Pokemon - From the Brink

Chapter 1 - Babysitting in the Storm

As I held Leo's water bowl under the tap, I heard a voice coming from the living room.

"Whoops, I left the TV on." I realised, turning off the tap and placing the now full bowl on the side.

I went back through to the front room to see that the television was indeed still switched on. I looked around for the remote, spotted it on the coffee table and went to pick it up.

The news was on the TV, which seemed strange to me, since this wasn't the usual time for it to be broadcast. As I grasped the remote, I looked at the screen. It was some sort of breaking news bulletin. A woman was speaking from the centre desk, and a bold headline ran across the screen below her. It read 'Prime Minister Reported Missing'.

"Huh?" I stared. "How do you lose the Prime Minister?"

"Following a meeting at the U.N. Offices in New York, USA, Japanese Prime Minister Eijiro Saito has gone missing." The reporter spoke. "Attendees of the same meeting all agree that Mister Saito was present at the meeting, but he hasn't been seen since. All attempts to contact him have proven fruitless. Police are conducting an ongoing search, and Mister Saito's deputy will take over until the Prime Minister is found. More on this story as it develops."

"Wow." I watched for a few more seconds until the broadcast ended, then switched the TV off. "Weird. I hope he's ok." I put the remote down and made my way back into the kitchen.

*

About an hour later, we were still out in the garden. Maruki wasn't bored yet, and seemed to be having fun watching my Meowstic control my other Pokemon's moves with her powers. I had been watching them for a while, sat beside Leo once more. I glanced down at my phone and scrolled slowly through my newsfeed. Sure enough, the majority of it was full of subjects relevant to my tastes – news and jokes about video games for the most part, with general humour and occasional videos as well. As I had thought, the Prime Minister's disappearance was on the lesser-visited trending tab, but there was something else that I didn't expect to see.

'Dash-cam captures footage of the moment the Sun turned off'.

"What? We'd be dead if the Sun turned off." I frowned, sceptical. But something compelled me to tap it anyway. I was taken to a brief summary of what the video below showed.

"In the morning hours today, the skies over New York City turned pitch-black, despite clear weather and no solar or lunar eclipses expected." I read in my head, pausing briefly before continuing on. "The footage below comes from a police officer who had been on duty when the incident happened. His car's dash-cam catches the fleeting moment that the city was plunged into darkness, only to light up moments later."

"What is this...?" I played the video. It was about thirty seconds long. It had been cut down to show the essentials. For the first five seconds, I could see the streets of what must have been New York City, from the camera inside a police car. It seemed to be driving through traffic normally when, out of nowhere, the whole scene was engulfed in total darkness. The officer behind the wheel swore in surprise and confusion, and presumably stopped driving.

Watching the video, I felt a sense of unease and awe all at once. I could just about make out the lights of the buildings around the street, and hear the muffled screams of people panicking outside in the open. And then, almost as soon as it had turned dark – about ten seconds or so later – it was like the light switch had been flicked back on. The darkness was completely gone, and everything was back to normal.

The officer swore again and asked what the Hell was going on. Then the traffic started moving again and the video ended. There was some text below the video too.