The electric doors slide open as my team and I approached them and a cool gust of air rolled out through the open doors. As I walked through the murmur of multiple conversations filled the room alerting me to multitude of people hanging around the centres waiting room. So one side was several rows of couches, which was were the majority of people were sitting down and talking, while at the opposite side of the room from the doors was a counter with a young boy, maybe in his early teens, talking to a pink haired nurse behind the counter.
“Huh, guess Nurse Joy is really a thing here”. Out of all the things in the centre at that moment that was the thing that my brain focused on. I started wondering how that worked. I mean the cartoons didn’t need to follow any form of logic because, you know cartoons, and sure you can have copies of a person all over the world. But when actually seeing it in reality, or coma land I’m still not really sure, it was the first thing that struck me unreal since being here.
“Excuse me sir, can I help you?” Nurse Joys voice cut through my inner musings as I stood there, still in the door I realised belatedly, staring at her. She was staring back at me now that the previous person had moved to the side of the room and was joining the group on the couch. She was of middling height, her head probably the same height as my nose, with a slim build however the white nurse apron and pink jacket did a good job of hiding the rest of her body shape. The bright pink hair on her head almost seem to shine in the centres florescent light. Blushing lightly realising I was still standing staring at her like an idiot I started walking towards the counter with my team of eevee’s near my legs.
“Yes, well I am definitely hoping so” I replied. “First off, do you mind me having these guys here inside?” gesturing to my team. Back home I definitely wouldn’t just walk my dogs into someone’s house or business, generally people would even ask before taking their pet inside if they hadn’t been there before. You never know, perhaps people don’t like animals inside. Coming to a stop in front of the counter I was close enough to get a good look at nurse Joys face, which was rather gorgeous in my opinion with blue eyes and sharp cheek bones, and staring at me with furrowed brows looking baffled.
“Did you just ask me if you could bring your pokemon inside the pokemon centre?!” Nurse Joy asked incredulously. “I don’t think anyone has asked me that before” she continued with a small laugh.
Well crap. So much for trying not to stand out. “Well, I mean, you never know” I stammered trying to think of something to say that didn’t have me looking like even more of a fool. Nurse Joy must of decided to take pity on me and talked over my stammering.
“Shall we start again? Welcome to the Outer West side Pokemon centre. Do you have any pokemon in need of immediate healing?” Pausing her speech to learn over the counter to look down at my team of eevees who were all sitting down and looking up at her with their ears perked up. “Or are you a trainer looking for lodging for the night? Seeing as your team are looking very healthy”.
Somewhere to stay for the night and a meal would be perfect I thought. “Yes please. A room or bed for the night would be amazing”.
“That’s no problem. If you can hand me your trainer card I can book you a bunk for the night. I’m afraid that we do not rent out private rooms here”.
Ah. Of course they would need some form of ID. I don’t even have my wallet on me as I was working when I ended up here and hadn’t had it on me.
“So , ahhhh, I may have lost it and my wallet in the forest earlier. Is there an IOU I can give you guys? Or do some work instead?”
I may have been starting to sound a bit desperate towards the end there as Nurse Joy gave me a slightly concerned look. “That’s ok sir, if you just give me your name and date of birth I can find you in the system and just put in a credit request”.
Shit. The bad news just keeps on coming. I’m not from this world, I am most definitely not in any system she can access. What do I do? Do I guess some random name and birthday and hope I get lucky and she charges their account? No way that would work and starting off by lying to the authorities seems like a bad idea. Rubbing my face I suddenly felt incredibly weary. Why am I even trying to hide who I am? Surely secret police won’t some and kidnap me like in the movies. Surely it would be more like 20 questions to figure out if I know anything new. I’m pretty sure how to run a farm with animals that don’t exist here won’t be terribly interesting. I’m just an ordinary guy, plenty of ideas and knowledge of stuff but if they actually asked me how to make any of it I would come up blank. Taking a deep breath I prepare myself to explain my situation. Nurse Joy was starting starting to look uncomfortable as I stood there not answering her question, her hands hovering over her computer keyboard.
“Excuse me Nurse Joy, but could we go somewhere private to talk? I’m in a bit of a situation and need some help” I said quietly not looking her in the eye.
Nurse Joy moved her hands away from the keyboard and held them together in front of herself. Her eyes flicked from me to my eevees, to the people over on the couch talking to each other before settling back on me. Reaching under the counter she pulled out a small bell and gave it a single ring. A moment passed and one of the doors behind the counter opened and a Chansey appeared.
“Chansey?”
“Nothing urgent Chansey” Joy said “I just need to step away from the counter for a moment. If anyone needs me can you come and get me in room 1 please.”
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“Chansey chan!” Chansey replied with a small salute.
“Please follow me …..?” she paused.
“Josh”
“Please follow me Josh, we can talk privately in room 1.” With that she walked around from behind the counter and started walking towards a door on the left side of the room. “Also my name isn’t Joy” she said. “Its Anna.
Sitting down in the appointment room I felt like a real fool. I was incredibly embarrassed to have called the nurse by the completely wrong name. I mean, I hadn’t even asked her name. I had just assumed she was a Joy as I had seen her pink hair and I was in the world of pokemon. Not the best way to start with someone who is most likely my lifeline to getting help in this world.
“Eevee?”
Looking up I can see one of my eevees in front of me, Scotch I believe judging by her size, looking at me with her head tilited to the side. I could say how but it felt like she was asking what was wrong with me. I must be getting tired if I was imagining my dogs, I mean eevee’s, talking to me.
“I’m alright Scotch, just tired.” I said reaching out to pat her head. Scotch walked over to sit down right next to me and rested her head on my lap. The members of my team seeing this all came trotting over and with a series of barks and name calling started pushing each other out of the way in their attempt to get at the prime head patting location.
“That’s a better look than just sitting there moping” Anna called out from the doorway as see shut it behind her. “I bet its hard to be upset with such a cute team looking out for you”.
Walking over to the table on one side of the room she pulled out the swivel chair behind it and sat down facing me. “Ok Josh. What was it you wanted to tell me?”
Taking a deep breath I started trying to explain my situation. “Ok, to begin with sorry again I got your name wrong but the pink hair kind of made me assume you were …. You know, Nurse Joy”.
Rolling her eyes Anna reached up to her head and pulled at her hair to reveal that it was a wig and that she had a tight bun of blonde hair hidden underneath. “The business pays us a bit more if we play into the Joy image. People associate pokemon centres with the Joy clan and they, that is the Joy clan, prefer it to remain that way. That’s why I’m wearing this thing” she replied shaking the wig with a bit of disgust. “Pink really isn’t my colour, but the extra money doesn’t hurt.” Placing the wig on the table she gestured for me to continue.
“Yeah well the real reason I wanted a word was because I don’t actually have any of those things you asked me before. Trainer card, ID, wallet or anything else. See I just kind of appeared in the forest that way earlier today.”
“O, and accidental teleport? That is not unheard of but I’m sure I could still find you in the system” Anna replied looking at me slightly confused.
“No, no I mean like just appeared in the forest. Like “appeared” appeared. Poof. I moment I was driving my bike with my dogs on the back, next was a whopping big black hole and roaring sounds and then I was in a forest. I. Am. Not. From. This. Planet.” I said slowly at the end, really trying to be clear without sounding crazy.
Anna was just staring at me with a look of disbelief on her face. “If you are really not from this world” she said making air quotes, “How come you have a team of pokemon already? And know Nurse Joys name, huh?”
Straight up not believing me was not how I expected this conversation to go. “Well you might not believe me but in my world pokemon were kind of a thing. There were a tv show. About a boy called Ash who goes on an adventure to be the best pokemon trainer in the world. I used to watch the show as a kid so I recognise some pokemon and characters from the show but that’s about it. I was a shepherd back home and my eevee’s there were my working dogs. But the were not eevee’s then they were just ordinary dogs.”
Anna continued staring at me. I was obvious from her face she still didn’t believe me but was analysing my story. “What do you mean by ordinary dogs?”
That’s what she focused on? “Well imagine an eevee, make it slightly bigger, different colours and take away all the magic powers. All they could do was run around and bark really”. Bit of an understatement but I wasn;t really sure how else to explain a dog to someone. Not something I had had to do before. Explain a type of dog but not what a dog was.
“Magic powers?”
“You know, the extra strength, the ability to move super fast, turn into like 8 different types of creature. Seems like magic to me”.
Anna started looking at me oddly. “What do you mean 8 different types of creature? Do you mean their evolutions? Because I am only know of 6?”
Have I got something wrong here or do I know something secret? “Which ones do you know of?”
“You wanted to tell me something, not ask me questions. But to answer I know of eevee’s 6 evolutions: Jolteon, Vaporeon, Flareon, Espeon, Umbreon and Leafeon.”
“So Glaceon and Sylveon aren’t a thing?”
That got Anna paying far more attention than any part of my story so far. “Did you say Glaceon and Sylveon?” What type are those?”
“Ice and fairy”
“Ice and fairy? I’ve never heard of those two eeveelutions. Do you know how they evolve?”
“I do. Or I mean in theory. I know how they did in the games back home. Are they really not a thing? You can’t google it? Or I mean look it up online?”
“Google? What is that? And by online do you mean the internet? We have it but you wouldn’t find any real information on it. It’s basically just being used to help people talk town to town. And show pictures of meowths for some reason. And how did you say they evolved?”
Something about how she asked that last question raised the imaginary flag in my brain. “I didn’t. Why do you want to know?”
Anna picked up a pencil from the jar on the desk and started idly playing with it. “O you know, just curious.”
I don’t believe that for a second I thought to myself. This might be it. I can trade some info about pokemon that she might not know for help getting ID and a job. Having turned up in pokemon world and going straight back into work might not be the dream but I have got to find a way to feed myself and my team.
“Well I’m open to a trade if you are. Ill tell you what I know about evolving eevee’s if you help me get an ID, a place for us to stay and some food. Deal?”
Anna started spinning the pencil around her fingers while she thought. The knowledge must be worth something as she hadn’t said no instantly.
“Say I believe you are not from here” she began slowly, “and that you do know how to evolve eevee’s in a way I have not heard of before. That doesn’t explain how you got here with 5 eevee’s, when you said they used to be these “dogs” of yours.”
“Well you probably won’t believe this part then, as I didn’t think it was possible even while it was happening. One of the legendary pokemon you guys have here transformed them for me instead of killing them”.
Anna dropped her pencil.