After eating their fill of lunch, the wild Galvantula was satisfied. She hadn’t had a good meal like this since that time her mother took out a Deerling and she ate it along with her many siblings… but this… this feels way better in her opinion-
No, she would not succumb to the temptation of city Pokémon. She cleared her throat, cutting the conversation of the Ninetales family. “Alright, it was really nice meeting you all…” The electric tarantula jumped off their seat. “But I need to go back to my nest to watch the eggs.”
“Ah, that is understandable.” Reya agreed.
“Yeah.” She turned towards John. “My child, are you coming…?” The Galvantula had a snippet of a clue of what John would choose. She knew his past and fear of bugs, she wasn’t that dumb, she just needed to get confirmation from her son alone.
John was a little taken aback by the question, looking aside with hesitance in saying the answer to his mother. “Well um… I… I just…”
Welp, that confirms it. “No need to say more,” The Galvantula looked down a little with a frown. “I figured that’s what you were gonna say…” She sighed. “That’s fine. I’m… not mad or anything, I’m just… a little disappointed, that’s all.”
John sighed and jumped off the table, walking to his mother. “Look, I get that you want me to go with you so much… but um…” John looked away. “I’m really not into that type of life… it’s just not for me.”
The Galvantula started patting John. “I know my child… I know…” She sighed and looked at the Ninetales family with a more serious look. “If John is staying here, you better keep him safe, or else…”
“Don’t worry Ms. Galvantula, John is on good paws in this household.” Izo confirmed in a more professional tone, adjusting his glasses. “You can go back to your eggs assured that your child is safe and sound.”
The Galvantula’s mandibles clicked. “Alright, the food I can accept, but speaking to me professionally like a city ‘mon? No thanks…” She looked back at John. “Take care, my son…”
“Don’t worry, I will.” John said before he was enclosed in another hug with the tarantula.
Unfortunately, good things must come to an end as the Galvantula broke away from the hug. She needed to make this quick, she was starting to tear up! She cannot show weakness in front of others! With a quick turnaround, she said trying to sound okay. “Goodbye, my child… see you whenever fate decides.”
“Bye mother… don’t worry, I’ll visit sometime!”
A tear was shed from one of her the Galvantula’s many eyes, fortunately, no one saw it since she was facing away from everyone. “I know my child… I know you will.” She then walked away and exited the house. Not looking back, she skittered away as fast as possible. Arissa knew her child would be fine, he was blessed by human knowledge and mind after all. However, even if she knew about the destinies of other humans that come to the world, she knew John would face whatever problem that comes after them this time. She knows it! “Calm down Arissa… everything is going to be alright… just focus on the others for now.”
----------------------------------------
John sighed as the Galvantula left the house. He honestly was kinda relieved that he didn’t go back with his mother. Because, being honest with himself, he wouldn’t survive even a week there, especially when he’s in an alien body. Even though he could get comfortably close to his mother now, a tingly feeling in the back of his mind warns him about being that close to her… it seems that the fear of bugs didn’t disappear for good… 'I hope she doesn’t take it poorly if I tell her that…'
His thoughts disappeared once a multi-tailed fox picked up John and put him on her back. “Hey, John! Remember that thing we said we’d do?”
“Uh… what thing?” The Joltik asked Claire, tilting his head.
“You know! We would call your friend, remember?”
“O-ooooh… yeah I remember that… we would’ve done it yesterday if it wasn’t for… well…”
Claire’s face dropped a bit. “Yeah…” Then she instantly grinned. “But at least I’m fine! Now, I got this new scar on my chest to show how badass of an explorer I’ll be in the future!” She said as she started walking to her room.
‘At least she didn’t seem fazed by the fact she got slashed on the chest…' John thought as the Vulpix arrived in her room. “So… how are we gonna call him? Since I’m pretty sure that your phone doesn’t have his number.”
“Well, it’s not gonna be on my phone.” Claire said while John jumped on the Vulpix’s bed. She went to the desk beside the mirror and grabbed a laptop with her mouth, putting it on the bed. “We’re gonna use the laptop!”
“Hm… yeah that could work. After all, he does have Discord, so I can connect with my account.” John said while Claire excitedly opened the laptop, a wide grin plastered on her muzzle. “Man, you look way too excited for a call…”
“Well, it must be pretty normal for you, but for me, it’s an experience that millions of kids want to experience! Like, I’m not only talking to a human that got transformed, but now I will be talking to his friend from another world! How crazy is that!?” Claire excitedly said, not noticing hot saliva coming out of her mouth as she spoke.
“Um… well, I guess it’s really not that common around here…” John agreed sheepishly to which Claire just responded with rapid nods of her head. John sighed as the Vulpix opened Google.
“Um… since you’re more of a tech wiz than me… could you uh… put on the call? I don’t know much about this.” Claire sheepishly laughed.
John then walked to the laptop and tried out the touchpad for the mouse. Thankfully it seems his blue pointy nubs worked with any touch technology. Since there was no hardware for the trackpad, it was way easier to handle the mouse, so it took less time for him to switch to his account and go into Discord. He could hear some excited and curious noises from the fox beside him. John was slightly nervous about all of this, he was starting to doubt that his friend would recognize him through the squeaky voice and spider-looking body. ‘Alright…' The Joltik clicked on Hybrid Gaming or more known to John, Harry Miller. However, his movements with the mouse were getting more slower and hesitant. ‘It is fine John… this is what you wanted right? Tell one of your friends you’re okay… right? I should do this no matter what.’
“John, are you alright?”
John snapped out of that nervous state, cocking his head towards the Vulpix who smiled upon seeing his face. The Joltik shook it off and looked back at the laptop. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just some small thoughts, but they aren’t worth the trouble.” He reassured as he read through the history of messages he had sent and received from his friend. For a second, he almost felt like he was in his human body again, with his friend online and everything looking in place. The Joltik sighed as he looked down, reminding himself of his current situation. “Time to type…”
----------------------------------------
image [https://file.garden/ZeEYyRamDG12bOk5/Hey_harry.jpeg]
----------------------------------------
John was growing concerned about the situation. Of course, no one would trust someone that literally died in front of them, claiming to be alive. Harry was there at the moment of his death, so of course he would be one of the people impacted the most. “I hope he doesn’t die of a heart attack because of this…”
Claire looked at the screen a bit confused. “Doesn’t look like he is believing you…”
The Joltik gives the Vulpix a side eye with his upper eyes. “Just… give him some time, he’s just shaken up by the account of his dead friend suddenly starting to speak to him.”
“Yeah… I guess that makes sense.”
The Joltik started to slowly type once again. At least the keys are easier to press on a laptop.
----------------------------------------
image [https://file.garden/ZeEYyRamDG12bOk5/Hop_on_vc_real_quick.jpeg]
----------------------------------------
John took a heavy breath and put on a determined look. “Alright.” He turned to Claire. “We’re gonna do this.” The Vulpix couldn’t help but squeal in excitement. “But here are some things you should know about first. One: he knows what Pokémon are; Two: don’t fangirl over him too much or else it’ll look weird; And three: Don’t ask any weird questions about him or humans in general, just basic ones, got it?”
“Got it!” She replied with a serious face and a salute. However, her tails were wagging a lot.
“Alright then… here we go…” John said as he clicked the video call icon that was on the upper right corner of the screen. Their camera loaded, displaying the two Pokémon sitting idly on the bed. Before Harry could join the call, John let out little noises to test the laptop microphone, it seemed to be working well.
It took around ten seconds later for Harry to enter the call with his camera open. The young man had brown eyes and black curly hair. The man’s expression underwent a state of rapid metamorphosis starting with anger, changing to slight surprise, and ending with sheer confusion in all under two seconds. “What the actual fuck-”
John started with a bit of hesitance. “Hey, Harry… it’s been a while hasn’t it…?”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
The man recoiled with his chair, eyes widening. “What in the actual hell is going on here!?”
“So um… remember that series I never got into but you did and you kept begging me to play it…? Yeah… it’s me, John, and uh… I kinda got isekaid and reborn…”
The man covered his mouth with his hands as he just kept staring at the screen in disbelief at what he was seeing. “J-J-John… t-that… you’re… you’re alive…?” The Joltik and the Vulpix could see that the man was shaking. “H-how…?”
“I also wish to know as well… something did pull me from oblivion it seemed…” John deduced. He had no idea what that voice was, but he guessed it might’ve been some powerful entity or Pokémon that he didn’t know about.
“I-I I…” Tears were falling out of the man’s eyes. “God… I… I don’t know what to say to all of this…”
“I…” John sighed. “I honestly don’t know myself…” While the Joltik was talking, he noticed that Claire was awfully silent… turning to her, he saw that the Vulpix was shaking uncontrollably with a wide grin on her muzzle. She was about to burst… “Oh boy…” John looked back to the screen. “Hey uh… I know you’re kinda unstable right now with me being alive and all but uh… this Vulpix really, really wants to talk to you so uh… I’m gonna let her take the wheel.”
“Wait wha-“
Before the human had any time to protest, Claire tilted the camera to her face and started speaking Eminem style. “Oh. My. GOD! He’s so handsome!!! HihumanmynameisClaireandIamJohnsBFFandyouhavenoideahowIreallyreallyLOVEhumansbecauseoftheirheroicactsandthefacttheysavedtheworldmultipletimesbutImgettingaheadofmyselfwhatsyournameandwhatdoyoulikecanwebefriends!?!?!?!?” She took a massive breath, managing not to cough before putting on a wide smile while she tail wagged her tails at a new record of speed.
“…Wow…” John muttered after some uncomfortable seconds in silence. He looked back at the screen to find Harry completely frozen on the spot. Looking back at Claire, John sat and began to clap with his nubs slowly. “Congratulations, you managed to break him entirely.”
Claire looked at John, tilting her head. “I broke him…? All I did was introduce myself and ask simple questions!”
“Well then look at how he is and say if you broke him or not.”
John pointed a nub at the screen and Claire saw Harry’s paralyzed shocked face, she turned back to John with a sheepish shrug. “Whoops…”
“Eh, don’t worry, I know how to snap him out of it.” John said as he looked back at the screen and shouted in a squeaky voice. “YO, IF YOU DON’T SNAP OUT OF IT, I’M GONNA TELL FOX GIRL ABOUT THAT TIME IN OHIO-“
The human suddenly snapped back to reality and shouted back. “SHUT UP! SAY A WORD ABOUT IT AND I’LL SHOVE ROCKS DOWN YOUR GODDAMN THROAT!!!”
The Joltik turned to the Vulpix grinning with a little fang being visible. “See?”
Claire was a bit confused about how that worked and what was John about to say, but at least it worked and that was good in her opinion. “That actually worked, wow!”
Both Pokémon looked back at the screen and they saw Harry out of his anger state, looking at them with a calmer but confused expression. “Holy shit… it’s… it’s really you John…” The Joltik nodded. “But… but you died… right in front of me…” He said rubbing his temples before looking back at the screen. “How the fuck is that even possible…?”
“Don’t tell me you forgot what Isekai means…”
“Of course not! I…” The man groaned. “I’m just still trying to wrap my head around the fact of you being alive, and the fact you are a fucking Pokémon! Also, not to mention the fact Pokémon is fucking real and the fact that I’m literally speaking to two right now!”
“I know right!?” Claire said, excitedly wagging her tails as she put her paws on her cheeks. “Still trying to wrap around that I’m speaking to two humans at the same exact time! I think I’m gonna faint!”
The Joltik sighed. “Please don’t…”
“I… I still don’t get it…” Harry spoke up. “If… you’re in another world and… with Pokémon as well… how are you speaking to me? How is Discord connected through freaking universes?”
“It’s not only Discord, it’s literally the entire internet.” John sat on his butt, putting a nub on his chin. “The humans that came here before me made a collab with some company and-”
“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait… humans that came before you? You’re not the only one…?”
“Um… well, humans have kind of a history in here…” He pointed at Claire. “The reason why she’s obsessed with us.”
Claire let out another squeal of excitement before speaking. “You have no idea how much the humans did here! Not only do they get transformed into Pokémon, but they saved the world every time! They are amazing!”
“Transformed into Pokémon and… saved the world…?” Harry muttered before a realization hit him and he said in a low voice. “Pokémon Mystery Dungeon…?!”
John raised an invisible eyebrow. “Come again?”
“Hey, Vulpix- erm… Claire! Tell me, did any of the humans like… saved the world from natural disasters or… prevented the collapse of time or something like that?” Harry asked Vulpix. There was no way those games he played some years ago were real… right?
“Oh yeah!” Claire responded ecstatically. “I think the natural disasters were the first time a human has been ever documented in history. They stopped a meteor along with the legendary Pokémon Rayquaza!”
As soon as she said those words, the human covered his mouth again as he left his chair, staying in the background. “Nope, no way!” He could be heard saying. “There’s no way in HELL the games are real! Holy shit…”
“Games… what games?” John asked, tilting his head along with Claire.
The human came back to his chair and sat on it as quickly as possible, leaning forward to the monitor. “Alright, you know the Pokémon games at least, right John?” The Joltik nodded and the Vulpix looked more confused. “Alright, so there are these Spinoffs series called Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. And in those games, they show a world with only Pokémon. The protagonist in those games are always humans turned Pokémon, so basically Isekai protagonists like you now.” John looked at his nubs and then nodded in understanding. “And in those games, the protagonist always saved the world. There are four games, and the threats were basically natural disasters, time stopping, an entity that wanted to coat the world in ice, and another entity that literally dragged the entire planet close to the sun.”
“… what in the living fu-“
Claire interrupted with her eyes glistening again. “So you have games about the history of our world too!? That’s so cool! Do you have the game where a human stopped an alien light god from opening rifts all over the world!?”
“Wait… what? Wait a second.” Harry could be seen typing something on his computer, and after a certain while, four images appeared in the chat below the video cameras. “Do any of these look familiar to you Claire…?”
The images displayed Necrozma in all of his different forms, including Ultra Necrozma. Claire pointed at the latter. “Oh, I know the last one! That’s the true form of that god when it went mad!” She looked back to the camera. “How do you know so much about our world while John doesn’t?”
The human and the former human shared a look before John sighed and looked at Claire. “Alright, I already explained this to Taro… but, in our world… Pokémon are seen as nothing but fictional creatures.”
Claire stayed in silence, processing what she heard before coming out with a response. “Really? That’s really interesting! Does that mean they know what we are while not even knowing we exist?”
“Um… basically that… although I’m not sure how’s that possible…” John muttered.
“Anyways, are we done with the history questions?” She turned to the screen once again with her tails starting to wag again. “Now I’ll finally ask the real questions! So, Harry right!? Tell me all about your world and EVERYTHING about humans, please!”
“Claire…” John muttered with a sigh.
Harry sheepishly laughed. He didn’t know what to make of the situation, if he was daydreaming or something else, because he was speaking to two IRL Pokémon and one of them was for some reason his dead friend. But he would play along for now as he answered some of the Vulpix’s questions.
It lasted until John interrupted Claire after she asked too many questions. “Alright, that’s enough Claire.” The Vulpix let out a little whine of sadness, it looked kinda cute. John turned to the screen again. “Alright Harry, it’s time we discuss something important, because… I feel that our world is about to change.”
“Huh…? What do you mean?”
“So you see… some humans that came before me didn’t want to keep our technology to themselves… so… as I was saying before, they collabed with a company of this world called Asuri and literally copied everything from our computers and smartphones. That’s how I’m able to contact you now, because of a laptop made by said company.”
Harry scratched his chin. “But… how the hell does the internet communicate between worlds though?”
John shrugged as best as he could. “I literally don’t know how they did it… I don’t know if it’s because they used the same servers as our world, or… some weird kind of Pokémon bullshit, I don’t know, it just works for some reason…” Harry looked aside with a frown. “So I want to ask you a favor. Since I won’t be on the internet a lot like I used to, I want to ask for you to monitor social media for me. Claire said that the internet was released to the public some weeks ago, so it’s in the beginning stages. If you start to see real Pokémon in like… let’s say Twitter, please notify me, alright?”
Harry started to look a little nervous. “Alright then… thanks for the info… so John… have you found a way to come back yet?”
John sighed. “Unfortunately no… I can’t return to my old body since I died so… I kinda accepted my new life here… as a bug…”
“Think of the bright side John! You got sick moves with it!” Claire cheered and that made John smile a little.
The Joltik turned to the screen again. “Well… it was fun talking to you again Harry… I’m sorry I died on you like that…”
“Don’t say it like that dude!” Harry protested. “You sacrificed yourself for us dude… because of that gunshot, the police heard it and they arrived just in time. We owe you deep for that…”
“Heh… at least the police did something useful.” The Joltik let out a dry chuckle as he stood up again. “Welp, see you another time dude, keep me updated alright?”
Harry sighed, it sounded like John was going to die again… but he knew that wasn’t the case this time. Hopefully… “Alright… I will.”
“Thank you, Harry.” He waved a nub at the human. “Bye, see ya!”
“Bye-bye Harry!!!” The Vulpix waved with her two paws.
The human did a nervous wave with a smile that looked forced. With that, John ended the call and sighed. “Wow… that felt unreal…” He turned to the Vulpix. “So how did you-”
Suddenly, Claire pounced on John and lifted him in the air again with her paws. “Thanks, John! Thank you for this! With your friend, I finally managed to get answers to humanity’s biggest questions!”
“Uh…” The Joltik answered nervously. “Are you sure “how do humans reproduce?” was a big question?”
“Well, for me they were big questions aside from that one!”
The Joltik smirked. “Sure…” They both ended up giggling.
----------------------------------------
Harry was in a state of disbelief. He had pinched himself too many times on the call to see if he would wake up. However, he did not wake up. He couldn’t believe it, John was actually alive! … And a Pokémon… but that didn’t matter, the fact he was still alive and not a wild animal was good enough for Harry. He wished so much he could tell the others, but they wouldn’t believe him at all and think he lost his mind.
Before he did anything else, Harry remembered what John said, so he went to check Twitter on his computer. “There’s no way…” He muttered. It seemed that the initial page was normal. He clicked on the search bar but hesitated to type. He sighed and typed “Pokemon”, making posts related to Pokémon appear. The first tweet was a normal post, relating to the hype of the game Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. It was November so people were bound to be posting about those games.
The young man scrolled down further and found a tweet that made him slowly gasp, covering up his mouth. The tweet was made by a person named Alice Mishima, who apparently had a profile picture of a masked green feline with red irises. The tweet read: “#Pokemon I hope you are enjoying the wonders of the Internet dear Pokémon! We at Asuri Technology Industries shall keep you updated about the changes we make to our services!” Below the text, there was an image of a Meowscarada with a business suit taking a selfie in what looked to be a meeting room, with other Pokémon wearing ties and some other Pokémon glasses. The image looked so realistic that it put Photoshop to shame… this image was a hundred percent real. The tweet had more than 50 thousand likes and a thousand retweets. “Oh my god…"