Chapter 1
Gaia,
Present day,
6th day of 12th month
As the smoke began to clear, the shadowy figure of the enemy slowly became partially visible. The dust made my eyes water, the running had made me exhausted and panting for breath. I knew I couldn't wait too long; the dark silhouette of a tall monstrous beast had already begun to loom over me. It stood less than five metres away, presenting all its terrifying features as the smoke cleared. Two curved blades protruded from either side of its face, both the length of his head. However, those weren't the ones that would be cutting me up; his razor sharp claws and teeth would be doing that. The monster stood on its hind legs, with a long powerful tail supporting its weight and dragged behind as it walked towards me. My senses took hold of me at the last moment, saving me from my petrified state. I rolled out the way of a slash from the monster's claws and unleashed my trusted winged-beast companion from my last capturing capsule, as quickly as I could. I am a trainer, though just an apprentice, I still have monsters of my own and need not fear such obstacles. Pidgeotto, the name of the species my winged-beast belonged to, resembles that of a predator bird; large wings, long talons and sharp beak, but with a much bigger overall size. A screech was made by Pidgeotto as she was released, which stopped the opposing monster in its track. Such a pause does not often last long, so instinctively I commanded my Pidgeotto to take me into the air just before jumping on her back. She flew metres upwards in a matter of seconds, and just as a feeling of safety almost emerged, a searing blue flame scorched through the sky making a direct hit through Pidgeotto's left wing and my left leg. As we plummeted, I managed to recall my defeated companion back to her capsule so that only one of us has to suffer the fall. When the impact hit my body, I yelled and whimpered in pain. The slow roll in agony made me turn to face the monster, walking in my direction with blue flames flowing out its mouth. I failed to scramble up from the ground, my whole body aching in pain and fatigue, only managing to keep shuffling away from him on my back.
The monster has caught up to me; it stands over me growling a low rumbling sound as he swings his claws back, readying to deliver the finishing blow.
"Stop, that's enough Haxorus" said a voice from afar, a voice which seems to have just saved me. It was a human voice of a man, the annoying voice, in fact, of my mentor and training professor. This was only my second week's training and already I feel like he's pushing me too extremely. A couple weeks ago I was bounding with joy at having the privilege to be apprenticed to the renowned Professor Salix, I have been told to be one of his final pupils before his retirement. The professor is as old as my grandfather, whom I live with, but has a mind no less sharp than any youth.
"What are you doing crawling all over the floor, lad? Come on, get up." He remarked as he recalled the monster back into its capsule. It still amazes me how such big creatures get converted into light, with a slight red tinge, and get stored in such small capsules. With the nightmare of a sight removed from my vicinity, I breathed a sigh of relief.
"What am I doing? You made fall from twelve feet off the ground!" I cried out, grimacing after as I exerted some pressure on my right arm that I fell on.
"And I hope you learn from it! Never in my forty years of mentoring have I seen such a reckless blunder," Salix said, before extending an arm to assist me to my feet "trainers do not engage with their creatures in any way during combat, except give clear direct commands." I got handed his walking stick, rather than being allowed to lean on his shoulders for support, my left leg still throbbing with pain from his monster's attack. "Your bird has enough trouble dodging attacks from its opposition without you adding your own weight onto her back, slowing down movement significantly." The professor continued, as he began walking to the training facility exit.
"What was the attack that thing used to bring us down?" I asked.
"Haxorus, is how you shall address him in the future, had used a Dragon Pulse attack. Although he is more physically offensive, I had him learn such a move in order for him to cover long distan…" the rest of his long-winded speech failed to keep my attention, and my mind wandered to more interesting matters, like, I wonder if my parents are going to return this weekend? Isn't it almost the winter holidays? How badly is my arm broken?
"Jacob?" Professor Salix called out to me, as he turned his head to see if I was keeping up.
"Yes professor? Sorry, my right arm is just killing me right now…" and just as I spoke, I glimpsed the sight of a familiar figure enter through the doorway. A bulky, relatively humanoid, creature with four powerful arms and a wide mouth was approaching us; following behind it was my grandfather.
"Don't worry about it, Jacob. Machamp here will get you to the health centre in no time" Grandpa said, before going over to shake hands with Willow and engaging in conversation. He clearly understood how injuries often came with intensive training. Although Machamp was a foot shorter than me, him being 5 feet, he lifted me onto his back with ease. As much as I disliked being carried around, my throbbing leg left me little choice, when I got close to the elders my grandfather patted Machamp to stop.
"After the treatment of yourself and your beasts, fly home on Pidgeotto. I have some important things to tell you later." He said, piquing my curiosity.
"What is it? Is it about Mum and Dad?" I can already see it, another letter of notice from my parents waiting for me at home, giving some kind of excuse as to why they are busy at the trainer league this weekend. This would be the third week in a row.
"Don't worry about it," he replied "you'll see tonight."
Just as Machamp started to move again, the professor stopped him. "Your performance today was impressive overall today, Jacob. Despite some obvious mistakes, I saw that you experimented, pushed yourself and tried to keep in sync with your monsters. You deserve a good break this holiday, and try to at least revise some battle theory as well as finish that modern trainer history book I gave you. Lastly, continue to treat those five creatures you've managed to tame with care, take care of them and they'll be sure to take care of you. Seeing your last-minute withdrawal of Pidgeotto in combat earlier was a promising sign." And on that note, he began to wave me farewell.
"Wait, just one question professor," I called out, stopping a rather irritated Machamp once more in his tracks "I understand you like to do things in a traditional way, but Devon Corporation has now been merged with Silph Co. for almost 5 years now, shouldn't we start addressing all our 'tamed creatures' as Pokémon, like everybody else?"
My question seemed to put a slight frown onto my mentor's face, as he replied:
"As if a trainer's collection of tamed powerful beasts being addressed as pocket monsters was not diminishing their pride enough, a further abbreviation to Pokémon has been obnoxiously introduced. Are our vocabulary and title for the magnificent beasts that roam the land to be swayed and changed so easily just for the sake of some big corporation's commercial interests? They can call the new technology of capturing capsules 'Pokéballs' as much as they like, but the beings in which they contain deserve more respectable titles."
Although my mentor knows very well he is in the minority, his dedication to maintaining old traditions and his loyalty to those creatures that have served him throughout the years is admirable, and inspirational to those around him.
After being carried to the health centre, the staff assigned me to a room and began treatment rather promptly. The whole facility was crowding with Chansey and Blissey creatures; both were a very oval egg shaped species with light pink complexions. These species have been known to possess strong healing abilities, and have been used and distributed over most health centres in the region, with all of them even being issued nursing uniform! Before being put to sleep, I reflected on what Professor Salix said earlier, I realised that society always adapts so quickly to the changes Silph Co. makes. Nowadays most markets providing trainer gear are Pokémart, and even these very health centres are funded by Devon Corporation. My last thought before my sleep inducing drug was about just how much power one manufacturing company can have.
"Broken right arm with multiple fragmentation, flame burns on left leg and heavy bruising across multiple areas of body." Was Nurse Joy's injury assessment, which she told to me as soon as I woke up, "Come on, Jacob, your mother told me to look out for you when she went off to the League, and as her best friend I promised. What would she have done if she saw the state you were in?"
"No it's alright Nurse Joy; I was just training with the Professor." I tried to explain
"So that makes it alright? I am seriously going to have a word with Salix…" before I could argue she continued, "Just be careful in the future, the Blisseys had a tough time with your arm today. Try to not strain it any time soon, at the risk of permanent damage."
I thanked her for the help before taking my leave, it was dark outside by the time I left and also pouring with heavy rain. The weather meant I couldn't fly on back home, I found that actually quite lucky since I was still rather traumatised by the events a few hours ago. I was fortunate enough to borrow an umbrella from the centre, but still ended up needing the assistance of my metallic Pokémon, Bronzor, to help shield me from the rain drifting sideways as winds turned to gale. Bronzor is a blue metallic being, with enough psychic energy within him to allow levitation; the rain meant nothing to his strong alloyed coating. After twenty minutes of walking in near darkness, under weak flickering street lights, I finally arrived at the entrance gates to a woodland park that signalled the close proximity of my house. Eventually I was even out of the assistance of street lighting, and had only the moonlight to see by. Lightning occasionally laminated the surrounding with flashes of white light. I considered using my Charmeleon, as the end of his tail always produced a fine flame, but being a fire elemental I knew he would hate this storm and would not last very long. Charmeleon was the first Pokémon I ever had as a trainer, given to me by my parents to start my trainer apprenticeship, thinking of him reminded me of how much I crave the warmth of fire and increased my pace to that of a jog. The route through the park was not very wide and surrounded by woodland vegetation. I jogged with my eyes looking down at the path but when I briefly raised my eyes to look forward, I was momentarily shocked beyond measure. A human figure seemed to be sitting on park bench, roughly ten metres from where I halted. I walk cautiously forward and begin notice more of his features, confirming more in my mind that something didn't seem right about the scenario. The rain blurred my vision, and the darkness made seeing a struggle, but when I was close enough some noticeable features stood out.
He had a figure of a normal man, but was as dark as a shadow from head to toe even when metres away. His eyes glowed white, staring forward as he sat poised in a perfectly upright position, as if the storm had no effect on him. The only moving part of him was the long, large red scarf around his neck which, too, seemed luminous. Less than a dozen steps away, his head slowly turned towards me. I braced, hand already holding a capturing capsule in my pocket; well aware of Bronzor at my side, I had him take a defensive stance.
There was just something emitting from his presence that screamed a warning to my senses. I was rationally confused at why I treated a mere head-turn in such a hostile fashion, but with a strong inner sense of feeling that what was before me was not human. I stared at him, waiting for something to happen.
I do you no harm
A voice suddenly spoke inside my head, an unrecognisable voice whispering:
I do you no harm
I began to panic; my heart was now thumping in my chest. I staggered backwards and with my body almost trembling, every spark of willpower to fight vanished from body as soon as the whispering began. It felt like someone I couldn't see was always either side of me whispering in my ears, but I knew it was him, as I looked at him I saw him just staring back at me. Pitch black darkness then encompassed around his body, it kept spreading towards my direction, until my whole visible world was dark.