-Missing-
It was a sunny morning near the woods of Sunnyshore city as Ash woke up in his tent, a really bright and beautiful day awaited, and mostly, he awaited to see his new friend again.
Everyone quickly packed up everything to continue their journey to Sunnyshore city for Ash's next gym badge. "And maybe I'll invite Kevin to watch my battle!" Ash thought for himself.
-I really wonder how did Kevin do with his presentation, he must've got real scared in front of a crowd… - Ash said.
-Pika… Pika! - Pikachu said.
-He is an expert Ash; he knows what he is doing. – Brock said.
It wasn't long though that their journey would have to stop, they certainly went out of supplies the other day when Kevin was around so they stopped by a store in the way. It was a small store but it had what they needed, food. The store had a TV too, the Shunnyshore news were on, something about the lottery.
-Welcome everyone! May I attend you? - Said a young and pretty girl with brown long hair in the counter.
-We'll start looking around first. - Ash said.
-Take your time! - The girl said while smiling.
The store had plenty of Pokéballs of all different kinds and colors, the store had a potion section, only two kinds though, and there was food in a refrigerated transparent container and all sort of drinks and toys.
-Here is a basket to make your shopping faster! – The girl in the counter said while she gave Brock a yellow small shopping basket.
-Thanks, but I'm already carrying all I need. So okay, I'll take 6 rice bags, salt, matches …– Brock was saying as he passed the products to the girl in the counter.
Ash was just lost in his thoughts looking out the window, wondering, nothing really important, but his inner thoughts were instantly cut when he heard the word "Kevin" on TV.
-Wait, that's Kevin! – Ash said as he got near the TV.
"…Sinnoh, he apparently didn't get to make his presentation on Sunnyshore city, although we hope he may come to play for us anytime. Now to the weather..."
-Aw, he didn't make it on time! – Dawn said.
-Oh yes, that kid. – The girl in the counter said. – I was so hoping to listen to his music, but, unfortunately he didn't even show up in Sunnyshore plaza... – The girl said with a sad face. – Well, is that going to be all you're buying? - The girl said.
Brock said that they had all they needed, Brock paid and he began to put the things in his backpack and they were ready to leave when they heard the "Breaking news" Little theme song on the TV.
"We have a report about Kevin in Live from Sunnyshore plaza.
Apparently, with all the recent information from unrevealed sources, Kevin the 17 year old young Guitarist is MISSING.
No one has seen him since a week ago, we ask for anyone that has seen him within this "missing" week, come to us immediately to help with the investigation."
-We have to go tell them that we saw him in way to Sunnyshore Ash! – Brock said.
-Let's go! - Ash said while running towards Sunnyshore city.
As Ash was in the front running really fast Brock and Dawn where doing all they could to reach him, he was just running too fast. But, Ash stopped when the path divided in two. One path was clear the whole was, and the other one had a few trees.
-According to… my map. – Brock was saying as he took out a map from his backpack while catching his breath by all the running he had to do to nearly get close to Ash. – The road… with the forest is… a shortcut. We… should take that… way if we want to get there… fast. - Brock concluded.
They began walking at a fast pace through the small forest… it was a bit quiet, it was really quiet and somehow scary, but they still had to go forward. As they were walking, Ash saw three pokéballs, alongside a fainted pikachu and a riolu. They were in a really bad condition and they started wondering about how they ended up like that in the middle of the woods. Suddenly, Ash recognized the Pikachu.
-That's Kevin's Pikachu! And Riolu too! – Ash said as he got near the two of them.
-Ash, they are both too weak, put them in their Pokéballs! – brock said handing him the Pokéballs.
Ash grabbed the Pokéballs and placed the two of them inside them, they really needed to rest.
-Okay, we should take these to the people over there at the city, can anyone find his guitar bag? – Dawn said that she found it a bit far from them. – Okay, we have to take these to the pok…- Brock was saying when he grabbed the last Pokéball. When he got a zap from it, Brock grabbed the Pokéball again, carefully this time, to find out that it was broken. – This isn't good. – Brock said.
-What's the matter Brock? - Ash asked.
-The Pokéball is broken. – Brock showed the Pokéball to Ash, it had some cables inside, Ash wanted to see more of it but Brock took it away.
-That's the Pokéball with Kevin's buizel. Is that bad? – Ash asked.
-Let's say, that Buizel is still inside the Pokéball, then he might be in serious trouble. – Brock said while looking at Ash.
They kept the Pokéballs inside the bag except for the bad one and they went quickly to Sunnyshore city to tell the people that were investigating over there about what they found. But when they got to Sunnyshore city, they couldn't find anyone that knew the whereabouts of Kevin, so they decided that they should take Kevin's pokémons to a Pokémon center; and hopefully everything would be ok.
-Welcome to the Pokémon center, what could I do for you? – Nurse Joy said.
-That's not a question you should make nurse joy, in fact, what I should ask is, what could I do for you? - Brock said while holding nurse joy's hands. Seconds later Brock collapsed on the floor, because his Croagunk had stopped him again.
Ash handed the two Pokéballs to nurse Joy, she checked the Pokéballs first before putting them in the tray.
- …According to the database, These Pokéballs belong to Kevin… - Nurse Joy said surprised.
-Yes, and we were wondering if you could tell us to who could we tell what we know about him? – Dawn asked.
-I'm sorry, but the group just left recently to Jubilife city to talk to Kevin's parents, I'm afraid they will take at least a couple of weeks. – Joy said. – About the Pokémon, you will have to wait a little bit. - Joy said.
-Oh, we were wondering if you could do something about this Pokéball. – Brock handed the broken Pokéball carefully. – It's Kevin's. – He said.
-…- Joy was surprised but just how that Pokéball looked. - Is this Kevin's too? – Joy asked preoccupied.
-Yes, and it has Buizel inside! – Ash responded. – Is there anything you could do Nurse Joy? – Ash asked.
-Hmm, I think so… please, come with me. – Joy said as she began to walk through a door behind her. – You see, we usually receive Pokéballs like this; people sometimes are really clumsy with their Pokéballs. - Joy said as they proceeded.
-Umm, is Buizel ok? – Dawn asked.
-I really don't know, this Pokéball is severely damaged, I'm surprised this is actually Kevin's pokéball… - Joy said while she looked at the pokéball, wondering how could it could end up like that. – I'll tell everyone to please start working on the Pokéball immediately. - Joy said
Everyone entered a room that had many scientists working on some Pokéballs already, there were big machines as well working in, apparently, analyzing Pokéballs.
-Hello everyone, we have another damaged Pokéball. – Nurse Joy said as she handed the Pokéball to one of the guys.
-What!? Another one?! Oh man!! – One of the scientists said as he banged his arms on top of the counter ridiculously hitting his skull on the process.
-Calm down newbie… Nurse Joy, please put this with the other ones, we still haven't finished with the last one we received today.- Another Scientist said, which appeared to be the one in charge in the room.
-But this is Kevin's Pok…- Nurse Joy was saying when she was interrupted by the scientist that banged his head with the counter.
-REALLY?! I'm a big fan!! Did you finally find him?! – The guy asked.
-No, we just found his Pokémon out there. – Brock said.
Let's get this started. – The man said. –I'm going to have to ask you to leave the room for now, I suppose you kids taking care of Kevin's Pokémon? – The three of them nodded. – Then I'll call you if we have anything to ask or to report. – The man said.
Ash, Brock and Dawn left the room and remained in the waiting room; Ash was just wondering where Kevin could actually be… he saw him just yesterday after all and he actually wanted to see them again today.
"-Shall we see again ash? – Kevin asked.
-Of course we will Kevin! – Ash said.
-Good bye guys! Thanks for everything! Specially the food! – Kevin said as he waved back. – See ya tomorrow! –"
Something DID happen, he was not worried about Kevin only, but about his Pokémon too.
"-Is that a journal? – Brock asked.
-Yup, it's a journal I used to write when I was younger. I used to write the things that went wrong in my life here, but I TORE away those pages and only have the story of how I MET Buizel. – He smiled while opening the book."
Kevin and his Buizel seem to be good friends, and now, his Buizel could be in danger…
-o-o-o-
All the men started to analyze the Pokéball carefully trying not to make a single mistake, they took at least a couple of hours to actually fix the Pokéball by wiring the small cables together and solder up the pieces, they finally managed to fix it… it looks like new!
-Ok, we are all done here? – The man said.
-Well, we checked twice and the Pokéball should operate without mistake in all of its functions. – Another man said as he wrote down something on a clip board. – Testing Pokéball release Pokémon function. – The man grabbed the Pokéball and tried to release the Pokémon inside, but the Pokéball simply flashed red on the "button".
- Hmm, try again. – The man said.
They tried to release the Pokémon again, but, the result was the same, it flashed red twice.
-Ok, we need to call those three again, mind to go David? – The man said.
-Yes sir. – The man named David said.
David went to the waiting room through the hall, as soon as he left the man that seemed to be in charged opened up a book called "Pokéball errors" and checked a certain page, he read it for a while and then he closed it, a bit concerned.
Ash, Dawn and Brock came inside the room along with David.
-You are here! – The man said. – Okay, now, we have managed to restore the composition of the Pokéball and we renewed the external layer and reconnected the snapped cable. – The man said.
-That's great! – Dawn said.
-But… - The man warned.
- Hmm? -
-We are not able to release the Pokémon from the Pokéball. – The man explained as he grabbed the Pokéball. – You see, the Pokéball flashes the lock twice, that means that somehow the information or to say DNA could be damaged by this crack.- The man explained, of course, everyone got worried. – But there is good news, if we knew which Pokémon was inside, we could fully restore its composition. - The man said as he placed the Pokéball in a scanner. – Do you happen to know which Pokémon is inside? - The man asked.
-It's Buizel. – Ash said.
The man turned on the scanner and it began processing immediately:
"Scanning…
…
…analyzing Pokémon…
…
…
… Pokémon corrupted or not on national list…
…[Input Pokémon] Buizel…
…Scanning [Safe]…
…use % value mapping mode? [Yes]
…
Scan complete:
Pokémon: Buizel [typed in]
Type: Wa?¡r
Attacks: Son?c B_$m – Aqua J?t – W?t#r ?un – Hyper beam
Stats:
H ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
P ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
S |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L |||||||||||||||||||||
CCI
AGCTGACT%GCACAGCT/GA_ACTG"ATAG°TGT¿GACTCATA?AG¿ACGTGAT¡GACT$ATGAT?¡GATCGATCAGC?CGTC{GTCAGTC!GTCAGTCA*TCAGTT
Other objects detected:
-Everstone
-Unknown
Scan end]"
-Okay, see those strange letters and signs that appear? Those are the parts that are actually damaged in the data and we can fix it no problem, although this is the biggest data damage I have ever seen, it says that this Buizel uses Hyper beam, it's kind of, ridiculous.-
-Umm, he actually can use Hyper Beam, sir. – Dawn said.
-That is impossible… Buizel can't learn neither use the Hyper Beam move, it is completely ridiculous…- The man said. – A move like that is way too much power for a Buizel to handle. – The man said explaining himself.
-But, sir. – Ash said - We saw Buizel firing the Hyper Beam yesterday. – Ash said.
-Then it's possible that the Hyper Beam that he can use may have caused the damage to the DNA code. I'm going to have to get rid of that ability. - The man said with a serious tone.
The three were trying to convince the man not to do so. A female scientist, though, stated that an attack cannot, in any way, change the DNA code, and after analyzing the situation a bit more, she was right.
- Umm, sir. – David said. – We detected an unknown component in the Pokéball data, should we check it out a bit more? – David asked.
-Hmm, if the Everstone was set up as a collar, maybe that is the unknown information, did Buizel wear a collar? – The three nodded. – Well, don't mind that… now, you three may want to rest for today… this is going to take a long time to finish, and, if we want to finish tomorrow, we need to work non-stop. Please have a good night- The man said as the three left the room.
-o-o-o-
In that morning, the men from the lab called upon Ash, Dawn and Brock, They all waited in the room once again until they were called. Countless hours passed until the same man from yesterday that explained all the procedures that day. Came to Ash and he handed him the Pokéball.
-We have successfully restored the data, there should be no mistakes. – The man said.
-That's great! – Ash said.
-That's a relief. – Brock said.
-You did an amazing job! It looks like new! – Dawn said.
-Of course we did an amazing job young one, we are professionals… well, about the pokéball. – The man said as the three of them were wondering what he had to say. – This is the third time I see a Pokéball THAT damaged, we usually take months in fixing these due to our long list of Pokéballs to fix and the uncertainty of which Pokémon was inside, but since we knew that it was a Buizel and that it was Kevin himself that owned this Buizel, we made an exception due to his situation. Oh and here is the Collar we took out from the Pokéball, we redid the string because we had to eliminate the unknown data from the Pokéball, it was apparently too much info to it to handle, which was strange. – The man said as he handed the Everstone.
-Thanks a lot! – Ash said.
-Now I was watching television while I was working and I saw a report about Kevin and I suppose you saw it too, so, congratulations Ash!- The man said while handing the other two Pokéballs.
-What… does this mean? – Ash asked a bit puzzled.
-Well, according to the news report, and the interview with Kevin's parents, Kevin is still alive camping somewhere. Aparently he didn't even care about the presentation that occurred here at Sunnyshore city either, according to his parents he was quite disobedient when he was young. And he just escaped leaving his Pokémon behind. – The man said.
-How can you say that!? He really cared about his Pokémon and he was desperate to get to the presentation! – Ash said.
-It really doesn't make any sense, why would he leave everything behind, even his guitar bag? – Brock wondered.
-Well, the group will still come over here in a few days so I'd suggest that, if you want to give some information, you wait here. But for now, these 3 Pokémon belong to you Ash, I have already registered it with the machine, if Kevin returns you may re-register them back in Kevin's name if that is what you wish, now I have to go, I still have a few Pokéballs to fix. – The man said while leaving.
Ash looked at the new Pokémon he had, but he really didn't want to keep them, they were Kevin's Pokémon… and Kevin really did care about his Pokémon. How was it possible that he would leave his Pokémon behind after how happy he saw he was with Buizel? The man came back with a piece of paper.
-I forgot to give you this and to say something, what those three cases I saw about the really broken Pokéballs, well, they have a thing in common, all of their owners leave them behind, probably they step so hard on the Pokéball causing it to crack and then they simply leave that Pokémon behind, unfortunately, when they break they destroy the register code so it's impossible to determinate who they belong to, even Kevin's Pokéball was impossible to determinate, or maybe they leave the Pokéballs behind because they forget them and they break in time… a LONG time, now if you would excuse me.- The man left.
Ash opened the paper and he realized that it was a note, the note that Ash had said:
"When I have fixed these strange Pokéball I came to see that when the Pokémon are freed from it may gain strange reactions, if there is something odd… please come back to me to see If I committed a mistake with the coding, this is usual procedure, so, don't worry. Doctor Thomas."
Ash was simply quite scared of how Buizel could react if he frees him, and besides, how could HE tell him that he was now in his team? Or a yet harder thing to do… How could he tell him that his trainer was missing??
There was one way to find out, and Buizel couldn't stay in the Pokéball forever.
-I'll let him out, okay Buizel, go! – Ash said while he released Buizel… The Pokéball was working again emitting its shiny beam on top of the table…
To be continued…