Pokemon Shippuden

Chapter 4: Hero By Chance

 Ricardo told himself that was the last time he'd run in the morning. With Shay around he should've known that was a lie, she prepared a glass of water for him to drink daily. Sure enough for the next few mornings he got up, got ready, and hit the streets. Down the alley, past the infestation, waved to the kids and their rattatas, shouted to Grant, and back down the main road.

Sometime during the middle of the next week he noticed Grant's team had moved a fair bit down the road out of shouting distance so he had an idea. It was one he was sure to pay for but would make his jog just a tiny bit more enjoyable. The morning after, he skipped his turn after passing the kids and kept pace down a few more side roads to catch up to Grant's construction team. Soon he noticed he overshot Grant and the buildings stopped having gaps between them as often and were beginning to become continuous. After about 20 more minutes of extra jogging there was a relatively empty path between two warehouses that looked safe enough to go through.

Ricardo turned into it and heard rumbles through the wall on his right; he picked up the pace. He was in almost uncharted territory, best not to stick around and find out what the sounds could be unless he wanted an ass beating at the hands of some thugs upset about a potential meeting being interrupted. The streets in this city were never safe, just safer than others.

THHRRACKK!!!!

The wall on his immediate right cracked open and a bear-sized yellow and black fuzzy creature with two tails flew through, whiffing Ricardo's shoulder. The sheer wind pressure propelled them both straight toward the wall on his left side, smashing into it with great force.

"OUGH!" Ricardo felt something shift painfully inside the left side of his body, letting loose a shout of agony. "Son of a bitch!"

The fuzzy creature next to him went limp and a small vase-sized egg with a crack half it's size rolled from under its arm. Ricardo stared at it.

"creeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

A shattering screech winded up from inside the empty building in front of him. Ricardo scooped up the egg with his good arm and got up to run. He heard a darting noise followed by the sound of something being crushed and felt his back being splashed. He peeked backwards to see the scene. Blood and bits of gore littered the alleyway and a giant shadow disappeared back into the building. His blood ran cold. Nothing was on his mind except getting out of there as soon as humanly possible. Fuck it. Inhumanly possible, he needed to leave now.

He backtracked the entire route back home, almost sprinting. He got inside and slammed the door behind him as if he was being followed. He stood there gasping for air not noticing Shay on the couch.

"Yea that's what I wanna see baby. Your lazy ass needed this workout."

Ricardo didn't respond. He pulled out his phone while breathing heavily. 9:27. Almost an hour longer than his normal jog. He pulled off his gray hoodie which Shay concernedly took notice of.

"Is that...?" She stood up to get a closer look. "Is this blood??"

He nodded. Hands on his knees still too tired to speak.

"And what's this?" Shay went for the egg he was holding with his left arm. Ricardo winced from her touching it. "And you're hurt?? What the fuck??" She took off towards the bathroom to get things to help. Ricardo wobbled over to the couch and collapsed in it.

Shay came back with gauze and alcohol wipes. "Rick tell me what happened. What is this you have with you? Is it what I think it is?"

Ricardo groaned. "...Yea. Breakfast."

Shay's face went from concerned to annoyed. "So it's for real an egg then. And you almost got your shit caved in because you couldn't help but steal it." She picked it up and examined it. The egg was a very diluted orange with the obvious crack going almost all the way around it's circumference. She rubbed the crack gently and felt a very faint pulse come from it.

She sucked her teeth. "You can't eat this. It's alive."

"No shit Sherlock. I saw it's mother die from something, definitely another Pokemon."

"So you didn't steal it?"

"No. If anything I saved it."

Shay took the egg to the bedroom and wrapped a towel around it before coming back to check Ricardo's arm. "Okay so how did this happen?" She pointed to the massive bruising from his wrist all the way to his shoulder.

"I got caught up in the crossfire. I didn't see the other Pokemon that killed the egg's mom."

"Okay, so hero by choice or hero by chance?"

"The fuck?" Ricardo laughed "Ain't no way in hell I would've got between them shits by choice. It all happened in front of me while I was jogging and the egg rolled out from it's armpit or some shit."

Shay folded her arms and they both went quiet for a minute. "You know we can't keep it, right?"

Ricardo kicked his feet up on the couch. "I'm aware."

"It's illegal." Shay started wrapping the gauze around Ricardo's arm.

"Yes."

"And when it hatches, it'll be expensive to feed."

"Yes."

Shay bit the gauze short. "And we have no pokeballs."

"Correct."

"And even if we did, the upkeep would be expensive too."

"Mhmm." Ricardo rolled over and closed his eyes. "You're keeping it anyway, aren't you?"

Shay stood and thought for a moment. "...Yea."

Ricardo woke up a few hours later with Shay sitting at his feet. She was browsing something on her laptop but was unusually interested in it. She looked at him while he woke up.

"About time nigga. Look at this." She passed the laptop to him. "Which one should we get?"

Ricardo squinted until his eyes adjusted to the bright screen. It was on some shopping site obviously but couldn't really tell what he was looking at. "What are these? Glass pots?" he read the name of the listings. "Incubators?"

Shay, like anything else she was interested in, was serious about raising the egg. "Yea. See the cheapest one on here is like $3000 but its mad basic. All it does is keep it warm."

Ricardo raised his eyebrows at Shay. "$3000?"

"Right? I didn't think they were that cheap to be honest."

Ricardo couldn't believe his ears. Shay was the kind of girl to trip over letting the cashier keep the change when it was only pennies. This had to be nothing but baby fever in full effect he thought.

Shay scrolled the screen down. "They don't sell them on Amazon and I really don't want a used one from Ebay so I found this website and they specialize in Pokemon egg care. There's this one right here for $8499 basically $9000 with the shipping and extra features I want on it though."

Ricardo audibly choked. "Did you bump your head while I was out??"

"dId yOu bUmp yOUr-- shut the fuck up." Shay mocked. "Not your money no way."

"I'm just saying, I found the egg so I'm the daddy."

"And I'm the mama. We in this together."

"Then why you making purchases like you single?"

Shay frowned. "Ight. We going to the Pokemart then."

"Cool." Ricardo sat up. "The super center that's 4 hours away?"

"Damn right." Shay patted him on his good shoulder. "And you driving. But first you cleaning my couch." She picked up his crusty hoodie and dropped it on top of him then walked to the bedroom.