Sirens filled Hilbert's neighborhood. Every day there seemed to be something illegal going on, never a quiet night. Not that Hilbert complained much anyway. He was used to it. Used to how bad of a place he lived. He was used to living without any hope for anything to change. It had been years since he last felt things would get better for him and his sister Hilda. Over time, he became numb to the crime. He saw it as something that would never go away.
He was currently walking to the fast-food place he and his sister favorited, Bouffalant's, to get them something to eat for the night. Walking up to the entrance, Hilbert saw a man in a lab coat holding a metal briefcase and talking on his phone. Curious, Hilbert walked closer. Upon seeing Hilbert, the man put his phone down and spoke to him.
"Excuse me, kid?"
"Hm?"
"Sorry for inconveniencing you, but can you please hold my briefcase for me?" said the man.
"Why?"
"I have to go to the bathroom. It'd be awkward for me if the guy I'm supposed to meet with shows up when I'm not here. But he might think you're with me if he sees you with the briefcase."
"Uh, sure, I guess. What do I do if the guy comes, though?"
"Tell him that I'm in the bathroom and that I'll be out in a minute," the man said as he hurried inside the restaurant and hastily pushed through the door labeled MEN.
Without wasting any time, Hilbert sat down below the window. After looking around to see if any eyes were on him, Hilbert opened the briefcase to see what was inside. Shockingly, the case was filled mostly with stacks of money. Hilbert guessed each stack must've been around ten thousand, and the case was almost full with them. The upper lid had foam lacing it, which housed a few slots cut into it, and each slot held something different. In the slots were two pokeballs, a purple spray, and some rectangular device.
Hilbert contemplated running off with the case. The man wouldn't see, so he could probably get away with it. With that money, he and his sister could likely leave that place. They would never have to come back to their neighborhood. It could better their lives.
But then, Hilbert thought that it might cause problems for them. Like the man could find them and possibly turn them in to the police, or do something worse. Not to mention, it's not like he's stealing a few bucks, or something insignificant. He didn't want to put him or his sister in danger.
Worried that the man might catch him looking through the briefcase, Hilbert made his decision. A minute later, the man in the lab coat came back out. He noticed Hilbert was sitting next to the unopened briefcase.
"So, he didn't show up?"
"No."
"Well, thanks for watching the case anyway, kid," the man said as he picked up the case.
"I'm assuming that's all you need, so I'm gonna go home."
"Oh wait, let me give you something, to say thanks."
The man began to undo the latches on the lid for the case.
"No, that's okay. All I did was watch it for a minute or two. Wasn't like I did anything important."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I should be heading home anyway."
"Alright, thanks again."
"Mhm."
The man watched Hilbert walk off and thought to himself, 'What a nice kid.'
A few minutes of walking later, Hilbert arrived at his house. Upon entering, he saw his sister sitting on the couch. She was brushing her long brown hair and watching TV.
"About time," she said. "You took so long. Wait, where's the food?"
"I got held up and wasn't able to get any," said Hilbert. "But look what I got instead!"
Sitting down on the other side of the couch, Hilbert placed the spray, pokeballs, and device in between him and Hilda. Hilda's interest peaked, making her forget about the lack of food her brother failed to bring home.
"Woah! Where'd you get this stuff?" Hilda asked as she picked up a ball.
"Some guy told me to watch his briefcase for him so he could go to the bathroom. But these aren't even the best parts," said Hilbert as he stood up. Grabbing the bottom of his shirt, he lifted it halfway up his torso, revealing two stacks of money that he took.
"Oh my gosh, how much is that?"
"Twenty thousand, I think. Haven't had time to count it."
Hilda, not believing Hilbert, grabbed one of the stacks from her brother's waistband and started flipping through it, quickly counting each bill and adding the total in her head. With each hundred dollar bill she flipped past, Hilda slowed down. After she finished counting, Hilda began to mildly shake as she stared at the stack in her hands.
"Hilda? What is it?"
"I'm holding...ten thousand...you stole twenty thousand dollars from someone!?" Hilda said as she started hitting her brother on the shoulder.
"Ow! Stop it!"
"Are you an idiot!?"
"What? Not like stealing's new to us."
"Yeah, but we always stole small things, stuff that doesn't matter! Not twenty thousand dollars!" Hilda shouted as she continued to hit Hilbert.
"Ah, would you stop hitting me?!"
"Oh, we are so dead!"
"Relax, alright? Not like they know where we live."
"But what if they find us? Someone could've followed you!"
"I said, relax. We'll be fine."
Hilda sat back down on the couch, placing her hands on her head. Letting out a sigh, she turned to her brother.
"Hilbert, you stole a lot of money. Too much if you ask me."
"Yeah, I know, but think about how much better things could be with this money. We can try and live somewhere else for a while, instead of this shitty place."
"That sounds good and all. But we don't know anywhere that we could live off of twenty thousand, even though it does seem like a lot of money. The money would run out eventually. Then, we would have to find another way to get cash."
"You're right, but we can still do some things with the money to try and make our lives a little better."
"Do you think it's a good idea to spend the money? I mean, what if whoever you stole the money from tries to find whoever took it. They'll eventually find you."
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Let's try to be happy for now, alright? We just got twenty thousand dollars! Plus," Hilbert said as he gestured to the other items.
"What do you plan on doing with the rest of this stuff?"
"I'm not sure, all I know is that those are pokeballs and that I don't know what the other two things are."
"You think there could be pokemon in these pokeballs?" Hilda asked as she picked up a ball and looked it over.
"We could just find out," Hilbert picked up the other Pokeball. "I think we just press that button and toss it up into the air and, if a pokemon is inside, it will come out."
"Shouldn't we go outside for this?"
"Eh, I doubt they'll be anything too big. It'll be fine, probably."
"I guess. Alright, on three. One...two...three!"
Once Hilda finished counting, the twins pressed the buttons on their respective pokeballs and tossed them into the air. Hilda's ball opened and fell to the ground with a thud, empty. However, Hilbert's ball shot out a red beam of light towards the ground. The light beam formed the shape of something four-legged. The light turned from red to white, then from white to become the pokemon which the Pokeball housed.
Stand in front of the two was a mostly black, quadruped, canine-like pokemon, with red on its muzzle and stomach. Each of its ankles had a white band going around it. There were three bands on its back as well. It also had what looked the top of a skull on its head.
Hilbert and Hilda stared at the pokemon. While they didn't know that many pokemon of Unova, this one still seemed to be foreign.
The pokemon stared at the twins, just as they stared at it. Neither side was sure of what to do. After a minute of staring, the device which was left sitting on the couch began to beep. Hilbert went to grab it as Hilda stayed staring at the pokemon, who was now sitting down. Upon inspecting the device, the small screen read a message.
"New Pokemon Species Detected. Please press the button and point the Pokedex towards the new pokemon."
Confused, Hilbert pressed the circular button on the front side of the device, causing a second screen to slide up from behind the front. Hilbert then turned the Pokedex around and pointed it at the pokemon.
"Houndour: The dark pokemon. It is smart enough to hunt in packs. It uses a variety of cries to communicate with others. This houndour is male and is currently level five."
"Houndour?" said Hilbert.
"Hound," the pokemon cried as if to say correct.
"So, that's a Pokedex? Looks a lot like a phone," said Hilda.
"That's what I thought, too," said Hilbert. "Hm, so you're a houndour?"
"Hound!" Houndour barked as it looked around the room.
He began to walk around sniffing different things and looking at everything with a tilted head. Putting two and two together, Hilda figured that Houndour was probably unused to such a setting. She suggested to Hilbert about letting Houndour go outside. He agreed, and the two lead Houndour into the front yard.
Upon first touching the grass with his paw, Houndour stepped back. The touch seemed foreign to him. After a few more steps, Houndour realized he liked the feeling of the grass and began to roll around in the yard. After a few minutes, Houndour stopped and turned to Hilda and Hilbert. The twins were smiling from watching Houndour.
Houndour stood up and stretched his body then he walked towards the house. Hilda and Hilbert stepped aside, letting him walk in. Once inside, Houndour jumped onto the couch and began to sleep.
"Aw, he's like a baby!" Hilda whispered.
"And he's all mine," Hilbert said with a grin.
"What? How come he gets to be yours?"
"Because he came out of the ball that I opened," said Hilbert. "If he had come out of the ball you opened, then he would've been yours. But, he didn't so."
Hilbert stuck his tongue out at his sister, who then hit him on the shoulder. Hilda looked at Houndour, the smile she previously had on her face disappeared.
"Oh, relax. We can try and get you a pokemon," said Hilbert. He had noticed his sister's expression change. "We still have that empty ball."
"Alright, but now I have to wait."
"I guess we can go tomorrow. There are some woods a short walk from here that probably has weak pokemon."
Hilbert took a seat on the couch next to Houndour, and Hilda sat on the opposite side of him. The TV had been on this whole time, playing some show about the region's police. The episode was of a UPD raid on some gang's hideout. After some time of watching, Hilda let out a yawn.
"I'm going to bed," she said. "You going too or staying out here?"
After not getting an immediate response, Hilda turned to her brother and saw he was deeply focused on the show.
"Hilbert?"
"Huh?"
"I said, I'm going to bed."
"Oh, yeah. I'll go to sleep soon."
"Alright, well, goodnight."
"Goodnight."
With that, Hilda left the Hilbert alone with Houndour. After the episode ended, Hilbert turned the TV off and headed to bed with Houndour following him. Laying in bed, unable to sleep, Hilbert began to think of what he could do with all the money he stole, and now that they had a pokemon companion. His head went crazy with ideas.
And that concludes the first chapter of my rewrite. If anyone is curious why I did a rewrite, it's because I didn't feel as though the original story was going the way I wanted.
Let me know what you think with a review and favorite/follow if you like it.
Anyway, peace.
~~~Sikahdik.