Hello everyone! First off, if you're reading this, I just want to say thanks a ton. I've been having this idea floating around in my head for a long while and I'm just now getting around to writing it. Another huge thanks to DaystarEld who writes the amazing rational fic "Pokemon: The Origin of Species". I reached out a few years ago asking to use a few of his ideas in my fic about how real life pokeballs would work and he kindly gave me permission as long as I credited him and his fic. So that's that! Constructive criticism welcome, as long as it's constructive. Alright, enough of me. Onto the story.
I don't own the rights nor have any affiliation with Nintendo, Niantic, Gamefreak, nor the Pokemon Company. Obviously...
Spark pressed down hard on the mop bucket handle, squeezing the last of the water out of the mop. He finished up the last pass mopping the floor next to the row of cages. Colonel Meowstard, a skinny orange cat in one of the last cages, eyed him lazily.
"All finished up, sir. Hope it passes inspection," Spark said, saluting. Colonel Meowstard blinked slowly.
"You're too kind sir. Permission to give scritches?" Colonel Meowstard gave no reply. Spark put his fingers through the wire cage and scratched the Colonel on his neck right underneath his ear. The Colonel responded with a contented purr.
"You look like you're feeling a lot better, huh cutie? We'll keep you nice and comfy until your people get back tomorrow." Colonel Meowstard slow-blinked in assent. Spark pushed the bucket and mop back into the mop sink and dumped out the gray water. He hung the mop up to dry and dashed to his locker to grab his things. He was in a rush because he had plans that night. He and some buddies were going downtown to grab some beers and play Pokemon Go for the release night. The hospital manager asked him to pick up an extra shift to cover for a sick coworker. A veterinary technician is by no means a lucrative career, so Spark needed the extra money.
Spark had been following the game's development for over a year. He followed every subreddit and read through all the data-mining reports. The features, while not exactly what he wanted, still looked amazing. Data miners were able to pull most of the pokemon models, stats, and information. There was data that hinted at different pokemon showing up in specific biomes and weather conditions. Pokemon would congregate in what the game was calling "Pokestops" and "Gyms", and you'd use them to obtain more items like Pokeballs and potions. Most exciting of all was that huge sections of the app were inaccessible to the dataminers. Certain files were so heavily encrypted that no one outside of Niantic or Nintendo was able to access them. This led many to speculate that there could be surprise features revealed on launch day.
The app was also massive. The highest quality graphics for a phone game to date, leaving most older phones unable to run the game. That was one of the reasons Spark had been taking extra shifts at the clinic. He'd burned through most of his savings to buy a brand new smart phone, a highly durable case, and a few power banks. In retrospect, this may have been a bit overkill for a phone game that hadn't even released yet, but Spark had panic shopped two weeks ago when he realized his old phone wasn't going to cut it. He ordered everything online and got more and more nervous the closer he got to launch day until finally his new phone showed up the night before. Just in time.
Even if the game sucked, Spark was determined to turn the night into an enjoyable one. Work took up most of his time and since he'd dropped out of college he hadn't been able to spend as much time as he wanted with his friends. Spark had taken the opportunity of the game's release to try and rekindle something. Bryce, Nathan and Emma weren't as excited as Spark was, but they jumped at the opportunity to go out for drinks when Spark had suggested it. It wasn't just Spark and his friends that were excited, either. There were a bunch of Pokemon Go parties being advertised all over the city. It wasn't isolated to just their city, either. Everyone across the country was preparing for this game's release. It seemed that this game was unlocking some nostalgia for the twenty-somethings of the world. Spark wasn't about to miss this once in a lifetime event.
Spinning his keys around his finger, Spark headed for the front door of the animal hospital. He rounded the corner to the lobby and saw Anita, the animal hospital administrator standing as if to block his getaway.
"Anita, I see that look in your eyes. Please please please, tell me that you're just here to wish me a happy weekend. You know I have plans tonight," He pleaded, doing his best to try and slip past her.
"I know you do Spark, and I really appreciate you covering today… but you're probably gonna need to get prepped for surgery as soon as possible. Russel is on his way in wi-"
"What happened to Trigger?!" Spark exclaimed.
"Russel isn't sure, but from what he described it sounds like GDV." Spark's breath caught in his throat before Anita finished her sentence. GDV, or Gastric dilation volvulus, is a condition that's more common in larger breeds of dogs where the dog's stomach will twist over itself, trapping gasses and causing the dog to become extremely bloated. GDV needs to be treated immediately or it's life threatening.
Trigger was Russel's German Shepherd. Russel had been taking his dogs to this clinic for years, much longer than Spark had been employed. The man was a joy to be around. Russel had a slight southern accent that hinted at him being a transplant to the city. He was always quick with a joke and a hearty laugh to follow it up. You'd see him around the animal hospital fixing siding, shoveling snow, even jumping a car or two on occasion. Russel asked for nothing in return; wouldn't even allow the hospital to discount his dog's treatment (the doctors did anyway). He'd always say that he takes care of the people that take care of his dogs.
Not only was Russel an amazing human being, but he was a savant when it came to training dogs. For years he had a pack of around a dozen dogs, all rescues, and every one of them was impeccably trained. Not one of them would move a muscle or bat an eye until Russel gave them a command. However, time ran its course and Russel's pack slowly dwindled. With an unfortunate accident three years ago where his last dog Lucy was hit by a pickup, Russel was left without any dogs. Once the hospital heard about this, they decided to give back to this amazing man. A German Shepherd puppy had found itself in their care after being saved from neglectful owners, and instead of taking him to the shelter, they offered him to Russel.
Spark glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed. 6pm on the dot.
He sighed, "Well if I leave now I'll never be able to face myself in the mirror again. Do you know how long it would take to do my hair then?"
Anita smirked, "Alright, smartass, go get surgery set up. Dr. Gaiman is on her way in."
He walked towards the back room and his locker, "It's fine. Game's prolly gonna suck anyway.
The procedure itself went smoothly. Dr. Gaiman was able to take care of the bloat and get the stomach back to how it was supposed to be. 2 hours later Trigger was all patched up. The recovery from anesthesia took another 2 hours. During that time Anita went home, leaving Spark to make sure that there weren't any complications when Trigger woke up.
Spark was sitting on the floor next to one of the three kennels the small clinic had to spare for the bigger dogs, gently petting Trigger behind the ears and down his neck. Trigger had just woken up, and was slowly coming to. Russel was in the process of thanking him and Dr. Gaiman for the 5th time.
"...I just don't know what I would have done. Thank you both so much."
"Russel, once again it's no trouble," Dr. Gaiman said, putting her hand on Russel's shoulder and leading him towards the exit, "You go home and get some rest. Trigger will be fine here overnight. He's likely to make a full recovery because of you. You got him here fast. You did good"
The lights flickered overhead.
Spark stood up and straightened out his scrubs, "Go on Russel, I'm gonna be here overnight, anyway. I'll make sure to give you a call if anything changes with Trigger,"
"All right then. I suppose I do have some things to take care of around the house tonight," Russel walked over to the kennel Trigger was in, "You be a good boy. You're gonna start to feel better real soon." Trigger licked his master's fingers through the cage. With that Russel stood, thanked Spark and Dr. Gaiman yet another time and exited the clinic.
"You sure you're gonna be alright closing up by yourself?" Dr. Gaiman asked.
"Ya, I'll be alright. Anita works too much. I'm sure she's grateful I'm taking the overnight for her. I've already missed out on my plans tonight anyway."
A sad smile broke over Dr. Gaiman's face, "You're a good tech, Spark. Just don't overwork yourself. I don't need you burning out on me."
"I'll worry about how much I work, thank you very much," Spark said, with a wry smile, " just don't look too closely at the beer in the fridge and we'll be just fine."
Dr. Gaiman glared at Spark disapprovingly.
He raised his hands in an appeasing gesture, "Just a joke doc, stand down"
"Have a good night Spark." She smirked and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge on her way out. Spark couldn't help but notice how she seemed to take a little extra time eyeing the contents before finally making her exit.
"Well it looks like it's just you, me, and the Colonel tonight, Trigger." Spark walked over to the fridge, pulled out an energy drink Chris had put in there and then fell into the office chair next to the computer. Far as he figured, Chris owed him one for taking his shift.
Spark cracked open the drink, and simultaneously heard a sound like thunder in the distance. The lights in the clinic intensified for a split second then immediately went dark. Trigger whined and the Colonel hissed.
"Fuck," Spark muttered under his breath. He set his can down on the floor and stumbled to the opposite side of the room where the lockers were. He dug his phone out of his locker and noticed that he had a few missed messages from Bryce wondering where he was. Spark groaned. In the chaos of the emergency surgery he had forgotten to mention to his friends that he wasn't going to make it. This was the third time he'd gotten stuck at work and had to cancel plans with them. Not wanting to deal with the fallout of that situation just yet, he ignored the messages and turned his phone's flashlight on. He made his way to the breaker box that was in a storage closet right outside the back door of the building.
Spark stepped outside into the warm summer night. He paused and stared out; not a cloud in the sky. Strange, he thought. He swore he had just heard thunder. The clinic sat atop a hill overlooking the city. He noticed that all of downtown was also without power, and a pillar of smoke had started to rise.
His contemplation was interrupted by a flash and crack of electricity arcing out of the storage closet. The door was knocked off its hinges, leaning as if it had been bashed in. Spark couldn't begin to fathom what had happened.
There was another crack and flash of electricity. Spark smelled ozone and burnt rubber.
"Shit, shit, shit." Spark unlocked his phone and tried to make a call to the police, or anyone that could deal with live and exposed wiring.
Despite his name, Spark knew little to nothing about electrical wiring. Electrical work gave him a lot of anxiety. He wouldn't even take showers while it was raining, and despite being an avid PC gamer, he had never built his own computer due to the fear. In fact, Spark was an ironic nickname given to him by the hospital staff after he freaked out the first time he saw a defibrillator in use.
Despite his best attempts his phone wasn't responding. It was stuck on a black screen with a spinning pokeball and the words 'analyzing' written underneath it.
"What the fuuuuuck. Why did I even bother buying a new phone?" Spark thought that he must have hit the Pokemon Go app button by accident. With the sheer amount of people that were playing the game, the servers probably overloaded and that was causing his phone to react slowly as well.
"Alright, time to improvise," Spark said. He ran back inside and grabbed the fire extinguisher from down the hall. Maneuvering his phone so that the pop-socket was between the fingers on his left hand, he was able to carry the fire extinguisher and use the flashlight on his phone simultaneously.
Spark burst back through the doors outside and made his way to the closet. The worry for his patients won out over his fear of electricity. He stepped over the busted door which was leaning against a shoulder high stack of boxes that obscured most of the room. The breaker was in the back right corner blocked by old hospital equipment and boxes. Another crack and flash startled Spark. Panicking, he unloaded the contents of the fire extinguisher directly onto the breaker. There was a loud pop, and the breaker stopped spitting out electricity.
"Huh…" Spark pondered. He heard rustling behind the boxes. He froze, his knuckles white on the fire extinguisher. The rustling got louder and a furry yellow mouse the size of a small dog jumped onto the boxes. The thing was standing on all fours, heckles raised, red cheeks sparking, and its tail standing at attention.
"What the fuuu," Spark's brain short circuited. He was having trouble parsing reality with what he was seeing. There was a very real, and very pissed off pikachu right in front of him.
His phone buzzed in his hand. A feminine voice spoke from it, "Scan complete. Pokemon detected in the area. Attempt to catch?"
Without complete awareness of his actions, Spark squeezed the lever of the fire extinguisher.