Chapter 1: Rise
Note from the author: Hi! I would suggest you read my prologue before coming here to kind of get the premise of this entire shebang. Anyways, for my own preferences I plan to name every chapter (when possible) after a song I like, and a song that fits the vibe of the chapter. Most of these are metal/metalcore if not all of them, so if that is your thing definitely give it a listen. I will post who the song is by in the description of each chapter. To go with that, the end of each chapter will contain a summary of the team as well as of any fallen. Ok? Ok. Let’s start.
----------
The television blacks out with the final report of the research team’s search for the red gyarados sharing the current status of their mission. No sign of the enraged water type had been found in the Lake of Rage, but they continued, nonetheless. I would guess that finding a giant red fish in the middle of a lake while said fish wants to shred you like cabbage is easy, but apparently not. I lean forward to turn off the TV and stand, stretching my arms.
I should probably introduce myself: my name is Lucas and I live in Twinleaf Town. It’s a sleepy little down tucked away in a hamlet off in the corner of the Sinnoh region. Only two things of note come up with Twinleaf: Lake Verity is nearby, and the Big Boss of the Battle Tower and his family are from here. Barry (the son of Palmer, who runs the Battle Tower) and I became fast friends, mainly since he was so impatient that slowing down may actually kill him. If he was not human, I could replace him with that one shark pokemon in Hoenn and no one would tell the difference.
Anyways, I decide to descend the stairs to the main floor of the house. My mom immediately notices my appearance, nodding to acknowledge my presence. “Hi Lucas, Barry came by, said it was an emergency. You should probably check on him, if only to make sure he didn’t get himself into trouble again.” We both roll our eyes at this. Barry has a tendency to run headfirst into basically any situation, and usually needs to be bailed out. I leave the house and take the short talk down the path across the tiny town. I stroll right up to his door, identical to the door of my house. I don’t even get the chance to knock. He barrels right into me, sending the pair of us tumbling into the ground. “What the hell?!” Barry boomed. Him and Palmer are famously loud and boisterous. “When I find out who d- oh hi Lucas! I bet you wonder why I called you over huh?” He said, quickly clambering to his feet. “You saw that special about the red gyarados right?” I nod. “Well…you and I are going to the lake! There has to be something like that in the lake. Now meet me at Route 201 and don’t be late, or i’ll fine you 5 million dollars!” With that, the blonde-haired boy ran off. Now, this sounds like a fun adventure, but Barry is forgetting a couple of things. First, I really do not have 5 million dollars for him to take from me due to his ridiculous fines (which never held up). Secondly, there are wild pokemon out on Route 201 and we can’t fight back against them. These thoughts ran through my head as I walked towards the tall grass to follow Barry. Normally I would not even bother going after him but knowing his luck he would get savaged by some wild starly or something similar.
“Come on come on!” Barry impatiently yells after me. The moment I catch up, he’s dragging me towards the lake. Thankfully, we find a path to the lake without tall grass and make it to the lake without incident. Walking through the treeline, familiar scents fill the air with a freshness that is nearly unparalleled. The sun is just about to set over the lake, which made for a majestic sight. Two people, an older man dressed like a schoolteacher and a girl slightly older than us, were already there, looking out across the lake. Looks like they had the same idea but decided to give up. They quickly left us. Barry starts to grumble about them being in a rush, but then he notices they left a case behind. We both run up to it to grab the well-polished brown briefcase and return it. Just as we turn to leave, two starly fly out of the trees and divebomb right at us! I stumble back as Barry, always quick on his feet, jumps to the side. Both starly miss their mark, but land on the ground with a graceful descent.
“Lucas!” Barry yells. I regain my footing. The briefcase pops open, allowing three red and white spheres to roll out: pokeballs. “Pokeballs! There has to be something in here that we can use to fight them off!” Barry says quickly, grabbing the first one he saw. The button on the front is pressed and out comes a turtlelike creature, green and brown, with a sapling growing out of its head. He chose turtwig, a grass type to fight off birds. Not a good start. I notice another pokeball that rolled towards me and I quickly tap it into the grass, pressing the button to the ground. A flash of blue and white light fills my eyes, but somehow, I did not look away. The light took form and slowly faded, in its place leaving a small penguin in various shades of blue. My luck seemed to be better than Barry’s, as I chose piplup. The small blue bird did not even look in my direction, seemingly confused as to what woke it from its slumber until one of the two starly flew at it. As if a mental lever was pulled, piplup jumped out of the way with ease. The starly flew right past piplup, who smacked it with a pound as it flew by. What happened next is something I can only describe as a fistfight between two birds, well, one attempting the smack the other with flippers as the other flies at it beak first. I do not even say a word as piplup smacks the starly behind the head, sending it into retreat. Turning my head to the left, the turtwig Barry had called forth lunged directly into the starly, sending it into the air where the bird regained its composure and fled. “Thank goodness…Lucas? You’re alright. Good. Your piplup fought well, but my turtwig was better.” Barry quickly cut in. He was right though, piplup fought a graceful, disciplined battle. The blue penguin looked at me, and something felt…right. I kneel down into the grass to get on its level, and piplup cocks its head at me, thinking. It then squawks happily, as if approving of what it saw. “Wow, piplup seems to like you!” Barry said. I nod in response, before grabbing the pokeball and attempt to recall it. As it returns to the pokeball, piplup almost looks at me, sad. It felt wrong putting it back, but piplup belongs to Professor Rowan. I have to return him.
I look over and Barry has already put turtwig back, looking…oddly hesitant. “We should probably return the pokemon.” He said, closing the case without placing the pokeball back. I nod to him, and we start on the path back to Route 201. We wordlessly retrace our steps back to Twinleaf, about to turn into the small town when we see two people talking. It was the two from before, the old man and the girl about our age. I would guess the man is Professor Rowan and this girl is his granddaughter or something. “Ah! My briefcase!” He says quickly, before noticing the pokeballs in our hands. “Why are you…” Barry butts in before he can finish. “Professor, we saw you left your case behind and wanted to return it. As we went to get it, some wild pokemon attacked us, and we had to use these pokemon to protect ourselves.” Barry blurts out. What Barry has in honesty he lacks in smoothness. Professor Rowan, seemingly a bit annoyed by the interruption looks at me. I nod, as the pokeball falls out of my hand. Piplup pops out with a cute squeak. Rowan looks down at the bird. “Piplup? Why did you-“ He quickly adds two and two together, and speaks. “Hm…something in Piplup’s eyes. Why don’t you hang onto piplup for tonight? See me tomorrow morning at my lab. You too over there with turtwig. Dawn, we have to head back.” He turns without a word, heading east towards Sandgem town. Wordlessly, Dawn follows behind him.
“Thank Arceus.” Barry says with a sigh. I punch him in the arm. “OW! Why did you do that? I just told the truth. Seemed to work for Rowan.” I roll my eyes at his whining. Either way, piplup and I were allowed to stay together for another night. I kneel down to the level of the bird and help lift it to my shoulder to rest on, kind of like a parrot. “I’m heading back, mom is worried probably.” I say, turning. “Enjoy your night with turtwig.”
Later that night, I am settling in, about to go to bed. Piplup is asleep at the foot of the bed. Little guy is exhausted from the events of the day. I smile. Mom seemed to fall in love immediately with my little buddy, making sure he ate well for protecting me. She wanted to keep him as a pet, though I reminder her that glameow would probably chase him around the house, and that piplup was technically Rowan’s. I scoop up the small bird and lift up up towards my pillow, into a little alcove I made up with a bunch of spare blankets and pillows, almost like a nest. Piplup did not stir as I set him down. This gives me the chance to walk over and turn off the lights and slip into bed. Sleep comes quickly, which is to be expected after fighting wild birds. Maybe the professor will let me keep piplup, that would be nice.
-----------
Team:
Piplup – M – Lv 6
