A Force in Time
Riolu and Shinx fought with all their might, but they were cornered by a ravine and the destructive powers of the Yveltal before them were too much. They were so thankful Celebi was here to help.
Something started ringing. The two Pokémon looked around, Celebi simply looked down at a little device she was wearing on hammerspace.
“What is that?” Riolu asked.
“Oh it’s my new SEIKO Classic. Set up an alarm for an important teatime telenovela!”
Yveltal opened her beak and started pooling up a Die Beam for the three. Riolu pointed to the growing threat. “Teatime? Hello? It’s nighttime! And we need help!”
Celebi shrugged. “It’s always 4 PM
somewhere, darling.” The Grass-type faerie waved a hand and a bubbly thingy materialized. “Now, behave yourselves and survive. Ta-da!”
Celebi entered the bubble and it poofed away.
Shinx groaned and took a look at the growing, glowing swirl of Die before them as it grew to cover the pair’s field of view.
“Fuck timezones.”
Celebi levitated to a sofa in front of the TV. This was the time of the day when the homeowner was away at work so the Pokémon had the home occupied for herself.
She tuned in for the programme that she liked the most. Something something humans going in a time travel hunt for criminals. Oh and also they had emotions that were always accompanied with background music!
Everything had started a few weeks ago. When the show itself had first aired, and Celebi had gotten fascinated with it.
«Oh, darling, don’t leave me!» the woman protag had cried back in the pivotal scene of Episode 1. Her mate, a time cop in red spandex, had been slashed in the back during a prison riot and left mortally wounded.
The woman had cradled her mate; in response, he had held up his hand to hers.
«Take the keys... and steal the time travel airship, dear,» the fallen mate had spoken in laborious breaths. «You gotta get back... Back to the past...»
The wounded human’s hand had then fallen dramatically slowly and that background music started out of nowhere; that got the actress character crying - and riled up for a vengeance. Over time Celebi had found herself attracted to such ways to provide TV characters with inspiration – and her with fun. Next scene for example, Celebi had laughed a good bit when the protagonist and her team got into the airship and then had a giant robot literally kick the airship in the butt to send it to the past.
Celebi giggled some more. Silly humans and their contraptions, oh so limited and roundabout for travelling across time.
Thus the humans travelled from their silly imaginary future with designer babies and crystal togas (why do humans always get that part wrong, Celebi sometimes wondered? They
couldn’t have missed the memo on the Eternal Disco Revival of 2716...). They would arrive in the present, which was their past, and now they had a mission to defeat and recapture the prisoners to protect this time, and to get vengeance for the leader’s mate.
Every work day, at 4 PM on NicKits.
The way everyone went about it, however, was so lazy and whimsical. They were all dressed in colorful spandex and went about firing lasers at the fugitives until they went down. All while yelling about emotions. And that was part of why Celebi loved the programme so much.
There was a lull in the action while the female leader explained some new time travel predicament to her companions, so Celebi took the time to pop a time bubble to the kitchen eight minutes into the future, when its popcorn would be ready. Celebi covered one of its ears and avoided looking into the bubble – no spoilers!
Carefully, Celebi opened the future microwave and retrieved a bowl of future popcorn. Time bubble now closed, the Pokémon floated down to the sofa and resumed their entertainment.
Just in time for the characters to act silly, because they just happened to be saved from a losing fight by a lookalike to the leader’s future-gone mate.
«What is this?» chortled the leader female, staring at the look-alike. «You can’t be him!»
«Him who?» the look-alike boy asked.
One of the future teammates sprung into scene, fascinated at the look-alike. «Just like Alex!» he added with a smile, right before the female leader shoved him offscreen.
«Jenny,» the young male answered with a snort, «don’t compare me to that kind of future hero!» He got up on a motorcycle and put on his helmet. «I’m a spoiled brat with no work ethics, who only cares about spending the fortune made from dad’s company!»
And away he went, accompanied with some musical score.
Celebi chuckled. She need no time bubble to know these two were gonna end together. And if not, she’d write her own version of the script where they did, and travel a few years to the past to slip it in into the producer’s notes.
«But Jenny, we can’t pass on on the help!» one of the other girls in the future team interrupted with a few sighs.
«We can do just fine without him,» the leader pouted. «I’m too much stuck in the denial phase to accept any help! Even accidental help!»
One of the other team members raised a hand. «Well, while we’re stuck here we should get some jobs. I would sign in as a Uber but this is year 2001 and my license permit isn’t valid for the next 970 years anyway.»
Another of the team members produced an owl robot from a box and started trying to turn it on. «We can at least call to the future to get reinforcements!»
The team leader turned around and pointed angrily at him, then at everyone in turn. «No distractions! We’ll lose themselves into this thankless job, no supplies from the future, while I pine for my lost love and make it everyone’s problem. Let’s go!»
And away she went.
The other members of the team rolled their eyes and followed their team leader.
All accompanied with some dramatic flutes for background music. All heading to the next adventure.
While Celebi looked on from the couch and smiled at their temporary misfortunes, she hoped she would have such enjoyment for 30-something more episodes. The credits rolled, and she promised herself to wait for the next episode, in linear time.
