No matter the time, place, or alternate dimensions, we Ketchums always somehow find ourselves in prison, detained by the local authorities, or confined to an interrogation room. Right now, I could check myself under the last category. I’m sure that mom would cry a river with the many times that Ash and I have been apprehended by the police for incidents that we didn’t do or accidentally infringed upon.

Just a disclaimer, I got over my past life PTSD when Cynthia arrived with the authorities and her squadron of League Trainers. They were mad efficient. It took only five minutes for them to detain all of the unconscious Team Galactic members, scrape Mars out of the haywire power generator, and secure all of the sleeping victims.

Everyone seemed to be freaked out about the husk of a Dusknoir laying on the ground. What? Had they never seen a Dusknoir before? Well, anyway, I told them that it was the crazy red-head’s pokémon and thus they scavenged the Galactic Commander’s clothing and found the pokeball to return the pitifully drained ghost type.

Kidd spat at it once more for good measure. I’d stop him for being overly cruel, but again the bastard tried to devour my soul so fuck him.

Anyways, the work done by the League was impressive. But it shouldn’t be unexpected though, the Cynthia from my world always held a tight and orderly operation with her Pokémon League. So, the fact that this one did so as well wasn’t much of a shocker to me. Still, she seemed a bit older than my world’s Cynthia.

I chose not to vocally comment on that because I wasn’t an idiot and because she had me glued to her side for the majority of the criminal and hostage extraction. The girl I had in my arm was whisked away by a League Trainer while the cap wearing boy that came in with his pokémon ablazing had to be forced by a few League Trainers to be taken in for treatment.

Eventually the hostages and criminals inside the power plant were dwindling and the focus of the League Trainers were now on the crime scene as a whole, in particular the machinery and the databases. The whole time that this was happening, Cynthia had split her attention between the work of her League Trainers and keeping an eye on me.

Though I guess she felt confident that her Garchomp had been keeping a constant watch over me to be able to divide her focus on other things. There then came a point where everything was settling into place and the arrival of what looked to be a crowd of reporters. Looking at Cynthia, her ever present smile did not waver, but I could just see that tiny twinge of annoyance from her brow that spoke of her opinion on the story-hungry Murkrows outside. I could relate to that.

Thankfully I was the perfect excuse for her to ignore the raving men and women trying to crack what exactly happened here out of her. They were mollified by her reasoning for a good five seconds before pestering her with more questions. A roar from her Garchomp served to stop them in their tracks as I was eventually left to the police to be escorted to the Floaroma Town’s Police station.

There was a bit of a disagreement when I refused to let them take my things and unequip all of my pokémon, but Cynthia oddly allowed them to let it pass. Now this didn’t lower any of their apprehension since this went against their protocol, but word from the Champion seemed to be law to them. The ride over to the station was rather tense and awkward, I made sure that Kidd was on his best behavior, otherwise he might make us seem more suspicious.

Upon arriving, I was shown to your clean-cut interrogation room with the steel table, two chairs, and the one-way window in the middle of the room. Apart from that and the officer, that denied the chance to do his job when confiscating my bag and pokémon, choosing to be a dick and push me into the room, nothing else much happened.

Jiren telepathically told me that there were two detectives on the other side of the glass observing me while the rest of station was in a bustle with handling the added Team Galactic tenants in their jail cells. A couple of hours went by with me chatting it up with Jiren in my mind as hummed the melody of “I’m no Superman” to myself.

Things were relatively boring, but for my experience with being taken to a police station in another dimension this was relatively tame.

Until Jiren shared some…disturbing news.

“This…” Jiren growled.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“This dimension’s Cynthia, she’s here…”

I rolled my eyes. “Finally…”

“No, this is serious, Luke. She’s accompanied by an Alakazam while interrogating those criminals from Team Galactic.”

“So? I may not be a fan of using psychics to probe the mind, but considering the level of crime they committed, I’d say that’s fair.” I internally sighed. I kept my face clear of any microexpressions. That’s a key clue that can be seen in telepathic communication.

I didn’t want to give the detectives or anyone away from my conversation with Jiren and give them a reason to take my pokémon away.

“I would agree with you on that, but the depths that their going just to reach information is…horrendous.”

“What? What are they doing?”

“They are…”

It physically hurt me not to grimace at the excruciating detail that Jiren gave to me. Any sympathy I had for Mars was drained when her Dusknoir tried to devour my soul, but for Cynthia to just straight up use Alakazam to tear through her memories and leave her as nothing but a drooling, broken-minded shell of a woman was haunting. Especially when she did it in front of the other Team Galactic members as an example.

Jiren documented how many of them immediately folded once Mars was no longer cognizant of anything while the few that were loyal and kept their lips shut were given the same fate as Mars. The ones that chose to spill everything they know to Cynthia were now more scared of her than their now brain-dead Commander. With the information gathered, the whole police station was abuzz and the constant streams of commands and orders made the place even more frenzied.

And personally, knowing the full extent of Team Galactic’s plans, I couldn’t quite blame them.

Still…

For Cynthia to immediately employ such a method information extraction was… Well, it left a bad taste in my mouth and certainly dropped a bit of my personal opinion of this dimension’s Cynthia.

Eventually Jiren signaled of her arrival to my interrogation room, and like he said, she was here with her Garchomp and the Alakazam by her side. I felt a bit of something trying to probe my mind but wasn’t too overly concerned.

If I didn’t want anyone in my head, then they weren’t going to see anything unless I allowed it.

I ignored the growing grimace and spark of intrigue on the pokémon’s face as the beautiful statuesque blonde took the seat in front of me and regaled me with that beautiful smile of hers. Too bad it was super fake. Having to learn how to keep one up while being in public as Champion has taught me how to see the masks of others.

“I apologize for the wait. There was some business that I had to tend to and the resulting news from it has left me a little…” Cynthia began.

“Overworked? Stressed? Contemplating the fact as to how us humans have managed to survive this long without one of us kickstarting something stupid that could wipe us all out?” I listed off and that seemed to get a laugh out of her. It was a bit strained, but at least it was genuine.

“Yes, all of that.” She composed herself as her Garchomp dutifully stood behind her. “Now, I believe that you promised to owe us an explanation for your involvement during the crisis. Oh, and before I forget.” She lightly bowed her head. “I, Cynthia Collins, Champion of the Sinnoh Region, would like to thank you for your brave efforts in subduing this horrible threat to the people of Solaceon Town and Sinnoh as a whole. Without your intervention, we would most likely not have been granted this irreplaceable boon of information.”

It sort of sours the thanks after realizing the lengths that you went to gather such information, but at least they weren’t going to associate me with those bastards.

“No problem. Stuff like this sort of happens to me all the time, so I just roll with it.” I shrugged.

“Oh? So, handling a rising terrorist cell attack and dealing with a hostage situation is nothing new to you then, hm?” Cynthia implored.

“Yep.” I chuckled with literally nothing to hide. I felt another mental probe, but like the other dozens of times before it, it got jack squat out of me. Also, quite clever of her to try and stimulate some memories out of me with that question.

I had to hide my amusement with how frustrated the Alakazam next to the blonde Champion was getting. Hah, if not even Jiren could penetrate my absurd mental defenses than I honestly doubt that any ordinary Alakazam could even get close to breaking me.

“I feel conflicted about that compliment.” I ignored Jiren’s side comment to focus on the Champion staring me down.

I raised my hand to her, and didn’t miss the way her Garchomp growled at my sudden action. I continued with a sigh and scratched my head. “Look, I’ve been through this whole little run around before and it’s honestly kind of tiring having to talk around things before getting to the big set-up. So I’ll just come out and reveal everything I can to you.”

“Everything you can?” Cynthia repeated.

“Of course, I’m not gonna just spill everything I know. That’d be pretty stupid.” I put a little mental force in deterring the Alakazam’s laborious attempts at trying to crack my mental defense. The psychic pokémon physically jerked back as if someone had pushed him and blinked at me.

“Oh?” Cynthia and Garchomp were just as surprised with their compatriot’s reaction, moreso when the Alakazam seemed to be looking at me with a frighteningly amount of deep interest that you could find in a scientist. If things were more dire and I was in a less than charitable mood than he’d be having the exact opposite thought of me right now.

“Sorry about that, I don’t like people going through my personal space.” I apologized and loudly pulled my backpack onto the table, I ignored Garchomp’s growling just to shift through my things, particularly my surplus of pokéballs containing the rest of my Kanto team. *SIGH!* They were also looking forward to the Kalos trip, especially Fafnir.

Reaching out for the red device inside, I pulled out my pokédex and-.

The satisfying hiss from one of my pokéballs that I accidentally bumped my elbow against had signified the opening and release of one of them. Emerging in a ball of light was Fafnir himself, and immediately everyone inside of the room was on edge, including Cynthia who immediately stood to her feet a pokeball in hand as Garchomp immediately stood before their trainer as a shield while the incessant mental probing from Alakazam only intensified as the effects of Hypnosis were bouncing off of me.

Yeah, I’m willing to admit that this was my bad.

I couldn’t blame them for acting this way since having a huge Dragonite that was just barely touching the high ceiling emerge from out of nowhere would set everyone on edge. But just as easily they were to get defensive, all of that tension was blown out the window once Fafnir adjusted his bowtie, brushed back his antennae and got down to one knee to Garchomp while presenting to her a bouquet of flowers.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“…What?” Cynthia and her Garchomp blinked in befuddlement at my romantic Dragonite, who seemed to realize that the pokémon that he was trying to serenade with his crooning was not his intended target of affection.

Shocked, he searched about the room before his eyes landed on me in a desperate plea for an explanation.

“Sorry, bud. Looks like we got dragged into another crossover event into another dimension. Daisy and her Dragonite aren’t here this time, I’m afraid.” I winced as my good big boy had all of the color in him fade away as stomped over to my side and laid his head onto my lap. He whined and cried as I brushed my fingers along his head.

“I know, bud. I miss them too…” I soothed my downtrodden pokémon. Huh. You know, seeing the looks on everyone’s faces (Cynthia’s, her Garchomp’s, the Alakazam, and the few League Trainers/Police Officers barging into the interrogation room) was priceless.

“Uh, so sorry about.” I raised my pokédex for everyone to see, “Anyways, I’ve got something to show you and that explanation I promised if you still want to hear it.”

“Sure…” A little mystified by the admittedly goofy display, Cynthia blinked and nodded. And just like that, I showed my ID through my Pokédex and told her my abridged story of how I ended up here, my past experiences, my (meta) knowledge on Team Galactic, and just about everything that could point to me being an Outsider to this dimension.

Her expressions ranged from genuine astonishment to stone-faced stoicism. Her Garchomp had remained quiet in the background, but for some reason would keep giving my whining Dragonite these weird looks. Alakazam just kept on being weird with how intrigued he was with me especially when I started allowing some of my memories to surface for him to scry, and no doubt tell Cynthia via telepathy.

When I got through explaining how I exactly knew Hoopa and Celebi, my story on how I ended up here came full circle. Now by now, I was settled in to experience the complete disbelief of the other party who’ve heard of my story of being from a different dimension. By now they’ll probably call me crazy, recommend me to be checked in to be seen by a local league therapist, and attempt to scope out my “true” origins but come out empty-handed.

Then probably a fight breaks out when they decide that confining you and confiscating your pokémon is just the right thing to do.

“Okay, I believe you.” See? Now, I’m going to have to have Jiren…hold on a minute, what?

“Excuse me?” I croaked in disbelief.

“I believe you.” Cynthia laced her fingers together and rested her on them.

“Huh. Wow…” I blinked.

“What is it?”

“No, nothing…it’s just.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “You’re the first authority figure from another world, who’s believed me straight up. Unless you’re lying…” Which is totally not cool.

“No, I fully believe you, Luke.” She raised her hand and automatically a piece of paper was in it. Alakazam shenanigans were afoot, I see. “In fact, when you revealed your knowledge on the plans regarding Team Galactic, we compared your information to what we’ve gathered and found that apart from a multitude of specifics, the general overlay was one-to-one. Not to mention your memories that Alakazam broadcasted to me and couple others seemed too vivid to be false.”

Huh.

That sounded logical.

“So, what happens now?” I looked at Fafnir who was now asleep then to Cynthia. That ever-present smile belonging to Sinnoh’s strongest trainer remained after the end of my long-winded explanation. Compared to Leon, I realized that her smile wasn’t just a mask to put on for the crowd, it also served an amazing poker face.

I couldn’t really get a read on what she’s thinking beyond her eyes and she’s somehow able to conceal her true thoughts that way too.

“That’s a good question and something that I wish to know as well. You said that the two Legendary pokémon that brought you here will find you eventually, yes?” Cynthia leaned a little closer on the table.

“Pretty much. The first time that this happened, it took them two months. The second time it took about 5 months, so I don’t really have a solid timeframe for these things. All I know is that they’ll get here eventually.” Particularly after some major shit happens, she had asked before on how I’m still so young despite the long gaps in time I’ve spent in other dimensions. I answered that Celebi just chose to rewind my aging back to the point where I was before I was isekai’d away.

“Until then, well…” I blew my lips and shrugged. “I guess I can just travel around here and see what I can do to help?”

I’ve traveled to Sinnoh to do a Circuit before, but I can’t say that I’m curious to see just how this dimension’s Sinnoh held up to my own. God forbid, I couldn’t say the same for Kanto those two last times I was whisked away to different dimensions. You can only travel the same region so many times before you get sick of it.

“I don’t really have much more to do beyond the whole travelling thing.” It’s a bummer that Daisy’s not here, but at least I can treat this as a small vacation to my original vacation. Carpe Diem as Roman poet Horace (or if that went over your head, Phineas and Ferb) once said.

Cynthia’s smile seemed to widen a little bit at my answer. “If that’s truly all, then allow me to assist you. It disheartens me to hear of your cancelled plans with your significant other, and as a fellow Champion I realize the sheer effort it must have taken you to earn that brief reprieve from you duties. So that’s why for your stay in Sinnoh, I’ll gladly provide for you an official trainer’s license, a flyer’s license, and given access to a League Card containing quite the sum of money to provide for yourself.”

I narrowed my eyes at this. That was generous. Too generous for my own liking. No one’s ever done that much for whenever I ended up their dimension. At least, not before doing something crazy to earn their respect and trust. To be given this right off the bat was fishy.

“What’s the catch?” I crossed my arms.

“Hm, catch?” She looked positively taken back but I didn’t fall for it for a second.

“Yeah, I’m not naïve to know that you are bending over backwards for me isn’t being done out of just the goodness of your heart.” I would have an easier time letting my guard around her had she just emoted like normal, but no, she’s been smiling the whole time without dropping that mask of hers. “What do you intend to gain from me?”

She giggled. “Nothing as dastardly as you may you think. I only require a couple of things in return for the licenses and money. I’ll even provide you with a free favor that I’ll do everything in my power that’s reasonable to fulfill for you. My only request is that should I ever need a favor or a question in regards to Team Galactic, you’ll be available to answer them for me.”

This trade seemed like it heavily favors my end of the deal than hers, which made this more suspicious. “And just that?”

“Yes. Quite a fair trade, wouldn’t you say?” No, quite the opposite in fact, lady.

“Will I have to be constantly watched by any of your League trainers during my stay here?” I asked.

“Of course. I already have one chosen to shadow you during your stay in the region.” Well, at least she’s honest. “And don’t worry, her mission is only to observe and report back to me on your status. She won’t be interfering with any personal business you may have.”

“And when I happen to give her the slip?” I confidently prodded.

Cynthia’s smile remained, but her eyes finally didn’t match the façade of mien. “Then you’ll find yourself a bit surprised when any future purchases that you make decline.”

“Ah, I see…” I nodded and placed on a sheepish smile. “Well at least you won’t have to worry about me bleeding you guys dry when that time comes.” Challenge accepted, Cynth. Welp looks like I’m going to have to do some battling to get some funds for myself. The quicker I get it done, the better I can be free to do my own thing without getting spied on.

For a split second, I noticed the Champion’s eyes narrow before they naturally closed and further accentuated her “perfect” smile. Sorry Cynthia, but I’m not so easily cowled with the prospect of money. I can handle myself in the wild just fine, thank you very much. Of course, I’ve never been in the wild here, but I’m confident enough in myself to live off the land.

“Oh, think nothing of it, Mr. Luke. This is simply a formality in the off chance that should anything happen to you and that there’s suspicious activity in your account, we’ll be able to stop any illicit purchases under your name.” That’s some sound reasoning right there, Cynthia.

But I’d still rather not be under your thumb or owe you more than I comfortably should.

“Well, thanks for at least looking out for me.” I scratched my head. “I’ll take the deal and help whenever you guys need it, but I’m not up for getting involved in anything shady or downright amoral. As long as it’s within reason, I’ll gladly help out.”

Cynthia laughed it off. “You have nothing to worry about, Luke. It’s my job to ensure what’s best for Sinnoh, so be at ease when I say that your help will only be for subduing any oncoming threats that threaten this region.”

Jiren’s forewarning about how busy you and that Alakazam have been with the Team Galactic Grunts and Mars begged to differ, but I steeled my microexpressions to not show that I know all about that to avoid her picking up on it. If she was already this wily with getting me under a leash and under surveillance, then I hate to imagine what she’d try to do when she realizes I have an active Psychic type in his pokeball that was able to read the minds of everyone in the immediate area without getting detected.

“Well, that puts me at ease a bit, I guess…” I sighed. “So, is there anything else that I should know about? Like what about Mars and that old guy?”

“Commander Mars of Team Galactic has been properly disposed of as I have stated before. Do not worry, she is no longer a threat to anyone anymore.” Not unless you can repair the brain damage that Alakazam did to her. “As for Commander Charon, he has willingly allowed himself to be detained and transferred to Lily of the Valley Island for further questioning at the League HQ.”

Ah, so that was that old guy’s name. “Wait, the old guy complied? What led him to doing that?”

“Oh, I have my ways.” Cynthia’s smile remained the same, but I couldn’t help but get a chill behind her words’ intent.

“Hey, Jiren, do I even want to know?”

“Long answer: no. Short answer: she seemed to have put the fear of Arceus in the man just enough to overcome his grand delusion for his loss.”

“Grand delusion?” I inquired but was refused an answer, I sensed some irritation and…empathy within the pokémon before he ended the telepathic link. Huh, I’ll have to make sure he’s doing okay and see what has him off kilter.

“Well, that’s good to know.” Also, a little creepy. “So…is there anything else that I should know about or are we done here? I kind of want to get some fresh air and plan out what to do next.”

“Of course, don’t let me take up any more of your time, Mr. Luke Ketchum. Again, thank you for ensuring the safety of the passengers and subduing Team Galactic. Though I may not know how you managed to hypnotize all of them to sleep at once with a Gengar…” She said. Yep, that was my story and I’m sticking to it. You’d better be grateful to me Jiren.

“No.” Well, it was worth a shot.

“But after seeing and hearing of how high caliber of a trainer that you are…” She glanced at my resting Dragonite. “I’ll just sum it up to the fruits of your labor for whatever rigid training you put the Ghost type through. Now, I believe we’ve chatted for long enough. You’re free to go now, young man.”

Returning Fafnir into his pokeball, I bowed. “Thank you.”

She nodded. “Be sure to collect your licenses and League card on your way out from the League trainer by the door.”

I narrowed my eyes and sighed at that. Of course, she had everything ready before the deal was made.

And just like that I was free to just walk out the room. I waved at Garchomp, who ignored while I ignored Alakazam, who was still earnestly trying to test out and study my bizarre mental defenses by continually prodding it.

With my knowledge on this dimension brought to speed by the Sinnoh Champion during my long explanation, I decided to mostly ignore all of government crap like the fact that there’s a Directorate and Prime Minister. Right now, all I needed was a spacious enough hotel, a game plan for how I’ll earn enough money to stop relying on the League card, and-.

Wait…I almost forgot to ask.

“Hey, Cynthia?” With my hand at the doorknob, I turned back to the Champion.

“Hm?”

“During the incident, there was a girl that was probably tortured by Mars. She had dirty blonde hair, some freckles and…that’s it.” Jiren had put everyone to sleep so I didn’t quite catch her eye color. “Do you know if she’s okay?”

“Ah, you must be referring to Grace Pastel. Not to worry, she’s been transported to the local pokémon center and is receiving the appropriate care.” Cynthia said. “Among two others that I need to see, I will be dropping by to check up on her status and ask them some questions.”

“That’s a relief…” I frowned. “Do you think that she’ll be okay?”

“Though it may just be my own personal experience downplaying the wound, a cut to cheek is far more tame than the other victims that fell under Mars’s interests. The wound will heal just fine.”

I pointed to my head. “What about the “other” wound?”

For once, Cynthia’s smile fell. “That… I won’t know until I meet her, but…” Even though she knew the extent of trauma the young girl had gone through wouldn’t be as easily fixed as her cut cheek.

“I get it…” I sighed. “At least, Mars is taken care of so she can sleep a little better at night now.”

“True.” The blonde woman smiled with me. “If you wish, you may accompany me with a few officers to check in on them. I’m sure that they wouldn’t mind meeting the hero that saved them all.”

“Nah, I’m fine.” I really didn’t want to be holed up here any longer, and right now that girl needed her space to work things out. “Besides, I don’t want to bring any more attention onto myself while I’m here.” Those reporters must have already gotten some pictures of me, and despite making my stance of being kept anonymous to Cynthia clear, I’m still probably going to face some irritating jerks clamoring after me just for having next to no traceable information in this dimension.

“But…” An idea struck me and despite it sort of being a bad idea, I couldn’t help but feel like it could help. Digging into my bagpack, I once again ignored Cynthia’s Garchomp growling at me just over my shoulder. It was cute how defensive she was of her trainer. Pulling out a fairly clean Great ball, I held it out to Cynthia. “When you get the chance could you perhaps give this to her? It may not be an ideal solution to any trauma she may have gotten, but it’ll be a lovely distraction to take her mind off of it.”

Cynthia agreed to take the pokémon after confirming what was contained within was safe. Not like I was going to gift her a freaking Deino or anything. Those things were crazy hard to tame and that’s not even getting into the high death rates that come about it evolving to it’s last stage and going on a rampage.

I just hope that the girl sounded as pleasant as her name. I didn’t want Pudding pissed at me for giving one of her young away to a bad trainer, I know I was already pushing it by doing this in another dimension.

With everything out of the way, I was dismissed from the police station. I grabbed my new local trainer’s license, flying license, and League card. It was a pain getting through the crowd of reporters, but once Cynthia made her way outside with the police officers and headed to the Pokémon Center, I was given an opening to escape while covering my face with my jacket’s hoodie and a mask.

Finding a hotel was a little bit of challenge since Floaroma Town just experienced a tournament, but Jiren was able to point me to a decent motel. Jiren had informed us that we’ve started to be watched by the League Trainer assigned to me ever since I left the interrogation room. They were quite skilled if Jiren had to compliment them, but…

It still didn’t stop him from reading their intentions and giving me a name.

“Lou”. It wasn’t much, and Jiren did comment about them possessing psychic abilities, but found them a bit wanting. Which didn’t make sense since he was technically the strongest Psychic type ever made and would honestly find any others within his field of expertise to be lacking.

Still, he did make sure be a blind spot to the observer so that he could eat and enjoy himself with me and the rest of my pokémon. Everyone except for Fafnir took being in a different dimension in stride, but seeing as to how this wasn’t our first rodeo it was only natural.

When time for bed, I fell asleep after spending the next couple of hours until midnight devising a systematic plan on challenging the local trainers for cash. This world was so weird. Apparently, you had to be fifteen to start your Gym Circuit and a majority of the trainers who attempt it would be hard pressed to even get their first badge just for not meeting the standard skill level to get it.

With this in mind, I had to properly choose the correct pokémon that were of appropriate level to the trainers around me. Sadly, I only had two pokémon that could battle in the lower levels, and that’s not even accounting to how they might affect this dimension’s pokémon when battling seriously.

The only local trainer that I looked up that seemed to be enough to consider using some of my other pokémon was a guy named Zachary Gallagher. He’s a promising second-year trainer, who’s already doing well in this current Gym Circuit. Too bad he was already out of town.

Damn, and I really wanted to have either Kamina or Dartz face that Vespiquen of his.

Oh, well. I’m sure that things will turn up for me tomorrow.

This world may seem a tad bit too violent and filled with tiresome politics, but that’s not to say that everything about it was bad. Sort of like Cynthia, the one in this world doesn’t seem bad. Only, a bit controlling for my liking. Like the politicians back in my old life, the one where I actually died. She has the affairs of Sinnoh to look out for sure, but…

I guess it was a little irksome to meet a different version of a close friend, who acted like that. Especially with the whole mind breaking thing to extract information…

No, I should have prepared myself after meeting two versions of Ash the last time I did this. They were similar yet vastly different people to the ones that I know, and that’s fine. At best I could use the Cynthia that I know as a reference, but this one is her own person along with her wants and desires. I have to respect that.

Closing my eyes, I finally allowed for the sweet embrace of sleep to carry me to my dreams. The coming days will at least be relaxing and fun with battles galore. Everything was going to be okay…

I just knew it.

----------------------------------------

Everything was not okay.

Okay, so everything was technically okay when I was able to actually convince a couple of the trainers in the area to challenge me. I had earned some pokédollars, but it was just pocket change at best. The experience did allow me to realize that my pokémon were significantly more durable than the ones in this dimension.

But not even going into that yet, about five days into my stay in this dimension’s version of Floaroma Town, I was finally beset by a familiar trainer that had managed to catch me searching around the grounds of the Pokémon Center for someone to battle.

He gladly offered himself up as sweetly as he could.

“Hey, you’re that asshole with the Gengar! Battle me!”

Okay, so “sweet” was putting it mildly. It took me a while to realize that was the same kid who barged into the power plant to face Team Galactic. Huh, it’s good that he’s up and about now with his bruises healed, but for some reason I couldn’t help but feel that talking with him was going to be as extremely unpleasant as speaking with Clair.