I had to. I had to do it. So many Pokemon/Librarians headcanons floating around Tumblr, and I've spent more evenings in a park lately than I care to admit, so...I had to do it. Whether you play or not, you'll find someone to relate to in this story, so enjoy this nice little teamfic!
Jacob Stone walked into the Annex to find the main clippings book rattling with magic on its stand. Despite the book's plea for attention, the room was quiet. The only one around was Colonel Eve Baird, who was sitting across the room at the desk she shared with Flynn, nursing a cup of coffee and reading the latest copy of TIME magazine.
"Uh, Baird?" he asked. "We gonna do something about that?"
"I would love to do something about that," Baird said. "Your fellow Librarians, however…"
Before Stone could ask what she meant, Cassandra burst through the Back Door with a triumphant, "Yes!"
Cassandra scurried over to the clear marker board that was usually covered in case notes. She picked up a blue marker, pulled out her phone, and wrote down some numbers. With a giggle, she capped the marker and headed back over to the globe that controlled the Back Door.
"Wow, you cleaned up in DC," Baird said. Her words said impressed, but her tone was deadpan as the clippings book continued to scream for someone's attention.
"Botanical Gardens and the National Mall," Cassandra said, waving her hands in front of her body. "It's a hotbed!"
Before she could offer any other words of explanation, she was gone. Upon her departure through the Back Door, Baird sighed and took another sip of her coffee. It was then that Stone examined their former case board. Cassandra's blue numbers filled the middle. Red numbers were scribbled on the left in Ezekiel's barely legible scrawl, and yellow numbers in Flynn's handwriting filled the right side of the board. He didn't know what the numbers were, but whatever they were playing, Cassandra seemed to be winning, with, surprisingly, Flynn hot on her heels.
"Uh, Baird…what's going on?" Stone asked.
"It's all Jones's fault," Baird sighed.
"Well, I assumed as much, but what are all these numbers…and why are we ignorin' the book?" Stone asked.
"Those colors and numbers really don't mean anything to you?" Baird asked, a little bit of hope evident in her voice.
"Uh…no?" Stone said, his inflection posing a bit of a question.
"Oh, thank god," Baird sighed. She sat up in her chair and tossed the magazine aside. "They're all obsessed with that damn game."
Before she could explain further, Jenkins wandered into the room. He fiddled with the globe near the Back Door, then turned to Baird. "Is Mr. Jones here?" he asked.
"No," Baird shrugged. Jenkins glanced down at his own phone and sighed. "Oh, come on, Jenkins! Not you, too!"
"What?" Jenkins asked. "Oh, no, I can assure you, Colonel Baird, certainly not. I just need to have a word with Mr. Jones when he returns, so I think I'll wait here."
"What'd he do?" Baird asked.
"He posted an image of himself and a cartoon blue turtle in the Sydney Harbor followed by an image of himself and a…well, I have no idea what this is…at the Coliseum twenty minutes later," Jenkins sighed. "I have told him before. He cannot post things like this on a public forum."
The Back Door rumbled, depositing Flynn face-first onto the floor of the Annex. He stood up, spun around to make sure he was really safe and sound, and brushed himself off. He nodded towards the room's new arrivals. He was dirty and sweaty with a tear in one of his jacket's sleeves, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Stone. Jenkins," he said. He looked at Baird and smiled. "Hello, Eve."
"That doesn't look like staying alive, Librarian!" Baird scolded.
"But…but…he...he ran off the beaten path!" Flynn sighed. "A rare one, Eve."
"Doesn't mean you have to follow him," Baird pointed out. "Him? It? What's the proper pronoun here?"
"Where's Cassandra?" Flynn asked, ignoring Baird's question and scribbling a few numbers on the board in yellow.
"Not here," Stone shrugged. "She disappeared through the door a few minutes ago."
"Fabulous. Her Jolteon is going down!" Flynn declared. "If you see her, you can tell her that her gym is mine."
"Y'all are ignoring a case for an around the world game of Pokémon?" Stone asking, finally putting two and two together.
"Gotta catch 'em all, Stone!" Flynn called as he ran towards the park outside of the Annex. He stopped, popped back into the doorway and added, "Well, okay, I'm taking a break from the catching contest to knock Cassandra out of her gym, but then…then, it's gotta catch 'em all."
Baird hung her head as the clippings book sensed the Librarian's presence in the room and rattled some more. Once again, its pleas went unanswered.
Stone glanced at the marker board again. "It's the teams," he deduced. "Cassandra's Mystic, Ezekiel's Valor, and Flynn's Instinct. I guess that all makes sense."
"Oh god, you are playing," Baird groaned.
"No, I'm…I'm not," Stone said.
"Yeah, which team are you on?" Baird asked.
"I didn't get that far…" Stone muttered. "But I would've picked Mystic."
Before Baird could heckle him a little more, the Back Door rumbled again, depositing Ezekiel into the room. Jenkins stood up.
"Mr. Jones," he said sternly, like a father who had been waiting for his kid to get home past curfew.
"Jenkins," Ezekiel called. He strolled over to the board and wrote down a single red number on his side. Baird and Stone both frowned.
"Mr. Jones, we have discussed your social posting habits before," Jenkins reminded him. "Posting two images from opposite sides of the globe twenty minutes apart is not a good idea."
"Hey, there's no guarantee they're both from today!" Ezekiel said in defense.
"You're wearing the same outfit in both images, Mr. Jones," Jenkins pointed out.
"So, come on, no one's going to believe it's real," he said, resetting the Globe. He swung the door open to head back out. "Well, except my thousands of followers, because they know I'm awesome."
"You only got one new Pokémon?" Baird teased. "You're slacking, Jones. Even Flynn came back with four this time."
Ezekiel scoffed. "I have a better plan than trying to catch them all like those amateurs," Ezekiel said. "What's that you always say, Colonel? Work smarter, not harder?"
"What are you going for then?" Stone asked.
"Gyms!" Ezekiel said. "I'm going to catch and trade all the Pidgeys for Pidgey candy and evolve myself the strongest Pidgeot I can obtain. Cassandra's Joleton better watch its back because Team Valor is coming for her. I know it's a magic Library, but I'm not going to let Mystic control it."
"The Library is a gym?" Stone asked.
"Not quite," Ezekiel said. "The Library exists on some sort of something something magic plane, so the GPS doesn't register in here. The Annex door, however…"
"Is a gym," Stone deduced.
"I don't know what that means, but that's going to be a problem for us, isn't it?" Baird said with a groan.
"Only if Cassandra thinks she's going to keep control of it," Ezekiel said.
"What if Flynn gains control?" Baird asked.
"Team Instinct? That's cute," Ezekiel said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a cluster of birds in Brazil to catch."
"Mr. Jones," Jenkins said again. "Please promise me that you will not Facegram any more around the world pictures."
"Okay," Ezekiel said with a sly grin. "I solemnly swear I will not Facegram any Pokémon related images."
"That's all I ask," Jenkins said, and Ezekiel disappeared through the door. "Well, that was simple."
"Face…book," Baird said with an amused look on her face. "Instagram. He just agreed not to post on a social network that doesn't exist."
Jenkins simply sighed his frustration at himself and his disapproval of the situation in general. "So, Mr. Stone, how have you been my only Librarian fortune enough to escape this madness?"
"Can't throw the damn Pokeball to save my life," Stone muttered. "Ran out trying, and there ain't any Pokestops near my place."
"A Pokestop?" Jenkins asked.
"Yeah, they're just spots…landmarks. You get supplies."
"Good lord, the lines at those stops must be astronomical," Jenkins pondered. Stone and Baird, who knew enough about the game to know that's not quite how it worked, both stifled a chuckle.
Baird's phone buzzed, and she wandered over to the globe to change its location setting. Once she was done, Cassandra came back through the door. With a simple thanks to Baird, she wandered over to the marker board again.
"Hey, Cassandra," Baird said, grinning over at Stone. "What's your accuracy rate with Pokecage throws?"
"Pokeball throws?" Cassandra said with a laugh. "Approximately 93 percent. That's kind of low for me, but I think the app is designed to mess up your throws every once in a while. Why?"
"No reason," Stone grumbled as Baird laughed. The clippings book rumbled again, finally drawing Cassandra's attention.
"Oh! There's a case?" Cassandra asked. "Why didn't you say something?"
"That's been rattling for over an hour, and you just now noticed?" Baird asked.
"Oh please," Cassandra said with a disbelieving wave of her hand. "It couldn't have been that long. Where's everyone else?"
"Ezekiel is out catching pigeons or something, and Flynn said to tell you your Jolt-something is going down," Baird said.
"Oh, no, he is not!" Cassandra exclaimed, racing out of the Annex's main room for the park outside.
"And we lost her," Baird sighed, letting herself fall back into her chair. "I swear, they get one day of this, and then the military in me is coming out."
The clippings book rattled again, more violently this time.
"You know…" Stone finally said. "We don't really need them, and if we do, we could always say we saw a Dratini at the case site or somethin'."
"Gonna pretend I know what that means," Baird said, standing. She and Stone peered over the book, which had finally settled now that Librarian and Guardian were checking out the new case of magical mayhem.
"Can we?" Stone asked.
"Gotta be better than this," Baird said. Stone hopped up and moved to the globe to set up their location as Baird called, "Jenkins! You're officially on Pokémon door duty!"
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