xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Aspertia City, 3:05 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
After an explosion in the Pokémon Center and needing to heal up Pineco with Nurse Joy, Keats walked through the city with the floating Rotom Pokédex and Pineco following behind him. Walking inside a shop, Keats motioned for Rotom and Pineco to wait for him in front of the store as he went inside.
"Well Pineco, it's just us. Mind if I read your entry, zzzzt?" Rotom asked as Pineco looked at it.
"Pineco." Pineco muttered.
"Cool, give me a second." Rotom said as it turned around and it pointed its camera-like front sensor at the Bug type. '"Pineco, the Bagworm Pokemon. A Bug type. They hang from trees and then explode with no warning if startled."' The floating screen said as it read the Pokedex entry as Keats walked out of the shop, holding two messenger bags strung over both shoulders.
'"Exploding without warning?" Where have I heard that before?" Keats said with tired tone.
"What did you buy, zzzzt?" Rotom asked as Keats opened up the flap of one of the bags.
"Supplies. Had to ask Nurse Joy for advice on what I might need for a Pokémon journey. Recommended a small tarp to sleep on for camping, couple of boxes of food for myself and you guys and a map." Keats said as he looked around at his purchases.
"I don't have to eat though..." Rotom said as Keats looked at him.
"...But you're a Pokémon, I thought all of you had to eat?" Keats questioned.
"I am made of man-made plasma and I just need to recharge from a wall outlet while inside of this Pokédex unit." Rotom explained as Keats looked at the screen with confusion.
"...Should I buy a plug-in cable for your food source?" Keats asked with genuine interest.
"Nah, I'm good." Rotom replied. "But why did you buy a map though?" The floating screen asked.
"Because we could get lost and need a way to get around." Keats said as he reached into his messenger bag and pulled out a map. "Look, it's already laminated to protect against rain and has all of the regions locations put down!" He said with excitement as he opened up the folded map, revealing its gigantic size. "The Village of Dragons sounds like a cool place, wonder what their biggest commodity is outside of dangerous creatures?" Keats said as he looked at the map.
"...You do know that I have access to a map function right?" Rotom said as the floating screen and Pineco looked on as Keats proceeded to rip the map in half with an annoyed smile forming on his face.
"Oh come on! You could have mentioned that before I bought the stupid map!" Keats angrily proclaimed towards the two Pokémon. "...And now I just realized I won't be able to get a refund on that scrap of paper..." He thought with frustration.
"You seem bummed, zzzzt." Rotom said before turning towards Pineco. "Definitely zzzzhouldn't mention that you don't really need to eat then either." The floating screen said towards the Bug Pokémon as Keats overheard.
"Are you serious?! I bought two whole cans of Bug type food!" Keats exclaimed as he reached into the other messenger bag and pulled out two cans of Pokémon food.
"Pineco." Pineco said, prompting Keats to look at it.
"What?" Keats replied.
"Pineco is grateful it seems, despite it being unnecessary, zzzzt." Rotom explained.
"Too bad "gratitude" doesn't help me get my money back. Hold on, I got to look for the receipt in my pockets." Keats said as he rummaged through his pockets and walked back inside the shop.
"Oh hey, did you remember to grab the other thing?" Rotom said as it flew over to Keats as they both went in.
"What else did I need?" Keats said confused.
"Pokéballzzzz!" Rotom exclaimed loudly as it floated directly up to his face. "You are gonna need more Pokémon, zzzzt! All the help you can get!" The floating screens said as it got so ridiculously close to Keats' face that it was starting to burn his retinas from being so close.
"Ahhh! Okay, okay!" Keats said as he pushed away Rotom and begun to rub his eyes, slightly in pain. "But why do I need a bunch more Pokémon?" He asked.
"Because it's bezzzzt to have as many as possible for any given situation. The reason you are out here is important, isn't it?" Rotom said in a serious tone.
"I'm here to get back my sisters Pokémon...?" Keats said with an unsure tone.
"Precizzzzely!" Rotom exclaimed. "But first you must learn to raise a Pokémon, then catch more and raise them too, zzzzt!" The floating screen continued.
"...Uhhhh..." Keats mumbled. "My brain is frying..." He thought.
"...Have you seriously not given that much thought to thizzzz?" Rotom asked.
"...I mean... I didn't expect to come here all the way by myself originally..." Keats said as he scratched the back of his neck.
"Hence why I am here, zzzzt." Rotom said as it floated around. "And so is Pineco." The floating screen continued.
"...Speaking of which, where is he... Or she?" Keats said as it looked at Rotom, unsure as it looked around inside the area around the entrance to the shop.
"Your Pineco is female." Rotom replied.
"Well, where is she?" Keats asked as he walked outside with Rotom and looked around as they looked down the road and saw a small boy picking up Pineco. "What the- oh no!" He thought as his eyes widened as he ran towards where the kid was.
"Oh? What are you?" The little kid said as he held Pineco in both hands.
"Pineco." Pineco said as it begun to glow to use "Self-Destruct" once again.
"Huh?" The little kid said as Keats suddenly ran in front of the kid and grabbed his Pineco out of his hands.
"Don't pick up random creatures that don't belong- no wait Pineco! Sto-" Keats screamed as he held Pineco in his hands as it continued to glow until exploding, the random civilians on the streets looking on at the smokescreen that covered the area where Keats stood as it disappeared and showed the husky framed novice trainer covered in black marks and holding Pineco with her eyes swirling, knocked out.
"Hey Keatzzzz? You buy any of those "Revive" things." Rotom asked with a smug look on its screen as the charred Keats reached into one of his messenger bags and pulled out a box full of yellow spikey pills.
"...Yeah... Plegh..." Keats said before spitting smoke out of his mouth.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Route 19, 4:02 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Along the route north of Aspertia City, Keats was walking along the road with Pineco held under his right arm in a loop and Rotom floating around his shoulder.
"Any reason you don't have Pineco in her Pokéball?" Rotom asked.
"Don't want to risk putting it in the ball and losing her..." Keats said as he lugged all of his stuff. "Really wish that stupid plasma Pokémon was able to carry all this crud..." He thought as he struggled to lift all of the stuff he had for his travels.
"Pineco." Pineco muttered while in her trainer's arms.
"So where are we headed again?" Keats asked towards Rotom.
"Floccesy Town. Following a zzzzcan of the web and getting a layout of Aspertia, there appeared to not be a Battle Club in the city so we have to move out and go to the next place that may have one." Rotom explained.
"So the next town might not even have one either... Fantastic..." Keats said with an annoyed expression.
"Don't blame me when the location you chose to start from didn't have what you were looking for. You could have probably chosen to land in a different part of the region that had a Battle Club if you checked, zzzzt." Rotom said in its defense.
"Well I couldn't!" Keats exclaimed.
"And why couldn't you?" Rotom asked.
"Because I didn't want to shell out the money for a plane ticket! I thought the boat was a better deal!" Keats shouted. "Course I didn't expect to vomit when I got off the ship but... Hey, I got the ticket on sale!" He thought as he mentally argued with himself.
"But you know, we probably should have stayed back in Aspertia for a while longer. We could have stopped by the trainer's school, zzzzt." Rotom said as Keats raised an eyebrow.
'"Trainers school?"' Keats questioned.
"Aspertias Gym Leader runs a school to teach people how to become better trainers. Mozzzztly children who had just started their journeys." Rotom explained.
"Yeah right, like I would want to sit in a room full of small children and be the only grown man there with no idea what he is doing..." Keats said with a bothered tone.
"You didn't even know how to open Pineco's Pokéball..." Rotom said, acknowledging Keats lack of skill.
"And like I said, I would have figured it out eventually!" Keats screamed as Pineco, still held in his right arm loop, made an annoyed expression in her eyes.
"Pineco..." Pineco said as she begun to glow dimly.
"Huh- Ahh!? Easy Pineco! Easy!" Keats said as he noticed Pineco had begun to radiate a light, possibly to explode once more. Fearful of the Bug type pokemon once again blowing up, he shifted the Pineco into both of his hands and looked at it to tell it to stop.
"Pineco." Pineco said as the light around her body begun to fade as Keats breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh thank goodness..." Keats thought as he stood still while holding Pineco as Rotom floated over.
"Looks like the agitation wazzzz getting to her." Rotom said, stating the obvious.
"Even I know that... For what it's worth, I'm glad Marie gave me a Pokémon from Johto at least." Keats said while putting Pineco back down on the ground. "Been here not even a full day and the sight of all these Pokémon I've never seen before is really starting to get to me. At least I know what Pinecos are and how they normally act." He continued.
"That's the reason I'm here remember! I'm part-Pokédex, zzzzt!" Rotom exclaimed as it got close to Bernards face again.
"Okay! And?! I haven't seen you use this "Pokédex" thing yet and I don't even know what it even does?!" Keats exclaimed as he argued with the floating screen.
"I did it earlier back in town on Pineco, I can zzzzcan Pokémon and read their entry details that provide you with the info you need to handle them, zzzzt." Rotom explained with a frustrated look on its screen.
"Well... What did it say about Pineco?" Keats said he looked down at his Pineco.
"Pineco." Pineco said casually like usual.
"Here's an abbreviated verzzzzion; Pineco is a female, it's a Bug type, it's currently known moves currently are "Tackle," "Self-Destruct" and "Protect." Its ability is "Sturdy." And its nature is described azzzz "quirky."' Rotom said as it showed Keats a list of facts about his Pineco.
'"Abilities?" "Natures?" "What's "Protect?"' Keats thought with confusion after hearing all the details from Rotom.
"...Don't tell me you don't even know what these moves even are, zzzzt..." Rotom said with an exacerbated expression on its screen as it reappeared, getting rid of the list of Pinecos moves and stats.
"...I know what "Self-Destruct" is..." Keats said with a goofy and embarrassed smile.
"That's because you have been hit with it enough times to know what it even izzzz!" Rotom exclaimed loudly in frustration. "I'm seriously losing my patience here with this guy..." The Pokémon thought. "How are you zzzzupposed to battle without giving your Pokémon a command because you don't even know what moves it can do, zzzzt!?" Rotom asked with an annoyed tone.
"Well... Isn't that your job to tell me what to do?" Keats said defensively.
"I'm only here because you were the one who planned to come out here looking for your zzzzizzzzterzzzz Pokemon!" Rotom exclaimed.
Following the constant screaming on Route 19, the sound of squawking begun to overtake the eardrums of the group as Keats, Rotom and Pineco looked up to notice a trio of Pidove had flown in front of them, aggravated expressions forming on their faces as they looked at the group.
"Hey, I saw those back in the city." Keats said as Rotom turned around and scanned them.
'"Pidove, the Tiny Pidgeon Pokémon. A Normal and Flying type. Be careful when scattering food for them as it can cause hundreds more to appear."' Rotom said as it read the Pokédex entry for Pidove.
"...If that's implying they want what's in my bags, they can shove it..." Keats said angrily as he stared at them.
"Puuurfff! Squawk!" One of the Pidove cooed towards the group as Pineco looked up at them.
"Seems less like they are hungry and more like they are agitated over us arguing so close to their territory, zzzzt." Rotom explained.
"It's an open space road! I can scream if I want to!" Keats said aggressively towards the Pidoves as one of them flew over towards Keats. "What are you- gah!" He said until the Pidove begun to use its "Peck" attack on him and started to poke him in the face. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" Keats groaned as the Pidove continued to attack him.
"Keats! Quick! Tell Pineco to do something, zzzzt!" Rotom said as the other two Pidoves started to glare at the floating screen with expressions of aggravation.
"Like what?! Ow!" Keats exclaimed as he tried to shield himself from the Pidove.
"Pineco!" Pineco said loudly as it jumped up and knocked into the Pidove attacking Keats, using its "Tackle" attack.
After the Pidove was knocked to the ground, Pineco turned its attention towards the other two as they looked towards the Bug type. Hopping over towards them, Pineco proceeded to use "Tackle" once more and slammed into the other two Pidove, knocking them over.
"Like that! You have to tell Pineco to uzzzze a move like "Tackle" if you want to get anywhere!" Rotom said with a smile forming on its screen.
"Uh!? Okay! Pineco!" Keats said as he caught Pinecos attention. "Pineco just used "Tackle" and "Protect" sounds like a shield move so... Ah ha!" He thought as he came to a mental conclusion of what to do next. "Pineco! Blow them away with "Self-Destruct!"' Keats ordered as Pineco begun to glow.
"What?! No! Not that!" Rotom exclaimed in shock as the three knocked down Pidove looked on as Pinecos blinding light shined brightly before exploding like a grenade. "We're still in the blazzzzt radius!" The floating screen Pokemon exclaimed in a panic.
"...Oh yeah..." Keats thought, realizing at the last minute as the explosion caused a massive smoke cloud to appear.
Slowly dissipating, the three Pidove were unconscious with swirl eyes on the ground and twitching in pain. Nearby, Pineco and Keats were on the ground as well, small trails of smoke coming off of their bodies as Pinecos eyes swirled on her small body.
"...Cooogh..." Keats mumbled as he coughed up smoke from his mouth as Rotom floated back over, surprisingly unscathed. "...Well... That was... Unpleasant..." The unprepared trainer said on the ground slowly.
"I'm just glad I moved out of the way in time, zzzzt..." Rotom said.
"...Lucky you..." Keats said with an agitated expression forming on his face as he looked up at Rotom before sitting up and looking over at Pineco and the Pidoves.
Reaching into his bag, Keats quickly got up and hurried to Pineco. Pulling out the small box of Revives he had got in Aspertia City, he placed one of them on top of Pinecos body. Glowing, the small spikey pill had disappeared into thin air as Pineco begun to glow and it's injured body parts begun to disappear before it's eyes stopped swirling and the Pokémon was back to normal.
"Pine? Pineco-co!" Pineco exclaimed as it was back from unconsciousness.
"Glad I bought these..." Keats said to himself as he put the box of Revives away, back into his bags.
"Normally when a situation like this happens, a trainer would quickly run back to the nearby Pokémon Center." Rotom explained as Keats looked at the floating screen.
"That's why I brought these things. What? Am I going to pass out just because all my Pokémon are unconscious? That's dumb..." Keats said as Pineco hopped around, attempting to stretch herself after being awoken.
"What about them?" Rotom said as it looked in the direction of the Pidove, prompting Keats and Pineco to look.
"Pineco." Keats said as he caught his Pokémon's attention. "Want to explode and send them flying?" He said with a sadistic smile forming on his face.
"No! No! No!" Rotom said in defiance as it quickly got in Keats' face, close enough to harm his eyes again. "They're already downed! We don't need to go that far!" The floating screen said with a protective tone.
"Alright! Alright! Will you get out of my face!? Any closer and I'll need glasses soon!" Keats said as he backed away from Rotom, rubbing his eyes with his forearm as they begun to sting from the screen's bright lights.
"We have to move it to Floccesy Town. Time isn't in our favor, zzzzt!" Rotom said, acting like a voice of reason.
"Yeah, yeah... Actually..." Keats said until an idea formed in his head as Rotom and Pineco looked at him before turning his attention back to one of the messenger bags on his sides.
"What now?" Rotom said with furrowed eyes on its screen.
"Rotom... You're a Pokémon, right?" Keats said as he reached into his bag.
"That's already been established, yes." Rotom replied.
"What type are you?" Keats asked as he begun to pull out a large sack-like object.
"Electric and Ghozzzzt type. Why?" Rotom answered as it and Pineco looked at Keats, unsure of what he was getting at.
"...You guys wanna do something fun? Hehehe..." Keats said with an evil grin forming on his face.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Route 19, 7:03 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nightfall had arrived in Unova as the crescent moon was high overheard along Route 19. Along the route, a pair of small kids were walking along the pathway on a journey of their own.
"Awesome! I caught a Patrat on the way here!" A small boy in a simple pair of shorts, yellow t-shirt and a backwards blue hat said.
"I know already, you haven't stopped talking about it for the past five hours..." A small girl dressed in a sun hat, black pants and a green long sleeve shirt said as the pair walked along the path.
"It's my first Pokémon I've caught in a good long time! You can't blame me for enjoying it!" The boy said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a Pokéball to show off.
'"A long time?" You caught a Deerling two days ago. How much time constitutes "a good long time" for you?" The girl said with an unimpressed expression.
"Any time I'm not catching a Pokémon! The only thing that would make it any better is if I could catch something a bit rarer- huh?" The boy said as the pair suddenly stopped as they looked down and noticed a peculiar small crater in the ground and small patches of gray feathers around it.
"What happened here?" The girl said in confusion.
"Looks like a landmine explosion..." The boy said with intrigue. "Oh hey, what's that?!" He exclaimed as he looked forward up the path and saw an unfamiliar Pokémon standing near a bush.
"Pineco." Pineco said as the two kids looked at the Pokémon.
"Whoa, I've never seen that Pokémon before!" The boy said with excitement as the girl took out a grey device that opened up to reveal a screen.
"My Pokédex says it's a Pineco. But I've never seen one before." The girl said as she looked at the boy who just took out a Pokéball and had eyes filled with determination. "Uh oh..." She said to herself as she knew what her companion was thinking.
"Doesn't matter what it is! It's a rare Pokémon and I want to make it mine!" The boy said with an excited tone.
As soon as she noticed the boy was ready to try and catch her, Pineco proceeded to hop into the bush and begun to flee. Seeing that the unfamiliar Pokémon was running away from them, the pair begun to give chase, brushing past the foliage.
"Hey come back!" The boy said as Pineco continued to hop away, deeper and deeper into the woods.
"Slow down! I'm having trouble keeping up!" The girl said as the pair noticed the Pineco stopped in front of a tree.
"Nowhere to run now!" The boy said with an excited expression as he held out a Pokéball once more.
"Will you hurry up!? we're off the path now!" The girl complained.
"Don't rush me!" The boy exclaimed as Pineco looked at them.
"Begone..." An unfamiliar voice said as the two kids shuddered as they noticed an unknown dark sounding voice had appeared.
"Wha-what... What was that..." The girl said as she and her male companion looked left and right to find the source of the rather terrifying voice that they heard.
"Leave this place..." The unknown voice said again.
Suddenly, a pair of red lights had appeared above the two kids as they looked up and saw a figure staring down at them. With a pair of glowing red dots that looked like eyes, it was massive in size compared to them and was green with fringes sticking out and hanging off a tree.
"Tha-that looks li-like... A gigantic Pineco!" The girl exclaimed in fear.
"Ahhh! It can talk!" The boy shouted.
"Leave... Or else..." The gigantic Pineco creature said in a dark tone as it suddenly dropped from the tree and landed on the ground with its glowing red eyes stared at the horrified children.
"Or-or-or el-else?!" The boy said.
'"Or else" what?!" The girl asked.
"Or else... I'll explode and destroy Unova in my blast!" The giant Pineco said as it begun to hop towards the kids.
'"Aaaaaahhhhh!"' The kids screamed as they ran away from the giant Pineco as it continued to hop after them with the smaller Pineco hopping behind it to join in the chase.
Reaching the pathway of Route 19, the kids quickly ran back down the route towards the direction they were originally going, screaming and crying as they ran like their lives depended on it. As they ran, the giant Pineco monster and the regular Pineco stopped on the path as they watched the pair run away down the path.
"Pineco." Pineco said towards the large Pineco monster as the sound of a zipper being pulled was heard. Out from the back of the giant Pineco was Keats, a smug look on his face as Rotom popped out with him.
"Pfffff! Hahahahahahahaha!" Keats laughed as he covered his mouth to stop his chuckling with his hands.
"Holy moly, that wazzzz good! Hahahaha!" Rotom said as his eyes on the screen stopped glowing a bright red.
"Pineco! Pineco!" Pineco exclaimed while jumping up and down in amusement.
"Look at how they ran! Hahahaha!" Keats said as he pointed in the direction the kids ran.
"I had reservations at first, but I had to admit, that was a lot of fun, zzzzt!" Rotom said with a joyful expression.
"Pine!" Pineco said with an amused expression.
"I'm so glad that department store back in Aspertia had a Pineco sleeping bag! Hahaha!" Keats said while stifling his laughter as he revealed the costume he was using to scare the kids was a sleeping bag that visually looked like that of a Pineco.
"We're lucky no one in Unova hazzzz seen many Pineco." Rotom said.
"Pfff- oh! Oh! I hear more people coming!" Keats said as he turned around and heard more footsteps approaching. "Quick! Quick, we have to get into the positions again!" He said as he grabbed Rotoms screen and went back inside the sleeping bag disguise. "Pineco! You know what to do!" Keats said as he hopped back into the woods.
"How many more people should we scare before we head to Floccesy Town, zzzzt?" Rotom asked Keats inside the sleeping bag.
"Until someone figures out it's just a costume, I guess?" Keats said in an unsure tone. "Shouldn't take too long though, I mean... How many people are going to fail to figure out it's just a guy dressed like a Pineco?" He thought.
The only thing missing from a Pineco that could make it hard to tell from a hand grenade is a pin but considering how much they love to explode; a pin might not be enough to stop them! Leaving Aspertia City and finally walking along the path, Keats and his Pokémon allies begin to head to the first stop on their hunt for clues to the mysterious Pokémon thieves. But a healthy number of distractions seems to be getting in the way! What will happen next? Find out on the next exciting chapter of Wannabe!
To Be Continued...
Keats' Pokémon:
1. Pineco. Gender: Female, Ability: Sturdy, Moves: "Tackle," "Self-Destruct," "Protect."