The next great Pokémon adventure

He watched as the world fell apart. It wasn't the first time. Far from it in fact. The cycle of civilization was as predictable as the tides. Rise and fall. Build and destroy.

Nothing was ever learned, not really. Not in the ten thousand years that he'd been watching.

And that was just the ten thousand years he'd been watching. That didn't include the millennium in which he'd been among them.

Them, humans, the dominant species, for all the good it did them. For all the good it had done him.

"And so, once again it ends."

The tired immortal looked up at the hooded figure briefly before returning his attention to the world below.

"Yes. As it always does. As it always must."

"You didn't always think that" said the hood.

"I was young and foolish" he said, "We weren't all created old and wise like you Thanatos."

The god of death smiled, "What is age to one who is ageless?"

"A stupid way to keep score."

The hooded god chuckled at his companion, "You're in one of those moods today, are you Harry?"

Harry sighed, "Forgive me. I'm just tired."

"Nothing to forgive my friend" the god of death said, "though I wonder at what troubles you here. It is not he first time you have watched mankind implode like this."

No, it wasn't. He'd been at the center of such an implosion twice.

"Does it never bother you?" he asked, "How they never seem to learn. All the mistakes, every single one, repeated over and over again. It never changes. It never ends."

"But is this not the nature of man" said Thanatos.

"Perhaps" Harry allowed, "but is it too much to hope they could be better."

"If they could not, they would never have built so much in the first place."

"It's just depressing" said Harry, "To see them rise so high only to fall so low, and to do it again and again."

"It is difficult for you" said Thanatos, "For you were once one of them. You see their failing as your failing. You take it too personally."

"And you do not" said Harry matter-of-factly.

"Indeed. I have never been of them, never been like them. And while I can feel empathy for their suffering, I better than any know, all must one day end."

"All but me" said Harry bitterly.

Thanatos nodded, "The great exception. A fluke in the grand scheme of the universe. Which is too bad. I much prefer haddock over fluke."

Harry gave a slight snort at the terrible joke. He'd heard it before, many times. He appreciated the effort though.

Thanatos was probably the only reason he was still sane after ten thousand years. No mortal was ever meant to live so long. Even a remade immortal wore out.

He'd once spoken to the Flamel's and asked them how they'd coped with their many centuries of life.

"Stay busy" they'd said.

He'd tried. The gods knew he'd tried. For two thousand years he'd tried. But by that point he'd run out of things to try and any interest in finding more.

"Suppose we'll see anything new this time around?" he wondered aloud.

"Not down on that rock, I guarantee."

The two turned to the third who had appeared out of nowhere. They weren't surprised. Deity's of every stripe came to Mimir's Well all the time. The fact neither recognized this one was hardly cause for concern, there were so many minor gods and goddesses it was impossible to keep track of them all.

"Can we help you?" asked Harry when the being in the fancy suit just stared at them.

"Actually young man, it is I who am here to help you."

Harry quirked a brow at the entity's statement. Firstly, because it had been a very long time since he could have been considered 'young'. Secondly because he had no idea what problem the man was referring to.

"And who are you, precisely?" asked Thanatos, entirely unperturbed by the situation.

"Oh, no one important" said the entity, "just a minor employee with the offices of Fate and Destiny."

Harry groaned. The most emotion he'd shown in the past century.

"I have already told those grabby goddesses that I am not interested. They can find someone else to satisfy their urges."

Thanatos snickered inside his hood while the representative cleared his throat, "Yes well, despite there being a standing order for all agents to extend the offer, that's not why I'm here."

Harry didn't like a number of things with that statement but decided he could deal with them later in favor of, "Why are you here?"

"I'm actually from one of the lower offices in charge of questing heroes and minor chosen ones."

"I see" and people thought human bureaucracy was bad, "and your office is interested in me because?"

"As a moderately successful chosen one in your time you have a proven track record that we would like to make us of."

Taking a moment to translate, "You want me to go back down there and play hero again" he surmised without enthusiasm.

"Oh no" said the suit, "We want to reincarnate you here."

The images in the well blurred then clarified. Harry squinted at the image.

"It looks exactly the same" he said.

"Only at a distance" said the suit, zooming in from the sky view to a more terrestrial angle.

"I see."

"Interesting, isn't it" said the suit, "there's no magic of course, at least, no humans anyway."

"And what was this about reincarnation. You may not have heard but I'm excluded from the wheel of rebirth" it was why he was where he was.

"There is some leniency in that actually."

Harry looked at the suit skeptically, "Thanatos?"

"He's not wrong."

Harry's eyes went wide, "Are you serious?"

The hood nodded, "The original system was designed for a single world, limited numbers. The first time it crashed was after world three had its first major crisis. The system was patched together and chugged along till world nine when it happened again."

"Good grief."

"Yes. Every crash has required more fixes and with each fix have come new loopholes meant to help prevent such a crash from occurring again."

"I see" Which he did, all too well, "So you want to use one of these loopholes to put me into this world, to do what exactly?"

"Nothing, exactly" said the suit, "as a minor chosen one you're likely to be involved in numerous world moving events. Though not necessarily the key player your contribution to any such scenario will be considerable."

"Sounds like you want me to be someone's sidekick."

The suit shrugged, "I'm not privy to the details."

Of course not, thought Harry, "What do you think Thanatos."

"Might do you some good to be among your own kind again."

It might, he thought. Even if it didn't, a human life wasn't especially long.

"What happens should I die."

"The body will do what bodies do and your soul will return here. A soul like yours would never be able to go through the wheel the normal way. I can only imagine the trouble if we tried."

"They would not be pleased" agreed Thanatos.

He considered the offer. It wasn't bad. It did feel a bit like being the goddess's plaything but so long as they didn't go climbing into his bed.

"Alright, I'll do it."

"We rather hoped you would" said the suit, and with a snap of the fingers Harry was off on his next great adventure.

Today was the day. A great day. A glorious day. The day all young men dreamed of. It was 'the' day.

It was also 4 a.m. so saying it was 'day' may have been a slight stretch. But Harry didn't care. He was used to the days starting early. It just meant he could fit more into them.

He rolled out of bed and hopped over to his desk where he'd laid out his clothes. The rest were already safely stored in his pack.

He had just donned his trusty cap when he heard a noise outside his window.

"Anybody awake in there!"

Sticking his head out he spotted a familiar face, "You're early!" he hollered.

The man looked up, "That you Harry?"

Harry chuckled, "Yeah! Just back it up to the door, I'll be down in a sec."

He left the window and scampered down the stairs to meet the delivery man.

A Pokémon lab had to feed a lot of Pokémon and as the assistant/ward of Prof. Larch, it was his job to take care of it. For one more day at least.

He and the driver were old friends and they had the truck unloaded within an hour.

"Spose this'll be the last time I see you" he said, as Harry scribbled his name over the invoices.

"For a while" he said, "I'm sure I'll be back at some point."

"If you don't get eaten by wild Pokémon."

Harry gave the snarky jackass a look as he handed back the paperwork, "Very funny Kyle."

The sun was just rising as the truck pulled away and he went about his usual breakfast ritual. Not his own breakfast but breakfast for all the labs Pokémon.

It was daunting task, if not for the number then certainly for the variety. He was just pouring out the last of the bowls for the small Pokémon when he heard the first car pull up.

Seemed like he wasn't the only one excited for the day.

By the time he got to the lab they were all assembled.

"Mornin boys."

"Aye Harry" said Seamus.

"Mornin Harry" said Dean.

"Uh, good morning Harry" mumbled Neville.

"Good morning boys, nice to see you all" said Professor Larch as he walked into the lab.

A round of good mornings followed as the professor stepped up to a podium with three familiar balls on it.

"So, who wants a Pokémon?"

The four boys laughed. So did the professor.

"Alright, Dean, Seamus, Neville, come pick yours."

There were only three balls. Another boy might have been worried, but Harry knew better he'd seen the old man pull that trick before.

"Gotta go with the fire type" declared Seamus, picking the Torchic.

"Squirtle. Gotta be Squirtle" said Dean.

"Then, I guess I'll take the Chicorita" mumbled Neville.

"Well that's that then. Oh Harry, it seems as though I don't have a Pokémon for you."

Harry gave his guardian a very skeptical look.

"No, no I mean it. Completely slipped my mind."

"Uh huh" it's like he wasn't even trying.

He tried to keep a straight face, but the cracks showed through quick enough, "Well, there is that one I got in. Spose you could have that."

"Spose I could" said Harry, stepping up to the podium as a fourth pokéball emerged.

"What's inside?" asked Dean.

"Yeah, what'cha get?" said Seamus.

Neville didn't ask but Harry could tell he was just as curious as the others. So was he.

Pressing the release button, he let his new Pokémon out of its ball.

"Whoa!" the four boys awed in unison.

The small yellow rodent looked back at the four boys nonplussed, "Pika?"

It was amazing, fantastic. Pikachu weren't native to the Isles. Harry didn't know how his guardian had gotten a hold of one, but he couldn't be happier.

"Well, now that that's settled, go forth, a world of adventure awaits you. Your very own Pokémon legend is about to begin."