I woke up with a jolt, finding to my great exasperation that I had been knocked out again.

  Just when I think I’ve gotten the hang of the whole mental manipulation thing, they all step up their game and start using hypnosis on me. Bullshit I tell you!

  After my short mental tirade, I finally look around the place I’ve ended up in, a small room, not unlike what a typical apartment bedroom would look like, blank light grey painted walls, wooden bedside table and wardrobe, very comfortable double bed.

  This is luxury, “I think this is a dream” I say aloud as I sit up from my lying position on the bed, to notice that there is a folded up uniform on the bedsheets.

  I stand, definitely not nearly falling over as I struggle to adjust to my new much taller height, then I unfold the clothes and take a look at them, I can feel that the fabric is incredibly durable, and I can't seem to find any seams anywhere in the shirt, jacket or trousers.

  They seem quite innocuous, coloured in ranges of white grey and black, with a speckle of red and yellow on the back of the jacket, outlining some kind of sun-ray emblem.

  It is a typical shirt, trouser and jacket combo that somehow perfectly fits me, there is also a pair of black socks, come undies and a pair of black running shoes.

  Well I’d say this is a good sign, because why would they kit me out in all of this expensive clothing just to kill me, I think my future is looking up.

  *beep* *beep* I notice that there was a watch underneath the pile of clothes and press the big red button on it, to my relief it does not explode but instead accepts a call, a gruff male voice speaks through the watch “Cadets, you are all to report to the training yard in thirty minutes, if you are late there will be consequences, Captain Guss out.”, huh, seems like I should get ready quick then.

  After a blazing hot shower in the on suite bathroom, I put on my new clothes, style my hair straight down like I used to in my past life and head out the door.

  I emerge into a corridor of the same style of the auditorium that I woke up in the first time, Cold blackish metal walls, floors and ceilings with little on them all but the few bright white lights lining the ceiling, applying a harsh atmosphere to the hallway.

  As I was exiting my room, I got a ping on my watch, it was a message that told me that my watch was the key to my door.

  All I had to do was tap it where the keyhole is normally on a door and it would open sesame.

  I did that after closing the door behind me and heard the satisfying click of a locked door.

  The door was a typical wooden door with a number engraved in golden lettering, my door had the number 024 on it.

  The door felt much heavier than wood somehow, must have a metal core or something.

  I looked to my right and left down the hallway, noticing that there were at least ten other doors just like mine along its length.

  To the right was a dead end in the hallway, but to the left was a right turn that had a sign that I could barely read from where I was standing, it read ‘central hallway’ and had a massive arrow underneath it in bright red.

  I walked along the corridor and around the corner, seeing another wave of doors identical to mine, luckily all of them had numbers on so it was impossible to mix them up.

  After another minute of walking down a long corridor lined with many doors, I finally came across the main hallway. It opened up into an expansive room, it must have been 100 meters wide and long, and at least ten meters tall.

  There were dozens of stalls that completely clashed with the room's aesthetic, the stalls were simple wooden structures with those colourful cloth roofs that would be more fitting in some kind of village market than a weird child kidnapping evil facility.

  There was a dark pathway on the ground that lead from where I was standing to the middle of the room, I decided to walk it, at the middle the pathway cut into four, one leading back the way I came with a sign reading ‘dormitories’, another leading to a huge doorway with the sign, ‘training room’, another leading to a smaller doorway with a sign that read ‘exchange shop’ and finally the last one which had a normal sized doorway that read ‘teleportation services, captains only’.

  I decided to leave exploration for later as I had already taken my time inspecting everything along the way and directly walked towards the training room, I walked up to the large cargo looking door and tapped my watch against a panel in the middle of it, It dinged, flashed green and the door shot open, pulling directly upward and into the ceiling, I stumbled but managed to find my footing.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Only after that embarrassing moment did I notice the gruff, quite angry looking man staring at me along with about a dozen children ranging from ages 5 to 10, boys and girls, under their intimidating stares, I walked up to them, the door slamming shut behind me as I walked up to a coloured spot on the ground close to the other kids and across from who I’m assuming is the ‘Captain Guss’ fellow that announced this whole thing.

  After standing for an uncomfortable 30 seconds, the door rumbled open again and a kid stepped into the room, following near exactly the same ritual I just did but with his eyes plastered towards the ground.

  After 7 more children entered the room in similar fashions and were all lined up shoulder to shoulder across from the captain, he finally broke the downright threatening atmosphere with his gruff voice, he spoke sharply “took you brats long enough to just assemble! Back in my day you would’ve been beaten black and blue!” he shouted.

  Says the guy who looks no older that thirty, back in my day, fuck off, we’re the same age, little bastard.

  He began to speak again after leveling a heavy glare at all of us twenty kids that were lined up and now squirming in fright, “But time marches onwards, and you kids are the future of our glorious organization! Today is one of if not the most important day of your lives! Today you will all pick…a starter pokemon!” he somehow shouted each and every word in his deep voice.

  Every child in the line, me included, gasped at the announcement.

  Finally, is my dream going to come true? Maybe I can get an Aron or a Beldum? Just as we were all about to begin verbalizing our collective excitement with a lot of shouting, Guss shouted again “Shut your moths cadets!”, everyone stilled near instantly, he began speaking again “You all have the good luck to have affinities, these will be your guides, when the eggs arrive, close your eyes and detect the egg that shares your typing, try to feel for the one that would suit you best!” she shouted once again and before I could even take a breath to refresh my overwhelmed mind, I heard a loud bang as the cargo door opened and an entire goddamn semi-truck barreled into the training grounds!

  It skidded to a stop mere meters from the person closest to the door, as he yelped in fright, falling backwards into a seated position and hyperventilating, surprisingly, the captain said nothing about that, I would’ve expected him to make a whole show of the first person to show any exceptional weakness in the group given his military persona.

  A person jumped out of the door of the solid black painted semi-truck, a woman, of middling stature, with white coloured hair and a crazy look in her eyes.

  She spoke suddenly, as we were all still reeling from the shock of very nearly being run over “You all look like you’ve seen a ghost! How about I lighten those moods of yours, take a look at-” *BOOM* There was a huge explosion of black smoke from the engine of the semi-truck, the woman was instantly engulfed in smoke as all of us ran to the furthest person in the line and cowered behind each other.

  Guss just watches in complete exasperation “Commander Aileen, please tell me why you’ve just scared my cadets shitless during a routine egg delivery, those eggs had better be safe, they have pedigree you know!” he began speaking in a tired tone and ended in an angry shout. *cough* *cough* *cough* “Sorry, *cough* Guss” she spoke from within the cloud as it began to clear, once it did a shocking scene was revealed, the entire front engine of the truck was encased in a block of ice and the commander was standing between us and the engine with an excited look in her eyes.

  “The eggs are fine, there's padding in the truck for a reason, Guss. Anyway, are you all ready for your starter pokemon?!” she suddenly shouted, a few of us let out weak shouts, barely louder than whispers while the rest of us, me included, were still cowering, afraid of this obviously dangerous woman that had nearly blown all of us up.

  Commander Aileen ushered us all over with a frantic wave of her arms, none of us were crazy enough to keep the crazy person waiting so we all quickly jogged over to a spot a few meters to the side of the payload of the truck.

  Aileen pressed a button on the side of the truck and the frame started unfolding, the wall of the truck closest to us fell down to the floor, revealing hundreds of head sized eggs on padded shelves inside of the truck, there were steps leading inside of the truck that unfolded to the floor as well.

  Aileen began speaking “Isn’t she a beaut, anyway, all of you need to close your eyes and focus on your energy, find the egg that best resonates with you, remember that this egg is going to be your first pokemon, your lifebound companion, a friend, now…fist come first served, read set go!!” she shouts far too fast for most people to process but I had already closed my eyes and began to feel the steel type energy around the eggs that were just a few meters away.

  But I am quite confused right now, what are all of these things that I’m feeling, colours? Can I feel colours? Is this my reincarnation gift perhaps, but no, these colours seem to go deeper, some give me a feeling of weakness and others give me a feeling of stability, a scant few give a feeling of strength and growth, I’ll focus on those eggs I suppose.

  The colour I can see from within my mind on them is a kind of silver, not unlike how my energy feels, but there is a deeper sense of growth in the colour on the eggs, i count three of the silver colour within the truck, one feels like it conflicts with my steel type energy, must be fire, fighting or ground, the other feels quite normal but like nothing special to my energy, while the last one feels good, like eating chocolate pudding while playing a nintendo DS on a rainy night as a kid levels of good.

  I immediately opened my eyes, noticing that all of the other kids were still standing in deep concentration, I quickly bounded my way up the steps and grabbed the egg from a low shelf towards the bottom left corner of the large shelf unit.

  I cradled the big egg in my arms and carefully made my way back to the line where a few kids were just opening their eyes.

  After waiting for a few minutes, everyone had chosen their eggs, though I was curious about something, I spoke, surprising everyone in the room, “Miss Aileen, is there a way to check what pokemon comes out of an egg?” I said in my most adorable, childish tone, hoping not to get punched by the crazy lady.

  She responded after a second of being overcome with surprise “Someone’s bold, well to answer your question, no, there isn’t, an eggs pattern is random, though sometimes it lines up to the rough colours of the species, it is not in any way an indicator of it, just wait and see if your luck is good, though don’t worry, none of the pokemon here are weak species, we made sure of that.”.

  “Time to go everyone, there is already an incubator waiting in your rooms, these eggs should take no longer than a few hours to hatch, get to moving, go! Shouted captain Guss, everyone quickly jogged off with their eggs cradled in their arms.

  I made it to my room after walking leisurely, feeling the warmth from the egg in my arms, I opened my door and stepped inside, seeing a large clear container with some futuristic looking components all on it, I placed the egg inside, moved it to my bedside table and lied down, decompressing after that stressful debacle.

  -1 hour later-

  Suddenly, I heard the iconic sound of an egg cracking.

  I rushed up from my bed to kneel in front of the incubator.

  I pulled the egg out of the device and put it into a blanket I had put on the floor earlier as preparation.

  The eggshell was slowly chipped away by the pokemon inside, I couldn’t suppress my excitement at the possibilities of what pokemon i could get, nevermind the fact that I actually was about to get a real like pokemon! *crack* *crack* A head burst out of the egg, I didn’t recognize it, then the shell fell inwards and the pokemon was revealed to me.

  What was this pokemon called again? I heard a grating, metallic but somehow still cute voice pipe up “dur-durant!” it trilled in excitement.

  “Ah that was the one thanks little bud” I said as I put my hand onto the adorable little bug’s head and pet him.

  “You and me…we’re gonna rule the world, just you wait and see” I said with a voice full of determination.