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CHAPTER II

I (DIDN’T) CHOOSE YOU!

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(-o-)

Some accident. Some technological malfunction. That’s what we’d been told. Professor Cid had been detained and his lab searched. He was hysterical, screaming things like: “We’re not too late! We can still wake them!” But I don’t think anyone trusted him. Not after learning that he was the reason it all happened.

It was already past midday and dozens of villagers were still sleeping. They showed no signs of waking up, like comatose patients. It was scary. What made it worse was that my grandma was one of them. I tried everything; waking tonics, pungent leaves, talking, yelling, and when I ran out of ideas, I took Glee out of her pokéball. I pleaded with her, fighting back a terrible lump in my throat, but all she could say was ‘Glee’ and ‘Gloo’, and I got the feeling that she just thought Gran was sleeping. I knew it wasn’t her fault but seeing Glee so clueless only irritated me. Like, can’t you do something?

Luckily, some members of the committee weren’t affected, so it wasn’t a total circus yet. There was still some order to things.

The committee itself had always been made up of nine Heads-of-Family within the village. They were responsible for keeping the village running. Things like water and power sourcing, taxes, organizing events, and other things like that. They were also responsible for letting Professor Cid build his lab here.

I bet they felt real stupid now.

They rang the giant bell at Kakuna Main Hall for ages, calling for an emergency meeting at nine O’clock in the morning, after most of us realized family members weren’t waking up. When Professor Cid didn’t turn up, many of us noticed and marched up to his lab. The old cat practically turned himself in when he saw the crowd, trying to assure us that it was not intentional, and that "malignant" forces were at play. It all got pretty loud and chaotic from there, and it ended with his arrest by the local peace-watch.

The committee were in the process of acquiring medical supplies for the unconscious, and said they’d keep us updated. When I looked around that hall, I had noticed that the kids and youths outnumbered the adults by far.

We had been given jobs setting up temporary marquees and clearing up spaces to put all the affected. There would be one large, centralized treatment site a fair distance’s walk from the Main Hall. They said it would be easier to attend to them if they were all grouped up, but I felt queasy at the thought of carrying Gran around like a corpse. When I thought about it, I had never really seen her sleeping. She always woke up before me, and always tinkered around in the herb-room as I fell asleep.

Her absence was very disturbing, but I tried hard to focus on the tasks, hoping things returned to normal soon.

I spotted Noelia nearby picking up litter from the ground, holding her mother’s Caterpie under her arm, and felt a pang of pity. Both her parents were out cold, but she was somehow managing to keep it together.

“They’ll wake up soon, don’t worry…” I told her as confidently as I could. I could only imagine the fear she must’ve felt. She looked at me and blinked, saying nothing.

“Tom,” someone called from behind. It was Isabel, a classmate that lived on the other side of the village, near the Goldeen Ponds. Although she was two years younger than me, we were in the same class-group.

School in Kakuna Village wasn’t like it was in normal cities or towns. First of all, there was no poké-school. We learnt about pokémon from stories and television. The number of households that had a captured pokémon could be counted on both hands. Secondly, due to the small population, we didn’t have the standard class system. Kakuna Trust School was more of a supervised day-care than anything else. Class groups could be made up of kids as young as Noelia, and as old as eighteen. Tutors attended the classes and catered to students individually. During class time, everyone read textbooks and did notebook exercises appropriate to their level whilst the tutor move around, attending to us one-by-one, or sat at the teacher’s desk, marking tests. To anyone that didn’t grow up here, it was probably bonkers, but it worked.

“Yeah?” I said.

“Have you heard?”

My heart squeezed a hard one. Please don’t let this be bad news.

Isabel came in close, and I caught her glancing at my blind eye for a moment. I wasn’t bothered, I was used to it. Some people liked the way it was glazed over, but others found it creepy. Isabel was a bit of a tomboy, and the only times she mentioned it was to say how cool it looked. I liked her for that.

“The committee!” she whispered. “They’re going to make an announcement this afternoon. They’ve even released the professor!”

“What?” My eye began to fuss, and I closed it shut.

She gave me a pouting nod.

“And that’s not all… they’re going to send Myke off, too.”

“Myke? What for? What’s he done?”

Isabel shrugged. “I think he’s going on some errand.”

I stared at her face hard. “How’d you know?”

She smiled cheekily and flared her nostrils with a quick sigh. “I have my ways.” And before I could respond, she gave me a cautious glance which did nothing but confuse me.

“Don’t tell anyone!” she hissed before grabbing me by the sleeve of my shirt and pulling it like a leash. “Come and see.”

I followed her, heart beating with anticipation, and with every few steps towards the unknown destination, my blind eye responded with a tiny new itch, as if it had ideas of its own: Stop following her! You’re about to open a whole new bag of trouble!

Isabel led me through the quiet dirt paths that wove around the neighbors’ backyards, some of which I hadn’t passed through in years, and I was surprised at how much smaller and cramped everything looked than I remembered. We used to run around as kids, playing Hide ‘n Seek or String Shot Wars whenever we managed to get a hold of a wild Weedle or Caterpie. The older boys like Myke knew how to handle them without getting stung and would squeeze the string shots out of them as we younger kids fled or ambushed them in surprise attacks.

“Where are we going, Isabel?”

“Shh,” she replied, giving me a backwards glance with a finger to her lips. I trusted her enough to remain silent, even as we approached the rear entrance of the professor’s lab. To my surprise though, she went right past it and skipped over a low hedge of ferns onto an unkempt orchard adjacent to the lab. Weeds had been left to grow wildly, some tangling and coiling round the berri trees which despite it all, appeared to be healthy, exuding sweet, fruity scents of pollen and sap. We spotted a few Beedrills which fled as we advanced, much to my relief.

Though I had pretty much grown up here, I wasn’t a pure local like Myke or Isabel, who wouldn’t bat an eye if they saw a wild pokémon around these parts. I, on the other hand, had been on the receiving end of a serious pokémon attack. I knew what they were capable of.

I had spent enough time in the Kakuna municipality area to know that the wild pokémon here did not have much interest in humans, preferring to flee a good nine times out of ten. The only wild attacks you’d hear about were if some happy-go-lucky attempted to capture, battle, or wander too close to their nesting areas.

That said, I was still wary of any pokémon that wasn’t in a pokéball, and my blind eye would be sure to remind me if I ever got too close to one. Gran’s Glee was the only exception, but even with her, I’d sometimes flinch if her leaves brushed up against me.

After another five minutes of treading through bushes, we hopped onto a tiny, little-trodden path amongst the trees that I had never seen in the decade I had spent here. I blew out a quiet sigh.

“Cool, right?” Isabel smiled. “I bet you’ve never even been here.”

I grunted in response.

“We’re nearly there, so keep your mouth shut properly now…”

I made a face at her back and shook my head. “Haven’t I –”

“Shh!”

Before long, we arrived at one of the Main Hall pantry rooms where some of the local produce was stored. Things like grains and dried berri fruits were either on trays or packed in crates placed on long shelves mounted along the entire wall-space. Tufts of hay poked from under the trays and gaps in the crates, probably used to keep moisture to a minimum. A smell like freshly sawed timber pervaded through the room, and low-watt lamps buzzed continually, providing the only source of light in the otherwise windowless room.

Isabel walked over to a pair of handrails that slanted into the floor near the far end of the room and she knelt down, fiddled with a small handle, and pulled at it, opening a meter-wide trapdoor on the ground between them. How nifty, I thought, and my curiosity peaked.

“How’d you find this place?”

Isabel pulled her chin-length hair back and tied it with a band that had been round her wrist. “My dad works in the kitchens. I used to wait around for him after school and he’d let me tag along whenever he was on lock-up duty. I know these places inside-out.”

“Oh.” It suddenly occurred to me. “Your dad… did he…?”

“Nope,” she immediately replied. “He woke up fine.”

She glanced at me expressionlessly and I looked away.

“I’m sure everyone’s going to wake up, Tom. Don’t worry.” She stepped down onto the staircase leading below and spoke over her shoulder. “Come on. This next part is a little stinky.”

As soon as she mentioned it, my nose picked up a tangy scent of something spoiling and I blew out sharply through my nostrils. “What’s that smell? It reeks!”

She turned around with an exasperated expression. “It’s just wine! Don’t wuss out!”

“What if there are rattata down there?”

She rolled her eyes and pointed at something on the floor hugging the wall next to us. “No pokémon allowed near the kitchen-stores. See that?”

It was a tiny metal box with lots of little holes on its surfaces. I noticed several of them, each spaced around two meters away from the next.

“They’re full of pellets. Repellent pellets!” She began descending the stairs. “Repellets! I’ve never, ever seen a wild pokémon anywhere close. We’re almost there! Come on!” She took a few more steps down and I watched as the darkness swallowed her up.

The day was going from terrible to terribly weird, but I took a big lungful of air and stepped into the dark after her.

The air down in the winery was warm and damp, and it clung around me like a smothering fog. I held my breath for as long as I could, keeping my good eye wide open whilst the other complained. I ignored it, looking around in the near pitch-black hallway, seeing the outlines and shadowy frames of big barrels and caskets, likely filled to the brim with booze.

When at last my breath ran out, I gasped and coughed when I caught a whiff of the unhindered smell of fermenting wine.

“Shh…” Isabel whispered. “We need to keep extra quiet now.”

I wondered how many times she’d been down here for her to seem so unbothered by the stench. She was likely just toughing it out.

We hurried in the dark along the corridor like a pair of crooks, and I smiled inwardly. Anything beat sitting around, waiting for the adults to fix everything.

When we got to the end of the corridor, Isabel opened another trapdoor leading back up to the ground floor with the little light that entered from the ventilation gaps up near the ceiling. I was almost bumping into her, eager to fill my lungs with fresh air.

“Hold on!” Isabel whispered, holding her arm out to stop me just shy of the exit. She had her ear cocked towards the open trapdoor.

“Are you kidding?” I huffed, feeling suffocated. She let out a tiny squeal as I shoved past her and out through the trapdoor.

“Wait!” she hissed, but I could not by order of my lungs. I climbed the steps and gasped as soon as I felt myself free of the damp, fermenting miasma. I had come to another storeroom, this one for worn and beat up kitchenware. Isabel joined me shortly, shoving at my arm in revenge. “Do you not hear that?” she said reproachfully.

I could make out some faint voices up ahead, somewhere outside. “Yeah, so?”

She walked past me, all the way to the storeroom entrance doors, and went on tiptoes to get a look through the glass pane. She looked back at me and flicked her eyebrows. “Alright.” She opened the door, going slow on the handle and I strode over to her, wondering how much further she planned on taking me.

Outside was a large open compound which I quickly recognized. The rear entrance to the Main Hall building lay across it, and two people stood by the threshold, talking. One was a committee member, Mr. Mahon, and the other was a woman in a baggy gray uniform and backpack that looked like a plumber or an engineer. She had a notepad in hand and by the sounds of it, they seemed to be finishing their conversation.

“Why didn’t we just get here through the front?” I whispered to Isabel, and she shook her head quickly.

“That wouldn’t work,” she replied, and then turned to look at me. “The first rule of spying – don’t be seen! Don’t you know that?”

“We’re going to spy?” With all this sneakiness, I should not have been surprised.

“Do you think I made everything up? Let’s find out what else they’re planning!” She had a starry look in her eyes.

I had never seen this side to her, and on a normal day, I might have declined. Sneaking around was not my style. Today though, my grandma had fallen into a coma. My neighbors too, and there was no telling for how long. It was our right to know what exactly the adults were talking about. It was our right to know what was happening.

I nodded. “You bet.”

Isabel flashed a smile, and we turned out attention back across the compound.

They were facing away from us and had started to climb the terrace steps back into the building. As soon as they disappeared back inside, we left the storeroom and sneaked along the compound perimeter as fast and silently as we could. We entered the Main Hall via a smaller door on the side and immediately climbed a staircase to the second floor of the building, which was virtually a spectator floor of sorts, with the assembly hall below in plain open view if you looked over the parapet railing. The only flooring ran in a great, big square around the inside of the building, with a few locked rooms spaced along each side of the building. Voices were clearly audible now, echoing down below. I peeked over the rails momentarily and almost fell back in shock when I saw a group of people gathered. Any one of them could have looked up at that moment and seen me.

Isabel shook her head at me and put her back to the parapet wall, listening in to the conversation resounding in the hall. I copied her.

“We’ve only got enough for another week,” said a female voice I did not recognize, though I guessed it belonged to the gray-uniformed lady. “You need to make an appeal as soon as today to make sure you get assistance on time.”

“Oh, without question. It shall be done,” replied the voice of Mr. Mahon.

“Do you have the numbers we can call for this?” said the voice of another committee member.

“All of them I have given to your colleague here.”

It sounded like they were discussing about supplies and logistics.

“It is all so confounding” the lady added, “I’ve never seen anything like this. Do ensure that you call the DPI too. An event like this warrants it.”

Isabel shot me a perplexed expression and mouthed the letters “DPI?” to which I shot back my own puzzled frown, shrugging.

I crossed my legs and got comfortable, and Isabel did the same. We listened to not much else for another couple minutes before the lady said her goodbyes and was escorted out by the group. I lifted myself to peek over the railing and quickly sat back down. Mr. Mahon and a strict lady from the committee, Mrs. Colbs had stayed behind. They waited for the group to leave and one of them sat back down, the chair creaking slightly.

“Do you really think it’s appropriate?” Mrs. Colbs said finally. Her voice was firm and easily carried through the assembly hall.

Mr. Mahon sounded unsure. “Well…” he said, and another chair creaked as it was sat on.

I stood on my haunches, raising an ear up as close to the railing as I dared. Isabel, with eyes fixed on empty space, had an index finger up by her temple, shaking it as if to tell me to listen closely.

“The man seems genuinely remorseful. I do believe he regrets what has happened.”

“Remorseful or not, it doesn’t change the situation. He’s put forty-four people into a coma,” Mrs. Colbs replied. “Most are working adults, no less. It is a big blow.”

“It is,” Mr. Mahon agreed. “But if he has offered to rectify it, we shouldn’t really be saying no. Who better to fix this peculiar mess, than the most peculiar man around?” Mr. Mahon said with a chuckle. “When this goes national, we’ll get publicity and government aid. Let us not worry too much about funding. It will come.”

“What sort of publicity, Tony? ...” Mrs. Colbs said with skepticism. “The little village that knocks out its residents?”

Mr. Mahon chuckled again. “At least we’ll be known.” And when Mrs. Colbs grumbled her disapproval, Mr. Mahon insisted in a more serious tone. “A lot of good can come of it.”

They kept quiet for a few moments, and I shifted on my feet.

“What about the children?” Mrs. Colbs said. “Should we really be entrusting them with this?”

“They’re young, Sandra, but they’re not children. That Myke chap is strong as they come.”

“You know what I mean, Tony.”

Mr. Mahon hummed tiredly. “Kids leave home as early as twelve, sometimes even earlier. Think of it as a rite of passage. I myself left home at fourteen for a good year when I got my first pokémon. These kids are closer to stubble-chinned rascals than children. Sending a few of them out will do them a lot of good…”

I met Isabel’s eyes, both of us looking at each other with the blankest of looks.

“The man has even volunteered his pokémon… if that’s not a sign he wants to make amends, I don’t know what is…”

That afternoon was unnaturally serene. I visited Gran at the treatment tents and spoke to one of the medical staff that had volunteered to monitor the unconscious. He told me that some of them appeared to be dreaming, with eyes moving about under their eyelids, and assured me that it was a good sign.

“Can’t they be forced awake?”

The volunteer vehemently said, “definitely not! With the body all limp like that, they could easily get injured. Some of them came with nasty bumps and bruises from poor handling by a flustered family member.”

I couldn’t stay there for very long, seeing Gran as she was, and I considered calling my parents to let them know, but I chose to wait and let the committee handle things for a few more days. If it got desperate enough, I would ring mom first, seeing as Gran was her mother.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Isabel had gone home, telling me she had something to speak with her father about. Myke, Albert, and most of my neighborhood friends were nowhere to be seen, and the thought crossed my mind, that they were the ‘children’ Mr. Mahon and Mrs. Colbs had been referring to.

I went home, crossing through the herb-room and gazing hopelessly at the shelves. Glee’s pokéball sat on a tiny green cushion that Gran had knitted long ago, before I was even born. I grabbed the pokéball and released Glee without thinking. As the lightshow ended, I sat back on an armchair and simply stared at her. Glee saw me and said her name cheerily in greeting.

“Hi, Glee…” I responded half-heartedly. She could tell my mood was low because almost immediately, the room began smelling like warm nectar and I knew she was using one of her skills; Sweet Scent it was called.

I smiled wearily at her. “What are we gonna do without Gran?”

Glee shuffled over to me, voicing gentle syllables. I couldn’t understand her completely, only a general gist of what she meant. She did not know what had happened to Gran and was wondering why I seemed so upset.

“She might not wake up, Glee…”

She gave a low, whining sigh that meant she did not understand why I had said that.

“I don’t get it either.” I grasped the armrests tightly, thinking about Professor Cid and his stupid experiments. He should go to jail for this. If Gran ended up dying…

I spent the next thirty minutes day-dreaming nasty things like vandalizing his lab, crushing those silly glasses he wore, and even stealing and releasing his pokémon to the wild. I was sure I’d find a friend or two who’d willingly join me on such a task, and I decided I’d take revenge if worst came to worst. Setting the intention made me feel better and I dozed off, falling asleep in the armchair, unsure if Glee had anything to do with it.

Z Z Z …

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“Tomas!”

I jolted awake, spinning my head to the window so fast that my neck cramped. “Ahhh!” I clamped my hand around it and slowly stretched out.

“Tom!”

Isabel. She had her hands cupped on the window, staring into the room with a wild look on her face.

“What?!”

“Get out here!”

Glee peeked through the open doorway at the both of us, and some drool started forming round a corner of her lips.

“Glee! No!” I cast about like a madman, grabbing her pokéball and hastily returning her inside.

Phew. I sighed. A Gloom’s drool could really stink up the place, and it was a pain to wash off. Glee would only ever drool when panicked, and that rarely ever happened. Isabel’s antics must have frightened her.

I opened the front door to the house and Isabel was out by the mailbox, wearing blue tracksuit pants, a white, skin-tight t-shirt, and her signature zip-hoodie tied round her waist. Her hair was held in place with two clips by either temple. No matter how much of a tomboy she was, her girly side came out every so often. It was pretty, though I would never tell her that. She’d hate it.

“What’s going on?” I said. “Why are you so crazy?”

She raised both hands to her head. “You won’t believe this!”

My eyes brightened. “Did someone wake up?”

She frowned. “Nooo… Just come with me!”

I deflated. “I don’t need another spying trip, Isabel. I’m sleepy as hell!”

Her shoulders dropped and she stared at me with an open mouth. “Are you dumb?! You really want to miss this?”

“You haven’t told me squat! I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!”

She straightened up, and without a word, came over and grabbed my arm. “They are calling you,” she told me flatly.

I let her pull me along. “Who?”

“The committee. We’re going to the lab.”

I stopped walking then and broke off when she kept pulling. “What for?” My blind eye began itching furiously and suddenly.

She must have noticed my discomfort because her expression softened, and she brought things down a notch.

“They are going to explain everything. They sent for you, Tom…”

“Me specifically?”

“Yes.”

“But why?”

She seemed defeated. “Will you come?”

I had a feeling she would not ask again, and after a few moments thinking on what she had said, I nodded. “Alright, okay. Let me just lock the house.”

When we arrived at Professor Cid’s lab, Mr. Mahon was out by the doors to greet us. He had been enjoying a cigarette, and ushered us straight in, stubbing over half of it out and chucking it away before sliding the doors closed.

“Welcome, Tomas. Thank you for coming, Isabel here was sure that you would.” He grasped my shoulder firmly.

“We have a pressing issue that requires some discretion…” He led us through the reception area past a large table that had been covered with a bunch of labelled boxes. It had not been there the previous day when we had helped the professor lift the pokéball incubator inside, and I only assumed it had to do with the ongoing investigation. The incubator itself stood on the ground by the wall right where we left it, covered with a thin blanket barely big enough to conceal it.

Past the reception, through a small hallway, was a larger room with black-slate tile flooring and high rectangular windows. Long, beaded cords hung beside each of them, probably for controlling the blinds. There were two comfortable looking sofa chairs that had been reclined pretty far back, each with a metallic nightstand beside them holding thin, transparent folders and cassette-looking machines.

The smell of coffee and old paper hung thick in the air.

“The professor has made an interesting proposition…” Mr. Mahon said, rubbing his hands as we followed close behind him. “Which I think,” he said, pausing to pull down on a doorknob on the far-side wall. “Which I think we should seriously consider…”

The door opened to reveal a narrow room with large shelves covering everything but the floor. It reminded me of the file cabinet room at school. Though this room had a set of stairs leading down below the ground floor.

“Does every building have a basement?” I thought aloud, wondering if it was just a coincidence. Mr. Mahon glanced at me blankly and shook his head slightly. “Every building? I should think not. Why is that?”

Isabel stole a quick look at me, raising her eyebrows and mouthing something like: ‘duude’.

Oh, oops, I thought. “I was just wondering…”

“Ah…” Mr. Mahon did not seem to care.

The stairs down didn’t go very far, and a hefty looking door was at the end of them. As soon as Mr. Mahon opened it, sounds of conversation rushed out. “Here we are,” he said.

The underground room was way bigger than both previous ones, and the air was cooler than anywhere else in the lab, cold almost. My eyes went straight to gathering of people ahead. Myke, another young man -his workmate- named Kieran and a young woman that I only knew as the daughter of a tailor sat on one side of a large round desk in the center of the room. On the other side were three schoolmates. One was a friend of mine, Charli. He was a good-mannered guy with a mop of blonde hair and thin frame that made him look frail. He was surprisingly quick on his feet though.

Rubert, an eighteen-year-old beefy dude who had moved over from Viridian City some years ago was next to him, arms folded on the table and his chin resting on his hands, looking bored almost.

Then there was Lenn, the guy from Sinnoh. Lenn had moved in last year, but I’d never much liked to hang around him. He was sly and the sort of guy to talk about you when your back was turned. He was always clean and fresh-looking, with a curtain hairstyle that he liked to comb his fingers through often. He seemed to get on well with most people, but not with me. He probably thought the same about me.

Next to the table of youths, was a group of four adults, one of which, to my unease, was Professor Cid.

“Tommy-boy! You get the scraps!” Myke grinned. He flicked his eyes down at the table and back to me discreetly, and I saw there between his palms a small, minimized pokéball little bigger than a golf ball.

Professor Cid walked to meet us, and offered me his hand, which despite my animosity toward him, I took. He stared at me in the eye behind his tinted shades and I did not shrink from him.

“Apologies, chap. I heard about your grandmother,” he said, to which I nodded, looking away. “But we are going to set things right, I assure you.”

Isabel went to sit over at the table with Myke and the others, and I looked around the lab basement, noticing strange, engine-looking machines with multiple monitor screens and cable wires that had been grouped in neat bunches winding on the floor near the walls. The floor itself, for whatever reason, was not tiled or cemented, but was covered with dark sand and gravel that scrunched beneath my shoes with every movement. The ceiling was made of smoothed marble with many flat, in-built bulbs that kept this basement amply lit.

“Alright!” Mr. Mahon said with a clap of his hands. “Take a seat, Mr. Tovis, and let’s explain why you’re here.”

I joined the others at the table, and Lenn snickered as I sat down with them. Like Myke, he had a minimized pokéball, twiddling it between his index and middle finger like a toy.

“As you already know, we have a crisis on our hands,” Mr. Mahon began. “But Professor Cid here has provided a very detailed plan of action. You have been called here because there is incentive, and due to popular vote…”

Popular vote? I was well-known in the village, yeah; Tommy-one-eye, or the Eye-Type PokéTom, but I wouldn’t say I was popular. I wasn’t exactly outgoing, and growing up with a disability had a way of keeping you humble.

I looked over at Isabel who smiled back at me. It was probably her doing.

“Professor, if you please…” Mr. Mahon said.

Professor Cid coughed his throat clear and addressed me. “Last night an accident occurred. Something neither I nor my assistants saw coming.” He seemed downcast.

“I have already explained this to your friends here, so I will be extra curt. You will need to capture a pokémon thief, and by that I don’t mean a person who steals pokémon. I mean a pokémon that has stolen… well, people …”

I stared at him blankly. “What?”

Charli and a few others at the table giggled, but I kept my attention on the professor, who adjusted the glasses on his eyes.

“During a critical phase of experiment, through means I cannot yet determine, a pokémon was able to collect s great number of…” He appeared hesitant to continue. “… souls, shall we call them.”

When the silence persisted, he continued.

“Your grandmother, along with the other forty-three reported victims are currently in a fixed state of sleep because their consciousness has been led away from their bodies. I realize this might sound a tad hocus-pocus, but the best way to think of it, is that their minds are elsewhere…”

My mouth was slightly open, trying to comprehend what he was saying. I could only ask, “how do you know?”

Lenn scoffed next to me and spoke with derision. “Because he’s a professor, maybe?” Despite a few chuckles from the table, the professor nodded, taking my question seriously.

“I have very good reason to believe that they are currently locked in a state akin to dreaming, and in fact, you might go and check yourselves, their eyes specifically, darting about as if in REM sleep – when dreaming occurs.”

That much was true, I had been told the same by one of the medical volunteers.

“The good news is that their metabolisms are extremely low right now. They could stay like this for a long time with minimal sustenance…”

I frowned and I saw him glance about quickly at the others. “O-of course, what we shall aim to do, is capture our thief, and wake these good people the very first chance we get.”

The professor walked over to a smaller desk a few yards away and rummaged through a gray duffel bag, pulling out yet another minimized pokéball.

“Your friends arrived here quickly and have already picked their partners…”

I shot Isabel a bewildered look and she smirked, dancing her eyebrows up and down.

“As such, this is my last suitable pokémon left…”

“A Louzee!” Lenn announced, and Myke burst out with a laugh that spread across the table. I was too nervous to care. My heart was thumping in my chest, and my blind eye had to be shut tight.

“Actually,” the professor cut in. “I’ve heard of your childhood incident, and this might be the best match for you. It’s a unique specimen too.” The guys stopped laughing and stared curiously.

The professor pressed the central pokéball button and it grew to normal size. He promptly released the creature within in a burst of fluorescent white light. Myke and the other older youths got up and edged closer to us to get a better view.

“Ohh…” Isabel exhaled.

The tailor’s daughter gasped. “Wow…”

“Hah!” Myke cheered.

Kieran whistled, and Charli had a grin of wonder on his face. Even Rubert's usually tranquil demeanor was replaced with wide-eyed surprise.

It was a Drowzee, but unlike any I had ever seen. It had a chalky white upper body that darkened gradually all the way down to its black hooved feet. It was just over my waist in height but very plump and bouncy looking. It glanced at me with eyes that looked mischievous, but I had seen enough Drowzee on TV to know that that was simply how they looked. The most surprising thing, however, was that my eye did not react to its presence to the extent I had expected. It made a peculiar, purring noise that broke into a low trumpeting sound that made my ears feel fuzzy. Not a terrible sound.

Lenn was silent, and I glanced at him to find a puzzling look on his face. His eyebrows creased and I saw him swallow. Seeing that stupid look on his face was almost enough to make my coming here worth it.

“Beautiful is it not?” the professor said. “It has a wonderfully calm nature and has always listened to my commands diligently. It was hatched from a wild egg to boot. A true gift from nature.”

Myke moved over to Lenn and shoved him on the shoulder playfully. “Why so quiet Lenny-boy. Hehe… blows your little Abra right out the water.”

“No way!” Lenn immediately retorted. “Have you even seen the battle rankings? Abra’s evolutions are top-tier! A Drowzee is a plain lump of fat.”

The others began to jeer at him.

“That look on your face said differently!” Myke said with a laugh.

The professor chuckled. “Didn’t you all skip over it based on the species? … I assume nobody regrets their choice? The Drowzee is only special in appearance. It is not much too different than the rest of its kind,” he said consolingly.

“Besides, let me remind you all that your primary objective is not Pokémon battle, ‘kay? But the hunt and capture of the pokémon holding your families hostage. Or have we forgotten that?”

A thoughtful silence drew over the room as we considered his words, and Mrs. Colbs interjected. “Surely though, they will need to battle? Not all pokémon are as sociable as they are around these parts.”

The professor shrugged slightly. “Ideally, they should avoid it. These pokémon may be older than most of them, but they have not seen much battle, if any…”

“What?!” Lenn cried. “What use are they then?”

Rubert groaned and flicked his hands up before letting them slap against his thighs. “I knew there was a catch…” he muttered. Even Myke seemed taken aback.

The professor held up his hands. “Now, I’m not so naïve to think you won’t encounter a dicey situation out there in the wild, that’s why I’m advising you not rely solely on these to protect you on your search. Capture others as early as possible! As for your current partners, the reason I’ve handed each of you one is very simple…” He paused to adjust his glasses.

“They are the only ones capable of tracking and restraining the target.”

After a few moments, Charli asked, “why?” and the professor only replied, “it is quite complicated. All you must know is that your target is almost certainly a ghost-type pokémon, so expect all manner of trickery.”

“How long’s this gonna take, prof?” Myke said.

Professor Cid pointed Drowzee’s pokéball back at the pokémon and made it return. “The sooner you set out the better. Gives our target less time to create distance. That said, it is hard to estimate, but I expect this should take around a week. Two or three at most…”

Mr. Mahon was walking over to a counter by the wall, where he poured two cups from what looked to be a coffee machine. He handed one over to another committee member, Mr. Pelter, and took a sip from his own. The committee likely knew everything already. Their presence here was probably to keep an eye on the professor.

“You’ll all be heading in different directions. Fan out to increase our search speed.”

He minimized Drowzee’s pokéball and walked over to me. I felt a chill of nerves creep through me. I had never been on a journey before, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

“You do accept the task, don’t you Mr. Tomas?” Professor Cid offered the pokéball to me, and when I did not take it straight away, his eyebrows raised questioningly.

“Tom,” Isabel said with an intensity. “Think of your gran… she needs you now…”

I clicked my tongue, and my sights fell on Charli, who gave me an encouraging ‘go ahead’ nod.

“Take the darn thing, Tommy, or I swear we’ll never live it down,” Myke said behind me, and I found my hand reaching for it. I grabbed it off the professor’s palm and closed my own sweaty hand around it. My friends cheered and I smiled involuntarily.

“Take good care of him, please,” the professor added, and I nodded vacantly.

“Can we give them nicknames? Pleaseee…” Isabel pleaded.

“Well,” Professor Cid said, like he had not considered such a thing. “They all understand human speech. I suppose you can call them however you want, though you should probably let them know beforehand…”

She squealed in response, clearly overjoyed. I bet neither Charli nor her expected to get their first pokémon like this. It was all too surreal for me to feel anything other nervous.

Mr. Mahon approached, taking a sip from his coffee before placing it on the table. “Thank you all for taking on this responsibility so willingly, though I’m sure a good number of kids would jump at this chance.” He cleared his throat. “You have all been picked because we believe you to be responsible and with reason enough to give this task an honest, committed shot…” He glanced at Isabel and smiled.

“Though not you Isabel, you practically forced us to have you.”

There were a few chuckles and even I smiled, picturing her falling from some vent up in ceiling whilst eavesdropping and begging them to let her join.

“That sort of enthusiasm is exactly what you’ll need out there. You’re at the perfect age too, not like the rest of these late-blooming ruffians.” He sighed and had a distant look in his eyes momentarily, as if he was remembering a fond memory.

“We are not yet clear on what time you should depart, but most likely within the next couple of days. I –”

“The day after tomorrow,” Professor Cid cut it. “We should give them tomorrow to get a feel for their pokémon partners, exercise some commands and what-not, and have them leave the very next morning. Time is of the essence, Mr. Mahon.”

The committee members agreed, and there was a collective shuffling of feet, with the meeting seemingly nearing its end.

“Where are we going to stay? And eat?” Rubert said.

It was a good question.

Mr. Mahon clasped his hands and gave a shallow bow of the head in acknowledgment. “All of this…” he said looking the professor’s way, “will be discussed before you leave. There are still a few knicks to work out, but never mind that for now, you have your pokémon and you should begin familiarizing yourselves right away.”

Mr. Pelter muttered something in Mr. Mahon’s ear and the latter perked up.

“That’s right! I did mention discretion! We have scheduled another general conference at seven O’clock tonight, but we shall not reveal this little venture to the public. There are too many villagers who would not take the professor’s involvement in-stride.”

He looked at each of us. “We must wait to divulge this until you leave, or if possible, until you succeed. We ask that you do not talk about this with anyone other than yourselves, or with a parent or guardian, as is the case with some of you. They will also be asked to maintain secrecy.”

Mr. Mahon looked at his colleagues and professor and asked them if there was anything else they wanted to mention, but there was not.

“Very well, young hunters... Go to prepare!”

We left the laboratory through the rear entrance as a group, leaving the adults behind. The air was electric with excitement, and I discovered that my own aversion to pokémon was perhaps slightly exaggerated. Holding my very own pokéball made me feel strangely empowered. It was an added bonus that the phantom itch in my eye had been so manageable.

“We’re pokémon trainers!” Charli gushed, and Lenn let out a snicker.

“You’ll have to be one if you want that little bird you picked to be of any use.”

“At least Natu can learn more than one move,” Charli shot back.

“Pff, shows how little attention you were paying. The professor said they can all restrain the thief. I wager this Abra knows more than just how to teleport. Even if it doesn’t, I’ll make sure that changes soon.”

“What, you goin’ to teach it some Sinnohan voodoo or what?” Myke chimed in. “I’m sorry I left y’all with only pansy picks, but Poliwhirl was too good to pass up. He can even carry me around!” He cackled like a madman.

“Nah,” Rubert said passively. “Slowking’s the only one fully evolved. I can’t believe he wasn’t taken.”

“You’re forgetting Mr. Mime,” Kieran corrected. “Didn’t you guys watch Mime & Meme growing up? My pick is comedy gold!”

Lenn shook his head. “Mr. Mime isn’t its final evolution.”

Lenn, being from one of the most competitive regions in the world, was quite pokémon savvy. His father had given him a mean, spider-looking pokémon that they had brought with them from Sinnoh, but he was forbidden from letting it out in the village, as it was violent and would attack without restraint the friendly bug and grass-type pokémon that were so common in the area.

“I’m pretty sure it is, mate.” Kieran gave him an uninvested look that told me he didn’t much like Lenn either.

“Do some travelling, or read at least,” Lenn remarked, and I felt my eye itch in irritation. He sure knew how to run his mouth. “He is known to evolve in other regions.”

“We’re not in other regions though are we, Professor Jr. …”

I chuckled at that.

“Ugh,” the tailor’s daughter grunted in exasperation. “Is prattling all you boys do?”

“Just a little banter to calm the nerves, Anna, it’s somethin’ of a special day,” Myke said, putting a hand in the pocket where I was sure he had his pokéball.

“That’s right,” she replied, and flashed an unexpected and lovely smile. “And you shouldn’t spoil it by comparing yourselves.” She huffed and turned her head haughtily. “I’m off to see my father, then I’m going to spend some time with my new friend. Isabel, come with me and leave these dull boys to their pettiness.”

The girls made to leave, and I felt a sense of urgency seeing Isabel walk away. I looked at Charli and he stared back with a fiery glint in his eyes.

“I’m off too,” announced Lenn, combing a hand through his hair. “I’ve got to check some stuff out.” He walked away, and I wasn’t sorry to see him go.

Myke turned to us and said, “you guys off as well? Let’s be meetin’ up later after the conference and talk some plans, no?”

I nodded. “Sounds good.” Both he and Kieran started to walk, and I suddenly remembered.

“Myke!” I called and he spun around. “Where’s Albert?”

Myke grinned and stuck his tongue out, running a thumb past his neck. “He’s lights out!” He turned back to the path and shouted over his shoulder, “he’ll be alright! We’ll sort ‘em out!”

His lack of apparent worry made me feel much better about Gran, and I started to believe that the professor’s rogue mission might really make all the difference.

“You guys want to see what they can do?” Rubert said, and Charli immediately replied, “hell yeah!” and he shoved me on the shoulder excitedly.

“Bro, sorry I didn’t call you by the way… I thought you hated pokémon.”

I shrugged. “Not hate, man, I just don’t like them too close. Isabel got me mixed up in all this…”

“Super glad she did! When they said they had sent for you I was like, ‘no way…’, then I saw you step in and was like, ‘YES!’” He pumped his fists.

“I’m doing this for Gran,” I said, trying to keep a handle on my own excitement.

“Sure, but after we wake everyone up … We could become actual trainers! Take on the gyms and have a shot at the championship!”

I laughed at how far fetched it sounded. “You’re mad…”

“Not really, dude,” Rubert said. “There’s been champions from tiny towns before. It’s not impossible.”

Charli whooped and high-fived the laid-back Rubert.

“Well… where should we go?” I said, pondering the best place to properly meet with Drowzee.

“Why not the woods?” Rubert suggested.

“No, no,” Charli said quickly. “The wild pokémon might disturb us there when we bring these guys out.”

“We could test them in battle though,” Rubert argued, and I was split between curiosity and hesitance.

“I think it’s better if we meet them first,” I said. “We can test them tomorrow.”

Charli nodded in agreement. “Yup, I say we go to yours, Tom. Your backyard’s pretty big, and remember, we have to keep this a secret so we can’t just go anywhere out in the open.”

The three of us set off to my home, each with a pocketful of wonder, and though it was weird to think of myself as a pokémon trainer, I was undoubtedly on my way to discover a world that I had shunned for far too long.

(-x-)