All four of us drifted off into a stare-down as I stayed silent while both professors waited for me to speak. It was Persian leaving the living room that eventually broke it and it was Professor Elm that quickly went into action as he was in front of me before anyone could even speak, ready to grab Grimer's Pokeball and release the Alolan sludge personally. He did hold himself back, thankfully, and started talking first instead, "Lionel right?"
"yeah?" I answered, stepping back a bit. "that is my name." I said, nudging my head down as a gesture for him to continue. The man paused for a bit, then turned back to look at the stoic Professor Oak, who nodded at him, before standing up to his full height,
"right," he said, "so, from the radio stations and the few videos that I watched in my poke-watch over here,-" he raised his right hand, showing a square, digitalized wristwatch with the time 5:48 PM.
"right, poke-watch," I repeated,
"- you have found a very special Grimer and-" he once again looked at Oak, "- that's partially why we're here because I- and I mean we, have heard something peculiar about you." Oak cleared his throat and a flustered Elm walked away from me before placing himself on our couch, "but we'll talk about that after the Grimer okay? so how about- how- can you let him out for us to study?"
I nodded, "okay," and let the sludge ball out.
"fascinating." Professor Elm immediately said, "he looks no different than a shiny," he says, looking the sludge ball over. His tone made me honestly think that his hands would start moving over Grimer's body but I quickly put it aside. He IS a professor involved in pokemon after all and they probably know not to make one uncomfortable unless they want to get attacked. "I.. if there are truly other pokemon variants out there then this... this is an important discovery that may want us to reconsider pokemon adaptation as a whole."
his words got me to think, 'adaptation huh?..' I couldn't say that I'm an expert regarding this sort of thing but I did know a thing or two about speculative evolution back in my old life and messing around with that has at least given me some insights into how animal adaptation is supposed to work, and the fact that pokemon are supposedly able to change and alter their bodies in drastic ways using status moves like harden and the like, would at least mean that they can quickly adapt to their environment or if they're unlucky, it goes the other way around in that their evolution makes them stronger sure but they would be too specialized for a specific environment and if their evolution can't survive? Then they might as well not evolve.
Arceus' existence sort of disproves everything regarding evolution though so I shelved the thought of it most of the time.
"indeed Elm." Professor Oak finally spoke up, pulling me out of my thoughts. "the fact that different pokemon of the same species exist out there because of their environment could very well mean new things for Pokemon evolution." he added, walking over to Grimer, "can I touch him?"
I gestured towards the caustic blob, "I don't think he'll like it if I decide for him,"
"Grime!"
"sure bud, but you need to learn that for things like these, it's more important that you decide them yourself," I met Professor Oak's amused eyes that quickly moved over to Grimer who nodded at him,
"all right then," for once, his stoic expression breaks as he smiles and bends down to check on Grimer, "can you open your mouth?" Grimer did so and the professor started to check the sludge ball's gums, his fingers moved deftly as they checked Grimer's molasses-like mouth, opening up parts of his gum in one area before moving on to the next. After digging through them for a minute and a half or so, he found a small white crystal embedded in the top-left of Grimer's gums, where fangs are usually found. "huh, that's... what Kakui said was true, they really do have crystallized toxins inside of them." he observed cautiously, "then I guess the part where they also prey on their less adapted brethren back in Alola is also true..." he trailed off,
"if it's any help, I also found him enjoying the taste of intoxicated Woopers back on the beach," I said,
"intoxicated woopers?" Professor Oak's curious eyes moved over to me.
OH. OH. I wasn't supposed to say that, wasn't I? I mean, I DID only find non-standard woopers on the beach after all, and to these people, for all I know, anyone who hasn't seen a wooper yet would assume that they're poison type.
And that's especially true if I found Grimer alongside them. They probably thought that Team Rocket was smuggling poison types into the region. I resisted the urge to sigh, "uh- well-" I sighed. "I guess I know what they're supposed to look like?"
"ah, is it because of this ability of yours?" I nodded, "are woopers not meant to be poison type?" I nodded again and professor oak placed his hand on his chin, "but Lionel, those woopers are poison type." he looked me straight in the eyes, a serious expression on his face.
"what?" what is he talking about? Woopers? Poison type? My brain worked out his words in my head once and then noticed a small detail, "those?" I asked,
"yes, those Woopers." his interested gaze only grew stronger when he saw my confused expression, "whatever it is that you... saw, I suppose from-" he hummed, tapping his index finger on the table, "-your ability, was it?" I nodded, going with the flow. "were right but I'm afraid these woopers come from a region that probably wasn't shown to you by your vision, Sinnoh is quite different after all,"
another region? "where's that?"
"further up south," he replied, "it's called Paldea from what I've gathered." he calmly said.
"okay?" I was confused,
he nodded, "yes, and anyhow, I don't think you should be involved in such things just yet." I sighed in relief at that, "but, even then, can you tell us what you saw?"
I met his eyes before looking at Mom's calm gaze. I sighed.
And then I told Professor Oak about anything relevant I knew about the current situation and just that because if I'm gonna start digging my own grave with lies, I might as well try to put it to a minimum.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
It was only way later that I realized that Professor Oak pretty much coaxed me to tell more in the subtlest manner possible.
...
"right, everything honestly sounds like it's a pain in the ass." I couldn't help but swear as I picked up Grimer's Pokeball. After what happened yesterday, I did nothing but sit back and take a break after both professors left our house. After Professor Oak's interrogation, Elm proceeded to ask me questions about Grimer and everything that I knew about him and after scrutinizing my brain for half of the remaining detail I still knew about Pokemon? Let alone the current situation relating to Team Rocket? His questions were actually a relief.
Anyhow, after everything, Professor Elm told me that he can sponsor me with a Pokedex when I started my journey and that I should go to him when it happened.
I gave him a positive answer but I sort of just let that thing hang for now since my journey was still two years away and a lot of things can happen before that. For all I know, things might just start to go haywire here in Johto since Cynthia, a champion from Sinnoh, decided to come visit and deal with Team Rocket and Palkia's disturbance herself.
And it's also specifically because of that, that I don't know where I am in the timeline exactly because last I checked, there wasn't any Ash Ketchum running around but the presence of the main characters from the games couldn't be felt either. The fact that Giovanni also started to smuggle Pokemons from other regions also made it an obvious point that somehow, the timeline of wherever I am currently isn't something I'm familiar with.
And if any of those things did exist, I have no real way of knowing because of the lack of any viable source of information.
I locked Grimer's Pokeball onto my belt, "it should be right now that a radio station becomes useful." I tightened the belt, complaining about the lack of information in a world where you have items that have more space inside than outside sounds stupid but eh, you win some, you lose some I guess.
"or maybe a Pokewatch." as the professor liked to call it. Maybe I should get one of those in the future?
"Persian, I'm leaving!" I said, nodding when I heard a pur come from the kitchen.
"alright bud, so, where to?" I tapped the ball on my hip. It shook, "well Whitney's too busy preparing for her class' wild training and Vhira is probably helping out the guy who's taken her in," I raised two fingers, "which, by the way, I think we should visit sometime soon," I added, remembering that Vhira had invited both me and Whitney to her house so that her adoptive Dad can take say thank you, "anyways, everyone's too busy so I guess we have some alone time for ourselves."
the ball on my hip shook, "shopping?" I said, just in time for me to face the GoldenRod Department store as I turned an intersection. The ball shook again, "I mean, yeah. but I think we can spend our free time on something like... I guess a day at the park?" I said to the sludge and his ball shook happily in reply.
"oh, yeah, food!" I exclaimed, "yep! that's a good idea."
and so we went, crossing over a few streets of the city as I made my way to a peculiar part of town. One that hasn't been industrialized that much yet but is still considered urban. The spot that we ended up in was like a market, one that housed various stalls that sold various stuff that ranged from simple clothing to even- if you're lucky, evolution stones. But those are more or less rare and anyone passing by that sees them would most likely start buying the moment that they saw the stones.
I slipped through the small crowd of people and stopped in front of a stall. I looked at the kebabs cooking on the grill before my eyes went over to the raw ones to the right, there I looked for anything interesting that caught my eye and I eventually settled on buying a kebab with a mixture of pork, chicken, along with bananas and potatoes thrown into the mix. I bought seven of them; three for me, and four for Grimer.
after a while, the still-hot kebabs were handed to me by the vendor and I took them with excitement before moving out of the line. Kebab in hand, I decided to tour the market as I ate and after finding a bench to rest on, I released Grimer and he quickly joined me in eating.
I threw the last kebab stick I had at my pokemon and he happily ate it with gusto. When he was done, I patted him on the head. "we're leaving." I said to him and he replied with a befuddled 'grime?' before he was sucked inside his Pokeball. I locked it back on my belt with a smile, patting its surface.
"now? where to?" I said, heading straight for the market's entrance.
...
The park just outside of GoldenRod city was nice, the open area coupled with the cool breeze was usually enough for anyone going here to relax and in most cases, drift off to sleep. Here, it wasn't uncommon to see wandering trainers sleeping on the field of grass or on some of the benches. The fact that this place also had stalls of food was a boon that everyone that visited had always enjoyed.
I was one of these people, and right now, I was eating a sweet caramel-shelled vanilla ice cream coated in chocolate. Grimer was next to me, eating around two of the same thing happily with a face that showed no reservations. It was an amazing feat given that the food was half the size of my chest.
I moved my eyes away from Grimer and continued to eat silently. The little bit of orange dotting the black surface meant that the caramel shell of my ice cream was starting to show itself. I continued to lick it.
The park also hosted bug contests and I had only ever participated in one. Around 2 years ago, I went over to the place on a Saturday and was swept up by the energy of the crowd beelining for the contest and joined in on the fun. I didn't have any Pokemon back then and apparently, you needed to have one before you can join because the bug types that you can catch during these contests were in all intents and purposes, wild.
And for the life of me, I forgot that when I did go through the same contest back in the games, I actually had to use my pokemon to fight the bug types here but for some reason, my memory of that time just assumed that it was the same as the safari zone and I joined in from there.
fortunately, I managed to catch something without getting harmed in return and it was only during the judging phase did I realize that yes, you needed pokemon to fight for you during the contest and yes, I lied through my teeth by saying that my own fainted (and was given to my mother so that she can take care of it,) when the judge went over and asked how I managed to catch the weedle I had let out.
said weedle was released after the contest and I didn't show myself in this park for at least a few months, hoping that if they did find out, they wouldn't be able to find me because of how big GoldenRod City is.
I finished the rest of my ice cream and threw the stick down towards Grimer. Who happily ate it with a smile on his face.
It was also Saturday today but I think the contest ended earlier this morning, back when I was still making my way towards here by trekking through Route 35.
Right now, the grassy park had nothing other than children playing around it, enjoying the nice atmosphere of the place.
A hum sifted through my smile as rain started to pour down the park, cooling down the otherwise hot weather. Small droplets at first, but they started to gradually grow as time went on, and by the time that everyone had left the open areas (including the sleeping trainers) it turned into a full blown shower that caused puddles to quickly form.
I calmly watched everything unfold under the - thankfully still empty - shade me and Grimer were under. I had always liked rain, even back when I was young in my old life, I always welcomed it whenever it passed by. Going from excited over the fact that I could play outside in the rain when I was a child to calmly appreciating the way it made everything cool and numb when I grew up.
There was a certain calmness to the overpowering sound of water constantly banging against roofs, making every other sound obsolete, everything gets tied off by the cold that usually follows rain and it basically makes a perfect atmosphere to just lay down, and relax. And experiencing it would always make me want to sit down on my bed and just let things be somehow,
like right now, where I just... watched as the rain numbed everything down.