Owen opened his eyes to the blurry sight of a dark room. He found himself on a soft bed, with rails on either side. He was startled by the sudden loud hum of a machine, only for his left arm to be squeezed tightly. Turning caused a series of sharp pains in his abdomen, causing him to lie back down, and stare up at the ceiling defeated.
It was then he noticed two rings of light on the ceiling. Something was on his feet, something warm. A twinge of anxiety shot through his heart as he wondered what kind of machine would be on his feet, only to see a black mass of fur.
“Brrrruhhhh”
The black cat-like thing stirred, chirping at the sudden movements that had awoken it from its slumber. Two crimson eyes zeroed in on Owen’s face, before the thing slowly crept forward, stepping on his chest exactly where the pain had just been, causing Owen to jolt upwards again. Startled by this, the creature deigned to put its paws on the bed, before falling over in the crook of his arm, with its back to his side. The golden glow of the circle on its head shone right at Owen as the creature tilted its head back.
“Brrrrruuuhhh”
Another short little trill came from the Pokémon before it rested its head on his arm, but not for long. The door slowly opened as finally, the first human he’d seen in a day came through the door.
“I’m going to turn on the lights, for a moment. We’ve been worried about you.” Came a gentle voice. The flash made him blink momentarily, before turning to greet the pink-haired nurse with a nod, not wanting to move the rest of his body just yet.
A little yellow fuzz ball flew into the room just seconds after the nurse, and jumped clean over the bed, smacking itself on the wall before falling into a heap with its oversized green scarf.
“Kin.”
The little fox didn’t waste a beat before jumping up on the bed and nudging Owen’s cheek, mewling the entire time.
“Do you know why you’re here?” The nurse asked him calmly.
Owen took a moment to retrace the previous day in his mind, wondering what exactly had happened. The last thing he remembered was eating those strange sticks, before a sharp pain. He shook his head in dejection.
“No, just the cabin…we were attacked? What…what the hell happened?”
She gave an approving nod, having already been briefed before his arrival.
“Well, why don’t I start with the good news? Neither you nor your Pokémon are hurt badly. You seem to have taken the worst of it, but by the time we arrived, it seems your Umbreon had even used what must have been its Wish on you. You’re going to be sore for a while, but otherwise, you should make a full recovery.” She said with a hint of enthusiasm.
A smidgen of relief washed over him, but the looming thought of what the bad news could be already bothered him more than he could stand. This really was no dream. It wouldn’t feel so real, there wouldn’t be consequences, and it would have ended when he blacked out.
“Wait, my WHAT?” He exclaimed, never having met this Umbreon before in his life. He assumed it lived at the hospital, like some sort of therapy animal. But something tugged at the back of his mind as if the Pokémon wasn’t all that alien to him.
“Your Umbreon, right there with you. If he’s being too affectionate, I could go get his ball for you?”
Owen was sure he had never caught a Pokémon in his life. His life… the life he had been living, the one where he had a mortgage on a small ranch house, a nice easy job at the county building, and a cat. One that he’d have to get a family member to feed for a day or two now.
“Right, no I don’t need that, but could you tell me what city we’re in?”
“Oh, of course, this is Shalour City, you’re safe now. Which brings me to the other matter. You were hit by a rampaging Mega Pokémon. Tyranitar of all things! We don’t know exactly what happened, just that something knocked it out of its evolved state before the rangers arrived and took it away.” She said, starting to appear worried now.
“Tyranitar huh? No wonder I feel like hell. That cabin…it was smashed to pieces, what was it doing out there?” He started to wonder, before being cut off by the now angry-looking nurse.
“What were you doing out there?!” Her protest shook both Umbreon and Fennekin out of their lull next to Owen’s side, as they both stood at attention.
“Your Pokémon can handle themselves, but apparently you can’t!” She paused for a moment after the scolding to regain her composure.
“Only experienced teams go after rogue megas, but it seems like you’re telling me you just haven’t been paying attention to the news?” She let out with an exasperated sigh.
His face scrunched up before any protest could leave his mouth. He hadn’t gone looking for trouble, this was all new to him. He didn’t know where his home was from here, or how to respond without telling her the truth. Who would even believe the truth?
“I’m sorry, rogue megas? I thought you had to have a trainer for mega evolution.” He asked, with only his knowledge of the games, and some of the anime to go by.
“They’ve been causing trouble across the region for the past few years, surely you’ve seen some of that by now? The computer says you’ve come from the Unova region, Mr. Ashford, but it’s been covered on all platforms.”
Fennekin reached a paw over to swat at Umbreon’s tail, its little nubs barely even tickling the larger Pokémon’s fur. In response, it tilted its head back, shaking playfully along the way, before turning to swat at the little fox in return. Owen winced as they both pressed into his chest again.
“Could you two, not do that?” He requested, and Fennekin obediently moved to his feet, as it lowered its head in guilt. Umbreon just stared blankly back at him, before deciding it was time to lick itself, starting with its paws.
The nurse reached behind the doorway and picked up a bag from which she pulled what looked like his former shirt, stained in blood and ripped to pieces. He gulped at the sight of it, unable to form any kind of query before she started to speak to him softly.
“Forgive me for being crass, but this was yours.” She said, before throwing the rag into the trash bin, along with the gloves she used to handle it.
“I imagine you looked quite the same before the wish took effect. Just remember to be extra nice to him.” She said softly, as they both turned to the Moonlight Pokémon, who was now licking his own butt. Owen tried to form a chuckle before realizing it would hurt too much, as the nurse returned a smile.
“I suppose that’s enough for now. Why don’t you get back to resting, and the rangers can figure out the rest of what happened later? Oh, and I’ll have someone bring you some drinks and something to eat in a minute. Fennekin’s already eaten, but Umbreon wouldn’t leave your side for anything.” She turned to leave and left the door slightly ajar. The inquisitive little fox scuttled back up to his side, looking up as if to say it had helped as well.
“So this is it, huh? I’m either crazy or lucky, or both.” He said, excitement driving him through the pain of leaning forward to look at both Pokémon sharing the hospital bed. He ran one hand each through the soft fur on the tops of their heads, down the back of their necks, to gently pat the top of their backs. Fennekin yipped proudly, while Umbreon just started to purr.
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Wait, the Unova region? That place was modeled after my home… Fishy. Maybe this isn’t another world, but our world got zapped by some black hole shit, or CERN finally bent reality? If that’s the case, I should see if I still have a home. Make sure Doodle’s fed. No, I’ll have to call Mom and see if she could feed him if that’s the case.
After a few moments of peace with his two new friends, Owen’s attention went to the doorway again, to find a Gardevoir entering the room with a tray. On it were a few juice boxes, a couple of pieces of buttered toast, and a shiny square blue bowl with bits of what looked like cat food. She held the bowl in front of Umbreon before leading him to the edge of the bed and returned to place the remainder of the items on the bed tray, before slowly pushing it in front of Owen. Finally, she placed a little black rectangle on his tray, which he recognized as his cell phone.
“Gardevoir, garde devoir, voir.” She looked a little flustered after whatever she had said, before turning to leave the room.
“Thank you!” He called out, as Gardevoir slowly turned around to give him a graceful bow before leaving the room.
As he unlocked the phone, it appeared everything was the same, until he got a closer look. The former Firefox logo was now a Ninetales around a globe, what looked like the chrome logo was now cyan, pink, and white with an eyeball in the center. The rest of the apps had slightly changed too. His eyes drifted to the top of the screen, to notice service!
“Finally!” He went to his contacts, to find all the original names he had in there were still listed.
Speed dial 2: Dad
“We’re sorry, the number you have called is no longer in service.”
Speed dial 3: Mom
“We’re sorry, the number you have called”
He didn’t let it finish before moving on to the next one.
Speed dial 6: Corbin (Boss)
“We’re”
Frustrated with being unable to make any calls, he checked out the internet instead. Recommendations popped up for more websites looking reminiscent of ones he was familiar with. The former YouTube logo was the same shade of pink and cyan as the former chrome button. He clicked it, to see on the front page videos of battles against gym leaders, elite four members, and the like. There were cooking channels for people and Pokémon, along with science channels and crazy conspiracies, he probably only knew were fake from his knowledge of the franchise in his world.
Some things never change I guess.
He decided to spend the next hour sitting back, drifting in and out of consciousness, only cracking an eye when Umbreon aimlessly wandered about.
The door opened again, this time the nurse had returned, with a plain shirt, and several papers.
“When you think you’re up to moving around, here’s the address of the ranger station, and a new shirt you can keep.” She gave him a reassuring smile.
“Oh, uh, what happened to my phone? Everything’s all different. I mean, I have service again, so that’s nice, but…”
“Gardevoir didn’t explain it to you? Well, that’s not like her."
“What do you mean, all she did was say her name to me, before blushing and running off.” Owen retorted. The nurse pouted while putting her hands on her hips.
“She didn’t even use telepathy? Ugh, that girl sometimes fawns over some patients, but she really didn’t say a thing?” She sighed before pressing her index finger and thumb into the bridge of her nose.
“I had our porygon get it up to standard for you. It’s no rotom phone, but you should be able to use everything again. Honestly, how long did you go without updating? Didn’t it bother you not being able to use anything but the camera?” She said, once again exasperated with Owen, wondering just how out of touch one person can be. Especially one with such a competent Pokémon.
She took his phone into her hands before explaining the remaining apps that Owen couldn’t associate with ones from his old world. The last one having a large B logo in blue and black.
“Right here, you’re…oh wow. 198 wins and no losses? Forgive me for snooping, but all with only just one Pokémon, too?” She handed the phone back, trying to maintain some semblance of propriety. He stared at the rather bright screen, the blue interface showing a long record of him, with facial ID next to each entry. He scrolled through to see his face getting younger in real-time, all the way back to the first entry some eight years prior.
Owen A. vs Kiera V.
Eevee // Ghastly
Victory --- Defeat
I…don’t remember any of this. I don’t remember how I got into that field of flabebe, or even owning a Pokémon. He thought to himself as he looked down at the indifferent Umbreon, its head resting up against his thighs.
He remembered everything he’d done. Yesterday, the day before, all of it. The past eight years! And yet there was physical evidence in front of his face contradicting everything he thought he knew.
Maybe I shouldn’t press people too hard about it. Something’s screwy with how those pictures of me even exist in there, but if I go against it, they’ll probably keep me here.
The humming of the fluorescent lights in the room seemed to intensify greatly in the silence, giving way to a headache he’d been trying not to focus on. Umbreon turned around abruptly and started kneading his chest, before laying its head down to purr. It hurt for only a moment, before the consistent vibration seemed to echo throughout his chest, doing wonders to soothe the pain and causing a sigh of relief to come from Owen before slinking down into the bed.
“Why don’t I undo you here, give me just a moment.” The nurse told him in advance before moving to his opposite side to remove the cuff on his upper arm, after which she lowered the rails on the side of the bed.
“I’ll also need to watch him walk here before I let you all leave here.” She said with a jovial, yet accusatory tone to Umbreon who was seemingly content to remain here all day.
----------------------------------------
Last Night
“Make it stop, Make it Stop!” The little yellow fox cried out after being thrown once again, straight back into the chest of the human. She cracked one eye open to see many glowing bits in front of her. Several golden rings came into focus around the black mass that formed in front of her. Further back, orbs of red and blue started to form.
It’s back again and now there’s more! The human didn’t stand a chance! RUN, LEGS, RUN!
But she couldn’t stand. All she could do now was wait for the inevitable. The two orbs connected with the center of the golden rings. A horrible set of smashes came one after the other, and the golden rings zoomed out of view, followed by the sound of something hitting the wall on the other side of the room. The little fox winced as she shut her eyes tight once more.
A whizzing whirling whistle came from the other side of the room, at the same instant as a triumphant roar came from their assailant, one that was cut short in a grunt of pain. Fennekin opened her eyes again to see the golden rings were still standing, and that they had a pair of glowing red eyes in front of them. The new Pokémon readied its stance before firing off a purple glowing ring, unleashing the same sound from before.
It didn’t seem to faze their foe the second time, who was now charging a large blue orb in between its two hands. Once the orb was large enough, the green thing fired its attack at the golden rings. Only for the golden rings to jump to the side, and pull in blue light of its own. The orb grew to the same size as the one that had been fired seconds ago before it took off faster than an Arcanine!
Get him, Goldie!
To say the following sounds were an assault on the little fox’s ears would be an understatement. The carnal crashing of wood, glass, and stone hide wrought havoc on their surroundings. Only after several seconds of crashing getting farther and farther away did she finally decide to open her eyes to see two glowing red lights right in her face, that were getting closer.
The golden rings with red eyes were now licking her forehead.
“Hey, hey, cut it out! I’m not a kid anymore!” She protested, to no response. He kept licking until his tongue found a scarf, at which point he stopped to groom himself instead.
“Hey, you’re a good Pokémon, right? Right? That’s why you saved me? Um, us?” She asked the golden rings, who seemed more concerned with his own grooming now.
“What kind of Pokémon are you?” The little fox was getting antsy. Why wouldn’t he respond to her? She looked over and saw one of those human ball things. She had one once, and it finally dawned on her that’s what she had bumped into moments again.
“Hey, you’re his partner, aren’t you? Aren’t you worried about him?” She said as she turned her head towards the unconscious human. The golden rings looked up, before slowly plotting over, and pawing at the human’s chest. It let out a series of mews, growing in volume, each sounding like a cry of loneliness.
Moments in silence passed between them before a pair of small shooting stars flew overhead, confusing the small fox. She’d never seen a star up close before, and they were really…quite small actually. In an instant she felt her strength return, she felt better than she’d ever felt before!
“So you do understand me! But we need help! Only humans know how to heal humans! I think…” She said to the new acquaintance, to once again, no response. The golden rings then lay flat as they scooched up under the arm of the still-unconscious human, the glow finally fading into its black fur.
“This isn’t any time to sleep! Fine! I’ll go get the humans then!” She said as she slinked off, looking behind at where the green thing had once stood, hoping not to see it again.
“Brrrrrr” A noise came from the wreckage, and she darted back to see if the stubborn Pokémon was finally ready to talk.
“I’m really going now! You’ll keep the human safe, right?” She said, waiting for any kind of response that never came. Finally, her shaking legs carried her out of the wreckage and on the way to…something. She hadn’t seen humans in quite a while and wasn’t sure where they could be, but the noise had to get the attention of one nearby. It sounded like one of those metal boxes crashing, but worse.