Chapter Two
Learning the Nature of this World
"Well, this is certainly most interesting, Holmes." I said, having learned what was going on from Prof. Larch. The house was a hideous mess, though, with boxes and books lying everywhere in no pattern at all. I was surprised he could find his way around at all.
"Indeed it is, Watson. Hello, what is this?"
Holmes was referring to a strange device, a sphere that was half-red and half-white. A metal band was splitting the two colors at the equator, and had a button attached to it.
"What is this, Professor Larch?"
He was, however, preoccupied in some sort of experiment.
"Hello?"
"What?" He turned around, dropping a beaker. "Oops. Uh, don't step on that. What was the question?"
"What is this device?"
"Oh, that! That is a Pokeball."
"How many words are you going to make up today, Professor?"
"None. Allow me to explain its function. If you press that button, it can digitize any creature and store it in an artificial universe."
"Incredible!" I exclaimed.
"This particular one contains a very special, very rare specimen. It took me three months to track down and capture."
"What is it?"
"It is a…" He was interrupted by a ringing noise coming from his shirt pocket.
"Sorry, my phone." He pulled a metallic blue object from his pocket, and flipped it open.
"Hello? Hello? Wrong number." He closed the device, and replaced it inside his pocket.
"What on earth was that device?" I asked, bewildered.
"A cellular phone. It allows me to communicate with anybody else that has one."
"Fascinating."
"Anyway, about the specimen. I was saying it is a…" The device rang again, interrupting him.
"Damned thing!" He opened the device again, and asked who it was.
"Chris Brady? I don't know any Chris Brady. Go away. What do you mean, listen to you?"
He stopped talking, and listened to whatever Chris was saying on the other end.
"Really." He closed the phone, and replaced it again. "Come with me. The specimen will have to wait."
He ran outside, and, not knowing what else to do, we did as well.
"Well, now what?" Asked Holmes.
"I don't know, he only said a surprise would be waiting for me outside."
We waited for a few minutes, before Holmes noticed something in a tree on the opposite side of the street from us.
"What is that…get down!" He yelled, pulling us to the ground. A single shot rang out, blasting a hole in Larch's door.
"Good lord, we're being shot at!" Cried Larch.
"Somebody get him!" I shouted. A man walking by looked in the tree, but could see nothing.
"Wait!" Shouted the professor, in an Archimedean moment of brilliance. "Just on the news last night, I remember it now! A man named Chris Brady was arrested for murder and robbery and that sort of thing!"
"You couldn't have remembered that before we nearly got our heads blown off, could you?" Said Holmes, a sort of sarcastic anger in his voice.
"My fault, I'm somewhat absentminded. But the point is, who would want to shoot me?"
He opened the door, and walked back inside.
"Perhaps I should think on this. Whatever you do, do not touch that specimen! If it escapes, I would never forgive you or myself. Wait, of course!" He snapped his fingers. "If I am dead, they could steal the Shaymin!"
"The what?" I asked, bewildered.
"That is what the specimen is! It is very rare, very powerful, and very cute as well! It would be worth three fortunes." He looked around. "Do you think there is anybody watching us? No, no, that would be too obvious. Here, allow me to show you what is inside." He picked up the mysterious globe, and pressed the button. A bright red flash appeared on the ground, and a sort of grassy white hedgehog appeared from nowhere.
"That's it, this is a dream. This absolutely must be a dream. There is no other way." I was growing increasingly bewildered by the strange technology and creatures being displayed to me in this world, and had come to the conclusion that everything was a mere hallucination.
"I doubt it." Said the professor. "Anyway, this is a Shaymin."
"It seems a bit…small for something so supposedly powerful."
Indeed, the creature barely got up to my ankle, and thus I was doubtful of its supposed strength, or rarity. However, it was hard to argue it wasn't cute.
"Do not judge things solely by their appearance, Watson." Chastised Holmes. "It may contain some hidden power we do not know of."
"Indeed it does, Mr. Holmes. Here, watch, but step back about twenty paces."
We did such, wondering what was going on.
"Maria, use Seed Flare!"
The so-called "Shaymin" curled up slightly, and, as if it were a stick of dynamite, blew up.
"Good Lord, what have you done, Larch!"
"Wait for it…" he said, strangely calm after the horrific display.
The smoke cleared eventually, and we saw the creature on the floor completely intact, as if nothing had happened at all.
"What? How can this be?"
"That is precisely the reason somebody would want this. It's rare, it's cute, and it can do, well, that."
We stood around for a few moments, in awkward silence. Finally, Larch clasped his hands together, and said, "Well, today was certainly eventful! I'll go make dinner."
He walked away, undoubtedly towards the kitchen, and we waited.
"Well, he certainly seems nice, if a bit absentminded." I said.
"Indeed."
We were not expecting the kitchen to blow up, which it did.
"Good lord, a bomb!"
We ran to the kitchen, but saw Larch walk out alive, albeit his clothes tattered and body scorched.
"Remind me to never build a thermonuclear toaster oven again. Also, the area is probably radioactive, so we should probably leave."
He picked up his sort-of pets, in the strange device that he had showed us, and we all left.
"Well, I'll call HazMat, and we'll simply go out to eat, all right?"
Later, we had gone to a very high quality restaurant, and eating a hearty dinner of strange foods we had never tasted before, but enjoyed anyway. Toward the end of our outing, a strange, fat man in a labcoat similar to Larch's walked up to us, handed us a note, and promptly disappeared.
"What does it say, Holmes?"
" 'Though you may have defeated Chris Brady today, Mr. Larch, I will get your prize eventually. Beware.' "
"What does this mean?" I asked, disturbed by the threat.
"I do not know. But whoever this 'Chris Brady' person is, we must be careful."
