Chapter 1: A Storm at Sea
It was a stormy night, on a cliff of the western part of a continent recently named the Grass Continent. Its heavy rain poured down on the world from its menacing dark grey clouds. Lightning would occasionally strike down in the flashiest fashion, so flashy it would, for an instance, give the impression it was daytime despite the absence of a sun. The cliff had a large plateau over it inhabited by a few tents. Those tents formed a small settlement for a few living creatures known as pokemons. This settlement had a sole purpose: map this completely new continent and establish a prosperous civilization for the future generations. This task once proved to be a challenge for some other continents before this one. The lack of hope, the threat of a giant meteorite, those contributed in an attempt to halt the progress of all lifeforms on the planet. In those dark times, humans were summoned from another world to solve those major conflicts and ensure the world could carry on with its quest. What would prevent pokemons to explore now?
The cliff had an opening shaped like a shark's mouth. In fact, this part of the cliff was shaped like a shark's head. Inside lived a small feline with cream-colored fur that turned brown at the tips of its hind paws and tail. Its ovoid head featured four prominent whiskers, wide eyes with slit pupils, two pointed teeth in the upper jaw, and a gold oval coin embedded in its forehead. Its ears were black with brown interiors, and were flanked with an additional pair of long whiskers. He was lonely in its remarkably huge single room for someone like it, sleeping on a pile of hay. He was not asleep though. He was lying sideway, facing the huge opening that served as a window for his home. The way his home was made prevented rain to pour in his home. He stared at the stormy sky. He could not sleep but the reason was in his mind rather than his surroundings. He was lonely, did not have any friends. Even the residents at the surface were not really his friends. They were more like co-workers for a community. He did not even have parents. He was born all alone on a faraway land and slipped in the first ride to this uncharted territory while the other pokemons could afford the travel. Because of that, the others gave him an unwelcome presence. He found this hideout by luck and chose to reside in it. The only entrance was hidden by a conveniently placed bush. The pokemon sighed and closed his eyes, dreaming one day of making a friend.
A new day rose. Our lonely pokemon woke up and searched in a bag placed right next to his pile of hay to pull out an apple he then ate. He checked inside the bag after his breakfast but only had another apple left, an elixir, a seed and a rock with carvings on it. He found the rock while wandering around back on his home continent and took it with him because it looked nice. He was very poor, so poor he could barely afford any food or drink to satiate his needs. It would have been worse if he lived on the surface or if anyone knew of his home. He would have to pay taxes to stay here. He slowly stood up and went to the big opening in his home. It gave an impressing view on a beach with its golden sand far down the cliff and the ocean with its crystalline water going to the infinite horizon. He took a brief moment to enjoy the scenery until he noticed something unusual at the end of the beach. It was a big silhouette but he could not recognize anything from it. The meowth took his bag and headed out.
On the surface, the settlement was made of a linear road where the tents were mounted around. A few instalments were actual buildings like the first building to the left the meowth passed by. It was used for item storage and as a post office to send or receive letters and parcels. It was run by a kangaskhan.
"Over here!" The kangaskhan said while waving at the meowth.
The meowth ignored her. He had to find out what this silhouette was. He ran through the settlement. Right next to the storage was a tent occupied by two kekleons. They were twin brothers but one was green while the other was purple. They ran a shop that sold anything anyone would need whether it was food, drink, seeds or even orbs and move discs. Our meowth would buy his apples there.
On the other side, another tent was installed inhabited by a xatu. This bird pokemon used to live in canyons in the Air Continent to the north but moved here to offer his services. It was rumored that explorers tended to find locked treasure chests they could not open and it just so happened that the xatu knew how to pick the lock.
The meowth passed a bridge crossing over a river. The water flowed to a waterfall to then meet up with the sea. The first tent after the bridge, to the left, was run by an electrivire. His services consisted of changing moves for explorers. He could even link moves together to use them quicker.
Across the dirt road was installed a daycare where a chansey would babysit the children of the explorers while they were away. It was too dangerous for children at their age to accompany their parents.
Right next to the daycare, a marowak opened a dojo to train explorers and settlers who wanted to defend themselves. Having been a former explorer, his services are often looked up by the newer explorers who could confirm their relevancy to the field.
The last building next to the electrivire's tent was a bank for a currency named pokes. A duskull would operate the bank and keep the settler's money safe. The meowth never used this service but, unlike most other services in which he did not need to, he never had any spare pokes on him.
The settlement was built on a giant patch of grass with some rock fences lying around and a few trees. The meowth arrived at a crossroad from the west. The northern path led to a set of stairs that went up a mountain. The eastern path did not seem to lead somewhere in particular. The southern path led to the beach at the foot of the cliff the settlement was built on. A spinda was excavating a space on the south-west spot of the crossroad while a well full of pure water was put on the north-east spot. A big plank of wood standing on some wooden pillars covered the well to prevent rain to mix up with the already drinkable water. It was where the meowth would get his water whenever he was thirsty. The meowth took the southern path and went down to the beach.
He descended more stairs and got to the beach. The meowth looked at the orange sky with its sun slowly rising up. It could also be seen in the sea's reflection. A few purple clouds surrounded the sun but did not dare to conceal its beauty. Bubbles floated in the air and travelled west. The meowth ran down on the golden sand and stared at the horizon. He then found the silhouette again and went to it. It became a dark blue sauropod-like Pokémon with some gray metallic portions, such as its chestplate, which has a diamond in the center. It also had various light blue stripes. It had a fin-like structure on its back and a crest on its head, resembling a dinosaur. It also had two horns on top of its head, two fang-like horns around its mouth, and three spines on the back of its neck. It had three claws on each foot of the same metallic looks as its chestplate. It was much bigger than the meowth. The new pokemon was looking at the see. When the meowth got to it, the latter slowly turned its head toward the meowth.
"AH… HELLO…" The pokemon spoke.
Its mouth did not even move. The powerful yet calm voice froze the meowth in place.
"Who are you?" The meowth asked.
"I AM DIALGA, THE TEMPORAL ONE. AND YOU ARE?"
"Meowth."
"WELL, MEOWTH, I HAVE COME HERE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING I HAVE LOST A LONG TIME AGO. DO YOU APPEAR TO HAVE IT SEEN BY ANY MEAN?"
"It depends. What are you looking for?"
"I AM LOOKING FOR A RELIC FRAGMENT. IT IS A SMALL PIECE OF ROCK WITH MANY CARVINGS ON IT."
"Hold on. I think I know what you're talking about."
Meowth looked in his back and pulled out the rock. He showed it to Dialga who nodded.
"YES… IT IS THE FRAGMENT RELIC I AM LOOKING FOR. I THANK YOU FOR BRINGING IT BACK TO ME." Dialga concluded.
The rock then vanished out of Meowth's hand in a small blast of light.
"Woah! What happened!?" Meowth screamed.
"DO NOT WORRY. THE RELIC FRAGMENT HAS NOW RETURNED INTO MY POSSESSION BACK IN MY DOMAIN, TEMPORAL TOWER. AS FOR YOU, I SHALL REWARD YOUR GOOD DEED WITH YOUR HANDS FORTH."
Dialga closed its eyes. Meowth brought his hands in front of him. Small beams of light appeared and fused into a sphere that rested on his hands. Once the sphere became big enough, it exploded revealing a trinket in Meowth's hands. It was a Meowth Claw.
"Thanks." Meowth said, unsure of what he just received.
"DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THIS GIFT. IT WILL HELP YOU IN A VERY SUBTLE WAY IN YOUR FUTURE. IT IS TIME FOR ME TO RETURN TO THE TEMPORAL TOWER. UNTIL NEXT TIME, MORTAL." Dialga bid.
He roared once. Meowth was scared and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, Dialga was gone. He heard footsteps behind him and saw the kangaskhan from the storage service running to him. She was exhausted and grabbed after her shoulders.
"Oi Meowth! What brought ya to the beach?" She panted.
"Oh! I saw some bubbles and thought the krabbies were there." Meowth lied.
"That's not the season yet for them. Anyway, I heard the guild was looking for pokemons to recruit. Maybe it'll be a good idea to give it a shot, don't ya think?" The kangaskhan proposed.
"Sure, I can try."
They both walked back to the cross. Meowth examined the trinket he just received from Dialga. He was however not paying attention to where he was going and bumped into a sableye at the cross. He fell on the ground with the sableye.
"HEY! Watch where you're going, twerp!" The sablye insulted.
"Now now, Sableye, there's no need to be rude." Another voice spoke.
A dusknoir helped Meowth get back on his feet. Meowth just noticed him.
"I've never seen you two before. Who are you?" Meowth asked.
"I am Sir Dusknoir of the Sand Continent. I have come here on behalf of your local sheriff to provide more security for the townsfolks. And this is Sableye, my assistant. Where were you headed?" The dusknoir greeted.
"I'm going to the guild. I wanna become an explorer!"
"Aren't you the meowth that…"
"Yes…"
"Well, since you have good intentions, I'll let you be. May your path be filled with good fortune."
Meowth left the others and climbed the stairs to the north. He arrived at the top of the mountain where another tent was built. Surrounded by two sources of fire and two totems, this tent also had a wire rack placed on the ground right in front of it. The meowth hesitated at first. He walked in circle without passing the wire rack. There was no way to walk around it. The first risk he ever took, the one of leaving his home continent, might have been one big mistake but it led it to an opportunity of a dream, a dream of a lifetime. Meowth was confident and put one foot on the wire rack then the other one.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!" A voice loudly ordered.
Meowth got a bit scared by the surprise voice but was still confident. He listened to the voice and stood still on the wire rack.
"Don't move. We're doing a pokemon check… Let's see… Oh hi, Meowth, do you have something to deliver at the guild today?" The voice spoke with a much calmer tone.
"In fact, I'd like to join the guild." Meowth confidently answered.
"Join the guild? We're always looking for new recruits these days. Do you have someone else willing to accompany you?"
"Someone else? What do you mean?"
"According to rule number 77, pokemon between the age of 13 and 18 cannot be sent alone on adventures. They can however accompany or be accompanied by another child pokemon. You can still join the guild but you'll have to do some work at the guild until we can find you someone that would like to accompany you on your adventures."
The meowth closed his eyes and lowered his head. He put some thought about that. He opened his eyes again and raised his head.
"I'll join!" Meowth declared.
The gate opened and the Meowth entered the tent. Inside, he found a ladder going down inside the cliff, a similar trait his house shared with the guild. He went down the ladder to the next floor where some pokemon where waiting for him. Once on the floor, a chatot approached them.
"Good afternoon, child, I am Chatot, the guildmaster's assistant. If you ever need to report anything, seek my aid. I heard you wanted to join the guild, is that correct?" The chatot greeted.
Meowth happily nodded.
"Excellent! We're always looking for new recruits to our guild. Since you joined alone, you'll be doing duties at the guild and errands in town until we can find you another pokemon that would like to join you to form an exploration team." Chatot explained.
In the following days, Meowth did his duty as a guild member. Sometimes, he did sentry duty to help Dugtrio with the pokemons that wanted to enter the guild. Other times, he helped Chimeco cooking and cleaning. He even did his former job of delivering packages to the townsfolks. This time, he was better paid and was now able to use the different shops to buy items or store his pokes. He also had a place to stay at the guild. It was much smaller than his hideout but he was close to new friends. A few days later, he was on sentry duty and let enter a group of pokemons inside. Chatot entered the sentry room and went to see Meowth.
"Good news, child! One of the pokemons you let enter would like to form an exploration team with someone. Are you interested to join him?" Chatot asked.
Meowth nodded and Chatot brought him back in the main room where a grovyle, a cyndaquil and another pokemon Meowth never saw were waiting inside.
"Meowth, this here is Cyndaquil. He is the pokemon I talked to you about. He can't speak with words but can still express himself in many other ways." Chatot presented.
Meowth shook Cyndaquil's paws and they went to the office to officialise their team they named Team Pokepals. The grovyle and the strange pokemon went to them.
"I am Grovyle, a native here. You be careful with our friend Cyndaquil, Meowth. We entrust you can take good care of him." Grovyle greeted.
"And I'm Celebi from here too. I hope we can one day go on an adventure all together." Celebi said.
"But we can already go on an adventure together. Why should we have to wait?" Meowth pointed out.
"We're going into dangerous places since we start at a higher rank. It's best you become stronger before you follow us." Grovyle brought up.
To this day, Team Pokepals partook in many exploration and rescue missions. They caught many outlaws and rose in the ranks of exploration teams. Once they reached the age of eighteen, Meowth and Cyndaquil became Persian and Quilava. They carried on with their duty and eventually reached the same rank as Grovyle and Celebi. One day, Persian received an anonymous letter signed C in which the pokemon congratulated him for having saved the world. Though, at first, it seemed to be sent to the wrong pokemon, Persian found out this letter was indeed destined to him. He never found out who this C person was or what he did to save the world despite it being fine all along. It did not matter. Team Pokepals reached the Grandmaster rank, the highest rank in the guild, and Persian became the new guildmaster while Quilava became Typhlosion and worked at his assistant. They held the guild until their time came.
"Meowth,
I know you don't remember me or our friends but I want to thank you for everything you did for us. Our lord and savior even brought us to your time period so we could be with you. Don't worry about any possible time paradox. He managed to make it work somehow. I promised I'll never forget you and I held it. Again, thank you for saving our world.
C."
THE END