Like the previous chapter, this chapter is a brand new one.

I encourage all readers to read on, enjoy, and review. :)

Chapter 5: A Gamer is Born

Another morning light shone down from the window of the room, hitting the Aura Pokémon's face. Lucario opened his eyes after feeling the warm light. He blinked a few times until looking around the room. His fifth day in the real world had something new in store for him, he could tell that much.

But as long as Chris was sleeping behind his back, nothing new would show up his way. Lucario looked over his shoulder where Chris was still sleeping peacefully. One look at the young teen's face convinced Lucario that Chris meant no harm with the pure look he showed during his sleep. "(I wonder if I've being very rude to him…)" Lucario thought. "(There are no dark thoughts in his mind at all, yet I keep thinking he has something in hands for me. Am I just being paranoid for no reason? Maybe that's what wrong with me…)"

Lucario kept staring at Chris for a long while until he blinked and looked away, not wanting to disturb Chris from his sleep. The Aura Pokémon didn't want to leave the room behind because he feared that he would unconditionally cause some kind of issue in the house. He was restricted to go out as well, no matter how much he wanted to go back to the garden outside and feel the earth's life. All he could do for now was to wait for Chris to wake up and start the day.

But all changed when he decided to have a small look around the room. His eyes wandered around the room's furniture. Lucario never paid too much attention to all the memorabilia that Chris had around. He was interested to know more about the posters that were hanging on the walls, almost completely covering the white paint underneath them.

The posters showed a wide array of people Lucario never met before. He saw big-nosed plumbers and pink princesses, characters that had animal-like characteristics with human shapes, pink puffballs and masked puffballs, swordsmen and mystical creatures, and sometimes a big mixture of all of them. What were more interesting were the posters that showed Pokémon that Lucario barely knew about, mainly because many of those Pokémon weren't native to the Sinnoh region.

"(Dialga and Palkia?)" Lucario thought shocked after seeing the images of both deities right next to each other. "(Those are the deities of Sinnoh…my homeland,)" he thought.

Lucario started to have questions to ask Chris. The Aura Pokémon was still shocked that everything he knew was part of a video game. It was so hard to believe that many people in the real world knew so much about different people inside the games that it was almost frightening. Lucario even thought that Chris monitored his every move from across a small screen, but it didn't feel that way.

"(All the Pokémon I know are…puppets to these humans?)" Lucario thought, looking back at Chris. "(But he doesn't treat me like a puppet…)"

Lucario blinked shocked and looked forward, realizing that he was letting his doubts get the better of him again. He hung down his head and shut his eyes.

"(There I go again, having some upsetting thoughts about Chris…)" Lucario thought ashamed, looking away. "(They will keep coming back to me the more I wonder about the unbelievable findings of this world...)"

Lucario looked up from his spot, staring beside the television in front of him. His crimson eyes fixed on top of the drawer where a weird, white machine idly sat. Right below the weird-looking machine, there was another black machine that was a little larger than the one on top of it. Next to the machines, there were sets of controllers displayed neatly. Lucario's eyes wandered more to the left where he found big piles of boxes.

He was curious to see what those boxes had inside of them, and he even wanted to know why Chris had so many. Lucario looked back at Chris still sleeping on his bed. Calmly, Lucario stood up from his spot and moved his tail away from touching the teen. He looked back to the piles and walked to them. When he reached them, he lifted one small box carefully to see what it had on the cover.

The box he had picked was kind of thick. The cover showed two young men looking away from each other while a young woman looked forward. Behind them, there stood some kind of woman with a dress that left no imagination left for fashion designers.

Lucario blinked and tilted his head confused. He then wondered if there was something on the back. He flipped the box around where one of the men he saw was standing next to a description box and some images. The Aura Pokémon, however, wasn't smart enough to be able to read like humans did. "(What is this, some kind of…novel that humans like to read?)" he asked, tilting his head as he tried to read the description.

The Aura Pokémon set the box back to the pile carefully. He, however, kept staring at the box. He recalled what he saw, and he couldn't help feeling interested on what he had tried to read. Lucario was curious to know about the box's little story. He would have liked to see more action himself, but the curiosity was keeping him interested.

"(…I want to see more of this,)" Lucario resolved in his mind. "(What are those mysterious dreams?)"

It was then that Lucario slowly realized that his interest to know more about the box's contents had some kind of explanation to why the real world's humans were interested in many things. That small description caught Lucario's attention so much that he wanted to see more. He took the box once more and found out he could open it from the side. Slowly opening it, he found a set of four different discs in them, each one depicting parts in a sequence while barely showing a character facing Lucario on the discs' covers.

Unbeknownst to Lucario, Chris was awakening. The teen made no sounds but merely opened his eyes. He looked around before finding Lucario standing next to his piles of video games. "…Lucario?" Chris wondered.

Lucario got startled and closed the box quickly, putting it back to its position. He turned around and carefully moved his tail away so that it wouldn't recklessly hit the pile to look at Chris. "U-uh, good morning," Lucario greeted nervously.

"Don't think I didn't see you," Chris said blankly, yawning a bit. "You were checking out my video games, weren't you?"

"V-video games?" Lucario repeated, looking away as his cheeks blushed a bit. "I…I…" he stammered, feeling guilty.

The teen stared at the Aura Pokémon for a while until Chris sat up from his bed. He rubbed his chin with a finger. "…Hmm, I wonder if you…"

Lucario gulped.

"…I wonder if you finally decided to look at those boxes I have there," Chris said, confusing Lucario. "I swear that those piles would really stand out from all the stuff I have inside my room… Well, the posters also count, so…"

Lucario looked back at the pile of video games then looked back at Chris.

Chris forced a small smile and stood up. "I know that you're still a bit fazed about you being from a video game. But don't you want to find out why I'm so interested in them?" he asked.

The Aura Pokémon looked at the box he picked up early. Feeling embarrassed, he asked Chris, "Can you show me…what this video game has? I-it's the one I picked up first, and I got interested to see it…"

Chris walked to the box Lucario was looking at. The teen hid his mouth and then picked the box. "Oh, no way," Chris said, looking interested to Lucario. "I can't believe you decided to look at this game first than all the other ones I have! It's…like a miracle!"

Lucario didn't quite understand what Chris was trying to say. "What do you mean?" Lucario asked.

Chris showed Lucario the box. "Before I get any crazy ideas, what made you get interested in this game?" he asked.

"Well…I can't read, but I grew interested in seeing these persons facing away from each other..." Lucario trailed off embarrassed. "I want to know the story of it all."

Chris gapped his mouth for a bit. "Are you telling me you want to know more about this for real?" he asked as if Lucario was crazy and demented.

"I didn't mind the reading that much…but I do hope to learn how to read," Lucario admitted. "Did I do something wrong?"

"N-no, not at all!" Chris said calming himself down. "You're interested to learn the story?"

"I guess?" Lucario said nervous.

"…" Chris clasped his hands and looked up to the ceiling. "Thank you, you blessed me and gave me a true fanatic," he thanked. "A very, VERY unlikely fanatic…"

Lucario was confused to Chris's move that he looked up and saw nothing on the ceiling. He looked back down to Chris. "Are you feeling okay?" Lucario asked confused.

"…Oh, what?" Chris snapped out from his senses. "Y-yes, I'm alright. D-do you want to see this video game with me now?"

Lucario nodded with a blank look on his face. "Sure, I don't mind if you don't have anything else to do. What's the worst thing that could happen?" he asked.

A couple of hours later…

Lucario's blank look was intact as he was sitting down beside Chris, but that didn't stop him from taking off his eyes from the television as Chris played through the game himself. It was hard to tell, but Lucario liked everything that he was watching. He was mesmerized by the depth in the story, astonished at the battle scenes that were part of the game, wonderfully pleased at the pleasant music that enchanted his ears (which he actually liked a lot), and deeply moved by the characters portrayed. Chris took it upon himself to read everything, which caused the aura wielder to really want to try learning how to read by himself soon.

The Aura Pokémon found out that he became some sort of fanatic at first sight, and he could tell why Chris liked to play video games so much.

"I decided to start a new file because I wanted to live the game again…and get everything I missed," Chris commented.

"How does one live a video game?" Lucario asked.

"Don't you feel that you're helping the characters getting around dangerous situations? That's how you live the game. You appreciate it for its incredible depth. In return, you get to see more about it."

If only Lucario could get a hold of the controller on Chris's hands, he would probably understand the feeling. "I see…" Lucario trailed off.

Chris took his eyes off the screen to look at Lucario, who seemed to be entertained from a small cutscene rendered in full CGI. Wondering about something, Chris told Lucario, "I'm getting tired. I need to go take a bath…"

Lucario turned to Chris. "So soon?" he asked in a depressed tone. "I wanted to see more of this…video game."

Chris's doubts were answered. He looked up to the ceiling with a wide smile. "(…Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,)" Chris repeatedly thought while beaming in glee. "(This has to be some kind of miracle. This Lucario of ALL people is…is…a video game fanatic! N-no, I literally turned him into one! I did the unthinkable!)"

Lucario looked worried at the television before his look turned blank again, mesmerized once another random battle encounter had begun in the game. Chris looked down and let go of his shoulders a bit, smiling at the curious Lucario. "I want to see how you do in this fight," Lucario said. "Is there more to this story? I want to know more."

The teen thanked god so much that he would forever be indebted.

"W-well, if you really want to see more, then I think we can delay our time to go to bath," Chris said, pleasing Lucario in the process. "Let's see… Ooh, we're close to a boss fight."

"A boss fight?" Lucario wondered. "What is a boss fight?"

"Imagine a strong monster that needs you to make a strategy so that it can be defeated and then you'll get the idea."

Chris never noticed that Lucario moved his face closer to the television, apparently waiting to see the boss fight.

"After this, we're going to take a shower one after the other," Chris said.

"You're not going to keep playing anymore?" Lucario asked, once again, depressed.

Chris wondered that he could get even closer with Lucario this time around. There were no possible moments where the Aura Pokémon would snap out angrily. If this was Chris's chance to foster a better relationship, he knew he had to take it now. "(Do it so he likes you more…) …I can make an exception and keep playing after taking a bath and eating breakfast," Chris said.

"(Do I have to wait that long?)" Lucario asked dismayed. "I…I see," he said.

Chris knew he struck gold together with oil.

Surprisingly, the day went very fast. Lucario never noticed that time flew by the longer he stayed staring at Chris playing a video game. It was morning a few seconds ago, and then it was afternoon some minutes ago until night arrived. When Lucario took off his eyes from the television for one moment, he gasped when he saw the night's sky through the window of the room.

"(This is horrible… Have I been distracted by this so much that I never noticed how much time I lost?)" Lucario thought bewildered.

But once he glanced back to the television where Chris had entered another boss fight, Lucario forgot all about the mental shock and went back to stare more. Lucario wondered about why Chris was able to keep playing for a long period of time without getting tired at all. Then he realized that video games had some kind of effect in people that allowed them to keep playing nonstop. It was no wonder why they had many interesting features in them.

For Lucario's dismay, Chris was already getting tired. "I think I got too excited today that I let the whole day fly by… Not that I can complain," he said chuckling as he saved his game file and turned the console off. "I do this a lot, anyway."

"It's over?" Lucario asked depressed.

Chris turned to Lucario. "Sorry, but I think I played this a little bit too much today," he said. "Besides, I already know what happens in this game in the end."

Lucario was shocked that his experience had an ending. Chris noticed the depressed look on his face that he felt sorry for Lucario.

"…We can continue tomorrow if you like," Chris said, shocking Lucario. "Heheh, I'd never thought that would end up enjoying video games."

Lucario looked away embarrassed. "I…I admit I like them…just a bit," he muttered the last part.

"I saw how you never took off your eyes from the game," Chris pointed out. "It's like you can't look at anything else rather than the TV. And also, you appreciate the game besides just the gameplay…just…like I do too."

Lucario stared at Chris for a while. "Isn't it normal for other people to do the same thing as we do?" he asked.

Chris looked away with a bored look. "Nowadays, gamers make games look overrated because they never have the guts to step on to other genres. They like gameplay over anything else that games trying to deliver like, say, an important message for people." He looked at Lucario. "But you're…you're a true gamer fanatic, and I think we got something in common with that. Well, I never expected you to show me this side."

Lucario didn't want to admit that he was a gamer fanatic. "Is it…bad that I share something in common with you?" he asked.

"What are you saying? That makes you more awesome!" Chris rejoiced. "The mere thought of a gamer Lucario never crossed my mind a single time, but you're a really special case that it's incredibly amazing to see with my own eyes!"

The teen blushed after realizing what he said while the Aura Pokémon stared shocked at him. For a brief moment, Lucario felt flattered by the remarks Chris said to him. The Aura Pokémon looked away with a small smile, feeling a bit proud. It felt very good to Lucario that he was admired in such a way.

"I-I'm sorry for suddenly bursting out like that…" Chris said embarrassed. "I got too excited with you."

"It's okay," Lucario said. "I'm glad I…excited you like that."

Lucario wasn't kidding. He was happy that Chris called him awesome, but then Lucario's loyalty to his real trainer kicked in, making him feel a bit horrified that he liked someone else.

"I-I won't do it again. I REALLY feel embarrassed…" Chris trailed off, looking at the clock. "It's still a little bit too early to rest and I feel a little hungry. Do you want to have dinner?"

Lucario stood up from his spot and nodded.

"I've got great news. We still have some leftovers from the steak we ate yesterday."

The word "steak" was so stuck on Lucario's mind that he couldn't wait to taste the meat once more. He reminded himself not to snap out at Chris if he tapped his shoulder. "Let's go to eat," Lucario said a little excited.

As the two walked down the hallway, Chris smiled to himself. "(This day started off very good and ended in a good note. I'm making a really nice progress this time… I need to keep this up tomorrow. I wonder if I can make him…play video games? It's possible, and I know that will give me a lot of points with him.)"

With a new idea in mind, Chris waited for tomorrow and see if his plan would help Lucario to grow closer to him and, hopefully, make the Aura Pokémon feel at home.

"(I better be careful and not think this place is any better than my homeland,)" Lucario thought. "(I…I will stay loyal to my real trainer forever…)"

The next chapter will continue with Chris's plan, meaning that it will be a new chapter as well. I hope you all liked the small read, and sorry for not updating for a long while.

I encourage all readers to review. :)