WARNINGS: Inner thoughts, big damn battles, and first tests.
Journal Entry
"Do you think they'll be mad?" Atticus asked me for what felt like the hundredth time in the past twenty minutes.
"That other guy Ryan? Nope. But the fucker probably will be." I sighed, mentally preparing myself for the doom of being told off by Nate. Though, I still think he overreacted just a tad. I mean, it wasn't my fault that we were separated, which caused me to bump into Atticus and for my Xtransceiver to turn off in the collision, which propelled the both of us into the Battle Company and us nearly destroying a floor—oh shit, they're coming!
Two guys were walking through the crowd towards the Battle Company building. One was a boy with short black hair with a white t-shirt and baggy kaki cargo pants with a bunch of noticeable pockets. He also had a green sweatshirt tied around his waist. Beside him was Nate. As they got closer and less blurry I realized the guy was Ryan, since he had the same face as the person I saw on the Xtransceiver who had been standing next to Nate.
"Hey! That you, Atticus?" the guy called out, lifting his hand in a wave.
Atticus smiled and waved back. "Yeah! We're over here!"
The two of them walked over, Nate with his arms crossed staring pointedly at me. I gave a weak smile. "Ah, I'm sorry that my Xtransceiver was turned off. I didn't mean for that to happen."
"Yeah. And I'm sorry I didn't come back to the Base, Ryan. Things happened and I didn't want to bring someone who wasn't one of us to it," Atticus said.
"That was good thinking, Atticus, but you still should have contacted me when it happened," the Agent replied. "You and I know what potential you have, but you're still in training."
Atticus looked down, bringing the brim of his hat down of his eyes in shame. "Hey, I was with him the whole time, so it would've been a bit hard for him to contact you discreetly if I was right next to him," I spoke up.
"And be grateful you did 'bump' into him," Nate replied, continuing his pointed gaze. "Do you know how much trouble you could have gotten into if Atticus hadn't bumped into you?"
"Uh…"
"That what I thought." Nate sighed, shaking his head, muttering something that sounded like 'moron' under his breath. "Like I keep reminding you, this isn't a game. It's just as real as our world, and you could easily be kidnapped or killed. Understand?"
I nodded, looking down feeling like a disobedient child. I know all of this, why does the stupid fucker keep treating me like a kid?
Just then, both Atticus and I had dual stomach rumbles. Ryan laughed good-naturedly. "Guess we can stop for a bite to eat before we head back to headquarters."
"Probably should," Nate said with a smirk. I scowled at them both while Atticus pulled his hat down further trying to cover his red face.
They think they're so tall… I grumbled in my mind, before Ryan walked over to pull Atticus's hat up.
"Let's go," the Agent said.
"Fine…"Atticus muttered in reply and we headed off to find food.
(~)
"Ah~" I sighed in satisfaction, patting my stomach as we walked down the street. "That was good~"
"I'm surprised that you actually tasted anything when you were shoving it down your gullet that fast," Nate said in his snark mode.
"Hey, I'm a growing girl. I need sustenance!" I replied, before turning to Atticus. "Why were you shaking so much when we went into the café?"
"N-n-no reason," Atticus stuttered. I cocked an eyebrow in confusion, but decided to let it go. "Uh, look! Up there!"
I looked up to see a fairly large building to the right side of the street. It wasn't as big or as grand looking as The Battle Company, but it wasn't shabby either. "Welcome to Game Freak Operations: Unova Branch!" Ryan announced.
"You've been practicing that?" Atticus teased, before squawking at the hand pulling the front of his hat down.
"Always have a good introduction," Ryan replied. "Now come inside."
We entered into a lobby area where there was a front desk with a woman glued to the computer screen and a little girl chatting a mile a minute with a silent looking boy. When the girl noticed us she waved and ran over. "Ry-Ry! Attie!"
Both boys smiled and Ryan picked the girl up when she jumped into his arms. "Hey Kimiko, do you know where our boss is?"
"June's playing with Daddy right now!" the girl chirped, before turning her head to me. "Oh! Oh! Pretty trainer lady!"
I smiled back at the girl. "Hi, my name's Celeste. Nice to meet you Kimiko—" I had to brace myself as the little girl burst from Ryan's arms and tackled me around my waist. she looked up at me with shiny eyes.
"Kimiko don't get to see trainer ladies a lot. Daddy's friends are mostly furry and cranky 'cause they don't have coffee. Kimiko was really happy when Junie, Ry-Ry, and Attie came, but now Kimiko is extra happy since more people here!"
I tried to hear every word she said, but man, that girl was a motor mouth! Arms unwound from my waist as Kimiko took something from her pocket. It was a picture of some type of small black fox with a red burst of hair on the top of its head and blue eyes. "This is a picture of my most favorite Pokémon ever. Its name is Zorua, and it can become something else by using its illusions. Have you seen one?"
I rubbed the back of my head. "I'm sorry, can't say I have…"
"Awwwwwhhh." The girl pouted. "It's alright, Kimiko just hafta keep trying to talk too that boy!" Kimiko skipped back over to the silent boy, who kept staring off into space with a sad look on his face. I felt a sweat drop form as I watched the energetic child start running her mouth again.
"That's Morimoto's daughter, Kimiko. She was actually born in Sinnoh, but transferred to the Game Freak headquarters here with her father once we found a suitable set up," Atticus explained to me.
"I see," I replied. Does that mean this Morimoto guy married a woman from this world? I thought, wondering if his daughter knew her father was from a completely different world…
"Well, now that we know where June is, might as well head up to the battlefield," Nate said, walking to the elevator and pressing a button. We entered the elevator and the lady smiled and waved at us.
"What floor?"
"Five please, Mary," Atticus replied.
"Right, Mr. Atticus," the woman nodded and
pressed a button, the doors closed and we traveled a couple of floors up, but instead of an glass window it was enclosed with strange paneling and no handle bars. I thought it was odd but before I could ask the elevator opened with a ding! And we walked out to the center of an incredible battle.
I'm completely and fully serious about this, the battle I witnessed was…was probably one of the most amazing battles I've seen. On one side was a man with a black hat partially covering his face and a belted black trench coat. He had a type of horse covered in lightning bolts with narrowed electric blue eyes that rutted its hooves into the dirt every time it prepared for a charge. On the other side was a boy with straight black hair and a smirk on his face, his long coat flapping behind him at the force of the attacks. In front of him was a Pokémon that had a skinny white and lavender body with a narrow face and small, triangle-shaped ears. It had a long, lavender tipped tail that flicked back and forth like a whip and its arms were covered in long, sleeve-like appendages. It went back and forth, back and forth, until the boy yelled his final attack.
"High Jump Kick!" Sleeves jumped high into the air, before lifting its leg and started to come crashing down.
"Wild Charge!" the man ordered, and the horse rushed forward to meet Sleeves. The two collided, one from the air and one from the ground. The force caused dust and dirt from the battlefield to billow out from the force of the attacks, and I had to shield my eyes from the whiplash. When the wind stopped moving, I uncovered them to look at the battered Sleeves on the ground with its leg bent at a weird angle and the horse on his hind legs letting out a neigh!
"Mienshao is unable to battle. The victory goes to Morimoto and his Zebstrika," an announcement box said in a robotic voice. The boy walked over to his fallen Pokémon, whispered something in its ear that made them both wear twin smirks before the boy returned it back into its Poké Ball. He then got back up and dusted himself off before turning to the man, who walked over and clasped him on the back, chuckling.
"That was a great show, son. You nearly got me there!" the man, Morimoto, said.
"Just wait, one day we'll get you," the boy said with a laugh.
"We'll see." The man then turned and noticed our little party, who were still looking at them in awe. "Oh, it appears we had onlookers."
The boy turned his head, zeroing on me with dark brown eyes that narrowed when he smiled at me. I felt a shock go up my spine. Woah, I thought, mentally making sure I hadn't pissed my pants.
"I see," the boy replied, before jumping off the battlefield high rise, his hands in his pockets and swaying in place for a moment. "Hello, Celeste. Welcome to Game Freak's headquarters. Or, as Agents refer to it, the Castelia Base."
I decided not to ask how he knew my name. I learned already that when people knew your name, it's just a waste of time asking how they knew it. Plus, the guy reminded me of a certain info broker from a certain anime that 'kinda' made me wanna run the hell outa there. I nodded and attempted to smile.
"It was a pleasure to watch the two of you battle. I mean…wow," I said, still feeling breathless from just watching it.
"It's nice to know you appreciate the battle," Morimoto said, before turning to the others. "Is my daughter still running around in the lobby?"
"Last time we checked sir," Ryan replied. The man sighed with a smile.
"Guess I better go catch Kimiko and get her some dinner. Ja mata nee." Morimoto waved, before walking away from us and into the elevator.
"Uh…back at ya," I replied, confused.
The boy smiled again at me. "It's a form of goodbye in Japanese, kind of like 'see you later.'" Then he turned to others. "I see that you've come back with Atticus as well. So they were together?"
Nate nodded. "You were so bored with waiting that you had a battle with a game designer?"
The boy shrugged. "Morimoto is actually a fairly good battler. Guess he has some free time to be so since the game has been finished. They're taking a sabbatical before starting on the next game."
"So, they really create the games here?" I asked.
"Yup!" Atticus chirped. "Well, this is one of the places that they have to work on the games…"
"How about we give you a tour before showing you to the Agent living quarters?" the boy cut Atticus off. I nodded vigorously. There wasn't just a battlefield on this floor, but a bunch of other machines and technology that looked very expensive…but very tempting.
"Follow me." The boy made a beckoning movement with his hand as he walked down to the other gadgets. I quickly followed, not knowing that would soon be a choice I'd regret.
(~)
"So…cool!" I was having the time of my life trying out all the machines and seeing how they worked. I picked up a tray of sweets wrapped in green paper. "Are these Rare Candies?"
"They're a special type that we've been working on. It is supposed to have a bit more…oomph than regular Rare Candies, good if you want to power of a Pokémon in a tight spot. But only one should ever be used…"We walked to a high mechanic archway that felt very familiar to me.
"Is this a gate?"
"Correct. But this one isn't set to transport someone to another city or region…" Ryan started.
"But to our world!" Atticus finished.
"Isn't it dangerous to have it out like that?" Nate said in a wary tone. "What if someone or something gets through by mistake?"
"We have security cameras and there is a mechanism to make sure that nothing gets in without our knowledge, trust me." I stared at the gate, but decided not to touch just in case I was bad luck for those things…
Near the end we came across an area a bit apart from the rest. It had some sort of circular launch pad thing with another hovering over it a ways up. Off to the side was some sort of control center that had a large screen built into its panel.
"What's this?"
"Ah." The boy smiled, walking over. "This machine is specialty made in the Orre Region. It is a type of battle simulator that helps trainers improve their skills and moves. Game Freak has also been using it to test out how different battles would occur in a controlled environment."
We walked up to the battle simulator and I looked at the interiors. Everything had white coverings with some gray wires going around as well. I walked up to the launch pad, bending down and touching it with my fingers, it was smooth and rubbery gray…
"Hey, what the hell are you—?"
The next thing I felt was being fully pushed onto the launch pad, the bright rings surrounding me before…black.
(~)
When I opened my eyes, I could see that the sky was no longer dark with clouds and skyscrapers piercing them, but a pure, un-cloudy blue. I groaned as I got to my feet, holding my face in my hands to cut myself off from the bright light when I heard a strange noise. That's weird, it almost sounded like people cheering…
But when the noise didn't stop, I uncovered my face and looked at my surroundings fully. I was surrounded all around by people in seats yelling and screaming more than a hundred feet high. The ground I was on was no longer tile but dirt, and as I looked across it there were long white lines drawn across it, creating a battlefield. On the other side was a boy that was possibly my around my age who seemed to be shouting something at me that I couldn't hear because of the roar of the crowd…
Then I felt something heavy in my hand. I looked down to see that it was a Poké Ball. I'm in some kind of battle stadium but the question is…?
"…How the hell did I get here?"
(~)
Normal POV
"You had to fucking push her in?" Nate said with evident fury in his tone. "May I ask why?"
"Calm down, Nate. You need to calm down," Ryan said.
"June did the same thing to me for my first training session," Atticus consoled, before turning to the boy who was now sitting in the control center, pressing buttons and turning a few dials. "But I would've expected he'd wait until tomorrow."
"No time like the present," the boy chirped in reply. "Ooh, let's set them both up with behemoth's first…"
"June." Nate walked over to the coat wearing boy, pulling the front of his shirt collar so he was eye to eye with the other black-haired teen. "Are there any negative effects to the battle simulator if you lose?"
"None, except she'll fail the test," June replied in a flippant tone as he smoothed the front of his shirt and settled back into his comfy seat, watching the screen as the CPU trainer unleashed their Pokémon and Celeste hesitantly followed. He zeroed in on the girl's face and saw her gulp a little before taking a battle stance. He had noticed that many different trainers had battle stances that they would take when battling with their Pokémon. It usually showed what person they were or how they were feeling. The brunette's battle stance seemed to have her feet placed firmly on the ground, on her right foot slightly forward and her back arched to have her leaning in with her arm slightly out ready to point and give a command. Firm, but shy. Interesting…
June leaned back in his seat to watch as the simulated battle unfolded.
"This'll be fun."
TO BE CONTINUED!
Yes, probably the shortest chapter to date, but I felt it would be better to leave the chapter off at a cliffhanger so the chapter wouldn't be so massive with all the simulator battles. (I plan to do three.)
Also, I'm pretty sure many of you are confused with Celeste's comparing of June to a certain info broker… If you don't know and want to, she's thinking about Izaya Orihara from the awesome anime Durarara!(I highly recommend it if you don't mind slightly confusing beginnings and multiple POVs.)
Another thing about the referenced Orre Region: if you have followed or bought a game of the Pokémon Colosseum franchise then you know about said region. The battle simulator is modeled after the one in XD Gale of Darkness.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Pokémon franchise or Durarara!
June-LastPrelude