Disclaimer: this story is a work of fiction based on the characters in the video game: Pokemon: Diamond/Pearl. I make no claims of ownership towards these characters, only the twisted things they do in this story belong to me. If you find this story on any site except Literotica, it has been stolen from me, I would appreciate you letting me know! Enjoy the story, and remember: Feedback is crack for writers!
"Excuse me, aren't you a little old to be starting out?" I jumped as the voice jarred into my consciousness. I spun around, only to find no one behind me. Then I looked down and saw a boy. He couldn't be any more than ten, maybe twelve, years old. Unfortunately, I've never been very good at judging ages. It's a useful flaw when dealing with grown women, I always guess about a half dozen years too low, much to their enjoyment. Unfortunately, it left me complete unable to process the roughly three and a half foot tall boy's comment.
When faced with a conundrum, I tend to revert to certain patterns, regardless of the age of the person in question. First, try to make comfortable eye contact. Well, that required I get off my bike and step to the side of the path. Then I crouched so I was as close to the boy's eye level as possible. Second, smile. Not a problem. Habit from years of customer service brought a swollen cheeked smile to my face. Third, remain polite and talk normally. Well, the second part is specific to kids. Don't treat them like a moron! They'll appreciate it and tell you if they don't understand. "I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about."
"I said... aren't... you... a... little... old... to...be... starting... out?" Lucky me, the kid didn't know my rules. Apparently he'd decided I was the moron. Either that or I spoke a foreign language.
What I needed was nothing more than a healthy dose of patience. Here I was, riding my bike through the park when something darted in front of me. I ended up in the bushes. No harm, no foul. The bike was fine, and the only thing I'd bruised was my ego. And it just took another hit when the ten year old thought I had the intelligence of an brain-damaged ant.
Time to try another track. "Ok, I understand the question, I just don't understand what it refers to." Before he could repeat the question again, one of my own annoying foibles according to my wife, I hurried on. "What am I to old to be starting out?" See? Empathic listening, just like the counselor says. Demonstrate you understand by rephrasing.
"D'uh!" The kid doesn't know empathic listening. He simply nodded his head vaguely to my left.
"The bike? I've been riding since I was five or something. Sure, I hit the bushes back there, but that was only because something darted across the path. I can take a slight tumble through the bushes much better than any little fuzzy could take a hit from a two hundred pound bike racing along." Ok, so I lied. I'm close to two fifty, but I'm betting that doesn't matter to the kid.
"Not the bike, that!" This time his arm shot out, with his finger pointed. Bemused, I followed his finger to the front wheel of my bike. Or rather, I followed his attention to what futilely tried to hide behind the wire spokes that comprised the wheel. My jaw dropped open.
How on Earth did a penguin manage to find its way into the middle of New Hampshire? There were absolutely no zoos it could have escaped from, the nearest being Boston at about an hour and a half
drive
away. Besides, I'd have heard about it on the morning news. But that wasn't the only odd thing. I'd never seen a penguin that was bright blue before. Maybe it was because this one was a chick. Many species drastically changed color as they matured. Why not some random species of penguin. Of course, that still didn't explain
how on Earth did a penguin manage to find its way into the middle of New Hampshire?
And of course the equally important question, how could it deal with the ninety degree heat? I'm human and I was sweating like a pig.
The kid seemed to understand I hadn't the slightest idea what was going on. "He's not yours, is he." Although phrased as a question it clearly wasn't. I wasn't taking any more chances with this kids, however, so I shook my head. "Cool! Then I can catch him! Not exactly my usual style, but I can always trade him for something more powerful."
As I looked back at the kid, he pulled something from his belt. All the sudden, the marble defied the laws of physics that I'd so carefully learned in college and grew to about ten times its previous mass. He wound back and tossed the softball sized anomaly in the general direction of my bike's front tire. It was at this point I realized I had hit my head quite a bit harder than I thought. There must have been a rock, or something, I'd bumped my head on. Despite the best protection a helmet can provide, I was hallucinating.
The pokeball, for that was undoubtedly what the anomalous device was, managed to miraculously hit. The little white button on the front reached through the spokes, exactly, and barely touched the penguin. Well, at least that part was merely improbable instead of impossible.
Despite the impossible, correction, improbable hit, the ball didn't split open. No red energy poured from the device to engulf the aforementioned bird. The ball did, however, bounce backwards and fly straight into the kid's hand. It's a good thing I already doubted my sanity. The level of improbability was growing towards something out of
Hitchhiker's Guide
. I certainly didn't need my outer garments jumping exactly two feet to my left without me.
"Shoot! I knew it was too good to be true." He turned back to look at me. "You sure he's not yours? The pokeball only returns to your hand if someone already owns it." At this point, I wasn't sure of anything. This was my delusion, so it was entirely possible he was my pokemon. Meanwhile, the penguin was doing a great Attica impression, it's flippers curled around the spokes of my bike. I wasn't going anywhere yet.
I turned back to the kid. "Look, if he was mine, I should have a pokegear and a pokeball to go with him. You see either?" I held open my trench-coat to show him my belt. Yeah, ninety degrees, I wear all black and a trench-coat. No one ever accused me of bouts of wisdom; smart, yes, wise, no. The cell-phone and multi-tool were where they belonged, with no additions. The kid stood, solemn faced, and pointed again, this time over my right shoulder. I turned. There, attached to my bike by the same improbable mechanics that kept them on a trainer's belt, come what may, was a pokegear and a single, small, pokeball. I shrugged and plucked the ball from its perch.
In order to use a pokeball, you must first get it to expand. I was new here, I hadn't the slightest idea how to do that. I rolled the marble-sized object around my fingers for a moment and oriented the little white stub so that it faced away from my hand. Let the thing slide into your palm and it suddenly grows. It's possible I did something more than that, but if so I have no friggin clue what I did. One moment I have a marble rolling across my palm and the next my hand was full.
In the show, as well as the game, trainers always call back their pokemon by name. If that was a requirement, some sort of voice command, I was screwed. I can get pretty obscure in naming my pokemon ~I once named a Fighting type Hitmonlee 'Bruce,' after the noted martial artist. I had to hope it wasn't necessary, or that any name I used would work. I certainly wasn't about to trust the mounting improbabilities that I would stumble on the correct reference to this particular pokemon. Fortunately, some combination of 'grip the pokeball' and 'point the pokeball at its resident' seemed to work as the red energy poured from the ball and sucked up the cute little penguin.
"I
knew
it was yours!" I turned a cold stare at the kid. Hey, I was still being polite, I hadn't throttled him yet. "So, you want to battle?"
Somehow, I knew that question would come up. Here I was with no idea where I was, New Hampshire not being well known for a population of real live pokemon or any of the relevant gear, and no idea what level my pokemon was at. The one thing I
did
know was that if you lose a pokemon battle against another trainer you end up losing half of the money you have on hand. With roughly five dollars and sixty eight cents to my name I really didn't want to risk it. Especially when I had no idea of the status of the penguin, or even what it was. However I had a very eloquent, well thought out, response prepared for just such a contingency. "No!"
The kid seemed to shrink in on himself at the force of the single word. While part of me felt truly sorry that I'd shouted, another part wished it was that easy to avoid the multitude of opposing trainers in the games. But I didn't feel truly miserable until the first tears began to leak from the corners of his eyes. Within moments the kid was a fountain and running away. Ok, so maybe it wouldn't be any easier if you could get rid of them if they did that every time. I'm a softy at heart.
Now I felt like crap, but at least I was alone. Now I could figure out a little something about my little, blue, bird friend. Pokeball still in hand, I pointed it a little ways from my bike and willed the little guy out, unsuccessfully. Unlike returning, it seemed you did need a verbal component to call a pokemon forth. I feared I'd now condemned the poor little squirt to an eternity in a pokeball. Or at least until I would find a Pokemon Center. They had to have tools for this kind of thing, didn't they?
I shrugged and ran through my twisted logic. He was a penguin, so my first thought was that I'd have named him Chill. Stick with me here. There's a cartoon penguin named Chilly Willy. I certainly wouldn't have used the later portion for all of its biological connotations, so I would have gone with the former. Chilly, however, sounds a little cheesy to me, so I'd have dropped the 'y'. Hence 'Chill'. "Come on out Chill!" I continued to point the unmarred pokeball at nothing.
I sighed. I knew I didn't have to throw it. Ash usually did, with the resulting improbable return to his hand, but many trainers in the show just held onto it and pointed. I'm not a spazz, so I figure I'll hang onto my balls, thank you very much.