David realized he was going to have a bad day when he woke up in an alley.
He realized he was going to have a really bad day when the stench hit him and the ground squelched. It clung to him as he got up. When the sludge he was lying in grew eyes and hands, it continued the downward trend for how his day was going.
“No. No, not there. Not there,” David mumbled, backing away “Just close your eyes and go back to bed.”
And for a brief moment it worked.
Until an inhale brought the smell back. David opened his eyes, matched them with the dark sludge looking back at him and screamed.
Sadly for his state of mind, the sludge opened its mouth and screamed back.
David turned and ran. The glaring light at the entrance of the alley blinded him. It was too much of a change from the dark. He stumbled out, bumping into someone on the busy street.
“Arceus!” they recoiled, stepping back but David grabbed for the man’s shoulder, unintentionally transferring some of the slime stuck to him onto their suit.
“M..monster,” David stammered, pointing back into the alley and with his grip on the man’s shoulder, rotating them towards it.
The man shook David’s hand off his shoulder, grimacing when he noticed the state of David and the marks left on his suit. He moved toward the alley, peering in while his right hand moved towards his belt. The alley was dark compared to the street so it took a moment before he and David were able to spot what was creeping towards the two of them.
David backed away further into the street. It was after him.
The man slowly turned back towards David, trembling just as he was.
“What? It’s a small GRIMER! And from your state, one you know all too well!” The man shouted. He scoffed, turning back to the alley. The man raised his arms and briefcase above his head and began yelling.
“Shoo! Get!”
David stared, shocked as the sludge listened. It fearfully scooted back into the depths of the alley. He was so surprised he didn’t see the man give him a dirty look before continuing down the street.
“Grimer?” David questioned. He turned, eyes wide and saw a street full of colors, people and Pokemon.
Pokemon?
This was not his world.
-.-
The street was chaotic. Pokemon scurried about underfoot or overhead. People rode giant monsters down the main thoroughfare - even stopping at traffic lights! It was so busy it was a wonder that a traffic jam hadn’t formed. If the road wasn’t as wide or the tall buildings flanking it weren’t spaced so far apart, everything would have dissolved into mayhem. He was in a city - it had to be, there was no end in sight to the street or buildings, but this place was far too open and clean to be any city that he knew.
It was all absurd, an impossible carnival of color and looming energy.
David backed up against the wall and the traveling flood passed him by, obstruction removed. He got several looks from the passersby and he stared right back. The people were nearly as varied as the Pokemon. They were a mix of ethnicities, genders, ages, sizes and all wearing a wide variety of clothes. There were a few ornate suits like the one the man he had grabbed wore, but on the whole everyone’s outfit looked more suited for a hiking trail than a city street.
It was only when a small doglike Pokemon took a wide berth from him that David was brought back to the present. He thought it was a Dark-Fire type, but beyond that he couldn’t recall. It’d been so many years since he’d played or even thought about Pokemon. Thick fur covered the dog’s body and gray bonelike protrusions jutted out from its back and joints.
To David it was frightening. All he could think of as he looked at the rough, tusk-like teeth at the side of its mouth was David Attenborough narrating the death of prey animals. The speed and decisiveness of each kill.
And now that predator was staying away from him and shaking its snout in distress. The smell of the sludge on his clothes must have been worse than he could tell.
He needed to figure out what to do. This was not his world. He was in Pokemon.
How?
He was just a guy. Just someone who fell asleep in his bed. And that was the last thing he remembered. Not messing around with one of the final year student’s projects in the lab or an explosion or a truck or..
‘No. Focus on the now.’ David thought. ‘What can I do?’
‘Catch a Pokemon?’
He had no pokeballs and he wasn’t about to try to wrestle that Grimer into behaving. It fled from the man but chased him. Why?
No. Focus.
‘Go to the police?’
He knew they existed in the games, but they were always useless against whatever flavor of villains were about. And what would he even say?
“Excuse me, I’ve been kidnapped and brought to your world. Could you send me home?”
David wasn’t sure if this situation was normal in the Pokemon world, but back home he’d be locked up if he approached the police with that.
Home. How could he get home? Home didn’t have anything resembling teleportation technology, let alone the ability to change worlds. While the Pokemon games were incredible, he couldn’t remember any world traveling technology - Fly not counting, and there definitely wasn’t anything that advanced in the alley.
‘No,’ he thought. There was no technology that could help, but this world had existences unlike his own. Legendary Pokemon. Maybe they had brought him here. But why? Why him?
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Focus.
Maybe they could help him. If normal Pokemon could teleport, then Legendary Pokemon could do more. David clung to this thin strand of logic. Maybe it was how knowledge of Pokemon came to his world. Someone had come and gone before him.
David smiled faintly. If someone else could do it, so could he. It was a goal, he could work towards this. He straightened and stood off from the wall.
‘I beat everything in the world of Pokemon many times and I did it all when I was a kid.’
Which had been a large number of years ago and.. No. He could do this. He had done it before. He was better now, stronger, smarter. He knew more about the world. He… smelled.
Okay, maybe he needed something smaller to work towards first.
Glancing down it was clear that step one was a shower and a change of clothes. Dark murky patches of slime covered his front, and seeing as he had been lying down in? on? the Grimer, his back must have been worse. If it wasn’t for the stains, his loose sweatpants and runners made him ready to either relax on the couch or play some kick around football.
David shivered as he stood still. Compared to those around him, he was ill prepared for the weather. For this world.
A shower. He narrowed down his priorities to a simple 3 step program.
1. Shower
2. Pokemon
3. Find the Legendaries
Admittedly there were a few kinks and missing steps, but it was something.
-.-
In the games the first move in every new area was to find that red healing building. David waited for a gap in the people and Pokemon and set off down the road. He got about 20 meters down the road and to a junction before finding a signpost. It had a few street names on it but it was the two signs at the top that caught his eye. They had no words, just a red and blue design of three interlocking shapes that together looked like a pokeball.
They were also pointing back the way he had come.
“Gotcha.” David grinned, turning around. He could do this.
He was still feeling a bit unsteady as he walked, but being surrounded by Pokemon it was easy to put aside. It was hard not to get lost in wonder over the creatures. As each passed him by, he tried to remember its name and type. There were many he couldn’t recall. He had no choice but to shrug and mark them down as normal types. His favorites were easy to spot but in real life they were.. different. None had smooth edges or cutesy features.
A Machoke and Nidoking that passed him really brought that home.
The Machoke was about as tall as a teenaged boy, but built twice as stout as any body builder. The strangeness of its proportions were highlighted by its reptilian head, sharp teeth and snake-like head fins. Aside from small exposed red veins of muscle on its arms - which was freaky enough alone, its grayish skin held a gleam which reminded him of the shine on plastic or glossy leather. Each step caused its muscles to flex and David thought he felt some vibrations through the ground as it passed.
The Nidoking was a different story. While the Machoke was on the pavement following behind a trainer and while strange, held some semblance of normality, the Nidoking walked on the road. It stood as tall as the Machoke but the two Pokemon could not be compared by size. They may have stood at the same height but the Nidoking was far longer and bulkier. Hunched forward it walked beside a trainer, tail swinging behind it. It must have been about 9 feet long from its spiked head to thick tail tip. It may have walked on two feet but it was more alligator than man.
David wasn’t the only one looking at it either. The Pokemon's ears twitched side to side as its appearance was met with excitement from passing kids and wary glances from adults. David was surprised that it was only excitement from the kids. The Nidoking looked powerful but dangerous. Covered in a scuffed plate-like exoskeleton, large sharp spikes extended from its body like a mace. These were not the cute monsters he had as a kid.
It made him wonder what they were instead.
The number of large Pokemon in sight only increased until he finally spotted a large red topped building at the center of a junction ahead. It was a bright building, clean and metallic compared to the concrete buildings around him. It also looked very similar to the design from the game. Well, as much as pixel art can look like a multistorey building. The similarities were enough to calm his stomach.
A constant stream of people walked in and out of the building through a separate entrance and exit. The area between the road and building was full of flashes as Pokemon disappeared into balls by the entrance and others reappeared as the trainers exiting let theirs out.
David was a little surprised by the trainers. None of them were kids. The youngest seemed to be a little younger than him which put them in their late teens or just into their twenties.
A luminous “Pokecenter” sign hung above the doors. The sign gave off a glow even in the morning sun. Any Pokemon walking up to the doors were met by one of two security guards. The guards were dwarfed by some of the Pokemon but it was the Pokemon that were shying away or disappearing into their pokeballs.
David walked up to doors, alternating between weaving between Pokemon and avoiding what seemed to be a takeoff/ landing area between the road and building. Now closer, he could see that one of the guards were not quite as small as they had looked beside the Pokemon. David wasn’t a tall man himself, just shy of 6 feet, which left him slightly above average depending on what shoes he was wearing, but the guard on the right towered over him. He was one of the tallest men David had ever seen and was bulky on top of that.
To his surprise the other was as short as they had looked from afar. They were also of more interest to David - being a Hitmonchan after all. A dark cloak hung around its shoulders, matching the dark jacket the tall guard was wearing and making the Hitmonchan’s tan coloring stand out. A wooden mask-like head topped by a crown formed from 5 raised protrusions peered out from under a hood.
Unfortunately for David, his focus on the guards was matched. The taller guard had his eyes on David and as David walked up to the door. Waved him over to the side.
“Can I see some ID please?” He barked when David was close. The guard was maybe in his late thirties and looked hearty. A few gray hairs could be seen in his closed cropped hair and his face was weathered but lively.
“I don’t have any. Can I speak to someone?” David replied, trying not to rub his arms or draw more attention to himself or his clothes.
It didn’t work and the two of them were starting to gain an audience. Not that David hadn’t gotten a few glances as he walked up to the entrance, but there was a difference between being watched absently and the attention that came from being called to the side. His stomach was in knots. If he kicked up a fuss would the police come? Would someone notice that he wasn’t from this world?
“No entry without a trainer license. Come back later,” The guard said and indicated for him to move to the side with a nod of his head.
“I don’t have a trainer license. Can I just go in to talk to someone? I need help,” David replied, not moving a step but shrinking inwards. His plans that had seemed so certain seconds ago were crumbling. He was here, but how was the Pokecenter going to help him anyway? What was he going to do? He didn’t know where he was, let alone where he should go.
The guard tutted, looking a little exasperated and shook his head before replying. “Do you have a registered Pokemon on you? We can get your ID off the ball if you’ve lost your license.”
David could only shake his head and respond in the negative. “I don’t have any Pokemon.”
“Then I can’t help you. There’s nothing here for you and everyone is too busy with the tournament crowd to assist with non standard requests.”
“I don’t know where else to go,” David murmured, seeing his only lifeline disappearing. The wonder was leaving and reality was returning. Not his reality. Not his world.
The guard gave him a look before groaning, and having made a decision turned back towards the doorway. He shouted out to the Hitmonchan.
“Box, I’ll be back in a second.”
“Chan.”
With that response the guard gestured for David to follow before walking around the side of the Pokecenter. When they got there he pointed to a blue roofed building that looked similar to the one they stood by.
“Down 5 buildings on the left from the Pokemart is the League admin office. If you don’t have any ID that’s where you should start. It will have the League insignia on it. That’s all I can do for you.” With that the guard turned and walked back to the entrance, immediately shouting out at some trainer and their Pokemon trying to slip indoors.
With no other option or ideas, David waited for the chance to cross the road. He followed the directions and walked until he was the right number of buildings down. In the end David stood in front of what looked like a standard office space barring a large silver mountain logo across the front of the building.
He didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t know what this place was. He didn’t know what else he could do.
David took a breath and walked in.