Chapter Text
Callie was weightless.
Some distant part of her was aware that her entire body was floating as she slumbered, shifting in and out of a blank, dreamless sleep. Thought, the more prominent part of her mind merely wrote it off as a dream-related sensation, too caught up in the first good night's sleep she’d had in possibly weeks.
She only noticed something wrong when she attempted to turn over, finding herself instead twisting helplessly in the air rather than on her sunken mattress.
As her eyes opened her limbs flexed in shock at the apparent lack of, well, anything around her.
It was totally black, and she waited a moment for her eyes to adjust before realizing her surroundings weren’t dark, just void of anything at all.
There was no sound, a distinct lack of any sort of temperature, and to top it all off she noticed her phone starting to float off just out of reach.
She stretched her arm out, attempting to kick herself forwards as her fingertips barely grazed it. Her arms flailed in frustration as she watched her phone float off into the inky blackness.
A brilliant flash of pale yellow light sparked into existence, reflecting off her phone's cracked screen before extinguishing just as quickly. She thought she had imagined it for a moment, but then there was another, flickering close enough to her that she could feel a warmth emanating from it before it snuffed itself out as well.
It went quiet for a few moments, then the flashes suddenly surrounded her, bathing her in their light, glowing brightly for a few seconds at a time each before vanishing. Callie tried to keep track of them, a few straying too close to her and brushing up against her, leaving a numb feeling in their wake.
They all abruptly converged to a single point just beyond her phone, forming a massive ball of light that quickly began to shape itself into… something.
She cringed as she was forced to look away, shielding her face with her forearms.
Waiting a few moments, she chanced a peek at the now fully formed figure. She squinted against the emanating light, barely making it out as the shape of a towering creature.
It slowly inclined its head, her eyes following it back down to her phone floating before the bright silhouette. The device began to glow in a similar light, slowly gravitating back towards her. She lowered her arms, instinctively reaching out toward the glowing ball as if drawn to it.
It settled to a stop above her palms, warming them. Glancing up at the figure of the creature, she was still unable to fully make it out as anything other than a glowing shape that stood out starkly against the surrounding void. Her eyes slowly accommodated for the brightness, Callie able to make out a pair of crimson iris’s staring her down intently, and she found herself transfixed.
She wouldn’t have noticed her body being pulled across the space separating them if she hadn't found herself slowly lilting her head back to keep its stare. Rather than struggling, her body seized up, limbs curling in on themselves as she passed into the light of its body, her chin making contact with her chest as her head ducked down on its own accord. She knew she was starting to lose consciousness as her brain grew fuzzy. Her innards felt like they had been replaced by some kind of black hole as her eyes shut against the all-encompassing brightness, the feeling in her stomach creeping up from her abdomen to her head.
Everything went dark.
She came to slowly, vaguely aware of two things: The sound of waves and a voice somewhere above her, urging her awake.
“Wake up!”
She couldn’t find it in herself to make any indication of her returning consciousness, too caught up in the fuzziness of her brain as she took a silent moment to herself to appreciate being back on solid ground—Even as she realized she was laying face first in it as feeling slowly returned to her.
“Ohhh… Do wake up, won’t you?” The voice spoke again, this time more distinct sounding as the fog in her head cleared.
She turned her head to the side as the numbness of her body began to fade, weakly blowing out air from between her lips to rid them of the gritty particles of dirt and sand that clung there.
“Are you alive, my girl?” The voice pressed. She forced her eyes open, determined to assure this worried person she wasn’t actually dead. “Give the poor thing some room, you three!”
Her eyes were met with daylight, as well as three… animals? Creatures? Staring right back at her.
She inhaled sharply, managing to gasp in a fair amount of debris as her mouth was still halfway against the ground. It sent her into a violent coughing fit as she tried to push herself up on trembling arms.
“Oh dear me. Please, let me help you.” The owner of the voice was suddenly at her side, two hands on her shaking shoulders helping her into a sitting position as she coughed her soul out.
“There now, deep breaths.” the voice soothed, “I apologize my boys gave you such a fright!”
“It’s—Fine,” She wheezed, her eyes flickering to the man at her side and then back to the three creatures, her coughing slowly subsiding.
“Here, let's get you to your feet shall we?”
Before she could protest she was suddenly being hefted up by her arm, swaying precariously on her feet as her head swam from the sudden movement. A hand held her firmly by the shoulder and steadied her until she managed to find her balance.
“I must say, you gave me quite the shock, falling from the sky like that.” The man said, dusting off her shoulder as he released her. “But thank goodness, you seem unharmed!”
Callie stared at him.
“The… sky?” She repeated, still a little dazed.
“Well, the spacetime rift, to be more precise. Opened up above us for a good few minutes and you popped right out!”
She shook her head, looking down at her bare feet and taking note of her state of dress. She was still in her pajamas, some sleep shorts and an oversized t-shirt with bolded letters printed across it with, thankfully, a sports bra underneath.
Last she remembered before the void she’d gone to bed. She’d been so tired from… from…
What had she been so tired from? Work? Where did she work again?
She tried to take a calming breath, slowly filling her lungs with air as she counted to ten, then exhaling, counting to ten once more.
She needed something familiar, something to ground herself with. Surely she wasn’t too far from home, though she didn’t recognize the area and she couldn’t quite remember where home even was.
“Um,” She began, whipping her clammy palms over her cotton shorts. “Where am I? Sorry, I just—I’m not sure where this… is.”
“Why, this is Prelude Beach, of course.” The man said, nudging one of the curious creatures back with a gentle foo, “Dear me, did the shock of your fall somehow addle your memory?”
“That’s—That’s probably it.” She gave a small, hesitant nod, “I was just thinking of where I worked and I-I couldn't…”
She got choked up for a moment, quickly clearing her throat, “...couldn't remember.”
“Oh my, you poor dear.” The man said in a gentle tone, shaking his head a little,
“So, uh, who are you? Like, do we… know each other, maybe?” She asked hopefully.
“I’m afraid we don’t. And I believe it’s me who should be asking who you are.” He crossed his arms, cocking his head down at her, but not unkindly. “I mean, you fell out of the sky, you understand. Come now, who in the world does that?”
“I-I doubt I did it on purpose,” She defended weakly, wringing her hands into the hem of her t-shirt.
As she felt him regarding her, she began fidgeting under his stare.
“I must say, your clothing is… unusual.” He finally said, gesturing to her front, “What do those words mean?”
She looked down at her shirt, taking note of what it said for the first time. The large words “SKATE OR DIE” were displayed for all to see. She flushed, crossing her arms over the bolded letters
“Um, nothing. It's just gibberish.” She lied, filing away the concern that she could read it and he couldn't for a later time, same with the gold characters she didn’t recognize stitched onto the front of his white coat.
“And where are your shoes?” He gestured down at her bare feet.
She glanced down at her feet, flexing her toes self-consciously, “Oh, uh. The last actual memory I have was being in bed?”
She thought it best not to mention the black void with the glowing creature
The man nodded, “I see, and you wouldn't happen to have an acquaintance in these parts, would you?”
“I-I don’t know.” She admitted, feeling her flush creeping up to the tips of her ears.
“Hmm,” He frowned, “You seem to be in a bit of a pickle, then. Might I offer some directions? Do you have somewhere around here you could stay?”
“I’m sorry, I… don't know…” She looked down and refused to meet his eyes. She had the creeping feeling she was being more trouble than she was worth, dumping her problems on this kind man by merely existing in his vicinity.
“So you don’t know anyone here, and you don’t even know where to spend the night.” He rubbed his chin, “Well, this is a proper pickled indeed. Are you quite sure you’ll be able to survive?”
She bit down on her lip hard before it had the chance to wobble. She wouldn't be getting any help from this man, would she? She would be on her own. She knew it was fair, he had no obligations to offer her aid of any sort, she shouldn't have assumed he would drop everything to help her.
Quickly wiping at her eyes before the stinging in them could grow to full blown tears, she flinched back at the look of sympathy she received upon looking back up.
“Are you quite alright?” The man questioned gently.
She tried to give him a smile, thoroughly embarrassed at how quickly she was falling apart in front of this stranger.
“Yeah, I—” She wince, unprepared for how pathetic she sounded, her voice small and strained like she was moments off from bursting into a blubbering mess. “I-I’m fine.”
“Are you certain?” He pressed, only looking more concerned.
Slowly, her frail smile faded at the genuine worry in his eyes, realizing there was no use putting on a brave face.
“…No,” She admitted quietly, “I… I don’t know what to do.”
There was a long pause, each second more unbearable than the last.
“I see.” He finally said. Slowly, a grin took up his face as he placed his hands on his hips, “Well, no gentlemen would abandon a person in such need!”
She blinked, surprised. “R-Really?”
“Indeed.” He nodded.
“I-I don’t want to cause any trouble—”
“Nonsense,” He waved her off, “It would be cruel to simply leave you on your own in such a dilemma.”
“Thank you,” She said, relief welling up in her already damp eyes as she dabbed at them with her shirt's collar, ignoring how her voice cracker “I’m sorry.”
“Whatever are you apologizing for? I’m more than happy to help.” He assured her, “Please don’t worry yourself about me. You have much bigger issues at hand, dear girl.”
She nodded back silently, allowing his words to ease the inklings of guilt in her chest.
Something hot abruptly grazed her calf, the heat startling her enough to give a small yelp of surprise as she jumped back. It hadn't hurt—More so it felt like when the water under a faucet was too hot to touch for more than a few seconds.
She looked down, spotting one of the creatures peering up at her with squinting eyes, the flames long its back crackling curiously.
“O-Oh, hello there,” She smiled a little, watching as it sniffed at her leg. She moved to kneel down closer to it. She loved animals. At least, she thought so.
The creature gave a fearful chirp when she got closer and scurried off back to the other two by the man’s heel.
“Oh my, I’d completely forgotten!” He slapped a hand over his forehead, “I had just caught up to these three runaway pokémon when you tumbled out of the sky. It’s almost as if they knew you’d appear here!"
She tilted her head a little as she stood from where she had been half crouched on the ground. About to open her mouth and voice her question, the man must have caught the inquisitive look in her eyes as he gave her a patient smile, speaking up before she had that chance to.
“Ah, but do you even know what a pokémon is? Or rather, remember maybe”
She shook her head, “Er… I don’t think so, no.”
He cocked his head, “No you don't know, or no you don't remember?”
“Uh, either?” She clarified somewhat unsurely. “Both?”
“You truly must have traveled a long way then, haven’t you?” He said, eyebrows knitting together in what she could only assume was sympathy once again. “Who knows where the spacetime rift whisked you away from.”
He looked down at the creatures by his side.
“Well, these three here are what we call pokémon.” He explained, “Very mysterious, you see. Marvelous.”
She caught the squinting eyes of the one that had approached her earlier, offering it a tiny smile and a wave as it watched her warily. It looked taken back by the gesture before it curled its back and gave a shrill hiss, the fire along its body flaring upwards.
“That one doesn't seem to like me very much.” She attempted to laugh, though it came out more like an awkward, nervous titter.
“Oh not to worry, this Cyndaquil here merely tends to be rather prickly and nervous around strangers after his initial curiosity. I wouldn’t take it personally.” He assured.
“Cyndaquil? That's its name? Or species, rather?”
“Yes indeed. That’s what it's called in this form prior to its evolutions, at least.”
Before she could ask him to elaborate on what he meant by evolution, his face suddenly lit up as he seemed to remember something.
“Oh! But I do apologize, with the excitement of you falling out of the sky I never introduced myself!” He extended his hand, waiting for her to take it, “My name is Laventon. I am something of a professor.”
She carefully took his outstretched hand, giving it a weak shake, “It’s nice to meet you, Professor Laventon.”
“My goodness, so polite!” He grinned, overpowering her pathetic little handshake with a much more firm one, “So then, what might your name be?”
“You can just call me Callie.” She tried not to think too hard about how she couldn’t remember her last, or even middle, name.
“Oho! Callie, is it? That name has quite the ring to it! I imagine it must have some lovely meaning!” He released her hand, and she couldn't help wincing when he had to wipe his palm down his pristine coat.
“S-Sorry, I must get sweaty when I’m stressed. Or nervous.” She said, clasping her clammy hands together in a self-conscious manner. “Oh, not that you make me nervous! It's just, that this situation is. Making me nervous, I mean. Because um, you know. No memories and all that.”
“No need to explain yourself, I dare say I would be sweating buckets as well were I in your shoes.” He glanced down at her bare feet, chuckling, “Or lack thereof.”
She ducked her head in embarrassment.
“So, um,” She began, desperate to change the topic off her sweatiness and feet, “What are you a professor of? Like, what do you do? If you’re alright with me asking.”
“Why I’m a professor of pokémon, so to say.” He replied brightly, “And I’m seeking to deepen our understanding of them, to put it simply. Pokémon such as these three here, who—”
He choked on his words mid-sentence as he turned to see the creatures missing from their spot. Looking around, he spotted two of them a few yards off in the opposite direction, mid-bolt.
Finding his voice after a moment of sputtering, he cried, “Oh blast and brother! My darling pokémon! Why must you run from me again!?”
He turned to her, “I’m terribly sorry, but do you think you could help me round them up? I beg you!”
Not waiting for an answer, he turned on his heel and took off after them.
“Wait! Wait, I say! Please!”
She watched him trip over himself as he jogged away, leaving her alone on the spot.
Well, maybe not entirely alone. She could see the Cyndaquil’s flames peaking up over a flat boulder not too far away.
Carefully stepping around a carpet of painful looking sandspurs taking up a patch of grass, she came to a pause at the rock, lightly rapping it with her knuckles as she peered around the boulder’s side.
“Um, hi,” She greeted, watching the flames along its back flare a few inches higher as she spoke. “So…”
She gave a startled squawk when it promptly darted around the rock in an instant and snapped at her ankles, its fire popping and sparking. Callie stumbled back a few feet before her foot pressed down firmly into the thick strip of sandspurs behind her.
She cried out, cursing loudly and jumping on one foot as the other screamed with needles of pain.
She hurriedly hopped over to the boulder, leaning her hip against its rocky surface as she held up her foot to inspect it. Her sole was completely covered with sandspurs, their sharp burs buried deep in her skin.
“Owww owowowowow…” She whined, gripping her ankle tightly with white knuckles as she held her foot up further
She heard a light plop next to her on the rock, glancing over and spotting the Cyndaquil looking at her with what she could only describe as concern.
“You’re an asshole.” She sniffled, dropping her hold on her foot to wipe at the moister gathering once more in her eyes. Thank god no one was around to see her getting teary-eyed over some stickers in her foot. At least, no one other than the pokémon at her side.
She moved to plant her backside down on the rock, propping her foot up over her knee. The burs jutting out from the stickers were embedded deep in her foot, too short for her to get a solid grip on, and clustered together in such a way that made it impossible to just flick them off one at a time.
Sitting there, she wasn't quite sure what to do with herself.
Thankfully, the pain in her foot soon ebbed away into a stinging sensation that throbbed in time with her pulse. She stared down at her foot. There was only one way out of this, she couldn't sit there with stickers in her foot forever.
Carefully grabbing the tips of one of the thick burs between two fingernails after a few attempts, Callie grimaced as she slowly removed it from her skin. She flicked it aside, groaning. This was going to take a while, and her being a massive baby it was going to hurt too.
She’d forgotten about the pokémon at her immediate left until it climbed up and perched itself on her thigh, looking down at her foot.
“Oh, you’ve done enough already. Go away.” She weakly glared, trying to bat it off her.
It refused to budge, making a churring noise as it took her foot between its nubby arms. She nearly jumped to her feet when a small, condensed flame appeared as the pokémon gave a slow exhale. It was angling the flame to the side so that it wasn’t blowing directly against her skin but rather grazing just the top half of the sandspurs.
She watched as the flame ate away at the visible burs, eventually leaving just black, charred bases. The Cyndaquil pulled away, releasing her foot and hopping down from her leg back onto the boulder.
It was watching her expectantly, looking please when she caught on and went to remove a sandspur, this time easily plucking it from her foot.
“Um, Thank you.” She said as she looked at it, slightly bewildered. “You can just… breathe fire?”
The pokémon gave a small chirp of affirmation, puffing up proudly.
Callie looked back to her foot, removing several more sandspurs three at a time. She side-eyed her companion.
“Are you being nice to me because you almost made me cry?” She asked after a beat of silence.
It had the decency to look somewhat called out, tilting its head downwards and peeking up at her through its squinted eyes.
“You didn’t even mean to hurt me, did you? You were just trying to act tough.” She paused, “Because I made you nervous.”
The pokémon looked away, refusing to meet her eyes as it stared off to the side at nothing
“It’s okay, I get being nervous around people.” She sighed, pulling out the last sandspurs from her foot with only a few winces. “I don’t pretend to attack them, though.”
Cyndaquil made a huffing noise, climbing off the boulder as Callie wiped away the specks of blood from the bottom of her foot, testing her weight against it before standing.
“And listen, I’m not trying to nag you,” She continued, ushering the pokémon along and steering them both onto the faint dirt path she’d last seen Laventon stumbling down. He was probably wondering where she was by now. “But I just think you should work on your frankly feral means of dealing with strangers, especially if don’t mean to actually hurt them at all—”
Callie shut her mouth, cutting herself off mid-sentence when saw the pokémon was giving her an irritated look.
Turning her gaze down towards her feet, she realized with embarrassment that she must have been being annoying. She slowed down so she was trialing behind the Cyndaquil, not sure if she should walk by its side as it stared her down with a mild glare before turning back towards the path, trotting off. It seemed to know where it was going, at least.
She slowly walked after it, keeping herself at a steady distance to give it some space.
“Um,” She cleared her throat after a moment, “I-I'm... Sorry. I don’t mean to be annoying, but I know I can be. I really just… don’t realize it sometimes.”
Waiting for a response, her face fell further when the pokémon walking ahead merely ignored her.
“Well, not sometimes. A lot of the time,” She corrected, taking deliberately small steps as she walked so she wouldn’t outpace the creature in front of her, “It’s usually why I try to keep to myself, sort of.”
A pause. Still silence.
“That and I haven’t been socialized yet despite being twenty-five.” She joked, trying to ease the tension in the air that she had a feeling was only prevalent on her end.
She caught the Cyndaquil’s eyes when it spared a look back at her, the same annoyance as before in its gaze.
Callie frowned, feelings thoroughly hurt as she dropped her gaze back down to her feet, murmuring a second, much quieter apology and leaving it at that.
The chilly seaside air nipped at her exposed skin as she kicked small pebbles along the path, the pokémon leading the way as it walked a few paces ahead of her in silence. They rounded a few bends in the path, cutting through the winding, rocky landscape as Callie grew somewhat worried every time Laventon wasn’t to be found on the other side.
They were approaching the fourth curve in the path when she heard it.
“Hm-hm!”
A short giggle sounded ahead of them just off to the right. It… sounded like the Pillsbury doughboy laugh.
In other words, her phone’s text tone since junior year of high school.
She paused in her steps, listening for it again in case she’d imagined it.
“Hm-hm!”
No, yeah, that was absolutely her text tone.
Hesitantly, she merged off the path and onto the grass, following the sound of the giggle. Pushing aside some overgrown bushes, she came upon what should have been her phone, but instead of its usual pink phone case with silicon cat ears poking up from the top, the screen, which she noted was no longer cracked, was fixed in a white and gold case that looked like it should have been much heavier than it felt as she picked it up.
She sensed Cyndaquil approach her from behind, making an annoyed chittering noise, likely telling her off for getting distracted. It was her turn to ignore the pokémon as she curiously turned the device over, unable to find any seams to show where it had been fitted over as she attempted to pry the phone from it.
Giving up when it became apparent that it wouldn’t be coming loose, she turned it back around and stared at it, goosebumps prickling over her as the hairs on her arms stood on end.
This was no longer her phone, she concluded. It felt… powerful almost, for lack of a better word.
She recalled the glowing silhouette in the void turning her phone into a bright light. Whatever it had done, it must have turned her phone into… this.
Curious to see if it worked, her thumb automatically went to press the home button, finding in its place a brilliant emerald. She paused a moment before pushing it, feeling it give slightly. Nothing happened.
She frowned, confused. How was she supposed to work it? She felt along the edges for a power button.
“Hm-hm!”
The screen lit up with the sound of her text tone, a single message appearing.
“I bestow upon thee this Arc Phone and thy mission, " It read, "Seek out all pokémon. ”
She didn’t have time to ponder it, an irate Cyndaquil jumping up and snatching from her hands with its mouth before taking off back towards the path.
“Wh—HEY!”