Chapter 3: A Star is Born!
Sydney dragged York to the outskirts of Emeras city to the north. When they were outside, she released his arm and he began rubbing it. Small grassland Pokémon were frolicking off in the distance. Young Deerling chased each other as a pair of Sawsbuck watched nearby. Wurmple, Weedle and Caterpie crawled in the tree branches, while Metapod, Kakuna, Silcoon and Cascoon hung from the branches on silk strings. Flying types circles overhead of the trees in the area, likely looking for food. Sentret and Furret carried food out from a hole in the wall leading into Emeras.
Sydney looked at all of the Pokémon in awe. She excitedly rushed over to the grass and ducked down to avoid being noticed and startling the Pokémon. She opened her camera bag and readied the equipment. York was off to the side, kneeling slightly in the grass, watching his friend work.
"She's really into this." York said with a smile. "I know that we're kinda on a time limit, but I'll try not to leave a city before she can take her fair share of pictures."
"York!" She quietly called over to him. "Let's see if we can get a closer look at the Deerling!" He nodded and the two began creeping towards the Deer Pokémon. "Do you think they'd be okay with Brush or Colonel joining in?"
"If it was just the Deerling, maybe. Their parents might not be too keen on the idea of some weird Pokémon playing with their kids."
Sydney frowned slightly, but her smile quickly returned. "Oh, well. Just having them in the shot is sure to be really nice!"
The two were now very close to the family of Pokémon. Sydney had previously focused on the playing Deerling, but now took pictures of the resting parents. While she was doing her best to stay undetected, one of the two Deerling grew curious of the sound of the shutter and began walking towards it.
"Syd!" York kept his voice down to avoid startling the Pokémon and potentially making the situation worse. "Get outta there!"
'I'll be fine!" She replied, keeping her eyes on the approaching Deerling. "Keep your cool, man!"
York reached into his pocket and took out his new Pokédex, pressing one of the buttons. The screen flashed and brought him to a menu with several options: National Pokédex, Search and Status. "I've heard that these things are only for biological and behavioral information. Maybe… Pokédex, how will a wild Sawsbuck react to a human it doesn't know?"
The button for the search option glowed and a short chime played. A circle began rotating and several seconds later, the circle disappeared. A circular, featureless blue face appeared in the corner and a picture of Sawsbuck appeared in the center of the screen. Various information filled the rest of the screen.
"Like most Pokémon, Sawsbuck care greatly for their children. However, they are more docile and don't attack a mysterious figure unless it shows reason for them to act."
"Good." York looked back at Sydney. "She should be fine. Unless they react badly to the camera." He heard the same chime he did after asking his first question. He looked down, but the same screen was present.
"Sawsbuck occupy areas that are full of nature. Their opinion of technology such as cameras varies on how much they see them. Sawsbuck near highly industrialized areas avoid the city and thus see technology less and will react more aggressively."
"This thing is really cool…" He looked at Sydney once more. "This place is right outside the city. I would guess that they won't mind."
One of the Deerling nudged the camera with it's nose and jumped back, caught off guard by such an hard feeling among grass. Sydney slowly rose up and the Deerling stared her down for a moment. The Sawsbuck did the same. After seeing that Sydney simply stood and showed no sign of acting, they cried. Afterwards, the Deerling began approaching her.
"They must have given their kids the okay to come near me." Sydney pointed the camera at them and took a picture. The two young Pokémon shook their heads after the flash met their eyes. Curious, the two began walking towards her again. As they did, she continued to take pictures of them.
York stood himself, having seen that Sydney was fine. "She should be okay on her own. Hey, Syd! I'll be in the area! Be sure to call me when you want to go back!"
"I'll do just that!" She ran over to the Sawsbuck and began talking to them as York went off on his own.
As he grew farther and farther from her he looked down at his Pokédex once more. "Are wild Pokémon capable of understanding human speech?"
"All Pokémon understand human speech, wild and domesticated."
"Hey, what Pokémon can I find out here?"
"Pokémon that inhabit Route 2 north of Emeras City include the Deerling family, Caterpie and Metapod, Weedle and Kakuna, Wurmple, Silcoon and Cascoon, the Sentret family, Starly and the Spearow family. This applies to Route 3 east of Emeras City as well."
"I'm left with only a few options for more party members to take to the gym. There are a lot of bug-types. I won't have much use for both of them on my journey. Same with Sentret; they're not the most dependable in terms of battles. I'll decide on either Starly or Spearow. Which one will be more useful on my journey?"
"Species is often irrelevant, since enough hard work and dedication can make up for lack of strength. However, Spearow is known to be marginally stronger than Starly. Staraptor is marginally stronger than Fearow according to experiments conducting across the globe."
"Hm… I'll keep an eye out for a Starly then. If species is irrelevant, then I'm fine with a Spearow too." York looked up in the sky near the trees where Flying-types had been before. They had disappeared since then. "Aw man…"
He began walking towards the trees in hopes of finding a Flying-type. He looked into the branches in hopes of finding a nest, or to see a Pokémon pecking at one of the bug types.
"Hey!"
Along with Sydney's scream, York heard a few cries from the Deerling. He turned to see Sydney running after something. He looked in the air and saw a Starly with her camera in it's beak.
"That's weird. What would a Starly want with a camera?" He took off after her and the Starly.
The other Pokémon in the area simply stared at the humans in awe. The Starly perched itself in a tree and set the camera on a branch. Sydney stood at the base of the tree, glaring up at it. York stood next to her, looking at the two.
"What do you think it wants?" He asked. "It took your camera for a reason."
As if it heard the two, the Starling Pokémon patted it's stomach with one of it's wings and pointed to it's now open beak. It glanced down at the two as it did this.
Sydney stomped the ground yelled. "You've got to be kidding me! You stole my camera because you wanted some food?!" The Pokémon nodded. "York, do something!"
"Starly are birds of prey. Why would it resort to getting a human's help for food?"
"Maybe it's just lazy. But then again, a Pokémon that relies on hunting for food being lazy doesn't seem likely. Is there some food we have that it wants?"
"I could think of a few." York took a step closer to the Starly. "Hey! If we get you some food, how about you come with us? You could eat all the nice food you want!" The Pokémon perked up but quickly pouted and turned away. "Huh? What happened?"
"So, we've established that's it's jealous of the food domesticated Pokémon eat. What else could it want?" Sydney looked around again. "There are some nice Pokémon around here. I'm sure plenty of trainers have tried to catch them. I think it's angry that you want it to come along for just food. No other Pokémon caught out here go that easily."
York nodded and looked up at the Starly again. "Alright then, how about we get you food and you give me a battle? And Sydney's camera?"
The Pokémon looked back at him and nodded, sitting closely to the camera as if to protect it.
"Now what?" York walked back over to Sydney. "What kind of food would a Starly want?"
"Who do we know that might have something?"
"The professor, most likely. But what about Aera? She gave that Growlithe treats for doing good. She must have those for all kinds of Pokémon, Starly included!"
"Good idea! You go get the food and make sure Colonel is ready for a fight." She looked up at the Starly, eyes full of anger. "I'll stay here and make sure it doesn't pull anything."
York sped back towards Emeras City while Sydney stood below the tree, eyes glued to the Starly. Sitting snugly next to the camera, the Starly did the same. The two of them watched each other without making a move or a sound.
"I knew that Pokémon were intelligent beings, but I didn't know they'd go so far as to take advantage of humans to get what they want. York better not screw up and catch you. Other people don't need something like you in the wild ruining their day." The Starly began flapping it's wings, working up a violent gust in an attempt to knock Sydney over. She stood her ground and gave it a cocky grin. "A little thing like you will have to work a lot harder to take me down!" It took the camera strap in it's beak and dangled it over the branch, one simple movement away from a drop guaranteed to damage if not break it. "W-whoa! Calm down a bit! Remember, you break my camera, you don't get your food!" It put the camera back on the branch, and Sydney let out a sigh of relief. "Geez..."
The Starly waited on the branch, keeping its eye on Sydney. As she took two Pokéballs out of her bag, it began moving away from the camera and spread it's wings, ready to dive bomb her at any second. From the balls came a Minccino and a Ditto. It took off from the branch and flew towards the three at a great speed.
The Ditto waddled in front of its path and transformed, taking on it's form. The Starly stopped in it's tracks, perplexed at the Pokémon's sudden change in appearance. It tilted it's head to the right, and Ditto mirrored it. It tilted it's head to the left and Ditto mirrored it again. Each and every move it made was imitated by Ditto. It's fascination made it forget all about Sydney and the Minccino.
"That's enough, Copy." Sydney ordered as she put her camera around her neck. The Minccino stood on her shoulder, waving. Starly stared at them, dumbstruck, and turned it's gaze to Ditto as it returned to its original form. "You did good." She patted the Minccino's head. "You too, Brush. And you, don't look so down! You'll still get food."
The Starly retreated to its branch and angrily turned around, back facing Sydney and her Pokémon. She took two containers out of her bag and opened them. The smell caught Starly's attention and it saw her holding two small confections, both white. Her Pokémon happily took them from her hands and stuffed them into their mouths. The Starly looked on jealously, but turned away from them again.
"Syd! I got the food!" Upon hearing these words, the Starly eagerly turned around and saw York with a container of his own in his hand. "You… got your camera? Brush and Copy help you out?"
"Yeah. Hey, bird, dinner's here!" The Starly landed in front of them and opened it's mouth wide. "Why do you have a full container?"
He took out two white confections and knelt down towards the Starly. "If I was going to catch this little thing, I'd need a whole container of Pokémon food. That's what Area said." Holding them in front of the Starly, it plucked them from his hand and gobbled them down. "Satisfied?" He gleefully nodded. "Ready for the battle you promised me?" The Starly flew away from him and flapped its wings confidently. York put the container in his backpack and took Colonel's Pokéball off of his belt. "Alright!"
He pressed the button on the ball, and his partner emerged, brandishing the blades that were its hands.
"Let's start things off with Night Slash, Colonel!"
A dark aura surrounded his arms and it charged the Starly. Copies of the Starly began appearing and surrounding Colonel, making him stop dead in his tracks. The Aura on it's arms faded and it appeared to have moved slightly. All of the copies disappeared and the real Starly flew back.
"What?" A shocked Sydney chuckled and smiled. "I've never seen Aerial Ace used against something that used Double Team. I wouldn't have expected it to work like that."
The Starly got up and charged towards Pawniard at full speed. It rammed into him and pushed him back a ways, shaking it's head and wobbling a bit afterwards.
"Let's try Night Slash one more time!"
The dark aura surrounded his arms once more and ran. Starly took to the sky and made a u-turn, speeding towards the ground. Before it touched down, it made a sharp turned and made it's way right for Colonel.
"Brave Bird, huh?" Murmured York. "That's quite the attack, but for a Pokémon like Colonel, it shouldn't be too bad. Tank it and finish the job with Night Slash!"
"Finish the job? Aerial Ace, the Take Down recoil and the Brave Bird would have taken a toll on it. It might be enough or a Night Slash to take it down, but…"
Starly crashed into Colonel and sent him flying. It landed on the ground with a large thud and got up shakily. Colonel stood and looked at the Starly for a moment before looking back at York.
He took a Pokéball off of his belt and threw it at the Starly. The capsule absorbed it in a red light and began shaking. The ball ceased it shaking a few moments later.
"Awesome!" York ran over to Colonel and gave him a high five, then the two hurried over to the Pokéball that was in the grass. "A new team member! This is pretty exciting!"He immediately let the Pokémon out and it fell over onto its rear. "Pretty tired, are you?"
Sydney joined them all, Brush and Copy still with her. She held a potion in her hand. "Hold still." She sprayed the potion and Starly winced as the spray enveloped it's body. "Feeling better? "It stood and did a few stretches. "I'll take that as a yes." She looked at York. "Make sure she behaves."
"She? What makes you say that. It could be a guy." Once again he took out his Pokédex. "What gender is Starly?"
The same searching screen appeared, and was followed by a picture of two Starly.
"Male Starly have more white on their foreheads than their female counterparts. Judging by this Starly's appearance, it is a female."
"Alright, it's a girl." Said York as he put the Pokédex away. "In that case, I'll call you Star."
"A little too general, don't you think?" Sydney returned her Pokémon to their Pokéballs. "I mean, it could be a more unique name."
Star hopped onto York's shoulder. "Says the person with a Ditto named Copy. If you're done taking pictures, let's head back."
"I'm not done yet! I was only able to get pictures of the Deerling and their parents! We'll have to stay out a little longer!"
York sighed and sat against the tree Star was perched earlier. "Alright, then. Have fun, Syd. We'll be waiting for you over here."
'Fine then. Just sit tight, I'll try to wrap things up soon." Sydney went off, leaving York with his two Pokémon. Star playfully pecked at York while Colonel began attacking the tree.