WALL-E: Gotta Catch 'Em All

WALL-E had never wandered this far away from home, past the city limits and into a barren landscape that his databanks told him was once a forest. But then, he'd never had much reason to go looking this far before. Today, however, he had seen...tracks. Not tire tracks, either, or Hal-tracks. But real tracks, like the kind animals made in those old picture books he liked to read on occasion. They had wandered out of the city, and WALL-E had followed, eager to discover just what left them.

All this had led him through the desert-forest to what appeared to be a hand-crafted home. It was made of strange, thin, white-yellow objects WALL-E had never seen before, in various shapes and sizes...like building-blocks, almost, but with sticks instead of blocks. There was a small entrance in this odd construction, big enough for him to fit through if he squeezed himself close to cube-mode, and so he sidled inside...

...only to have one of those building-sticks tossed right into his face! It didn't hurt-the object was far softer than his metal frame-but it surprised him enough to make him recoil a bit. "Cubone..." a low voice growled in warning.

Adjusting his eyes quickly, and keeping his distance from where the voice came from, he saw the creature whose home he'd entered: a small, orange lizard-like animal, wearing a long-snouted helmet made of the same material as the building-sticks. The helmet hid its face for the most part, but WALL-E could still see its eyes. It was trying to look angry, but WALL-E could tell it was more frightened than anything else. Whistling briefly as he fully absorbed the creature's appearance-it looked like nothing else WALL-E had ever seen-he reached his hand out gently toward it, fingers open. "WALL-E." he greeted gently.

"Cubone." the creature responded, taking another building-stick into its hands.

"Kee-ooooo...bonn?" WALL-E replied, trying to get the name right.

"Cubone." the creature repeated, slowly advancing toward WALL-E with the building-stick held like a club in its grip.

"Keeoobohn!" WALL-E tried again, getting a bit nervous. "Kee...Ke...Cu...bone!"

That made the creature pause. "Cubone...?" it asked cautiously.

"Cubone!" WALL-E repeated.

"Cubone, bone." it said, looking at WALL-E's outstretched hand.

"Cubone." WALL-E said, then motioned toward himself. "WALL-E."

The little creature cocked its head a bit, then placed its free hand in WALL-E's. "Cubone." it replied with a nod.

WALL-E shook his hand happily, knowing he'd made a new friend...just not entirely sure how.