Author Note: Thanks to my beta reader, Lord Kyuubi, for revising this chapter to me!
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Prologue: Phantom of the Earth
It was a cold winter midnight in Icirrus City. That didn’t stop Alex Treadwell, a boy no older than eight, from making his way out of his home while his father and brother were out, wearing a brown coat over a blue t-shirt, as well as a gray scarf and sneakers; and brown pants and gloves.
There was only one reason for the boy to be going out at that time – to catch a Pokémon when no-one would be around to stop him from going out of the city. He heard that during winter the snow piled up in a way that allowed people to climb to a high cliff on the way to Dragonspiral Tower and that many rare Pokémon could be found there, so it was the perfect time to go catch something.
Wandering around the city carrying nothing more than a single Pokéball with him, Alex was making his way to the path to Dragonspiral Tower. The city was almost completely deserted due to everyone already having gone to sleep at that point. It was very cold and windy at the time, making the boy shiver very easily and frequently.
“M-Maybe I should’ve worn two c-co-coats instead” he mumbled as the cold wind lashed against him.
Despite going back being the likely better choice, the boy decided to keep going in order to not risk being busted by his dad or brother. The city was covered in a white blanket of snow and it, together with the lights from the lamp posts around, made the city look very pretty at night. The strong wind was making the few leaves on the snow-covered trees nearby shake like crazy, dropping even more snow onto the ground.
Finally he found the snow pile he heard about, it being right between him and the path to the tower and seemed to lead perfectly into the cliff at his left, so he climbed it onto the large cliff, though it took a good amount of tries because he kept slipping in on it and sliding all the way down, fortunately he stubborn enough to keep trying until he succeeded.
Unfortunately there wasn’t much for him to find there. The higher altitude made it feel even colder up there and even after wandering into the tall grass, there didn’t seem to be any wild Pokémon around.
“Did they all go to sleep too? Come on! After all the work to get here…” he thought, letting out a disappointed sigh
He then wandered over to the edge of the cliff, looking down. It would be quite the fall if he ended up plummeting from there, though the snow could help cushion the fall a little bit. Once again he couldn’t find a single wild Pokémon around, and his attention turned to the huge amount of trees in front of him.
‘I guess they all must be sleeping there, I wonder if it’s warmer there…’ he thought as once again a strong wind hit him and made him rubs his arms as he shivered.
Moving away from the edge, he looked around again, finding absolutely nothing, but since he had gone through all the trouble to get there, he decided to just wait and see if something would come out. He saw another rather big snow pile and decided to sit on it as he waited around. Just as he did though, he started hearing some rather loud steps coming from the area below, startling him a bit and making him jump. He then noticed that the snow he was sitting was surprisingly warm and once he put a hand on it was that he noticed that it wasn’t snow, it was fur; his eyes widened in realization just as it started to shake.
Alex quickly got up and got some distance as the “snow pile” suddenly started to stand up, revealing a huge white polar bear towering over him and looking very, very angry at him for waking him up.
“U-Uh, I-I’m sorry Mr. Beartic. I-I promise I’ll let you sleep now. R-Really!” said Alex, now not only shivering because of the cold, but also due to sheer panic as he took a few steps back.
The Beartic responded by simply roaring at him with a killer look in its eyes. Alex panicked as the bear walked towards him and hurried to backed away in response; he forgot, however, that he was slowly walking towards the edge of the cliff and eventually he took one step too many and found himself plummeting down. He let out a terrified scream and closed his eyes as he fell.
Despite the height of the cliff, Alex hit the ground fairly quickly and actually didn’t feel much pain, much less died. Oddly enough he didn’t feel any snow despite the ground being coated in it when he saw it from up there. Even weirder was that soon he realized that his legs were hanging in the air somehow.
He then opened his eyes slowly as he turned to his left and the first thing he saw were four enormous teal-colored fingers made of clay, he then quickly looked to his right and saw it, the large body of a teal golem with some bright yellow lights in its body, including a bandage on a large crack on its chest. He was being held by a Golurk.
“AAAH!” he screamed and instinctively jumped out of the Golurk’s hand, but doing that only made him fall off and land on his face on the snow, but at least he was still alive. “Ow… At least the snow is soft…” he muttered, in spite of how quickly his face was starting to freeze just by lying there
Soon enough he felt something grab and lift him, then proceed to put him on the ground in a standing position, much like he himself did when he tried to make his action figures stand still when they fell over and over again. Fortunately he had enough balance to not fall again. He then looked at his helper, the Golurk, who was crouching in order to be able to interact with him better.
“Uh… Thanks, big guy…” he said, somewhat afraid of the golem’s sheer size.
He then heard some growling that made him feel a chill on his spine, he looked up and as he expected the Beartic was at the edge of the cliff. Fortunately he seemed to be either too tired to pursue him or not confident enough to try and fight with a Golurk when it was so tired and soon wandered out of view, probably going back to sleep.
“It left. It actually left,” he said while being in a state of pure shock “That was so scary…” he looked down and sighing in relief, soon shivering again as another cold wind hit him. He then felt something pat him on the head gently; he looked back at the source, the Golurk, and gave a little smile “Hey, thanks again, I don’t know if I would’ve survived the fall without you.”
The expressionless nature of the Golurk made it pretty hard to tell what it was feeling; Alex could only hear it make some Pokémon noises that he couldn’t understand so it didn’t help in the least. It was then that he remembered what he was even there for: capturing a Pokémon. There was a Golurk right in front of him and those were big and strong, not only that, but he also seemed to be very nice despite how huge it was. Alex looked at his hand and saw the Pokéball, which he had forgotten about it until now. Even then he continued to keep a tight grip on it as he looked back at the golem.
“Hey, do you want to be my friend?” he asked, rather timidly, before remembering that Golurk weren’t the most expressive of Pokémon, “Do this if yes.” He gave the Golurk a thumbs-up. “Or this if no.” He gave a thumbs-down.
It took a few seconds, either because the Golurk didn’t understand or maybe it was thinking about it. Eventually, though, it gave a thumbs-up, much to Alex’s delight.
“Yes! We’re going to be best friends!” He fist-pumped, and then hugged the Golurk’s leg, of which he couldn’t even reach the knee.
Alex then felt some slight pressure behind him and soon realized that it was one of the Golurk’s hands gently pressing him against his leg, as if to hug him back. As soon as the boy let go of his leg, it did the same to him.
He took a few steps back and looked up at the Golurk and noticed that he was looking towards Icirrus. “Do you want to go to the city?” he curiously asked, tilting his head slightly.
The Golurk looked at him and answered with a thumbs-up, much to Alex’s amusement. “Well… I can bring you there! You helped me, so it’s only fair, right?”
There was only silence between Alex and the Golurk, with no reaction whatsoever from the latter, this forced Alex to simply assume he was wondering how he would do that.
“See this?” He showed it his Pokéball. “I can carry you everywhere in this, so you’ll be able to walk around the city without problems if you follow me around, and I promise I won’t keep you in there too often!”
No response again. It was starting to get quite awkward, probably for both sides of that conversation.
Alex rubbed the back of his head with an awkward expression on his face “So… What do you say? Do you wanna come home with me?”
Finally, the Golurk reacted with another thumbs-up, prompting Alex to give a wide smile and offer his hand for a handshake. “My name is Alex, I dunno if it matters to you, but I just wanna be polite.” It then came into mind that maybe he didn’t know what a handshake was. “… So let’s shake hands! Or… Well… Your hand is too big for mine, so… I guess one finger will do!”
It took a moment, but Golurk soon offered its index finger for the handshake, which Alex gladly accepted with a smile. Due to how much stronger the Golurk was, though, it actually managed to lift Alex off the ground, much to his surprise.
“You’re really strong, and big!” he said, in awe. He then showed it the Pokéball again. “So, see the little button in this thing? You just gotta press it and you’ll be my new partner, okay?”
The Golurk leant closer a bit to look at the Pokéball and touched the button on the center with one of his massive fingers. The Pokéball opened and sucked the Golurk into it while converting him into energy. Once he was inside the Pokéball began shaking and Alex dropped it to the ground, it shook once… twice… thrice… then stopped with a click.
“I did it! I have a Pokémon now!” said Alex as he did a little happy dance in celebration, “I can’t wait to see dad’s face when he sees it!” He picked the Pokéball up. “But first…”
He then sent the Golurk back out of the Pokéball. It then proceeded to look around in confusion as being inside a Pokéball was probably quite a new and strange experience.
“Sooo…. Come on! Let’s go home!” said Alex, smiling cheerfully.
He then starts making his way back home, taking a few steps ahead and then waiting to see if the Golurk was following him and indeed he was. While walking back home, Alex noticed that the Golurk seemed to be quite impressed by the city, judging by how it was looking all over the place; it was a bit funny, but at the same time kinda nice and made the boy wonder just how long he had wanted to make the city a visit.
The trip back was no less cold, Alex had actually been so focused on the Golurk before that he didn’t even feel the cold, but now it came back with a vengeance and left the boy shivering a lot and sneezing a few times, he had to get back home fast before he ended up getting a cold or worse.
Eventually they arrived. Alex’s house wasn’t anything special, especially since at night you couldn’t even see the painting in the walls correctly. What did draw Alex’s attention though was the fact that the lights were on.
“Oh man… Dad must’ve woken up…” said Alex, shivering again, but this time it wasn’t due to the cold, at least for the most part.
As if on cue, the loud noise of someone barging out of the house echoes around as a young adult wearing Minccino pyjamas and a young teenager with glasses made their way outside, the former being Alex’s father, and the latter being Alex’s brother. Both of them seemed to be in a hurry and very worried, though they soon spotted Alex after they left the house, their worried expressions being replaced by angry frowns.
“Alex! What are you doing…?” inquired his father, only then noticing the giant next to his son, “… With a Golurk?!” he asked, in a tone that was a mix of anger and confusion.
“Uh… Hey, dad, bro! I caught a Golurk!” said Alex, waving at the duo while looking as unconcerned as possible, despite being very afraid of what his father was going to do with him now.
Both of them blinked in disbelief. “What?!” they yelled at him.
Alex began rubbing the back of his neck, things were getting out of hand very quickly; not that he ever had any control over the situation to begin with “Um… Yeah! I did it! Honest!”
They looked at each other for a moment, his dad sighed and brought his hand up to his forehead, slapping it softly and leaving his hand on it, while his brother sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“All the other kids try to bring home a stray Lillipup or Purrloin or maybe even a Shelmet, but not mine. He had to bring a Golurk home, of all things!” complained his father, sounding quite tired.
Alex didn’t know how to react to that, so he just kept rubbing the back of his neck and looked up at the Golurk, the poor thing must’ve been so confused. It hadn’t moved during the entire exchange. At least he was only a spectator that probably wouldn’t get itself in trouble for what happened – at worst he was going to be sent back to where they met.
“Let me get this straight, you left the house in the middle of a freezing night, way past your bedtime, just to catch a Pokémon? Not only that, but you somehow managed to get your hands on a Golurk?” asked his brother, though it seemed more like he wanted to convince himself that he wasn’t just dreaming the whole thing.
Alex just nodded bashfully, much to his father and brother’s displeasure as they sighed again. Fortunately neither of them knew he was attacked by a Beartic.
“Let’s not forget that he almost got himself killed by a Beartic.”
Alex’s eyes widened as he noticed that just next to Albert there was a small rodent-like yellow creature with his eyes closed as if it was meditating. His brother’s Abra. Of course, as it was typical for him, he wasn’t going to let any of his mess ups to slide by unnoticed since he could not only read his mind, but talk to the others through telepathy, he did so quite casually this time to boot.
“Get out of my head!” yelled Alex, flailing his arms in a mix of panic and anger, which only ended up removing any doubts his father and brother could have about the Abra’s statement.
“You what?!” yelled his father, glaring at Alex so fiercely that the boy almost felt like that look alone was going to kill him. It was definitely the last straw. “That’s it; you’re grounded for a week!”
Alex pretty much deflated at this point. “Oh come on… Could I at least have some fun in the weekend?” he pleaded, in a desperate attempt to save his fun.
“You should quit while you’re ahead, it could be much worse than one week considering that you broke a number of household rules and almost got yourself killed in the process,” said his brother, adjusting his glasses and shaking his head at Alex as he closed his eyes momentarily.
Defeated, Alex could only give a resigned sigh “Okay… But what are we going to do about him?” he pointed at the Golurk, who still hadn’t done anything but spectate.
“Him? It’s male?” asked his father, looking surprised.
“Golurk don’t have genders,” answered the Abra, bluntly.
That was something that grabbed Alex’s attention, despite Golurk having no gender, he still unconsciously thought of the one he caught as male. There was nothing to make him decide it was male, it just felt right to address it like that. Nevertheless, his Golurk’s gender identity was the least of his problems at the time.
“Right, right…” his father then shook his head and looked at the clay golem “Well, we’ll decide what we’re going to do later when I’m less tired. Right now I just want you to return him to the Pokéball.”
“All right…” said Alex, then looking up at the Golurk, “Do you mind staying in the Pokéball for a night, big guy?”
The Golurk looked at him and then gave him a thumbs-down, which was silly looking enough to cheer him up a little, or at the very least make him give a small smile. Alex then pointed the Pokéball at the Golurk and it fired a small red beam that touched the golem and converted it into energy that was then sucked back into the Pokéball, just like last time.
“I think we should just release it already, Alex is too young to handle a Pokémon like a Golurk,” said his brother with a stoic expression that hid away almost all emotion, but his eyes gave a hint of worry.
“Aw, but I went through so much to capture him!” pleaded Alex, making the best sad expression he could manage in order to appeal to his father’s heart.
His father rubbed his head in annoyance. “It’s too late for this stuff. You two just go to your beds and sleep. We’ll sort this out tomorrow,” he grunted.
Alex gave a small, hopeful smile as it least there was a chance he would be able to keep the Golurk. His brother, on the other hand, was far less happy. He frowned at Alex but decided to just head back into the house as it was ordered by his father, thankfully not making things harder than they need to be, while his Abra simply teleported away in the blink of an eye.
“What are you waiting for?!” yelled his father, at the brink of losing his patience.
Alex’s jumped with the yell and bolted to the inside of his home, soon rushing past his brother and going to the second floor where the bedrooms were. Upon arriving on his room, he gave a tired sigh and didn’t even bother to change clothes to something more comfortable to sleep in; he simply fell flat into his bed and waited for sleep to arrive
The boy was worried about what was going to happen the next day. The Golurk seemed to be really interested in the city, maybe it was the reason it went of the tower, he, or rather it, likely had been going in and out at night to look at it without getting too close; so he really wanted to show it around, but if he was forced to release it that likely wouldn’t happen. To make it worse, his efforts to catch a new Pokémon would be all in vain if that happened. As much it troubled him, he really needed to rest and be prepared for the worst.
Tomorrow was going to be a long day.
