(Reboot) Pokemon: Beyond the Tall Grass

Unable to bring anything to the conversation, Cerise had begun to tune out a bit, standing a bit off to the side as the musicians began to bond over the Open Mike Night. His crimson eyes drifted to the ground as Catia and Decoda conversed with the musicians in earnest. He looked around, taking in everything else that Saffron had to offer.

"An emergency?" Decoda questioned, a little thrown back by her immediate request for help.  He had been asked for help before by several others in his past, and much like before, didn't want to let them down.  He was a little nervous about being taught by someone else other than himself, but he refused to let his nerves get the best of him.

"Hmmm.... I'm alright with speedy learning. I can cram," he began carefully.  "I mean, I've been playing for almost 9 years now, so it shouldn't be too difficult to pick up.  Who's my tutor and where can I find them?" he finished, sounding more urgent than before.

He was glad Catia could find someway to enter herself in.  Now he could put all his attention into this dilemma.

"Well, you're looking at her! Our lead guitarist fell ill and won't be able to play tonight. So I can teach you his part, and the words to the song. Oh by the may, he was the lead singer too..." she smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of her head, then held her hand out to shake. "Marley, by the way."


In the building, there was a small line of people who wanted to sign up. The double doors to the left of the counter, and it seemed that people were moving equipment out there. If Catia were to go look, she would find a very large courtyard with a decent sized stage that was currently being set up. 


As Cerise looked around, a small cat pokemon ran up to him, rubbing against his leg. 

"Skiii~" it meowed.

Catia smiled at the sight of the stage and went to go and get into line. As nervous as she was to perform in front of an audience, she was also slightly excited.

"Eh?" Cerise looked down at the cat Pokemon, unfamiliar with its species. He lifts his Pokedex to identify what it was.

"Skitty, the Kitten Pokémon. Skitty will get completely caught up in pursuing any moving objects that catches its eye."


The small pokemon started playing with a hanging thread on the hem of Cerise's pants. It purred happily. 


"Skitty, where'd you go?!" a girl cried, coming into Cerise's view. She finally spotted her pokemon and walked over to Cerise. "I'm so sorry! Skitty like to run off, She wasn't bothering you, was she?"

"Marley~" he repeated with a smooth voice.  He reached out and shook her hand with a wide grin.  "Well, to honor the guy, I'd be happy to help fill in for him and do your group proud!  My name is Decoda, Pewter City musician and singer, at your service!"

He broke the shake after a minute, then asked curiously, "So, when do we begin?  I don't wanna skip a beat!  Hahaha!"

"A Skitty, eh?" Cerise murmurs as the Pokedex registers the cat Pokemon. His Grams had a cat Pokemon as well, but it was nothing remotely similar to this Skitty! He watches it paw at his pants for a moment, unable to hold back his smile. Hearing the girl's voice, he looks up from gazing at the Skitty.

"This one's yours? I was just wondering if it was owned by someone or not! Thank goodness it didn't get too far away, right?" Cerise replies to the girl, hand scratching the back of his head. "My name is Cerise, by the way!"

"We can begin immediately!" She turned to the drummer. "Hagi, you can finish here, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Go teach our temporary lead singer/guitarist!" he smiled, continuing to pass out flyers to passing people.

"Great! Come on, I live here, so we can practice in the quiet of my living room. I'm sure my folks wouldn't mind!" She grabbed Decoda by the hand and started running down the street.



The line slowly dwindled down so Catia was standing at the desk.

"Hello, welcome to Silph Co.! How may I be of Assistance?"


"I'm Zoe." she introduced herself as she picked up Skitty. "And this is Skitty. So what brings yo to Saffron!"

Catia smiles at the desk recipient. "I would like to perform in the open mic night tonight. Are you guys still accepting performers or no?" She asks her, unsure if all of the spots were all filled up yet or not.

"Zoe, huh? Nice to meet you!! My friends and I are just starting on our journey, and this was our first stop. Saffron's... a lot bigger than what I heard... So, do you live here, then?" Cerise asks.

"Ah yes!" she handed Catia a few forms. "Fill these out and I'll write you in."


Zoe smiled at Cerise.

"Yeah it's pretty big. And I actually live in the daycare on Route 5!"

Catia smiles and takes the forms. "Sure I'll be right back!" She tells the recipient before walking over to a nearby table to sit down and fill out her forms. As she does so, Fox perks her head up and mews at the forms before pawing at them and making Catia giggle at her. When she finishes the paperwork she picks Fox back up and into her arms before taking the paperwork back to the main desk and returning them. "Here you go ma'am." She tells her with a smile.

With a massive grin spread across his face, Decoda held on to his hat with his free hand as Marley dragged him to her homestead with the other.  This was exciting, being enrolled so quickly into a real band, something he was never apart of before!  It was a new experience, and he wasn't sure if he could hold up to their previous performer, but his confidence levels would sky rocket if he made this night work!

"Ah, so my best style is rock and roll and soft rock, but I'd be willing to try out anything else if you guys play a different tune!" he said along the way, trying to get a better feel for what he was up against.

The lady took Catia's papers and input the information into the computer. After a few minutes, she looked up and smiled. 

"You're slot 21. Open mic night starts at 7pm, but all participants are to be here by 6:30."



Marley dragged Decoda to a house at the end of the street. She threw open the doors and dragged him up the stairs.

"MOOOOM! I'M BACK AND ILL BE TEACHING SOMEONE GUITAR!" She shouted, hearing an 'okay' from the kitchen. Marley threw open the door to her room. It was a bit messy, but still clean enough to get around and find things. An electric guitar was leaned in a corner next to an amp. An electric violin and a regular one hung on the wall, and a keyboard sat at the foot of her bed. A computer sat on the desk with a microphone plugged in. An editing system was open in the screen.

"Sorry about the mess!" She apologized, finally letting go of Decoda.

Decoda's face faded into a deep blush upon realizing he wasn't practicing just in this girl's living room or basement. He couldn't help but look around at the mess - to which he didn't mind since he wasn't super neat in room-keeping, himself - but was mostly interested in the influx of instruments around.

"No, it's cool! I, ahh... You play all these?" he asked curiously as he took off his guitar case and unwrapped his triangular set of strings. He took out the amp shoved in the back of the instrument's holder, and carefully plugged it in.

"Pretty impressive set up here. Not gonna lie!" he said with a chuckle, even though he was seriously impressed.

"Hmm? Oh yeah I play these." She said, picking up the electric guitar resting in the corner after setting the acoustic that was on her back onto the bed. She went over to te desk and pulled out a few sheets of paper and handed them to Decoda. "So here are they lyrics. They're easier to learn then the music, so well start with playing."

As Marley took his guitar and made sure it was tuned and everything, the guitar started playing itself! She dropped it onto the bed and took a step back. 

"Wha- WHAT?!"

"What the--?!" Decoda shouted, jumping back a little and looking around the room, suddenly believing the place was haunted. If it was, however, wouldn't Marley have told him something before they got in??

He refused to let fear take hold and grappled the guitar around the body. He shook it around in his quaking hands, his voice a little shaky from whatever was possessing the instrument when he said, "This has NEVER happened before, I swear it! Is your place haunted or something?!"

Catia smiles and nods. "Okay thanks." She says before walking away, going to check the time on her pokegear as she walked, not really paying attention to anything else as she walked.

"Wh-what?! No! I would've said something!" She cried, now hiding behind Decoda.

The guitar began floating and shredding some serious riffs. It seemed to be playing slightly sweeter then Decoda. A face formed on the body of the instrument and laughed at the two as it continued to play, almost mockingly.

The teen growled at the face, bearing his teeth.  How would he get rid of this thing?!  What even was it?!  There wasn't much time, so he had to act quickly.  Using one arm to cover Marley and the other to reach into his case, he pulled out his portable microphone, turned the wireless device on with the flick of a switch and shouted at the strange being,

"No WAY you're gonna best me on my own instrument, you creep!!  Get OUT!!"

A loud Echoed Voice blasted from the dark-handled Pokeball mic, and even though it ricocheted through the ears of everyone around, he hoped it wouldn't damage anything but the target.

(Damage: Sp. Atk. is 15 x 2 +10 = 40 HP)

The face on the guitar frowned when Decoda got mad. When the boy yelled, however, something bright orange flew out. The guitar fell gently to the bed. What looked like a kid with blue hair and a hoodie now leaned against the wall, hand to his head.

Spoiler:

"Owww...." He spoke, he voice sounding more electronic then anything.

Decoda puffed up his chest in triumph, still furious at the sight of this strange being, more so than baffled that the thing existed in his guitar.  He dropped the mic and faced the hooded possessor.

'Avatars, huh?  Well this is certainly something to look into.  And you said they were like Pokemon?  If you run into another one, try scanning it...'

The professors words echoed through the red head's ears as he remembered the call from earlier that morning.  He'd never known of another human being that could possess items, have such a digitized voice without a microphone, nor have such strange attire.  Would this being count as an avatar?  He reached into his pocket to withdraw the Pokedex he had.

"Who are you?" he asked the fallen being firmly.  "What were you doing in my guitar?"

The kid stood up and immediately began to float. His form glitched for a second, then reformed.

"I am Rotom. I had helped your friend in the Casino." He started. "I saw that you had a form of travel for me so I... Hopped in."

Decoda raised his pokedex and pointed it at 'Rotom'.

"Rotom; the Plasma Pokemon. With a body made of plasma, Rotom is able to permeate various kinds of electrical devices, usually causing problems."

Glancing from 'dex to machine, Decoda could not believe his very wide eyes.  It actually worked!  This WAS a Pokemon disguised as an avatar!  He had plans to alert his friend immediately through the messaging program in his Pokegear, but he wasn't sure how long that would take before Rotom vanished.  He had to get more answers out of this one guy while he was still around, but what to ask?  He wished Cerise or Catia were there to help him out, since they might have better ideas than he did for questions, but since they weren't around right now he had to quiz this guy with only his friends in mind.

"You were the one that made Cerise so lucky?!  Man, he might be crushed if he found out it wasn't just him," he began muttering that last bit to himself.

"How come you chose to follow us?  You looking for a battle or something?  And why didn't you come out when Entei and his gang showed up to give someone your blessing, or whatever?"

His hand relinquished the Pokedex into back into his pant's pocket to snatch up Mudkip's Pokeball.  He didn't want to start a fight, but if he had to, Mudkip's Water/Ground split type would fit best if this guy was electric as the device said.  He held onto his Pokeball close to his belt in case Rotom refused the battle.