Edited: Okay it's finally fixed… I think. I hope this let reading to be easier. Please PM any complaints, as long as it's beneficial to improve my writing.
Quoted italics are for pokespeak and dreamspeak and for auraspeak.
Unlike before, inner thoughts are no longer in italics.
I feel strange. I feel weightless. I feel cold. All I see is nothing. Everything around me is black. Not even black, just a void of nothingness and obscurity, like having your eyes closed. I begin to feel myself panic, am I in space or something, where am I?
But I relax, "Clearly this is a dream, I would be dead if I'm in space, duh! How dumb can I get…"
I'm stuck floating and motionless, amidst the silence and dark of this nightmare-like void.
"When.." I hear a disembodied voice suddenly call out to me.
"Who said that!" I yell out into the darkness, hoping to get a response from whatever nightmare demon is terrorizing me.
"When will you learn.." The voice sounding as if it is from all directions, speaks to me again. I search around, and frantically rotate my head to look for the speaker. But me being suspended in a strange void doesn't allow me to find the antagonizer.
"Learn what!" I call out for an answer, pointlessly searching for someone.
"That no one is safe forever…" The dark dissipates as if it was mere smoke and reveals a gray laboratory with concrete walls. I look around and see desks crammed with notes, vials, and various unidentifiable equipment. Different machines lining up against the walls, all having some function that can't be discerned. Expect for the wall behind me that just as a door. Suddenly, a strong force slams me into the empty wall behind me and metal clamps form from it and detain me on my wrists, ankles, and waist, keeping me fastened onto the wall. Dark clouds form across from me creating a slight humanoid figure.
"Let this be a warning to you, human. You will be captured for experiments by certain people. You can't change that. The rest after that is clouded in mystery. Not even Celebi herself knows what will happen." Without a doubt, I know who this is, the way he mentions Celebi and the fact that we are even in a nightmare, proves that this has to be Darkrai himself. The embodiment of torture and nightmares straight from fables and fairy tales, warning me of some foreboding and unknown enemy. I begin to feel sick in my stomach only imagining what else Darkrai will have in store for me.
"What do you mean?" The question being only a fraction of what I want to say to him.
"I meant what I said. Although we barely know what is going to happen, we thought it would at least be fair to warn you about your inevitable future. You will get attacked by a new group of people whose name is also crowded in mystery. The captors will conduct experiments on you that we also cannot find out about. The only thing we know after that is that a threat of some kind will possibly endanger your human society. You knowing seemed like the best possible outcome, to Celebi to help your people." I take a minute to process what just happen. Me? Attacked? Experiments?! Threat?! I feel myself breathing rapidly and struggle against the bindings. There is no way, me, some random kid, would get greeted by Darkrai and be warned of a massive threat. This must be all some illusion. But what if it is not? What if it's all true? Even if it is true, what can I even do?
"If it is some massive threat, why can't you or the other legendaries do anything about it?"
"It is because we are not allowed to interfere with human problems. Humans must work out their own problems. Simple as that."
"Why is that?"
"We do not care for humans, except for few of us. Arceus wants humans to solve their own human affairs, and I advocate his decision. This warning is as much help Arceus, or I am willing to allow." I stopped saying my follow up sentence knowing it would be unwise to question any legendary's decisions.
Darkrai begins speaking again, "My time is up here, we have no more to discuss." Then Darkrai raises his left arm and fires a black spherical mass in my direction. Intense pain is all I feel upon its contact and everything fades away.
-line break-
I jolt up from my bed, immediately hitting my head on the bottom of the top bunk which creates a loud sound and pain on the top of my head. I wince and hold my head as the slight bump on my scalp throbs.
I hear my brother stir from the top bunk, "Whoa Zack, are you okay?" Alex says groggily.
"Yeah, it was just a bad dream." I try to recall what I dreamt but I only remembered a few snippets of being stuck on a wall and… Darkrai? Must have been bad if he was there. "Ow.." I mutter as the throbbing continues.
"Hit yourself against the bed again, huh?" Alex snickered.
"Yeah Yeah, just go to bed," I say hoping to end Alex mocking my clumsiness. I check the alarm clock that's on my nightstand on the side of the bed. 8:30 am! Aw cmon I wanted a little more sleep than that! But whatever, I'm already up and it's no use to go back to sleep. I reach for my black glasses and put them on.
I get up from the bed and I already hear Alex snoring, already out cold. I look across from our bed to see Dante, my charmander, sleeping in his own bed. I tiptoe across the room to the door, careful not to wake them. I open the door to see Koda, my mother's female lucario. We both jump in fright from unexpectedly seeing each other.
"Oh my goodness Zack, you startled me!" She said through her aura. "What are you doing up this hour?"
"I just woke up from a dream and I can't go back to sleep, so I was going to eat breakfast. What are you doing up?"
"I sense fear, was that you?" she said worryingly.
"Yeah, it was some nightmare, but I forgot it already," I say, trying to still recall that dream.
"Don't worry, your brain tries to forget negative things so it's normal if you forgot," she begins to smile gently, "Well since you are up, do you want me to make you anything?"
"Aw thanks, yes that would be good. Can you ma-"
"Two Kalos toast coming right up!"
"Am I that predictable?"
"Well when you ask for the same thing multiple times for 10 years, yes," she says while giggling.
"Agh, foiled again…" Koda chuckles more after picking up on my sarcasm. Nothing like some laughs to start a day.
-line break-
I watch Koda cook from the table. I see her create the egg mix and add some cinnamon and pecha puree into the mix. She puts the mix onto bread and puts to bread on the stove. The sweet scent of the pecha and cinnamon wafts throughout the room as if a scented candle has been lit. The sweet aroma creates a calm atmosphere and begins to relax me even more than I should be for a summer's morning.
Koda sensing my reaction turns to me with a smile, "And that's not all I'm gonna do. Since it's your mother's birthday, I'm going to make her some Custap Pudding! And of course for everyone else."
"Aw thank you Koda, that's really sweet of you." Koda chuckles again catching my pun. And as she does this, she puts the newly made pieces of toast on two separate plates. Before she brings the food to the table, I hear someone stumbling upstairs. And it wasn't long before I see Dante dashing down the stairs saying something in his pokespeak.
"Of course you can eat these as well! I wouldn't stop you from eating your favorite human food! Here have the other one I made," Koda says in a caring voice to Dante. Dante grins in delight as he jumped into the seat next to me.
"Woah! Just a minute ago you were sleeping!" I say as I laugh slightly at the excited charmander's enthusiasm.
"Cha Charmander Char!" He says in pokespeak. Dante probably meant to say to me something about being wakened by the food's aroma. I hope so at least.
"It does smell good doesn't it. Hey it's gonna smell better, Koda is making Custap Pudding!" I say as I begin to eat a piece of the toast.
"Cha! Char Mander?" Guessing again, Dante probably meant, 'Yes! But what's the occasion?'
"It's mom's birthday! Don't you remember?"
"Cha Charmander," Dante says with a sheepish smile, probably meaning he forgot. Dante looks at the food Koda made and immediately digging in, making it impossible to talk to him while he's enjoying himself like that.
"How did you manage to keep a conversation with Dante?" Koda inquiries at this newfound 'ability' .
"Well let's call the last six years of my life practicing to understand a charmander's language." I say with slight sarcasm.
"So in other words, half is context clues, half is guessing?" Koda says recognizing it.
"Yep!" Koda laughs to herself, amused at what I said again.
-line break-
I carefully go up the stairs, making sure the tray I am holding won't fall, with Dante and Koda in tow. We sneak through the hallway to make sure no one hears us. I look left and peek through an open door. Mom is stirring in her bed and reaching for her glasses on the nightstand, the perfect moment.
We bust open the door and we all yell, "SURPRISE HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Except for Dante saying it the only way he can. Mom is shocked from the startling entrance but quickly puts on a smile knowing what is happening.
"Thank you sweeties!" she says, "I almost forgot myself!" We all laugh to ourselves at her statement. "What's this now?"
"Koda made you your favorite, Custap Pudding!" I respond. Mom looks at Koda with happy tears forming in her eyes.
"Thank you for this, I don't know what to say."
"Anything for you Rose." Koda replies.
"Now, dig in!" I say to mom as I smile, "I'm gonna bring you your present from me, Alex and Dante." I run into my room from across the hall and find Alex still sleeping peacefully in his bed. You think us shout a birthday would wake him up. I climb up the bunk's ladder and poke him in the side.
"Alex! Alex wake up!"
"What is it?" He mumbled groggily.
"It's mom's birthday, remember." Alex gets up from his bed and I drop down from the ladder to let him dismount.
"Is she up?" He asks as he climbs down.
"Yes, where is the present for her?"
"I'll get it." Alex walks to his dresser, opens the bottom compartment and takes out a long, flat case. We both nod to each other to verify that we were sure that this was a good present for her. We walk into her room and she looks at us inquisitively.
"Sweeties what is that?" She asks.
I grin, "Just open it and see." Alex hands me the case and I give it to her. She looks at it and opens it.
-line break-
Six years ago, Dad gave her a silver necklace with a thin chain and a small pendant holding an aqua colored teardrop shaped gem the day before he died from a plane crash. The plane was taking him to Sinnoh for his archeologist job in Snowpoint City's Temple. The necklace was supposed to be a parting gift for his year long trip out of Kanto. But it was then the last thing he gave her. She cherished the necklace after he died to preserve his last gift. But while we were visiting a friend in Saffron City two years later, a thief surprised us, grabbed her necklace and tore it off of her neck causing the chain to shatter. Although Koda did manage to pin him down onto the ground immediately, the necklace was shattered except for the gem. Mom mourned over the gift and kept it safe in a case.
Until a few months ago Dante, Alex, and I all found a jewelry store that was coincidentally selling a replica of the silver necklace minus the gem. We all bought the necklace, took the gem from mom's case, and attached the gem into it. We were sure it will make a perfect gift for her.
-line break-
She became speechless at the sight of the long lost gift and begins to cry a little more from her eyes. She picked it up in awe that it was completely fixed. She turns towards us, "H-How did you fix it? They said that the damage couldn't be undone," She asks with a shaky voice.
"Well, we were walking around and found a duplicate chain. We put the gem onto that. We hope you like it," Alex says.
"Like it? I love it. It's just... that this means so much. Thank you everyone," She gets up and manages to hug all four us.
"We know it's been hard for you Rose, so just take it easy and please relax." Mom smiles at Koda.
"Please don't worry about me, I still want you guys to have fun and not do everything for me."
"Are you sure? We can bring the things you want here for you." Mom shakes her head.
"No, No, You don't have to do that. I just don't want to go to work! I have the day of since it's my birthday," She laughs slightly at her comment. Koda giggles as well.
"Well actually, Rose, do you want to go into town? We haven't done a thing like that in forever!"
"Of course! Will the kids be fine?"
"Cmon Mom, it's okay, I'm 16 and Alex is 17. We can handle ourselves! If 10 year olds can survive the wilderness out on adventures, then we can survive one day in a house," I continue, "It will be perilous and dangerous, but through the skin of our teeth, we might just make it." I say sarcastically.
"Okay my brave defender, just don't blow anything up," She turns to Koda, "Just let me get ready first," She says, still smiling.
I turn to Alex and Dante, "Do you guys wanna train since they're leaving?" I say enthusiastically. It's been forever since Dante trained, and he and I both want him to evolve.
"Sure just let me grab Hydro from his ball real quick. And let's both of course put on our clothes, I don't want to battle in our pajamas."
-line break-
Me and Alex walk into the open backyard. The trees far away to avoid fires, but also are giving the perfect view of the morning sun, with the it peeking from the top of Viridian Forest. The sun warming me especially through my hoodie. I love rural Viridian. Alex goes across from me to the other side of the field.
"Go Hydro!" Alex summons his Squirtle that he got from Professor Oak.
"You know what to do Dante! He's of course a Water Type so we just have to pull off that move." I wink at Dante and he winks back. We're gonna surprise Alex so bad! I begin getting excited a laugh a little.
"Go first Zack! I dare ya!" Alex proclaims.
"Sure, Dante Ember!"
"Hydro Water Gun!" As predicted he used that move, but it might work out in my favor instead. Both moves collide and create steam slightly blocking the view. But sadly it's not enough to use as cover as I hoped it to.
"Dante, let's not waste anytime! Smoke Strike!"
"Zack, what are ya doing? That's not a move!" Zack looks at me curiously as I grin.
"It is for us!" As I say this, Dante runs in circles around Hydro while emitting smoke from his mouth.
"Don't worry Hydro it's just a Smokescreen, use Withdraw and spin while using Water Gun to blast the smoke away!" Dang it all, looks like Alex knows some tricks as well. Doesn't matter, I still got a contingency plan if this fails.
"Continue with Smoke Strike, I got a plan!" I yell to Dante. As I say this, Hydro's move goes into effect. Even though it is barely splitting the fog, it is giving Dante trouble dodging it through the smoke. But following my orders, Dante follows up with part two of Smoke Strike. He runs to the other side of the arena while still in the fog and barely dodges the Water Gun. Then he charges at Hydro once he stopped his barrage of water from getting too tired. Dante's claw begins to glow slightly white and he uses Scratch against Hydro, but then quickly runs back into the fog. Then he repeats this action multiple times while getting faster every time. Alex looks at the unrelentless attacks and stutters to commands again, still taken aback from the feat Dante is pulling.
"Hydro, do the Water Spin attack again!" But as Hydro began his attack, Dante rushes at him one last time and jumps onto Hydro's shell and launches himself into the air from the shell. Apparently Dante realized my plan without me saying it.
"DO IT NOW!" I call out loudly to command Dante in using his special move. Dante's claw begins to grow longer and darker as well as begin to emit and more foreboding, dark aura.
"SHADOW CLAW!" Alex taken aback to what I just said, he forgot to say another command. The Shadow Claw hit Hydro on impact, creating a force that blasts away the remnants of the Smokescreen. The smoke dissipates completely, revealing Hydro knocked out and Dante standing proudly.
"WHAT THE HECK!" Alex exclaims, "Since when did Dante know Shadow Claw? And what the heck was Smoke Strike?!"
"Well the Shadow Claw is something special he had since I got him, I just kept it a secret, but today I found no reason to keep it a secret still," I say, "And the Smoke Strike is a little combo move me and Dante came up with in our own training."
"Well I guess me and Hydro will train like that then," Alex says with a smirk. He walks up to the fallen squirtle and takes out a potion from his pocket. He probably knew that someone was going to faint in our battle. He sprays the medicine at Hydro and Hydro opens his eyes again, slightly embarrassed at his failure.
"Hey don't sweat it Hydro, it's just training. I don't care that you lost." Alex says kneeling down to Hydro.
"Squirtle!" Hydro replies. I think that was a thanks?
"So both of you," I get Hydro's and Alex's attention, "I'm gonna help you learn some combos." Both Alex and Hydro get on their feet pumped up.
"READY!" Alex exclaims.
"Well to be honest, technically you guys already learned one. The combination move of the spinning Withdraw and Water Gun pretty much counts. Just give that a name Hydro would understand to command it easier. Also giving it a name might confuse your opponents the first time."
"Really that's it? Nothing special?"
"Well doing these does tire the pokemon out so take that into consideration. But for coming up with more? Just be creative with what you have." Alex looks at Hydro unsure for a bit but then gets pumped up again.
"Alright! I'll beat you next time then!" I grin.
"I hope so, otherwise Dante is gonna have to be the strongest." This comment only excites Alex even more. He looks to Hydro.
"Let's go training!" And which Hydro only responds with his own response, "Zack can you leave the backyard? I wanna keep these moves a secret until we battle!"
"Of course!" To which Alex only with a nods before talking with Hydro to discuss moves. As me and Dante walk into the house and close the door, Dante begins to giggle slightly and shake his head side to side.
"What? Alex needed motivation and I gave it to him. That type of training will ensure their chances to go to the championship."
"Char Char Mander?" That sounds like a question, I take a shoot in the dark.
"Don't worry, we'll try the championship too, I hope." Dante smiles a little, satisfied by my answer. Maybe I am beginning to understand him.
-line break-
I walk into my and Alex's room and drop into the bean bag chair next to the small T.V. Dante walks up to me with a questioning look on his face. Probably thinking that I'm upset at something.
"It's nothing Dante, I'm just bored a little that's all."
Dante perks up after I say this and runs to the video game system and points to it with a smile on his face.
"Char?" He proposes.
"Ya wanna play on the Pokestation?" Dante answers with an enthusiastic nod.
"What game?" Dante shuffles through the plethora of PS games we have and picks one out. He shows it to me revealing JoJo's All Star Battle.
"Woah ho HO! Someone's eager to lose!" I smile as I say this, "You know it's one of my favorites!"
"Mander Char Cha Der!" He challenges.
"I'm guessing you have been practicing, that confidence better be backed up with some skill!
-line break-
I can't believe it's been 9 hours. We have been trying to get at least 2 matches above the other but we it seems that we have been rotating on who wins. First it's been me, then Dante, then me, then him, then me, then him, the pattern has continued for hours. As I was being distracted by me contemplating on how long this can last, Dante wins the last match and finally claims the overall victory. He lets out an exasperated sigh and falls down backwards on to the floor, mentally tired from all of this. I collapse even more into the bean cushion, contempt with our long tornament.
"Let's accept that we are both too good for this world," Dante nods, "Or should I say, ZA WORLDO!" Dante groans at the horrible pun I just made, and I giggle to it as well, knowing it was bad.
"Let's get something to eat shall we?"
-line break-
We both walk into the dining room and see that lunch had started already. Hydro and Alex were almost done eating their blackened basculin that Koda left for us.
"Jeez Zack," Alex says through a spoonful of fish, "We almost thought you guys were gonna stay up there forever!"
"Well you know us, too good for our own health!" My comment makes Dante laugh little.
"Well do you want some, i'll warm up more of the leftovers?"
"Of course we do!" I microwave some and grab two plates, "Do you want some basculin or your pokefood?" Dante ponders his options for a few seconds and responds with an indecisive char.
"A little bit of both?" To which Dante nods. I split a piece of fish in half and put it on a paper late for Dante and I grab his bowl to pour some of his food into. I put his dinner on his spot on the table and he begins to chow down on the pokemon food. Is the Pokemon food really that good? I put my portion of fish on a plate and glance at Dante's bagged pokefood. Before I go on the table I snatch one piece of the food and hide it in my palm.
"Welp, since me and Hydro are done eating I guess we'll train over at the park," Alex says as they both get up from their seats, "let's go practice some combos and freak some trainers out!" He says to Hydro. And they both eagerly run out of the house. When I knew they were out of sight I look at Dante, who is more focused on his food than anything else. My eyes shift back to the piece of kibble in my palm. It's been said that many trainers tried pokemon food and it's not like it's harmful. I pop the morsel into my mouth and it surprises me that it actually tastes pretty decent. Somewhat like berries but a mix of savoriness in it, or something like that. Not bad, but not entirely good. Like some strange chip. Maybe it tastes better to Pokemon. Ah whatever it's not important. But yet I'm kinda craving that taste. What is this some kinda addictive? Well whatever it is I'm hooked. I finish my fish and bring my now empty dish to the sink and turn on the water. I look over to the right of the sink and see the open bag of Pokemon food. It won't hurt to take some more. I grab a couple and start eating them. The more I taste it, the better it tastes. The flavor becomes more prominent the more I chew, probably because I'm looking for more of the flavor. After I pop my last one I had in my hand I hear a questioning 'char' coming from behind me. I've been caught. I turn around sheepishly and look at Dante who looks like he's about to burst out laughing.
"Well I was just curious and it turns out I see why you like it," I quickly say to defend myself. Dante raises an eyebrow and cracks a bigger smile. I chuckle a little, "Don't worry I won't eat anymore of those." Maybe at least.
"Hey Dante are you done eating?" He responds with a curt nod when I look over to him.
Do you know what day it is?" Dante tilts his head slightly to the side before thinking then he remembers and groans a little. I smile.
"That's right, it's Training Day!" Every couple of days me and Dante train and try to perfect his moves. It started out him wanting to grow stronger but now he kinda is reluctant to do it due to my too intense training. But he still wants to do the intense training no matter what, even when I ask him if he wants me to make the training less difficult, he refuses it to be. Probably because he has some self improvement goal.
"I know you want to relax more, but hey you want it to be difficult." Dante responds with a slow nod as he sighs as if saying, "I know, I know." And he goes out into the backyard and I follow behind.
"Now, I want to hold back a little on training," I say, "I know you don't want me to, but I'm thinking instead of coming up with more combos or tactics, let's just improve the moves you have now." Satisfied, Dante nods in agreement.
"Now how about we try improving Dragon Rage's capabilities. But it's not like we can improve the damage." I pull out my pokedex that I got six years ago from Oak, "I'm going to monitor your range with this since it can measure accuracy and record and analyze attacks. Now aim in front of you." Dante takes a deep breath until blue flames begin to spew out on the corners of his mouth. Then he releases the blue torrent of flame across the backyard. The screen of the pokedex lights up as it scans the attack.
'Dragon Rage, Dragon Rage always inflicts exactly 40 HP damage if it hits. It has no secondary effects and does not take weaknesses or resistances into account; however, it does not ignore type immunity. Type Dragon, Special Move, affected by Protect and King's Rock, not affected by Snatch or magic coat. This move covered around 5 meters' This doesn't give that much information for improvement. I guess I have to improvise this training again.
"Okay Dante what do you want to do, one nod for accuracy, two for range, three for spread, or four for technique." Dante responds with two nods, "Okay let's begin then."
-line break-
An exhausted charmander treks into our house from the darkness outside and drops down onto the carpet, drained of energy from using Dragon Rage too many times.
"Hey, you want difficult don't you?" I ask sarcastically which receives a meek wave of the paw from Dante, as if saying, "Yeah Yeah.. I know."
"Don't worry I'm gonna make you a snack for your improvement! You did improve the range and from 5 to 8 meters so that deserves an award no matter what time it is!" Dante perks up immediately excited for what I'm making, "Do you want…a citrus Pokepuff!" Dante starts jumping up and down, but then winces in pain as his soreness kicks in.
"Whoa no need to hurt yourself." After a couple minutes of creating a dozen puffs, I quickly frost the treat and hand it over to the sore yet very eager charmander.
"Char!" Dante says in thanks as he begins to take bites out of it. Are these good as well? They look like cupcakes and they do supposedly have flavor, I think. Or can Pokemon only taste it? I reach for one of the puffs I made and frost it like how I did with Dante's. As the Kalosians say, bon appetit? I take a bite out of it and also find that, it's not bad at all! Like an airy cupcake but with a slight citrus taste to it. I take another bite. Oh man, I might end up making these for myself now. After I stuff my face with the last piece of the puff, I frost the rest of the puffs and put them in a container.
"Hey do you want these in the fridge or-," I turn around to see Dante with that questioning look again likely wondering why I'm starting to enjoy Pokemon food now.
"Can I explain myself?"
"Mander?" I'll take that as a yes.
"Well I was just wondering, hey these look like cupcakes are they good? And they are! So I mean it's not like they're bad for humans anyway so-" Dante cuts me off with a wave of his paw and smiles.
"Char Char!"
"Uh wants that mean?" Dante pouts a little at my misunderstanding but then starts doing hand gestures. First he points to the bag of Pokemon food, then puffs, then me and begins eating his puff.
"Me eating the food.." I say has I try to follow what he's saying. He then points to himself and then shrugs, "Is okay with you?" He nods, "Thank you but uh.. I'll make sure to not make this a normal thing okay." Dante cracks a smile before going back to finishing his puff. At least I know why those are as delicious as Dante deems them to be.
Now I know this chapter was short and slow and under my word limit but it is the first chapter. Things must be slow! My updates will be seldom but they will get updated!
Also a good thing to note is that fire on pokemon and stuff like that, like the fire on a charmander's tail, won't actually set anything on fire if the pokemon doesn't want to and has control over it.
For those of you who don't know what Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is an amazing anime that people should watch, yes gets a little crazy but it's still good nevertheless.
Imagine the pokefood/kibble like the food in the anime.
Zack and his family all respect and recognize Pokemon to be creatures with as much intelligence as a human. So of course they'll want them to eat with them. They are all family in each other's eyes. But is in his poke ball because he likes it in there.