CrossWorld

by Corpj123

After a boy is transported to the Pokemon World, via circumstances mysterious to him, he sets out, determined to return to his homeworld. [Discontinued.]

2. Chapter 1

It had started as a lot of stories do, on a day that was mundane, boring, and like any other. I was a senior in high school back then, and had no idea what I was going to do when I finished normal schooling. Most people say go to college.

I didn't share the same love for college that they did.

I looked at it as a deathtrap, at least, for me. I didn't have completely terrible grades, and wasn't really stupid, by any sense of the word, but at the same time, my grades weren't something you'd write home about, and my test scores weren't anything that you'd marvel at, either, to say the least.

By that, I meant they were shitty.

But what all of this resulted in was a lot of money that would probably have to be paid in order for me to go college. Loans, all kinds of bills and fees, not to mention the cash black-hole that was tuition, at least at any decent college that was worth attending.

My parents, while decently well-off, certainly couldn't afford to send me to any college. It'd break the bank for sure, and I didn't even really want to go college, anyway. In a way, my bad grades were good for me.

It still didn't help the fact that I had no idea what to do with my life after school, though. In addition to having a few friends at high school, and none else, besides people I chatted with online- but they didn't count, not really, anyway- I didn't have a girlfriend either. My life was really going nowhere, fast.

And then, in mid-April of my senior year, it all changed.

XxXxX

The bleep of my alarm clock woke me up as it blared in the hellish morning. Groaning, I felt around on my windowsill for the switch. It took me a few tries to find it, but I managed to turn it off. The evil noise ceased at once, and I was left lying on my blue bed in the dark, comforting silence of my bedroom.

How did the universe even keep turning, or exist, at a time this early?

I didn't know. But I sure did curse about it as I got up and stumbled through the shadows of the house. Due to my exhaustion, and incoherent state, it took me nearly thirty seconds to get to my bathroom, despite the fact that it was almost directly next to my room.

I let my bladder relax and relieved myself, before flushing the yellow toilet water, and looking at my disheveled appearance in the mirror. I looked the same as I always did- just about, I suppose. Long blonde hair, with bed head, brown eyes, and bags under them- when weren't there bags under my eyes? - With white tan skin, and drool sticking to the side of my mouth.

Perfect. I looked ready for the day.

Yeah, right. I stumbled back in my room for a minute, to grab a pair of clean boxers- I didn't really feel like going to school with dirty underwear- before walking back into the small bathroom. I left the boxers hanging off of the towel rack next to the towels, and then promptly hopped into the shower. I sighed in delight as the warm water woke me up, but not too fast. It wasn't jarring, but instead, soothing.

I enjoyed taking long showers, but usually, I didn't get to. People in the house started getting up soon after me and I couldn't hog the shower forever, despite an intense want to do so. I took the time to clean up as fast as I could, and, lo and behold, it was only perhaps ten minutes later when someone started banging on the door.

"Get out!" The voice screeched. I was already hurrying, washing the shampoo suds out of my hair, and then I heard the voice scream gain, before huffing and waiting a little bit longer. I jumped out as fast as I could and dried myself in record time, throwing my boxers on as I did so.

The second I opened the door, Mira, my twelve year old sister, stormed into the bathroom and pushed me out with what was surprising strength for a prepubescent girl. I rolled my eyes at her drama. It wasn't anything that could be considered new- perhaps she just woke up more bitchy than normal this morning.

I finished getting dressed in my bedroom and went out into the living room/kitchen combo that we had in our house. Our house was small, for four people, but it was definitely cozy and homey, and I had never minded the space before. My father was already up.

He was an older man, waiting out in the living room for breakfast to cook as he tended to it. He had no facial hair, because he kept it shaved. But he was hairy on his head, although it had started getting sparser as of late. He had a light brown bed-head and tanned skin, and was already dressed for work.

He smiled at me when I walked out, but otherwise stayed silent as he fried many eggs in the frying pan, and, in the toaster, he toasted what must've been the fourth or fifth pair of bread slices, judging by the fairly large pile that was already present on a plain white plate next to the toaster. He always cooked and did the household chores because he was a stay-at-home dad- dressed for work in a white t-shirt, jeans, and an apron.

My mother was the real breadwinner of the family: with a job like a high position in a company, it was no surprise she was able to earn most of the money for the household herself. My dad wasn't completely unemployed- he played around on the stock market and did the occasional odd job, but he mostly stayed home.

I secretly thought sometimes that he would've liked to have a job, but the economy wasn't the greatest, anyway, and it seemed like no one was ever hiring.

He grinned again as he moved the eggs in the pan. He didn't let it affect him.

We had a long commute to school, which was part of the reason we woke up so early. Mira got out of the shower not long after, and waited for breakfast with me on the couch.

I was dressed pretty simply- a long-sleeved shirt, blue, with faded jeans that were light blue from repeated use. Our school didn't have a required uniform policy, but it did have light guidelines that we had to follow: no short shorts, skirts had to be a certain length, no curse words on clothing- things like that.

Mira had just started 6th grade this year, and looked like an adorable little scamp, even if she did bitch and moan a lot. She had her hair in a bun and had a twirling skirt with a dress shirt that always seemed to stick to her neck, like it was too tight. The elementary and middle school that she and I went to had a dress code, but the high school didn't. It didn't make much sense, but oh well. I'd long since given up understanding life.

Much less girls- both seemed impossible, at the best of times.

Before long, Dad had finished up breakfast, and doled out portions onto our plates. We ate eagerly and quietly, at the table early in the morning. There wasn't much energy in any of us today, and nothing was said. Mom would get up later, and eat the still warm breakfast that Dad always left in the microwave.

Today, along with the eggs and toast, Dad had made some scrumptious bacon that we devoured heartily, and before long, we were ready to go. Mira and I fought over the bathroom in the hurry to brush our teeth, but I ended up winning, as I usually did.

Rushing around, I managed to grab my phone and my bookbag as we got ready to leave. I gave one last glance to my house as we got ready to leave. My mom, tired but smiling, with her beautiful black hair, hung out of the door, and waved us goodbye as we left the house.

I waved back at her as we drove away.

Little did I know, I wouldn't be seeing my house or my Mom for again for a long, long time. Or my Dad, or my sister.

No, I wouldn't be seeing them for a while.

XxXxX

Dad dropped me off at my high school after dropping off Mira first. I smiled at the SUV as it pulled away. Dad was going back home, now. I turned and faced my high school, glancing at the name printed in huge, fading letters on the outside.

Pyre Senior High was the school I attended. I'd been going here for four years. I only had three real friends here that had similar interests to mine- and I was going to meet with them, right now. Jack, Matt, and Terry- the three guys I most identified with, and knew the closest.

It was a daily ritual- meeting my friends early on in the morning. We'd been doing it ever since the end of freshman year. We also usually met up at Terry's house after school, too- talked, played video games, and just generally waste time, not do homework, call each other gay, you know.

It was great.

It was something I looked forward to every day- probably the highlight of my day. It was always good, wholesome fun, and it was a good way to spend my time. Like me, my friends were equally in the dark about what they'd be doing after high school- but, just like me, they were all pretty chill dudes, in general.

We usually met up in the lunchroom. It was mostly empty in the warm spring morning, and Terry, Jack, and Matt were already there. They seemed to be already talking, as they usually were, and weren't surprised, but still welcomed me when I got to the table.

"Did you guys hear about the sixth generation of Pokemon yet?" I asked as I sat down. It's fairly- no, very- ironic and hilarious that we happened to be talking about Pokemon on the day we were brought to their world. To this day, I still don't know whether or not it was fate, or just random chance.

"Oh, yeah," Terry said. "I saw some of that. Did you get to see MewThree, or whatever it is that they're calling it? It looked pretty badass." Terry was black- light black, with hazel eyes and hair that was cut short. He was wearing a white T-shirt that showed off his muscles- out of all of us, he was the most athletic, though he was only leanly muscled, and not a huge meathead. His pants were a dark blue, that didn't seem to reach all the way down his ankles, and his shoes seemed too tight on him, too.

"I don't even know, man. Call me a gen one-er, if you want to, or even a gen two-er, but I've said it before, and I'll say it again," Matt said, and then he leaned back in his seat, and stretched, before he finished his response, "I've always felt that once Gen Three came out, the games started sucking."

Matt was white like me, but a lighter shade-,and much less tanned. He had on a green jacket with a red undershirt, and jeans that weren't faded. They actually looked like a new pair, if anything. He had a small nose, with facial features that were anything but unusual, and a lanky body type. He was a gen one-er, or a gen two-er, as he said himself, which meant that he only liked Pokemon up to that point, and then he hated it.

"Dude, are you serious? Like, for real?" It was Jack was speaking now, and along with him, the rest of us never really got over Matt's illogical dislike and abhorrence for Gen Three. Jack was Asian, and a white t-shirt hung off his body- he was fairly thin. He wore long pants that bunched up at the bottom- khakis way too lengthy for his legs.

"Come on, man! Dude, Gen Three had Blaziken! It had Sceptile! It had Metagross- and you can't lie, Metagross is badass- and you love dragon Pokemon, and it introduced some new ones- most importantly, Salamence! How exactly is it that Gen Three is your least favorite set of Pokemon games by far, while your favorite 'mon is still Salamence?"

Matt didn't have an answer for that, and Jack lorded it over him even more, if possible.

"See, there's not even a real reason for it! He's just being a stubborn prick. Well, I'll be having fun playing my Emerald and catching my Bagon and Swablu and all kinds of dragon pre-evo's, and you can just sit right there and be jelly, 'kay?"

Jack was really good at being a douchebag, if he wanted to. The way he spoke those words with false cheer was hilarious. Even if Matt or Terry were more intimidating than him, I'd rather never get on Jack's bad side if I could help it.

Jack usually played the most Pokemon out of any of us- and, by far, he played the most competitive. While the rest of us barely kept up with Pokemon, as previously mentioned, Jack was the only one who actively went out and bought and played the newest generations, on a consistent basis. He was a pretty huge Pokefreak.

Like a true try-hard- as we often called him- he had a copy of Pokemon Pearl in the car-slot of his DS, and in his GBA slot he had a worn but playable copy of Pokemon Emerald. Soon, we all heard the starting theme of Pearl playing- strange, as he said he was going to play Emerald. It was a few seconds before I spoke up.

"I thought you were going to play Emerald, not Pearl?" I asked, confused. Everyone else voiced similar thoughts, and Jack nodded, even as he brought out his stylus and started to click through random options that I couldn't see because his DS was turned away from me. Jack replied, though it was clear he was distracted as he spoke, tapping on the screen.

"Yeah, I know. I just wanted to check on my-" He was interrupted as his DS made a loud screeching noise that had us all covering our ears in pain. Jack fumbled about for a moment, trying to turn down the volume, but it wasn't any use. If anything, the volume only got louder over time. Jack reached over for the switch and turned it off, saving us from teenage deafness.

We'd attracted attention, and more than a few kids were looking our way, some amused, some glowering, and some with bored stares that soon looked back to their own tables or their own friends. Soon enough, all the frowns that we'd been receiving for the loud, obnoxious, unbearable sound had ceased. Once all that had transpired, we gave angry, disappointed glares at Jack's DS, all four of us.

Jack said it first.

"Holy shit, man. Talk about a corrupted game cartridge."

He popped the Pearl game out of his DS and looked it over, cautious, inspecting it. He turned it over a few times in his palm, but able to find nothing, popped it back into his DS and sighed. "Well, I don't know what the hell's wrong with it. It's going to suck if that's unfixable. I had a lot of one hundreds and shinies on there. Even my shiny Palkia," he said.

Jack's most prized possession, at least, digitally, though I secretly thought that it was his most prized possession, period. He'd gotten incredibly lucky on his first play through, and had caught it as soon as he saw it with a Master Ball.

"Damn, that's lame, man," I said. It was really strange, though. I'd never heard such a harsh sound come from a DS, or any gaming console, or machine for that matter, and honestly, it just didn't seem normal, not to mention that the weirdest part was how loud it had been- I didn't know a DS could go that loud. It sounded like someone had been screaming into a microphone attached to gigantic speakers designed to blast people's ears out.

Matt and Terry offered comparable words of consolation. Jack only nodded, solemn- which, even though it sucked for him, was kind of funny to see over something like Pokemon- and slid his DS back into his long khaki pants pocket.

We chatted a bit more here and there, but we really didn't have any classes together this year- which sucked- and when the bell rang we were split and forced to go our own separate ways. Jack's DS- and the noise it made were in my mind, and I felt that I could still hear my ears ringing as I walked to class.

If only I'd known how much stranger it was going to get from there.

XxXxXxXx

School, as usual, was mostly uneventful, and in general, boring until lunchtime at midday. I'd trudged through my math and science in the early morning with diligence, and now was being rewarded with time with my friends, the only people in this school that seemed fully sane, at least to me.

We waited in line and idly talked about nothing much at all- and then it was time for us to talk about nothing, but at a table. We all sat down, with our trays, and made small but frequent comments, but didn't really start a conversation until everyone had finished eating. I was last, and I took everyone's trays to the garbage can and came back just as an interesting argument was beginning.

"Julie's ass is obviously much better than Maddie's," Matt stated, as if it was a fact. Terry only shook his head, like he was disappointed in Matt's stupidity, and then pointed over at two girls who were standing, facing away from us. I will admit that I had to at least glance at the posteriors in question, but I couldn't really make up my mind as to which was better. I barely heard their argument at all, as my concentration was… elsewhere.

"Just look at Maddie's, though!" Terry shot back. I was looking, Terry, and your girlfriend still has the ass that she did when you and her started going out. Jack and I were the single ones in the group and, as we weren't blinded by bias, we were the tie breakers of the group. They turned to us, expectantly, and then Jack said exactly what I was thinking, voicing my opinion.

"You're both retarded, fighting over whose girlfriend's ass is better. Now, me," he said, gazing in admiration, "I just look and enjoy the view." This then of course caused another argument that because he's their friend, he shouldn't look, and when they continued and carried on with this line of thought, he responded with- and I quote- "If it's there, it's fair."

I had to join in. I couldn't stop myself. It was rare that I got to make jokes at their expense. So I took the opportunity.

"You other brothas can't deny! When a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face you get-"

"Fuck you, Daniel." They both said to me, fuming.

Jack and I ended up pounding the table in laughter.

XxXxXx

"See ya, Daniel. See ya Matt, and you too, Jack," Terry called as his mom picked him up from school. Jack's dad would be picking him up soon, and so would Matt's. I had to take the bus, but I still got off early enough- it wasn't one of those school buses with seventy kids and I was the last stop or something.

We were all pretty fortunate that we were all living in the same neighborhood. We usually congregated at Terry's house because he had the most space in his room, and his parents were the most lenient out of all of us. Additionally, he had great food and snacks and his mom, Mrs. Lamba, would even cook us stuff. She was nicer than Mrs. Purc or Mrs. Lazta, Matt's mom and Jack's mom, respectively.

When I got there, there were already sandwiches and snacks and soda put on the table. I gorged myself upon it, as everyone else had. I then went upstairs to Terry's room where everyone else was already playing and chilling out. Terry was on his computer, looking something up. Jack was messing around with his DS, still, apparently, and Matt looked to be reading a text on his phone.

"Hey, man," Jack said, barely noticing me as he messed around with his DS. He turned it on and off again, and then sighed. He started up Emerald instead, ignoring his copy of Pearl that was still lodged inside his DS, and he picked his starter and began his very own Pokémon journey.

"So, did you ever figure out what made your Pearl act like that?" I asked. Everyone in the room answered with negatives.

"No." Matt said.

"Nah, he didn't." Terry added.

"Fuck no. It blows." Jack said, clearly frustrated.

"Whoa, man. What's wrong?" Jack sighed and turned Emerald off. Terry, Matt and I started paying more attention. Jack took a deep breath, and started explaining.

"You guys all remember Susie, right?" Jack mumbled, and we all nodded in response. We'd all been over each other's houses, and his was no exception. He had a little sister named Susie- cute little girl, if I did remember right. Jack nodded, and turned away from us before he continued, more quiet than usual.

"She, uh… a few months back, she fell over, and started throwing up. Me and Mom panicked, right? Just like we should've. After all, we were worried. Well, when we got to the hospital, after some tests, we found out that Susie… uh…" Jack went silent, unable to finish whatever he'd been trying to say.

"She has cancer," he said. It didn't seem like it was a natural sentence- like he'd forced it out of his body. Instantly, the room went silent. Everyone stopped doing what they were doing and turned and stared at Jack. He sighed and set the DS down, turning down the volume of Emerald. The DS sat on the bed, silent and still, just like we were, as Jack spoke.

"She has cancer," Jack repeated, "and it's just… when she got it, my Mom really started fussing over her- and that was the right thing to do, don't get me wrong," Jack said, "but Susie didn't really care for it. She wanted to pretend that it was just like it was before she got sick."

"She had always wanted to play on my Pokemon games, but I'd never let her, 'cause I was scared that she would like delete my legendaries, or something." Jack chuckled, and fiddled with the stylus in his hands. "So fuckin' stupid, man. I let her play my Pearl and she liked it most of all- it was the only thing that she had any fun with anymore."

"She tries to pretend, she tries to hide it," Jack said, putting the stylus down onto the bed and then continued, turning back to us, "but I can tell that she's hurting, inside. Even with the chemo, which is way more expensive than you'd think, the doctor's say that she won't last any more than a couple of years."

"And now she can't even fucking play Pearl because it's bugging out." Jack finished. Matt and Terry were shocked into silence by the bombshell that Jack had just dropped, and I was no exception- baffled by this new information that had been given to us so suddenly.

"Well, maybe we could fix it," I suggested, and was immediately met with glares from Jack, Terry, and Matt. "Hey, don't look at me like that," I said, glaring back. "I'm apparently the only one that's trying to help here, so yeah, fuck me for optimism, right?"

They all glanced over at me, varying levels of guilt visible, before Jack spoke up, handing me the DS.

"Just save Emerald before you try Pearl again," he muttered, and turned away, facing the wall as the rest of his played his DS for him. Within moments, we'd saved the game, and then reset the DS.

I grabbed the stylus off of the bed and waited a moment while the DS restarted. As soon as the screen flickered to life once more, I clicked through the startup screen and then stabbed wildly at the box that said Pokémon Pearl on it. Immediately, we all covered our ears and waited. Nothing happened this time, though. The screen was black and the DS was completely, and utterly, silent.

Then a low-pitched roar exploded out from the machine, and we all reared back in surprise. Pearl didn't start that way- the roar sounded way too real- like it was actually there. I was pretty sure that sound was louder than the DS could even produce. It sounded too real to be a sound in a Pokémon game. It sounded…

Alive. That's what it was, it sounded alive. It was impossible to believe, and I refused to- refused to even recognize or actually respond to the fact that it had made that sound. Even as I rejected it, another two sounds came through the DS speakers. Two low-pitched roars, the same loudness, but a different tune in them. Two different things were roaring.

The screen as still black, but slowly, it lit up. It didn't show anything, though- it was just a bright light that turned the entire screen from black to white. By now, the game had our attention- and everyone was staring at the screen was waited for something to happen next. We were all anxious, and on our toes- and the tension in the room was palpable.

So, I couldn't even really tell you what happened in the next single second that the world seemed to explode.

I can tell you one thing, though: the DS was then knocked out of my hands, and yes, I'd still been holding it, and I lost my grip on- on anything, as I fell. We'd all been sitting on the bed, but now it felt like we were… falling. Falling incredibly fast through the air, even though the most would've fallen, even if the floor in Terry's room had broken through somehow, would've been ten to fifteen feet, maximum.

I couldn't see much- well, couldn't see at all, really, because of the wind that I was being blasted and by bombarded by. It slammed into my eyes and made them water. It was way, way too loud and I couldn't hear anything except the chaos and bedlam of whatever it was that was actually happening, I had no idea what was even going on. The entire situation was too confusing.

Although the roaring wind was incredibly strong, I did manage to force my eyelids open. What I saw amazed me. We were in the middle of some void, filled with moving colors. It was incredibly chaotic, though, and the entire experience barely had any coherency, or anything that could be understood.

Everything was too random and wild; I had to constantly blink my eyes to get rid of watering that wouldn't stop. The wind exploded in my ears, and I figured that it was going to make me go deaf with how fucking loud it was. Looking back, it seemed that I was the last one awake.

Jack, Terry, and Matt, all falling through the colorful void, were all unconscious. They fell limply and their eyes were closed. I saw the DS in front of me. Considering it appeared to be what had started it all, I felt that it was important, and tried to grab it, for safekeeping. Who knew? Maybe if I could touch it, or grab it and turn it off, everything would stop. I was taking a shot in the dark at this point, and was just searching for a way to make whatever was happening stop.

It taunted me, though, moving just far enough away from my hand that I couldn't reach it, even when stretching as much as I could. I could feel the void getting faster, speeding up, and it somehow became even more confusing, and disorienting than it had been to begin with. Spots and shapes danced in my eyes, but before I could pass out, I saw it.

Through all the chaos- the uncontrollable bedlam that I later learned was the void between worlds- I saw two beasts fighting. They were giant- and they looked like gods crashing into each other, shooting beams of light and giant waves of water, all sorts of attacks. Eventually, I could no longer see them- and the window that I'd been viewing them through that had appeared in the void vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.

Darkness washed over me like a wave, and I passed out.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Later, when I awoke, it took some time for my senses to come back to me. Slowly, though, I was made aware of my surroundings. My back hurt, like I'd been sleeping on a hard surface- and I groaned as I got up. My head spun. I stumbled to my feet and barely managed to stay upright. I tried to figure out where the hell I was by observing my surroundings.

I was inside some sparse forestry, with a mountain directly behind me. The trees started to multiply as you looked deeper into the forest, but right on the slope of the mountain, where I was, and around it, the trees became much rarer, completely dying off about halfway up the slope. How the hell did we get from Terry's home to such rough wilderness?

I had no idea, but I really didn't want to think about what was going to happen to me. I wasn't a wimp or anything; I knew how to fight well enough and take care of myself. But I wasn't exactly Bear Grylls, either. I didn't want to think about what was going to happen if I was really, really far out into the wilderness and no one knew where I was. I could, very easily, die.

I turned around and saw a foot sticking out from a tree. What? Was someone else here? I moved slowly, but steadily, still trying to get my full range and speed of movement back. The void had rattled me hard, and I hadn't completely shaken off the effects yet. I spent a few moments stomping forwards, lacking anything that could be considered grace, before turning around the corner of the copse that the body was inside of. A familiar person entered my view, and I couldn't help but to smile.

A groaning Jack was within my field of vision. He looked dirty and a little beaten up- and I probably did too, from falling to the ground like that- dirt, twigs, and leaves stuck to his clothes and his face. I was sure I looked the same way. I wasn't complaining, though. At the very least, we were both alive.

He was waking up, but it would be a little bit. While I was waiting, I went and relieved myself on a nearby tree. There didn't seem to be any nearby wildlife, and I wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. I hadn't yet heard or seen anything, not even bird sounds, and as I zipped up my fly, I pulled apart bushes, looked into the trees, and messed around in these weeds that looked like tall grass- but I didn't find anything. I had just been checking to see if there was anything nearby, but I decided to stop. Knowing my luck, I'd run into a bear and get horribly mauled.

I decided to wake Jack up after that, because I didn't want to be alone in this place anymore. I still didn't understand what those two fighting beasts had been, or what it meant, or how or why I'd even seen the battle in the first place.

It took a minute or two of shaking him, he was really knocked out, and I was worried for a moment that he'd hit his head or something- but no, he woke up soon enough. He did put a hand to his head, though, and rose onto unsteady legs, cursing the entire time. He and I spent some time brushing our clothes and hair off before either of us even uttered a single word to each other.

"Where the hell are we?" Jack asked, voicing my exact thoughts.

"I have no idea," I said, "but it wouldn't hurt to look around, I guess."

He nodded to me, and we looked around a bit more in the sparse mountain clearing we'd landed in. For me, it was basically just a second look around, but I looked anyway. You never know when you're going to spot something you missed the first time.

After a little while, which was really just five minutes, we hadn't found anything, and we met up where we'd both started, and we sat down. He looked over at me and tugged on his collar. He was sweating a little, and there was a distinct, small fear in his eyes.

"We might be kinda fucked," he said. His voice cracked like he was twelve.

"Yeah, I know," I replied. We both got to our feet and I got an idea- one that popped into my brain out of nowhere. It was actually a smart one for once, though- something that could actually help us, an idea that could be used.

"If we go to the top of the mountain, we might be able to see something from far away. It's the best option that we have," I said, pointing to the peak that was far in the distance. It was a small mountain, but it was still fairly tall- it was a mountain, after all. It could take us at least an hour or two to climb it, maybe, if we were slow. I wasn't a good climber, though, and I wasn't sure that Jack was, either. We probably had our work cut out for us.

Luckily for us, the start at least wasn't so jagged and steep, but it looked like it was going to get harder as it went on.

"This'll be hard, but I don't want to walk in a random direction in the forest without knowing where we're going- especially if there's somewhere close we can go," I said. Jack agreed, and together, we started walking up the slope. At first, we didn't need to climb, but it soon got steep enough to where we started grabbing the handholds that we could find, and hanging on to them, climbing slowly.

We'd been climbing for about fifteen or twenty minutes before we met something, there on the mountain. We had just crested over a steep cliff on the mountain, and we looked over the forest. From fairly high up, the forestry was beautiful- all kinds of copses and huge batches of green everywhere. As mostly a city kid, I wasn't used to the scenery, and I took it in.

I saw groups of what I thought were birds and other animals- I was so far away that I couldn't really see anything clearly, though. Shapes were barely visible, much less color or any real detail.

"Damn," Jack breathed, as we sat down on the top of the cliff. I nodded, staying silent. I was breathing just as hard as he was. The top of the mountain still seemed so far away, and we'd already been climbing for a little while. It showed how in shape we were. Still, we were doing this without climbing gear, so I shouldn't be surprised by how far we actually got.

It was only when the pounding of my heart in my ears stopped, and when Jack and I were getting ready to climb the mountain, just a bit higher, that I heard a small sound, constantly repeating. It sounded like something was digging around in the dirt.

I turned around- Jack's gaze following mine- and saw the dirt behind us trembling. What burst forth from the soil looked incredibly strange.

A small, green head popped out of the soil, a large fin-like protuberance coming first, before anything else. Following that, the rest of the thing's body, almost all of it green, dug itself out of the dirt, chewing the entire time before swallowing. It shook itself off before it sat down in the dirt, small, stubby green paws grabbing dirt with greedy, famished intentions, and shoving it in its pink mouth.

This thing was desperate for dirt.

It had fairly large eyes, and small dark triangles under them, as well as dark holes on its body, but they weren't wounds- it looked like it had been born with them. It looked up at us, mouth full of soil, and then turned back to its meal. It didn't look at all threatened by us.

I moved closer, shrugging at Jack, who shrugged back, though his gaze never moved off of the creature. It still didn't move- it was too obsessed with gorging itself on its meal of dirt. I wondered how a creature that small could eat that much- it's not like it was miniscule or something, but still, even if dirt wasn't that filling, by now the small thing had eaten pounds and pounds of it- and it looked like it had no intent of stopping.

I moved close again, and the thing still didn't move, before it looked at me with wide eyes, and a rumbling noise came from its throat- and, when it swallowed, it shouted at me with a shrill cry that was somehow adorable.

"Larv!"

It kept crying at me, multiple times, before it threw itself at my leg. I was nearly bowled over- the thing was incredibly heavy, and dense. It nuzzled into my leg, and I petted it, with a hesitant, but willing hand, as it cried with cheer and hugged my shins.

I didn't notice right away, but Jack's face was growing paler and paler as I nuzzled and petted the cute, affectionate creature back with my hand. It seemed to love the attention, and if it was a cat, it'd probably be purring. It moved away abruptly and then began devouring the soil and the occasional rock again like a glutton. Its skin seemed way too hard for what I was almost sure was a baby. The creature seemed familiar, but I couldn't place the name.

I only recognized it when I saw the red mark on its stomach and small tail on its behind- that looked sort of like a fan. I was almost certain of what it was now, though immediately, once I realized it was, it wasn't the creature that shocked me, it was the implications made by its existence. The cute green rock dinosaur baby continued eating soil, and the name popped into my head.

Larvitar. I was sharing at a real, live, goddamn fucking Larvitar. Needless to say, I was more than a little surprised at the Larvitar- but it already seemed to love me, pressing up against my leg to gain my affection. I couldn't help but wonder why it would do that, especially when it didn't even really know me yet. I guess it was just really trusting.

It was only when I turned back to Jack- and, looking at him, with his colorless, terrified face; I could tell that something was wrong. I heard a noise- like a commanding call. Following the noise, and where his eyes were gazing- locked- I turned around watching as the baby Larvitar ran from my legs and scrambled up the rocky slope of the mountain, nearly tripping more than once, but finally resting and coming to a stop right behind her mother's legs.

A tall, ferocious female Tyranitar stood in front of me- and it looked pissed and mean. Not really the best combination for a human's survival, I might add. As if that wasn't obvious, the large dinosaur mother stood in front of the comparatively tiny Larvitar, and growled at mre and Jack- though it sounded more like a roar.

This is where the division from the games and anime starts- and where I began to discover how much Gamefreak really had gotten wrong. Let's start with how nice Pokemon were supposed to be- wrong, already. The mother Tyranitar looked just about ready to kill me just like any other wild animal, while terrifying, it wasn't what really surprised me. Remember how tall they portrayed some Pokemon as? And even in the games, legendaries like Articuno were only 5'7- yeah, right. That was complete fucking bullshit, I realized, as I stared at the behemoth right in front of me.

The Tyranitar was massive, at the very least, around probably ten and a half feet tall. It probably weighed over a ton. The claws it had on the end of its freakishly long and thick arms looked like they could crash and smash through layers of steel walls with no problems and I believed very intensely in my assumption. It stood balanced on stout, firm legs, and as it raised on of its legs, and roared, I realized just how boned I was.

Almost without effort, the foot came down on the rock.

Boom.

Get fucked.

Jack and I got thrown off our feet by the small quake like we were pencils on a table. We flew several feet in the air and landed hard on our backs- and already, the wind was knocked out of me.

I'd never been in a real Earthquake before, so I never knew the loss of control that came with it. I really, really didn't appreciate the air-time I'd received.

I could barely breathe or even move after landing like that, and after hearing a groan from Jack, I realized that it was most likely the game for him. The mother Tyranitar lumbered towards us, and raised one huge arm, chunks of rocks tearing themselves out of the ground at her will. I wondered which attack it was- Ancient Power or Rockslide- no, probably Rock Slide- the rocks didn't really look special.

It didn't really matter which it attack it used to kill me, so I don't know why I was thinking that right then, probably just as a way to somehow put Pokemon back as a game in my mind, and not as a huge, stomping monster that was ready to bash my brains in with what looked like rocks so large that they could probably be classified as small boulders.

It turned out that in the end it was the Larvitar that saved us- at what it knew would certainly be death, it jumped out from behind her legs and started arguing with her mother in those shrill cries that she had- her mother spoke back in rumbling roars that, even when not directed at me, were terrifying to hear.

I was no good at any kind of charades, especially not Pokemon ones, but I couldn't but laugh at how hilarious the scene looked, a one-foot tall Larvitar arguing with something literally ten times taller than it. The Larvitar waved her stubby little arms around and then pointed to me and Jack. Her mother snorted and turned away, waving one massive paw down. Larvitar had apparently won the fight, though the mother watched her leave with what could be interpreted as sad eyes. The huge mother turned with a roar and slunk back to her cave – a small opening in the mountain that I hadn't noticed until now.

The Larvitar scrambled back down the mountain toward us, and looked up at me, before beginning a series of charades clearly directed at me, and, to an extent, also at Jack. Jack and I only looked on, both confused and amused as the Larvitar tried desperately to make me understand her. Her motions were needy and frantic, and actually pretty good, too.

Over the course of it, she explained what I assumed was the reason that she had reacted so positively to me originally. First, she mimed herself stomping around, most likely her mother, and scaring away all the trainers with her power. Then she puffed out her chest- again, adorable- and mimed stomping around even more fiercely before curling up into a ball. After a few seconds, I thought that I understood.

"That's probably the cutest thing that I've ever seen," Jack commented, and I nodded after watching her go at it for a bit more. The Larvitar then mimed her- at least, what I thought was her father- shaking, as if being captured. Larvitar rocked back and forth on the ground before stopping, and then put on a brave face before leaning down and picking up a rock, and put it on her side, before letting it drop to the ground, and turning to face me.

"Do you get what it's trying to say? I don't understand," Jack said, confused, and I nodded, watching her continue her antics before I responded.

"I think what she was saying was she's never been caught- and it's a she, by the way, because its stomach is red, for female, not blue for male- because her mother scared everyone away." Jack nodded immediately- agreeing with that statement strongly.

"I can sure as hell believe that," he said.

"But what did she say after that?" Jack asked, "After the mom part, I don't really get it."

Now she held the rock to her side and walked a fair distance down the mountain before immediately running back to us. I nodded repeatedly as she approached us.

"What is it? Do you understand it?" Jack asked.

"I mean, I sort of get the idea- I think she meant that someone captured someone she knew. Something about capturing. The rock was a Pokeball, right?"

"Yeah, I think. What I got from that is that she said her father was captured by a strong trainer, and then they went far away and haven't come back since," I said, watching as the Larvitar jumped up and down, cheering as I understood her. She nodded before shifting back into her charades again.

"Then…" I said, watching her point to herself before she lifted a paw to her brow and mimed looking out for… something. She put an expression of interest on her face- raised eyebrows and wide eyes, leaning forward- like… she was on adventure? Something like that.

"You wanted to go an adventure or a journey," I said, half guessing, and watched as she nodded, frantic, before pointing to herself with one stubby arm- and laid down with lazy eyes, and yawned, pointing at the mountain, "because your home is boring?" I said, and I hit the nail on the head, as she nodded and cried her name, in that shrill, cute yell that she had.

"Larvitar!"

Then she pointed to herself and crossed her stubby arms in an X- to show that… that… she couldn't go by herself! And then she pointed to me, and raised her small arms in cheer.

"She couldn't go alone, I guess her mom wouldn't let her- but if she went with a human, a trainer, I imagine, she could go."

A wide smile exploded across my face as I realized what she meant by that. I was going to be her Pokemon Trainer! I grinned down at Larvitar who closed her eyes in delight and butted into my leg, sending me landing on my butt.

I could hardly care, though. I was laughing, in joy and excitement, way too hard. Jack smiled, though he seemed confused.

"What happened, man? I only understood a little bit of what she was saying. You'd be like the world charade champion if that existsed," Jack said. Larvitar got off of my leg and let me up- and I dusted off my pants, before explaining it to Jack.

"Lavitar wants me to be her train-hey!" I shouted, and laughed as she tossed her dirt onto my pants while she dug under the ground. After a few seconds, I understood what she was doing- after thinking about it for moment.

"Larvitar is eating before we go," I said. Jack nodded. I tried to look around for a while, but still I couldn't see where we were- as in, there were no towns around. We were in complete wilderness.

Larvitar popped out of the ground and then burped up a few rocks, which made all of us laugh. Her small, black teeth weren't fangs- they were more flat, made for crushing rocks and soil. Though, I didn't really doubt that she could tear into flesh if she really wanted to. I hadn't seen the original color of her teeth, but assumed that her teeth were black because of the dirt she ate. She plodded along and tugged on my pants leg, clearly eager to begin venturing away from her home. I followed her, and Jack followed me. We formed a three-individual line that trotted down the slopes of the mountain, and began heading in the direction of the forest.

I guessed that this wasn't too out of the way, and that she had a general idea of what way to go- as in, which way civilization was.

It was about a minute of walking before it clicked and I realized it.

"Dude, when she evolves, I'm going to have a Tyranitar," I said- almost as if I hadn't thought of it before. Which was true, I guess. We'd been so concentrated on the entire situation that the shock just hadn't hit us yet. I mentioned this to Jack.

"We might never get home," I said. I turned to Jack and looked at his face. It seemed more than a little shocked, before he turned it into a hardened expression.

"I know," he muttered, and turned away from me. I could tell that he was worrying about Susie. I didn't say a single thing, though. It wasn't my place to speak about that.

A little while later, Jack laughed- and thus would come the ridiculous name.

"I-imagine if-"he couldn't even speak correctly as he started laughing even harder while we walked. Whatever it was, it was apparently so ridiculous to him that it was hilarious.

"What, what if when she evolved into a Tyranitar- she was named Tina?"

He couldn't stop laughing.

I replied just as we were reaching the foot of the mountain and starting to enter the forest. I shook my head and turned my head his way as I spoke.

"That's weird. It doesn't fit. Her name won't be Tin-"

"Larv! Larv!" She cried, and bowled me over as she ran into my legs.

"Do you really want to be named Tina, I mean you could have a cooler name-"

But no, she wouldn't have it, and just kept crying her name over and over while Jack stood nearby and continued to laugh.

And that was how I ended up with a Larvitar called Tina.

XxXxXx

Tina turned out to be surprisingly loyal. Even being the small little thing she was didn't seem to, in any way at all, suppress her thirst for battle or adventure. When a large, menacing Pidgeotto tried to harass us- we walked past an area it was hunting in, and ruined a catch, I guess, because it looked angry- she fought it off fairly easily. She was strong, but had very little common sense- her desire to see the world overrode thinking about anything more than the present. It was both good and bad.

It was positive because I was fairly sure that the same will and desire that I referred to earlier was also a rock-hard determination to win fights. Rattata were slammed into by her body like a train, and I realized early on that it was more than just the typing of two Pokemon decided a battle- for, example, in these low level battles, it was Tina's weight, not her skill, that made her tackle so effective. Heavier than me, and barely a little more than a foot tall.

Yeah, getting hit by something that dense hurts.

What I didn't get, though, was why she was so friendly towards Jack and me- right off the bat. It didn't seem to fit. I could understand that she had a cute and cheerful disposition- but that didn't really equate to instantaneous trust and friendship. Maybe she was just really trusting. One thing I was sure of, though, was not all Pokemon were friendly- the proof lied in the trail of unconscious Pidgey, Rattata, and Pidgeotto that Tina left in her wake.

Her desire for adventure was also negative- as she led us into what I was sure was a Beedrill nest. There were Kakuna everywhere- and fast enough, Jack and I started to back out- with Tina even agreeing to leave, and go another way, as she retreated with us. I'm sure that Jack was having anime flashbacks just like me- and I wasn't sure that the Beedrill would be as harmless as they were in the show.

It was too late to leave, though. Within a few seconds, a loud, ubiquitous buzzing was heard- as if it was the entire universe that was making the noise. The trees were thick and confining; and all too quickly, the branches that we'd walked and stumbled through before, barely hindering us, seemed more like prison bars than anything else as they slowed us down, even marginally, as we tried to get away.

Tina emitted a squeak of surprise- though, not necessarily fear, as I watched her tense and brace herself- as, from every tree within sight, Beedrill descended. They were huge, creepy wasps, with white wings and that looked like they were cracked from all the lines running through them.

A huge lance rested on either arm, probably strong enough to go through something hard but solid- like my body. Their menacing, red eyes gleamed in the darkness, it was getting closer to night, and with the tall trees, it made the light dimmer and the shadows deeper as they blocked out part of the sunlight.

All of this, while threatening and terrifying enough, couldn't possibly compare to the gigantic stinger that hung off of the bottom of their thorax. It was huge, and gray- it almost looked like it was made out of metal, though I knew better. Beads of a gross, violet, sticky liquid dripped off of it like a leaky faucet. Poison, I assumed. Probably deadly.

I announced the safest method of departure that would be the most beneficial to our group of three.

"Fuck! RUN!"

The second that I uttered the words, we all immediately bolted- Jack and I were side by side, with Tina in front of us. It was really strange to see what was basically a rock move so fast, even if it was alive, but I had no time to really focus on that when it was happening. I was too busy trying to not be impaled by the furious Beedrill that were chasing us down, desperate for vengeance- even though we hadn't done anything.

Well, we'd intruded on their nest- but that doesn't really warrant a death sentence, does it?

The buzzing as they chased us was incredibly loud- and it sounded like we were in the middle of an oversized bee hive. We ran, frantic, but as fast as we were somehow managing to go, panic and adrenaline assisting our speed, it was still only enough to just stay ahead of them. They flew way too fast- and it was really was a good thing that they were wild, weak, and untrained Beedrill- because they'd probably be fast enough to catch us, easily, if they'd been actually trained.

The trees got in the way as we ran from them- for both us and them. We were constantly moving out of the way of branches, and they were weaving between them, and following from above as they pursued us. It wasn't like Tina was actually trained, though, and Jack and I weren't Olympic runners. We soon started to tire.

They did not.

We discovered something rather… unfortunate, as we began to grow exhausted: Beedrill are basically superpowered giant killer bees. Which meant that not only do they chase for miles like Africanized honey bees do, but they aim to kill, they do so in large groups, and they're extremely angry while doing so.

Which basically meant that we were, eventually, forced to fight.

Jack and I were panting when we stopped in a thick copse- though Tina didn't seem tired. Damn superpowered animals. They stared at us with those terrible crimson eyes, furious- and several of the group of twenty or thirty then dove for the kill. As they did, I froze up. I had no experience in a life or death fight, and had no idea what to do. It ended up being Jack and Tnia that saved us.

Mostly Tina.

"Daniel!" He shouted at me.

I didn't respond- only gazed at my demise as it drew closer, limbs paralyzed with fear.

He uttered what I thought was a curse under his breath, and took action.

"Tina, tackle!" He commanded, and Tina growled, which, even then, in that situation, sounded adorable- and flung her two hundred pound body into one of the charging Beedrill. What happened was a thing that I expected, but still wasn't ready for, nonetheless. She had always held back for other animals- Rattata, Pidgey- and tried not to hurt them.

Usually, when they'd attacked us, it had been because we'd startled them, got in the way, or interrupted something- even if it was just a Rattata's meal as he nibbled on a nut that had fallen onto the forest floor.

They had no real intent to kill.

The Beedrill did.

This was a battle for our lives. Tina didn't hold back.

Her dense, heavy form tore through the center of the Beedrill's body like it was construction paper. She landed slightly behind and below the swarm, covered in red-green blood and gore. Flesh stuck to her, and she let out an aggressive screech to the rest of the swarm.

The Beedrill she'd slain had its wings severed- she had gone through both the center and the wings, and the two wings fell separately from the Beedrill's body as it crumpled and fell. It squished when it hit the ground, and I wanted to throw up when I saw it. The worst gore pics on the internet couldn't prepare me for the real experience.

Tina plucked a bit of bloody, yellow Beedrill carapace off of her head, and began defending us- crashing through a second and third Beedrill. Only one out of the four that charged at us managed to get close. The rest hesitated- and I saw that, with even a hive mind mentality, Beedrill clearly had some degree of personality- either that, or the ones that charged were much more aggressive and stupid than the ones that didn't.

It only took one Beedrill getting close to screw us over, though.

It managed to nick Jack's leg as it passed- the tiniest cut ever, but it was with the stinger. That was the bad part.

The blood from the slain Beedrill pooled on the ground, and I was still struggling not to retch at the sight, and the smell. The closer corpses nearly made me do so, though. The last weak Beedrill was coming in for a second stabbing attempt- with that giant, leaking stinger. By now, though, Tina was ready.

I had no idea how painful Beedrill poison was, but with the way Jack was gritting his teeth and grasping at the small scratch with his hand, I figured fairly agonizing. As the Beedrill came in for the kill, red eyes blazing and stinger twitching, Tina narrowed her eyes and launched herself, like all the other times before.

Pokemon, as I later learned, have very strong muscles- hell, have very strong everything. Fast reflexes, speed, strength, amazing abilities… it was mind-boggling that humans had even survived and settled in this world- much less had cities or large, thriving populations. At least, I assumed that they did. If not, that sucked.

So, when a two-hundred pound rock launches itself, it's probably going to break through bug carapace.

And it did, for the last time. One more Beedrill fell, dying, profusely bleeding from the gaping hole it had in its thorax. Tina, even when covered in bug guts and blood, looked proud of what she accomplished- essentially, bug genocide. She growled fiercely- or, tried to, rather. The small noises she was able to emit still sounded cute, no matter how deadly and dangerous she actually was.

As the rest of the Beedrill flew away- having been discouraged from so many deaths on their side, even with as angry as they were- I watched the cute little Larvitar growl. As I did, I realized that even with all of their looks, intelligence, and personalities, Pokemon were still wild animals, and they were actually dangerous.

Even when I was being threatened by Tina's mom, it didn't really register in my mind.

After all, she was a Pokemon- she wouldn't hurt me.

Right?

After seeing what Tina had just done, that sort of assumption was already gone and eradicated out of my mind.

I still had no idea how dangerous they were, to what level, at least, but I had started to get the idea after I'd watched Tina brutally murder the Beedrill like that. Four or five corpses decorated the forest growth around us, and the Beedrill, while dead, still twitched a bit as their bodies attempted to resist death.

Tina stood directly beside us, and I'd never been more grateful to have her protection as I tried to pull Jack to his feet. Already, even with what must've been an incredibly small amount of poison, it was working its magic. Jack was unsteady, wobbly, and could barely stand. He leaned on me pretty hard, and I tried to do my best to keep going even with him being, essentially, a hundred and fifty pounds of dead weight.

Here was the worst part, though- we had absolutely no idea where we were going. After that wild Beedrill chase, we had lost the tiny sliver of direction we'd had, and now we were practically wandering, again. Even with Tina being much more careful as to what we stepped into, we'd simply tried to find our way out- but had no such luck, as we walked for hours.

The entire time- or, most of it, only interrupted by the small, easily dealt with Pidgey and Rattata that sometimes challenged us for whatever reason- the forest was silent. The trees were thick and it was, of course, a fucking project to be able to see more than ten or twenty feet ahead of you- terrible light, not to mention it was getting dark, and with all the forest growth that blocked my vision, too.

In short, we basically went nowhere.

Later, we decided to call it quits for the day, though it was probably my exhaustion and Jack's poisoning more than Tina being tired- she only looked mildly winded, even after all the walking we'd done. Jack had slipped in and out of consciousness repeatedly, and that had mre worried. We had no way to treat the poison, so I just let his body fight it- and hoped for the best. Then came the issue of heat and light.

I had tried to make a fire, and failed miserably the first few times before somehow managing a weak, struggling flame that I tended to, religiously- constantly putting new twigs and leaves on it to make sure it kept going and stayed alive.

I was tired- and with Tina keeping watch, I felt safe enough to go to sleep. Jack was already knocked out near the fire, and I tried to dig into the ground to somehow become comfortable, but it wasn't easy. I ended up passing out due to exhaustion.

XxXxXx

"Hey, kid."

Nnggh.

Kick.

Hard, sharp pain in my side.

"Hey, kid, get up."

Ngghhh.

I opened my eyes, and instantly regretted it.

I hissed as the sunlight destroyed my eyes- and shut them tight again, immediately. I hurled myself off of the ground and sat up- already groaning at the rough sleep I'd gotten. My head was pounding, and I could've sworn a rock had now become part of my spinal cord.

I opened my eyes again- and this time, I wasn't instantly assaulted by brightness, though my eyes still hurt. I tried to blink a few times to make the spots leave my vision, but they were stubborn, and stayed. I ran a hand through my greasy, dirty hair, and picked a few leaves and twigs out of it. I turned to the voice that woke me up.

He sort of looked like one of the hikers from the games, except he wasn't black. Which wasn't surprising, it wasn't like only black people went hiking, or something. I had always thought that was weird, anyway. He looked unimpressed with me, which I wasn't surprised about. He had two Pokeballs on his belt- a trainer, too, even if only a casual one, by the looks of it.

He looked like he was in his early twenties, though I couldn't place his exact age. He was a lot older than me, though, for sure. He sighed and pointed to Jack, who was still passed out near the fire. Jack's skin still looked the same, which was good, he hadn't turned purple or something from the poison- but the scratch on Jack's leg had festered. Now a bare scratch had turned into a reddish purple, festering wound. I grimaced at it.

It had clearly gotten worse.

"What happened to him?"

"Beedrill," I replied. At least I didn't have to lie yet. I didn't need people thinking I was crazy by stating that I was from a world where Pokemon were fictional. For now, I'd just have to pretend that I was from this place. I would have to remind Jack to do that, too.

"Do you two not have your shots or something?"

Shots?

"Shots?" I asked. What was he talking about?

"You know, the Pokemon immunizations? They made them universal a few generations back, after too many deaths to Pokemon poisons. Across all regions it's a mandated thing, especially if you're a trainer. Your friend shouldn't even be affected that much by any kind of poison or any kind of toxin a Pokemon can emit. They don't work on Pokemon for a few reasons, mostly because we don't understand their biology enough yet, but for humans, the shots work well enough, as long as you don't get too much poison in you."

"It's not complete immunity, but it's still pretty good," he said.

"So, why is your friend so sick?"

Shit. Fuck. How was I supposed to know they would've had something like this?

Something. Think of something to say quick-

"Our parents could never pay for them, with how expensive they were. Really, it sucks, but that's just how it was in our households, and-"

He narrowed his eyes.

What had I said wrong?

"The immunizations are free," he stated.

Fuck.

Tina eyed him, but didn't make any noise, though before, she'd been growling.

"Well, uh, what I meant to say was that we never ended up getting them because-"

"You're a really bad liar, you know that?" He asked.

I didn't say anything for a moment.

"What actually happened?" He asked.

"None of your business," I replied. I was still pretty sure that I shouldn't tell anyone about where I'd really came from. At least, not for now.

"Fine, fine," he said. He obviously wasn't sated by that, but he accepted it well enough, I guess. He pointed in the direction we'd been going.

"You were headed for the Girk Forest?"

"Uh, no. I'm not really from around here, but I was just looking for the closest town or city that was nearby. Obviously to get my friend treated," I said.

"Well, you're headed in basically the completely wrong way. I was just coming from there. I like to go on hiking trips and see forests and mountains and things like that," he said.

"I could show you towards the nearest town, if you want me to," he said.

Wow. My opinion of the guy completely changed.

"Uh, thanks. Wow. Do you think…?"

"Your friend should be fine. It would've hurt him bad for a few days, but his body would've fought the poison off. I'm pretty experienced in wilderness survival. Let me guess- he barely got scratched by that Beedrill, right?"

"Uh, yeah. How could you tell?"

"Well, one, the wound isn't that big, and two, the coloring isn't that bad yet, either. I've seen a lot worse, sometimes," he said.

"Oh. Cool."

Now that my eyes were adjusting to the harsh dawn light- and my headache was starting to fade- I could make out the hiker a lot easier.

He was in his twenties- like I said before- with a light beard, probably because he'd been in the wilderness and hadn't bothered in bringing anything to shave with. He was a little burly, but not nearly as big as the hikers were in the games. He was maybe six two, six three. He had a huge pack that he probably carried all of his stuff inside of slung over his back. His clothes were mostly an ugly mix of green and brown- obviously for utility, not for fashion, because they seemed to be made out a tough material- nice clothes would get ruined out in a forest like this.

He gave me a hand to grasp- and I did so, and he hauled me up off the ground.

I stood, staggering a bit, and tried to steady myself.

He clapped me on the back, and grinned.

"The name's Hank. What's yours, kid?"

"Uh, Daniel."

"Daniel, eh? What about him over there?"

He pointed towards Jack, who was still completely knocked out, on his side.

"Jack. His name is Jack."

Hank nodded. He jerked a thumb backwards, over his shoulder, referring to Tina.

"What about that Larvitar? Why is it following you? Is it yours?"

"Yes, Tina is mine."

Hank seemed amused by the name- a ghost of a smile appearing, and then vanishing just as quickly. He nodded just as quick.

"How long have you had her?"

"Since afternoon, yesterday, give or take."

"Is she your only Pokemon?"

I nodded, not sure where he was going with this. He nodded again, and looked all of us over again. He glanced at me, and then gave a passing look to both Tina, and Jack, too. Tina didn't take her eyes off of him for a second.

"Yeah, I guess I have to," he said.

"Have to what?" I asked, even though I was suspicious about what he meant.

"Stay with you. One of you is injured, and you only have one Pokemon, that one being extremely rare. You're a robbery waiting to happen," he said.

"Rob me? Of what? They have nothing to take from me." I asked. What was he on about? He shook his head, like he was disappointed in my ability to see the truth.

"Tina. They can take Tina from you. There are criminals in the wilderness, kid. Team Rocket, and the like. They don't exactly play nice, if you catch my drift. They wait for people like you and Jack over there to get screwed over like you have, and they attack when you're weakest. It's been on the rise, lately," he said.

"Oh." I said, feeling dumb. Of course- Pokemon were valuable here because they actually existed, so… Tina was really rare. And that meant that our entire group was a target.

"You're just lucky I was the one to find you, and not someone else, who would've taken Tina while you were asleep and left you alone in the wild," he said.

"Not to mention you didn't even know where you were going, and you don't even have supplies on you, like you already said."

"You aren't from around here, are you, kid?" He asked.

"Not exactly," I sighed.

He nodded again. He sat down, and though it took him a moment due to its gargantuan size, he got the pack off of his body. He rooted around in the pack for a moment before handing me something rough and the color of red-brown. I looked at what was in my hand. I had a few strips of jerky. He took out a few for himself and sat down- he was still a fairly big guy, and let out a grunt as he made himself comfortable.

Hank took out a canteen- presumably filled with water- and passed it to me.

"Thanks," I told him. I downed some water and gave it back, and then spent a few minutes trying to tear into the extremely tough jerky. He seemed used to it, and broke apart the hard food in his teeth like he was a lion or something. I guess you just grew used to the conditions after spending so much time in them. It made sense to me.

It took me a lot longer to eat than it took him, but he waited on me anyway, and by the time I finished, it was late morning. We hadn't really said anything since we'd sat down, and the silence was more than a little tense. I still didn't really know the guy yet, even if he had been really nice so far. Trust came harder than I thought it would.

This didn't seem to phase Hank, and he acted like it was normal.

As I watched him glance at Tina, something came to mind, and I figured I might as well ask him. He probably knew just as much as anyone else would on the subject. And while I was fairly sure about what the answer would be, I wanted to be sure.

"Shouldn't I give Tina some?" I asked.

"You haven't the slightest idea what you're doing, do you?"

"No, not really," I answered. I had no embarrassment or shame in my tone. How was I supposed to know about the eating habits of alien creatures? This was, in no way, a responsibility of mine until really recently, so there was no reason why I would know.

"I was almost sure that all the Larvitar line ate was dirt, but I wasn't completely sure, and I wanted to know," I said. He nodded, and cocked his head behind him- and I was unsurprised to see Tina gorging herself on soil once again.

"You're right about that, kid. She doesn't need anything but the dirt. They need it most when they're Larvitars or Pupitars, but once they grow up into full, adult Tyranitars, they rarely have to eat soil. It's probably once every few months. And even then, they can last years before it starts to become a real problem. They spend the first part of their lives building up a reserve of minerals and energy in their body so large that they can go a very, very long time without eating." I could see the proof. With how much she was eating, I was almost worried that she would choke on the dirt.

"Still, to have them at their best, it's best they eat often," he said.

I nodded, taking in the information, and filing it away for later. It was probably best that I did that, then. I was going to take care of Tina. She'd been nothing but loyal and caring to me so far, and I didn't plan on being anything but loyal and caring back.

"Don't you think we should wake him up?" I asked, pointing towards to Jack. Hank looked at him, and watched him sleep, and I saw his glance flicker to the purplish wound on his leg, more than once. He nodded.

"We should probably get some food in him. It'll help him deal with the toxins."

I grinned, and leaned over, and shook Jack a few times. At first, he resisted, and groaned in his sleep, waving his arms like he was trying to swat an annoying fly. The first two times I tried to wake him, he mostly ignored it, and went back to sleep. The third time, though, he clearly was tired of it, and lifted his head off the ground with a moan.

He looked terrible. His face was sallow, pale, and sweaty. It had clearly taken a lot out of him. He looked dehydrated, if only slightly. I was just glad that the amount of poison that he'd gotten inside him hadn't been worse. What I'd mostly gotten from what Hank had told me was that me and Jack and gotten pretty lucky, and I wasn't feeling up to testing that luck for at least a little while.

He had leaves and twigs in his hair, just like me, and spent a few seconds brushing them out, though he was largely unsuccessful. He glared at me, though said nothing, and turned the glare onto Hank- only, his glare became more judging when he turned to Hank. He didn't say anything for a few moments.

When he did, his voice was a lot hoarser than I expected- even with him poisoned.

"Who the hell is this?" He rasped. Hank shook his head with a grin.

"Morning, sunshine. I'm Hank."

He gave me a glance that couldn't be interpreted as anything but confused.

"Uh, Hank, could you give us a second alone? I need to talk with Jack about something."

Hank's brow squashed down against his eyes. I was pretty sure he could tell that we didn't really trust him. I felt bad for being so paranoid, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. I needed to tell Jack a few things, and for a lot of them, Hank couldn't hear them.

"Sure."

He left his pack there- didn't bother picking it up- and lumbered off. I waited a few seconds after he disappeared into a large copse before turning to Jack and beginning to speak.

"That guy is Hank," I said. "Me and him have been talking while you were asleep."

"I can tell," he deadpanned. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Alright, look," I said, and pointed towards his leg.

"That's not good. Hank woke me up because we basically stopped near a road, and he saw us when he was passing by. He offered to lead us to the closest town. This is a good chance, man. Plus, he didn't even try to take Tina. Isn't that a good sign?"

I saw Jack's eyes flicker to Tina- who was still eating soil while she could. He sighed, and didn't say anything for a second. He tried to get up, and failed, fell down. He hissed and I could tell that a lot of strength had been robbed from him, specifically, his left leg. In the split second he'd been standing, I saw him already leaning heavily on his right leg, and then he'd fallen.

"Might as well, then," he said. He seemed to accept it. I smiled.

Another thing came to mind, even as I was helping Jack get more comfortable. He didn't look happy accepting help, but let me lay him down on his side like he'd been when he was sleeping. I started speaking again, and sat down for a second while I did.

"One more thing. Don't talk about where we're from. We're in the Pokemon world now, for whatever reason. We don't need to get thrown in an asylum for no reason. No one will believe us. So, for now, we should stay quiet about it. That's my say. What do you think?"

He nodded. It looked like he had no objections to that.

"Definitely. I have nothing against that. I just hope we don't run into Beedrill again," he said. I agreed. I saw him shudder for a second, but then he stopped, and he looked around the campsite. I could see him eyeing the jerky and the water. He was probably pretty hungry and thirsty. He jerked his noggin in the direction of the sustenance, and I nodded.

"Yeah, eat up. We're probably going to leave soon."

I got up just as he went to do so, and wandered towards the direction that Hank had gone. I spread apart a few branches and ducked under a few more. After a few seconds of wandering deeper into the forestry, I heard a faint voice calling something, and followed the voice. I changed direction, and went a little more to the west, and soon I came to a clearing. It was probably only a few minutes away from our campsite.

I heard the voice again- this time, closer to it, I could make out what he was saying.

"Flint, hit her with a Tackle!"

"Dude! Geogeo!"

From what I could see, Hank was battling his two Pokemon together. He owned a Geodude and a Sandshrew, apparently- and his Geodude was named Flint. Flint rushed forwards and slammed into Hank's sandshrew- but she didn't seem ready to give up, either. For a moment, she held him back with her paws, though her feet dug hard into the earth and left furrows. Then, exhausted, her defenses fell, and she took a hit right to the jaw.

Ouch. Flint looked happy that he was victorious, but it seemed like this was a normal occurrence- like both of them had been expecting it to happen.

"Hey!" I yelled, calling him. Hank turned to me, and grinned, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh, hey Daniel. I was just having a mock fight between these two while I waited on you to finish talking with your friend. Are you done?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, we are! Are you coming back?"

"Yeah, I will. Give me a minute or two, and I'll be back over there."

"Alright!" I yelled, and began walking back to our campsite. It only took me a few minutes, just like finding Hank had, and when I returned to the campsite, I came back just in time to see Jack stumbling to his feet. He looked like he was going to fall for a second, but steadied himself, and managed to stay standing.

"Nice, man," I said. He seemed pretty appreciative of my approval, and returned it with a small smile. It seemed to hurt him a bit to walk, but that was expected, honestly. He set out for a pack of trees opposite to the direction that I'd just come from.

"Wait, where are you going?" I called after him. Just right before he disappeared into the pack of trees, he yelled back to me.

"Bathroom!" He said, and then slipped in between the trees.

"Oh," I said to myself. I turned my head and looked to Tina. She looked like she was done eating dirt, but she'd dug several huge holes right next to the campsite in the process. The fire had died off by now, and the ashes were scattered across the fire pit that I had barely managed to create. Tina laid inside one of the holes, and took one pawful of dirt, before looking at it, and tossing to the side of her. She burped.

I went over to her while I was waiting on Hank and Jack to get back, and petted her on her head- and she nuzzled into my head. Her skin was rocky and rough, but it never cut me. She seemed to really like it when I rubbed her little black pock marks in her body. She rolled over like a dog, though she didn't pant.

Tina needed a lot of attention. Even if she was a badass, she still was a baby Pokemon, mostly, and I'm guessing that her mom had done something similar to this. Jack stumbled back into the campsite a few moments later. He looked like he was in pain. He let out a grunt when he sat down- and I saw a bit of blood coming out of the wound on his leg.

"Are you alright?" I asked. I was a little concerned. While Hank said that Jack would be fine, I also knew that he was assuming that Jack wouldn't exacerbate his own injuries. If it started really letting out a lot of blood, I had no idea what would happen, then.

I didn't like not knowing.

He risked one glance down towards his leg and sucked his teeth, and didn't say anything for a moment. When he did, though, I was surprised to hear that much anger in his voice.

"I'm not glass, man. I don't break so easy," he said.

"I'll be fine. Stop worrying so much about me."

"Ok, ok," I said. Where had that come from?

"Hank said that you'd be fine, anyway. I probably am overreacting. It's just… we almost really did die yesterday, right? It's really hard to shake that feeling."

"What feeling?" He said, even though I knew he knew what I was talking about.

"You know what I'm talking about. That weird feeling. I felt like puking yesterday. Really, it's just fear. I'm still having trouble getting over it."

"You think you're having trouble getting over it? When I passed out, I didn't think I was ever going to wake up. I thought I was just going to die to the poison overnight. When you guys woke me up this morning, I was surprised that I was even still alive. My leg had really started hurting before I went to sleep."

"Yeah, he said the reason why you're not hurt worse is because you got so little poison in you. If you had gotten more, you'd be a lot worse, I think."

Jack nodded.

"Makes sense, I guess."

He pointed at Tina, who only looked back at him with just as much curiosity. She chewed on her paw and sucked some dirt off of it, but didn't move otherwise.

"How has she been?"

"Just as damn cheery as yesterday," I said, laughing a bit. Jack chuckled too, but didn't say anything else. He shuffled a bit and made himself more comfortable. We were really just waiting on Hank to come back, now.

A few moments later, he did. He strode back into the campsite with all the grace of a rhino, and reached for his pack, took the jerky, and the water, after asking if we were done with it, and packing it all up. I got a glance inside of his bag, and saw that he had a bunch identical little food packages- jerky, I thought I saw some dried fruit, not to mention six or seven canteens, too, that he probably refilled every few days. Folded up clothes, too.

That reminded me of my own clothes. I glanced down at myself, and sighed. Jack was no different. Our clothes had tiny little holes, and were already extremely worn. Little dirt smears were all over my shirt, as well as some green in places that green didn't belong. Sleeping on the forest floor hadn't been the best for our attire. Jack's clothes looked similar.

I gave one last glance to the fire pit as we walked away from it- and started following a rough, but clear, path through the forest. Hank walked in front of us, leading the path, and Jack leaned most of his weight on my shoulder, which I bore well enough. It was slow going, and rough walking, but we made mostly good time. We'd left late in the morning, and all too soon, noon crept up on us faster than we'd thought possible.

At noon, Hank made Jack stop. It was clear that he was forcing himself to go on, even then, and he reluctantly sat himself down. Hank and I sat down, and Tina sat next to my leg and immediately dug her paw into the ground, ripping past the grass, and started eating dirt, at a slow pace.

"Why are we stopping?" Jack asked. I could hear the frustration in his voice.

"You know why," Hank said.

"No, I don't," Jack growled.

"You're injured. Don't push yourself beyond your limits."

"I'm not pushing myself beyond my limits," Jack said. "I could keep going fine. You're the one that wanted to stop."

Hank didn't say anything to that, but I could tell that he resented the backtalk, at least a little bit. Especially because he was helping us. Regardless, though, it was clear that he had at least a little bit of patience in him, because he just bit his tongue and didn't bother speaking.

I just tried to break it up.

"Hey, guys- can we just…?" I let the question hang in the air.

Jack frowned, but didn't comment after that, either, and we just ate and rested for a little while. The noon seemed to stretch on longer than I'd thought it possible, but as it went on, Jack's breathing became less labored, we all rested, and we ate our fill. After maybe half an hour- really, closer to forty five minutes- we were ready to go on again.

Almost the entire time, Tina had been eating soil. She took care to eat away from the rest of us, so she didn't fling dirt all over our food, but still.

God. Damn.

I knew she was going to eat a lot of dirt- hell, I'd already seen her do it plenty of times. But that was the first time that I realized just how much she did it, and it also made me wonder for how long she was going to do it. How much dirt would she have to eat before she was ready to transform into a Pupitar? I wasn't sure. I had already considering consulting a Tyranitar expert when I finally reached whatever town that Hank was taking us to.

She finished right before we decided we were ready to move, though, and we packed up and continued. We made good time- or so Hank said, saying that we were getting close to the town. I couldn't see it yet, but I assumed that by the end of tomorrow, we'd be either close enough to see it with our own eyes, or we'd just be there.

While we were walking, we finally started seeing other Pokemon.

It was probably around then that reality set in.

Even though we'd seen plenty of species by now, to help us confirm the fact that, yes, you are actually in the Pokemon world- it didn't really set in until we started seeing the massive herd of Stantler, and the giant Pidgey flocks, dominated at the front by Pidgeottos and Pidgeots. Things like this. They were just like bird flocks and deer herds back home.

It was once we started seeing Pokemon in big amounts that we really started taking everything to heart. We had to work really hard to keep the looks of wonder off our faces- because, even though Hank knew we weren't from around here, he still assumed we were from the Pokemon world. And, again, those were beans that I and Jack were nowhere near ready to spill. No way, no how. Our lips were sealed.

On that topic, as far as Jack and I were concerned, those beans would be staying inside of the bean jar, inside a box, inside a factory. And they would NOT be spilled.

We saw more wild Rattata searching around on the ground, for food. We saw Noctowl, and their babies, Hoothoot, when it got closer to nighttime. We also saw a variety of bug Pokemon when we were traveling through the forest- though the Weedle we well avoided for obvious reasons, and the Butterfree seemed mostly friendly, as you might've expected.

One thing that I didn't expect, though, was how real everything looked.

Before, we'd only viewed Pokemon in either the game, or the show. Both of which depicted them as cute, harmless animals. Cartoonish, anime style.

This was real life, and that was not how it was.

They weren't terrifying, but they were realistic.

I'm not that scared of bugs, so a Caterpie didn't bother me. But I can understand why it bothered Misty, because it did look just like you'd expect a giant caterpillar to look.

Still, though, I grew used to it.

We stopped early, again, maybe around seven or eight, but we needed the extra time to set up camp, and also just to allow Jack to rest. I could tell that he still didn't like it- but it really wasn't his decision, in the long run. His leg prevented him from doing any sort of hard labor, and as such, his tasks mostly boiled down to tending to the fire, which was right where he planted himself, and helping Hank cook.

Hank was cooking a stew- he had a mix of vegetables that he carried with him, as well as some dried meat. He also carried seasoning on him, too- which was good. It meant that we could have a good, delicious meal, even this far out in the wilderness. Jack helped him tend to it, but it was mostly Hank cooking it. I was starting to believe that he could pull a damn bank out of that pack, because of all the stuff it held.

And again, when the stew was ready- simmering, slow cooked for a few hours, and it was getting late into the night, he weakened the fire a bit by letting it use up some of fuel, and not replenishing it, he pulled bowls and spoons out of his pack. He filled each with an even amount of stew. We had to wait a bit before we could eat it, because it was so hot at first.

But when we were able, it was a delicious dish. And while we ate, we spoke, briefly.

"So, what's your plan once you get to town?" Hank asked.

Jack's mouth was full, so, as I swallowed, it fell to me to answer. I coughed and beat on my chest for a few moments as the stew went down my throat the wrong way. Hank looked at me in surprise, and I gulped in air like I'd just jumped out a pool and I'd been holding my breath for far too long. Once I could actually talk, I answered.

"I-I'm not really sure. We'll figure out when we get there."

Hank seemed satisfied by this, and he simply shrugged and continued eating, spooning large portions of the stew into his mouth. He ate faster than either of us and had several bowls- meanwhile, Jack and I only had two. It was near midnight when we decided to go to bed. Hank mostly snuffed out the fire and left smoldering embers where a roaring flame had been before. Hank obviously was used to sleeping in the wilderness, and fell asleep almost instantly- as soon as he curled up in his sleeping bag.

He'd given us a sleeping bag too, each of us, and we stared at the stars as we tried to sleep. We were city boys, though, and rest didn't come as easily as we would've liked it to.

In the end, Jack broke the silence first. He turned to me- and I could mostly make out the troubled look that his face held, even through the darkness.

"What are we going to do when we get to town?" He asked.

Like I'd been lying to Hank, or something.

"What I told Hank. I don't know yet. We'll figure it out when we get there."

Jack frowned.

"What, do you have any ideas?"

He shook his head.

"Alright then. Don't worry," I told him. "Everything will work out fine."

He turned over without saying anything and tried to bury himself inside his sleeping bag. I didn't know whether he was mad or not, but I thought that he was taking it too seriously. It was obviously a serious situation, but…

I just knew that everything would turn out alright.

But I couldn't help but wonder, as I tried to fall asleep, whether that was what I really believed, or just overly optimistic hope, with no reason behind it.

I turned and watched Tina in her self-dug hole. Every time we went to sleep, she'd eat a few tons of dirt- at least, it looked like tons- and bury herself deep inside the ground. She'd sleep there, and then dig herself out in the morning when we were all ready to leave. It was another thing that was really cute. It was also sort of interesting to see, too- watching Pokemon behavior up close like that. I felt like the Jane Goodall of the Pokemon world.

Of course, I wasn't. I guess that would be Birch, right?

That was something that I wasn't sure about yet, either. I'd been thinking about it more lately, though. Was it possible that people like Oak and Misty and Birch were inside this world? Were the characters from the show here, or the game, or both, or a mix of both? It was a question that I'd not only been thinking about more lately, it had started bothering me more and more. Because it was almost too weird to imagine it.

The more I thought about it, the more creepy and strange it became. It was entirely possible that in some strange dimension or other reality that Pokemon could be real. But fictional characters in the world being real here? It was somehow different, and a lot scarier, to boot. I guess I would see eventually.

I kept thinking about it late into the night, but eventually knocked out.

XxXxXxXx

We woke up again the next day, and started going as hard as we could, right away. Jack and I both wanted to be out the wilderness, and also, we wanted to see the town, so it was curiosity pushing us, also. Hank seemed to be able to keep whatever pace Jack set- but he was starting to shape up. His leg looked a lot better than it did before.

In just a few days, it had healed nicely. The reddish purple tint was much less pronounced, and just looked a lot less angry, in general. There had also been a bit of swelling, too, but that had faded in time as well. It had faded to the point where you could see the original, tiny cut that had caused the whole thing. I was thinking that maybe two days from now, it'd be gone completely, and the worse he'd have would be a small scar on his leg.

It was maybe midday when we crested a hill and saw buildings in the very, very far distance. Jack and I started whooping and hollering the second we saw it.

"Hell yeah!" I clapped my hands together, hard.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Jack said.

We were just both really excited for it.

Hank smiled, and he looked happy for us. The sight spurred Jack on even more, and we made really great time, racing through the rest of the forest and nearing the town by late afternoon, after we'd taken a lunch break.

It was only a mile or two away, now, and we took our time, walking at a slow pace. We were probably going to reach it by sunset. Tensions between Jack and Hank had eased a bit. I think everyone was just relieved to be almost out of the wild.

Tina seemed really energetic, and practically skipped along beside us as we journeyed into town. It was a small town- not necessarily tiny, as there were a fair number of buildings, and it was clear that a large number of people lived here- perhaps a few thousand- but not necessarily some gigantic city or a metropolis, either.

As we strode into town, strangely, we didn't garner any odd looks. We were dirty, with leaves and twigs stuck all over our clothes. We'd done our best to wipe off dirt and smears, but it wasn't perfect, and we were still pretty filthy. But we didn't really seem to get a bad look from anyone- rather, it seemed all the attention was on Tina.

After thinking about it for only a second or two, I realized that since training was a normal thing in this world- or, at least I assumed that it was, based on what I knew from both the anime and the games- it wasn't anything new to have a few people stumble into town, looking disheveled, and a little worse for the wear. A Larvitar was much rarer, and a lot more interesting, than a few dirty people wandering into town. It probably happened every day.

People watched as the little dinosaur Pokemon waddled beside me. She seemed content no matter what- and was already presumably enjoying her decision to go with me as her trainer. She'd been having fun so far- she'd been getting into small fights as we'd traversed the forestry, all the way up until we'd reached the city.

There weren't really a challenge for her, though- and it wasn't really as much of a fight as it was a stomp. A horrible, horrible stomp.

All the Rattatas and Pidgey were simply tackled aside.

Tina gazed in wonder at the town as we strode inside. I couldn't pick her up and put her on my shoulders like Ash would with Pikachu, though- she was over two hundred pounds, even in her baby state. She'd break my neck, easy. She seemed amazed by the tall buildings, the amount of people there were- and even the other Pokemon in the city- ones that she'd never even seen before.

There was some trainer with what I was pretty sure was a Typhlosion walking past- and it glanced at me, and snorted smoke from its nostrils as it followed its master. I don't know whether it was laughing at me, or just unimpressed. I glared at its back as it turned away and its trainer and the Pokemon disappeared around a corner.

I made sure to keep Tina really close. Hank's words about criminals and thieving echoed in my mind. Tina didn't seem to care, though- almost like she liked the extra attention as she stayed almost attached to my leg, walking right beside me.

I was also fairly sure that nothing would happen though, because we were surrounded by other trainers, in the middle of a city, in basically broad daylight. No one was going to try anything. We walked for a few blocks- and while we did, we saw a society that was completely intertwined with Pokemon. It was a thing here. It was normal.

Hell, it was even popular, to an extent. I could only imagine how popular champions were around here. Probably like the President is, back home- or any other sort of famous leader- The Queen, or a Prime Minister, or whatever.

It took a little while, but eventually, I figured out where we were going. I was almost certain of it, but it was only confirmed when I saw it with my own eyes.

It was massive.

The Pokemon Center.

It was taller and thicker than I expected. It was at least a few floors high. Probably because of how huge Pokemon could be- I wouldn't be surprised if they had special systems for different types of Pokemon, whenever there was a requirement for special care. I remembered scenes from the anime depicting that, so it made sense.

We walked to the front- and the doors automatically opened, just like modern day grocery store doors did. We strode inside and, while it was probably nothing new to Hank, Jack and I took everything in. The high roof- probably at least twenty feet tall. The wide, spacious entry room, with all kinds of couches, chairs, and PC's. And even other trainers, that were waiting on their Pokemon's recovery, or sitting around, chatting with each other, or eating.

It was a little much to take in all at once- and while Jack was apparently better at hiding his emotions, I knew that I was staring, even gawking. I managed to tear my eyes away, and tried to act a little more aloof.

Some trainer with a Fearow walked right past us- and the bird was massive, nearly doubling my height, with brown feathers and white at the tips of them, a huge, pink beak, a majestic crest, and a wingspan that'd probably make an ornithologist orgasm. The Fearow's cocky smile was matched by the trainer as they strode out of the Pokemon Center with an arrogant swagger. The other trainers inside had smaller, weaker Pokemon- he was clearly more experienced, and whoever the guy was, he knew it, too.

We reached the front desk, and I got what I expected- a Nurse Joy. On the back of the wall, behind the front desk, hundreds of pictures of women that looked very similar lined the entire wall. They all had fair skin and red-orange hair. I wondered what the explanation for it was. This wasn't the anime- and no woman could birth thirty identical kids at once.

I reminded myself to ask her later.

The Nurse Joy- almost just like she looked in the anime, except in real life, and with a uniform that looked a lot more like a real nurse's-received us as we reached the front desk.

"Hello. Are you looking for a room?"

I nodded.

"Yes, please."

"Very well, can I just see your trainer's license, please?"

I froze.

FUCK.

I couldn't see my own face, but I was fairly sure that I looked terrified- like I'd been caught red-handed. Jack looked similar. Hank waited a moment, but after he realized we weren't going to give her one, he narrowed his eyes and looked at both of us, before he interjected something, and practically dragged us away from the spot.

"We'll be right back," he said, giving the woman a smile.

I had a feeling that the smile was false.

Tina seemed content to allow the dragging to happen. She waddled along and followed us outside. She looked to still be sucking one of her paws clean of dirt.

The second we were outside the Center- and behind the left wall of it, what looked like out of earshot for anyone passing by, Hank asked the question.

"Are you guys actually thieves? Or what? Because you should have a trainer card. Hell, everyone I know has a trainer card! Even if theirs is expired, people usually keep it because it reminds them of good times. You know, when they first tried their hand at training?"

We stayed silent.

"You aren't thieves, are you?"

There was a dangerous lining to the tone in his voice- like we'd made a grave mistake.

"No. We're not!" I said. I was desperate. He was one of the only people I knew here, and I liked Hank. I didn't want him to hate me. It sounded like he had something against thieves- had said it more than once. Besides the fact that he had helped us a lot, and was basically our lifeline in this place.

"Then tell me. From the beginning, you both have been hiding something. And I intend to hear the truth, now. So tell me. Now."

I sighed- and then glanced at Jack, who shrugged, with a frown.

He looked defeated. It didn't seem like there was a way out of this.

"You wouldn't believe us."

"Try me," Hank said.

So I tried him.

I told him everything- in detail. About what had happened the day we'd been transported here, what had happened when we were teleported, how I'd met Tina, and everything. It took several minutes of desperate, quick explanation that left me nearly breathless at the end. Hank eyed both of us.

"I told you, the story's ridiculous," I said. "But it really is the truth, and-"

"Oh, I believe you. Mostly. It doesn't sound like there's much reason for you to lie."

I froze up for the second time that day. Jack seemed surprised by Hank's response, too.

"But I don't like some of it. This entire world, being a game, for kids? A TV show, too? Man. That's just something else," he said.

"Alright, if you're telling the truth, I want you to name the current champions of all the regions- or, at least, the ones you know about. This should be a decent test- though anyone could know this from a history class."

"Lance is champion of both Johto and Kanto. As far as I know, either Steven or Wallace is champion of Hoenn. Cynthia is champion of Sinnoh. For Unova, it's either Iris, or Alder," I said.

"I… didn't expect that," he admitted.

"Those aren't the current champions. Lance was the tenth champion of Kanto, and Johto- and the longest reigning, around two hundred years ago. Steven and Wallace were a little past his time. Cynthia is more recent- a hundred years back. Iris and Alder are both dead, too, but Iris passed three years back. The entire world mourned - Unova, the hardest."

"Wow," I said.

"Yeah, wow. There's no way that any kid in this world- no matter what- would not know the champions, or champion history. It's too ingrained in our culture," he said.

"I believe you."

Once again, Hank's kindness surprised me- though I was really starting to appreciate what he'd given us, and how caring he was being.

"Uh, thanks," I said.

"But, uh… what now?"

"I can't own Tina without a license, right? How do I get one?"

"They're pretty easy to get," Hank said. "It really isn't that hard. I know for a fact that every Pokemon Center has a license distribution machine, with a simple test that you have to take in order to get it. You used to have to apply, but they just made it harder for stealing and abuse to take place by cracking down. That way, it's faster to get your license, but they don't have to worry about Pokemon thieves and Pokemon abusers quite as much. It still happens, but…" he shrugged, "what are you gonna do?"

"We should take the test, then- right?" I asked.

"Uh, yes. If you want to keep Tina, you do."

"Good that we're already here, then. C'mon, Jack. Let's get this done."

He nodded- and we both grinned.

We walked back inside and talked to the Nurse Joy- who seemed surprised, but not unwilling to help us with the test.

It was some sort of multiple choice thing on the computer- and the computers acted the exact same way they did at home, except that right click was on the left, and left click was on the right. It really irked me and pissed me off, but I got used to it soon enough.

It really reminded me of state mandatory tests we used to take in school, but luckily, these were a lot easier than those were. There were a variety of questions about Pokemon, care, logic, and just basic planning that anyone would have to know to both raise animals and go adventuring into the wilderness.

A lot of it was common sense, like asking how much you'd pack.

Others were much more interesting- and required a lot more thought.

I read the question aloud to myself- almost in disbelief- as I considered it.

"You only have your fire starter available. You're out in the first forest that you came across, searching for an easy catch to bolster your team and help you look for other Pokemon. You come across a strong Pinsir. While the type advantage is in your favor, it looks old, mean, and like it's been in this situation before. What do you do?"

A. Attempt to catch the Pinsir.

B. Retreat.

C. Go around it, and keep searching.

D. Defeat the Pinsir.

And here I was thinking Pokemon training would be easy. I wasn't sure what to do. A strong Pinsir would probably be good, but I was weaker right? If I couldn't catch it, I couldn't beat it, for sure. If it was mean, then I probably couldn't go around it, either. The only real option was B.

I chose B.

There were a few more questions, and then the test ended.

The entire time, Tina had waited, impatiently, near Jack and Hank, who stood not far off to the side. She could somehow tell that this test was important.

The second it ended, she ran right back over to my leg.

Nurse Joy printed out my score- and looked over the answers.

"You're the first one I've had choose the retreat option in a while," she admitted.

"A lot of kids are in over their heads when they go training."

It didn't really surprise me. It made sense that that would happen.

"Alright, this looks good enough. How about you stand right over there?"

She led me to a white wall, and lined me up- and got behind a camera that was connected to the Center's main computer, the one she worked on.

"Say Charizard!"

"Charizard?" I asked, confused, though I kept my grin up.

A bright white flash exploded in my eyes- and I was rubbing them, but she was already printing out a little card with my grinning face on it- along with a bunch of other details.

I learned that my trainer account was the thing that stored all the Pokemon I owned- and it was connected to the license. Once you caught one, you had to record it as soon as you got to the nearest Pokemon Center. Otherwise, you were breaking the rules and they could seize the extra Pokemon that you caught, but weren't registered. It didn't count them as being owned by anyone, technically. They then became League Pokemon.

Nurse Joy told me about all of this really quickly- she seemed a master at explanation.

Then Jack took the test, and we repeated the process.

Once we both had our licenses, we smiled at Hank, who grinned back.

"Don't I need to capture Tina in a Pokeball to register her on my trainer account?" I asked. Nurse Joy nodded, though she provided no such Pokeball. Hank sighed, looked at me, set down his pack, and rummaged around with it for a minute before producing a functional, but scratched, Pokeballl. It was red on the top, and white on the bottom- really plain. There was really nothing special about it, at all.

Still, it was a Pokeball, and I grabbed at it, and practically snatched it out of Hank's hand.

I got on my knees and tapped the little button in the middle- made it grow a bit larger. I looked at it, and then looked at Tina- who didn't move. I put it on the ground near her.

"Tina, do you want to be Pokemon?"

She nodded.

"Larv!"

With trembling fingers, I picked up the Pokeball, and pressed it against her head. It opened up- and a red, shining beam of light shot out from within the ball and drew her inside. Once she was inside, I held it in my hands as it rocked back and forth- until it grew still.

I looked it at like it was the biggest diamond in the world.

"Aren't you going to do it?" Jack asked. He had a grin on his face.

I understood what he was going on about.

"No," I said, laughing.

"Do it!" He insisted. We were both struggling not to crack up.

Hank and Nurse Joy looked confused.

"Fine, fine," I said, agreeing. I kept snickering, even as I started to do it.

I raised it high above my head in one arm- and stuck the other fist out, with a V for victory sign. In a triumphant tone, I shouted.

"I caught a Larvitar!"

Jack couldn't help it anymore. He started cracking up and fell on the floor, pounding it with one fist and holding his side with the other. He howled like a baboon.

Everyone else in the room stared at me like I was the biggest idiot in the entire world.

I laughed nervously and tried to play it off, but I still felt embarrassed. Still, the moment was too funny and joyous and memorable for it to really bother me.

XxXxXxXx

Later, after we'd all booked a room- because rooms here were free, as was food and care, and everything else- Hank had to ask.

"What the hell was that 'I caught a Larvitar thing about'?"

He smiled when he said it, though.

Jack snickered.

"Just something from the TV show," I said.

"Oh, ok," he said. "I guess that makes sense."

We went to sleep- despite all the good emotion in the air, and the relief and lack of tension, if anything that only revealed our exhaustion that was lying underneath.

Hank still hadn't asked about Terry or Matt, though we'd told him about them.

I didn't really know what to think about that. I suspected that he still thought our story was false, but maybe he just didn't want to pry. He did say that he believed us, after all.

After Hank fell asleep like a rock, Jack and I chatted in the darkness. He'd had his leg fully healed by Nurse Joy, which was really just her giving him a small dose of antibiotics- and there was really only an ugly scar there, now. And it wasn't even that big, either, which was good.

I was still thumbing my one Pokeball, which lay right next to me on a nightstand next to our beds. I still couldn't believe it, that I owned a Larvitar.

"So, what now?" He asked.

"I don't know." I said.

"What about Terry and Matt? Where are they? They weren't where we ended up."

"I don't know. They… they have to be somewhere else," I said.

They just had to be.

Jack looked at me- and nodded to me, before turning over, and going to sleep.

It took me a while to fall asleep, but while I was doing so, I could only think about Terry and Matt. They had to be out there. They just had to.

Because I didn't want to think about what it meant if they weren't.

XxXxXxX

And that's the first chapter of CrossWorld! Review, please.

Any questions, ask them in review or PM, and I'll try to answer them.

I AM interested in Betas. PM me about that, too. There's bound to be errors in here. And this story is going to probably be pretty long, so yeah. You need to be fast, though. I can't be waiting on like a week for someone to email me my finished chapter back.

Not much to say on the first chapter, really. I'd always wanted to write a Pokemon fanfic, and, well… here ya go. It originally came about as the idea of what a really cheerful Tyranitar would be like… and, well. Yeah. This is it.

It's around… 11:15, now. I have to go watch my Sopranos, now. It's so good. Anyone that hasn't watched that yet, I strongly urge you to pick it up. I only started watching it recently, but oh man. It really is amazing.

Anyway, I guess that's about it.

See you all next chapter.