Darkness Approaches - Chapter 1
[45 years after "Pokémon: The 1st Movie.]
[Mewtwo lifted his head and sniffed the breeze. Around him, on the top of a tropical mountain in the Irokan continent, Butterfree played, Vulpix romped, and the Pidgey and Spearow sang. But something didn't feel right. Then it hit him - a wave of nausea, forcing him to his knees, gasping for breath. The feeling was surrounding him, and then it focused. From the north. It was coming from the north. Mewtwo looked up, and noticed that all the other Pokémon were frozen in place, all staring northward. The feeling intensified, and he fell to the ground. It called to him, pulling him to it. "I must go" he thought. Then, as abruptly as it started, the feeling fled. The field returned to normal, but Mewtwo could not forget the pull of that unknown feeling. Turning back for one last look at his peaceful home, he began his journey north.]
Note: Irokan=fourth continent in the Pokémon world, as yet undiscovered by humans. It is in the southern hemisphere, off the south coast of Hoenn. [Why? What is it? Why is it there? What is causing it? Why are no other Pokémon attracted to it, but repelled? Is it something about me? Could I be imagining-no, I'm much too powerful for that. But what, then?]
[As Mewtwo crosses into the south Hoenn continent, he encounters a gigantic hurricane]
[What is this? I am in Hoenn. renowned for its docile weather. There hasn't been a major tropical storm here since. As long as I can remember. But, wait. The storm is moving too fast to be natural. Even I can barely hold myself steady. (Mewtwo is surrounded by a ball of psychic energy.) Wait! Kyogre?]
Kyogre: {Who are you?}
{I am Mewtwo.}
Kyogre: {What do you want?}
{That is none of your business.}
Kyogre: {You want to know about the storm. I created the storm.}
[A Delcatty flies past, caught in the storm.]
{Why?}
Kyogre: {I am headed north. The power of this storm will carry me over land, where I could not normally travel.}
{North? I'm headed north, as well. why are you going?}
Kyogre: {That is none of your business. }
[A Miltank bounces off of Mewtwo's psychic bubble, as the storm rages.]
{You felt drawn to it. Yes.}
[Kyogre rides the storm, and Mewtwo floats in his little (purple) psychic bubble as the two head north.]
----------
[Kaira, a 16-year old girl, lives in northern Johto, and works for an obscure radio company named JPKMN (J-Pokémon) in the northwestern town of Rosewood. Her house is southeast of the town, and she attends Rosewood High, working on the weekends. She also looks remarkably like the girl from Pokémon crystal, but with brown hair.]
Outside her window, Pigdey (PIHJ-dee), her Pidgey, welcomed the new day with a song. Well, it would have been a song if Pigdey could sing. "I wish she'd shut up in the mornings." Kaira thought as she got dressed, Pigdey still muddling through a song.
"Honey, breakfast!" Her mom called from downstairs.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." Kaira called back.
Downstairs, Kaira's mom has prepared -- Wait for it-- A BOWL OF INSTANT OATMEAL! (Which is the only thing she can safely cook without starting a fire.)
"So, Kaira, how do you like breakfast?"
"As much as I liked it yesterday, mom."
"Good to hear that, honey. Ever since. That day. I feel like I need to do my best to care for you."
"And as much as I liked it all last week, and last month." Kaira mumbled to herself.
"What?"
"Nothing, mom. Um, how's Red doing?"
[Red was one of Kaira's Mom's Magikarp, which she kept in a pond out back. Recently, he'd taken ill.]
"Well, I gave him some of that herbal tea that Mrs. Billows told me would be so good for him, and he seems much better already!"
[Mrs. Billows - town gossip. FYI, Billows are also what blacksmiths use to keep their fires going; they're bags full of air. Hot air. Enough hints already.]
"Really?" Kaira asked, understandably surprised.
"Well, no. But he did move to the other side of the pond this morning." Her mom added hopefully.
"Mom, Mrs. Billows is. well, Y'know. A little, um. Old-fashioned. She's a little. Behind the curve, so to spe-"
"Kaira! You're being very rude to Poor Mrs. Billows. After her husband passed away, it's the least we could do to humor her, even if her remedies do tend to. be a little alternative."
"Yeah, just like making someone sick is an alternative to healing them-"
"Kaira!"
"Oh, fine, all right, I'll lay off." Kaira said as she finished her oatmeal. "And mom. Tomorrow, do you think we could have something different?"
"Different? How so?" Asked her mom, not taking the hint. "I think we're pretty well off right now and-"
"Like, for breakfast."
"Oh. But, honey, you know what happens when I try to cook."
"Mom, it's ok. I'll make breakfast tomorrow."
"Really? You'd do that? I thought teenagers were required by law to be lazy and unhelpful."
*rolls her eyes* "Sure mom. Sleep in tomorrow, ok? I'm going to go feed Pigdey now." Kaira leaves the kitchen, and walks onto the porch, grabbing a bag of Pidgey feed on the way.
"Pigdey! Breakfast!"
"PrrrrrgedyeeeeaaA?"
"Yeah, you're going to have to give all of us a break - last time I checked, you can't eat and sing at the same time."
"Krrrooo." Pigdey cooed dejectedly.
"Don't worry, you'll get it eventually; I could almost recognize the song this morning."
[WRONG thing to say; Pigdey is *very* vain about its singing.]
"KROOO! PRR!" Pigdey hissed as it flew back into a tree and looked down at Kaira with a "Come-and-get-me" expression.
"Fine, if that's how you want to be."
"Prrrdge."
"Alright. See you after work! And take care of mom for me, okay? Red, too."
"Prdge."
[Kaira grabs her backpack off the front porch chair, and heads off to work, and, as Pigdey watches her disappear around the corner, someone behind it, unnoticed, smiles. Pigdey, caught off-guard by a terribly wave of nausea, cries out and flies into the air, circling in panic before shooting through the open window, past a startled mother, and under Kaira's bed. ]
----------
[Tarakuno (Tah rah KUU no) is a 17 year-old male who lives in the Northern Johto town of Rosewood. He attends Rosewood High, and lives with his aunt in an apartment north-west of town. He has blue eyes, black hair, and is tall for his age.]
"TARAKUNO! GET UP! BREAKFAST!" his aunt shouted up at him, banging on the attic door. "YOUR BREAKFAST IS GETTING COLD AND I WILL NOT REHEAT IT AND YOU ARE GOING TO BE LATE FOR THE BUS AND I AM NOT GOING TO DRIVE YOU TO SCHOOL AND-"
"Geez, alright, I'm up." Tarakuno said groggily. "Give me a break. Every single day you wake me up at 6:00 in the morning like the end of the world is coming. Y'know, I can get myself up."
"You always say that, Taka [her nickname for him]"
"Well, it's true."
"So?" his aunt spat "You've yet to date to get yourself up"
"Auntie, that's because it's a 10 minute walk and 30 minute bus ride to school. I could sleep in until 7:30 if you didn't make me catch the bus."
"The bus is much safer. All kinds of people lurk on the streets this early."
"It wouldn't be early if you let me sleep in."
"ENOUGH. By now your breakfast is cold, and don't come complaining to me, because I told you so."
Tarakuno groaned, and slipped into his jeans and t-shirt. "Respect your elders." He kept repeating to himself. "Respect your elders." Later, over breakfast, Auntie (whose real name was Jekanufaruumataya, but everyone, at least everyone Tarakuno knew, called her 'Auntie') was absentmindedly stirring her tea when her eyes popped open like one who has just remembered something important.
"Taka, dear, Mrs. Billows and I have some important business after school at the Game Corner [Which, incidentally, featured bingo], so you're to lock all the windows and doors as soon as you get home, and keep them that way until 8 o' clock, when I'll be home, and you're not to answer the door for anyone but me, and you're not to answer the pho-"
"Auntie, I *know* all this. Every time you go somewhere, you tell me to lock myself up and isolate myself. Why? It's not like the world's out to get me." At his words, Auntie (Who can also be called Jeka Fuma, formally, or just Jeka) stiffened, and then her face softened out of its usual sharp scolding mold.
"And every time I tell you to be careful, you complain. What's wrong with being safe? Better safe than sorry."
"Auntie, there is such thing as *too much* of a good thing. Like safety."
"Just do it, dear, okay?"
"All right, auntie."
"Thank you. I'll be off now." [Auntie, or Jeka, works at a pokéball manufacturing plant. Not the most glamorous work, but there's not much demand for old female workers. Tarakuno works, too, but only on weekends, and he studies as an apprentice berry refiner (custom pokéballs) so he doesn't get paid.]
Tarakuno finished his breakfast in silence, then watched TV and played with his Sandshrew, Renwa, until 8:40, when he walked to school. As Renwa watched him head into the city, he suddenly felt incredibly nauseous, and fell to the ground, vomiting. It quickly passed, and he spent the rest of the day hiding under the couch.
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU FINISHED THE INTRODUCTION. You've met our main characters, now the action can begin!]
Author: Gengar003 His Website: TACorner.com His AIM: PGS Webbie Pokemon copyright Nintendo.
[45 years after "Pokémon: The 1st Movie.]
[Mewtwo lifted his head and sniffed the breeze. Around him, on the top of a tropical mountain in the Irokan continent, Butterfree played, Vulpix romped, and the Pidgey and Spearow sang. But something didn't feel right. Then it hit him - a wave of nausea, forcing him to his knees, gasping for breath. The feeling was surrounding him, and then it focused. From the north. It was coming from the north. Mewtwo looked up, and noticed that all the other Pokémon were frozen in place, all staring northward. The feeling intensified, and he fell to the ground. It called to him, pulling him to it. "I must go" he thought. Then, as abruptly as it started, the feeling fled. The field returned to normal, but Mewtwo could not forget the pull of that unknown feeling. Turning back for one last look at his peaceful home, he began his journey north.]
Note: Irokan=fourth continent in the Pokémon world, as yet undiscovered by humans. It is in the southern hemisphere, off the south coast of Hoenn. [Why? What is it? Why is it there? What is causing it? Why are no other Pokémon attracted to it, but repelled? Is it something about me? Could I be imagining-no, I'm much too powerful for that. But what, then?]
[As Mewtwo crosses into the south Hoenn continent, he encounters a gigantic hurricane]
[What is this? I am in Hoenn. renowned for its docile weather. There hasn't been a major tropical storm here since. As long as I can remember. But, wait. The storm is moving too fast to be natural. Even I can barely hold myself steady. (Mewtwo is surrounded by a ball of psychic energy.) Wait! Kyogre?]
Kyogre: {Who are you?}
{I am Mewtwo.}
Kyogre: {What do you want?}
{That is none of your business.}
Kyogre: {You want to know about the storm. I created the storm.}
[A Delcatty flies past, caught in the storm.]
{Why?}
Kyogre: {I am headed north. The power of this storm will carry me over land, where I could not normally travel.}
{North? I'm headed north, as well. why are you going?}
Kyogre: {That is none of your business. }
[A Miltank bounces off of Mewtwo's psychic bubble, as the storm rages.]
{You felt drawn to it. Yes.}
[Kyogre rides the storm, and Mewtwo floats in his little (purple) psychic bubble as the two head north.]
----------
[Kaira, a 16-year old girl, lives in northern Johto, and works for an obscure radio company named JPKMN (J-Pokémon) in the northwestern town of Rosewood. Her house is southeast of the town, and she attends Rosewood High, working on the weekends. She also looks remarkably like the girl from Pokémon crystal, but with brown hair.]
Outside her window, Pigdey (PIHJ-dee), her Pidgey, welcomed the new day with a song. Well, it would have been a song if Pigdey could sing. "I wish she'd shut up in the mornings." Kaira thought as she got dressed, Pigdey still muddling through a song.
"Honey, breakfast!" Her mom called from downstairs.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." Kaira called back.
Downstairs, Kaira's mom has prepared -- Wait for it-- A BOWL OF INSTANT OATMEAL! (Which is the only thing she can safely cook without starting a fire.)
"So, Kaira, how do you like breakfast?"
"As much as I liked it yesterday, mom."
"Good to hear that, honey. Ever since. That day. I feel like I need to do my best to care for you."
"And as much as I liked it all last week, and last month." Kaira mumbled to herself.
"What?"
"Nothing, mom. Um, how's Red doing?"
[Red was one of Kaira's Mom's Magikarp, which she kept in a pond out back. Recently, he'd taken ill.]
"Well, I gave him some of that herbal tea that Mrs. Billows told me would be so good for him, and he seems much better already!"
[Mrs. Billows - town gossip. FYI, Billows are also what blacksmiths use to keep their fires going; they're bags full of air. Hot air. Enough hints already.]
"Really?" Kaira asked, understandably surprised.
"Well, no. But he did move to the other side of the pond this morning." Her mom added hopefully.
"Mom, Mrs. Billows is. well, Y'know. A little, um. Old-fashioned. She's a little. Behind the curve, so to spe-"
"Kaira! You're being very rude to Poor Mrs. Billows. After her husband passed away, it's the least we could do to humor her, even if her remedies do tend to. be a little alternative."
"Yeah, just like making someone sick is an alternative to healing them-"
"Kaira!"
"Oh, fine, all right, I'll lay off." Kaira said as she finished her oatmeal. "And mom. Tomorrow, do you think we could have something different?"
"Different? How so?" Asked her mom, not taking the hint. "I think we're pretty well off right now and-"
"Like, for breakfast."
"Oh. But, honey, you know what happens when I try to cook."
"Mom, it's ok. I'll make breakfast tomorrow."
"Really? You'd do that? I thought teenagers were required by law to be lazy and unhelpful."
*rolls her eyes* "Sure mom. Sleep in tomorrow, ok? I'm going to go feed Pigdey now." Kaira leaves the kitchen, and walks onto the porch, grabbing a bag of Pidgey feed on the way.
"Pigdey! Breakfast!"
"PrrrrrgedyeeeeaaA?"
"Yeah, you're going to have to give all of us a break - last time I checked, you can't eat and sing at the same time."
"Krrrooo." Pigdey cooed dejectedly.
"Don't worry, you'll get it eventually; I could almost recognize the song this morning."
[WRONG thing to say; Pigdey is *very* vain about its singing.]
"KROOO! PRR!" Pigdey hissed as it flew back into a tree and looked down at Kaira with a "Come-and-get-me" expression.
"Fine, if that's how you want to be."
"Prrrdge."
"Alright. See you after work! And take care of mom for me, okay? Red, too."
"Prdge."
[Kaira grabs her backpack off the front porch chair, and heads off to work, and, as Pigdey watches her disappear around the corner, someone behind it, unnoticed, smiles. Pigdey, caught off-guard by a terribly wave of nausea, cries out and flies into the air, circling in panic before shooting through the open window, past a startled mother, and under Kaira's bed. ]
----------
[Tarakuno (Tah rah KUU no) is a 17 year-old male who lives in the Northern Johto town of Rosewood. He attends Rosewood High, and lives with his aunt in an apartment north-west of town. He has blue eyes, black hair, and is tall for his age.]
"TARAKUNO! GET UP! BREAKFAST!" his aunt shouted up at him, banging on the attic door. "YOUR BREAKFAST IS GETTING COLD AND I WILL NOT REHEAT IT AND YOU ARE GOING TO BE LATE FOR THE BUS AND I AM NOT GOING TO DRIVE YOU TO SCHOOL AND-"
"Geez, alright, I'm up." Tarakuno said groggily. "Give me a break. Every single day you wake me up at 6:00 in the morning like the end of the world is coming. Y'know, I can get myself up."
"You always say that, Taka [her nickname for him]"
"Well, it's true."
"So?" his aunt spat "You've yet to date to get yourself up"
"Auntie, that's because it's a 10 minute walk and 30 minute bus ride to school. I could sleep in until 7:30 if you didn't make me catch the bus."
"The bus is much safer. All kinds of people lurk on the streets this early."
"It wouldn't be early if you let me sleep in."
"ENOUGH. By now your breakfast is cold, and don't come complaining to me, because I told you so."
Tarakuno groaned, and slipped into his jeans and t-shirt. "Respect your elders." He kept repeating to himself. "Respect your elders." Later, over breakfast, Auntie (whose real name was Jekanufaruumataya, but everyone, at least everyone Tarakuno knew, called her 'Auntie') was absentmindedly stirring her tea when her eyes popped open like one who has just remembered something important.
"Taka, dear, Mrs. Billows and I have some important business after school at the Game Corner [Which, incidentally, featured bingo], so you're to lock all the windows and doors as soon as you get home, and keep them that way until 8 o' clock, when I'll be home, and you're not to answer the door for anyone but me, and you're not to answer the pho-"
"Auntie, I *know* all this. Every time you go somewhere, you tell me to lock myself up and isolate myself. Why? It's not like the world's out to get me." At his words, Auntie (Who can also be called Jeka Fuma, formally, or just Jeka) stiffened, and then her face softened out of its usual sharp scolding mold.
"And every time I tell you to be careful, you complain. What's wrong with being safe? Better safe than sorry."
"Auntie, there is such thing as *too much* of a good thing. Like safety."
"Just do it, dear, okay?"
"All right, auntie."
"Thank you. I'll be off now." [Auntie, or Jeka, works at a pokéball manufacturing plant. Not the most glamorous work, but there's not much demand for old female workers. Tarakuno works, too, but only on weekends, and he studies as an apprentice berry refiner (custom pokéballs) so he doesn't get paid.]
Tarakuno finished his breakfast in silence, then watched TV and played with his Sandshrew, Renwa, until 8:40, when he walked to school. As Renwa watched him head into the city, he suddenly felt incredibly nauseous, and fell to the ground, vomiting. It quickly passed, and he spent the rest of the day hiding under the couch.
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU FINISHED THE INTRODUCTION. You've met our main characters, now the action can begin!]
Author: Gengar003 His Website: TACorner.com His AIM: PGS Webbie Pokemon copyright Nintendo.