Prologue:
Viridian City, Spring 2008…
If one was to step down the stairs of the Viridian Pokémon Mart's off limits area without knowing what was held down below, all they would see to their horror, was a row of narrow tubes lined up against all four sides of the large underground area. The tubes spawned from the ground to near the ceiling; their contents inside would seem like nothing but dark, lifeless objects huddled in the clear water to minimize their size. Several bubbles would float up from time to time from the oxygen tanks installed down below, and at the very back of the cave, a large monitor attached to the rugged stone would flicker every once in a while with long streams of coded characters running one after the other.
But for Professor Robert Jones who knew what the area really held, however, he would take four certain steps to the left and flick on the switch hidden behind a panel of stone. He would then watch the lights descend down from the ceiling to illuminate the environment below. Sterile equipment, glistening white in the bright light of the room, would lead up to the many laptops sitting innocently on the large counters, their screens black as they hummed in sleep. Thick wires attached to the backs of them would slither over the tabletops to the cylinders against the walls where many Pokémon rested, floating in their drugged sleep, before separating to join up with the main screen at the back of the room.
Beside at least five black, thin computer screens rested a silver platter of tools that lay beside each other one by one, as clean as the day they were made. Their metal almost had a malevolent feel to them as they glinted off their reflections under the lamps. Several cabinets stood tight against each other, on both sides of the large screen that served as the main database. Each handle was locked tightly together by small, golden lockets.
Deep in an underground facility, experiments were being conducted and Pokémon were being cloned. Due to the processes involved, they gave off tremendous amounts of gamma radiation, a dangerous kind of wave. It is because of this radiation that the facility had to be located underground. The cloning was normally done at level seven and the average depth was around five thousand, six hundred metres. Professor Robert Jones, the head scientist, was currently working on cloning a Meowth. The process had been successful so far.
He waited for a few minutes and smiled faintly to himself when a Meowth – exactly as he had imagined it – appeared in the cloning tank beside him. The tiny cat, with pale cobalt fur spotted with lavender blotches and a gold trinket on its brow, slept serenely. Its small front legs and huge hind paws were seen underneath it in a curled, foetal position. The cloning tanks themselves were circular glass tubes and connecting the Pokémon to the tanks were thin, flexible wires. Each of the several dozen cloning tanks had a screen in front of them that displayed vital statistics in complex graphs and detailed charts. Percentages flashed across the screen, slowly rising.
Stopping work to have a well needed break, he strolled over to have a look at the work of his colleagues'. In one tank was a sound asleep Growlithe. The small, orange dog also lay in a foetal position. A mane of amethyst hair covered the top of its head, while below its chin was a large beard of the same fur. Black stripes covered its body, giving it a feline look, and the normally fluffy tail was actually two small, ribbon-like tails that swerved by movements known only to them.
Adjusting his glasses, Robert spoke to his colleague. "How is the progress of the Growlithe clone?"
"It's going well, sir," the junior scientist replied, trembling from a little excitement. "Its vital statistics are slow to rise, which is worrying. Other than that, everything is going according to plan."
"Very good," the head scientist answered back, placing a hand on his colleague's shoulder. Dressed in a white laboratory coat and black boots, with the traditional glasses that scientists wore, he had a look of power about him. "It doesn't really matter that its statistics are rising a bit too slowly, as it will reach one hundred percent sooner or later."
Turning away from the junior scientist, he faced the other cloning tanks and observed the rest of the scientists working on the other genetically engineered Pokémon. It looked as though Professor Robert Jones was about to speak, when he was interrupted by a hesitant cough.
Another junior scientist, whose scientific intellect was inferior to that of his superiors, raised his hand in a questioning way. Prone to talk out of turn, he carried on, regardless of the fact that Robert hadn't even turned his cold blue-eyed gaze on him. "Boss, who gave us all of this money in the first place?"
"You imbecile!" Professor Robert Jones started. "We will find that out in due time! For the moment, keep your head down, bottom up and get working!"
Shaking his head in dismay as he walked away, Jones couldn't help thinking. Some of these junior scientists are just not meant to be in the scientific workforce.
An hour later, the scientists had finished their work on the cloned Pokémon. Taking in each of the experiments' features didn't take long, and Professor Robert Jones nodded slowly. "This Treecko," he began, "what's the progress report on it?"
The Treecko was a small bluish-grey reptilian being. It happened to be gifted at ascending trees in no time at all, and its hands and feet had spikes on them. An outstandingly thick and cumbersome tail, more or less the length of its body, grew from its rear.
"It was one of the last to reach one hundred percent, sir," another scientist answered.
"I see," he replied.
"Sir," the junior scientist started off. "How will we know how strong these Pokémon are?"
"I'm not sure, Blake," Robert responded. "But I hope we find out soon enough."
Later, the ageing Professor Oak was having a conversation with an aide who had just come back from a secret mission. The Professor was old, and the aide young, but Oak still insisted that he was young-spirited.
Oak's greying hair was trimmed neatly, as it came down just short of his ears; whereas the aide's long brown hair came down to his shoulders and he also had the beginning of a goatee. Both Oak and the aide wore long white lab coats, but Oak's fell down to his black boots and the aide's stopped in between the knee and the ankle. The assistant also wore a short-sleeved grey v-neck jumper over a blue business shirt.
"How was everything? Were you able to smuggle a few of them away, Mike?" Professor Oak asked quietly, his voice a bit hoarse.
"It went perfectly," Mike answered. "And yes, I got a few of them with me. But being a double-crosser isn't easy. If they find out, we're history."
Mike paused and drew four gleaming, red and white Poké Balls from his pocket. "The majority of them were Kanto-based creatures, but there were others – from Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh – who weren't native. The security cameras were malfunctioning, as well, which proved handy."
"Are these four worthy of being classified as you-know-what?" the researcher questioned, his grey eyes appearing to glint for a moment.
The aide looked at his mentor and nodded silently. He handed the four spheres over to Professor Oak, who placed them in the small dome. Mike looked away briefly, thinking of the scientists he had deceived, but was jerked out of his reverie by an expectant Professor.
"Did you not hear me? I asked which ones they were," the researcher repeated.
"Budew, Growlithe, Spheal and Shinx," the aide answered.
"Thank you for your time," Professor Oak replied, with a genuine smile on his face.
At the same time, he wondered what had been going on in his aide's head before he had had to repeat himself. But for now, the next Pokémon League season was rapidly approaching and that meant he would have to devote time to drafting up trainer cards.
That evening, the sunset cast long shadows over the town of Pallet. As Charles Ryder Harris, blonde-haired husband of Fiona, sat in his wheelchair on the back patio he reflected on how one incident changed his life forever.
All I had been doing was watching the Dratini evolve into Dragonair in the Fuchsia City Safari Zone. I suppose I should've kept my eye on the Rhydon herd as well, because all of a sudden there was an explosion. They panicked and started stampeding in my direction. Even to this day I knew I should have gotten out of their way then, but I was still entranced with the evolving Dratini colony and I failed to realize that the herd's speed was deceptive. Because of that, I misjudged my escape time. They loomed ever closer; I tried to get out of their way, but it was too late. The herd steam-rolled over me and that's how I ended up the way I am today.
