"If this is the Pokemon World, shouldn't we be, like, anime?" asked my apparent rival. So not only is my rival from Earth as well, but Earth isn't sending it's finest.
So, one conversation with a supernatural entity claiming to be Jirachi and now I'm in the Pokemon World, namely Professor Oak's lab ready to choose a pokemon. Jirachi said it was the Pokemon World with a twist. I don't really know more than that. Professor Oak was explaining the situation, so there wasn't as much subversion as I was lead to believe. It was actually getting boring after being apparently swept off to another dimension.
"Now the world is inhabited…"" Professor Oak took out a pokeball, "by creatures called pokemon."
Light from the ball materialized a-
"Oh my God!" I exclaimed as a girl with Nidorina ears appear were a pokemon would have been. A cyan-haired moemon to be precise. She looked about ten, although I'm pretty bad at judging the age of children Moemon was a hack that replaced all the pokemon with girls, although most were not as well designed as this nidorina. Many of the moemon looked as tall as poochyena or zigzagoon, but the nidorina look just like a human with a headband with her so-call ears, and a blue dress over a black long sleeve blouse. She had dull red eyes which look very convincing, as well as a human ear that was supposed to be hidden. "So cute!"
It felt a bit supernatural that I called her cute. She looked happy standing there, which made me forget the implications for a second.
Oak continued. "They fight, and they make friends. Any questions?" I looked over at my rival, who face was frozen in place by shocked. I looked back at the old man and shrugged. "Well, I should warn you that the Pokemon World is a somewhat dangerous place. It's usually not as dangerous as some make it out to be, but it's a legal requirement that you always have at least one pokemon out at all times. I can't let you go outside without one. Well, go ahead and select your pokemon."
I carpe diemed over to the circular table with the three pokeballs. I pressed a button below the grass symbol. A holographic screen appeared and a young teal-haired girl in a short green dress was displayed. She had no other clothes but she had a bulb on the back of her head and two long stands of hair trying to pass as vines. I get the aesthetic of that she's suppose to look like a member fey forest race, but I wasn't impressed.
"You know, this could still be a prank," the other Terran said.
"Well, I still want to see the other ones," I said moving around the table. The button beneath the fire symbol displayed a red head, blue eye girl with the shortest hair yet. Her charmander dress had a blue bow, and she was wearing proper footwear. I couldn't see where the tail connected in the image, but it was sort of convincing. It would be odd if it was real considering the nido-ran's headband. I also realize that I remember the charmander moemon's sprite not being as well designed. I didn't recall seeing any squirtle moemon before, so I move on.
"Aww, look at the little squirtle!" Okay, I lost my cool a bit. The blue haired girl was winking and posing her figure like a gun shooting bubbles from it. She had a rather plain dress like the other starters, although with a color-compliant backpack for the shell. "I chose this one."
I picked up the empty feeling pokemon and press the button and a full person came out. She did looked exactly like the image, and she was quite jubilant as she look up at me.
"Is Master going to give me a name?".
"Don't call me Master."
Her brown eyes opened wide. "Master gave me my first order!" Even her swirly tail emoted joy.
A this moment I had to stop and consider my life choices at this point. However I didn't go far because:
1)A voice claiming to be Jirachi forced me into this world, even though I know it's supposed to be a wish pokemon. Yeah, maybe thinking pokemon were cool was on me, but this situation really shouldn't karmically follow.
2) This world seems to have heavy handed laws, so I'm pretty much forced into an authoritarian state because of my preference of youtube videos and approximately three fanfics that I"ve read. Two out of three of them did exhibit such a government.
On the other hand, I did just chose my starter based on appearing cute so a trend of bad decisions may have started here.
"My name is Rupert by the way," I said to the blue girl.
"Don't worry, Master. I have a good memory."
Another pause happened, this time broken by the rival. "Professor, do the pokemon know type moves yet?"
"It depends on the individual pokemon," the professor mumbled.
Crud, I did not consider that possibility. I watch as my peer walked over to the bulbasaur girl ball. He stroked his insufficient brown hair to appear antagonistic,
"Bulbasaur girl, go!"
The young dryad appeared ready with her fists up. "Yes, Master. I will make you proud."
"Vine Whip!"
"Yes, Master!" The girl twirled as her long and narrow locks of hair gained height. My own pokemon was unaffected when the attack came in. The bulbasaur slowed down as she got dizzy.
"Woah, I think I"m out of PP!" said the attacker as she regain her balanced.
I raised the pokeball a pressed to button, although nothing happen. I didn't seem to be able to return her. "I think we have to do this battle, Squirtle."
Squirtle turned around as her eyes started to water. "Pleaaase, don't make me fight."
"But.." I hesitated. What was I supposed to do in this situation.
"Bulbasaur girl. Use Tackle!"
"Yessir!" the bulbasaur girl said as she attempted to knocked down Squirtle.
"Oh God. Use Tackle, or Scratch." I yelled trying to remember.
"Which one?" Squirtle said.
"Tackle, the one you know." I said.
"Tackle bulbasaur girl!" Joseph said his starter got a second attack in a row. "And Tackle again."
This time, both girls charged but Squirtle got knocked off her feet and fell on her back. As she attempted to get up, her arms weakened and she fell back to the ground. She turned to me.
"Why? Why Master?" She reach her hand up to me. "Why did you let me lose?" Her hand hit the floor after her eye closed.
"Ha, am I great or what? I think those were the words," Joseph said.
"For the glory of Master!" said the fourth grader known as bulbasaur girl. They walked out of the lab together as I stood over my first so-called pokemon.
I looked over the girl for signs of recovery. Was I supposed to carry her to the Pokemon Center afterwards?
"This is horrible. This is not proportional retribution for getting back into pokemon because I thought Popplio was adorable. How am I supposed to heal her and make sure she doesn't get badly hurt?"
"You're overreacting," Professor Oak said walking over to the girl. He had no medical equipment as far as I can tell.
"What do you mean? We shouldn't be making girls fight to unconsciousness."
Professor Oak kneeled down, which was a bit of a struggle at his age. He lowered his head to hers.
"Get up, Bella! It's time for ice cream."
She sat right up. "Yes, Sam. I'll get the bowls and silverware ready." Soon Bella was out of the room.
It took me a while, a full four seconds before I responded. "Was that entire thing was pretend?"
"At this stage of a pokemon development, they care more about being cute than actually fighting. They won't be like this at the league. It's just part of how they grow, apparently." There was uncertainty throughout this simple statement, which was odd from someone in Professor Oak's position. Maybe he did forget the name of his grandchild at some point.
"Okay, so thing are not quite the worst as I thought. And the Master thing?"
"She'll get tired of it."
So after some ice cream and Professor Oak answering a lot of questions, it was off to Route One. Apparently, many trainers from Earth spend nearly all their time up to Mount Moon creating adventures from their own expectations, and that the pokemon tend to play along. Professor Oak was more than willing to answers my questions, although he seemed uncharacteristically absolute about some of them. Pokemon always looked like this.
Five minutes after leaving the lab, I figure out which direction north was and got onto the rural path to the next city.
"Oh my God. Look at the little pidgey," I said out loud again.
Pink hair with a big brown hat, like a mailman's hat, but with brown and white wings on her back. Her hair was like Nonon's hair from Kill La Kill, and she looked a lot like Mystia from Touhou. Her clothes were complex with brown shoulder covers and feathers in her hat. Why is it that the random pokemon look more interesting than the starters?
"Give me all your money, human! This is a hold up," Mail Lady Nanon Lorelei said handing making a gun sign.
"I'll protect you from this criminal," Bella said.
"Bella, our money is digital cryptocurrency, and we aren't conductors on a train."
"Master decided on a name. I'm so happy; I make next hit a critical!"
"Um Bubble?" I said. Bella made a gun with her hand and a large amount of bubbles came out of her sleeve. They were nowhere near what could be considered weaponized though.
The pidgey dodged, although it was more a of choice than real dodge.
"That was only a diversion!" Bella said tackling the pidgey.
"No, too strong! Your master trained you well," said the pinned pinkette. Actually, that is a horrible word that I'm ashamed to have thought.
Bella got off the bird girl a jump up into the air. "We won! Aren't you proud, Master?"
"Yes. You did well."
"My first praise from Master!" Bella turned to see the pidgey flying away. "Hmm, she managed to escape. She won't be as lucky next time."
"Next time?"
"Yeah, even the most hardened villains can be redeem. If you use a pokeball next time, I'm sure we can rehabilitate her."
I did have pokeballs, but I was consciously trying to avoid catching things based on cuteness. Pidgey isn't that bad of a pokemon, a far as I knew. I really need this world's version of the internet if I am to make decisions that will allow me to become a pokemon master, as in a person who can make a living doing pokemon battles. This means making the smartest decisions early on and using logic thinking. At least I've been quite desensitized to the oversaturation of cuteness this world has.
"Oh my God! Look at the little rattata!"