Chapter I
"Come on, pick up the phone," Kris said, pacing the floor with her phone up to her ear. The ringing continued. "Oh, my gosh! He told me to call him!" Kris said angrily still waiting for someone to pick up the phone.
Finally she heard a faint click indicating that someone picked up. "Uh-hello?" He sounded a bit worked up. "Professor Elm? It's me, Kris. You told me to call you?" She said. "Oh, yes! Sorry, it took so long for me to answer, the power just went out a few minutes ago and I couldn't find my way to the phone."
"It's ok. So, what's on your mind? You've never asked me to call you before…"
There was no reply for a few seconds.
"Oh! Yeah, could you come by later today? I need a little help since Danielle is home sick with the flu bug…"
"Sure!"
"Great! Just come by when you can and we will get things started!"
"Oh, ok… I'll be over after I get ready and have breakfast. See you la"-
"Oh, wait! Can you tell me what time it is? My power outage reset my clocks…"
Kris looked over her shoulder to view her clock, "Yes, it's 9:43 am. Hope you get everything under control over there. Bye."
"See you," were the last words from Professor Elm before they both hung up.
Kris pulled on her shorts, tank top, jacket, hiking boots, and her favorite cap. She grabbed her baggie pack off of her television set and went downstairs.
A lady with black curls to her collarbone was sitting at her kitchen table. She was Kris's neighbor, Mrs. Elm, Professor Elm's wife. She smiled when Kris arrived, "Good morning, Kris!" She said brightly. "You too, Mrs. Elm. How's Danielle at the Lab?" Kris replied. "Oh, she is absolutely loving it! You know, her father says she'll be able to help him feed the pokemon next week! I mean, once she's feeling better again…" Kris smiled back to Mrs. Elm and walked over to her mother, who was making her famous bacon and cheese omelets. "Hey, Mom! Professor Elm wishes to see me, so I'll be going to see him after breakfast, ok?" Scraping the omelet onto the plate, her mother said, "Yeah, I know, dear. He told me yesterday."
Someone rang the doorbell. Wiping her hands on her apron, Kris's mom walked over to the door and revealed a tall, gangly man with gray hair. "Hello, Ms. Gratley. Here is the pokegear you sent to us to fix. The map card and radio card were completely useless after we fixed and updated the main part," he said, "The phones speaker is working properly and the date hasn't been set yet, so you might want to do that." The man winked at Kris and she smiled weakly back. Ms. Gratley took the silver and black pokegear in her hands and said, "Thank you very much, Mr. Loral. Kris can use it now; she's going to start her pokemon journey soon. She will need it." Mr. Loral waved and shook Kris's hand and wished her good luck before he left.
Kris's mother turned to her, exhaled deeply, and said, "Will you check the clock for me so I can set your pokegear up for you?" Kris walked over to the oven and read the time it said, 10:01 am. As her mother set up her pokegear she said, "And today is Tuesday, it's not Day Light Savings Time, my number's already in… I think you're all set!" She turned to Kris and said, "Here you go! Sorry, it would've cost me 200 more to add the map and radio cards. So, you know how to use the phone right?" Kris looked skeptically at her mother, "Uh- yeah. I've known since I was eight. I'll be fine! I'm just going to go help Professor Elm at his lab!"
Ms. Gratley always worried about Kris, even when she went to bed at night. Imagine what she would be like when Kris left on her pokemon journey soon!
Ms. Gratley gave Kris and Mrs. Elm their omelets and went quickly to clean up the mess. Kris loved her mother's meals except when she made cereal. She put a lot of cereal in and then put a spoonful of milk in, saying it was better for Kris since she drank milk all the time. A bit weird really…
Kris finished up fairly quickly and threw her baggie pack over her shoulder and kissed her mother good-bye. She bid farewell to Mrs. Elm and walked out the door.
The street was already buzzing a little. Mrs. Elm's younger daughter, Shyann, was playing with a Growlithe that she figured was a baby because of its size. "Hi, Kris! Where are you going?" she hollered, waving. "Your dad asked to see him at his lab to help him fix things up. Is he new?" Kris said nodded toward the Growlithe. "It's a girl! Yeah, Daddy found her under a bush while cleaning up pokemon poop. He doesn't know how it got there yet. He said he's trying to figure out where pokemon come from," she replied, picking up the Growlithe that was now licking her ear. "Have fun at the lab!" she said as Kris said, "See ya."
She arrived there after about three blocks. It looked like the power was back on. Kris could see lights in some rooms through windows. "Whoa! Hey, come back here!" A long red haired boy around fifteen shoved past Kris with Professor Elm chasing after him. "Give that back!" He hollered and stopped running, apparently out of breath. "What happened, Professor?" Kris said to him helping him remain standing. "That kid just stole my last beginning pokemon, now I have none to give to you next week," he replied taking deep breaths.
Kris bit her lip nervously. "I'll get that kid someday," she muttered angrily to herself. "Let's go call the police…" said Professor Elm quietly. When they came to the door, there were glass shards everywhere. The kid apparently jumped through it in his escape.
They walked inside the lab. Clearly, it had been remodeled. The walls were a goldenrod yellow and there were no more pokeballs on boards in long rows. Instead a small portal three times the normal size of a pokeball was sitting there. It was probably programmed to get specific pokemon easier so you didn't have to go through rows and rows of pokeballs to find the right one.
Kris looked at the floor and saw muddy footprints and suspected them to be the thief's. She followed them all the way to door after jumping and knocking over a desk (it was kinda obvious).
Professor Elm dialed up the police and they said they would be over as soon as possible. Kris decided to mop up the muddy prints and glass shards and re-organized the desk that was knocked over. This took about an hour and the police had already arrived, gathering as much information possible from Professor Elm.
Just then, the door opened. Elm's second oldest daughter, Zethyr, was walking in. She started her journey a month ago. "Dad!" she gasped looking at the policeman inside the lab. "What happened here?" she ran the rest of the way to her dad. "Totodile was stolen… by a red-haired kid." She looked flabbergasted. "No way! I battled a trainer with red hair a few blocks away from here." The police quickly noticed what she said and turned around. "Was he around fifteen?" he interrogated. "Yeah, he said his name was… oh my gosh, what was it… uh…" the police officer was trying to usher her to remember quickly. "Any day now?"
"Oh! Yes, he said his name was Ty! I never got his last name though…"
The police officer was delighted. "Thank you very much, Ms. Elm! Your input has been very helpful." He turned to the professor. "I will do my best to find this 'Ty' character and recover the missing pokemon as soon as possible!" He immediately ran out the door and into his police car.
Zethyr slumped down into the chair behind her. "It looked like Ty didn't know how to handle Totodile. I beat him easily because he didn't know what attacks it had. I never thought to ask him where he got it…"
The place was silent for a few moments, only to be broken by Zethyr again. "Oh! You know how you sent me to see Mr. Pokemon?" she said, jumping right off her sit as if it were a tack in disguise. Professor Elm looked certainly happier than he had since the last hour. "Oh! What did he discover?" Zethyr let her backpack loose from her shoulders and opened the larger section.
What she drew out of her bag wasn't what Kris had expected. She pulled out a brown egg that was three times the size of a chicken egg with a small yellow moon on the tip. "Wow!" breathed Professor Elm. "Is this a pokemon egg?" He looked up at Zethyr's face. "Yes. He said the Day Care Couple found it outside floating in their pond a couple weeks ago. I don't know which pokemon it is though…" Professor Elm took the egg in his hands. "This is the greatest discovery of pokemon yet…" he whispered. "I wonder how long it takes to hatch."