

I noted with an amused smirk, that he wasn't making contact with me this time.

Despite feeling good about winning that battle. I didn't want to stay here any longer than I needed to.

The only reason I left the forest, was because I noticed that there was a constructed road and man made guides that led you to the next town in a faster route then trudging through all those trees.

I had actually seen quite a bit of pokemon while traversing through the forests and I noted that some of them weren't native to the Johto region!

It was rather fascinating seeing them mingling about and minding their own business. It was a type of immersion that was impossible to experience unless you were actually there.

Starly, Wurmple, Budew… I even saw a family of Pansage, led by an intimidating Simisage.

None were keen on attacking me, but I wouldn't test my luck or risk antagonizing them.

Of course the moment I leave, I run into Gold and Crystal… though I suppose they did take a shorter route so it made sense.

Not to mention they had the other two starters… did that mean Elm was well enough to give them out?

This world probably had really good healing…

He didn't see me at all so I should be good for a bit longer.

I shoved past Gold with a sneer and said, "Losers should know how to accept their losses quietly. I'm done wasting my time here so fuck off before I get violent."

Props to Gold for not stepping down for a second.

"You wanna go? Let's go then!" The Johto native growled.

He missed the way I clenched my fist at my side but before I could raise it to slam into his temple, a hand pushed both of us back.

"That's enough!" Crystal said loudly. "Gold, don't stoop to his level! You're better than that!" She chided.

I scoffed as the boy loosened his stance and that prompted her to round on me.

"I don't know who hurt you but you shouldn't act so nasty to people!" She frowned deeply, glaring at me.

My pale silver eyes glared coldly into her crystalline blue and I was satisfied to see her flinch.

"What? Do you want to battle too?" I asked warningly, taking a step forward and watching her instinctively take a step back. "You aren't a loser yet but if you're anything like your boyfriend, save yourself the trouble."

Zorua peered at her on my shoulder, a look of disinterest in his gaze.

"He's not my..." Crystal shook her head rapidly and glared at me, refusing to allow herself to be bullied any further.

Kudos to her... but I still wasn't in the mood.

"I don't want to battle you... you'll just win. Totodile isn't strong enough and Misdreavus has a type weakness," she frowned.

I rolled my eyes and turned away. "So you're a loser but at least you're a smart one I guess. Congratulations, Crys," I said condescendingly.

It was far easier to pick on Crystal than Gold. Gold was the type of guy to stoop to my level, but Crystal tried to remain levelheaded.

Too bad for her. I wasn't from this gentle and soft world.

"Y-You are so terrible!" Crystal scowled finally, fed up with my tone. "What is wrong with you?! You do not get to call me that! Only my friends do!"

"And what are you gonna do about it, Crys?" I questioned challengingly, perking a brow.

She opened her mouth and shut it, at my questioning tone, at a loss for words. She had no clue how to deal with someone as foul as me.

Awesome.

"See? Nothing. You're a coward. If you aren't actually going to do something, you can fuck off too. I've been trying to leave for the longest time now. I don't get how you keep mentioning my mood, but refuse to let me go," I sighed.

Gold looked at our interaction, stunned into silence. He must have been the typical whipped character that always listened to the smarter and more assertive friend. Did he think Crystal couldn't be talked back to?

Pathetic. These were my rivals?

I'm no hero and I was especially not interested in being as righteous as these two right here.

My goal was entirely self serving and that wouldn't change. I wasn't here to save the world. I don't know what was even the reason for bringing me here but whoever did it, was in for a big surprise.

"See ya losers, hopefully we never meet again," I snorted, marching past the two.

That seemed to snap them out of their daze.

"Next time we battle, I'll win," Gold declared with narrowed eyes, staring at my retreating back.

"Doubt it. There's a reason I said hopefully we never meet again. We aren't gonna meet again," I assured, most of my interest lost in my would be rivals.

With that, Zorua and I left their company and continued our trek to Cherrygrove.

Maybe I'd go back in the forest. I felt bad for confining Chikorita to her ball but we had to avoid suspicion.

She'd understand. Instead, I'd speed up the pace and put as much distance between me and those two.

Gold watched the mysterious redhead go and clenched his jaw in frustration.

"I can't believe I lost to an asshole like that. If I had used Aipom, it would have been a different story," he growled, nursing Cyndaquil and getting an apologetic whine out of the fire type.

The gold eyed teen sighed and assured Cyndaquil he did nothing wrong.

"Language, Gold," Crystal sighed, watching the back of the redhead disappear into the distance.

She had never met someone so… harsh.

"Why did you let him talk to you like that, Crys?" Gold asked suddenly, turning towards the girl with a concerned frown.

The girl frowned deeply. "...I don't really know. His words were getting under my skin, but I couldn't think of anything to say. When he called me a coward, I just froze up inside," she admitted.

Gold scowled. "You should have let me kick his ass then. He's just a bully!"

Crystal shook her head at Gold. She didn't want her best friend to stoop to that guys level.

Besides, despite being a bully... the Zorua looked like he was being treated well. Was he really as terrible as he made himself out to be?

"I hope we really don't meet him again. He rubs me the wrong way," she said with a frown.

"No way, Crys!" Gold denied instantly, fierce glare on his face. "I need to get payback and make him apologize to Jimmy. Next time we meet, I'll blow him away!" He promised.

Crystal rolled her eyes. "Gold… I'm pretty sure he's leaving Johto. We're all trainers so that means we're bound to meet again if we just keep traveling but he was sure we weren't. He looks like he's from Kanto with those clothes and he has a Kantonian dialect too, so he'll probably head back eventually," she explained.

Gold frowned deeply at that.

That sucked. He wanted to battle him again.

A sudden flash of light, revealed itself to be Totodile who had forcefully released himself from the Pokeball.

The little crocodile was growling and snarling, stamping his feet as he made gestures.

"What's the matter Totodile?" Crystal asked in concern, looking at her water type with furrowed brows.

Totodile pointed at the spot Silver had just been at.

"That mean boy?" She asked, furrowing her brows as he nodded his head in confirmation. "I know you wanted to battle him, but we can't just force him. He already fought and beat Gold and he fought Jimmy right before... and we aren't strong enough to beat him yet."

Totodile gained a look of frustration and stamped his feet, shaking his head repeatedly.

The crocodile thought about how to explain it and nodded to himself.

Crystal watched in confusion as Totodile pointed at itself and then her, before repeating the process with Cyndaquil and Gold.

Was he saying that he was her pokemon and Cyndaquil was Gold's?

That confusion turned into horror, as he pointed at the spot the redhead had been at and then he grabbed the grass and viciously yanked it out before pointing at it.

"What?!" Crystal hissed in shock, wide eyes jolting towards the spot where Silver had just been.

Gold looked on in confusion. "What happened, Crys?" He asked in confusion.

His best friend shook with wide eyes and turned a startled gaze towards where the redhead had been.

"Totodile… are you saying he's the one who stole Chikorita?" She asked in a near whisper.

Gold's eyes widened at seeing the crocodile nod.

"Him?!" He hissed, pushing himself up to go give chase.

Crystal's eyes widened at that and she grabbed Gold to stop him.

"Are you insane?!" She asked. "We can't do this! You saw how he acted! He won't think twice about hurting us!"

Gold shook his head furiously. "So we just leave it to the Police? After what happened to Elm, I won't feel good unless I'm the one who catches him," He said firmly.

Crystal stared at Gold like he were insane. The two made eye contact and her argument died on her lips, as she saw his resolve.

Gold was hell bent on chasing down that redhead by himself...

"Well, we are Professor Elm's chosen trainers for this year. It would only be right if we bring him in ourselves," she sighed.

To be fair, she did want to battle him as well after what he said. The thief looked to be the same age as them and Crystal had to wonder... what caused him to be so violent?

He spoke to Zorua so kindly... but it was a different story when speaking to them. Crystal couldn't help but wonder if this was really his character... or if he had been raised to act like this.

Gold grinned. "You're the best, Crys!" He praised.

She blushed at his praise and smiled. "We need to be careful about this Gold. No recklessly charging him… and remember that he's probably not staying in Johto… No, he definitely won't."

Gold's brows furrowed at that. He still wanted to complete the gym circuit… but he wanted to catch that redhead too.

His gold eyes glittered and he stared at the crystalline blue of his best friend.

"I've got an idea," he said with a cocky grin.

"...I hate when you have ideas. They always turn out to be insane," Crystal sighed.

She had known Gold for years. She already knew what he was planning.

A motivated Gold was the scariest person to deal with.

----------------------------------------

"They probably know who I am by now," I thought to myself, glancing behind me to see if they would pursue.

Maybe I should have battled Crystal. Dwindling down their numbers to two, would allow me to 2v2 with Chikorita and Zorua, against probably Misdreavus and whatever Gold's second pokemon was.

But now I risked a 2v3 with presumably, Gold's stronger Pokemon and both of Crystals...

But they never showed up.

Strange.

I was back in Silver's default outfit… but that would probably be the last time I wore it.

No skin off my back. I had other choices and the all purple pants... was certainly a choice I made that I wouldn't be making again.

I'd probably restyle my hair too...

No sooner did I think the idea, did a strong negative feeling course through my body that was almost certainly not me.

Guess no changing the hair? Whatever.

As for my silver eyes…

Yeah, nothing to do about that but hide them as often as possible. Here's to hoping a lot of people had unnatural silver hues, combined with peculiar red hair, like mine.

It was later in the morning and it would take about 30 more minutes for me to make it to Cherrygrove.

Not gonna lie, I was kind of enjoying the route. I never really appreciated nature back home but here, you could see that the people of this world didn't dare tamper with it too much.

Offending the Pokemon, was probably a fast ticket to a far more difficult life I imagine.

Trees were littered everywhere, the grass was low cut on the path for humans, but tall on the sides and the breeze was nice and warm. I marveled at the sight of two Sentret scampering around in the grass and peered at them with curious eyes as they played with each other.

They perked up as they saw Zorua and I but only warily watched as I walked past them, seeming to sense the difference in level or just not wanting to fight at all.

That was another pleasant thing, you wouldn't get jumped by any random Pokemon just for existing in the grass. Pokemon were incredibly intelligent, to a degree that media didn't portray well.

It seemed like more often than not, the normal ones just wanted to chill.

I snorted. As if I wanted a Sentret. I didn't think I was actually going to be catching another pokemon in Johto for the time being.

Sure there were plenty of choices like Scizor or Mamoswine but they weren't high priority and would only delay me from my real goals... Maybe in the future once I figured out more things...

Like the 6 limit rule. Was that still a thing here?

"We aren't gonna stay in Cherrygrove for long. We need to make a lot of distance. We don't have to stock up either since we got so much stuff from the lab," I muttered to Zorua.

Silver was also an overprepaper. It was clear he didn't like stopping to go shopping and I seemed to have inherited.

"Zo!" Zorua barked on my shoulder in agreement.

"Your work with Illusion is awesome by the way," I praised genuinely. "I want you to practice it in your free time. We're gonna need it for the future and if you can master it, you'll be real annoying to face."

Zorua looked excited at my praise and nodded eagerly.

I snorted. Zorua looked ready to give me the world and all I did was praise him… I wonder just what life he had to have had before I showed up.

Must have been trash. Zorua was a cool pokemon, I'd treat him how he deserved to be treated.

A thought occurred to me.

This was my first pokemon. Technically he was second in charge… I should set him up for the leader role shouldn't I?

In the long run, I don't think he was going to be my most powerful Pokemon but he was still my first and so, I'd make sure he got the respect he earned.

With the pokemon I was planning on getting, he'd need to be more assertive I imagine.

"What do you think of Chikorita?" I asked in a low mutter. "Think she's a good addition?"

Zorua was caught off guard by me deciding to converse with him but clearly, he was getting used to this personality shift and had no intentions of questioning it.

"Zor," the dark type nodded eventually.

Zorua liked Chikorita. They talked for a bit and he explained what she should expect traveling with them.

They weren't normal after all. Chikorita should know that they did… questionable activities.

She didn't seem to mind at all, just pleased that Silver was their trainer so that was a plus.

I nodded thoughtfully at his approval. "Between you and me, I didn't actually plan on getting her… but I'm kind of glad for my mistake. She's very agreeable," I admitted in a low whisper.

I had no idea how Silver managed to tame that feisty Totodile, but I probably would have been far less successful.

Zorua nodded in agreement with my assessment and I found myself gazing curiously at the dark type.

Any issues I had with Zorua being my first pokemon and not Sneasel, had been thrown out of the window by the little guys impressive display.

He saved my ass after all. I would be an ungrateful prick if I had a problem with it.

Zorua was useful. Incredibly so… Silver lucked out getting a pokemon like this.

I had a pet dog before when I was younger. He was awesome but his intelligence didn't even come close to Zorua's. The dark type understood everything I said and was able to respond in a way that made sure I could understand.

That illusion translating Chikorita's problems to me, was absolutely genius of him. Illusion was way more incredible then the games made it out to be.

I was looking forward to learning the limitations and abusing it religiously. He seemed to expend almost no energy when using it on himself, but a lot of energy using it on someone else.

As we headed to Cherrygrove, I decided to walk through the tall grass in hopes of finding something to do and got into a battle with a violent Rattata that scurried away after one hit from Zorua.

Boring. Nevermind.

"I feel a little bad for keeping Chikorita in the ball…" I muttered, idly palming her ball.

Something I should do, was invest in a way to differentiate my Pokeballs. Though I seemed to innately know who was in which one, it never hurt to double down.

I should also think of nicknames to differentiate my pokemon... but that would take a while. I wasn't good with names so I'd have to dwell on it for a while.

"Zor," Zorua assured me hesitantly and I nodded.

"Yeah, once I get the chance, I'll let her get some air," I agreed.

It would probably be after I left Cherrygrove. I wasn't planning on staying there very long because that was still too close to New Bark. Gold and Crystal could catch up to me at any point if I idled around.

No, I couldn't fully relax until I was out of this region…

And I was one step closer.

Cherrygrove, much like Route 29 and New Bark, was a town dominated by nature. Besides the buildings, and some few sandy roads, the area looked almost untouched by mankind. Grass was maintained at a reasonable level but dominated the area, the paved road lacked stone and concrete, using sand instead and the people bustled about with Pokemon of all kinds mingling with them.

It was… nice.

Back home, I lived in the city so I didn't get to appreciate sights like this very much.

Still, I do miss my friends and family back at -

Back at -

I paused in confusion.

...Where did I live again?

I tried to recall information about my home and while I had general knowledge… the moment I tried to recall anything specific, my mind blanked completely. I only knew vague information. I knew I had a family, I knew I had friends... but if I tried to pry deeper...

Huh?

"Zor?" Zorua called in confusion, noticing my discomfort that was slowly increasing in levels.

Why couldn't I remember anything? Where did I live? What was the name of the city I lived in? Hell, what state did I live in? Was it New York? Utah? Texas?

I don't know.

Who were my parents? I had both a mother and a father… but that's all I knew. I distantly remember having siblings... right? Didn't I mention an older sister yesterday?

Or was it an older brother?

...I don't know.

Why? I remembered all of this yesterday… didn't I?

...No. I was now beginning to realize… that I never even once mentioned my old name.

What was my name again?

Oh that's right. My name's Silver-

I let out raspy breath and stumbled backwards, holding my head in confusion.

What was going on? The deeper I tried to peer into my memories, the more hazy they became.

What the hell? Was I… overlapping with Silver? Did I not completely take over?

When left to my unconscious thoughts... I only referred to myself as Silver as if I had always been Silver.

I felt a headache blooming and huffed.

I'm not too sure about anything anymore. I thought it was just muscle memory carrying me earlier… but clearly that wasn't the whole story.

The fact that I identified myself as Silver proved so.

Right now, I can't even fathom the idea of having had another name. In my head, I've always been Silver. But at the same time, I knew I wasn't that Silver.

This was so weird. At the very least, it did seem like I had full control. I just had to deal with mind shenanigans.

I would hate to share a body with someone. I was beginning to think my mind merged with Silver's somehow but it was dominantly in my favor for the time being.

What was the end result going to be?

Would I progressively lose memories of my old world? If that's the case, why don't I have any memories that belong to Silver? Why did I remember the Pokemon related things from my old world so easily, but nothing else?

Did it have to do with that earlier experience where I was freaking out in my own skin before everything clicked into place?

...How old was I?

"Just turned 12," I thought instantly before shutting my eyes in annoyance.

Fuck. Things just got a lot more complicated for me.

"Sorry about that, just got a headache," I explained to the worried Zorua. "Let's not waste anymore time. We won't be staying here long. I'm gonna return you for now, don't need connections yet."

Zorua looked very concerned but nodded and I stepped into Cherrygrove City with a pondering frown.

Unlike in the video games, there was way more than a few houses and the stores. The city itself was massive in comparison and various buildings, both business related and just homes, dotted the area.

There were stores besides the Pokemart too. A clothing shop that I considered entering but discarded, a food stand, hell there was a market for just Pokemon related cosmetics too… It was way more alive than the games.

More authentic.

As I traversed the town. I decided to ask around for some directions.

At first, the plan was for me to leave this place immediately but this was clearly a bigger world than the one in the games so I needed to plan a bit more.

There might be places I never even heard about. I couldn't rely solely on my memories when it came to the map.

For instance, there was a town called Whitestone that was between Ecruteak City and Olivine City.

That was as clear a sign as any that this trip could take way longer then I thought…

But I was in luck.

This wasn't the game world. There weren't random landmarks blocking areas, that the devs didn't want us going to, and that helped me notice something.

Cherrygrove City had a large body of water that was blocked off in the games, leaving only a small area to traverse around.

That block did not exist here.

And the best part? If navigated correctly, the water would take you directly to Olivine City, allowing you to skip a bunch of cities in the process.

I just needed to find a way to get water transportation and if I could, I would cut down months of journey, to just a few days.

That's why I was asking around for directions despite desiring anonymity. This was incredibly important to saving time and accomplishing my missions as quickly as possible.

The faster I made it to Hoenn, the quicker I'd get someone off my trail and the more smooth my sailing would go.

Plastering the most fake and polite smile on my face, I approached a middle aged woman who seemed to be shopping for a Furret and she perked up at hearing my footsteps.

The woman looked up in clear curiosity, a friendly demeanor radiating off of her.

"Hello! Sorry to bother, but I'd like to ask a question," I greeted with a short wave.

"Oh aren't you just the cutest little thing!" She gushed, holding her cheeks at how polite I was. "Please, don't be shy dear! Ask away!"

I continued to smile. "I'm new to the Johto region so I'm not quite sure how things work around here… I wanted to go to Olivine City from here and I noticed the body of water that connected the two. Is there a way I can sail there?" I asked easily.

"So well articulated… why yes there is!" The woman nodded at my question. "Near the shore there's a building and a small port. It heads to Goldenrod, Cianwood and of course, Olivine. I'm sure if you speak to someone there, they'll be sure to tell you when the next ship set sails," she explained politely.

I nodded at the information and felt a small grin forming.

Perfect! This would speed things up by a whole lot. I could take a ship to Olivine then from there, I'd look to see if there was anything headed to the Hoenn region.

I'm not sure how good regional relationships were between the regions in this world… but Ash was able to travel to new regions with effortless ease and I did do some research.

If I wanted to get to Hoenn, my best bet was Olivine.

"Thank you! I appreciate that," I said, bowing slightly.

She waved me off frantically. "Oh no need to bow, darling! You're too kind!" she sighed.

"If you just follow this road and head south, you'll find the building. It's hard to miss!"

I nodded, red hair jostling a bit at the movement and I idly brushed the bangs that nearly covered one of my eyes aside, scowling as it popped right back into place.

How did hair even naturally get like this? My hair was a mix of smooth at the top and spiky at the bottom near my neck. To top it all off, I had a slight cowlick sticking out at the very top of my red hair that I already tried pushing down to no avail.

What a horror. The only thing more horrifying, is my body's staunch refusal to actually change the style.

I followed the directions the lady left me, all while contemplating the wonders of anime hair, until I finally arrived at the building she mentioned.

It was large, with a blue roof that had a Poliwag embedded into it and I wasted no time entering it.

A gruff man with a sailor outfit gazed at me with bored eyes behind a counter as I calmly approached him.

"When's the next ship to Olivine?" I asked bluntly. I didn't feel like doing anymore small talk.

Clearly this guy appreciated that.

"Tomorrow," he answered just as bluntly. "If you want a ticket pay here. These are the prices."

Nice. Straight to the point.

One ticket to Olivine costed about 300 Poke (that was so cheap what the hell?) and I had more than enough.

Seriously, just how talented was Silver? All of this didn't seem easy to steal. I seemed to have not only an account to my name with Poke Dollars, but actual cash besides the amount I won from Gold and that kid.

Who set up an account for me? Did I do it myself? It made sense that banks were a thing in this world... but it was strange all the same.

I forked the money over and watched the older man count it, before nodding in satisfaction.

"Be here before 2pm or get left behind. No refunds," he added.

I nodded, accepted the ticket and left without another word.

Good to know not everyone in this world was a happy go lucky idiot.

That would have gotten tiring real fast.

----------------------------------------

Route 30 was fairly simple like its counterpart in the games.

It was a straight path ahead but it was of course, far bigger than the games could probably scale.

Seriously, if all the games were to scale, it would take months to beat a single Pokemon game.

If I kept at the same pace I took for Route 29 and used the designated roads this time, I'd make it to Route 31 in about 3 hours…

I nodded to myself.

I had time to spare. It was currently 12pm and there was something I wanted to do.

Without any hesitation, I dipped into the forests of the route and released both Chikorita and Zorua out of their balls.

"Rita!" Chikorita trilled and rushed me, jumping into my midsection with a happy squeal.

I rushed to put up my hands before she could drop and deftly caught her.

"Someone's happy to see me," I couldn't help but smile at the grass type. "Sorry about keeping you trapped for so long. I'll let you out as long as possible once we leave the region."

She nodded furiously and took her place atop my shoulder without any hesitation.

"Alright, we leave for Olivine tomorrow and hopefully, we get to Hoenn by the end of the week," I explained to the two of them.

They both nodded, interest clear on their faces.

"Since we've got time to kill… there's something I want to do," I explained. "But first, training."

They perked up at that.

"Chikorita, I want to get you started on three moves. Razor Leaf, Poison Powder and Synthesis. For now, work on Razor Leaf so we can give you more offense," I muttered, showing her the video of all three moves being performed by a Venusaur on the Pokedex.

Razor Leaf and Poison Powder were self explanatory, but learning that the Chikorita family had an easier time than most pokemon learning Synthesis, had me grinning like a lunatic.

Poison Powder was to give Chikorita an easier time learning Toxic in the future. I wanted her and Zorua to be very frustrating to battle.

Chikorita nodded eagerly and trotted off to get started after a few more instructions from me.

"As for you, Zorua…" I muttered, flipping to the information on him.

This Pokedex wasn't Johto exclusive. It was the national variant and it seemed to have information on Pokemon I didn't even know about.

The ones I didn't know about seemed to be from regions I never heard of, named Galar and Paldea and I garnered a guess that those might have been the two games that dropped.

Some of these looked pretty cool.

Interesting… Maybe in my spare time, I'd do some more research but for now, I had no further interest in the later regions.

It was just something I discovered while researching the moves my team could learn.

Something really interesting though, was Technical Machines.

With enough practice, Pokemon could actually learn TM moves without the use of the disk. TMs just made them far easier to learn by implanting the memories of the move directly into their mind.

While that was infinitely more useful, you could still learn the moves without them. It wouldn't make much sense if a disk was the only way you could learn something now would it?

"I want you to learn Pursuit, Taunt and finally Snarl," I told the attentive Dark type.

Pursuit was the easiest offensive Dark move that the Zorua line could learn. It would give him a good grounds to offensively harness his dark type energy and that would help in learning even more in the future.

Apparently, since Zorua was born with Extrasensory, he had latent psychic abilities as well. Not all Zorua's had the capabilities to harness psychic moves, but it should help him learn the few he could faster.

Neat. But that came with the caveat of having a very difficult time learning fighting moves other Zorua's could be born with.

Well that was fine. I'd focus on the dark type moves for now.

Snarl was to give him range, and Taunt was to supplement Torment and limit the Pokemon he was up against even more. All to irritate them even further.

Until he became a Zoroark, he wouldn't quite have the power output it looked like. So I'd need to fight smart with him.

He was already a tricky guy, we could do it.

"Rua!" Zorua nodded in confirmation, gazing at the moves with intent, before nodding confidently to himself.

I gazed at the two throwing themselves into training and felt pretty awkward for just standing there.

Well, no better time then now to start honing my craft.

...How the hell did I hone becoming a better thief?

----------------------------------------

Turns out, this body was capable of a lot of things when I was relying on muscle memories and not my own skill.

I couldn't understate how good of a thief Silver was. He was silent, quick and efficient. It was no wonder he was confident enough to waltz around without any disguise…

Didn't make him any less of an idiot for doing so. Didn't the dumbass encounter Lance and they battled?

How irresponsible was the champ? Or was everyone just that incompetent.

I don't think there was much Silver needed to do to improve his craft besides learning entirely new things.

That's where I came in.

I couldn't consciously utilize Silver's skills. I didn't spend years practicing the art of espionage like he had and it showed in my attempts to practice it.

I was clumsier, louder and not remotely as talented like he was.

It was like night and day, Silver's skills and mine. The kid was really good at what he did.

At least I could fight… that's what I brought to the table.

Bullshit... That's what this was.

My best bet, was observing just how my body acted on autopilot, and try to consciously do the same things.

It was exceedingly difficult but I was getting there. I at least was able to walk quietly now so that was a small win I'd take.

Slowly but surely, I'd reach those skills. It would be a waste to let them vanish into nothing.

I leapt off the tree I was on and wiped the sweat off my brow. The afternoon heat was killer and I had long removed that coat Silver always wore.

Currently, I had a normal black tee on that was matted to my skin from all the sweating.

Silver was also pretty damn athletic for his age. I already knew from earlier, but this guy put his body through quite the regimen. I don't know how much of that was his hard work and how much was the physiology of fictional characters evolving next to land destroying monsters... but I'd chalk it up to both.

Might as well keep him in shape. It was fairly easy to go through a steady routine so I'd keep it up along with my other training.

Not gonna lie, this physical state of this 12 year old was kinda nuts. I don't know if this was how top athletes felt, but running through a workout and not being on the floor exhausted, was a pretty addicting feeling.

I'm pretty sure in my old body I went to the gym a fair bit, but I wasn't a dedicated bodybuilder or anything like that.

Silver felt like his body was at its peak. That was insane, I was 12!

To think I'd be getting older... I didn't even hit puberty yet.

...How bizarre.

We had been training for about two hours, before I called it quits and decided to go find some lake to bathe in because I smelt terrible.

Zorua panted and nodded, banishing the dark type energy around him with a satisfied glimmer.

He had gotten Pursuit down fairly easily and was working on increasing its power output because it wasn't quite strong enough yet.

Pursuit in this world was strange. It's power didn't increase as you were recalling a Pokemon. The move increased in strength when striking from behind.

Pretty perfect for an assassin like Zorua. I'd have to make sure he didn't forget about this move. It had potential.

As for Chikorita, the little Grass type managed to surprise me by throwing out some fierce Razor Leafs. She mastered it way quicker then I expected of her and I was pretty damn proud.

I was impressed by how quickly the both of them got their respective skills down and while they weren't difficult moves, I would still give them the praise they deserve.

I returned them temporarily and headed to the water source I saw earlier, looking at the crystalline clear water with a whistle.

That water looked so damn clear and healthy. The vitality of this world was amazing and I found myself once more basking in it.

...Did my pokemon bathe with water? I'm not sure. I guess I could just find out.

I released both of them and made sure there was no one else in the area before I rummaged through my bag and grabbed some necessary essentials.

I began stripping my clothes off and reluctantly got in the lake only for all the hesitation to melt away as I felt the cool water hit me.

An unintentional sigh of bless left my body at the feeling and I glanced back at Zorua and Chikorita for a moment.

"Feel free to join if you guys want," I offered, before turning towards the Wooper staring at me with a dumb smile.

Zorua watched Chikorita happily accept the offer, by jumping right next to his trainer and sighed before following suit, shaking his head at seeing his trainer have a stare off with the strange Water type.

"Rita!" Chikorita demanded, causing me to take my eyes off the Wooper.

"Want me to wash you?" I asked in amusement.

She nodded happily.

"I'm getting good at understanding what they're conveying," I thought, grabbing the Grass type and scrubbing her scaled hide down.

"Sure thing lil princess," I agreed easily and I proceeded to clean her to the best of my ability.

I marvelled at the scales of the grass type as I cleaned her. It was hard to imagine that Chikorita was a reptile with scales. Thought she was made of leaves and all that but nope, she was actually a little dinosaur who I could hold like a doll... who could kill me without much effort.

What a thought.

Chikorita closed her eyes and sighed in bliss.

My two current pokemon were pretty different in terms of personality.

Chikorita acted very much like a princess. She readily accepted all my affections and offers and sought them out just as much.

It… was kind of adorable. I had a tiny little dinosaur that wanted me to spoil her and it was working out very well for her.

Zorua was a lot more serious in nature. He was sensible and reliable with a good head on his shoulders and a crafty nature too.

He also liked my affections as much as Chikorita but was more reluctant to accept them…

I'd fix that eventually. I liked the little guy.

It was surreal to see such personality in these little animals.

I wonder what my next members would be like... What would they be like? Would their personalities fit up with what I imagined they'd be like?

Would personalities clash? Would they get along? Hate each other?

It was interesting to think about.

Team building was a little more difficult in this world, I imagine… in games you could say, put Zangoose and Seviper on the same team with no issues but here, they would probably try and kill each other.

Huh… well, at the very least I didn't think the next ones I planned on catching had any beef with each other.

And if they did, I'd make them get along.

I didn't wanna give any of them up after all. They wouldn't be easy to obtain in the first place.

----------------------------------------

"Alright, we've got time to kill before tomorrow hits so it's time to do another heist."

Zorua looked up at me curiously at that before nodding.

Chikorita was back in her ball and I was proud that she didn't fuss about it. She understood that if anyone spotted her with me, we'd probably get hunted and separated.

"Last time I… kinda messed up and you saved my ass so let's try to avoid that this time," I informed him with a sheepish smile.

I needed to get better and experience was the best way. So I'd commit little acts of robbery until I was even better than Silver had been.

Getting to his original skill level then surpassing it would be a goal of mine, even if I stopped my criminal acts. It was a pride thing now.

"We're headed to a house near the end of the Route. It should be owned by some guy named Mr. Pokemon and he might have something useful for us," I began.

Zorua nodded thoughtfully, expression shifting into something fitting for a Dark type.

"In case we're being tracked, we'll head up and make sure no one sees us come back, alright?" I said, storming for ideas.

I had no idea if Gold and Crystal reported me yet but I could throw them off my trail by having them think I continued through Violet City or even the Dark Cave on Route 31.

Little did they know, I'd be headed to Hoenn.

"I have a little challenge for you," I said suddenly, gazing at my first pokemon with a glint.

"Zor?" Zorua repeated curiously.

"Yup. I don't wanna return you, but I don't want everyone knowing I have a Zorua just yet. So, I want you to transform into another pokemon with an illusion and maintain it."

The Dark type nodded at my logic, green-blue eyes glinting with intelligence.

After some thinking, I watched in fascination as the air distorted around him for a bit before suddenly stopping.

Zorua was gone, replaced by a Wooper that looked strangely like the one I was having a stare off with earlier.

It jumped on my shoulder and I nodded in approval.

"How tiring is it to use?" I asked curiously. Illusion was insanely useful. The games did it no justice at all.

The possibilities for this technique were endless!

"Zor," Wooper said with a shrug.

"Ah. It's not a big illusion so not much," I nodded.

Wooper looked surprised that I was able to tell what he was saying and I flashed a cocky smirk.

"I'm getting there," I bragged.

I had taken my unruly hair and threw it in a messy ponytail for the time being because it was getting in the way too much and I threw my hoodie up.

I should get a mask or half mask. Would be useful.

Zorua and I walked at a brisk pace through Route 30 and I foul personality to ward off any potential challengers.

Anyone dumb enough to approach me, quickly realized it was not for show as I rudely told them off.

At our pace, we had managed to make it to the location in about an hour and 30 minutes and I had slunk back into the large trees to remain hidden from anyone that could potentially be in the area.

"How're you holding up?" I asked Zorua, ensuring that none of my crimson red hair was visible.

This little challenge of his, also doubled as training. I wanted him to completely perfect Illusion.

Zorua, still disguised as a Wooper, was sweating a bit but didn't look utterly exhausted. He barked quietly to let me know that he was fine and I patted his head in approval.

Good to know Illusion wasn't super taxing at this level. Considering it was every Zorua's innate ability, that made sense...

I took a deep breath and began scaling one of the giant trees, glaring at a lone Pidgey that quickly flew off before turning towards the house to inspect it.

Much like the games, Mr. Pokemon's house was the only one in the area. Not many people wanted houses built in a route. A stray Pokemon attack could send it all crashing and overall, it was an unwise investment for all but trainers.

There was a small garden of apricots outside and a fence guarded the entire thing, though if a Pokemon wanted to get in, they would not be stopped.

It was the the same for me but going that way defeated the purpose of what I wanted to achieve.

His house wasn't huge, but it was bigger then the one I saw earlier in the route full of a garden of apricots. It looked to be two stories and it rested near the large trees I resided in.

I smiled at that.

Getting in wouldn't be hard at least.

I stealthily moved from tree to tree (I told you I learned a thing or two from observing Silver's body movements!) until I was on the one directly next to the house and took a deep breath.

Securing Zorua to myself, I took a deep breath and jumped.

I winced at the slight noise of landing on the roof and immediately ducked low, utilizing my dark outfit to sort of blend in with the roof.

A glance around, showed that no one was outside at least so I moved quietly to a window source, peaking my head over the roof to make sure I actually saw one.

"Bingo," I said.

Palming the Pokeball in my gloved hand, I released Chikorita from the ball.

I put a finger to my lips and she nodded immediately.

"Chikorita, I need you to use your vines to put Zorua right in front of the window," I whispered to her. "Then, Zorua I want you to use a weak version of Extrasensory. Don't break it completely, just make a bunch of cracks appear."

My two pokemon let out quiet noises of affirmation and I nodded, pleased at them.

Two vines appeared from Chikorita and she carefully lifted Zorua, who had dropped his illusion, before slowly dropping him right in front of the window.

Zorua gazed at the window with a look of concentration and fired a weak Extrasensory at it, making the window crack and stopping right before it succumbed under the intense pressure.

"Chikorita, bring him back up and use your vines to gently push the glass. Avoid making noise," I instructed.

The sauropod did just that, placing Zorua gently on the roof before using her vines to gently nudge and push the glass.

It took a bit, but eventually they began falling piece by piece without making nearly as much noise as if I had smashed through with brute force.

Eventually she made more than enough headway for a body to fit through and I returned them both and snuck through the opening.

I leapt from the railing to avoid the discarded glass, glancing around in the interior of the man's house.

The smell of pine brushed against my nose as I inspected the nice furniture and I nodded appreciatively at it all.

It was a nice home. I was currently in a furnished room that let me know the person had money to spend because said room didn't look like it had anyone who slept in here.

Perfect.

This was the home of Mr. Pokemon a friend of Oak in the games. In Soul Silver and Heart Gold, this guy gave you a lot of useful items when you spoke to him.

The most ludicrous, were the Red and Blue orb. Now I didn't expect him to have the two orbs of Kyogre and Groudon just resting in his home, but I imagine he'd have something of value.

It was clearly not in this room.

I closed the last cabinet in here and slowly stood up, making my way to the sole door of the room and quietly opening it.

Before I took another step, I released Zorua and began inspecting the new area.

It was a hallway, with a staircase leading downstairs to the left and two more rooms to the right.

"Zor," Zorua suddenly said, nudging his head towards the staircase.

I raised a brow at that and walked closer to the stairs.

It was clear what Zorua was alerting me to, because I could hear the voice of a man down there.

By the sounds of it, he was talking to someone over the phone or he was senile and having a conversation with himself.

"When do you think Elm will be able to accept visitors?" The voice asked, making me perk up.

I leaned a bit closer to listen in on the conversation.

"That's good to hear… I hear his wife went ahead and distributed the two final starters to the designated trainers. Thankfully, they were the only ones qualified to receive the starters. It would be a shame if a child didn't receive their starter because it was stolen."

I frowned at that. So Gold and Crystal were the only trainers capable enough to receive a starter in New Bark. Regardless of if I stole it or not, one of the Pokemon would have been left behind.

I wonder if it would have been Chikorita no matter what. Gold seemed attached to Cyndaquil in every single iteration that existed and I didn't know enough about Crystal.

Wasn't she affiliated with Chikorita? Maybe Totodile would have been the one left behind this time.

I snorted to myself. Guess we'd never find out. Chikorita was mine and I had no intention of giving her up.

"Still no idea who the thief is? Not to worry, it won't be hard to identify a Chikorita that doesn't wish to travel with its trainer. Signs of abuse should be even easier... Arceus, I hope it hasn't come to that."

That's how they planned on figuring out who stole the Chikorita? God this world was so hopelessly naive.

I guess I didn't have much to worry about if they were going to judge it like that. Chikorita adored me and I had no intentions of abusing her.

But still, I was surprised. Gold and Crystal didn't report me yet? Did they even know I was the criminal?

No, they had to. I wasn't gonna underestimate the intelligence of Pokemon and Totodile looked like he wanted to bite my face off.

So why didn't they report me…

Hm… Crystal seemed smart and she was a coward. She would instantly report me if it was up to her.

But she also deferred to Gold based on what little interactions I saw and my would be rival seemed reckless enough.

Yeah, it was Gold's decision to not report me for sure. Did he want payback?

Idiot, I already said we weren't meeting again.

I grew tired of the conversation downstairs and headed to the two rooms still up here.

The first door was just a bathroom that offered nothing important and the second, was a room full of papers and documents.

A quick search showed nothing that I could really use. Though, this guy really traveled around the world based on the documents I caught glimpses of.

Kanto, Johto... Orre (what region was that?), etc. Hell he had even been to a region called Galar.

What the hell region was Galar? Was that the region with the fire bunny or the fire alligator?

Well whatever it was, it seemed to utilize a phenomena exclusive to their lands named Dynamax.

My interest piqued at that and I grabbed some documents to read over in hopes of learning more about this world.

As long as it was interesting, I had no problem reading on my own accord. But once you forced me? Ugh, just sap the energy out of me while you're at it.

Stuffing a bunch of documents in my bag, I glanced around a bit more and didn't find anything else of not.

I frowned in annoyance.

Downstairs it was.

"We're gonna knock that guy out so we can explore downstairs," I muttered to Zorua.

Zorua gazed at me and nodded, glowing with the power of his ability and wrapping us both in an illusion.

I smiled at him.

Yeah, I liked Zorua very much. He was quick on the uptake of things.

Not a sound was made, as I quietly walked downstairs to assess Mr. Pokemon's situation.

He was an old man, wearing a suit inside his own home (What the fuck was wrong with him?) and he seemed to have finished up his conversation on the phone while I was searching his other rooms.

I didn't see any Pokeballs near him, so I decided to act quick while the illusion was still on me.

We stealthily snuck up on the man and noticed that he was reading a document on something, muttering to himself in visible excitement.

"What a most interesting read! To think I was able to procure myself one. I know I don't have the full thing but just the opportunity to study it..." he muttered aloud.

I couldn't see it from this distance but that was fine. Once I knocked him out, I'd see why he was so excited and take whatever he procured for himself, for myself.

Mr. Pokemon never saw me coming. I tensed my muscles and lunged, hitting him directly on the temple with much less force then I used on Elm.

He didn't even react. The old man was instantly knocked unconscious from the gloved punch and I smiled in satisfaction.

"Nothing personal, old man," I shrugged, nudging him to the side.

Alright, now that that was settled… I could explore this area of the house in earnest.

I wasn't sure what I was here for. This was mostly to put my skills to the test again and so far, it was going exceedingly well.

Zorua dropped the illusion, conserving his energy for later and I idly rubbed his ear. Out of curiosity, I picked up the document the unconscious had been reading.

Theory on Mega Evolution by Augustine Sycamore.

My eyes widened in clear interest.

Wait a minute… was the reason he sounded so excited, what I thought it was?

Didn't he say he managed to procure one?

With renewed vigor, I began rummaging through the entire house of Mr. Pokemon with no more pretenses, all while Zorua and Chikorita (who I had released after knocking Mr. Pokemon out) confusedly followed me.

It was like a hurricane was currently mowing through the house, as I searched for something.

Clothes and papers were thrown around, as I ransacked Mr. Pokemon's house without any hesitation.

There was an almost manic gleam in my eyes as I entered yet another room.

"Zor," Zorua called me.

"Chiko!" Chikorita said as well.

"One second guys, I'm looking for something," I muttered, pushing through useless document after useless document.

Was this guy a researcher? He had so many goddamn documents!

"Zor," Zorua repeated calmly.

"Chiko!" Chikorita followed suit.

"Hold on guys! I'm almost done with this room," I whispered, gazing at the Elixir with a scowl before stuffing it in my bag.

"Zor!" Zorua finally raised his voice.

"Chiko!" Chikorita shouted at me.

I whirled around like I were being harassed by 2 of my children and resisted the urge to glare.

"What is so important that you keep calling me?!" I hissed at the kids.

I blinked slowly at the sight I was seeing.

Chikorita was looking at me with an annoyed expression. In her vines, she was holding an incubator with an actual Pokemon Egg dotted with blue and red marks all over.

As for Zorua, there was a small rainbowish orb directly in front of him with a symbol inside of it.

…

…

…

I stared blankly at my two pokemon, who stared smugly at me in return.

"...Good job," I said gruffly as I played it cool.

They snorted at me and I completely ignored it.

I totally forgot that Mr. Pokemon was the one with the Egg of Togepi and Chikorita managed to find it.

Would I keep it? I didn't really plan on adding the egg to my team but it wasn't a bad addition… It was a fairy type after all and that type was really strong too.

Togekiss was a good addition, but not one I had thought of really.

But... this was a Pokemon that Gold got and that caused a smug smirk to appear on my face.

Alright, it was mine now. Payback for not getting Cyndaquil and pissing me off.

"I'll probably add it to the team when they hatch. Any problems with that?" I asked curiously.

Both shook their head and I accepted the incubator, before stuffing it in my bag.

What type of technology did this world have? This bag was ridiculous. What was the limit?

I shrugged and focused on the item in front of Zorua, eyes lighting up in clear recognition.

This was what had me in a frenzy and I grinned eagerly as I accepted it.

An actual Keystone. The same Keystone that allowed you to Mega Evolve a Pokemon.

If this was the replacement for the Red and Blue Orb, I would gladly take it. The idea of Mega Evolution seemed so far away from me that I never even considered it!

Hell, I wasn't even sure this world had it! It wasn't one of those things you thought of, until it hit you right in the face.

Sure, I was going to the Hoenn region, but I still had no idea what world I was in.

To be honest, the more I learned, the more I got confused. Maybe this was like what Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire mentioned and I was in a completely different timeline, separate from all pieces of Pokemon that we were aware of.

That was the scariest timeline. It means I had no idea what to expect.

But I digress, a Keystone was one half of the phenomenon known as Mega Evolution. It was introduced in the Kalos region which was why I never thought about it... because I never thought about the Kalos region.

But this changed everything.

It would be unreasonably difficult, but if I managed to find a Mega Stone in the future, I could use it!

"Where did you find the Keystone?" I asked curiously.

Zorua blinked, before nudging his snout in my pocket.

Mr. Pokemon's... pocket?

"I'm not even going to say anything," I thought with a scowl before it was wiped off my face in favor of fondness.

"Seriously, great job guys," I praised, patting them both with a small grin on my face.

They beamed at my affections and readily accepted it.

Honestly, just these two were awesome. I never thought I'd find myself appreciating Zorua or Chikorita but my only Pokemon were doing a great job proving me wrong.

I was fully on board with keeping them with me and just the thought of putting them in a box for all eternity, sent a flash of displeasure through me.

I needed to do research on the 6 Pokemon rules. These little guys weren't pixels on my screen anymore. They were living beings now so I didn't want them to be confined.

It was a good thing I wasn't a Pokedex completionist kinda guy. I just caught my favorites and used them.

The Keystone glowed with an unnatural light as I gazed at it, before I stuffed it in the spot of my bag I designated the "Important Items" section.

Who knows when I'd use it, but it certainly wasn't anytime soon. I had no interest in hunting down Mega Stones at the moment until I was strong enough to do it in a quick manner.

Now, I needed to get a custom accessory to embed it into like all the other trainers. I didn't want something basic like a Mega Ring or Bracelet.

Maybe a glove, earring or necklace… yeah that seemed pretty good.

"Alright, let's head out. We got what we wanted," I whispered.

Zorua and Chikorita both nodded in approval, both pleased by the successful heist.

We peaked out of the door and made sure the old man was still unconscious, before heading upstairs and climbing out of the broken window we created.

I landed on the floor and didn't waste anytime vanishing back into the forest.

"7 pm," I thought to myself, glancing at the time. The heat of the sun was gone and a cool breeze had replaced it, brushing against me as night threatened to fully take over.

Not bad. I could probably make it to the outskirts of Cherrygrove by 8:30pm and then I'd get some sleep, train some, and be outta here by 2.

"Let's head out. Chikorita, you can stay out if you want since we're staying outta sight," I informed her.

Chikorita cheered at that and used her vines to hoist herself up on my shoulder without any hesitation.

Zorua followed suit and deftly leapt up with only a slight amount of hesitation this time.

I gazed flatly at the two of them. They were just using me as their own personal taxi now.

"Enjoy it while it lasts. Once you become a Meganium, you'll become my taxi," I promised the Grass type.

At least Chikorita's spoiled nature, was making Zorua relax easier around me. Seeing how I hardly reacted negatively from her actions, let him see that I wasn't a dick anymore.

Good. He deserved to get spoiled for being so useful.

Chikorita's eyes glittered in excitement at hearing me mention she was going to become a Meganium and she nodded rapidly.

"Ru," Zorua reminded me, nudging me forward so that I could begin the trek back to Cherrygrove.

"Fine, fine. We'll do some more training tomorrow morning before we head out so I'll let you guys be lazy for now," I conceded fully, even though I didn't plan on resisting.

"By the way, the egg is a Pokemon called Togepi," I decided to tell them, while walking through the forest. "They're a fairy type that evolves and gains a flying type, so it'll be strong against the both of you type-wise."

Both my Pokemon scoffed at that.

"Rua."

"Rita!"

They refused to accept the fact that they could possibly lose to a Pokemon that hadn't even hatched yet and I thought that was hilarious.

I snorted in turn.

Their confidence in their strengths, pleased me. It made me confident in my next few captures and it made me confident that I could actually survive in this world despite the weird start.

Still though, it was good to know I wasn't the only one with an ego here. Maybe they just picked up on it, but Zorua and Chikorita had quite a bit of pride themselves.

We were perfect for each other then.

I was in a weird situation, with weird shenanigans and some mind tampering but despite that, I was pretty pleased with the plans I had mapped out.

I couldn't help but also be pleased by my on the spot planning too. I never expected to take a boat to Olivine, or add a Togepi to the team but both were decisions I didn't hate at all.

Togekiss would be a strong addition. I'm not sure what role I'd assign for it yet, but I'd figure something out after yet another late night of studying this new world.

I sighed to myself.

Why did they pick such a weird place to put me in? Didn't most stories at least kind of cater to the person on the receiving end of this?

At the very least, why didn't they put me in his body before he broke in. At least give me more control of my life!

But nope. I get put in a criminal's body, where his rival constantly kicks his ass but doesn't turn him in for some reason.

At least I beat Gold in our one and only fight.

If I ever saw him again, I would know for sure that whoever did this to me, has it out for me.

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Authors Note: Hey there. Pokemon story here! Hope you enjoy... gotta few chapters for this one so I'll upload them when I get the chance.

If you're interested in the story and wanna chat you can always join my discord :) Code is: discord.gg/BFFtXAXFU7