Author notes:
1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.
2)I don't own Pokemon, obviously.
3)I only own the plot for this story and the eventual OCs
4)I would like to thank a really good friend of mine for all the help with this story.
Pokemon and humans coexist since the dawn of times. Humankind learned how to live peacefully with those creatures and even learned how to capture them. Some use Pokemon to fight battles, others to do some manual labor and others just want to have a Pokemon because they deeply care about them.
In the country of Johto, more precisely in a small town named Oldgate, people have a quite peaceful life. It was a town placed in a rural area. It had many farms at its outskirts.
Within the town, there was an orphanage named Grandfist. It was named after a famous politician of the area, after all he was the one who paid from his own pocket the construction of it. His name was Harry Grandfist and he was a beloved man in that town. He died a premature death, but his son, John, continued his father footsteps and followed the path of politics as well and he was also quite successful like his father.
In the orphanage, the children received proper education and also were taught to interact with Pokemon, after all they would have to learn to at least know how to deal with them their entire lives.
Among the children, there was a twelve year-old boy named Jack. He was left at the footstep of the orphanage when he was just a baby. He never knew who his true parents were. The boy had a sun tanned skin and also a chestnut colored hair and honey eyes.
The boy lived with many other kids, most were younger than him. He also had contact with kids from outside of the orphanage, because some of the employees usually brought their own children to also interact with them.
But Jack had next to none friends. In fact, his best friend was a male Nidoran he had found. He was just ten year-old when they first met.
During a class trip the children made to the Sprout Tower, he found an abandoned egg near some bushes. He, of course, tried to find if anyone knew to whom that egg belonged without any success.
In any other situation, the boy would have just left the egg where he had found it, because its parents might come back, but that wasn't the case. He learned that Pokemon always build a nest to lay the eggs, but this egg was next to pointy rocks and the bushes were threatening the safety of that egg.
He couldn't help but to relate with it. 'So he was abandoned too…' He thought as he held the egg. His assumption wasn't far from the truth. What he didn't know was that its parents were both captured by trainers.
He begged to keep the egg. He promised to take good care of it. The employees of the orphanage doubted that the boy would be able to handle the task himself, but it was a good opportunity to teach not only him, but all children to have some responsibility and taking care of that egg would be perfect for the task, after all, the children were used to play with grown Pokemon that lived with them and taking care of something fragile as a egg would teach them to be more careful with their actions.
Jack wanted to do it by himself. He arranged the proper lights to keep the egg heated and even a box to keep it safe. All other children looked at it expectant eyes. Some were wondering what kind of Pokemon was going to come out of it. Some were actually expecting it to be a legendary one.
A couple of weeks passed by and the egg didn't hatch. Almost all children had given up on the egg because they considered just looking at it to be boring. But Jack never gave up on it. He always checked if the temperature was neither too hot nor too cold. He watched it like a hawk. He and Mary. She was the daughter of one of the employees of the orphanage and she liked to play with the children there and she became one of the few people Jack could talk to.
She had emerald green eyes and blond hair. She always passed by after her school to have some fun, especially with Jack, but she was also curious and fascinated to see how her friend was taking care of that egg.
She remembered how he freaked out when two other boys almost squashed the egg with a soccer ball, because they were playing indoors, which was, by the way, forbidden.
A month after, one day, at night, he discovered the egg, it started to hatch. Jack had to admit he was getting really worried, but he looked at it with expectant eyes holding his immense urge to help the little one to get out of the egg. But he heard that he needed to let nature follow its course. He read about how a butterfly[1] needed to get out of its cocoon by its own in order to gain the necessary strength to the wings and that if anyone tried to help it, the insect wouldn't be able to fly and it would die eventually.
His innocent eyes beamed with joy when he saw the little Pokemon getting out of the egg. It was a male Nidoran. He knew it was a male because he studied that the males of this species were visible different from the females.
The small and still fragile creature looked around searching for his parents. When it looked up he saw jack looking at him with a wide smile. The little Nidoran, being moved by its instincts, thought that the other creature looking at him was one of his parents.
It gave a small cry trying to get some attention from his 'parent', who blinked a bit before taking the little purple Pokemon in his arms. Jack was really careful to not hurt the newborn Nidoran as he went towards the place where they kept Pokemon food. Not that the newborn was very hungry. In fact, he was more interested in the physical attention he was getting from the human boy.
As Jack walked around turning on the lights, for the displeasure of the Nidoran which whined softly by the sudden change to clarity. Jack was a bit lucky because apparently the adults had forgotten to place the sack containing the Pokemon food, which was over the dinning table. It was blue and had a pokeball as a logo and a Ratata eating a bowl of the brown food.
The boy noticed how comfortable the Nidoran seemed to be on his arms and decided to leave him there. He sat down on a chair and with his right hand he dragged the sack to nearby him, while he held the newborn with his left arm.
He dove his hand inside of the sack and picked some of that treat and showed it in front of the Nidoran. The Pokemon sniffed it and hesitantly tried to take a bite, but his teeth weren't strong enough to bite it.
Realizing his mistake, Jack picked up one of the brown cubes and smashed it with his hands. Now turned into small bits, he presented the food again to his little buddy. This time the Pokemon managed to lick the solid pieces on his hand and swallow it without needing to actually chew it.
After a while, The baby Nidoran feel asleep on his arm and the boy yawned right before he noticed the time in a digital clock hanging in the wall. It was 11:34 p.m.
The boy slowly got out of the chair to not wake the newborn on his arms and turned off the lights as he headed back to his room. He shared his room with many other boys, because the girls slept in a different room. They all slept in bunks and for his luck his bed was the nearest from the ground.
He carefully placed the Nidoran on the bed. He saw him stir and whine for leaving the warmth of the human, but he quieted down when Jack lied down and drew the Pokemon near him. He covered the both with his blue cover and watched the small baby in front of him until he fell asleep.
On the next day, he woke up feeling something wet on his right cheek. Whe he slowly opened his eyes he saw the Nidoran licking his cheek. The Pokemon seemed to be more energetic. The newborn was over Jack's chest and looked at him with expectant eyes. The boy smiled and gently caressed the Pokemon's chin.
But the other boys also started to wake up. A blue-haired boy was the first to shout: "Hey, Jack! Where did you get that Pokemon?"
The other boys started to assemble near Jack's bed and tried to touch the Nidoran. The Pokemon wasn't used to this much people watching him like that it clearly frightened him to see that amount of hands trying to reach him.
Jack noticed the frightened look in the Nidoran's face and told them frowning hugging the Nidoran trying to calm him down: "Hey! Quit it! You're frightening him! He was born last night from that egg."
"Really?" said another boy with black hair a bit disappointed. He was one of the children who expected that egg to be from a legendary Pokemon or at least something that looked tougher.
One of the boys, who was nine year-old and had green hair tried to pick up the Nidoran from Jack. His sudden movement made the newborn let out a gasp, because he thought that the boy was going to attack him. Seeing this, Jack quickly grabbed the other boy's hand and told even more sternly: "I said that you're scaring him! He's not used to this kind of thing."
That same boy with black hair crossed his arms and said: "Do you think you're his parent or something? Come on, let us play with it!"
Jack didn't like how that other boy was treating the Nidoran. "This Nidoran is a 'he' not an 'it'! And I was the one who took care of him all the time. None of you moved a muscle to help me to keep his egg safe, in fact, you almost killed him a couple of times!"
Before the discussion could get even more heated, one of the employees of the Orphanage named Jake, who happened to be Mary's father came into the room to tell the boys to get ready for breakfast. He was blond and he had green eyes too. He quickly noticed the commotion near Jack's bed and raised a curious eyebrow and asked while he walked towards the bed: "What's going on here?"
The man's eyes went wide when he saw the small Nidoran over Jack and quickly asked with his eyebrows creasing: "What's going on here?" he repeated seriously. "Where did it come from?"
"He came from that egg, mister Newmoon. Please, let me keep him!" said Jack worried. He truly feared that the adult might take the baby Pokemon from him.
The adult sighed and said serious to the boy: "The director will have to approve it, not me. Get properly dressed and after breakfast we'll talk to her."
The boy nodded and after he changed his night clothes to a blue short and a black t-shirt he quickly took the Pokemon with him to have breakfast. Jake saw that the boy was carrying the Pokemon on his arms and told him sternly as he approached: "You know that you shouldn't bring Pokemon to the table."
That same boy with black hair whispered to the others: "What's with him? Why he's all the sudden carrying so much about that thing?"
The boy with blue hair answered: "I knew he was creepy. I mean, he always preferred to feed the Pokemon than to play a game of soccer with us."
Of course, Jack could overhear what they were talking. Actually that was the reason why he liked to stay with Pokemon more than with humans. Both boys and girls seemed to only think bad things about him. At least he knew that the Pokemon liked him.
Jake also heard what the children were saying about the boy holding the Nidoran. He sighed feeling sorry for the kid, but it was true that the boy spent more time playing with Pokemon than with the other kids. In fact the only human he saw him playing with was with his daughter.
The man turned to the boy and told him: "Jack, you can put him with the other Pokemon for a while. After the breakfast we'll talk to the director and-" but he was cut off by the boy.
"But, sir, he was born just yesterday. I don't think he should be out with the others…"
The man scratched the back of his head. He would like to let him go have breakfast with the baby Nidoran. He doubted that something so small would cause a ruckus, but if he allowed him to take the Pokemon with him, he would have to allow the others to do the same and that would be troublesome, because that rule existed because a Magnezone got 'too happy' after eating with the children and it ended up frying almost everything nearby. It was accident, but ever since then, they didn't allow Pokemons to enter that room anymore. It also endangered the lives of the children, which was the reason why the also had to give Magnezone to a passing by trainer, who gladly accepted it.
Jack remembered that day. He was only eight years old, but the memory was still livid in his mind. He could still see the sad expression on the Magnezone when he was forced to leave their home because of that accident.
Jake had come up with an idea: "How about if I hold him for you? I'll be with him, out of here, while you eat."
Jack was unsure of what to do. He trusted the adult, but he didn't want to leave the Nidoran behind even for just a few minutes. But the before the boy could react, The man approached him and tried to gently take the small Pokemon from his arms.
None of them expected to the small Pokemon start crying and yelling trying to get rid of the man's grip. Jake wasn't holding the Nidoran too tight, so it wasn't being unpleasant for him, but what the little Nidoran didn't like was that a stranger took him from the peace and comfort of the boy's arms.
Jake struggled to not let the Pokemon fall from his hands, but he was giving him a hard time. Jack couldn't stand seeing that anymore and took the cub from the man's hands and quickly rocked him in his arms. The Pokemon quickly calmed down feeling the warmth of the boy again.
The adult looked in awe at the situation. He had never seen a Pokemon acting this way. He was also surprised seeing how easily the boy calmed the cub down. But he couldn't just let this situation be like this. They had rules, but that Nidoran was making everything harder, because he was throwing a tantrum if anyone else tried to touch him.
Jack suddenly had an idea that could solve the current problem: "I know I can't bring Pokemon here, but if I have breakfast somewhere else, it'll have no problem, right?"
Jake frowned at the boy's suggestion: "I suppose…But wouldn't you rather eat with your friends?" the man knew that the boy in front of him didn't exactly were on the best terms with the other kids, but he always tried to make him interact with the others. He didn't think it was healthy for a kid to like Pokemon more than humans.
Jack also didn't like when the man suggested to eat with his 'friends'. They weren't his friends. Friends don't make fun of each other just because they have different tastes. Friends don't insult each other behind their backs. Friends don't try to take things from each other by force…
The adult, after seeing that, for the moment, the situation was helpless, he said: "Okay, you may have breakfast in another room. But it'll be only this once. I hope that you find a way to deal with this Pokemon, because you're going to eat lunch and any other meal with everyone else and the Nidoran can't stay with you during them."
The boy nodded and, as he held the cub with his left hand, he used his right hand pick up a plate and filled it with pancakes. He took the plate, alongside a fork and a knife to outside of the room towards where the other Pokemon of the Orphanage usually were. As soon he left the other children started to badmouth the boy again, but the man quickly ordered them to stop saying those things and continue eating.
Jack took the Nidoran to the yard of the Orphanage. It was a quite big place with green grass. The boy sat down on the doorstep and placed his plate on his lap, not too far from the little cub.
The boy used his knife and fork and took a big piece and put it inside of his mouth. He loved pancakes. He didn't like to put maple syrup on it, he felt like it ruined the taste. It was the same thing to put ketchup in a sandwich. He felt like it clouded the taste of the food.
The boy took another bite of his food as he looked the other pokemon approaching, mostly being attracted by the sweet scent of the food. But they also wanted to greet the boy. All Pokemons in the Orphanage liked Jack. He always played with them, brought them food and stopped the other kids when they were playing roughly with them.
There were currently ten Pokemon being kept there. An Aron, a Bibarel, a Gloom, a Delibird, a Delcatty, a Glameow, a Buizel, a Marill, a Minun and a Plusle. The boy had purposely brought more Panaked than he could eat. He took some of them and divided it with the Pokemon who ate happily the treat.
He looked at the confused Nidoran on his lap and with a gentle smile he said: This one is for you. Have a bite…Oh wait." He then remembered that the cub couldn't chew properly yet, so he used his fork and knife to cut a very small piece for him. He picked the piece with his hand because he didn't want to hurt accidentally the Nidoran with the fork.
The cub sniffed the food and seeing that it smelled good, he thought it also tasted good and trusted the human boy and put the piece in his mouth. The Nidoran happily ate it. It tasted really good for him. Jack saw the content face of the small cub on his lap and cut another piece for his little companion and when he gave it to him, he also cut another piece for himself and ate too. Soon he cleaned his plate.
He put it aside on his left, with the fork and knife on it. Then he turned to the other Pokemon and decided to use that opportunity to officially introduce him to the others: "Guys, I would like you to meet this Nidoran. He was born from that egg I found. I guess you guys remember, right?"
The Pokemon nodded and approached the boy to give the rabbit-like Pokemon a better look. These Pokemon were very friendly and they liked to see another one. But the Nidoran didn't share of their feelings. That was his first time seeing other Pokemon. He felt afraid and started to tremble with his ears lowered.
Jack noticed that and started to pet him on the head being careful to not touch his horn. He read that it contained poison in it, so he had to be careful when handling him. But he didn't let it stop him from assuring the little cub: "It's alright. They won't harm you. They're nice guys."
The Nidoran started to feel a bit relaxed and it ended up allowing the Pokemon to get closer of him. The cub felt like the human would protect him from anything bad, so he wouldn't expose him to such different creatures if they had ill intentions.
The Pokemon approached and started talking in their own Language to the Nidoran, who listened it without answering. Jack couldn't help but to wonder what they were talking about. He felt like they were saying 'hi' to the newcomer. He wished he could speak their langue or that they could learn his.
Suddenly he felt someone putting the hands over his eyes and a feminine voice said playfully: "Guess who it is?"
Jack smiled and said: "I know it's you Mary. You do this every time."
The girl giggled and said: "I know. But it's fun." Then she sat on the right side of the boy. Fortunately it was Saturday and they didn't have school. In another words they could have fun all day.
"Is it the one that came from the egg? I went to check on it when I arrived, but there was just the remains of it. I imagined that you would be taking good care of it by now." And seeing how Jack was still petting the Nidoran she smiled and said: "And I guess I was right."
Jack blushed and only nodded. The Nidoran started to stare at the newcomer curious. For the cub, it seemed like Jack trusted that other being that seemed to be the same species. He had to wonder if he could trust her or if she wasn't going to assault him like the other boys did.
Jack than told her: "He's not an it. He's a male Nidoran. I read in a book that he's from a specie that males and females are completely different. Males are purple with a long horn, while the females are light blue with a smaller horn."
"Wow. You sure know a lot." She said truly amused by his knowledge. Her commentary only made him blush harder.
The other Pokemon always wondered if those two were mates or something, after all they always seemed to be together and they got a long pretty well.
"What's his name going to be?" Mary asked with a smile.
The boy hadn't thought of a name for his small companion yet. He made 'hmm' sound while he thought of a good name for him: "How about Hiro?"
Mary nodded and affirmed: "It sounds…nice for him. I like it."
The boy turned his look from the girl and back to the Nidoran still rubbing behind his big ears. "Yes…Yes, it does."
Fortunately, everything went well, for Jack and the little Hiro. The director, Vanessa, allowed the Pokemon to stay as long as he didn't cause any trouble. Jack knew to what she was referring to, but he didn't have anything to worry about. The Nidoran was very docile, but he only let Jack and Mary to touch him. The purple Pokemon learned how to trust the human female with time.
And even though the Pokemon weren't supposed to sleep with the children, Jack managed to hide Hiro under his covers after everyone was asleep and he always made sure to wake up before anyone else. The boy grew very fond of his Pokemon companion.
Some of the boys read about Hiro's species too and they even started to suggest to use him in battles with other trainers. But Jack refused to do such a thing. Jack couldn't understand how the trainers could possible enjoy to see their Pokemon battling against each other. And for what? For fame? What fame? Are the Pokemon who fight and get hurt, why are the trainers to receive all the glory when all they do is yell at them giving obvious and unnecessary orders.
Jack also refused to lock the Nidoran in a Pokeball, but he feared that someone might try steal him. So he had to go buy a Pokeball and use it on Hiro. But as soon as the pokeball quieted down, Jack released him and quickly hugged him and apologized for the inconvenient, but it was for his own safety. The boy kept the pokeball attached to a chain inside of his pocket to prevent anyone from stealing it.
One day, on Thursday, Jake, who was wearing a blue shirt, blue jeans and a yellow apron which had a pokeball printed on it, went to the backyard where most of kids were and asked worried: "Children, have you seen my daughter?" Jake asked worried. It was near 5 p.m. and she didn't appeared. The man even phoned the school and they said that she left the school at three o'clock along with the other children.
The parent was really worried. Actually his worry begun when his wife, Teresa phoned him and asked if Mary was with him at the orphanage.
After getting a 'no' from the children, Jake started to panic. The first thing he did was phone to the police and begged them to find his little girl. He gave them her description of her school uniform, which were a yellow shirt and a light blue skirt. Then hung up the phone.
He went to see the director of the orphanage and told her about his situation and told her that he was going to leave to search for his daughter. The old woman, who had blue eyes and a grizzled hair allowed him and told him not to worry about it. The man thanked her and left in search of his daughter, but before he left, he told the other supervisors to give him a call on his cell phone in case his daughter showed up there.
Jack, who was wearing a black shirt and red shorts, was also very worried with the sudden news. He then asked Hiro, who had grown quite a bit in the past two years: "Hiro, can you find Mary? I mean, you remember how she smells, right?"
The Nidoran nodded in agreement. The purple Pokemon eventually learned the meaning of the words in the boy's language and he could fully understand them.
Jack and his Pokemon sneaked out of the orphanage in search of his friend. He knew that none of the other supervisors would let him go on his own like that. When they got out of it, Hiro started to sniff the ground searching for Mary's scent.
They walked to the school, where she was last seen and the Pokemon finally got trace of her fresh scent and started to run towards the direction it went. Jack quickly followed the purple Pokemon towards a more desert are, near some trees.
They looked around for a while when, Hiro's fur started to get up and the Nidoran started to growl as he quickly went towards a tree were a Pinsir trying to cut down a tree.
The only problem was that Mary was on a branch on that tree being cut by the Pinsir, crying in fear. She had been calling for help for hours without any success. She had come to that are searching for a flower that used to bloom in that time of the year when she accidentally tripped over the feet of a sleeping Pinsir, who didn't like one bit being awaked.
The girl had fled from it and managed to climb a tree, seeing that she couldn't outrun the bug Pokemon. She was getting desperate when she heard a familiar voice yelling her name. She finally got courage to open her watery eyes and saw Jack and Hiro looking at her worried.
The Pokemon growled at the Pinsir who turned to face the boy and the poison Pokemon after the boy's shout. Before the bug Pokemon attacked, Hiro used poison sting on the Pinsir.
The dozens of energy needles came out of his horn and managed to hit the bigger Pokemon, who closed his eyes for a brief moment. Then, the Nidoran rushed towards it and with a jump and a flip he used double kick on it, sending the Pinsir flying for a few meters.
The bug Pokemon got up and furiously rushed to use vice grip on the Nidoran, when Jack rushed and managed to punch the Pokemon on its right eye. It shrieked in pain and started to run.
Jack panted as he saw the Pinsir fleeing. He didn't like to hurt Pokemon, but he loathed those who tried to hurt those he cared about whether they're human or not.
The boy told Mary: "It's okay, you can get out now."
But the girl was still too frightened to get out of the tree on her own. Jack had a risky idea he didn't know if it would work. He got right below her and told her to jump and that he would certainly catch her. She was still frightened and didn't want to do it. But then she felt that the tree was going to collapse, after all the Pinsir did make a good damage on it.
"You have to jump now!" Jack said getting desperate seeing the tree incline. The boy followed it to always be bellow Mary to be able to catch her.
"But I'm scared…" she whimpered as more tears steamed.
"If you don't jump now, you'll get even more hurt. Trust me. I'll get you!" he assured her.
Hiro was also very worried about the human girl and he wished he could do something, but he had to leave that to his human friend.
Mary, seeing to have no other choice, jumped praying that her friend would be able to catch her. Well, Jack did prevent her from getting hurt, but she landed ON him. She was sitting down on his chest as he groaned in pain. Hiro also hurried to check if the boy was alright and gave him a gentle lick on his right cheek.
The boy smiled and assured him: "I'm fine…really…"
But the Pokemon could see that he was still in pain. Then Hiro turned to Mary, and seeing that she was still frightened, he approached her and licked her trembling hand.
She grabbed the purple Pokemon and gave him a hug. She started to thank both of them for saving her over and over again. Then after she noticed that she was still over her friend she quickly got up and apologized.
Jack was relieved to not having that extra weight over him, but he told her that everything was fine and that he was glad that she was fine. Then, he told her that everyone was looking for her and that it was better if she went with him back to the orphanage. She agreed and both went back.
After a while, both finally arrived. Most of the children were outside and there was the police talking with some of the supervisors of the orphanage, including Jake who returned to check if Mary hadn't appeared there. The children saw Jack approaching walking with Mary and they quickly called the attention of Jake, who rushed to his daughter
"Sweetie, are you alright? What happened?" Jake asked hugging his daughter tightly relieved to see her safe and sound.
Mary explained everything that happened. About why she went to that part of the town, how she was attacked by a Pinsir and even how she was saved by jack and Hiro.
The man couldn't believe that the boy left the orphanage without the consent of a responsible adult. In any other situation he would have punished him for doing such a reckless thing, but he was willing to overlook it for saving his daughter.
Jack himself didn't mind being punished. He was glad that his friend was alright and that was enough for him.
What none noticed was that there was a press car nearby and a reporter had overheard that whole story.
End of chapter 1
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review.
More Author Notes:
[1] I'm talking about real butterflies here, not Butterfrees.
