Chapter 76:

Black Bird

"You know, I kind of regret not having a Frankenstein switch," I admitted out loud.

"What's a Frankenstein switch?" Fay asked.

"Well, Frankenstein was a dude who stitched dead people together-"

"Ew, why would you want such a thing?"

I rolled my eyes, "If you let me finish. He built an unnecessary big machine with a big switch that could be flipped."

To demonstrate I made an exaggerated pulling motion with my hands, "I think a really big switch really adds to the atmosphere."

I got a few stares from people around the park, especially when I made the clicking noise with my mouth but I didn't care about them.

Big obvious switches rule.

Fay shook her head, "You're serious aren't you?"

"Yeah, but now we gotta do it with this." I pointed at the screen of my laptop.

A big Pokéball colored button was displayed on the screen that said: 'Publish!' with the exclamation mark included. It was nice of them to send me a personal launch button but I would have preferred something more physical, of course, that was just me nitpicking but hey, it's a big day for me.

"Well, does anyone wanna press the button?" I asked my two Pokémon, a bit more dramatic than I should've been.

Without wasting a second Luna's hand lunged towards the enter key on the keyboard and pressed it.

{Phew.} Luna rubbed her forehead as if she had just run a Marathon, {Pressed it.}

Both Fay and I stared at Luna.

She shrugged casually, {I like buttons.}

"I was actually expecting both of you to say no so I could press it myself while looking like a social person," I admitted with a deadpan glare. "But apparently someone wanted to press it first."

{Too late,} Luna smiled jokingly. {I pressed it first.}

She hopped off the bench and did a victory dance in the form of a pirouette in front of us on the stone pavement, for some reason she really likes doing pirouettes. Maybe it has to do something with the Kirlia evolution line.

"Uh, why does the screen still say loading?" Fay pointed at the partly green bar on the screen.

"Well, it's going to be published across multiple platforms, guess it'll take some time."

I rapidly pressed the F5 key on the keyboard, a nervous thing I did that didn't add anything at all but I'd like to think that the bar was going slightly faster than before.

10 seconds later the green bar was finally finished and we watched the loading bar disappear with anticipation.

Of course, we can't have nice things in life. A new, longer, loading bar had taken place on the screen.

"What?!" Fay's gaze was locked on the screen, "But it was done and all filled up!"

I sighed, "Get used to it, loading bars always lead to more loading bars."

The percentage underneath the bar read; 0.05% Finished.

"It's a scam!" Fay said as if a knife was stabbed in her back, "Why would someone do that?"

"It's a cruel world." I patted Riolu on the head. "Guess we'll be sitting here for a while."

The view honestly wasn't that bad, just a big park with lots of flower beds all over the place because Floaroma Town liked flowers, who would have guessed it?

We had made ourselves comfortable on the benches that were placed around a big fountain in the shape of a hexagon. On top of the fountain stood a statue that portrayed a bipedal small reindeer-like creature. It stood viciously on top of the fountain like it was watching over a big landscape. A brave smirk present on its face.

It was obviously meant to reference Shaymin, the symbology was kind of too obvious with the way water came from his body and watered the fertile earth surrounding the fountain.

According to the local legends, Floaroma Town was once a dead place that could not sustain life. It's not entirely clear how it got that way, maybe a war or some volcanic event. Either way, a woman prayed and Shaymin appeared and did some magic shiz and poof, the entire place is now covered in flowers. People still plant flowers to this day to show their gratitude, or so the tale goes but I suspect that the money made by exporting flowers also might have something to do with it.

The sun shone down harshly upon this place and I was starting to feel a bit sweaty.

A few benches away I saw a brown-haired woman watching a child play with a weird plant-like Pokémon that looked like an anthropomorphic beetroot/garlic creature. I recognized it as a Steenee, the fruit Pokémon. I hadn't seen it before in Sinnoh so that was a first.

The Steenee was chasing the boy in a playful game of tag, never losing balance despite how the laws of physics should have it fall over with ease.

I suddenly got a brilliant idea as I saw the woman, who I now assumed to be the mother, take a bite off something that looked like a yellow Pikachu shaped ice cream.

Although kinda weird she was onto something brilliant.

I checked the loading bar and saw it had moved to 4%, still freaking slow for my taste. Deciding that I was bored I moved my laptop from my lap and put it on the bench and jumped to my feet.

"Okay, I have a brilliant idea!" I announced.

"You can make the loading bar move faster?" Fay perked up,

{You invented a new technique?} Luna pressed her two hands together.

"Even better!" I smirked, "Who wants ice cream?"

Luna gave me a serious looking nod. {That is a brilliant idea.}

"Ice cream?" Fay tilted her head. "I don't understand."

Huh, that's weird. "You don't know what ice cream is?"

Fay shrugged, her face showing that she did not understand the weight of the matter. "Should I?"

I thought I had shared one with her before, but apparently, I did not, which is a shame and a mistake that had to be corrected right now.

{You should definitely try one!} Luna insisted. {They are like candy but without the sweetness.}

"That doesn't sound like candy at all, it sounds like poison!"

"I'll buy you one!" I promised Fay, "It's my duty as a human being, if you two watch my laptop I'll get some."

Luna made a cute bow, {I'll defend it with my life.}

"Seriously what is ice cream?" Fay said, still looking a bit lost.

"Luna will explain," I booped Fay on the nose which made her act all embarrassed. "Now I'll be back in a minute."

I left the two girls with the loading screen and followed down the path that led away from the fountain. I had seen a guy with an ice cream stall on our way up the hill.

The entire park was very peaceful and a beacon of prosperity and chillness. Everyone was just doing their thing, people smiled and waved at each other and did nice things like picnicking or just lying on the grass and enjoying the weather.

Without much trouble, I found the ice cream stand and requested 3 of the most popular ice creams. The guy gave me 3 blue shaped flowers on a stick, the air around it was so cold it looked as if smoke was coming from it. Taking two in my left hand and one in my right, I hurried back before they would melt.

Midway on my way back, I heard a loud screech coming from the top of the hill. A bright flash followed and could be seen above the treeline before it subsided and everything went quiet again.

A few people stared in surprise at the sudden light show but when it became clear the show was over people returned to their own business as if this was nothing out of the ordinary.

'That came from the fountain,' I thought as I silently wondered why Fate could not even let me enjoy my ice cream

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I took a deep breath and ran up the stairs that led towards the fountain, skipping 4 steps at a time while still holding onto my ice cream.

Within 15 seconds I had managed to get all the way back up the hill and the fountain came in view.

Expecting to see something very bad, a lump got into my throat but I paid it no attention. I set foot on the stone pavement and the lump disappeared when I saw my two Pokémon standing on the bench next to the laptop, all still intact and alive. I slowed my pace and gazed around to check my surroundings.

Although my first glance showed me nothing bad had happened, something did happen here.

A black bird-like Pokémon lay spread out on the ground in front of the fountain, faint lingering smoke seemed to emerge from its body and the air around me felt static. The woman that had been sitting on the bench was now standing a few meters away from the crashed bird, on the face was a look I could only describe as slight worry or a minor inconvenience.

Behind her legs were the kid and the garlic-like Pokémon, both shivering in what I assumed was shock. They hid behind her like that would make them invisible.

A yellow creature stood in front of the black Pokémon, its body low to the ground like a cat ready to jump on a moment's notice. The Pokémon in question had yellow fur and beady black eyes with hedgehog-like needles around the tail and neck.

Yo, that's a Jolteon, I also hadn't seen that Pokémon before. Jolteon was carefully watching the mysterious black bird, so I wisely made the deduction that Jolteon was probably the cause of the bird's current state.

"Dust!"

{Dust!}

Fay and Luna spotted me suddenly and they ran towards me.

"That Swellow, it suddenly attacked us," Fay tried to explain while trying to catch her breath.

{We protected the laptop!} Luna spoke with pride, {The enemy didn't scratch it even once!}

"Don't worry kiddo," The woman with the Jolteon said, she gave the bird a final glance before giving me a kind smile. "Everything is alright."

I stared at the scenery in front of me with confusion. "What the hell happened here?"

The woman pointed at the Swellow that was lying on its stomach. I could smell the stench of burnt chicken in the air, now I had a vague idea where it came from. "That Swellow appeared out of nowhere and was assaulting your Pokémon while you were away."

"Jolteon!" Jolteon said with a cheerful tone, bopping its head in a satisfied way.

As if she understood the electric Pokémon the woman nodded, "Zapper and I interfered and zapped it.'

Zapper, that's the worst name I've heard so far, it made Snowflake almost sound good in comparison.

"Steenee!" The small Pokémon happily cheered.

The boy that couldn't be much older than 8 or so stepped away from the woman with a grin. "My mommy is the best! She took down the bird with a zap!"

To demonstrate he slammed his fist into his palm while making an explosive sound with his mouth. "Boom, the black bird fell from the sky!"

"Hehe," The now-confirmed mother ruffled through the kid's hair with a modest chuckle. "It wasn't such a big feat. That Swellow must have been a wild Pokémon."

"That is the one we encountered all the way back," Fay coughed, "You know, in the forest?"

I thought back and remembered that I had indeed been attacked by a Taillow before. That had been more than a week ago, did this thing somehow follow me and evolve ever since that moment? They all looked very similar to me, but apparently it was one and the same.

"You're a Pokémon trainer right?" The woman pointed at my Pokémon, "Just a quick tip but try to teach them more offensive moves."

"What?"

The mother pressed her hands against her hips and leaned over as if she was about to scold me like some kindergartner, "Your Pokémon didn't fight back at all and only used defensive moves."

"We were defending the laptop..." Fay muttered, embarrassed.

{Just as you said,} Luna seconded Fay, {It didn't even get close.}

I chuckled as I slowly realized it.

I received an understanding look from the woman, "Aah, you know this one."

"Not really," I answered, "Remember the disappearing Pokémon in Jubilife Forest some time ago?"

"I heard something about that on the news."

"Well, I happened to stay in that forest at the same time and now it's convinced I snatched his father, kinda weird."

"Oh, well that sucks," The woman gave me a sympathetic nod. "It is not the strangest thing I've heard you know, I once met a sailor who was like a magnet to Magikarp, had them jumping out of the water if he came within 2 meters of an ocean or lake."

We talked a little and I had to admit it was nice to have a conversation with a normal person.

She chuckled, "Anyway, I guess you could leave it here or-"

Whatever she was about to say, she didn't finish her sentence. The bird suddenly moved, it cocked its head up and looked at me, a hateful glare pierced through its eyes and into my heart. It was about to lunge towards me but then it noticed the abundance of eyes trained on him and it squeaked in terror. It must have done the math and realized it was outnumbered because it flew straight up in the air with a few flaps of its wings to disappear behind the clouds, vanishing like a cheap ninja knock off.

One moment the swallow was lying on the ground, and the next moment it was gone.

We all looked up at the clouds, a bit amazed it could disappear just like that.

"Guess it got away safely," I murmured, hoping someone would think it was funny.

No one did.

"Well, I think we can consider that problem solved." The woman stated dryly, "You think you'll be okay on your own?"

{Pffft,} Luna dismissed, {He has me.}

"Hey! Don't forget about me." Fay elbowed Kirlia.

"Yeah, no problem. Thanks for helping me out, weird shit like that happens to me a lot so I've grown used to it."

"Swear word!" the little boy pointed his finger at me, the little Steenee next to him gave me a dramatic shocked face.

"Well, I'll be off," The woman rolled her eyes, "Mark, say goodbye!"

"Goodbye, blue boy!"

I gave them a small wave as the pair headed towards the park's exit.

When they were gone and I noticed that we were now alone again I let out a deep sigh. "So that was a thing."

{Don't worry,} Luna clenched her fist, {If that Swellow comes back we'll teach it a lesson.}

"Y-yeah!" Fay agreed, "We were slightly handicapped by the laptop. It won't happen again."

I doubt that the bird would ever manage to get close, seeing how it lacked a rational brain to figure out the math behind 2 vs 1, evolved or not that Swellow is stupid as heck.

"So I brought ice cream." It had already started to melt a little and blue drops of water rolled down the wooden stick.

Luna took hers with a grin plastered onto her face and sat down on the edge of the bench, her legs dangling over the edge.

I handed a stick to Fay as well and sat down on the bench. Fay joined me on the other side and cautiously wrapped her mouth around the blue ice cream, her canine teeth digging into the soft blue surface.

After a few seconds of silence, Fay spoke up.

"It tastes weird, kind of salty but sweet as well."

"And?"

Fay rolled her eyes, "I guess I could get used to this."

{Yup.} Luna smiled.

While taking a small bite from mine and noticing it indeed tasted a bit salty but not in a bad way, I placed the laptop back on my lap and together we watched the bar slowly turn green, the percentage slowly increasing every second.

By the time it reached 99% we had long finished our treat and the entire park had become a bit quiet, probably due to it being dinner time. Downtown would probably be booming with filled restaurants right now.

Ping!

"It's done!" Fay announced as if we had not been staring at the green bar for the last 30 minutes.

The bar faded away into the white background.

"Ladies and gentlemen," I spoke loudly, despite only having an audience of two female Pokémon. "This is the moment we all have been waiting for."

The screen flashed white for a split second, an instant later it loaded a webpage.

It was a sleek designed website with a minimalistic style to it, in the middle of the page was a big square icon with colorful blocks inside it. Underneath it stood in black bold letters.

Tetris

I grinned sagely as I read the description.

Welcome to Tetris, the newest game following the popular "Unworldly" series created by the mysterious developer "Blank" in collaboration with The Dream Company. How far can you get in this game?

There was some more gibberish underneath it, shiz that the person who was working at marketing thought would sound cool but I was more than satisfied by seeing my pseudonym in the description.

"And here it starts," I said melodramatically, "A new era of gaming."

Sure, it was Tetris, a retro game from my old universe. But despite all of that it still holds up pretty well in a world like this where game developers couldn't think outside the box if they were pushed out of it. Personally, I'm not a big Tetris player but it's about the idea, the concept and marketing. Also, it's one of the most sold games ever, only behind GTA and Minecraft.

The price of the game could have been a lot higher but it only costs 1 Pokédollar, almost nothing. It was available on almost every platform as a downloadable game, even on Pokétechs, you know, those smart watches Pokémon Trainers wear.

You might be wondering why the Dream Company would agree to such a low price. The answer is simple. Tetris is nothing more but an advertisement to get other game developers and investors interested in the company's potential.

Making shiz takes money, especially games and although the technology in this world makes it a lot easier, it still takes a lot of time and skill.

Skill I don't have.

Putting together Tetris was already quite a big task even though I knew almost exactly what to make. I had outsourced the music and regulations to the Dream Company while making the baseline game myself, seeing how the graphics in Tetris aren't too difficult to copy.

The end product was a copy of Tetris that was around 80% the same as the original.

A small budget game, some would call it. Because I did most of it myself it was a very beneficial experiment for the Dream Company to give me a shot.

If it doesn't work nothing's lost but if it does blow up and generates enough interest we could get a lot more money for future projects which means that I would be able to actually make some modern games.

Immensely satisfied with myself, I copied the link to the download page and sent it to Sabrina, no idea if she liked it but it would definitely annoy her… hopefully.

I also sent the link to a few other people I knew, just to see what they thought of it. Of course, I didn't mention that I made the game but rather that I had been following the creator online.

After that, I proceeded to make a post on some online forum with my official 'Blank' account where I announced the game and challenged people to beat my highscore. Something relatively easy to accomplish but I guess it would let someone feel good about themselves.

My Pokédex began buzzing, just as the Pokédex lady announced that someone was video calling me.

"Eh, who's she?" Fay asked curiously as I brought the video caller up on the laptop screen.

"That's Hylla," I explained, looking at the person on the other side of the screen dead in the eyes.

Hylla sat in a non-descriptive room, she wore a black tank top and had her purple hair tied in a ponytail and she appeared to be sitting on a bed or something. I saw her munching on something just before the video called stopped lagging, probably some food.

"Hello Dust," She replied calmly, "How are you doing?"

"Fine?" I asked a bit cautiously. I recognized the tone of her voice and it didn't promise me anything good. I might be a bit too suspicious but I had to be.

Fate doesn't do freebies.

"Good," She nodded, as if she had ever worried about it. "Hey, remember that favor you owe me?"

"Yes?" I replied, feeling like I wasn't going to like this at all.

She smiled brightly. "Great, because I need your help to investigate something for me. It's in Eterna Forest so it shouldn't be too much hassle for you."

A smirk curled up on her lips.

"Ever heard of the Red Orphanage?"