Silas Orwell Charleston
Episode 1: Here I cometh, Master S!
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The sun was shining brightly as Silas looked up from the small spot he had taken under a tree. Master S had dropped him off somewhere in a region called 'Hoenn', he knew that much. But where in the name of Arceus was he? Well, aside from the obvious answer 'In a forest'. Silas looked around while his light-grey hair gently flowed through the air as the young man moved his head. He caught a glimpse of some sort of town and deduced that he was in the middle of some settlement or something. Standing up from his spot under the tree – the lighting very much reminded him of his first meeting with Master S – Silas started to move through the forest until he came out of it. It was clear that this settlement wasn't big, if anything it was wide-spread. Long distances of green grass with a few lightly-colored houses dotted out among them in some places. However, there was one house in particular that caught the young man's interest a bit. It was big, white, and a few Pokémon could actually be seen running around it. Most of them were of species that Silas didn't recognize and he silently thanked Master S for giving him the opportunity to meet with so many new Pokémon.
He calmly walked up to the house, cautious to not scare the little critters playing tag around the corners of the building. Silas observed them with great interest before entering the house, thinking that there must be even more amazing Pokémon on the inside. However, he would be greatly disappointed to find that no Pokémon seemed to be in there. The only thing he could find was a bunch of people in lab-coats and glasses running around with heaps of paper in their arms. Just as Silas was about to leave, one of these people came up to him with an uneasy expression on his face.
"Hello!" He said.
"Um… Hello?" Silas responded quizzically.
"Do you need help with anything?" The man continued.
"No… Don't think so…" The young man responded with unease. What was this guy getting an exactly? "Why do you wonder?"
"Well you looked pretty helpless, so I thought that maybe you'd come here to receive your Pokémon?"
"Pokémon…?" Silas' lips crooked into a sly smile as he heard that word. So these guys gave out Pokémon to people for free? Time to put this to the test then! "Oh yes indeed! I am here for a Pokémon!"
"Really? That's terrific!" The man in glasses said enthusiastically. Silas just smiled, this seemed to be going perfect! "When Professor Birch left for a while, he put me in charge of this place! As you can see, it's going terrific!" The man happily pointed behind his back at a bunch of other people with glasses staring at huge fire that had begun to develop on the floor. Silas just looked at the man, he didn't notice any form of sarcasm in his voice, so he guessed that this man's definition of 'terrific' was this. Man, he did not want to see a situation this man would label as 'bad'. "I'll be back with your stuff in a jiffy!" He continued and ran off, quietly singing some kind of song.
After a short amount of time, the man returned with a bunch of items that Silas didn't quite recognize.
"This!" The man pointed at the first object, it was red and looked like a bigger version of a mobile phone flipped sideways, "Is a PokéDex. It's a high-tech encyclopedia, containing the information on various Pokémon. It's also really valuable, so be careful not to flaunt it around too much."
Silas stared in amazement at the object. Something that could show the information about any Pokémon in the blink of an eye? This had to be one of the most amazing things that Silas had ever seen! He almost drooled as the guy with the glasses handed him the device. The young man quickly but carefully put it in the pocket of the blue-and-black jeans that he was wearing today.
"This," the man pointed at a few more but smaller objects, some of them being PokéBalls. Silas made a slightly displeased face at the catching devices, however he said nothing. All of these objects were then loaded into a black backpack which was given to Silas.
"I assume that you don't have a backpack? Well, here's one on the house! Err, I mean lab…" He said. Silas just raised his eyebrow, where was that free Pokémon now? He had to get going! He wouldn't want Master S to wait, now would he? "Aaaaaannd here's your Pokémon!" The man said and handed Silas a PokéBall. The young man shone up as he looked at the sphere, wondering what could be inside it.
"Thank you." He said calmly and started to walk towards the door.
"Wait!" The man said. Silas turned around for a second. "If you meet Professor Birch, don't tell him about the fire in his lab, okay?"
"Sure."
***
As soon as he was outside of the lab, Silas pressed the button situated on the PokéBall's front. He saw with big eyes as the sphere opened to release his new friend in the form of… Nothing. Nothing came out. The damn ball was empty! Not even a speck of dust came out of it! For a moment, Silas thought about going back inside to complain to the man about this. However, after seeing the man's… display of abilities, he wasn't too sure how much of a help that would be. Instead he decided to catch his own Pokémon, his own friend that he could fight alongside so that he'd be able to meet Master S!
He quietly walked towards a small road that he spotted from the laboratory, thinking that it most likely led out of this boring little town. And soon enough, Silas found himself on a route that was bustling and full of life. He surveyed the area he was in, spotting many Pokémon he didn't recognize. He pointed the PokéDex at one of them, a small red-and-white caterpillar that was busy chewing on a leaf.
Wurmple, the Worm Pokémon. Usually targeted by Bird Pokémon, Wurmple defends itself by oozing out poison from the spikes on its head and rear and stabbing them towards the attacker. Their favorite food involves leaves and sap which they reach by peeling the bark off of trees.
Wow, that sure seemed like an amazing Pokémon, maybe Silas should try to befriend it? After a while of thinking, the grey-haired young man decided that he would befriend this Pokémon. So he quickly walked up to it in a – according to himself – non-threatening manner and raised his hand at the Bug-type.
"Hi there!" He said in a friendly tone. The Wurmple stopped munching on its leaf and looked up at the human standing before him. The caterpillar's eyes were intensely fixed on Silas, so intensely that they seemed to be able to burn human flesh. But Silas didn't mind, he looked at the Wurmple with a friendly smile on his lips, waiting for it to respond. And respond it did. But not in the fashion that Silas had preferred. The Wurmple's eyes assumed an angry glare and a thick, purple liquid started to ooze out of the spikes on its head and rear and it started to edge closer to the opposing human. Silas quickly became uncomfortable and started to move away from the bug, there was no point in getting stung for trying to be friendly.
He walked away from that particular spot, wiping the sweat off his forehead. He was relieved that he had gotten away without getting attacked by the Wurmple. Maybe he should look for another friend? Suddenly, a flock of bird-like Pokémon flew over him. Silas recognized them as Pidgey, a Pokémon who was quite common everywhere it seemed. Maybe they would like to be friends with him?
"Hello there!" He shouted at the Pidgeys, yet again in a friendly manner. The answer Silas got was pretty short; a splat of fecal-matter from the bird quickly hit his face. Luckily it wasn't much, but it was still pretty disgusting. Wiping off some of the vile substance with a napkin he found in his new backpack, Silas sighed. This search for a new partner didn't seem to go well; maybe he wasn't connecting with the Pokémon enough? As he started thinking about how to improve his "friendship-recruiting", Silas heard a loud call for help. The young man turned around (his hair glittering fabulously in the sun as he did so) and started following where the voice seemed to be coming from.
When Silas reached to where the voice was he saw a man with brown hair and knee-high shorts as well as a lab-coat being pressed up against a tree. Standing before him was a black dog-like creature with red-and-yellow eyes, glaring at the man. Silas discretely pointed his PokéDex at the creature to identify it.
Poochyena, the Bite Pokémon. Poochyena has a very keen sense of smell which they use to track down prey. They are known for being very tenacious, often chasing their prey until the prey gets exhausted. They are also known for biting everything that moves.
"Hence being the Bite Pokémon." Silas thought.
The PokéDex had read the information very clearly as well as very loudly, which caught the attention of both the man and the Poochyena. The man probably known as Birch seems relieved, while the Poochyena just seemed to have become even more agitated.
"Thank goodness someone's here to help!" The man with the lab-coat said. "I was going to give this Poochyena away to a trainer that wanted it, but so far, no one's has even taken it into consideration. So it eventually became sad and escaped, but as I tried to convince it to come back, it attacked…"
Silas stood quietly for a moment. Poor Poochyena, no one had even considered it as a partner or a friend? It must've really wanted to go on a journey, but since no one picked it… Man, that's gotta' tear you up on the inside.
"Well then, it's settled!" Silas exclaimed and dropped his backpack as well as folding up the arms of his shirt. "I'll make sure that you get to travel the region Poochyena! I'll be the one to have you as my friend! I'll be the one to share many exciting adventure with you!" He exclaimed once again while standing in what most people would call a 'fighting-stance'. The Poochyena just howled – seemingly unaffected by Silas' words – and leapt towards the boy. Silas just smiled and readied his fist, "If that's how you want it…" He said quietly.
"THEN COME AT ME!" Silas' shout was quickly followed by a punch to the Pokémon's face. The Poochyena whimpered a bit as the human's fist connected with it. The Dark-type flew back a few feet from the impact, but quickly got up again. For a moment it seemed to catch its breath before letting out an agitated howl. It even seemed like the little dog-like creature became a bit more buff from that. It howled again and threw itself toward Silas. The young man just smiled and started running towards the Pokémon. As he came close enough, Silas tried to elbow the Poochyena right in the face. However, the Dark-type was a bit faster and thus managed to avoid the human's elbow. Instead, it bit down on the male's exposed arm. Silas cringed, the fangs of the little dog didn't bury deep into is flesh, but they still managed to make him bleed as well as hurt like hell. He quickly grabbed ahold of the Dark-type's head and started to tickle its nose. The Poochyena tried to not get overcome by the urge to sneeze, but eventually he had to let go. Silas smiled again as he tackled the dog hard so that it flew another few feet away from him.
Now the Poochyena was angry, really angry. It slowly opened its mouth as something orange seemed to form in it. Silas watched with astonishment as the Dark-type shot out a small pillar of fire towards him. Barely jumping out of the way, Silas started to slowly encircle the Poochyena. He checked the PokéDex to see what that move was.
Incernate, a Fire-type move. If the target of this move holds a berry, the berry will immediately get burned to a crisp. Poochyena is not compatible with this move in any way.
"What? But how can it then use it?" Silas asked.
"I'm not actually sure myself," the man said, "I think he was bred in some special sort of way."
"Interesting…" Silas smiled.
The Poochyena gave off a proud look before attacking again. Its yellow eyes gleamed as it came closer and closer to Silas. Silas himself just smiled on and started running towards the Poochyena again. They both jumped towards each other at the same time, resulting in some sort of awkward hug that the Dark-type had not expected.
"Please… I know that you've had it rough. But why not come with me instead? Together, we shall embark on journey far beyond any of our wildest dreams! So please, just come with me as your partner Poochyena…" Silas said softly. He took out the PokéBall where the Dark-type should've been and gently tapped the little dog with it.