It was a warm, sunny day in New Haven. Storm Chaser, a nickname he got from his childlike obsession with following storm clouds, stepped out of bed into the light of the bright new dawn, ready to begin his daily routine. Wake up, get dressed, brush brown hair, eat breakfast, check the weather for any interesting developments, do some dishes, clean up the transporter pad, then sit down for a nice mug of coffee; he liked it black, unlike most. This was his morning routine for as long as he could remember. It was simple, just the way he liked things. Being that this was the year 2025, most things were simple and easy. Practically everything was automated, save for a few human designs.

Storm himself was rather puny, only 5'8" in a society that has continuously grown taller and taller throughout the generations. His simple patch of hair on his chin served as the only signs of his age, 25, aside from the rather large bags lying under his iridescent ruby eyes. He was rather skinny and lanky, though it paled in comparison to how most people were. Giant floating potatoes is what most of society has been turned into, thanks in part to fast food.

Gamers, however, always managed to avoid the fat, save for a few exceptions. Some say it's because of the calorie burning, brain turning, sweat building hand motions necessary to play games these days. Others claim that they are addicted to the games, and thus don't eat. One crazy theory states that, "Video Games are full of subconscious messages, telling out children to do heinous acts, sins against god, and to worship Satan. They cut their bodies and rip the fat from themselves in reverence to their dark gods."

His incredibly high metabolism allowed him to eat without concern, but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy certain foods over others. Ramen, a simple Asian cuisine he had dined on during his college years was his main source of nutrition. Cheap, easy to make, and always sold in bulk, it was the ideal food! At least to him, anyway.

After briefly checking his watch, he saw that he was running late, and began freaking out. "Crap! I'm late! Oh man, now i'm probably going to get stuck with a late copy! Argh!" He shouted, throwing on his shoes, and fedora, before stepping onto the transporter pad and hastily keying in coordinates. Now most days, waking up late wouldn't mean much to Storm, as he his job doesn't require him to do ANYTHING, and thus, had infinite free time. However, today was special. Today was the day that Nintendo released it's new system, the PS-I, upon the public.

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The PS-I, or Playstation Intro-neural, was a new piece of technology that integrated the user's own neural inputs directly into the system. This way, the user would actually become a part of the game, and could shape it in infinite ways. The major, and only, launch title for the system is known simply as "Pokemon". No color, metal, jewel, or letter. Just "Pokemon".

From what little details that have been leaked, you and a select few players nearby are each set into your own session of Pokemon, on a newly discovered continent. You play together, or against each other, and all vie for the title of Pokemon Master. There are several way to accomplish this, but the most direct is to become the Pokemon League Champion. That's all that is known so far.

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"Phew, heh, heh." Storm sighed, jogging up the street from the transporter to the nearby store. As he grabbed his slot in line, a man in black appeared behind him, and closed off the velvet rope to signal that there would be no more places in this line. The PS-I is a very expensive and lucrative piece of hardware, only 3000 were produced. Swallowing, Storm sighed, a little with relief, a little with terror. Thank god, I just made it.

"Man, the lag was hell today." One person farther up the line said.

"Yeah, I almost didn't make it through the transporter in time!" A female not far from Storm replied.

"Yo, I heard that some dude lost an arm thanks to all the back-up in the systems," some guy near the front raved. "I even heard there was a server crash in one of the larger cities!" He continued. And all this for one simple game.

"Excuse me! If I could have everyone's attention!" Some very official looking guy at the front of the line was waving his hands, motioning for everyone to calm down. "EXCUSE ME!" He shouted one last time. Everyone finally shut up, as it dawned on them that this guy was the manager of the store. Tensing with excitement, the line slowly began moving forward, as people ran off, screaming in joy with their systems in hand.

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It took a few hours to get the system, and even more time to set it up, but Storm was content that he had done everything correctly. With a nod to his handiwork, the male sat down, relaxed, and began reading the instructions on how to enter the game. There was no disc, no download, just the body suit and helmet device that connected you in. The instructions were ridiculously short, as he read them aloud, "'Step One: Put on the suit and helmet, and lay down on your bed.' Sounds easy enough. 'Step Two: Push the button on the side of the helmet.' Wow, is that really all there is to it?" He pondered aloud, but then shrugged, and threw on the suit and hat. Laying down on his bed, Storm pushed the button, and prepared to enter. A sharp pain erupted at the base of his next, but before he could do anything, he blacked out.

-----

White. Endless white was all he could see. Storm wasn't sure if he was actually seeing anything to begin with. Suddenly, a man appeared in front of him. He seemed eerily familiar to Storm, but before he could do go any farther, the man spoke.

"Hello, my name is Shigeru Miyamoto. Welcome to Pokemon."

Storm was taken aback. "What?! But, that's not possible!" He yelled back, confused. You see, Miyamoto had died several years back, due to 'un-foreseen circumstances.' Everyone had mourned the loss of one of gaming history's most iconic people.

"Hello Storm Chaser, or should I say, Soren. I'll be your guide to the world of Pokemon. Follow me." Miyamoto continued, unfazed by Storm's sudden outburst. As the man turned, the while plain suddenly disappeared, and a world of colors and textures greeted them. Storm was now even more confused as to how this...thing knew who he was, especially his real name!

"Now wait a minute!" the bewildered 25 year-old shouted, taking a step toward the impression of Miyamoto.

Miyamoto continued talking, as if nothing had been said. "This is Neo Bay, where you will begin, along with your comrades. Each of you will choose a starting pokemon, and journey throughout the Caldera and Kirant Region. A grand journey awaits you, so I shall take my leave, for now." Miyamoto then turned toward Storm, bearing the creepiest smile on earth. At that, everything went white again. Storm suddenly felt his consciousness slipping away, as everything then faded to black.

-----

With a start, Storm Chaser awoke, confused and dazed. He was sweating like crazy, and trembling. He tried to remember last night, but nothing came to him. Looking about, he was oddly relieved to find that he was in his room. Staggering to get up, he went to wash his face with some cold water. "Bah!" He exclaimed as the cold water rushed down his face. Righting himself, and gaining his bearings, Storm finally noticed that it was morning. Checking his watch told him it was 8:00 AM, the next day. With a sigh, and a headache, he made his way downstairs to make himself a pot of coffee to take his Tylenol with. Though some things were missing or out of place, he was too tired to notice.

His lazy mindset told him to just not bother trying to remember last night, and instead to just go about his business. With a nod to himself, Storm stretched, and relaxed on his couch with his coffee mug. Checking the weather, as per the usual, he found that once again, it was a Sunny Day, with no signs of clouds. Too bad. We could use some rain here in Neo Bay. Wait...Neo Bay? But...I....

Suddenly, last night came back to him in a series of fast moving scenes, like out of a movie. Rushing outside to make sure it wasn't a dream, Storm was shocked to find that the city of New Haven was gone, replaced with a tiny town. Bewildered, Storm stumbled about, unsure of what to do, or how to swallow all of the information around him. Just as he turned to run back inside his house, he slammed right into the door of another's house. knocked on his ass, Storm sat there for a minute rubbing his still aching head. A girl answered the door, confused at first.

"Why are you in your underwear?" Was the first thing to come out of the girl's mouth.

"Huh?" Storm replied, looking down. Surprised to see that he was indeed lacking pants, he immediately covered himself with his hands. "Dammit, I forgot to do all of my morning routine. Man, everything has been so messed up since I miraculously wound up here." Storm sighed inwardly, before stepping up.

"Miraculously? What are you talking about?" the female replied, one brow raised. "Look, as one player to another, I'd suggest getting with the program. I don't want my unchangeable party to have to have two idiots."

Storm now felt more confused than ever. "Party, what party? What program are you...Oh shit! This is the game!" Sudden clarity hitting like a brick, Storm finally remembered that he had put on the PS-I last night before all the confusion hit. Standing up, Storm brought some confidence to his eyes as he began to comprehend everything that had happened. "Man, they weren't kidding when they said this game would be immersive."

With a "hmph", the female smirked, before snarkily replying, "Well duh! Now hurry up already, we have to get to the boat so we can get our starters. That other dumbass in our party left beforehand, saying something about being too powerful to need partners. At least one of us is smart enough to get with the program. Now go get dressed, I'll meet you at the boat in 10 minutes." She remarked, shooing Storm away. As he stumbled back to his house, careful to keep his boxers covered, the girl shouted again, "And don't be late!" before slamming her door shut.

Running upstairs to his 'bedroom,' Storm tore the place apart, looking for his pants. "They've gotta be here somewhere. You can't just LOSE a pair of pants like this!" After about 5 minutes of searching, he finally found them downstairs, on the couch. Practically jumping into them, Storm tightened the belt, and headed for the door. As he opened it, something caught on his belt, falling to the ground. A small red and white ball rolled around, before opening and releasing its inventory. A small yellow and red lion cub looked up, before racing around the house. Storm attempted to chase after it, but it was too quick. After a few minutes of chasing, he finally remembered that this was a Pokemon game. All he had to do was grab its ball and tell it to return. Easy enough.

Scooping up the pokeball, he waited until just the right moment, before yelling "Return!" The cub was caught in mid-air, before becoming a stream of red light that entered the ball. Nodding to himself, Storm reattached the ball to his belt, and ran off in the direction of the boat.

-----

As he neared the water's edge, Storm noticed that something was off. There was a dock here, but no boat! Looking around for the girl, and the boat, Storm ran back toward town. Just before he made it, a masked man with a strange looking top hat and cape appeared in front of him.

"What the hell?!" Storm exclaimed, stopping in his tracks. "Who the hell are you?" he asked his opposite, who stood there, refined and reposed.

"I, am The Marvelous Lester, Magician of sorts, and Hacker Extraordinaire! I'm the soon to be ruler of this game world. And after I conquer this session, I shall consume all the others! All of your minds shall belong to me. But for now, I'll be content with taking out you." At that, the masked villain shot a bright beam out of his staff, aimed directly at Storm. Bracing for the worst, the beam engulfed him.

"What?!" Lester shouted, shocked to find Storm there, still bracing for the beam that had already passed through him. "That's not possible! My virus should have initiated the kick-out code in your helmet! Why didn't it work?!" Finally realizing that nothing had happened, Storm opened his eyes, and unbraced himself.

"What the heck was that?" Storm questioned, confused once more. He readied himself for another blast, just in-case, but something tingled at the base of his neck. For a second there, he felt a bit detached, as if everything was far away, but then he came back down to earth.

"There must be something wrong with your code. I can't just eliminate your game self like I did the girl." Lester accused, gritting his teeth. With a deep breath, the hacker plucked a ball from behind his back, and threw it. Out popped a small, light blue dolphin. It swam through the air as if it were water. Something felt off about it, however, there was this look in its eyes. "Guess I'll have to do things the hard way," Lester began readying himself to do battle. "I'll beat out your pokemon, and then wipe you from the game by hand!"

Storm only stood there in shock, unsure of what to do. Suddenly, the lion cub popped out of it's ball, and charged at the floating mammal, claws extended. "Uh, right!" Storm started, beginning to remember how pokemon battles worked. "Try and claw its underside!" he finished, unable to remember what the pokemon or attack was called. The celsinge, interpreting it's trainer's command, dashed forward in the blink of an eye, attempting to claw the water mammal.

OOC: Sorry about the long post. I just started writing, and this whole thing kinda just spawned in my mind as I went along. Still, I think it has some merit.

Anyway, TL;DR: Just check the last paragraph to find that Celsinge used Scratch against Echoise.