Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo, we make no money from their series, we simply enjoy it, etc etc. All OC's belong to us, naturally.

Chapter one- Hope and Despair

"Fucking jellicent..." A young man paced forward, head down, shoulders hunched. His legs shook, but not from the cold. If anything it was too hot, unnaturally muggy for him. He made it past the tree line, nearly tripping on roots and vines that danced together underneath the many fallen leaves. His sandy hair matched the beach he'd arrived on, the ocean beyond lit up by the afternoon sun. Dropping his hard-won fruit carelessly on the sand the man continued to walk out towards the water, talking to himself the entire time.

"You just HAD to go to Unova early. See the natural sights? Hah! Plenty of nature to look at here, alright!" He began shouting at the ocean now, ankle deep in the water and adding to the depths with his tears. "Wanted to get away from it all, spend some time away from dad, didn't you Seth? Well you got what you wanted!" The young man was now in the water up to his waist, arms flung wide. "Now you can spend ALL the time away you want from him! In fact, maybe you'll never see him again! Isn't that just great!" The salt on the wind stung his eyes but he refused to look away. The horrible, vast blue nothing in front of him was all he could see. He wasn't even sure where the horizon ended and the sea met the sky.

The cry of wingull, high above him, snapped him out of his thoughts. More pokemon. Just what he needed. Seth glanced back at the bananas he'd dropped in the sand, making sure no crafty grass types had come to steal his meal. As if his dislike for pokemon wasn't strong enough already, now he was stuck on an island teeming with wild ones. It surprised him that he had even survived the last three days. And it was all thanks to jellicent- as Seth had learned, they were a fiercely territorial water pokemon, one that often captured ships. The entire cruise liner, its supplies, all of its crew, even his own mother had vanished without a trace. He might be the only survivor.

"If I ever get off this island, I'll swear I'll hunt them down to extinction. Fucking pokemon." But that would have to wait. For now he had his work cut out just staying alive and finding food. Running a hand along his forehead, eyeing the amount of sweat with surprise, he realised he might be getting a fever as well. Perfect. It all came with the experience. The wonderful experience of being shipwrecked.

The boy's eyes glinted wickedly with undisguised malice and an equally unpleasant smile soon appeared on his lips. "Kill him," he told his pokemon, a strange black lamp-like creature with burning blue flames at its centre. The pokemon's flaming face mirrored its master's and a bright orange flame alighted at the end of one of its long wavy arms; the arm edged closer and closer towards the prisoner's face until the man swore he felt it lick the end of his nose, but still he made no move to edge away from it.

He was resolute, his cause was just and he was willing to die for it.

"Wait," ordered the boy suddenly. The pokemon moved back, startled and let the flames in its hands die away.

A frown appeared on the boy's youthful face, which then abruptly disappeared, only to be replaced with a look that sent chills down the man's spine. The man gulped determinately; he wasn't afraid of death. He would handle anything that the boy sent his way, and with all the honour of one who was a member of the illustrious and righteous Team Plasma. Or so he kept telling himself.

"Why don't you eat his soul instead?"

The lamp-like pokemon's yellow eyes brightened at the words and it stared hungrily down at the man.

The plasma grunt's eyes widened in fear, and he struggled ferociously against his bindings, as he had done before. He screamed wordlessly through his mouth gag, as his face turned red and beads of sweat began to pour down his face. A burnt soul meant that there would be no heaven or hell for him, no reincarnation, nothing. Only pain and nothingness awaited him, or so the legends said.

He was terrified.

The boy smiled unpleasantly, pleased by this reaction. The threat had worked. With a hand gesture he stopped his pokemon who was edging closer to the bound man again. "Are you ready to talk yet?" he asked amiably.

The man nodded fearfully, tears edging his eyes.

The boy kneeled down on the dirty floor and undid the bindings on the man's mouth.

"So? Where are they?" he asked, all traces of fake pleasantness gone from his voice. "Where did you bastards take my pokemon?"

With the flaming pokemon leering hungrily at him. The man talked. He told the boy everything.

The tall spindly insect pokemon played a lulling tune with its leaf like hands, and Brian watched as the plasma grunt's eyes began to glaze over and slowly shut. Seconds later the man had fallen asleep, the sound of his snoring filling the air.

Brian let out a huge breath he didn't know he had been holding and uncovered his ears. "Thank you," he muttered to his leavanny as he returned it to its pokeball. Then he turned his focus to his lampent who was drifting about lazily in the air behind him. "Sorry you had to play the bad guy Wicky," he told it.

The ghostly pokemon smiled up at him with its fiery mouth, showing him that it understood and didn't resent him for it.

Brian gave the unconscious (and still tied up) plasma grunt one final glance before he made his way out of the Castelia City Sewers. He wasn't worried about the man dying down here. Someone would find him eventually; the place was often frequented by trainers looking for wild poison type pokemon after all. Hopefully by then it'd be too late for the grunt to do anything to stop him.

"We've nearly found them Wicky," he muttered as they walked into the gloom illuminated by the fire pokemon's light. "We're going to get them back."

The lampent merely smiled and wrung its wavy arms around its trainer's neck in a comforting embrace.

A/N: The first chapter is up! Me and my co-writer, who insists on only being known as 'my acquaintance' are excited for this one, big plans.

Feel free to tell us which story you prefer, to spite them. See ya next time!