For something considered as a single route- Route 35 was gigantic. Comparatively speaking, the massive route was as large as some of the farmlands that I passed through whenever I visited (and lived with) my mother's side of the family. They lived up in the mountains but it was low enough that the place can at least be considered civilized. It was still mountainous though and the people there grew crops and some of the massive farmlands for sugarcane that I saw there were dwarfed by Route 35 in volume alone.

As with all things, the route has a proper path for trainers that wanted to avoid trouble with wild Pokemon but from what I could tell, the path likes to dance around in a zigzag pattern and in some cases, this pattern would intertwine with the grasslands that wild Pokemon would live in so encounters with them weren't entirely unavoidable. Even if said Pokemon often didn't live within the intertwining paths.

I couldn't really blame them, I mean, if you had people that would fight you whenever they pass through your home every single day I would move out and never come back there too. And the pokemon that do stay either want trainers or are just there to look for trouble. Trouble, that I might add, is more than it's worth.

And for a wild Pokemon, that worth comes in the form of battle experience or if they're lucky, they get caught and trained by a trainer.

At the thought of that, I looked at Persian, "you think we're gonna encounter a Pokemon while we're here?" I knew that nidoran lived around here but I haven't seen any of them so far.

He raised an eyebrow, "Per? Per, Per! Persian!" he says, added with a reassuring purr.

"yeah, I guess avoiding those places would be best huh? And thank you." he leaned in when I rubbed his head, "I'll count on you when it comes down to that." the large cat nodded, then purred.

The two of us walked through the Route, taking a few detours whenever we found one of the clearings that had a high rate of Pokemon encounters and after half an hour of walking, we both saw a thin white line on the horizon. Beyond that white line was nothing but the pure blue of the ocean.

"we're here Persian, the beach," I said calmly, the two of us were still pretty far and I couldn't see anything other than the rough colors of white sand and blue ocean water. Persian though, was another story, "do you see anything interesting?" I asked, it was better to let him scout the place out from a distance that let him see a large part of the beach. Once he found something interesting, we'll just go there and see what's it about.

He shook his head, "Per, Persian."

"just a few brown specks?" I squinted my eyes, seeing nothing. "seaweed?" I asked and he nodded followed by a pur of agreement. "yeah, but I think we should still check them out." I said.

So we did, and those brown specks turned out to be Woopers. Dead. All of them. Even though water type Pokemon can live in both fresh and salt water, these guys had somehow died. Some were obviously attacked by a Tentacruel, if the white lines in their body were to go by and in some cases even a Seadra, but the others just looked like they fell asleep and never woke up, they didn't have wounds or anything that showed anyone looking that they were damaged.

"Persian?" I looked up from a dead wooper to meet the large cat's gaze, "Persian,"

I waved my hands defensively, "oh no, they're not familiar." I lied through a genuine smile, the fact that these guys are here meant that out there, Sinnoh exists and so does the larger pokemon world. What's not to smile about? Them being brown is pretty weird though. "it's just that, you know," I scratched the back of my head and looked back towards a dead wooper, "aren't you curious?" I asked as I poked a wooper with a stick.

"Persian." was his answer.

"come on! they're new Pokemon!" I said, the excitement of seeing a wooper seeping through my voice. "you should at least feel a little bit happy!"

"Persian, Persian," he said cooly.

"you can hide it all you want, but I know you're also excited." I said, picking up a wooper by the gill, feeling a slight burning sensation on the tips of my fingers made me drop it. "it's poisonous?" I mused out loud, "I uh, didn't know that..." I looked back towards Persian, who was glaring at the dropped carcass.

"it's maybe a side effect of tentacool attacks." I reasoned. That might also explain why they've turned brown... the poison wasn't cured so their bodies decayed quickly.

"Persian."

"yeah, I know, there aren't any signs of attacks," I replied, looking at a relatively unscathed brown wooper. "well, except for its half rotted leg," I poked it with a stick, "looks like it's been dissolved in acid."

The large cat took the stick from my hand and growled, "yeah yeah, I'll call the rangers." I said, "but first, aren't you at least curious to see one alive?" I said, "the rangers are going to take these guys when they arrive here you know?"

I stood up and started walking, all the while I juggled the Pokeball in my hand. I tossed it in the air one last time before I caught it and tossed it back inside my zipped-up backpack. "come on, we should see if we can catch one." getting a water-ground type is a big boon and if I can get a Quagsire before my journey? Then it's gonna become relatively easy.

Walking around the beach for a few more minutes let me and Persian come across a disturbingly increasing amount of wooper carcasses that looked like they were bathed in a pool of acid. As it went on, the body parts that got eaten weren't just the legs any more and soon, whole heads were missing and a few of them only left their arms to even let me know they were once the dead body of a Pokemon.

As we continued, I couldn't help but frown in distaste, "aren't there any of them who are alive?" I said to Persian and got a pur in return, "you see something huh?" I smiled, "maybe another dead pokemon?" I joked and got a growl for my efforts,

"Per," he said, walking ahead of me, "Persian."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I looked in the direction he was looking and sure enough, to our right was a green sludge sitting idly on the beachside. I thought it was nothing but melted or decaying wooper carcass but my thoughts were washed away when the sludge started moving, "a... shiny Grimer..?" I said, not really believing the words that popped out of my mouth.

I froze when that Grimer turned around and I saw that ever so iconic lip design that Alolan Grimers seemed to have, "Persian, use glare at it. Now."

"Per?" he growled, turning around and giving me a glare but nevertheless, his eyes glowed and the Grimer's movement started to slow.

"run over to it and see if you can incapacitate it." I said, Persian raised an eyebrow, "use slash. If necessary."

And he ran, I quickly followed and before long, we were both a few meters away from Grimer and I wasn't mistaken, the Grimer was actually Alolan...

The Alolan Grimer glared at the two of us and his body started to slug away toward us, glowing white.

I threw a Pokeball at it and the poor thing's tackle was canceled, instead, he turned into a bright red light that was quickly sucked into the Pokeball.

The ball dropped, then turned once,

Twice,

Thrice...

And then, it stopped.

The ping that usually follows after a capture broke me out of my shock. I met Persian's eyes, "did I just catch an a-" I stopped myself from saying Alolan, "sh-shiny Grimer?"

"Persian." the Pokemon answered, as if saying, 'probably?' then he turned away, uncaring. He looked at the beach and turned towards me, "Per, Persian!"

"uh, you- we should probably get back." I grabbed the ball from the ground, "this guy needs to get taken care of."

"Persian?"

"no,- no we're not fishing for the time being no." I said, handing him his food, "you won't be eating a magikarp today."

"Per," he replied dejectedly,

"thanks for accompanying me by the way," he purred in reply,

...

Persian had immediately left for our roof the moment that the two us of went back home, the cat's lazy behavior to just want to rest on the roof had given me enough time to bring Grimer to the back of our house and release him there. The Pokeball flew and out comes a green Grimer with a weird yellow lip on the upper part of his mouth.

"g-grime!" its breathing was erratic, and it was clearly still under the effects of paralysis along with that, the glare that he gave me wasn't friendly but I needed to talk to him first,

"listen," I raised my hand up, "I know how you're feeling right now, you're in an unfamiliar environment because of some random happenstance and you're concerned," I placated, it worked somewhat because the glare had eased. I sighed in relief, "but, hear me out, the people out there, should not know where you come from-" Grimer paused and from what little I could understand from his expression, he was raising his eyebrow, "and I know, okay? you're not a regular Grimer." he nodded at that and went into deep thought, "and wherever you come from, it's probably from someplace special because our grimers here don't have lips." I said, "even if you look like a shiny, I can tell the difference now that you're close. You're not."

"Grimer?" it tilted its head,

"yeah, there's this underground place back in the city and uh, some guy who likes to play with robots sits around with a shiny Grimer there," I replied, remembering the time I saw him when I went there because Dad asked me to groom Persian. He was unnerving, to say the least. "you more or less have the same color but that thing was slightly yellowish."

The pokemon nodded in understanding, "anyways, when you go to the Pokemon center, don't tell them where you came from okay?" I said and the Grimer nodded, "wherever that boat went, it clearly wasn't Kanto." I muttered,

Alola should be pretty far from Johto, right? Maybe not since that place is supposed to be in the tropics and Johto as well as in the same vein- Kanto, are based off of Japan.

Persian landed behind me and I flinched despite the relative silence of his landing, "Per?" he asked, concerned.

I nodded, "yeah, I'm uh, keeping him." I smiled and rubbed the back of my head, hoping that would help Persian be less suspicious of me. Fortunately, he wasn't and the growl that he gave Grimer told me that he was suspicious of something- or, someone else. I rubbed his head, "I know but where can he go?" he purred, "the rangers would give him to the professors you know that, and come on, that would just be a waste! I want him to at least become my starter!"

Persian scoffed but let me be regardless. Then he leaped off back unto the roof, as silent as always.

I turned back towards Grimer, "alright bud, how about we leave for the Pokemon center yeah?"

"Grimer!" even with the Paralysis affecting him, the reply was energetic.

"okay," I smiled and pulled out his Pokeball and sucked him back in. "PERSIAN!" I called out and heard a loud growl, "we're leaving for the center so guard Mom and the house okay?" he purred in reply.

...

The familiar ding of the Pokemon Center's doors entered my ears as they slid open. I passed through and was already greeted by a smiling nurse joy, "hello, how may we help you today?"

I returned the smile and lifted the Pokeball holding Grimer for her to see. "what happens when a Grimer stays in the ocean for too long?" I asked and if nurse joy was disturbed by the thought of a "dirty" Pokemon getting bathed in seawater, she didn't let it show as she gave me an answer, her professionalism still there. Her voice told me otherwise though,

"well, since Grimer and really, the Muk line is made out of toxic, garbage sludge, I would first worry about the pollution that had been thrown into the ocean," she replied stiffly, "may I ask why you were throwing a Grimer in the ocean? Were you perhaps trying to counter a tentacool?"

I moved closer and shook my head, "nope," I said, the pollution that would result from a Grimer never really crossed my mind, huh, no wonder those woopers were brown. "but I did find one stranded on the beach and from what I could tell, he came from the ocean." I answered.

"oh," her chippy voice returned, "I see, then can you let me handle Grimer to check if he has any damage?"

I nodded and handed her his ball. She took it without fuss and I watched as she put the ball on a large, box-like machine that I had only seen thrice in this new life but was a constant back in the games of my old one. The machine beeped as nurse joy played with it, her head tilted upward and she looked at the result of Grimer's scan on a monitor above the machine.

She frowned, "where did you get this Grimer?" she turned to me,

"in the beach," I said a matter of factly,

"I... where?"

I held back a sigh, "in route 35, I wanted to catch a pokemon and when we went to the beach, we saw these weird Pokemon that looked like a brown Poliwag but then we saw that they were getting eaten so we followed the trail of corpses and well- we saw this guy and that's that. We fought him, I caught him with one of the three Pokeballs I was carrying and now I'm here."

Nurse joy listened to my recount silently and when I was finished, she gave me a nod and her confused frown shaped back up to her usual smile. "you said something about brown Poliwags?" she asked and I nodded, "what did they look like?"

"well, they were brown, with a large head and a small body and two legs, they also have these weird horns on the side of their head, they looked like tree branches."

"uhuh..." as she said that, nurse joy went over to the telephone on the counter and she was about to dial someone when her eyes went over to me. She sighed and smiled, "have you registered Grimer yet?"

I shook my head, thanking God that the nurse's joys were kind. "no." I tried to hide my excitement.

"well come, I'll register him under your name." I let myself smile and followed after her as she got out of the counter. Before we both entered the door that led deeper into the Pokemon center, I saw a Chansey walk behind the counter and grab Grimer's ball out of the machine before trodding off.

"don't worry, Chansey's kind and she'll take proper care of your Grimer." she placated,

I nodded, "thank you," I said to her.

I went through the doors she kept open for me and I felt a hand rub my head and then the sound of the door closing.

"you're welcome," I didn't have to look to know that Nurse Joy was smiling.