Hah! Another One!

Welcome back to another chapter of Pokémon: Project Reborn. I honestly didn't expect to work on the next chapter so soon with how my schedule is, but I figured out a way to pull this off.

First, record a couple of videos for YouTube. Second, edit the videos. While the videos are being converted, continue writing the story. Finally, upload the videos while writing the story before going to my job. TLDR, I gotta multitask. Genius! XD

Jokes aside, I would like to thank those who Followed and Favorited this story as well as those who left a Review for me. With me being a new writer, I appreciate the feedback - hopefully positive in both praise and criticism lol. I was pondering on whether to respond to people via PM or in the actual story, and (unless there is some rule on the FF site), I decided to put my responses to reviews here:

JAwesone1One (Twitter) – Appreciate it man…and well, hope you didn't have to wait too long XD

Silver (Guest) – Thank you very much for the feedback. Really glad to see you find it that way. With how extensive the game is (especially with it being dialogue heavy), the story nearly writes itself lol

With that out of the way, let's get on with the next chapter!

Disclaimer: Guys. I'm broke. Of course I don't own Pokémon (nor it's fangame siblings) XD

Chapter 2: A Rough Start, A Rougher City

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

"Mysterious/Unknown Voice"

Author Note/Detailed Info

R-E-B-O-R-N

Darkness.

A perpetual darkness surrounded Shen. 'W-what's going on…? Why is it so dark…?' He tried to move but felt stiffness in his limbs. He started to panic, 'Why can't I move? Why is it so dark?! I'm not de- oh my eyes are closed.'

…

If he could move, he would've slapped his forehead at his stupidity. He settled for a mental one.

"-y!"

'…did I just hear something? Or is my mind playing tricks on m-ow.' His body still felt stiff, but his head was pounding intensely, making even those idle thoughts hurt. 'Jeez- ow, I feel like a Snorlax used Body Slam on my head- gah!' But he continued nonetheless, if only to keep his bearings on his situation. Besides, feeling pain meant that you were still alive, right?

"-y, are you okay!?"

'Okay I definitely heard it that time' he managed to think, 'and oh, no pain this time. Good for me.' Though they were still stiff, he was managing to move his extremities a bit. Baby steps.

"Wake up!"

'Wait…that voice sounds familiar…' he thought as he finally was able to open his eyes, albeit slowly. The light blinded his vision momentarily, his vision clears as he finally opens his eyes. He finally recognizes the person who was calling out to him.

"Ame…?"

"Yeah…thank goodness you're alive. You were out for a while there" she said as she moved to give Shen some space. He moved his arms and legs to rid of any stiffness in the joints before slowly getting up on his feet, moved his head to rid of stiff neck pains, and rubbed his eyes to rid of the black spots in his vision. When he looked around, what he saw was…well…BAD.

The first thing he noticed was that the closest building nearby was smoking and looked like it collapsed on itself…as if it was recently set for demolition. And considering what they just went through, that may not be too far off. A nearby broken sign reads -randv- Stati-, likely partially destroyed by whatever happened when the train hit.

Police officers were nearby, some discussing with themselves on what exactly happened and others observing the station, most likely looking for any clues – miniscule though they might be. It looks to be difficult for them, considering that many of the entryways to the station look to be blocked by debris.

"The train exploded as soon as we got to the station" Ame started saying and Shen was shocked at hearing that. "The train…exploded? I thought this was caused by the train crashing into the station…but it exploded?"

"I would see why you would think something like that. But no, it was an explosion" she stated while looking at the destroyed station, "I managed to see it for a fraction of a moment when we made our escape from there." She pondered to herself, momentarily in thought before shaking her head. "Though a runaway train would've caused some extensive damage, it wouldn't have destroyed the station to this extent."

"I—" her voice hitched for a moment which made Shen look at her. She was looking downwards, her hair covering most of her face which made it difficult to see her facial expression. But if he were to hazard a guess, he would assume that she was pretty shaken up by this whole situation. 'For good reason…we could've died there…'

She took a deep breath before continuing, "I'm just glad we could get us out of there in time, but everyone else—" she paused. Shen shut his eyes at that. They were most likely the only survivors from this. He shuddered, thinking that if Ame was sitting anywhere else, if she was even an inch away…

She shook her head and took a deep, stressful sigh. "There's no use thinking about that now…why did this have to happen?" She reopened her eyes - taking a stressed thinking pose – as she tried to gather her thoughts on this situation. "Who would even- "

"Hihi!"

"…Julia." After saying that, Ame took on a look of…exasperation? Frustration? Contained anger? It was hard to tell for Shen. The person, most likely the Julia in question, was energetically (maybe a little too energetically) walking towards us. She was a girl with vibrant green hair in the style of a ponytail. She wore what looked like a yellow jacket and a short, orange skirt, long orange socks, and yellow shoes.

"Julia, what did you do?" Ame asked with an accusatory glare. 'Uhh. Why would Ame think she was responsible for this…?' Shen thought with slight worry, a sweat drop on his face. 'And the way she said that made it sound like this is a normal occurrence with her.'

"Whaaaaaaaat? I didn't do anything!" Julia denies as she animatedly waves her hands. "I was at the gym-gym and then suddenly, BOOM, so I came running. "

"Pfft!" The two girls look his way while Shen looks away and tries to stifle his laughter, "Uhh, no worries! Don't worry about me, heheh! Please, continue" he says with a big grin. 'Gym-gym? Ha. That's so adorable. *chuckle*'

"Anyways Ame, you know if things are exploding, I gotta be there to see it! It's so cool!" Julia exclaims as she jumps up in excitement as if she was a firework herself.

"Uh huh." Ame answers with the most deadpan of deadpanned faces.

And at that Shen couldn't hold it. He laughed. Loudly. "Haahahahaa! I'm sorry! But the interaction between you two is hilarious! Pure comedy!" Shen replied while widely smiling and wiping a tear from his eyes. "I needed a good laugh. All this doom and gloom was getting to be a bit much for me. So thanks for that."

"Hey, I like this guy" Julia states while Ame just rolls her eyes, trying to hold her own smile down…and failing miserably. "Well, now that we're done with this comedy routine," Ame speaks while rolling her hands as if saying "moving on", "let's get back to the task at hand." To that Shen shrugged while smirking and Julia gave a big thumbs up.

She looks back at the now destroyed station, "Based on the timing, this must have been a deliberate attack. Somebody rigged the train to destroy Grandview Station."

Julia looked at the station, hand across her forehead surveying the damage that was done to it. "And from the looks of things, they did a pretty good job!"

"Yeah. A little too good…" Shen answered with a contemplative look, "I'd rather they didn't try to do such a good job to our expense."

"Agreed…" Ame replied with a small sigh, "well, this isn't the time to be admiring their work. Whoever was behind this could still be monitoring us from nearby…I'll have the perimeter locked down. There's a chance we could catch the perpetrator before they get away."

She nodded her head, getting ready to move when she looked back at Shen. "Sorry Shen, but I have to go. Catch up with me later. Until then…hmm…yes, there should be another trainer who you can meet to show you around." She points down the road, "Find her in front of the Grand Hall. It's just down this road; you can't miss it."

Shen nodded, understanding that this situation must take priority. "Got it. I'll keep my eye out for her then."

"Good. And uh, don't worry about all of this" she spoke with a slightly embarrassed face before sighing and making a very stern face. "I'll handle it."

She takes off, going somewhere to get a handle on this situation. Shen could feel the intensity coming off her as she disappears from his sights. He lets out a low whistle, "Oh boy. Whoever it was that set up this entire situation, I don't envy them one bit."

Julia nods her head enthusiastically as she stares at where Ame went, "Yup! Ame can get pre-tty intense at times." She then looks back at Shen with a big, energetic smile. "So your name is Shen, right? I'm Julia, captain of cheer and pep, and all things bubbly and bright!"

'An apt title' Shen thought with a big grin of his own as she continues. "Oh, Pop-Quiz! Are you gonna take on the Reborn League?"

"Of course."

"Correct!"

'Wait- what?'

"Then I will be seeing you really soon," she continues to speak as she jumps excitedly, "because I'm also the Electric Gym Leader! I'll be looking forward to your challenge, so go on, get to the Grand Hall already!"

Shen scratched his head and agreed with her, nodding his head. "Alright, I look forward to it! I'll see ya later." He then walks off towards the road that Ame pointed him to. 'Alright, Grand Hall, here we come.'

R-E-B-O-R-N

A bit of walking and observing his surroundings made Shen really reflect on what was happening in this city. The city looked like it has seen better days. The houses that he could see were bad, the skies looked overcast with smoke pollution, and the bay…the water in the bay was a greyish brown. 'It's even worse than that ticket agent thought,' Shen contemplates as he continues down the street.

The people around are also in pretty rough shape; many people either trying to get by with what they have day-by-day, or just standing around in depression. The incident at Grandview Station only made it worse for some of those people:

"Excuse me? Were you on that train for Grandview Station?"A random person asked as Shen was passing by. His eyes looked…dead. There were obvious signs that he was recently crying, but now, he looked like he was just…done."

"Yeah…"

"…so was my fiancée…"

At that, Shen's heart ached in pain. He didn't know how to respond to that, so he just said "I'm…I'm sorry…"

This was a painful situation, not only for those who were caught in the explosion, but for those left behind that must live with this pain…

The police officers have blockaded the pathways to the northern part of the city, most likely to keep the perpetrator from escaping. 'Looks like Ame is already taking measures to catch this SOB. Good. Hope they manage to catch whoever is responsible for that.'

Shen continues to mull over about all the things going on in this city, 'Still. Even if they catch the guy, there is still the underlying problem that this city is…shitty. And it seems like no one is taking measures to fix it…or maybe they can't? I will admit that if what I've seen so far is the same for the rest of the city I haven't seen, then a few Pokédollars isn't going to cut it.'

He stops walking as he arrives at what he believes is the Grand Hall. Few floors of steps leading to a building that had a dome roof. Most of it was covered in dark grey color, but it also had four other colors lining its door and outer edges: blue, red, green, and a royal looking purple – most likely amethyst. In a city that looks like it does, this building is very eye-opening. "'You can't miss it' is right…this place looks amazing!"

In front of the building is a girl, black hair in the style of a long ponytail, an ahoge hair in front of her face. She wore what looked like a black, open bottomed kimono under a beautiful, grey garb that had two Ying-Yang symbols on it, black pants, and black shoes.

"Hey, are you Shen?" the girl asked as he finished climbing up the stairs.

"Yes I am," he nods as he stands in front of her. "Ame told me that someone would help me once I reached the Grand Hall. Would that be you?"

"Yes, that's me. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Victoria. It's a pleasure to meet you, but is everything okay? I heard something happened at the station…"

"Nice to meet you too." he shook her hand as he continued, "I'm…fine for the most part. I've seen better days, but I'll live. Heh. As for what happened at the station, well, it's a long story. One that Ame would probably be better to give than me."

"Hmm. I see. I'll see if she can bring me up to speed later. For now," she points towards the Grand Hall, "Ame asked for me to help you with the registration process. Don't worry. It shouldn't take too long. Let's go inside."

And I think I will end it off right there. This part was even more dialogue heavy than I was intending it to be, but the game itself was dialogue heavy…so I honestly should have seen this coming lol

We finally reached the Grand Hall! Here we will finally get our first Pokémon…and I don't know which one it will be. The fact that all the starters from Gen 1 to 7 are there makes it difficult for me to choose myself.

Honestly, I am tempted to put up a poll to see if any viewers have any suggestions on that, even though only a few have read my story so far lol. Maybe I will go on a few different platforms (Twitter, RebornEvo, etc.) and calculate the total on all of them. We'll see…

After that is the all well-known first Pokémon battle…which will be interesting to write, since it will be the first time, I've ever written a battle scene. Wonder how that will turn out.

As always, criticism is appreciated, especially when it is positive. I've said this before, but I am new when it comes to writing, so things may be a bit rough. I'll try to improve as this story continues.

Once again, thanks to all the people that read, followed, favorited, and reviewed so far. I will see you in Chapter 3.

Chapter 2: 2082 Words

ProjectIceman