"Hey, John, can I take a camera and film myself riding my new dirtbike, please?" Neo, my Lucario, who is a fair bit taller than average asked me while eating lunch, looked at me with his one good eye, the other one glassed over and permanently scarred. Just one of the many things his previous trainers have done to him. He still won't talk about it to anyone, except this zoroark he calls Jay. I don't know much about him either and haven't seen him, Neo doesn't know if he's real or not either, but I know he stopped caring long ago.
"Yeah, just be back for dinner, OK?" I replied. How can I say no? He's been wanting to ride it since we repaired it a week ago. Oh, yea. Neo taught himself to speak the way humans do after he reached 100,000 subscribers. Before that, he communicated through telepathy, which as you may have guessed, does not get captured on video.
"I will, don't worry," Neo assured me and had already limped halfway out of the front door, (his leg is fine now, but it was bad enough where he limped on it for too long, now its just a bad habit) where he must have brought it out to before lunch, since the door to the garage was on the other side of the house. He had already grabbed a couple of GoPro cameras in his right hand so he waved to me with his left hand and smiled at me. Those were 2 more things I don't like to think about. The spike on his left wrist was broken off when he was with his previous trainer. He wouldn't tell me how it happened though, but he did tell me that he lost 2 of his fangs (upper left and bottom right) because his last trainer punched him for not listening to his commands, even though he won the battle and the other because he was punched for losing. I think 2 different trainers did it to him, even though he swears hes only had 3 trainers, I think it was significantly more. I don't mind though, he probably doesn't realize just how many trainers hes had and may only be able to remember his first 2 trainers and puts the rest into one form especially since his first 2 trainers never physically hurt him.
That was lunchtime, dinner was supposed to be 2 hours ago. My heart is pounding. If Neo isn't home by now, there's something wrong. I quickly grab the keys to my custom jeep wrangler and military-styled combat camo hat and almost dashed out of the house, barely remembering to lock the house before leaving. My house is by far the smallest on the block, even though the other houses are huge mansions and estates. but I don't care, its plenty big enough to live in and the house was built in a Victorian style. My garage, however, is a different story, its one of the largest. Before you ask, yes I have money. It just goes into my cars and computers. My jeep is my smallest 4-wheeler, redesigned with a 4 inch lift, 40 inch tires, a winch, an LED spotlight bar above the windshield and I haven't had the top on it all summer. The roll cage and the body have been sprayed with a truck bed liner. I started the engine and first drove to the forest which is about a mile and a half away and the one we would go to the most.
As soon as I cleared civilization, I flicked on the high beams and the lightbar and drove through the mud and dirt trails which were just wide enough for my Jeep. It wasn't long before I noticed thin tracks in the mud, they were hard to make out, but we're the only ones who ride dirt bikes in the area, everyone else either drives 4x4 trucks or quads, with the occasional trike. So I continued down the path, following the tire tracks as best as I could since there were sections where tire tracks just don't form well, either because of loose dirt or it being straight up water.
"NEO!" I kept calling out loudly, hoping for a response, but there was nothing. So I kept looking around, looking for anything that might help me find him, going over dozens of small hills that the smaller ATVs would use to launch themselves into the air. I myself have managed to get good air on some of them. As I drive through the paths, I notice a quick sparkle reflecting the light from my Jeep on the ground, so I decide to get out and take a closer look. When I find the source of the sparkle, I bend down to pick it up and look at it. It was a shiny, metallic blue nut. My heart dropped.
"It seems like the paint has dried, Neo," I asked to my Lucario, "do you know what we can do now?"
Neo's eyes lit up with joy as he said excitedly loud, "we can put it back together now?"
I couldn't help but chuckle at his excitement as I nod, "Yes, and I have something I think will look perfect on your new dirtbike."
I didn't think his eyes could go any bigger until after I said that. "What is it John?" He asked me in his still excited tone of voice. So I just smiled at him and pulled out a bag full of shiny metallic blue screws, nuts and bolts, to replace the plain ones that came with the bike.
I nearly had the wind knocked out of me when Neo jumped into me and hugged me. I didn't have to say what they were for, he was smart enough to know what they were for. And just a couple hours later, the bike was finished, it had a black and white body with blue handlebars, wheels and accents that matched the nuts, bolts and screws. I know what you're thinking, Neo just likes to feel that his stuff is rightfully his. I can't blame him for that.
The nut looked like the one that we had put on the wheels just last week, except the threading was screwed up. So I called his name out louder and a bit more panicked, but there was still no answer. I returned to my Jeep, but it was a flat out run, and I continued looking but going a bit faster. With one nut missing on a wheel, the other one will start to come loose as he rides and jumps over the hills that cover the trail.
"NEO!" I continued to call out trying my best to hope for an answer. Determined to find him, I kept searching.
After what felt like an eternity of searching a Jolteon appears, sitting down from out of nowhere, just inside the light from my headlights. It didn't move, but sitting in front of it was a GoPro on a small tripod. I immediately stopped and got out to approach the eeveelution and the camera. Its no coincidence that the camera Neo brought with him is now sitting in his hands. "Do you know where the Lucario is that was using this?" I asked to the Jolteon who was still sitting there, perfectly still.
"JOLT!" was all I got from the pokemon before it got up and ran off on the path I was already following. I guess I'm on the right track then. I quickly ran back into my Jeep, putting the GoPro on the passenger side door, where the lip below the door will keep it from falling out and head towards the direction the Jolteon ran, going about 30 through the mud and dirt, I don't even realize that the Jolteon just vanishes after leaving my limited line of sight, but the trees in this area are too thick to ride through and there's only one pathway.
Now that I have an idea of where Neo is, time starts going a bit normally for me, and since I'm probably going a bit faster than I should be now, it isn't long before I see Neo's dirtbike, so I quickly slam on the brakes.
"NEO!?" I call out one more time and a moment later I hear a moan coming from under the dirt bike, I quickly run over to it to find his legs pinned under the bike. Thank Arceus for his trench coat, which if he wasn't wearing, would've definitely burned him severely. I carefully pull the bike off him and gently look for any major injuries, "Neo, are you OK, buddy?" I ask him with a serious and concerned tone.
"Yea, I'm fine, John" Neo replies weakly, with tears in his eyes "just tired, can we go home, please?"
"We're going to the pokemon center first, OK?" I say as I help him up and into the passenger side of the Jeep and strapping the seat belt onto him. Neo doesn't put up any sort of argument or refusal and I go back to the dirt bike. With a loud grunt I pick it upright and quickly notice that the front wheel is no longer attached to the bike and the spokes of the wheel is mangled in the front fork, so I pull it up on its back wheel and walk it to the jeep, putting the front into the back seat and then pushing the back up into the Jeep. Its a tight squeeze so I don't bother to strap it in and I put my arm on his shoulder gently. Out of force of habit, he flinches, but I keep my hand there, knowing that he simply can't help that reflex. Its hard for me to tell if hes in pain, but its easy to see that he was crying. "Don't worry, bud, you're all right," was all I can say, which was enough for the Lucario to feel comfortable. And I shifted the Jeep into drive and made a quick u-turn in the path and sped off to the local pokemon center. Truthfully, I'm more worried about Neo relapsing.
It didn't feel like a long time until we reached the pokemon center. And luckily Neo passed with minor scrapes and bruises, which will heal on their own in just a few days. I took a quick picture of him and uploaded it to social media with a post that said:
Spent my night looking for thatdarnlucario in the woods, luckily he passes with cuts bruises and a broken dirt bike. Good luck, Buddy. #GG