12 Oak Family (1/2)
While Blue was taking of some police officers who had arrived because of all the ruckus the children created few minutes ago, Khali and Arthur stood there frozen still and couldn't over the fact that ...
”Did he say Blue ...”, Khali began, his mouth wide open,
”... Oak?”, Arthur finished the sentence, his eye-brows furrowed and his face filled with confusion.
Both boys were at first astonished hearing this news all of sudden, but then their reactions changed and both focused on different things:
”WHAAAAAAAT!?!?!?! That was Blue Oak?! OMG! Was that really Blue awesome Oak, the greatest Gym Leader of all time and the pride of Viridan City?!?! Shit, I can't believe a legend just talked to me ...,”, Khali caused a small uproar, excitement radiating out from his body and soul.
”Hmm, Blue Oak ... did you also see his missing limb? Are you sure that's him?”, Arthur had a vague understanding of Blue, maybe because his memories hadn't recovered fully. He could faintly remember he was the grand-child of Samuel Oak, commonly known as Professor Oak. But somehow he didn't expect to be ... this old. And also missing a limb.
”Of course that's him! Why shouldn't he be! I mean he has his own real butler! As for that limb, there a various rumours like for example that ...”, as Khali was about to continue explaining something shocking crossed his mind. His face instantly turned pale and he gained a horrified expression suddenly.
”What's wrong with you?”, Arthur asked concerned.
”Tha-that was Blue Oak, the second greatest Trainer of all time, and I almost hit him with my attack! I attacked a hero of the Great War and involved him in an accident, shit, MY LIFE IS OVER NOW!”
Arthur didn't get it:
”Why is your life over, he seemed fine as far I saw him.”
”Damned, easy for you to say, he saved your life after all, twice already! I endangered his instead! And what about the first impression, now he will think I am rowdy or delinquent! How can I ever face him again uuuuuurgh.”, Khali's eyes became distant and passive, stuck in his own depressed bubble.
”Shzzzz-shzzz!”
His Spinarak crawled all over his body in an attempt to rais up his mood but Khali didn't respond at all.
At the same time Arthur saw his old pal Mr.Nyao walking in his direction. It looked embarrassed onto the ground and Arthur's expression turned pale suddenly:
”Damned! How could I forget!”, the reason he was actually here to begin with, he had pushed all thoughts aside after being put into a dangerous situation and then being saved by a famous person.
Everything happened so quickly that he never thought about what he should do instead.
His mother's Glameow was fast but the wild Sniebel was even faster. Mr.Nyao also didn't have the strength necessary to overpower or only stall that cunning Pokemon in a wide open area like the city.
However, in the end it was mainly Arthur's failure to arrive punctually at their rendezvous point to blame that they weren't able to achieve this objective.
Arthur didn't put faults at Mr.Nyao and apologized for his mistakes instead.
He shortly explained the situation he was currently in to his partner and with a combination of gestures and mimics Mr.Nyao got the gist of it. It decided to rest for now and go back home first. Or that's what Arthur expected it to do if it really understood what he had tried to convey. How do Pokemon understand and see the world, and do they really understand human language?
With a slight sigh he turned his attention back to Khali. The Sniebel problem needed to be taken care of later.
Arthur didn't know how to help his friend for now, but seeing that the butler was patiently waiting further away next a black car, he pulled Khali forward to get moving.
”What happened to ths young man?”, Alfred asked worried.
”Nothing ha-ha-ha, that's just a game he sometimes plays, nothing serious really.”, Arthur didn't want to elaborate and shoved Khali into the backseats hurriedly to avoid this topic.
The car drove off away from the central square and moved north-east towards the more rural areas. After about 20 minutes the landscape changed sligthly and there were less shops or buildings nearby. Instead they entered a forested area cut through by one cemented road.
Arthur pulled on Khali's sleeve and finally asked:
”Hey, could you tell me now what you were doing just then? How did you get yourselves into trouble in the first place?”, he was quite curious about since the incident started.
”*Sigh* Love at first sight, but a path full of thorns Arthur. The moment my eyes fell upon her fiery lava like -”
THWACK
Arthur gave him a small slap on the back of his head, just in case Khali hadn't recovered from his shocked state.
”Aiaiai, didn't remember you were this brutal my friend. The thing is like that, I walked down the mall, I just came back from the work on the Berry fields. I then saw her suddenly and our eyes met like we were destin-”
THWACK
”Autsch, we stared at each other for several seconds and-”
”It wasn't just you staring at her like a creep and after a while she noticed your presence and got frightened?”, Arthur asked suspicious.
”No, no, no. Of course, I am a gentleman. It was mutual! Well, I had this feeling we knew each other, I definetly had it and I am 100% sure she did as well! Maybe we were lovers from a past life reincar-”
THWACK
”Broo, you're giving me headaches man!”, Khali whined a little,
”We alolans embrace the path of peace and serenity. You should embrace that culture as well if you don't want to end up as a delinquent.”
”Who was the one who started a fight in the middle of the city because of a notion about a past life, huh?”
”Me and fighting? No, amigo, you got this wrong. This was like a greeting! She said hello and sent her Eevee to deliver that message, I responded in kind with my Spinarak! That's how people meet each other nowadays.”
”Shhzzzzz!”, the Spinarak on Khali's legs supported him cheerfully.
Arthur kept sending him weird glances, but decided to let that matter rest for now.
”Ahh, I forgot to introduce you to my partner in crime. This is Webster, my first Pokemon Partner!”
Arthur took a closer look at the Spinarak now that the situation had calmed down. It looked small and green, the size of a backpack, and had darker patterns on its back. It was a little hairy on the surface of its body and had six small yellowish claws attached to it as well as two reddish mandibles at the sides of its mouth. It looked curiously at Arthur.
”Ehh, hello ... Webster?”
”Shhz-Shzzzz!”, it responded happily. It then jumped up all of a sudden and climbed onto Arthur's body! Arthur didn't expect this kind of assault on him so suddenly and just sat there like a block of ice, frightened.
”Hahaha, man sorry, I should have warned you! He is quite mischivious and likes to climb around places and sometimes even people. I think he likes you!”
Arthur didn't know if he should be happy or scared. It felt like a mix of both to him. But he didn't sense any hostile intentions from Webster so he got used to it quickly. That was also the very first time he had this close contact to a Pokemon.
It didn't hurt all, but he felt Webster's claws exerting some kind of pressure on different places on his body to stay stuck on him.
”That's enough Webster, come back now!”, Khali said after which Webster obeyed and jumped onto his shoulder.
Then they talked about mundane things in life and Arthur came to know more about his friend Khali. His father was an engineer and an expat who came from Alola to work in Kanto. There he met his mother and they seemed to have a harmonious relationship even though she was often away on business trips herself.
His father's wish was for Khali to have an Alolan Pokemon as his first one on his tenth birthday, and his mother wanted it to be a poison type Pokemon because of 'Family Traditions'. To the dismay of his father, Khali didn't like any poison type Pokemon found in Alola, and instead chose his Spinarak Webster he found by accident when strolling in the forest. His father accepted it reluctantly but made him promise that at least one of his future teammates should be from Alola.
Khali's family seemed to be quite well-off Arthur noticed. Not every family could afford to import Pokemon from the faraway region of Alola, considering the different climate, humidity, temperature or air pressure in Kanto it might have taken considerable resources to make the Pokemon acclimate properly.
He had read that there were sometimes similar Pokemon one could find in Kanto or Alola but because of the distinctive environmental conditions in each region the Pokemon got used to, they also had troubles to live in an environment foreign to them for an extended period of time without sufficient training and conditioning. This phenomenon was known as 'Home Bias'.
And when disregarding these factors, there were also costly administrative regulation issues involved. Some Pokemon were exclusively found in specific regions and could only be owned by those citizens in said regions which made these regions popular and increased tourism of course. Another problem was that no region or country was interested in exchanging the Pokemon that were native to them with any foreign species of Pokemon. Rattatta for example could be found in almost any part of the world. Those creatures reproduced themselves really quickly and only needed small amounts of food and rations to survive and make offsprings.