Perryapsis

Chapter 1 - Volcanoes on Venus

I've decided to update the story using Treecko as a main character instead of Riolu after a couple of conversations with readers, thinking it would be quite benificial to the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

School is boring. Insanity-causingly boring. The same insanity that caused Perry, a young Treecko, to start going to sleep early. As in, early in the morning. It was 3:18 AM and he was still tinkering around in his favourite simulator, Mossdeep Space Program. Perry's space obsession was what identified him as a nerd at school. In practically all his free time, he was either reading (about space), writing (about space) or playing simulators (spaceflight simulators, of course). It was the first night into the school term and he wasn't even going to try sorting out his sleeping hours (or 'dreadtimes', as he called them). His excuse for his father, Lucas, was that in space there is no day or night.

His father was a kind Lucario, but also weary and sad. Three years ago, two weeks after Perry's tenth birthday, his Grovyle mother, May, had gone missing. She had gone out to work in Jubilife City as an IT specialist and simply never returned. Lucas worked at a local research lab in Sandgem Town, slightly longer hours than his wife. He returned home, expecting to find her on the couch watching television, or playing games with Perry, who was, at the time, outgoing and optimistic. Instead, he found Perry looking confused and terrified, cuddling his Deoxys plushy. Lucas called the police and a search began, but even after three years, this was to no avail. Ever since, Perry had become even more secluded, shy and obsessed with space. Space had always been an interest of his, from a young age, and had been an interest of Lucas too, admittedly. But it was now the only thing Perry would associate himself with. It was heartbreaking. Lucas had tried his best to remain kind, forgiving and inspiring, but inspiration is worthless when one doesn't seek it. He was worried Perry was becoming depressed. He also noticed the child becoming stronger, and scarily, more violent. Not the 'beat-up' sort of violent, but every small motion he made seemed to be laced with bitterness, guilt, or a mixture of the two. His voice seemed incredibly dark and low for a Treecko of thirteen, often going hoarse without warning.

And somehow, he still hadn't evolved. Lucas was fully aware that Perry was getting picked on because of his evolutionary state, and he had chased the school up about it. But all he got was denial. That was all Lucas ever got. The police denied to Lucas that the search for May had ended. Perry denied to Lucas that he was ever sad, lonely or depressed. And the school denied it too.

Perry was currently constructing a space station in his game. He carefully docked each module of the craft together, piece by piece, gently nudging his large flightstick so that the two huge chunks of metal would join together, without damaging either. It required immense precision. Contrary to his father's beliefs, he had excellent sleight of hand. It was part of the skills that came with his secret hobby of battling. He knew he was different to other Treecko. He found he was also capable of using some moves he should only be able to employ if he was a Grovyle of Sceptile, and he even seemed to have inherited some Lucario moves from his father, such as Close Combat, Aura Sphere and Extreme Speed. Lucas always wondered how Perry somehow always made it on time to school, no matter how late he left their house. Perry would always debate whether or not he should try to join the battling team. He knew full well he was a more capable battler than most in the school, despite the fact he was only in the second year, and would most likely be accepted. Unless of course his age was a factor.

After pondering for a while about his life and, for the first time in months, allowing him to feel sorry about himself, he found his grip on the flightstick receding. His eyelids began to flutter and his eyeballs began to twitch behind them. He slowly lost consciousness, but a loud bang erupted from the speakers on his outdated PC as his space station violently exploded, and he started cursing at himself silently that he wasn't wearing his headphones. Lucas walked into the room and sighed. "Come on, Perry. School 'n' all that tomorrow," he said, quietly yawning, but Perry was already asleep. His sleep was dreamless.

Perry woke to find his head resting on his keyboard and a slight burning feeling on his right leg. He realised his PC tower was fried, as he hadn't shut down his game the previous night and it had blistered his leg a little. His monitor was showing a bright blue screen, which offended his eyes. So, this is what a hangover feels like... Ugh. he thought to himself. He cursed silently, for a second time. He looked at the small alarm clock behind him, on his bedside table, which read 8:40 AM. "Crap!" he yelled aloud. His father had already left the house, as he usually had to be at the Sandgem labs by 8:30 in the morning. He was a scientist who trying replicate Pokerus in lab conditions.

Perry sped downstairs and grabbed a snackbar, unwrapping it and swallowing it in one swift motion. He cursed again as he realised he'd left his book on orbital mechanics on his bed. He launched himself upstairs, grabbed his bag, books and the previous day's packed lunch, which now stunk of stale ham. He dashed into the bathroom and rammed his toothbrush in his mouth, getting a chance to look in the mirror. Perry was thirteen, so he was pretty tall for his age. He looked like any normal Treecko, with a predominantly light-green body, orange front and a darker green tail. He sighed in the brief tranquility his bathroom provided, before frantically rocketing out of the house. He looked both ways down the short street to make sure nobody was watching, then he accelerated away with Extreme Speed. He was slightly slower than usual due to his blistered leg, but he ignored it.

As Perry approached Sandgem Highschool, he began to slow slightly. He made it into his class only ten seconds slower than usual. He'd just 'ran' two kilometres in less than a minute and it had completely drained him. He was already ten minutes late and he burst into his form room with a loud crash as the door swung into the wall behind it, passing a Pokemon waiting outside the room. And then he remembered. Today was his form's turn for the head teacher's welcome speech.

Mr Rockhopper was a large, slightly plump Empoleon and was usually quite nice to Perry, thanks to his outstanding academic results, but couldn't stand Perry's tardiness. He was sure his Gardevoir form tutor, Miss Enguard would be forgiving, but from the look on her face, she might as well have been impaling Perry on the end of Mr Rockhopper's trident-shaped horns. He dropped onto his knees for a moment, deeply flushing as sniggers went around the classroom, and winced as he could feel the burn on his right leg. He staggered towards his double desk at the back of the classroom and sat at one of the two empty seats at the desk. Although he wasn't hated as such in the school, he wasn't exactly popular, either. He always sat on his own. He did have one friend, however, a Dewott by the name of Sam Otto. He looked like any other Dewott, with a light blue body, whiskers and a dark blue section of fur above his legs where two large clamshells resided. The problem was, his designated place was next to Adelaide, the Prinplup daughter of the headmaster. She looked a little different from most Prinplup, with turquoise outer feathers instead of blue feathers, making her resemble Perry's colouring to some degree. She was the only Pokemon in the entire school who had a crush on Perry, an obvious one at that. Not that Perry expected anybody to have a crush on him. He was a thirteen-year-old Treecko who still hadn't even evolved.

"So, Mr Salyut. Late again, it seems," said Mr Rockhopper, with the most authoritative growl a penguin Pokemon could possibly make.

"Er, s-sorry sir," replied Perry timidly. Crap.

"And why exactly are you late?"

"B-because- I mean, umm, I burn- hurt my leg at home, just b-before I left," replied the Treecko as confidently as a Buneary caught in headlights. He spotted a female Quilava waiting outside the door to the form room, a paw raised in front of her mouth, as if suppressing a giggle. She was quite tall for a Quilava. She had a dark-blue back, cream front and red spots at different points on her back. One thing Perry did notice, however, was that this Quilava's eyes seemed less narrow and more kind. He had a fleeting thought of attraction, but in a moment it was gone.

"Oh really, well you can show me at the end of my clearly highly inspirational talk, Perry," said the Empoleon, triumphantly, with a pinch of sarcasm too. Perry winced as he heard this. He noticed the Quilava send a wry smile straight at him, and he glared back at her in response. But nothing was going to stop his reading about orbital mechanics, that was for sure. He quietly unzipped his ruck-sack and pulled out a book titled The Gravity of the Situation, by Jebediah Turtwig, and read it silently under his desk. He paid no heed to the speech the Empoleon was giving, until he heard the words "Also, I would like to introduce a new student in your form, April Fuji.", at which point whispers broke out like wildfire around the class and Perry thought it logical to shift his attention, even for ten seconds. The cute Quilava from earlier trotted in confidently, a bright smile on her face.

"Hiya, everyone!" she exclaimed, the confidence and excitement in her voice catching everyone off guard, "I'm the new girl here! As, er, Mr Rockhopper just said, my name is April. I like music and art, as well as cool sports!"

"Thank you very much for your introduction, Miss Fuji," said Mr Rockhopper, rolling his eyes a little with exasperation, "I'm sure you're going to make many friends here." He gave a quick, almost imperceptible glare to the form, as a creepy Gliscor gave an obvious wink to the enthusiastic Quilava, now standing on her hind legs.

"We've only got one seat left, I'm afraid, so it looks like you'll be sitting next to... Well you heard his name," interjected Miss Enguard, gesturing to the seat next to Perry.

"Okay then, that's all," said Mr Rockhopper, sounding pleased, "Have a good year!" He waddled out of the room in an Empoleon's royal fashion, before poking his horned head back in just to give Perry a look which said "You got lucky this time." Well, at least he forgot to check Perry's leg for any injury.

Perry hadn't even noticed that April was now sitting next to him, or that at some point during the speech he had raised his book above the table, which now earned a glare from Miss Enguard that quickly softened as she heard Mr Rockhopper's footsteps grow quieter. "Okay, I hope you all learned something during that excellent speech," she said, shaking her head and smiling in Perry's general direction, "You may now talk amongst yourselves."

"Hiya!" exclaimed April, who Perry still hadn't noticed, making him jump slightly, "My name's April!"

"Ugh, so it is," murmured Perry, his gaze quickly returning to the book.

"Umm, so what's your name?" asked April, slightly taken aback by Perry's attitude.

"Don't you already know it?" said Perry grumpily, looking up from his book only for a second, but seeing April's unwavering smile he added "Perry."

"You mean like Perry-apsis?"

"Er, periapsis is the lowest-"

"That is a strange word. It's in your book."

"Perhaps it is," grumbled Perry, now glaring at his book as if it had kidnapped his mother.

"A bit shy?"

"No, just uninterested," he replied, a little more confidence entering his voice in order to get the Quilava off his back.

"Well, I think we could make good friends."

For Arceus' sake... he thought, Because I needed more than one friend... yup. He was now ignoring the over-excited Quilava, and just mumbled some equations. He pulled out a notepad with a pencil sitting inside its bindings and began writing out equations and drawing various circles around circles and labelling different points on the circles with big numbers.

"So, Perry, what's with the circles?"

He noticed Sam glance over at him, smiling, giving Perry a wink that said sarcastically "Great start!"

This is going to be a long day, Perry thought.