I'd like to thank everyone reading, especially if you review, favorite, or follow. Here's the chapter.
Halfway across the region, in the bustling metropolis known as Saffron City, life went on as usual. At least, for the most part.
The Silph Corporation kept churning out Pokeballs and researching new innovations in technology. People walked in the city's many parks, enjoying the beautiful summer day. And of course, Pokemon battles took place in the city's many gyms and stadiums.
However, in the section of the city known as Bongwater, there was an event occurring that leaned very much into Saffron's more bizarre elements. Of course, every city is going to have some people and Pokemon that are seen as "crazy", but the crazies of Saffron City were among the most vocal.
On the exterior of the Fang Convention Center, reporters stood next to the street, carrying their microphones in their right hands. A handful of people, and an even smaller handful of Pokemon, made their way inside; most of the passersby, however, steered clear.
One person in the former category was a teenage boy with spiky black hair and brown eyes. He and a Pikachu were standing together, looking up at the entrance to the venue. The Pikachu shivered, presumably at the thought of having to go inside a building that would have so many other trainers.
"Don't worry, Coyopa, you'll stay safe with me" Ash Ketchum promised his Pikachu. "I'm not going to let anyone else catch you."
"Oh, look at that, it's the champion, Ash Ketchum!" a reporter from Vulpix News exclaimed, sounding a lot like a mother who doesn't know she's embarrassing her children. "Who would have thought he'd be attending the local UFO convention?"
"Hey, don't judge me, okay?" Ash shot at the reporter. "There could be aliens out there, I just know it!"
The Vulpix News reporter, a woman with blonde hair, wasn't going to pass up an interview with one of the most famous celebrities under eighteen. After all, news organizations operated according to one thing, and one thing only: Ratings.
"Okay then. I'm here with Ash Ketchum, champion of the Kanto League, and he's offered to answer a couple of questions about his attendance at the upcoming Saffron UFO convention! Now, Ash, please tell me what brings you here today."
The poor boy's face turned the color of a tomato, and the heat could be felt radiating off of said face. Ash cleared his throat before responding.
"I'm here because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about," the champion insisted.
The reporter narrowed her eyes. "That's not what you said earlier. You told me that you were certain aliens existed, and now you're saying that you just wanted to check out the scene?"
"I said they could exist, and who says both things can't be true?" Ash retorted, but his facade was fading fast. It was plain to see that the champion was no longer confident in his ability to hide his embarrassment.
"Nobody does," the Vulpix News lady replied. "Now, Ash, does your mother know you're attending a UFO convention?"
The questions seemed designed to fluster Ash as much as possible. The teenager, after a quick gulp, replied with, "That's none of your business!"
"Very well," the reporter said simply. Turning to the camera, and away from Ash, she said, "Ash's mother is of course one Delia Ketchum, a resident of Pallet Town. If she doesn't know what her son's up to now, she'll find out soon enough if she watches this channel. Anyway, back to you."
Meanwhile, Ash and Coyopa climbed the steps into the Fang Convention Center, where vendors were selling everything from soft pretzels to UFO T-shirts to frisbees that looked like alien motherships…basically, if you could imagine it, it was probably being offered by someone within the building's foyer.
Manning one of the frisbee booths was a Blaziken who looked as though he wouldn't take no for an answer. Ash tried to avoid this Blaziken like the plague, because even if the former were a champion, that didn't make him invincible. Part of being a Pokemon Master was knowing your own vulnerabilities.
Something tells me that the Blaziken isn't going to let me leave on anything but a stretcher. For better or worse, he expects me to attend the entire event, even if my brains ooze out of my eardrums from how unhinged this ends up being.
On his previous visit to Saffron City, during which he'd battled the gym leader and collected a badge (he couldn't remember which one; after a while, they all blended together), Ash had visited this convention center to watch a Pokemon battle. On that occasion, the convention floor had been a lot more crowded than it was today; it had been standing room only.
This time, however, that was not the case. There were probably fifty to a hundred people in the convention hall, mostly bearded men with significant beer guts. Ash hated to generalize, but to him, all such people looked the same.
"I don't like the look of this place, Coyopa," Ash said, grimacing.
The Pikachu frowned. "Why not?"
"It's just really unsettling that this is such a big space, and yet there are so few people. I guess that reporter was right; we really don't belong here."
Truth be told, that Vulpix News lady had almost pushed Ash over the edge; it had taken everything he had not to sic Coyopa on her, even if that would get him in serious legal trouble. But how could he have explained that aliens were for sure somewhere out there, if not by pointing out the sheer scale of the universe?
Admittedly, they probably don't look like the "little green men" we've all had hammered into our brains. Who knows what they're actually like, or if they're even interested in us?
Perhaps I shouldn't be here at all. But if I leave before it's over, I'm going to have to deal with that tough-looking Blaziken, and I'd probably get decapitated by one of those flying saucers…I mean, frisbees.
In the middle of the convention hall, a low stage had been set up, with a podium that had clearly seen better days in the center of said stage. Although Ash couldn't see anyone currently on the stage, the other members of the audience were standing on tiptoes, evidently expecting something to happen.
Ash tried to calm his breathing, but this was rather difficult. It was more than a little unnerving to expect something to happen, to expect some lunatic to show up on stage, and yet not see any evidence that this would indeed happen.
Just when he was starting to wonder if maybe he should take his chances against that Blaziken, try to get out of the convention center by any means necessary, a voice came over the loudspeakers.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the keynote speaker at this conference, Theodore Nickelback!"
"For Arceus' sake, dude, it's Teddy!" a gruff voice insisted. The voice seemed to be coming from Ash's right; upon closer examination, it turned out that a long-haired man wearing sunglasses was making his way up to the stage.
It's a bit odd. Even if these people agree with me that there's some other life out there, this guy looks pretty unhinged. Of course, you can't judge a book by its cover, but this is exactly the type of appearance people expect from a UFO convention.
So the question is, what am I doing at such a freak show?
The man walking up to the stage, whose name was evidently Teddy Nickelback, had an Absol on a leash. Said Absol didn't look too happy to be shown off at this event, but Teddy tugged on her leash every time she stopped in her tracks.
Once they were on stage, the long-haired man cleared his throat audibly into the microphone. It was a rather unpleasant sound; Ash could practically hear the mucus and whatnot gurgling around inside Teddy Nickelback's throat, a noise that made his teeth hurt.
Coyopa cringed as well. The poor Pikachu, evidently, didn't want to be here either, which made Ash hang his head towards the ground.
"Look, Coyopa, I've got a bad feeling about this place too," Ash admitted. "But I'm no coward; I want to see this event through, because I wonder what's going to happen. Timidity didn't win me the title of Pokemon master!"
Ash also wondered how many of the other attendees recognized him. It wasn't a huge crowd, and the types of people who would attend a UFO convention probably wouldn't judge Ash for being interested in them.
But at the same time, he'd already told that news lady about attending the event, so naturally, it wouldn't be long before the whole world knew. And then he'd get a blizzard of media coverage, but for very different reasons than the press' first feeding frenzy.
Anyway, Teddy had finally finished clearing his throat. "Who's here for the chaos?" he bellowed into the mic, his voice brimming with confidence.
Okay, is this man grifting, or does he really believe what he's saying?
Most of the crowd went wild, pumping their fists in the air like they were watching a battle at a coliseum. A few people, however, merely looked mildly amused at this man's bravado.
"Good afternoon, everybody. As you all know, my name is Teddy Nickelback, and I'm here to tell you that I have Absol-lute proof that there are aliens out there!"
As Teddy made that cringe-worthy pun, he yanked on the Absol's leash slightly, which caused the Dark type's tongue to loll out of her mouth. Ash cringed at the sight of this mistreatment, but it was much like a horrific car accident: It was terrible, yes, but you just couldn't look away.
The other audience members, however, didn't seem to see Teddy's treatment of his Absol the same way. They were still applauding at this man, because he was telling them what they wanted to hear.
"Now, what is the nature of this proof?" Teddy asked the room at large. "It's really quite simple. There's nobody in this room who hasn't heard of Poketube, right?"
What is he getting at here?
"Well, I saw this video on PokeTube, and I didn't think much of it. It was about aliens, pretty milquetoast stuff. But then, that night, I had a dream."
As he told his story, Teddy Nickelback spread out his arms for dramatic effect as though he were conducting an orchestra. Ash might have thought this man a lunatic before, but he seemed to be more machine than maniac.
He knew, for instance, how to rile up a crowd. Ash had to admit that this man was excellent at swaying others to his belief; simple phrases like I had a dream really worked wonders on the audience.
"In that dream, I spoke to an alien from outer space. The Green Team, they called themselves. And this alien looked almost exactly like you'd imagine!"
Teddy took a remote off of the podium and clicked a button. A screen descended from the ceiling, revealing an image of a short, skinny, somewhat humanoid green creature holding a Pokeball.
The picture was a rather crude drawing; it looked like something a kindergartner could have made. One thing Teddy was telling the truth about, however, was that this was the image one would picture when given the word alien.
"Yes, that's what they looked like! And they told me that they'll be coming soon. I don't know how soon, but it will be during our lifetimes, I can guarantee it.
"There's more!"
Oh my Arceus, why did I waste my time here? Why do I stay here, other than not risking a potential run-in with that Blaziken?
"WHAT?" screamed the crowd in unison, the enthusiasm so thick that a machete would not have been sufficient to cut it.
"The Green Team's leaders have promised that if they establish a new colony on Earth, I'll get to be President of Kanto! And they will make the world whole, on Nexus as it is in the heavens. And I don't know about you guys, but I can't wait for that!"
Okay, maybe this dude is a maniac after all. He truly believes that the alien force is going to give him the presidency of Kanto without a fight. But even assuming this Green Team is real…why would they choose some Z-list rock "star" over an actual politician?
Shivers ran down Ash's legs, and his feet began to tingle. He wanted nothing more than to escape, but there was no way he could do so without anybody noticing. Besides, he wasn't in any real danger, was he?
Teddy Nickelback reached down to the stage's surface and lifted up what looked like a clay model of a flying saucer. Just like the caricature of an alien, the claywork was nothing to write home about; it looked like a five-year-old had sculpted it out of Play-Doh, then painted a line over the middle.
"This was their mothership" Teddy insisted, saying his words as though he truly believed them. "Some say they've been to Nexus before, centuries ago, so this will be their second coming. And I think I speak for everyone when I say that the second coming is exciting!"
The crowd continued to cheer, which caused Ash to do something else: Cringe. This was a Crobatshit crazy UFO symposium, one he'd been stupid enough to attend, and the others were treating it like a rock concert.
"Yes!" Teddy exclaimed, raising his hands in the air. "The Green Team will rise again, and humanity will rise with it!"
Coyopa whispered something so quietly that Ash was completely unable to hear the words. When the crowd's cheering finally died down a good five minutes later, the champion asked his Pikachu to tell him what he'd said.
"Ash, I think this man's dangerous" Coyopa mouthed faintly.
His trainer's response was to internally decide enough was enough. While the captive audience was still fixated on Teddy, Ash decided to test his theory that they were indeed captive.
He led Coyopa through the small group of people behind him. One or two turned to watch them leave, but the rest didn't avert their eyes. It appeared as though Teddy had their undivided attention, for better or worse. (Okay, probably worse.)
Somehow, the Blaziken, who was eating a soft pretzel from one of the vendors, didn't notice them leave either. Ash and Coyopa were able to push through the doors into the hot afternoon sunlight.
When Ash was confident that nobody inside the convention center could hear them, he spoke to his Pikachu.
"Truth be told, I agree. That's why I didn't want to say anything there; I waited until we were outside so that nobody would hear us."
Trainer and Pokemon then enveloped one another in a hug. But it was a tense one; not between Ash and Coyopa, but between the two of them and the utter absurdity that lay inside that convention center.
"What are we going to do about it?" Coyopa asked his trainer.
Ash sighed as he looked up at the blue sky. He wished he had an answer, but he knew that if he tried to force an answer, there would be more questions to follow.
"I don't know, Coyopa. But we'll find out what they're planning. And we'll put a stop to it. I know I'm not a coward, and now's my chance to prove it again."
Yes, I promised Ash would appear in this story, and he does. I plan for him to make other appearances as well, but for now, here he is attending a UFO convention. Also, Teddy Nickelback isn't based on any real person, although I pictured Kid Rock while writing this scene.
Also, I know I SAID I'd wait four days, but it's lonely for only one chapter to be up at once. The next chapter, if I can restrain myself, will be released on Friday.