Chapter II
By Cloudburst
2

I took a step into the room and looked around. The whole place was spotless and about as big as my bedroom, which isn’t that big, only 11’ by 12’. It was entirely white except for the other furniture. Metallic cabinets hung over an equal amount of surprisingly ebony cabinets below them with the bottom row covered by a metallic countertop. This décor on my direct left was mirrored to my right. Directly across from me was a bare wall with a high-up narrow, horizontal window. In the middle of the room sat one bare silver metallic table with a shelf under it that was interconnected between the legs.

“I have other errands to run, so if you need anything, just hit that white button over there,” he pointed to a creamy white switch-cover that held a square button instead of the usual light switch, “somebody will be here immediately to help you.”

With a whirl, he swung the door closed, pushing Charmeasle into the room with it, as it slammed shut with a Thud!

I stared down at the now very unhappy lizard. We stood there for awhile, me looking at it and it looking at me.

A minute passed.

Suddenly, without a thought, I stuck my tongue out at the little weasel and walked over towards the window. Sitting about a yard away from the wall, I shifted my duffel bag off my shoulder and plopped it on the floor closer to the widow. I myself leaned against the ebony floor cabinets.

Twisting my back to the bugger, I extracted the art box, or starter kit thing-y, from my bag. Opening it up, I brought it onto my lap when I leant back against the doors. I shifted around inside it before a dull plastic-y oblong shape caught my eye. Pulling it out, I found it to be the much sought after pokedex. Grappling along it, I gently pushed the side farthest from the crack in it. Slowly, the cover lifted and…

PING!

Startled, my gaze shot up from the device in confusion, randomly searching about the room. To my surprise, I found Charmeasle eyeing me curiously until it realized I was watching it now. In a sniff, it shoved its muzzle in the air and crossed its teeny-tiny arms.

I rolled my eyes. This was becoming kinda habitual.

“Well Charmeasle, you can do whatever you want for now. But let’s get one thing straight: like it or not, I’m your trainer now, and you’re just gonna hafta listen to me from now on. So until you’re ready to cooperate, we’ll be stuck here; in this one room; for as long as it takes.”

It lowered its nose and huffed at me slowly, its eyes more narrowed than before, “Chaaahr-maaahnnn-dehrrr.”

“Huh?” I lifted my eyebrow at its antics.

“Char, Chaaaaaaahrrrrr-mmaaaaaaaahnnnnn-ddehrrrrr.”

Flicking a blond bang out of in front of my eye, I stared at it in wonder. It could speak. Of course it could speak, but it only spoke its name so…

“Oh!! Your name is Chuhrmandahr!” It shook its head exasperatedly.

“Chaaaaaaahhhhhr-man-deeeehhhhhr.”

“Charmunder?” Again, a shake of the head.

“Hmm…all righty then,” I sounded it out in my head, “Chahrmahndehr?”

It let out a puff of smoke and turned around to explore the room.

“I guess I got that one right,” I murmured under my breath as I turned once again to the pokedex. Inwardly I smiled; my first pokemon’s name is Chahrmahndehr. We’d made some progress. I think.

Sinking back into the woodwork, I began experimenting with my new toy. After a few seconds, I came across the information section and began filling it out. I really didn’t want to, but if I didn’t the stupid thing wouldn’t let me access the rest of the programs.

I shrugged my shoulder.

*****

Name: Apolline Geyitey.

Weight: lb.

*****

Here I paused and eyed the machine carefully, scrolling back up to the top of the window to find out what exactly it wanted with my weight. Slowly rereading it, I found that height, weight, and eye and hair color was irrelevant, just optional. Smiling once again, I scrolled down to where I was and happily skipped the weight question. I wasn’t about to go back and redo the other ones. I was too lazy.

*****

Hometown: Pallet Town.

anyway.

*****

Done! Pushing the yellow arrow next to the rectangular screen, I waited impatiently for the real menu of the pokedex to pop up.

“INVALID!!”

I dropped the dex back into my bag as my head jolted up, alert. Where the heck were these noises coming from??

In my frightened awakening, I caught sight of Charmander plummeting to the tiled floor of the room. I blinked at it in succession until it dawned on me; it had been climbing the cabinets. The corner of my mouth upturned and I giggled.

It lay on its back, its pure green eyes as wide as saucers.

“Serves you right. You shouldn’t go snooping around in other people’s stuff,” I shook my head with a disappointed look upon my face, like a reprimanding teacher.

Slowly, it turned its head towards me and blinked. A second later and what had just happened sank in to its tiny brain. It tried to jump back up, but ended up only reaching a sitting position before the pain kicked in. It shifted its clawed paw to the back of its skull and tentatively rubbed it. Its tail waved back and forth wobbly.

Sighing, I checked the kit again and pulled out a white bag with the words “Instant Ice” on it beneath a picture of a white seal with a horn on its head. I crunched it in my hands until it felt cold and then set it on the floor. I gave it a push and it slid over to land at Charmander’s hip.

“Chaahr?” It looked at it to me suspiciously.

I shook my head and made some motions, putting my hand on the ground and then picking it up. I placed my hand on the back of my head, where it hit its head, and made a painful face that melted into a relieved breath. It stayed put, glaring at me through two slits.

I shrugged and shook my head up at the ceiling. Turning back to the problem at hand.

The small screen read “INVALID DATA.” What the heck did it mean “invalid data?” I punched in personal information, nothing could be wrong with who I am! What did this stupid thing think it was? Mr. Know-it-all?

A second later and a new message blinked onto the dex: “No such pokemon. Check numerical list for correct starter.”

Oooo. I was just about ready to throw that stupid oval across the room. I couldn’t access the rest of the dex without filling out this part first! Letting out a deep breath through clenched teeth, I jabbed random buttons until the original questionnaire reappeared.

I eyed it angrily.

*****

Pokemon:

Try Charmander Charmeleon or Charizard.

*****

Oh. I just misspelled Charmander’s name. Cooling down quite a bit, I typed in the first name in the list. I didn’t know what the other one’s were, but maybe when I finished this I could actually find out. Geez, these things need more punctuation marks, I thought as I typed in the correct spelling.

Well, we spent the next few hours like this, me playing around with the dex to figure out how it worked. And, well, Charmander still ignoring me and pretending to be more interested in the room. It had explored the whole place in the first hour.

I had successfully discovered the pokemon catalog, identifying the two pokemon I had seen earlier as Bulbasaur (the greenish reptilian) and Eevee (the furry fluff ball). I also came across an analyze command, but all the stupid thing told me was that Charmander was a cute, lizard-like pokemon, with more attack power…yadda-yadda-yadda. Why would I care if it was cute or not? I just wanted to know its level, attacks, and, well, gender. Oh well.

Now, even I was bored. If only Charmander would just listen to me. I breathed out heavily through my nose and then forced my sleeping legs to stand.

Charmander turned around at this from its “inspection” of the leg of the metal table. I ignored it and walked over to the door. I reached out to touch the knob and…

“AAAHHHHH!! HOT-HOT-HOT-HOT!!!!!” I jumped back and clutched my poor hand as it turned a bright shade of red. This was a fireproof room! The door shouldn’t feel hot!

I cringed as my finger tried to move and a searing pain ran up my arm. My vision blurred as my eyes grew teary from the shock of being burned.

Blinking rapidly, I managed to make out the ice pack on the floor where Charmander had left it. Slowly, I reached down with my good left hand and snatched it up. I carefully placed it on my right hand, cringing each time I applied more pressure. Still, the feeling of coolness rushed into my burning hand, soothing the sensation.

In doing so, my vision cleared immediately. Using my arm to wipe the streaks left by the tears trailing down my face, I eyed Charmander. It stood calmly near the table; once again back to its “inspection”. Too calm. It didn’t even bear a smirk on its face. At least I think it didn’t. Geez, I could barely see things through this thick fog. Wait a second…thick fog? Where did that come from?

I tore my gaze from the surprisingly placid Charmander and traced the outline of the room. Or at least I tried. The upper half of the room, from the top of the hung cabinets to the ceiling, a black smoke curled in puffs. It was swiftly expanding downwards, towards us.

Apparently there must be some air-vents above the cabinets that I had missed before. Either way, something was on fire and it was near to us. The room may have been fireproof, but it wasn’t smoke proof. We’d die from carbon monoxide poisoning within seconds. I turned back towards Charmander frantically. It still stood calmly next to the table. Hold that, it was breathing in deeply. That’s right! It’s a fire type! It’d survive this, I just wouldn’t.

“Aargh!” Spinning around, I grunted in frustration. I needed to get out of here. The smoke would probably fill the entire room within the next ten seconds. By that time, I wouldn’t be able to see a thing.

“There’s got to be a way out of here somewhere,” I mumbled to myself, dropping to my knees. Now with a bit more visibility, I wobbled about the room on my knees. My jeans would probably wear through at my knees by the time I got out of here, but that’s not what I was thinking about. Foremost on my mind was a way out of here!

“Okay,” I took a deep breath, steadying myself, “think, Apolline. Think. There must be some way out of this room, fireproof or not! The cabinets? Don’t be stupid! All right, the air-vents?” My gaze fell on Charmander.

“Aargh! If you’re not going to be any help,” I reached over to my duffel bag and snatched up the shiny red and white sphere lying on top of it, “then...Return!”

I turned away; concentrating again as the fire type was recalled. I clutched the ball in my good hand angrily; “…that leaves the windows. Will I even fit through those things?” They looked so narrow from down here.

“No time to think!” I shoved Charmander’s poke ball into the very bottom of the fading duffel bag and zipped it shut zealously. Ignoring the throbbing pain in my hand, I crawled on my hands and knees, trailing my left hand along where the cabinets once were. The smoke now was a thick curly black mess, obstructing all view. Reaching the wall, I felt my way up the cool surface of the ebony doors to the touch of warming metal.

Shaking my head, I managed to pull myself up, heaving when I got on top. The monoxide was beginning to increase, eating the oxygen. Taking a gulp, I pushed myself up and stood precariously on the countertop. I didn’t stop to think about not hitting my head on anything.

Digging my nails into the wall, but not piercing it, I calmed myself a tidbit. A lighter smoke floated here, enabling me to figure out that I must be somewhere near the window. I let go of the wall with one hand and pressed my burnt palm against the cool feel of an icy windowpane. Inhaling only to start hacking, I took my hand off the glass and pulled my bag off me. Teetering back a bit, I thrust the bag forward with a great force of pent-up anger.

“O-eheheh-pehehehn-eheh!” I broke off in a fit of coughing. When it stopped, I felt a bit lighter. Both in my head and physically. The gas was getting to me, but the heave had shattered the window.

Using my left hand, I reached up and got a good grip on the broken surface. Thankfully, the force had been enough to carry all the glass with the bag, leaving nothing on the ledge.

Coughing again, my eyes watered again as I put my other hand up. Jumping and kicking, I managed to get the ledge under my armpits. Feeling the blast of cool air, I stopped for awhile and inhaled deeply, nearly knocking myself back in to the smoke-filled room.

With my arms dangling outside in the freezing air, I began scratching the siding of the building in order to steady myself, even if it was only for a brief time. In this elapse, I kicked some more and managed to raise myself onto my stomach. Ooh, this is killer on my poor out of shape body. Waving my legs about again, I felt them hit something solid directly behind me. Instinctively going back to those times swimming in an in-the-ground swimming pool, I pushed against the surface with all my leftover strength.

“Whoaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!” I felt the building depart beneath me. Through salty tears, I plummeted through the air. Having just enough sense left in my oxygen deprived brain; I curled into a ball.

Thank God it was just enough for me to plunk into the snow on my back, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”

A flash of pain zoomed through my body. Instantly, all sound stopped. My vision became a fuzzy television screen. Then blackness.