I awaken just as we pull up into the driveway of a small, rural house on a sparsely populated road. Relatively remote and isolated, surrounded by nature and far from the busy city. Perfect for hiding out from Team Rocket it would seem.
"Welcome to Oldale Town, guys. Our own little slice of paradise." Jackson says cheerfully.
"Certainly looks the part." I reply with a yawn.
I've never seen a house like that before." Thunder muses. "Why are the walls grooved like that?"
"The sidings? To protect the walls from the elements, I think? Never thought much about it, personally."
"Why would the walls need protecting? Keeping out the elements is their job."
"I think it makes the house last longer."
"Well I think it looks kinda stupid."
The car's engine goes silent and Jackson steps out, walking around to my side to help lend me a hand. With effort I open the door and get to my feet, leaning on him for support. Thunder and Growlithe are not far behind. As we get reach the front door I start to notice a commotion coming from inside. Voices yelling to each other. One in English, the other in Pokespeak. Specifically an Eevee dialect. Though what they're actually saying I can't really tell.
"Oh no..." Jackson mutters quietly. "Not again, Shadow..."
"Shadow?" I ask. He doesn't respond. Instead he simply opens the door to reveal a room in chaos. An Eevee is leaping around, weaving between the living room furniture with grace and recklessness in equal measure. Lagging behind her is a child. A boy no older than 12. The Eevee is practically running circles around him as he desperately tries to catch her.
"Can't catch me, Josh!" She yips playfully. "I'm too fast for ya!"
"Just slow down!" Josh pants. "You're gonna break something!"
"Come on, slowpoke! You can do better than that!" Jackson helps prop myself up against the wall as he goes to deal with whatever the heck is going on here.
"Josh, go get her ball." He urges. Josh nods in understanding and dashes off down the hall. Meanwhile Jackson attempts to block the rampaging Eevee's path by stepping in front of her and blocking her with his body, with an amusingly unsuccessful result as she simply squeezes through his legs.
"Yay! Dad's joined in on the fun!" She stops for a moment in a play bow position, her tail swishing lazily back and forth behind her as she seems to almost dare Jackson to grab her. He starts trying to slowly close the gap between them, not wanting to risking her zooming off again.
"Should we help him or..." Thunder muses.
"Be my guest." I reply. Immediately Shadow turns to face me, a look of confusion etched into her face.
"Wait, was that you that just said-" She began before being cut off by Jackson pouncing on her, locking her in his arms. "Oh, you sneaky human! Not gonna be that easy!" She starts to squirm in his grip, forcing him to fight to keep a hold on the hyperactive ball of brown fur.
Josh re-enters the room holding a red and while sphere like the ones in the facility. I tense up, readying myself to grab Thunder and Growlithe and get out if I need to. Thunder takes a defensive position, growling angrily as sparks fly from his cheeks. Shadow, barely still in Jackson's hold, takes one look at the sphere and in an instant her hyperactive attitude is replaced with disappointment.
"Aw, no fair!" She pouts. "That's cheating! Why do you have to kill the fun in every-" Her complaints are silenced as the blue energy from the sphere takes hold and draws her in. With a click the deed is done and the Eevee has vanished without a trace. Josh looks at us, confused.
"What?" He asks. "It's just a pokeball. See?" He holds it out to show me.
"Get that thing away from me!" Thunder yells in adrenaline fueled anger. I don't think I've ever seen him that mad before.
Josh is quick to take a step back. "Woah! Okay. Okay. Dude, calm your Pikachu."
"Sorry." I reply. "He's just had... bad experiences with those things." I grunt and I kneel down and pick Thunder up. "Relax. I think we're safe." I whisper to him. Reluctantly, Thunder stands down, allowing me to return my attention to the others. "Sorry about that. My name is Alex. Your dad is letting me stay here for a while."
"You are?" He turns to Jackson.
"Yes, I am. They needed the help. So I offered to help them. Sorry about the hectic introduction. Shadow tends to get a little stir crazy when she has nothing to do. Speaking of which, Josh, how about you take Shadow and the others out for a run? I'd like to discuss some things with Alex." Wait, others? More pokemon?
"Alright. I was planning on going into town to look at that new bike they got at the store. I'll see you later!" He waves as he heads out the door. It shuts behind him, leaving the four of us alone.
"You're not from here, are you?" Jackson starts, switching back over to pokespeak.
"Come again?" I ask.
"You. I know your friend is from Pokemar, but you? I figured you may have been from somewhere like Orre, seeing as you were unfamiliar with Team Rocket, but judging by your reaction, you're not all that comfortable with pokeballs, are you? Something ubiquitous across the planet. Which makes me wonder, you're not from Terranor, are you?" Terranor? Is that what this world is called? Regardless, it's pointless to deny it. He is right, after all.
"You're right. I'm from a world called Earth. And there we don't have pokemon. There are only humans."
"Ah, A world of humans, a world of pokemon, and one with both. Interesting."
"So these 'pokeballs'," Thunder interjects. "What exactly are they?"
"I don't know exactly how they work, but they're meant to catch and store pokemon safely and easily. From what I'm told by pokemon it tends to be fairly comfortable being in one."
"Comfortable? That's the last word I'd use to describe it."
"Gonna have to agree with Thunder on that one." I add. "Rocket's pokeballs felt more like prison cells more than anything."
"Probably something to do with the modifications they made to them." Jackson replies. "I hear they modified theirs to ignore the microtags that most balls use. When a pokemon is caught a microchip 'tag' is put on them that tells other pokeballs that this pokemon has already been caught and prevents any other pokeball from catching them."
"So they remove the components that use recognize these tags?"
"I believe so. Very illegal to do so. Though speaking of which, you're going to want to get these two some balls for themselves, if only to get a tag on them."
"Oh no," Thunder grumbles. "I am not getting stuffed into another one of those."
"It'll only be for a second or two," Jackson says to try and reassure him. "If you don't you run the risk of getting caught by someone else."
"I... I just..."
"Let's worry about that latter. Right now, I need to lie down." I interject.
"Yeah. Fair enough. This way." Jackson relents. I take hold of him for support once again as he leads me down the hall and to the guest room.
The room is nothing spectacular. Just your standard, run of the mill bedroom. A twin size bed rests behind a window with a desk and chair to the left. A handful of generic paintings line the walls, many of them depicting pokemon in the wild.
Jackson helps me onto the bed and I lie down, glad to finally be off my feet. Thunder and Growlithe are quick to join suit.
"There. That work for you?" He asks.
"Yeah. It's perfect. Thank you." I reply, letting out a long, relieved sigh. "You got something with internet? Or whatever you call it here? I'd like to familiarize myself with this world so I don't oust myself."
"Of course. Here. You can borrow Josh's tablet." He takes an orange, Rotom-themed tablet off the desk and hands it to me. "Just give me a holler if you need anything."
"Will do. Thank you for this. I really appreciate it. When I'm better I'll be sure to repay you somehow."
"If my time on Pokemar has taught me anything, it's that you always help another in need. See you later, Alex." With that he turns and leaves. I turn on the tablet and am greeted to a very colorful UI. Thunder and Growlith reposition themselves on either side of my head, likely hoping to see as well. After a short while I finally find the icon labeled "Fire Fennekin" and opening into "Zangoogle." I take a second to chuckle at how absurdly similar the names are to the real world counterparts before trying to decide on what to start with.