An Overactive Imagination

By Arizima

Chapter Five

            AN: Okay, it's the chapter you've all been waiting for, yes, it's the start of the journey! *trumpet fanfare* Heh, sorry.

            Normal words  Narrative (It's all in Past Tense though)

            "Quotes"          Speech

            Carrots        Narrative Thought (Yes, the main character thinks in English. Most of the time.)

            For once in this crazy world, I was up with the sun; At least it wasn't much different from the real world. I sat down on a chair next to my bed, once I had gotten my glasses on, to watch it. After about thirty minutes, I felt that the most pretty part of the sunrise was over. I grabbed up my clothes and went to the bathroom to perform my morning grooming duties, then headed out to the living room.

" Well, you're up early," Professor Cypress said, glancing over at me and smiling.

" Yeah. When do the other trainers come over to get their Pokémon and stuff?" I asked.

" Well, it officially starts at eight o'clock, but half of them are going to be late anyway. It's…." she glanced at her watch. " Seven thirty right now. Say, can you help me with getting them all to the right place? Usually, Golduck helps, but with you here, I want to give him a break this year."

" Sure. After all, back where I come from, I'm known for cryin' out 'Can I help? Can I help?' Of course, they all found it annoying…." I said, grumbling out the last sentence. Professor Cypress laughed.

" Good. Well, all you have to do once you've had breakfast is go downstairs and stay near the elevator door, and usher them all in the doorway on their first left. Got that?" I nodded and began to eat my breakfast at a break-neck speed. Okay, not quite break-neck, but pretty fast. I hopped up from the table and went over to grab my backpack from my room, then headed out for the elevator. I pushed the down button and settled my backpack on my back with one hand while holding on to the handrail with the other. The doors slid open soon after I was settled, and I stepped out. I saw the door I was supposed to be doing immediately, and decided to check in there. It was about the size of my school cafeteria, with a raised stand part, some tables and chairs scatted about. On the wall above the raised portion, there was this long dispenser thing separated into three rectangular tubes stuck together in a row. The one on the left was colored green, the one in the middle was red, and the one on the right was blue. There was a large box sitting on a desk up on the raised area, too. I sighed, dragged a chair outside the room, and sat down. Suddenly, the elevator doors closed, and it started moving up. I stared at it and wondered what happened, then I realized that I was trapped down here! Oh, wait…. There was an "up" button over by where the doorway was. But still, anyone could go under the elevator and get squished. Suddenly, it came into a view again, and all I could see was a pink pair of… boot things. Soon the pink boot things became an entire girl. She had elbow length blonde hair, which was only a bit longer than mine, pulled back into a ponytail with a blue scrunchie. She had a white sleeveless shirt and a pair of those jeans that stop just above your ankle. The doors opened, and she got out, staring at me.

" Who are you? The coat check? Sorry, I don't have a coat." I glared at her.

" No, I am NOT the coat check. I'm gonna be a trainer, just like you. I'm helpin' out Professor Cypress by directin' your personhood inta this lovely doorway." She scowled at the sound of my voice, and I knew why. " If ya don't like my accent, ya don't have ta talk to me, okay? Just get yourself in this doorway." She scowled at me again, but stepped through. The elevator moved up; when it came down again, it was carrying a black-haired guy, a guy with dark green hair (I'm getting used to weird natural hair colors by now) and a brown-haired girl. They nodded at me kindly when I jabbed my thumb at the door.

Ah, there we go. Don't open your mouth and they'll like you. But that blonde girl talked to me first…. And so it repeated, the elevator going up, and coming back down with passengers. Eventually, Professor Cypress came down with a tiny red-headed girl about ten years old, and a big, burly late-teenage guy who looked like he was twice my weight. I looked him up and down; wide shoulders, small, hard head, tanned skin, dark auburn hair like mine, blue eyes. I didn't like the looks of him. Professor Cypress ushered the boy and girl in and nodded at me. I dragged my chair back in, and let the door close. Professor Cypress walked up to the raised stand portion of the room.

" Well, I'm sure everyone's eager to get started, so I won't call role, just do a head count. Is that alright with everyone?" There were murmurs of  "yes" and "yeah" and affirmative nods throughout that small mass of humanity that I was carefully keeping out of.

            " One, two, three, four…." Professor Cypress counted us, and nodded. " All eighteen are here, good. Well, the people who have gotten the highest score on the test will get their Pokémon and essential gear first. Chrissy *****!" I headed up to the stand.

            " Well, Chrissy, Burkey, Voilaef, or Otta?" she asked.

            " I think I'll take Burkey." Professor Cypress nodded and took the bottom Pokéball out of the red tube, and another one slid down to replace it. She handed me two shiny, plastic cards, five minimized Pokéballs, and a blue Pokédex. Then, I looked out and everyone was looking at me expectantly.

            " Bow," Professor Cypress whispered.

            " Oh, right," I whispered back. I gave her a brief bow from my waist and looked out at the crowd of trainers again; everyone seemed satisfied. I left the stage.

            " Jeri Tekeran!" The blonde girl from before went up to the stage and chose an Otta.

            Tekeran? That's a weird name.

            " Eric Archer!" A boy went up, and the process continued on, until Professor Cypress called out,

            " Lynn Beyrly!"

            Hey, he's related to my former best friend! Wait, no, they're not pronounced the same, so they're probably not spelled the same. Lynn Beyrly turned out to be the teenage guy older than me.

            " I'll take Burkey, Professor," he said gruffly.

            " I'm sorry, Mr. Beyrly, but there are no Burkey left." A vein seemed to pop out of Lynn's forehead. You know those little red cross that anime people get when they're mad? Lynn had one of those.

            " Fine, I'll take Otta!" he practically shouted.

            " Alright, no need to yell, Mr. Byerly, here is your Otta." She handed him a Pokéball and the other stuff, and he set down off the stage, not even bowing. Half the crowd around me glared at him.

            " How dare he break with tradition!" I heard a voice behind me say.

            " Not only is he a jerk to us, but to Professor Cypress, too!"

            " That disrespectful bully!"

            " Before you leave, unfortunately, you must sign a short contract. It's basically saying that you won't sue for damages that another person's Pokémon does to your Pokémon, or damages that they do to you, because they're not accounted for that." She handed out pieces of paper and pens, and most of the kids around me just signed without thinking. I, however, read it over carefully. Well, it seemed okay. I signed my name and handed it back to Professor Cypress. Once she had them all, she put them back in the box where they had come from.

            " Good; if you hadn't signed them, your licenses would have been suspended until you had. Well, I think that's everything of importance. You may go now, but remember that…." I kind of zoned out at that point, and I was only dimly aware of her speech and people leaving around me.

            " Well, would you look at that. They left during my speech. How rude." She said, sounding slightly miffed. " Well, come on, you still need to get out there." I nodded, and we headed out to the elevator together. Eventually, when we got up to the top, Professor Cypress led me to the front hall.

            " Well, this is where I leave you. I wish you luck."

            " Thanks," I said before heading out. Suddenly, I was surrounded by a bunch of trainers and their starting Pokémon, talking and chatting and even a few battling. The Voilaef were kind of like a cross between badgers and dogs, with green fur and tall stalk things coming out of their ears and ending in spade-like shapes, covered in lots of tiny barbs. There were vine buds on their shoulder blades, and two vine buds became a sort of necklace, which there were a few single leaf on the front of its throat. The Otta were a lot simpler; they were simply a blue, cute otter with no back legs. I was excited, to say the least. Here, all these Pokémon I doodled on notebook paper, labeled, and colored, they were living, breathing creatures! I didn't bother to look around at the Burkey; I would look at my own. I got my Pokéball out of my chest pocket, and then the words came to me naturally— " Burkey, go!"

A beam of white light shot out of the orange-colored button and materialized into a monkey with red fur all over its body, except for its face which was about the tone of a tanned Caucasion person. It had mouse-like ears, and a single orange stripe across its shoulders. The tip of its prehensile tail was orange, and its hands and feet were more like paws, and were colored red, too. Its belly, however, was yellow. Over all, it was about a foot and a half tall.

            " Burkey bur bur?" It said, looking around confusedly.

Wow! I can't believe I get to do this! Those were the only English words I could get out of my garbled thought. I kneeled down to Burkey and offered it my hand.

" Hiya Burkey! I'm your trainer!" I said, not knowing what else to say. It looked up at me, grabbed my hand with its tiny paw, and sniffed it. Its face broke into a wide smile.

" Burkey bur, burkey key bur bur!" It said excitedly. Well, I had a few questions to ask my Burkey.

" Hey, Burkey, do ya understand English?" Burkey nodded. " Okay, are ya a boy or a girl? Hold up your left paw for boy, right paw for girl," I instructed. Burkey pondered for a moment, then held up its left paw. Okay, boy. " Wouldja like a nickname?" Burkey nodded again, and I became lost in thought. What to name him, what to name him…. Ah ha!

" How about Keahi?"

" Bur burkey!" he said happily.

" Ya like that name, huh? Okay, just a few more questions. Wouldja like it if I keptcha out a'* your Pokéball?" I had a theory that a Pokémon becomes more powerful if it's kept out of its Pokéball whenever possible.

" Burkey!" Keahi said with another affirmative nod.

" Okay, last question…. What attacks do you know?" I would normally know what attacks he had, but I was so happy at the moment that I had forgotten. Keahi put his paw on his chin in thought, then smiled. He scratched in the air with his tiny, cat-like claws, then ran up to sit on my lap and glared at me.

" BUR!"

" Scratch and Leer, huh?" I asked, affectionately scratching his head.

" Bur," he said happily. I pulled out my Pokédex—I wanted to see what it had to say.

" Burkey, the Fire Monkey Pokémon. Burkey is very playful, and sometimes accidentally starts brush or forest fires in its playing. They are usually very friendly and loyal to their trainers."

" That's all you're gonna tell me? Stupid Pokédex." I stuffed it back in my pocket, but there was still one nagging feeling at the back of my mind, that I had forgotten something. What was it? I looked down at Keahi, whose name had been Burkey just moments before. Oh yeah, that's it!

" Oh yeah, Keahi, my name is Chrissy. Can you say 'Chrissy'?"

" Key burkey!" Keahi cried happily. I laughed. This was like the ultimate sugar high, only better. I was a very happy person.

" Close enough. Let's go." I stood up, and Keahi climbed on top of my backpack, wrapping his tail around my shoulder. This was great! I reached back with my other arm to scratch him on the head again, then set out for Futir.

AN: Heh, sorry, it was getting long enough. Not as long as the past chapter, but longer than normal. Hope you liked it…. I cannot think of anything else to say, sorry.

* a' is "of" in North-Eastern Texan, at least in my experience. It is pronounced "ahw", as in "box a' water bottles." Just clearing up any confusion to what that word was, lol.

Disclaimer: Pokémon and all related insignia, except for the insignia I created, belong to their respective owners. Please, Nintendo and associated company people, do not sue me, for I am just having fun, and am not making any money. In fact, I am providing you with free advertising. Thank you ever so much for not putting my family in deeper financial trouble.

AN: Whoa, don't I sound just like little orphan Annie now? Yes, I'm lower-middle class, and the main source of our financial income is laid off right now, so… yeah. ~_~;;;

Claimer: Myself, and anything I created, belong to me and me alone. To use them, you must meet three requirements:

1: You ask my permission. (yakkety@hotmail.com)

2: You give me credit.

3: You make no money off of it. (Unless you're the Nintendo people, but then you have to give me a cut, hear? Lol   

:-P)

            I think that's it. See y'all! Bye! *waves until you either push the review button or close the window*