Pokemon 20th Anniversary!

Yo, readers. I’m returning to blogging in a spectacular way with an amazingly crazy story. A Pokemon fan fiction. And before you lose interest because you think Pokemon is for kids and dumb and whatever, I suggest giving my spin on one of my childhood favorite games. I am not only writing this fanfic to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Pokemon, but to also share what I have learned from my life in a world unfamiliar, meanwhile, similar to ours. For those who don’t know me, I am a realist. Therefore, this story, all though meant to be light and kid friendly is going to be written in a more young adult type of way. So, its’ more like rated pg-13 than pg. And to clarify, I am writing this more for myself than others because I love Pokemon. And because of that, I am throwing out all the rules to whatever writers follow and putting not just myself in the story, but everyone I know as well. Where and when a person from my life will appear in the story and how they will affect it will be more or less random. There’s not really a set plan with this one, I’m mostly making things up as I go along. That also means the writing style may change a teensy  bit throughout the work because I have 2 editors helping me create a more riveting narrative. My first editor is one of my best friends, Breanna Gushiken, while my second editor is my eldest sister, Elisha Frazer. So far, I’ve completed the 1st episode, which is 27 pages long, so I am gonna split the episode into small parts for easy and quick reading. Ok, I’m done rambling. Have fun reading.

 

Pokémon Generation Neo:

Episode I

The Adventure Begins

Part 1

            I ran up the hill to Professor Elm’s lab as fast as I could. I couldn’t believe my parents let me sleep in late! They knew how long I’ve been waiting for this day. This very dehydrating day. I slowed down as I stared up at the nearly cloudless sky. The summer sun was baking my body. Sweat rolled out of my beanie. I saw the guys in front of the lab as I arrived at the hilltop. My friends were sitting in the grass with a Cyndaquil I had never seen before.

Damn, I think I’m too late. I ran to them and put my hands on my knees. “Did…I make it?” I could barely breathe.

“No, bro. You’re thirty minutes late. There are no more starters for you to get,” Brett said as he gave Cyndaquil a pat on the head. The others just shook their heads in disapproval.

“Nice, Maze. You had one job,” Andrew laughed.

“Yea, Maze, we called like four times,” Sam chimed in. Jose just sat there and laughed. My friends suck sometimes. I sat down beside Brett.

“I overslept. I went to bed late last night and, and, well this happened.” I was mad at myself, but at the same time, I just didn’t care. I always ended up messing things up for myself that I became used to it. Even now, I continually screw things up. “Sorry, Brett, I guess we’ll be leaving town tomorrow instead.” We’ve planned this for over a year. Brett would finally graduate high school and we’d travel the world as Pokémon trainers. I know what you’re thinking. Why didn’t you get your starter when you turned ten? Well, it’s because the laws were changed years ago.

You see, the generation before my friends and I was called the “hero” generation because they solved so much of the turmoil that started occurring in the world. The numerous world threatening events caused the governments of every region to change the trainer age from ten years old, to fourteen. However, many parents saw the raise in age to force their children to finish high school before being trainers, just like my parents. I know, my life sucks, but not after today.

“How about you spend the night at my house, Maze, so we make sure you wake up on time.” Jose was almost always helpful. It was a good idea though.

“Yea, then we can play games and watch movies all night.” Sam didn’t understand the point of us hanging out tonight.

“No, you idiot, we don’t want Maze to stay up all night because then he’ll be late again.” Andrew understood, but he didn’t need to be so harsh. I just laid down in the grass and watched the clouds go by. I was in no mood to argue with them today. After a few minutes, I saw the professor looking down at me. I swear that guy’s wardrobe is filled with the same outfit. A green dress shirt, brown khakis and loafers, and his lab coat. The five of us turned our attention to him.

“Hey, doc. What’s up?” I said. He pushed up his glasses.

“Hey, guys. Maze, I was sad to see you didn’t show up today. Are you alright?”

“Yea, I just overslept, everything’s groovy,” I reassured.

“Oh ok, then I’ll be glad to see you tomorrow to get your Pokémon, right?” I nodded. “I’ll be here as early as eight in the morning, so you’re welcome to stop by then.”

“Will do.”

“Very good. Now, to the business at hand. I wanted to ask you all a favor.” We all gave him questioning glances. Cyndaquil was also paying attention.

“Okay…” Brett said. It wasn’t very often the professor would ask us a favor.

“Sure, professor, whatever you need,” Sam said. If any of us wanted to back out before, it was too late now. Thanks, Sam.

“Great. You see, I lost a small black case in the woods this morning and don’t have time to look for it until tomorrow because I have a ton of research to do today. I’d be grateful if you could search for it.” The professor gave us a smile. The five of us shared shrugs and nods.

“Yea, we’ll look for it for you. Which part of the woods did you lose it?” Brett asked.

“I lost it somewhere near the path that leads to Tohjo Falls. Thank you guys so much for your help. Just let me know if you find it or not,” Professor Elm said as he walked back into his lab.

“I know what I’m not doing today,” Andrew pronounced. We just glared at him. That behavior was expected from Andrew. He was always too lazy to do anything helpful, but in the end, he helped anyway. “I’m joking, I’m going, don’t worry.” And good thing he was helping because I sure couldn’t.

“Well, have fun with that, I’ll catch up with you guys later and help,” I said as I got up.

“Where are you going?” Brett asked. Cyndaquil was eating an Oran berry from his hand.

“I’ve got work at the café until six. I’ll search after, though, I promise.”

“You better, we’re not searching on our own!” Brett yelled as I walked down the hill. There’s four of them and a Cyndaquil, so I didn’t understand what he meant by ‘on their own,’ but whatever. I just waved and went off to work.

Later that night, I went off into the woods. I was pretty tired, but I said I would look for that mysterious case, so I had no choice. I called Jose right after work and he told me him and the others were taking a break from searching, so I went searching on my own.

It didn’t take me long to reach the area that the professor told us about, however, I could not find that case for the life of me. The area near Tohjo Falls was big. The trees grew so high that for many of them, it wasn’t possible to see the top. And this wasn’t one of those bright green, nicely cut grass type of woods, it’s one of those woods with the semi-tall grass and leaves of shades of brown and dark green covering the ground. I spent an hour and a half looking and decided to take a break. I just decided to go exploring and hang out with the Pokémon in the area. Pidgeys and Spearow flew over me while Caterpie and Rattata scurried through the grass and climbed up the trees. As I walked randomly through the forest I had come across the weirdest phenomena ever. Not really, but it was weird. A guy in a black uniform with a giant red ‘R’ on his chest was walking several feet in front of me until he just disappeared. It was like he walked through space time because the entire space he walked passed rippled like a pebble in water.

I was shocked for sure, but I was more intrigued than anything else. Have you ever had that moment when you are surprised by something and should be scared and question everything, but instead you are like, ‘cool! How’d that happen?’ That’s exactly how I felt. I ran up to the spot where that guy disappeared and investigated the area. Nothing seemed wrong. The grass was grass, the trees were trees, and the leaves were definitely leaves. I stretched my arm out in front of me and part of it went through the ripple in space. Like when Alice and Eevee went through the looking glass only this was even trippier. My success in finding this anomaly made me smile. I walked into the ripple and was surprised to find on the other side…the same stupid forest. Like no space station or different part of the world, no, I was still in the same place. Except now, there was a two story red and white building that wasn’t there before. I looked to the sky to find a huge grid-like field surrounding the area above the building that spread to the ground. It must have been what I stepped through to find this place. And what was being used to keep this place a secret. No wonder no one had ever seen this random building in the middle of the stupid woods before.

I spotted the guy I saw moments before go inside the building. I tried to follow him in, but I needed to scan an I.D. badge at the door. Like I was gonna get one of those. Instead, I snuck around, looking for another way inside. I looked through the windows to see what was going on inside and found even more people wearing black uniforms. I couldn’t place where I saw that ‘R’ logo before, but right at that moment, I remembered. It was the Team Rocket logo. A bunch of them were running around with vials of colorful fluids, huge cables, and stacks of papers. Some of them even had lab coats on. The inside was well kept too. It had the same messy but organized layout as a hospital. Sparkling floors, sterilized walls, and random computers and tech at one side of the room. I didn’t know what the heck these weirdos were up to, but I knew I had to find out.

As I lurked around to the back of the building, I caught a glimpse of a girl with long, black hair enter the hideout. I caught the door before it closed and held it ajar just a tiny bit so that it looked closed from far away. I walked right in after seeing no one in the hall. I was really proud of myself for obvious reasons. Who wouldn’t be happy about successfully sneaking into some place you obviously shouldn’t be entering. I didn’t need a bunch of signs reading ‘Danger’ and ‘Do not enter’ to know that I was doing something extremely stupid and dangerous, but, you know, yolo. Anyway, that hallway had nothing in it, except for one entryway to the basement level. Like I was going to do something as dumb as go down into the creepy basement. I just decided to observe the rest of the place and get evidence to show the police later.

I knelt down as I snuck a peak into the main lobby. It wasn’t really a lobby as it was just a huge area with tons of computers and crap, but let’s just call it a lobby. So, this lobby was the same room that I saw through the window earlier. What I didn’t see earlier was this big red and white platform in the middle of the room with the random pedestal on one side of it. Above the platform was this metal frame-worked indoor balcony that made up the second level. Several Team Rocket goons were setting up video cameras that were looking down at the stage. Apparently, they were getting ready for some kind of show or experiment or something.

“Help us…”

            The feeling of anxiety washed over me after I heard the disembodied voice. It was like it came from my own head, but I know I wasn’t thinking it. Deciding to just brush that incident as nonsense, I took a few snapshots of the lobby with my Pokégear.

“Please…help us.”

            There it was again. At that point, I started to get some very eerie vibes that I just couldn’t ignore. I had to figure out who was calling me. Unfortunately, the place where I thought the voice was coming from was the creepy basement I was trying so hard to avoid. But, you know, fuck me, right? The voice called again and I whispered, “I know, I heard you the first two times. Just hold on, alright? Geez.”

The basement level was just as haunting as I thought it would be. There was light in the halls, but it was dim and blue, making it possible to see down them while retaining the ‘beware-of-jump-scare’ vibe. That disembodied voice could’ve been behind anyone of the many doors down there, but I didn’t want to take the chance to open a door and be caught by a bunch of Team Rocket nerds. The further I walked through the halls, the more my vibes grew. It felt like my body knew where to go without explaining why. I guess that’s what they call instinct. One hallway I walked down felt strange. Like I was close to something important. That feeling got stronger the closer I reached the door at the end of the hallway. I reached for the doorknob when it suddenly turned on its own. Out of fear, I jumped into an open room behind me and hid behind this huge bookshelf. I listened to the echoed footsteps go past the room and I slowly peeked down the hall. The woman walking down it had an empty cage in her hand. Whatever that thing was used for must be in that room, I thought.

Creeping closer to the source of my wonky vibes felt like one of those points in your life when you think to yourself, If I do this? How could it possibly affect my life? And then you do the thing in question and realize, How could it not?

What I saw in that room was the worst thing I had ever witnessed firsthand. At first, I couldn’t see much because one light was barely on in the center of the ceiling, so all I saw were tuba sized cages with small, glowing eyes in some of them. All those eyes staring at me made me incapable of moving my legs.

“Over here,” the voice reached out. I hesitantly crept further down the aisle of cages. I heard a soft purr coming from one cage and went toward it.

“Are you the one I keep hearing?” I asked as I peeked inside the cage. The glowing brown eyes seemed to get a bit closer and then in an instant, they appeared mere inches from my face and the creature bearing them would have clawed my face if I hadn’t jumped back and fallen on my ass already. “Okay, groovy, not you. I won’t bother you anymore.” That’s when I recognized the creature in the cage. It was an Eevee. An angry and defensive one at that. It paced around, keeping eye contact with me. A few Pokémon in the other cells started to purr as well and it was in that moment that I realized Eevee and all of its evolutionary forms were being held against their will by Team Rocket. But for what?

“Glad to see you found us, human.”

            I looked around at the icy blue Glaceon, to the blazing Flareon, and to this colorful Sylveon that laid in a corner of its cage licking off a wound on its arm. Then I felt a cold chill at the back of my neck like I was being watched. I turned around and in the cage to the right of the sleeping Umbreon were the piercing purple eyes of an Espeon. I looked through those unblinking eyes and felt empowered as if this ball of light purple fluff was determined and confident. In what? I had no idea, but I knew that I wanted to do whatever was in my power to help it. I just needed to know one thing. Standing in front of its cell, I asked it, “Are you a boy or a girl?” Espeon’s eyes shifted from seriousness to curiosity. “Your voice sounded female, but it’s really hard to tell with most Pokémon, so I thought I’d ask.” Espeon gave a smile as I heard it chuckle in my head.

“You are a very amusing human. Yes, I am female, but I do not know how that matters at all.”

“I don’t know. I was just curious.”

“More curious than knowing about this dungeon? Than knowing what this place and what my siblings and I are here for?”

“I mean, those were definitely gonna be my next few questions,” I said. It was strange. This Pokémon wasn’t as jumpy and ferocious as the others. She was calm and kind. “So, what is Team Rocket doing to you and your siblings?” I took a seat. Espeon’s eyes turned blue before she spoke.

“About a month ago, we were brought here as the humans’ test dummies. You call them, ‘Team Rocket’?” I nodded. As she told me her story, images of her and her family being captured and caged up by Team Rocket appeared in my head.

            “To test what?”

“I’m not sure. However, we are put on a stage of sorts and our energy is drained into different crystals that the humans study.” More images surfaced. I could see an Eevee and a Sylveon be chained to a round stage and electrocuted until they fell unconscious. I also witnessed a few of Espeon’s siblings being tossed into the kennels with fresh, bleeding, wounds on their bodies. The images were so graphic and depressing, that I started to tear up. I could not believe what had happened to these Pokémon.

The platform I saw upstairs must be what she’s talking about, I thought as I wiped my eyes. Though, that didn’t explain any of their behaviors. “How is it that you’re so calm while your siblings are…?”

“Hostile? Mistrusting?” She knew the exact words I was thinking of using. “The experiments affected each of us differently. At first, the fatigue was bearable, however, after so long, most of us have lost hope and have grown spiteful and melancholy. I, on the other hand, still remember what it was like to be free and remain hopeful for my family’s sake.”

            “You still trust humans? And why me of all people?” Why did she ask for my help?

“I know that not all humans are terrible. And it’s not like I chose to have you help us. You were just the only person to hear my voice.”

“Oh, so I was just a lucky coincidence, huh?” I muttered. A bit disappointed in the fact that I wasn’t chosen for any particular reason.

“Yep, that’s basically it,” she said with a laugh.

“You don’t have to agree with me,” I snapped. I felt offended, but Espeon’s smile made it hard to be too hurt, so I just laughed along with her. Though, I knew that it was not the time to lollygag. I had to find a way to free all of those Pokémon. I stood up and investigated the cage. A card reader was positioned as the lock of the cell. I had to get my hands on an I.D. card. “I’ll have to grab a Team Rocket I.D. to open this cell.” I was speaking to Espeon, but I could swear that the Umbreon beside us scoffed at me. “What? Do you have a better idea?” I asked it. It just looked at me, looked at Espeon, growled something to her, and went back to sleep. Like, I was standing right there and was completely ignored. I’m pretty sure it insulted me also. Espeon turned to me.

“My brother means well. He just doesn’t believe in you like I do.” That did not make me feel any better. I had to stick it to that Umbreon.

“Well, I’ll just have to prove him wrong. I’m gonna get the key and I’ll be back as fast as I can.” I walked back towards the hall and as I passed Umbreon I said, “And you can suck it.”

Creeping through the hallways was easy, the hard part was finding empty rooms with an I.D. card randomly in it. The best way for me to get my hands on an I.D. was to snatch one off someone. I found one woman who had her card swinging off the side of her skirt. I clung to the wall as I followed her down the hall. She went from room to room collecting papers from scientists, so I guessed she was just an assistant or something. Finally, she stopped to answer a phone call from her boss. As she stood still, giving a progress report of the work being done, I tiptoed behind her, carefully snatched her card, and snuck back towards Espeon and the others. Unfortunately, I was a little late.

            While staying in the shadows, I witnessed a guy walk past me with two small kennels. My heart skipped a beat when I saw Umbreon and Espeon inside them, trying to break free. I couldn’t let them get their energies drained again. They couldn’t suffer any more abuse. I didn’t know how, but I was going to stop Team Rocket’s experiments.

To be continued…