There’s many beasts whose form cannot be comprehended by the human eye.
Like a young boy, dipping his finger into a pond of Goldeen. They can’t see the boy — only his finger. And they probably think, “Wow, that’s a big creature.”
But they’re only seeing a fragment of the whole. The entire being is far larger than they think — and even if they were to attack that finger, to get the intruder away, all the boy needs to do is stick another finger in.
I imagine, to these beasts, we are only Goldeen. Unlike a Goldeen, however...
...I doubt we are prepared to see its true form.
Such rumours were spread all about the region of Kanto. It was no simple matter of children’s stories, some could believe — to a few select people, horrible eldritch abominations lurked just beyond the veil of ‘normalcy.’ Their existence was never meant to be, and such things were never meant to be understood — and such things, they say, are exclusive to the Kanto region.
To the select few who believed them, they searched day and night for these horrific beasts — in order to capture one for themselves.
Grant Redwood was one of these people.
...A new day in Celadon City brought with it the awakening of a young boy, hardly a month over 16. The very moment his blue eyes blinked open, he found himself full of life — untangling himself from his sheets, and kicking them off after a moment’s delay.
‘This’ll be the day,’ he echoed internally, repeating his daily routine. ‘This will be the day I find one of these beings!’
Of course, the first task of the day remained pumping himself up. A very simple task indeed, as the boy scrambled to throw on a nice pair of baggy clothes — the very thought of his journey alone had him on top of the world, his eyes shining with delight as he cleaned himself up and practically booted the door of his apartment open.
Breakfast was nothing more than an obstacle between him and finding a Pokémon that the myths spoke of, after all.
However, he’d wait just a moment longer, glancing back to the door, to wait for his beloved partner.
“Abra.”
A yellow, almost catlike being, floated to his side — remaining sitting down, even as the Pokémon yawned softly and tried to wake itself up.
Floating out the door after but a moment’s delay, Grant shut the door behind them and slung a bag over his shoulder — digging out, from within, an old and beaten Pokedex. The subject of his research, and the only proof he had — surely, that would change, the boy hoped.
“—Let’s go! We’ve at least got to call Matt before we do anything big, right?”
Speaking aloud, and perhaps piquing the curiosity of his neighbours, he immediately ran down the Celadon Mansion’s ridiculous stair count, and out the door.
The sun of Celadon spread out and across the city, the hallmark of a nice spring day. While it still felt a tad stuffy thanks to the rain that night, it slowly cleared as Grant made haste — though puddles on the ground had yet to fade.
Moving through one such puddle, having to catch himself from slipping into it with a timely stomp to the ground, he slipped and stumbled into the Pokemon Center in due time.
Blissfully ignoring the confused looks of the visitors, and the nervous sigh of the nurse at the front, he immediately dialed up a call with a friend from Unova.
...And while it took a few clicks, a response buzzed through soon enough.
“—Grant? Man, this early..? It’s only, like, four in the morning over here. You’re killing my sleep schedule.”
Greeted by the mildly-fuzzy camera of a modified XTranceiver, the light of the call illuminated the face of a brown-haired male with a furrowed brow. A small leaf lay at his right, which Grant took to be his Snivy fast asleep.
“Listen. I got your email last night — the one about Viridian.”
Grant grinned, his eyes shimmering with delight — with Matthew, on the other end, sighing and scratching the side of his cheek in thought.
“...Yeah, it was a pain to find. But supposedly, there’s an old man in Viridian that’s caught up in no small deal of rumours.”
Matthew whispered, likely to keep his Snivy sleeping — even as its tail whacked him lightly in the face. To his knowledge, this rumour was a fairly well-known one in Kanto, with just about every kiddo talking about it. Forums based around the Kanto region itself had sections dedicated to rumours, and how to do them — that thread in particular usually hit the front page in some way.
Listening closely, Grant nodded — he knew that full well, even from his own research. But there had to be more to it if Matthew had sent him a message on it, right? Surely he had information that rumours lacked.
“I know that much. What’d you find?”
Grant responded after a moment spent in thought, and it didn’t take long for Matthew to fire back — glancing up as if to recall his memory, he began speaking.
“You know the basics, right? Talk to the old man, and get him to show ya the ropes of catching a Pokemon. For some reason, people seem to think that some weird stuff happens in Cinnabar after you do it, if you get there quick enough.”
Again, Grant nodded. That formed the basis of the rumour — that a young lady, practicing Surf with her Magikarp on the coast, came across something. Naturally, as usually came with rumours, witnesses and explanations were few and far between.
“Yes, but what did you find out?”
Again, Grant tried to wiggle that out of him, and Matthew continued afterwards.
“It’s a bit more true than the rumours say, apparently. The images are equivalent to taking a picture with an XTran that took a dip in Humilau, but... —I’ll just send it through here.”
A bit of fumbling, and Matthew’s video feed cut out — replaced with an image that startled the researcher.
The water of Cinnabar, clear as day, had covered most of the lens, from what he could tell. But the day was bright, and the shore was visible — and what he could see...
...Perhaps it was the camera’s distortion, but there lay some kind of block — like a fragment of something, or a piece of some kind of granite that had grown, and could fly.
It lay, floating, in the center of the image — almost blocking out the sun with its shape.
“...Oh, Arceus.”
Grant could only say that, as the camera switched back to Matthew’s face.
“—Yeah. It’s nothing conclusive, since I really couldn’t tell you what the hell that is. But if you’re looking for something weird coming off Cinnabar Island, that fits the bill.”
Matthew nodded, moving his face away from his partner’s leafy tail lest it slap him again.
“I’ve sent the image to your email as well, Grant. Give it a look when you can. Maybe your ‘dex will recognize it?”
Grant nodded, just as Matthew let out a yawn — perhaps a sign that their meeting should end there, for now.
“I’ll log off. Best let you sleep.”
Matthew laughed a small bit, though again hushing himself to prevent his friend from awaking.
“Right. Good luck.”
—And with that, the call cut off, leaving him to check his email there...
...And, opening the picture of that fragment, he opened his Pokedex and held it up in front of that being.
As a Kantonian Dex that had extra numbers slowly appear through its age, this would prove the time to test it. Scrolling past the blank entries, and ‘Seen’ entries on the dex, he scrolled right past 151 and well into the 200’s.
A strange thing, this Dex — it had never been updated once, yet its numbers lay even in the 300’s.
This, naturally, would be the test of all tests — if this Dex was just old and failing, or...
...He held it up the the image, and let his Pokedex scan it.
...
...
Number 000. ’M.
Like a young boy, dipping his finger into a pond of Goldeen. They can’t see the boy — only his finger. And they probably think, “Wow, that’s a big creature.”
But they’re only seeing a fragment of the whole. The entire being is far larger than they think — and even if they were to attack that finger, to get the intruder away, all the boy needs to do is stick another finger in.
I imagine, to these beasts, we are only Goldeen. Unlike a Goldeen, however...
...I doubt we are prepared to see its true form.
Such rumours were spread all about the region of Kanto. It was no simple matter of children’s stories, some could believe — to a few select people, horrible eldritch abominations lurked just beyond the veil of ‘normalcy.’ Their existence was never meant to be, and such things were never meant to be understood — and such things, they say, are exclusive to the Kanto region.
To the select few who believed them, they searched day and night for these horrific beasts — in order to capture one for themselves.
Grant Redwood was one of these people.
...A new day in Celadon City brought with it the awakening of a young boy, hardly a month over 16. The very moment his blue eyes blinked open, he found himself full of life — untangling himself from his sheets, and kicking them off after a moment’s delay.
‘This’ll be the day,’ he echoed internally, repeating his daily routine. ‘This will be the day I find one of these beings!’
Of course, the first task of the day remained pumping himself up. A very simple task indeed, as the boy scrambled to throw on a nice pair of baggy clothes — the very thought of his journey alone had him on top of the world, his eyes shining with delight as he cleaned himself up and practically booted the door of his apartment open.
Breakfast was nothing more than an obstacle between him and finding a Pokémon that the myths spoke of, after all.
However, he’d wait just a moment longer, glancing back to the door, to wait for his beloved partner.
“Abra.”
A yellow, almost catlike being, floated to his side — remaining sitting down, even as the Pokémon yawned softly and tried to wake itself up.
Floating out the door after but a moment’s delay, Grant shut the door behind them and slung a bag over his shoulder — digging out, from within, an old and beaten Pokedex. The subject of his research, and the only proof he had — surely, that would change, the boy hoped.
“—Let’s go! We’ve at least got to call Matt before we do anything big, right?”
Speaking aloud, and perhaps piquing the curiosity of his neighbours, he immediately ran down the Celadon Mansion’s ridiculous stair count, and out the door.
The sun of Celadon spread out and across the city, the hallmark of a nice spring day. While it still felt a tad stuffy thanks to the rain that night, it slowly cleared as Grant made haste — though puddles on the ground had yet to fade.
Moving through one such puddle, having to catch himself from slipping into it with a timely stomp to the ground, he slipped and stumbled into the Pokemon Center in due time.
Blissfully ignoring the confused looks of the visitors, and the nervous sigh of the nurse at the front, he immediately dialed up a call with a friend from Unova.
...And while it took a few clicks, a response buzzed through soon enough.
“—Grant? Man, this early..? It’s only, like, four in the morning over here. You’re killing my sleep schedule.”
Greeted by the mildly-fuzzy camera of a modified XTranceiver, the light of the call illuminated the face of a brown-haired male with a furrowed brow. A small leaf lay at his right, which Grant took to be his Snivy fast asleep.
“Listen. I got your email last night — the one about Viridian.”
Grant grinned, his eyes shimmering with delight — with Matthew, on the other end, sighing and scratching the side of his cheek in thought.
“...Yeah, it was a pain to find. But supposedly, there’s an old man in Viridian that’s caught up in no small deal of rumours.”
Matthew whispered, likely to keep his Snivy sleeping — even as its tail whacked him lightly in the face. To his knowledge, this rumour was a fairly well-known one in Kanto, with just about every kiddo talking about it. Forums based around the Kanto region itself had sections dedicated to rumours, and how to do them — that thread in particular usually hit the front page in some way.
Listening closely, Grant nodded — he knew that full well, even from his own research. But there had to be more to it if Matthew had sent him a message on it, right? Surely he had information that rumours lacked.
“I know that much. What’d you find?”
Grant responded after a moment spent in thought, and it didn’t take long for Matthew to fire back — glancing up as if to recall his memory, he began speaking.
“You know the basics, right? Talk to the old man, and get him to show ya the ropes of catching a Pokemon. For some reason, people seem to think that some weird stuff happens in Cinnabar after you do it, if you get there quick enough.”
Again, Grant nodded. That formed the basis of the rumour — that a young lady, practicing Surf with her Magikarp on the coast, came across something. Naturally, as usually came with rumours, witnesses and explanations were few and far between.
“Yes, but what did you find out?”
Again, Grant tried to wiggle that out of him, and Matthew continued afterwards.
“It’s a bit more true than the rumours say, apparently. The images are equivalent to taking a picture with an XTran that took a dip in Humilau, but... —I’ll just send it through here.”
A bit of fumbling, and Matthew’s video feed cut out — replaced with an image that startled the researcher.
The water of Cinnabar, clear as day, had covered most of the lens, from what he could tell. But the day was bright, and the shore was visible — and what he could see...
...Perhaps it was the camera’s distortion, but there lay some kind of block — like a fragment of something, or a piece of some kind of granite that had grown, and could fly.
It lay, floating, in the center of the image — almost blocking out the sun with its shape.
“...Oh, Arceus.”
Grant could only say that, as the camera switched back to Matthew’s face.
“—Yeah. It’s nothing conclusive, since I really couldn’t tell you what the hell that is. But if you’re looking for something weird coming off Cinnabar Island, that fits the bill.”
Matthew nodded, moving his face away from his partner’s leafy tail lest it slap him again.
“I’ve sent the image to your email as well, Grant. Give it a look when you can. Maybe your ‘dex will recognize it?”
Grant nodded, just as Matthew let out a yawn — perhaps a sign that their meeting should end there, for now.
“I’ll log off. Best let you sleep.”
Matthew laughed a small bit, though again hushing himself to prevent his friend from awaking.
“Right. Good luck.”
—And with that, the call cut off, leaving him to check his email there...
...And, opening the picture of that fragment, he opened his Pokedex and held it up in front of that being.
As a Kantonian Dex that had extra numbers slowly appear through its age, this would prove the time to test it. Scrolling past the blank entries, and ‘Seen’ entries on the dex, he scrolled right past 151 and well into the 200’s.
A strange thing, this Dex — it had never been updated once, yet its numbers lay even in the 300’s.
This, naturally, would be the test of all tests — if this Dex was just old and failing, or...
...He held it up the the image, and let his Pokedex scan it.
...
...
Number 000. ’M.