Chapter Text
I’ll be honest, I don't know why I’m here, how this happened, or even where the fuck this place is.
All I know is that one moment I’m enjoying my weekend by swan diving from a small wooden deck on a local river in my town, and the next I find myself on a completely different river from the one I had jumped in with some baby monkey desperately holding onto me for dear life as we are dragged by strong currents.
The sheer whiplash I got from diving in a somewhat warm murky river on the seaside to the frigid, crystal clear stream of water running down somewhere in a vast valley almost made me have a cold shock on the spot.
Only a couple minutes after wheezing my lungs out at the shore had I discovered that it was not just a monkey, but some weird little panda that wouldn’t look out of place in a certain kung fu movie.
And that wasn’t even the worst part anyhow, what almost broke me then and there was the fact that my hair had apparently been dyed to fucking silver while I wasn’t paying attention. My own reflection in the water revealed a clearly teenage boy with reddish-brown eyes and messy silver hair instead of your average dude in his twenties.
Luckily for my rapidly decreasing sanity, I eventually spotted a biped blue toad with a whirl drawing on its torso swimming across the stream to check on us and quickly connected the dots as to where I was and what just happened. Spending more or less ten minutes on a brief session of shouting profanities at the sky until I calmed down.
…
‘Not gonna lie, I may have almost lost my cool there for a second.’ I mirthlessly laugh to myself as I recline back to watch the drifting clouds above and catch a glimpse of a far away plane crossing the skies shortly before vanishing behind the mountain range in the horizon.
Anyway, the absolute chad of a Poliwhirl took my mental breakdown like a champ and patiently waited for me to finish getting my shit together before helping us to a clearing where we could rest. Going as far as helping me to gather the necessary materials to make a bonfire so we could dry off before night came and see us off after making sure that we'd be fine on our own.
It's been three or so weeks of me and the little gal going downriver in search of civilization since then. Me because I’m on a quest to go punch the Holy Llama, and my friend over here tagging along because she also has no fucking clue of where she is apparently.
And let me tell you something, having just a pair of shorts as your only clothing for cold nights somewhere near the mountainside is not an experience I would wish on anyone. But fortunately for me, I managed to trade a few berries I've picked along the way with a friendly Leavanny a while back for a leaf cloak so I could have something to warm myself with that wasn’t just sheer spite.
What really took me by surprise, was how warm the thing is despite being just a bunch of leaves sewed together by what seems to be sil–
…
‘Wait a minute, the sun is almost halfway through the sky. How long I’ve been going on this stupid fucking tangent?’ Abruptly stopping my musings, I realize that it's almost noon already and move to stand up from my place on the grassy field.
Ignoring the curious side-eye that I receive from my traveling partner who was lazing around meditating with me, I do a little stretching in preparation for the walk ahead of us. Knowing damn well that my bare feet are not built for long walks down the valley in any capacity.
“So, ready to keep going? I don’t know you, but I got the feeling that today is the day we finally leave this damned place.” I ask with a loud yawn.
“Cham!” Pancham springs up from her seat and impatiently tugs at my shorts so I keep up with her unholy levels of energy, probably thinking of this as an excellent way to exercise.
Amusedly shaking my head at the little panda's enthusiasm, I silently jog after her as we follow the downstream once again and idly wave in greeting to every other wild pokémon we cross on our way.
‘I swear, I’ll never understand how she can be so energetic for someone with a permanent frown stuck on her face…’
Stopping to rest for a few minutes under a tree, I boredly waited for my little friend high above to pick a new fresh leaf to chew on before deciding to impart some knowledge on my part. “You see my young panchawan, the first step into mastery of oneself is by starting to believe in yourself. Essentially, it is about saying screw the rules and making reality into your bi… uh, punching bag.”
“Pancham Pan?” Makoto, as I've come to call the panda pokémon who tries way too hard to look stoic, questions me with a confused and skeptical stare as she slowly makes her way down. Clearly not comprehending what I'm getting at with my lesson.
“Let me give you an example: It's nighttime and we’re being attacked by a horde of ghosts. No matter what you try, you can’t win against a Ghost-type because they are completely immune to your normal and fighting type attacks. Makes sense right?” I leadingly ask her with a ‘What can you do’ shrug.
She mulls over the scenario for a few moments before visibly grumbling with a dejected pout. “Cham...”
“WRONG!” I shout while doing my best imitation of an incorrect buzzer, making the small fighting-type get startled and jump in surprise at the noise before trying to recompose her cool with an adorable glare.
Walking over to the small pokémon, I crouch down so we are almost at eye level and say with a wide smile. “You can’t possibly win against them? Who decided that? Your attacks are useless on ghosts or some stupid special ability? Who decided that!?”
Makoto visibly stumbles in place at my sudden mood change, clearly not having expected my rapid questions either if the way her eyes get wider as my totally not stolen speech goes on.
“The only one who gets to decide such things is you.” I finish it with a finger pointed straight at where I assume the Pancham’s heart to be.
“C-Cham?” With tears starting to well up in her eyes, Makoto incredulously points at herself as if to confirm my statement.
Picking the Pancham up and placing her to sit on my shoulder with a playful noogie, I give her my best winning smile and start once again jogging along the river bank while singing as loud as I can. “Repeat after me: Do the impossible, see the invisible! ROW! ROW! FIGHT THE POWER! Touch the untouchable, break the unbreakable! ROW! ROW! FIGHT THE POWER!”
Slowly but surely, she starts getting infected by my enthusiasm and soon enough she is singing as loud as me with a wide grin of her own.
“C'mon girl, just one last time for today then. I know you can do it!” I encouragingly tell the panting Pancham as she nods resolutely before raising her trembling arm high in the air in preparation.
We’ve been using this one small boulder that we encountered as our main target practice until the sun set a couple hours ago. The damn thing being almost as stubborn as Makoto’s willingness to break it in one go.
“Focus all the energy on your paw and bring it down in a single swing. Show it who's the boss!”
Taking a deep breath, Makoto's right paw starts coalescing with a blood red aura. Eyes narrowing into a furious glare at the inanimate object moments before bringing it down to smash the boulder.
“CR-CRACK!”
The sound of it splitting wide open at the middle where her Brick Break impacted echoes through the whole forest and I get to see as a few heads pops from the underbush in wary curiosity a couple moments later. A small ragtag of startled Patrats that were eating some Oran berries, a sleepy Riolu who simply takes notes of our presence in the area and proceeds to go back to sleep if the faint snores I hear moments later are any indication, and at last but not least…
A dog with a goddamn mustache.
I can’t recall its name at the moment, but I do know that it’s a Lilipup’s middle evolution if I remember correctly.
‘Well, at least that confirms that I’m somewhere in Unova…’ I idly muse to myself as I ignore the barking dog. Focusing instead on walking over to the grinning Pancham staring at her success and raising her high in the air to celebrate her accomplishment.
“You saw that? That was all you!”
“Pancham!” Makoto tiredly shouts in happiness before slumping in my arms as the hours of training the move finally catched up to her. Leaving me with an amused smile on my face at realizing that she just fell asleep on the spot.
‘Heh, I’ll buy her some pudding as soon as I manage to get some money on my hands.’ I silently promise to myself as I put her in a comfortable position and follow the dim lights on the horizon.
My feet are aching and my back is pretty tired, but I think an hour-long walk in exchange for some hot shower after weeks of cold baths is a pretty even trade in my honest opinion.
“Here's hoping that the pokémon center will ignore my lack of ID.” I sigh at the growing headache that this will inevitably cause me and take a moment to glance at the big farm on the other side of the river where all of its lights are turned off.
…
“Nope, I'm not going into the creepy farm in the middle of nowhere. I'd rather stay in the woods with the superpowered wildlife. Thank you very much.” I grumble under my breath with a shudder while visibly increasing my pace in the direction of the towering clock tower in the distance.
00:37
Helena Joy
“What exactly would you say that defined your career as a trainer?” The show’s host with his obnoxiously colored tuxedo in the television across the lobby asks their guest for tonight.
A purple haired woman in her early thirties leisurely sitting on the chair by his side audibly snorts at the question before answering it with a wry grin. “Probably the permanent concussions my *Beep!* of a friend and I gave it to each other on a weekly basis during our journey together. I am no fighting-type specialist myself, but I consider myself and my team spiritually aligned with the art of beating the *Beep!* out of anyone standing in our way.”
Awkwardly laughing to himself, the host tries to change his angle to something that will cause more gossip instead.
“I-I see, what about your scandal with champion Cynthia then? Are you still banned from entering Sinnoh?”
At this, a look of utter contempt comes across the woman's face at realizing where he’s going with this. Deciding ultimately to just get this over with.
“Look, it's not my damn fault that she got pissy at me for a stupid prank.”
“Oh? What was it?” He asks with a raised brow.
*Sigh*
“...I may or may not have put laxatives in every single pot of ice cream she had inside her fridge.”
“.…”
“I mean, it was either that or this one time where I gifted her a glitter bomb on Christma–”
*Ding!*
Turning away from the screen, Helena blinks in surprise as a skinny figure bordering on the unhealthy enters through the building's front doors with a small limp.
A roughed up looking teenager boy in his fifteens wearing a pair of yellow shorts with only a cloak of sorts made of leaves covering his torso from the weather. A small foreign pokémon that Helena has never seen peacefully sleeping away in the crook of his arms.
Shaking her head, she puts a practiced smile and starts the conversation with a kind tone. “Welcome to Floccesy’s pokémon center, how can I help you tonight?”
Raising a single finger in a universal ‘Hold up for a sec’, the boy takes a moment to recover his breath before replying with a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes.
“Can I rest here for a couple days ma'am? I'm quite lost you see.” He asks with an awkward scratch of his head.
‘Which is a very weird thing to happen since Aspertia and Virbank cities are not that far away from Floccesy in the first place. No one normally gets lost this easily.’ Helena mentally notes with a curious glance at the teen.
Shaking her head at the idle thoughts, she gently assures him with a placating smile. “Sure, I'll just need your trainer card and it should be no problem!”
…
“So, funny you say that…” He trails off with a forced smile while avoiding eye contact with her.
‘Oh, I see...’ When he said that he was lost he really meant it, didn’t he?
“That’s no problem, we can still make one for you then, I’ll just need your name and where you came from.” Helena continues without a hitch while going for the right drawer where the documents are.
“I'm Jhon Pokémon from Somewheresville.” The teen says to her with the straightest face she has ever seen and she simply gives him the most flat stare that she can convey at the terrible attempt in not giving away his real name.
“...fine, I'm Jack Asbell.” He admits with a mock defeated groan, being careful not to disturb the sleeping pokémon with him awake.
Writing it down with a roll of her eyes, she pointedly notices how the boy didn't say where he came from and decides to leave it blank for now in order to avoid worsening the growing migraine she's getting from interacting with the teen.
“That will be all for tonight then, tomorrow I’ll just need a photo of you so we can finish your trainer card. Your room for this week is the 48th.” Helena says while handing over the keys to the silver haired boy with a genuine smile adorning his tired face.
Waving the boy off with a sleepy yawn, she turns back to the TV before freezing in realization.
Jack Asbell = Jackass Bell
*Thud!*
With a loud slam of her forehead impacting the table, she audibly curses at being played like a fiddle.