He rolled the ball around on his hand and pressed the button. A beep sounded. He stared at the button and noticed writing around the rim of the black metal button 'Turn to lock|unlock' he turned the stiff button and pressed down on it. A red lightning bolt released the creature.
It sniffed around his hands as he used the pokedex to identify it. It was a small laptop about the size of his hands with two containers at the sides. It had a LCD screen, a power button along the side, two round green and red buttons and a solar panel above on the red metallic exterior.
«BEEP»«BEEP»«BEEP»
{Scanning Data}{Registering Pokeballs}{Enter Trainer Name}
With a click a red pen popped out the side containers. Looking at them he saw that the other container held nothing but had the words Pokeball Containment Unit P.C.A. on the side. Using the 'Stylus' he pressed the microphone icon "Dane" it beeped.
«BEEP»«BEEP»
{Enter Fingerprint}
He pressed his fingers down as it commanded and then beeped for each after it was done it presented it's findings.
{Trainer Scanned}
«There are two pokeball registered with these prints»
«Rattatak Lv.7 Female, Ability Run Away, Attacks Known 3»
«Tackle,Quick Attack, Tail Whip»
"It doesn't know your name's Shade! So much for advanced-"
«Name: Shade»
He blinked " Hey what about, uh, Spinlock!"
«BEEP»«BEEP»«BEEP»«BEEP»«BEEP»
«Mankey Lv.5 Male, Ability Anger Point, Known Attacks 2»
«Scratch, Leer»
«Named: Spinlock»
He paused...had it just...said it differently? A computer doesn't do that...!
"Hey what's your name?"
It paused, then answered in that accentfree genderless voice.
«I do not have a name»
There it was again! A computer would have answered with it's factory number. Only a person could understand the meaning of a name.
"Well I'll just call you Red! Is that alright with you?"
«...Thank You»
"You're welcome, Red!" Yep, he was right. There was just something oddly sentient about them.
"What gender are you anyway?"
«I am a computer Dane»
"Just checking!" He laughed "Hey any of you guys know what time it is?"
"Tak-ta" Shade sighed, how was she supposed to know?
«It is approximately nine a.m.»
«Okay then! So I quit my dead end job two hours ago!"
«...?» Red made an odd beeping sound «There are six signals picked up from a westerly direction»
He returned Spinlock to his pokeball, who was dangling off his arm playfully and headed to the dots on the radar. He ended up at the edge of a forest clearing where a five year old boy with curly blonde hair was was chasing after a red shiba inu with tiger stripes. He was wearing coarse khaki shorts and an oversized blue shirt.
He had in his hands a yellow pangolin covered in sand...wait, no it's scales were made of sand. It fell down then curled into a ball. A little four year old girl laughed, she looked like the boy only wearing a blue dress that looked like a dress shirt made of old material that had bad stitches all over the hem...she was carrying a blue tadpole with frog-like legs. In the river was a yellow duck that spouted water into the air.
He was about to step near when a cry sounded, he turned his head rapidly. A pink baby hippo of some sort was ramming itself at the dog.
"Fire!" The boy cried clutching the dog as big as himself "Lizzy, kick sand at him!"
The pangolin tossed dirt at the hippo but it just let out steam from it's mouth at the command of a young teenager who laughed cruelly as it fell down. He clutched at his green shirt with a hand on his old brown pants. He looked about twelve years old with brown hair "Some pathetic little kid like you should just run home!"
"I-I don't got a home..."
"Bwahahaha! Who'd want a brat like you anyway?!" He laughed " Tompson and me? We're gonna take this water hole for ourself 'Kay? So scram!"
The little boy was crying now as the girl clutched her water-types. Having enough Dane stepped up angrily, he had already scanned the thing, it was just a Lv.3 Slowmo. It had good endurance and attack but apparently it was really weak otherwise.
"Leave them alone!" He shouted letting out Spinlock.
"Hah! You think you can take us?" The teen joked, eyeing his 'weak' team " Tompson Ram it!"
When Tompson rammed the Mankey into a tree, it began hyperventilating wildly. In a split second it had scratched the Slowmo unconscious. Calming Spinlock, he returned the Mankey to it's pokeball. The teen stared at it.
"Pokeball" Was all he said as he threw the object at him.
The teen eyed him warily before capturing his Slowmo. When he was about to sulk off Dane threw a potion at him.
"Health regeneration liquid?" The teen pressed down the lever and his Slowmo was healed "Why-?"
"-d I help you?" Dane joked " cause your not a bad kid, a real helluva mean joker, but not bad"
The kid blanked that was probably the first compliment he ever got. He looked at the little kids who stared up frightfully and then at the guy giving them pokeballs and healing there pokemon.
"Why're you using those?" He pointed at the blueberries.
"They heal them too, my pokedex says that only certain foods are safe for them like fish, fruit, bread or berries. So why'd you wanna pick on a bunch a kids?" He said as the children resumed their games.
" Cause, everyone's nice to little kids..." He mumbled, wishing he could make a run for it but his pride wouldn't let him.
"Hmmm..." So that was it, regular angst. He looked at his pokedex apparently there was an old lab was located in a farther part of the rukongai, about a half an hour away it was moved from so they could be closer to civilization "Well I'm going to a laboratory you wanna go?"
The pre-teen blinked at him nobody but nobody gave any of the kids in the Rukongai the time of day "Um..why?"
"Well I can't just leave kids like you behind! Don't you kids usually stick around the Rukon District?"
"Why, s'not like it's any better..."
"Well you made kids are coming with me then!" Dane laughed, he was practically just eighteen years old but he already had responsibilities.
"M-my name's Taro..." He mumbled.
"My name's Nina! And this is Psy and this is Tsoli!" The little girl held up her Poliwirl.
"Tsolee" They greeted him " Psywak!"
"My name is Theo and these are my friends, but they don't say much, This is Danielle and this guy's Remos! But I call them Fire and Sandy!"
"Seriously? Where'd you think that up?" Taro laughed, he wasn't mean just always went the wrong way to get what he wanted.
"They told me, but, they say no one else can hear them...I can hear what you're feeling if I tried hard!" Theo said proudly.
"Huh...unique ability, but you shouldn't go around telling people that" Dane warned.
"Why?" Nina asked " I can do it too! And I never hurt anybody!"
"When people know you can see their emotions they get angry so don't okay?"
"Little kids are always the special ones..." Taro mumbled.
"Hey, you're special too! You were a kid once" Dane joked.
Taro turned away grumbling. This would be a long day and they had just been walking fifteen minutes.