New Places, New Faces
Orre Region
"Alright Michael, this will be the last battle of the day," said Losten, the trainer in the blue lab coat across from him.
A nod was all that came from the eighteen-year-old across the stadium from the other trainer. The eyepiece over his green eyes activated, giving him a personal HUD suited for battle, and making him look like he was wearing futuristic sunglasses. The display showed that both trainers only had one Pokémon each. He took the Pokéball in his hand, throwing it onto the field just as the other trainer did the same. On Michael's side of the field, he had a blue dragon with two small red crests on its head and red wings like an advanced jet. His opponent had a steel, four-legged mecha.
So, a Metagross against a Salamence. On the HUD, each Pokémon had a tab with their health bar and relative strength level. The technology had been developed less than two years ago through a collaborative effort by both Wattson of Hoenn and Clemont of Kalos. The purpose of the collaboration was to create a functional numerical scale that was based on the battle experience of each Pokémon, ranging from 1 to 100, and give a fairly accurate estimate of a Pokémon's strength to the trainers. Theoretically, once a Pokémon reached level 100, they couldn't get stronger, but this theory was controversial among trainers, especially when there were Pokémon like Gwen, the Gardevoir trained by the Hoenn Champion, Brendan Maple. Regardless of the theory behind the device over his eye, this battle was all that mattered to Michael right now, and he could see that both Salamence and Metagross were at level 50.
What attacks does Salamence know? Michael thought. He looked at the "Attack" option on his HUD, scrolling through the list of attacks until one caught his eye. Piece of cake.
"Salamence, use Earthquake!" Michael said. The Salamence slammed his foot down and sent a shockwave through the ground. The stones then erupted and broke underneath Metagross, hitting it in the center of its metaphorical jaw.
"Metagross, use Sludge Bomb!" the other trainer said. The mechanical Pokémon gathered a ball of sludge in front of it before firing it at Salamence. Michael saw that Metagross was below half his health-points, while Salamence had lost barely a quarter of his.
"One more Earthquake, let's end this!" Michael said. Salamence slammed his foot again, sending a new shockwave through the ground. The attack hit perfectly and dropped the health bar to zero. The Metagross groaned and fainted. Losten groaned at the same time, and he fell to his knees. He didn't say anything, though, as he and the arena froze and things started to break down into pixels.
"Great battling, Michael, let's call it quits for today," said Warren, the battle coach. Michael opened his eyes in the real world as the virtual reality battle scene was shut down.
"Thanks coach," Michael said as he turned off the new Pokémon Scouter and placed it on the nearby table. "How'd I do?"
"You were as good as Wes was ten years ago," Warren said, referring to the revered hero of Orre. "Seriously, why don't you train Pokémon other than your Eevee."
"I'm not sure. It just…never seemed necessary. It's not like there's a league to challenge in Orre," Michael said with a shrug, his yellow vest catching the light slightly, contrasting with the long-sleeved black shirt with a red stripe along his sleeves. He also had a blue sweatband on his head, but his long, messy red hair made its way under the band despite his efforts. Next to the visor were Michael's riding goggles, which he quickly put back around his neck. His sweatpants were a light fabric with a dark blue color, and red stripe, while his shoes more closely matched his shirt. He also had his own trainer's belt, with his Eevee's Pokéball and a small pouch on the right side.
"Fair enough," Warren said. "Anyway, Professor Krane wanted to see you about something, but he said it could wait until your training was finished."
"Oh, good. Did Uncle Richard say where he'd be?" Michael asked.
"Yeah, he's with your mother in their office," Warren said.
Michael nodded, and left the training simulation room, heading toward his mother's office across the hallway, entering the room to see his mother and uncle looking over a complex blueprint. As the door opened, Krane looked up. "Oh, Michael, you got my message. I even heard Warren singing your praises just minutes ago."
"Hey Uncle Richard, hey Mom," Michael said. "How is the Purify Chamber coming along?" Ever since Michael's father, Samuel Orison, had died six years ago, his uncle, Richard Krane, had stepped up as a sort of father figure for Michael, but more for Jovi, his little sister.
"It's going well. But we've reached a point where we're just waiting on a parts delivery to finish the building process," Krane said. "But there's another project I know we can only entrust to our best battler…you."
"Richard!" Lily said to her brother. "Please don't shower my kids with so much praise all the time. I don't want it to go to their heads and spoil them rotten."
"But I'm their uncle, it's part of my job," Dr. Krane said with a laugh.
"But…" Lily started to say.
"Come on, Mom, I'm eighteen. You know I'm not spoiled," Michael said.
Lily rolled her eyes at her son's claim. "I was mostly referring to Jovi," she said with a joking tone before looking a bit concerned. "And…now that I think about it, I haven't seen Jovi in a while."
"Oh…that's not good," Michael said, knowing his kid sister tended to wander off when unsupervised. Jovi most likely was fine, but there were researchers working on critically important parts of the Purify Chamber Project that needed to be completed. And she had a habit of bothering those researchers by asking them to play.
Lily gave an exasperated sigh. "I know we were just about to give you another job…but could you please go find Jovi for us?"
"Of course," Michael said. "You know, I wouldn't be surprised if Jovi was hiding around the lab for a game." He loved his little sister, and he was willing to do anything to protect the seven-year-old girl.
"Thank you so much," Lily said. "You have no idea how much this will help us, especially with the Purify Chamber in such a critical stage."
"By the way, Michael, your P-DA came back from the repair shop. It's on your desk."
"Oh, thanks Uncle Richard," Michael said as he went toward the other side of the building, which served as both the residency for the researchers, as well as the employee lounge areas. "I was going to check Jovi's room first anyway."
With a smile, Michael left the office, going through the office space of the lab's coders, headed by a man named Datan. However, just as he got around the corner, he was suddenly tackled by a living missile with whom he was all too familiar. "What the fuck, Liz?" he groaned as he smelled the perfume of his childhood friend. Elizabeth Hanz was the daughter of Dr. Hanz, one of the head engineers working on the chamber, filling and splitting the position with Dr. Krane after Samuel Orison was killed. She was only about two months older than him, but that difference didn't really seem to matter to either of them.
"I saw you coming, and I figured I'd say hi in my favorite way," Liz said with a giggle, her lightly curled, light brown hair and her well-endowed chest brushing against Michael as she moved to look him in the eye. "Besides, if I didn't do it, you'd think something was wrong."
Michael tried to stifle a laugh as he looked into the light blue eyes of his best friend. He couldn't find a way to deny what she'd said. Liz got up quickly, helping him to his feet as she giggled musically. With them both standing now Michael got the chance to see that she was wearing her favorite outfit, consisting of an indigo side-tie-top with khaki capris. "So, what are you up to?"
"Looking for Jovi. She's probably around the lab, but Mom's worried, since she hasn't been seen in a couple hours," Michael said with a slight smile as he started to brush himself off.
"Jovi? I think I saw her skipping in the halls near the residency a little over two hours ago…but with her, two hours is pretty much an eternity," Liz said, silently eying Michael's slightly athletic physique while he was looking around the area. The two had grown up and gone to school together. They had been the best of friends, but they had both also secretly developed crushes on each other. Those feelings only got stronger over time as they got closer and they became young adults, steadily maturing in their friendship as well. "But if she's been away for that long, she could be getting into trouble."
"Thank you so much," Michael said trying to force away his blush as he walked to the elevator. Liz, however, decided to follow him and help with the search. After all, she felt like she was a big sister to Jovi, so she wanted to make sure the seven-year-old girl was safe.
They both went toward the elevator and rode down quickly, getting to the ground floor, which served as the residency for the families who lived at the lab. There were three separate living quarters: one for the Orison family, one for Dr. Krane, and the last for the Hanz family. On the door to the bedrooms and private rooms, there was a door tag, reading "Residency." Michael smiled as the door opened to the private kitchen, and the four bedrooms for the family. His first instinct was to go to the door painted pink. It led to Jovi's room, the most likely place for her to be.
"It's been a while since I was in your sister's room," Liz said with a tone of amusement at the cute, pink decorations around the room. The two trainers then heard a chittering call they knew quite well. Liz smiled and giggled, getting a smile from Michael. "Well, hello there, PluPlu," she said as the Plusle scurried up her capris and onto her shoulder to nuzzle her sweetly. "Have you seen Jovi anywhere…or Mimi for that matter?"
PluPlu shook her head, looking a little unsure. "It's okay, we just wanted to find her soon. After all, it's getting late," Michael said.
PluPlu gave a few saddened chitters, but she cheered up as Liz scratched behind her ears. "Don't worry. We'll find them," she said with a giggle.
Michael branched off, heading to his room, since Jovi seemed to enjoy spending time there. He went inside the room with ruby-colored walls, posters of various champions from around the world. The two he idolized the most, however, were Brendan Maple of Hoenn with his Gardevoir, Gwen, Lucas Drake of Sinnoh, and Elio Northstar of Alola. Liz, however, seemed to favor May Maple, who many people considered to be among the greatest coordinators in history, followed closely by Dawn Avery Drake of Sinnoh. But, Liz herself knew she didn't want to become a coordinator, especially since Orre never had a Pokemon League or a Contest Circuit.
On his desk he saw his P-DA, which was the best kind of smartphone available in Orre. He also noticed that there were some telltale signs that Jovi had been in his room, with his bed slightly unmade and his t-shirt drawer open. Michael smiled and picked up the P-DA, seeing a message from Uncle Richard with a timestamp putting it around three minutes after he left Uncle Richard's office, meaning it came just as Liz tackled him. "Maybe they found her," he said before reading the message.
Michael, if you're reading this, that means your P-DA is working properly. I heard from one of the other employees that Jovi was seen playing hide and seek with Adon. Check with him to possibly get some guidance.
Michael smiled as he saw the message. "Liz, we got a lead. We need to find Adon," he called out.
"You mean the guy who used to play hide and seek with us when we were kids? He always picked the easiest spots," she said with a reminiscent tone. "I remember that his favorite spot for us was under a table in the employee lounge."
Michael led the way, as PluPlu went back to Jovi's bedroom and fell asleep again, getting to the elevator and holding the door for Liz, going up to the employee lounge, and going toward the employee kitchen, where they saw a man with an orange shirt and blue denim overalls. And, just as they had expected, the man was in his usual spot for hide and seek: on the lower portion of the table, face down. When Michael and Liz were kids, that spot had actually been rather difficult for them to find.
As they got closer, they could hear Adon softly snoring, making Liz giggle softly. Michael just gave Adon a soft nudge, making the man wake up. "H-huh?" Adon mumbled as he looked up at the pair. "Oh, hey, what's up you two?" He sounded groggy as he spoke.
"Nothing really, we're just looking for Jovi, and we were told that you'd seen her most recently," Liz said.
"Y-yeah…she asked me to play hide and seek with her…and that was an hour and a half ago," he said as he slowly got out of the spot and started to stretch. "Man, my back is stiff."
"Then she must have gotten distracted by something," Michael said, knowing what was usually going through the little girl's head.
"I think when we were getting ready to play, there were some researchers talking about that weird scientist nearby…Kaminko," Adon said.
"Oh, God, no," Michael said at the sound of the name. "That's a forty-five-minute walk…She must have left just as your game started."
Liz sighed, having very bad memories of the last time she'd been to Dr. Kaminko's lab, and how sick she got after trying on a cute pair of sandals his assistant had offered to her, which later turned out to be one of the doctor's inventions. "We need to get there right now. We can't let Jovi get tricked by that creepy assistant," she said with a shiver running up her back.
"Agreed," Michael said as they started to walk to the elevator. "We'll take Lucielle."
"Dude," Liz said with a look of disappointment. "You seriously gotta stop using that name for your scooter."
"Screw you, Liz, she's my ride," Michael said in joking tone as they went to the ground floor.
And there are the opening chapters of Into the Storm. I hope that you all enjoyed it, and I also hope that my hiatus wasn't too long for all of you.
As with all of my stories, I welcome constructive criticism, so please let me know what you think of what I wrote.
Until next time ~ jmoul18