We had only been driving for a minute or so down the road passing by small houses when I turned my head slightly so Anna could hear me.

“Hey Anna, bit of a random question but how come there are hardly any cars on the road?”

Anna looked a bit confused by my question. “There are the normal amount of cars, espically for this time of day…?” she trailed off.

“Well I mean back home nearly everyone has a car or ute so even during quiet times you would see plenty of vehicles on the road.”

“Everyone has one? How do they afford them! Cars here are so expensive and that doesn’t even take into account the fuel it takes to run them!”

“Well you can get fairly cheap second hand cars. Fuel used to be cheap but has gone up a lot in recent years. Bit of a problem for most of us” I grizzled as I turned left down a small one street.

“Petrol is super expensive here” Anna explained as she pointed me down another small road. “Most people if they don’t have a pokemon they can ride just walk to work or catch the bus. Public transport is not that much money here. Cheaper than feeding a large pokemon too. The second house on the right there” she finished pointing out a small house. The house looked like it was more of an attachment to a much larger house next door that was separated by a moderately sized garden. As I pulled up in front of Anna’s place an older lady stood up from where she had been gardening in the larger section and an Oddish stepped out from the garden to stand next to her.

“Oddish? Odd odd ish!”

“Anna is that you? You are home from work early. And who is this young gentleman hmmm?” the lady asked Anna as she rapidly hopped off the bike from behind me.

“Hi Mrs Winslow, hi Oddish, I’m just dropping in quickly to let my friend Josh in before heading back to work. He is going to stay with me for a couple of days while he is in town.”

“How many time must I say to call me Alicia. And I see, an old friend from you journey days. Quite successful too if he is driving a fancy machine like that around” she said giving Anna a pointed look.

I could see what she was getting at there with Anna and Ill admit it made me grin. Anna on the other hand turned a pink not to dissimilar to her uniform. “NO!, not like that Mrs Winslow! Just a friend.” Turning to where I was standing after hopping off my bike and grabbing my carton of pokeballs she started pushing me towards her door. “Just a guy. That I know. Nothing else. Why are you not going in?!” Anna asked me while getting more and more flustered.

“The door is still locked Anna” I said with a smile. I was enjoying this. Maybe not the smartest thing to do, winding her up but it was satisfying. Judging by the smirk Mrs Winslow was trying to hide she thought so too.

“My my, you really are in a rush to get him inside aren’t you? Children these days no shame!” she cried out, turning her head to the side as her oddish covered its eyes with one of its leaves.

“No no no no this isn’t happening” Anna started mumbling under her breath as she fumbled her keys multiple times trying to get the door to unlock. “Got It!” she cried opening the door. “It not that Mrs Windslow! And Ill see you later!” With that she stepped inside and shut the door leaving me outside. I turned to Mrs Windslow and gave her a small wave bemusedly.

“Don’t worry dear she will realise in a moment. What was your name dear?”

“Its Josh mam, pleasure to meet you”.

“No mams needed its Alicia and this is my darling Oddish.”

“Odd Odd!” Oddish said, bouncing in place.

“Well a pleasure to me you as well little one” I replied nodding my head. Ill admit it felt a bit odd introducing myself to a pokemon but I had better get used to it. The door flung open and Anna stood there looking even more flustered.

“Remembered that I’m staying here while you are going back to work?” I asked smiling.

“Just get in here you ass” she hissed reaching out and grabbing my jacket.

“Bye Alicia” I called out as I walked into the house and Anna shut the door behind me. Looking around I was in a small lounge with a walk in kitchen with a small hallway leading off of it. Anna lead me down the hallway and opened a door at the end of it. Inside was an empty room with a single bed and a chest of drawers.

“You can stay in this room, bathroom is behind that door there” she said gesturing to a closed door behind her. “My room is that one and if I find you in it Ill have Pidgeotto attack you”. With that she walked back to the kitchen and pointed out where I could find food and drinks. “I have got to go back to work, you just stay here and Ill be back in a couple hours.”

“Sounds good to me. Am I allowed to let my eevees out inside or in the garden?”

“Yes to both just don’t cause trouble or make a mess of Mrs Winslows garden or her Bellossum will get mad”. Grabbing her keys Anna walked to the door, paused giving me a look before heading out and shutting the door behind her. Shrugging my shoulders I went and made myself a cup of tea before sitting down on her couch and picking up one of my pokeballs. I wasn’t actually sure who was in it as the balls all looked the same to me at this stage. Looking at it I realised I didn’t know how to open it. In the games it is not a thing and in the tv show from memory they throw it or just realise them. It can’t be that complicated I thought to myself turing the ball around in my hands. Looking at it you had the butting in the middle which made the ball shrink and expand. The small ring around the button looked like it could be pressed in so I did while looking at it and the ball popped open with a flash or red light and Brandy appeared on the couch next to me.

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“Ee eve ve eevee!”

“Heya girl, you alright after that?”

“Eevee!”

She seemed relaxed so the experience couldn’t have been to stressful. “Well girl we have a place to stay for the moment, we can just relax here until Anna gets back”.

“Vee!” Brandy barked before circling a couple of times and plonking herself down next to me. Placing one hand on her back I leaned back and let out a large sigh. What a day.

I awoke to the sound of keys jangling and a door being unlocked, Brandy with her small eevee body pressed up against me but with her head on my lap facing the door. Good to know she was looking out for me while I was sleeping. Anna walked through the door in jeans and a light jacket looking like a completely different person outside of the pokemon centre uniform. “O sorry did I wake you?”

“Its alright” I said sitting up right, “I didn’t mean to fall asleep anyhow. What time is it?”

“Its just after 8pm, I work the afternoon shift most days” Anna replied. As she took off her jacket there was a tapping at one of the windows.

“Pidge-eee- ottoo!”

“And right on time” smiled Anna as she walked over to the large window at the end of the lounge where a large pidgeotto stood preening, waiting to be let in. “Josh this is my Pidgeotto, Pidgeotto this is Josh. He is going to stay here for a couple days, He has a story I don’t think you’ll believe.”

Pidgeotto gave me and Brandy a stern look out side of his eye. The raptor like looking bird while standing on the ground was up to Anna’s waist with its bright red plumage giving it the appearance of being even taller. Looking down I noticed its razor sharp talons must have been at least 3 inches long and had a spread larger than my hand. That is one dangerous looking bird I thought to myself staring back at the large bird pokemon. Anna gave the top of Pidgeottos head a light tap.

“That’s enough of that you two” she said. “Sorry Josh, Pidgeotto can be a bit protective of me. Doubly so as he has never met you before”.

“Pidgeotto!” he squawked before hopping over to a T shaped stand in the corner that I hadn’t noticed.

“That’s alright, we are guests in his house. Sooo, ahhh did you have a good afternoon?” I tried making small talk.

Anna seemed about as unsure what to do at that moment as I was. “Yeah it was pretty quiet. The clinic I work in is a smaller one and we generally only see locals around here. The main centre near the Gym is much larger than it and that’s were all the trainers tend to go to use and stay in.” Walking into the kitchen Anna pulled out a couple of wine glasses from a cupboard. “Can I offer you a drink? I’m guessing we both could use on after today.”

“O god, yes please. Beer if you have it.” After filling her glass up and handing me a bottle from the fridge (Late Fall Shuckle Wine I saw on the wine bottle and my beer had the picture of a machoke on it) Anna sat down on a chair and took a deep breath. “So this afternoon I was able to get the forms that you need to fill out to register as an active pokemon trainer. For your address I’ve put in my address here, as you can’t just use a pokemon centres. Before I give them to you to fill out I want you to give me more information about those eeveelutions”.

I thought for a moment, rolling my beer bottle around in my hands. “Why are you helping me?”

“What?” Anna replied seemingly caught off guard.

“Look, don’t get me wrong I’m super glad you are helping me because I would be screwed otherwise. But why are you helping me so much so fast? Even I don’t really believe my own story and it only happened this morning for me! So why are you helping? Do you believe me that I’m not from this world?”

Anna took a moment before replying. “I don’t know how much about our world you know but there are a couple of theory’s they teach in school suggesting the humans didn’t originally develop here. I mean on Earth. The differences between us and pokemon are just that extreme it seems unlikely that we evolved here. However there has never been any evidence to back this up, as far as I know.” Anna spoke slowly as if she was thinking about each word before she said it. “I don’t know how you could’ve gotten here if you are from another world …”

“I bet it was those two legendaries from one of the other regions that did it” I grumbled. “The platinum games. The ones that fuck around with time and space.”

“There!” She exclaimed pointing at me. “You are talking about pokemon I have never heard of and mentioning legendary pokemon like everyone knows about them. Most people here know about the Legendary Birds of Kanto and maybe the Jhoto Beasts but you are talking about even more! And you know what their power is. I find that information amazing! I mean I can’t use it as no one will believe me but the eeveelutions for example. I’m sure somewhere someone knows about them but if I can bring it up now as part of my studies at the pokemon centre I can get my name out there!” Anna was gazing into the distance above my head towards the end there, lost in her vision.

“Your studies?” I asked. “You are doing a degree or something?”

“No not a degree, it’s a course run by the Joy clan that gives you a certificate in Pokemon Biology and Medicine. It super hard to get into but if you complete it you can get a job basically anywhere with it. But I really want to get to study rare pokemon. If you are lucky trainers can bring pokemon from all over the world through the pokemon centre, but I got posted to this small local one!” She exclaimed with an angry look on her face. “You know what I get to work with basically every week? Local pokemon. Pidgys, bug pokemon, meowths and maybe the odd grass pokemon have in their garden. I want to see dragons! Deep sea pokemon, pokemon you would have to travel into the mountains to even see!”

“Then why not travel? I mean pokemon journeys are a thing arn’t they?”

Anna pouted. “I did do a journey when I was 16. I even got 2 badges before I came back to try enrol into this course. But battling isn’t my passion, nor my pokemons at the time and travelling around out of a bag living in tents isn’t that much fun”.

“But don’t you guys have those bags that are bigger on the inside? Can carry everything?”

“Do you mean the Sliph Co Adventure Pack? Do you have any idea how much those cost? Only the trainers that are sponsored by big business or from wealthy families can afford those. Most of us are limited by what we can carry on our backs!”

Well that makes a huge difference I thought to myself. I had done plenty of tramping (*what kiwis call hiking) growing up so I knew what it was like to carry a heavy bag around for days. And that didn’t include food for a team of pokemon however much they eat.

“So how does helping me tie into all of that?”

“Well it has to do with how you mentioned, Glacion and Slyveon was it? The Joy clan basically has a bounty on new Pokemon information so if what you tell me is true, I can take that info to them and propose it as research and get scholarships and maybe a new posting! You are my ticket out of this small clinic and into the big leagues where I can actually learn things!”

It sounds odd to say but I actually felt relief at what she was telling me. She didn’t want to put me in prison, or use the information to commit evil. She just wanted to use it to get a better job basically and more money. I can understand and respect that.

“I get you now” I said after taking a sip of my machoke beer. “I’m in. You help me and Ill help you.”