Professor Elm sat at his computer, typing up some sort of report. This is actually quite normal for him, but the report he was typing was hardly normal. Professor Elm was a renown Pokemon researcher, but the report wasn't about any sort of pokemon. A month ago, the young professor had found an abandoned lab facility close to New Bark Town, and he's been investigating what was going on in there. It was obvious that this wasn't a normal research lab like his own. Once he finished typing, Professor Elm read over what he had just typed today.

"The lab found north of New Bark Town appeared to hold some kind of experiment that didn't just involve Pokemon. I found a lab journal of the experiment that detailed everything going on. A human experiment was going on there, but every subject they had died from it. They were attempting to create something called a "chimera" by splicing human DNA with Pokemon DNA, or even splicing the DNA of two different kinds of Pokemon. Even though this experiment failed, it reported successes at labs in the Kanto region, more specifically, labs in Glacier City, Mt. Moon, and on Cinnabar Island. If this is true, and those chimeras are still alive today, they could pose a serious problem from what I've heard from the lab reports. As a scientist, I am actually appalled by such an experiment. Experiments that can harm pokemon is bad enough, but human experimentation like this is the worst thing a scientist can do."

Professor Elm sighed as he shut down the computer. He never thought he would find anything like this. All of it was rather hard to swallow, but lab reports like the one he found never make up these things. He still couldn't figure out who would do such a thing, though. There was no name of any sort of organization in the reports.

After another day of hard work, Professor Elm finally got up and grabbed his coat. He needed to get home or his wife would be all over him again. Of course, that should be the least of his worries.

Chimera Saga: Renegades
Chapter 1: Exile
Author: Izumi Ryu
Original Concept by: Theo 'Blitz' Leung
Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own Pokemon. Blitz owns Chimera Saga (though to say I haven't had a hand in it is a lie). Again, the new characters that appear here belong to either Blitz or me, and we both require permission for them to be used.

"Ryan! Time to get up!" a woman called out.

Ryan Klier slowly opened his eyes, not exactly wanting to get up for the day, a typical response to waking up for a teenager. Then, he felt something lying on his chest. His eyes shot open and looked down to see a Cyndaquil sleeping peacefully. He hated to wake the mole-like pokemon up, but how else was he going to get out of bed.

"Hey, Ken. Wake up," the boy said, nudging the fire-type.

The Cyndaquil finally stirred and slowly woke up. "Morning already? Man, I was having the best dream," Ken muttered.

"Knowing you, it involves food or beating the crap out of the neighbor's Totodile," Ryan remarked, knowing full well of Ken's hatred of water types, and food was pretty much on his mind most of the time.

"Got it in two," the Cyndaquil remarked with a grin on its face. "No matter how good my day is, that damned Totodile manages to ruin it."

"Well, can you get off of me so I can get ready? Professor Elm needs me to take over the chores for him again," the teen asked, as the Cyndaquil jumped off the bed. He threw the covers off of him and started to crawl out of bed. As he stood up, you could could see he had a bit of a muscular build. He was a bit short for his age. He walked to his closet and started to rummage around, looking for something to wear over his boxers. Ever since he started helping Professor Elm, he's been too tired to really clean things up in his room, so it was a bit of a mess at this point.

He finally picked out a white t-shirt with some bluejeans to wear and quickly slipped them on. Then, he practically ran out of the room with Ken trailing behind. Even though it would be easier to carry Ken with him in a pokeball, Ryan never felt it was right for some reason. He preferred having the Cyndaquil around to talk to anyway.

"Bye, Mom. We're heading to Professor Elm's lab now," Ryan yelled as the two ran out the door.

Ms. Klier sighed. He had grown quite a bit, seeing how well he's handled working for Professor Elm for the past couple of months. Though, he has slacked a lot on his chores at home, it was almost expected considering that he's not used to working long hours at the lab. Then again, it was bizarre enough that he didn't start on a journey like most people did when he first got his Cyndaquil. Then again, the Cyndaquil apparently got plenty of training while he was with Ryan.

She then tried to brush her concerns away and continued with her own chores. There really wasn't anything to worry about Ryan at all.

A Noctowl slammed straight into an already battered and bruised Tyrogue, not even giving him a chance to get up off of the ground. The Noctowl's trainer stood behind it with a look of annoyance. "Stupid Tyrogue. Why are you so intent on keeping us away?" the male said.

"I'm...not...gonna...let you...near him," the Tyrogue could barely say, struggling to get up.The owl pokemon tackled it again, knocking it a few more feet away.

"What? Is Professor Elm that valuable to you?" the boy said.

"Not him..." he muttered, wanting to get up so badly, but at this point, he was too far gone. He had to protect a certain boy from this guy. He would never let Team Rocket get their hands on him, even if it costs him his life. The humanoid pokemon finally tried to get up, but couldn't, not even able to lift itself off the ground.

"Whatever. Nighthawk, teach this thing what we do to useless pokemon that get in the way," the human said.

The Noctowl would comply, had it not noticed the Flamethrower attack coming straight at it. The bird dodged the flame attack and looked at its assailant, a Cyndaquil with flames coming out of its back, showing that it's ready for battle, followed by a boy that had to be a bit older than its trainer.

"Geez...this is rather sickening. It's people like you that make me lose faith in the human race," Ryan said.

"You have no clue what you're talking about kid," the new trainer muttered, looking at his new opponent with even more annoyance. "Nighthawk, Confusion." The Noctowl's feathers above its eyes started to glow blue, preparing for the psychic assault.

"Smokescreen, Ken," Ryan ordered. Ken complied, spitting out smoke in order to conceal its location. The Noctowl looked in confusion, not knowing what else to do while descending, trying to find the fire-type.

"It's in range, Tackle it!" Ryan ordered. The Cyndaquil jumped straight out of the smokescreen, slamming into Noctowl head on.

"Nighthawk, you moron!" the opposing trainer shouted.

"Finish it! Flamethrower!" Ken finally spat out another stream of fire at point blank range, burning the owl pokemon quite effectively. It finally fell to the ground, no longer able to maintain flight. Ken jumped off of the owl as soon as they hit the ground and glared at the human.

"That was easy," Ken muttered. "That Noctowl was pretty weak."

"Oh, geez...you get a challenge and then you complain," Ryan moaned.

The other kid looked at Ryan and and the Cyndaquil, conversing between each other. He thought he was one of few that could understand pokemon at all. It couldn't be possible that this kid could be just like him.

He had other things on his mind though. He walked up to the Noctowl and kicked it while it was down as punishment for failing. The Noctowl rolled a few feet and stopped right next to the Tyrogue it was beating up earlier.

At this, Ryan snapped from his conversation with Ken and charged at the other trainer, landing a punch to his face, causing the guy to spit out some blood and teeth. He tried to retaliate with a punch of his own, but Ryan simply moved his head out of the way and delivered a reverse roundhouse kick. That kick had sent Ryan's opponent down onto the ground.

Ryan thought this would be the perfect time to leave the guy alone. "C'mon, Ken. Let's get these two to Professor Elm," Ryan told his Cyndaquil, as he picked up the two battered pokemon.

"Right behind you, Ryan," Ken confirmed as Ryan ran as fast as he could towards Professor Elm's lab.

"It's way too obvious," the boy muttered. "He's like me. There's no other explanation for being able to communicate with Pokemon like that." He started to get up slowly. He had to continue his original mission, even without Nighthawk. However, that kid he just faced was going to be at Professor Elm's lab. Ryan was tougher than he expected, but even if he was a chimera, Professor Elm's assailant still had one thing left up his sleeve. A strong breeze started up as soon as he started walking, following Ryan to the lab.

Ryan rushed in the front entrance of Professor Elm's lab, getting the man's attention. "You're a little late, Ryan. Is something wrong?" Professor Elm asked. Ken dashed in right after he asked that question.

Ryan handed the professor the two pokemon he was holding. "These pokemon were beaten up pretty badly. They need to be treated fast," Ryan replied.

Professor Elm nodded as he carried the two pokemon to the back room. "I'll work on them immediately. Just go ahead and start on the chores," the young man told the teen.

Professor Elm looked back at Ryan as the teen ran back towards the fields. He sighed, realizing he'd have to hold off the investigations of the abandoned lab for a while until these pokemon were back to full health. Those investigations were the real reason why he needed Ryan to help take over the chores here. He just didn't have the time to handle both.

Then, he looked at the two injured Pokemon. It's not exactly everyday you'd find a Tyrogue and a Noctowl at the same time. It was odd enough to find a Noctowl during the day, so it was a bit obvious that there was some sort of battle going on.

There were several burn marks on the Noctowl, evidence that he battled with some sort of fire-type. The Tyrogue with it shouldn't know any fire attacks. There was a possibility that Ryan fought against this Noctowl, so he would need an explanation from him.

The Tyrogue was cut and bruised in several places. It looked like it simply took more of a beating than it should have. This pokemon was abused, possibly by the Noctowl that came with it. Professor Elm sighed, knowing full well that things could get ugly when these two pokemon wake up. He better keep an eye on them.

Tyson flew back and onto the ground after being on the receiving end of another kick. The Tyrogue looked up, seeing his sparring partner offer him a hand up. Tyson gratefully accepted it and pulled himself up on his feet. "Thanks," Tyson replied to the young boy, possibly no more than 12 or 13 years old.

"Your welcome," the boy replied in a depressed tone. He only wore a white T-shirt and pants. It basically looked like a typical gi without any belt to go with it.

Tyson looked up at the boy in concern. "Are you okay? You seem disturbed by something."

"It's the girls. They want me and my brother to get them pregnant," the male chimera said.

"And? Is it that big of a deal?" Tyson asked, confused as to why something like that would bother his sparring partner.

"It's just more complicated than you think, Tyson. You wouldn't understand."

The Tyrogue shrugged as he set himself in a defensive stance, ready to continue their sparring match.

The Tyrogue stirred as he started to remember something from back when he was stuck in that lab. He missed that kid a lot, but it was something he needed to do. He finally opened his eyes and started to sit up, sore in several parts of his body. 

He suddenly remembered the Noctowl and trainer that was picking on him and looked around. Tyson recognized the room as some sort of laboratory, but it was different than the ones he lived at before. This one didn't seem like it was made for inhumane experiments. Then, he looked at the table next to him to find the Noctowl that was picking on him before, who looked pretty bad, considering it picked on him. It made him worry a bit that that human was around.

Tyson waking up finally caught Professor Elm's attention. Tyson looked at the man with a skeptic expression on his face. "Hello," Professor Elm greeted. He looked friendly, but so has every other scientist he's met before. Elm held some sort of spray bottle in his hand, which could be anything. 

Tyson wanted to run, but he was in too much pain to do so, as the professor finally reached him. Elm then sprayed some liquid onto Tyson, which helped for his muscles to become a bit more relieved.

Tyson looked up at the man in confusion. He didn't know what to think. "Just rest a little longer and you'll be fine," the professor said with a smile, before walking off to attend to more duties.

"I'm done, professor," Ryan said as he walked in from the back. Tyson appeared relieved to see a familiar face. Then, he looked over to the table where the Tyrogue and Noctowl he brought in were. He was glad that the fighting-type would be okay.

"Thank you, Ryan. By the way, I have a question for you," Professor Elm told him. "What happened to those two pokemon you brought in?"

Ryan sighed, trying to figure out how to explain what happened. "On the way here, I found the Noctowl and its trainer picking on and abusing the Tyrogue. I intervened and battled the trainer and defeated the Noctowl. After that, the Noctowl's trainer hit his own pokemon. I kicked his sorry little ass, picked up both pokemon and ran here as fast as I could."

Professor Elm nodded, understanding the whole story. However, he was worried about the other trainer. Ryan should have reported him, but Ryan did have the right idea to bring the two pokemon in for help immediately. There's a good chance that the trainer may attack Ryan for revenge.

The main entrance to the lab flew open as the trainer Ryan was talking about walked in, smirking. Ryan turned to the trainer and glared at him. "What do you want?" Ryan asked. "Another ass-kicking?"

"I have some business to take care of here," the trainer said, brushing off Ryan's comment.

The trainer's appearance caused the Noctowl to stir. "Fuujin..." a feminine voice from the Noctowl trailed off.

"Shut up, Nighthawk," the trainer told the bird pokemon. "I'll deal with you later."

He can understand pokemon, too? Ryan asked himself. Then, he shook the question off. "If you want your pokemon, too bad."

"Actually, I'd abandon her here if it weren't for one minor problem. Isn't that right...Chimera?" Fuujin told Ryan.

Professor Elm paled at the mention of that word. He wanted to know how did this boy know about the chimeras, and why was he calling Ryan one. Ryan just looked confused. "What are you talking about?" Ryan asked.

"Haven't you noticed that you were different from everyone else? You're able to understand what a pokemon is saying. One of the crucial marks of a chimera. You are not human," Fuujin explained, grilling Ryan with that last line.

"I don't know what this bull shit is, but you better get out before I kick your ass again," Ryan threatened.

"Idle threat," Fuujin said. "Besides, I'm not here for you."

Ryan became worried when a breeze started to fill the room. The front door was open, but it wasn't enough to create a breeze throughout the whole building. Then, Fuujin looked at Professor Elm. "Die," Fuujin muttered, as he held up a hand towards Elm. A strong gust suddenly blew Professor Elm back against a wall.

"Wind?" Ryan asked, stunned by the display of power, but he had other things on his mind. For some reason, this kid wanted Professor Elm dead. He didn't have time to make sense of what he just saw, so he charged at Fuujin. 

Fuujin simply turned around and held both of his hands forward, forming a small tornado in the room with enough power to pick Ryan off the ground, then throw him against a wall.

"Ryan!" Ken yelled. The Cyndaquil's back ignited on fire and spat out a stream of fire at the freak attacking them all. Fuujin just smirked as he used another gust of wind to cancel out the fire, then blow out the fire on Ken's back before throwing him into a book shelf. 

Fuujin then looked back at Ryan, who had gotten up just in time. Professor Elm noticed this, and thought it was stupid for Ryan to get up, but Ryan still seemed fine after being thrown against a wall like that. It just proved more that Ryan wasn't human.

Fuujin then manipulated the wind to pick up one of the book cases. Suddenly, the book case flew right at incredible velocities, first slamming into Ryan, then through the wall, out of the building. Ryan landed on his back with the bookcase on top of him.

The people in the area looked to see what was going on. It wasn't everyday you see a bookcase fly through a wall. However, what surprised them even more was that Ryan pushed the bookcase off of him. "It's Ryu!" one of the kids yelled, recognizing Ryan. Ryu was a nickname given to Ryan after he beat up a few bullies in school. He just seemed unbeatable like the dragons, but looking on at this fight, it looked like Ryan finally met his match.

Fuujin just smirked as he stepped out of the lab through the hole he created. He was having way too much fun. He should have gone to kill Professor Elm first, but Ryan was capable of stopping him. He needed to take care of the boy first. He started to form a very powerful gust that would throw any person away. Ryan expected this and started to brace himself, holding his arms cross-wise and in front of him, though he really doubted it would help as much as his feet being spread to hold himself steady.

Most of the people stood in awe as the gale sent at Ryan didn't seem to do what it was intended to do. Albeit struggling, Ryan managed to remain firm and stay standing. Because it was such a struggle, though, he didn't notice that he wasn't feeling cold air at all. Fuujin looked surprised, trying to figure out what was going on. He thought Ryan was just a fighting chimera, but Ryan managed to erect a Light Screen

Eventually, Fuujin wore out from the sustained gale, which gave Ryan enough time to finish this fight. As soon as the gale stopped, he charged right at Fuujin. First, he drove his fist into Fuujin's gut before landing another punch on the underside of his chin. That punch threw Fuujin up into the air and landed on his back.

Ryan finally stopped, looking down at the unconscious wind chimera. The boy's body couldn't last since Ryan beat him up before, which explains why he was so easy to beat once he got past all the wind tricks, but he still had a lot of questions. Ryan then looked around, noticing all the people gathered around him, none looking very happy, most of them had this look of confusion. Ryan has faced many bullies, and even after this fight he had, never in his life had he been so afraid.

"Ryan!" Professor Elm called as he tried to get to the boy. However, the crowd didn't allow Professor Elm through. All Elm could do was watch what was about to unfold.

"What do you want?" Ryan asked, trembling in fear of what would happen next.

The crowd never answered. Ryan just felt more and more cornered, a feeling he hated the most. He just wanted to get out of there. After blinking once, he looked around. The crowd seemed to disappear, but it was as if everything shifted while he wasn't looking. He turned around to see the crowd that had surrounded him was behind him. As much as he wanted to make sense of things, he didn't have time and just ran, the crowd started shouting random obscenities and throwing various objects that would hurt him if they hit. 

Ryan didn't care where he ran. He just let his body take him wherever it wanted to go as he left the town. All he wanted to do was run away.

Ryan sat against a tree next to a pond, as the sky darkened that evening. He just slowly picked up another rock and tossed it into the water lazily. This was a place Ryan always ran to when he wanted to be alone. No one ever bothered to come here. It was too far away from town, since not many people in town carry pokemon with them to protect them. Ryan didn't really care though. He just wanted to enjoy the solitude.

All of a sudden, a Cyndaquil jumped into Ryan's lap. "Ken?" Ryan asked, looking at the Cyndaquil strangely.

"You were expecting a Charizard, maybe?" Ken smirked.

"But how..." Ryan started before he heard some sort of bell sound. Ryan turned around to see Professor Elm riding up to him on a bike with a Tyrogue and Noctowl. "That explains everything," Ryan sighed, knowing that both Ken and Professor Elm knew where Ryan liked to go.

"Are you okay, Ryan?" the young man asked.

"No, professor, I'm not. I'm confused. What's wrong with me?" Ryan asked.

"Nothing's wrong with you, Ryan. None of this is your fault," Elm reassured the teen.

"If nothing's wrong, then...what am I?" Ryan asked.

Professor Elm was now very glad he started investigating that abandoned lab. "When I asked you to start helping me, I had discovered an abandoned lab somewhere outside of town. I started investigating it and found out that there was an inhumane experiment that was being conducted there, by fusing pokemon DNA into humans. However, that whole experiment failed, but in their records, there were others like it." Elm explained.

"So I'm a chimera like that guy called me?" Ryan looked up at Professor Elm, who only nodded. Ryan just sighed, trying to let it all sink in. He just couldn't believe it, but his performance earlier explained everything. "What am I supposed to do now?" Ryan face-palmed as he asked this. It just started to become very frustrating.

"Whatever you do, you should not return home," Elm told him. "Everyone will turn on you the moment you step into town, even your mother. The chimera that you fought was arrested and is continually tormented by the civilians. It's strange that he doesn't react to it. It's as if he expected it."

Ryan sighed. "Go figure. It's not like we're human anyway."

"You're just as human as anyone," Elm shot back. "Don't ever think otherwise." Then, Elm took off a backpack he was wearing, and handed it to Ryan. "Here are some supplies and fresh clothing you'll need. I also registered the Tyrogue and Noctowl you brought in under your name. They have completely recovered from earlier today."

"Why are you doing all of this for me?" Ryan asked.

"I'm just doing what I can to help you. After this, you're on your own. I would suggest getting as far away from here as possible, though," Professor Elm told him.

"Thank you," Ryan said, bowing. "But where should I go?"

"I would suggest trying to go straight to Violet City. You'll be far enough away that no one from here will bother you."

"I understand," Ryan said. "I guess this is good bye, then."

"Good luck to you," Elm replied, as Tyson and Nighthawk approached their new trainer, Tyson trying to stay as far away from Nighthawk as possible. Seeing this, Professor Elm sighed, knowing Ryan may have more problems than just whatever may be after him.

Ryan just continued to walk into the dark woods, hoping to get far enough away from home as possible.