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The three friends were packed and ready to go. Their sleeping bags were rolled up, their pajamas folded away neatly in their backpacks, the cooking supplies tucked back in Brock's knapsack. The three Pokémon trainers were ready to go, but instead they sat around the empty campsite in a circle, staring at each other silently, each clutching a medallion defensively. Pikachu was curled in Ash's lap, and the boy scratched his Pokémon's ears absently as he watched his friends, stone-faced. The silence and tension was unbearable. Finally, Misty spoke.
"We deserve to know what's going on."
Her amulet flared red. "I agree. We promised we would explain, and we will."
Brock's amulet began to glow. "It's a very complicated story."
"Very complicated, and very long." Ash's amulet was alight now.
"I think we might have enough time to listen," Brock said dryly. "Let me check my schedule."
"Quiet, you," the green amulet said sternly. "Don't worry, we have no intention of keeping you in the dark. But if you don't shut your mouths..." It trailed off threateningly.
Misty rolled her eyes. "Oh, just get on with it."
"Right." The green amulet flickered hesitantly. "Where should we begin?"
"From the beginning?" Ash suggested.
The voice paused. "Good idea. From the beginning."
The red started first. "Okay. First you have to understand how we all came to be."
"We?"
"Us. The world. Your whole idea of existence."
"Oh, because that makes lots of sense." Ash rolled his eyes.
"You kids are seriously going to have to work on your attitudes if you want us to work with you," the green amulet said crossly.
Misty sighed. "Okay, okay, we're sorry. Now you," (she glared pointedly at Ash and Brock) "keep your mouths shut, and the rest of you" (she waved vaguely at the three amulets, which the friends had laid out in a circle in front of them) "start talking."
The blue amulet flickered in amusement. "You've got quite the handful," it told the red amulet.
Misty grabbed the amulet and prepared to fling it into the horizon.
"Hey, what're you doing, Misty?!" Ash cried shrilly, jumping to his feet in alarm. "Put it down!"
The boy's amulet was equally distressed. "STOP! I'm sorry! Please don't!"
"Now, Misty, settle down," the red amulet soothed. "Let's not be irrational."
The girl sniffed and dropped the stone back to the ground. "It'd better not make fun of me anymore, then."
The blue amulet flickered weakly. "Sheesh. This is going to be a long lifetime." As Misty's hand darted near it threateningly, it added quickly, "I mean, never mind!"
"Why didn't you give her one of those freezing jolts you were so quick to give my bearer?" the green amulet asked poutingly.
"Yeah!" Brock added indignantly.
"Oh, shut up. Anyway, the world as we know it was created by a supreme being. Like, oh, I dunno, like a god or something."
"Was it a Pokémon?" Ash asked in awe.
"No! Don't be stupid! It created Pokémon, so how the heck could it be one? And it wasn't a human either. It was a... divine thing or something. Oh, it doesn't matter!"
"The troubles we go through... try and keep quiet. This is hard enough as it is."
"Anyway, this supreme being, for some reason, created the world as we know it. Maybe it was bored, I dunno."
"Basically, it formed a big ball of clay. Lovely, no?"
"Then it cracked this ball in four places, releasing four elements: fire, water, plant, and rock."
"These have always been the main elements, seeing as how they were the first to be created."
The red amulet spoke with a sense of pride. Ash suddenly realized that the three amulets were of these elements: fire, water, and plant-life. 'Eerie how that worked out,' he thought with a shiver.
"Eerie?" the blue amulet said to him privately. The words echoed in his head, but went unheard by his friends. "Surely you don't think it was just coincidence?"
The previous shiver turned into a full-body trembling.
The amulets continued. "Then the divine being stirred a wind that blew through its new world, and with this wind came ice."
"A layer of rock formed on the world and became what would become ground-type."
"From the water that had been created, a rainstorm started, and with a crash of lightening, electricity was born unto the world."
"You getting us here?"
The three friends nodded mutely.
"Thus, all elements of the world were created. And then the divine being creator did something a little odd. It took a little bit of itself and put it on its new world. From its mind, it cut away a bit and put it on its world, starting a race of psychics. And from its heart, it cut a piece away and made normal types."
"See, it's odd, everybody loves their own type of Pokémon, and all are considered highly powerful in their own way. But everybody seems to underestimate Normal types. In truth, there's something about them... something very powerful and dangerous. They're the favored ones of this entire world's creator."
"Pretty freaky, ain't it?"
"So this is how all Pokémon came about?" Misty's voice was shaky.
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Blowing your mind yet?"
"So here this world was, populated entirely by Pokemon. And for a while, it worked out pretty good. But then the psychic types took control. Figured they had ultimate power over all."
"Divine power, that is. You know, since they were made from the creator's brain, they figured they were special."
"And then there was this whole interbreeding thing that took place, resulting in several species who had a couple different types. You know: fire slash flying, poison slash psychic, you know what I mean."
"Pokémon started dying out, resulting in ghost types everywhere. With all the ghosts around, the psychics were threatened, so soon this big world war started up."
"So one day the ultimate creator decided to check on its little science project, and was a little dismayed to find it had erupted into chaos."
"Course it'd put too much time into our world to let it fail then, so it did a couple things to fix it all up."
"First off, to straighten out the psychic types, it created an ultimate breed. It decided this one'd be its favorite, so it put a little extra time into making it. And it went all out on the materials: it combined a piece of its mind and its heart, and spent quite a while forming the whole thing. The result looked a little too cute for a killing machine, but it was so powerful, only a fool would be swayed by its adorability."
"Mew?" Ash asked, his throat dry with anxiety. Could it be that Team Rocket had gotten its hands on the amulet of their world's creator's prize Pokémon?
"You guessed it, buddy-boy."
"And Mew did its job. The psychic types weren't strong enough to go against Mew's word, and Mew stood for peace. So the war kinda died down."
"But our world's creator, ever thinking, and maybe having a teeny bit too much time on its hands, took its world's protection to the next level: it created a new life."
"Borrowed a piece of its best friend, another divine being's, body and slapped human life on its self-made world."
"It figured that, humans being the authority figures they are, they could shake a little sense into the Pokémon race."
"Of course, that didn't work out. The humans easily dominated the world. The Pokémon became their slaves." Maybe sensing the hurt look on Ash's face, the amulet added, "Now, some humans have no harmful intent when they raise their Pokémon. And many Pokémon love their masters and the lives they lead. But the simple truth is, Pokémon were never meant to serve man."
"Which is where we come in."
"And us, too?" Misty asked curiously, eyes wide with interest.
The amulets paused. Finally, the blue spoke up. "Not really. You come in a little later."
"Oh."
"It took the divine being a while to think it up, but it finally figured out how to solve this serious little problem. What was the problem? The humans. And what is the only thing that can overpower a human?"
"A Pokémon clearly couldn't do the job: the most powerful of their kind, Mew, had already been captured by the humans, and subjected to horrible experiments..." The amulet broke off with what sounded like a shiver.
"Yeah. So basically, the divine being decided that the Pokémon savior would have to be a human."
"Our world's creator thought things through, I'll give it that. It realized that any one human could die, or be killed, at any time. Likewise, one person wouldn't make much of a difference. Not like a whole army of people would."
"And so, after a few hours' worth of deep thought, it was struck with the idea."
"The idea," the other two amulets chorused.
"The... idea?"
"That's right. You remember how all the elements came to be? Well, in the same way, it made hundreds of amulets, one for each type of Pokémon."
"That's what we are. Three of more than two hundred amulets out there."
"So with these little pieces of rock, the creator randomly selected one human to be the holder of the amulet."
"See, whoever was destined to hold the amulet was also destined to represent that certain type of Pokémon. This way, all Pokémon were certain to have a 'savior', so to speak. Plus, enough humans were selected to actually make a difference."
"Yeah. There was a veritable army of humans on the Pokémon's side."
"Now, truthfully, a couple hundred doesn't make for a very large army, especially against modern technology. But when you take into consideration how some of the chosen humans had a substantial amount of money and power, and that all of them had Pokémonish attacks--"
"What? We can do Pokémon attacks?" Ash's eyes grew very big.
"Yes, but we'll get into that later. Don't interrupt."
"But wait a minute! What was that about money and power?" Misty asked curiously.
"A handful of the humans selected by the creator were either very wealthy or of high social class. Take the man who carries the Snorlax amulet these days. He's the governor of something-or-other. A very fine gentleman, if a little on the heavy side. You'll meet him soon enough."
"We'll meet him? When?"
"Never mind that! We'll never finish, at the rate of interruptions we're getting!"
"Well, geez, sorry." Ash rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath.
"What was that?"
"Uh.... nothin'."
"That's better. Anyway, so the whole amulet idea worked out really well."
"We were first introduced to this world one hundred years ago today. While our humans were united in the movement against Pokémon slavery, we were powerful. But humans die, and our holders were no exception." It seemed to the three friends that the amulets spoke with no small amount of pain. "So our creator refined us."
"We, the amulets, have new bearers now. The bravest, the strongest, the best the world could offer. You three were picked for all these reasons-"
"Aw, gee." Ash blushed.
"Yes, you're very cool, Ash. May we continue?"
"Will you guys always be this uptight?"
"No. This just needs to be explained fairly badly, so we're trying to get it done and said. Understand?"
"Oh. Okay. Yeah, sorry."
"Right. So anyway, you, our second owners, are going to be a little better off than our old ones."
"Like how?" Misty asked, trying to suppress some of the nervousness in her voice, and not succeeding.
"You'll see."
"Oh, that's helpful."
"Glad to be of assistance. But there's a lot more than just that, that you need to know."
"You and the other amulet bearers are going to undergo a mission more important than you could ever imagine."
It must have sensed somehow the stricken looks that simultaneously assumed control of the three friends' faces, because it said quietly, "We won't go into that any further here. It is not our place."
"But whose place is it? You keep telling us things, and then you refuse to explain!" Misty's voice was shrill with anxiety.
"Calm down, Misty." The red amulet's soothing voice filled the young girl's mind, and the girl's alone, like an enfolding blanket, full of warmth and love. "It'll all be all right. You'll see. It looks big now... but you have no way of knowing the happiness that will soon fill your life."
The girl smiled. "I believe you."
"Anyway, back to what we were saying. We can't explain anymore to you -- but someone else can. I think it's time for you three to pack up and move out once again, but we aren't going to one of your other Pokémon Gym cities."
"That's no longer an aspect of your life. Get used to the idea, Ash Ketchum. You'll never be a Pokémon master."
"I know," the boy said simply. "I have it under good consul" (he winked at the blue amulet) "that I'm not going to mind. I may not see why now, but I'm too overwhelmed to argue."
"Good boy. That's the right state of mind to be in. You three are very lucky -- and very, very special. You don't understand now, but you will."
"Yes, you will, and very soon, I should think. Like we said, we're going to have to get started. We've got a ways to go."
"Where are we going?" Misty asked inevitably.
"To a convention just for people like you. I think it's time you met up with some of your fellow amulet bearers. Every single person who carries an amulet is meeting in a pre-ordained place tonight. You're going to learn a lot of stuff: what kind of powers you have now, what your life is going to be like, who your friends are, and" (the voice lowered) "who your enemies are..."
"We think it's pretty important that you be there."
"I pretty much agree," Brock said in a strangled voice.
"It's settled, then. Now get walking!"
The other presences withdrew from their minds, leaving each trainer with only their own amulet and their roiling thoughts to brood over. Without another word, the three hoisted their backpacks onto their backs and set off down a path that no one had picked, but that they known to follow deep in their hearts.