The Quest for the Legends

Chapter I: The Discovery

It was a beautiful spring day. Looking down from above, the suburbs were a brilliant medley of houses, shrubbery, roads, and grass. As he was getting out of his car, to enter his house, Fredrick could hear the birds, tweeting in the trees, and smell freshly mowed grass. After working the night shift at the lab, he always would come home, see his children, and nap. Today was just another ordinary day.

As he walked in, he saw his son, Jonathon, watching television like he always was in the morning, especially shows that he thought were too young for a thirteen-year-old boy, especially Pokémon and Yu-gi-oh!. Jonathon then noticed him, and quickly turned off the television, as if his father did not see it before. Fred sighed and went out to get the paper. He then walked back out of his house, went to his mailbox, and seized the daily paper. He saw nothing that was worth taking note of right away, and started back up the driveway.

He then heard an explosive noise above him, and he looked up. The air began to waver, as if by extreme heat, except Fred did not feel any warmer than normal. As he stared at it, a spherical object, about the size of his fist, fell on his face. Fortunately for Fred, his face felt fine. However, it was strange that there was some sort of a perfectly round rock on the ground. He decided to go back home into his office, and check it out. When he put it down, he noticed that it had a faintly rusty colour on one side, like clay. He then realized the actual object was coated in a thin layer of mud. Running his finger along the mysterious object, strongly enough to take some of the mud off, but softly enough not to break its contents, he discovered that the colour was more like a painted red. As he pushed off more mud, he discovered that the other side was a white colour, again like a polished, painted white. The sides were separated by a thin groove. Following this groove, Fredrick discovered a pair of hinges. He now was certain that this object was not natural. Since there was always an opening mechanism on the opposite side of an object that opened, he went the other way, and discovered an unusual bump. He was about to press it in, when he realized that something dreadful could happen. However, his curiosity was a heavy burden on his shoulder. To appease that, he decided that he would go to the lab, to research it. Being an archaeologist, he knew that there would be a way to determine its components.

As Fredrick was walking into the laboratory, he swore he could faintly make out an odd bird chirp that sounded distinctly different…

“Forget something?” asked Richard, Fred’s co-worker and friend.

“No, I just wanted to work a little extra. I’m not very tired at the moment.”

“Don’t work too hard; I’ve heard bad things about people that commit their whole lives to work.”
“I’ll be alright,” responded an exasperated Fredrick. Although Richard was his friend, he talked quite a bit too much for his taste. Fred took a sample of the object, and started mixing it with different chemicals to see what it was made of. Iron tested for positive. He then went to test it for other metals, but he slipped, and the small sample fell into the heated Benedict’s solution. Fred watched in amazement as the solution gradually changed from blue to the same colour of the sample. “Eureka!” shouted Fred. It was organic.

Despite his findings, he could still not figure out why there was an organic container holding something, so he went to his primary source for information, the Downtown Library. He went straight for the science section, to look at new inventions, but he could not find anything. He pulled the container, as he called it, out, and inspected it once more. After scouring over it, he knew it could not be much older than a thousand years, so ancient history would not help. On the very back, just above the hinges, was another bump. This time, however, his curiosity overrode his sensibilities and he pressed it in. Instantly, the object shrunk to a more manageable size, easily fitting into his pocket. He pressed it again, and it regrew to its normal size. He then shrunk it, and put it into his pocket. He now knew that it must be less than a hundred years old, because past technology could not have been that advanced. Or was he getting ahead of himself? He then scoured all other sensible sections to scour, like the history section, but to no avail. He then went home, tired and mystified, to take a nap.

When he arrived, his son had gotten home from school. He asked, surprised, “Where were you, dad?”

Fred could not decide whether to tell the truth or to lie, so he just plainly said, “At the library.”

He went upstairs and slept.

Later, he went down to make dinner. When he had put the potatoes into the oven, he went back up to look at the container. He decided that he would press the front button, and hope that nothing would happen, or it would shrink again. He was sure that nothing strange would happen, like an odd creature popping out and attacking his family.

Well, at least he was right about the non-attacking part.

As he pressed the button, a bright light shined, and a plasma material emerged from the container. Fred closed his eyes from the light, though he really wanted to see what was going on. When he opened them, he saw a bipedal turtle. He then heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. The freakish turtle made an odd noise that sounded like “Squirt Squirtle.”

The footsteps grew louder, as he heard his son calling, “Dad, I need your…” Jonathon stopped, dead in his tracks as he stared at the turtle. Shoot. Fred knew his son may have known something about it, school may have taught him about it; he should have told him. He then heard a thump, as he looked over, and saw his son, fainted on the floor.

“What are you, anyways?” asked Fred to the creature that had just made his son faint.

However, all it responded was with another, “Squirt Squirtle squirt”

“Fine,” he remarked, more to himself than to the turtle, I will call you ‘Squirtle’, for now.”

“Squirtle!” it repeated, running around excitedly.


Finally, fifteen long minutes of excited Squirtle babysitting, Jonathon reawakened. He stared at his dad, stared at Squirtle, and asked, in an excited manner, although not coming even close to Squirtle’s state, “How did you manage to find a Squirtle?”

Fred was surprised. Did his son hear what was going on in the outside world while fainted? “I didn’t,” Fred, told his son, “I found this container, and it came out. I don’t know how to get it back in, or even how it fit in there.” Fred pulled out ‘The Container’.

“Here, let me see that.” Jon aggressively grabbed at the container. “You press this button again to put it back in. Anyways, this ‘container’ is called a Pokéball. It holds Pokémon for you.”

“Pokémon? Like that show you watch?”

“One and the same,” responded Jon.

Fredrick stopped, stunned at the realization. “You mean to say that… this came from a fake television show? That’s… preposterous!”

Jon shrugged, and then continued. “Pokémon can use moves based on their species and level, the higher the level, the stronger the moves. For example, this Squirtle probably knows Bubble. Squirtle, use Bubble!”

Squirtle, without hesitation, breathed in air, then blew a large bubble, which collided with the door and burst explosively.

“How many species of these Poké-thingies are there?”

“As of now, 500 or so are known, including the god-like figures called Legendaries.”

Fred just started to wonder how anyone could know every single one, and how it attacks.

“But every five years or so,” continued Jon, “more are ‘discovered’, created by Game Freak.”

He stopped, wondering how this had ever happened.

“I’m going to take a nap,” said Fred, trying to feel calm.

“Squirtle, return,” said Jon, pressing the button on the Pokéball. Squirtle began to turn into an odd white form, and was sucked into the ball.

That night, when he arrived at work, he tried his best to keep calm as he researched the materials that were uncovered at the new site. However, the thought of Squirtle kept coming into his head, bewildering him so much that he accidentally spilled some iodine onto the sample that he was working with. Thankfully, he was already testing for presence of starches, as he watched the iodine keep its colour. Richard walked over.

“Are you alright, man? Because you seem to be awfully fidgety today.”

“I’m alright. Something just happened the other day. Can you keep a secret?”

“Sure, man.” Richard looked on waiting for an answer.

“Do you know why I came into work afterhours yesterday?”

“Sure, for the same reason that I did.”

“Oh, no you don’t understand what I’m talking about…”

“Yes, I do.” Fred saw a flash of red as Richard pulled out from under his protective clothing another Pokéball. “I saw you come in yesterday with the same type of thing that I found.”

Fred looked on with amazement. “Do you… know how to open it?”

“Open it? This thing opens? …you mean…”

“Sure,” interrupted Fred, “Let’s go out to the back, and I’ll show you.”

They then went out behind the lab in the explosives area, where no one would see. Richard handed over the ball.

“Go! Pokéball!” Fred yelled, as his son taught him, and threw the ball. A bright, plasma-like substance came out of the ball, and it soon materialized into a little brown creature with a bushy tail and long ears. Fred always had a soft spot for cute things, but this was too irresistible.

“Eevee-ee!” it squeaked, in a cute, high-pitched tone.

“I think it’s called an Eevee, due to the sound it makes,” Fred commented to Richard, who responded with a blank stare. “Richie? Are you alright?”

“I… remember… I vowed never to forget the thing that I once loved ten years ago… but I forgot. Then, when I find this Pokéball, I want to completely deny it, and make my mind think it is something else. However, this is the final proof. It’s really true!”

Fred smiled to his younger friend, feeling bad that society made him forget one of the best parts of his childhood.

“So, after work, do you want to have a battle?” Richard seemed like he was over his sense of gloominess as he looked over to Fred with a grin.

“A battle? Does that mean fighting? What will happen if they get hurt? How would we heal them?”

Richard then remembered that there were no Nurse Joys around, and therefore no Pokémon centres, for there would be no use for them in the real world. How in the world could it have gotten here?, wondered Richard.

Fred saw the look of puzzlement he got from Richard, and laughed. “I don’t know much more than you do,” he said, “but it sure is interesting!”

Just then, in front of the friends, a bright flash appeared. When the light faded, there was a blocky object sitting in front of the men. It was about up to Richard’s knee height, and that length long. On either side of the main base was a blue shape to keep it stable. From one end, a tail like blue object protruded, and from the other came what looked like a head, mostly red but with blue at the tip. It had two eyes, just like a living creature, but with seemingly less emotion. On the ground beside it was a blue object that looked like a portable gaming system.

Fred bent down in order to pick up the electronic. Running his fingers along the sides, Fred found a switch on the side of the mysterious machine, and switched it open. The system began to open, revealing two screens next to one another. He then saw a circle with a line at the top- the power toggle button.


…and that's it, for now. Criticism greatly appreciated. I don't really know how common this story-line / idea is, for all I know, I could be writing the most cliche thing in the universe.
Without Chapter II, it's hard to pick up on the hiccups versus the soon-to-be explained, so sorry for that. Since this is my first attempt at a fan-fiction, I can improve much.

HA! This is exactly how I would imagine Pokémon to appear in the real world. So far, I rather like it… Well….erm…You know have a regular visitor?

I love it. I have a new third favorite fan fic.

Nice, but two 5th generation pokemon have been revealed a couple of days back.

(To above comment) I'm having it so that essentially, it is before the fifth generation, with nothing out, although I might fuction some of that as I near the end.

That will most likely take a while.

Erm… Chapter 2, finally! Feel free to critique (please)
And now you can look for any holes, about everything so far has been explained.

Chapter II: Lost

There is a house. On the opposite side of the path is a lake, which looks bluer than a lake should look. The grass next to the lake is hardly seen as individual, and is more like a mass of perfect green. Beyond the lake, a large sphere is floating in the ait, about ten degrees from the horizon. If someone were to look carefully, they could see a city on the other side of the lake, blocking some of the sphere out. Inside the house, a young-looking adult is sleeping in front of a computer screen. The computer was on and flashing errors, but the man could not notice them. A phone rings on the right side of the computer. He gets up, groggily, and picks up the phone.

“H…hello? Who is this?”

“Nurse Joy speaking. Bill, were you sleeping again?”

“Hey, I’m motivationally challenged. Anyways, what’s wrong now? It had better not be another complaint about the limited number of boxes.”

“No, it’s not. We’re getting a report of missing Pokémon, they were sent, but none were received.”

“I’ll take a look.”

Bill looked at the monitor, scrolling around until he got to a large gaping hole in the middle of one of the routes. Dread shot through him. “Well, we have a hole that the balls could have fallen through. It could lead to anywhere, Pallet Town to Snowpoint City, the reverse world to the real world.”

Joy’s voice became confused. “The real world?”

He began to get panicky. “Well, I was just trying to add extra effect. You know those crazy theories that this is only a video game, or an experiment done by the ‘real people’?”

“Very funny,” Joy responded sarcastically, “Do you know what you are going to do?”

“For now, I’m going to send one of my Porygon through the hole to see where it leads, with a Pokédex for identification purposes, in case the Porygon cannot get back.”

Bill looked on the table next to him, where he saw the sharp, angular virtual Pokémon, Porygon. He walked over to it, gave it a Pokédex, camera, and a couple of balls, and inserted it into cyberspace. He watched as it crawled through the transport system to the hole, and saw it jump in.

“By the way, how many went missing?” Bill inquired to Joy.

“For now, we have results of two missing, an Eevee and a Squirtle. Both of them were starters.”

“Ah, it’s starter season again. Well, based on the positioning of the hole, it seems between Saffron city and Cerulean city.”

“Then why aren’t the balls in that area?”

“The problem is that my system works like it is in quantum leaps: the exact distance has to be provided, if it goes in between, it is thrown into a void that throws it anywhere, possibly Blackthorn or Sootopolis, or even… in other places.”

“Well, good luck on your endeavours. I hope for the new trainers’ sakes that you find their Pokémon.”

Joy hung up. Bill sighed. He knew exactly what was going on, and he knew who he had to call.

“Hello? This is Lieutenant Surge. Who is this?”

“It’s Bill. We have a problem. Call Fantina, and meet me in Diglett’s Cave. We have The Problem again.”

“Wh… what? Oh. Where does the hole warp to?”

“I don’t know yet. But it never warps to the same area twice.”

Bill called his Dragonite over, and they went outside. Bill mounted him, and the large Dragon Pokémon leaped into the air and spread his wings. By catching the air at a certain angle, Dragonite steadily gained altitude. Bill could feel the air begin to chill as they moved away from the warm earth. To his left, he could see a large town with a lake to the north. The people below were carrying on with their daily lives, only looking for a second, never double taking, at the dragon flying above. To them, the sight was more normal than aircraft flying over; this was the preferred method of air transportation. The society’s natural bond with these creatures led to a formation of a semi-perfect society. Bill knew, from his previous experiences, that this was a far cry from that of the ‘Reality’, as said by the infrequent accidental travellers. These travellers came, accidentally, from the hole that appeared every couple of years in his virtual transport system. The first one came under the old creator, who suddenly left his post after the incident. His research within the last couple of years was trying to solve this mysterious problem. Now, the only problem was that he needed to find the old creator to see if he knew anything, and the details of how it had happened. He was the only Pokéborn citizen, besides Bill, that knew anything. The Traveller’s Council, which consisted of Bill and the travellers, worked together to keep the secret on both ends. They knew that if either side learned about the other, disaster would occur. Travellers from the ‘Reality’ world would defile the Pokémon world, and the people in the Pokémon world need never learn of their evil counterpart. Taking out his cellular, Bill phoned the Hoenn branch leader, Norman.

“Hello, Norman speaking, how may I help you?”

“Norman, it is Bill, and we’re having The Problem.”

“You mean the leak? I’ll send out the signal, and have the Hoenn council members come out.” He seemed oddly cool with it.

“Yes. Remember the time we set?”

“2:00, right? Got it.” He hung up.

Well, that was anticlimactic, thought Bill as he put his phone away. As he looked down, he saw that they were nearing Vermillion City. To the right, he saw the harbour, and to the left, he saw route 12. The Dragonite veered to the left, landing in front of a cave. Bill walked in. The cave was much cooler than the outside, and lit by candles on the side of the wall. He saw a ladder not too far ahead, and climbed down. From the ladder, he counted fifteen paces down the wall, looked around to see that no one was coming, and knocked. A door in the wall that was impossible to see before opened, and he walked in. Bill was greeted by a small man, and two large monitors, on the two corners opposite the door.

The small man asked, weakly, “Another one?” Bill nodded. The man turned on the monitor to the left and the one to the right, and each had a view of another cave.

As Bill looked at the screens, a woman with Violet-coloured hair came up through a trapdoor on the screen to the right. “Bonjour,” she said, “ ’ave we a problem?

“Have you sent the signal out to Sinnoh yet?” Bill wondered if she remembered; although she was trusted, Fantina did make quite a bit of mistakes.

“Oui,” she responded, in her French accent, “Some of zem ‘ave responded.”

“Good.”

They both sat in silence as Bill saw people file into each of their rooms. However, the one on the left monitor was still empty. Bill looked at his Pokétch. It was almost time to begin, but they weren’t there, not even the fossil guy. Where are they? Thought Bill, wondering to himself. In from behind him walked a tall, fierce-looking man with yellow hair, and wearing camouflage clothes. The man said, “You may want to resume the screen.”

Bill looked up. Sure enough, two vertical bars were in the top left corner of the left screen. He slapped himself for being so silly, and pressed a button under the monitor. On the other side, in front of the few people gathered there, was a normal-looking man, almost average, and seemed out of place with the people around him.
“Are all present, Norman?” Bill asked.

“Yes,” he responded, “Are we ready to start?”

Bill began speaking to all of the twenty-five people gathered in the three rooms. “As many of you probably know, just by the fact that we are gathered here, another hole was formed. Until we find the problem once and for all, we’ll have to do like we everytime. If you see anyone out of place, contact your region representative immediately. Any questions?”

“What Pokémon went missing?” A tall, white-haired man on the left monitor walked towards the front.

“At the moment, we’re only missing an Eevee and a Squirtle, and of course the Porygon I sent.”

A fifteen-year-old kid in the back piped up. “How are you doing on finding the source of these problems?”

“For the moment, Ash, I think I’ve found the source, but I just need to find it before it disappears for the year.”

The crowd began to murmur. Bill asked, “Any more questions?” Seeing as no one answered, he said, “Meeting dismissed.” Everyone except for five people began to file out of the rooms. The only people left were Lt. Surge, Norman, Fantina, and a young woman.

Norman stared into space, deep in thought. Lt. Surge wore his usual grimace. Everyone was acting normally except for the woman.

“So, you said that you came across the source, Bill. What was it?” she asked, nervously pacing around next to him.

Bill stopped walking. “I..” He couldn’t seem to get the words out. Then, “I don’t know, really, Whitney.” But it has something to do with a foreign object. There is possibly something in there, tampering with the cyberspace between the places, ripping a hole in the dimension of space that it’s in. That’s all I know. It could be there on purpose, or possibly an accident in the code written in. I’ve been trying to contact the other person who knows about this, but I haven’t found him yet. After escaping the asylum, no one has heard from him.” Bill could feel anger from Lt. Surge next to him.

“How is a man able to be such a coward?! I saw the man, making others do the dirty work for him, all the while acting so smart, like he could fix any problem…”

“Well, he could fix quite a bit of issues; he just had his own…” Bill began to feel threatened.

Surge turned on him. “And you, always defending him, ‘He can do this!’ ‘He can do that!’ ‘Don’t judge him, he has a mental disorder!’ well, having a mental disorder is only an excuse, knowing what it is can only get you pity from others, and some god…”

“No, don’t say it!” Norman frantically interrupted. “I’ve had enough of your complaining. You despise anyone who is weak, you’re almost as bad as Silver used to be.”

From the doorway popped a head with red hair. “I heard that!”

Everyone turned in his direction, panicked. “’Ow long haaf you been listening? Ees anyone else out there?”

“No, just me,” Silver said casually. “What I don’t get is while we try and work to keep our cover, you all decide to yell and argue, and sometimes blow it.”

“You think I can feex my accent queekly?”

“I was more talking about our Lieutenant here. Just because you endured the Korean War doesn’t make you mightier than everyone else. You are still under the rules. Why are you even still here? You were fighting against the very system that you are in now. Don’t you see? You don’t fit here, so you try to fight.”

“Did you ever take psychology classes?” Norman calculated that this was the best time to speak. He was wrong.

“HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME!” The lieutenant charged at the boy before him. Calmly and yet swiftly, an Alakazam materialized in front of Silver and put a blockade around them. Whitney and Bill glanced at each other, knowing that this could only get worse.


There is no specific medium here, it is both the anime and the game, I treat Red and Ash as two different people

Wierd.

This also explains how the Pokemon appeared, to some extent.

You have picked the one word that perfectly summarizes all of my writing.

The Eevee and Squirtle fell through cyberspace right into the real world. Case closed.

…That was absolutely hilarious. Silver pops in, then Lt. Surge freaks out. XD

Wow, this is amazing. Keep it coming, person. X3

Meh.
That's what I feel about my story right now. I couldn't have thought of a worse name, and I'm moderately rewriting it. Not enough to immensely change the plot, but slightly better writing style.
The new rewrite is in the following post. The new version is called 'Collisions'.

Collisions
Chapter I: Gone

It was a beautiful spring morning. The day-time birds had just awoken, saluting the morning with their daily song. From above, the town was a beautiful medley of green grass, brown roofs, and black streets.

As she was watering her front garden, Mrs. French looked on as a car pulled into the driveway of the house behind her. She watched a man get out of the car—if she could recall correctly, his name was Fredrick—and walk up his driveway. Her neighbor was a fine young age of thirty-eight, but had a thirteen-year-old only son named Jon. She knew Jon because she sometimes watched over him while his parents were away, like on a trip, or going to the movies, or having fun at an adult get-together. He was a nice boy, from what she saw of him, although he kept to himself. Fredrick worked night-time in an archaeological field, where he examined specimen that were shipped to the lab that he worked at. It was not uncommon to see him leave around ten and get back around the morning-time. His wife worked in a nearby office setting in normal hours, so they did not see each other very often during the week. Mrs. French sighed, and then finished watering her dahlias. They were her favorite flowers, and she always saved the best for last. She then walked back into her house.

Fred got out of his car, completely unaware of his old batty neighbor reminiscing about his family. All that was on his mind was a nice long rest and naps before he had to go back to work later. As he turned the key in the lock of the front door, he yawned. He then proceeded to walk in. His son was watching television, a ritual he always followed around seven. Of course, he knew what Jon was watching. He watched morning cartoons like he always did, starting with Yugi-oh! and Pokémon. He sighed. When would his son learn to grow up? He didn’t want his son watching murder mysteries, but he knew that he couldn’t stay this way forever. Jonathan remained glued to the screen, not noticing the return of his father from work. He went up the stairs, took a right, and landed right onto his bed. He shut the shutters, closed the door, and let the darkness take over him.


There was a house. On the opposite side of the path was a lake, which looked bluer than a lake should look. The grass next to the lake could be hardly seen as individual, and is more like a mass of perfect green. Beyond the lake, a large sphere was floating in the ait, about ten degrees from the horizon. If someone were to have looked carefully, they could have seen a city on the other side of the lake, blocking some of the sphere out. Inside the house, a young-looking adult was sleeping in front of a computer screen. The computer was on and flashing errors, but the man could not notice them. A phone rings on the right side of the computer. He gets up, groggily, and picks up the phone.

“H…hello? Who is this?”

“Nurse Joy speaking. Bill, were you sleeping again?”

“Hey, I’m motivationally challenged. Anyways, what’s wrong now? It had better not be another complaint about the limited number of boxes.”

“No, it’s not. We’re getting a report of missing Pokémon, they were sent, but none were received.”

“I’ll take a look.”

Bill looked at the monitor, scrolling around until he got to a large gaping hole in the middle of one of the routes. Dread shot through him. “Well, we have a hole that the balls could have fallen through. It could lead to anywhere, Pallet Town to Snowpoint City, the reverse world to the real world.”

Joy’s voice became confused. “The real world?”

“Aww, come on, I was just joking, liven up a bit.”

“Very funny,” Joy responded sarcastically, “Do you know what you are going to do?”

“For now, I’m going to send one of my Porygon through the hole to see where it leads, with a Pokédex for identification purposes, in case the Porygon cannot get back.”

Bill looked on the table next to him, where he saw the sharp, angular virtual Pokémon, Porygon. He walked over to it, gave it a Pokédex, camera, and a couple of balls, and inserted it into cyberspace. He watched as it crawled through the transport system to the hole, and saw it jump in.

“By the way, how many went missing?” Bill inquired to Joy.

“For now, we have results of two missing, an Eevee and a Squirtle. Both of them were starters.”

“Ah, it’s starter season again. Well, based on the positioning of the hole, it seems between Saffron city and Cerulean city.”

“Then why aren’t the balls in that area?”

“The problem is that my system works like it is in quantum leaps, you know what I mean?”

“Quantum leaps? What in the world is that supposed to mean?”

Bill sighed. This was going to be fun. “Quanta are a specified amount of… never mind, if I told you we would be here for a while.”

“Please?” she asked, curiosity getting the best of her.

“Look, I don’t have time to explain one of the most theoretical aspects of science. Look, I’ll just say that they need a specific boost to go to a certain area, or it will not work.”

“Well, good luck on your search. I hope for the new trainers’ sakes that you find their Pokémon.”


Fredrick felt himself tumbling down a hole, falling constantly. He was nervous, but forced one eye open. All around him, a dazzling light display was taking place before his eyes. Vibrant reds, greens, and blues came together to create hues of unmistakable beauty. He looked down. He could faintly see a faint singularity, like he was falling through a tunnel. None of his other senses seemed to work. As he continued to look down, the hole began to grow larger, until he himself was almost touching what seemed like a bubble at the end. As soon as his feet touched it, he began to feel dizzy. He cleared his mind, and found himself standing between two people, right next to a large bear-like creature.

New Chapter II:

Chapter II: Earthquake

Fredrick looked at the bear. It looked like an average brown bear, slightly taller than him, and ravenously hungry. It reared up onto its two back paws, and began chasing him down the field, through the flowers all around him. The faster he was running, the more it was gaining on him. Fred then had the urge to jump a few feet into the air, which he did. He then noticed that he was not on the ground, but levitating a few feet above it. Quickly, he gained altitude, away from his attacker. However, a large bump began forming on the bear’s shoulders, and wings popped out. It leaped into the air, and Fred closed his eyes, only to reopen them and find himself on the floor next to his bed, sweating profusely. Groaning, he picked himself up, and turned around. His clock read 2:37, meaning he had been sleeping for a little less than seven hours. He quickly got dressed, and walked down the stairs. His son wouldn’t get home until three on Fridays, so he began to make sure he had everything ready for work. When he had put all of his materials in a briefcase, he felt a heavy shockwave, and fell down. He began to panic, and looked around for a shelter. Then he remembered that it is best for one to hide in an entryway during an earthquake, which is where he went. After what felt like an hour of rumbling and shaking, he decided that the cost was clear.

Across the street, Agnus French wasn’t fairing as well as Fredrick. While boiling water for dinner, the pot fell onto her linoleum floor, which was not happy about the event. After getting hit by a falling pan, she decided it would be best to hide in the corner. As she waited it out, she mentally checked off the first step that their community went through every year, the earthquake. Every year for the past ten-or-so years, an earthquake occurred at the beginning of spring. These Chlorian earthquakes, as she liked to call them, named after her community of Chloria, were always tied with a self-repeating plot in the community. One week after the earthquake, rumours went around that someone in the community was crazy, and then they disappeared. This year, she was determined to snoop out what was happening before it happened, and get to the bottom of this mystery.

After the earthquake subsided, Agnus carefully climbed the stairs down to her basement. The dank and musty smell came to her nostrils; the sound of the radiator filled her ears. But she was not afraid of the darkness. She took a look at the map of the community posted on the wall, marked with different pushpins. She traced the path, wrote down the house numbers, computed some digits, and approximated the location of the next victim, Henry McForgee, her next-door neighbour.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Henry McForge was sharpening a knife. This place, just like the last one, could remind one of a basement. The walls were covered in posters. The man’s face was full of scruff, and he looked like he had just come out of a jungle. His persona seemed slightly terrifying, he had missing teeth, his breath smelled like beer, and he muttered to himself just as a crazy man would. He looked at his now-sharpened knife, and threw it at a map behind him. Under his breath, he muttered, one more victim, just one more left.

On the completely opposite side of the world, in his front lawn, stood an actually plot-relevant character. Completely unaware of a mass Indian murderer with a name about the same as his, Henry McForgee mowed his lawn after a recent earthquake. Thankfully, he did not hear that anyone had been injured by the quaking. The pre-cut grass was about up to his ankles, but as he stepped over it, it became less than a centimetre high. The man was mildly short in stature¬¬—only about one-and-a-half metres tall—and had no facial hair, as well as being bald. The rest of his body had no strange features; he just looked like an average short bald guy. The man had the patience of a hummingbird, the attention span of a goldfish, and the slyness of a dead fox. However, when he could put up with you, he was a great talker; he compiled histories and stories of places that had never and will never exist on the spot. It seemed as if he had eaten the Blarney Stone. He tolerated most people, but the one person that he despised the most was his nosy, good-for-nothing neighbour that tried to figure out everyone’s business. It wasn’t that she didn’t like him, on the contrary, but she could be annoying. She thought she knew everything about everyone; she even had the idea that there was a cycle to the earthquake that just happened. The one thing he hated most of all was that she was his wife’s best friend. He continued to mow the lawn.

Fredrick kept searching the house, making sure everything was in its original position. He found that nothing had moved, and was all ready to go back to relaxing when he heard an explosive noise in the backyard. He ran to check it out. In his backyard, he saw a singed area of grass, which he ran to. He then dreaded to see what was next. In the grass, in the centre of the blackened patch was a red circular object, which he picked up. His face drained as he realized his batty old neighbour across the street was right.


Meanwhile, on a plane of existence far apart from Fred’s, Bill hangs up his phone. The news from Nurse Joy was no news to him; he had seen the disappearance of the Pokémon from his PC. Bill picked up the phone and dialled a number. The phone rang four times, then,

“Hello? Is this another corporate advertiser? Because if it is, I’ll…”

“No, this is Bill.”

The man on the other side remained silent, and then spoke. “Is it about the same thing that happened last year?”

Bill replied affirmatively.

“Why can’t you keep control of your balls!? It’s been twelve years and you still haven’t figured it out!”

“Look, Surge, I’m really close to finding out the answer…”

Bill was cut short by ‘Surge’ “You’ve said that for the past four years. And my name’s Lieutenant Surge, or Lieutenant, not ‘Surge’”

“Whatever, Lieutenant. Look, you’re not in the war anymore. Stop acting like my commanding officer. Well, I’ll see you at the meeting.”

Bill was greeted by a dial tone. Well, at least he would be at the meeting.