It was the smell that woke me. It wasn't quite coffee. It was something else, something almost nutty. The call of caffeine gripped me tight and pulled me from the depths of my slumber.
A little tray and its contents was next to the bed I found myself in. A glass of water that I quickly gulped down. Some slices of a pink fruit, some toast, and there in the corner a small glass that one might use for an espresso shot. A golden brown liquid rested within with small wafts of steam coming off of it. A sip was all it took and I was wide awake. It tasted like chestnuts. I sighed in contentment.
With caffeine acquired my thoughts started to flow more freely. This was roasted chesto berry, maybe? Chesto berry coffee? The pink fruit tasted just like peaches. Pecha berries then, they cured poison. Poison? The Kakuna had hit me after all it seemed.
It was then that I realized I felt fine. Better than fine. I felt good. Inspecting my body which was now clad in some flannel pajamas revealed I didn't have any bruising from the fall. There were no aches or pain. Either this was magic berry bullshit or I had gotten hit with a healing move. Maybe a Heal Pulse from the Slowbro. They really are great pokemon.
Pokemon… My mind started to race. I didn't have to fight for my life against an angry bee and could actually consider things now. No money, no ID, no connections, no pokeballs, presumably large gaps in my knowledge about real pokemon and the world. How did society function? Did they really send ten year olds off into the woods alone with creatures that could be living flamethrowers? Did I even speak the same language? There was a different written language for every region. I didn't…
I slapped my cheeks. This was pokemon. There were gyms and a wonderful world full of adventure just outside. I could go on a Journey. There were real battles… I had been in a real battle. My eyes turned to my waistband Lonnie's words echoing in my head. I checked the family jewels… and let out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding.
What did I have? Porygon, who I kind of assumed would stick with me. He truly was best duck, and he needed a name. I also had knowledge, lots of knowledge. I had played the games and I knew some of the anime. I shuddered. I didn't want to go anywhere near Ash if he existed here. Still I wasn't sure how well any of that knowledge would transfer to this world or when I was in the timeline. Still the knowledge could be a major edge for me and I needed to start using it.
I had no ID, no connections, no money and a Porygon.
A story, that was what I needed. A good enough one might lay the groundwork to get those things I didn't have. A story I could start with… Something better than, 'I randomly appeared in the woods one day, please help me'.
Actually… that was a surprisingly valid story. Ingo from the battle subway had fallen backwards in time and lost his memories. There was also Anabel who had ran a battle tower. She had fallen through an ultra wormhole and lost hers. What was the term used for them, Faller? I chuckled, I had fallen in a manner of speaking.
Drinking some more of the Chesto coffee concoction and digging into the toast and Pecha I continued to consider possible backstories. If I pretended to be a Faller that could easily explain some gaps in my knowledge. Though didn't the International police use Anabel and others like her as Ultra Beast bait? They gave off some sort of energy after traveling through dimensions. I might want to rethink that.
Should I just blame Kalos? Hoopa decided to be a dick one day and bam I ended up in the woods. If I told them a legendary did it, would people just nod in understanding and go on about their day? Would a story even be better than telling the truth? 'Hello I come from a world where yours is fiction and know tons of highly sensitive information that may or may not be true.' Now that sounded like a good way to end up stuck in a lab or a black site. Did the Leagues have black sites? There were psychic supernatural creatures running around, did they really even need them?
After long minutes of consideration I had something figured out. It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst.
With a full stomach I rose ready to face the day. The room was nice, hardwood floors made of oak, a bookcase, a few windows and a painting. Everything had a certain quality to it, that old man had money.
The books and the painting called to me. Walking past the windows I caught sight of large gardens and colorful trees outside. The painting was actually four put together. I idly identified the pokemon depicted. Kabuto, Omanyte, Aerodactyl, and Ho-oh. Recreations of the paintings from the ruins of Alph? This might be Johto or the old man was just well traveled.
Johto would be nice, it was a very safe region. I couldn't remember anything bad ever happening there, unless you counted the Brass Tower burning down. If this was a world based off of the games, the anime, or even a fusion, I'd be safe in Johto. I could stay away from any world ending plots and the Plot. I smiled. I could envision it. A nice relaxing pokemon journey through a region rich in history and culture, no evil teams, just me, some pokemon and a friend or two made along the way.
As for the books, they were luckily written in the unown text which was just the roman alphabet. I browsed over the titles and some of them jumped out at me, The Sea Peoples, Sevii Islands, Brass Tower: A Night of Fire, The Abyssal Ruins, The Sinjoh Ruins, Indigo League Rules and Regulations, Ocean, Earth and Sky: Legends of Hoenn, and The War of Unification. The old man sure had an interest in archeology and myths. The league manual seemed to confirm that I was in Kanto or Johto. As for that last book, was that what I thought it was? An actual book about the theorized Kanto Johto war?
A soft knocking on the door drew my attention. I cleared my throat "Ah, yes one moment."
With a sigh I turned away from the bookcase and opened the door. I could answer those questions later. I'm not sure what I really expected when I opened the door. However, it certainly was not a Machamp in a pink apron.
They were the most humanoid pokemon I had seen yet. Their appearance didn't trigger the uncanny valley effect; maybe they were too clearly inhuman for that to ever pop up. I was taller than them by nearly a foot. They might be a little over five feet tall at the most. The hands for the upper pair of arms rested about eye level with me. Then there were muscles, all the muscles. They looked like something out of JoJo, chiseled muscular perfection. With a start I realized I was staring and quickly got out of the way.
The Machamp smiled and said its name in greeting as it flexed some of its muscles. They entered and placed some fresh clothes on the bed, then grabbed the tray with one of its arms as it turned to leave.
"Thank you, Machamp." I was able to get out as I resisted the urge to try and teach them a pose.
"Cha cha." it said in reply and ruffled my hair as it passed.
A few minutes later I was dressed in the provided sweat pants and a t-shirt. The shirt had the design of an eevee with a pagoda tower in the background. Exiting the room I was hoping to greet my host, explore a little, and find my digital duck. I was greeted with a hallway whose walls were covered in pictures, paintings and even sketches. It was a bit of sensory overload. Most of the subjects were pokemon but a few were people. The pokemon were generally easy to identify, and seemed to be from all the regions including Paldea. The people were harder. I was able to make out some gym leaders from various regions I sort of recognized and two people who I thought might be Oak and a young Bill.
The cry of a pokemon followed by a soft headbutt against my leg brought me out of my study of the pictures. I was greeted by a pokemon everyone seem to know, they had become something of a second mascot for the franchise. Eevee seemed to be some sort of mix between a dog and a fox with large expressive eyes. Those eyes were asking for only one thing and who was I to deny an Eevee?
I soon discovered that the fur was very fluffy and that this Eevee was wearing a collar with a stone in it. After a few moments the Eevee seemed to find my offering of pets sufficient and bounded down the hallway. They gave a yip from the end of the hallway and I followed. I passed a few closed doors until I reached a grand staircase. A chandelier made to look like a Chandlure hung above. As I descended the sensory overload from before returned as something was always drawing my attention. Various fossils hung upon the walls proudly. A set of apricorn balls were displayed. Display cases on the bottom floor were full of items. What were clearly evolution stones rested in a special case located in a position of honor.
"Oh Ho, the mysterious young man has awoken."
He greeted me with a smile and joined me in looking at the stones. Eevee was at his side. Now that I wasn't passing out from poison I could see his features more clearly. He was Japanese in appearance, his hair was white with age and his mustache was impeccable. It was hard to place his age, seventies perhaps. He wore a well fitting suit with a bowtie. I was starting to think it was his signature look.
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"The mysterious old man has appeared." I replied with a smile offering a handshake. "Thank you sir. I was in a tough spot there. You have a wonderful collection."
"Oh, think nothing of it. It was just a mild case of poisoning. A Heal Pulse and an antidote fixed you right up." He took my hand giving a firm shake and then his eyes turned to the stones after releasing me. "Do you know what they are?"
I nodded. He seemed to have a complete collection. Each stone was in its own special section to contain some sort of effect they gave off. A few of them caught my eye. A flame seemed to dance within the fire stone, a small fan could just be seen on the side of it's section. Sparks jumped from the electric stone as it rested on plastic. The water stone seemed to have moisture that seeped from it. The glass was frosted partially over in the section with the ice stone. Some of the others had even odder effects.
"Name them."
I saw no reason to deny him and so I did quickly listing them off.
"And on Eevee here?" he asked.
"Everstone." It was clear to me that it had to be the stone in the collar otherwise they would have evolved already. Eevee's were particularly sensitive and easy to evolve.
He smiled, "Good. It's so rare that I get to show off the collection. Someone that actually knows all of the stones, rarer."
I filed that little tidbit of information away for later. Were stones that rare or was knowledge of evolution methods not widely available?
After a bit of consideration he spoke again, "Now we turn to you young man. Who are you?"
"Damien Grayson, my friends call me Gray. You've more than earned that. And your name?"
He looked at me as if I had grown another head. I'm not a Zweilous...
He grinned and proudly declared, "I am Mr. Pokemon."
Odd. I frowned, that can't be his real name. Would it be rude to ask? He also said it as if I was supposed to know who he was. Something tickled at the back of my mind, was there an npc named that? Lonnie talked about this guy once I think. Something about... Apparently I spent a little too long trying to remember him.
"I had a travel show." He helpfully supplied as he considered my reaction or well lack of one.
"Never saw it." I artfully replied.
"It was a radio show..." He trailed off.
"Ah." Sheepishly scratching the back of my head. "Could you tell me where I am?"
"We're just off of Route 30 my boy. You seemed to have had a nasty run in with the local Beedrill population. Are you quite all right?"
"A little more than a run in. Physically I'm fine. Can you tell me what region I'm in?" I mentally apologized to the old man.
He paused, considering something before answering "Johto. What region are you from?"
I sent a small thank you to Arceus the big lama upstairs. Johto get, nothing bad ever happens here. I felt a sense of relief. I could set up my story and hopefully go on a Journey. "Unova I think. I'm not quite sure."
Unova was based off of America, at least part of it. It was also my best choice as a home region. It was distant from Johto and it was culturally similar to what I was used to. I could probably pass as a Unovan easily, or at least a Unovan with memory loss.
"Where did you live in Unova?" He asked.
"Somewhere with a lot of trees I think. I... I seem to be missing quite a bit that I should know." I replied. It was true to an extent. My state was close to the area Unova was based off of. If regions were bigger than their game counterparts then my state could very well be part of the region.
He swirled his mustache in thought. "How did you end up in the wilds Gray? Were you on your Journey?"
"I fell and then I was there. I didn't go on a Journey." It was the truth.
His eyes seemed to get a far off look as he considered something. "What did you do in Unova and what was the last thing you remember?"
"I was a pokemon researcher. I specialized in battle simulations, Porygon helped me with that." It was technically true, the best kind of true. I still felt a bit of shame as I misled the old man that had provided me aid. "I was happy about some progress in my work. I was in a hurry and fell, next thing I knew I was in the woods."
"Oh Ho, I'm something of a pokemon researcher myself." He straightened his bowtie. His eyes took on a hard look as he carefully watched me. "Name the pokemon that evolve when exposed to the stones."
His tone of voice didn't leave any room for argument and so I named them. What ensued next was a grueling three hours as he led me around his collection asking questions. What was this fossil? What are the types? What was strong against what? What was weak to what? I'd do my best to answer. He'd correct me if I was wrong and then move to the next item. The questions got more difficult as he showed me increasingly obscure items. I could see how the man had gotten a travel show. He loved to talk and to lecture and given the chance to show off his collection he greedily took it. He would test my memory at times. I think I was selling the whole lost memory thing well enough, though in the back of my mind I couldn't help but feel like I had messed up somewhere.
Eventually we stopped for lunch outside. Eevee ran off to join some Oddish and Bellossom that danced and played in the garden. The colorful trees I had gotten a glimpse of from before were berry trees. Mr. Pokemon's home was a large manor nestled into woods that seemed to stretch in every direction. In the east a mountain range rose up. That hill I had come in on seemed to be just at the edge of the range to the north of his home. The Machamp came out to serve us a light meal and some tea.
Mr. Pokemon sipped his tea and then spoke to the Machamp. "Helga get the box in the safe next to my bed."
With a "Champ" and some flexing she was off to retrieve whatever it was.
"Thank you for lunch and everything. Really thank you." I paused to take a sip of my tea and then continued. "Would you happen to know where Porygon wandered off to?"
He chuckled, "I have some impressive computers and a pokenet connection."
I smiled envisioning Porygon zooming around cyberspace with his little legs paddling at the air. I had to wonder what the pokemon internet must be like. Did people stream battles? Were there huge forums? More importantly, what were the memes like? I chuckled. It would be fun to explore. Maybe I could even introduce some memes and games from my own world. The tech level I had seen so far was at the same level as the most recent games. Mobile games could be a thing. I could easily put together a reskinned flappy bird clone, Flappy Zubat. Yeah that sounded about right. Or Arceus forgive me introduce this world to the evils of gacha.
"You know other people might have bought your story."
A pit formed in my stomach.
Mr. Pokemon continued, "Your theoretical knowledge is very strong. Your practical knowledge however is nearly non-existent. Even still, with some luck you might even pass the entrance exam for Celadon University. You'd be a rainbow karp and could go far as a researcher or professor. But you chose the wrong waterfall and you are no dragon yet."
My hand shook a little as I placed the tea cup down. Celadon was an Ivy league equivalent school whose mascot was a Magikarp. Multiple regional professors were trained there and Oak had even taught there. How badly had I fucked up? "Uh, sir..."
He silenced me, "Oh please. I've had enough of that. I can discern truth from lies just by looking at you boy!"
My mind raced. How? How had I messed up? He wouldn't be calling me out like this and so mad unless he somehow knew that I was full of shit and tried to trick him with a sob story. But what the hell else was I supposed to tell him? Over and over his words went through my head. Looking. Was I really that bad at lying? No, this is pokeworld there's things I probably can't account for or consider. What would let him see when I was lying? Could he read my mind? There were human psychics in this world. No he said looking, so sight based? It couldn't be could it? That shit was really rare in the pokemon world.
"Aura..." I whispered and let out a long sigh. The first person I met... had bullshit aura powers.
"Ah, another thing among the many you shouldn't know. I might not be skilled enough to read your mind. My meager skills however are sufficient to discern truth from falsehood." He paused to catch his breath and then calmly sipped his tea. "You did a decent job pretending to be a Faller. There was a fair amount of truth mixed into your story. Yet, you simply know far too much and too little at the same time."
The Machamp had returned with a large box and placed it on the table. Mr. Pokemon smiled at the Machamp, "Thank you, Helga. Stay awhile. We are about to see how much our young guest really knows."
Mr. Pokemon slowly opened the box. Inside on the bottom of the lid there were three symbols; Alpha, Omega, and Delta. Inside surrounded by fabric and padding were three items. The smallest item laid between two larger ones. It was about the size of a large marble, had a double helix in the center, and shone with all the colors of the rainbow. The Keystone used for mega-evolution was the item of least note housed within. In the left of the box was a blue crystal orb and within an Alpha symbol glowed. To the right was a red crystal and within shone an Omega symbol.
What the fuck?
I gripped the table tightly. Why the hell were those here of all places? This man had just shown me he had the equivalent of nuclear launch codes. Those orbs could control either Kyogre or Groudon. They embodied the seas and the land. New continents could be formed or the world could be drowned at their command. The Keystone showed that this was a mega-evolution timeline. Fuck Kalos. Those two could also revert to their primal form with the orbs to be even more powerful. There were very very few things that could stop them if that happened. The destruction and loss of life these could cause was immeasurable. I tried to stand and Helga's strong hands rested on my shoulders. They were as unbending as steel, I was going nowhere.
Mr. Pokemon smiled and then he laughed. "Ho, ho, ho, you do know what they are and can recognize them by sight. This just gets more interesting."
"Those... They... They shouldn't be here. They should be in Hoenn on Mt. Pyre. Better yet they should be somewhere safe!" I couldn't take my eyes away from the orbs just sitting there, menacingly. This was Johto right? Nothing bad ever happens there! My simple Journey dream, I could feel it slipping away bit by bit.
He chuckled.
"They are safe with me. A fellow stone collector passed them along after a spot of bother. Though they will be sent somewhere safer in time my oddly well informed friend. The two of us though we have so much to talk about." He smiled, "It should be quite fun!"
My mind raced as I tried to make sense of the situation I found myself in. Steven Stone, presumably the fellow stone collector and Champion of Hoenn, gave this old man both orbs. Orbs that could control Groudon and Kyogre. He gave them to a travel show host after Aqua and Magma tried to wreck his region. Just who the hell was Mr. Pokemon?
What did Lonnie say about this guy? 'Mr. Pokemon is sus as fuck and one really scary old man...