The Omniball

A group of Wingulls flew overhead in the sunny sky. A light breeze kept them gliding with little effort, becoming one with the drifting clouds. Their squawking along with the crash of the waves added to the mystical world of land and shore.

Professor Mark Antoine was standing in line when he suddenly heard something splat. He looked down at his feet, and found a white spot on the floor, having splattered onto his shoe.

"Oh, dang! I just got these shoes! Man, I really hate the ocean." Besides for the white splatter on his brown shoes, he was wearing a pair of brown pants with a white shirt, tie, and gray suit while holding a briefcase. His medium-length black hair was combed back, showing his bright brown eyes. He gave the appearance of one who was a business man, or perhaps some professor at a profound college. In actuality, Professor Mark Antoine was a leading designer in the field of Pokeball research.

Mark stood in line for the S.S. Aqua en route for Vermillion City. He didn't like the idea of taking a boat, as he never did like the water, especially the ocean, but his colleagues insisted he'd do so. Once he made it to Vermillion City, he would take a ride to Saffron, where he would be giving a lecture on the fundamentals of Pokeballs. Mark was pleased that he had the opportunity to teach aspiring students on the marvelous technology used in capturing Pokemon, but right now, he wasn't too thrilled. He had been standing in line for about half an hour, the sea air was rather muggy, and the heat from the sun was making things worse in his uncomfortable suit.

When he came to the end of the line, he showed his ticket to the ticket man, and was allowed entrance. Antoine cautiously stepped onto the gangplank, always keeping an eye on the sloshing water below while walking up onto the boat. Inside the boat, he was greeted by a greeter.

"Welcome to the S.S. Aqua, sir. Your room is number 22, down the stairs to your left." The greeter noticed that Mark seemed uneasy, and since his job was to make the guests as comfortable as he could, asked what the matter was.

"Are you okay, sir? You look uneasy?"

"Huh? Oh, I, well, don't do well with water; nearly drowned as a kid."

"Well, you can feel safe on the S.S. Aqua. There's no threat of sinking or anything here."

"Uh, I have to ask: why is this ship called S.S. Aqua, when it is definitely not a sailing ship?" The greeter then became the one that looked uneasy.

"Eh, heh heh, it's just a name, sir. People who don't know much about ships wouldn't recognize that."

"Very well then, thanks." The professor then took his leave, and went to his room.

"Room 20, room 21, ah, here it is." Mark thought to himself. He turned the knob, and walked into the small bedroom. All it had was a bed, a small desk, and a trash can. It was simple, but he didn't really care much. Mark plopped his briefcase on the table and sat on the edge of the bed. He relaxed and took a sigh of relief from having to stand in line.

"Well, I guess you'd like to come out too." Antoine reached into his pocket, and took out a Pokeball containing his sole Pokemon. He pressed the button in front of it, and the ball opened, light bursting from the ball. The Pokeball then closed, and in front of him stood a Growlithe. The orange, black-striped dog Pokemon looked up at its master with pleased eyes, its mouth open from being excited to be out of the ball.

This Growlithe had been with Antoine for years, always as a companion in his life. Mark had no family of his own, so a Pokemon was as close to one as he had. Though he had been with him for years, Growlithe wasn't a very strong Pokemon. It only knew simple attacks, and at the rate he leveled up, he would probably never evolve. This was because Mark was not a trainer, and rarely ever participated in battles. He was a companion, and this was good enough.

"Come on, Ricky." Mark said while patting the side of his bed. Ricky excitedly jumped up on the bed beside his master, and Mark patted his head. "Sorry, I know you prefer to be out here with me, but I had to stand in line for a long time, and you wouldn't have liked that anyways." Ricky merely smiled and rubbed his head against Mark's side. Antoine looked around the room, and seeing as he had nothing else to do, sighed at what he knew he had to do.

"Well, guess I better get started then." Mark sat down by the desk, reached into his briefcase, and took out a laptop. After he started it up, he opened a blank word processing page, and started to think of what to type.

Mark always tended to leave things to the last minute, and had not actually started on his lecture for tomorrow. At least he always had something to say, and didn't need a whole lot of preparation. Putting his hands to the keyboard, he began writing his talk.

"Good evening, students. I'm quite pleased to be here today, to talk to some of the most promising people of the future. Technology is something that is continually progressing in our lives, and becoming ever more crucial in our operations, excelling mankind beyond what he could ever have achieved.

"Let me begin by explaining some things about myself first. I work for the Devon corporation, a company that has brought about many innovations for the world of Pokemon. I myself am the lead designer in the Pokeball division, where we come up with new and stronger Pokeballs. For instance, you know the new Mindball that came out on the market a few weeks ago, used especially for catching those elusive psychic Pokemon? That was one of my designs. My team and I work at creating such Pokeballs, and the future of the technology is looking quite well." Mark paused at this sentence. Indeed, it was looking good, at least in his eyes at least. Mark took a glance at his briefcase, but then shook off the idea and continued his speech.

"Now, while trainers see Pokeballs as a simple tool for catching Pokemon, very few people seem to actually know about how these marvelous things work.

"When you first grab a Pokeball, it will be much smaller, but once you press the button at the front, it will grow to its larger size. This is done through its resizing generator, the same thing which shrinks a Pokemon to a smaller size to fit inside the Pokeball. As you know, all life is made of groups of particles called atoms. An atom's nucleus is composed of neutrons and protons, and particles called electrons that orbit them. Now, the thing is, most of the atom is empty space. If you were to enlarge an atom to the size of a stadium, the nucleus would only be the size of a basketball, with the electrons orbiting at the reaches of the stadium.

"What the resizing generator does is close this gap of space between the electrons and the nucleus, while still keeping the atom's original properties. With that, the Pokeball can go from small to large, and a Pokemon as big as a Wailord can be shrunk to fit inside a Pokeball.

"Now, when you capture a wild Pokemon, you do so by throwing the ball at it. The Pokeball's internal movement sensor detects when it is thrown, and when it comes to a sudden stop. What happens next is another thing that few know, as it happens too fast for anyone to see it. When the Pokeball opens, and before the Pokemon is shrunk into the ball, the area is scanned. It only takes a fraction of a second, but that's all it needs. It scans the body of the Pokemon to detect that it is indeed a Pokemon, and not a inanimate object, or a human being." Antoine paused once again, his thoughts returning to his briefcase. He gave it a thought, but talked himself out of it.

"No, I can't do that. It would be the end of my career." Mark thought to himself. He resumed typing.

"When it finds that it is indeed a Pokemon, the resizing generator emits a beam that shrinks the Pokemon, and then pulls it inside using small-scale tractor beam. Once the Pokemon is inside and the Pokeball closes, it begins the stasis process. Now, as most trainers know, though some might not, a Pokemon is put into stasis inside the ball, which is pretty much being frozen in time. The inside emits waves that put the Pokemon to sleep, similar to the hypnosis attack that some psychic Pokemon use. Unfortunately, mechanically induced hypnosis waves are not as potent as ones made by Pokemon. Once the Pokemon is inside the ball and the waves are emitted, the Pokemon will start to fall asleep, but it takes around five seconds till the Pokemon is fully asleep.

"When a Pokemon is captured, the ball will move around until it comes to a stop. This is because the Pokemon will naturally try to escape by trying to force the ball open from the inside, which causes the ball to move around, until the Pokemon has finally fallen asleep.

"If the Pokemon does manage to pry open the Pokeball though, the Pokeball will return it to its original size, since a Pokemon in the wild won't have much of a chance surviving if it is still just an inch tall.

"If you successfully capture the Pokemon though, it is put into cryogenic-stasis, and the Pokemon essentially becomes frozen in time. To a Pokemon's point of view, it is put inside a Pokeball, falls asleep, and taken back out a second later. After all, anyone would probably go insane if they were inside a cramped sphere for hours on end.

"With them being frozen in time, the injuries they receive from battle stay the same as well. This is beneficial, as an injury will not grow in severity before a trainer can take the Pokemon to a Pokecenter. Now, some of you might wonder why it is that when a Pokemon is poisoned, it continues to be hurt by it even when inside. This is because the poison that Pokemon use can't by put into cryogenic-stasis. We're still working on this problem, but it's been a tricky one.

"Now, though I said that a Pokemon becomes frozen in time inside a Pokeball, there is an exception. For some reason, the mind of a psychic Pokemon remains active even though the body isn't. It no longer has the five senses, nor move its body, but it can still use its psychic powers. This is why some Pokemon have been known to get out of a Pokeball on its own; it uses its mind to control the Pokeball's electronic signals, and causes it to open when it wants to.

"When a Pokemon is captured for the first time, the Pokeball inserts a small microchip into the Pokemon. The microchip simply contains the I.D. number of the trainer, which a Pokeball will recognize. This way, when a Pokemon is scanned before entering a Pokeball, only the Pokeball that gave it the microchip can hold that particular Pokemon.

"This is a crucial safety feature, as someone won't be able to come and capture a Pokemon that already belongs to another trainer. When the Pokeball scans the Pokemon, it will recognize the microchip in the Pokemon containing another trainer's I.D. number, and will not activate the resizing generator. However, it is possible to override that function of a Pokeball. Some people have been known to override these functions, and capture Pokemon that already belong to someone else. Thankfully though, it isn't too common.

"It is also because of this I.D. tag that trading a Pokemon has to be done through a trading machine. The Pokemon retains its original I.D. number, but the trading machine will register it as a legal trade in the Pokemon Committee's database.

"When releasing a Pokemon, there are two ways to do it: one is by simply pressing the button in front, and the other is by tossing it. The first way is much simpler, as the Pokeball will open up once the button is pressed, and bring the Pokemon out in the direction that the Pokeball is facing. The second way does the same job, but is more of a showy way.

"When you chuck the Pokeball forward, the motion sensors will recognize it, and open up to release the Pokemon. If done correctly, the Pokeball will face forward, and the force from removing the Pokemon from inside it will knock the Pokeball back, where the trainer can then catch it. It's considered the trademark of a strong trainer, which is why many prefer this way when starting a battle."

"What I've just told you is only the basics of the Pokeball, and I could go on for much longer explaining the specifics. This technology is complementary with the way of Pokemon training and battling, but it can go even further than this. With the right tweaks to a Pokeball, it can…." Once Mark realized just what he was typing, he felt like slapping himself in the face. Without thinking, he was just about to ruin his career. Mark looked back to his briefcase.

"Why shouldn't I? This can revolutionize the world! It has been at our fingertips for years, yet no one has been willing to embrace the idea. Maybe I should tell them." Grabbing his briefcase, Mark opened a pocket, and pulled out a ball. It was a blue and white sphere, with an O around the front button. Mark set it by the laptop, and thought things over.

"Perhaps I could tell the students about it? Maybe I could plant the seeds of future thought?" Antoine was always better at putting his feelings down in writing, so he closed the word document and opened his mailbox, and started on a new email.

"Daniel, you are the closest person I know as a friend, and I feel that I can trust you. You know how I've mentioned about making Pokeballs for humans, an Omniball, right? Well, despite the law, I have created one. Yes, I know, it's career suicide, but please, just hear me out.

"For years we have been using Pokeballs for transporting Pokemon, but society still does not want embrace the idea of transporting humans, or even inanimate objects for that matter. All it would take is the altering of the scanning protocols to allow not only Pokemon, but humans as well.

"Now, I know the reasons why it has been declared illegal, you don't need to tell me. It seems that whenever something new comes about, there is always someone who takes advantage; Team Rocket is a fine example of that. They rose to power shortly after the Pokeball was invented, and the only reason an Omniball isn't made is because people fear that it would lead to kidnapping and theft. It would be much simpler for someone to kidnap people, and hold them hostage, or whatever. Even with simple items, like a car, would be much simpler to steal. All it would take is for someone to 'capture' a car when no one is looking, and they could sneak away without anyone knowing.

"It's these fears that has held us back, but just think of the advantages! If someone becomes fatally wounded, they could be transported inside an Omniball, where they could then be taken to a hospital without worrying about the damage becoming more serious. And what about transportation? There never seems to be enough airplanes available, but with Omniballs, you could transport thousands of people in one small jet, and there wouldn't be the boring wait while flying across country. And just think about moving! That grand piano in your living room could be reduced to weighing no more than a few pounds!

"And then there's the people who are afraid that this would throw off the balance of population. With people being frozen in time inside the ball, they could essentially stay inside for years, and come out not a day older. Can you really predict what could happen with this? How could you possibly say that it would be dangerous? It would increase the lifespan, in a way, of the human race.

"I know that the possibility of theft might increase dramatically, but to me, the advantages would far outweigh the disadvantages! I'm going to bring this up in my speech tomorrow, despite the possible rejection. The Omniball can cause a revolution. How it turns out is left to be seen, but I'm positive it will be for the better. I can't hide this anymore; I'm going to try my luck. Your friend, Mark Antoine." Mark pressed the send button, and using the wireless internet connection, sent it to Daniel.

"Well, it's getting late. What do you think, Ricky?" Mark turned to his Pokemon, and saw that he was already asleep, curled up on the bed. "Yeah, I guess so." Mark saved his word document, and after turning off the laptop, stretched out his arms. Making sure not to wake up Ricky, he laid in bed, and pulled the blanket over him. He was very tired, and fell asleep quickly.

---

"So, have you seen the new Altering Perfection movie? I hear it's got a cool ending, but hearing it would spoil the story." The Captain said. He was on the bridge, talking to the helmsmen steering the ship. It would get rather boring on nights like these, with most of the guests sound asleep. He needed to stay awake though, after all, since he was the captain.

"Yeah, I saw it last week. You gotta see it, it's pretty cool." With nothing but sea out in front, the helmsmen had his back against steering controls, not looking out at the sea. "Ever seen Galactic Nomad?"

"Nah, it didn't look too interesting to me." Just as the helmsman finished his sentence, a loud crash was heard, followed by the boat coming to a sudden halt, throwing everyone off their feet. Quickly getting back up, the Captain questioned what happened. "What just happened?"

"We've hit a rock!" One man said. He was looking at the screen showing what was under them with the sonar. "I don't know how, it just came out of nowhere!" More reason to panic was given when the high water alarm went off. Great, now they were taking in water.

"Where's the water coming in?"

"In the…shoot, water is coming in the engine room!" The Captain ran over to the phone and called the engine room. It didn't take long for someone to answer.

"Sir, the water is flooding in too fast, and we can't get to the controls to shut it…" A loud boom was heard in the background for a moment, and the man's voice was replaced by a dial tone. Immediately afterwards, the ship was rocked by a loud boom, and fire flared up on the side of the ship.

The Captain closed his eyes and clenched his teeth. He never dreamed of having to give this order, but there was no choice. He picked up the phone, and set it for loudspeaker throughout the ship.

"Abandon ship! I repeat, abandon ship! Everyone evacuate to the deck in a calm and orderly manner, and file into the emergency rafts!"

---

When the ship rocked, both Mark and Ricky were knocked off the bed, and fell in between the bed and the wall. They were so soundly asleep, that they only stirred for a moment, and didn't awaken. After the call to abandon ship was given, crew members systematically went from room to room to check if everyone was getting out.

The door to Antoine's room swung open, and a bulky crewman looked in with frantic eyes.

"Hello, is anyone in here?" He didn't see anyone, and no one answered, so he shut the door closed and moved on to the next room. On the deck, people gathered in swarms, and crowded to get on the rafts. There was enough for all of them though, and the ship sank slowly enough that everyone who was still alive was able to escape. Everyone, that is, except for a man and his Pokemon who overslept.

Mark awoke to a wet tongue licking his face. He was only half awake, but the tongue was trying to wake him up.

"Growl, growl growl!" It was Ricky, and he sounded upset. Mark was becoming more conscious of his surroundings, and as soon as he felt water on his back, he jolted up.

He was sitting between the wall and the bed, the whole room was slanted towards the wall, and he was sitting in water. Now alert, Mark stood up, and saw that water was coming through the bottom of the door, and running down towards him. Even more troubling, the floor was burning hot, despite the cool water rushing in.

"What happened? We're not stuck here, are we?" Mark looked towards Growlithe, who was now standing on top of the bed. Being a fire Pokemon, he was afraid of the water, as it would lower his body temperature to dangerous levels.

Antoine ran to the door and grabbed the handle. He was about to open it, but noticed that water was not only coming in from the crack on the bottom of the door, but also the sides. If he opened the door, there was no doubt he would be knocked down by hundreds of pounds of water.

"What…what do I do?" Mark was trembling now. He never liked the water, and now it was surrounding him on all sides. He knew he couldn't swim, and if they were deep underwater, there was no way he could make it. He looked back at Ricky, and saw that he was just as scarred as he was.

"Come Ricky, I'll save you!" Mark took the Pokeball from his pocket and pressed the button in front. It opened up, and Growlithe was put inside. At least now his companion would be safe. "Don't worry, this is air tight, so you'll be safe in there." Suddenly, an idea struck him. He had an Omniball, and it could keep it just as safe as Ricky. He picked up the ball, thinking it over.

"They'll send someone to search the remains, right? Someone will come looking for us, right?" He would be safe in there, but he couldn't get out unless someone else opened it. If no one came, he would be trapped inside forever.

The door was now swelling under pressure, and more water was rushing in. In moments, the door would give way, and he would drown. Mark held his breath, wished for the best, and threw the Omniball at himself. There was a flash of light, and the Pokeball designer was gone. The Omniball dropped to the ground, and rolled down the floor towards the wall.

The S.S. Aqua sank to the bottom of the ocean, where it would remain there, along with what was left on it.

---

"In other news, a new study shows that donuts may actually be good for your health." Daniel Hawthorne muted the TV, seeing as how there didn't seem to be anything good on right now.

"Hmm, it's been a while since I've checked my email." Daniel stood up from the couch and walked over to his home computer, which was sitting at the wall just opposite of the TV. He accessed his email account, and found that there was only one new message. This was his home email, so he rarely got any new messages, but once he noticed who the sender was, he immediately opened it, excited that he was hearing from a friend. Once he finished it though, his mouth hanged open.

"No…Mark…what are you thinking? How could you do this? The world isn't ready for such a drastic change. You'll find nothing but rejection, and you'll be fired from your job. No longer will you be known as the genius Pokeball creator, but the crazy guy who wants to capture people! Argh, you fool! You're going to ruin your life! Wait, maybe it's not too late, maybe I can send an email and talk him out of…" Daniel stopped talking to himself once something on the TV caught his eye. He pressed the button on the remote to turn the volume back on, and turned it up.

"Last night, ten hours ago, the S.S. Aqua crashed into a rock due to navigational failure. Water then leaked into the engine room, where the salt water got inside and caused it to overload, killing the crewman inside. Many of the passengers managed to escape, but some are now dead, or reported missing. The list of these unfortunate people are as follows: Ray Gonzales, Jared Howsky, Jessie Frita, Mark Antoine, Jennifer…" Daniel picked the remote back up and turned off the power to the TV. He slumped back into the chair, starring off into space. He couldn't believe his ears.

"Mark…how…why?" As the death of his friend started to sink in, Hawthorne started to become more cynical. He was upset from the loss, and only grew more angry at him for it. "Heh, you never were much of a swimmer, were you?" He stood up from the chair, and glanced back at the TV. "Well Mark, it's probably for the better. That Omniball would have ruined your life anyways." He then waved to the blank TV as he started to walk away, and said, "Farewell, fool."

Eighty-seven years later…

The reflection of the sun was shattered as the water splashed onto the boat, and the flippers went underwater. Leaving the sunny sky above, the diver went down to the dark ocean. He and his friend were scuba diving in the middle of the ocean, out having a fun time. They were some of the few people who still used such outdated diving equipment such as compressed air tanks, but they preferred the old fashioned stuff. They did, however, have breathing masks with radios in them to talk to each other.

As they let their weights sink them to the bottom, they could see something down there that didn't look natural. As they got closer, they could see that it was a boat, covered in the green ocean dirt. There was a large hole on the side at the bottom, so they used it to get inside and explore it.

"Wow, this is cool! Who knew we'd find something like this?"

"I know! It looks like it's been here for a long time, judging by all the sea life attached to the walls." They swam through the hallways and through twisted stairways, swimming through passages where people would normally walk. They came to a set of doors, and found one of them opened. They went inside, and saw that a family of crabs had made it their home. They scuttled around the floor, devouring a dead octopus.

"Hey, look at that laptop there! That thing looks ancient!" The one diver said, looking at the laptop on the desk.

"Wow." As he looked at the crabs, he saw that one was pushing around a small ball. There was a curious mark on it, so he took it from the small crustacean and cleaned the dirt off of it. It was a blue and white sphere, with an O on the front.

"Hey, is this some sort of Pokeball? I wonder if there's something inside it?"

A/N: Yes, that's the end. I'm evil, aren't I?