Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, or Pokeballs. That's Nintendo stuff. The world, the plot, and the characters, however, are my creation.

Author's Note: The story depicted here will be Pokemon in a more mature setting. The theme here is "What if Pokemon were used in modern warfare?" This will undoubtedly be more bloody and unfriendly compared to your conventional Pokemon story. Reader discretion is advised.

Fires of Meiserland
By Ysionris Gavotte

Prologue

Despite knowing the possible dangers, there was no actual way I could figured out that things would go down badly on July 8th, 2015. The funny thing was that, when it happened, I was breaking up with my girlfriend.

Now, don't get things wrong. Karen Ginou and I have gotten along very well for the last couple of years. We've been together since middle school, started hitting off fine. There have been a few bumps in the road, but otherwise, nothing that would indicate an actual break up. No, we simply met up with a pragmatic, conventional, and realistic problem of something called "future". Karen had managed to do extraordinarily well in the OCEE, and received admissions from the Meiserland Capital School of Polytechnics. I, meanwhile? Don't ask. Between going to a second-rate college, and traveling the world and trying to become a Pokemon Master, I chose the latter.

Don't think it was an easy choice. True, I've taken the IPPL Exam in the sixth grade and got my license with high scores. I've signed up for every field trip that would involve the catching of Pokemon. I spent every three months a year doing internships with the Aegis Pokemon Research Organization for extra credit to make up for the near-disastrous grades I made in high school. I brought a Totodile as my starting Pokemon and managed to evolve it into a Feraligatr. I caught my Growlithe and Nidoran legitimately with the APRO, and evolved them too with their help into Arcanine and Nidoking, respectively. They gave me a Haunter as a going-away present after I finished up with my last internship six months ago, which evolved into a Gengar. Skarmory I won at a tournament in Meiserland, Gardevoir I received from a friend as a parting gift when he was lying on a hospital bed, dying from a fatal car accident.

I won't delude myself into thinking I managed to do this all with my own power. I managed to make the right friends in APRO, which got me a lot to work with. At the age of eighteen, I was in possession of some of the most impressive Pokemon ever, Pokemon that most trainers get years after they start their journey. APRO even offered to sponsor me, a rare opportunity amongst prospective trainers out of high school, if I ever decided to try to become a Pokemon Master after high school, an offer I had not yet taken up, but had told them I'd think about it.

Despite all this, though, I can't say becoming a Pokemon Master was my first choice of occupation. I'm certain that, somewhere along the line of my life, it had been. But during high school, I've started wondering if I was the sort of type to leave home and be completely committed to my own resources and finances to travel the world and attempt to become a Pokemon Master. An Horizons article once said that, out of the population of Owa, two million people aspire to become a Pokemon trainer each year, but only about forty percent of them actually pass the International Personal Pokemon License Exam each year. Only ten percent of these people are committed to pursuing their dreams of becoming a Pokemon Master by the time they are eighteen, the minimum age required for the International Pokemon Association to officially recognize your journey and upgrade your license as well as provide you with travel papers. Another ninety percent is wiped off the remaining candidates, hopeful trainers who do not have the resources or funds to leave their homes alone. Each year, only eight thousand people out of the initial two million have the will and capability to even try and become a Pokemon Master.

Out of that eight thousand, only five hundred are capable of acquiring eight Gym Badges to participate in the yearly Emerald Cup Competition of the Pokemon League in the neutral nation of Istorius. Twenty percent of the candidates of the Emerald Cup manage to make it to the semi-finals; those twenty-five-or-so individuals who make it to the semi-finals are officially recognized as Pokemon Masters despite what happens in the Emerald Cup. With only about twenty-five people out of the initial two million (well, eight thousand now, since I've got my license and have the capability to leave Meiserland), you understand my skeptical train of thought when I wonder if I'll be one of those lucky twenty-five.

But my failure to get decent scores on the Owan College Entrance Examination pretty much doomed me to second or third-rate colleges, something that I, nor my parents, was very happy about. I had always envisioned myself going to the same school as Karen, but now, I've decided that my only real future was not with mainline education, but with my obsession with Pokemon.

Right then, however, I was waiting in the Cait Sith Cafe, downtown, on the western part of the city. I had already taken a table for two, and was waiting for Karen to show up. It was a table next to the window, not a shabby choice for a seating arrangement at all. I was, at the time, carrying all six of my Pokemon, all of them in their Pokeballs attached to a locking holder on my belt. Owa had laws about what kind of Pokemon could be let out of their Pokeballs in public, unspecified areas. Arcanine, Feraligatr, and Nidoking were all Class A Size Pokemon, too large to be permitted to be walking around on the streets. Gardevoir and Skarmory were Class B Size Pokemon, permitted on the streets, but the Cait Sith had a sign indicating that only Class C Size Pokemon were allowed out of their Pokeballs. Gengar was the only Pokemon that wouldn't have problems with size, him being Class C Size, but Gengars were classified as Class A Temper, which generally makes it a bad idea to let him out of a Pokeball in a crowd, especially in an in-door environment such as a cafe.

So it didn't really surprise me when, three minutes later, Karen appeared from the crowd in the street, two Skitties playing with each other as they followed her. Of course, Karen didn't actually have two Skitties; one of them was a Ditto. Both of them were Class C Size, Class C Temper, so it was fine letting them out of their Pokeballs. Special rules applied to Ditto, but Karen's wasn't breaking any. Of course, she could only have two out at any given time in public; having too many Pokemon out on the streets would've been a civil problem.

Her appearance reminded me why I fell in love with her in the first place. With lavender eyes and sea green hair, I wondered where the hell she managed to get those lovely colors, although it was obvious that such colors were common in other countries, less so in Owa. Dressed in a pair of black capris, a baggy violet T-shirt, and wearing a black headband, she seemed more like she was going out for a jog rather than on a date. As for myself? I had the common brown hair and green eyes for an Owan native. This was coupled with a green vest over a white shirt, and black pants. Go simple. Go me.

So I found myself sitting with Karen about two minutes later. Karen had recalled Skitty and Ditto, and was seated across from me. We were awkwardly looking at anywhere but each other before and after we placed our orders, and were trying to find something to say among all the unspoken agreements. We had agreed that long-distance relationships were too much of a hassle to try and continue, and the temptation was always out there. It was less so for me than it was for Karen, since I was going to be traveling the world and not staying in one place for very long, but I've never eliminated the possibility that I may end up traveling with another trainer, a female one at that, to share and save up on costs. Several versions of those "we could always be friends" lines popped into my mind rapidly, but they popped out just as fast as well. I really didn't know what to say.

So I checked my watch. Eleven fifty-eight.

Thankfully, Karen spoke first.

"So," Karen asked, not quite looking at me, but out the window, her eyes distant as if she was deep in thought, "When are you leaving?"

The answer was something I had been working out for a while. I intended to take up on APRO's offer as a sponsor on Monday; today was a Saturday. I had a few friends in APRO that wielded influence in the IPA, and they convinced me that everything, upgraded license, paperwork, funds, will be prepared for me in one month's time. "Just a bit more than a month," I answered, quirking my mouth to the side, "After all my paperwork and everything checks out." My gaze was off towards the cafe; I didn't really want to catch the reflection of Karen's face from the window.

"I see," Karen whispered, seemingly thinking about something.

Again, silence. I desperately wanted to ask Karen to join me, to attempt to become a Pokemon Master with me, but I know it would be pointless and futile, not to mention inconsiderate of me. Karen got in on one of Owa's most prestigious schools; I'm not going to ruin that chance for her to be where she should be.

"I probably won't end up going too far," I assured her, not knowing what kind of comfort that would provide, "I want to start with Owa's gyms before I go south to Seintaria. I'll probably won't travel too far from home. I could always drop by for a visit."

"You," Karen decided to look at me then, and the look on her face told me her mind was now on practical matters, "need to conserve as much money on transportation as possible. Frequent trips back home won't do."

"I've got funds from APRO," I insisted, more for her comfort than for mine, or perhaps the other way around, "They've got most of my expenses covered. It won't be that bad."

Karen shook her head; apparently, she didn't approve. She was always there to turn me away from where I wanted to go to where I needed to go. And the fates be damned, they don't coincide often. That trait of hers was remarkable. "You shouldn't have those kind of distractions," Karen replied adamantly, "Having to make frequent trips back home ruins the point of traveling alone through the world with your Pokemon. You need to put things down so you can pick other things up. This is going to be a lot more important for you than anything else you've come across in your life. You don't need me to walk you through things anymore."

A lecture. It was one of those things I expected out of Karen a lot when we were at a disagreement. I usually got sick of those pretty quick, but this time, it simply served as a reminder of who she was, so I tolerated it, if not appreciated it. I don't think I've ever appreciated that as much as I ever had.

My hand reached out to caress her cheek, perhaps a final sign of affection and gratitude towards her consideration and loyalty towards me, for all our time together. It was something that I wanted to end our relation by, both of us mutually agreeing on something with our feelings and thoughts in sync. A romantic gesture before I did my exit stage right, she exit stage left.

And that was when the world thundered with a great trembling as well as bright flashes of light. The world turned white before it turned black.

On July 8th, 2015, the armies of the Kingdom of Toria crossed the border and launched an attack on Meiserland, the capital of the Federal Republic of Owa, without a declaration of war.

It was an attack that both made sense and did not. It made sense because Owa and Toria had always been on a political standoff. Owa successfully declared its independence eight-seven years ago with the aid of the neighboring superpower, the Esean Federation. Toria had never formally recognized Owa's independence, although the Treaty of Meiserland in 1945 permitted a ceasefire between the two nations. Meiserland, the wartime capital and eventually the formal federal capital of Owa, was situated much too close to the border, where guns were pointed at each other. It was also right on top of a rich mineral deposit that had driven Toria's economy for centuries.

What didn't make sense was that, for those last seventy years since the Treaty of Meiserland, Owa and Toria had a mutually-beneficial trade relationship. Political analysts were all convinced that the trade between the two nations would thaw the cold reception that each country was giving each other. War was the last thing on everyone's mind.

So when Torian agents smuggled Voltorbs and Electrodes all over Meiserland and detonated them, when Venusaurs that had been gathering solar energy since dawn fired Solarbeams at the city at noon, when Gyradoses suddenly appeared in the Meiserland Bay and fired Hyper Beams at the battleships stationed there, when genetically-cloned Aerodactyls took to the skies for aerial supremacy, they took Owa, as well as the rest of the world, by complete surprise.

And, when all this was happening, I was unconscious.