Chapter One: End of the Old Era
All I could do was let out a small sigh the moment time felt like it slowed down to an eternity. Instead of paying attention to the boring subject in front of me, I decided to drift my eyes to the left and gaze out the large windows; fortunately from the positioning of the room, I didn't have a view of the beach, but I still at least had an okay view. As I stared out at my town and clear blue sky, I became momentarily thankful of having the back corner since it allowed my inattentiveness to be over looked. It wasn't that impressive of a sight for me, since I've seen it hundreds of times already. At least the small suburban area that this building overlooked was at least enough to keep me awake from the lecture five desks in front of me.
As my eyes wandered around the outside world, something unusual came into my sights. I spotted something diving straight down to the ground at such speed, I wanted to compare it to a rocket that was crashing until I quickly saw it swoop back into the air and flutter there. From the distance it was from me, I couldn't get a clear call on what it was, but from its shape it was obvious that it was a bird of some kind. I estimated its size to be around that of a falcon or a hawk, but from the coloration of the animal's feathers were more reddish-orange then the average raptor. However, aside from that, there was one thing I really took note about this bird. With each flap of the creature's wings, something bright would fall from it; it honestly looked like a shower of embers being spewed from the animal.
This can't be real, from the way it was moving, it didn't seem like one of those remote controlled toys or model planes. It was too erratic and from how the thing was diving, the object of observation was acting like it was attacking something. It definitely has the actions of a raptor, but from those sparks I see would indicate that the thing is burning. I don't think that animals could just spontaneously combust, and I honestly don't think that anyone in my town would be that much of an asshole to set a live bird on fire.
I quickly glanced towards the front of the room to see if the man in the light brown suit was looking in my direction. When I confirmed he wasn't and writing equations on a marker board, I slid my hand into my left pocket and grabbed my phone. I was careful to what apps I pressed, but the moment I clicked for my phone's camera mode, a soft bell rang. People began to slowly shuffle around their desks; some packing up notebooks into binders, others leaving the room almost immediately, and all the while the teacher reminding everyone of a test on Monday. Since my attention was stolen away from the creature, I turned back to the window to see if I could find it again, but I couldn't spot the bird anymore. It had to been my imagination acting up then, something like that couldn't have existed. With that in mind, I cleared my desk of what little notes I had and left as well.
Serpentining my way through a human maze made up of cliques and other lone students, I soon arrived at my destination in this cream hallway and opened up my maroon locker while a small yet noticeable yawn escaped me. As I switched my binder and books for my bag, I heard a young male's voice from my immediate right.
"So did baby miss his nappy time again?"
I instantly responded in a toned down voice with, "Yes baby missed nappy time again."
"Come on Alan, pre-calc still can't be that bad." The male stated afterwards.
He was a young man about the same age as me, but slightly fresher at being the age of eighteen. He had moderately short chocolate blonde hair with a few strains that hung over his dark green eyes. Despite a past statement by him considering himself to be average, if the guy really wanted to, he could swoon the hearts of women with just his looks alone. Aside from that, his medium built body was dressed up in painter blue jeans, a white cotton t-shirt with a light blue polyester dress shirt that had a black dragon designed across through it.
I shut my locker and turned to him. After that I said in a serious voice, "Vic, consider yourself lucky you didn't decide to take that class."
Victor laughed it off and reassured me that I only have to deal with that class for just a few more months. I could hardly wait for that moment, but then again, there would be college afterwards.
Shortly after having that thought, Vic suddenly changed our topic.
"So have you heard the new rumor?"
"Depends, what rumor are you talking about?" I asked.
"A group of people are saying that they've seen a strange creature today." The moment he said that, he had my complete interest. "In fact, someone had recorded in and has been sending it to others."
Vic pulled out his phone and showed me a video text, what I saw widen my eyes a little.
The video showed the bleachers of our football field and from the looks of the students in the foreground, it was during someone's gym period. In the video one of the school's coaches was approaching the side of the bleacher with a metal baseball bat in his hand. He started to bang his weapon loudly against one of the bars and spooked something out from under the seats. I wanted to call it a badger, but I couldn't.
"That looks just like-"
"A Linoone." Vic said; finishing my sentience.
I was speechless, the more I tried to rationalize that animal I just saw being a misidentified badger made my head hurt. I really do want to say that the video is just that of a coach scaring away a badger, but the camera quality is crystal clear, that's a Pokémon. I then thought back to what the creature I saw while I was in class. Now that I think about it, the thing I saw kind of resembled a Talonflame.
"You think Nintendo may be trying to pull a publicity stunt?" I quizzically asked. It would make sense, and maybe the animals were painted up so that they could be misidentified as Pokémon.
"A publicity stunt?" The teen questioned.
I told Victor of what I witnessed not too long ago, but my friend didn't seem to fully believe my reasoning.
"Besides wouldn't it make more sense for Nintendo to do this kind in a larger population then some small town?" Vic said.
"Maybe we're not the only town involved." I countered.
"True. So then want to try and find the main event then?"
"It wouldn't hurt to see what they're planning." Studying can wait.
Before we could continue our conversation any further, I could feel my phone vibrating. It was a text from my mom asking me to pick up some groceries from the store on my way home.
"Can you give me forty minutes? I've got to take care of something, and then I should be able to join you later." I announced.
"No prob, I'll meet you at your house."
After that, Victor and I parted ways. It was about a fifteen minute walk to the store, and after I got what I needed, it shouldn't have been much longer of a walk home if I cut though the park, but I stopped myself after I felt something wet hit me on the head. The moment I looked up, the bright and clear sky had drastically turned into a violent downpour. I would have been fine with it if the rain was light, but this was coming down hard like a serve storm, and one I definitely didn't want to be in. I gripped the plastic bags containing the food I just bought tightly and ran.
From how heavy the water was coming down, my vision was limited to roughly maybe ten to fifteen feet in front of me, but luckily for me, I spotted a few familiar structures. I could see a row of six swings, past that was a small climbable tower with a rubber bridge that led to a spiral slide, and finally slightly beyond that was a small plastic dome that had a few holes you could crawl into; I had at least made it to the playground section of the park. With quick thinking, I decided it was best to take shelter in that dome.
This isn't good; visibility is so low that trying to navigate through this storm would be just a fool's run. If it gets any worse, it could start flooding and then I'll truly be in trouble. But there is one thing I find odd about this storm; there are no claps of thunder or flashes of lightning, just rain. All weather reports foretold that this week and continuing onto the next was supposed to be sunny and still. It's not odd for weather reports to be wrong at times, but for this kind of inaccuracy? Whatever; as long as it doesn't get any worse, then all I have to worry about is being soaked to the bone until it lets up.
I wonder if this storm ruined whatever Nintendo was trying to pull. Could it have been for another Pokémon game? Maybe Saint Dawn and other towns were going to get its own Nintendo store. Who knows, but it may have been postponed due to current circumstances. It would have been interesting to see what was going to happen, but oh well.
As I stared out of the hole I crawled through, my ears picked up on a noise that wasn't the sound of water. It was very soft moaning and whimpering, and from the sound of it, it was entering my temporary shelter through the hole to my left. Upon turning to see what the source was, my eyes widened and I lunged myself back into the wall out of fear.
A creature roughly around the size of a small human was crawling its way in. The top half of the thing's body was white with deep red blotches stained on various areas, while the lower half of its body was a slightly lighter red. On the creature's back were two wings hanging down in a limp like fashion, and on its chest was a blue triangle. Lastly, the entity I'm looking at has two white triangle ears that arc back away from its red wincing face.
I felt like I was having a heart attack as I gazed in astonishment. I'm looking at a Latias. There is no physical way that this thing could exist. Pokémon is just a fictional franchise thought up by both Game Freak and Nintendo, but from the sounds it was making and from the way it was moving, this creature is as real as the very air I'm breathing.
The Latias opened and quickly noticed me with its yellow eyes, and the moment it did, the creature leapt a two feet off the ground and hovered there for a few seconds before collapsing back down.
If the stains of crimson on the Latias weren't obvious that the Pokémon was injured, then that action was evident enough. I slowly reached out my hand and took a step, and when I did, the Latias gave me quite an intimidating scowl.
"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." I said in a soft tone. The moment I was literally inches away from it, I had this fear that it was going to bite me, but I mustered up the courage to continue and gently laid my hand on the Pokémon's cheek. "See?"
According to all information about Latias, its species is female, and I wasn't about to be rude enough to check if it was now. But feeling her soft down feathers tickle the palm of my hand and her body shiver against it was further proof that this Latias was real.
"It's going to be okay. I'm going to take care of you."
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the rain finally let up to a degree that the rest of the park was visible and I could see the street at the end. I looked back down at the Latias and I saw that she was staring in my eyes. I let out a sigh and removed my book bag, only to stuff the groceries in it. After that, I wore my bag on my chest and then gradually and carefully shifted the Latias onto my back. The Pokémon laid her head next to mine while bringing her arms around and latched onto me with her small claws; it felt like I was carrying a child. Once I was done making sure the Latias was secure on me, I rushed home.
I ran inside, not even bothering to lock the door behind me, sprinted upstairs and kicked the door open to my room. It wasn't the largest location in my house, but it was still big enough for anyone to be satisfied with; and with how I kept things, there was plenty of movement space. Across my door is where I kept my bed, which sat in a corner with navy blue covers on top of it. Following to the left of my wall was the set of my windows that looked out to the front of my house while under the window is where I had placed a walnut brown, fold out futon mattress. On the opposite side of that was my computer desk area with a walk in closet between the two points. Lastly, behind my computer chair was a small dresser which had my television and two video game consoles sitting on it.
I sat on my bed and carefully slid the Latias on my covers and after that, I immediately threw my bag off me, and pulled my futon out into its bed position. I ran into my bathroom, grabbed as many towels as I could and a small bucket that I filled with warm water. After that, I ran into my parent's bathroom and snatched our first aid kit along with a bottle of curamin.
I sprinted back to my room like a madman and laid out all the materials I gathered. First I laid a couple of towels on the futon mattress and then carefully moved Latias over. Since the rest of the stuff was already prepared, I snatched up another towel and started to wash the blood off the Pokémon with the warm water. I don't know what happened to her before she met me, but from the amount of lacerations and bruises this Latias has could indicate she escaped a pretty bad scuffle; there were too many to count. Even though I had finished cleaning her wounds, I didn't really want to take the chance of possible infection; I picked up a spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide.
"This is going to sting a bit." The second I started to spray the Pokémon, she let out a loud cry of pain. With each spray, I felt bad for her. It's unfortunate that she has to suffer more, but this is so things don't become worse.
"There, that was the last one." When I said that, I did my best to not look into the tearing eyes of Latias, but I couldn't avoid her gaze when I started bandaging her up. "I'm sorry it hurt, but it'll help you get better."
I then grabbed the bottle of curamin and popped out a tablet to offer the Pokémon. The Latias looked at it with her wet eyes then instantly turned away.
"I know the spray stung, but this will help alleviate the pain. You can trust me on this." My words were soft and I wore a gently smile. The Latias slowly looked at me, and then would switch her sights between me and the little yellow pill, until she finally licked it out of my hand.
"Good, now you just get some rest."
I picked up my book bag and walked to my door, but before I left the room, I turned back to the Pokémon and showed her that smile I had one last time before letting her sleep. At the snap of a finger, that smile had completely faded away as I finished shutting my door. As I sluggishly wondered through my house, my bag dangled from my fingers. Each area I searched was completely void of life. My last hope was the garage, but that too was empty; the mere sight was enough for my bag to slip out of my fingers and onto the floor. I quietly shut the door and crashed against the wall, only to sink to the floor.
This can't be real. This has to be a dream! I mean come on, real live Pokémon? That's ridiculous! The only reasonable explanation for this is I'm having a dream.
I was about to rest my face in my hands, but I noticed that there was a little on the Latias' blood on them. I can feel its warmth. I lowered my appendages and positioned them near my mouth. A pinch won't suffice for waking me up.
I winced and instantly released my hand from my teeth. It's real. It's all real!
I started laughing; they were quiet at first, but then they grew more psychotic.
It's all real!
Before it could get any worse, I stopped myself and took in a few deep breaths. I just saved a real life Latias, and I didn't want to go insane because of that. I picked myself back up afterwards and went to the kitchen to leave my bag and clean my hands of the blood. Suddenly when I was drying off my hands, I felt my phone go off; upon inspecting it, it was a text from Vic saying he wouldn't be able to hang out like we planned. It was probably a good thing too considering the circumstances. I dropped myself onto my living room couch and turned on the main television to help calm my mind. The first channel it was on was a news station; the following channels I flipped through were news stations as well.
"Bizarre reports of strange creatures-"
"Pokémon, real or fake?-"
"Nintendo is currently under investiga-"
"-Nintendo denies all allegations involving the sudden appearance of actual Pokémon."
I turned off the TV and I went dead silent.