I spent the days following dad's departure following same routine. Get up, have breakfast, head to work with mom, get Daisy, spend the day surrounded by and playing with Pokemon, drop Daisy off, go home and eat dinner, and then spend the rest of the night until bed sitting on the couch watching television with mom. It was AWESOME.
On the fifth day of this I had the idea to bring my Pokedex and start scanning Pokemon to get a head start on filling up the Kanto Pokedex. Mom told me that it was cheating but when I explained that there will eventually be over 1,000 Pokemon recognized by the world she looked surprised and after thinking for a bit she let me do as I pleased.
Just as we were getting ready to leave the house, the phone rang. Mom answered and put it on speaker so she could continue getting ready.
"Grady residents. This is Emily."
"Mrs. Grady, I'm calling on behalf of the Pokemon Rangers to inform you that your husband Green was injured during the recent subjugation."
I turned to my mom and saw her face pale a little.
"H-how bad is it?"
The quiver in her voice must have made it over the phone because the caller was quick to give assurances.
"He has a few broken bones and some fractures but is expected to make a full recovery. Unfortunately he is currently unconscious and until he regains consciousness they will not be able to transport him to a hospital. When he wakes up he will be transported to the hospital in Saffron City and I will call you again to give you his room number so you can meet him there."
"Thank you for calling me and keeping me updated."
Mom hit the end call button and leaned heavily in the table, her whole body shaking slightly. I walked over and put my arms around her and hugged her tight. We stayed like that for a few moments before she stood up straight and lightly ruffled my hair. Giving me a smile she spoke.
"Your dad will be fine. Let's head out."
When we got to the lab Aunt Beth seemed to sense something was off and asked about it.
"Emily what's wrong? You look a little pale."
"It's nothing Beth. I got a call this morning from the Rangers. Green was hurt bad enough during the subjugation that he is going to be sent to the hospital in Saffron City. He is currently unconscious and will be moved when he wakes up."
Beth's hand flew to her mouth when my mom explained the situation. When mom finished talking Beth rushed to her and gave her a hug.
"Oh My God Emily. Are you ok?"
"Thanks Beth. Yeah I'm OK. They expect Green to make a full recovery."
"Do you want me to call Blue and find out the details of what happened? You know what? Never mind. I want to know what happened."
"You can fill me in later I'm going to get to work. Are you coming with us Dai...sy?"
Mom turned to ask if Daisy was joining us only to see her wrapped around my arm. It took her only a second to collect herself before she started chuckling to herself. I gave her a 'help me' look but she just turned and headed outside.
Turns out that trying to walk with someone clinging to you is a little difficult. I managed to get her to let go only by telling her we could hold hands as we walked. Mom was waiting for us by the gate so we didn't have to go searching for her.
"Daisy. Jake has his own plans for today so it's going to be just you and me for a little while until Jake is done. OK?"
Daisy's head whipped over to look at me. She looked like she wanted to say something but then just nodded and let go of my hand.
I was honestly a little surprised by how easily she accepted the situation. I was expecting her to ask to go with me but I wasn't going to start complaining. With a little wave at both of them I took off into the trees. Taking the single pokeball off my belt I clicked the button to bring out Growlithe.
"Come on Growlithe let's run."
A light jog through the woods with a Pokemon by my side, this was a life I could only dream about before.
Figuring I should start entering Pokemon into my Pokedex starting from the beginning I headed in the direction where my parents Venusaur and other grass Pokemon lived. When we were close to our destination I heard a loud roar come from slightly off to the left, I stopped running immediately and Growlithe did the same.
That roar had come from one of my parents Venusaur. It wasn't a challenge or an angry sound, more like a warning. Slowly walking in the direction the sound had come from I came upon a small clearing. Two large Venusaur were looking in my direction and their vines were dancing in the air, ready to strike if they needed to.
Growlithe looked like he was about to run in front of me but I quickly stopped him.
"Growlithe it's OK. Stay where you are."
He looked at me and then lay down but I could see he was on edge. Now that I didn't have to worry about Growlithe starting an unneeded fight I brought my focus back to the Venusaurs in front of me. Remembering what my mom told me about being polite and that Pokemon were smart enough to understand human language I began to speak.
"Hello. I'm Jake, I met you the other day when I came with my mom Emily."
One of the Venusaur tilted it's head slightly before retracting it's vines and approaching me. I didn't move other than to give a hand gesture to Growlithe to stay. The large green Pokemon brought it's head close to me, closed it's eyes, and inhaled deeply. After a moment it opened it's eyes and then nuzzled it's head into my chest.
The other Venusaur retracted it's vines as well and I brought my hand to the head of the one nuzzling my chest and started scratching behind it's ears. The second Venusaur looked a little jealous and I said.
"I have another hand if you would like me to do the same for you."
It lumbered over and I started to scratch behind it's ears as well. After a minute or so I stopped scratching and they both looked me in the eye.
"I got permission from my mom to start entering Pokemon data into my Pokedex. May I have your permission to scan you and your family?"
The bigger of the two nodded and they both turned and started walking away. I signaled for Growlithe to follow and we fell into step with the two Venusaur. On the sunny side of the clearing there were many grass type Pokemon gathered. It made sense when I thought about it. A clearing in the woods would allow the Pokemon to absorb as much sunlight as needed for those Pokemon that didn't need to eat and could make do with just photosynthesis.
As we got closer the Pokemon stopped moving but with a low bellow from the Venusaurs they went about their business. As you would expect from a Royal Starter Pokemon, they are the protectors and if they accept my presence then the others have no reason to refuse. Looking around I realized that there were not just grass type Pokemon present but also a few bug type.
I saw two of all twelve grass Pokemon, as well as Caterpie and Butterfree, Weedle and Beedrill, Venonat and Venomoth, Scyther, and Pinsir. Looking towards the treeline I noticed movement and after shielding my eyes with my hand I saw Paras and Parasect staying in the shade. So 44 Pokemon in total. Raising my voice a little I explained my purpose for being there.
"Excuse me all of you. My mom gave me permission to start entering Pokemon into my Pokedex. So if it's all right with you can I scan your information into my Pokedex? Of course as a thank you I have a lot of berries I can give you."
Over the last few days I had found a lot of berry bushes while working on my daily tasks and had harvested a large number of ordinary berries that had very mild to the point of useless medicinal effects. Pouring them out on the ground I was soon surrounded by very eager Pokemon. Even the Paras and Parasect had braved the sun to get their share. Knowing that it was bad for them to be in the sun for to long I scanned them first and carried an armful of berries into the shade for them.
After scanning around half of the Pokemon into both my physical Pokedex as well as my System Pokedex, I felt a weird pulse of energy travel up and down my body. It wasn't painful or anything like that it just felt weird. Focusing on myself for a moment I realized that I felt surprisingly good, full to bursting with energy. Pushing my thoughts to the back of my mind for now I continued with my work. With only one Pokemon left to scan I felt that weird energy pulse again, quickly scanning the last Pokemon I walked to a nearby tree and sat down to think.
Closing my eyes I tried to focus on every part of my body. Once again I felt full to bursting with energy and I even felt a bit stronger. Opening my eyes I looked around and as I focused on two young Bulbasaur playing together I could swear they were moving just a little slower than moments before. As I stopped focusing on them they appeared to start moving slightly faster again. Thinking to myself I tried to figure this out.
A weird pulse of energy that: filled me with energy, made me a little stronger, and made my focus sharper. Putting all of this together with the fact that I had a System left me with only one conclusion. I eagerly gave a mental order.
'Open Status.'
A new screen I had not seen before appeared before my eyes but before I could get a good look at it a message popped up.
[Ding.....CONGRATULATIONS!! You are the first in eight generations to discover the status page without help. You have been awarded 20 free status points. Would you like to auto distribute points? YES / NO]
I quickly thought 'no' and the message window closed leaving my Status Screen open for me to look at.
Name : Jake Grady
Age : 6
Stamina : 5
Strength : 5
Endurance : 5
Agility : 5
Perception : 5
Available Points : 21.4 (Auto Distribute ON)
(Age 1-10 receive +.5 every year, age 11-15 receive +1 every year.)
Looking over my Status Screen I was a little confused. The math wasn't mathing, at 6 years old my stats should be threes across the board. Then the pieces began to fall into place; the two pulses of energy I felt, the Auto distribute function and that extra 1.4 in my free status points line. With a thought I manually selected Auto Distribute and all my stats went up to 9 leaving only 1.4 in my free points.
Scanning Pokemon into my System Pokedex game me a certain number of free points. When five points are accumulated they are distributed, one point to each Stat. Now it was time to do some additional math, how many points was each Pokemon worth. Not counting my 20 bonus points, I had accumulated 11.4 points.
First things first, opening my System Pokedex I scanned Growlithe again and then looked at my points. No change. First experiment completed. Most likely each Pokemon can give points once. So looking around I pulled out a notebook and pen from my Item Box.
I scanned 22 different Pokemon today as well as Growlithe and Arcanine the other day. 11.4 points somehow accrued from 24 Pokemon. I needed a hint.
Looking around again I remembered that I didn't scan a Metapod or Kakuna. Getting to my feet I approached the Butterfree and Beedrill.
"Excuse me but I still need to scan Metapod and Kakuna can you show me where they are?"
All of a sudden the two Butterfree started flitting around nervously and the two Beedrill got aggressive. Realizing the issue I put up both hands.
"I mean your children no harm. I will not touch them and will only get close enough to scan them and will then leave."
The four of them still looked on edge but they apparently decided to trust me because they slowly flew into the trees. Following behind them it only took a few minutes to reach the first nest. There were 8 green cocoons attached to a tree in a cluster. Walking towards the tree I stopped three feet away and scanned one of the Metapod with both of my Pokedexs before backing away. Turning towards the Butterfrees I nodded.
"Thank you for trusting me."
The two of them flitted around me a bit before landing on the tree, one above and one below their offspring. Taking a quick look at my Status Screen, my free points had increased by .3 putting me at 1.7 free points. Turning towards the Beedrills I raised an eyebrow.
"Are the two of you willing to trust me?"
As an answer they turned and darted off into the trees. I had to sprint to keep them is sight. Two or three minutes later they stopped in front of a small hill. Only on closer inspection I realized it wasn't a hill, it was a wasps nest. One of the Beedrill entered a hole on the side of the nest while the other pointed a stinger at me and then at the hole.
"You want me to go inside?"
It just pointed with it's stinger again.
"Growlithe wait here."
Walking to the nest I looked inside the hole, honestly it looked cool. Except for the dozen Beedrill glaring at me from inside.