Chapter 1

A chain of bad decisions lead him to this decrepit storage room, with other seven people, he and them are waiting for someone, or so he understood, to join Team Magma. He wondered if it was a good idea, Team Magma are known for their destructive behavior, for being thieves and stealing of research. Dangerous bunch, yet here he is, joining Team Magma, but what could he do otherwise, he doesn't have a job anymore, he quit it, working for four, yet paid for one isn't good at all; working at docks, is hard and exhausting, maybe now the manager will be happy to do it by himself, this way he will not waste money by paying his workers, scoffing, he still couldn't think about his now, former job, without becoming angry.

He was tapping with his feet impatiently, it passed already a hour from when they arrived here, though he couldn't vocalize his frustration as the doors were blown away and a chubby man, clothed in red, entered the room, behind him there were two people carrying two boxes.

He walked with swag, smiling at them, he then said to his helpers, "Boys, put the boxes down there," pointing at the center of the room.

He made a small bow and said, "Hello, my name is Tabitha, an admin of Team Magma, I suppose you heard of us, otherwise why you would be here wanting to join us?"

The people nodded, though William would have wanted more information, what he knows, and thinks other knows is only rumors and gossip.

Tabitha continued, "Great, in these two boxes there are the uniform and eight poke balls, because some fools didn't head the warning, I will make it clear here, you only need to wear the uniform in official missions, the missions were we act as Team Magma, otherwise wear your normal clothes. The pokemon in the poke balls are unknown to me, so lucky you if you get a good one, and not a Caterpie," chuckling, he opened the boxes.

Then one by one people were nearing the boxes and taking the uniform and a poke ball, it was time for William, he took his share and got back in the line, Tabitha looking content, said, "Boys, you have five minutes to meet your pokemon; after this you will be baptized," laughing, he didn't specify exactly what he meant with baptizing.

A guy raised his arm, Tabitha observed him and said, "Yes, ask away, though next time just ask and don't raise your arm, we aren't a school."

The guy said, "The person mentioned a salary of some sort, I just want to be sure, as we don't have a job anymore."

Tabitha nodded, "Yes, there while be a salary, for beginners it is one thousand dollars, more than you can earn with low-level jobs."

William, with trembling arms was ready to open the poke ball to meet his pokemon, his pokemon, that sounded so sweet in his mind, the dream he had as a kid was accomplished, though of course not exactly what he had in mind, and of course it wasn't legal to have pokemons without trainer license, but what does that matter, he had a pokemon.

Moving his hand carefully on the shining red metal to the button, he touched it gently, and in a glowing light his pokemon appeared.

While the light as diminishing he wondered what kind it will be, a poochyena? A zigzagoon? Or maybe a caterpie, he will be content with caterpie. Even with a magikarp.

A levitating figurine appeared, with tannish colour and closed eyes, appearing to be made from clay, it opened their eyes briefly, seeing William, with his middle length hair and medium stature, it got scared, buzzing, it made mud from the floor and readied it to attack William, William seeing that Baltoy was scared, he slowly lowered himself to the eye-level of Baltoy, smiling at it.

Baltoy looked in the eyes of William, seeing that he didn't meant any harm, it stopped the attack, William extened his hand to touch Baltoy, Baltoy took some distance, he lowered his hand back, and said, "Baltoy, I am not going to harm you, I promise. I don't know how they got you, but now you are now my pokemon and I will not let anyone harm you, so, what do you say, want to share joy and sadness together. But if you don't want, I will release you as soon as I can."

Baltoy hummed, and blinked one time, William excitedly patted Baltoy on their head, he wanted to hug the little clay doll, though he didn't know how that will be looked by the other members of the Team Magma.

William put Baltoy back into the poke ball, as Tabitha announced with his eyes fully open, "Are you ready boys? If so, lets go to show them why you don't mess with Team Magma. But before that, change your clothes, this will be an official mission."

They arrived at a better kept storage deposit, at the entrance doors, Tabitha released his Camerupt and melted the front door with a burst of flames, there were a few scattered Team Aqua members, Tabitha didn't attack them, he looked at his new members and said, "Here, fight them, one on one."

William got lucky, or unlucky depending on what you think about this situation, to fight against one Team Aqua grunt, though in his opinion this was one hundred percent unlucky, he rummaged through his thoughts on how to deal with it, he sent Baltoy, he can't do nothing to escape from this, so he should just rip the band-aid.

His opponent sent a poochyena, a quadruped creature with dark gray fur, very aggressive and territorial, Baltoy took some distance back, scared by the rabid, bite Pokemon, known for its aggressive behaviour, and not only that, they are natural predators for Baltoy, Baltoy being psychic, while poochyena dark type. William assessed the situation, saying, "Baltoy, don't be scared by the poochyena, I believe you can defeat it."

The Team Aqua grunt, mocked them, saying, "What are you? A kid? encouraging your pokemon like that, dumbass. They are just creatures."

Baltoy stopped its whimpering, angry by the remarks made by the grunt, and shot mud balls towards the poochyena, it jumped in air and evaded. The grunt commanded, "Howl, then Tackle!"

Poochyena howled, a strident sound that irritated the ears of anyone who heard the noise. readied its legs; in a burst of speed attacked Baltoy. William was searching through his memory for any information he had on Baltoy, sadly he didn't know any moves that Baltoy learns, only Mud Slap.

Baltoy stood their ground, and when poochyena was upon it, its body shone like a metal in sun, William recognized the move as harden, he smiled, it was the perfect move, when poochyena colided into Baltoy, the damage left behind was insignificant, it was only able to push back Baltoy.

Baltoy took the initiative; from the ground, rocks erupted, entrapping the opponent. The Grunt was barking commands, but alas, Baltoy was one step ahead him, multiple mud balls hit Poochyena in its face, ending the fight there.

William with no shame hugged his Baltoy, saying, "You are the greatest!"

The grunt checked his poochyena, though he had time only to put it in his poke ball. After that he ended up beaten, and tied up like the rest of Team Aqua's grunts.

Tabitha was looking with a smugly smile at them, like they were some kind of trash, he looked at one in particular, a tanned man, with a muscular build, then his smile vanished, and said, "Traitor, you thought you will escape Team Magma? You don't anymore to be part of us, eh? want to change teams, well, bad luck for you, if you don't want us, we want you, scum."

Tabitha then turned toward his team, "Boys, prepare to leave, but before that, take their poke balls."

The team was waiting him at the entrance to leave, he hunkered down to the traitor, though they didn't saw what he was doing, or if he was saying something, then he caught up with them, he took a Pokegear from his pouch and contacted the police, informing them of a Team Aqua rendezvous point.

In a orderly fashion they made their way from Mauville City, at the outskirts they were embarked in a car, and were took to the forest close to the city, then a helicopter appeared and were transported to the mountains next to Lavaridge Town.

William was amazed by the mountain ridges with their bloody red colour. Earth rumbled beneath his feet as the ground parted apart, revealing a staircase that was leading them into Tartarus.

They went down, it was a cave, hall? William wasn't sure, the hall was looking like a cavern, but there were rows of futuristic, white metal doors, and complicated cybernetics.

Tabitha was leading them, going futher into the mountain, William started to sweat from the heat, as they were going in, the heat was becoming more and more unbearable.

At the end of the hall, there were a huge metal door, Tabitha approached some kind of technology that William didn't know how it was called, and it scanned Tabitha's eye, the door parted; a cool current came from the inside, the grunts stepped in, the door closed back when the last of them entered.

He looked at the smooth metal coat on the walls, the other grunts that were leaded here by a girl with purple hair, it was the other Team Magma admin, though he didn't know why, but he felt scared by that person, with her weird walking, her smile and dead, cold eyes. He was grateful that Tabitha was the admin that introduced him to Team Magma.

From the back, a person appeared, a lean middle aged man, with a gaunt face, chin length red hair, and a pair of glasses, wearing a red and black lab coat; plastered on his face, a serious expression. He walked on the stand, and said, "Welcome to Team Magma. I am the leader, Maxie is my name. Our goal as Team Magma is to expand the land. As for why, that's simple. Hoenn became a glorified tourist trap. We are depending on imports from other regions, we can't grow enough food to feed the population. I had enough of it! I made Team Magma to resolve this problem. We are now searching for a solution. I ask you to help me in my cause, to remake Hoenn in a strong region, a region capable to sustain itself. As for those who will try to stop us, it doesn't matter if they will be Pokemon League, the police, or Team Aqua, they will be meet with destruction."

The admins started clapping, then the grunts followed them. Maxie smiled, and left, leaving the admins to integrate the newcomers into the system, Tabitha with his joyous energy turned towards them and said, "Now that y'all officially joined Team Magma, I will answer to your questions, but before that, I will answer the common asked questions. We have two form of lodging, first is here, in the mountain, the other one is in Lavaridge Town, it's a random selection where you will live. For new grunts the salary is one thousand dollars, you can gain more money by doing missions, those missions are capturing pokemon for the Team, protecting important people, helping with the research, and other miscellaneous stuff. An important information to retain is, when requested for an official mission, that is, when you will need have Team Magma clothes on, only if you have really important matters you are permitted to not participate, otherwise it's mandatory."

The grunts asked questions about a variety of things, though not of them interested William, he thought giddily about his pokemon, and ignored the chattering, finally, it stopped. Then they went to the person who will give them their salary, a girl late in her twenties with a sour expression, she gave them one thousand dollars and the address of their houses. William got lucky, his house will be in Lavaridge Town.

Lavaridge was like those isolated towns in nature, comfy, with something of a exotic touch, it had thermal water and was a popular with the locals and the tourists, the houses were made from wood, he entered his appointed house, it had two beds, two cabinets and a bathroom. To his surprise there was someone here, he was in the magma grunt outfit, with the hood covering his face, he waved at William, and said, "Hello there. I guess you will be my co-tenant?"

William nodded, took a few more glances at the person, then he sat on the bed, he opened his cabinet and put his magma outfit there, there were two more there. He had only one set of clothes for daily use, he should buy more, but they were expensive, half of his salary will be gone if buy one more, still he resigned to his fate, as he needs at minimum two set of clothes.

He laid down on the bed, he was amazed by how comfortable and soft the bed was, it felt like a cloud. He had Baltoy's poke ball in his hand, wondering if the grunt will be okay with him if he released Baltoy here, he turned towards the grunt, who was polishing a poke ball, and said, "Are you okay with me releasing my pokemon here?"

The grunt shrugged, "Sure," and continued to polish his poke ball.

Baltoy appeared, with its eyes open, watching his surroundings, looked at the grunt for a second, then turned towards William, he grinned and patted the little clay doll, Baltoy hummed, levitating in air.

William made a mental note to buy food for Baltoy, but before that, he should search what food it prefers, maybe he should give it a nickname? He asked, "Baltoy, do you want a nickname?"

It buzzed, blinking one time with its eyes, William was now sure that blinking one time means yes, good to know, and that he was now sure that Baltoy wanted to be his pokemon, he thought what kind of name Baltoy will like, he tried Doll, Spinner, Clay, Baltoy refused all of them, at least he knows now how Baltoy will show that he doesn't agree with something, by blinking twice.

He remembered that Baltoy and its evolution, Claydol, liked to gather in ancient ruins and old graveyards, so he proposed, "What about Antiquarian?"

The little clay doll hummed in joy, showing its approval, William infected by his pokemon happiness, patted it.

He played with Antiquarian for some time, then left for Pokemon Center to read about Baltoy. The Pokemon Center was in the same style as the houses. William gasped at how many people were in the not so big center, at the counter, Nurse Joy was dealing with all of them by herself, something that impressed him.

While you weren't allowed to sleep, eat or to heal your pokemon in a Pokemon Center if you didn't posses a trainer license, you were able to use the PC to communicate or use it for personal matters, like reading for example.

But the people who wanted to use them were many, William sighed and took a spot, while he waited, he thought about he was going to do from now on, while having a pokemon was rad, many avenues where closed to him, because of his lack of training license, if he had a pokedex, he wouldn't need to waste time here, pokedex being choke full of information on pokemon, but alas, only trainers are allowed to have one.

All his worries were forgotten when he touched the PC's keyboard, he immediately searched for Baltoy and read articles and entire pages of information. The entire row of people that were waiting for their turn cursed and sent him in the deepest recesses of Giratina's Shadow lands, he stood in the front of that PC for hours. Nurse Joy was forced to come and ask kindly for William to let the other people use it.

He left in hurry to not get more ire from the people, the Pokemart was close, so he entered to buy one set of clothes, food for Baltoy and himself and at least one poke ball.

He admired himself in the mirror, he bought a a pair of brown pants and a white shirt, fitting with his wavy light brown hair and pink eyes. He left the Pokemart with one hundred dollars remaining, but at least he got everything he wanted, and two poke balls for when he will want to catch a pokemon.