When Dark Falls
Chapter 2
1st June 2005 (original)
24th July 2005 (rewrite)
Ranma descended into the wooded area slowly, gazing around and taking in his surroundings. He was amazed at the various animals around; a horse with flames coming from it, several buffalo stampeded past, strange that they had 3 tails. A few mouse-like animals of purple scampered past, chased by a larger rat of brown and white, "Raticate!"
Ranma turned to shroud, "Well, looks good don't you think? I wonder who owns all this? Perhaps we could stay here a while and find out what that board over there about 'pokemon' is all about." Shroud blinked, he'd just been eyeing a female Vaporeon, so hadn't heard what Ranma had said, "eon?" Ranma replied absently, "If we're nice enough maybe whoever owns this place will let us stay. You'd like that wouldn't you?"
"Umbreon…"
………
"Hello there, where did you come from? I didn't know Professor Elm had a child?" Ranma swung round the instant the person's mouth opened, ready to waste his opponent, but came face to face with a girl's kind face and smile. He blinked, "Erm, actually I don't know who this Professor Elm is. Me and Shroud just came out of there" He pointed to the forest, "and wondered who owned this place. I mean, I've nowhere to go, neither does Shroud, and I'd actually like to get home, where ever home is."
"Oh my, such a polite little dear, come on then, I'm Casey Professor Elm's helper. I take care of the house and the meals, and he plays around with his pokemon research. I'm not even sure how he gets it done when he's head scared of some of them." She paused here, "I suppose it's why he hired Silver. Dear boy had to leave though when the League opened again. C'mon, let's get you inside!" "Umbreon…"
She poured out drinks and put out snacks for Ranma and Shroud, both of whom ate quickly. Then she took them to a cluttered room with bits of paper strewn everywhere and several computers running; somehow, she didn't have to deliberately make her way around the mess like Ranma and Shroud, and instead just walked over all of it. Strange indeed how the mess seemed a little neater when she passed, "Professor? I think we've found your new ranch hand."
Professor Elm stood from the pile he'd been digging through and screamed, "TIGER!" All three face faulted and Shroud added an eye twitch for good measure, "Eon?" Elm calmed down after that, "Alright, so you're not a tiger. What are you then?" "Umbreon!" "But Umbreon have yellow markings and red eyes, not blue markings and yellow eyes?" all of a sudden he seemed energized, "No matter! We shall see soon enough! To the Type Test Tenderizer!"
Ranma's eye twitched, "Is he always like that?" Casey smiled serenely and answered, "Oh yes, he's always so excited about pokemon in general, isn't it nice?" Ranma face faulted, "He seems raving to me. What's the Type Test Tenderizer?" She again smiled serenely, "It's just a machine that tells you the specifics of a pokemon and determines from there what pokemon it actually is. It's quite fun actually, my own Totodile loves it." Shroud face faulted this time.
………
"Here we are! Just pop your tiger in there and we'll get started!" Ranma blinked, "pop? Tiger? I don't get it." Shroud semed to though, and hopped up into the machine which resembled a tube of sorts. Elm sat down at the console and seemed at once much more at home, "Now, let's see. A dark type, some psychic ability, some latent ice affinity, 3-foot-10-inches in height, 30 Kg mass. Closest match is indeed an Umbreon, so I'll take you down as a rare Umbreon!"
The machine opened on the other side and Shroud stalked out, jumping down and rubbing himself on Ranma, "Eon, eon, eon." Ranma smiled, "surely it wasn't that dirty?" he got an immediate response, "EON!" "Oh my!" "sorry?". Ranma sighed; would he alwas seem to be the only one with any measure of sense?
"C'mon then Ranma, you've obviously raised Umbreon well. How about helping…" There was a sudden explosion and the building shook; Ranma rushed out with Shroud as raised voices were heard, "I TOLD YOU NOT TO USE AN EXPLOSION! NOW WE CAN'T GET ANY OF THE POKEMON!" Ranma sweat dropped big time; these guys were real weirdos. Both were wearing silly white costumes that he'd only seen once before in a comic his father had snatched away instantly.
Sighing, he yelled at them, "Hey! If you want them, you ain't gonna get them free!" The pair turned, "it's a twerp! Arbok! Acid Attack!" "Wheezing! Sludge!" Ranma's eye twitched. Elm and Casey arrived just in time to see Ranma execute his attacks, "Shroud, left! O-Ruoanashingu!" Ranma had decided to name his Ki attack using the line that Shroud had used when they'd first discussed the Ki blast. Jessie and James watched in shock when their pokemon were suddenly and inexplicably blasted into unconsciousness.
"But…" "What…" were the only responses they got out before Shroud a serious set of Slash attacks to Jessie and James received a 12-punch combination to his chest. Just then a high, irritatingly nasal voice issued from behind them, "Nobody gets to bully James and Jessie like that except ME! Now get lost or you'll regret it!" Shroud slowly turned and let his eyes glow a malicious gold. Meowth took one look and decided it wasn't his day, "Err…no problem pal, I mean, just a little thought right?"
"Shroud! Shadow Ascension!" darkness surrounded both Ranma and Shroud, and suddenly caught the trespassers as well, throwing them far up into the air where they became less than a speck in the sky with a distant, "Team Rocket's throwing off again!"
………
"Now that all that's out of the way, let me ask you properly. I'm branching into pokemon research because my old friend, Professor Oak, is getting old and there are just so many new types of pokemon out there to study. I can't do it all on my own though, and I need a helper. You're not even 13, but you've already raised a very powerful Umbreon there, would you like to help?"
Ranma and Shroud had helped clean up after the brief scuffle with Team Rocket, and were now in the living room with Professor Elm, who was trying to get him to stick around. Ranma hesitated; he wasn't from this world, he was sure of that, but he knew values when he saw them. His father had gotten him to take things, he knew now it was wrong, because they were of value and people sold them. Ranma frowned; this sounded like a deal to him, but how did this really work?
On the other hand, Professor Elm thought Ranma had great business sense, "Tell you what, I'll provide room and board, and you'll of course get paid…in fact…where are your parents?" Ranma frowned even more; how could he explain this to the professor that his parents were probably not bothered about him? He sighed; he didn't know another way out of this, "I don't know. I don't even think I'm from around here. Pops threw me into the pit of cats, weird things happened, and next thing I know, I'm rescuing Shroud from dirty great birds."
Professor Elm frowned deeply; this was an academic problem, he was sure of it, but how to go about solving it? Ranma didn't seem to be especially keen on leaving, so where was the problem? Ah yes, his parents must have been left behind! Smiling for the first time, he came to his own conclusion, "Well that's alright isn't it? We'll just have to get you your account without the bother of parents. Either Casey or I will be your guardian instead, alright?" Ranma grinned…
………
Several months passed, and Shroud grew to 4 foot tall at the withers, and his markings became an even lighter shade of blue, almost white. Weighing in at almost 33 Kg, he and Ranma trained daily for a few hours each morning before going about the ranch to take care of the pokemon. Ranma still chuckled at his most enlightening conversation with Professor Elm one evening soon after he arrived…
Flashback start…
"So professor, what exactly are pokemon?" Elm had blinked several times before answering uncertainly, "You don't know what they are? I mean, you've just dealt with some of the most common species, as well as your own unique Umbreon, and you don't know what Pokemon are?" Ranma looked taken aback and somewhat confrontational at that. Elm sighed and carried on, "Those are pokemon Ranma, Shroud, the Tauros, the Ekans you found today, they're all different types of pokemon.
"I guess where you come from it's just 'animals' and that's that. Here we have animals too: the squirrel, the wolf. But we also have pokemon, which are similar to animals, but possessing very different, and far more deadly abilities. That's what pokemon are."
Flashback end…
Ranma frowned, that was certainly a good example of him not being from this world. He was broken out of his musings by a shiver coming from the bag he carried around with him. After arriving, he had let Shroud do his own thing, be it hunting, napping, or running around with several other pokemon on the ranch, but kept the pokemon egg close. Professor Elm had run some tests, but the closest he could tell was that the pokemon in the egg was healthy.
Now though, the egg was rattling and quaking. Running over to a sandbank, he sat down and held the egg firmly in his hands and called Shroud to him, "Shroud! Something's up!" his tiger-sized friend ran up and sniffed the egg, his eyes glowing. Ranma had discovered not so long ago that Shroud actually had some psychic abilities, including the ability to sense things in an uncanny way. Of course, that he sometimes talked to Ranma in his head didn't mean much, of course not.
"C'mon Shroud old buddy, tell me what's up with this guy, he's shaking!" The tiger sniffed the air again and stared into Ranma's eyes, "He's going to hatch. I'd recommend digging a shallow hole and letting him hatch in there." Ranma jerked up, "Yea, you're right!" immediately he charged a relatively tiny ball of ki and blew a small hole in the sand and set the egg in it. The egg seemed to expand as if trying to hold onto something ever growing, then the egg burst open, and a green blur jumped out and held onto Ranma tightly, "Scyther!"
"Wow, a Scyther! Looks smaller than I expected though, isn't it meant to be somewhat larger?" He stopped and cuddled the scyther; a stray pikachu came over and nuzzled the green pokemon. "Oh well, let's get this guy inside then. Shroud, could you let Casey know I need some food and drink for a baby Scyther." The pikachu ran off back to its parents, and Ranma was free to run into the kitchen where Casey was already putting out food.
She looked up and smiled at Ranma before leaning in and giving the Scyther a special smile, "Isn't he cute? I called Professor Oak because Professor Elm is not quite as knowledgeable on pokemon feeding habits. He said to give you these to feed to Scyther and to name him soon. I'll take care of the ranch today; you have fun now, c'mon Shroud!" Ranma cast a bemused glance at her retreating back before sitting down at the table and letting Scyther discover food for himself, "Scyther!"
………
Several more months passed, and Ranma's birthday came. Scyther would reach maturity soon and Ranma had started training him in the martial arts. Not anywhere near the level of Shroud, but he was getting close. Soon after the hatching, Ranma had named Scyther 'Kire' using the Japanese kanji for 'cut' or 'slice'. Scyther had been inordinately pleased and the kanji was soon inscribed between his eyes, 4-foot-11-inches above ground level.
Ranma himself had also grown. Between leaving his home, living with his father on the road, and living with Shroud in the forest, his growth had taken a downturn when it shouldn't have. Fortunately, proper nutrition from Casey set him right, and he now stood at the threshold of puberty at 5-foot-2-inches in height. He'd recently mastered converting ki to other forms of energy, starting with dark energy because it was the closest to him from Shroud, then moving onto fire, ice, electricity, water, grass, bug, and very limited success with the psychic attacks. He'd decided against the poison attacks because he didn't like the use of poison; he also had no idea what ground, rock, and dragon attacks looked like, so he couldn't imitate those either.
Shroud was having great success with the dark, psychic, ice, and electrical attacks, but pretty limited success with the others. Upon researching it with people like Professor Oak, he found that dark types like Shroud had some weakness against fire and fighting type attacks, though Ranma really hadn't gotten round to teaching Shroud the other types yet.
Kire was another matter altogether. The day he was allowed to, he put him through the mill in running. They ran through New Bark Town again and again and again till both couldn't take it. Kire still wasn't as fast as Ranma and didn't have the stamina, but his innate speed and agility kept him up with Ranma, who insisted he himself still needed to train. Kire's blade arms wouldn't let him do the normal Anything Goes kata, so Ranma again modified it so the green armored pokemon could practice along with Shroud and himself.
Ranma theorized that pokemon could actually grow much larger than otherwise thought through proper nutrition and exercise, based on his observations in Shroud, and the possibilities of Kire, who wasn't supposed to reach his full size for another few months.
Silver came home from the Johto League championships, making his exit at 20th place. He seemed perfectly happy with the result though, "Who needs to be so far up there? I'm happy with plain pokemon raising, and the guys'll have more time to run around." He brought Ranma another egg, saying he had no idea what would hatch. Privately, Ranma thought there was a twinkle in his eye that said otherwise, but didn't push.
Ranma also received his trainer license from Professor Elm. It came with a trainer's belt, a pokegear, and an optional vest for items like potions and apricorns. He thanked the Professor and Casey, who'd been seconder for the application, very much and proceeded to try out his presents. He had a pokeball set for Shroud and Kire, but preferred not to put them in; instead, he let them run free and have fun. Professor Elm got a faraway look in his eye as he remembered another young man, rather brash back then, with his own pokemon running around.
………
The day dawned bright and early. Ranma was up an hour before that running around the town as fast as he could with Shroud and Kire. They stopped in an open field and went straight to the katas; Kire was progressing fast, and was already on the mid-level Katas, while Ranma and Shroud went with the highly advanced sets. An hour later, Kire took a break while Ranma and Shroud sparred.
Shroud lost when Ranma caught his head with a turning kick, and Kire came on for Shroud against Ranma. Again, this was an almost entirely different experience; Shroud was very feline in nature and moved closer to the ground. Kire, while not as fast or powerful, had arms and blades which were very dangerous as opposed to Shroud's deadly claws.
The mini-battle lasted several more minutes before they headed back to the ranch where Professor Elm was just starting his leaving speech for the new trainers, "Alright everyone, I'd first like to congratulate you all on graduating into trainers. We're extremely proud of all of you for having done so well; for that reason, we have more than the usual selection of pokemon for you to choose from as your starter.
"The basic types are still the same though; Grass, Fire, Water, Electric. You may choose from Bulbasaur, Chikorita, or Treeko, Squirtle, Totodile, or Mudkip, Charmander, Cyndaquil, or Torchick, Pikachu, Mareep, or Electrike. For those not quite conformists, we also have a selection of Normal types of Doduo, Snubbull, and Stantler. For those who've done exceptionally well, please proceed over to the beautiful red-head over there for your requested pokemon; if you requested an Eevee or a derivative of it, I'm sorry but you will not get those.
"For those planning on competing in the pokemon league, and I know there are many of you, you require a minimum of 6 pokemon to compete, as of this last league challenge when they changed the rules after a certain pikachu wielding trainer waltzed through the first few rounds on just one. This was implemented to encourage equal training and treatment of your pokemon, not just that special one. Also, for your batch, your rite of passage is the Violet Gym and Falkner. The best of luck!"
Ranma smiled as he watched the new trainers collecting their pokemon; he already had Shroud and Kire, no need for another yet since he had ample time to get another 4. He was particularly interested in the Cainwood and Olivine Gyms because he felt they dealt with the Martial Arts much more closely than other Gyms. The Dragon's Den was also an item on his 'must-see' list because dragons were closer to his heart.
He was brought out of his musings over his journeying itinerary by a boy about his age walking up and showing off his Staryu, "Lookie Ranma, my Staryu! What do you think I should name him?" Ranma blinked; he was surprised at being asked. Sure, he and Jeremy had actually become great friends, and the little boy was actually the very top of the class, but did he really want to name the Staryu? He frowned, "Staryu is your friend, Jeremy. Shouldn't you name him?" The response was instant, "But I can't decide! I need something that describes him, but I can't call him wet…at least not yet."
Ranma sighed; he thought for a while, "How about Gyou?" He drew the kanji for frozen in the ground, "It's Japanese for frozen. I think it suits him; he's a water type, and if he evolves, he can use his psychic powers to freeze his opponent." Jeremy thought for a while, "I like it; what do you think Staryu? Do you like to be named Gyou?" the pokemon seemed to look at Jeremy for a while, gauging the boy before patting him on the back with an arm and jumping around in happiness. Jeremy laughed, "Alright then, Gyou it is! Gyou, the Staryu!"
One of the older boys stalked up; Ranma didn't like him much. He had the air of someone who thought he was meant for better even though he barely made it into trainer class. He pulled out a pokeball and threw it out, "you think you're so big now with your own pokemon. I couldn't do this with the class pokemon, but now that I've my own let's battle. Electrike, thundershock!" Ranma didn't move; he didn't have to. Shroud had taken a great liking to young Jeremy.
"Umbreon…" a soft, low growl escaped him and Electrike pulled back, cowed by the tiger-sized pokemon growling at him. The older boy, Ranma now remembered his name to be Randal, dismissed the new entrant with a wave, "don't bother, just give it a thundershock." Electrike whimpered but obeyed; the electric shock hit solidly, but Shroud shrugged it off, literally, and pounced, "UMBREON!" Electrike went down with 4 deep gashes in it. Randal retrieved his pokemon and ran off, scared.
Jeremy didn't seem fazed at all, and held Gyou close to him, "thank you Ranma, thank you Shroud. I need to get back to my mummy, would you like to come Shroud?" giggling, the 9 year old climbed onto Shroud's back and Shroud bounded away. Ranma sighed, "c'mon out Silver, I know you're over there in the bushes to my right, watching the girl over by the ranch talking to Casey." Silver seemed to jump out and run over to Ranma, "I'm going to figure out how you do that one of these days, I swear I will." He grinned to show he was just playing around.
Ranma responded in kind, "I've told you already that there's not a chance of you just becoming psychic like that. You'll have to work hard and that's all I'm saying." He frowned, "I'm wondering when I should set off. Maybe when Shroud gets back from Jeremy, I swear Shroud could be called Jeremy's Umbreon and there wouldn't be the slightest change in behavior." Shroud came back then and obviously didn't take well to the comment and swished Ranma with his long ears, who laughed, "Alright alright, you're my friend and travel with me. I get it."
Jeremy came up with his mother, "Ranma, can I travel with you? My older brother's in Violet so I can go with him from there. Mommy wanted to drive me there but I'd prefer to walk slowly." Ranma smiled, "Well it's perfectly fine by me. I'll take care of him Ma'am, don't worry about him, we'll call from the first pokecentre. There's one between here and Cherry Grove City." Jeremy's mother seemed to consider it more seriously with an older companion factored in, "Alright, but you must call from every pokecentre on the way alright?" Jeremy nodded and smiled while Ranma grinned his charming, slightly cocky grin. Not so long later, he pulled Jeremy away from the remaining pokemon, "you've already got yours, so don't stare. Gyou won't like it. Let's go." At the mention of Gyou, who was in his pokeball, he sobered instantly and followed Ranma with Kire running circles around them and Shroud padding along beside him.