As the journey out of the forest was going to take awhile, I asked the Ranger (who had introduced himself as Richard after we started to travel) to tell me about how he found me as we travelled to Route 6. Apparently, Richard was asked to investigate the area on Twist Mountain where I woke up because a strange hole in the sky was reported to the Unova League by several trainers who could see it from Route 6, with one being an Alolan Tourist who recognised it as an Ultra Wormhole. Fearing that an Ultra Beast had come through the wormhole, the League had dispatched several Rangers to sweep Twist Mountain for any unusual activity. They had also been given a special device that detects the energy that the wormholes leave behind, courtesy of the Aether Foundation. It was with that device that Richard had found the spot where I woke up, and with his Stoutlands nose they managed to track me down.
Just as he finished narrating his story to me, we came to the exit of the forest. Nearby, there were several tents set up, which was the temporary camp Richard was to report his findings too.
Entering the camp with Richard, I saw that there were lots of trainers and Pokemon roaming between tents. According to Richard, they were professional trainers that the League had temporarily hired to deal with the potential Ultra Beast. I even saw that there was a temporary PokeCenter in a tent as well, complete with a Nurse Joy and Audino.
Richard led me through the various parts of the camp until we arrived a demountable office. He knocked on the door, and while he waited for a response I tried to take the rock Axew was chewing off it. Right after I pried the rock from Axew’s mouth, a muffled “Come in” came from the office. With that, me and Richard both entered the office.
The office was rather plain, with some chairs and a desk being the only furniture inside. There was a man dressed in an office uniform currently at the desk with a cup of coffee, who appeared to have been in the process in signing some papers before we had entered.
“Ranger Richard, I suppose you must have found something in your investigation?”
“Yes sir. The wormhole did not release an Ultra Beast like expected but this person next to me.”
Sighing, the man placed the papers he had been working on into a tray and grabbed a file from a drawer in his desk.
“Alright Richard, go get some rest. I’ll take it from here.”
With that, Richard nodded and left the office, leaving me, Axew, and the seated man by ourselves.
Gesturing for me to take a seat, the man raised an eyebrow when he saw Axew before speaking.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I am agent Brent of the International Police’s Unova Branch. And you are?”
“Charlie.” I say.
“Charlie who?”
I go to say my last name but something was wrong. No matter how hard I thought, I couldn’t recall my last name, only my first.
“Going by how your face has paled, I would say that you can’t remember?”
“It may sound unbelievable, but yes” I stutter out, still in a bit of shock.
“Not really. If I had to guess, you are likely suffering from some grade of Ultra Travel Induced Amnesia.”
Seeing my confusion Brent explained.
“Its a type of amnesia brought about by travelling through Ultra Wormholes without proper protection, as beings there can erase memories to different degrees. Some people lose almost everything, and are left unable to communicate, while others are lose small memories like what they ate for breakfast or what they did on the weekend. We’ll get someone to give you a full diagnosis later.”
Oh God, how much have I forgotten without realising?
Before I started to do a complete memory check, Brent stopped me, looking like he was annoyed at having to deal with the mess that was me. We then spent the next few minutes getting my basic details, such as birthday, age, professions or study, and so on.
“Before you start to have a breakdown I’m going to need some information you can remember about yourself, such as date of birth,
When we finally finished, Brent pulled out some more paperwork.
“Alright, now that that’s out of the way we can talk about what is going to happen to you. Basically, every region can, in theory, have an Ultra Wormhole open within their borders. Because of that, people like yourself who fall through these wormholes have trouble entering society as up until that point, they didn’t exist in any records. In response, every regions League decided to create a department and fund dedicated to helping these people enter society and sustain themselves. However, because Ultra Wormholes are so rare in Unova the fund and department aren’t the greatest, so don’t expect League benefits forever. Now onto the next point.”
With that, Brent looked at Axew before continuing.
“Normally, Dragon Types are a group of species restricted only for Trainers who have obtained 7 gym badges or more. However, when our Champion, Iris, took the throne she made a few changes due to the state of the Dragon Type population in Unova.”
“What was wrong with the population?” I asked, interrupting Brent.
“It was getting dangerously low due to several factors, with the main ones being low fertility, long growth times, and killing off runts. Of course, there are a few exceptions, such as the Altaria and Flygon evolution lines, but individuals of those lines who reach their full evolution are just as rare as any other dragon. Anyway, back to the main point, the Champion knew that if this continued then the Dragon Types in Unova may end up disappearing in the wild, so she went and “negotiated” with the leader of each group of Dragon Types to come to an agreement. Personally I think she just beat them up until they listened to her.”
“What was the agreement though?”
“To send their runts off with trainers chosen by their groups leader, rather than killing them off. Iris then made some changes to League restrictions to allow trainers with less then 7 badges to use a Dragon Type runt provided they go through a special program to teach them to train and care for their new Pokemon. Which is also what you are going to be doing regardless of the career you choose.”
Brent finally stopped speaking to take a sip of coffee, giving me time to take in all the new information. What did I want to do anyway? I have a high school education but I didn’t even finish my first year at university before all this happened.
Does the Pokemon world even have universities? And do I even want to go back to one now that Pokemon are a thing?
I was snapped out of my thoughts when someone dressed in an office uniform like Brent came in and handed him another file before leaving, although they did make a strange expression when they saw Axew chewing on a pen they stole off the desk when Brent wasn’t looking.
Brent opened the file he was given and took out a black card, a Pokeball, and several papers.
“Alright Charlie, this is your League Card. Everyone has one when they turn 18, trainer or civilian. It’s basically a way of showing you are a registered citizen of the Unova Region and works as a passport, registering in League events, registering Pokemon you own in your name and more.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
With that, Brent handed me the black plastic card. It had a long number in white with my name, date of birth, a chip in the corner and somehow even my photo.
“Since you can’t remember your last name, we had to use the filler name for cases such as yours. So, unless you marry or remember your last name, your new name is Charlie Faller.”
“Faller? Is that supposed to mean something?”
“It’s a term that the International Police use for people who fall through Ultra Wormholes. Not the most creative name but it works as a placeholder. Also, your card is different to other League cards, as it has a built-in Ultra energy cloak, courtesy of the Aether Foundation, to prevent any Ultra Beasts from taking a special interest in you.”
Better not lose this card.
“This Pokeball is for Axew, since we need to register it to you as well. You’ll be able to do that at the PokeCenter outside, just ask Nurse Joy when we finish.”
“Now, the next thing we need to do is decide on what career or job you wish to pursue, as the League is legally obligated support you with the fund I talked about. Don’t feel rushed to decide right away as I underst-”
“I want to be a Pokemon trainer.”
Brent looked annoyed about being interrupted again.
“You could have at least let me finish you know.”
“Sorry, its just, I never had this chance in my old world.” I responded, feeling a bit embarrassed about my rudeness.
“Well, that's fair I guess. Did your world not focus on trainers as much as ours?”
Well, can’t hide this forever. Here goes nothing.
I lean forward on my seat, hands on knees, face serious as I prepare to drop my bombshell of a secret.
“Not really. It’s more that Pokemon didn’t exist in my world at all.”
“Oh so its one of those worlds.”
Wait what? I thought he would have a better reaction than that!
“Alright, if you really do want to become a trainer then it will take a while to make the necessary arrangements. For now, we are going to bring you to Mistralton city, where you can stay in a room at one of the PokeCenter’s. You’ll most likely be put through a low level trainer school program since you have no experience with Pokemon at all, with the dragon training program on top of that before you can start your journey though, so don’t expect to leave until at least Spring.”
Still thinking about how Pokemon not existing in my world didn’t faze him, it takes me a moment to pickup on the time delay.
“Wait Spring? Based on the trees I saw, its still Autumn right? Why have I got to wait so long?”
“The Unova League season operates from the beginning of September to the end of May, or from the start of Spring to the end of Autumn. Its currently the beginning of May, so League season will be ending soon.”
Having finished his explanations, Brent got out of his chair and walked to the door, pausing only to take the pen out of Axew’s mouth.
“Well, we’ve spent enough time talking Charlie. Richard should have arranged for someone to take you to Mistralton, where we will be in touch to make arrangements for your lessons, living expenses and weekly checkups. For now though, you go grab a meal at the camp kitchen. Someone will take you to Mistralton in an hour. I’m going to go find some aspirin for this headache your paperwork is going to give me.”
And with that, we left the office.
----------------------------------------
In the hour we had before we left, I captured Axew in the Pokeball and gave them to Nurse Joy to register in my name. She offered to give Axew a quick checkup while I had a meal, and I was happy to take the offer. When I finished the meal Axew was still getting examined, but Brent had sent someone to give me a fresh change of clothes, since mine were all ripped up. The clothes were a pair of cheap jeans, a grey T-shirt, some white socks and undies, and a blue slip on hoodie. No new backpack since my original one was the only thing without holes in it. After finishing changing my clothes, I packed my old ones into my backpack before going back to the PokeCenter tent to check in on Axew and see if they were finished.
Turns out Axew’s a male, and is smaller and lighter than usual for his species. Nurse Joy had said not to worry though since he was a runt so it was expected. She did say that he will be able to develop to his full size with proper nutrition and had given me a basic food prescription and small bag of berry pellets, although she had advised me to ask for a better one during my dragon training program.
After my meal, change, and Axew’s checkup, a man in a black suit wearing sunglasses picked us up from the PokeCenter tent and took us to the car we were leaving in.
The trip to Mistralton was rather uneventful as it turns out we were going by car and road, rather than by foot and the Chargestone Cave like in the games. Axew had to eat in the car as the checkup took most of the hour we had at the camp. He seemed unbothered by this though and instead ate his berry pellets like popcorn from the bag while looking out the windows on my lap. I was busy looking out the windows as well, but occasionally I would give Axew’s head horn a few soft scratches.
After a silent three hour drive on the highway we finally arrived at the city. By that time, my legs were rather stiff from sitting for so long, and Axew was getting restless too. Thankful for being able to walk again, we both stretched when we got out of the car before following the driver to the nearby PokeCenter. It was a lot bigger than I thought, at least 20 stories tall, and looked like a cross between a hotel and a hospital
It was night now, and the Center wasn’t very busy, with only a few trainers in the waiting room. The driver told me to wait while he arranged for a room for me and walked off to the reception.
With nothing better to do, I grabbed a magazine from the magazine rack near the seats and sat down to read it while I waited. It was called “Unovan Stars”. It looked like a sport magazine from my world, except that instead of professional athletes there were professional trainers and their teams. The biggest article of the magazine seemed to be about who will fight in the Vertress Conference, with the article listing potential candidates with 7 badges as well as confirmed candidates with 8 badges.
Interested, I continued to flip through the magazine while Axew sat next to me and chewed on a free mint I got from the counter for him. In the magazine I found several interviews with returning contestants, gambling ads, training techniques used by some of the trainers, and even an interview with Shauntal of the Elite 4 about who she thinks are the most promising trainers of the season.
Once I finished reading all the interesting parts in the magazine I went to grab another one, but stopped when I saw the driver returning with nurse. Putting the magazine I was holding back on the rack, I thanked the driver before I followed the nurse to the room, where she gave me a quick tour before leaving.
The room wasn’t too big but it was comfortable. There was a small bedroom with a bed and TV, and it was connected to a bathroom with a shower and toilet. Apparently kitchens weren't allowed as they were considered a fire hazard, which I found a bit strange.
Why are kitchens a fire hazard but a Fire Type Pokemon isn’t?
Putting that question away for later, I sat on the bed and turned the TV on to see what media in the Pokemon world was like. Axew must have been curious about the TV as he crawled up and sat in my lap to watch with me.
I flipped through a few channels, finding cooking shows, contest performances, news broadcasts, and a few movies and shows from a streaming service called PokeStar+. Some of the shows on that channel even seemed to be acted entirely by Pokemon, and Axew made me watch a few episodes of one about a family of Pidove’s with him. After that, it was my turn to pick something to watch before we went to sleep. Scrolling through the channels again, I found what I was looking for, a channel the magazine mentioned called League Cast. It was a channel that shows the most popular gym and trainer battles of the week, and when the Conference starts it will be showing the battles there too.
When I opened the channel, it was in the middle of a fight between one of the 7 badge trainers I saw in the magazine and the gym leader Roxie. It wasn’t looking too good for them as they were onto their fourth Pokemon, a Swanna, while Roxie was on her second Pokemon, a Whirlipede. Axew and I both watched it until the final round, where the trainer had somehow managed to take out two of Roxie’s Pokemon with one of theirs, evening the score. Both were on their last Pokemon, a Crustle and a Garbodor.
The Crustle had been shaving parts of its shell off with Shell Smash, letting it dodge the Garbodors attempts to poison it with Toxic, but it was having trouble getting close enough to hit it. Instead, the trainer told Crustle to back off, and the created a shield of rocks around it with Rockslide.
The Garbodor started to close in on the rocks, then suddenly glowed white and accelerated, slamming into the pile and causing the rocks to fly everywhere. I didn’t know what move it had used, but the announcer said it was Body Slam.
This is very different to what happens in the games, it looks way more fun. I didn’t even realise that you could use a move like that.
However, the Crustle was prepared, and shot out of the pile moving at twice the speed before, with its remaining shell reflecting the light like a piece of metal. According to the announcer, Crustle must have used Rock Polish to speed itself up even more.
With it’s newfound speed, the Crustle charged up to the Garbodor before it had time to recover from slamming the rocks away, creating a giant rock in between its claws using a move called Rock Wrecker. Then, right as the Garbodour turned around it smashed it right on its head, catching it off guard for a critical hit and knocking it out.
With that, the trainer had won and the recording for the battle ended soon after. The battle had me and Axew on the edge of our seats the entire time and when the final hit had landed Axew had cheered with me. Just as I was about to watch the next battle coming up, me and Axew both yawned. I checked the time and saw that it was almost 11pm. Realising that we had stayed up way too late I turned the TV off and got into the bed still wearing my clothes. Axew wanted to sleep next to me, so I was happy to move over and make room for him. Finally comfortable, we both began to drift off to sleep in our comfy bed.