Chapter 2: What's a Pokémon?
I slowly open my eyes, realizing that I had been knocked unconscious. But what did it, I'm still not sure. I notice the headset has disappeared. I look around, slightly confused about where I ended up. This is definitely not Station Square, I think, staring out at the open clearing before me. It looks almost…just like home.
The breeze smells slightly sweet, like the many wildflowers that dot the wide landscape. Evergreens surround the clearing, along with bushes. Bushes full of berries! I walk over there, realizing all at once how hungry I've become. How long was I even out? I wonder as I take a big, juicy berry.
It's round, very hard, and blue as the cloudless sky. I take a bite, and notice the many different flavors in it. It's pretty dry, kind of spicy, very sour and bitter, but not at all sweet. Surprisingly, I find myself enjoying it, and before I know it, I've eaten nearly half the bush! I go to grab another berry, but hear a slight rustling in the bushes, and instantly realize that I'm not alone here. Wherever here is, anyway.
"Who's there?" I ask, noticing that my voice has finally come back. Seriously, just how long was I out? No answer. I hear another noise, this time much closer than before. "I said who's there? Come on out, you coward!"
I hear a slight hiss, like I've just agitated whatever's in those bushes. And then it lashes out at me, whatever it is. I jump out of the way, luckily, giving me enough time to at least see what I'm up against. It looks kind of like a tiny purple rat, with beady red eyes staring straight at me in disgust.
"This is my territory!" it screeches, letting me know I'm definitely not welcome here under any circumstances.
I raise an eyebrow at it, wondering what it's actually capable of if it thinks it can beat something three to four times its size. I lift my hands in surrender, not wanting to cause any more trouble than I have to, and slowly back away. "Okay, gotcha little guy."
"Who are you calling 'little'? I may be little, but my Bite is worse than my bark!" the rat exclaims, angered by what I've said.
"Look, can't we, uh, talk this out? I don't even know what you are. How was I supposed to know you didn't want me to call you little? Geez, sorry there." I bite my tongue, realizing I'm about to call him that again.
The purple rat thinks it over for a moment, and finally answers, "Okay, I believe you. But it'd better not happen again, you got it? I'm a Rattata, though. What kind of Pokémon are you?"
Pokémon? I wonder quietly. What's a Pokémon? The Rattata sees my confusion and sighs. "You're definitely not from around here. Follow me."
Thanks for stating the obvious. I half-heartedly follow Rattata, not having a clue about where he'll take me. We keep walking, and I soon approach this village, uh, town? The sign says "Kaishi Town, home to the Midori region's very own Professor Rosethorn." Well, guess I know kind of where I'm at now…
I look over at Rattata, who's apparently more focused on the building in front of us than bothering to tell me where we're going. I sigh loudly to try catching the rat's attention, but that only seems to annoy the tiny animal. Er, Pokémon? I think it called itself that…whatever that is.
"Can I at least know where we're going, Rattata?" I ask impatiently, looking around from building to building as I continue to follow the tiny purple rat.
"No. Just follow me," he answers back just as crossly, perhaps even more.
"Fine, if you insist," I mumble, knowing I really don't have any other choices. Unless I just decide to make a run for it. But that wouldn't help me very much at all. I still wouldn't have any way home. We walk on, until we approach an enormous building, possibly the biggest in the entire town.
The sign reads "Professor Rosethorn's Pokémon Lab." As we make our way inside and go in through the door on the right, I immediately notice another Pokémon here. At least, I think it's a Pokémon. It looks more like a plant to me, though. It stands on two feet and has white hair with bouquets of roses for hands, one red, one blue.
It's about as tall as me, and by the looks of it, it's not too pleased to see us. "What is it this time, Rattata?" she yells, exasperated at the drifting Pokémon. "I thought we discussed this the last time you brought a trespasser. We can't help it that some of the Pokémon wander around and get lost!"
"It's not that this time, Flora! Here, take him. Maybe you can identify what Pokémon this one happens to be," he answers her, pointing his tail at me. "If he even is one," he mumbles as he walks away.
Well, so much for that, I think as I cross over to the Pokémon he called Flora. "So, you're a 'Flora'?" I ask her, still wondering what exactly a Pokémon even is.
"No, you idiot!" she exclaims, smacking me with the blue bouquet. "I'm a Roserade! Seriously, what kind of a Pokémon asks that question, anyhow?"
"I don't know, what exactly is a Pokémon? That might clear up about half of the mess I'm in!" I shout back, ready to smack her as well, but knowing it won't help the situation any.
"You mean you've never heard of a Pokémon before? You must be insane! How else could you understand me like this?"
"How am I supposed to know? Tails is the one who got me here! I didn't intend to end up on some foreign planet full of 'Pokémon,' I was just trying to see an old friend…" I trail off, noticing that she's wide-eyed with surprise, along with quite a bit of confusion. I think I've shocked her to silence.
Hm, guess it really is a crazy story, now that I think about it. I wait for Roserade, or Flora, or whatever I'm supposed to call her, to answer, but she seems frozen in time, completely still and quiet, almost like a statue. After giving her a few minutes to process the situation, she finally begins to talk again, this time in a slightly more calm tone.
"Rosethorn always said I'd go crazy if I kept being so mean; guess it finally happened. Might as well live through it. What's your name then, if you're not a Pokémon?" she asks, apparently feeling delusional from the sight of me.
Great, I've already made one creature on this planet question their sanity. I've seriously got to think of a better way to put that story… I decide to answer anyway, realizing this is so far the farthest I've gotten through around here anyways."Ah, the name's Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."
Now that I'm thinking, I realize how long it's been since I've had a good run. I hate it when things are so slow like this, but running would only cause more trouble than it's really worth. For one, this Roserade would never be able to help me (or catch me), and I'd probably end up stuck here forever. At least there's no water. Yet, anyway.
Chris's planet was covered in that stuff. It doesn't look so bad here though. "Why do they call you 'Sonic'? And a hedgehog? Hm, there's a Pokémon called Shaymin classified as one of those. It's a Grass-type, under normal circumstances."
Don't tell me they're going to try to 'classify' me as a Pokémon, I wonder as I notice actual people enter the lab. Finally, real, living, breathing, people! Maybe they could help… I walk over to them cautiously, knowing one wrong move could freak them out to the extreme. The tallest one, a brunette in a lab coat and a knee-length forest green skirt, notices me first.
Her deep green eyes scan over me, and I can immediately tell she's the Professor Rosethorn the two Pokémon kept mentioning. She looks around thirty years old. The other two, a boy and a girl, just stand there, staring at me in amazement. They both look like teenagers, about sixteen or so. "It sure doesn't look like any Pokémon I've ever seen, Misty," the raven-haired boy says, shoving his hands in his pockets. He refuses to take his big brown eyes off me, like I'll disappear as soon as he turns away.
Chris? I find myself wondering. He looks so much like him, aside from his hair being black instead of auburn. Plus, his eyes, they're much darker, more like an amber color than the big blue eyes I remember Chris having. Still, why does this kid look so much like him?
"It's because he isn't a Pokémon," Professor Rosethorn confirms, making the boy raise an eyebrow at her. A little yellow rat is perched on his left shoulder, also looking curiously toward me. That must be another Pokémon.
"Then what is he, Professor?" The girl, apparently named Misty, asks her. She's slightly taller than the boy, with sea foam green eyes and fiery orange hair.
"Well, I really don't know, Misty. Why don't one of you ask him?"
"Uh…" she trails off, not seeming very eager to talk to me. Is she really that scared of me? "Why don't you do it, Ash? You're the one going on your newest journey. Or are you scared?" she asks, sticking her tongue out like I do sometimes whenever I'm taunting Eggman.
I hope they can take care of Mobius without me, I think, remembering Eggman's latest plot to rule the world.
"I'm not scared at all! You wait and see!" the boy named Ash snaps as he turns to face me. He crosses over, with the yellow Pokémon still sitting on his shoulder, and stoops down beside me. "Hey, I'm Ash. What's your name?"
"You can't answer him, you know. People don't understand us Pokémon," Flora says, walking over to me.
"I already told you I'm not a Pokémon, Flora! And the name's Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog," I answer, shaking Ash's hand. Professor looks at me, a perplexed expression on her face.
"You mean you can understand her?" she asks, raising an eyebrow incredulously.
"Yeah, and that Rattata that brought me here," I reply, glancing over at the Pokémon Professor. "Now, since Flora couldn't seem to tell me the first time I asked, just what is a Pokémon?"
"You're telling me you've never heard of a Pokémon?" the professor wonders, startled by my question.
"Well, I kind of wouldn't be asking if I had, so nope, nope I haven't, though your Roserade sure keeps trying to convince me I'm one of them. Rattata did too."
"Well, a Pokémon is a creature that lives here, in the Pokémon World, alongside, and usually helping, us humans. They protect us, help us, teach us, and in many circumstances become some of our best friends," she answers, smiling.
"Sooo basically like an animal in my home world? Or Chris's even?"
"Well, I would think…" she says, putting a hand to her chin and looking up at the ceiling.
"Wait, did you just say your 'home world'?" asks Ash, looking at me with squinted eyes.
"Yeah, uh, long story. See, I'm not exactly from here… My friend Tails, he's an inventor, and he built this teleporter to try to see our friend Chris again, who lives on this planet called Earth. But apparently he didn't realize that I could end up here," I explain, scratching the back of my head as I glance over them all.
Ash and Misty just look at me in disbelief. The professor, however, nods in acceptance. "Hm, yes, seems like the portal to our world was just a bit closer than Station Square's."
I raise an eye at her. How does she know where Chris lives? I never mentioned his city. "Uh, yeah, I guess," I remark. "But how did you know that Chris lives in Station Square?"
"Oh," she sighs, realizing what she's just said. "I, uh, I used to know him. How's he been?" I scratch my head in confusion, wondering how she could possibly know Chris.
"He's fine, I guess. Haven't seen him in about six months. Well, a six months to us anyway, which is about six years in their time. How did you know him?"
"Well, I'm his older cousin. I always helped with Grandpa Chuck's inventions, blueprints and all, after you guys left. He made a teleporter about six years back, I'm guessing similar to the one your friend made. I stepped through by accident and ended up here. Since then I've devoted my time and research to studying the Pokémon of this world."
I gulped. "So you mean you never found a way home?"
"Well, not that I couldn't find a way back. I didn't really want to. I felt like I belonged here, somehow. Don't you worry Sonic. We'll find a way to get you home. Did anyone else come with you?"
Amy. Rats, I'd completely forgotten about her. She's going to kill me. Dead.
"Well, I think Amy jumped in after me when I left. I want to say she's here, but I just don't know. She's about as tall as me, but she's a pink hedgehog instead. She wears a red dress with a white hem, and always carries her hammer around. Trust me, don't ever get on her bad side with that thing," I warn them, describing her the best I can, hoping they might've seen her.
"Hm, I can't say I remember seeing her," Misty says, speaking to me for the first time.
"We'll help you find her though, right, Pikachu?" The yellow rat nods, so I assume that Pikachu is its name.
"Yeah, we'll help Sonic!" he exclaims, looking at me happily.
"Professor, do you have any idea where she could've ended up at?" I ask, slightly worried that she's in trouble somewhere out there on her own.
"Is she your girlfriend?" Misty asks curiously.
"She definitely thinks she is," I mumble, not sure if she hears me or not.
"Oh" is all she has to say to that.
"Well, Sonic, there just aren't many places she could've ended up. I personally monitor the portals' locations, along with Jade, Flora, and Banana's help."
"So you knew that I came through the portal outside town?" She nods, crossing over to her computer.
"Well, I knew something had come out somewhere. It only lets me know that one of the portals were active."
"Then you'd know if Amy came out, right?" She nods again, entering in something on the computer.
"Come here Sonic, to get a closer look." I walk over there, followed by Ash and Misty, and notice the screen has a picture of a region on it. The Midori region, I'm guessing. There are three little red dots on the screen, scattered across the region and it's islands. "You see those red dots?"
I nod. "Good, those are the portal's possible appearances. The closest would be right here," she says, pointing to one in a place labeled Sakura Forest. "I suggest there first, since it's closest. If she isn't there, she might be here," she adds, pointing to a place called Mizu Park. "She's pretty safe either way, I believe. If she's in neither place, then I really don't know how to tell you this Sonic, but she just might not be here at all."
My eyes widen in disbelief. No, she has to be here, she just has to. And I'm going to do whatever it takes to find her and get us back home.