A loud rumble of what sounded to be thunder and a bright flash of light jolted me awake in my bed. I quickly sat up and looked around, my heart nearly pounding out of my chest. But after watching the curtains flutter in the breeze from my box fan, realizing it was still the middle of the night, and that I was still comfortably tucked into bed, I sighed a breath of relief before coming back to reality. Must've been a thunderstorm passing by, I thought to myself before laying back down.
Closing my eyes, I rolled onto my side into a comfortable position. I was overreacting like usual and needed something else to think about or else my mind wouldn't ever calm down. Seeing as I couldn't think of anything else interesting, I decided it was a good time to think about the week ahead. Let's see…
Although I'd just started my junior year of high school, it was already kicking my ass. There was a big math test later that week, and I hadn't studied for it at all. I also needed to begin that English essay, finish up my Chemistry project, memorize all fifty presidents in order for U.S. History…
I opened my eyes and let out a groan. Obviously, I needed to think about something else less depressing to get me to sleep.
Rolling over again, I now faced my closet. Turning my gaze to my alarm clock, I focused on the dust particles fluttering in the green light coming from the screen. Trying to think of a story or something, I found myself settling on a recurring story of my friends and I travelling around the Alola region. Making up stories in my head always helped me get to sleep, especially when I was restless. I pictured myself in a summer outfit with my everyday black glasses and brown hair look, leaving my home just outside Hau'oli City. Today, we were all rushing to Iki Town to get our first Pokémon.
I came out of my trance when the closet caught my attention. Just past my nightstand, I noticed the sliding metal door was open a smidge, and the darkness from inside extended out into my room. Usually my cat would push it open to sleep on an old blanket inside, but I thought I remembered shutting it before I went to bed that night.
Since I was too lazy to get out of bed to fix it, I decided to leave it be until morning. Yet as I was about to roll over to my other side, I thought I spotted something move from inside. Not sure I'd seen right, I concentrated more carefully on the small crack, squinting my eyes in an attempt to see better. Studying the closet more, there appeared to be a small pair of glowing red circles inside. The circles were dim and surprisingly reflective, like an animal's. Naively, I assumed it was just part of my alarm clock or something, but then the circles disappeared for a moment and came back, like whatever was there had… blinked at me. Fear suddenly ran through my body and I sat there paralyzed for a second.
It's got to be Zabu or something… What else could it be? As I finished my thought, I heard the slight creak of the metal door opening. My heart then skipped a beat as the lights moved closer towards me. Panicking, my first instinct was to reach over to my lamp. The switch instantly clicked on and light flooded back into the room, temporarily blinding me.
When I opened my eyes again, I was surprised to find a blue furred, humanoid figure with black padding all over its body next to my bed. It was a little under half my height, stood on its two haunches, and stared at me with big red eyes. Behind its pointy blue ears and strange black appendage-things hanging from the sides of its head, it sort of reminded me of a dog. It clutched something red, white, and round in between its paws.
I rubbed my eyes and grabbed my glasses to see better. Sitting up in my bed and looking down at the creature again, a familiar name suddenly came to my tongue as my fear melted away.
"A… Riolu?" I stammered in disbelief. The sleepiness in my eyes was instantly replaced with wonder and excitement as I stared down at what seemed to be a real life Riolu.
"Rio," it muttered in a somewhat high-pitched voice, looking nervously off to the side. I then recognized what it was holding: a sleek, shiny Poké Ball.
"This… This has to be a dream," I mumbled. Rubbing my eyes again a little harder this time, the Riolu still didn't disappear when I stopped. Still unsure if he was real or a figment of my active imagination, I suddenly got the urge to reach down and pet him. Its short, padded fur looked soft and inviting to the touch, but seeing as the Riolu seemed shy and a little unsure of things, I figured it wouldn't take kindly to that. Instead I resisted and childishly questioned, "Are… you real?" I suddenly wondered where the little guy had come from.
"Lu," Riolu quietly replied, holding out the Poké Ball in its paws. I took the hint and reached over carefully to take the ball. The metal sphere was ice cold, and my warm hand left oily fingerprints on the surface. I turned it around, inspecting its every crevasse. The ball was so perfect and clean besides my fingerprints, it was almost unbelievable. Finally, I pressed the middle button and the ball opened, revealing the stainless steel insides. I was awestruck by how lifelike and expensive the handiwork looked to be.
"Rio," Riolu added, gaining my attention again. He pointed with his paw at the ball and then back at him. Confused, I stared at him blankly for a moment; Riolu immediately looked away as to not make eye contact.
"Are… are you… my Pokémon?" I almost gave myself goosebumps saying that. Riolu did a single, brief nod in response, momentarily catching my gaze before turning away again. "U-um… okay." I looked down at the Poké Ball, heart racing again, but for a different reason now. "Do I need to catch you?" Riolu didn't answer, but instead walked over and touched the Poké Ball with his paw.
Almost instantly, he de-materialized into a beam of red light which flew right into the center of the ball. I was so surprised, I let go and recoiled backwards in my bed. The Poké Ball rolled towards the closet and bounced off one of the open metal doors before eventually coming to a stop by the corner of my bed. Then, it rocked back and forth three times before giving off an electronic dinging noise.
Hesitantly, I pushed my covers over and stepped out of bed to pick up the ball. Raising it up to eye level, I felt a sudden rush of excitement run through me. It was like a dream come true; I'd caught a real Pokémon! Of course, I was still extremely skeptical if I was actually awake or not, but I was still going to live this moment out as much as I could. Being a fan of the Pokémon series ever since I was a kid, it was obviously always a dream to have a real life Pokémon... But now that my dream had finally come true after all these years, I was more confused than I was happy. Pokémon suddenly becoming real sounded more like a far-fetched fairy tale than real life.
Once I'd gotten over my excitement, I held out the Poké Ball and said quietly,
"Uh, Riolu. Come on out?" Suddenly, the ball opened, and a white beam of light emitted onto the floor. In an instant, Riolu stood in front of me, just like he did before. As soon as he could, Riolu shifted his gaze off to the side again, and nervously moved its foot back and forth. "Sorry, little guy. I was a little tired when you… came in. I didn't properly introduce myself. My name is Luke. And you must be… Riolu." It nodded again but continued to shyly look away. I opened my mouth to say something else, but nothing came out. I guess being half awake didn't help with my own social awkwardness.
Suddenly, a blood curdling scream came from the wall behind me; both Riolu and I nearly jumped a foot.
"Mom, is everything all right?" I yelped. There was no answer back. I turned to Riolu who was still nervously staring at the wall and announced, "Riolu, stay here. I've got to check on her." I stood up and ran towards my door, swinging it open. Immediately turning left, I knocked on my mom's door. "Mom? Mom! Are you okay?" Again silence except for the sound of my fan. Screw it, I'm going in.
With a deep breath, I turned the door handle and used my shoulder to barge into the room. As I entered, my eyes filled with even more wonder. "Woah…" I muttered, completely stunned.
Standing in front of me was a large blue-and-tan skinned turtle creature, about the same height as me. It glared back with its fierce brown eyes, the light from a table lamp revealing two shiny metal cannons jutting out from the top corners of its formidable shell.
I looked to the left to see my mom shivering with fear in her bed, her long light brown hair quivering slightly as she shook.
"Lukas...!" she said, the fear in her voice showing through. "Wh-what is that... that thing?!" Quickly realizing the somewhat comical problem at hand, I was suddenly relieved and tried to speak calmly.
"Mom, there's no need to be afraid of that 'thing'. This guy's name is Blastoise." As I approached Blastoise, its size and stature were almost intimidating, but I figured that since Riolu was friendly to me, this Blastoise must be the same way.
"Be careful around that Blas… toise... thing! You don't know what it can do!" my mom shouted. I was now within arm's length of Blastoise and the pressure was starting to get to me, but I needed to set an example. Swallowing my pride, I slowly reached over and grasped its hand, trying to get around its large claws. Surprisingly, the Blastoise let me take it. I shook it loosely, a bit worried that it might try to attack me. I tried to act as confidently as possible, but it was very probable that I was shaking in fear as much as my mother was.
"N-nice to meet you, Blastoise. I'm Luke and this is my mom." I pointed to my mom who recoiled under her sheets. Blastoise looked me in the eyes and smiled.
"Blast!" it replied, in a deep, content voice. Once my mom saw this, she came out of her sheets a little and stopped shaking.
"Look mom, it's friendly," I added, letting go of Blastoise's hand. It was then that I realized that Blastoise was grasping a Poké Ball in its other hand. I pointed to it and said aloud, "Mom, Blastoise just wants to be your Pokémon. It's alright."
"Pokémon…? Wait, isn't that the game that you play? Honey, what's going on here?" I looked down, slightly embarrassed.
"Look mom, I don't know what's going on here, either. I woke up to the same thing, but instead, I had a Riolu." I looked over to the door to see Riolu peeking in. Once Riolu noticed I was looking at it, he tried to hide behind the door frame, but I could see his long blue tail protruding out. "Don't worry," I chuckled. "You're not in trouble for coming out of my room, Riolu. Why don't you come here and meet my mom and Blastoise?" Riolu poked its head out from behind the door and walked in slowly, ready to bolt if anything scared it. My mom's face relaxed a little when she saw Riolu.
"Aww, he's kind of cute," she said, becoming a bit more comfortable. There was a slight awkward pause as she considered her options.
"Mom…" I coaxed harder. After another quick pause, she let out a sigh.
"Alright, alright..." she grumbled before getting out of bed. Walking over as carefully as she could, her gray nightgown hardly moved at all. Once she got within a couple feet of Blastoise, she paused and let out a nervous gulp. Taking a second to ready herself, she closed her eyes and reached out to touch Blastoise's hand, immediately pulling it back and cringing when she finally made contact.
"Blast," Blastoise said aloud to my mother again, smiling at her. Blastoise reached out his other hand with the Poké Ball grasped inside. My mom opened her eyes, faced Blastoise again, and let out a nervous smile. She then took the Poké Ball and inspected it like I did. Turning to me, she asked,
"...What am I supposed to do with this?"
"That's Blastoise's Poké Ball. He goes inside for easy transportation, just like this... Hold on." Briskly walking past Riolu, I went back into my room to pick up his Poké Ball, which was still on the floor. I then came back to my mom's room and held out my arm. "Riolu, return." Like before, Riolu de-materialized into a beam of red light and disappeared into the ball. My mom gasped and shot me a concerned look.
"I-is he going to be alright?" she asked, sounding like a child. I let out a small chuckle.
"You can come back out, Riolu." The ball popped open and Riolu appeared before us, just like he'd done with me before. My mom looked a bit concerned, and swapped glances between her Poké Ball and Blastoise. Then, she asked,
"Are… are you sure about this, Blastoise?" Blastoise nodded yes and touched the Poké Ball with its left hand. It de-materialized into the ball with a red flash, startling my mom. She dropped her Poké Ball to the ground, where it rocked three times and dinged; a successful capture. She turned to me, still looking a bit worried. "Did I do it correctly?" she asked with some excitement in her voice.
"Yeah mom, you did great. Why don't you let Blastoise back out now?" She reached down and grabbed the ball, then held it out just like I had. As Blastoise popped out of the ball with a white light back onto the carpet, my mom gave a sigh of relief.
"Where did these Pokémon come from?" she replied suddenly, turning back towards me.
"I don't know, mom. There was a flash of light and a rumbling noise… Next thing I knew, Riolu came out of my closet."
"Blastoise did the same. I thought I heard someone in the corner of my room, and let's just say I was pretty surprised when I turned on the light." I looked over to see Riolu and Blastoise conversing quietly, both smiling at each other. Just then, there was a noise from the bathroom. A single,
"Mrowr?" came from behind the door.
"Oh, hold on a sec. I'm going to check in on Zabu," I said, walking out towards the bathroom door.
"Don't let her out, Lukas. I don't know how she will react to Blastoise and Riolu," my mom called from her room. Heeding her advice, I opened the door quickly and tried to block the opening with my leg like I usually did to try and get in before she escaped. Unfortunately, I was too slow, and the cat darted out into mom's room and jumped up onto the bed. I groaned, hoping that she wouldn't cause too much trouble.
"Sorry, mom. She got out too fast and-" I looked up on the bed as I walked back into the room expecting to see my orange tabby colored cat, but instead I saw a cute little dark purple and cream colored one rubbing up against my mom instead.
"I guess this must be another Pokémon, huh Lukas?"
"Uh, yeah, that is… That's a Purrloin. But is that actually Zabu?" I went back and checked the bathroom again just to see if Zabu was actually just hiding somewhere, but I couldn't find her in any of the usual hiding spots. Heading back into the room, I found Purrloin curling up at the foot of my mom's bed.
"Well, who else would it be? Zabu was the only one in the bathroom at the time. She must have been turned into a Pokémon."
"Huh. Weird…" I mumbled to myself while observing the Purrloin a little more closely. I then turned back to Riolu who was also staring at Purrloin and asked, "Riolu, do you know where you came from?" Riolu nodded yes, pointing at Blastoise and Purrloin. "You all came from the same place? The Pokémon World?" Riolu nodded yes again, followed by Blastoise nodding as well. Purrloin paid no attention and continued to knead her spot on the bed. "...But do you know why you guys are here?" Riolu and Blastoise looked at each other with worried looks on their faces, searching for an answer. Finally, they turned to us with no explanation, and continued to look worried. Catching the hint, I asked,
"Or... Is it too much to explain?" Riolu and Blastoise immediately nodded yes in unison. I was a little let down, hoping I would find the answer to that question, but I guess I'd have to find out another time. Just then, my mother looked down at her alarm clock.
"Goodness," she yawned. "It's only 2:27?" I yawned too, followed by Riolu, and then Blastoise; Purrloin had already fallen asleep. "Well, I guess it's not really worth thinking about right now. Let's touch base in the morning?" I nodded my head in agreement. "Goodnight, my boy. Thanks for being so brave and helping me with Blastoise," my mother added, sitting back down on her bed.
"Anytime, mom. Goodnight, and see you two in the morning... Oh, are you okay with Zabu in your room?"
"Sure, I wouldn't want to wake her. It's not like she's not going to bother anyone right now, anyways." I nodded again and turned around.
"Come on, Riolu." As I walked out of my mom's room and into mine, I shut both the doors behind me, Riolu following close behind me. "Alright Riolu, do you want to sleep in your ball or somewhere in the room?" I then asked. Riolu pointed to the Poké Ball and shook his head no. "Ah, okay. Let me find you somewhere to sleep, then." I looked around and found my dresser with my neatly folded clothes on top.I threw the clothing onto the floor next to my bed. Underneath was a blanket that I used occasionally for cold nights. I pointed to it.
"Up here, Riolu. There's a nice blanket with your name on it." Riolu nodded, and I pulled some drawers out for him to climb up on. As it reached the top, it let out an exhausted yawn and closed its eyes. "Glad you like it, buddy. Do you need anything before I go back to sleep?" With its eyes still closed, Riolu shook its head no and rolled over onto its side. "Alright. Uh, goodnight."
"Ri-o." I stepped over my clothes and climbed back into bed. I leaned the Poké Ball against the lamp, took my glasses off and placed them on the nightstand, and finally turned off the light. Laying back, I yawned and looked up at the ceiling once again. I felt kind of awkward having Riolu sleep in my room, like having to share with a roommate. But I kind of liked it; just knowing Riolu was there made me feel safer. As I dozed off, I forgot about my made-up story and instead pondered the unsolved questions bouncing around my head. It wasn't long until I fell back into a deep sleep.