Minccino and I trained for a while, I decided to run for a bit and Minccino joined me. We ran for a while until I was tired and ready to focus on Min’s training. The first order of business is to train his Reactions since that is his S++ stat. The training is pretty simple, I grab a treat and throw it at him, high, low, short, and long. Switching up the speed to a rapid fire of tossed treats. Once I feel like it’s enough we switch to attack training, we pick a tree near the edge of town and Minccino attacks it. Using Pound, and Aqua Tail to build up the muscles in his most flexible limb, the tail.

Minccino’s main attack method is to attack using his tail, jumping in the arc, using his tail as a whip, and then putting all of his weight into the attack. While it works in tandem with his speed and reactions, there are still a lot of openings. The jump upwards to build momentum for a big attack can be exploited and if the opponent is bulky they could just catch him when he hits them. To compensate I’ve been trying to help Minccino build muscle to pull off the strength with less windup and working on his least used moves Baby-Doll Eyes and Thunder Wave.

Baby-Doll Eyes make the opponent’s attack falter, so he can escape the grasp of a Pokémon or make them stumble as he attacks. Preferably I would like him to be able to attack and use Baby-Doll Eyes at the same time, but that’s proving to be difficult. Thunder Wave is much the same but more constant, Thunder Wave is a small electric pulse that paralyzes opponents. Though Minccino seems a bit reluctant to use it, ‘Might have something to do with the fact that it’s a TM, so he must’ve gotten it from somewhere.’

Currently, I’m scrolling through some forums, checking out what Pokémon are local to Route 103, and checking out various other things. After triple checking the map and thoroughly putting it to memory, it’s time to head out on the road. I helped Min clean up the room, and returned the key. In no time we find ourselves on the dirt path known as Route 103 ‘Why didn’t they pave the road? Maybe it’s a wildlife conservation thing, or maybe to not disturb the Pokémon to pave the roads? The latter makes the most sense, after all, if they took a bunch of machinery onto these roads they’d probably upset a lot of Pokémon.’

Minccino looks around the entrance of the path excitedly, meanwhile, I look at the number of people walking along the route. Most of them are new trainers, as evident from their young ages, but some are rangers in uniform. Seeing all the people helps to settle my nerves, ‘At least I’ll be around people, granted in my world I would consider that almost worse than being alone. As thieves and murders were far more common, but from what I can tell people here are way nicer than in my home world.’

I walk on the forested path, enjoying the air and scenes while walking on the trodden dirt road. I glanced at two trainers having a battle, a Lillipup versus a Tyrogue, surprisingly Lillipup was overwhelming the fighting type. The normal type trainer sent out an Audino before Lillipup, Audino fainted and Lillipup retaliated with Retaliate. Fueled by the loss of its comrade Lillipup soon knocked out Tyrogue.

Now down a Pokémon, the Tyrogue’s trainer throws out a Weedle, but Lillipup pounces on the poor bug. Weedle tries to poison the dog but is soon knocked out thanks to Bite. The losing trainer sighs and pulls out his wallet, he hands a couple of 20s to the winner and walks away back to Mepoli. I decide to keep walking ‘I haven’t actually fought anyone, have I? Sure I sparred with Cora, but that was always a one-sided beat down. We fought wild Pokémon, but not another trainer’s Pokémon.’

Something to think about, I should definitely start issuing fights more. After all, fighting helps train Pokémon far better than actual training. But let’s do that later, maybe in Shaleshallows, after all, I don’t want to waste my limited potion supply. ‘Plus it’s just safer to fight near a Pokecenter.’

I walk and Minccino gets a nap in, while sitting on my shoulders, the sun starts to set and I decide it’s time to set up my camp. I see a small clearing with a sign that reads “Campsite 1” a few other tents are set up, while some people just set out sleeping bags. ‘Good to know that there are campsites’ I pick an empty spot, a bit away from everyone else. I reach into my backpack and start to set up a few things, reaching in I grab a palm-sized disc and place it on the ground. I press the button in the center and the disc unfolds into a tent, just big enough for my sleeping bag and me. I considered setting up a fire but decide against it after consulting my Ask app.

Minccino decides to go into his pokeball to sleep, ‘Wonder what it’s like in there.’ I yawn and unfold my sleeping bag into the tent, slipping into the sleeping bag and placing my backpack on top of myself. My eyes start to droop and I’m soon asleep.

=====

I knew that sleeping on dirt would be hard, but it’s…harder than I imagined. As I roll around I realize that I’m not in my sleeping bag. I open and blink my bleary eyes “What the” I’m on a flat stone, with a blanket of moss covering me. I fell asleep with my regular clothes on minus my shoes that I threw into my bag, and that’s what I’m wearing now. I look around the cave I found myself in and instantly dread filled me as I came to a startling realization “Holy shit.” And I finish my thought in my head ‘I’ve been kidnapped.’

I reached towards my belt and grab Minccino’s pokeball, but when I click to release him nothing comes out ‘He’s already out.’ I mumble a few swears but quickly regain my composure. I very slowly get off of the flat rock and tiptoe my way towards the cave’s entrance, I peek my head out of the ‘Doorway? Cave way?’ Cave’s entrance, my eyes adjust to light and I can see the back of a very tall bipedal reptile. The hulking body is covered in brown scales and a few patches of scales that jut out in spikes or blocks. As the beast turns around I can see its belly, a cream-colored dot covering the, now recognized, pokemon entire stomach, with a pouch. I find it interesting how even though the majority of Kangaskhan’s body is reptilian, her snout and stomach seem more mammal-like.

I look in equal parts horror, and confusion as the Kangskan rocks a small bundle of gray fur in her arms. Minccino now somehow dressed in a baby blue bonnet and bib, looks extremely uncomfortable with his current situation. I examine the Kangaskhan and mumble “Status” just low enough so she can’t hear me.

Kangaskhan

- Attack: S-/S-

- Defense: A+/A+

- Special Attack: C-/C+

- Special Defense: B-/B-

- Speed: B+/A+

- Luck: C+/C+

- Reactions: B-/A-

- Intelligence: C-/A-

- Overall: She is an extremely powerful feral pokemon, once belonging to a trainer but released after she gave birth. She’s may have been part of an Elite level team before she became feral, it is recommended that you take caution while interacting, as she seems to have no child in her pouch.

I gulp and throw away any idea of fighting her after seeing the S- attack stat. ‘Okay new plan’ I walk out of the cave with my hands in the air “Hey there…Kangaskhan, Um how are you?” I quickly realize that my new plan was to just wing it like I always do. Kangaskhan stops babying Minccino and puts him into her pouch, Minccino just freezes up and accepts his fate. I blink and Kangaskhan is immediately in front of my face, she looks at me and I try my best not to gulp.

Kangaskhan starts to smile and pick me up into her arms, cradling me much like she just did with Miccino. “Hey, wait, I’m not-!” I was about to say I wasn’t a kid, but I am now. I try my best to wiggle out, but she’s way too strong. She then tries to place me in her pouch along with Min, “WAIT!” I yell out, this actually makes the Kangaskhan freeze for a bit as she tilts her head like a confused puppy. “Kangaskhan, can you please put me down?” She does so and sits down to get on my eye level. “Kangaskhan, I hate to say this, but I’m not your kid.” She waves off the comment with an actual wave and a few “Kanga” noises. Then tries to pick me back up, ‘Okay let’s just be frank then.’ I breathe in and start to speak.

“Look, me and Min aren’t your kids, your kid seems to be missing,” I say while pointing at her pouch, which Minccino manages to wiggle his way out.

She looks confused, but not in a genuine way, more like she refuses to believe what I’m saying. Feigning ignorance. I think for a bit and finally decide on what to do, “Look, your kid is missing, and it seems like you're trying to cope with me and Min, which isn’t healthy by the way, so here’s what I offer. I’ll find your kid and in return, you let us leave. Okay?” She looks a bit hurt by my words but nods while saying “Khan” I sigh out of relief and help Minccino take off his styling new outfit.

After that’s finished I reach into my pockets and am relieved to see I still have my Arc-Phone. I enter the Ask app and ask “Where’s this Kangaskhan’s kid?”

Ding

[The Kangaskhan pup is currently on a small island, guarded by a [Unkown] Pokemon. Caution is recommended.]

An unknown pokemon? ‘If the Ask app doesn’t know what it is then…well what the hell could it be?’ I gulp and look at Minccino and Kangaskhan as the ask app dings once more, this time showing me a map with a path leading to the island.

“Okay, I know where your pup is.” Kangaskhan's eyes widen and she wipes away forming tears. “I can lead us there, but something is guarding it, so I’ll need you to come with as backup” She looks at me with a ‘Duh of course I’m coming’ look, which I should have realized that of course, she was going to come along regardless. I nod to her and let Minccino hop onto my shoulder, as he grooms down his messed fur from all the nuzzles and pets he got from the Mama pokemon.

I lead us through the forest, some wild pokemon gave us glances but didn’t do anything upon seeing the Mama who looked with such a threatening gaze that I think I could feel her rage. ‘Probably doesn’t like the fact that some pokemon is guarding her kid,” We walk through the forest until we reach a small pond with an even smaller island in the center. I was about to take off my shoes to walk across but Kangaskan just picked me up by the hood and jumped across. Easily clearing 30 feet with no effort at all, I plop on the ground and rub my butt as the Mama turned into a flash of brown. I look to see the pup, knocked out and injured, I race to the pup as the mama starts to let out a series of worrying noises. I tried to reach for my bag, but let out a silent curse as Kangaskan didn’t take it when she kidnapped me. The mama snaps her head to the side as a stick cracks I do the same, “What the fu-” Before I can finish my sentence the mama pulls me back and punches the pokemon as it tried to punch me with a dark-type move. The mama snarls and wants to fight it, but looks toward her child. “Go! I got the kid!” I race towards the fainted mon but look towards the…weird pokemon after I and Min get into a protective line in front of the kid.

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I recognized this pokemon, it was scraggy. No, it was The Scraggy from Mepoli the one Minccino fought, I don’t know how I know but I do. Except it was…distorted, twisted into a familiar shape, but not the same. Its limbs are a little longer, its hands floating off of its arms. But the most striking change was its eyes, they’re completely smoothed over with skin making its head a perfect circle. ‘What the hell happened to it.’ The two fly at each other, Kangaskhan punching the mon with a burst of electric energy. The Scraggy seems unaffected and retaliates with a dark-type move.

The move hit the Elite-level pokemon like a truck, forming a huge gash across her head as though she’d been sliced with a sword. Kangaskan shakes her head and starts to charge up energy, almost instantly a Hyper Beam flies out of her jaws and catches the left side of the Scraggy. It makes no sound. As the white beam fades I see the scraggy, still standing despite losing half its body. Its insides are no longer blood and organs but rather a dark goo, that drips down its side. Scraggy moves in a flash, now right in front of me, Kangaskhan too tired after using hyper beam, and Minccino not even seeing the Scraggy as he moved too fast, while Min has an S++ rank reaction stat, it’s still only C+ for now. No one could react, except for me. In a pure and desperate attempt at survival, I throw my hand in a half-curled slap, hitting the Scraggy in its tar-like insides. It freezes and everyone can finally react, but with no need, to as the Scraggy starts to turn into the black goo and fall towards the ground. Fading into the dirt.

I scream a guttural cry as the little bit of goo on my fist starts to burn. “Fuck!” I throw my hand onto the ground and try to wipe it off but it burns more. ‘Fuck, Fuck!’ I throw my free hand into my pocket and grab my phone, “Edit” App opens automatically. Not even checking to see what this stuff was I quickly typed in “And it disappeared!” and entered a white light causes the goo to disappear and I pass out onto the ground. ‘Crap I forgot to check the conditions.’

=====

I wake up back on the stone bed, surrounded by wild pokemon. Audino, Comfey, and even a Blissey let out a surprise shock as I scream as soon as I woke up. I grope my head and mumble a few swears, the pokemon walk towards me, each using some type of move that seemed to look through me, and each letting out a sigh as the move ends. “Um, hello there.” They respond with their own respective names and walk out of the cave, which now has a few threads acting as a type of door. ‘When did that get there?’ I look at my hand as I realize I’ve been holding onto my phone with a fierce grip. I check the time and see that I’ve only been out for a few hours, I sigh out of relief as Kangaskhan and Minccino walk into the room.

Min barrels towards me into a flying hug aimed at my face, small streaks of tears covering his eyes as he repeatedly says “Min!” Kangaskhan also seems happy to see me, okay but less extreme than Minccino. I notice that inside Mama’s pouch is a very sleepy baby, covered in smooth purple scales. “It’s good to see that the kid’s alright.” Kangaskhan walks over to help me off of the stone but I wave her off as I felt fine, just exhausted from both Editing and that goo. I yawn and step out of the cave, after moving Minccino onto the top of my head rather than the front of it.

I look in awe as a bunch of wild pokemon walk about the small field, a few going into a series of caves I didn’t notice before. “Were they always here?” Kangaskhan answers that by pointing at her pup and then using her claws to make a small walking motion. “Ah, they were looking for your kid.” The comment settles as I come to a realization “Wait, if you can get all of these guys to look for your kid, then are you the leader around her” She nods, as she straightens her stature. ‘Guess that makes sense, I mean she’s just too strong not to be of some importance to the forest.’ I walk about seeing a lot of pokemon, a few Seedots, and Nuzleaf chill on top of a few outward stones sticking out of the small mountain. Swadloons and a Leavanny nit a few blanket-looking objects, but the Leavanny actually walks towards us and gives Kangaskhan a wave, and hands me a finely made scarf.

“What’s this?” I ask Leavanny who points at Minccino and makes a motion to tie it around his neck like a bandanna. ‘Wait’ I look at the light gray scarf and whip out my phone and enter the “Edit” App. I scan it and awe at the description.

“Silk Scarf”

Made by Leavanny, this fine silk scarf can boost Normal Type moves by 20% as this is an expert-crafted item the Silk Scarf’s usual confusion damage boost to the user is nullified.

‘A held item!’ I’ve tried to make some with edit, but always had too little aura to make anything useful. I tie the scarf around Minccino’s neck and he starts to dust it off and edit its position till he got it just right. “Thank you so much!” Leavanny waves her leaf-like hand dismissively and points to the baby sleeping in Kangaskhan’s pouch. “Oh, so it’s a reward. Still thank you very much!” I turn to Kangaskhan and ask if they have anyone who knows where my campsite was at. Kangaskhan’s face turns a bit red in embarrassment as she remembered that she kidnapped me and motioned me to follow her. I do so and a few Nuzleaf follow us on top of some tree branches, ‘Like weird plant ninjas.’

After half an hour of walking, I finally spot my campsite and even my tent. But that’s not all I spot as an officer Jenny is walking around with a Growlithe sniffing my bag to likely get my scent and find me ‘Right, there were other people there, they probably saw me be kidnapped or saw the mess that my tent was in and called the cops’ I sigh a bit, but decide to bring a cheerful expression to my face.

“Excuse me! Can I get my stuff back!” I yell towards the cop as she gets startled and turns to face me and the little posse of pokemon following me. Now no longer just Nuzleafs but a Comfey, Leavanny, a few Budews, and a weirdly chill Beedrill. She was about to shout something but stopped upon seeing Kangaskhan, the mama gives me a small hug walk and pushes me to walk forwards, before heading back into the forest. I wave goodbye and walk over to Jenny.

“So, how much trouble am I in exactly?” Officer Jenny is silent for a few seconds but then lets out a long sigh. “None, just…Okay, what happened?” I go through my little adventure, making sure to tell in great detail about how Minccino was being treated like a baby, much to his displeasure and my enjoyment. I get serious when I mentioned the weird Scraggy, and how it was a Scraggy I knew. Jenny jolts in shock when I mention the goo Scraggy, but just nods and listens to me finish my story. I leave out the part of me using the “Edit” App and the whole part of me being knocked out as well as anything else involving the phone. I finish my tale and Officer Jenny starts to write down a few things finally, she says “Okay, Mr. Walker. We will investigate this immediately, but please don’t say anything about this to anyone not related to the league. We don’t want to start mass hysteria over this, we believe that the pokemon you’ve encountered is a regional variant of Ditto.” I look at her, at the way her eyes subtly avoid my gaze ‘She’s lying. They probably know of it, but not what it is so using the Ditto thing as a cover-up’ I was always good at spotting lies, and falsehoods, helped me a lot when a minor asked for cigarettes at the gas station. I just nod, and nurse joy leaves in her Jeep-like car, ‘First car I’ve seen in this world’

I pick up my bag and start to pack up my tent and sleeping bag, as well as throw a few things back into my bag. The tent turns back into a disc and I throw it in a small compartment in my bag. I roll up my sleeping bag and strap it on top of my backpack, and sigh at the fact I’ll need to unpack it all again soon, as it was midday. I was about to walk away but noticed a small bud blocking my path. The Budew looked at me with a totally blank expression, I recognized this Budew as a member of the posse that followed me out. “Uh, hi. Do you need something?” The Budew waddles towards me and I bend down to get a bit closer to eye level with…Her. This Budew is actually a bit taller than others of her species, rather than standing at 8 inches she’s a solid foot tall. I wait for the bud to do something, and do something she does, but not what I expected. She wiggles her way into my pockets and taps an empty Pokeball, the ball enlarges and wiggles on the ground for a few moments, before it lets out a Click.

“Huh…Huh” Is all I could say as I picked up the ball containing my second team member, I tap the button to let her out, and she forms in a red light onto the ground. She jumps up onto my shoulder but moves into my hood as Min already claimed that spot. I try to get her out but stop as I realized she wasn’t stuck. I sigh and crane my head to see just barely peeking over my hood as I mumble “Status”

Budew

- Attack: E-/B+

- Defense: E+/C+

- Special Attack: C+/S-

- Special Defense: C+/A+

- Speed: C-/B+

- Luck: B+/B+

- Reactions: B-/A-

- Intelligence: A/S

- Overall: A intelligent special attacking pokemon, with proper care and attention she could become a champion level pokemon. She is close to evolving but needs an extra push.

- Moves: Absorb, Growth, Stun Spore, and Worry Seed.

‘Oh wow…this is weirdly lucky. I mean, another Champion Level ‘mon just falls into my lap? What is my luck stat? Actually, do I even have stats?’ I push the thoughts to the side and instead focus on walking, as I do so I strike up small conversations with my pokemon, Min is more than happy to respond, but Budew is much quieter. ‘Guess I’ll need to look into how to care for Grass types, is there a grooming kit for them or do I just water them?’ As I walk more thoughts like that pop into my head.

=====

Jenny looks at the small island where that kid reported a Distorted Pokemon, she’s not alone anymore as the leader of the Mepoli City gym is with her. Kieran is a sly man, his sharp eyes matching perfectly with his beloved Ace Liepard, he still wears a dark long coat even in this heat.

“So, this is the spot, yes?” His voice was smooth, yet slimy in a way. Jenny nods as Kieran throws out his Grimmsnarl who picks them up and jumps to the other side, Liepard jumping over as well, gracefully landing on the ground. The officer looks around the gravelly island, the center of it is covered in ferns and bushes. Kieran hums as he takes a look around, Jenny noticed a burn mark that goes past the island to a few knocked-over trees. “Hyper Beam, just like the testimony.” Kiera just hums affirmatively as he walks to a small patch of blood. “This must’ve been where the pup was, correct?” She just shrugs, as the kid didn’t go into specifics. He hums even more as he looks a bit past the small bloodstain and towards the patch of ferns.

Kieran glows with a faint glow, as he uses his small amount of psychic powers. Jenny looks at him, recalling that Kieran was an empath of sorts, able to scope emotions from the past. Despite being an Esper, he still fancies the dark type over any other. “Hm, I sense Worry, from three entities, uncontrollable malice from another, a small pinch of comfort towards a determined emotion, and rage at the malice. Exhaustion and pure fear as Malice find his source of hatred, and…a weird feeling I don’t know as the malice disappears into the soil.” His powers while limited, did allow him to grasp past events by relieving the memories entrapped in the soil, air, and other forms of life. How that works, Jenny has no idea.

Finally, Kieran moves to the ferns clearing the way and whistling at whatever he found. Jenny moves next to him and is filled with a sense of dread. A small crack in the earth, just small enough to let a Scraggy through. Inside of it is a world with a bold blue sky, and various floating islands, the world constantly changes making Jenny want to throw up from motion sickness. Kieran takes a photo of it with his phone, just before the tear in the earth closed, forming back into solid dirt leaving no signs of anything wrong or out of place.