"Ungh! Get back here, you!" Hilda shouted as she ran through the woods, chasing down her prey, a rather quick Zebstrika.
The teenaged girl trainer, Hilda, had been scouting Pokemon in the woods to add to her ever growing collection so she could fill out her Pokedex. Unfortunately for her, her luck had not been up to snuff so far, with many of her attempts ending in failure. And as luck would have it, this newest attempt was looking to end the same way, as Hilda soon lost sight of her much needed Zebstrika through the woods.
"Dang it!" Hilda said as she slow to a stand still. She hit the air in frustration, and promptly sat down on a nearby tree stump to think.
So far her luck wasn't so good, but she had something new on her side today. Hilda reached into her purse and pulled out a small gun-shaped peripheral. It was an invention by the famous Pokemon Professor Juniper, who had given the latest device to the young brunette for all her hard work on filling up the Pokedex. But Juniper hadn't just given the device away, she'd warned Hilda to be very careful with it and not to overuse it.
"I know you said it was still in experimental phases, but I think you'll get why I have to use it after I catch a whole bunch of Pokemon!" Hilda justified use of the device to herself.
Hilda looked over the device, eyeing its gun-like shape and deceptively simple controls. Two buttons, a red one labeled "Shrink", and a blue one labeled "Grow". Hilda smiled to herself, this size changing ray gun was just what she needed to capture some Pokemon. In her mind it made sense that if she could shrink a Pokemon down to pocket size before attempting to catch it in a Pokeball, then its capture would be easy simply because it was made smaller and weaker by the device.
Hilda got up off the stump and turned the device over, pointing it at herself. She recalled the demonstration that Juniper had given her at the Pokemon lab...
---
Earlier in the morning, Juniper had used the size gun to shrink and grow various objects around the room. She told Hilda that she'd been working on the ray for weeks, and after many revisions, was almost ready to reveal it to the world.
Excited by the prospect of size changing, Hilda begged for a turn with the gun, and after a few more tests, Juniper allowed her to try it out for herself. Hilda practically beamed as she zapped things up and down in size around the room, getting a feel for handling the size ray. But then, in her excitement, Hilda tried something a bit crazy and zapped Prof. Juniper on "Shrink" mode, quickly reducing the genius woman down to the size of a doll.
Hilda's eyes went wide as she watched her beloved Professor shrink down in size, bewildered and amazed by the whole process. Juniper on the other hand was not as pleased with the results.
Things got a bit heated after that, but Juniper tried to remain calm and explain how to reverse her shrinking to Hilda. Embarrassed, but a little amused nonetheless, Hilda listened to the Professor and quickly restored her to full size. After that, Juniper snatched the size gun away from Hilda and explained to her that it was not a toy to be used like that. Hilda hung her head low in shame and listened to the lecture.
Later, Hilda and Juniper said their goodbyes on good terms after that, and the topic of the size ray had been replaced with discussion about Hilda's progress on her Pokedex. Hilda smiled as she left the lab to continue her journey. All the while, Juniper never knew that Hilda had secretly taken the size ray with her, having smuggled it into her purse when Juniper had left the room for just a moment.
Hilda grinned as she imagined the uses she could get out of this gun, and merrily rode her bike out of town...
--
After all that the truth was that Juniper had not technically given Hilda the right to use her latest creation, but she had actually given her warnings, plenty of them. Now that Hilda was out here in the woods, and desperate from her lack of success so far, she felt she'd earned the right to use it at least once to see if it would help her any.
"Thanks, Professor!" Hilda said happily, if not a little smugly as well, as she hugged the device to her chest. She then set it down on the same tree stump she was just sitting on and played with the settings. She knew that it was as simple as pressing one of the two buttons to get it into either mode, and then simply pulling the trigger to activate it. Hilda smiled and set the device to "Shrink" mode.
"Now, to wait for a Pokemon!" Hilda exclaimed. Time passed, with no Pokemon coming by. Hilda was starting to get restless and bored. She set the size ray down on the tree stump to go look for some Pokemon to lure back, but just as she did a Pansage popped out from the bushes!
"Yes!" Hilda exclaimed with a fist pump. Pansage wasn't exactly a rare to get Pokemon, but she'd take any win she could get at this point. She looked down and grabbed at her Pokeballs instinctively, but before she threw one, she remembered the size ray she left on the tree stump. She put the Pokeballs back in her purse and turned to grab the size ray, but when she looked up she saw that the Pansage had already grabbed it!
"Hey! You let that go! That's mine, and it's how I'm going to catch you!" Hilda yelled, pointing at the Pokemon and stomping over to it. The Pansage cried and looked worried, as if it understood what Hilda was saying to it. It looked around frantically in a panic, before its eyes locked onto the size ray. It aimed the size ray at Hilda.
"Whoa!" Hilda gasped as the tables had turned on her and stopped in her tracks, holding her arms up high as if she were being robbed. She started to worry that this Pansage was smarter than she thought, but realized that there was no way a Pokemon would really be able to figure out how to use such a complicated device.
Hilda chuckled lightly as she realized how foolish she was being, and decided to quickly run over and get the device back from the Pansage. But just as she did, there was a bright flash that shot out from the ray, blinding Hilda momentarily and once again stopping her in her tracks.
Hilda covered her eyes. Though she couldn't see, she could still hear the Pansage cry out as the ray activated. Hilda cried too, but this was from knowing that when she opened her eyes again she was going to see the world from a much different perspective. The moment passed and Hilda could see again, she winced before slowly opening her eyes to see that...