I contemplated my empty plate in silence.
The TV in the background had a bunch of brightly dressed talking heads droning on about pokemon contests. It was the kind of thing you’d put on for noise in the background. Cherrygrove was holding its contest over the next few days. It was the first major event of the Circut. From the snippets of their conversation that I picked up, some princess or something had registered and it was big news.
I didn’t really pay attention to it. I had eaten in a daze. After making up some crazy conspiracy theory because I saw anime hair I realized something.
It had been a month.
A month since I had fallen out of my old world into this one. I had been in such a mad scramble since then to get my trainer license and learn everything I could that I never really had much time to stop and think. I hadn’t really been alone with myself. It seemed like someone else had always been with me; Mal, Bubba, Mr.P even Helga and Eevee. Now here I was in a mostly empty cafeteria, just me and my thoughts.
Someone once said all of man’s troubles came from his inability to sit quietly in a room by himself.
Well, consider me troubled.
What had happened in my old world?
I had just fallen off the face of the Earth one day. Had people looked for me? No one knew I was okay. How had Lonnie and my friends taken it? My family, what must they be feeling?
What were my parents feeling right about now? A lot of unpleasant feelings bubbled around inside me. Was this why there was that trope of the isekai character wanting to return home? Get sent to a wonderful where you could live out your dreams. Yet you never got to say goodbye, never got to let the people that mattered know you were okay.
How do I deal with something like this?
How does anyone deal with this?
I grimaced.
Just gotta keep moving one foot in front of the other, right?
…Right?
----------------------------------------
Nurse Joy greeted me with a smile and a little bow, “Trainer Grayson, Mallardware’s checkup is finished. Your porygon is perfectly healthy based on the data we have on record for the species. Also I’m required to inform you that as a rather rare species he underwent a pokedex scan. It’s part of an ongoing League initiative to learn more about pokemon. ”
I smiled in relief. It was good to know that being born from an ai hadn’t messed up anything with Mal. At least not physically. “Thank you, Nurse Joy. Also you’re required to inform me?”
“Our machines in Kanto and Johto for the past few seasons have been fitted with pokedex functionality. It is a service we now offer.” She frowned as she continued “There have been concerns raised that the information that it gives might… find its way into other hands."
A hand went to her cheek as she sighed, "You know how some trainers are, always so competitive. Would you like a print out of the results?”
“Yes, please.”
Was a pokedex scan that big of a deal? Pokedexes aren’t really widespread at this point. We were still years away from it being a simple app on a phone that anyone can use. What information would people even be after? They scan Mal and go yup that’s a porygon. I guess that would help for simple identification but there had to be more to it. Maybe it gave out stats and abilities as well? That would actually save me a lot of headaches when it came to trying to determine them.
She handed me a little tray with Mal’s ball on it and I released him. He greeted me with a bored “Gon” as he floated down near my waist looking for my phone.
“Hang on buddy I want to go over the scan with you. You seem to be getting a little faster with all the pidgeys you’ve been fighting. Gonna have to get you some… What was it? Uh, tomato berries at some point.”
He nodded in agreement and rose up taking up a lazy orbit around me about head height.
“Tomato berries?” Nurse Joy questioned as she handed me the printout of the scan.
“Speed EVs.” I explained.
“Speedy Eevees?”
I raised an eyebrow. Was this one of those things I know but normal people don’t or was it a game mechanic that didn’t translate over?
I shook my head, “Don’t worry about it Nurse Joy. Thank you and have a nice night.”
----------------------------------------
A few minutes later Mal floated lazily around our room for the night. He was treating gravity as a suggestion at the moment. He would gently bump against a wall and bounce off of it at an angle just to hit the floor or the ceiling and go bouncing off again. I watched his recreation of a dvd screensaver for several long minutes.
Was he trying to cheer me up?
It was working.
He finally hit the corner of the room and I gave him a golf clap and called him over. He settled next to me on the bed and after pets were dispensed, I finally turned to the scan.
Pokemon: Porygon, the virtual Pokemon
State of the art technology was used to create Porygon. It was the first artificial Pokémon to be created via computer programming. In recent years, this species has been very helpful in cyberspace. These Pokémon will go around checking to make sure no suspicious data exists.
Level: 16
Moves Known:
Conversion
Conversion2
Sharpen
Tackle
Thundershock
Psybeam
“The hell?”
“Gon?”
“Mal buddy, this thing doesn’t really tell me much. More than I expected but less than I hoped.” I nudged him with my elbow, “It does tell me that you’ve been holding out on me. You know Psybeam?”
Mal narrowed his eyes in concentration and a swirl of glowing pinks and blues began to form in front of him.
“Whoa whoa stop! Not in the pokecenter.”
The vortex of energy sputtered and stopped followed by an annoyed sounding “Poreeee.”
“I know buddy. Eager to try out a new move. I don’t know why you haven't broken it out before. Did you know you could use it?”
He tilted his head as he considered the question before finally shaking it.
I sighed. Pokemon instinctively used moves in the wild. The only times Mal had been fighting without my commands were his spars with the pidgeys. For those he mostly spammed Thundershock, he hadn’t really had a reason to ever use Psybeam.
If I didn’t know he could use a move then I couldn’t really order him to use it. I was going to have to either get him scanned more often or run him through his moveset every now and then to check if he learned something. Maybe some more spars with wild pokemon might help, have him take on a geodude or something. It would be good to get him used to fighting without my commands more. Although with his start as a battle ai he still showed a preference for the hardest hitting moves he had. It didn’t lend itself to much creativity.
I turned back to the dex scan. The page might as well have been blank, there was just so much missing from it. No ability, no nature, no stats, no ivs, just about nothing actually useful there. All the number crunching and optimization that would go into a build... but I had nothing to crunch.
Damn it, I wanted to see numbers go up.
I wanted to find ways to make Mal the best he could be. Yet I didn’t have the data that would help me do it. Actually, why would the scan even have that info in the first place? It was a pokedex scan and the hard numbers and information I really wanted were never part of the dex. The data I wanted was on the trainer memo and skill screens in the games, I think. So no perfect information about the state of my pokemon at least not with a dex scan.
Was I spoiled?
…Maybe…
Okay, yes I was.
I needed to take a step back and get some context. Scans like this one had raised enough concern that Joys were required to inform a trainer that they had done so. I had an outside perspective and I needed to put myself in a native’s shoes. What had the scan actually told me and what would it tell someone that wasn’t me?
Levels and Moves Known.
Levels I could accept being picked up by a dex scan. Levels existed even in the anime and could be measured with a dex. It wasn't really used much but it was there. I had known levels existed in this world but their existence just hadn't clicked.
The forums online broke down people’s teams. The suspected levels and moves of the pokemon were often listed. That stuff was used all the time as ammo in the waifu wars that constantly waged. There was endless theory crafting and arguing over who would win. In both worlds I had been in people put in a whole hell of a lot of effort to argue on the internet. Double the effort when it came to waifus.
I sighed. Best not to think about the many many waifus in this universe.
Back on topic, knowing levels could be useful. Big number was good, little number was less good. Mal’s level was about where a starter’s would be for the first gym. The highest level pokemon in the games was Red’s Pikachu at level 88. If he ever came down from that mountain Blue might be in for a world of hurt. E4 and champion teams in the games were usually mid-50s to mid 60s, though could go higher in the postgame. Legendaries were usually around level 70 but that was probably meaningless in a real world if they were even that low. The first three pokemon Arceus created controlled space, time and anti-matter (though Lonnie swore that the last one was gravity). I don't think levels ever took stuff like that into account. However as a rough gauge of power levels mostly worked.
A dex scan could somehow quantify them. How it exactly did that? Maybe it was picking up some sort of passive energy emission? All pokemon had access to a seemingly infinite source of energy they could tap into. That energy was likely what let the funky physics of the pokemon world function. They somehow were able to turn this energy into a variety of exotic effects, some that seemed to warp reality around them, or even make matter. I really didn't like to think too hard about the infinite energy fuckery common to this universe.
So levels I could accept, but knowledge?
How the hell do you scan that?
Unless, pokedexes were psychic…
Nope.
Stop.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Too much Lonnie.
The exact mechanics didn’t matter right now. The dex could scan for known moves, and that would let someone get quite a bit of info about your pokemon. It let them see if a pokemon knew a bunch of set up moves or could reveal a coverage move. Knowing that meant you wouldn't have to scout out movesets in the middle of a match. You could set up counters beforehand as you got to read the playbook with a simple scan.
Okay, a dex scan was a big benefit to whoever was doing the scanning. It gave a significant information edge on your opponent. Damn, pokedex holders actually got a pretty decent advantage out of having one. They didn’t have to watch battle replays or read reports about what moves were used. They didn’t have to eyeball how powerful a pokemon was. They just got an easy information advantage with a simple scan.
I might be able to do better though. I had seen this world in a way its inhabitants could only dream of. I had gotten to see the numbers.
“Mal buddy I want you to start bringing over the simulator…
----------------------------------------
I woke early the next morning just before the sunrise. The early rays of the sun shone into the large windows of the cafeteria. The morning news played on the tvs, showing the weather and gave a swarm warning for Yanma on Route 35. The food in the cafeteria was once again served by Blissey. She kept rushing around on her tiny little legs, nearly dropping things. I had a weird feeling like I had seen this before but I just couldn’t place it.
The Paldeans were still around and were chatting over breakfast this morning. The other group I hadn’t been able to place had to have left a little before sunrise.
My eyes were currently locked with Mal’s. We had been staring at each other from across the table for several long minutes. He looked smug. In front of him laid five small bowls. A different berry laid in each of them.
It had been a month.
I had given him treats in the time we had been together.
Yet, I had never seen him actually eat anything.
He didn’t need to eat. He didn’t even have a heartbeat. He didn’t need to breath so he might not actually have a mouth.
If he didn’t have a mouth, how had he been saying his name…
He dipped his head forward going for a bowl.
Closer and closer towards a berry.
My notebook was ready, this was important information.
I leaned forward in anticipation, as I watched.
Did he actually have a mouth?
Before making contact with the berry, he pulled his head back resuming our staredown.
“Trying to learn Fakeout?”
His smug look taunted me.
“Fakeout?” a deep voice interrupted our deadlock. “I was unaware that a Porygon learned it.”
I shook my head turning to face whoever had joined us. It was one half of the pladean couple. He was heavily muscled with a fondness for pink. The same age or maybe a year younger than me. A backpack was slung over his shoulder.
“Morning, also it was a joke. Mal here is being difficult.”
“Hmm, Do you mind if I ask what you’re doing?” His eyes went towards the bowls of berries as he studied them.
“Trying to figure out what flavors he likes. But he just won’t eat, at least not when I can see his reaction.” After a moment I added, “My name’s Damien but friends call me Grey.”
“Vito.” He offered his hand and we shake. He had a firm grip. He turned back to the berries. “You’ve chosen a good variety. The five flavors are each represented.”
That was kind of the point. It was a half remembered game mechanic. Without the perfect information of the games I had to guess or discover Mal’s stats. The flavor test could be used to determine a pokemon’s nature by which flavor they liked and which one they disliked. Most natures affected stats by lowering one and raising another. I didn’t exactly remember what nature went with what flavors but the test still might narrow it down for me. For now I had a rough stat page written out in my notebook. Mal was unlikely to finish bringing over the simulator before we reached Violet city.
I turned back to Mal and frowned. The berries were still untouched. Is this what parents with small children felt like?
“I don’t know much about porygon dietary needs. But, perhaps some salt might help?” Vito offered with a shrug.
“Salt with berries?” I tried to keep the skepticism out of my voice.
“A little bit of salt enhances so much. In baking salt is used all the time. As long as you don’t overdo it, you can even use it to enhance the flavors of fruits.” He paused as he looked over the untouched berries, “Perhaps, don’t salt the Rawst berry as it’s bitter.”
I reached for the table salt.
“Uh, I have some good quality sea salt in my pack.”
“Thanks, Vito.”
He unslung his pack from his back. Various patches covered it like a traveler might collect stickers. They competed for space but in the center was a patch in the shape of a shield with an orange on it.
“Naranaja Academy?”
“Ah you know of it!” He smiled as he dug out the container of salt. “I’m not in the academy anymore. I’m in the university now. I’m doing the Treasure Hunt.”
The Scarlet version of events was now mostly confirmed for the future of this timeline. The game events would happen in a decade or so unless I messed with things. I had no intention of ever stepping foot in that region. I quickly scanned Vito’s waist for a teraorb.
Clear, I held back a sigh of relief. I had fallen before we ever learned just what was sleeping and dreaming under Area Zero. I didn’t want to take the chance if some of the worst theories were true. Something was watching from those crowns and those orbs were probably little pieces of it. I kept the conversation going as I repressed a shudder. “You’re a long way from Mesagoza.”
Vito smiled, “Not all treasure can be found at home. We get a semester for our independent study.”
That actually sounded like a lot of fun. “And what treasure are you looking for?”
“Food.” Vito grinned, “Johto has some really great Apricorn and Berry orchards. Some of them have been in the same family for hundreds of years. Their quality is really superb. As for the Tauros, well…
What followed was a long conversation as Vito gushed about how great some of the food products were. It also included a long discussion about the differences between Kantoian and Paldean Tauros. Apparently the Fire subtype was naturally spicy. We ended up arguing about how to properly prepare a steak. It was nice, hearing someone talk about things that they loved or were interested in. I had missed this, just talking to people.
We were eventually interrupted when the fairer half of the Paldean couple joined us.
“Here you are Vito, I thought we wanted to get an early start.” She slipped an arm around his waist. He towered a foot or more over her.
“Ah Maria, this is Grey.” He motioned towards me still holding the salt in one hand.
“Nice to meet you Maria. Vito has just been telling me about his treasure.”
She looked up at him and smiled, “Aw I didn’t realize you were talking about me!”
“Ah, that is… I was.”
She laughed and turned to me, “It was the food again wasn’t it?”
I nodded, holding back a chuckle.
“Did he go off about the Moo Moo milk again? He wants to try making chocolate with it.” She sighed, “I swear this man is obsessed with sweets.”
Vito blushed.
“Nah, we were talking about steaks and berries for the most part. You two are a bit far from Goldenrod. Most of the ranches are around there if you want the really fresh stuff.”
Most of Johto was still extremely rural. Goldenrod was the most advanced and largest city in the region. A lot of money from Kanto had flowed into it after the war, modernizing it. The rail line there helped tie the regions together and was just part of that effort.
Having recovered from his slight embarrassment Vito rejoined the conversation, “We started in Cherrygrove. Maria wanted to see the cherry blossoms.”
“That must have been nice. Though, didn’t they start just a few days ago? You made it up here fast.” It was maybe five days travel on foot to get down there… and they’re paldeans. They probably have some Not!motorcycle lizards.
“Cyclizars?”
They both nodded.
I really wouldn’t be surprised if whoever invented the motorcycle in this world was Paldean.
“Vito, we should get a move on. We wanted to reach Violet City today.” Maria checked her phone, “It’s getting a bit late.”
Checking my own I frowned at the time.
“Ah of course.” Seeing my frown, Vito asked, “Is there an issue Grey?”
“Not really, I just wanted to make it to Dark Cave before nightfall. Guess we got lost talking.” After doing some quick math in my head I added, “It’s gonna be close.”
“We could drop you off on our way?” Vito offered.
That actually sounded rather nice. I doubted I would get many chances to ride a cyclizar. “That would be great. I do need to grab some honey on the way out of town, though.”
Vito looked to Maria she nodded before he answered, “I could pick up some more ingredients as well.”
“Great, let me grab my stuff and we can head out.” I turned back to Mal.
The bowls were empty.
He let out a mocking “Ree”.
“Did either of you see?”
“No.”
“See what?” Maria asked.
I motioned towards the bowls, “The berries, he ate them.”
Does he actually have a mouth or did he digitize(?) them or something? Could he do that?
My staring contest with Mal briefly resumed. I broke it to grab my notebook
“Got to be Quirky or Sassy.” I muttered as I wrote.