Many kilometers away from the small town, a young man walked into a giant office overlooking the entire city of Wyndon. A tan man with green eyes and slick black hair sat at a great desk. The villainous-looking businessman looked up at the other human beings and pulled off a warm smile. "Charles, There were two of you. I can't start without Ms Hannah Hansen. I had a speech prepared." He stood up.
"Sorry, Mr Rose. She's called Trip, but she had to put that in a weird place on the form." Charles looked at Rose's ankle monitor but stopped himself from staring. "She said she wouldn't take long in the bathroom because she 'wants to do this game for real'".
"Just Rose is fine."
A girl's voice came from behind and she looked around the room before being disappointed. "I'll like to file a 44R dash 7 complaint." A black hair girl came through the office doors.
"Workplace background-age-gender discrimination complant form? That is a form that I, as an employer, am legally obliged to supply upon request… but you are not an employee, even when you are participating in the league."
"Well you better shape the place up before you get one for real. The picture hanging up in the little women's room is uglier than the one in the men's restroom."
Rose did seem to find this humorous. "Oh, you'll have to speak to the vice president about that issue. That one is out of my hands."
"Okay," Charles interrupted, "When do we choose our pokemon?"
"In this case, they chose you already. They are actually quite well versed in combat and, basically, street smarts. What you do need to choose," Rose made quotes with one of his hands, "is a business to officially sponsor you."
Charles reacted with wide eyes, but Trip missed the tone in Rose's voice. "One of your subsidiaries?" she asked.
"No. I'm actually working in established corporate systems already in place so don't think of this as a favor. Macro Cosmos Television can cover some of the costs for sponsees of small businesses, ones with less than five hundred employees. We can not finance materials such as uniforms, travel, most meals, or any lodging deemed nonessential.
"While it is possible to get a sponsor from a larger business, the truth of this world is that opportunities such as that are few and far between, and essentially nonexistent to those without the connections to obtain such opportunities. With MTC's small business plan, many young trainers can connect with non-traditional businesses. For participants, the chances of getting a sponsor more than quadruples. As a result, the last three years of Galar's Pokemon league has seen the most competitive and diverse pool of challengers it has ever had in it's 600 year history."
"600 hundred fucking years?" Trip said.
"Sorry," Charles said. "Our continent has nothing that's over 400 years old."
"Hey, we have nature: big ass trees, the Grand Canyon, doom volcanoes, and fossils. And the moon rocks!"
Rose laughed hard enough to squint his eyes, but stopped abruptly. "Don't get me started about your United States. It's kind of like a fantasyland for a business man such as I. Really, anyone interested in economics and politics. It's much as if an historian from your world could one day travel to the Roman Empire. We might be here all day if I start bringing up every one of your Earthly nations."
"What about Canada, my homeland?"
"Is that one of the States?"
Yes!" Trip said.
"No, we have a long ass border with the States, and it's mostly frozen wilderness."
"Can't say it rings any bells. Let us return to the subject of your adventure. There are a few requests you need to fulfill, but it's to yourselves and your partners. MCTv considers the obligation fulfilled when you compete under the terms of the program. Your own story of personal growth will be broadcasted to millions, all while wearing the logo of your sponsors. This is all at reduced cost to get them on the same visibility as larger businesses. Don't worry, I have yet to see someone in this program look as shameless as Leon."
"Okay, so who are these sponsors?" Trip asked.
"The chairman means we have to find them. He just gave us our boilerplate." Trip looked confused at charles. "We have to go out in the world and convince someone to fund us."
"At greatly reduced expense," Rose added.
Trip sighed, "I never expected to have a pokemon quest begin with adulting."
Rosed now had a more sinister smile befitting of his appearance. "Never let me hear you using that word again."
"Yes, Sir," Trip said.
"Alright, now listen closely. I have bad news which will pertain to you for the rest of your journey. There are six known new Terrans in Galar proper. Three of them are in Wedgehurst, two are in this room, and the last one was just outside of Wyndon city limits not far from where each of you were found. We have reported our discovery and acquisition of you two to the police, who are legally charged with protecting Terrans who appear in this region. The police aren't obligated to report to us, and have not done so. However, I suspect what we have is a missing person case." A sadness entered his eyes, and Trip and Charles understood all this implied.
Rose turned to the large windows of his office. "The two pokemon you have been assigned to are professionals. They are charged with your safety in this region. The nature of the threat is manageable, but the streetwise background of Simon King, and the special abilities of Brigit McRonain together are more than enough to keep you from all harm. However, as your protection, when they give you orders, YOU COMPLY!"
The two nodded with wide eyes.
"They will arrive in the second-floor lobby sometime after lunch. Do not leave the building without them."
TWUMP TWUMP
Brigit shot up in her restaurant seat. "My coffee!" She grabbed a cup with her large hands feeling the heat entirely gone. "Oh no. Sorry, I'm jet lagged seven ways to Sunday, ummm, Mr. King?" She downed the cold black coffee in one large gulp.
The green haired thwackey man was annoyed. "Yes, King. Simon King." He pointed his stick across the tabled at Brigit. "You really don't seem to realize that this is a life and death situation? This may literally be the hour the Imperials obtain our charges, Charles and Trip."
"Relax, they are already at Rose Tower. They are probably locked in his office right far away from any danger."
Simon sighed. "So, honestly, I don't know why Rose chose you for a duty like this. Nothing is less conspicuous than a three-meter-tall dragon girl, and you haven't done anything like this before. I can tell. You also don't look athletic enough to be carrying multiple people. Have you ever even been in a street fight?"
The orange-haired dragonite slid out of her chair. When she stood tall, she was clearly below 3 meters but she was dangerously close to the ceiling. "Uhhh, are we mercenaries? I don't know the technicalities, but I only know there's a large payday."
Simon seemed to think over Brigit's wording. "No, this isn't mercenary work. It's closer to babysitting in this case, but there are bad guys." the green-haired pokemon took out his phone to show her something.
"This is like, some sort of Team Empire? I don't know the politics of Galar, but it's another bunch of weirdos with useless plans." The 100 kg woman received the phone from the monkey man. "My God. Culain the Ubermetch Welder as the number three in their organization? He's literally invincible; if I didn't have student loans, he would be enough of a reason to stay away from this gig. It's a good thing that the wish maker has only a point-one percent chance of even being in Galar. They wouldn't do something drastic with no return on investment. I see some pretty scary people on this list, Although I could take on Arthur the Judge. He's nearing 200 years old." She started out the door.
The stick welder caught up quickly with the dragonwoman. "So, logistics? You can fly three other people or just two others? I don't see how you could lift so many. I'll make my own escape from Rose Tower."
"That won't be necessary," Brigit said while still looking at the enemy roaster on Simon's phone. "Wait, what's with their leader? She's marked as 'Flee On Sight.' A human with the Dud power, which is literally nothing. We could totally capture her."
"She doesn't even have a bounty as of now so that would be illegal. Also, that woman has won against the government at every turn. She's a true mastermind so getting captured would be part of her plan if that ever happens. Some say she and her organization is a serious threat to Galarian democracy."
Brigit halted at the edge of a pavement looking to the sky. "That's just the government being a government. Galar is the longest running democracy in the pokemon world and these weirdos won't even be a footnote in history textbooks. Now stand in front of me with your staff horizontal. I show you I'm more than fast enough for this job."
On the other side of the country, Alice and Niomi walked down a sidewalk that was shaded by trees in the most pleasant leg of a summer walk. At least, Alice seemed to think it was pleasant as she started to hum. She looked at Naomi and stopped humming as if she forgot she wasn't alone. The bounce in her step disappeared.
"I expected it to take more than a walk to see you in a positive mood," Niomi said. " Now that I think about it, I expected a show of fire powers to have manifested by this point in time. You don't resemble scorbunny, or anything non-human so I have to remind myself that I'm with a human-flamethrower. Or person-flamethrower. You just look human with the wrong ears."
"Oh, the ears are not enough for you? I assure you I can create fire, and reach one of those branches up there." There were some particularly thick branches five meters above that looked strong enough to support a young woman.
"It doesn't help that it's a cartoon bunny that I know as scorbunny. A personified scorbunny would logically have white hair, but I'm seeing an idealized woman pulled from some old-time fairytale motion picture. In fact, the only thing that would qualify as an imperfection about you are your muscles on your arms. It is better to be strong than not." Naomi held up her right arm and bent it, although her muscles weren't too special. "Was that tune you were humming from a movie?"
"I thought it was, but I've forgotten where it's actually from a long time ago," Alice said.
"Okay, so can I see you do something with your fire powers? I just think of you as a blonde bunny. Or a blonde rabbit. I don't know if calling you a bunny is like calling a woman a girl."
"Oh, I call any man with enough hair on his head a boy," the icy-blue-eyed girl siad. "I really don't think you'll manage to say anything to offend me. I know you're not from around here, and you seem like a smart enough girl, or woman."
"So, you don't remember much about your life? And the professor said I could get answers about the world from my pokemon. What do you think you can tell me?" ask Naomi with piercing gray eyes.
"Ahhh. My species is more likely to have twins than the typical person. Some species of pokemon live much longer, but scorbunny has the same life expectancy as a human. And... and."
A white hair, horned, college-aged black man nearly ran into them as they approached the corner. He turned the corner as the girls looked back as he ran down the way they came.
"Conrad!" Naomi yelled, taking Alive by surprise but making the wooly hair ram stop and turn.
He wore a lime vest with a white long sleeve button up shirt. He was clearly a wooloo or dubwool, and the fact he reacted to Conrad means Naomi guessed right. "Do I know you Ma'am?" he said in a perfectly posh accent.
"Wow, I was expecting a Scot, but no, we haven't meant. There's no one waiting for you at the lab."
"A Scot?" Conrad asked.
"Nevermind. It's a useless parallel to my world. You sound exactly like a Brit from the upper-class district of Chelsea from my world, where I guess sheep are more associated with Scotland. I've been anticipating peak Britishness so much in Galar, it's a surprise actually hearing it now. I'm Niomi and this is Alice"
"I'm sure Galar is an interesting place to one such as you. And your bun friend? She looks a bit unusual for a scorbunny, but I'm sure she's super cute by Earth's standards."
"Huh?" Alice said. "That's more backhanded than compliment."
"Could you explain?" Naomi said. "In my earthly opinion, You look a lot more like a dubwool than Alice does like a scorbunny. You looked like you maybe even evolved."
"Yeah, I was a skinny wooloo, but that's enough about me. Eight times out of ten scorbunny have mainly white hair: long luxurious white hair. Believe it or not, her blonde has the darkest shade of blonde I've seen from her species. I've heard of redhead scorbunnys though.
"Cyan eyes with blonde hair is a rare combination that I don't recall seeing before in her species. All the rage on social media is red eyes with white hair. They usually are using filters to get the red eyes. It's more common for them to have brown eyes like mine than to have truly red eyes. If anything a darker shade of blue would go better with Alice's sunny-blonde. Since I don't recall this from any humans, do cyan eyes like hers even exist in your world?"
"Yes actually," Naomi said while looking at Alice to make sure Conrad didn't say anything over the line about her appearance.
Conrad looked down at Alice. "I would say she's a typical example of her species's athletic build if her chest wasn't about to explode out of her shirt."
Both girls were taken aback. Naomi objected before Alice could. "I don't think so. She didn't choose it, and her body's not ridiculous."
"Yeah, but she's in her first form. I suppose it's possible she'll have a decent frame."
"But…" Alice said, "I'll be taller and stronger. It's a good trade off."
"Hey Alice," Naomi said. "Whenever a man says something like that, you're supposed to aim a flamethrower at a part of him of your choosing."
"It's fine," Alice said. "I get what you're thinking, but Conrad is a change in pace from the usual gushing."
"However, a butt that big will be nice at all stages." Conrad said before his eyes lit up in surprise. He dodged fire that extended out Alice's arm. Even in the sunlight, an orange glow illuminated his hair.
"No you can't just say that sort of shit after putting me down," Alice yelled before she became aware of her anger. "That's a horrible reason for violence."
"No, that was perfect," Naomi said.
"Okay, okay, okay. I'll respectfully summarize. "Conrad sighed. "You're a Galar 9. How did the male terrains react to you because you're definitely an Earth 10."
"One of them totally made a fool of themselves and absconded," Naomi gleefully volunteered. "The other one was happy to go with Ariel."
"That's not funny," Alice said.
"You did what you needed to do, Alice," Naomi said. "There is nothing to feel bad about..So, Conrad, are you in the mood for questions?"
"Sure thing, my lady. What about this world do you need to know?" Conrad said.
"I'm more interested in those from my planet at the moment. I've spent my time learning about the world of pokemon, but only today I realized this lack of information relevant to the situation I am in."
"Oh, Terrans always have near perfect negative energy capacity as they don't fully belong in our dimension. Long careers, and some bonkers trainers even go as far as gigantimaxing without a keystone. And about the Wishmakers, they..."
"..perish?" Naomi finished.
Conrad looked concerned as if he considered Naomi as part of the group.. "Well not all of them. We just don't always know who they are so we don't know their overall survival rate."
"They get themselves over their heads. Stacking powers they don't need and have nothing to do with being a pokemon trainer." Naomi's disdain was visible. "Such idiot men, as if settling with aura powers and a harem is beneigh them.. And even my own gender had psychic Hitler, but she seemed to be the worst of the women I've read about. Although she didn't do much damage, as she was in less than Weimar social conditions."
Conrad interjected. "I think I know who you are talking about, and she's still alive. Technically speaking."
"Finally, I have to wonder if there is some predisposition of those taken by Jirachi toward reckless heroism. More than just Wishmakers die trying to make a difference." Naomi sighed.
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Alice said. "Why do you have to be cynical? It's good to be brave."
"Historically, I don't think there's much of a case for those who came the same way I did." Naomi said. "Hey, look, there they are." Ariel was sitting on a bus bench, with James on the phone. Conrad run ahead to greet the familiar Ariel.
"So, do you think either of those guys are the Wishmaker?" Alice asked softly.
"You're sharp, Alice," Naomi dropped to a whisper. "This has always been a possibility to me since I learned about Jarachi's system. A somewhat notable thing is that they came to this world together. Don't discount anything. In my observations, I'm only certain that it's not both of them at the same time."
"And if you find out it's one of them?"
"My first instinct is to treat the Wishmaker as the enemy, but I think the qualifications to be someone dragged along on the side (exempli gratia, myself) are fairly independent of the intentions of the Wishmaker itself. Furthermore, it would be reasonable to presume that refusing the wish making process will not hinder Jarachi in any way from continuing the cycle."
"Oh, that's pretty understanding. If you figure out the identity of the Wishmaker's identity, you could even be his ally. I thought you would immediately put your hand around their neck." Alice asked. "Although, I don't think that's entirely off the table."
"Quiet."
James yelled into the phone. "What's that in American? 5 miles! There has to be a closer stop. Well, I'm not the one who's so far away-
"He's talking with WIll," Ariel told the women as they arrived.
"Don't you dare quote Futurama from me! Yeah, be like that." James pressed the hang up angrily. "I don't know what he's so smug about. He's kind of missing something essential to a pokemon journey: the pokemon. Meanwhile, you picked up a spare. You must be Conrad."
"Righteo," Conrad said.
"Wow, Bri'ish among British." James replied.
"So, I guess you're going to be with Will, Conrad?" Ariel said.
"He's with me along with Alice if you don't mind." Naomi said. "It's not like you can buy teammates at the store."
"Yeah, I suppose I can be on your team if this Will bloke can't get his shit together," Conrad said.
"This may sound stupid, but maybe Will found someone to go with him?" Alice said.
"Wait...," James said as he looked downward, "The squirrel from the library, or maybe that's what he was thinking. She could bea recruiter for the bad guys. Naomi was right."
""Skwovet?" Naomi asked.
"No. Just a squirrel, as in the animal that exists in our world. I'm pretty sure she's just a huge titty animal girl dreamt up by a 14 year old boy."
"No way," Alice said.
"Parchurisu?" Conrand asked.
"It's actually somewhat plausible to have a conjured imaginary girlfriend exist in this world." Naomi noticed a very surprised looking Alice. "But I suspect remembering species isn't James's strongpoint, although it would be funny to find the one squirrel person in the world to not possess superpowers."
"We usually don't mean pokemon powers when we say superpowers. Was she a fluffy tail squirrel lass with brown or red hair?" Conrad added questioningly. "That does sound like a particular special-fighting type you occasionally see around Galar, but they are usually skinnier than the native squirrel people and thus less top-heaviness."
"Yeah, she's a regional pachirisu I had no prior knowledge of, and she was probably skinnier than Will if I remember right, but her titties were definitely very fat," James said.
"James, don't joke about things that can literally be true! This is a world subjected to wish logic. Now I have to make sure such things don't actually exist in this accursed world." she elbowed Conrad.
"Uh, no," Conrad uttered. "I haven't heard of random animal-people."
"So, she's really skinny as well?" Naomi asked. "She really doesn't sound like a real person."
Conrad sighed. "Not being a real person is a possibility, but there's no bloody use taking us down that rabbit hole."
James looked very serious right now. "The thing is, that she clearly had ulterior motives."
"Private Eye James is on the case," Ariel said.
"You should have seen her when it happened." James folded his arms and pushed up his pecs as if they were breasts and adopted a know-it-all expression. "Well, it's actually pretty simple. If Will was thinking with his upper brain, he would have caught it. The squirrel called Will by his name when talking to him and then said she didn't already know our names." He assumed a normal stance. "I honestly thought Will would have eventually realized. I even called her out on the spot."
"It's nice to know I got one of the smart ones," Ariel said.
"What did she want with you?" Alice asked. "What can people actually get out of Earthlings?"
"A mystery," James said. "A suspect. At least until the bastard is outed, if that even happens."
"That and our unlimited ability to empower pokemon bigly in Galarain sportsball arenas," Naomi said. "Because of the culture, this is actually one of the better regions to isekai into."
A double decker pulled up. Everyone followed except Naomi who stood thinking until the rest had already had at least one foot on the bus.
Naomi suddenly rushed to board the bus and shouted "James, you idiot! The squirrelwoman said 'well' the interjection, not 'Will' the proper noun!"
"Huh. you mean 'well?' I… supposed that could be the case." James admitted as Naomi ran down the bus at him.
"You should realize that you didn't have anything to gain by throwing around half-formed accusations and announcing whatever suspicions you have!" Naomi took her seat next to Alice. "We are in a serious situation and every mistake can come back to bite us."
"Only you can make the concept of pokemon adventure sound dreadful."
"Not to mention that woman didn't deserve whatever you said to her, or about her for either."
James's eyes went back. "Well, that's debatable. Besides, for all we know, Will has already been captured by alleyway ninjas.
"I doubt he's in any serious trouble in these parts," Conrad said. "No chance he already nicked the professor's recommendation for the league, so we should worry about ourselves."
"Recommendation?" James asked. The humming of the wheels of the bus replaced words as a realization set in.
"I thought you took care of that," Ariel yelled at James.
"She can only give out one," Naomi said, "right, Conrad?"
Ariel turned to Conrad. "I assumed Miss Sonia was going to give us one of the recommendations."
"Why?" Conrad asked.
"I don't even know who that is," James said.
"I guess we are rivals then," Naomi said to James. "Although we can call the professor together. We left the lab without the information we needed."
James scratched his lightly covered chin. "I… I didn't think to call the professor. That's really nice of you to let me in on the call."
"You all should be quiet during the call." Naomi said as she put Magnolia's info into her phone. After a couple seconds she pressed the red button, hanging up. "Shit."
"What the hell, Woman?" James said.
"This might be a test. We need to resolve what we can at the lowest level," Naomi said. "If we have to choose, James gets the recommendation and we will work out what happens next from there."
"Ah", Conrad uttered. "That sound like you're trying too hard to be worthy."
James looked bewildered. "Or maybe this will just give me the recommendation for free. That's quite a wager."
Naomi handed her phone to James. "I'll add the extra condition that you make the call to the professor. I'll need some headspace for what comes next."
"Um, sure?"
Culain looked to the top of the tower a mere 20 paces away across the street. He had a phone to his ear.
"You know I can take on this entire place by myself. It's just a big-ass office building with a few hundred office workers and maybe six bounty hunters in it." He waited for the woman on the phone to speak. "Julia! Are you serious? Don't you have someone on the inside? Your plans are more complicated than this!"
"Your part is very simple," Julia siad. "It's civil trespass all the way up if you take the route we talked about. We do have flyers, but you're the only soldier we need on the inside."
"Soldier? You know I have to try to not seriously injure anyone fighting me? No excessive force for me, excessive force for the bounty hunters." He stepped out into the road as the traffic opened.
"You are definitely mightier than a civilian skyscraper."
Culain sighed into his phone. "This is still a complex mission. Even I can't fight holding multiple unwilling people with my two arms, you know. If I have to choose, who?"
"Males are slightly more likely to be the Wisher, but for this particular mission go for the lighter one if that will affect is very likely that not all of the empire's objectives will be meant . Above all, do not injure my fellow Terrans until we know who this round's Wisher is."