Rating: G-PG (It's really mild)

Kaeli's head was throbbing with pain. She opened her eyes to see she was on the couch. She saw a few beer cans on the desk by the recliner, which stood in front of the television. She groaned, "Dad, you got drunk again, didn't you?" She wasn't asking him a question. He was, of course, off at work. Her back stung, too. She stood, feeling abused (which she was), and turned around to observe her back in the mirror. Of course, her white shirt had a few fresh bloodstains. "Yep, you did," she said, beginning to change into clean clothes.

As she brushed her hair, she suddenly remembered something. Today was the day she was to see Professor Oak about her scientist training! She was selected out of the many students to be a scientist-in-training. She hurried upstairs, suddenly re-energized, and began to pack her bag. Pokeballs, money, clothes, and a sleeping bag all somehow managed to fit into one duffel bag. After taking a quick shower, Kaeli ran outside of the house. As she began to leave Viridian City, her home, she remembered another thing. "Dad doesn't want me to do this...he wants me to take his place and be a gym leader."

She hated the very idea of being a gym leader. The thought of meeting trainers everyday that only wanted to beat her was her idea of hell. She made a quick decision: to go and then come up to her father with the truth. Maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't be drunk and would understand. She sighed at the thought, but ignored it, and began to run to Professor Oak's lab in Pallet Town. Pokemon weren't strong enough to pose a threat on this route, but she did remain running.

As she reached the town, she saw two kids playing with their pet pokemon. She was in the Kanto region, where only 150 known pokemon appeared and the other 100 or so inhabited the Johto region. She neared the huge lab, where Professor Oak was busy with a few children, who were receiving Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle. She entered and smiled as the three new trainers hurried out of the lab, apparently to battle.

"Kaeli!" called Professor Oak, "Glad to see you. I have your pokemon. Come here."

Kaeli smiled excitedly as she walked to Prof. Oak who had five pokeballs. Each one was a different color.

"Which is mine?"

Professor Oak smiled, "They're all yours!" He tapped on the five pokeballs, releasing five cute pokemon. Kaeli recognized them as Eevee, a pokemon that can evolve in three different forms. Each cute pokemon wore a different color collar. Two had collars with the female symbol (the lavender and blue-collared ones) and the other three had male symbols.

"What's my assignment?" Kaeli asked, remembering she was in training.

"Kaeli," the Professor began, "I want you to go into the pokemon league with these pokemon and the ones you catch."

Kaeli nodded, "Fine. But why do I have five?"

The Professor explained, "Eevee can now evolve into five different forms: Vaporeon, the water type, Jolteon, the electric type, Flareon, the fire type, and now they can also evolve into Espeon, the psychic type, and Umbreon, the dark type. Each is wearing a collar that tells their destined form. Vaporeon is blue, Flareon red, Jolteon yellow, Espeon lavender, and of course, Umbreon is black."

Kaeli began to get things, "Oh, I get it. You want me to evolve them into the five different forms, and you're basically going to see if I have the ability to do well with them. This is great."

"Well, let's just say it's going to be a lot tougher than the journeys of those who plan to be regular trainers," the Professor added, heaving a gusty sigh.

The Professor soon decided it was time for a lesson in training, and teaching Kaeli what each pokemon would learn and how to evolve them. He gave her three stones, and let her go play with them in the Pokemon Playground he used for pokemon storage. This was because he needed to see how she interacted with her pokemon, but she ignored this. By the time she could go, it was almost dark outside. She and her five pokemon exited the lab and began back toward Viridian City.

The Vaporeon-Eevee was soon very tired, so Kaeli put her into a pokeball and put it in her pocket. After a little while, the trainer and her four Eevee reached her house. She opened the door quietly, to find her dad staring straight at her from the recliner. She noticed he had a few six-pack beer holders emptied, and he was working on another. "You got those pokemon from Professor Oak, didn't you?" he asked, darkly.

She nodded, "I...I'm going to be a professor someday, Dad. I'm sorry."

He laughed a sinister laugh as he reached for another beer, "No, you're not. He hurled a beer can at her that crashed against the door. Suddenly, the Umbreon-Eevee jumped up and clamped down on her dad's hand. He shook his hand violently and the Umbreon-Eevee crashed against the wall.

"Stop it, Dad!" Kaeli screamed, and jumped on his back. He picked up a beer can and crashed it against her head. All went dark…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kaeli felt extremely cold. She sat up and opened her eyes, seeing she was in a jail cell. She reached for her pokeballs, suddenly realizing her pokemon were gone. She stood up and screamed for help. Footsteps came slowly, and she saw a dark figure coming down the hallway, running down several cells. A dark figure stopped in front of her cell, "Kaeli, Kaeli, Kaeli. Why couldn't you've listened to me? Now you have to die, rotting away in this cell."

Kaeli knew it was her dad, "Dad? Where are my pokemon?"

She could tell there was a smirk on her father's face. "Them? They're in the training room."

Kaeli was enraged, but then asked another question, "Where are we?"

Kaeli's dad lit a torch, and she gasped. He was wearing a black Team Rocket uniform! (There were two Team Rockets, Black and White) Kaeli said loudly, "You're a Team Rocket member?"

He smiled, "I'm the leader of the Black Shirts. I-" A beeper rang, and her father began to read it. "I'm needed in Cerulean. Stacy, my first mate, was caught." He walked off without saying goodbye. He did flick on the lights, though, and Kaeli could see a little. There were several skeletons in other cells, but hers was empty. Feeling so woozy, she lay down and fell asleep.

In the morning, Kaeli's leg hurt horribly. She suddenly realized that she had put the Vaporeon-Eevee in her pocket!

She pulled it out and let the Eevee out. She looked around curiously, and then she saw Kaeli. "Wee!" cried the small Eevee excitedly and ran up to Kaeli.

"It's good to see you too. But we need to find a way out of here. Can you try to squeeze between the bars?" The Vaporeon-Eevee nodded, and began to do what she had asked.

"Good girl. Now, walk over to that chair, I think there are some keys." The small pokemon hurried quietly over to the metal chair, on which she found a ring of rusty keys. She carried them with her small mouth over to Kaeli's cell. Footsteps suddenly rang out from above. "Eevee! Return!" whispered Kaeli and the pokemon disappeared inside of a pokeball. Kaeli grabbed the keys and lay on the ground, trying to look unconscious.

By: Michael King
E-mail: Kewlguy700@aol.com