I scrolled through my phone, glancing at various random articles mostly just drama stuff but there were a few tips about nutrition and other health stuff. I let out a small sigh, while I did choose the night shift to have a quiet work experience I never realized how dull it would get.
Glancing at the gas station’s shelves filled with junk foods and jerky, I look at a clock on the wall and then look out the window at various cars flying by the highway or stopping to get some gas.
The gas station is in the middle of nowhere somewhere in Texas. Time flew slowly and my shift ended all too slowly, Jen, a middle age woman with blond hair, came and took my spot, offering me a quick goodbye before I left.
After making sure I had everything on me, I have accidentally dropped my apartment key in the gas station before, I open the door of my rusted truck. Turning on a speaker and setting up my phone so I could listen to podcasts to keep me from passing out. The truck starts after a bit and I’m on my way home, the ride down the long highway in the desert is uneventful as cars barely drive past me.
Stifling a quick yawn and scratching my chin while keeping one hand on the steering wheel. Soon the podcast episode ended and I realized I had forgotten to queue up another episode. So, I just turned on the radio. The commentary seemed to be from a football game, was it Sunday already? The radio hit a hiccup of static but soon resumed playing, only it seemed to have changed channels.
“Pikachu takes a devastating hit from Honedge’s powered-up Slash!”
The plucky commentator woke me up a bit more. ‘What the. Did the channel switch to like a Pokémon tournament?’ I turned the radio knob only to get no other channels. Weird.
I listened in anyways, after all, I am a pretty big Pokémon fan. Though I never really got into the competitive scene.
I listened a bit more and heard weird things, Pokemon using two moves, dodging, and even digging up dirt using iron tail. It sounded almost like some stuff from the Pokémon anime more so than the games.
I looked ahead, my mind soaking in the radio, trying to solve this mystery. Was this some weird Pokémon DnD thing? If so why is it on the radio and not Spotify or something? When something popped seemingly out of nowhere onto the road, well to be exact two things. Things I recognized but couldn’t seem to process. A giant bipedal lizard, with white scales and with wings on its back. I could barely make out its shoulders, two giant circles with what seemed like a pearl in the center.
Above it flying in the sky was another giant lizard, this one however was on all fours and seemed to run across the sky. Blue scales and I could barely make out what looked like a light blue chest plate on its chest with a blue diamond in the center.
I looked at the two dragons and quickly realize that I was still driving and approaching the two fast. I slam the brakes but I was already so close to the bipedal lizard that I could now confirm my thought.
That’s Palkia.
‘What. The. Fuck.’ This is all my mind can process before a thrill erupts from Palkia, pink energy glows from its arm and it chops downward shooting a slice of plasma at its target. The crescent of plasma seems to cut through the air and the very atoms around it, Spacial Rend is what this move was called.
The air-walking lizard responds with a guttural cry that shoots a beam of blue energy from its gem. Palika quickly teleports away but that now means that the beam is coming toward me. I struggle to open my truck’s door as fear fogs my mind. The beam hits my truck sending it and me flying, the rust on the car seemed to disappear and the car gained a shine, only to be totaled in a few seconds.
A scream erupts from my mouth, but the legendary pokemon pay no mind. What that lizard used was Roar of Time, that was the move. Then is that Dialga? My head spins blood trickles into my eye turning my vision slightly red. My arm is definitely broken. But I can live with that, the car took the most damage acting as a shield, but still if this really is Dialga, and I know this is real. The pain makes that obvious. Then that move should have killed me, I mean it’s literally plasma or some weird time energy. I moved carefully out of the car. the door flew off in the blast so I could exit fairly easily. ‘Shit, is my leg also broken!’ As I crawl out I lay on the ground, and look in bewilderment as the two behemoths fight in the sky.
A small laugh escapes my mouth, one fueled by fear and pure confusion “What is happening?” If I wasn’t in extreme pain I would say that this was a dream. The two clash in the sky, too fast for me to see but powerful enough to feel the shockwave they make. I have to leave, forcing my body to move. I begin walking down the road closer to where the two are fighting in the sky. I would rather go anywhere else, but the town is closer than the gas station. Each half step I take is filled with pain, but I press forward, though slow I continue to walk.
Now around 15 feet away from the wreck of my truck ‘Does insurance cover destroyed by gods?’, the fight gets even stronger. I can physically feel the rage from the two Pokemon, it makes me want to hide back in the car. But I move forwards.
Soon Palkia crashes down from the sky, and unfortunately lands right in front of me. I look at the slightly wounded deity, my breaths quick and filled with fear, a few pieces of debris from the road struck my arm but I paid it no mind. I no longer felt the pain from my injuries. I break into a sprint running around the grounded dragon, hoping it would be too focused on the battle to kill me.
But that was a big mistake. From the sky, a screech raptures my ear, almost making me fall over, and then the ground shakes and that does make me fall over. Landing on my butt I look up to see Dialga, its red eyes looking down on me. Its look seems to be one of curiosity rather than animosity.
“Uh…Hi?”
My voice manages to squeak out, I was surprised by how coarse my voice was, must have been sore from all the screaming I did as the car crashed. It looks down and sniffs at me, I begin to silently pray that pokemon don’t eat people.
A loud shriek comes from behind as Palkia begins to get up. “Oh shit,” I mutter under my breath. ‘Not good, I’m in between these two. I gotta run!’ And I do just that, I break into a sprint as I try to get away from the pokemon before they start to fight again.
As soon as I was about to run by Dialga, it soared into the sky, and I soon saw it was because of a Spacial Rend. The crescent zoomed past me and dissipated. But now in its place was a cut in what I can only believe is the fabric of reality. Thousands of colors flicker in the cut, most I cannot even describe because they are colors not meant to be seen by humans.
The worse part is, that the cut started to suck me in like a vacuum. Slowly but surely I’m being sucked into the tear, hysteria takes hold of me and I try to grab at anything. The road, a dandelion coming out of a crack, the crater from where Dialga landed, but nothing would hold for long and I watch as I leave my world and enter into the tear. The sounds of the ruler of time, and the ruler of space are the last I hear.
=====
As soon as I entered the tear I blacked out.
I woke up on top of a tree and soon fell out of it. The fall jolts me awake as it worsens my already bad injuries, I survey my surroundings quickly. I’m in a forest, oak trees surround me, and various rustles sound out from the surroundings, but nothing comes near me. I hobble up off the ground and begin to walk in a random direction.
One would think that after all of that I would have a panic attack or something, but the pain from my wounds kept me grounded and focused on finding help. I wandered towards an opening in the clearing of trees, soon finding myself atop a cliff. Over the horizon, I can see a small town, with around only 20 houses or so making it up.
I wince at the distance I am from it, at least a solid 3 miles, I’m not sure if I could do that, my leg is barely working and one of my arms are broken and has shrapnel in it, as well as the concussion I probably have from the car crash. Honestly, it’s a miracle I can even move.
With a sigh I begin to look for a path, the cliff seems to lessen towards the side into a small ledge. I easily can hop down, but not without wincing further in pain ‘Alright stupid move.’
I limp my way through the forest, still hearing rustles but no animals or anything.
After walking for, around 1 and a half miles, my leg finally stopped moving. I looked around and found a decently sized branch and begin to use it as a cane. A little further and my breathing starts to become strained, my stamina has hit rock bottom, and moving even an inch seems to take all of my energy.
I began to think to distract from the pain, I thought about why the two pokemon were fighting. Were those actually pokemon? Why do I feel shorter? That last one was something I only recently realized, I was about 5’11 before all of that stuff but now my clothes were too big for me and my shoe were comically too big for me. If I wasn’t bleeding I bet that anyone who saw me would think I raided my dad’s closet or something. My face also felt rounder, overall I just felt different.
Finally, I managed to find something, a dirt trail that seem to lead towards the direction of the town…village? Doesn’t matter. I continued my trek with a bit more energy, but that was immediately sapped away from the extreme pain.
====
Finally, I reached the end of the trail, my entire body felt like how my wrecked truck looked and I’m pretty sure I’ve lost more blood than my body has. But! I made it to the town! Looking around the town was pretty much the same up close as it was far away. The 20 or so houses were built from wood and stone, they looked like any old house, though most of them didn’t have garages and were just squares with roofs.
I finally spotted another human! A boy that looks about, 10 or 12, has striking auburn hair tied in a small rattail.
“Hey!” I yell and wave, the boy turns around getting me a better look at his face, he has tanned skin with freckles dappled on the bridge of his nose. He has an orange short-sleeved jacket with yellow stripes going up the sides. As I looked him over I felt the weight of survival start to lift from my shoulders.
As the weight left, the pain set in like a lightning bolt, my eyes begin to flutter, and my vision began to darken. The kid runs over as he sees me fall over, and for the second time today I blackout.
====
“Hey, Eli?”
A fuzzy voice says as we look up at the night sky, a distant star zooms across the blanket of the universe.
“Yeah?”
“Why are we born?”
I turn and look at the fuzzy voice, his face is blurry like it’s been smudged into the background. But his hair stands out due to its bright white color that almost seems to glow slightly in the darkness of night.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
After a few seconds of silence, the blur turns a bit redder and he starts to fidget with his hands.
“Oh…sorry that was probably a really strange question to ask, especially so suddenly.” He murmurs off a bit and I think for a few seconds.
“Well, I guess we’re born for no real reason.” I pause for a bit to try and articulate the next sentence.
“We’re born for no reason, but the life you lead is all up to you. Simply put, life is as you make it to be.” It’s the only answer I could come up with, but it felt a bit too ambiguous, then again I suppose life is just that.
====
The dream soon fades away, and I find myself looking up at a white ceiling. ‘Ah this must be a hospital’ is the conclusion I quickly came to, the kid I passed out by probably brought me here.
I slowly sit up, my arm and leg now feel much better, though a bit sore. My arm especially felt like I’d pulled a muscle or something.
The room around me looks like your standard hospital room. A couple of machines by the side of the bed that aren’t turned on. There’s a chair by the wall that guests would use, just standard stuff.
In the corner of the room is a big box tv that’s stationed on the wall. It’s currently turned off, but I bet that the screen would probably be mostly static.
It makes sense that such a small and fairly isolated town didn't have much influx of new technology.
I got off the bed and started to walk around, off to the other corner of the room is a small indent that leads into a bathroom with just a toilet and a mirror. Which was lucky because I think I passed out for some time and my bladder can only last so long.
After attending to that, I look at myself in the mirror. Now you’d think I would be focusing on the bandages or patches adorning my body. But the first thing I noticed is that I was younger, like way younger.
I was 19 just a few hours ago but now? I look exactly as I did when I was 12.
I stare at myself trying to figure this out when it hit me “Dialga.” I muttered under my breath. The roar of time made my rustbucket of a truck brand new, then it must’ve also turned the clock back for me.
While I still couldn’t fully believe that I saw two fictional creatures battling it out, there was no use questioning if that was real when the results were this obvious.
I run a hand through my longer and far messier black hair, looking under my vibrant green eyes I see no eyebags caused by working late nights. Not even the tiny scar under my eye was there anymore.
I take a deep sigh and then walk back into the hospital room. I look around the bed and finally find the call nurse option. I press the red button with a white cross in the center and sit back down.
After a few moments, the nurse walks in. She has pink hair that is braided into two loops on each side of her hair. She seems…oddly familiar, especially after recent events.
“Ah, you’re awake! Very good!”
Her voice is chipper and friendly, I give her a quick wave and begin to speak.
“Yeah, I feel great, especially considering I broke a couple limbs.”
“Oh, those injuries are no problem for Chansey!”
She says very proudly while giving me a thumbs up.
“Chansey?”, is all that I could mutter out. ‘If what I think is happening is happening…’ I feel a headache growing.
“Yup, my partner Pokémon! She helps around the Pokecenter”
‘Okay yup that’s what’s happening, because of course it is.’ I totally forgot that I fell into a tear in reality, and if two Pokémon existed then there were probably others.
Which means… I look at the nurse in a bit more detail, she has one of those nurse hats with a Pokeball symbol on it. That’s nurse Joy. Then.
‘Holy shit, I’ve been isekai’d.’
I’m in the Pokémon world. The revelation bounces around in my head, until it processes, digests, then I accept it.
“Nice, can I see her? I would like to thank her for patching me up!”
I ask in an upbeat tune, trying to match nurse Joy’s own. I figure if I freak out and start to go ‘Pokémon wtf those aren’t real!’ I’ll make myself A) look crazy or B) rat myself out as some sort of dimension hopper.
Nurse Joy nods and walks out of the room, after a few moments she comes back in with a pink egg-shaped creature with an actual egg in a kangaroo-like pouch.
“Chans!” She says her own name with a little wave, and I wave back.
I give her my thanks and she responds with a quick “Chansey!” As I examine the pink creature I feel my eyes begin to almost flex in a way and soon a window pops into my field of vision.
Chansey
- Attack: E/C
- Defense: B/A+
- Special attack: F/B-
- Special Defense: C/B+
- Speed: E/C+
- Luck: C+/C+
- Reactions: B/A-
- Intelligence: A/A
- Overall: This Chansey is a very intelligent and bulky Pokémon, due to her medical training she has good situational awareness and can remain calm under pressure. However, she is not a good fighter, being the partner of Nurse Joy fits her to a tee. However, she could also work as a defensive wall for a team.
I blink a few times and examine the window again, ‘Okay, so this a classic isekai trope, the stat window.’ Nurse Joy begins to look confused at my sudden silence, I should probably start talking.
“So where am I exactly? My memories are a bit hazy.” I say that last part with a sheepish grin while scratching the back of my head.
“Oh well, you’re currently in Maple’s Burrow, just a bit away from the capital.”
Maple’s Burrow, huh. I don’t think any of the games had a town named that. I nod and ask if I can have some time alone, Nurse Joy nods back and leaves the room with Chansey.
I look at my clothes which are still the baggy clothes from when I woke up, ‘I wonder if my phone still works?’ I rummage around in my pockets, which involves a lot of pulling fabric to reach the pocket. Aha!
I take out my phone and immediately I am confused, my phone case is now white and on the back was a golden circle with four points popping out.
‘It’s that weird fence thing Arceus has…does that mean.’
I boot up my phone and am met with a notification.
In the left corner of the message is a small person bowing apologetically.
[I am truly sorry about the situation you are in. As an apology for the troubles made by my negligence. Please accept this Arc-Phone and System. The Arc-Phone will answer any question you may have just use the Ask App]
I’m taken to the Home Screen, where a few apps are already downloaded. Pory-Goon which looks like a search engine, the Ask app which is blue with a white cursive A on it, a maps app, and an App with a white background and a black pencil on it called “Edit” in quotations and all.
All right first things first, let’s use the ask app. I click the app and am taken to a straightforward blue background with a white search bar in the middle. Okay, so I think I just put my question in and then enter.
I type down “Where am I?”
It makes a quick ding and a message pops down from the top of the screen.
[You are in the Olanim region, in the town of Maple’s Burrow. Olanim is a region not shown in any Pokémon media.]
‘A new region huh? That’s interesting…’ I type down a new question.
“Do the other regions in the Pokémon games exist?”
It responds much quicker.
[Yes]
Huh, weird…I wonder if this world was made from the games or if the games were based on this world? I type that into the box and get a harsh static sound instead of a ding.
[Question is too high a level for you]
Ah, rats there’s stuff that’s restricted. How specific can I go?
“What’s Nurse Joy’s favorite food?”
Ding
[Maple’s Burrow Nurse Joy’s favorite food is roast beef.]
Wow, so it can even figure out the context of the question huh…wait a minute roast beef?
“Are there animals in this world?”
Ding
[Yes, usually held in captivity by the governments they are used as livestock due to being much dumber than Pokémon. Though in the past humans did eat Pokémon if they had no choice.]
Weird…ok what should my next question be. Ah, I got it!
“How do I use the system?”
Ding
[To evaluate a Pokémon you must flex your eyes, if that is too hard for you, you may simply say “Status”]
Flexing my eyes sounds…gross. Verbal speech it is. I quickly say “Status” and a window pops up
No Pokémon in sight.
[Pokedex]
———————
A lot less than last time. I click on Pokedex, and a new window pops up.
Last seen Pokémon
-Nurse Joy’s Chansey
Clicking on the only Pokémon I’ve seen, allows me to see the stats of Chansey. ‘Okay, so the Pokédex just lets me see the past status of Pokémon I’ve already seen…kind of a letdown. I thought that it would be an actual Pokédex not just a history of Pokémon.’
I quickly shrug it off and go back to my phone’s Ask App. Hmm, let’s ask a broader question this time.
“What should I do next?”
…Ding
[Recommended: Use your system to gather a powerful Pokémon team and face the league. You could also get a job as a breeder, breeding high-rated Pokémon to get even higher-rated Pokémon. Though you may do whatever you like.]
Well, the first one was what I was gonna do anyways, and breeder is just kinda… icky to me. I sigh, “Guess my first mission should be to get situated here.” I should try to focus on the now, like where do I live? What do I do to get a Pokémon? And all the other stuff that comes with just living here.
Just as I was about to enter another question my vision began to blur and the room started to spin. I quickly anchor myself to the bed trying to stand as still as possible. The spinning stops but I feel exhausted.
Ding
I look down at my phone and a new message has popped up
[Warning: Using the Arc-Phone’s Ask and “Edit” app takes up the user’s aura, too much use can result in exhaustion, passing out, or at the highest level death. Please be careful when using the Arc-Phone.]
‘Now you tell me.’ I grumble inside my head. I sigh once more, realize that I’ve been sighing a lot then move forward from that thought. ‘Let’s just talk to Nurse Joy, maybe get a job then figure out the rest from there…maybe ask how I can become a pokemon trainer too.’ I nod at my very vague plan, but the phone seems to draw my attention once more.
‘Well, a bit of web surfing never hurt…’ I click on the Pory-Goon browser, which worked and looked a lot like google.
Soon minutes turn into hours and before I knew it I’d learned a lot just from casual web surfing. For instance, this world takes place after all the mainline games, with each game seeming to start about a year in between each other.
Red was the first thing I looked up, he became The Champion of Kanto about 9 years ago, which matches up with the newest generation of pokemon. He retired after only half a year of being champion, just from being the champion he’s still fighting competitively it seems, he took part in a world tournament in Unova, which matches up with Pokemon Black and White 2.
I then put in Ash Ketchum but found nothing. It seems that this is the game world, not the anime, so unfortunately I don’t think the forever ten-year-old is gonna show up.
Some protagonists are still champions while others have retired or been beaten, interestingly enough most of the protagonists don’t seem to have any legendaries. Aside from Elio from Pokemon Sun who has Solgaleo, Hilbert from Pokemon Black who has Reshiram, and Gloria from Pokemon Sword who reluctantly caught Eternatus but not Zacian. I’m not sure what happened with the other protagonists, but I know that in Pokemon Black you’re forced to catch Reshiram and Solgaleo is basically forcing you to catch it…I think I kinda zoned out through that game. For Eternatus, it’s probably because it was gonna destroy the world or something right?
I mull it over and decide to push those thoughts back, I wasted a lot of time looking up stuff like that, it doesn’t really help me at the moment…
Though I did learn a few things, namely how to get a starter pokemon in this region, first you have to get a trainer ID, after that, you go to a league-partnered daycare and they let you take one pokemon as your starter. (That is if you don’t already have a pokemon.)
To get an ID you have to talk to a local Nurse Joy and fill out some paperwork, ‘Not too sure how that’ll turn out for me…’ I look at myself in the reflection of my phone, the younger version of me looking back. They might ask for my parents, hell they might already be confused I mean surely they tried to find me in some database or missing kid reports, but that’ll turn up short because of my extradimensional origins.
Sighing once more I look out of the hospital window, the sun is now setting ‘Wait the sun is already setting? How long was I on my phone?’ I look at the phone’s clock which tells me it is now 6:34 PM, when I woke up it looked like midday…so, yeesh I was on my phone for six hours straight. I also notice that my phone has no symbol showing how much battery I have.
I turn my gaze to the setting sun, a bird zooms past the window, I only barely make out that it was a Starly. On some houses in the distance, more flying types rest, over to the left of the houses back to the forest Sunkerns and Oddish form a strange conga line. For as terrified as I should be about my current situation I was mostly filled to the brim with excitement. I mean, come on it’s a world filled with pokemon! This is every kid’s dream and I get to live it!
I wasn’t particularly happy back home, just working at a gas station, didn’t really have any friends or anything just work buddies. And it’s not like my family would care if I went missing anyways, so hey “Why shouldn’t I enjoy this” My thoughts and words mix outwards as I quietly murmur about what to do next.