Previously:
You began your Pokemon journey! We learned a lot about you. You grew up in an orphanage, never knowing your parents. You're a troublemaker and no stranger to stealing to get by. Your most prized posession is a flute that people seem indifferent to, but Pokemon seem to react to. You just got your trainers license and visited the local pokelab. Unfortunately the truck delivering the new Pokemon (and the lab supplies) was stolen. You stole a wallet and 4 pokeballs from Professor Fir, and set off to catch your first Pokemon in an abandoned factory. Using your flute, you were able to calm Houndour down and catch you. You decided to name it Devon.
Status:
You have 3 Pokeballs left and a small amount of money you stole from Professor Fir, a backpack, a metal pipe, a flute, an old busted up Pokedex, and all the wits, grit, and experience a street urchin should have.
Pokemon:
Devon: A Houndour that likes your flute playing. It's currently asleep and in a pokeball.
It's you and Devon against the world!
You're currently in an abandoned factory. It's about mid-day. You've had a pretty interesting morning and now you have your very first Pokemon!
You decide to take Houndour- err, Devon, out of it's Pokeball. After a brief flash of light he appears in front of you. It slow begins waking up and checking out his surroundings. It cock's it's head to the side and looks at you, waiting.
You decide to introduce yourself. Might as well be polite and get off to a good start.
You put on a smile.
"Hi Devon! From today on, I'm going to be your trainer! I know we're going to get along just fine!" After the words leave your mouth, you remember all the cheery introductions you had to potential foster parents at the orphanage. Now you know how it feels to be on the opposite side of that. At least you're being sincere.
"My name is" You decide your name isn't important. What's important is that you raise this little guy...err...girl..Pokemon right!
As you're staring off into space pondering on this, you notice a small bit out movement through the window in the distance. The windows are filthy and half covered in wood, dust, and other obstructions. You can't tell much, it's just brown (maybe?) and small and fairly fast.
Might as well check it out. You hitch up your bag over your shoulder, pick up our pipe, and head outside to get a closer look.
Devon follows within a few paces and stares up at you the entire time. He looks a little funny, taking all those rapid steps and not looking where he's going.
You spot a small, brown, fluffy pokemon with 4 legs, large wide ears, and a poofy tail. It clearly seems upset and scared. You get the impression that it's lost. It's so upset that it hasn't noticed you yet.
You take out your Pokedex. Knowledge is power! You aim carefully and listen close to what it has to say.
"Tentacruel, the explosion Pokemon. Nidodoofs tend to hunt in packs of 20,000 volts, and spelunk out fresh stardust on Tuesdays. " The lights flicker slightly and it freezes up.
Somehow you don't think that was accurate. Before you have time to kick yourself about the missed chance to swipe that new model the other week, you see that it's noticed you and Devon.
Devon is starting at it, tail straight, legs low, eyes unmoving.
You decide to play the flute. It's been great all day, why mess with success? You begin playing a calming tune. It's one of your favorites, and always reminded you of a warm summer day.
Suddenly you see a lot of movement coming from the abandoned factory. As you're playing, a pack of levitating, metal spheres with magnets on their sides start slowly pouring out of the windows. They seem to be shooting small, harmless bits of electricity between themselves. They're heading towards you.
A young girl with fiery, bright red hair comes running from around the other side of the building. Even though you're decently small for your age, (thanks orphanage food), you still figure you're a little taller than her. She's yelling something, but with the noise of the flute and the static from the levitating Pokemon, it's hard to hear. The metal Pokemon turn around with a speedy aggressiveness and begin closing on her.
In the commotion, the fluffy brown Pokemon bolts for the woods.
You curse to yourself and turn to girl, who is backed into a corner. Every time she tries to step out, electricity explodes at her feet and she backs in further. They look pretty worked up.
There better be a reward for this. You figure you could easily swing your hardest with the pipe without worrying about causing serious injuries.
Your mind races for your next move.
"Devon! Attack!" You point dramatically at the swarm of floating electric balls. Wait, you know this one. Magna something, right?
Before you can finish that thought, Devon takes off after them like a bullet. He's fast. He leaps on the back on one and kicks, sending it flying into a wall, hard. As soon as he lands he spits a small firey ember at another one. It impacts with a loud TING as the orb spins out and hits the ground. The swarm turns on him. They look as angry as a metal floating ball can look.
You notice a wooden stick close by. Looks like it has some heft to it.
You realize you're supposed to be giving him orders.
You exchange the pipe for the branch. As the pipe hits the ground, it makes loud, hollow sounds.
A sudden burst of inspiration hits you harder than a bottle of stolen apicot wine. "Devon! Use Roar!"
Devon bounces away from the swarm and turns to face them. He digs his paws in deep and lets out a loud, terrifying roar. The flying orbs start hurrying away with haste, occasionally bumping into each other.
As you approach the girl and Devon, there's a sudden rustling behind you. The first Magna-thingy that Devon smashed into rises up from the grass. If you were any other person, you wouldn't have time to react, but you spent a lot of time on the streets, where being fast is everything. It's eye flies open as it regains it's senses. From this close, you can see your reflection in it.
You fish a pokeball from your pocket quickly. At this distance there's no throwing it. You thrust the pokeball right into it, but it's also pretty quick and manages to send a bolt of electricity right up your arm. You recoil at the pain.
But it wasn't enough. The pokemon vanishes in a flash of light and you hear that same sound that it made on Devon. The ball drops to the ground and wiggles once. Twice. thriceand clicks.
What are you going to name it?
You decide to call it Zappy Dan.
The small redhead shoots up. Her face turns the same shade as her hair. "What are you doing! Now Eevee got away!" Her skinny arms flail wildly. It would be comical if she weren't directing it at you.
"Excuse me? I just saved your punk ass!" You get right in her face. There's no verbal threat, but the body language makes it clear that you're not afraid to twist her scrawny butt into a pretzel. Your lean over slightly and glare right in her eyes.
"I-I-I'm sorry." She shrinks back, breaks eye contact, and looks at her feet. "Eevee is my Pokemon. He ran away and I have to catch him."
Part of your routine on meeting new people is to size them up. You can smell money on her. Not rich maybe, but upper-middle class. Nice clothes, designer bag, and the type of soft expressions that says she hasn't had to deal with being without.
"Why did he run away from you?" You ask.
She brushes her short skirt as she regains her composure. She looks a little relieved that you've taken a softer tone. "Eevee thought I was upset with him, but I'm not. I was think thinking about something else and I..." She pauses before continuing. "I guess I got a little upset and started acting out. Now Eevee ran away."
"Did you hurt him?" The thought fills you with a deep, consuming anger, but she fails to notice in her initial response.
"What? No! I'd never do anything like that!" She's offended. "How could you even sug-" She's suddenly very aware of the stick you're carrying around, and how Devon is mimicking your body language against her. Her tone softens "I'd never do that" she softly insists.
"W-Why were you carrying that pipe anyway? What are you doing out here?"
"We can talk about that later, we need to find Eevee." You grab her by the wrist and start running in the direction Eevee went.
She struggles to keep up. "You're really going to help me?" There's a mixture of relief, suspicion, and disbelief in her tone.
You'll see if Devon can track Eevee's scent, but first you want to establish where this is going. She's helpless without you.
"Yes. Come on, let's go!" You see relief wash over her faceand you suppress a smirk. This is going to be easy. You can play her like a fiddle.
You reach the spot where you lost sight of Eevee before he disappeared into the brush.
"Devon." The little houndour looks up at you. "See if you can track Eevee's scent." You look to the girl, and make a gesture with your hand for her to give you something. She looks confused for a moment, then with a sudden "Oh!" she produces a small collar with a bell.
"This is Eevee's collar. I took it off shortly before he ran away" she explains.
Devon smells it for a few moments, then picks a direction. Occasionally he stops to stick his nose in the ground, but he's going at a steady walking pace.
"That's a nice houndour. He has a nice tail" She looks at you nervously, trying to read your response.
She breaks the silence again. "I'm Robin, by the way."
"Robin." You state. She looks at you, expecting a follow up. "No. My name is Robin too" you say.
Her face lights up "Wow! What a coincidence!" Now she's smiling at you, trying to keep pace as you take up the main path and she struggles to get through all the small branches. "My dad named Robin after Red Robin, some sort of comic character or something. He likes red, he's a fire gym leader."
She's putty in your hands.
"Red Robin is kind of a stretch I guess, but my mom shot down all the other names he had. What do your parents do?"
Jeez. She's spilling her life story and expecting you to do the same. This better be worth it.
"I never knew my parents. I'm an orphan."
She looks at you for a second, from the expression she gives it seems like she wants to keep things cheerful. She looks like she's smart enough not to give you another of the thousand pity looks you get when you tell her that. "Oh. That's cool."
You glance at her.
"N-n-no! I don't mean it like that!" She puts her arms out defensively. "I just mean that I don't care!"
You stop walking and keep staring at her "I mean, I care, but it's not a big deal! Oh, this isn't coming out right."
You stop glaring and give her a smile that says it's fine. You get her meaning.
"So you still haven't told me the whole story with Eevee."
She stops fidgeting so much. "Yeah. Right. Well, I mentioned my dad is a fire gym leader, right? He's really into it. Obsessed, even. When I got Eevee, all he ever said was 'when are you going to evolve it into a flareon?'" She brushes aside a branch. "It was never even a discussion. It was just assumed. So I came to Novum to buy this." She takes a small red stone out of her pocket. "It's a fire stone. It can evolve Eevee into a flareon." She brushes a branch away, more aggressively. "But I didn't consider Eevee's feelings either. I just wanted to make Dad happy." She whacks a branch out of her face. "I took off Eevee's collar and told him it was time for him to grow up." Her voice fails for a second. "I never saw him so hurt. He ran away when he saw the stone."
"He's out here all alone." She turns to you, tears in her eyes." What did I do?"
She throws the stone.
You go pick up the stone. "Don't worry so much. We'll find Eevee and things will work out."
She practically bursts into to tears. She moves it hug you. You've never seen such a pathetic look on someone's face before.
You embrace the big crybaby. Even you're not that hard. You feel your chest becoming wet with her tears. Eventually she stops sobbing, and when she looks up, she says "It's getting dark."
It is getting dark. You've been in the woods plenty, and know that it's not a good place to wander at night.
You decide to setup camp. Robin meekly agrees.
You gather up some firewood and have Devon light a small campfire. You're no stranger to this.
Robin looks inexperienced, but she has a fancy tent in her pack and begins putting it together with ease. She's following the instructions perfectly.
"Devon was bred." she says as she's reading the instructions. You look over to her.
"Houndours are native to this region, but you can tell by his coat that his parents were definitely from Kalos. He's got to be bred from there."
She really knows her stuff.
"How do you know all that?"
She smiles proudly. "I'm an only child. Dad really wants me to lead his gym when he retires. I don't mean to brag, but I know pretty much everything there is to know about fire Pokemon." She finishes setting up her tent. It's small, but looks pretty sturdy.
Devon walks over to you. He looks pretty tired, but he's constantly looking to you like he's expecting something.
You smile, a little embarrassed. "Do you have any food in that bad?" You casually scratch Devon behind the ears, and he wags his tail.
Robin quickly opens up her bag and takes out some canned food and a can opener.
"Don't think I'll forget about you, Devon!" She takes out some poffins for him. "Eevee loves these. I hope you do too."
You take the poffins from her. Gently brushing against her hand while you do so.
She doesn't seem to notice. She's smiling at Devon as he sits down, eye's never leaving the food. You start feeding him and he eagerly takes the food as you give it to him.
Robin starts preparing the canned food. Before she opens them up, she reads the entire ingredient list and instructions. She nods to herself, satisfied, and heats it up. She seems like a bit of a nerd.
You finish feeding Devon and help yourself to one of the cans she prepared and lean against a log near the fire. It's nice and toasty on your feet. It's time to turn in for the night.
Crap. You don't have a tent. Or a sleeping bag.
Robin begins to realize this too. She laughs nervously. "You could sleep in my tent if you want. It'll be a little snug though."
You don't need her pity. Besides, you've done this before. Now you have an awesome fire Pokemon too.
"That's fine" you tell her. She shrugs and says "OK, stay warm!" She crawls into her tent.
The fire is still pretty toasty, and Devon makes an excellent, warm body pillow. He occasionally licks your face, but eventually settles down and begins to fall asleep.
You let yourself fall into the warm fuzzy darkness of unconsciousness.
Suddenly that comfortable feeling is ripped from your mind as your hear a muffled voice ask, "Robin?"
Ugh. "Yeah?"
"Do you think Eevee is warm?"
You let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sure he is. He looked like he had a lot of fur."
Beautiful silence invades the camp once more. You're eyelids drift closed, and begin to- "Robin?"
You keep your eyes shut in defiance. "What!"
There's a pause, then the muffled voice answers. "Thanks."
That's the last thing you remember as you're finally allowed to dream.
You dream about becoming a Pokemon master! Literally.
It's vague, but you're at the Pokemon League. You should out an attack, and your nebulous Pokemon carries it through beautifully, defeating your undefined enemy.
The crowd goes wild! They love you! You see signs in the crowd saying "we believe in you" and "Go Robin!" Wait, Robin isn't your name. It's- Your thought it cut short. Fans crowd all around. You're signing autographs left and right.
Then they start to bring down the trophy. It shines brightly in the sun. Huh, the people bringing it to are scantily clad. That doesn't seem right. The league must've hired swimsuit models for carrying the cup. Well, no complaints here. The accept the cup and a congratulatory kiss on the cheek from a hot guy on your left, hot babe on your right. Both lean in to kiss you on the cheek. You feel a little warm and fuzzy as you're squished between both of them.
Oh. They're not done yet. You get another peck from both of them. That tickles~. They're pressing in closer to you now. The kisses begin to become open mouth, and hands begin to roam. The crowd has completely faded away. All that exists is the three of you. You softly moan as the woman starts licking your neck. The man hands mans roam over your body as you feel him press against you from behind. Hard.
Your hands wander over them too. The man is licking the back of your neck now. That tickles so good. You shiver in delight and your eyes lazily roll around as you give in to the feeling. You're already losing control. The woman's wandering tongue starts creeping back up your body onto your face. Well, having your face licked isn't as good, but whatever.
She begins licking your nose. Again, this really isn't as good. Actually, it's getting a bit gross. She's slobbering a lot.
Your eyes burst open. Devon is slobbering all over your face! Ugh!
Wait, something is licking the back of your neck too.
You slowly begin to turn over. You're still a bit groggy, but as your brain shifts gears and gathers itself up from being a gooey puddle of hormones, you start to wander about what you're about to face.
You're body slowly shifts into position, you feel relief when you see it is indeed Eevee. He's staring at you. He seems to be waiting to see how you react.
You decide to try the flute.
"Hey buddy! You ruined an awesome dream. Yes you did" Your hands slowly reach into your pocket for the flute. "How ya been. Look, Robin understands she hurt you before so go easy on her okay? Wanna hear a song?"
Eevee doesn't react.
As you slowly wrestle the flute of your pocket, the fire stone also falls out.
Eevee leaps to all fours, takes a defensive stance, and bolts.
You take chase. You have plenty of practice running through obstacles. You're usually the one being chased though.
Still you're having a tough time keeping up. Eevee is just the slightest bit too fast, too nimble. On a better day you're sure you could catch him, but you're just not on your game this morning. You're a little uncoordinated, a little disheveled.
You keep running. You feel the air burn in your lungs, and branches scratch at you all over. Your clothes, already not the best, are not well suited for this. You're confident they won't be presentable after this, even by your standards. One branch hits your right on your arm where Zappy Dan got you. It stings like hell.
Your perseverance pays off though. You're just barely closing in. Your burst through the bush and find Eevee cornered at the end of a cliff overlooking a river.
You explain to Eevee, between breaths, that Robin regrets what she did, and she won't force him to do anything he won't want to.
Eevee looks at the cliff, and back at you. He seems undecided.
You tell him how she cried yesterday. She even roped you until helping to find him.
Eevee slowly approaches and gets close enough to smell you. You realize that even after all that, there are still some tear stains on your shirt. Eevee decides he believes you and leaps into your arms.
"Come on. Let's get you back."
And that's the end of the second thread. It's really interesting to go back and see how Gobble started out and evolved as a writer.
