Quick Notes: I am very sorry this took so long. Things got in the way, but it shouldn't happen again. The next chapter should be up by the end of the week, and new chapters should be weekly. Ang a big thank you to Soupy for helping with this chapter!
Chapter 2
"Oh, fuck. This has to be some weird joke," Looking around, Meri took in her surroundings. In front of her was a wall with a small window, it also had a dresser and a bookshelf lined up next to each other. To her right was a carpet set on the wooden tile floor, while to her left was just a plain wall. Behind her there was, from right to left, a red clock, a TV on a stand, a Game Cube with a controller, a small painting, and a desk with a chair facing to the right. On the desk was a computer and an open book.
This looked so familiar, as though she'd seen it somewhere before, so many times. Then it clicked, This looks just like the girl's room from Sapphire! But this can't actually be that room, right? Which means somebody moved me after I fell asleep to mess with me. It must have been Paige, since I haven't told anyone else I bought Sapphire.When did I even go to sleep? I remember playing and then… Thinking hard to remember what happened once she got home, she retraced her steps. Everything seemed normal, besides the slightly weird art on the front of the game. Playing it was fine until…until… The glitch! Then that weird message came up… But that was just a hacker—
"Meri, come on, you're going to be late to the Professor's lab if you sleep in!" The same woman's voice as before was much closer now, causing her to jump from her sitting position in the bed.
"What?" She looked over to where the voice came from to see a slender, somewhat older woman with medium-length brown hair standing at her door. "That's not my name…" she mumbled.
The woman looked a little concerned. "Well, of course it is, dear. You must have had some strange dreams!" She giggled a little. "Now hurry downstairs and eat so you can get your journey started on the right foot!" She gave one last smile before closing the door and walking away.
She said that like she was my mom or something… She sat there for a few minutes longer before making up her mind. Okay, I'll play along with this until they're done with this joke. She was in pajamas, so she got out of the bed and peeled her clothes off, which gently swished against her skin, then left them where she dropped them.
The dresser contents looked pretty different from what she was used to. Whereas she preferred dark colors, especially blue, a lot of what was in here was light or various shades of red. Besides that much of the clothes were pretty revealing: short skirts and very low cut scoop necks were plentiful. There were a couple higher cut shirts that would do in the very bottom of her drawer. She settled on a tank top with thick white and light blue stripes and a big bow in the middle for her top. Dark blue skinny jeans would look good with it. Now she just needed to follow her nose to where breakfast was being made.
When she stepped into the kitchen, she saw that there was a full plate of pancakes with some blue syrup, a small unfamiliar-looking fruit, bacon, and a glass of milk. The lady who woke her up earlier was sitting there, reading a newspaper while drinking what looked to be a brown liquid from a light green mug.
"It's about time you got down here, dear; I was really starting to worry. Did you sleep okay?" Her voice was still radiating warmth like before.
There was a pause before she answered the question in a disinterested tone. "…uh, no, not really."
The woman's face was suddenly crestfallen, and her voice matched. "Aw, I'm sorry to hear that, dear." But the cheeriness was back just as quickly. "All the more reason to eat a good breakfast!"
The conversation was very one-sided. The lady kept on asking questions about this Pokémon journey that was supposedly going to happen. At first, her answers were short and forced, but soon, she was playing along with it all. "I went on a journey of my own, too. I know I've told you before, but even though your mom only got three badges, it was…"
She just let the lady, who had now referred to herself as "mom", go on about her younger days while she ate the food that had been presented to her, nodding and giving other simple responses at the appropriate times. The fruit, which looked sort of like a bright blue apple, tasted like and orange, oddly enough. I've gotta admit it though, this lady is a really good actor! It's like she actually cares about the things I'm saying and believes what she's saying. A lot of planning must have gone into the script… Mmm, blueberry syrup.
"Uh oh, it's almost nine o' clock! You better get going to the lab or you won't get first choice out of the Pokémon the professor has this year!" The woman looked a little panicked while getting up from her chair. "I'm sorry, honey, I shouldn't been keeping you here with my stories when you have to go out and make your own now!"
Projecting an outwardly cynical attitude, 'Meri' could feel the knot in her stomach growing exponentially. "Meri", as her "mom" had been calling her, let herself be hurried off into the alien world by this frantic woman. "Right, I forgot! Thanks for breakfast!" Meri chimed with false sincerity.
Meri ran to what she assumed to be the front door and opened it, but before she could step out and get away from this woman, she called out, "Hey, don't forget your backpack," she giggled a little before finishing her thought, "It would be a shame if you left it here after spending so much time picking it out!" This caused the young girl to turn around and saw that her mom was pointing just a few feet to the right of her at a large red backpack with lots of large and small hidden pockets, pouches, and straps. It seemed to have a huge capacity that was beyond the eye's first judgment.
Picking it up, she found that while it was lighter than expected, there was a decent quantity of items inside already. With the bag on her shoulders and the straps pulled tight, she was off and running without a word, the door slamming shut behind her.
Not really paying attention to where she was going, Meri tried to look for anything familiar, but couldn't place anything. The houses were of completely different styles from where she lived. They all had flat roofs and somewhat rounded edges. She also noticed that the whole area was covered in grass. No city or town she had been to in the past had been like this. No cars were around either. All things that were oddly and coincidentally similar to home town of Sapphire's main character.
After a while of not seeing anything familiar, she stopped. "Okay, this isn't helping," she thought aloud, "Maybe the Professor's Lab is where I'll be told it's just a prank. But where is it? Crap, I'm going to have ask someone." It took a little bit more walking before she came across anyone. It happened to be a tall and fat guy wearing a bright blue shirt. He looked groggy and his hair was really messed up, but he was the only guy who was around. "Excuse me sir, would you happen to know where the Professor's Lab is?"
It was a few seconds before he started. "Uhhh, its, you know, uhhhh…" this was going nowhere. Then after several more seconds of what appeared to be him thinking very hard, he pointed, "That way! Yeah… Like, a mile that way. But didn't you already know that, kid?"
"Yeah, sure, thanks!" She said before leaving. Damnit. Besides that the guy had taken forever to give her an answer, he pointed the exact opposite direction that she had been going. At least it had given her a little time to catch her breath. She kept running in the direction he had pointed, passing the house she had woken up in along the way.
Doubt was starting to creep in when she came across a large building not too far ahead. It was two stories high and pretty wide. When she got to the front of the building a minute later, she came to a stop in front of a sign while putting her hands on her knees and panting. Welcome to the Lab of Hoenn's Pokémon Professor, Professor Birch!
Well, I guess this must be it, then. Gathering herself despite the exhaustion from running all the way there, she nervously walked over to the set of big glass doors and pulled open the one on the right and stepped inside.
It looked familiar, but not in the way that she had hoped it would. A computer and desk were set up on each side of the room. On the left were a few massive bookshelves with an uncountable amount of equally massive books. On the right side of the room was a circular machine with a bright red cover on top. Various boxes, some stacked or open, were also scattered around.
A couple men and a woman were running around, typing into the computers, observing the machine that would glow on top and make odd noises, and then writing things down with intense focus in their eyes. Man, they're really trying to sell this lab thing, aren't they?
"Hey, it looks like there is one more!" It wasn't until one of the young men came over that she realized they were referring to her. "Hold up for just a moment everyone." There were groans of annoyance around the laboratory, causing Meri to feel embarrassed for some reason. "Hey, I was told all of the new trainers had come through already. Sorry about that. I'll show you to the Professor, Miss."
The scientist had his dark blue hair combed to the sides and gelled down. His glasses were dirty and made his brown eyes appear muddy and kind of sad. They didn't talk after the initial greeting, and thankfully, the Professor wasn't far away since the door was just at the far end of the room, so things didn't have enough time to get awkward between them. "Right in here, Miss."
The man held the door open for her. She felt a little weird with all his formality. "Um, thanks," a moment later she awkwardly added, "sir." But the door was pretty much closed and he probably hadn't heard anyways.
"Ah, I was wondering where you were, Meri," she could see a man with brown hair with a brown beard and a rather large head was looking at her about ten feet away. He looked exactly like Professor Birch did. I guess the costumes are really good, too? "You were the last person I expected to be late!"
"Yeah, I had kind of an odd morning…" she grumbled.
Professor Birch just smiled, apparently trying to comfort her. "Well, just because you had a late start, doesn't mean you can't still be a great trainer, like my son, Brendan." There was clearly a ton of pride in both his eyes and his voice as he spoke; they were both glowing. "You might even be able to become a Champion one day like him. Perhaps Littleroot could have two Hoenn League Champions, two world-famous trainers! If you can beat him of course!" He was heartily laughing now. Okay, you can cut the act now…
"Well, anyways, I suppose I should give you your Pokémon now so that you can catch up with all the other seven kids who have already left," the Professor said before nervously scratching the back of his head. "But unfortunately, because you were the last to get here, I only have one Pokémon left. It's over there on the table."
His finger pointed to his left, her right, where there was a shiny ball sitting in a form-fitting impression. It was metal: red on top, white on bottom, and in the center, a small circular button. A Pokéball. A really realistic one…
"You know what to do," the man standing next to her urged, "Just press the button in the center and meet your new friend!"
Mhmmm, right, let's see what really happens. And then her jaw dropped open. There was a red line of light that turned into a small shape. And then right before her stood a Pokémon. Not one that she had seen before, but it obviously wasn't any animal she'd seen before. This was really a Pokémon. In her head now, red flags and blaring alarms were going off everywhere. It couldn't be denied anymore. Nonononononononono, this can't be right!
"Well, would you like to name your new Oshawott, Meri?" The Professor again looked at her with that encouraging look. So this was the real Professor Birch speaking to her. And she was in the real Littleroot Town. In the real Hoenn. Holding a real Pokéball, that had just spit out an actual Pokémon.
"Uh… Not yet…" Meri managed to get out after a few seconds of stammering. The creature, what had just been called an Oshawott, standing before her must have been a newer Pokémon.
It looked up to her, and with an adorable voice, mewed, "Oooshhh." It almost looked like it was smiling. It looked kind of strange though. It's nose was red, it had blue ears on the side of its head that almost looked like little tufts of hair. Where had she seen something like that before… Oh yeah, he looked like Krusty the Klown from The Simpsons! Except a little otter, standing in front of her, and she could touch it. If it wasn't for the total shock of things, she'd probably be laughing pretty hard right now.
"And don't forget! You also get a Pokédex and these five Pokéballs to get you started!" The Professor said, handing her the shrunk-down balls as well as the red device. It looked like it opened, but right now didn't feel like the time to check.
Thanks…Professor…" She just stared at the items in her hands in confusion and wonder.
He put his arm on Meri's back, surprising her, before guiding her towards the door. "Now, that you have the basic supplies, you're ready to go. I wish you the absolute best of luck, young trainer, on what is sure to be an amazing journey full of…"
Meri stopped paying attention mid-speech and was lost in the panicking deluge of her brain's thoughts. Everything was whirling so fast that she was unable to grasp on to any single thought before it was knocked out of the way by another. Without realizing it, she was outside the lab again, this time with Professor Birch's hand on her shoulder.
"…and remember to stay in touch with your mom so she doesn't worry, and fill out your Pokédex for me!" He chuckled at his last statement. "Well, that's all I have to say. Goodbye, Meri!"
The door was shut a moment later, leaving the confused girl standing there with her mouth still slightly ajar. "But, that's not my name…"
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