Pokémon: Utopia

[Gedanken]

The laboratory; things had been a little on the hectic side there recently. Mostly this was to do with the increase in to-be Trainers, who lined in a polite, but, long-winded queue outside. Samuel was relieved to know he could rely on the help of his aide’s to pass along the required information and many of the other things that came with the job. Who knew that Kanto could become so busy in so little time?

However, in the light of the early morning, as he prepared himself for the day, he found it a pleasant surprise to note that the usual crowd of waiting applicants were absent from the lab’s entrance. He’d and his assistants would have time to prepare then, he thought, heading over to the machine that sat in the back-corner to check on the status of the tamed Pokémon out-back.

It’d been a strange occurance when the fellow professors from their respective regions suggested introducing a minimal amount of each of their respective Pokémon species to the wilderness of Kanto. In all honesty, he’d been hesitant at first. Such a change to these creature’s lives could cause a mass-panic amongst them, but, at the same time it would be an interesting test, to be sure. It had taken two days before Samuel had finally decided on agreeing with their ideas. He was glad months later, to find that the professor’s endeavours proved to be eventful in the long-run.

After all, the Pokémon had been transported to areas best suited to them and, in addition, they would all be youngsters to this new environment, with parents to protect them. Almost a year had passed since then, and things seemed to be running smoothly. The only true problem now; Trainers. New ones. Yes, it was good to see so many new faces going out to traipse the lands and see new sights, but, Oak’s work quickly became tiring throughout the day. In the end, he’d had to hire two more aides to keep an eye out for the young ‘uns.

He sighed and walked over to sit down at his desk. Everything seemed to be A-OK thus far... Hopefully, it would remain that way throughout.

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Everything seemed blurry and unfocused. Why was that? Harry groaned and rolled over, then sat up quickly. Why was he on a bed? Better yet, where was this? He'd been logging in to Pokémon, hadn't he? Quietly closing his eyes, he rubbed them, then opened them again. ... Nope, he was still here. What was going on? This was definitely not right. Despite his worries, he still glanced around, trying to pinpoint his current location. ... Maybe he was in a hospital ward or something. But, then again, it wouldn't be this quiet if that was true. He sighed at his own common-sense, squinting a little to try to make out the fuzzy objects that lined his surroundings. It didn't take too long until things began to clear up, and he was swift to get to his feet. Why the heck was he in a bedroom?

He made to step forwards, though was stopped by the sound of someone calling him, "Cardinal! Today's the day, remember? Get up! You don't want to be late!" He blinked. Late for what? It took him a couple of milliseconds to realize that whoever that voice belonged to had just called him by his online name. 'The heck?' he mouthed, his confusion churning slowly into something a little more dangerous; panic. He was definitely not at home.

It scared him.

[emptychronicles]

"Cassieeeee. Wake up!"

Cassie took the pillow out from under her head and slammed it over her face, trying to drown her mother's voice out. She still needed her sleep. She felt so tired, she had a feeling she could rest for weeks if she had not been disturbed, but now her mother had woken her up, and she couldn't sleep anymore.

"Cassie! Today's the day!"

What day? Cassie's heart plummeted in terror when she realized the voice sounded to shrill to be her mom's.

"Today's the day you're finally getting your own Pokemon!"

Holy-- what?!

Cassie took off the pillow from her face, looking up at an unfamiliar woman with such a tender smile on her face. Cassie immediately got to her feet on the bed, pressing her back against the wall. She was already in good clothes, a turtleneck, white shorts and freaking boots, and when she touched her hair it was freshly bathed. The smell of her lavender shampoo drifted in the air around her. What on earth was going on?

She tried to thank back to what happened the night before. All she could remember was heading straight to her game after taking a nice, long bath, then black. Was that what happened? Was she dead? Was she dreaming?

Cassie pinched her hand and shrugged. Definitely notdreaming.

"Come on, Cassie, it's time to go to Professor Oak's!" Was this woman supposed to be Cassie's mother?

Cassie only nodded and kept her distance, making her way out of the unfamiliar house and to the Lab.

[Gedanken]

It took everything he had to shove the fear to the far corners of his mind and just focus. This wasn't normal, no. But, he couldn't just stand around, right? The only thing he could think to do was ask, "Late for what?"

"Getting your Pokémon, silly!" the voice called back.

... Okay, well, that was definitely not normal. "Uh, alright..." he responded, trying and struggling to keep the panic out of his tone. Was any of this for real? Or was he just dreaming? For now, he'd consider it dreaming. And if that was true, he'd wake up soon. He stepped away from the bed, then noticed how he was fully dressed with the clothes he remembered shoving on earlier that day. He tried to shake it off and headed down the stairs, trying not to dwell on any of the things around him, or his twirling thoughts.

A woman stood smiling up at him from what must be the dining room. He took it in his stride and nodded and smiled right back. "I'm... leaving."

"Good luck," she replied, beaming. "Do me proud."

"... Yeah." This was all so... surreal.

Harry walked over to the door, opened it and headed out for destination number one: the Lab.

[rawkhawk64]

"Bruuuuuuuuutuuuuuuuuuuuuuus! Wake up!"

Brutus groaned, waking up with the sunlight streaming in his eyes. He was enjoying a good-- wait a minute... was he in bed? He got up, noticing that his movements were restricted by clothes. He looked down and saw his clothes that he'd thrown on in anticipation for playing Pokemon again... Black t-shirt, black pants, a black long-sleeved overshirt with over-large sleeve openings, red leg decorations at the bottom of the pants, and red and black shoes. He got up, and heard the voice again, noting with some small surprise that it was female.

"Hurry up, or you're not gonna be able to get a Pokemon!"

Wait, say what? Brutus shook his head. "Something fishy is going on, and I intend to find out what it is... and since when do we have Pokemon outside the game? Where am I anyway? This is definitely not my room, and that lady is not my mother. I'd stake my red hair that something is up here..." he said. He then decided that the best thing to do was to go downstairs, then visit the lab. He went down, and saw his "mother" waiting for him.

"Oh, Brutus. I knew this day would come, but somehow I still get this feeling of sadness... After all these years, I'm going to be alone..."

Brutus just nodded at the appropriate parts. Just what is going on, though? he asked himself. Eventually, the lady who was his "mother" let him leave with one last sentence.

"Just... go and make me proud to be your mother, okay, Brutus?" she asked him.

Brutus just nodded. "Sure thing, Mom." he said. While he appeared to be making it seem normal for him to call this lady "Mom", every part of his brain was screaming Alert! Brutus left and headed for Oak's lab.

[Gedanken]

"Professor! It looks like we'll be having some visitors!" The assistant ran over to stand at a respectable distance from the desk, gasping a little for air. From the looks of things, he'd been out on the field. More than likely the soon-to-be guests caught sight of the man as he retreated back to the Lab. Professor Oak nodded and smiled faintly. "Beginning Trainers?" he asked. The assistant clarified it with a bob of his head. Well, no more sitting around, then. Samuel pushed back his chair and stood up. He walked around the desk to stand in front of it expectantly. It wasn't too long afterwards that the double-doors were pushed back and three teens stepped in. Ah, neighbours. It was always extra special to commemorate the day of the start of the young Trainer's journey that were from his hometown.

"Welcome," he announced. "As you probably already know, I'm Oak. The Pokémon Professor." Since arriving in the Laboratory, Harry had inched his way over to the bookcase to his left. He was a little wary of the other two teens that had came in with him, unsure if he was the only one that was in this strange predicament. He had a certain suspicion, however, as the pair had this look about them, as if they were just as confused as he himself. "As you all know, to set out on an adventure with a Pokémon as your companion has become something of a tradition throughout the decades. If I'm correct in what I believe, you three are also setting out on one of those particular adventures," Oak continued. He gestured to a set of Poké Balls that lined the two shelves at the back of the room; a transparent glass protecting them from the outside world. "In each of these Poké Balls behind me, you will find a different kind of Pokémon. However," and he paused a moment to gesture a second time to a pale green door situated between the pair of shelves, "you can also find a small fenced off section beyond this, where you can interact with other, certain kinds of Pokémon." Within that field roamed poor creatures found injured or abandoned and nursed back to health. One or two assistants kept an eye out, in case fights or the likes were to break out amongst them, as well as ensure that any new Trainers that walked in were safe from harm. These wilder Pokémon were just a little more dangerous, if, for some reason, more popular.

"Decide wisely," Oak added.

Harry bit his lip, glancing at the two strangers that stood close by. Taking a breath, he moved closer to them. It's now or never. "Are you... the same as me?" he whispered. It wasn't the best approach in the world, but, if it worked... Besides, if he got blank looks then he'd know he'd go off to panic in a corner by himself. Still, he was secretly hoping that this was all a dream. Even if it did feel too real to be one.

[emptychronicles]

Cassie walked into the lab, her heart still hammering away at her chest like it was drilling through her breastbone. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes, she still felt drowsy after the queer encounter with the woman that was supposed to be a sorry-excuse for her mother, and only then noticed that there were two more people with her, looking equally as confused. She ran a hand through her hair. At least she still had the numerous highlights in her hair.

Disbelief crawled into her throat as she listened to Professor Oak's speech. She really was in the game, no doubt about that. Everything around her was familiar- she had played Pokémon for a long time, she knew the game by heart. But still, something felt different, gnawing anxiously at her stomach. Something wasn't right. Not just the fact that she was in a Goddamn videogame. Something else.

With a shake of her head, she listened to one of the boy's question and nodded her head slightly, her eyes still on the supposed Pokémon Professor.

"Woke up in a videogame when you were just playing it a second ago?" Cassie shrugged. "Same here."

[Razers Shadow]

Shortly Matt walked into to the lab right after Cassie, as she said Said same here, Matt didn't say anything, Matt just couldn't quite remember where he has seen this place before, if was a dream or in his past memories. When he relised that the others were looking at him waiting for them to get his attention, with it, he took just toke a big breath in and calmed down, and waited like the others in case any more turned up.

[RainbowSanity]

Jonah yawned, painfully sitting up in his warm bed.
"Wake up! Hurry!" he heard impatiently from downstairs.
"I thought it was the weekend!" he protested, "Can't I sleep in?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself, kiddo! You don't even have a Pokemon yet, let alone admittance to PokeSchool!"
Rolling off of the bed painfully, he was jolted into reality. Jonah saw his Pokemon posted, but an alien plush doll sitting on an unfamiliar shelf. He scrambled up and got dressed, sprinting down the stairs and seeing a strange house.
He rushed through the door, and saw a familiar forested path and large laboratory.
"Oh, a lucid dream!" he sighed, approaching the lab.

[Leo99]

Law groaned mentally as sunlight filtered in through the window next to his bed. It was always impossible for him to fall back asleep with the sun's bright rays casting a hue over his bed, but, like always, he'd try anyways. Therefore, he nuzzled his head back into his pillow, catching a side-glance of his room in the process.

A few seconds passed.

Law sat up so fast, he'd swear he would have given himself whiplash if this had been any other circumstance. However, this wasn't any ordinary scenario; a glance around the foreign room enforced that hypothesis. Maybe I fell asleep at a friend's house? But the last thing I remember doing was signing into one of my Pokemon games. . .Am I drunk? That might be what's causing this terrible headache, but something just isn't right.

"Reginald, honey! Wake up! If you don't get a move on, you'll be late to receive your Pokemon from Professor Oak!"

So many things were wrong with that sentence, it worsened Law's headache just thinking about it. 1) That sounded nothing like his mom; 2) She called him Reginald; 3) This stranger mentioned something about receiving a Pokemon from Professor Oak; 4) She called him mother-freaking Reginald! Law jumped out of bed, examining the rest of his room as he did so. While it certainly wasn't hideous, it obviously didn't live up to his slightly more marvelous bedroom back as the estate. He exited his room and descended a staircase to the bottom floor, only to be greeted by a woman that he didn't even vaguely recognize. His hair was a sandy color, but hers? She had dark blue hair.

"Oh, sweetie!" she cried, bawling up and lunging forward for a hug.

"H-hey!" Law stammered, shoving her back.

She struggled to compose herself. "I'm s-sorry, I promised m-myself that I wouldn't do this. It's just. . .you're growing up so fast!" This time, she caught him in a hug that sucked the air out of his lungs, before kissing his forehead. "Now, I don't want to keep you, so hurry on off to Professor Oak's lab!"

Law shot her an incredulous look of fear, of both the situation he was in and of his freakish "mother". He sprinted out of the small house and into a small town that he didn't recognize. A plethora of houses were scattered about the town, but the way that it seemed to be situated near the countryside reminded him all too much of his house back in reality. Maybe I'm dreaming? Law thought. He delivered a rather brutal slap to his cheek, which left quite the stinging aftermath. Nope, that doesn't seem to be it. . .Let's find Professor Oak, and maybe, just maybe, I'll learn why I woke up in this town with crazy town women posing as peoples' mothers.

Law contacted a nearby pedestrian, probably a native to wherever-the-heck-this-was (he assumed it was Pallet Town, but what he would be doing here is beyond him). He calmly asked for directions to Professor Oak's lab, which the stranger seemed all too happy to give him, along with a, "Are you starting your Pokemon journey?"

Law decided not to grace that question with an answer. After all, not even he himself knew what he was getting himself into.

[Gedanken]

At the response, Harry sighed quietly in relief. At least he wasn't the only one. "This is all... a bit surreal, isn't it?" He shuffled a little, glancing to the Poké Ball lined shelves, and then to the door that loomed behind the Professor. "I... This isn't a dream is it?" he added glumly. It certainly felt far from that. It was just so real, and he was only now really getting to grips with that. There was something else, though. Something that didn't sit right with him. Maybe it was the fact that the Professor wasn't going through the typical introduction, or the other thing, being that they had two different options to pick their starter from. He suppressed a shudder. Nope, it was something other than those things. He was sure.

Others were now opening the doors to the Laboratory and stepping inside. One of the assistants pointed them in the direction of the Professor, who was currently still standing at the front of the small crowd. He nodded to the new arrivals with a smile. "Welcome." A second assistant quietly ran them through the introductions, gesturing once to the shelves lined with Poké Balls and a second time to the door behind the Prof. It was a relief to have such help in times like this. Surprising too at how many young men and women were to begin their journey at such an early time. Even now it still came as a bit of a shock. "You are now free to choose from the options provided," Oak announced. "If you have any questions, feel free to direct them my way, or to one of the assistants."