Insert
[Name]
- I -
Chapter II
**********
Ok, let me recap the situation here. Last chapter I
told you how, due to some crazy events, I ended up in the realm of Pokémon. It
wouldn’t get through to me at first, but as the hints continued to pile up
before me I had to accept it eventually. But it didn’t stop there, because just
as I was about to stock up on supplies I literally ran into a girl. As I tried
to help her back up her Haunter played a prank on me, and I ended up on the
floor as well. A few moments and apologies later we were back on our feet, and
because I was looking for a travelling partner anyway I was wondering if she
could cook. I was about to ask, but I got… sidetracked. Imagine my surprise
when she beat me to the question!
“Can you cook?” The girl suddenly asked me. I had to
resist the strong urge to drop my lower jaw right into the ground then and
there, but I was still very much in shock. She stole my line! A few moments of
awkward silence passed before she suddenly realized what she just said. “Oh,
uh… I guess I’m going too fast, huh. I mean, we don’t even know our names yet.”
I was sure that if we’d been in an actual anime episode she would’ve been
sweating profusely now. She radiated embarrassment, despite the forced smile.
“Well let me fix that, the name’s Rick.” I said as I
extended my hand, transforming her smile into a genuine one while she took it.
“Rose.” It dawned on me that she had just made the suggestion of trekking together,
and though I really was looking for someone to travel with, the way she asked
it toned down my excitement. She asked if I could cook, which could only really
mean one thing…
“I take it you can’t cook then, judging from what you
asked me.” I more or less stated. The head shake didn’t come as much of a
surprise to me. “Yeah, that figures. Oh well, shouldn’t have expected a miracle
anyway.” Rose gave me an odd look at this comment, so I explained to her how I
was hoping to come across a chef cook before moving to the next town, to avoid
having to live on simple sandwiches for days on end. Because I could not cook
either.
“Wow, that’s exactly what I was hoping for. I’ve had
enough of my bad cooking so I was wondering if someone here that can actually
fry an egg without coaling it would tag along with me. As far as I know you are
the only other trainer in this town though.” I was slightly surprised at this
fact. She sounded like she had been here a while now, yet she hadn’t seen any
other trainers? And here I was thinking this place would be packed. “You are a trainer, right?”
“What?” I blinked, as her question sort of caught me
off guard. Then again, her uncertainty was fairly understandable. She hadn’t
actually seen a trainer here after all, she could just be mistaken again. “I’m
a trainer alright, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well for one you don’t look like one. And you’re a
bit old.” She said. Right, should’ve seen the age one coming, even if I didn’t
understand why someone could be too old.
What was the common starting age again, ten wasn’t it? I felt that little ten
year-olds trekking about with backpacks bigger than their own torso wasn’t
exactly the brightest move, but Rose didn’t seem to share my opinion. “Most
people stop training before they get to our age, unless they work at a Gym.”
She clarified after she saw my blank expression.
“You’re still training too though, so what’s with
that?” She visibly tensed up at my question, so I assumed I wouldn’t get a
straight answer on that one.
“There’s ah… a good reason for that.” She trailed off
as she no doubt tried to find a way around my question. Her age seemed to
bother her quite a bit.
“Hey, it’s no problem. You’re not the only one,
remember.” I quickly said, deciding to spare her further torture on the age
subject. Haunter, who I had nearly forgotten about, suddenly floated back into
my view and seemed to be trying to cheer its trainer up a bit. It looked quite
powerful, and the fact that Rose was confident enough to let it out of its ball
certainly vouched for its loyalty. Gastly was no regular starter, at least not
as far as I knew, yet despite that fact the two seemed firmly bonded. The bonds
that tie a Pokémon and its trainer are one of the things my games couldn’t
replicate, I realized, but now that I was here myself I most certainly could. I
suddenly wondered what the personalities of my own Pokémon would be, or if they
even liked me. We’d never really met before, we’d never been able to bond, or
communicate in any way. For all I knew they could hate my guts. Staring at the
pocket that held my Pokéballs I wondered about the Charmeleon, Diglett,
Pidgeotto, and Butterfree that made up my current line-up. They had been
nothing but numbers and figures before, yet from now on they would be real and
thinking for themselves. And as corny as it sounded, I just hoped they’d be my
friends too.
“Hello, Earth to Rick, are you going to stand there
all day, or are we going to get moving?” Rose’s comment pulled me from my
thoughts, well partially at least, and I mumbled a quick “right” before
following her. Luckily for me she was also headed for the Mart, as I had
forgotten all about shopping due to my recent thoughts and would’ve probably
followed her even if she was going in the opposite direction. “Since neither of
us can cook, I suggest we buy as many instant meals as we can carry and we’ll
just take turns warming them up.” Well, I guessed her mind was set then. It
seemed I had found my travelling partner.
**********
“Well?” The father asked while impatiently circling
around the room. He had come home as fast as he could after the news reached
him. His wife had phoned an ambulance and they were now in hospital, waiting
for the doctor to finish his examination.
“It appears as if he’s in some sort of comatose state,
but it doesn’t seem to be an actual coma.” The doctor mused as he frowned in
thought. This case was unusual; he hadn’t ever come across anything like this.
The young man on the bed was perfectly fine, healthy in all aspects, and there
was still some brain activity.
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning that the light’s on, but nobody’s home.
Normally in a coma all brain and body functions cease and machines are needed
to keep things going, but even though he doesn’t respond to anything, his body
is still active. Also, even though the largest part of the brain seems to be
inactive, the stem is still sending all the signals it should.” The doctor
explained patiently. “But… I’ve never seen this before; I don’t know what to
make of it. I’ll have to get a second opinion of someone more knowledgeable on
this.”
“You’re saying there’s nothing we can do?” The doctor
shook his head slowly, getting a gasp from the people around him. “Not for the
time being, I’m afraid.”
**********
“Whoa, that one looks tasty… And that one… Oh and here
another one. Come on Rick, bring the cart over!” I sighed in irritation after
Rose had slipped from whatever was holding her back and into a full blown
shopping frenzy. This should’ve been a simple trip to the supermarket to stock
up on food, but Rose quickly got caught up in it. The cart looked awfully full
as it was, yet Rose seemed intent on buying out the whole shop.
“Rose, please… can we even afford all this stuff? Who
am I kidding, never mind affording it, what about carrying it?!” I groaned as I
got called over yet again. This was going to seriously dent what little funds I
assumed I had. I did have money, right? Just to be sure I searched my pockets
for a wallet, quickly finding one in the pocket I always kept mine in. It even
looked the same, but by now nothing could surprise me, or so I thought. When I
opened it I was confronted with a vast amount of cash, finding myself
dumbstruck on the spot. There must’ve been thousands of… of… Poké dollars? I
wondered what exactly the currency here was.
“We’ll just buy the cart too.” Came the dry reply to
my complaint. “Come on, it’s not that much, I just want to be sure we don’t
starve out there. Besides, with that wad of cash you’re holding I don’t think
money is much of an issue.” So now I had been drafted to pay for the stuff too.
I guessed I shouldn’t mind that much. I did have enough cash… and by the time
my mind had formulated a new complaint, we were checking out.
Outside, we split the stuff between the two of us, and
I stuffed as much of it in my pack as it could hold. There were lots of instant
meals, which is what we set out to buy, but there were also items like Potions
and even a few Revive tablets. Not that I’d be needing them, or planned on
needing them in any case. As I checked my watch, I realized there was still
plenty of time left today. The fact my watch was even there no longer surprised
me at all.
“So, what type of Pokémon do you train?” Rose asked
while I slung my pack over my shoulder, breaking the silence I hadn’t even
noticed.
“All of them. Or as many different types as I can
carry anyway. My team varies from Fire to Bug and Flying to Ground. I want to
be able to counter any type I might run into in some way.” I replied, not
without pride. From the corner of my eye, I noticed her smirking, probably
because she caught it too. Deciding to return the favour I turned slightly and
asked her pretty much the same question. “What about you? Ghosts?”
“Sort of. I don’t train any type, I train only this
Haunter.” I was stunned. Well mentally anyway, physically I just kept going
straight – be it with a blank look on my face. She only trained Haunter? Yet
she’d come this far using only that single Pokémon? I was impressed, even if
Ghost types weren’t the most common, and counters to them weren’t exactly
widely known, it was still a very good achievement. I would definitely have to
catch a Gastly now. “Watch it, before you bump into something again.” Rose’s
warning snapped me back just in time to dodge the lamppost in front of me.
Today just wasn’t my day.
“What about badges? Got any yet?” I asked as we got
close to the edge of town. She nodded and reached into her pocket, and pulled
out two badges. I recognized them as the Thunder and Cascade badges, meaning
she’d already challenged and defeated Misty and Surge. And with only Haunter to
use. It seemed I would have plenty of expectations to hold up to. “Good, that
means I won’t have to backtrack just yet.” I said while smirking, reaching into
my pack to get the carry case I’d seen earlier when I loaded it with food. I
opened it to show the same badges I just saw, plus the
“The
“Say, mind if I make a quick visit to that tower over
there?” I asked as I pointed to the
“That old thing? I thought that was deserted, are you
sure? …They say it’s haunted.” Rose said as she gazed at the structure.
“Exactly.” I said as I took in the fearsome features.
It looked as it had in the anime, dark and uninviting, with monstrous
sculptures along its roof. “That’s why I want to go in. It’s one of the few
places you can actually catch Ghost types in. And I’ve been trying to find one
for a while now.”
“Really? Well what are we waiting for then, let’s head
inside.” I stumbled for words as Rose started walking towards the building. I
really didn’t want her in there, as I was sort of hoping I could use this
opportunity to get to know my Pokémon. And I didn’t want to cough up the entire
story to her just to explain my probable sloppiness in battle. After all, I did
have three badges, I shouldn’t be sloppy at all.
“Uhm… Actually, I was sort of… I want to go in alone,
if you don’t mind.”
**********
- II -
Author’s Note
Thus ends
chapter two of my epic tale. Not much epic about it now, but come back in a few
months and read this again, and I promise you it will… probably not have
changed at all… But whatever. It’s the upcoming chapters that will be epic.
Maybe not the next one, or the one after that, but eventually… *Cough* anyway,
still no Pokémon, but this one DID have trace elements of it! And next chapter
will have them. Lots and lots too.
Chapter
three: Rick goes to catch a Gastly, using his Pokémon for the first time. Going
against his wish to go alone, Rose joins him in the
**********
- III -
Legal Gibberish
I do not
in any way own Pokémon or any of its copyrights and rights of other merchandise
related to it. All characters and places in this story are entirely fictional
and taken from or based on various aspects of the Pokémon universe. Any form of
copying and/or misuse of this story by others will be reported. Please respect
the imagination and effort made by others. Stealing is bad, don’t do it.
WeirdDutchGuy