Sirens filled Hilbert's neighborhood. Every day there seemed to be some kind of crime going on, never a quiet night. Not that he complained much anyway. He was used to it, used to the crime of where he lived. Used to living without any hope for anything to get better. It had been years since he last felt that things would get better for him and his twin, Hilda. Over time he became numb to the crime. He saw it as something that would never go away, something he could never get away from.
He was currently walking to a fast-food place to get himself and his sister something to eat for the night. Walking up to the entrance he saw a man in a lab coat holding a metal briefcase and talking on his phone. Being curious, he walked closer. Upon seeing Hilbert, the man put his phone down and spoke to him.
"Excuse me, kid?"
"Hm?"
"I'm sorry for inconveniencing you, but can you please hold my briefcase for me, I'm supposed to be meeting someone here but have to use the bathroom. I don't want to go into the bathroom with it in case the man I'm supposed to meet comes by doesn't see me here as I promised. If he sees you with it he might just think you were helping me."
"Oh uh, yeah sure, I guess. What do I do if he comes here and you're still in the bathroom?"
"Just tell him where I'm at and that I'll be out in a minute," the man said as he hurried inside the restaurant and rushed through a door labeled "MEN".
Without wasting any time, Hilbert sat down below the window after seeing the man enter the bathroom. Curious, he opened the briefcase to see what was inside. Shocking him, it was filled mostly with stacks of money. He estimated one stack to be around ten thousand dollars, and the case was almost filled with them. The upper lid had a few items placed into slots cut into the foam that laced it. Sitting there were two pokeballs, some kind of a purple spray, and a rectangular device with a screen on it.
He contemplated in his head about running off with the case. The man wouldn't see, so he could probably get away with it. With that money, he and his sister could likely go somewhere safe, maybe even live on their own, and never have to come back to this neighborhood. It could better their lives. But then, he thought that it might cause problems. Like the man could find them and turn in him into the police, or something worse. Not to mention it's not like he's stealing a few bucks or something insignificant. He didn't want to put him or her in danger. Worried that the man might catch him looking through the briefcase, Hilbert made his decision.
A minute later the man in a lab coat came back out. Seeing Hilbert sitting there, next to a closed case.
"So he didn't show up?"
"I don't who 'he' is but no, he didn't."
"Well thanks for watching the case for me anyway, kid," he said as he picked up the case.
"I'm assuming that's all you need, so I'm gonna go home."
"Oh wait, let me give you something, to say thanks."
The man began to release the latches on the lid for the case.
"No, that's okay. All I did was watch it for a minute or two. Wasn't like I did anything important."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I should be heading home now anyway."
"Alright, thanks again."
"Mhm."
The man watched him walk off, thinking to himself, 'What a nice kid.'
A few minutes of walking later, Hilbert entered his house, seeing his sister brushing her long brown hair while watching TV.
"About time. You took so long, wait, where's the food?"
"I got held up and wasn't able to get any, but look what I got instead," Hilbert said smiling. Sitting down on the other side of the couch, with some space between him and his sister, Hilbert placed the spray, pokeballs, and the device. Hilda's interest peaked when she saw the new items, forgetting about the lack of food her brother failed to bring home.
"Woahh, where'd you get this stuff?" she asked picking up a ball.
"Some guy told me to watch his briefcase for him so he could go to the bathroom. While he was in there I opened it up to see what was inside it. But these aren't even the best parts," he stood up. Grabbing the bottom of his shirt, he lifted it halfway up his torso, revealing two stacks of money that he took, along with the other items.
"Oh my gosh, how much is that?"
"Twenty thousand I believe. Haven't had time to count it."
Hilda, not believing him, grabbed one of the stacks from his waistband and started flipping through it, quickly counting each bill and adding the total amount in her head. After each bill, she started to slow down. When she was done, she then started mildly shaking while staring at the stack.
"Hilda? What is it?"
"I'm holding...ten thousand...you stole twenty thousand from someone?!" she asked Hilbert as she started hitting him on the shoulder.
"Ow, stop it!"
"Are you an idiot?!"
"What? Not like stealing is new to us."
"Yeah, but we steal small things, stuff that doesn't matter! Not twenty thousand dollars!" she shouted as she continued to hit her brother.
"Ah, would you stop hitting me?!"
"Oh, we are so going to die."
"Relax, alright? Not like they know where we live."
"But they could find us! What if you were followed?"
"I said relax, we'll be fine."
Hilda sat back down on the couch placing her hands on her head. Letting out a sigh, she turned to her brother.
"Hilbert, that's a lot of money that you stole. Too much if you ask me."
"Yeah, I know, but think about how much better things could be with this money. We can try and live off somewhere else for a while and live there, instead of this shitty place."
"That sounds good and all, but we don't know of any place we could live off of twenty thousand, even though it does seem like a lot of money. We would have to find other ways of getting cash at some point."
"Yeah, you're right. But we can still do some things with the money to try and make our lives a little better."
"Do you really think it's a good idea to spend this money? I mean, what if whoever you stole this money from tries to find whoever took it. They'll eventually find you."
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, but for now let's just try and be happy. We just got twenty thousand dollars! Plus," Hilbert gestured to the items on the couch.
"What do you plan on doing with the rest of this stuff?"
"I'm not sure, all I know is that those are pokeballs and that I have no idea what the other two items are."
"You think there could be pokemon in these pokeballs?" Hilda asked as she picked up a ball and looked it over.
"Well, we could just find out," he said as picked up a ball. "I think we just press that button and toss it up into the air and if a pokemon is inside of it, it will come out."
"Should we really try it while inside our living room?"
"I mean why not? I doubt they'll be anything too big."
"I guess, alright on three. One...two...three!"
When Hilda counted to three, they both pressed the buttons on their respective pokeballs and tossed them into the air. Her ball opened and fell to the ground with a thud, with nothing happening. His ball, however, released a red light that shot to the ground and taking the shape of some four-legged pokemon. The light went from red, then white, then finally, revealing the pokemon that was inside.
Standing in front of them was a mostly black four-legged pokemon, with red on its muzzle and stomach. Its ankles had a white band going around each one, with three bands on its back, and with what looked like a skull on the top of its head. Hilbert and Hilda stared at the pokemon. While they didn't know that many pokemon of Unova, this one still seemed to be foreign.
The black pokemon stared at the brother and sister duo, just as they stared at it. Neither side really knowing what to do. After a minute of staring, the device left sitting on the couch began to beep. Hilbert went to grab it as Hilda continued to watch the thing sitting in front of her. Upon inspecting the device, the small screen read a message.
"New Pokemon Species Detected. Please press the button and point the Pokedex towards the new pokemon."
After first being confused, he pressed the circle button on the front of the device, causing a second screen to slide up from behind the front. The second screen revealed that there was a camera on the back. Doing as the device said, he pointed it towards the pokemon, with the device beeping until it dinged, signifying it had completed its job.
"Houndour: The dark pokemon. It is smart enough to hunt in packs. It uses a variety of cries to communicate with others. This houndour is male and is currently level five."
"Houndour?"
"Hound," the pokemon cried as if to say "correct".
"So that's a Pokedex? Looked a lot like a phone," Hilda stated.
"That's what I thought. Hm, so you're a houndour?" Hilbert said as he looked to the thing in front of him.
"Hound!" the houndour barked as it looked around the room.
It began walking around, sniffing different things and looking at everything with a tilted head. Putting two and two together Hilda realized that it probably was unused to such a setting. She suggested to Hilbert about letting Houndour go outside. He agreed and the two lead the pokemon into the front yard. Upon first touching the grass beneath his paw, Houndour stepped back, the feeling seeming to be foreign to him. After a few more steps, Houndour realized he liked the feeling of it and began to roll around in the yard. A few minutes later, he stopped rolling around and started breathing hard, he turned to Hilda and Hilbert who were both smiling after watching him roll around.
Houndour stood up and stretched his body, then walked back towards the house. Hilda and Hilbert stepped aside, letting him walk in. Once inside, Houndour jumped onto the couch and began to sleep.
"Aw, he's like a little baby!" Hilda said in a hushed voice.
"And he's all mine," Hilbert said with a grin.
"What? How come he gets to be yours?"
"Because he came out of the ball that I opened. If he came out of yours then he would've been yours. But he wasn't so," Hilbert said as he stuck his tongue out to his sister who then hit him on the shoulder. Hilda looked at Houndour, a little disappointed. Hilbert took notice.
"Oh relax, we can try and get you your own pokemon. We still have that empty ball."
"Alright, but now I have to wait."
"I guess we can go tomorrow, it's a short walk to some woods, we can probably find some weak pokemon there."
Hilbert took a seat on the couch next to his new pokemon and Hilda sat next to him. The TV was still on, playing some show about the region's police. The episode was of a UPD raid on some gang's hideout. After some time of watching, his sister let out a yawn.
"I'm going to bed, you going too or staying out here?" she asked. After not getting an immediate response, she turned to her brother, noticing he was focused on the show.
"Hilbert?"
"Huh?"
"I said I'm going to bed."
"Oh, yeah, I'll go to sleep soon."
"Alright, well goodnight."
"Goodnight."
With that, Hilda left Hilbert alone with Houndour. He finished the episode and went to bed, his pokemon tagging along behind him. However, before falling asleep, he began to think of what he can do with all the money he got, and that they now had a pokemon as a companion. His head went crazy with ideas.
And that concludes the first chapter of my rewrite of Pokemon: Syndicate. If you had read my other version and are wondering why I decided to do a rewrite, it's because I didn't feel as though it wasn't going the way I had originally wanted it to. Some things in the story will obviously be the same, though I do aim to try and give it a new feel overall. For instance, in my other version, I felt that Hilbert and Hilda were more like normal people when I wanted them to be really only nice to each other and anyone they consider a friend. Anyone else they would just not really care about them. I am also wanting to make this story probably a tad bit darker and more serious.
It is supposed to be rated M after all.
If you're new to this story, tell me what you think. If you read the older version, let me know how you feel about the change. Well, that's all. Don't forget to follow/favorite. Peace.
~~~Sikahdik
