Chapter 3

Finally, Jose and his family got to Miami, to his grandparent's home. In this house however there lived a lot more people than just his grandparents. Astonishingly, none of them knew about Pokemon yet and when Jose let out his in the backyard, his grandma fainted, his cousins screamed and his grandpa locked the door. After a lot of explanation and playful demonstrations everyone understood what they were. His youngest cousin Karla suddenly wanted to keep his Taillow which she hugged really hard. Marahute looked at Jose with a face that screamed "Help me" but Jose just laughed and thought "Well you deserve it." His cousin then turned on her mother and asked with a puppy dog face "Can I have one pleeeeease." Jose and his parents settled in. this meant covering the sofa with a bed sheet for Jose to sleep on and taking out the old mattress for his parents.

The next day they were getting ready to leave for a wonderful day at the beach. Jose's grandpa had a jet-ski that they were going to ride. As the whole family got in the van Jose's grandpa tapped Jose's father on the shoulder. "So, you got here yesterday huh?" He asked naively. "Uh, yeah we did." said his son. "Right, then I believe you owe me a little something." He said sticking out his palm. Jose's father took out his wallet and gave him some money reluctantly. After that they all got in the van and rode to the beach.

Jose helped his grandfather with the jet-ski and soon they were riding the waves. After a couple times around, Jose let his grandpa ride it alone while he walked on the beach looking for seashells. He found a pretty one and when he tried to pick it up there was an animal inside it. He looked at the now closing shell and thought for a while. Then he went with the shell to the van where he had left the Pokedex. He got it out and turned it on. It beeped and said "Shellder, the shell pokemon." at that instant the shell grew until it was greater than Jose's hand. He dropped it and took out his taillow. "Alright Marahute you can train but don't do anything stu… why do I bother?" The taillow had flown off to the water and was now fishing happily. Meanwhile back at the shore Shellder had withdrawn into its shell. Jose called the taillow back and it now seemed a little more manageable. "Ok then, now Peck" The taillow went in for a Peck attack but the shell was too hard for it. The end of its beak chipped a little and the taillow flew back towards Jose. "Come on now, its ok you can do it." Marahute got really mad now and it rose in the sky and dove with a Fly attack. The Shellder was no slowpoke; it jumped to the side and the taillow hit the sand. The Shellder closed in on him and used Supersonic. The taillow tried to fly but it was too dizzy. "What's the matter Marahute? Use your Wing Attack." the taillow looked at the trainer confused and went straight at him beating him with its wings. "Ah help, someone, anyone." his cousin Karla who had been looking at the battle looked through his backpack and threw a full heal bottle at him. He grabbed it and sprayed the taillow right in the face. The pokemon stopped in its tracks looking ashamed and it turned around. This time the Wing Attack was aimed at the Shellder. Shellder once more closed its shell but the insistent beating made sand get inside its shell. It started coughing and it had to open up. This was Jose's and Marahute's chance. They didn't even have to talk, nor look at each other. They both thought the same way. Marahute pecked the living daylights out of the Shellder and then picked it up with its claws. It took it high and closer to Jose and then let it drop. When it hit the ground Jose threw a pokeball at and thus caught it.

As the day slipped by, Jose walked along the beach and realized that he had no idea how his family didn't know what pokemon were since they were everywhere. On the beach alone there were dozens of trainers with their pokemon. Some were wrestling in the sand and others just plain old fighting. There were little girls running around with their Horseas and Poliwags. On one of these walks he saw a group of people all gathered around what seemed a store. The shabby structure swayed with the gentle breeze and looked like it was going to fall at any minute. When he went inside he felt a chill. He looked up at a menu that was on top of a counter. It read "Rare Pokemon for Sale!" in big red letters. He got closer to read better. Under that there was a set of names and prices like Arcanine---$2,000, Kingdra---$1,000, Lanturn---$500, Mantine---$500...Jose felt sick and had to look away. How did they get these pokemon? They probably had to capture live endangered animals.

He walked out of the store feeling really bad. He was angry, first at the store owner, then the bastards who came up with the stupid idea of Pokemon in the real world, and finally once he worked his way down the chain he blamed himself. Him and all the other dupes like him who actually supported this freak show, this rape of nature. He stopped, his face hot and the shadow of sadness creeping in. he felt how the little knot tightened in his throat. He wanted to smash his pokedex to forget about everything and think it was just a dream. He wanted to cry, and punish himself for all he had done. He felt on his belt for his poke balls. He grabbed one, the oldest looking one. It had a scratch almost all around it and the hinge on which it opened was a little loose. Jose picked up over his head without thinking and was about to smash it on a rock, but he couldn't. He looked at the J carved in front of the ball as his temper fell. He remembered with melancholy who slept in that ball, his greatest friend. Then as he regained his spirits he remembered all that he had gone through with his truly first pokemon. Lost in thought and still grabbing the ball he started to walk again.

He had walked a couple of steps when he bumped into some shady character. He stumbled a little and grabbed the ball even more fiercely. The man had cheap clothes on and a bag under his arm. He was looking all around as if he was scared. He bumped into Jose and almost dropped the bag. He picked it up really fast and looked at Jose. Then he smiled. His teeth were yellow and rotten. He said "hey kid come here. I got something for you." Jose tried to walk away with a stern face of "I don't talk to strangers" but the man insisted. "Here look!" he opened the bag for Jose to see. "Freshly caught Corphish for you to train or lobster for you to eat." Jose gave him a nasty look; he was mad now. He felt how he was loosing himself to anger and hatred but he didn't cower; he welcomed the feelings and focused them on this man. This destroyer of what he loved. He went right for him without even calling his pokemon. As he was punching the guy Wartortle came out of its ball. He looked at Jose, at the guy, and at the bag and he understood. A shadow crossed its eyes and it got even angrier than Jose. It drew on its water and opened its mouth with satisfaction. The Water Gun blasted the man away for several feet. The crook rolled on the sand until he was knocked out. Jose picked up the bag and glanced at Wartortle surprised at the pokemon's response as well as his own. They exchanged looks and knew what they had to do next.

The door of the set-up store burst open under a barrage of water, sand, and wind. From the Smokescreen generated out stepped the silhouette of a boy of seventeen with glasses and a decisive, penetrating look. Behind him were the meanest, angriest looking monsters anyone had ever seen. Everyone inside stood still. Jose turned around to his team and said "Let's do this!"

The pokemon wove in and out of the mass of people attacking them with every sort of attack possible. Not doing them any real harm of course. Their only purpose was to scare them and get them out of the store. Suddenly the store owners decided to put up a fight in order to protect what was theirs, so they called in their own pokemon. A tall, lanky dude with greasy hair called out a Krabby and a Sandshrew. Jose was surprised to see this one because he had never seen any in the world before. He recovered quickly though since he knew what his strategy would be. "Alright then, Wartortle and Marahute I choose you!"

The two Pokemon sped forward as their foes stood their place. Wartortle tried to headbutt Krabby while Marahute closed in on Sandshrew, but Krabby grabbed the taillow by the tail and almost clipped its feathers. Meanwhile Sandshrew had dug a hole through the floorboards and now came under Wartortle right as he was about to make contact with Krabby. The duo flew upwards and then fell as gravity worked its magic a little harder on Sandshrew. "Wartortle now use Water Gun!" The blast came downwards as the Wartortle propelled itself upwards against the Sandshrew's back. The latter was drilled into the earth where it fainted. Marahute frantically tried to free itself from the Krabby's grip but every peck and scratch was useless. It didn't budge. Wartortle came down on top of it with a down-to-earth headbutt that worked like magic. Jose's eyes watered with excitement as he saw his old buddy doing that same old trick that had won them their first battle. Now Marahute was free and it hovered beside Wartortle confidently. The man jumped behind the counter and started throwing poke balls. A girl now came in from the back who seemed to be the boss of the shop. She threw out a Slakoth, a Mankey, and a Poochyena. Now the store seemed more like a poke-petting zoo and the odds were bitterly thrown against Jose. He called the whole gang to him and breathed deep. "Alright Wartortle, Splinter set up a barricade to slow their movement. The rest, focus on the trainers!" If this was still a trainer battle Jose didn't even want to think about what war would be like!

The flying pokemon went over the enemy battlefield spreading chaos. Butterfree used its various spore attacks as randomly as it could creating new toxins unheard of in the before known pokemon world. Marahute stayed back a little and use Gusts and Whirlwind to keep the various pokemon at bay. Spearow chirped and pecked to encourage its friends and dishearten the enemy. The main attacker was Pidgeotto who flew ever closer to its target combining Wing and Quick attacks very effectively. There were too many of them though, too many scratches, too many bites. In the end it fell from the sky fatigued like a swooping falcon. Jose didn't want to loose any of his friends. That was the most important thing, even more important than getting himself killed. He hopped on Splinter's back which stood on its hind legs to look more imposing. He talked to it in its ear, that old saying he had heard so long. "We can still win you know. The turning of the tide starts with one soldier going back into the fray." Jose had read that in some historical fiction book and it had stuck. He had always loved history and it shared a throne in his priorities alongside Pokemon. Now it was the time to put all that to good use, if it was of any use. He raised his hand in the air and his pokemon understood. They all went to him and he said: "Let's finish this and rescue our brother." All his pokemon agreed and he felt glorious. They moved forward like an oar riding a wave. Splinter used its Scary Face to make the going easier while Wartortle knocked back pokemon with its Water Gun. They didn't want to fight that much so they made their way fast to were the two trainers stood. Jose got off as his Raticate and Wartortle blockaded the menacing pokemon again. He walked over to Pidgeotto and grabbed it in his arms. "Hey buddy, how are doing?" He took a small, half empty bottle from his back pocket and sprayed some Potion on the bird's wounds. "You just rest now ok?" He grabbed a pokeball and returned Pidgeotto to the safety of this small enclosure.

He got back up and stared at his opponents who were now trying to escape. He grabbed the guy by the shirt and threw him at the frantic pokemon. He looked at the lady and asked her a simple question "Do you know how to control them?" The girl nodded and went behind the counter, after a little rummaging she found a Jigglypuff CD. She played it while she put some cotton in her ears. Jose returned all his pokemon to their pokeballs to keep them awake. He started feeling woozy so he grabbed the girl and put her cotton puffs in his ears. She was quickly sound sleep as well as everyone else except for a Loudred that was dancing happily to the monotonous song. Jose went toward the counter and turned on the PC. He looked for the pokemon files decisively. When he got to the option "Release Pokemon?" he hit the release button and watched as every single name was erased from the files. He also released the ones the store owners' He turned to see pokeballs crack open and release pokemon. When it was all done and the Jigglypuff CD had stopped playing the pokemon slowly started to wake up and realize they were free.

When all of them were awake they ran outside with Jose following close behind. He grabbed the bag with the Corphish he had left outside before. Inside the store there were only the two owners now tied with Stringshot and vines. Then the pokemon all turned around and faced Jose. He felt scared because there were too many of them and he didn't know what they wanted. He was good at figuring out what his own pokemon wanted but he was no master. He called them out so they could help him. His Wartortle looked at him and then at the pokemon. Then it said "War…war tortle, tortle tor wartortle." Jose didn't even need to hear that. Wartortle's expressions told him all he needed to know. These pokemon didn't know what to do next. Having been forced to change, how could they return to what they once called home? Jose said that he had seen many mixed flocks of Spearows and sparrows and the same with Farfetch'ds and Psyducks. They believed him and said they would try to maintain their bonds to the animal world. Moreover, they told him that they would from now own protect their own from attacks like these. Jose was happy to hear this. He felt that that was the only thing needed to balance out the two worlds. That was: a mutual relationship between pokemon and animals and less indiscriminate hunting on the people's part.

After all the pokemon had left, Sandshrew came over to Jose and tugged at his shorts. Jose was waving goodbye to the pokemon and didn't notice. Sandshrew then started crying and Jose looked down and picked up the Sandshrew. "Hey, what's the problem little guy?" Sandshrew rubbed his eyes with his paws and said he had no family really. He had been born in a zoo. Jose then said "Well, if you'd like you can come with us." Sandshrew looked around at the Jose's pokemon. Jose let him down so he could decide. Wartortle walked over to him and stretched out its hand. Sandshrew stuck its head in the ground in fear. Wartortle tapped him on the back and said it was OK. Sandshrew then looked up at him and got back up. He then smiled and shook hands with him.

As dusk settled he had already returned to where his family was in the beach. He took the jet-ski on a last ride towards the setting sun. He wasn't afraid he might run out of gas because he had his friends with him. He wasn't afraid of what tomorrow would bring because he had his friends with him. In the end as he turned off the jet-ski miles away from shore. He felt relieved. He once again loved the idea of pokemon being in the real world and mentally took back all the blames he had said. As he stood there looking at the last rays of the summer sun he saw dolphins and lanterns jump outside the water, together. He saw Mantines and Horseas, Kingdras and many other water pokemon. Finally as the last, greenish rays of sunlight disappeared he turned the jet-ski around and started the trip back to the shore satisfied with himself, secretly smiling for his good deeds.