Pokémon Colosseum (title pending) - Pokemon Forum

Dragonfree · #1 12-29-2005, 02:53 PM

This is a novelization of the game Pokémon Colosseum, focusing on looking deeper into the characters of the game and the history of Orre.

Therefore, I must request to readers to leave the plot out of any reviews for this story, simply because this was never written to have an original or exciting plot except for those readers who are not familiar with the plot of Colosseum. By all means comment all the more on the style and characterization, however.

Also, if you have a better idea for a title, by all means suggest.

Now, the prologue... I'm not too satisfied with the later half of it, although I'm not quite sure what is wrong with it. I do like the first part, though.

Also keep in mind that this is a prologue and it's not supposed to explain everything. Be patient.

Prologue
Snagem Hideout

Gonzap was usually not one to worry.

He had a whole team of thieves at his disposal, all ready to do anything he told them – in fact, sometimes he thought to himself that if he told them to jump off one of the many cliffs in the Orre desert, they would leap like lemmings before he could say “idiots”. Additionally, both he and all of the team members had countless Pokémon, all trained to great power by their former trainers, and he had his proud creations, the Snag Machines, ready to disable the anti-theft measures of Pokéballs and enable them to catch already-caught Pokémon. Again and again, he told himself that he didn’t have to be concerned.

Yet, he couldn’t help having a bad feeling about that kid, Wes.

Gonzap had found the mousey-haired boy on the streets of Pyrite Town a few years ago as a desperate, poor orphan who stole for a living for himself and two Eevee that he appeared to have ‘adopted’. He had talked to him to see if he would be interested in joining an organization for people like him, where he would get food, make some money of his own and discover his true abilities. Wes had gladly accepted. Found it exciting, even.

Soon, Gonzap had discovered that the boy was extraordinarily talented. He was a very bright kid (unlike most of his other members), was a quick learner when it came to Pokémon battling, and as a bonus he was never particularly interested in keeping the Pokémon he snagged from their trainers, instead often giving them to Gonzap as some kind of a thanks for bringing him off the streets. The kid had managed to make quite a bit of money right off the bat with his battling talent, and Gonzap had even given him a special blue uniform and considered him as a potential heir of Gonzap’s title as the leader of Team Snagem.

But not anymore.

Wes had gradually become more withdrawn from the rest of the team, focusing less on the snagging itself and more on earning money. When he gave Gonzap his share of the earnings, he always seemed more and more reluctant to hand it over.

And a few days ago, he had just walked into Gonzap’s office with an inscrutable expression, his now-evolved Espeon and Umbreon following him, and announced his resignation from the team, throwing his Snag Balls into a corner with a clatter and walking out before anybody could stop him. Gonzap hadn’t seen him again.

Now he wasn’t sure what Wes was up to, and that worried him. Somehow, he had started to like Wes – and now he was gone, probably for good.

Gonzap sighed. Such talent… wasted.

He looked up at his team members, sitting by the wooden table in the hideout and drinking beer from large green mugs. None of them worried about Wes. What was wrong with him? What exactly was it that he was worried about? He shook his head.

All of a sudden, the wall to Gonzap’s left burst in a deafening explosion. Pieces of concrete blasted across the room and dust filled the air. The Snagem members ran around coughing as a shape stepped in through the hole in the wall.

“Wes?” Gonzap asked slowly, but as he opened his mouth, it got filled with dust; he spat it out. The teen didn’t answer, but as he stepped inside and the dust started to settle, it became apparent that it was indeed Wes, accompanied by a small black feline with glowing rings on its body. He had clearly found a new use for the silver shades that he used in order not to be recognized – they kept the dust completely away from his eyes, and while Gonzap struggled to blink rapidly, Wes walked decisively to the torso-shaped dummy near where he had entered. He slowly reached out for the black device fit on the left shoulder of the dummy, and after a moment of hesitation, he set his hand on it.

Then suddenly, he removed it and tucked it quickly under his arm before turning around and darting deeper into the headquarters.

“Follow him!” Gonzap shouted, recovering his ability to speak and running after the boy, all the rest of team Snagem at his heels. He turned round a corner and saw to his horror that Wes had just fastened a round metallic object on the wall. The boy looked quickly up and ran the other way.

“It’s a bomb! Everybody leave the building!” Gonzap yelled in panic. “And get him!”

Chaos arose; some of the team members turned to exit through the hole that Wes had created, while others ran straight after Gonzap who followed Wes again. The boy turned towards the exit of the base with his Pokémon and ran outside.

“They’re going to escape! Get him, quick!”

Gonzap eyed a rusty red motorbike a short distance away, guarded by a light purple cat Pokémon sitting in the side seat. He immediately realized it was Wes’s.

“Get him already!” he shouted in frustration as the boy and his Umbreon jumped onto the motorbike; Wes immediately started the engine and the bike sped off in the direction of the Outskirt Stand.

For a second, it looked like Wes was simply leaving, but then Gonzap eyed a small remote control in his hand.

“NO!” he yelled as the boy pressed a button. Gonzap threw himself down to the ground, covering his head just before the Snagem base behind him ignited and exploded with a rain of metal.

Gonzap gritted his teeth. “You’ll pay for this, Wes… you’ll pay…” he muttered just as the teen and his bike disappeared from sight, leaving nothing but a cloud of dust.

Triple D · #2 12-30-2005, 01:34 AM

Hey,

I really enjoyed the prologue and I hope you finish this. I believe its a very good idea, and I'm looking forward to reading more of it. Good Luck!

(-o-) Triple D (-o-)

Dragonfree · #3 12-30-2005, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Triple D

Hey,

I really enjoyed the prologue and I hope you finish this. I believe its a very good idea, and I'm looking forward to reading more of it. Good Luck!

(-o-) Triple D (-o-)

I wrote chapter one last night. And half of chapter two too, actually, because I couldn't save the game until I had access to the Phenac City Pokémon Center. x_X; I was up writing until six AM. Don't ask me why I didn't just stop sometime in the middle and play quickly through it again before starting to write the rest. I'm weird.

Chapter 1
Outskirt Stand

Wes stopped the motorbike beside the gas pump, jumping off it. He looked quickly around, but saw nothing living – only the dryness of the desert, a deserted green hovertruck, and the old, rusty locomotive that was the bar and restaurant. It looked oddly out of place in the middle of a desert with no train tracks to be seen.

He wiped the sweat off his forehead. He liked to think it was just the heat, but he couldn’t deny to himself that he had been nervous. Maybe. A little bit. But now the organization that had brainwashed him as a kid had been brought to its knees. It deserved a sigh of relief. And sigh he did.

Wes petted his two Pokémon. “You did a good job, both of you.” He inhaled deeply and, after a short pause, petted the motorbike too. “You too,” he added with a smile as he opened the fuel tank. He had gotten the bike from Gonzap a year ago or so – Wes had actually suspected the old guy of favoritism for a while, not that he was complaining. Later he had built a better engine for the bike and attached it to the front of it, in addition to putting an additional seat with a hover-motor on the side for Nai and Vi. Now he loved to drive it around just for the heck of it, going above all speed limits of the more populated regions and making tracks in the sand.

After filling the tank, he looked at the small Snag Machine. He thought for a moment, but then fit one of the curved black plates on his left shoulder and wrapped the orange wires around his arm, letting the other plate cover his hand. He had often put it on before, but always temporarily; he wasn’t sure what he was planning to do with his life now, but he had a feeling he might have to do some more snagging, no matter how much he disliked the concept.

“Stay here, I won’t be long,” he said to his Pokémon before walking towards the bridge leading into the locomotive. He eyed the truck, thinking that it was rather rude of whoever owned it to park it right in front of the entrance like that, but only then noticed the large brown sack lying on the platform in the back of the truck.

“Funny,” he thought to himself, “it’s like it’s squirming.”

Wes hesitated for a moment, wondering whether he should do something, but came to the conclusion that it was most likely none of his business, and if it was a case of anything illegal, he would be best off trying to keep away from it anyway, considering the police would not be too fond of him either if they found out who he was.

He stepped up to the bridge, only to have two men exit the locomotive and push him aside. One of them had yellow hair, most likely dyed, with a touch of bright orange that Wes found to be very tacky; the other was most likely a natural blonde, but had a blue hat in a shape vaguely reminiscent of Mickey Mouse ears, which was technically also tacky. Both wore shades that shielded their eyes.

“I love chowing down after a job… it adds to the flavor, I swear,” the dyed one was saying.

“Yeah, and we bagged ourselves a great big catch, too,” the other replied with a smirk, getting to the other side of the truck and opening the door. “Boss’ll be sure to fix us up good with big rewards, too. Doesn’t get any better than this!”

The two men started the engine and drove off. Wes stared after them and racked his brain, but couldn’t remember them from Team Snagem, despite that they sounded like some of his former colleagues. He shrugged and walked into the locomotive.

As Wes had also thought the first time he entered it, the owner had done a darn good job making it cozy. In the dry wasteland that was Orre, a place like this was a warm welcome; it would never seem empty or quiet thanks to the moving gears and comfortable hum of machinery that Wes loved. A radiator on the side of the room constantly changed colors between red and green, signifying that it was on despite not technically being needed to heat up the room. A man in a pink sweater sat on a stool by the bar; behind it was a tall bearded man with messy, reddish brown hair and a camouflage hat, wearing a white shirt. Both of them were intently watching the television screen on the wall just ahead.

“Hey,” Wes greeted, sitting down at another bar stool. The bartender turned quickly around and hushed him as the man by the bar leant to the side too see the TV screen better. Figuring there was clearly something extremely interesting on TV, he looked at it, and his attention was instantly caught not by the news woman in the foreground, but by the flickering image in the background of the smoking Snagem base.

“…Authorities have made a stunning announcement on the mysterious building that exploded in Eclo Canyon,” the woman recited. “It was Team Snagem’s hideout! Team Snagem is a gang of Pokémon abductors who have already been marked for arrest. The hideout was discovered only as a result of the explosion. By the time police arrived, the ruined building had already been abandoned. The cause of the explosion is under investigation. It should become apparent eventually.” She looked towards the camera and cleared her throat as the image in the background was replaced by that of a cheerful-looking, bearded old man. “In other news, the Mayor of Phenac City…”

Wes looked off the screen. “Already marked for arrest”… It was a good thing he had not been in this part of Orre while he was still a Snagem member.

He eyed the three people sitting on the green seats by the restaurant tables. The near table was being used by a couple, most likely husband and wife, while a teenager with bushy, pink hair sat at the far table and had apparently finished eating. He was looking with interest at Wes.

“There’s no forgiving that Team Snagem,” Wes heard the woman from the near table tell her husband, and he remembered having seen her there before. “They don’t deserve it, not when they steal Pokémon from trainers! Why, I’d cheer if they turned out to have been wiped out with their wrecked hideout!”

Wes looked away. Some of Team Snagem hadn’t really been that bad. He had talked to most of the members, and while some were just dim-witted thugs, others were fairly nice people. Sure, none of them had ever gotten fed up and decided to leave the organization like he had, either not really finding anything wrong with snagging or simply being too afraid that they’d come crawling back to Gonzap after a week anyway, but he wouldn’t wish death on any of them – not even on Gonzap himself. That was why he had made sure they were all out of the building before setting the bomb off.

He sighed and turned to the bartender. “How much for the fuel?” he muttered.

“1000 Pokédollars,” the man answered. Wes quickly handed him a few bills and walked back outside.

“Yo, wait!” he suddenly heard a voice shout behind him. He turned around to see the pink-haired boy.

“What?” he asked, his immediate thought being that the kid had been one of those he had stolen Pokémon from in other places and had recognized him.

“Hey, my name’s Willie,” the teen said brightly as he came up to Wes’s side. “After I got a good look at you, well, I got this urge to battle you. It’s like I’m compelled to.”

Wes raised an eyebrow. “Eh…”

“See, any way I look at it, it’s obvious that you’re no ordinary Joe,” Willie continued excitedly. “So, what do you say? Let’s you and me have a quick battle!”

“Er…” Wes started, “well…”

He thought a bit. At least the kid didn’t recognize him, so that was a relief. Wouldn’t it be rude to deny? And after all, perhaps Nai and Vi needed a bit of practice. He could never know.

“All right,” he finally said. Willie’s smile widened.

“That’s the spirit!” the teen said. “All right, all right. Over here, this way!”

Wes followed, still in slight doubt. Willie turned to be opposite him once they were a couple of meters away from the train. “Yeeeeeeaaah!” he yelled. “I’m burning now! I’m on fire! It’s full-throttle time! Vroom, let’s roooooll!”

Deciding that Willie was a bit hyperactive, Wes just shrugged and stepped back as the pink-haired kid threw out two red and white spheres that burst open to reveal two flashes of red light that formed into cute white and brown raccoons with very bushy fur.

Dragonfree · #4 12-30-2005, 02:30 PM

Wes took a deep breath. He had been battling with snagged Pokémon a lot lately, so his partners were fairly inexperienced compared to what he was accustomed to now. “Nai and Vi!” he called to his Pokémon that still waited in the motorbike; they perked their ears and trotted towards their trainer while he recalled their moves in his head.

“Nai, use a Bite on that Zigzagoon on the right,” Wes ordered quickly. “Vi, try a Confusion on the left one.”

“Ziggy, Growl!” Willie called. “Fluffy, Tackle the Espeon.”

The first Pokémon to act was Vi; he swished his forked tail and sent a wave of psychic energy from the red gem on his forehead towards one of the Zigzagoon, hitting straight into the black mask between its eyes and throwing it backwards, causing it to emit a small wail. It nonetheless stood back up and growled in an intimidating manner. Meanwhile, Nai darted towards the other raccoon and bit into its side, but it threw him off and instead ran towards Vi to ram into him.

“Another Bite, Nai!” Wes shouted. “Vi, use a Return!”

Vi’s eyes immediately glowed pink and the Espeon ran towards the Zigzagoon as the glow took over his whole body. He tackled the raccoon powerfully and it shrieked before giving up and falling unconscious to the ground. Nai ran to bite the other Pokémon again, getting a better grip on it this time and managing to shake it around is his jaws. It peeped and then went limp.

“Well, I guess I won,” Wes said unsurely.

“Whoa,” Willie said, looking very impressed as he recalled his Pokémon. “You’re tough. Real tough. You did a real number on us.”

“I guess,” Wes said again, scratching the back of his neck.

“Hey, I know!” Willie suddenly suggested. “Why not test your skills in Phenac City? It’s out west of here. You’ll find trainers who are way better than me there. You should go out there and get some battling in.”

The pink-haired teen walked back to the locomotive. “Battle again later sometime?” he asked.

“Mmmh,” Wes replied as Willie disappeared. He pondered the suggestion; he had heard of the Pre Gym in Phenac City. Perhaps he could start a new life as a Gym trainer?

“Thanks,” he called to Willie before jumping back onto his motorbike and speeding off towards west.

TVTMaster · #5 12-31-2005, 12:56 AM

Sweet... I'm already loving this fic, even though the plot isn't too original. The use of description is excellent! I can't wait to see more, particularly Wes' reation to Miror B.

mewtwovsmew · #6 01-01-2006, 07:16 PM

I think you are exeptionally well in writing. This is very good stuff. Good luck and I hope in the future you get more ideas like this. Thank you for sharing.:)