“Hello and welcome to the wide world of Poke’mon”. Just a little disclaimer here: while Poke’mon, Ruroni Kenshin, and their characters aren’t copyrighted to me, characters such as “Landon” and “Zeru” are. In this story, you’ll join our young hero, Landon, in his epic and unusual journey in the world of Poke’mon. Equipped with a magical bell, he and his friends must stare down the face of evil, win every challenge, make new friends, and claw their way to the top. But can they stop the ultimate evil that threatens their world? There are many twists and surprises, so you have to keep reading if you really want to “Catch ‘em all!” in:

 

                                      Poke’mon X

 

       (Previously on Poke’mon X, our heroes had saved a group of Numel and have yet another encounter with those strange Poke’mon possessing dark auras. What could these strange up-coming events be leading to? And when is Landon going to get to the next gym?) “As soon as I get something to eat!” Landon wailed at the narrator, clutching his stomach. He, May, and Zeru trudged along the red pathway of Mt. Chimney, holding their stomachs. Bayleef did her best to keep up with her trainer. Her eyes wandered along the ground and her head leaf drooped as her sensitive belly gave a rumble. “Bay…” She sighed. Toya, Phanpy, and Phealine gave up on walking all together and traveled on their trainers’ shoulders. The group had been hoping that they would’ve run into that “famous” restaurant by now. “Maybe that restaurant is famous for being hard to find.” Zeru suggested. “I’d agree with that.” Landon said with absolutely no enthusiasm. Since it was such a long way from the cave exit, they could either starve searching for the restaurant, or they could starve searching for a way out. Either way, the outcome didn’t seem pretty good. “Poor Phealine,” May looked at her kitten Poke’mon; she seemed so lifeless and her usual peppiness had been drained. “Phea…” Her ears drooped. BLUBLUBLU! Suddenly, everyone’s stomach gave a loud rumble and they stopped in their tracks, sweating anime style. “Oh-man; I need to fill my gut now!” Landon exclaimed. “Bay!” Pfthp! Bayleef plopped to the ground. She let her head leaf droop fully and panted a little form her rumbling stomach. “Bayleef! Are you okay?” Landon knelt down to his Poke’mon, giving her a look of concern. “Bay-bay, bay-ee,” Bayleef said. “Don’t worry abut it.” It wasn’t really strange, but Bayleef still hadn’t suspected it; Landon drew her into his arms and positioned her securely so that her back her back was against his stomach (she’d be too heavy to carry otherwise). With a quick heave, he got to his feet and started forward. “Let’s keep going.” He said with a hint of determination. May and Zeru looked to each other, blinked, then followed. Bayleef had never known Landon to carry her and it felt kind of awkward. Still, nonetheless, she let her body relax completely. Landon held her closer to make sure she didn’t fall.

       They continued to walk down the rocky corridor in hopes of finding something to eat. The Zubat slept peacefully over head. Not once were they stirred or awaken by the kids’ footsteps. “….huh?” Landon looked up from the floor. Just a little ways away up ahead, a Japanese-style building sat against the rocky red walls. The green roof and red body structure caused it to blend in with the mountain surrounded. Landon closed his eyes for a minute before opening them again. “It is real……..we made it!” “Hey, guys, look at that!” He said to his friends. May, Zeru, and the Poke’mon looked up from the ground. Once they beheld the sight of the Chimney shack, their tired expression faded into looks of bliss. “It’s the Chimney Shack!” “We’re finally here!” “Mudkip!” “Phan-py!” “Phea!” “Bay!” They all exclaimed. “Then what’re we standin’ here for? I’m hungry now!” Landon dashed forward without a second thought. Bayleef’s head leaf went straight up and started to let out a sweet-smelling aroma to show Landon her appreciation. Landon smiled, but was too focused on getting to his stomach’s aid to speak.

 

                    Theme Song: Pocket Monsters X(treme)

Running at

The speed of sound

What adventures can be found?

Traveling the world all around

As fate just spins it upside-down

Little monsters

Everywhere

Find a new one and I’m there

Victory is just for fun

There’s no stoppin’ till I’m number one

 

Crys-tal,

Clear, and Shadow

Three lights—

That fight the way

Protect those legendary

Is my destiny!

 

Poke’mon X

(Poke’mon X)

Leading the way

Is my sweet victory

Poke’mon X

(Poke’mon X)

A mystery

Behind each one we see

 

Poke’—mon X

(Ex—Ex)

This journey I’ll run

Has only begun!!

 

                          Episode 31: “Table for a Hundred”

       However, when the kids finally caught up to the building, they didn’t expect to be greeted in such a way.  The lights inside were all out, allowing the scarce bit of light flow in. No sound came from it as there were no people around. There was no closed sign on the door, so it wasn’t safe to assume they closed for the day. Landon, Bayleef, and Toya didn’t allow themselves to think like that. “It….sounds like nobody’s home.” May blinked. “Maybe the chef or the restaurant owner is just napping.” “Or maybe the owner decided to skip out.” “ZERU!” May and Landon shouted and Zeru sweated anime style. “Okay, okay; bad time to joke.” “Well I don’t think Bayleef and Toya can take it anymore. I’m going in!” Landon marched up towards the door. May and Zeru gave him a disbelieving look, sweating anime style. “Bayleef and Toya?” Zeru blinked. “Isn’t strange how he so conveniently left himself out that short little speech?” May added. Landon held Bayleef tightly with one arm and pushed the door open with his free hand. After a quick look inside, he motioned for his friends to follow. Just as Zeru had thought, the entire place was quiet and vacant. The tables and booths were decorated with a blue and white that looked like the sky. The tiles of the floor were painted elegantly to resemble the sun setting in the ocean. Elegant chandeliers hung all over the circling in colors of lonely gold and silver. On the northern wall of the vast room lay a long, sparking counter. A menu was hung on the wall behind it next to a door with a porthole on it.

       “Bay….” Bayleef looked around for signs of anyone who could be hiding. “Hello?” May called. The restaurant answered back to her with its dead silence. Landon started to wander around. “Excuse me, sir or ma’am, but we’d like to place an order!” Still, silence remained. He wandered around the counter while his friends searched the booths. Everything looked so untouched, he even wondered if anyone had been inside at all. “Mudkip, mud,” Toya tapped Landon and pointed to the door with another port hole. “Good idea,” Landon nodded to her. He slowly pushed the door open and marveled at what he witnessed; never before had he seen a kitchen of such splendor. The walls were aligned with top-notch pots and pans. Every utensil had its own spot and was practically brand new. On one wall were tons of white and pink aprons. Just by looking at it, Landon could tell that the kitchen was fully stocked with all sorts of ingredients. “Awww….if the owner isn’t here, there’s no one to cook for us.” May folded her arms. At the sound of that, everyone’s stomach gave a disapproving lurch. “…..Maybe not….” Landon scratched his head. “What do you mean?” May and Zeru walked up to him and peered into inside the kitchen. Even Zeru couldn’t help but marvel at the beautiful kitchen before him. “Wow….” He marveled. “This is a pretty heat setup…fancy kitchen for a fancy restaurant.” May stated. A grin spread on Landon’s face as an idea formed in his head. “Right…..okay, then!” He thrust his free fist into the air. Without warning, he started to shove May and Zeru away form the kitchen. “Okay, break it up; I can’t work with people watching over my back. So what I want you to do is sit back and let me run this show.” “Hey, what’re you doing?” “Quit shoving!” Landon pushed them all the way into a booth and smiled at them. It would be a shame to let such a good kitchen go to waste. And besides, he and his friends wouldn’t be able to go on without anything to eat. “I’ll be able to test my cooking skills and have fun at the same time!” He thought to himself. Still keeping his smile Landon skipped off across the room and into the kitchen.

 

       Landon set Bayleef on the ground and started to massage her head. Bayleef smiled blissfully with her tail wagging. “Baayyyy,” Landon did the same with Toya, who smiled just as well before he set her down. “Don’t’ worry, girls; you won’t be hungry for too much longer. Do you want to help me cook?” He asked them. “Bay!” “Kip!” His Poke’mon responded eagerly. “Then let’s get al our friends to help.” Landon pulled the poke’balls from his belt and let them drop to the ground; they burst open in a flash of light, revealing his Poke’mon. “Fur…ur!” “Vulpix!” “Trapinch!” “Rai-ai!” They exclaimed. Landon grinned at them and started towards one of the walls. “Ready, everyone? Here-you-go!” There was a rustle of fabric as Landon tossed a bunch of pink aprons and two blue aprons in the air; as they came down, he caught the first pink one and smallest one an ties it about Toya to cover her from neck to stomach. One by one, he caught the aprons and put them on his Poke’mon. The last two blue ones he slapped on himself and Raichu. Landon walked over to the sink and turned on the water. “Let’s wash our paws and hands so we can cook a masterpiece.” “Yah!” The Poke’mon exclaimed and started to crowd around the sink to wash up. “There’s enough supplies in here for us to make a feast. I’ll teach you how to make Datemaki, Yakisoba, and—for desert—ohagi and kuri kinton. We could even make hamburgers and cookies for a cultural clash!” Landon told them. To his surprise, his Poke’mon didn’t mind doing kitchen work. As a matter of fact, it seemed that his love for culinary arts rubbed off on them. He gave them a smile and stated, “Let the onslaught of food begin!

 

       Landon gingerly washed the ingredients to their food in the sink. Toya stood on the counter next to him, spraying the vegetables with a light version of her Water Gun attack. As the two continued to wash, they passed off the ingredients to the side counter. Tambourine stood over the carrots and cabbage with a grin. “….fuuurrreeettt!” She flashed her pin-sharp nails and swung through the air with mad speed. The vegetables for a few seconds before falling to tons of clean pieces. Proud of her first task, Tambourine retrieved a Japanese sweet potato and twirled it on one paw. She ran the nails of her other paw across it to dice it just for the sake of showing off. On the counter opposite of hers, Raichu stood on the countertop. It rummaged through the cabinet above for the seasoning and sauces Landon told it to retrieve. It separated the liquids from the powders and was sure to keep their order dish-oriented. There were silent clattering noises as Bayleef, Vulpix, and Trapinch ducked into the floor cabinets. Vulpix, who had traveled the farthest inside, would pass a pot to Trapinch, who would pass it off to Bayleef. Bayleef would then use her vine whip attack to set it on the counter above. As they continued to set up in the kitchen, May and Zeru sat at the booth quietly. May tinkered with her poke’dex while Zeru just looked out the window. “May…..if this place is so famous, why isn’t anyone here?” He asked, “As a matter of fact, why isn’t there anyone even walking out there?” “I don’t know. Maybe they know something that we don’t.” May said without looking up. Their stomachs gave a loud rumble and they suddenly hugged their guts, sweating anime style. “I hope whatever Lan’s doing, he does it fast.” May let her head rest on the table. Phanpy and Phealine slid off their trainers’ shoulders and onto the cold table. Their stomachs growled just a hungrily. “Phan….” Phanpy let out a sigh. “Maybe I could try and sneak something out of the kitchen.” Zeru suggested. “Good luck getting past the hawk inside.” May replied.

       By now, more dramatic noises could be heard coming form the kitchen. As a matter of fact, they could hear rumbling and even crashing sounds behind the door. The clanging pots were loud enough to ring throughout the entire restaurant. “Not like that—you have to mix it thoroughly….no, Toya—don’t put the konbu there.” Landon’s vice sounded. The kitchen had become a zone of confusion and disorder. Landon was forced to chase his Poke’mon around and correct them at the same time. “Toya—wait; that’s salt, not sugar—” SPWEE! Toya poured a little more than half the bowl of salt into the bowl of cookie dough. “Fur-urr-urrr!” Tambourine’s voice trembled as she herself fought for balance. In her paws was a bowl of Azuki beans teetering along with her. “Hang on, Tambourine!” Landon dashed towards her from Toya’s counter; he dove to save her, but missed the bowl and allowed it to clatter down. Tons of Azuki beans went spilling all over the glimmering kitchen floor. “….Furret,” Tambourine let out a disappointed sigh, sweating anime style. “Well, at least it was the beans and not you.” Landon stated. “Raichu-Raichu!” Raichu exclaimed to Bayleef, who couldn’t’ stop stuffing her face with chocolate chips. [Translation: “Bayleef, if you keep eating the chocolate chips, there won’t be any left for the cookies!”] It told her. [“I can’t help it; they taste soo good!”] Bayleef replied, continuing to gobble the entire bag. [“But you can get a stomach ache if you eat too many too fast.”] [“You worry too much.”] She told it. “Whaaaa!” “Huh?” Everyone turned towards Landon; the Poke’mon watched their trainer slip and slide across the flors on the Azuki beans. His feet fought for balance and traction, but couldn’t find it in time. There was a rush of wind as he fell to the ground on his bottom. “Ooouch!” He winced. The bowl of rice that was in his hands soared across the air and spilled all over Raichu’s head. “Rai!” The mouse Poke’mon was forced to sit. The others stared at it for a moment, then burst into hysterical laughter. Toya was laughing so hard that she beat the counter with her paw. Raichu grinned at the room full of laughers; it securely allowed the tip of its long tail to slide underneath the spilled rice. It looked towards Tambourine with a flame sparking in its eyes. “……Raaiiiichuuu!” Without warning, it lifted its tail to launch a shot of irce. “Dah!” Tambourine ducked just in time for the warm rice to splat in Trapinch’s face. “….tra..pinch? Hmph!” Trapinch’s eyes narrowed competitively; she jumped onto the counter, reached into the bowl of cookie dough, and launched it back to the attacker. It didn’t’ take long for an entire food fight to break out in the kitchen. Landon couldn’t even move; he just sat in the middle of the kitchen without much word or expression. Yakisoba sauce and cookie dough soared through the air. Carrot bits, cabbage, and chestnuts rang out across each other in every direction. There was a loud smack as a konbu smacked Bayleef in the face. “Bay-eee!” She used her Vine Whip to launch an array of eggs at her friends. Splats and smacks sounded as the air filled with red ginger and Japanese seaweed. “Bay?” “Kip?” While the food fight raged behind them, they blinked at a small glass bottle on the counter. Inside was a clear liquid that was shaking a bit form the commotion. “….Mudkip?” Toya jumped up onto the counter and examined the bottle curiously. She prodded it once with her paw before prying the top off with her teeth. The two looked to each other and sniffed the bottle. “Eck!” They jumped back in revolt. Suddenly, a wad of cookie dough smacked Toya in the face. She retaliated with a Water Gun attack. “Vulpix-vulpix!” Vulpix, who had just attempted trying to cleanup, dragged a bit white bag of flour with her teeth. While she pulled it towards the counter, she was unaware of the fact that both Raichu and Tambourine rushing towards her. “Rai—!” “Fur—!” “Vul!” BANG! There was a sudden uproar of white as the flour bag burst open. Everyone came to a standstill; the entire kitchen became engulfed in a sea of white. Everyone’s entire form were covered from head o toe in pure flour. Lanon blinked so that his eyes were the only visible part of his body. He let them wander all around the snow-white kitchen area without saying a single word. Toya, Bayleef, Vulpix, Raichu, Tambourine, and Trapinch shook the flower off their bodies, though traces of it still remained on them. They gave his surprised look a shameful and sorry expression. The kitchen was a total mess and all they could only wait for was their trainer to explode. But instead, Landon just reached up to his har and pulled out some of the flower. “……heh!” He suddenly smirked. The sound alerted his Poke’mon, catching them a little by surprise. “…heh…heh—hahahaha! Ha-ha!” Landon suddenly burst into laughter. All of his Poke’mon blinked at each other in confusion. “Oh-wow; I completely forgot how much fun that was!” He exclaimed. It was kind of awkward, but his Poke’mon joined in the laughter anyway. After all, it was fun to beat each other up with food. “Now, let’s clean this up and full our stomachs, okay?” Landon brushed the flour from his hair. With a happy yelp, his Poke’mon dashed over to held dust the rest of his body off.

 

Fast Fact Quiz: Do you have a clue on why Landon’s weapon is called the “Fang Sword”? If you can’t guess, find out at the end of this Chapter!

 


THIS IS THE END OF PART 1.