Two for One
Kai had, as the others had feared, wandered out of town into the forest and sat down on the bank of a small lake. The egg beside him twitched and occasionally gave off a small sound. He tried to ignore it for a while and watched the creatures of the lake. Some seagulls flew overhead but upon closer inspection they weren't really seagulls. Their bodies were too short and their wings were too straight. Every now and then a red fish with yellow crown-shaped fins would jump out of the water. Only once had he seen a little brown raccoon-like creature with zigzags instead of stripes creep out of the bushes to inspect him and then dart away. The forest behind him was filled with rustles and bizarre calls.
He gasped when he heard the thump of something hitting the ground. He turned to the egg he had been ignoring and saw two little black dogs – puppies really – playing around with it. On some impulse he didn't know he had, Kai seethed.
"Get away from that!"
He grabbed the egg case and kicked the puppies away but they were on their feet again quickly, growling and advancing on him. Kai kept a tight hold on the egg and assumed a fighting stance, letting these dogs know that he intended to fight despite having only one arm free. One of them dashed forward to tackle him down but he easily pushed it away. The other was much faster and tackled him in the stomach. Kai had all of the wind knocked out of him and with that single blow he was knocked down. He held on tightly to his egg in its case and massaged his sore abdominal muscles. For something that small those puppies were strong. He swallowed back some vomit and tried to stand up. The black puppies were creeping up on him again, growling.
"Breloom! Go!"
A red and white ball flew out of nowhere and a Pokémon was released from it in a flash of white light. It was a really strange looking Pokémon on two clawed feet with clawed hands and a long tail with green balls of… something growing on it. Its head was shaped like a mushroom.
"Breloom, use Mach Punch!"
The Pokémon charged with a fist made out of one clawed hand and punched one of the black puppies with such amazing force that it was knocked out instantly. The other puppy whimpered and dragged its friend away with its tail between its legs. Kai stared in amazement.
"Hey there!"
Kai turned to the person approaching him through the forest. He was tall (taller than him, which made Kai a bit resentful) and all of his hair was tucked into a white, knitted hat with a black and green headband and long black and green clothing. He wore boots and gloves and carried with him a yellow backpack. By the joyful, earnest look on his face, Kai guessed he was another all-too-friendly resident of the nearby town of Littleroot.
"Saw you having trouble with those Poochyena," he said. "Thought I'd lend you a hand. You know, if they knock you down you can get in pretty big trouble. They can be cowardly – as you just saw – but if they realise that they can overpower you they won't give up so easily."
Kai glared at him and then turned to the Pokémon. "What's that?"
"Oh, Breloom?" said the boy. "He's one of my Pokémon. Just got back from Kanto and the Kanto Region Pokémon League. Wish I had won it."
Kai raised an eyebrow. "You're a trainer?"
"Yep! Name's Emerald. You are?"
"Kai. I'm not a trainer."
"Aspiring, aren't you?"
Kai turned to him with his eyebrows furrowed. "What?"
"You wanna be a trainer, right?" Emerald said. "You've got a Pokémon egg. When it hatches whatever's inside will be your first Pokémon."
"I wouldn't count on it hatching soon," Kai said. "What was that thing you threw?"
Emerald gave him a strange look.
"The thing Breloom came from."
"Oh, you mean the Pokéball," Emerald explained, holding out the red and white ball. "Standard equipment for a Pokémon trainer. If you don't have these you can't catch wild Pokémon and train them."
How bizarre. Kai was pretty sure that catching and containing large animals in tiny spheres was something that only happened in wild science fiction, simply because of all the conservation of mass issues. Suddenly he was curious about how this whole business with Pokémon worked out. "Explain."
"Chill! No need to snap. You wanna know how it's done? I can give you all the know-how. Breloom, return." He pointed the white button on his Pokéball at Breloom. A beam of red light shot out and engulfed the Pokémon. Breloom and the beam both entered the Pokéball as a blob of red light. "That's how you return them to their Pokéballs when your work with them is done, but to return them you need to have a Pokémon in a Pokéball and to do that, you need to catch it."
"You repeated what you said before," Kai said. Emerald blinked when he realised it. "If you're going to waste my time-"
"I'm not wasting your time! I'm going through it step-by-step," Emerald argued. "But… if you want to cut to the chase, why don't I just let you borrow a Pokémon of mine and experience it yourself." Emerald chucked a Pokéball to him. It was much smaller than the one he'd just returned Breloom to. "Press the white button once to activate it."
Kai followed instructions and the Pokéball expanded until it was the same size as Breloom's.
"Press it again and throw it. The Pokémon inside should come out."
Kai was a bit vague as to how he was supposed to throw it, but he pressed the button and tossed it straight into the air. It opened up and a bright white light spewed out, leaving a thin, dark Pokémon with a large head and diamond-like eyes. It stared at Kai confusedly.
"Now this is Sableye, one of my best," Emerald said. Sableye crossed its arms and nodded, making Emerald glare at it. "Stop acting so proud! Anyway, when you throw a Pokéball at a wild Pokémon, it might not work if it's still healthy. You'll have to weaken it or even knock it out if you want to capture it successfully."
"Are you serious? You want me to beat the crap out of a wild animal until it can't move?" Kai couldn't help muttering. Emerald spluttered and tripped over the beginning of his sentence several times while flailing his arms in an attempt to explain several excuses at once. Kai rolled his eyes and sighed. "Look, I don't actually care about the beating. Where am I supposed to find a wild Pokémon now?"
"Um… anywhere, I guess. Must be heaps in that lake."
Sableye, unable to roll its eyes, rolled its head and successfully annoyed its trainer again. Kai ignored the two of them and approached the edge of the lake with his Pokémon egg. There was a stretch of about five metres where the edge of the land just dropped straight down. The rest of it was steady shore. Kai stopped and kneeled at the edge, peering into the water. All of a sudden a white tail lashed out of the water and took him by complete surprise. With a splash, the tail disappeared along with the egg. A moment later the case reappeared without its lid, which popped up beside it, and without the egg. It sank, half full of water, to never been seen again. Kai fished out the lid, staring in disbelief at what had just happened. He looked out onto the lake as one of those red fish appeared with the egg poking out of its mouth.
Emerald suddenly burst into laughter. "Wow! Look at that tiny Magikarp! Doesn't seriously think it can eat an egg half its size, does it?"
Kai glared at Emerald with such a dark force that Emerald shut up immediately. The Magikarp moved its jaw as it tried to swallow the egg whole. All of a sudden Kai dived in; startling the fish and making it dive too. Kai's head start was enough to make sure it didn't get away. He grabbed it by the tail and flung it hard – right out of the water! He resurfaced to find that the fish was flailing around helplessly on the land but edging its way back towards the water and the egg was still in its mouth. He swam back to shore and grabbed it before it could make it all the way back to its watery home. Magikarp wasn't all too happy about that. It flailed wildly to get out of Kai's grip. Kai was even more determined not to let it go. He swung it over his head and slammed it against the ground. The egg popped out of its mouth and rolled over the grass. Kai let out a sigh and stood up, watching the fish splash around the ground. It might have been due to its size but Kai had once again underestimated the power of a Pokémon.
Emerald applauded him. "Brilliant show of strength there Kai, but how about we do it the Pokémon way now? Doesn't leave you so tired."
Kai glared at him again. "You want me to use that purple thing to catch a fish? How?"
Sableye crossed its arms and pouted, disapproving of being called a thing. Emerald sighed at the antics of his Pokémon. "Instruct it to use attacks until the Pokémon you're trying to catch is too weak to escape. As offered, you can use Sableye."
Kai stepped up to Sableye and stared it down. "Punch it," he instructed, pointing to the Magikarp. Sableye cocked its head to the side. Emerald burst into hysterical laughter, making Kai's eyebrow twitch.
"Not that sort of attack!" Emerald told him through his snickers. "Pokémon have specialised attacks. They learn attacks as they grow. Tell him to use an attack he's already learnt."
Kai just stared at Emerald. Emerald's laughter trailed off and he stared back.
"Don't know any attack that Sableye knows how to use, do you?"
Kai shook his head.
Emerald sighed. "Okay, here are four easy ones: Pound, Shadow Ball, Feint Attack and Confuse Ray. For a Magikarp, doubt you'll need to use all four."
Kai nodded and turned back to the Magikarp. It was edging closer to the egg again, hoping for lunch. Kai saw the egg twitch. "Sableye, use Confuse Ray."
Sableye's blue eyes glowed red and some almost invisible rays emitted were from the jewel-like eyes. The ray wavered and travelled directly towards Magikarp. The fish slowed down and its eyes went wide. Rather than edge towards the egg it began to flop around randomly. It occasionally hit itself in the head with its tail a few times. Kai raised an eyebrow.
"What happened?"
"It's confused, that's what Confuse Ray does," Emerald replied. "It'll just splash around and hurt itself a few times. Try to actually hurt it this time."
He thought back to the attacks he was told of. "Use Pound."
Sableye dashed towards it with a clenched fist and pounded Magikarp into the ground.
"Now… Shadow Ball!"
Before the Magikarp had a chance to react Sableye gathered a huge ball of dark energy between its hands and let it fly. It hit its mark and exploded like a bomb. After the attack Magikarp laid still, breathing but not moving voluntarily.
"Now you can throw a Pokéball at it," Emerald said.
Kai held up empty hands.
"Looks like a Pokéball to me," Emerald smirked, pointing to the lid of the egg case.
Kai looked and sure enough that red and white ball really was a Pokéball. He pulled it off the lid and pressed the button twice. He threw it at Magikarp. The Pokéball hit a bullseye and automatically opened, drawing Magikarp in. It lay in the grass for a while with a red light on the button blinking. The blinking eventually stopped and the light faded away. Emerald whooped and pumped his fist into the air.
"Congratulations. You just caught your very first Pokémon by yourself!"
Kai grunted and picked up the Pokéball. It shrunk in his hands until it reached a size where he could probably fit about ten of them in his pockets. "How does that even work?" he mused aloud.
"How does what work?" Emerald asked.
"This thing." Kai held up the shrunken Pokéball. "Whatever happened to conservation of mass? And how did it manage to change from matter into light? Moreover, how are these things able to get out without the balls exploding?"
"Um… well, that's what's so great about Pokéballs. You can carry all of your Pokémon around so easily, even big ones," Emerald said, adding a nervous laugh at the end. He had no idea what Kai was just talking about. "And if you apply to become an official trainer at the Pokémon Lab you can carry up to six of them and compete in some prestigious Pokémon battle competitions."
"Battle?"
"Yeah!" Emerald beamed, slinging an arm over Kai's shoulders. "Train your Pokémon and when they're good and strong you can send them into battle against other trainers. Aim's to win. There's a Gym Challenge too. Get all the badges and you can qualify for one of the more extreme Pokémon battle challenges: The Hoenn League!"
Kai smirked.
"Like the sound of that? C'mon, then, I'll give you the whole spiel on the way back to Littleroot."
Kai and Emerald made it back to Littleroot safely with Kai's egg snugly cradled in the crook of his arm. They approached the lab just as a large party was walking out of it in some excitement. Daichi walked out ahead of the party and stopped when he saw the two of them with the dark Pokémon beside them.
"Guys, look! It's Kai!"
The others all stopped and looked. Then, as Kai expected, they all broke into simultaneous yelling and scolding.
"Kai, where the hell did you go?"
"We were afraid wild creatures would get you!"
"You're supposed to be the role model, Mr. Captain!"
"Don't you know how worried we were about you?"
"Emerald!" Mari rushed out in front of the group and gave Emerald a neck-breaking, tackle hug. He only barely managed to keep his balance. "Emerald! So good to see you again."
"Mari! Been a while!" Emerald wheezed, returning the hug even though his air supply had been temporarily cut off. Mari let him go so he could catch his breath. "Looks like you and your friends were looking for this guy. Where'd you pick them up? Orre?"
"I wish!" Mari said. "A Porygon Z with a weird power brought them here from a different dimension. They have beyblades." Ray, Max and Daichi automatically pulled out their beyblades to show.
"Cool toy," Emerald said, staring at the beyblades in wonder. "Delcatty would love playing with that."
"It's not a toy!" Tyson growled, stamping up to the trainer. "It's a complicated piece of machinery used in beybattle. See? This is the reason why I hate this world."
"Tyson, will you just shut up about this already?" Hilary snapped. "Of course people in a different dimension don't understand beyblades, that's not even a surprise."
Mari giggled. "Don't mind Tyson. But Kai, we were going to get you to see Professor Birch after we found you. If you'd like to participate in the Pokémon Gym Challenge like some of your friends then there are a few things you need to be briefed on, as well as some documents you need to get."
"No big thing! I did all of the briefing on the way here," Emerald said proudly. "All he needs is a Pokédex and he's set!"
"A Pokédex?" Kai parroted.
"It's a pretty cool device," Ray said, taking his new gadget out of his pocket and showing it to Kai. "It's like an encyclopaedia for all of this world's creatures and the professors at the lab will input personal data in it for you. It's a valid form of ID and can be used as a passport and a research device."
"Useful, eh?" Emerald said, nudging Kai in the shoulder. "Don't have to worry about training him up, he's really tough. Saw him trying to take on a Magikarp with his own bare hands. Even caught it."
The party blinked.
"Wow… what's a Magikarp?" Hilary asked. Ray was already searching through the Pokédex.
"Magikarp, the fish Pokémon. Magikarp is virtually useless in battle as it can only splash around. Because of this it is considered to be weak. However, it is actually very hardy and can survive in any body of water no matter how polluted."
Kai's eyebrows rose. "So it's actually weak?"
"Course it is," Mari said matter-of-factly. "Though… always wished I'd had one during my travels. Gyarados are too hard to catch."
"I assume Gyarados must be powerful then," Ray said, "but how does having a Magikarp-"
"Pokémon evolution," Emerald interrupted. "Train up a Pokémon enough and it'll evolve. Weak Pokémon like Magikarp or ugly Pokémon like Feebas have the potential to grow strong and beautiful through the wonder of evolution."
"Hard to train a Magikarp but it's worth it," Mari added.
"All of this information is making my head spin," Max moaned. "Just stop telling me things! I'm still trying to process all of that information about Pokémon League and Gym Challenge rules."
"I know," Mari said. "Way too much to learn. You'll get the hang of it eventually. Try it out yourself when you're out there."
The egg in Kai's arms suddenly squeaked. Kai looked down when the egg in his arms began to wiggle more enthusiastically than before, squeaking like a baby bird. Everyone stared at it in alarm as if just noticing it for the first time. Kai held it out at arms length and watched it closely. The top part cracked perfectly around the shell. A pair of curious eyes peered out at him through the gap. A tiny pair of arms and feet also popped out of the shell. The group watched the egg with baited breath but nothing else happened. It seemed it was finished hatching even though it only looked like it was half finished. Kai removed the piece of shell on its head and blunt spikes unfurled, exuding a sweet aroma. The group blinked.
"Did that egg-thing just hatch?" Tyson said.
Hilary squealed. "That's a Pokémon too, right? It's adorable!"
"Ray, what is it?" Max and Daichi asked at the same time, looking on to Ray's Pokédex since his was the only one out.
"Togepi, the spike ball Pokémon. The shell seems to be filled with joy. It is said that it will share good luck when treated kindly. Popular proverb claims happiness will come to anyone who can make a sleeping Togepi stand up."
Tyson laughed. "I so can't imagine that thing with Kai. I think it should be Max's Pokémon."
Max looked up from Ray's Pokédex. "Why me?"
"It'll bring good luck if you treat it kindly. I'm sure a pretty happy-go-lucky guy like you can do that better than grumpy-face Kai can." Tyson snatched the Togepi from Kai's arms and it immediately began to wail. Tears streamed from its eyes like waterfalls and its cry was so loud that the others covered their ears and could still hear it loud and clear.
"Tyson, make it stop!" Emerald shouted over the crying.
"I don't know how!" Tyson yelled back. "Max, you try!"
Tyson tossed it to Max. Max had to uncover his ears to catch it. He winced at the piercing scream assaulting his eardrums. He tried to bounce it a little but it just squirmed and threatened to fall out of his hands. He turned to the left and thrust it into Ray's hands. Ray balked and fumbled with the Pokémon and his Pokédex. With how much the Togepi was wiggling, they were both gradually slipping out of his hands so he did the first thing that came to mind – he passed it to Daichi. Daichi had absolutely no idea what to do and gave it to Hilary as soon as it was in his hands. Hilary tried to placate it by rocking it but that didn't seem to have any effect. She looked around for someone else to try but there was nobody next to her to hand it off to. Eventually she just ran up to Kai and pushed the Pokémon into his chest. Kai put his hands up and leaned away as if he wanted nothing to do with it but Hilary insisted:
"You had the egg! It's your problem!"
Kai shook his head to refuse but the party was staring at him wide-eyed in shock. His ears were still ringing a little bit but he could tell that it was definitely quieter. He looked down. Togepi wiped huge teardrops from its face and looked up at him with a smile. Kai's eyes darted to the faces of each person in the group with a silent plea to take it away from him but their faces had all turned from being shocked to expectant. Kai slowly and hesitantly lowered his arms to take hold of the Togepi. Hilary immediately let go and jumped back as if touching it for any longer than necessary would start the ordeal all over again. So Kai stood there, awkwardly cradling a newly hatched Pokémon while it snuggled into his shirt.
"Brrrrrrrrr!" it cooed.
"Aw… that's kind of cute," Hilary giggled.
"What the hell just happened?" Tyson wondered.
"Oh God, why?" Max muttered. "Why did you think that was a good idea, Tyson?"
Ray toggled some buttons on his Pokédex and it answered for him: "Togepi is unusual in that it is one of few Pokémon that remains utterly infantile until its evolution. In fact, it is so infantile that it will believe the first person or Pokémon it sees is its mother."
That explanation only served to make Tyson snicker. "Are you serious? Kai's going to be a mommy now?!"
Kai shot him a deadly glare but it didn't seem to faze his rival.
"Haha! Oh my gosh!" Tyson guffawed. "That thing thinks you're its mom! That's just hilarious!"
Kai was about to bite back with a vicious retort but Mari got between the two of them before he could speak. "Looks like Kai has two Pokémon then. The rest of you had better catch up! Faster we get on the road the better."
"Hang on," Emerald cut in, stopping Mari in her tracks. "It's almost lunchtime. Why don't you all eat first then assemble your packs and get going a bit later? While you get Kai outfitted at the lab, I'll go around to my grandma's house and see if she minds having a few guests."
"Seriously?" Tyson and Daichi exclaimed.
"That's really nice of you to offer," Ray said. "But-"
"We are so there!" Tyson interrupted.
"Oh, Tyson. He'll never turn down free food," Hilary muttered.
A/N: Kai... stop deconstructing the universe, just enjoy the Pokemon. Also, there is a legitimate rationale for Emerald's name - It's just Brendan in Emerald ver. garb.