Chapter One: 25 years later

25 years later after prologue...

"Alex! Stop sleeping in class and wake up!"

"Ugh..." groaned Alex. His head was throbbing from resting his head on his desk for too long. He tried to move into a more comfortable position and continue to sleep, but his teacher's voice blared into his ear again.

"Don't you remember how important this day is? It's the school trip where you go and find your first Pokémon for soul fusion" his teacher said. "You were excited for this since the beginning of school, yet you end up sleeping during it. I remember when you were so energetic for school, but now you sleep at school 24/7".

His classmates snickered at him when he was scolded and Alex found himself quite embarrassed. Trying to pull himself together to avoid further embarrassment, he silently packs up his stuff and gets ready.

His teacher then turned to the whole class and said "Ok, now that all of you are awake, get your camping gear and go on the bus. We leave in 15 minutes. Tell me if you need to use the washroom so you don't have to go while we're on the bus".

"Yes Ms. Hamlet" responded the class. Then, everyone left the classroom to board the bus. Once everyone got seated and packed everything, Ms. Hamlet once again said "Are you guys ready? Double-check everything because once we leave, you won't be able to get anything you left". Everyone double-checked their gear and waited as the bus started up and left.

Alex was sitting by himself near the middle of the bus, staring outside the window as he watched the scenery blur through the window. He was reminiscing about his past and the history of this place.

He was told by his parents and teachers that this planet was made 25 years ago, when the previous planet called "Earth" exploded from a meteor, and how they got transferred to this new planet called "Evora". Apparently, this planet is supposedly quite different than Earth. Some things are the same, like there are oceans, deserts, forests, plains, swamps, that type of stuff is the same. Other than that, pretty much everything else is different. Every animal was replaced by Pokémon, new berry bushes containing different berries like oran berries and sitrus berries, new continents with new rulers, pretty much everything changed in some way. But the most important change is soul fusion.

Soul fusion is a way to connect and fuse with Pokémon by creating a bond that both human and Pokémon has to agree with. Once the bond is made, the human becomes a capsule that Pokémon bonded with them can stay with them, fuse with them to battle and communicate telepathically with them. When they were new, they were originally called "Pokémon Fusers", but it was eventually changed to "Fusers".

The requirements for becoming a Fuser is pretty basic, which was just have one Pokémon, so pretty much everyone is a Fuser. Once you become a Fuser, you get to buy certain items for Fusers, like Common Potions and Common Bonds (Explained in second chapter). If you want more privileges, you need to go to level up your Fuser rank. The ranks are Unranked, Beginner, Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Pro, Elite and Legend. To level up, you need to have enough Pokémon bonded with you at a certain level and then fight in a tournament held every month to level up and get prizes. You level up if you are part of the top 500 for Beginner rank, top 100 for Novice rank, top 50 for Intermediate rank, top 25 for Advanced rank, top 10 for Pro rank, top 4 for Elite rank and the Champion for Legend rank. Of course, you have to have the requirements before joining the tournament, which varies depending on your rank.

This was all established by something called "The System", which appeared out of nowhere and gave us this planet and system to keep track of our ranks, bonds and money. It also gives you a map that shows everywhere you visited, a description of an item that you identify, tells you other people's ranks and shows your and your enemies stats during a battle. People ended up calling it the "Pokédex", because apparently it's from the game that inspired this planet. Of course, you can't use the Pokédex unless you're a Fuser.

(A/N: Sorry if I took a long time with the explanation, there's nowhere else to put it so it's just crammed in here.)

While reminiscing about his past and the history, a boy came up to him and put starting leaning on the end of the seat saying "Whatcha doing here by yourself? Moping because Ms. Hamlet scolded you?".

Alex looked back at him and replied "Nah, you wish. I just didn't want t hear you flirting with Lizzy the whole ride." with a smirk. The boy was 5'10" tall, with blue eyes and a slim build. He had good looks and his hair was brown and clean, almost as if he wanted to make a good impression on someone. Like, someone they like, maybe a crush. The boy looked back at Alex, annoyed. Alex knew he hit home when he said that, so naturally he continued. "How is your guys relationship? I heard that she is very interested in you after you asked her to have lunch and she said no". The boy looked at Alex and he saw he was angry and embarrassed.

The boy then said "At least she will remember me. You're so anti-social that barely anyone knows you, let alone likes you". "Well, I have better things to do in my spare time, like study and train to become a Fuser" Alex replied. It's always been his dream to become the strongest Fuser in the world. He was anxious and excited for today, because today was the school trip where you camp overnight for 3 days to befriend and make a bond with a wild Pokémon to become a Fuser. You have to be 13 to be able to make a bond with a Pokémon because when you're 12 or younger, your body hasn't developed enough yet to be able to support a Pokémon. So during those years, you go to school to learn Fuser related stuff like making bonds and Fuser ranks, along with other handy information like geography, survival, mathematics (for calculating damage, stats and other stuff) and physical education. You do all of this till your last year of school, when you turn 13 years old and are eligible to bond with a Pokémon, then you go on a school trip to make your first bond with a Pokémon, using all that was taught to you throughout the years. Except for Alex, who only learnt about half the stuff. He knows everything when it comes to Fuser knowledge because he enjoyed that stuff and is able to survive in the wilderness because he couldn't sleep through physical education and doesn't want to sleep through survival because is he does, he'll be hopeless during the wilderness exercise every 3 months, which he figured out the hard way. Other than those subjects, he barely knows the names of cities and towns and he can't even calculate damage when he knows both Pokémon's stats and the stats of the move being used.

Alex then looked away from the boy. Seeing that he was being ignored, the boy put Alex in a headlock and started giving him a noogie while saying "Really ignoring me, I'm your only friend and only reason you're not a loner". Alex, stuck in a headlock and getting noogied replied "Jack, let go, you idiot!". Seeing that he finally agitated Alex, Jack put on a sly grin and said "Idiot? You're the once with grades that are so low that they're negative. Say uncle and I'll let you go!". Hearing Jack wants him to say uncle, Alex struggled for a bit longer, before eventually giving up and calling Jack uncle. Jack, satisfied about his revenge, went to the back of the bus to continue flirting *cough* *cough*, sorry, "chatting" with Lizzy.

Meanwhile, Alex finally got some breathing room after talking with Jack. He was cool and his childhood friend because they're neighbours. They used to go to the community park all the time when they were younger, but eventually stopped once they entered school and Alex became obsessed with becoming a Fuser while Jack became obsessed with making Lizzy his girlfriend. Now, they only talk from time to time, bu they still get along well and still are good friends.

Alex then decided to take a nap while waiting for the bus to stop.

__________

"Gosh, you're sleeping again? We're already here, wake up already".

Alex heard a voice as he slowly woke up from his nap. The first thing he saw was Jack looking at him with a goofy grin. He realized that the bus had stopped already and Jack was waiting for him to pack up. Everyone else got off the bus. "How long have we stopped for?" Alex asked, still groggy from waking up. "About 5 minutes, but someone had to use the washroom and is taking awhile so you have some time to pack up. But make it quick, unless you want Ms. Hamlet yelling at you again. Hearing "Ms. Hamlet", Alex was scared and immediately packed up his gear and got off the bus.

Once he got off, he noticed that they're at the campsite, and that everyone is sitting around a campfire, chatting and sitting on some log stools. Once he got of, everyone shoots a glance at him briefly, then they continue their conversations. Instead of joining the campfire, Alex sits by himself near the edge of the campsite and sets up a lawn chair. He was the only one who brought a lawn chair because they are quite heavy, but Alex prioritizes relaxation. He didn't sit next to Jack because he was already next to Lizzy, chatting with her.

Lizzy was around 5'6", with green eyes and a nice, green dress that compliments her eyes. Her face was good-looking and she had some long, blond hair. She was smiling and chatting with Jack. 'Looks like he finally made a good impression of himself' Alex thought to himself. He himself wasn't that good-looking, just average. He had brown eyes and messy black hair. His clothes were cheap, as he used all of his allowance on books about Fusers. The only good quality about himself is that he was 5'11" and had some muscles from survival and physical education classes. Even so, he didn't dare dream about getting a beautiful girlfriend, mainly because he thinks that if he becomes strong, those things will follow along naturally.

While thinking about himself, he notices a blur flicker through the woods. He looked again, thinking that there was something there, but he didn't notice anything. Thinking it was his imagination, he turned away and slumped on the lawn chair, staring at the afternoon sky and looking at some Pidgey and Taillow fly through the sky.

After a little bit, he saw a kid come out of the washroom. Realizing that it was the kid everyone was waiting for, he packed up his lawn chair and headed towards the rest of the group. Once there, Ms. Hamlet sat up and said "Ok, It's currently the afternoon. Make sure you have your GPS trackers with you so you don't get lost and you manage to make a bond with a Pokémon. I'm leaving now and coming back in 3 days. If you can't make a bond with a Pokémon before then, than you're going to have to wait 2 weeks before you can re-test and try again. If you guys are ready, I'm off then". After that, she boarded the bus and left.

With Ms. Hamlet gone, some kids immediately leave to find Pokémon or make a campsite while others stay behind for a bit to chat for a bit longer before eventually heading out. Meanwhile, Alex immediately turned to leave, coincidently in the direction he saw the blur.