"You can just take that back, Derek Holloway!"

A small crowd was gathered in the grounds of Greenview Children's Home, watching as two boys confronted each other about something one had said to offend the other. Cheers and catcalls, interspersed by shouts of: "Fight! Fight! Fight!" echoed all around.

Only Ursula Olsson hung back, leaning against a fence and trying to look as indifferent as she could. She was eleven-and-a-half years old, a slim pretty girl with hazel eyes and straight light-brown hair which she kept tucked behind her ears with the help of a red Alice band. She wore a green pinafore dress over a white polo shirt, white ankle socks and blue sandals. She tried to stay out of fights if she could help it, but it was hard for her not to get personally involved in this - one of the boys was her brother, Bjorn, and things had a habit of . . . happening where he was concerned.

Right now, Bjorn - who shared Ursula's hair and eye colouring - was staring Derek Holloway, a surly looking fourteen-year-old, in the face. "Why can't you just admit I beat you fair and square?" he demanded.

Derek just glared back. "There's no way a Dewgong could beat a Flaaffy - you cheated, Olsson!"

On the words "you cheated", a change seemed to come over Bjorn - normally not the sort of boy you'd give a second glance to, he raised his fist to Derek, ignoring the fact that the older boy was a head taller than him. Then, his fist started to crackle with electricity . . .

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

Ursula grew concerned - this sort of thing had happened before and it made people look at them suspiciously. "Bjorn! No!" she yelled, breaking the resolution she had made after the last time to stay out of fights. But her words came too late and Derek was knocked sprawling by a well-placed punch on his jaw. All the children in the vicinity turned to look at Bjorn as he struggled to regain his composure.

"Did you see that?!"

"Yeah - but I don't believe it!"

"If I didn't know better, I'd swear that was a Thunderpunch!"

Angrily, Ursula strode over to her brother. "Bjorn, why did you do that?" she demanded. "Everyone treats us like freaks as it is . . ."

"Sorry, Sula," Bjorn said, using the pet name he had for Ursula. "I just couldn't stand that Holloway jerk calling me a cheat."

"Maybe, there are better ways than physical violence."

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Everyone turned as Doreen Mather, the middle-aged matron of Greenview, approached the scene. As usual, she was wearing a navy blue dress and sensible brown shoes - and an expression which clearly said she had policy of zero tolerence when it came to fighting.

"Yes, Derek Holloway, I know it's you - I saw everything on the Closed Circuit," she said sternly as she neared the scene. "And I think it's time you realised that the reason you were beaten was because Bjorn's Dewgong is better trained than your Flaaffy - cheating had nothing to do with it."

"Sorry," Derek muttered, keeping his eyes fixed firmly on the ground to avoid looking Mrs Mather in the eye.

Mrs Mather frowned, determined to make it clear that she hadn't finished with him yet. "So I should hope - and you'll be a lot SORRIER soon. You will get five-hundred lines for this - "I will not make unfounded allegations against others". You will do them in the Common Room after supper and you'll stay until you've finished. Is that clear?"

Derek nodded sullenly and strode off. Mrs Mather turned her attention to Bjorn, who was standing with Ursula and trying his best to look nonchallent about the whole thing. "Could I see the two of you in my study," she asked, beckoning them to follow her.

At these words, a mutter rose up from the assembled children; no-one was ever sent to Mrs Mather's study unless it was really serious. And, even though the Child Welfare Authorities had forbidden such things for years, it was even rumoured that she still kept a cane on top of her filing cabinets to whack people with if they misbehaved.

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

As it turned out, Mrs Mather wanted to speak to Bjorn and Ursula on a matter she had never broached with them before - the real reason they were at Greenview. It had taken a lot of persuading to get her to take on the Chimera Children and agree to keep the truth about what they were hushed up. For the first few years, she had hoped a suitable adoptive family would come forward, but it always came down to the same thing - finding someone willing to take on twins. To further complicate matters, the Olsson children's very existence was illegal, a violation of everything natural.

Not that it mattered to Mrs Mather, who, after her only biological child was stillborn, had devoted her lfie to looking after children whose own parents were unable to do so. To her, Bjorn and Ursula were just two more charges - but there were plenty of people who might think differently and she wanted to prepare them for a hostile world as soon as possible.

Sitting at her desk with Bjorn and Ursula opposite her, she began to explain. "I called you in her on a personal matter - it concerns your parents."

Bjorn looked at her suspiciously. "What's there to tell?" he demanded. rising in his seat. "We already know our parents died in a boating accident and that's why we came here . . ."

But Mrs Mather shook her head. "No, Bjorn, they did not," she said. "In fact, Thomas and Annette Olsson never existed."

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

There followed a long and awkward silence as Bjorn and Ursula struggled to take in these words. When Mrs Olsson judged that the children had had enough time to absorb the news, she continued.

"The truth is that the two of you aren't - fully human." She studied their face to check for their reactions - both seemed completely dumbstruck by this revelations, but she decided it would be kindest on both of them to get this over with. They had been living a lie for eleven years and it was time they knew the truth no matter how painful it was. "Bjorn and Ursula, you are Chimeras, beings bred as part of a top-secret experiment; you both carry Ursaring DNA."

Ursula, who had been reaching out for a glass of water on Mrs Mather's desk, knocked it over and accidentally ruined a pile of letters. "Ursaring DNA?" she echoed. "But - how is that possible?"

"Through an extensive breeding programme - unfortunately, you and Bjorn were the only specimens to survive this long. And that's why we had to arrange so much protection for you. There are people who may not - react favourably to beings like you."

At this, Bjorn leapt to his feet and rounded on the closest person to a mother that he and Ursula had ever known. "Is that it?!" he demanded. "Are you saying we're just . . . lab Rattatas?!"

"Not at all - you're both just as valuable as any living thing. But I would advise you to keep this a secret - if word gets out . . ." Mrs Mather shuddered as she thought of what could happen to Bjorn and Ursula in that eventuality.

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

For the next year, Bjorn and Ursula continued their lives at Greenview. On their twelfth birthdays, both received new Pokemon, a Phanpy for Bjorn and a Vulpix for Ursula, both of them gifts from an anonymous donar and accompanied only by notes bearing the words "you may need us soon" [NOTE: the identity of the person responsible for Phanpy and Vulpix will become clear in due course] The same day, Bjorn captured a Yanma with the help of his Phanpy and, not long after that, Ursula's pet Eevee - which she had had since she and Bjorn were eight - evolved into an Espeon. Ursula was thrilled since Espeon had long been her favourite out of all Eevee's evolved forms. But, always, a cloud hung over the children.

It was just over a year after Derek accused Bjorn of cheating to win a Pokemon battle that it happened. Three official-looking men in grey suits came to Greenview one afternoon and asked to see Mrs Mather on "a matter of some urgency".

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

"This better be important," Mrs Mather said shortly as she rifled through a pile of papers on her desk.

The first of the men, who had a thick moustache and went by the name of Agent Howard Pitt, folded his arms and began without preliminaries. "We represent the Organisation for the Control of Illegal Beings," he told her. "And we've been informed that there are two illegally created human/Ursaring hybrids living in this establishment. Bjorn and Ursula Olsson?"

Mrs Mather bristled angrily, wondering who could have found out the truth about the Olsson children after she had kept it such a closely guarded secret for twelve years. But she knew that, without proof they were not fully human, there was nothing the OCIB could do about them - and she informed the agents as much.

"I think you'll find there are lots of ways," Agent Pitt retorted. "Like blood tests. You must present both of them at our clinic by noon tomorrow and, if our tests come back positive, we shall have no choice but to . . . terminate them."

"No! You can't do that! These are children we're talking about!"

"I think you'll find that we can. I'm truly sorry about this - but, in the eyes of the law, human/Pokemon hybrids like Bjorn and Ursula just weren't meant to be."

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

Unknown to any of the people in Mrs Mather's office, Bjorn just happened to be passing at that moment. Within moments, he located Ursula - playing computer games in the Common Room with two other girls - and pulled her to one side.

"What's going on?" she demanded, angry at being dragged away from Porygon Quest just as she was about to end Sharon Wood's reign as undefeated champion among the Greenview girls.

"Ursula - they KNOW about us!" Bjorn whispered urgently, praying that no-one would overhear them. They were in a cupboard which was officially out of bounds and was, consequently, a convenient place to hold secret meetings.

"What - do - you - mean?" Ursula asked, covering her mouth with her hand as if doing so would change the answer she instinctively knew was coming.

"Somehow, someone's gotten word that we're hybrids - and they've informed on us to that Illegal Beings lot."

For several minutes, Bjorn and Ursula stared at each other, wondering what they should do in order to avoid capture and, ultimately, destruction at the hands of the organisation set up to regulate the creation of new beings with Pokemon DNA. The OCIB made its attitude very clear - the only good chimera was a dead one and, although few members of the public approved of their methods, there was little anyone could do to stop a destruction order if a being brought to their attention was conclusively proved to have been created illegally.

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

It was Ursula who made the decision. "We'll have to run away - tonight," she told her brother, her eyes wide with a mix of excitement and fear. "And one more thing. Bring Dewgong, Phanpy and Yanma - I'll be taking Espeon and Vulpix."

"Our Pokemon?" Bjorn asked, wondering just what she was getting at.

Ursula rolled her eyes at him and explained as clearly and concisely as she could. "For one thing, we'll need their protection - we still can't use all our Ursaring powers and, even if we could, we can't draw attention to ourselves. And besides, if anyone asks, we can pretend we're on a Pokemon journey."

Bjorn nodded, seeing the logic in her plan and hoping it would keep people from asking too many questions. "Okay - and we'd better use false names as well," he said. "They'll be looking for Bjorn and Ursula Olsson - so I'll be . . ."

"John Davies," Ursula supplied, using the first name that she thought of. "And I'll be . . . Janine Davies."

And, at that moment, the children's fight to avoid capture at the hands of the OCIB began.