The double sliding glass doors open to the cool afternoon shade cast by the towering Pokémon Center. The scent of flowers adorning every curb mixed with the salty air brought in by the coastal breeze contrasted the filtered air inside. Fennekin kept pace with Owen’s stride as he started up the cobble path towards the ranger station. Umbreon had already escaped his view.

A not-so-distant screech took Owen’s attention toward the trees, over the large grey walls that adorned the pathway. He struggled to get up, lacking the arm strength yet, as Fennekin head butt his feet, sending him up and over the wall. A small purple thing was there, a Rattata, and it was backed up against a tree, staring towards the direction of the Pokémon center. None else but Umbreon was opposite the small Pokémon, head lowered, and butt high up the air and wiggling.

“Hey, you stop that! You don’t know where it’s been!” Owen shouted out to his Pokémon, a thought that still seemed alien to him. This caught Umbreon off guard long enough for the little rat Pokémon to scurry away.

“Alright, you know what mister? How about this?” He bent over to pick the black cat-dog up, only to be met with no resistance. It happily tucked its legs in while looking up before outward. Owen sat down on the wall before jumping the short distance remaining back to the ground. The jolt hurt his chest again, but it faded away with Umbreon’s quiet purr. Fennekin let out an exasperated sigh as it looked up at Owen holding the less than dignified Pokémon in his arms. He returned the gesture, without thinking too hard about the difference between the two lives he was now responsible for.

Umbreon was content to stay in his arms, with little struggle save for the desire to try to jump out of his arms when the lone motor vehicle they had seen that day had casually coasted down past them. Thankfully a firm hand was enough to assure him of his safety before they finally made it to the ranger station. It was one of only a few strikingly modern-looking buildings in the seaside town, resembling a police station from Owen’s former world.

Two women dressed in red and black came through the doors, one of which sent a casual nod Owen’s way which he returned, before entering behind them. Upon entering, two more individuals dressed all the same came over as if expecting his arrival.

“Hey, I remember you, good to see you’re out and about!” Came from a young man, looking to be the same age as Owen, give or take a few years. Beside him stood a slightly older woman, with a rather nasty-looking scar on her forearm. Dumbfounded for but a second, Owen’s mouth opened as soon as he realized why the young man would remember him.

“You must be the ones who found me, then? Thanks for that, I don’t know what would’ve happened if you hadn’t.” He said, gently patting Umbreon’s backside. The Pokémon turned its gaze forward before letting out a short little trill.

“Sure did, though it was your Fennekin who helped us narrow down where the crashing came from.”

“Fenn-e-kin!” The little yellow fox had stopped to rest on its haunches only to pipe up proudly, with forepaws across its chest. The female ranger motioned to come over and sit at one of the tables they had in the lobby before they continued.

“While we’re happy you’re alright, what were you doing out there?” She asked curtly.

This was it, and Owen still wasn’t mentally prepared as to what he could say. The whole truth would surely land him in a mental ward, but any lie too elaborate would be too hard to keep track of.

“I didn’t want to be. I was relaxing in a park on my way home. When I woke up, I was in a field.” She looked up at him periodically while writing on a notepad on the table.

“I asked some Pokémon for directions, and well, that’s where I met Fennekin, I think we both just wanted a roof over our heads.” The woman nodded nonchalantly as she finished writing. Her eyes skimmed over what she had written down before scrunching up.

“So, you got lost on your way home?” She asked with more than a hint of surprise. This prompted her to open her own device up, which looked more like a tablet in size, as she tapped through it efficiently.

“Yeah, I was on my bike. Which, right that got stolen too.” Fennekin had been intently watching the woman, seemingly enamored with her long red hair.

“Wait a minute… it says here, you live in Nimbasa, and you’re telling me that you were there yesterday afternoon?” She stared into his face, looking for his every reaction. Hearing Nimbasa be referred to as his hometown was odd, even after reading it himself.

The ranger looked to her partner, and whispered something to him, to which he walked over to the computer near the desk.

“Yeah. I’m even more sure that I didn’t go over the ocean yesterday.” Owen felt more confident by adding something true to his statement. The ranger’s face scrunched, before returning to face him again. The young man rejoined them at the table.

“No travel records outside of Unova, Mam. Think it’s another teleportation incident?” She raised her scarred arm to her face, before letting out a sigh.

“We’ll have to investigate to be sure. See if they’ll send someone to his house too. And you, Mr. Ashford, do you know anyone around here we can contact? “She turned to face Owen again. He shook his head dejectedly.

The doors opened again, this time a young blonde woman with an absurdly long ponytail came through. She stopped to look at the front desk, only to have her attention pulled over to the table where everyone had been sitting.

“Here for your Grandfather’s request?” The male ranger piped up to greet the new arrival, before motioning her into another room. As they walked on by, she took a glance in Owen’s direction before a slight gasp came over her when she saw the two Pokémon that had been beside him, prompting her to stop in her tracks.

“You’re the one that got hurt, aren’t you? I’m so sorry about that.” She offered, bowing profusely.

“Well, it’s not like you set off that Pokémon against us, um…” he trailed off, realizing just who it was that was standing in front of him.

“Well, no, but my Pokémon and I are supposed to be the ones keeping everyone safe around here. I’m the gym leader after all. Korrina’s the name!”

She offered up a hand, to which Owen shook gently, still sore from earlier. The mental whiplash of meeting the first named character from a game in front of him didn’t help his sense of unease either.

“I’m Owen, and well, I don’t really know how I got here.”

“That’s no good. If we can help you, I’d be more than happy to!” She offered up before continuing.

“You see, my grandfather and I are supposed to make sure mega stones don’t end up in the wrong hands in the first place. So, it really is our fault you got hurt.” She said dejectedly. The ranger started tapping her pen impatiently, yet her respect for the leader kept her from speaking up.

“But you’re lucky to have a few great Pokémon by your side, huh?” She said, looking at the two again. Fennekin jumped up off of the seat, while Umbreon had apparently started to doze off in Owen’s arms.

“Yeah, although, this one isn’t really mine. We just kind of became friends. I guess?” He said, looking in the direction of the little yellow fox who retreated momentarily before yipping again.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“You haven’t caught it yet? It’s practically attached to you! Well, here, why don’t you take one of mine?” The gym leader offered up an empty pokéball while eagerly smiling. Owen noticed a bit of dirt on her cheek, before chuckling and taking up the offer.

“You ready then?” He turned toward Fennekin who slowly stepped forward, eyes widened, before nodding confidently. Her eyes closed right before he pressed the ball gently against her forehead, and it opened up.

Nothing happened. Everyone just stared for a moment before Fennekin opened its eyes. The little fox pushed one of its little front paws into the button repeatedly in frustration before slamming its head back into the button one more time.

“Kin.” Fennekin blurted out with a sigh, before slumping over on the bench.

“Huh, well that can only mean one thing.” Korrina was the first to break the silence.

“That’s odd. There’s only 3 missing Pokémon around here right now, and Fennekin sure ain’t one of them.” The ranger lady added.

“You think Professor Sycamore would know?” Korrina turned to the ranger, confused as anyone else.

“He’d be the one to know if anyone did. Well, this just keeps getting weirder.” The ranger returned.

“Why don’t we take you there, then? You’ll be safe with my Pokémon, especially Lucario.” Korrina offered to Owen.

Wondering how he kept getting strung along, Owen closed his eyes for a moment, focusing only on Umbreon. Everything was going too fast, and he didn’t even know where the hell home was. But for some reason, with his eyes closed, he could imagine he was there. He was petting his black cat, Doodle, just relaxing in the afternoon after work. No imaginary characters or creatures, just a normal quiet day. The low rumble of purring lulled him out of his imagination and back to the present.

“Brrruhhhh?” Umbreon trilled as it looked up at Owen, before head-butting his chin gently. It felt nostalgic, enough to calm him down to answer the life-changing questions. Home would have to wait for now.

“Alright. I really don’t know my way around here, so that’d be a big help. I also don’t have like, any stuff.” He confessed to the enthusiastic gym leader.

“That much won’t be a problem!” She spouted confidently.

I guess it would be easy for a Gym leader to get anything like that, huh?

Korrina and the male ranger disappear into the other room after she gives Owen an enthusiastic nod. The remaining ranger goes over the rest of his information and gets his new number to keep him updated on any leads they might get. Fennekin wandered over to the window and stared outside for the remainder of their time in the station before Korrina returned with the ranger, and motioned for Owen to come with her.

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

The little fox looked up at the great big…thing. The humans seemed to call this a castle. She’d heard that word before. Many times actually. Apparently, they were everywhere. Or was this one really famous? She didn’t know. All she was sure of right now was that she didn’t like all this sand they were walking on or the water that was on either side of them, but she kept moving along.

The Large stone Lucario was another new sight for her. The little fox wondered when anyone found the time to make something so big, and why would they do so. She had seen statues before, but this one was different.

It felt alive.

Did it get up and fight like a real Lucario could? That would be the strongest thing she’d ever seen. Even stronger than the green thing from the other night.

Before she knew it, the humans had gone all the way down a hallway, to which she ran after them, and skidded right past the silly human and the girl with long hair. They had come to another large room with a big arena in it! She had only seen a few before, but she knew what all the white paint meant.

The humans kept talking about items and other things that she only vaguely paid attention to. A twinge of guilt kept gnawing at her mind as she thought about the arena.

“Will you watch him for me? Korrina says we can have some of the items the gym keeps as prizes for trainers.” Fennekin quickly shook off her own worries to respond as the golden rings, or rather Umbreon as she learned he was called, was set down in front of her.

“I’ll do my best!” She yipped confidently, not that humans ever understood her. Though, he seemed to guess her intent better than most, as he wore a smile that gave a sense of trust. The two humans walked off to another room. The pair of Pokemon shared completely blank stares.

Umbreon finally made the first move, which was to lie down and start licking his side. All Fennekin could do was squint at the weird Pokémon. She wondered if powerful Pokémon were just like this if they were good. It was better than being attacked, but not normal. Not like so many other Pokémon she’d known, ones she had to trust to survive. But they were all only about as strong as her. Maybe a little more so.

“Do you do…anything else besides that and beating up bad guys?” She asked him to no avail.

Fennekin started pacing, wondering how long this torture would keep up. She was going to go mental if she didn’t have someone who could talk back.

“UMBREON!” She shouted at him, tired of the silence every time she tried. It wasn’t that loud, but it was loud for her, and it was enough to get his attention.

He started padding slowly over to her, before circling around her. The black and gold Pokémon started sniffing the air before going straight to her butt. The surprise sent Fennekin jumping more than 5 times her height!

“What is wrong with you? You don’t just go and sniff people’s butts! That’s bad! You hear me? Bad.” She protested back at him. Umbreon merely looked back, though it seemed for the first time she could read some kind of emotion from his face. He looked just a little sad, maybe?

“Bad.” He said sheepishly.

“Yes, bad! Sniff someone’s face, not their backside! Wait...you finally spoke.” Her anger had melted into relief at the realization that he had finally responded to her.

“Spoke?” The larger Pokémon in front of her tilted his head to the side.

“Yeah, that thing you do with your mouth where the sound comes out? Talking!” Her tone now taking a turn towards sassy with the Pokémon. Surely he knew what this was, he was an evolved Pokémon, one that apparently was good at winning, too.

“Bad Spoke” He repeated.

“No, Speak good. Talking is good. Sniffing butts is bad.” She repeated now, in disbelief at what she was starting to piece together.

“Good Speak Bad” Umbreon continued, until a bright blue flash came their way. Umbreon’s sharp senses had him dodge immediately before his eyes and rings started glowing bright like the night before.

“What the hell are you?!” A guttural growl came from across the large arena. It was a Lucario, just like the statue, but smaller. A lot smaller, and his eyes were closed.

“What, hey what was that for? He’s not doing anything wrong! Well, okay maybe he is, but nothing worth attacking over!” The fox defended Umbreon, who was tensing up. The little fox recognized this was what he looked like when he was about to make the purple ring.

“No, bad! No attacking!” She scolded him while getting in front of Umbreon who tilted his head once again before repeating her words.

“Then why does he reek of darkness?” The Lucario growled once again.

“I mean, he is a dark type, and like really strong! He beat a Tyranitar that looked weird and big! But he’s also, um… sheltered I guess? I don’t really get it but I don’t think he knows a lot of words.” The fox scrambled to de-escalate both Pokémon, neither of which she could take in a fight. She knew what Umbreon could do, and she knew the stories of Lucario.

Upon hearing this Lucario lowered his guard and opened his eyes. He’d heard about the events of the other night and was piecing together who these visitors were in his head now. His master had been quite upset after the video call she received, telling her what happened.

“It would seem I was in error.” He lowered his head and knelt in apology. Fennekin sighed in relief as Umbreon’s intense narrow red eyes went back to their resting state, before slowly approaching the blue Pokémon.

Lucario had risen again but sensed no hostility from the approaching Pokémon. Its dingy black aura was almost sickening to him, but as far as emotions go, he only felt one, and it was intense. Curiosity. It was so intense that he hadn’t thought to defend himself, as he too was curious now as to what the Pokémon in front of him would do.

Up close, his empathic senses told him that this dark Pokémon was no enemy, but the strong dark aura it emitted still unnerved him so.

Umbreon circled around and stuck his nose to Lucario’s backside all the same as he had done with Fennekin before Lucario jumped forward out of embarrassment. Yet, he could not bring himself to be angry. For all the pitch-black energy around this dark type, its innocence felt warm up close, nearly enough to counteract the darkness.

“Sniffing butts is bad I said! Sniff his face if you want to say hello!” Fennekin added, her suspicions now all but confirmed as to how sheltered Umbreon had been.

“Butts bad” Umbreon repeated playfully. Lucario had to double-take at what he was seeing in front of him. He too was now wondering why such a powerful seeming Pokémon was so very much like a child.

Fennekin explained the details of the previous day to Lucario, filling in blanks he had from hearing a secondhand account. He apologized all the same as his master had for the same reason.

Umbreon lay on the ground, contently watching and listening to the two speak, batting his tail arrhythmically against the floor.

The Humans would come back not long after before the one with long hair announced her surprise that Lucario had come out to talk to them. Fennekin watched as her new human picked Umbreon back up, who seemed to be happy to be held.

The girl with the long hair showed them all to a long hallway with many rooms, and opened the door to one, revealing a small space with a bed, and an open door to a little room inside the room. Lucario and his master bade them good night as Fennekin followed along. Finally, she would spend a night under a real roof again, and best of all, they had food!