Guess What's In My Pokeball

In the world of Pokémon, there were devices that existed for the sole purpose of capturing these weird and wonderful creatures. These devices were known as Pokéballs; spherical objects of red and white. Like with many things, the technology used in creating Pokéballs developed as society made more and more technological advances.

The Pokéball was once reminiscent of a wind-up toy. The size of an overly-sized orange – a pretty vague description I know – the Pokeball required winding up via a mechanism on its surface in order to generate enough power to call forth the creature from within. This was impractical; not only for the trainer but for the Pokémon as well. One scenario in particular was thrown about as support to this claim: imagine, one day, your life was in jeopardy and you needed to call forth your Pokémon for protection. You wouldn't be able to say "hang on a minute mate, I need to generate some power!". After all, life was not like a fighting cartoon where the villain lets the hero charge his power beyond the level of a certain four digit number and you wouldn't have time to go all "I have the power" on it.

Sensing that legal action could be taken against them due to the flaws in their product, the manufacturers of the Pokéball hid themselves away and worked tirelessly to create the new Pokéball.

This new Pokéball did not require winding-up to work. With their own seemingly limitless supply of power, the new ball could be used in an instant. But they did not stop there. They went further and created more advanced and more powerful variations, known as the Great Ball, the Ultra Ball and even the elusive Master Ball. But again, they did not stop there. In amongst fears from extreme Pokémon lovers everywhere, manufacturers came up with the idea to create Pokeballs that became stronger depending on whether or not certain conditions were met. For any Pokémon catching lover, the technology truly was revolutionary.

An example of such a Ball would be the Dusk Ball, designed for catching Pokémon in dark places. There was the Heavy Ball, designed to catch Pokémon of an extreme weight. There were even Balls deigned to catch Pokémon of a certain level, such as the Net Ball and, to a certain extent, the Level Ball.

There was perhaps one downside to those type of Pokéballs. Due to their nature of only being able to work effectively under certain conditions, the design of each Ball was unique in order for people to be able to distinguish them from each other. Many wondered how a bunch of pretty patterns could be so bad; other than the possibility of them being ugly and harmful to their retinas. But the average person did not think like the seasoned trainers did. It was inevitable that trainers would begin to memorise the design of each ball and subsequently recognise what type of Ball it was. If used correctly, knowing the designs off by heart meant that trainers were able to gain a competitive edge. They would be able to predict what sort of Pokémon the opposing trainer had. Ergo, they were able to plan in advanced.

Conversely, the more cunning trainers were able to use that to their own advantage.

Ethan was probably not the most cunning of trainers out there and really did not care what Pokéball he used to catch his Pokémon, just so long as he got them in the end. He didn't even want to catch a lot of Pokémon, because unlike those simulation games it was not possible to leave over a hundred Pokémon lying about unattended. It was also impossible for his local Professor to care for his hundred Pokémon and someone else's hundred Pokémon and so on. All that stuff the professors told new trainers about catching loads of Pokémon was, putting it bluntly, a load of bullshit.

Moving on, Ethan had found himself, inadvertently, in a battle where both strategies concerning the new Pokéballs were prevalent.

As both trainers readied their Pokéballs, Ethan's opponent, a common day Pokémon Nerd, suddenly grinned widely. He hopped up and down on the spot, doing some form of happy dance. Mind you, tt was not as good as the guy in the last chapter.

"What's with you?" Ethan questioned, thoroughly freaked by the act of jolliness.

"I know what Pokémon you're going to use, hehe!" the nerd gloated, adding the stereotypical nerdy laugh for good measure. Ethan unconsciously moved a step back. Nerds really were rather weird.

"Oh yeah? So what Pokémon will I send out?" the young trainer challenged.

"You're using a Lure Ball. So therefore, your Pokémon will be a water-type!" the nerd yelled with absolute confidence. In his mind, he was imagining an audience gasping in shock and saying things like "how did he know that?" and "wow that guy's incredible!". In reality, all he got was an incredulous stare from any passer-bys unfortunate enough to witness such a thing.

Ethan suddenly smirked. Inwardly, he was laughing. This nerd was in for a surprise.

"See for yourself," Ethan said. He threw the Lure Ball out to the field, "Go!"

The ball snapped open and from within, wrapped in a bright white light, emerged a long snake like creature. The nerd was barely able to contain his glee about the fact that he was right with his assumption. In his mind, the music from the "Who's That Pokémon?" segment from his favourite television series was playing.

"It's Gyarados!" the nerd exclaimed.

The bright white light surrounding the Pokémon dispersed, revealing its identity; a long, segmented, shiny body. A large head, with a huge mouth and a fairly evil looking grin...

"No, it's Steelix!" Ethan revealed.

"God-dammit!"

The nerd had not anticipated this. Not by a long shot. In the space of a few seconds, his battle plan was shattered to tiny pieces.

"So then, what Pokémon will you use?" Ethan asked the nerd. The nerd gulped nervously and reluctantly threw his Pokeball onto the field. From within, another Pokéball appeared- sorry, I meant a Voltorb appeared.

Ethan laughed at the nerds misfortune. This battle was a no contest and what was more amusing was the fact that the nerd thought he had everything planned out.

Seeing the behemoth, Voltorb did the only thing it was remotely good at that would work in this situation: it blew itself up. The resulting explosion was pitiful. Just like the nerds predicament, really.


Another piece inspired by something that happened on my Soul Silver. I wanted a Steelix for my in-game team and so I went and caught an Onix. The weird thing was that it wasn't a Pokeball that caught it, or even a Great Ball. What caught Onix in the end was a Lure Ball. The Pokéball designed for catching Pokémon you've caught on your fishing line. Last time I checked, you couldn't find Onix in the ocean...

It got me thinking one day. I'm sure there are people who can recognise every Pokeball just be looking at it. So with that in mind, what would happen if what came out wasn't quite what they were expecting?

This one-shot was my attempt at answering that question. If you was expecting a water-type, but got a Steelix instead then I image you'd be pretty shocked as well.


A/N: Again, I thank you kindly for the positive reviews and for the words of advice as well. If you have any further suggestions then please do not hesitate to tell me. The next one-shot should be up either tomorrow or the day after, depending on how lazy I'm feeling (it is the weekend, after all). Until then. See you later!