He stirred slightly. His arms moved easily along a silky surface, and it shifted when he adjusted his position. He sat up, looking around.

There was a pillow under him, and a small piece of cloth lay nearby. He looked to be on some sort of shelf, high up. He glanced down to find many other shelves reaching down to the floor. Most of the shelves had small stands holding a variety of different pokeballs. His bag sat on a nearby shelf.

Nurse Joy walked in and collected a few pokeballs, then saw him. "Oh, hey buddy. I'm just going to take these guys for their check-ups, and I'll be right back with some food!" And with that she left.

He sat back down to wait. He hadn't really fully absorbed the situation. I mean, he had always kind of wanted to be a Pokemon, but not like this. The fact that he had adjusted so easily honestly frightened him. And the fact that he couldn't remember some things he was very sure he should, like how he had forgotten his name.

Nurse Joy opened the door, turning the lights back on. "Sorry about that!" had they been off? He hadn't noticed. He stored away his thoughts and looked at her.

"...Feeling better?" She bent down a little to get on eye level with his shelf. "I got some stuff for you, I believe Ghost types don't actually need to eat, but it should help you get back some energy." and with that she placed some berries and water on the shelf. "Come outside whenever you're ready, I'll leave the door open. I'll be just outside the hall."

He looked at the various berries. There was a Sitrus, an Oran, and a Leppa. He picked up the Leppa, and brought it to where his mouth would be, but stopped when it bonked against the wood. He stopped for a second, his mind blanking. Then, the Leppa berry fell through his hand. It didn't go out the other side. He suddenly tasted it, and closed his eyes at the amazing bitter taste. Wait, what exactly just happened? He squinted into the air, trying to find an answer. Maybe that's just how he ate.

He felt more energized, and ready for the first day in this strange new life. Forgetting an the rest of his food, he hovered to the floor. He was about to leave, but he suddenly remembered his bag. It was too heavy to lug around, but he supposed he could bring something from it.

He spotted a keychain on one of the zippers of the bag. The sun coming through the window glinted off the pieces of metal, painted and arranged to look like a stained glass artwork of a pokeball. It was the only thing he felt he fully owned, he had found it while taking out the trash, half buried in the dirt. Nobody else really knew about it. As he looked at it, he got an idea. He swiftly detached it from the bag, and slid it onto one of his branches. It dangled there, like a Christmas ornament. It was surprisingly light.

With new confidence, he went out the door.

Nurse Joy was at the counter, talking to someone he could barely see from where he was.

"Alright, your Purrloin is all better, but I'd suggest a change in their diet. You've been coming in more often lately, so I'm going to be blunt. You need to feed them some freaking meat."

He peeked up over the counter to see them better. The man seemed like he was about to say something, but thought better of it and went quiet. Then they spotted him. "Oh, a Phantump! Are they one of the ones up for adoption?"

"No. He's still technically wild. We found him... Injured in the woods."

"Oh? He looks pretty healthy now. Are you looking for someone to take care of him?" He saw them slowly reach their hand into a pocket.

"No, not really..." Nurse Joy glanced between the man and Jack. She placed her arm between them. "No catching Pokemon in the Center." She said. The man hesitated, and then took their hand out of their pocket.

Jack went to go back into the hall. He heard one last thing before he left. "...So where would I go to buy some meat?"

He went back into the room. The curtains were open now, letting sunlight filter in. He sat down in the warm beams, and stared out the window. His head began to lean to the left. Trying to straighten it, he found there was some sort of weight there. Suddenly a Fletching jumped off of his head and in front of him. Jack backed away, and paused before talking. "...hi?"

The small bird pokemon nodded in greeting, and hopped a little, eyes smiling.

"...Can you understand me?"

The bird nodded again, but made no noise. Almost tacking him, as they were almost the same size, the Fletching fluttered back onto his head.

Nurse Joy quietly opened the door. "Oh hey! Looks like you found Tulum! I was worried she'd be lonely."

The nurse sat down beside him. "Anyways, sorry about that person. They're probably from Enotuxt, people seem to like them, but honestly some of their members are terrible at taking care of their Pokemon."

They sat in silence for a while, before she spoke again. "You know, they might have caught you. It's a pretty dangerous world for a Pokemon if you don't want to get caught. Actually, this brings me to my next thing. Do you want to get caught? I mean, you can't stay here forever, and I've never really been in this situation before, like I know about the Dex entries, but I thought they were just myths, I've never actually seen this happen-" She continued rambling on nervously while he thought.

What did he want to do? Maybe he could just be a pet? That would be a relaxing life, but he didn't think he'd really like it. There was another thing... Probably impossible, but it was worth a shot, there's a first time for everything...

He took a deep breath. "I want to be a trainer."

He felt Tulum go still on his head.

Nurse Joy looked at him. "Ah, communication is going to be a bit of a problem... I hadn't really considered, since you hadn't talked at all yet... Maybe you could write it down?" She fetched a pencil and paper and set them down.

He picked up the pencil, but with no fingers, he couldn't really hold it properly. He tried to write, but it just ended up looking like chicken scratch. He closed his eyes, trying not to make his frustration visible.

Nurse Joy paused, trying to think of something else. "Well... I have something that might work... Hold on, I'll be right back!" And with that she rushed out of the room.

She returned shortly, holding a large disk. "It's a bit of a stretch, but it might work." She set down the disk in front of him.

He looked at the disk, fishing for memories. Oh, that's a TM! He remembered one that was on his mom's desk, one for Energy Ball. He had won it as a top prize in a talent show, and gave it to his mom.

He reached out and touched the disk. Immediately energy flooded into him like a river, colliding with something in him that he didn't even notice was there. Warmth spread across him as he absorbed the information, and as it faded, he seemed to hold himself a little higher, and he became acutely aware of a large spot of energy in him.

"Woah... Was that always there..?" He pondered.

"What in the actual..." An unfamiliar voice said. He immediately whirled around to see Tulum had jumped off of his head, staring at him and squinting her eyes.

"Was that her..?"

"Yeah it was me, you twig. Now how in the ever living Arceus are you talking to me."

He shied back a bit at the words. "I'm sorry but I'm confused? Sorry if it's just what I thought but can't Pokemon talk to each other?"

"Yeah, of course they can, but I literally can't speak."

Nurse Joy seemed to sense the confusion between them, and jumped in. "That was a TM for Psychic, and well, I guess it worked!"

He stared at Joy for a second, going over all that in his head.

"Shut up." Tulum fluffed up her neck slightly.

"Oh, sorry." He apologized. Man, he was really going to have to find a way to control this, or all his thoughts were public property. Looking back at Tulum, he squinted. He couldn't see anything. But he could almost feel a... string between them. It was connected to the place where he felt the energy. He moved away a foot, and felt the cord pull taut. Maybe...

Concentrating hard, he tried to bring the energy connecting to the cord to separate. After a minute, it did so, and the cord faded. A success! He couldn't hear anything else Tulum was saying. Now, how did he make connections? He took the energy, not really using it, but more guiding it, and drew it through him, and up his arm. This part was a bit harder. He guided it out into open air, and looked at Nurse Joy. He could see a faint energy inside her. He gradually moved it, like a confused earthworm, to connect to her.

"I wonder how he's doing, if this really worked the-"

He looked her straight in the eyes, his new discoveries giving him confidence, and the cord slowly sapping his limited energy.

"I want to become a trainer."

Woah, that was a long chapter! Probably one of the longest ones I've posted here! Anyways, hi! I'm the author. I've been enjoying writing this so far! It's been awhile since I've written anything for fun, and I wanted to get back into this site. I can't promise frequent updates, but I think I've been doing pretty good so far! Feel free to ask questions, or leave suggestions. Or just speculate on what's going to happen.

I've drawn Jack with his new little accessory here! ibb. co/ kK3RgkJ