A week passed by in a blur. The first day I was almost in shock after meeting Gary and Ash, the two 5 year olds. I had begun to believe that while I was in pokemon world it was separate mostly from the show as I had not been able to find anything mentioning or indicating that Ash existed. I hadn’t looked up Gary but I doubt I would have discovered anything as neither of them were trainers yet and therefore had no presence on the developing pokenet, though maybe I would have found some mention on Professor Oaks grandson but that probably wouldn’t have helped at the time. I hadn’t paid much attention that day as Professor Oak did a bunch of tests and exams on slyveon which she had tolerated well. Better than well really as she had continuously pulled tricks on them while they were studying her weight, height, ribbon length amongst other things by moving their notes around, hiding their pens or tapping them on the shoulder to make them look away while portraying an innocent look. Anna had been overjoyed getting to work with Professor Oak and his assistants and had been asking them all questions all day now that her shock had worn off. Thankfully Anna kept them busy enough with the questions she was asking that they didn’t bother me much as I processed the idea that I was here a few years before any of the tv story line began. I had questioned myself if I should try prevent some of the things from happening, would I be messing up the timeline if I did, if I sabotaged Ash of Gary in some way what would happen? Eventually I had developed a headache large enough that I had to go for a walk outside to try distract myself and calm down. It took awhile and many cuddles from my team before I calmed down enough to accept there wasn’t really too much I could do. I knew about some of the major events from the first seasons of the show but nothing after that therefore I couldn’t harm their story deliberately as I don’t know what I don’t know. After that are the general major events from the games and movies that I was aware of, like the legendary’s and what the villains of the games are after but I didn’t have any real hard details or proof that I could use to back those up. Like if I went around shouting Giovanni was the leader of Team Rocket I probably would just get done for slander. And then assassinated probably. I could monitor some of the events that I know happen and try to reduce their impact but none of them happen for at least 6 years if Ash leaves on his journey at 11 like he does in the show. So I ended up deciding it was a future Josh’s problem as there was not much I could do now, especially as I barely know the world and have a weak team. So I would continue to do as Anna and I had planned to build up a base of money and try to evolve my team into all the eeveelutions over the next year or so before then using said team and money to try make a difference. Maybe Ill try getting into the fighting scene and gyms with a bit more effort as it could be a lot more helpful down the line than I had originally expected.

After I had come to a decision on what to do, which basically was ignore it for a year or two and hope it fixes itself, denial was a powerful emotional tool, I had joined back in with Anna and the scientists with a lot more focus and learnt what slyveon could do. In their tests with fairy energy slyveon had ended up learning a bunch of new moves, both fairy and normal to try monitor how the different energy moves or interacts with her body and the outside world over the week. Turns out fairy energy is fucking weird and is really hard to pin down. I came to that decision after several of the assistants ended up having outbursts over the week as they couldn’t make it behave like “normal energy” and “it won’t do what its suppose to”. In addition fairy’s generally tend to have three types of personalities, pranksters, caring or sadistic and thankfully it was obvious what slyveon was she was having a great time messing with the scientists or laughing at their inability to make sense of fairy type energy.

The day we sat down and talked about how I had gotten her to evolve from an eevee to a slyveon was tricky as neither Anna or I wanted to reveal my true past or mew’s interference. So that had been a fun morning of telling a story about how I had had my pokemon for years without evolving them and how when I was younger I had heard a rumour that eevees could evolve when exposed and trained in certain type energies like physic, dark and fairy. I had tried fairy first simply as Quinn’s wigglytuff provided the opportunity and I had chosen Gin at the time to try as she was very protective of me I thought she would be a good fit as a fairy type. How much Professors Oaks team believed me I’m not sure but they assured me after the interview every bit of information helps build up the database on slyveons and fairy types in general.

The most exciting day was when Professor Oak was lecturing Anna and I on the strengths and weaknesses of fairy types and how they were particularly effective against dragon type pokemon. I had ended up having a bit of a debate with him with how that didn’t seem likely (I knew it was from the games but was that true in reality?) as dragons surely would have the advantage simply due to the size difference. I seem to recall my point with that was along the lines of “look how cute she is, how could a goddam dragon be afraid of her?!”. That had got me both a hug and a smack from slyveon as she seemed to take it as both a compliment and an offense while getting a sigh from Professor Oak. After a minute considering something Professor Oak had ended up taking us outside onto the ranch before blowing a whistle he had in his pocket, which was answered moments later by a large roar making the nearby pokemon go silent, and a Dragonite had dropped out of the sky to land next to him. Despite its appearance, covered in plenty of scars, the dragonite appeared to be extremely friendly and cuddly as we saw when it picked Professor Oak up in its arms and spun him around shouting its name happily. That is until it saw slyveon standing near me where upon it had placed Professor Oak behind it and started growling deeply while its claws extended from all four limbs, and its tail started to thrash on the ground behind it. Slyveon had retaliated by raising her hackles and extending her ribbons and waving them about in a strangely hypnotic pattern ready to throw down while I had tried not to piss myself seeing a nearly 3 metre tall dragon that looked like it had been through a war get ready to destroy us all. Thankfully Professor Oak had calmed his dragonite down by whispering something in its ear to which the pokemon let out a large snort before relaxing, though for the rest of the afternoon it did not totally relax around slyveon. Despite the odd super effective attack connecting in a couple of light training matches that Professor Oak had insisted upon, I later found out it was to both educate us on fairy moves vs dragons and he had noticed me balk at dragonite and trainers “should trust in their pokemon”, slyveon was leagues below dragonite in turns of strength who was able to shrug off most of her attacks. Of course this ended up infuriating slyveon when dragonite snickered repeatedly and kept saying something that would drive her mad to the point I had to recall her as she threw everything she had at the dragon that she exhausted herself and couldn’t muster the energy to walk back.

Thankfully not all of everyday was spent with slyveon being analysed for future reference as the researchers and Oak himself did have other duties and studies on going. This gave the team and I plenty of time to wander around Pallet town and the ranch exploring. It was an amazing place to be. Pallet town was nothing significant, it was a small town with plenty of small houses scattered around the nearby grassland, river and surroundinf forest. What amazed me however was the quality of the town and its people. The café’s, restaurants (not that I could afford to eat out on my budget) and even the pokemart stocked amazing varieties of food and sundries. Pallet town didn’t seem like a rich place but it definitely had the stuff and casual attitude of it. Anna and I talked about it one day over lunch as we both decided it was because of Oak. He was just that famous that people wanted to have a place nearby in case he did or announced something, and in addition his pokemon were so monstrously strong still that the nearby area was incredibly safe from both wild pokemon and criminals. Apparently Oaks alakazam had a bad experience when he was younger with some of their supplies being taken that it kept a passive scan up for ill intent, or so the rumours go. More likely with so many strong pokemon in the area getting away with a crime would be near impossible so criminals didn’t even try here. I found that more reassuring to think constantly thing that a pokemon was continuously scanning my brain.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The ranch on the other hand was an amazing combination of organisation and chaos. There was an area dedicated to almost every type of pokemon and the variety there was insane. It turns out they belonged to a variety of trainers and locals all of whom either had sponsorship from Professor Oak and his lab, or they paid a rather steep fee to allow their pokemon to roam about there. But the pokemon there all looked like they were in amazing condition despite the small battles that seemed to happen everywhere. That many different pokemon in such close proximity naturally resulted in plenty of fights however as Anna and I saw one day if the fight ever escalated beyond a friendly spar a stronger pokemon would step in to deescalate. Or in one case with Oaks Charizard, fly in and absolutely dominate the fighting pokemon with a flamethrower as they had interrupted her sunbathing and she was pissed. I was feeling mixed feelings around charizards now. The first feeling was that they were awesome and always had been. The second was that I was kinda frightened by them and if I ever found a Charmander I would have second thoughts about catching it as dealing with a grown Charizard was a daunting prospect. You would have to have some serious kahoona’s. But it didn’t seem like it would be a choice I would have to make any time soon, apparently charmanders are extremely rare to find in the wild and the areas that they are likely to be found are kept very secret. Combine that with the fact that mother charizards take scorched earth to a whole new level when someone tries to bother their nests or young. Either you go on the very few waiting lists for known breeders of charizards, which take forever to be filled as they are infrequent and picky breeders, or you get lucky finding a Charmander that has the desire to explore and get stronger.

The stay at the ranch also allowed me to see the other starters, or at least their evolved forms, that kanto was famous for as Professor Oak had both a Venusuar and a Blastoise, which shouldn’t have surprised me as when I thought about it the starters you get in the game had to have come from somewhere. The Blastoise unfortunately I wasn’t able to see much of as it seemed to always be sleeping in its shell, but the venusaur liked to wander the grassland areas of the ranch. She was a friendly giant and greeted whoever approached her with a happy low call of her name, while one of her vines would gently feel around your body and face. It reminded me of how some blind people will feel someone’s face to get an idea of what they look like, and her vines despite being as round as my arm were incredibly gentle.

The only day I saw blastoise stick its head out of its shell was when I came across Gary and Ash playing around it and Gary had managed to climb up on top of shell and it stuck its head out to give him a baleful look. Gary had courage Ill grant him that as he had merely laughed and slid down the shell to rub its head which made it sigh in contentment before retreating back into it’s shell. Which is when Ash promptly stuck his head into before getting blasted backwards by a jet of water.

“That’s why blastoise is going to be my starting pokemon!” Gary had laughed while Ash shook the water from his head. “Though I do like you eevees too Josh!” He quickly amended when Ale ran over to him for a pat, though Ale retreated quickly when one of blastoise’s cannons emerged from its shell with a heavy thunk and a grumble echoed out from the shell.

“How about you Ash?” I had asked him. “What are you wanting as your first pokemon?”

“I’m going to get the strongest one! I’m going to need it as I’m going to be a pokemon master!”

“I’m going to have the strongest!”

“Nah! I am! And I’m going to catch all the pokemon!”

“No I am!” “Are not!” “Am too!”

I had left shortly after that as blastoise had blasted all of us with a water gun, for being noisy I assume, but it was good to know that I could see the two turning into the Gary and Ash from the show. Hopefully not as much of a twit or idiot though, but only time will tell.

My week at the Oak ranch and research lab came to a close as Oak thanked slyveon, Anna and I for the opportunity and that we had held up our side of the bargain and so would he. Anna was reluctant to go as she had been having a blast learning and working with all sorts of different pokemon but her boss’s back in viridian had hinted that she needed to return. However she had become friends with several of the researchers here in Pallet town and had a recommendation from Oak as to her skills at handling and researching rare pokemon which she swore to have framed, so while she was disappointed to go Anna had got some ideas on how to get ahead back in Viridian. So after a late lunch and a promise to keep in contact Professor Oaks alakazam had agreed to teleport her back to her house in exchange for a large pastry without needing Professor Oak to organise it. It turns out alakazam had a sweet tooth. Professor Oak had given me the thunder stone he was keeping in a rubber box with the instructions to use it within a week as after that the charge may have gotten low enough that it may not be enough to trigger an evolution. After thanking him and getting a business card from him if I ever had any new information to share about my eevees and their evolutions I left the ranch for the last time and begun my walk south to a small beach where Professor Oak had lined me up with an old friend of his who was heading to Cinnabar Island the next day.

Professor Oak watched from his balcony as the young man walked away from the ranch with his ponyta and an eevee at his side before turning to Emily.

“Emily would you remind me to keep a tab on that young man and check up on him from time to time?”

“Certainly Professor. Any particular reason?” Emily replied after jotting something down on her ever present clipboard.

“Something about him just seems a tad particular. I’m sure you noticed that he wasn’t being completely honest with us during some of the interviews?”

“I did. What he told us about the slyveon he has all seemed to be true, but the details about how he acquired the rest of his team seemed …. vague. Bar the ponyta, I confirmed that with the Viridian Rangers” Emily corrected flipping through her notes, offering a page to Oak who waved it away.

“Yes, I can’t put my finger on what is unusual about him. I don’t want to seem too narcissistic about it, but did you notice the difference between Anna and Josh when we first met them?”

“Yes now that you mention it” Emily replied after thinking back for a moment. “It was like he both knew who you were while not at the same time. No … respect almost while Anna basically had stars in her eyes when she looked at you.”

“Yes, though stars might be an exaggeration. Never the less, I suspect he will surprise us with what he accomplishes.”

“You think he will make it to the Indigo League?” Emily asked surprised.

“No. Well not his year” Oak amended. “He seems lacking in battle experience to make it to the tournament, especially with half of this years season behind us. Combined with his fixation on only having his team of eevees and their evolutions will hinder him if he aims to go professional. No, I just have a gut feeling about him.” Oak turned away from the window as Josh’s figure disappeared from view. “Plus alakazam has reported something fascinating that he has noticed over Josh’s time here.”

“hmmm? What would that be?”

“He didn’t notice it at first as it was very well hidden but there is an incredibly strong physic residue on the boy and his pokemon.”

“A latent physic? Or like the young lady in Saffron?” Emily asked.

“No definitely a pokemons mark. However alakazam was unable to decipher what pokemon it belonged too despite having most of the week to check it. He will be fixated on it for weeks now” Oak said with a sigh as he sat down and rubbed his knee. “With a physic mark that strong he was surprised none of the other eevees had evolved into an espeon, though I suppose eevees are well known for not evolving if they don’t want to.”

Emily tapped her clipboard in thought as she stood at attention next to Oak. “Should we have someone follow them?” She asked hesitantly. “I’m sure if you asked the rangers or even the league they could have someone follow and not be detected.”

“No, I couldn’t ask that of them. They wouldn’t do that for me simply because I was curious” Oak denied waving his hands.

“Both the rangers and the league owe Agent Red enough favours that they would never say no to you” she replied quietly.

Professor Oak shot her a stern look, the room suddenly feeling heavy and threatening while a grumble could be heard from outside the window as Charizard woke up from her nap and whipped her head up to look in the window.

“I said no Emily. Understood?”

Emily gulped. “Yes sir”

The tense atmosphere disappeared and Charizard’s grumbles turned into a yawn as her head dropped back below the window. “I’m no sir, I work for a living!” Oak joked leaping up from the table. “Now where were we on the pokedex formatting? I think having it in a small portable form will be incredibly useful for those out and about…..”