Chapter 1: First Day Under Alola's Sun
"Can I go to sleep yet?" Reuben asked, dejectedly. He looked around the living room of their new home. From wall to wall was a muddled array of cardboard boxes, which to the boy's tired mind seemed to be infinite.
The plane trip had taken thirteen hours and had been plagued by crying babies, incredibly uncomfortable seating from a cheap airline, and a mild but unrelenting type of motion sickness. Thanks to a combination of those elements, Reuben had found it practically impossible to fall asleep. His mother had none of these issues and managed to catch a full night's sleep. She had been wide awake and enthusiastic since they touched down in Melemele Island.
They spent an hour coordinating with the moving company, and then there was actually getting to their brand new home, and of course Reuben was expected to help with the cardboard boxes, which didn't go so well because their meowth kept dancing around their feet, and after that trial was over he had to help unpack both bedrooms, despite being awake for hours enduring crying and turbulence…
The small family were standing in the living room, still surrounded on all sides by cardboard boxes. Reuben swayed around, unsteady on his feet due to exhaustion. His vision was going blurry.
"I think Azelf has forsaken me…" Reuben murmured through a yawn.
His mother shook her head, showing no sympathy. "You should've slept on the plane."
Tired eyes twitched in an irrational manner. "Well excuse me. I'm so sorry that I can't tune the world out on demand. Can I go to sleep, or what?"
"How could you sleep right now?" She asked. "Can't you feel that warmth? It's so bright and cosy here, would you really want to spend this time sleeping?"
"Yes. Desperately." Reuben pinched the bridge of his nose. "I've been up for twenty hours, most of which was on a plane with lots of annoyances, I helped move a lot of heavy furniture, and we just got finished setting up two separate beds. Do you know how done I am with today?"
"Reuben, they were inflatable beds." His mother rolled her eyes, before shrugging. "Eh, fine. I think I can manage to unpack the living room stuff by myself. Go get some rest, there's a whole new region out there for you to experience!" She gestured dramatically.
Reuben slowly walked past her, his limbs feeling heavy. "Riveting…"
The boy stepped into the room towards the back of the house, on the right. This was going to be his room for the foreseeable future.
Reuben lazily looked at the room's decoration. Despite his complaining earlier, his room was pretty empty at the moment. Every corner was being made use of by a single item: one corner had an inflatable bed firmly pressed into it, another one had a snorlax themed beanbag chair, one of the corners nearest to the door had a lamp set up, and the final corner had a barren bookcase.
The room also had this desk built into the wall across from the door, where they had decided to place his laptop…
Reuben blinked his tired eyes closed in disbelief. 'I've gotta be seeing things.'
He opened his eyes and was met with an orange laptop. The laptop's screen was mostly light blue, with two large dark blues eyes that Reuben's attention was drawn to. The eyes looked shifty to Reuben, sort of like the boy was being judged.
He quickly decided to ignore those eyes, and instead focus on the neon pink electricity that surrounded the laptop and vaguely formed the shape of hands.
'Huh. A rotom's haunting my laptop.' Reuben massaged his head tiredly. 'Neat.'
Neither one of them moved for a moment…
Reuben yawned. "If it's not too much trouble, could you play some music? I have eclectic tastes, so anything will probably be fine… except metal. I'm not really in a metal mood." The boy dragged himself over to the bed and threw himself onto it. His weight caused the bed to wobble.
The possessed laptop blinked. A moment later the sounds of a mellow dubstep beat filled the room.
"That'll do…" Reuben murmured, quickly losing consciousness after that.
Something metal hit Reuben in the face and he instantly woke up. His eyes quickly started to burn and tear up in the way that they always did after an interrupted sleep. It didn't help that he was practically blind in that moment because of all the glaringly bright light that seemed to surround him, which in turn made his eyes feel like they were on fire. The sound of scratchy laughter only made Reuben's mood worse. He performed a small ritual of covering, rubbing, and blinking his eyes repeatedly until he was able to make out the shapes around him. Looking him straight in the eyes was none other than Coins; the meowth that had stumbled into Reuben's life a few years prior as a result of one of his mother's cases.
Reuben was surprised for a moment, how was the meowth tall enough to be looking him in the eyes? It took the boy's groggy mind a while to realise that the bed he was in was about the size of a mattress and he was barely off the ground. Throughout his confusion, Coins was still laughing.
"Why are you doing this? I'm trying to sleep…" Reuben whined.
Coins calmed down, letting a sigh. She shrugged her shoulders and pointed towards the door.
The tired boy raised a brow in confusion. "Mom wants me for something?"
Coins nodded.
"Ah, fine!" Reuben dragged himself out of his blissfully warm bed and into the cold air of the room. He shivered. "Well, glad to see that the AC works…"
Reuben started walking towards the door but stopped when he noticed the lack of music. He glanced back at the desk. The laptop was still there, except it was back to its regular silver colour and it was closed. 'Well, that's strange.' Reuben had had some experiences with rotom back in Sinnoh. There was an abundance of them in Eterna City, and it was common to walk into your house one day and find that a rotom had possessed an appliance. And once a rotom had claimed something, getting them to part it with it was a task so difficult that it required specialist assistance. So it was kind of odd that the rotom had given up so easily…
"Wait, are rotom even found here? Are they local?" Reuben wondered aloud. He pondered it for a moment, before shrugging his shoulders. "Eh, whatever. I probably dreamt it anyways."
The boy walked into the living room and had a small panic attack. There was an unfamiliar man standing in the living room talking to his mother. And everything about the man read as bizarre to the child. He was wearing green sandals and grey shorts, which given the warm weather of Alolan and the wide array of beaches, wasn't too strange a choice of clothing. But then he was also wearing a pristine white lab coat… without a shirt. Completely bare-chested. 'What is this guy doing talking to my mom?' Before Reuben's mind could take him on a magical mystery tour of all the possibilities, he was noticed by the adults.
"Reuben, there you are!" His mother's voice had taken on an enthusiastic edge, and despite the boy's expectations, he couldn't detect a hint of uncomfortableness from her.
Before he could respond, the strange man introduced himself with a big grin on his face. "Hey there, Rue! The name's Kukui, glad to meet ya, cousin!"
'Well, that's a whole lotta of nope right there.' Reuben thought to himself, grimacing. "Hey there… why are you in our house?"
His mother looked like she was about to tell him off for that comment, but Kukui's laughter stopped her. Kukui crossed his arms and sighed. "Well, someone's grumpy. I guess that's to be expected after a long trip, yeah? You feelin' any jet lag there, cousin?"
"Yeah, I was just sleeping, actually…" Reuben said, caring very little if he was hiding his annoyance properly. "I'd love to get back to that, ya know? So… why am I here, exactly?"
His mother winced. He was expecting her to tell him off for being rude, but instead, she sounded apoplectic. 'This can't bode well.' Reuben gulped.
"Well, Reuben… there's something I forgot to mention to you on the plane." She nervously avoided eye contact with him, which was never a good sign.
Reuben's mind reeled, but he kept his facial expression decidedly neutral. "Well, whatever it is, I'm sure it can't be that bad!"
"Nothing so dramatic," Kukui cut in, "you've been signed up for the Island Challenge, yeah!"
The room became silent in that instance. Reuben's mother let out the sort of sigh that a person makes when they've had a bad day and they realise that their entire week was going to follow suit.
Reuben's eye twitched. "Oh, really? What's the Island Challenge?"
Kukui's eyes shone with pride. "It's a rite of passage here in Alola! Boys and girls from the age of eleven set forth on an adventure across all fours islands of Alola, taking part in eight trials and facing off against the island kahunas, oh yeah!"
Reuben blinked, and his mind went into overdrive. 'I have got to think of a way out of this…'
"Oh, that sounds cool," Reuben said with an incredibly fake smile on his face, "but… I wouldn't want to impose on your cultural traditions."
Out the corner of his eye, he noticed his mother giving him a coy smile while shaking her. That usually meant. "Good argument, but that's not gonna fly."
True to his mother's implied words, Kukui was undeterred. "Hey, don't worry about it cousin. All are welcome to take part in the challenge, regardless of their backgrounds."
Reuben nervously chuckled. "Well, that's a nice thought and all, but I… oh, I wouldn't want to offend anyone by… uh, not knowing the customs?" The boy quickly thought about an example. "I mean, what even is a kahuna? They kakuna enthusiasts or something?" He nervously chuckled.
Unfortunately, Kukui laughed as well. "Good one! But nah, the kahunas are these super strong trainers from every island, totally unbeatable for guys like us, that sort of act as community leaders. They're chosen by the guardian deities."
At that, Reuben's eyes widened in surprise. "You guys believe in the lake guardians?"
Kukui was confused for a moment, before letting out a chuckle. "Huh, that's funny. No, a different set of guardians. And see? A misunderstanding that didn't go bad, yeah?"
'He's freaking got me.' Reuben clicked his tongue. 'I don't like you…'
"You shouldn't worry too much about those sorts of issues, Reuben." His mother said with an uncomfortable smile. "I… already have that covered."
The boy turned his head in confusion. What could that mean?
Kukui reached into one of the deep pockets on the outside of his lab coat, searched around for a moment, before pulling out an orange device. It had a large screen that resembled a tablet, but its shape was quite odd.
"That shade of orange is familiar…" Reuben murmured absent-mindedly.
"This a very special pokédex." Kukui held it out for the boy to take. Reuben reluctantly took the device. "It has all the normal functions of a pokédex, but… when it's truly activated? Then it'll show you its hidden power, yeah!"
Reuben cringed. "Okay, and how exactly do we 'truly' activate it?"
"Well, funny story…" Kukui chuckled nervously, "it was designed to interface with a rotom, and I did have a rotom lined up for it, but it disappeared this morning."
Reuben blinked, trying to keep his expression the same level of discomfort that it had been up until that point. The truth of the matter was that that information was mildly unsettling to him. 'A special pokédex designed to be used by a rotom, and earlier I think I saw a rotom in my laptop. That can't possibly be a coincidence.'
"Hey don't worry, I'm sure the rotom will turn up shortly. Keep that pokédex though, it can still be used to scan pokémon and gain a deeper insight, ya feel me?"
The boy blinked. "Okay."
Kukui nodded and turned back to the boy's mother. "So, yeah, tomorrow just head up the mountain and you'll get to Iki Town. Might wanna bring your meowth along, wouldn't want to cornered by wild pokémon in the tall grass, ya know?" Kukui smiled, and with that, he left their house.
Mother and son waited until half a minute after the scientist left before moving.
"Now listen, I know what you're gonna say-" His mother began, but Reuben cut her off.
"You woke me up for this?" He looked at her in disbelief. "Don't get me wrong, I am upset. If I didn't want to be a trainer in Sinnoh, what makes you think I'd want to do it now? But you know what? I'm still more tired than upset. So this… emotional argument? Let's postpone it until I've either had more sleep or am more awake."
Despite the situation, the mother laughed. "You know that's how emotions work. Mesprit waits for no one."
"They'll wait for me…" The boy mumbled, turning around and heading back towards his room.
He closed the door behind him and proceeded to pinch the bridge of his nose and sigh. He was now looking at an unfortunate situation, and he had to figure out the correct response. Fun times to be had by all.
Reuben was pulled out of his desperate thoughts when pink light cast the room in shadows. The boy looked around, stunned. It had been so bright in the room when he'd left, so what had happened to make it so dark? From what he could see, all the curtains were pulled down and the lights were off.
The boy turned to the source of the light; the rotom from before was once again in his laptop, but now the haunted device was floating in the middle of the room, glaring at him.
Reuben gulped. "What can I do for you, fine sir or madam?"
The rotom opened a notepad on the laptop's screen, and words appeared.
Did you tell Kukui I was here?
"Well, that confirms it," Reuben said tiredly, "you're the rotom that 'disappeared', aren't you? Don't worry, I didn't mention you. Honestly, I thought I was dreaming earlier."
The rotom stared at him for a moment, shifting around in the air so that it could do it at different angles. After a moment's consideration, the rotom's hostile expression fell, and instead it just looked unbelievably relieved.
"I take it you don't care for him either?" Reuben asked while stepping over to the bed to sit down. "I mean, I'm a hostile guy when I'm tired, but Kukui's the sort of person that I'd avoid year-round, ya know?"
The haunted laptop rotated in the air in a way that vaguely looked like nodding. The guy's like a sugar rush personified, and it is unbearable.
"Trust me, I see what you're talking about," the boy yawned, "so, what were you doing with him, anyways?"
He's obsessed with how moves work, and rotom have this thing where we learn new moves based on what sort of machines we are inhabiting. I've been in his lab for two weeks. The rotom's eyes started to glitch out, which Reuben saw as similar to one of his own eye twitches. He had this special device, designed for rotom to use. I tried to hold out for the day that he'd let me have it, but I couldn't deal with him anymore. I had to leave…
Reuben held up the oddly shaped pokédex. "Are you talking about this?"
The rotom stared at the device for a moment. Reuben blinked, and the next thing he saw was the laptop screen freaking out, showing every colour of the rainbow. The way that the pokémon's pink electricity excitedly danced around the laptop resembled a star to Reuben's mind.
'What a reaction…' Reuben thought, casually glancing from the strange device to the pokémon and back again. 'And I doubt I'll be able to use it for anything…'
"I'll make you a deal, you can have this-" Reuben waved the device, "but only if you leave my laptop without damaging it. We got a deal?"
The rotom quickly lowered itself to the floor, landing softly so as to not damage the laptop. Then the rotom separated from the machine, peeling away its electricity and orange colour like a second skin. It took a second, but the rotom's body reformed, becoming what Reuben considered to be a standard rotom. A small orange sphere with two large expressive eyes and a point at the top of its head. The electricity that surrounded it had changed from pink to the standard cyan.
The rotom didn't waste time; it flew over to the pokédex in the blink of an eye. The pokédex made some sparking sounds before the screen flashed on. In that moment, the device's design started to make sense to Reuben. The screen was shaped to include rotom's eyes. The rotom's grin was also visible.
The rotom flew out of Reuben's grip and floated around in a small circle.
"Whoa! This feels incredible!" The rotom yelled excitedly. Its voice sounded artificial. It replicated inflections and was backed by the sound of static electricity.
Reuben blinked. Thrice, in fact. "Did you just speak?"
The possessed pokédex turned to the boy with a bright smile on its screen. "Yes, indeed I did. This pokédex has a built-in speech synthesiser specially designed to interface a rotom's unique electrical signature. It was programmed by a joint group of scientists and engineers from Hoenn and Kalos."
"Well, that was quite the info dump," Reuben said, turning his head to the side in confusion. "How do you even know that?"
The synthetic voice crackled and the eyes flashed from blue to white, almost like the rotom had blinked. "Ah! Sorry about that. When a rotom enters a machine, we gain a holistic understanding of how that machine works. When it's something simple, such as an electric oven, it helps us understand our new body's limitations and how to move." The rotom gestured to the pokédex it was inhabiting with two plastic arms that seemed to appear out of nowhere from the pokédex's sides. "In the case of this fabulous device, I also gain the understanding for every application, function or file. It's not a perfect understanding, but it's still quite a lot of data."
"Right, that makes sense I suppose." Reuben nodded. "Well, I'm glad for you. Good night."
Reuben yawned, stretched and lied down on the bed.
The rotom's grin flipped upside down. "Are you sure about that? It's currently… 6:19 in the morning, and you already slept for more than ten hours earlier. Your sleep cycle will end up massively off."
"I appreciate your concern, but I had the misfortune of speaking with Kukui earlier. I was already done with today, but now I simply refuse to remain conscious any longer."
The pokédex mimicked a nod. "Ah, I completely understand. I'll let you sleep. I'll be sticking around until you wake up, I kinda wanna ask you some stuff, okay?"
The tired boy lazily nodded. "Sure, whatever. Feel free to explore the house, say hi to mom and Coins."
"Hmm," the rotom hummed. "I might just do that."
The electric pokémon waited for a response, but upon closer inspection, the boy had already fallen asleep.
The rotom blinked. "Jeez, that was fast."
The sentient pokédex decided to leave the boy to his rest, and explore the house while he waited.
Yes, this is the third Pokémon story I'm starting. No, I don't have the time to write three stories, but I'm doing it anyway.
The inspiration for this story came from my current playthrough of Ultra Sun, where I decided to give myself a rotom egg to replace my starter early on. I thought it would make for an interesting dynamic, so here we are. I didn't think that was enough to base a story on, so I decided to also work on my world building... for better or worse.
That's why Reuben is from Sinnoh. That region has a lot of in-universe lore and some good potential for expansion. So, culture clash at some point down the line?
Please feel free to leave your thoughts on the story so far. By the way, don't be surprised if the name of this story changes, it's still a working title at the moment...