For a moment there, I felt like crying. And also screaming. I felt like a child on Christmas, opening all his gifts and, despite loving them all, waiting for the one I wanted most of all, only to find out there were no more presents under the tree. For that one moment, it didn't matter about the presence of all the other gifts. The only thing that seemed to exist was the lack of the one.
I must have done a little more than "feel" like crying because after a minute or so of silence, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned in my seat to see two very concerned, very blue eyes looking at me.
"Nathan, are you ok," Dawn had asked. I looked at her with a slight glare and a look of 'are you kidding, of course not!' before I realized I was acting like a spoiled brat. I shook away that pesky feeling of entitlement and nodded an affirmative.
"Yeah, I'm alright," I said with a small smile. I turned to the Professor who had been giving me a slightly judging look, not that I blamed him after how I'd acted. "Sorry about acting like that. Can I ask why not?" In the games it had always seemed as if the regional professors all gave Pokemon out to any bright-eyed eager youngster who had the courage to ask for one, though that may have been a biased point of view as a player.
Rowan sighed. "Don't worry, I've certainly had worse reactions to that news." He glanced at Dawn who suddenly found the floor very interesting. Quickly trying to cut off that thread before I tugged on it, Dawn spoke up.
"Y-you see," she said hurriedly, "this is around the time that the local trainer schools finish up graduation. As such, there are a lot of new trainers who start at this time in the year."
"Because of that," Rowan continued, "all of the starter Pokemon I currently have in possession have been reserved by such trainers ahead of time."
Of course, supply and demand had to follow me from Earth and taint the idealistic world of the Pokemon games. Damn realism.
I sighed and closed my eyes in thought. "That's a shame for me then, but at least all those Pokemon will have some hopefully nice trainers." I thought to myself for a moment about what my original plan was. Realizing a massive wrench had just lodged itself inside, I decided no plan was the best plan for now. "Out of curiosity, professor, which starter is the most popular for trainers to pick?"
Professor Rowan closed his eyes and stroked his beard while humming to himself for a moment. "Hmm, well it changes every few years between Piplup and Chimchar, but overall Chimchar tends to be the most common first pick." He opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow at me when he noticed the frown I had on my face. "Is something the matter?" he asked.
I shook my head. "Not really, no. Just a little disappointing is all. Turtwig is by far my favorite starter out of all the starter Pokemon in any region. I guess no one wants to put the time into raising a grass type properly, huh? Though it may also be the heavy upkeep Grotle and Torterra require. Or maybe the flash and speed of Infernape and Empoleon are too appealing to younger trainers who don't think about team composition at the start. What a shame, Turtwig are so cute!" My exclamation at the end caused Dawn to giggle at my antics, while Rowan seemed impressed at my knowledge and analysis.
"Well then, with that kind of quick report based on so little data, I'm sure I can expect great things from you as a research aide as well as a trainer." I looked up at Rowan and was slightly embarrassed at the praise, shying away from it.
"Thank you sir, I'll do my best," I said. "Until then though, I suppose I have two main goals. Get through my remedial schooling and find myself a Pokemon!"
.o0o.o0o.o0o.
Let it be known that as the current leading authority on life comparisons in multiple worlds, my 100% professional opinion:
School sucks. In any universe.
About a week after signing my papers with Rowan, I had my first day of classes and I immediately found them dreadfully boring. Though maybe that had to do with the fact that it was essentially just the dreaded 'syllabus day' and everything was super plain, boring, and the epitome of "this could have been covered in an email." As I sat in the lecture hall, staring at the piece of paper which plotted out my multiple class schedules for the next 2 months, I found myself completely zoned out. The real classes didn't start until the next day so there was no real reason to be paying full attention in the class anyways, right?
Wrong. Oh so very wrong. Having come from my Earthly collegiate experience right at its peak, I was fairly used to lecture halls being filled with anywhere between 30 to 300 people, with no real time spent individually helping a student or anything of the sort. It was all pure business and learning.
Naturally, in the Pokemon World, things were far more personable. Which was actually quite nice, I hated the lack of teacher-student interactions of a big college, but currently…
I had 20 pairs of eyes all staring at me, waiting for me to say something. And to my great misfortune, I had no idea what I was supposed to be saying.
"Uhh, I'm sorry, but I zoned out for a short while," I explained nervously. What a great start to your education! I thought to myself. Luckily, the teacher gave me a patient smile and informed me that we were doing short introductions. I nodded and stood up, which I had absentmindedly noticed the other students doing earlier.
"Right. Sorry again. Well my name is Nathan and I'm from a different region. I recently came here to work with Professor Rowan as a Research Aide and travel as a trainer while doing so. I'm here at this school to refresh my knowledge and make sure it's up to the standards here in Sinnoh." I rattled off the fabricated story Rowan and I had decided on for people who were not privy to such confidential information as alternate realities.
I noticed a few of the students cast me side glances before disregarding me for the rest of the session. Every single one of my "entitled, arrogant group of bullies" alarms was blaring in my head, and one of the other students with yellow (not blonde, yellow) hair was giving me a particularly snide look. Oh great, I thought to myself, I found my Paul.
My suspicions turned out to be true. Once the day was over and everyone was packing up, I found myself essentially surrounded by this 'Paul' and his lackeys. I sighed to myself and prepared for the inevitable confrontation that was in front of me. "Is there something I can help you with?" I asked, hoping to get ahead of him.
He merely scoffed at me. "Didn't they teach you any proper manners in whatever backwater region you're from? Can't even bother to give us your full name. I'll bet you don't even know what a Garchomp is, do you?" Everything this kid said made my blood boil. He seemed about my age, but with his attitude and personality, I can only see him as a child in my head. I'd be damned if I let this arrogant brat think he's above me, especially if he thinks it's alright to assault and bully someone like this.
"Garchomp. Dragon and Ground Type. Final evolution of Gible and Gabite. Originally discovered in the Sinnoh region. Considered a pseudo-legendary Pokemon. Common ability is Sand Veil, rare ability is Rough Skin. Capable of Mega Evolution. Mega ability is Sand Force. Signature Pokemon of League Chair Cynthia." With each sentence the group lost even more of their composure, staring at me in disbelief. I stood up, standing above the leader of the posse by about three or four inches and stared him dead in the eyes. "And my name is Stahlherz. Nathan Stahlherz."
The boys were trying to gather their composure and the leader attempted to not shrink from my gaze. Meanwhile, in my head…
I just pulled a Bond! I cannot believe I just did that with a straight face, much less have it work and intimidate them! Easily one of the most badass things I've done so far… not that the bar is that high.
After a few seconds that felt stretched into many minutes, the boy scoffed at me again and turned away. "The name's Jonas. You'll do well to remember it," he said before walking away. His groupies followed him out of the class.
As he left I stayed standing in the same spot, frustrated. After all that, you didn't even give me your last name. Jeez, what an ass.
Figuring that worrying about it wasn't worth it, I pushed it out of my mind and headed back to the lab.
The past few days, Rowan had been giving me some small tasks to do around the lab, which I was glad to do. I wanted to learn all I could about different Pokemon and how to care for them. Not only would it be helpful for me becoming a trainer, it had always been a dream of mine to be able to interact with Pokemon, and regardless of the circumstances with which I was able to do it, I was going to enjoy every second of it.
I went to the room I had been assigned in the staff lodgings; the same room that had previously been the guest room I stayed in that first night. They converted it to an official staff room just for me since I had already been using it, though the only thing that had truly changed was the label on the door.
Walking in, I threw my school backpack on the couch and proceeded to pick up the Silph brand one as I immediately walked back out.
I had discovered soon after receiving it, that the backpack was able to store anything I needed to put in it. It used a similar subspace technology to that used in Pokeballs, which meant that it could store a ridiculous amount of stuff in it of all shapes and sizes, without even weighing an ounce heavier than when empty. I decided that such a pack was far too valuable to use for textbooks at the school and bought a simple and small alternative to use, and considering my apparent new enemy, that was probably for the best.
With all of my equipment and tools stored inside of the backpack, I started heading towards the main laboratory building, when my Rotom phone flew out of my pocket. I had it set to do that for certain alerts, specifically major news events, emails and messages from Prof. Rowan, and messages from Dawn. Seeing as there were so many interesting things for me to enjoy in this new world, I spent far less time on my phone, so I had set it to distinctly notify me when those alerts came in.
Taking a look at the notification, it appeared to be an email from Rowan. "Out of the office for the day due to unexpected meetings. Please tend to the Torterra herd today. Dawn will assist you." I chuckled lightly to myself. Short and straight to the point, in email as in speech. Can't say I'm surprised.
I changed course and headed out towards the forest that was part of the lab's ranch area. The ranch had quite a few different environments to try and cater towards many different types of Pokemon. Obviously some, like the mountainous area and the mini-desert, were artificially created, but many others were a part of the area's nature that had been fenced in and acknowledged as the Professor's land. The forest was one such area.
If I'm being completely honest, it looked bizarrely perfect. The majority of the trees were roughly the same height and were healthy and green. The leaves were thick, and yet despite that, enough sunlight filtered through to leave the forest, for the most part, well lit. As I walked along the path, I noticed a group of Morelull in one of the plentiful bushes that filled the open space between trees, sleeping through the day and enjoying the shade the plant provided. No tangled messes of vines and weeds. It was as if it was taken straight from a painting. None of the dangers present in many forests on Earth could be found.
Although, in all fairness, those dangers are plants (poison ivy) and animals (bears), which, in this world, are replaced by Pokemon such as Victreebel and Ursaring. But I digress.
I walked a short bit into the woods until I began seeing the trees move; a detail that a week ago would have made me reconsider my sanity.
"Tooorrrr." I looked to my left to see one of the literal mountains of a Pokemon stand up as I approached. I stopped in my tracks — though whether it was out of fear or awe, I couldn't tell you — as the massive tortoise walked slowly and powerfully towards me. It stopped a few feet away from me and I felt paralyzed as it examined me with its eyes. Eventually it met my gaze and I could see it asking me a question with its eyes, so I decided it was best to not leave it waiting long.
"My, uh. My name is Nathan. I-I'm one of Professor R-Rowan's new aides. He told me to come and, um, tend to you?" The last bit came out as more of a question than a definitive statement, despite being the truth. The Continent Pokemon narrowed its eyes at me, causing me to mentally recite my last will and testament.
"What's goin' on here?" a voice asks from behind me. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard it, having put all my focus on the Torterra. After recovering from my shock, I turned and found Dawn giving me a shit-eating grin.
"Tor-or-or-or-or," I heard from my side. Laughing. The Torterra was laughing at me. Giving me a grin and a puff of air in my face, the massive turtle lumbered away from me.
I stood there staring after it in disbelief when I heard more laughing from my assailant. I gave her a playful shove with a small smile on my face. "Thanks for that, I definitely wasn't already terrified," I told her, morphing my smile into a playful pout. I received nothing other than a tongue being stuck out at me so I laughed it off and turned my attention to the herd that had since made itself known.
There were quite a few Turtwig running around as the Torterra was walking back. It was honestly a little bit surprising that none of them got stepped on, but maybe I was just giving them too little credit. Nine other trees began to shift around as the tortoises they were attached to began to move around. Numerous little heads popped out of the ground as the more cautious Turtwig in the herd made their appearance. A few of them awkwardly tried to scratch their backs and their saplings, reminding me why I was there in the first place. Recovering from my awe (and fear) I pulled out a small rake, garden shears, and larger hedge trimmers from my backpack. Dawn walked over as well and picked up the rake and shears, leaving me with the hedge trimmers. Which meant I had to deal with trimming the Torterra's trees.
"Hey, Dawn," I say as I walk towards the nearest Torterra, "how come there are no Grotle in the herd?" The blue-haired girl looked at me with a small smirk on her face, and I could tell I wouldn't be getting a straight answer.
"You couldn't figure it out for yourself, hmmm, Mr. Research Aide? You needed to turn to your senior employee to find the answers you seek?" she replied with a playful, teasing tone. I rolled my eyes good-naturedly before turning back to the tree I was trimming.
"Ha ha, very funny. Also, technically, I am a Research Associate, thank you very much," I responded with faux entitlement, "meaning my position is above yours as a mere Aide."
I had to be quick to dodge the branch that was thrown my way.
Following the burst of laughter from both sides came a comfortable silence as we got lost in our work. After a short minute, Dawn actually answered my question. "It's because we give most of the Turtwig away to starting trainers. The few that remain tend to be gifted to others for various reasons, be it research, forming a new herd elsewhere, or simply a gift of a companion."
I hummed in response. I supposed that made sense, but a part of me was somewhat saddened by that. I had hoped to see the full evolutionary line interacting with each other, but I shouldn't complain. This was already an experience that (I assume) at least hundreds of people on Earth would do anything for.
Another few minutes of silent working followed the comment. As I finished the first of the Torterra and moved to another, Dawn asked me a question of her own. "How was your first day at that school? Make any friends?" Her tone at the second question made it sound like she assumed I hadn't and was teasing me for it.
Alas, I had nothing to prove her wrong.
"It was alright. Mostly went over the scheduling for all of the classes and what topics we'd be covering. Some of them seem like a joke to me, but maybe that's just because of my background. The battling section sounds like the type of class that'll go over type match-ups, move categories, and other stuff that was the most basic of information in the games, which I memorized when I was, like, 12." She got a laugh out of my complaining, but was quick to hide it. "You know," she started, "you still ought to pay attention there. You never know what might be different."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, mom," I said back to her, earning me a light glare. "But as for friends, no, but I did make an enemy. Or, at least, I think I did." This seemed to surprise her, making her stop her work to look at me. The Turtwig whose back she had been raking whined at the ceasing of the soothing motion. "Wait, seriously? I mean I figured you wouldn't have made any friends," she said, ignoring the glare I sent her way, "but an enemy? Who was it?"
I sighed. "Not super sure. Some arrogant guy with bright yellow hair, and an attitude. He and his lackeys tried to make me feel dumb after classes, to which I proudly put them in their place. We, ever so courteously, exchanged names, before he stormed out of the class and his followers did as they do best, and did so with shock on their faces. His name was Jonas, and I hope I'll never have to deal with him after this class is over."
There was a short silence after my mini-rant, but this time I could tell that it was anything but comfortable. I turned to look over at Dawn, and I was very glad she had stopped raking the Turtwig, as the rake was now jammed into the ground in rage.
"Ah, I see," she said, almost through her teeth, with a smile that said she was anything but happy. "Jonas is back, hooray." I had a dreadful feeling in my stomach but before I could stop myself, I found myself asking "Dawn, do you know him?"
"Sadly, yes. Yes I do. That little ass is Barry's cousin."
Hello! Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. A few things I wanted to address:
1. I will be trying my best to update every Saturday. But again, please do not freak out if I don't, I do not plan on dropping this story. If I make that decision, you'll be the first to know.
2. Please, please, PLEASE, comment if you notice any spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors. I'm very particular about having my writing look nice, even if it actually isn't
3. If you want to critique me, go ahead. I literally ask for it in the Author Notes at the end of the chapters. But please be nice about it. I don't take kindly to being called an idiot for the direction I'm taking my story in.
4. I'm going to stop promising "He'll get a Pokemon soon, don't worry!" because I have realized that there are a few other things that need to be addressed first that I have pushed back too far already.
5. I don't really have a fifth thing to say, I just like when things are multiples of 5
Anyways! Hope you enjoyed! This story is going to be somewhat slow, both by virtue of the way I want to plan it out and focus on things, as well as the relative infrequency of uploads compared to other stories. That said, your support means a lot, so thank you for all the favorites and follows!
-TD2297 :)