I love these reviews. Especially those by Sanluris. It's fun to see what people who read my stories predict will happen. It can really give a guy ideas at times.
Chapter 17: The Pineco Cafe
At first, I was floating in darkness. My body was gone, leaving me as a formless red light. Then, I felt memories being extracted from my head. After the feeling was gone, I felt the pull of gravity, followed by a floor appearing below me. My feet reformed, as did the rest of my Ralts body.
Once I touched the ground, walls sprang up around me, followed by tiles and carpet forming on the ground. Shortly after, furniture fell from the sky into their corresponding areas. A TV, a bed, a table, and all those things. There was something familiar about everything in the room. That's when it hit me.
This was my apartment back when I was human.
I walked up to the couch and sat down. The furniture was human, but the size was made specifically for Ralts. It was as if I was human again.
I then noticed something about my home. There was no roof. I looked up for a while, until I saw a flicker. Like a giant screen flickering to life, images appeared up there.
I could see Jenny's entire apartment through the roof, which had a domed shape to it, as well as a red tint.
My stomach grumbled and I went to get food from the fridge in the kitchen. Inside was a burger, which, despite being in the refrigerator, was nice and fresh. I took a bite and went to sit on the couch.
I looked to the sides and sighed. Like back in my real apartment, the control was long lost. I had lost a lot of things back when I was human. Like that time I had lost my wallet for the fifth time, or that time I lost all the furniture in my house when I stepped out for a while. Good thing the police managed to find them. I just wish they hadn't done that to the furniture. I'm not telling what they did, it still gives me shudders.
I got up and manually turned the TV on like all those times back at my real home. Static. Great. Looks like television signals can't penetrate the poke ball.
The reddish images shown on the dome ceiling suddenly turned fully red, indicating the lights were turned off in Jenny's room. I decided to go to sleep too and made my way to the bedroom. It was all just as I remembered it.
Except for the useless TV and domed roof.
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I woke up with a yawn, almost forgetting I was a pokemon. I remembered when I saw myself in the mirror. I jumped back in surprise, falling into the tub. It had no water.
On the bright side, I wasn't falling into it at twenty-five miles an hour.
I got up and looked up at the domed roof. Jenny was awake now and getting ready for work. She was changing into her unifo……… seriously, it was like my neck was frozen in place.
After putting on her uniform, she walked towards me (from an outside perspective, she was walking towards the poke ball). She picked it up and threw it on the ground. Nothing happened.
I looked around and saw a sign that said 'exit' above the door that was supposed to go to the rest of the apartment building. "Oh," I said as I remembered this wasn't an apartment building. I opened the door and was pulled out as if I had just opened an airlock in space.
I felt myself reform in front of Jenny as she breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness," she said, "I thought I did something wrong!" she then walked over to me, "So how was it in the poke ball?"
"I DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING I HAD MY EYES CLOSED!!!" I said. I don't think I'm very good at lying about things like that.
"Awww, I wish I could hear what you were saying!" apparently, my lying handicap didn't matter. "Hey, do you want to go to work with me today?"
How could I refuse such a request?
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Jenny carried me to the Pineco Café herself. All the while, my face was beet red. She carried me in the huggy sort of way a little girl holds her dolly.
I couldn't help but be red, I was being held that way by my best friend! I missed my date with her, plus I was dead in a sense, so I didn't feel like I could call her my girlfriend. At least, I don't think I can. I don't know about these things.
Back on track, I wish she had taken me in the poke ball instead. But then again, it would be very dark inside her pocket. "We're here!" I looked up and saw the Pineco Café. The exterior was shaped a bit like the pokemon it was named after and the inside smelled like pinecones.
Jenny set me down on the counter nearby and went to get her things ready. As I waited, I used my time waiting to look around. Lots of people sitting around with their friends. Some chatting, some playing games they brought with them. A few were on their laptops. I saw two on handheld games using Wi-Fi. I wanted one of those, they didn't have joysticks.
Unfortunately, I also saw a group of the biggest jerks I knew. They were a group of bullies that had tormented me and Jenny ever since we were in the third grade. They were led by one who I hated more than all the others put together. Thomas, a.k.a. Tommy.
Tommy was a jerk among jerks. He bragged about any little thing he could. Like the fact that he was a year older than me (well, seventeen years older now)! Another thing he bragged about was that he believed he was smarter than me due to his better grades at school (I always misplaced my work)! And the worst thing about it was the fact that he constantly bragged about having possibly the best luck in the world!
Not to mention he was a jerk, did I mention that already?
As I glared angrily at him, the bell above the doorway dinged as another customer ran in. Unfortunately, he couldn't turn in time to dodge Tommy, who had suddenly decided to stand up. "What do we have here?"
I couldn't see who it was that Tommy was threatening, but I could sense his fear. That was understandable, seeing as Tommy was a foot taller than him. "Hello there, little guy. I think you hit me just now." Once the kid got up, Tommy firmly held his shoulder. "You know what they say. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!" Tommy was reeking of maliciousness.
I heard a familiar growl come from next to the kid. "Let him go!" said the pokemon next to him. The voice clicked, and I realized she was a Mudkip. Now I knew who the kid was.
Finn annoyed Tommy, so he pinned her down with his foot. I jumped off the counter and casually walked towards the trash can. "Hey, leave Finn alone!"
I reached the trash can and took a look inside. "Nah, the little thing bugs me."
I took a soda can out and weighed it a bit. "Let! Her! Go!"
I tossed it back in the can and pulled out another one. "You annoy me as well. Let me introduce you to my knuckle."
The can I got this time was pretty heavy, seeing as it was full of soda. Tommy clenched his fist to punch Jim in the face.
The can was good enough.