Sunday, December 31st, 2017

I woke up to a soft, yet insistent, beeping noise. As I slowly woke up, I tried and failed to think of what could be making the noise. With the Brawl still on hiatus, I'd disabled my alarm since there wasn't any reason for me to wake at a particular time. After lying in bed for a bit longer, it occurred to me that the beeping didn't even match the alarm on my Poryphone, and I finally leaned up to try to find what was making the noise.

I blearily looked around my room, noticing that the beeping hadn't awoken my Pokemon. Peren and Scout were still curled up near the foot of my bed where they normally slept. Blitz was sleeping in the makeshift nest that he'd created with loose scraps of paper while Nin lay halfway between Blitz and one of the room's vents, getting the ambient heat from both sides.

Still looking for the source of the beeping, I skimmed my eyes past my desk to look towards the front door. Suddenly wide awake, I sat up fully when I realized that the egg was missing from the hatcher. I scrambled out of bed, and when I got closer, it was obvious that the hatcher was the source of the incessant beeping.

I was completely baffled as to what could have happened for several seconds until I noticed that there was some slight movement inside the Premier Ball atop the hatcher. I hadn't given any thought to the ball other than its presence to catch the Pokemon once it hatched, but now I realized it had to be an aspect of the hatcher's functions. The device wasn't large enough to hold anything but the smallest Pokemon, so I reasoned that it must automatically catch the Pokemon when it hatched.

I gingerly removed the ball from the hatcher which thankfully put an end to the beeping. With that dealt with, I peered into the Pokeball to try to see what Pokemon Al had gifted me but had trouble making out the Pokemon's outline in the dim light. While it was definitely a quadrupedal Pokemon, there were two blobs that covered up much of its body.

"Hey guys, wake up. The egg hatched," I raised my voice while still trying to figure out what Pokemon I was holding. Peren and Scout were awake instantly and bounded to my side to meet their newest teammate. The other two were a bit more reserved, with Nin simply cracking an eye open and Blitz not reacting other than twitching just enough that I knew he'd heard.

Figuring that was as good of a response as I was likely to get, I returned my full attention to the Premier Ball and with a bit of apprehension, pressed the button to send out the Pokemon within. There was a brief flash of yellow light, and then a white horse that was slightly larger than Peren appeared in front of me. Its tail and large, fluffy mane had the same blue and pink colorations that had been on the egg. Lastly, there was a small purple horn on its forehead with a single white stripe going across.

My new Pokemon and I stared at each other for several seconds as I tried to identify the species. I knew that I had seen a picture of it fairly recently, but I couldn't remember where. While wracking my brain, I remembered that I'd seen a real-life Pokemon that had the same general shape, which had been Al's Rapidash. With that connection made, I remembered seeing the Pokemon in front of me when I'd looked up the Pokemon found in Galar months ago, marking it as a Galarian Ponyta.

While Ponyta and I had silently been regarding each other, Peren and Scout had likewise stayed quiet until Scout had enough after a few seconds. The squirrel Pokemon cheerfully cheeped something and stepped closer to Ponyta. The movement attracted Ponyta's attention and it turned its head to look at Scout but didn't return her greeting.

The lack of response from Ponyta made me realize that it hadn't made a single noise yet, and I started to worry. I knew that it was a bad sign if newly born animals didn't cry, though I wasn't sure if that was only because of potential breathing problems or something else. Ponyta looked fine, but it was still enough of an oddity for me to be worried. "Hey Ponyta, can you talk?" I ask concernedly, then realized that it was probably a dumb question given that the Pokemon had just been born.

Ponyta returned its attention to me and opened its mouth to give a very soft, "Po." I calmed down slightly at the noise, both surprised and relieved that I'd been understood. I briefly wondered if the understanding of human speech was inherent to Pokemon or if something else was at play, but quickly brushed past the digression. Even if Ponyta could speak, it was still way too quiet for my comfort and I wondered if something else was wrong.

I sat down on my bed to think while Scout resumed her efforts to pull Ponyta into a conversation or otherwise get the newly hatched Pokemon to react. With one eye on that interaction, I tried to remember if there was anything that I'd read about the regional variant of Ponyta that could be coming into play. After several seconds of thought, I made a connection that made me freeze when I considered the possible implications.

Galarian Ponyta were psychic type and I had spent half of the last month moping around in my room. I scrambled to find my Poryphone and did a search to see if human emotions can affect an unhatched Pokemon. I could almost feel my heart drop in my chest when the first result was an article saying that studies showed that there was a connection between unhatched Pokemon and their environment. I frantically continued reading, hoping to find some good news.

As it turned out, a later section of the article had the best possible news: part of the purpose of an egg hatcher was to provide the egg an optimal environment free from outside influences. It even specifically called out the F-series hatchers as intended to block negative emotions from affecting the more sensitive psychic, fairy, and ghost Pokemon that were normally hatched within.

I breathed a deep sigh of relief, glad beyond words that I hadn't unwittingly messed with the mind of an unborn Pokemon. I couldn't help but have an inkling of doubt that perhaps there had been something wrong with the hatcher and Ponyta's quiet was my fault, but I did my best to ignore it. I was confident that there would be protections against such an important subsystem of the hatcher failing and I was even more sure that Al wouldn't have gotten a bad model.

With my fears alleviated, I allowed myself to relax and watched as Peren took over from Scout when it came to talking to Ponyta. At one point Peren turned and nodded his head at Blitz and Nin, who had reclosed the eye that he'd been watching with earlier. Ponyta stayed quiet as Peren went through what I assumed were introductions, though it did nod along slightly.

I knew that a new Pokemon hatching should be a really big deal, but I couldn't help but feel like the whole thing was a bit lackluster. Between missing the actual hatching, my worries about Ponyta's health, how quiet my new Pokemon was, and the fact that Scout was the only one of my current Pokemon who was visibly excited put a definite damper on things. I continued watching my Pokemon quietly converse for several minutes before deciding to step away to shower and get dressed.

Standing under the hot water did wonders for me. and I exited the bathroom ten minutes later feeling significantly better. Blitz and Nin had finally gotten up as well so I poured all five Pokemon some breakfast while Ponyta stared at the two Pokemon it hadn't interacted with yet. When I placed the food in front of Ponyta, it carefully sniffed the pellets but didn't do anything else. I was starting to think that I'd messed up somewhere else before Scout came to the rescue and started chittering at Ponyta. The newly hatched Pokemon intently listened to Scout, took a bite of its food when she'd finished, and then contentedly closed its eyes, making me feel better again.

With my Pokemon all set, I grabbed my Poryphone off my bed. I'd realized in the shower that I didn't know my new Pokemon's gender and a quick check of the Pokemon app revealed an entry for a female Galarian Ponyta with no other information. With that mystery solved, I closed out of the app and was about to put away the phone when my eyes fell over the contacts app. I stared at it for a few more seconds before making up my mind and opening it to create a new group text.

I quickly composed and sent a message to John and Cait letting them know that the egg had hatched and they were welcome to introduce themselves if they wanted. I was unsure if they, especially Cait, would be interested so I was surprised when I got a response from her in less than ten seconds saying that she'd be over soon. Just as I finished reading Cait's message, there was a loud thump from the wall that I shared with John.

I snorted, having a feeling that was John's response. Sure enough, I didn't get a text reply and there was a knock on my door less than a minute later. I opened the door without even checking, revealing John standing in the hallway wearing pajamas and with his hair ruffled by awful bedhead.

Seemingly unconcerned by his appearance, John's eyes darted past me and then widened slightly when he spotted Ponyta. He excitedly said, "You got a-" His exclamation ended suddenly and was replaced by a ponderous look.

"Galarian Ponyta," I supplied as I moved out of his way so he could fully enter the room.

His eyes widened again, "Dude, that's awesome! I bet there's only a few people in the entire state that have one!" All of my Pokemon had looked up from their meals at John's entrance, though all of them except for Ponyta resumed eating when they saw who it was. Ponyta silently regarded John in the same way that she had done to me earlier and after a few seconds John noted, "It's pretty quiet."

"She," I corrected before admitting, "And yeah, I was a bit worried about that."

John hummed in consideration for a few seconds before asking, "What type are Galarian Ponyta?"

"Psychic," I succinctly answered.

"It's probably fine then. Plenty of psychic Pokemon are on the quieter side so it's not that unusual," John reassured me. We watched silently as Ponyta returned to her breakfast until John suddenly coughed. "I should probably go get dressed before Cait gets here. Be back in a bit."

"Alright, you can just come in when you come back," I told him, and he gave me a thumbs-up before heading back to his own room. Once he was gone, I picked my Poryphone back up off my bed and sent another text, this one to let Al know that Ponyta had hatched and thanking him again.

A few minutes later, my phone buzzed in reply, 'That's great! Were you surprised?'

I smiled as I typed my response, 'Yep, I didn't know what to expect,'

'Well good on you for waiting. By the way, Betty and I loved the card. Thank you for sending that.'

Despite how many I'd written, I'd never gotten a handle for how to respond when someone thanks you for sending a thank you, 'Of course. Thanks again for the Net Ball.'

'No problem at all. Hope you have a good New Year's Eve.'

'Thanks, you too,' I replied, then put away my Poryphone to watch as my Pokemon finished their meals.

Newly showered and dressed, John returned after a while and sent out his Rockruff to join the rest of my Pokemon. She calmly greeted Ponyta with a nod that was so deep that it almost looked like a bow before moving to start talking with Peren. With Peren no longer taking Ponyta's attention, Scout jumped on my bed so that she was near eye-level with the other Pokemon and started chittering away. Nin and Blitz went back to relaxing, though Blitz occasionally interrupted Peren and Rockruff by chirping at them.

About a half-hour after Cait's initial text, there was another knock on my door and I let her in with a slightly nervous smile. I thought that she looked a little off as well, but chalked it up to it still being on the early side. Upon entering the room, she immediately looked at Pontya and nodded to herself without any of John's confusion.

"Cheater," John accused with a laugh.

"I couldn't stand not knowing, so I looked it up the same day that we moved in," Cait admitted. "From what I read, Galarian Ponyta are fairly timid, so I'm surprised that this one is doing so well with this many strangers right after hatching. Do you think it would be alright if I sent Houndy out as well?" Cait gestured to Peren and Rockruff at her question, making me feel even more guilty about my distance from my fellow trainers the last few weeks. With me not interacting with John and Cait, Peren had been missing out on seeing his friends after being apart for months.

"Yeah, that'd be fine," I replied and a moment later Houndy appeared at Cait's side. The dog Pokemon softly yipped in excitement and immediately bounded to Peren and Rockruff's side.

"Being quiet was the first thing that we had to work on after moving in," Cait noted wryly, making John and me chuckle. The three humans in the room fell quiet for a bit as we watched our starters converse. Houndy's entrance into the conversation had caused it to become a bit noisier than before, but whenever he got a bit too loud, Rockruff would nudge him and he'd quiet back down. Peren was generally quieter than the other two, but it was clear that he'd come a long way from how timid he'd been when I'd first met the three Pokemon almost four months ago.

After a while, John glanced over at me and broke our silence, "So I take it you're going to be skipping the New Year's party now?"

"Yeah, sorry, definitely skipping it now."

John shrugged amicably, "That's fine. I'm cool with your idea of just hanging out some more." He paused to turn to Cait and asked, "You want to join us?"

Cait looked a bit surprised at the question and after a moment answered, "Yeah, that sounds good. It's already getting a little crowded in here though, so how about we go to my room instead?"

"Works for me, you good with that Thomas?"

I was about to say yes but hesitated. Just these few minutes of being in the same room as John and Cait made me realize how much I'd missed hanging out with them and how pointless my self-isolation act had been. It had not only made me miserable but also deprived my Pokemon of opportunities to hang out with their existing or potential friends. In fact, it had made me so miserable that I'd seriously thought I'd negatively affected the mental state of my new Pokemon, which spoke absolute volumes about my own. Even with my realization, I knew there was only one way to stop myself from backsliding.

John was giving me an odd with how long it was taking me to respond, so I took a deep breath and said, "Before we do, I want to come clean about some stuff."

Cait raised an eyebrow at that and John's expression shifted to confusion, "Like what?"

I took another deep breath, then decided to rip the bandaid off in one go. "I'm not from this world." I closed my eyes so I wouldn't see their reaction to my declaration and pushed on before either could say anything in response, "The day that I got Peren was the first day I'd ever seen a real-life Pokemon. I was just minding my own business, getting groceries, when suddenly I showed up in this world." I struggled for something else to say, but was overwhelmed and ended up lamely finishing, "And my name isn't even Thomas."

"Damn," John succinctly said, and I opened my eyes with a wince. He looked ponderous for a moment then added, "Well that explains some stuff."

Any nervousness I'd had was instantly replaced by bafflement, "What? You believe me?"

John shrugged as if what I'd told him was the most natural thing in the world, "As crazy as that sounds, it would be even crazier to lie about it. With how weird some Pokemon are, it's not too surprising that something like that could happen. Right, Ca-" John started to ask, but cut himself off when he turned towards our other rival.

I followed his gaze and, as with John, I didn't see the disbelief that I'd been expecting. Instead, Cait looked pissed. "You jerk! I, no, we have been worried about you and you've been lying to us this entire time?!"

I winced at the completely accurate accusation and was about to begin my apologies when John spoke back up, "I mean, I don't remember everything that we've talked about, but I can't think of anything that he's straight-up lied to me about."

As much as I appreciated John standing up for me, I knew that I was completely in the wrong in this situation, "No, Cait is right. I've definitely lied by omission at the very least." One actual lie popped into my head as I spoke so I added, "I definitely did lie about where I'm from. I did grow up in the cities, but I've never lived in Coon Rapids or Blaine."

Between John's defense and my admission, Cait's anger seemed to stall and she appeared to have issues figuring out what to say. She loudly groaned after a few tense seconds, "Argh, fine. I guess being stuck in a different world is actually worse than the situations that I thought you were in, so it's not like you were lying to get undeserved sympathy." She still looked annoyed but not nearly to the level that she had been.

John smiled, "Sounds like we're all cool then. I guess we've got a lot to talk about now, so why don't we head over to Cait's?"

"Wait really? I'm forgiven? Just like that?" I asked incredulously, still struck by John's willingness to just move on.

John gave another infuriatingly dismissive shrug, "Far as I'm concerned there's nothing to forgive."

"Technically, you didn't do anything wrong," Cait added, still slightly grudgingly. After a second she added, "Tell us about your world and I'll call it even."

I blinked several times, completely blown away by the reaction, "Uh, wow. Thanks." I looked over at the Pokemon to see what their reactions were to my bombshell, only to find that most of them hadn't been paying attention. I got a quiet nod of approval from Peren from where he stood next to Rockruff and Houndy as they softly barked at each other. While Blitz, Nin, and Scout gave no indication that they'd heard, Ponyta joined Peren as the only exception. She gave me a slight smile when I looked at her, which was the first real expression I'd seen from her. I happily returned it.

The three of us returned our Pokemon and began making our way to Cait's room. Before we left, I mentioned that I wasn't comfortable with the idea of talking about my situation in public, which made for a slightly weird walk to Cait's, as both of them were almost starting to burn with questions.


"You said you'd never seen a Pokemon before. So you don't have any Pokemon in your world? What's that like?"

"We have regular animals instead. They're kinda like Pokemon but-"

"We know what animals are."

"Wait, what? How have I not seen any then?"

"They're almost extinct because they can't compete with Pokemon in the wild. Just about the only place you can find them is the zoo."


"So if your name isn't Thomas, what is it?"

"You can keep calling me that, really. I've pretty much gotten used to it at this point and it would probably be better to just stick with it to keep things easy."

"Sure. But what is it?"


"If there aren't any Pokemon in your world, how do you know so much about them?"

"I grew up playing Pokemon games. I've been playing them just about as long as I can remember."

"Seriously? What are the games like?"

"You play through a story for a given region. Collecting Pokemon, beating gyms, saving the region from the evil team, that sort of stuff."

"Is there a game for Minnesota?"

"No, but it was referenced in one of the movies."


"Does anyone else know that you're not from here?"

"No, just you guys now."

"Are you going to tell Prof?"

"I'm sort of afraid to. I'm not sure if it's something she'd be obligated to report or anything like that. I don't want my Pokemon taken away."

"Wait, it just sunk in that you said that the day you got Peren was the first day you'd ever seen a Pokemon."

"And?"

"So you're saying that you got transported to a new world, completely by yourself, and then decided, 'Hey, I'm going to go get a Pokemon'?"

"Ah, yeah. I'm still not actually sure about that. It was like I was in a daze most of that first day here. I don't think I fully snapped out of it until I ran into Cait."

"...Glad my pushiness was good for something."


We ended up talking in Cait's room the entire day, ordering lunch and dinner to be delivered so that we could continue the discussion with minimal interruptions. Even though Cait's room was decently larger than mine, it was fairly crowded with sixteen Pokemon and three humans spread out in only a couple of rooms. We had initially been worried about overwhelming Ponyta so we'd slowly sent out our rosters, but she remained unphased no matter how many others there were in the room.

Like we had spent the day talking, our Pokemon had split up into groups as well, with our three starters continuing the conversation they had started back in my room. While Peren and Rockruff seemed fully engrossed in their discussion, I occasionally spotted Houndy longingly look over where Scout, Poli, Pep, and Drilbur were playing. Like the three starters, Nin, Cham, Keter, and Nidorino also had a conversation going, though I suspected that there was quite a bit of bragging occurring based on how frequently I saw Cham flex.

Flit and Swinub appeared to be completely attached to their trainers with Flit, thankfully not in Schooling form, nestled in Cait's hair while Swinub sat in John's lap. Blitz, Ponyta, and Wooper stayed more aloof from everyone else, but none of them seemed uncomfortable or unhappy with the situation.

My scan of the room complete, I leaned over to grab another slice of the now-cool pizza that we had ordered for dinner and noticed Cait giving me an odd look. I took a quick bite of the pizza, but when she still hadn't said anything by the time I'd swallowed, asked, "Something else you wanted to know?"

Even with my direct question, Cait still hesitated for another couple of seconds before speaking up, "Are you going to try to go back to your home?" John sat up at the question, prompting a soft noise of objection from Swinub, and I suspected that he hadn't even considered that yet.

I took another deep breath, "Yeah, I'd like to. I know part of this is my own fault, but this was a really rough month for me. I really missed home," I admitted.

John gave me a sympathetic smile, "Do you have any idea how to go back? Or even how you got here in the first place?"

I briefly explained the information that I'd learned about dimensional relativity, knowing full well how flimsy of a hope it sounded as I explained. When I'd finished, Cait thought for a moment before nodding to herself, "So September fourth is the target date."

I must have looked even more despondent than I'd thought because John quickly added, "That's plenty of time. I'm sure we'll get something figured out by then." I gave him a grateful smile, not missing the fact that he had said we instead of you. Given that I had learned minimal information over the last two months, I was sure that I was going to need the help.

"So that's why you haven't been challenging gyms or trying very hard in your Brawl matches," Cait said, much closer to a statement of a fact than an accusation.

"Right," I admitted, wondering how she knew that I hadn't challenged a gym for a few weeks. That was beside the point though, "With the money that I earned working with Al plus what I'm getting from the Brawl, I should have just about enough to scrape by until September, even with all losses." It wouldn't exactly be high-living, and I would have to reevaluate my estimations once I got a better handle for much Ponyta ate, but I figured that I should be able to make it work.

Cait hummed softly while considering my answer, then said, "Alright, it's decided then. I'll drive the three of us down to Rochester and we'll challenge the gym." When John and I exchanged a confused look, Cait explained, "A trainer not challenging gyms will look suspicious. If you want to stay under the radar, that's the last thing you should be doing."

I realized that she had a point and conceded, "Okay, yeah, that makes sense. But why Rochester? If I remember correctly, that's the fairy gym and none of our teams are that good against fairies."

"John and I will be fine with Nidorino and Flit, and you'll still be challenging as a novice so you won't have any problems either," Cait answered confidently. "Even so, the important thing isn't the gym battle, it's the challenge. The current 'challenge' for the Rochester gym is a checkup for your Pokemon and you can only use Pokemon that are deemed healthy." She put air quotes around 'challenge,' then took a moment to glance around the room, "None of us should have any problems there, but it would give you an opportunity to ask questions about your Pokemon, especially Ponyta, from a professional."

Once again, I couldn't find any faults in her reasoning so I simply said, "Sounds good."

"Works for me," John added. "When are we going?"

We compared our schedules since the Brawl was resuming next week and discovered that our matches were inconveniently placed on the third, fifth, and seventh. "Alright, no one schedule matches for the eighth or ninth, and we'll go then," Cait said to nods of confirmation from John and me. As an afterthought, Cait added, "John, you should tell the Brawl that you're going to challenge the gym since you'll promote into the amateur league when you win."

John looked surprised at the instructions, "Should I have been doing that? I've gone to the Minneapolis gym a few times and might have promoted then if I'd been able to make it past the gauntlet."

"It's not necessary, but they appreciate it. An unexpected promotion can cause scheduling issues so it's better to let them know ahead of time."

With our new plans in place, we returned our attention to more trivial matters and spent the rest of the evening simply chatting.


Monday, January 1st, 2018

When the clock hit midnight after the usual New Year's Eve countdown, I found that I was actually looking forward to seeing what the new year would bring.


A/N: As of today, it has been one year since I first posted this story. It's been a while since I've said this, but thank you so much to everyone who's followed, favorited, reviewed, or just silently read along. I honestly thought that I'd cap out around a dozen follows when I started so the fact that I'm close to one hundred is actually insane.

A massive thank you to krazykz, Star, and Dosidicus for their help, not just with these two chapters but also the previous three. I wouldn't have been able to make my goal of posting these chapters on the anniversary without them.

The one piece of bad news that I have is that with this update I've completely burned through my short-term outline and ate through a good chunk of my long-term one. As a result, I'll be going back to my previous slower schedule for a bit, but hopefully it'll be worth the wait when I return with Chapter 22: Biennial Checkup