Henry awoke to loud knocking on the door to the cupboard under the stairs where he slept. "Up! Get up! You've slept enough, get up now." Aunt Petunna's shrill voice came through the other side.
Henry sat up rubbing the sleep away from his eyes. "I'm awake…" He said,
"Good, I need you to watch the bacon and make sure it doesn't burn, I need to help Vervon bring in some last minute presents for Dubly's birthday."
Henry groaned at the mentioning of Dubly's birthday. "What was that?" Petunna asked shrilly.
"Nothing." Henry said quickly as he began going through his belongings for his socks and his rectangular glasses.
He found a pair and had to pull a Joltik off of the pair of socks he grabbed. The cupboard had a few Joltik that hid in the corners where Mrs. Durston couldn't see them when she went in there. Not that she ever did, everything in here, though rather meager were the contents, was Henry's. Henry had only his glasses, some clothing, and a single book to his name.
It was a book full of pictures of Pokemon, unlike his Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin who hated them, Henry absolutely loved Pokemon. He had wanted more than anything to learn about pokemon and go on a pokemon journey. But his Aunt and Uncle would never allow it. Even the mere mention of pokemon was enough to get Henry into serious trouble with them.
Henry slowly walked to the kitchen where he could smell bacon in the pan. He took some tongs and flipped the bacon. In the corner he saw the packaging on the wrapper. Lechonk bacon strips. That was all pokemon were good for in his Aunt and Uncle's opinion. Food. He of course wasn't opposed to eating pokemon, he liked meat as much as anyone, but he wished that his interactions with pokemon didn't always end with them on the dinner table.
He plated the bacon and took it to the table where Uncle Vervon was reading the newspaper. "Hurry up. Bring my Coffee." He barked.
"Yes Uncle Vervon," He said, going to the coffee machine and pouring a cup of hot coffee before bringing it to his Uncle.
As he went to pour himself a glass of Moo Moo Milk, his cousin Dubly walked in. He immediately went and counted his presents. When he landed on thirty-six he frowned.
"Thirty-Six… Last year I had thirty-seven." He said, the anger in his voice rising.
Petunna who sensed a tantrum coming ran over and smothered him. "On our way back from the amusement park we'll buy you two new presents. How's that pumpkin?" She asked.
"So I'll have… Thirty…. Thirty…." Dubly said, trying to do the math in his head, it seemed to be very hard work.
"Thirty-eight sweetums." Petunna said.
"Oh… well that's alright then." Dubly said, grabbing bacon off of the table.
As he started opening his gifts, the phone went off. Petunna picked it up. "Hello?" She asked, before frowning.
"No… that's not, but we need… oh alright." She slammed the phone down on the receiver. "Vervon… Mrs. Pigg broke her leg. She can't take him.
The room went quiet. Most of the Durston's were pale but Henry was elated. Every year on Dubly's birthday they would take him to amusements parks, expensive restaurants, ice cream shops, and go kart racing and every year Henry was left with boring old Mrs. Pigg.
Her house smelled like old cabbage, and looked like one big litter box, not surprising as she had at least thirteen Purugly. The only interesting thing there was that one Purugly was a different color from the rest. Henry had no problem with the odd Purugly but thirteen in one place was too much for anyone who wasn't Mrs. Pigg.
"So what do we do with him?" Pettuna asked.
"We could leave him with my sister Margo." Vervon suggested,
"Don't be stupid Vervon, she hates him." Petunna replied.
"You could leave me here." Henry put in hopefully, he could actually watch what he wanted on TV for a change, or maybe even have a go at catching a pokemon, maybe one of the neighbors would lend him some pokeballs.
"And come back to find the house in shambles." Vervon snarled angrily.
"I… I won't destroy the house honestly," Henry defended himself.
But they just shook their heads, they never trusted him to be on his own. To their credit, they knew how much he loved pokemon, they were probably afraid he'd try to do exactly what he was planning to do if they left him alone.
In the end it was decided that Henry would go with them to the amusement park. Henry couldn't believe his luck. This was the only time that he could remember where the Durstons ever took him anywhere fun. Knowing that this probably wouldn't happen again he was going to have to make the most of it.
The Durston's drove to an Amusement Park that banned pokemon. Only people were allowed. The only pokemon in the amusement park were part of the infrastructure, and they were hidden away so as to not take away from the experience of guests who had come to this park to avoid pokemon. If Henry looked very closely though he would notice a working pokemon, hidden well enough that anyone not looking would miss it. There was a pikachu acting as a battery for an ice cream machine, and many of the restaurants seem to employ fire types for assistance in cooking food.
Henry was having such a good time that for once he believed nothing could ruin his day, but he was wrong. In the park's nature walk which Dubly had insisted on taking (Henry couldn't imagine why, Dubly hated anything to do with nature and exercise) Dubly began to get bored looking at trees and greenery. As such he had fallen back on his favorite pastime. Bullying Henry. It wasn't long before he was dangling Henry over a drop that Henry knew would end with some nasty bruises at best. A broken bone at worst.
Henry screamed and fought and yelled, but the Durston's were more than happy to let Henry dangle helplessly regardless of how it ended. "Someone help me please!" He yelled out.
"No one's around Pokehart, no ones gonna… gonna… gonna…" Dubly went quiet for a few seconds.
"AAAAEEEEGGGGHH!" He screamed out in fear and surprise, letting go of Henry.
Henry closed his eyes accepting his fate but he didn't fall. When he opened his eyes. He was being pulled back onto the walkway by the thread of a large red spider like pokemon. Ariados was pulling him back to safety. Ahead he saw Dubly covered in Spinarak. They weren't hurting him, merely scaring him away from Henry. Vervon ran over to them and began swatting them away. "Get off of him! Get away from my son!" He screamed loudly as he pulled them off. The Ariados was visibly angered at the mistreatment of the Spinarak and reared back to attack, with Fury Swipes.
"N-No." Henry said, quickly.
To his surprise the Ariados stopped and looked at him tilting its head and chittering. "They aren't worth it…" He said,
The Ariados went back to all fours and walked off, the Spinarak falling closely behind it. Henry let out a sigh of relief before uncle Vervon grabbed him by his brown hair and pulled him roughly to his feet.
"We're going home now boy." He said, as Petunna helped Dubly to his feet.
They all went back to the Durston's house and Vervon opened the cupboard under the stairs and threw Henry in. "Stay. No meals. I'll get you when you can come out." He slammed the door shut and locked Henry in.
Henry had never felt so miserable. It wasn't fair. It wasn't his fault that the Ariados saved him, or that the Spinarak had swarmed Dubly. He didn't bother trying to explain that, it never helped. Because, one of the reasons that Henry liked Pokemon so much was that they always seemed to help him when he needed it most. When he had gotten lost in a storm doing a milk run for Mrs. Durston a Staraptor flew him home on its back. He thought he would be in trouble for dropping the groceries but the entire time he had been berated for getting so close to such a horrible thing as a Staraptor.
Two years ago when his Aunt Margo's Snubull had chased him up a tree, it was sent running off by a small family of Rattata that lived in the tree, and he had gotten locked up for a week for playing with rodents. Then just last year when he was running from Dubly and his friends at school he was protected by a mean looking Mightyena that scared off Dubly and his pals. Henry got given lots of extra chores for that, and the school got an angry call from Vervon about letting wild pokemon run around.
Pokemon just seemed to like Henry, and seeing as they treated him far better than his actual family he had little trouble identifying more with them then his caretakers or his cousin. The little Joltik that normally stayed in the corner crawled out from under his bread. It was carrying a little bit of cheese and bread. Henry had often wondered if Joltik got around using holes and tunnels in the house. Now he knew for sure. The Joltik held up the food for him. Henry couldn't help smiling just a little as he took it. "Thanks." He said.
He laid back down on his bed and ate his meager meal. He wished he could be with his real parents. He wished he knew what happened to his real parents. He was only a year old when they died, and everytime he tried to remember what happened all he could come up with was a purple light and a loud laughter. If he tried to recall any other details he would get a terrible migraine. His Aunt and Uncle told him that his parents died in an Earthquake which they blamed on a Tyranitar. But that didn't explain the light or the laughter so Henry really didn't trust their explanation very much.
Slowly he could stave off sleep no longer. He slept and he dreamt, he dreamt of a life beyond the Durston's. A pokemon journey of his own. A chance to be more than what he felt like was destined to be all his life.