Not nearly as dark as the prologue, okay? But for all of you who miss the darkness, don't worry! ^_^ There'll be plenty more later. For now, however, it's just a Journey fic- but wait! It's interesting, and it'll get suspenseful later, so don't leave just yet!

Chapter 1

Difficult choices

~*~*~*~*~*~

Those fools failed last time, but this time... I cannot be quite sure. But my mind is made up, and I am prepared.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"...yes, like Lily said, it's not all fun and games. Pokèmon training, while it seems fun, can be very dangerous indeed."

"Hmm... what's this?" Taylor Bronze muttered to himself curiously as he turned his attention from "Breeder's Weekly" to the television.

He looked up at the screen. Two people, a woman with a quirky expression, bright red hair and round glasses that sat in front of her green eyes, and a man, with sleek brown hair, pale blue eyes, and a dull, bored expression, were sitting at a desk. This was obviously the famous show that discussed many different Pokèmon related topics, "Chuck and Lily".

Lily nodded. "Today, we will discuss two of the most dangerous aspects of Pokèmon training- the mysterious and notorious Team Rocket, and the extremely dangerous but also very true, Pokemon attacks."

Taylor gulped. Pokèmon attacks. These didn't happen very often, but when they did, at least one person died.

The bold, red words, "Team Rocket" flashed across the screen and then it showed a dark, stormy day in a city.

"Goldenrod City," the voice of Chuck said. "A busy city that doesn't stop its day for a little rain. Lots of new trainers coming in and out, and a giant department store filled with rare items. Ah, but rain doesn't stop crime, either. Watch here, as we show you a completely unexpected attack from Team Rocket."

The screen then showed a normal busy side walk- but only for a second. Then, a trainer with a large bag of Pokéballs came walking onto the sidewalk. Just as soon as this person came of screen, the scene filled with smoke and while it took just seconds for the smoke to clear, the pack with the Pokèmon was already gone. Then, the camera moved upward to look at a man clothed in black, climbing up a ladder and holding a backpack. Then, a young, brown haired trainer, around the age of 11, began to climb the ladder after him. The thief then took out a gun, and shot at the young trainer. The trainer fell to the ground, while the thief hopped on the roof of a building, got into a helicopter with a red "R" on it, and flew away.

"Tragic, very tragic," Chuck said in his put-you-to-sleep kind of voice. "And now let's take a look at-"

But Taylor never did know what they were going to look at, because at that moment, his 16-year-old sister turned off the TV.

"You know, if you weren't so absorbed in the TV, you'd know that mom's been shouting that it was dinner time for nearly five minutes!" she said angrily, her turquoise-colored eyes blazing with anger.

"Sorry," said Taylor sarcastically, scrambling off of the maroon leather couch.

He and his sister walked into the kitchen and sat down at the circular oval-shaped table. Their mother was pulling a pan of homemade pepperoni pizza out of the in one hand, clutching a bag in the other, with her pocket book on her shoulder, and a stack of papers between her teeth. Typical Wednesday.

Taylor's mother had always wanted to be a teacher at one of the local private high schools, but in order for her to be certified, she needed to take classes every Monday and Wednesday evening.

She hastily placed the steaming pizza onto an old wooden cutting board on the counter and used her now free hand to place the papers in the bag.

"Megan, honey, could you cut the pizza for you and your brother?" she said quickly, checking her watch and making for the door.

Megan walked up to the counter and began cutting the pizza carelessly. She seemed to care more about keeping her long auburn hair out of her eyes then cutting the pizza.

"Mum, when'll you be home?" asked Taylor as he leaned on the table.

"9:00. Call me if you need me, you have my cell phone number. And no internet while I'm gone- you know how I hate you using it when I'm out of the house! Bye kids!"

And, with that she slammed the door shut.

"Wednesday is HELL." Megan said, grabbing a piece of the poorly cut pizza.

"Tell me about it," said Taylor, taking two.

He quickly finished his dinner, hoping to make it just in time to see the end of the show on the dangers of Pokèmon Training.

When he say back down on the couch, it still had about 5 minutes left.

"...there, of course, also was the famous Machamp incident of 1995, which was all over the news," said Lily.

Taylor, being only 11, would have only been three then, and would not have remembered.

"We could only get a hold of the younger of the two children who witnessed the event, but he refused to give any details, saying that nothing could describe the terror of what he saw," continued Lily.

With that, Taylor turned off the television, a shiver running down his spine. Whatever the Machamp did, Taylor knew that this witness probably wouldn't want to relive it.

Taylor sighed. He had always wanted to become a Pokèmon trainer. But now he wasn't too sure. This really sounded dangerous, but then again, it was supposed to be a good experience...

Well, that didn't matter yet. He had another three days to decide.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"I can't," Taylor told his mother the day before his journey. "I just can't do it."

"Well, I mean, if you're sure... If you turn down the chance, then you'll have to wait until next year," said his mother, her tone sounding uncertain.

"No." Taylor argued firmly, "I CAN'T."

And with that, he stormed off.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Hmm..." said Taylor. He leaned his head back on a rock, and closed his eyes, and thought.

In just two short hours, he'd have to make up his mind, and come up with a final decision. Should he start a journey? He didn't know yet.

He opened his eyes again, and sat up. In front of him, there was a large lake, shining in the mid-morning sun. Behind him, was his hometown a New Bark, which he may leave in a few hours.

He sighed deeply, and pulled his rod out of the water, pulled his tan baseball cap back over his messy brown hair and trotted back towards the town.

He slowly made his way on the path through the woods, his rod over his shoulder. It was warm, but not too hot, due to the shade of the trees in the woods. Off in the distance he could hear the rustling of leaves, the cooing of a Pidgey, the mindless babble and chatter of the Sentret in the trees overhead, the lazy buzzing of a Beedrill of two, the gurgling of a stream nearby, and the splashing of some young water Pokèmon, playing without a care in the cool, slowly flowing stream.

He soon found his slow walk turning into a run, as he hurried along the path.

When he emerged from the wood, he found himself in a small, suburban neighborhood, with a friendly, welcoming sort of atmosphere. Atop a hill, there was a large white circular building with trees, flowers, and a perfect lawn beyond the gate.

It looked completely normal and happy, accept for the fact that there was a short kid with round glasses and untidy red hair frantically stumbling out the front door and down the walkway, clutching a white envelope.

"Hey! Taylor! The Professor needs you!" called the boy. He ran down to the end of the path and leaned on the gate, gasping for breath.

"Uhh, all right..." Taylor said dumbly, opening the gate. Since the boy was leaning on it, he fell over, but quickly scrambled to his feet again and raced out onto the sidewalk.

"Erm... Devin, where are you off too?" called Taylor.

"Important business! GOTTA GOOOOOOO!" He yelled, his voice trailing off as he ran down the street.

Taylor sighed. Devin was his extremely clumsy best friend who also happened to be one of Professor Elm's assistants. He was extremely smart, but also extremely dumb at the same time.

Slowly, Taylor walked up the gate, wondering what on earth Professor Elm would want with him so urgently.

~*~*~*~*~*~

He stepped into the open door into room with white walls, and many bookcases filled with difficult books. There were a few wooden tables covered in disorderly piles of papers written in untidy illegible handwriting, and even a small, red, rectangular machine going haywire, making extremely strange buzzing noises. This machine was obviously a Pokèdex, a complex Pokèmon encyclopedia. The Pokèdex had obviously been tampered with by either Devin, Professor Elm, or any combination of the two of them; both of them were extremely insane, and they had had both made tampering with and braking complex machinery into a hobby.

Taylor's examination of this room was brought to an abrupt end due to a rather loud exploding sound coming from someplace nearby, followed by the insane shouts of Professor Elm.

He decided that it might be a good idea to check on the Professor, to see if he was hurt. Taylor ran to the back of the room, and immediately knew where the shouts were coming from- a room with the sign "CAUTION!!!" taped to the front. He would have opened the door, had he not listened to the shouts and heard what he was actually yelling.

"MUHAHAHAHA!" the voice yelled, "VICTORY!"

Oh, good, Taylor thought, at least he isn't hurt!

The door then flung open, and smoke flooded out of the room.

"MUHAHAHAH-OUCH!" Professor Elm had just fallen on the floor, but was holding up a large, square machine with a small glass window in the front, which looked strangely like a small microwave oven. Due to the fact that his hands had been occupied with keeping the invention safe so he could not have protected his chest as he fell and was therefore putting himself at risk of breaking a couple of ribs, Taylor soon came to the conclusion that in the complex and fairly insane mind of the fanatical Professor Elm, this machine was pretty important.

"Uhh... Professor... what exactly is that?" asked Taylor.

"This," the Professor said, standing up and proudly admiring his machine, "Is a miracle of science, and will change the way we humans think FOREVER!"

Taylor blinked. "Ok, but what's it called?"

"Umm... Err..." the Professor said, deep in thought. "Well, the name's not important now. Not yet. But it will be, you'll see!"

"Yeah, all right," Taylor replied, not believing a word of it, "so. you called?"

"YES!" the Professor shouted happily.

"And what do you need?" asked Taylor, a bit annoyed by Elm's antics.

Elm stuffed a large bulky envelope into Taylor's hands. "I need you to deliver THIS to Mr. Pokèmon, who lives on the road to Violet City!"

"Uhh... why me?" Taylor asked.

"Two reasons, really- one, I don't trust Devin with something this important, and two, you're going to start a journey today, anyway, aren't you?"

"Well, Proessor, uhh... about that," stuttered Taylor nervously, "I kinda changed my mind. I don't really wanna-"

"Oh, it's quite all right," said the Professor, paying no attention at all as he walked up to a file cabinet, and frantically searched through it. "I'll just send you, and then you can come back. But, in case of any kind of trouble, you can use THIS!"

The Professor pulled a small ball with a red top and a white bottom out of the cabinet and handed it to Taylor. It appeared that it could be opened by pressing the round grey button in the center.

"W-what's this?" Taylor asked, examining the sphere.

The professor scowled, wondering how anyone could be so wildly naive. "Throw it and find out!"

"Umm... okay," mumbled Taylor.

He then gripped the ball tightly and, still very unsure of himself, give it a little toss. It bounced once, and then opened.

The first thing that came out was a small red light. However, the light turned into a small peach colored Pokèmon with a navy-blue back, and small red and orange spots on it's back. Nervously, Taylor put out a quivering hand to stroke it's back.

"CINDAAAA!" it squealed in a high pitched voice, as large red and orange flames shot out of the spots and appeared on her back.

"AH!" Taylor gasped in fright and astonishment as he pulled his hand away.

The Professor sat back in a chair and took a sip out of his coffee mug. "Oh, yes, I forgot to mention... this is the first time in a while Cyndaquil has been out of her Pokèball, so she's kind of testy, and she's always timid, and really jumpy, too."

"Sure, tell me that now," Taylor grumbled angrily, checking his hand for burns of any kind.

The Professor rummaged through the pockets of his lad coat, pulled out an index card, and handed it to Taylor. "Oh, and, I almost forgot, here's a list of attacks that Cyndaquil can use, in case you need to battle anybody.

Taylor took the card, folded it in half, and pocketed it. "All right. But how do I get her back inside her-"

"Hold out the Pokéball and command 'Cyndaquil, return,'" said the Professor, returning to his coffee.

"Okay," said Taylor, "I'll get right on it."

At first, he wondered why you would need to shout the command. However, he then remembered that the professor was insane, so he figured that that was the reason. He sighed and then walked back the front door of the lab.

"WAIT!" called Elm, sprinting up to him waving one more piece of paper. "YOU FORGOT THE MAP!"

"Oh," said Taylor, taking it. "Right."

So, with that, Taylor left the building, consulted his mother, and was soon on the road to the abode of Mr. Pokèmon.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The time has come. I have been biding my time in the darkness for too long now. A new age of fear and death will dawn upon Johto soon enough.

End of Chapter One.