"The horrific appearance of the strange creatures, known for years as the childrens' marketing craze 'Pokémon', has been a deadly day for the world." The news reader said sadly. "The death count has already topped one billion, and is rising fast. It is believed that another billion, maybe two, are badly injured and without proper medical treatment, which is obviously unavailable for so many, will probably die within the week."
"Oh god..." One of the others in the house sobbed, holding his head in his hands. The news reader droned on, explaining how cities worldwide had been leveled, some burnt, some frozen, some still crackling with electricity...
"How could this have happened?" Asked a friend of Callan and Andrew's, Owen. He had only just escaped his house as it collapsed under an Onix's huge bulk; his right arm was broken and right leg badly injured, but he was a fighter and didn't show the pain. "I don't even like Pokémon. Now they're trying to kill everyone on earth."
"I think they're just confused." Callan said softly. "They've just vanished from their world into ours, in random spots, trained ones losing their trainers, free ones losing their families..."
"Yeah, but that's no excuse for killing off a sixth of the world's population in one day." Andrew said, even softer.
"I just got an idea..." Callan said, looking brighter suddenly. "Come on, Andrew, I'll explain on the way."
He ran out, snatching up a backpack as he went, leaving andrew to follow.
"Pokéballs..." Andrew looked over the thousands of balls in the crate.
"Yep!" Callan said, pulling out two smaller crates and opening them up. "Great and Ultra balls too, by the look of it." The next two boxes were full of more ornate pokéballs, the great balls having blue instead of red in the coloured section and a 'G' printed in green type, and the Ultra balls purplish with a large 'U' in yellow.
"Hmmm... D'you think we can just take 'em?"
"Think about it Andrew. If we go out and capture Pokémon, we'll be trying to save a few people from the Pokémon, right? Services for all mankind and all that." Callan tried to keep a straight face as he said this, but failed.
"You're beginning to sound as corny as the people on the show." Andrew pointed out with a laugh, but picked up some of each type anyway, putting them in the backpack. "But you still sound much more intelligent." He grinned.
"T'ain't hard." Callan scooped up Ultra balls by the handful.
"So you want to head out on a pokémon journey, sorta thing?"
"Yeah, works for me."
"Well, what would count for a Pokémon laboratory?"
"What use is that?"
"Well, we'd need some pokédexes, so we can keep more than six Pokémon at once..."
"Why not just keep them all together?"
Andrew shrugged. "Spose so."
"And anyway, we know practically all there is to know about the damn things, so who cares?"
"You're right, I guess." Andrew sighed.
"Come on, we'd better get home and pack some stuff."
"Right." Andrew, usually the dominant of the two, was shocked at how fast Callan had taken charge. But he didn't mind, and ran after Callan back to his home in the fading dusk light.
"What's that?" Andrew asked. A bright light was flaring near Callan's house.
"Three guesses." Callan, although nearly exhausted, ran harder. He dropped the backpack, heavy with over a hundred pokéballs, greatballs and Ultraballs.
The light turned out to be a Charmeleon. In a quick glance he took in the situation: It had suprised Squirtle, who he had left behind to guard the house, and kicked it into a wall. One of the people he didn't know who had taken shelter in his house was lying on the floor, burnt quite badly. It was growling at the rest, threatening them.
"Oh, this is just great..." Andrew commented.
"I've got an idea..." Callan said carefully, digging in his his pocket for the disc of metal he had found in his room. Holding it in his hand, he began to sneak up behind the Charmeleon.
"What are you..." Andrew began to whisper, but Callan tensed and waved for him to be quiet. He was only a couple of metres from the fiery Pokémon when it swiveled around and regarded him with pure hatred and suspicion.
"Charrr....." It released a low growl and started circling him warily. Callan, holding the disc in front of him like a cross to a vampire, turned to follow it.
"Chaaaaaar!" Unexpectedly, the Charmeleon let loose with an impressive flamethrower. Callan braced himself to be hit, but never was. The fire came within about a foot of the disc then seemed to weaken as it got closer until it was barely hot smoke when it hit Callan. He grinned, feeling invincible.
"Yah!" He jumped at the confused Charmeleon, and managed to press the disc onto it's back. It gave a roar of pain and clawed futily at Callan, then let out another weak roar and dropped to the ground.
"Damn this thing's cool." Callan put the disc back in his pocket, and the others in the house looked at him like he was a god.
"Wha... what did you do to it?" Asked Andrew's sister.
"Half froze it solid by the look of things." Andrew bent down to check it. "It's still alive, barely."
"Be back in a moment." Callan raced off again, to where they'd come from.
"Where did you two go?" Callan's father asked Andrew. "About ten seconds after you ran off, that blue Squirtly or whatever just flew across the room and hit the wall, and that red creature appeared."
"We went down to the local shop." Andrew said, standing up.
"And got some of these." Added Callan, who came up again holding the discarded backpack. He took one of the pokéballs out of the backpack, and tossed it lightly, hitting the half-frozen Pokémon easily. It was sucked in, causing more comment among the others.
"How'd you do that?"
"What did you do?"
"It's a pokéball. Maybe if we all survive you might try to learn a bit about Pokémon." Andrew said.
"Andrew." Callan nudged him. "Calm down. You know pokémon isn't popular for most. Especially now."
"Yeah, you're right." Andrew said. "I think it's a bit ironic that these guys have been telling us that we're way too old for pokémon and should give it up, and now..."
"Yeah, I know." Callan looked at the ball in his hand, containing the injured Charmeleon. He held it out to Andrew. "Here, this one's for you. I'm not really into the fire-types."
"Gee, thanks." Andrew said, half sarcastic and half sincere. "It's not really gonna be much use unless we find a pokemon center somewhere in town."
"And plus, if we're gonna leave these guys, we should leave something to protect them."
"Hmmm..." Andrew suddenly had an idea. "Do you have another backpack?"
"Yeah, sure... it's in my bedroom..." Callan realised he was talking to blank air. Andrew reappeared a few seconds later.
"It's about time I had a good idea." Andrew said. "Be back soon. See if you can catch a pokemon for the nice people here." He ran off.
"Is it just me, or is this getting repeditive?" Callan asked no-one in particular. "Oh well."
With a grunt of effort, he climbed on top of the house, something he had done a lot in the past. He sat down and watched for hostile pokemon, fiddling with the ultra-cold disc in deep thought.
"Wha? Why? I can see for miles up here."
"Yeah, if you were actually looking. And the downside of that is that you can be seen for miles as well. And anyway, it's practically pitch black, so you can't see anywhere."
"Well, what difference would it make? If they'd attack me, they'd attack the house, like as not." Callan took three jumps, from roof to ledge to... a tree that he remembered too late had been removed by a Machoke to take down a nearby policeman. Callan landed awkwardly on all fours.
"Ow... slightly..." He rubbed his knees, trying to ignore the intense pain in his right wrist.
"You okay?"
"Bumped and bruised..." He said slowly, getting up and swivelling his wrist, then cried out in pain.
"Ow! Geez!" He held it up. He could still move all his fingers, so it probably wasn't broken, but it really hurt.
"I don't think it's too serious, but you can throw the pokéballs for a while."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Callan said, his expression saying the exact opposite. "What did you get, anyway?"
"Think. If the shop sells pokeballs, then it's probably going to sell..."
"Potions! Why didn't I think of that?"
"I think I read somewhere these things work on humans..." Andrew said. "Wanna try it?"
"Go for it." Callan held out his injured wrist. Andrew opened the bag, and took a container shaped like a spray gun, and with a tag saying 'Potion: 300'. Before the 300 there was a weird symbol, unlike any they'd seen before.
Andrew gave the thing a few squirts onto Callan's wrist. Callan howled in pain as there was a sickening snap, and with a quick hit knocked the potion out of Andrew's hand onto a rock where it smashed.
"Whoa!" Andrew backed off, scared. Callan calmed down and felt his wrist. It still ached, but didn't hurt nearly as much as it had before.
"Damn, must of been dislocated or something." He muttered. "Hey, what are you scared of?"
Andrew had turned white. He tried to regain his composure, without much success.
"I dunno, don't worry." He tried to sound calm. Whatever that was, it was weird...
"Well, we'll heal up Squirtle and Chameleon and see if we can find a pokémon to leave with these guys for protection.
"OK." Callan pulled out the ball containing Squirtle from his pocket. It seemed mostly recovered.
"Ahh, don't worry about it. Stay out anyway, Squirtle."
"Charmeleon, go!" Andrew called out the half-dead pokémon. Squirtle growled quietly, backing onto Callan's legs as if protecting him.
Andrew pulled a potion out of the backpack, thought for a moment, put it back and pulled out a super potion. Spraying it all over Charmeleon's frozen back, then a little on the front and tail. The flame on it's tail grew much larger quite quickly, and it started to stir.
"These things are pretty effective." Callan commented
"Hey, what do you say we go pokemon hunting tomorrow? It's like 11:00 here."
"24 hours." Callan said thoughtfully. "One day of pokemon, and this much damage done..."
"So what do you think the Earth will look like in a week?"
"Apocalyptic aftermath." Callan grinned gravely. "Earth's population reduced to millions. By a month, it'll be thousands."
"Unless people get to know their pokémon."
"Not a chance."
"Nup."
"Come on, let's go to bed."
Callan plopped onto his bed and was asleep within minutes. Andrew stayed awake, brewing.
Was that guy even human? He could hold a disc of metal which was impossibly cold, stop fire attacks in their tracks...
And when Andrew had sprayed the potion on him, the cry he gave was anything but human. And he could have sworn that, for a split second, Callan's dark brown eyes had glowed royal blue...