Pokemon: First Contact - Chapter 12 (Ending)

Pokémon: First Contact

Chapter Twelve: Pocket Monsters

Six years later . . .

'It works!! It works!!!'

Samuel's chanting was heard by everyone in Pallet Town as he jumped up and down outside the laboratory – refurnished with a new floor that housed an impressively massive telescope. He wore brown pants and a white lab coat, unbuttoned to reveal a brown jacket with a yellow collared shirt underneath. Although he was acting as an apprentice for Professor Kanto and Professor Frost, he spent most of his time outdoors studying the animals and their behaviour. This gave him a broad, fit physique – something the ladies of Pallet Town didn't mind at all. In fact, at twenty-one years old, Samuel Oak was quite the strapping young man.

What the ladies did mind, however, was his lack of hygiene, back when he was in his teenage years. Once John taught him the you-would-never-have-thunk-it secret: 'Girls like a man who looks good,' Samuel returned to town four days later with beach-blonde hair and shampoo made from natural berries and nectar. Considered an up-and-coming Professor and a regular Casanova. Samuel Oak was quickly rising in the ranks of Pallet Town's most sought after bachelors.

'Prince! Take me to the Boss! And get the others to call everyone to the Town Square!'

A strong howl came from inside the laboratory, and four Mankeys wearing lab coats and white gloves rushed through the front door and down to the Town Square. A huge, strong Primeape stepped out after them, twice as tall as Samuel, and picked him up with just one hand. He held Samuel by his underarm and broke into a sprint to John Laker's house, where Samuel could tell him the good news.

'Hurry Prince!' Samuel shouted excitedly, and Prince – to the usual irritation of the townspeople – leapt into the air and used the rooftops to get around Pallet Town, instead of weaving in and out of streets. The sound of the Town Square bells ringing echoed through the town – the Mankeys hanging off the ropes, pulling them up and down – letting everyone know that it was time to meet in the Square.

Pallet Town itself had changed a lot since the days of Russell Williams. It looked like a suburbia belonging to 1950s America; an era history classes gushed over for its physicality (not its morality). Houses looking a lot more like houses paved the cobblestone streets of Pallet Town, most with garden-beds on the window sills and plenty of flowering bushes in their front yard. And because the Council chose to forbid the manufacturing of cars and other gas-guzzling vehicles, most people got around on bikes and weak motorcycles.

The award-winning garden (literally, as Pallet Town held a garden show annually), was owned by Mrs Tilly, who had trained an enthusiastic Machop in the art of horticulture.

Along with Machop – a quite human-like tailed biped with gray skin and three brown ridges on top of its head –  several new species of creatures had been discovered over the years, as exploration became a fascinating past-time with the townspeople. Ashley Green had especially grown fond of the hobby, as her keen interest for history and geography on Earth had found its way on Noah.

So far, the tourist locations on the map included naming the forest ahead of Pallet Town: Viridian Forest. (John had a hard time convincing Kensington to allow the name just because Ashley thought it was pretty), and Mt Moon, the mountain John had been taken to by Fearow to meet Zapdos. As well as these two places, Ashley had pioneered the brilliant decision to not name every street and path they came across. She thought it would be far better to simply call them "Routes". For example, between Pallet Town and Viridian Forest were Route 1 and Route 2, and once one was on the other side of Viridian Forest, they were now walking on Route 3, where they would travel through the Mt Moon tunnel, and exit onto Route 4.

'Clean. Neat. Simple,' Kensington said, growing more fond of the idea with every word. 'I like it.'

The only trouble was, nobody had come up with a worthy enough name for the creatures of this planet. Kensington suggested a contest for the new name, with a select group of animals as the judges (it was going to be the title of their species, after all), but Dinomals, Monstaurs and Digimon did not make the cut.

But alongside the invention Samuel wished to show off to John Laker, an idea for a name was also what was putting him in such an elated mood.

They reached John and Ashley's house: a beautiful yellow home with a pale-blue roof and a white picket fence. Marble stones acted as lily pads across their front yard, leading from the gate to the door, where one was usually greeted by John or Ashley, after they knocked. But Samuel had no intention of knocking.

Snap!

Slam!

'Hellooo Mister and Misses Laker!' Samuel crooned as Prince broke the door open. 'Ooh, sorry about that. Guess he's still getting used to all this strength.'

John and Ashley stayed silent, staring at Samuel as if they were waiting for the inevitable.

'Waaaahh!'

'SAMUEL!!' John yelled.

Ashley sighed and ran a hand through her long, blonde hair. The wedded couple were twenty-eight and twenty-six respectively, and Ashley glared at Samuel with her striking, blue adult eyes. She no longer carried the look of an excitably young woman, eager to learn all the mysteries of the world. Now her face represented a lady who had all the knowledge of the world. Intelligent, beautiful, and tough when she needs to be.

She was a great catch for John, and a perfect mother.

'I just put her to sleep,' she groaned. She pushed her hands against her knees as she rose from the couch. But a small, yellow critter dashed past Ashley to the child's room.

'Pika! Pika!' Pikachu called to the little girl as he raced to her bed. He hated it when Delia Laker cried.

'Thanks Pikachu,' John said. After a few moments, Delia had quietened down and had gone back to sleep. Then, turning to Samuel, 'You know you have to pay for that lock as well. Along with the other two . . .'

'I thought she'd be used to it by now,' Samuel shrugged.

Pikachu had walked out from Delia's room to join them, and was greeted by a comforting pat on the head from Ashley.

'She's four years old!' John went on. 'How many four-year-olds can handle a giant monkey bursting into their house!'

'Let's see . . .' Samuel fake-pondered, counting his fingers. 'There's that chubby one who lives across from the bakery . . .'

John cracked a smile. As much as the boy sometimes infuriated him, Samuel also knew how to make him laugh. 'What d'you need, Samuel?'

Samuel stopped joking and reached into the pocket of his lab coat, taking out a round, metallic ball. It was split into two halves, separated by a circular latch. The top half was painted red, and the bottom was white. The latch had a black outline that continued around where the ball split when it opened like a clam.

'It's the final design!' he beamed.

'Oh, that thing again,' Ashley dismissed.

'An astute observation, Mrs Laker,' Samuel said as if he was a Professor giving a lecture, 'but you're trivializing tone is at this time, ineffective!'

'Get to the point,' John said.

'The point is . . . IT WORKS!'

John and Ashley glanced at each other. They weren't so sure they believed him.

'Fine, I'll prove it! Pikachu, get over here!'

Pikachu cowered and shook his head. He didn't like the look of Samuel's invention.

'Look, Samuel,' Ashley said. 'If this is supposed to be the answer to our room management situation, then why don't you use Prince? Wouldn't that prove it's worth?'

She was right, of course. The Professor's and Samuel had been working on this for several months now, as although people were enjoying the company of the animals working alongside them in their gardens, kitchens and classrooms (and also having them as pets), there was the problem of where they were going to fit everyone. Kensington had refused any offering to build a new town somewhere else in Kanto, as she didn't think it was necessary at this time.

Samuel stuck his nose in the air and said, 'Hmmph, fine. Prince, would you do the honours?'

Prince nodded and proudly stepped forth to one end of the lounge room, while Samuel made his way to the other.

'You ready, Prince?'

'Prime!'

'Good. Now, as you will see shortly. The user must throw the ball and hit their target for it to activate. If not, the ball does nothing. And to avoid any unwanted material nesting inside this ball, it is context sensitive. Its skin is coated with scanner-gel, which recognises the fingerprints of its owner, and the DNA of one of Noah's animals. Clearly I am speaking in the dialect of the most simple of simple-tons, only so you can understand the vast complexities of how this marvellous mechanism—'

'Get on with it!' John called.

'Very well,' Samuel smiled. He stood back and raised his hand in the air, holding the red-and-white ball. He swung his arm once and threw it across the room. The ball sailed through the air and hit Prince once, before opening up, exposing Prince to a bright flash of crimson energy. Then the most extraordinary thing happened.

Prince's body melted and morphed into the same crimson energy that had come from the ball. The two clouds of raw power mixed and dragged themselves back into the ball, which then closed and fell back to the ground. It's latch flashing red to show that Prince was resting safe inside.

Samuel turned to his audience. Their jaws were opened so wide that Prince could probably fit inside their mouths!

'I know . . . I know . . .' Samuel gleamed proudly. 'Let it sink in.'

John tried to make his tongue move so he could say something, but once he talked, he sounded like a fifth-grader. 'What . . . what do you call it?' he asked, gazing up at Samuel with awe.

'Ah-hah! Now that's the beautiful part! You know how everyone's been searching for a name for our animalistic counterparts?'

John, Ashley and Pikachu nodded stupidly in unison.

'Well, now they've got one!'

He paused for dramatic effect.

'. . . Pocket Monsters!'

Nobody responded the way he'd hoped. Their looks of awe were slowly transforming into looks of ridicule.

'Ah, wait, wait . . . that wasn't it. Um . . . Pocket . . . Pock Mon . . . Pokémon! That's right, Pokémon!'

John raised an eyebrow and looked at Samuel, then he turned to Ashley, who nodded her head, impressed. Ashley turned to Pikachu, who thought about the name for a moment then gave Samuel a wide grin.

'Pikachu!'

'Guess he likes it,' John said.

Samuel jumped and punched the air with delight. 'Yes!!'

'You know John, there's also been talk that we shouldn't call this planet Noah anymore,' Ashley noted. It was true; most people didn't like the idea of the humans naming this planet, when it wasn't rightfully theirs. 'How about we call it the Pokémon World?'

There it was again. The smart decision to keep things neat and simple.

'Pokémon World . . .' John mused. 'Sounds like a theme park.'

'Could be, one day,' Samuel chuckled. 'Imagine that. Prince's Jungle Coaster.'

'Even better, a television show starring the Pokémon! With Pikachu as the main star, of course,' Ashley laughed, ruffling Pikachu's fur.

'Pika! Pikachu!'

Everybody shared a laugh, and moments later, the Professor's and Samuel stood in front of the people of Pallet Town and marked the day the Pokéball was introduced to the Pokémon World. It became an important moment in Pokémon history, not unlike the event that occurred two months later, when Professor Kanto rushed to John's house at one-in-the-morning, unapologetically waking the entire household.

'What is it?' John asked wearily, rubbing his eyes, still in his boxers.

'John, you must come to the Pokémon Labs,' Kanto panted. His eyes read trouble. 'It's urgent. I thought you should be the first to know.'

The serious insistence in Kanto's voice told John not to argue. He quickly raced inside and threw on a shirt and pants, and without putting on shoes hurried alongside Kanto as they ran through the town and up the hill to the Pokémon Labs.

John followed Kanto up the staircase, skipping every second step, until they reached the top floor. Kanto didn't say a word, he just pointed to the telescope, inviting—no, demanding John looked through the eyehole.

John bent down and took hold of the bottom of the telescope with one hand while he closed his left eye and peered through the small glass window with the other. Seconds later, he pulled back in shock, as if someone had just knocked the wind out of him.

'How long will it be before they land?' John asked, recovering from the initial alarm.

'I guess we'll only have a couple of days to prepare,' Kanto said.

'Is that enough?'

'We better hope so.'

***
Deep in Mt. Moon, Zapdos stirred from his meditation. He could feel the presence of the fleet of ships arriving to his world from space. They carried the same energy John and his humans reeked of when they had appeared in the atmosphere.

Only this time, there were many, many more people on board these spaceships.

Tens of thousands more.

The people chosen by the World Government, who should be living on Planet Gaia, had fled – for whatever reason – and were seeking refuge in the Pokémon World. Unfortunately, as only Zapdos knew by the dimming of the Moon Stones light, they could not have chosen a worse time to settle on the Pokémon's land.

Those naive humans were not prepared for what was to occur in a couple of years.

Unless someone on one of the ships knows how to survive an apocalypse.