written by Roy Lanegan
* the following story is a dark dramatic vision of the nearing future within the Pokemon universe intended for mature readers *
READER'S NOTE * (v.o.) stands for "voice-over". If you see it with a character's name, it means they are talking in narration.
CHAPTER 1 - PROLOGUE FROM THE DARK
Blackness fills the night. A boy's voice narrates.
CLARE (v.o.): When I was twelve years old.. I died.
The clouds push away from the moon, letting its pale light shine down from the dark sky. It shines through the broken roof of an abandoned building and into the recent crashed hole in the floor. Dust falls and floats all around.
CLARE (v.o.): But I didn't stay dead.
At the bottom of the wreckage in the basement, a young boy, CLARE, lies on his back, dead. Killed from the high fall. Within the unlit darkness of the basement, a pair of eerie triangular white eyes become illuminated. They stare at the boy's body.
Distant footsteps are heard getting closer from above the hole. It is a small search party.
WOMAN: Clare..! Where are you?!
MAN: You think he went in there?
WOMAN: We tell all the kids not go- but he doesn't listen. Clare?!
MAN 2: Hold on- there's a hole in the floor.
A flashlight illuminates the area, and shines down, a young man seeing Clare.
MAN 2: C- Clare?! Hey! I found him! He must have fell through!
WOMAN: Wait- there's another way down! A cellar door somewhere! Hurry!
The ghostly eyes glance back at Clare who begins to have a beautiful bluish-white orb of light slowly exit from his chest. This is his soul leaving. Some clouds move to the moon, blocking out most of the light. The ghost watches for a moment, but then swiftly hovers to the boy.
Clare's soul continues to slowly lift, the ghostly eyes staring at it. The ghost moves its three-finger claw-like hand to the soul, and literally grasps it. He then begins to push it back down towards Clare. Trying to push it back into Clare's chest, the soul acted like a magnet of the same force, pushing away, refusing to go back.
The ghost thinks for a moment. He then begins to generate a power from his hands that emit a dark-purple glow. He grasps the soul one more time, with both hands. He begins to push it down again. The soul enters Clare, but the purple glow begins to grow larger and move faster. The ghost tries hard to make it stay. The dark purple light becomes almost violent as it fights with Clare's light. The ghost's triangular eyes flash red and there is a sudden flash of lightning-like energy that blasts the ghost back several meters, back into the blackness of the basement. Clare suddenly awakens, sitting up in an instant shock. He breathes fast and unevenly, coughing. His eyes are completely wide.
He begins to calm down. He looks above him, seeing the large hole above him.
CLARE: Wh.. what happened..? .. Did I really fall from there?
The ghost moves a bit closer to Clare who quickly notices. They stare at each other for a few moments, but the ghost is still in the dark.
CLARE: Wh- who are you? Are.. you a pokemon?
The eyes simply stare back, almost curiously.
CLARE: Must have hit my head, huh? I don't even remember falling.
The ghost's eyes tilt and slightly squint to even more curiosity.
CLARE: I can't see you.. What kind of pokemon are you?
The ghost's eyes open a bit more, as if to tell him something.
CLARE: .. Wait- you're a ghost-type..?
The cellar door on the other side of the room is suddenly crashed opened. A flashlight enters the room, lighting up most of the basement. Clare looks back at the pokemon. For only a split second, the pokemon looked to be a pitch-black Haunter, instead of the common purple- but at the sight of the light, he literally vanished. Clare simply stares where the Haunter just was, slowly widening his eyes. Nothing else in the world existed to him in this moment, as the search party moved closer to him with their lights and barely inaudible panicked voices.
CLARE (v.o.): And that was how I met my best friend.
Blackness.
~chapter 1 continued~
Clare now sits up in a hospital bed, the daylight pouring into the room. There are flowers, balloons, and cards all around him, but he himself is alone.
CLARE (v.o.): I may have been alive, but I guess my broken leg had to do things on its own time. So there I sat, hating hospitals before I even got there. There's no other place in the world where time goes by more slowly. Surrounded by dying flowers, and plastic balloons of a "get well soon" kinda thing.
A small Pidgey lands on a tree branch just outside the window. It minds its own business, pecking at its feathers and so forth. Clare glances to the window with tired eyes.
CLARE (v.o.): Oh- that's right. You hardly know anything about me. Where to start.. Well, guess I already started a while back, but here goes. My name is Clare Wakahisa. That's Clare without an "i", and Wakahisa being my dad's last name. I forget what it means off-hand, but I'll let you know when I remember. And please- don't make fun of my name. Before I was born, my parents were told I was gonna be a girl. Bet they were quite surprised. Guess they felt like they had little time to come up with a boy name, so they kinda stuck with what they had. But the story of my name is not what I wanted to tell you.
The Pidgey suddenly flies away.
The hospital room door opens from the outside. Clare still keeps his view fixed on the window. A beautiful woman with long dark hair walks into the room. She wears jeans and a plaid shirt.
CLARE: Hey mom.
MOM: Surprised to see you awake. You usually sleep the day away and stay up all night.
CLARE: I'm just waking up.
MOM: Feeling any better?
CLARE: Yeah, I'm doing fine. Thanks.
MOM: .. Clare.. I'm extremely thankful that you're okay, but.. as your mother I really need to talk to you about what you did.
Clare lets out a sigh. His mother seems to be a caring and considerate person. She sits down on a chair close to Clare's bed.
MOM: You know you've been told many times not to go in that building. Not just by me, but everyone. I know the other kids try to play around there, but you're the oldest in town. You're suppose to set an example, Clare! That building is cursed.
CLARE: So they say.
MOM: .. Fine. You're old enough now, not to believe in such things, so I won't tell you that excuse anymore.. but what about your father?
Clare closes his eyes. He bows his head down a bit.
CLARE: I'm sorry. But it's because of dad that I go there..
Clare's mother begins to get more emotional, as if she could cry at any minute.
MOM: Clare, it's because of your dad that I don't want you going near that place! So please- don't do this again! What if I lost you too?!
Clare suddenly opens his eyes in sympathy.
MOM: Your father made that building trying to do something good for the town- but when it was on fire, he died getting everyone else out of it.
CLARE: Mom- I know!
MOM: Don't you understand? Can't I just have my son home with me for at least a little bit longer? I understand that your friends left. You were always the smartest one among those four.
CLARE: Yeah, but where are they now? Gone on their big adventures without me.
MOM: Clare.. they only left two months ago, and your birthday is only in a few more. So please be patient. For me. We all know.. the law will soon be lifted.
Clare's mother stands up and begins to leave the room. Clare thinks for a few moments.
CLARE: Mom.. do any Pokemon live in the basement of that building?
His mother stops and glances back with slight surprise and almost fright.
MOM: Hmm.. well hardly any wild Pokemon are seen in this area. Why do you ask?
CLARE: Oh.. no reason, just asking.
His mother begins to leave the room. Clare seems unsatisfied by her answer. His mother then stops and fully turns around to him with a smile and closed eyes.
MOM: But I suppose if any did move in.. I'm sure that'd be a good sign for the future, right?
Clare seems somewhat surprised by her final answer, but in a good way. His mother exits the room. Clare glances back out through the window. Several pidgeys fly through the sky.
~chapter 1 continued~
TEN YEARS EARLIER..
The static of a television suddenly turns into the off-air color bars. Then that suddenly changes to a live broadcast of an elderly Pokemon professor standing before a podium. He wears a white lab coat over a red shirt. He has rough facial hair showing the nights he spent sleepless. This is Professor Oak, now age 75. He reviews a few sheets of paper in his hands. He turns his vision into the camera, about to address the global audience.
OAK: Uh..
Oak sighs as he cannot find the right words to express what he needs to announce.
OAK: Good evening to all. My name is Samuel Oak. Many of you know me as a professor, as well as life-long Pokemon researcher. There, uh- has never been such a moment in the history of the regions. As the world, by now, is strongly aware of the tragedy that fell onto the friends and families, within the Kanto region.. of two young boys- brothers, who had left home at the age of ten to fulfill their dreams of becoming a Pokemon Ranger and a Pokemon Trainer. Alex.. and RJ Haidako in retrospective. Two young souls who will be forever missed. Their lives were unexpectedly taken at the destructive force of two wild Pokemon they were both attempting to capture. Whether this was a hostile action by the Pokemon themselves, or merely an accident is still unknown. However what is known.. are the consequences.
Oak shuffles his papers together, finding a specific one. He begins to read off it.
OAK: "As of this day, June the 1st, the Regional Governments as well as the Pokemon Rangers have passed the law stating that the capturing of any wild Pokemon, through any means, is hereby suspended for a minimum of the next ten years."
The unseen crowd in the room suddenly pick up an angry noise and flash their cameras.
OAK: "All current Pokemon trainers are expected to return to their homes. If a trainer claims to have a homeless status, then they are expected to personally check into their nearest Pokemon Center where they will have temporary housing until said home can be established."
The audience begins to speak out.
REPORTER 1: You really expect every single Pokemon trainer across the world to simply give up on the spot?!
REPORTER 2: What about the rangers- and breeders?! There are thousands of children out there right now- won't this be creating total chaos?!
OAK: "Also, until the ten years has been reached, as well as the law lifted upon notice, the absolute minimum age of departing trainers has been risen to the age of 13."
REPORTER 3: Why has the age been lifted?
OAK: Please understand.. on the other side of the coin, we have countless parents and guardians worried to the bone for the children. We simply never seriously considered it until it was too late. Age 10 is far too young. So please, we all should be able to understand.
REPORTER 4: What about trainers who have already caught Pokemon? Not to mention all the gym leaders?!
OAK: There are several reasons we are passing this law, and the sheer number of wild Pokemon is just another. They are decreasing. We need to give the world time and rest. But to answer your question- "Pokemon trainers will be allowed to keep their caught Pokemon.. but only a maximum of six. Any more than six, it then becomes the trainer's personal decision to decide which ones must be released back into the wild."
The audience becomes almost violent and louder.
REPORTER 5: Release them back?! But that'd be- countless Pokemon going back!
REPORTER 6: Wouldn't that speed up the ten year period to rejuvenate the wild?
REPORTER 7: Shh! Quiet!
REPORTER 8: What about Pokemon battles?
The audience suddenly grows almost silent. The question that everyone waits for with held breath. Oak simply stares, as if in a daze.
OAK: .. "Pokemon Battles.. are hereby prohibited."
The audience suddenly gets back into their uproar. They begin to make chaos. Security guards behind Oak have to step forward in his defense.
~to be continued~
