I do not own Pokemon or anything from it! Enjoy!
Swinub played with some of his friends in the woods. Where had Psyduck gone? Their game of hide and go seek was getting intense with Psyduck still missing for so long and ignoring their calls. Swinub was proud to know that he had been the last one found before Psyduck; he had used Dig and buried himself under a Pecha bush, only found because Rattata had gotten hungry and fallen into his tunnel. Jigglypuff floated into the clearing where her confused friends eagerly searched for Psyduck, humming all the way.
"Hello there! What are you all doing?" Jigglypuff asked.
"We're playing hide and go seek! You can join the next round, we just have to find Psyduck before we start again!" Rattata answered enthusiastically.
Jigglypuff looked confused.
"But… I was just at Psyduck's house… he said he finished playing hide and go seek and went home for lunch. We played board games for the last hour!" Jigglypuff said, a bit distressed.
"Oh… she must have forgotten we were in the middle of a game again like last time…" Rattata muttered, "Okay then, we can start the next round! Swinub, you're it!"
"Sorry, but I think its time for me to go home, my mom wants me to do chores. I'll see you later though!" Swinub trotted away, running into the tall grass that had grown across the human path.
He looked to his left and saw that the path traveled on to become civilized land; a town. Looking to his left, the Swinub was startled to see a trainer, fast approaching on a bicycle. Panicked, he tried to run across the path, but he wasn't fast enough and tackled the side of the bicycle head on. The trainer let out a muffled yell of shock as he toppled to the ground, but quickly got up as if he were used to this kind of abrupt stop.
"A Swinub? I think I need that one for the 'dex…" said the trainer, who appeared to be tapping a handheld piece of technology ferociously. "Come on… load load load…"
Swinub quickly became uncomfortable watching the trainer struggle. He had hoped to apologize in some way for knocking the trainer down, but it seemed that the adolescent was busy. He muttered an apology and tried to sneak away. At that moment, the trainer looked up.
"Oh no you don't! Crobat go!" the trainer exclaimed, throwing a Pokeball. A massive Crobat launched out of the Pokeball, flapping its wings rapidly to stay in the air. "Use Mean Look!" the trainer instructed. The Crobat complied leaving Swinub paralyzed with an uncanny will to fight, rather than flee.
Afraid of the power the trainer and his high leveled Pokemon seemed to have over him, Swinub let out a halfhearted Growl, hoping it might scare them off. This only seemed to amuse the trainer.
"Nice! No damage loss! Alright, Pokeball go!" he threw an empty Pokeball. In horror, Swinub stood, glued to the spot, unaware of what was happening.
It was a strange feeling, being absorbed into a pokeball. At first he was aware of no new feeling, but he quickly began to feel like he was floating. The scenery of the forest and the pathway that had been so vivid began to fade and he looked down to see what was happening to the ground. It was unnerving, looking down and seeing that you had no feet, despite the fact that he knew they were there. He could still feel the texture of the grass beneath him. In front of Swinub, was the Pokeball; it appeared to be suspended in time. As he drew closer to the Pokeball, Swinub could see the mirrors on the inside of the Pokeball and was shocked to see that all he was at the time was an orb of red light. The Pokeball closed behind him and a new scenery began to take the place of the old: a new forest.
"Welcome to Box 8," a voice said behind him. He turned around, relieved to notice that his body had returned as he caught sight of his stubby tail. In front of him, a small group of Pokemon stood with a chubby Bibarel at the front.
"Nice to have a new addition to the box, I'm Bibarel. But Trainer Wes has nicknamed me Derp," the Bibarel said, holding out a paw to shake. Disoriented by all the sudden turns that his life had taken, Swinub took the paw cautiously.
"What… what happened to me? Where is this?" Swinub asked. Derp motioned to the habitat surrounding him: a forest.
"This, my friend, is Box 8. It's where Pokemon go when they're caught. Most of us will spend the rest of our lives here, as data in a hospital computer," Derp answered.
"What does that even mean?" Swinub asked, unable to grasp all of what he had gone through. It was all foreign to him, it had never happened to him before… or had it? He still had no real memory of his past so it was impossible to know.
"Well, Trainer Wes usually captures Pokemon in Pokeballs for the purpose of completing his Pokedex or battling. Many of my friends here were caught merely for the purpose of completing the Pokedex of Trainer Wes, but a few of us have other uses," Derp cleared his throat and continued. "I for example, am what they would call an HM slave. I know Cut, Waterfall, Surf and Strength and therefore am allowed to offer assistance to Trainer Wes when he needs to conquer obstacles that his usual party cannot. The rest made me their leader for this prestigious position."
"So, I was captured? And now I'm supposed to stay here?" asked Swinub indignantly. He was NOT going to spend the rest of his life in a box. That was no way to live. "Does anything even happen in here?!"
"Well, sometimes Pokemon are moved to different boxes…" Derp replied, uncomfortable with the obvious distain to his lifestyle.
"I used to be in Box 4!" piped in a small Hoppip. "Except it was more like a funny city; there weren't any people in it."
"Yes, moving boxes can be exciting… and sometimes one of the main party is put in the same box as us, like when Trainer Wes is using my superior HM services! He has to leave one of his favorite six in here while I do everything they can't!" Derp pushed out his chest in pride. "I've never actually been here for that, because, well, I'm out in the field of course, but I'm sure its quite an elating occasion."
Swinub was beginning to find Derp annoying. He had probably been stuck in this "Box 8" for too long and it had scrambled his brain.
"Oh yes, actually, is is!" a Snover exclaimed, "Those Pokemon have amazing stories from outside and they're so strong! Usually we see Aggron because he doesn't know any HMs and he always tells about everything! Did you know that Trainer Wes has seven whole badges?! One more and he's going to take on the Pokemon League!" the Snover squealed with excitement.
Swinub guessed that was probably the only kind of excitement that these Pokemon ever got, judging by the way they all murmured about this Aggron and when he might come next.
"Well, I'd love to stay, but I just plan to do so much more than sit around in a musty old box living only for the day that some Aggron comes to give me the news… so how do I get out?" Swinub looked around the now silent group that stared at him. "What? What did I say?"
"Well… you can't leave… you see, Trainer Wes now OWNS you, so all you can do, is hope that you find favor in his eyes and are allowed to leave…" Derp said, sadly. He put his paw on Swinub's shoulder. "We all started like you, but now we've come to accept it."
"I don't know that I can… I was born free, I can't just forget it all!" Swinub protested.
"Acceptance will come, don't worry about it, you will acquire it over time," Derp assured, putting on a brave face. He patted Swinub's back once more and then he walked away with the group following him, leaving a dumbfounded Swinub in their wake.
Thanks for reading this! Please review and tell me if I should continue! I can't decide if I should just leave it how it is with a weird ending or if I should continue with Swinub's dilemma so reviews are appreciated. No hate please! It's only my first story. Happy reading! ^_^
