Season 2 - Episode 05: Catching the Bug_Pokemon Slate Gray

“Wha-huh?” Slate spluttered.

April grinned wider at his apparent shock. “My mom told me you were going to be leaving Almony this morning. I was coming for the contest anyway, so I thought I’d surprise you,” she said.

Slate honestly couldn’t tell if April’s sudden appearance was a welcome surprise or not. He had been hoping she would join him on his journey, but what with being incommunicado for a month, when she hadn’t shown up that morning, he had all but written her off.

Still stunned, he asked with a little more vigor than he had intended, “Wh-where have you been?”

“I’ll tell you later,” April smirked, “if you beat me in the contest!”

“I… I wasn’t really planning on entering,” Slate responded, feeling a mix of irritation and amusement. He didn’t understand why this girl had such an effect on him. She disappeared on him after what happened to his mother, and now she just shows up and challenges him. No apologies, no explanations… How could someone be so brazen?

“Afraid?” said April with a sneer.

Slate felt a fire ignite inside of him. He had a sudden burning desire to wipe the smug look right off April’s face. “Fine! You’re on!” he answered defiantly.

“Good. That’s settled, then,” said April before walking away from him, still grinning imperiously.

“Wait, where are you going?” Slate frowned in confusion.

April turned and put a hand on one hip while holding her Rotom Phone screen outward in the other. It displayed a digital stamp. “I’m already registered,” she elucidated. “You know what they say, the early bird catches the Weedle. That’s a reference even you should understand, right, Kanto boy?”

“Kanto boy?” Slate repeated, his cheeks flushing red.

“Didn’t you wonder why people are so antsy to get started? Pun intended by the way,” April asked, then proceeded to answer her own question. “For one thing, Silph have raised their prices again, so the contest prizes are more valuable. For another, everyone knows the best Bug-types are found in the mornings—well, almost everyone—and I’m off to snag one while you’re stuck in the registration queue! See ya, wouldn’t wanna bee ya! Pun intended by the way.”

Slate watched speechlessly as April exited the center with a mocking wave over her shoulder, laughing hysterically to herself as she did. Within two minutes, the girl had surprised him, taunted him, baited him into a competition, and taken off before he even understood what was going on. It was a hit-and-run! There was no other way to describe it.

Slate got to his feet with a sense of urgency but without an actual purpose in mind. Thankfully, a chime rang out, signaling the completion of his Pokémon’s treatment. He moved to the counter, thanked the nurse, and carefully secured his three capsules to his Poké Belt.

Heading outside, he was dismayed to see that the waiting crowd, while calmer, had grown considerably. Furious with April—and himself—but unwilling to renege on her challenge, Slate reluctantly joined the end of the queue and spent the next forty-five minutes silently fuming.

One good thing came out of this, though. He overheard other contestants discussing the contest. Apparently, Hazell Woods wasn’t hard to find. In addition, it seemed as though a special formula was used to judge the size of entrants, so he didn’t need to find the biggest bug per se, just the biggest of its species.

Slate shook his head in annoyance as he inched closer to the doors. He had been foolish to let April goad him. He was going into this contest blind. He’d never even been in Hazell Woods before. April, on the other hand, used to live in Hazell Town. And where had her newfound confidence come from? Okay, she had always been confident, to the point of obnoxious, but there had been something different about her in the Pokémon Center.

During their initial outing, April had shown herself to be knowledgeable about Nutera and its Pokémon but not about battling or catching them. So, why was she so keen on entering the Bug-Catching Contest? He had only seen April catch one Pokémon, and Zunshin’s surprise capture hadn’t exactly employed textbook technique.

Checking his watch as he finally entered the Pokémon Center, Slate saw that it was almost ten o’clock. It had been over an hour since April had departed. The morning was almost over. If she was right about the best bugs being available in the mornings, Slate was missing out. His temper flared as he realized some of the people queuing weren’t even registering for the contest, they were just there to get Melissa’s autograph.

Once at the head of the line, Slate handed a middle-aged woman with permed hair his Rotom Phone, which was inserted into a device dock like the one he had used to have his Pokémon healed. “Okay…Slate,” said the woman, removing his device and showing the digital badge with his details on its screen, “You’re all registered. Have you entered the contest before?”

“No,” Slate responded immediately, eager to get going.

“Well, you have five hours from the time of your registration to catch the biggest Bug-type you can find in Hazell Woods,” she explained with a look at the clock. “Only Bug-types that your Pokédex app registers as caught in Hazell Woods between now—five past ten—until five past three this afternoon, will be valid for you to enter.”

“Right,” Slate agreed, abandoning any silly ideas he had concocted about entering his new Crimsant.

“The assessment period ends at seven o’clock, so we advise returning as soon as you can to avoid the last-minute rush.”

“Sure.”

“Now,” the woman said with a big smile, “would you like to meet Melissa?”

“No, I’m good,” said Slate, a little more loudly and curtly than he had intended. Realizing how rude he must have sounded, he quickly added a polite, “…thank you.” The woman composed herself and handed him his Rotom Phone, but Slate was afraid Melissa had heard him at the next table.

He looked sideways, surprised to find the wild girl looking right at him. The corners of her mouth were upturned in a wicked grin, and her previously lifeless eyes returned his gaze with a steely glare. Slate gave her a sheepish smile in return, feeling his cheeks flush, then walked briskly to the exit. At the automatic doors, he chanced a glance backward and saw that Melissa was still tracking him with her eyes, still grinning.

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After the odd exchange, Slate ran flat out to the Hazell Town Poké Mart. Unfortunately, April’s information about Silph Co. hiking their prices again was accurate. Thanks to the birthday money from his mother, he had enough League Points for two Silph Balls, which were now 750LP or ₽1,500, and one Silph Potion, which were now 500LP or ₽1,000.

Running again, Slate returned to the Pokémon Center, then continued past it and out of town. Eventually, the road veered left for vehicles, while the sidewalk ended, and a footpath led into the mouth of Hazell Woods.

Taking a deep breath as he stepped inside, he was immediately struck by how dense the wood was, much more so than the wilderness on Almony Island. Despite the bright and clear sky above, the inside was almost completely shielded from direct sunlight. It was also much larger—and creepier—than he had imagined.

Instinctively, he followed the path, but after twenty minutes with no wild Pokémon sightings, he recalled the words of Charlie’s mother and took off into the tree line, where there was even less light. Despite the contest taking place, he hadn’t come across, or even heard, another Trainer since entering. He hadn’t seen any Pokémon either for that matter.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Before he knew it, two of his allotted five hours had passed. Maybe he had arrived too late in the day, after all? The ground beneath him was growing thicker with underbrush now, making it harder to walk. It suddenly occurred to him that he might not be able to find his way back to the path. Slate wasn’t scared, of course, but his heart was definitely beating faster in his chest. This was surely due to his rising anger, though.

Had this been April’s idea of a joke? Had she known he would get himself lost in the vast woodland? Was she chilling in the Pokémon Center now, while he was lost in a region that he knew next to nothing about, all because he had agreed to some stupid competition?

“No. Snap out of it!” Slate said to himself, closing his eyes tightly and slapping both hands to his cheeks. The noise that rang out seemed to echo. In response to this, several red Pokémon began to emerge from what Slate had believed to be a nearby mound of dirt. Not happy about his proximity to their nest, the troop of Akant began scurrying in his direction.

“I don’t really need an Akant. But…” pondered Slate, noticing that one among the group was twice the size of its compatriots. “That looks like it could be a winner! Come on out, Crimsant!” He threw his newest Pokémon’s ball out to intercept the approaching horde. Crimsant was released in a flash of white, and his magnetized capsule returned to his outstretched hand.

Slate realized his mistake at once. The Akant stopped in their tracks and began clicking their mandibles, communicating with their evolutionary relative. Crimsant’s were Akant queens. The larger creature turned, ignited its scissor-like jaws, and lunged for Slate with the Akant in tow.

Slate yelped, and yelled as he fled, “Not me, Crimsant! I’m your Trainer! Attack them, attack them!” Giving up on reasoning with his new catch, he haphazardly fired return beams from Crimsant’s Silph Ball over his shoulder, until one finally hit and returned the monster to its capsule.

After putting some distance between himself and the Akant, Slate paused to catch his breath. Apparently, Crimsant would need some training before it would take orders. Before he could relax, a screeching hum of sorts began to ring out. Were the Akant still in pursuit? It didn’t sound like them.

The screeching grew louder until with a rustling, a Pokémon emerged from the brush, crying noisily enough to make Slate cover his ears. It was one of the strangest Pokémon he had ever seen. Much of its body was concealed by the shell of an egg, from two holes of which, tears were streaming. It was only due to its taloned feet that Slate could tell it was a bird Pokémon of some sort.

*Ping*.

SPECIES

#023 Uglay

DERIVATION

Ugly (duckling) + Lay (an egg)

CATEGORY

Larva

COLORING

Pale blue

TYPE

Bug

ABILITIES

Swarm

???

Overcoat

DETAILS

Unidentifiable Pokémon. This Pokémon could be one of multiple identical but distinct species.

Slate frowned at the lack of information. Still, with the not-so-distant din of Uglay’s piercing cries filling his ears, he was about ready to leave, so any Bug-type would do. He unclipped Cryote’s ball from his belt and fished out an empty one from his bag.

“Cryote, I choose you,” said Slate, expanding the ball with one click, then activating its release command with a double-click. “Give it a Bite, boy!”

Cryote emerged and diligently delivered its Bite. Whether successful, Slate had no idea. The foe’s body was squishy, and without a mouth to make noise from or a face to show pain, there was no way to know what the wriggling mass was feeling. Perhaps it didn’t matter, Slate thought with a sigh. It wasn’t likely to be of a high level.

He took aim and half-heartedly threw his spare capture device. However, as he watched the ball spin through the air, he once again felt the need to cover his ears. It happened as if in slow motion. Just before the ball hit its target, the wild Uglay appeared once more. Still wailing, it ran right into the trajectory of Slate’s ball.

Closing his eyes and slapping a hand to his forehead as the bird Pokémon was mistakenly hit, Slate considered that the capture might not be successful. After all, he hadn’t weakened the Uglay, so there was a good chance of it forcibly escaping the ball. It would mean wasting a Silph Ball, but he wouldn’t be stuck with the crying creature.

No such luck. Almost instantly, the *click* and *ding* of a successful capture emanated from the errant ball. Slate had caught a new Pokémon. He opened his eyes to see his Bug-type quarry slowly slithering into a nearby bush. Enough was enough. Collecting up his fresh catch and fishing out his remaining Silph Ball, Slate dashed into the undergrowth. He was going to get that thing, then get out of there.

However, behind the bushes, he lost his footing. “Whoa-aaargh!” he called out as he twisted and fell backward. He braced himself for impact, trying to protect his head with his hands, but the pain didn’t come. His landing was soft, like jumping into a haystack or a pile of cushions. He very much doubted there were cushions in the middle of Hazell Woods, though. So, what was going on?

As Cryote barked furiously with concern somewhere above him, the answer came to Slate with a shudder of realization. He had fallen into a shallow pit of the maggot-like Pokémon! They had saved him from a fall, but the feeling of their wriggling movements and clammy surface was just too disgusting. Abandoning his pride, he expelled a continuous shriek of horror and began struggling through the multi-colored sea of larvae.

Reaching the edge of the pit, he grasped a thick root and pulled himself up. Near the top, Cryote bit down on his jacket and helped pull him onto level ground. Slate got to his feet and began patting himself down all over, involuntarily flailing around at one point when he discovered a larva clinging to his calf. The contest was over. He didn’t care anymore. Let April have her prize. All he wanted was a shower!

“Come on, boy, we’re out of here,” said Slate breathlessly.

Cryote pined in reply and raised a paw as if pointing to something in the pit.

Still wiping his hands on the front of his jacket, Slate reluctantly peered into the precipice. Visible in the center of the pulsating swarm of fifty or so pale larvae, was his purple Silph Ball. Slate’s jaw dropped as he checked his Rotom Phone. “New Pokémon registered to the Pokédex?” he read aloud in confusion before staring back into the pit. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!”

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Season 2 - Episode 05: Catching the Bug

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