Prologue

After her classes were finished, Sakura started walking home with her friend Hinata. The girls were discussing about their plans for summer vacation since school will be over in a few weeks. Hinata was going on a vacation to Los Angeles with her family. They will be spending time at Disneyland, Hollywood, and Universal Studios. It sounded great and fun to Sakura. Just as Sakura was about to tell her plans, a stranger appeared out of nowhere and bumped her from behind. The girls looked around and found it disappearing into an alley nearby.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!!" Sakura yelled.

When the girls were about to leave, Hinata found a strange, round object on the ground. One half was white and the other half was red. It looked like a bouncing ball, but it had a depression in the front with a button in it. The girls had a feeling that the stranger must have dropped it.

"What is that thing?" Sakura asked.

"I don't know," replied Hinata, "but we must find that person and return it to him."

"Maybe I can return it. He was headed in that direction where I always walk home."

Hinata nodded and gave the object to Sakura. They waved goodbye and went their separate ways. While walking, Sakura looked at the object and thought about the stranger who dropped it. Where could he ran to? And why? She started to look for the stranger, but she had forgotten how he looked. A group of punks showed up, scaring Sakura out of her wits. She was into finding the stranger and had forgotten that she walked into gang territory.

"No one walks into our turf!" said one of the punks.

The punks took out their weapons. Sakura put the strange object in her pocket and out herself in fighting position. As she backed away, the object dropped out and split into two when it hit the ground. A beam of light flew out and started to take shape and form. After a while, a creature appeared before Sakura's eyes. It looked like a baby dinosaur with three fins on its head. It was standing in a fighting position just like Sakura.

"Machop!" said the creature.

Sakura was shocked to see that the strange object contained a weird creature inside. The little dinosaur ran to the punks and started giving them karate chops and kicks. Afterwards, it gave out a yell, announcing its victory.

"Hey! She got a Pokémon!" yelled one of the punks, "She must be a Pokémon trainer."

A Pokémon? Sakura had no idea what a Pokémon was. Could that creature that she released was one? She looked back at the baby dinosaur. The punks reached into their pockets and pulled out some strange objects. Sakura was surprised that it turned out to be the same object that she and Hinata had found.

"So, you want to fight by using a Pokémon?" asked another punk, "Well, let's see how skillful your Pokémon really is."

The punks threw their ball-like objects, which then split to release more strange creatures. They were a lot bigger than the Pokémon Sakura now owned was. One was a giant mantis-like insect. Another was a strange, fire-breathing duckbilled monster. The third one was a giant bull with three tails. Sakura never had seen anything like this before. The punks' Pokémon started attacking the dinosaur, bruising it and knocking it unconscious.

"So, I see you haven't trained your Machop so well," said one of the punks, "Come on, gang, let's use our Pokémon to attack this schoolgirl!"

The punks commanded their Pokémon to focus their attention on Sakura. One of the punks' Pokémon threw the baby dinosaur towards her. Sakura froze in fear as they walked closer and closer. Then suddenly, another shadow fell over her. She turned around and saw a gigantic turtle with two cannons sticking out of its shell. The punks and their Pokémon stopped and got scared.

"Blastoise!!" yelled the giant turtle.

The giant turtle blasted tons of water out of its cannons. Sakura ducked. The water was blasted in high pressure, washing the punks and their Pokémon away. Sakura was still shaking in fear, thinking that the giant turtle had disappeared.

"Are you okay?" a voice asked.

Sakura looked up and saw a young man standing over her. He had long, black hair tied back in a ponytail. He was wearing a baseball cap, jeans, and a white hooded sweatshirt. As he helped Sakura get on her feet, the schoolgirl shook in fear when she saw that the giant turtle was standing behind the man.

The young man laughed. "Oh, you don't need to be scared of him," he said, "Blastoise is very gentle."

The man took out a ball-like object out of his pocket. He put it in front of the giant turtle and instantly, it disappeared into a laser-like ray and went inside the object.

"Whoa! How do you do that?" Sakura asked.

"Easy," the man replied, "with a Pokéball."

"Pokéball? What's a Pokéball?"

The man showed Sakura the same ball-like object he put his Blastoise back in. Sakura then realized that it was the same object the she got. She showed it to him.

"So, you also got a Pokémon too," said the young man.

"What's a Pokémon?" Sakura asked, "I remember those punks mentioned that word after a baby dinosaur appeared out of this... um... Pokéball."

"Baby dinosaur?"

Sakura pointed to the unconscious dinosaur close by. She then realized that it was hers now. The young man walked over and picked it up. The little dinosaur looked like it was sleeping, but it got bruises all over his body.

"Poor thing," said Sakura.

"By the way, this dinosaur is actually a Machop, a fighting Pokémon," said the young man, "Don't worry, we're going to take him to the hospital."

"A Machop? (Man, things are getting weirder for me.)"

"Anyway, what's your name? I'm Ash. Ash Ketchem."

"Sakura Kagusano."

Ash held out his hand and shook with Sakura.

"Nice to meet you Ash," said Sakura.

"Well, we have to take Machop to the Pokémon recovery center," said Ash, "He sure looks bad."

Sakura decided to follow Ash to the Pokémon recovery center. At the recovery center, Ash met up with a nurse and told her about Sakura's Pokémon. By the body language, Sakura have a feeling that he somehow knew her. The nurse took the Machop and placed him on the bed. She cannot believe how serious the injuries were and told Ash and Sakura to wait in the waiting room. While waiting, Sakura tried to sneak away, but Ash managed to catch her in time.

"Where are you going, Sakura?" asked Ash.

"I'm going home now," replied Sakura.

"You can't just leave your Pokémon here. Nurse Joy said that he'll be better in a moment."

"Ash, please. Machop doesn't actually belong to me. I've just found him inside that Pokéball!"

The nurse walked out of the room with two Chanseys following her. She told Ash that Machop was now recovered after she gave him some healing potion for him to drink. Ash grabbed Sakura's hand and dragged her into the room where the Pokémon was. On the bed, Machop now looked lively and well. When he saw Sakura, he quickly jumped from the bed and hugged her. Sakura gave out a loud screech.

"Sakura, calm down!" said Ash, "Machop is very harmless. He likes you."

"Is she a beginning Pokémon trainer?" asked the nurse.

Ash nodded. "She had a lot to learn."