Chapter 1.
The Grey

he salty breeze flowing from the sea was making this sunny afternoon pleasantly warm. The promenade at the sea bank was full of life: citizens hurrying in both sides, tourists walking more leisurely. Sounds of a bustling city were reaching the bank from behind the lush treeline. The sea was brimming with life too, boats of all sizes maneuvering around each other all the way back to the horizon, where the water was touching the sky, perfectly clear save for a few white clouds floating towards the shore.

Everyone was enjoying the sunny day in their own way — but among the crowd there was a pair of kids whose enjoyment ran much deeper, walking while whispering and giggling between each other about something. They were following a pair of adults, but those were so far from their center of attention that that to the kids they were little more than ghostly apparitions, transparent like glass. The girl was around eleven, wearing a dress with a puffy skirt; her head was adorned with a cat ear headband. The boy walking beside her looked a little older and was dressed, in contrast with everybody around, in clothes covering his arms and legs fully. However beautiful the world around them already was, these two were seeing a quite different picture. The two kids were immersed in a wondrous world of beautiful and fearsome creatures. They were seeing them all around — in the water, in the skies, in the trees, walking along the sea bank beside humans: entities of the most fantastical shapes and sizes, each of them possessing its own, unique, but always immense, power. The kids were completely immersed in the world of Pokémon.

The world was so much more colorful to them: sky blue ducks floating in the water, the giant slim doves soaring above, the yellow grubs wrapped in leaves that were rustling in the bushes. An indigo balloon, looking at the world with tortured beady eyes, wrapped its thin string-like arm around the boy’s arm, dangling powerlessly as the children were walking. Seeing each new Pokémon, the kids would whisper to each other and look up the picture on the boy’s new, strange technological wonder: a flat tablet computer, looking like an oversized smartphone. The whole picture looked idyllic, only a single sinister shadow was lurking in the skies. Overcome with a sudden influx of emotion, the boy suddenly leapt up on the stone wall of the embankment, the tablet in his hand like a sail.

“Ladies and gentlemen!”, the boy announced, spreading his arms towards the sea and the sky. “Thank you for your patience, thank you for not forgetting about us! No matter what, I am still here, so get ready for another spectacle! We shall make sure to keep you on the edge of your seats!”

“What do you think you are doing?”, the girl in the cat ear headband squinted, walking up to him. “Preaching to those... Ducklett?”

The flock of funny looking bird Pokémon on the water were all looking at the boy and at each other in confusion.

“Don’t bother with this, Neko-chan”, the boy waved her off. “You won’t understand, you still have to make the history that we are telling here. I’m just...” he inhaled the salty air with his full chest, “really happy to be here at this moment! Aren’t you?”

“I would be more happy if you stopped scaring the passersby.” The girl named Neko-chan snapped her fingers. The boy gasped and ducked, covering his head. Right at that moment, with a terrifying screech, a dark blue bird Pokémon swiftly flew over his head, brushing against his palms with sharp talons. Neko-chan raised her right hand in a fingerless glove, and her swallow Pokémon Taillow perched on her wrist, drilling the boy with an all-piecing gaze. These eyes discerned no good and evil, they only knew Taillow’s beloved Trainer and prey: the latter category encompassing everybody else.

“Oh, why have I bestowed this demon upon you,” the boy muttered, straightening his hair. “I’m afraid you’re too powerful for your own good like this! In the world of Pokemon you can’t rely on pure strength alone, you have to think too.”

“You’re just jealous,” the girl flicked one of her braids behind her back with her hand. “I’ve got both brawn and brains! And no matter how difficult you try to make my path, I’ll overcome it all, my dear Ryan!” Her Taillow chirred in agreement.

“My name is George!” The boy coughed, perturbed. “And I will not allow you to terrorize me! Let us hurry on with the program”, he waved for his sister to follow him and started to walk atop the wall, pressing buttons on his tablet screen. “We have to check in at the Pokémon Center and then see the Gym for your challenge.”

“Do what you want!” Neko snickered and gestured to her Taillow. Obeying her silent order, the swallow Pokémon flew up and snatched the tablet out of George’s hands. “It’s not like you can stop me.”

“Hey, why?!” The boy tried to grab the Pokémon’s tail, but it was too swift: the tablet was in Neko’s hands already, while Taillow was flying in circles around George, taunting him. “Get over here!” Obeying an incomprehensible impulse, George jumped after the Taillow — right off the railing and towards the water, dragging his melancholic balloon Pokémon down.

“George, you moron!” Neko gasped, and Taillow dove down after her brother. A second later he appeared again, dragged by one arm by his own struggling Pokemon and by the other by Taillow’s talons, the small bird barely breaking a sweat. The two creatures set George down beside his sister, who smacked him on the head. Looking back at the kids, the two transparent apparitions shook their heads.

“You started this, not me”, George winced, touching his scratched arm. “Now give me back my tablet.”

“Wait, where is your tablet?..”

Hearing sinister giggling, they both shivered. Near Neko-chan’s legs a white candle-like Pokémon stood, burning with a purple flame, holding the tablet in its tiny arms: Litwick, the newest member of Neko-chan’s team.

“Thief!” George screamed so loud that they earned a few more looks from strangers. “Give it back this instant!”

With a mean squeak Litwick set off forward. Pointing at it, George gave Neko a judging stare.

“See what happens when you have things your way? Chaos! Come on, Drifloon, do your job.”

Begrudgingly sighing and deflating a little because of that, the balloon Pokémon closed its beady eyes and suddenly vanished. Litwick yelped out when it appeared in front of her — and smacked her with its thin arms, taking the tablet away. The candle Pokémon spat fire in its face, grumbling like an angry kid.

“Good job.” After his Drifloon floated back to him, the boy pet it on the cheek and winced at how hot the balloon’s rubbery skin was. “Neko, control your monsters!”

“The only monster here is me”, the girl responded, grinning like a maniac.

Hearing an otherworldly voice that made their hair stand up, George and Neko-chan turned to the glassy figures that were calling them over. Forgetting their argument, the kids ran after them, Litwick scurrying behind its Trainer. Taillow set off to the skies again, its screech making all the bird Pokémon in the vicinity change their course to avoid it.