Episode One: Yuki
"She's either late or not coming at all…" he said, running a hand through his oxblood, spiky red hair. His red vest flapped in the breeze, the cool air making his tshirt press against his chest. The little brown fox sitting on his shoulder looked around. "I mean, she should be turning ten today. Unless I got the date wrong?" he sighed. He leaned back against the wall and pressed his back against the cool stone, enjoying the sensation against his back. He looked off in the distance, Professor Oak's laboratory, the largest building in all of Pallet Town, was probably the only attraction worth seeing in all of Kanto. "I wonder what she's doing… Or where she's hiding." he pondered, leaning his head back against the wall, closing his eyes.
"Vee!"
Zack cracked an eye open and reached up to poke the brown fox in the ribs, making her squirm and squeal. "What do you mean 'up my butt'?" He poked her again and tickled her sides. "Are you being a wiseass?"
"Eevee vee!"
"Oh? Was that another wisecrack?" She stuck her tongue out at him. "Oh well, excuse me for not being fluent in Poké
mon," Zack said, rolling his eyes. "Arceus would strike me down before I ever understand a word of what you're saying. So bite me." Just as he was pulling his hand away he felt her jaws chomp down on his fingers. "OW!" he cried out. She jumped down from his shoulder onto the ground in front of him. "You little monster, that really hurt."
"You're such a baby, Zack." Her long, brown pigtails fluttered in the wind, her black tshirt pressing up against her and her white skirt fluttering also, the sparkles on the pink heart near the hem of her skirt shimmering in the sunlight. She unfolded her arms and leaned forward to pull at her thigh high white socks, which were the opposite color of her elbow length, fingerless gloves. She tapped the toes of her white shoes before looking back up at him. "Were you waiting long?"
"Long enough to be bored waiting for you. There are a million other things I could have been doing right now, but instead I've been waiting here for an hour for her Majesty to arrive, and so on and so forth and—"
Her face contorted as she experienced emotional evolution, going from annoyed to angry to furious within only a few seconds. She placed her hands on her hips. "Well sorry for being late, you big jerk! It just so happens to be my birthday today and my parents wanted to spend it with me."
Zack sighed. "Geeze Mana, calm down. You always take things too seriously, takes the fun out of picking on you. But then again, your weird moods won't ruin my good day. I have two Pokémon to your none." Mana scowled at him as he pulled a white and red sphere from his belt. With a flick of his wrist he tossed the ball into the air and it split into two, light spilling out and materializing on the ground in front of him and beside his Eevee. When the Pokémon finally materialized completely, the sphere snapped shut and returned to his hand, leaving behind a blue, dog like Pokémon standing upright on black feet, two black, floppy like ears on either side of his head and eyes as red as Zack's hair.
"Rai," it said, scratching its head.
"His name is Sentou, and he's a Riol—"
Mana twirled around on her heel and faced in the direction of the lab. "Yeah yeah, Mr. I'm-from-Sinnoh-and-My-Parents-Are-Rich, blahblahblah." With a dismissive wave of her hand over her shoulder she began walking in the direction of the laboratory. "You are your two trophies coming or not?" Zack shrugged and returned Sentou to his Pokéball before catching up to her, his Eevee trotting beside him.
It only took them a little over a half hour to reach Professor Oak's laboratory, climbing the hill that took them to the front doors. Mana pushed the door open and let them in, finding themselves in the lobby. The décor matched the red color of the building in various shades, while everything else was made of polished wood. They walked further into the room and found themselves completely alone.
"Maybe there's no one here?" Mana asked.
"Yo, professor! Mana is here for her dex and starter," he shouted.
Suddenly there was a bang, a crash and some cries of pain coming from the floor below. Zack and Mana both exchanged glances before finding the stairs that lead them downstairs into the research area of the laboratory. They found an old man, around his sixties, leaning on a table and rubbing the back of his head. His hair was grey with flecks of white and what probably used to be his natural hair color before age caught up to him. When he finally noticed them he straightened and adjusted his red shirt beneath his white lab coat.
"Ahem, sorry about that. My chair just broke right out from under me." Zack and Mana noticed the chair sitting on its side behind him, its wheel base having rolled several feet away, leaving the chair in two pieces. He held up a hand to stall any questions and picked up the phone off the floor, putting the receiver to his ear. "Hello? Are you still there? Yeah, sorry about that, my chair broke and—What does my age have to do with this? I know that…Gary, I'll have to let you go, I have someone here for her appointment. Yeah—uh huh. In an hour? That's fine Gary, I'll see you then. Bye now." The professor hung up the phone and placed it on the desk beside him before picking up the top portion of his broken chair, sighing. "And this was my favorite chair no less…"
"Is everything okay?" Mana asked.
The professor turned around to face them, still holding the seat in his hands. "Oh right, yes, you're here for your dex and your starter. Follow me." They followed him into another section of the laboratory where they kept Pokémon in their Pokéballs on shelves. He placed the broken seat on the couch near the wall before walking over to a monitor on the other side of the room. He punched some keys and typed something into the screen before a machine wheezed and whirred to life. Four panels on the floor in the center of the room vanished as a pedestal holding a dome like container rose up from beneath the floor. The professor approached it and pressed some more buttons before the glass dome clicked and slid all the way back, revealing its contents inside. Sitting inside the container were three Pokéballs, each polished and identical to the other. He reached for one of the balls and gave it a toss, the light spilling out and materializing a blue turtle Pokémon on the floor.
"This is Squirtle, the water Pokémon. This is a great starter for beginners because of its docile nature and its quick learning. It can pick up on things much quicker than some other starter Pokémon and so it's a rather popular choice for our region."
"Squir!"
He returned the Pokémon into its Pokéball and back into the container before taking the next one, tossing that one as well. This time an orange lizard like Pokémon appeared, a flame on the tip of its tail.
"This is Charmander and he's a fire type. They have a lot of energy and spirit, and are sometimes prone to wanting to play or do whatever it is they want to do rather than train. Though they do make for a great starter, they're a little harder to handle because of their high energy and personality, kind of like small children."
"Charmander!" it said right before the professor returned it to its Pokéball. He tossed the third ball and it revealed another turtle like Pokémon only this one had dark green spots and a plant bulb like shell on its back.
"This here is Bulbasaur and it's a grass Pokémon. Personality wise they're a mixture of both—"
"I'll take her!" Mana said.
"Are you certain?" the professor asked.
"Yep, she's perfect."
"Well, alright." He withdrew the Bulbasaur into its Pokéball and handed it to her. "Take good care of her."
"Thank you," she said.
The professor looked over at Zack and then down at his Eevee sitting beside him on the floor before looking back up at him. "I see you already have a Pokémon so I don't see how you require one. I only have three official ones at the moment and since Mana has just taken one I'd appreciate—"
"Yeah, sure, don't worry about it. I already have two anyway since my dad recently came back from Sinnoh." Zack shrugged.
"Well then, in that case just wait here a moment." He returned to the monitor and punched in some more commands, after which the container returned to its place beneath the floor, the panels reappearing in their place. The professor disappeared behind some sliding doors near the back of the room and was gone several minutes before he re-emerged with two red devices and two containers. He handed them each a red Pokédex and a container, which each contained five empty Pokéballs. "When you come across a Pokémon you haven't seen before or you simply want information on a particular Pokémon, simply point at it and it will record the Pokémon into your device and show you information about it. The balls I'm sure don't require any explanation."
"Thank you, professor," they both said in unison.
They said their goodbyes and left the building the way they had come, walking down the hill and making their way toward the route that would take them away from their home town. It didn't take long before they found it, having spent the time getting there with barely any talking as they both considered what was about to take place. As soon as they reached the first route Zack stopped in his tracks while Mana walked several paces ahead of him before turning around to face him.
"You knew this was coming," she said while taking the Pokéball from her belt.
"Of course, don't think I haven't been waiting for this day for a while now." Zack thrust a finger in her direction. "I'm calling you out! It's time for a Pokémon battle, one on one."
"Humph, I accept and you better get ready, Zack, because we're going all out." She tossed the ball in the air with a flourish of her arm and the sphere split into two, spilling its contents in a stream of light, materializing Bulbasaur. "Bulbasaur, take the stage!"
"Yuki, go!" The Eevee leapt to take her place in front of Zack. "Ladies first."
"Aw, thank you, but you'll regret that. Bulbasaur, Vine Whip on the double!"
"Yuki, dash between the vines until you get close enough and use Shadow Ball."
Vines sprouted and grew in length from the little green Pokémon, both racing toward the brown fox that leapt in between the vines and weaved from side to side, avoiding their lashes as she charged forward. A purple sphere of shadow like energy began to gather at her mouth, growing with each step she took closer to her opponent. As soon as she had closed the gap between them she stopped in her tracks and used her momentum to blast the Shadow Ball directly into the Bulbasaur's face. The force of the impact sent the green Pokémon rolling backwards before sliding to a stop.
"Quick, Tackle it for good measure!" Yuki rushed forward and rammed her head into the green Pokémon's side, making it tumble backward even further. Mana scowled at the awful treatment of her Pokémon and returned it to its Pokéball. Without even so much as looking at him she turned around and began walking away. "Hey, what's up?" No reply. "Aw come on, Yuki and I have been together longer, so of course she'd be stronger than your starter."
"And you've proven that by Tackling a Pokémon that was already down. Good job, congratulations. Now are you going to lead us to the next town or what? Bulbasaur can't battle and I need to find a Pokémon Center."
Zack groaned loudly. "I guess I didn't think that one through." He trotted to catch up to her, Yuki following beside him.
(~_~)
"Shade, Shadow, report."
Two tall figures in black capes stood before a monitor, one of them had a black crow sitting on his shoulder.
"Our excavation of Mount Moon is going quite well, perhaps better than expected," said the one with the crow. "The Clefairy are being harvested even as we speak for Game Corner. Soon, people will pay good money for this rare Pokémon."
"And the police still haven't caught on."
"Perfect," said the person on the monitor. "You're both the finest members I could ask for. Be certain not to screw this plan up."
"Of course, sir," they both said in unison right before the screen went dark.
"Damn it, what a boring job. I'd much rather be out there scamming newbies," said the one with the crow. He turned to look at his partner before sighing. "Yeah yeah, I know that look."