Daniel Sabrak
Oak Town
As Daniel strolled through Oak Town, him and Alexis continued glancing around at the various buildings, impressed by how big some of them were, for such a small town. Vermillion had never had skyscrapers or the like. Granted, neither did Oak Town, but the houses were still fairly big, and the architecture was slightly different from what he was used to.
They both glanced at the trainers who moved past them every now and then, seeing the various different Pokémon they were followed by, which only served to make Daniel's excitement even bigger. Only now was he starting to realize what he had gotten himself into, and he was loving it.
Finally, he found a shop, which seemed to sell a majority of trainer gear. It was a rather large shop, with both potions, Pokéballs, and everything a trainer could want. An older man with quite the large, still sort of brown-y moustache and a bit of a belly was standing at the desk, smiling to Daniel, who seemed to be the only trainer present in the shop right now. Odd.
He walked up to the elder and smiled to him, nodding politely. "Hey there. Uhm, I was looking for a Pokégear. I… don't really know much about them, but my friends said that it was a great way to keep in contact with each other, so… uhm, yeah. Can you help me?"
The man raised his brows and chuckled a little, speaking with quite a deep voice for such an old man, while nodding his head. "Of course I can! We just got a new model in not long ago, might be something for you. Come here, sonny." He gestured for Daniel to follow him as he moved around the desk, ever so slightly hunched over. Daniel figured he must've been in his 70's or so, but followed him down along one of the aisles none the less.
They stopped at a couple of shelves with various gadgets on them, most of which Daniel had never seen before. After a quick look-over, the man reached out to grasp a blue pokégear with a flipscreen, showing it to Daniel. "Here we go, lad! It's got a phone, a map of the current area, a radio and a couple of other features. This newer version has a camera, but you can also have an earlier one without one. It's not that expensive in comparison though.
Daniel glanced at the price on the tag as he accepted the item from the man, looking it over with wide eyes. His parents might have had a lot of money, but he had never had anything quite as… techy, like this. The most advanced thing he had, had been a Wii, which had been fairly old at the time. The price wasn't all that bad, though… he certainly had the money, however little he wanted to spend money he hadn't earned himself.
Before he managed to ask the man about it however, Daniel noticed he was looking at him quite thoughtfully, causing him to blink in surprise and suddenly feel a bit uncomfortable. To answer his confused expression, the man rumbled out;
"Hrmh… actually, do you think you could help me and my wife with a problem we've had for a while? I haven't had a lot of customers in here to ask for help, but you and your Raichu seem capable to handle the problem we're having."
Daniel raised his brows a little, glancing down at Alexis who was currently sniffing at a Pokéball lying in a bin among others. What was the harm in helping out an old man? And if anything, this made him feel better about spending his father's money. Daniel looked up at the man and nodded his head with a smile. "Sure thing! What do you need help with?" He figured it was just about moving some boxes or something. However, the man's worried expression changed his mind about that.
"See, the thing is… we've had some weird, random powercuts the last couple of days, but whenever I head into the basement to check up on the cables connecting to the power plant, it's as if something has been gnawing on them. I've been trying to patch it up, but whatever it is, always rips it apart and continues ruining the wires. I'm unsure of what to do."
Daniel nodded his head a couple of times. It was pretty certain that this was a Pokémon of some kind, but which one, he wasn't sure. Only one way to find out. "Alright, leave it to me and Alexis. We'll take care of it. Where's your basement?"
A few moments later, Daniel had been led to the back of the house, where the entrance to the basement was. The man had unlocked it and opened, leaving Daniel and Alexis to head downstairs. It was rather dark, and when Daniel turned on the lights, it spluttered for a moment, before turning on, barely. He squinted, looking around the room, before eyeing the chewed-up cable, running along the back wall of the basement, from underground, and sure enough, there was a big hole in the middle of the cable.
"Hrmh… so obviously, the Pokémon likes chewing on wires… electrical ones, specifically. So it's probably an electric Pokémon." Scratching his cheek slightly, he glanced down at Alexis thoughtfully, who seemed to be moving over to the cables to have a look at them. "… He said he locked the basement every day after going out of it, so either the Pokémon has a way of getting in here… or it lives here."
"Alright Alexis, I have an idea. Hit the cables with a jolt of lightning. Not too much, don't want to fry anything… but give it a jolt!"
"Rai!" Alexis glanced over her shoulder at Daniel and nodded, looking back. She stepped a little backwards, standing on all four, before shooting a jolt of electricity onto the wires. The light in the lamp suddenly intensified a little before calming down again. It didn't seem to have caused any damage.
Daniel stood still for a few moments, waiting, hoping that his plan would have succeeded. If the Pokémon feasted on electricity, this would seem like quite a large meal to it. And just as Daniel was about to tell Alexis to try again, something moved, behind a couple of crates.
What looked like a Spinarak of some sort, came crawling out from behind a box, peering around curiously, though a little held-back. It was yellow, and it had odd, blueclaws and mandibles. It was, perhaps, only a few inches bigger than his hand, in total. It was a kind of spider, alright, but Daniel had only ever seen one of these before. His eyes widened. "… A Joltik!"
The little Pokémon startled at his voice and quickly skittered back behind the crates. "Alexis, Brick Break! Don't let it get away!" "Ch-ai!"
Leaping forwards, Alexis smacked the empty cardboard box aside, leaving the spider Pokémon completely vulnerable to attacks. It cried out a "Tiiiik!" before Alexis' paw slammed it in the side of the head and sent it tumbling to the side. It swiftly got up however, now looking rather determined. "Jolt!"
"Alright, it's on you little buggy bastard…" Daniel grinned. Before being able to shout another command, the Joltik spread it's mandibles and spat out a yellow thread, which quickly erupted into an entire net. As it hit Alexis, it only covered her head and didn't pin her to the ground. However, the net seemed to be electrified, sending jolts through the Raichu.
Alexis, however, seemed completely unphased by this. In fact, she seemed to be huffing out, narrowing her eyes while shaking herself to remove the net. "Hah, looks like it doesn't know what you can do, Alexis! Show him exactly what that is!" The Raichu's tailed raised into the air as electricity began coursing through her body, the Joltik suddenly looking a little meek. "J-jil…?"
"Alexis, Thunderbolt!"
"Chaaaai!" she cried out as the bolt of electricity burst forwards and slammed straight into the little insect, electrocuting it for a few moments. After a little while, it got to it's 'feet' again, seeming ready to attack. However, as it was going to, it froze, twitching with electricity running along it's back. It was paralyzed!
This was the perfect moment. Daniel's eyes widened as he realized what he had already planned to do, simply without knowing it himself. After a few moments of contemplating, he shook the doubts out of his mind and reached to his belt, pulling out a Pokéball, enlarging it. "… Alright Joltik, you're mine!" he exclaimed, as he threw the ball, hitting the creature, sucking it inside of it.
Daniel stood breathlessly and watched, as the ball wobbled a few times before letting out a faint "Ding". Daniel let out a relieved laugh and pumped his hands into the sky, Alexis sniffing the ball somewhat. "Yes! I caught my first Pokémon! Oh wow… I really did it! Alexis, you were –amazing- out there." He said, grinning broadly as he stepped over to collect the ball, leaning down to ruffle her head. She smiled up at him, happy for him, and for the attention. "Chhhuuuu~"
"I'll decide on a name for you later… for now, I've got to get my Pokégear."
A few moments later, he was back in the shop with a bright smile shot to the waiting shopkeeper, and the tale of what had happened was quickly told. The man chuckled and shook his head. "A Joltik? I should have known… well, in any case, you have my thanks. I've prepared a gear for you while you were down there. Figured you might like one in yellow." He said with a knowing wink. Daniel snickered quietly.
"There was, however, something I wanted to give you as a thank you for helping me out… see, our grandson sent us something that we… can't really take care of. We were going to take it to the daycare, but…" he shrugged a little, turning around to move into the back office, fiddling around a little before coming back with an egg, placing it on the desk.
Daniel's eyes widened a little as he looked up at the man. "W-whoa, you're giving me a Pokémon egg? Your –grandson's- Pokémon egg?"
The man nodded, smiling warmly down at Daniel's surprised expression. "Yes, well… we're not exactly fit to take care of a baby Pokémon, what with the shop and all… but you've helped us out, and you seem to be a pretty nice boy, so… yeah. Go ahead, have it. A gift from me, to you."
Daniel looked at the egg again, seriously considering of simply saying no and walking out after buying the gear, but there was something about the man that made Daniel really happy. He reminded him of his grandfather, he thought, the little he could remember of him. Normally, Daniel hated taking gifts, but this was different. He had helped him, and he was helping him in return.
He picked up the egg, stroking over it's surface for a moment before smiling warmly and nodding up at the man. "Thank you."
A few moments later, he had paid for the gear and was now standing in the fading sunshine of the afternoon with an egg in his grasp and Alexis looking up at it curiously. He smiled warmly, looking left and right, down the streets. He figured he should go to a Pokémon center and heal up the new part of his team, and then get to know him. So he started moving down the street, looking for a Pokémon center.