Multi-verse Theories: No Smoke, No Fire

by LoreilDarksky00

Another collection of older WIP. These ones do not focus on Ash if he shows up at all. These ones are less likely to be updated any time soon but still worth sharing. 10 - Sir, That Is My Emotional Support Sea Serpent. Vera had no idea how she ended up in the world of Pokemon... but her new little buddy is worth the stress. Now she just needs to get those badges to keep him.

10. Sir That Is My Emotional Support Serpent

Severa "Vera" Jones was not exactly pleased with her current reality.

Sure, being suddenly and inexplicably tossed into the world of Pokemon sounded great, but there were a lot of things the fanfictions never considered; for one, camping is hard, and not something you can reliably figure out overnight with no real help. Second, you really can't take a city, or stretching it, a suburban girl and toss her in the woods and expect her to be alright. There was a mental adjustment that would be totally undone given the suddenness of the transport.

So Vera may have spent several hours just... freaking out. There was a lot to take in, especially given that she appeared to have been de-aged somewhat. To what age, specifically, she had no idea, as she'd looked pretty much the same throughout all her high-school years and some after, though she was certain she was no longer in her mid-twenties. So anywhere between fifteen-ish to twenty-two-ish?

There was also the fact that her hair was now a soft sky-blue that appeared entirely natural, if the peek into her undies was any indication.

In any case, she wasn't entirely up shit creek; when she'd recovered from the world twisting around her and realizing she was staring at an Oddish, she had found a travel bag nearby. Unlike in the games, it wasn't a near-infinite magic bag of holding and stasis. According to the user manual-what the hell kind of backpack had a user manual-it could only carry up to two hundred pounds of whatever she shoved in there before the 'weight stabilizer' stopped working. Which meant that it was more like Skyrim, and if she went over the limit she would feel like she was hauling every single pound she was carrying.

If she stayed under the limit, the bag would only weigh ten pounds. As long as she could fit it through the rather stretchy main opening of the bag, and it didn't push her over the limit, she could put practically anything inside; canned food would supposedly last near forever, and perishables were... slowed? The manual said something about a 5/1 conversion factor, which she'd puzzled out probably meant they'd last five times as long. It wouldn't keep refrigerated things good for long enough to make buying them worth it, but it would keep bottles cold longer.

It was sci-fi magic, and she didn't want to think about it.

Inside she had found five sets of identical clothing; white v-necked t-shirts with yellow stripes on the sleeves, pale green and teal plaid flannel over shirts, four regular bras and one sports bra, a handful of socks, and stone-washed jeans. There were two pairs of shoes, tan hiking books that nearly reached the knee and dark teal walking shoes.

There was also a neatly packaged one-person tent, a sleeping bag, a flimsy little camp chair and folding table, and precisely one Tupperware box holding a small set of cooking utensils, cutting board, metal pot, tiny kettle, and saucepan, a lighter, and flashlight. The one water bottle she found did have five week-lasting filters, though, so hopefully she wouldn't die trying to drink bad water. While there were some energy bars and some kind of dried berry/nut trail mix, that was it as far as food.

In one of the side pockets of the bag she'd found a single empty Pokeball, a wallet with a small handful of yen-like paper notes, and her phone, complete with no service and a half-empty battery. There was also one folded slip of paper, the vaguely familiar letters of Unown-based script seeming to warp slightly before she understood them as perfectly as she did English.

As a 0-badge trainer, you are currently restricted to D-Rank Pokemon and below; you may only catch their pre-evolved forms, though you may train and evolve them without limits. Once you have earned your first badge the restrictions on your trainer license will be released, and you may catch any Pokemon within your ability.

There was a short list on the bottom half of the page, consisting of Rattata, Pidgey, Spearow, Abra, Zubat, Caterpie, Weedle, Oddish, Bellsprout, Geodude, Goldeen, Luvdisc, and Magikarp.

She had no map or compass, or spare batteries for the flashlight.

"I'm fucked," she whispered, one hand over her mouth and the other propped on her hip.

She had already come to terms-mostly-with the concept that this wasn't some fever dream, and despite not knowing the hows or whys, she knew the whats. She was in the world of Pokemon, alone, with just-above minimal supplies, no idea where she was, and no Pokemon. With only one Pokeball she couldn't risk trying to catch anything strong, as she had no idea if that failing would permanently break it or not.

That left her with two options; find the weakest Pokemon possible to ensure a capture, or somehow befriend one and catch it after it already agreed to join her.

Because Vera didn't think for one second that it was safe to be wandering the damn wilds without a Pokemon. And who knew, it might help the undercurrent of constant panic she was suffering.

Regardless, she had changed into one set of the provided travel clothes and shoes, tucking the sleepwear she'd been wearing into the bag. Because she'd been dumped here close to midnight in her home world, not the near-noon it had been when she arrived.

"Fuck, I have to go find a Pokemon," she realized, glancing around and seeing nothing. Having no idea what way to travel, she hesitantly went to pick a random direction before jolting to a stop. "I'm an idiot, the sun's setting and my phone can make an analogue clock."

She had only used the clock-hand trick once before, when learning it in class when her college calculus teacher had gone off on a tangent, but she could still remember it-kind of. Point the hour hand towards the sun, then picture a line halfway between it and the twelve o'clock mark, then use the 'sun rises in the east and sets in the west' thing to figure out which end of the line was north. Given that it seemed to be spring/summer, and it was fucking hot out, she probably was safe enough to head north in the hopes of finding some kind of civilization.

Maybe. She hoped.

... She had no idea what she was doing. But just sitting here wasn't going to help her.

Turning her phone off to save its battery now that she had a direction, she started walking, hoping to find some friendly little Pokemon she could toss the Pokeball at. She'd opted to put it in a small mesh pouch near the bottom of her left bag strap, which seemed to be its purpose anyways. That way she could reach it quickly in case she needed it.

And this was another thing fanfiction forgot... hiking was boring. If you were alone and not the kind of person who enjoyed going for a walk in foreign woods with no trail, it was both boring and unnerving, which was a terrible combination.

As she walked, Vera tried to figure out... something. Had she been brought here for a reason? Given that she'd been provided basic supplies, she didn't think it was an accident, unless a Legendary had noticed her falling into this world and decided to help her out a bit. But if she was here for a reason, there hadn't been any clues. Aside from the note about not being allowed to catch anything off the list, there had been absolutely nothing as far as what was expected of her.

To that end, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do, besides getting to civilization. Would she just go look for a job? Try to challenge the Gyms of whatever region she was in, if that was an option? She'd never even thought about participating in Contests or anything, though she thought she'd like to watch one. All her daydreams had been vague, simply wanting a Pokemon of her own, never even deciding on what she'd like as a starter.

She snorted. As if she'd get to choose a regional one, now. No, she'd just have to make do with whatever she could find. Which was totally fine, she had nothing against the 'weaker', common Pokemon, especially since Flying types were her absolute favorites. Oh there were a few non-Flying types she liked a ton, too, but she had always imagined being a Flying type specialist if Pokemon were real. Which they now were.

Vera eyed the trees, not seeing any sign of Pidgey, or any other basic Flying types. She thought she might have seen a Caterpie once or twice, but the little buggers were apparently very shy and very stealthy, so there'd been no chance to try and catch one. Maybe if she could get more Pokeballs she'd try to find one again, Butterfree were awesome.

Thinking about the list for '0-badge trainers' again, she frowned, carefully navigating around a mess of tree roots. Well... she could try to find a lake or stream, see if there were any Magikarp she could coax to the surface. It would be an easy first Pokemon, she was pretty sure, and to be honest, Gyarados were one of her favorite Flying types simply because she thought it was hilarious. She'd read plenty of fun headcanons about teaching them to use Fly outside of battles. The only issue was that she had no idea how long it would take for a Magikarp to evolve, at least without pissing it off and probably dying when it went on a rampage.

Her mind ran in circles as she hiked through the woods, having taken a slight zig-zag approach using distant trees as markers to make sure she kept going north. How long would it take to get out of these woods? Was it even safe to travel here, what if there was a fucking Ursaring or something?! She'd be dead before she knew it!

The thought had her trying to stay more alert, though who knew if it was effective at all. She was already tired, the time difference from her home world to this one a disadvantage, and she'd spent a lot of energy crying after finding herself in the middle of nowhere.

Vera was... She wasn't a brave person. Pragmatic would be her description of choice, though if she was being brutally honest 'doormat' might have been more accurate. She couldn't bear to make a scene, never stepped out of the crowd, finding it safer-easier-to placate and keep her head down. She never complained where anyone could hear her.

Some of it was definitely learned behavior, a way to prevent being screamed at by various stressed family members who were constantly fighting each other and hating the world, but the rest was just her being a coward. In many ways, the Pokemon games and anime had been her escape fantasy, an idealistic dream of being able to leave the constant conflict and anxiety behind, of being strong enough to not be walked over. Her own trainer OCs had always been outgoing and confident, taking on criminals and strong trainers with fearless ease.

But that wasn't her, in the end. And right now she kind of hated that. Oh, sure, there were probably plenty of people in this world just like her, but they hadn't been transplanted onto a literal new planet and therefore really did need to be able to assert themselves. God, what was she going to do about identification, or papers or whatever? Was social security a thing here, did she need some number assigned at birth? Or a birth certificate? Would she be in trouble for not having any of that? Would she even be able to explain if anyone demanded to see some kind of ID card?

Biting her lip, Vera shoved her hair out of her face, absently wishing she had something to tie it back-it was thick and slightly wavy, meaning that heat and humidity made wearing it loose miserable.

"Why couldn't I have been dropped in Pallet Town or something?" She whined.

XxXxX

"Karp."

"... you're a lot cuter than I figured you'd be," Vera blinked down between her knees from where she'd been dipping her feet in a slow-moving river she'd found. She'd sat on a boulder that was just a couple inches up from the water's surface, which had made it possible for the Magikarp to swim right up to her, face poking out of the water as it stared at her.

Despite what the game and anime implied, Magikarp was actually a pretty Pokemon. The dull red-orange canon claimed wasn't really close to reality, and it actually had patterns rather than being a solid color. Actually, it seemed more like the Magikarp Jump versions were the real deal... Oh, this was just a different color and pattern than the standard!

The fish bobbing in the water was about the size of a briefcase, with a cantelope orange base color and rich marigold splashes across its body. Its eyes were wide and gave off the impression of googly-eyes, but in the light of sunset it somehow came across as an earnest, curious sort of look.

She followed its gaze to the half-eaten energy bar in her hand, and sighed with a slight grin.

"Want a bite, buddy? Here." She ripped off a chunk and carefully lowered it so the fish barely had to lift its mouth out of the water to grab it. Much like a koi fish from her home world, the Magikarp sucked it in along with some water, bubbling cheerfully. She laughed when it tried to investigate her fingers for more, pulling them away to dance along the smooth scales of its sides. The Magikarp wriggled, but didn't swim away. "You're a friendly one, aren't you? I like that. What are you thoughts on Pokemon trainers?"

The Magikarp sort of twisted, halfway beneath the water's surface, giving off a head-tilting effect. Vera snorted, not knowing what she was expecting. Since the fish was still hanging around, she started to carefully pet it, marveling at how its scales weren't slimy-feeling at all, just cool and smooth. It was actually really pleasant.

"Well, buddy, what do you think of coming with me?" She pulled out the Pokeball, careful not to let it slip out of her hands since they were wet. The Magikarp's gaze zeroed in on it, possibly recognizing it for what it was-and how did wild Pokemon know what Pokeballs were? In the anime many just seemed to know what they did, weird-and it let out the classic, dopey voice it was known for in the show. Deciding to take that as a yes, she pressed the button on the Pokeball, nearly dropping it when it suddenly swelled in size, then gently bopped the fish's forehead with it.

The red light was a lot different in real life, too, bright enough to hurt her eyes, but it did its job and soon enough Vera had her very first Pokemon.

Sure, it was a Magikarp, but she could be patient. She could train the cute fish however long it took for it to evolve.

... As long as she could find her way out of these damn woods...

XxXxX

Three days later, Vera wasn't feeling nearly as confident that she could actually escape the wilderness. She'd followed the river upstream for miles and miles, but not a single hint of civilization or even a route was to be found. The only good part about it was that it let her get to know her new fish.

She wasn't sure if it was normal for Magikarp to have an obvious personality, but her little buddy was actually a super affectionate Pokemon. In the late afternoons she'd strip down and go swimming with him-as she'd soon discovered via a slow game of yes or no-and he loved it, darting in circles around her and constantly nudging her here and there, showing her this or that patch of plants or cool rocks.

He was a fun little dude, to be sure. The few times she'd had music playing from her phone he'd danced and bobbed his head until she couldn't resist doing the same, and she really hoped she could find a charger for the phone because she'd hate to lose all the music, ebooks, and anime episodes she had on there. To be honest, she had mostly used the thing like an external hard drive, after loading it with the biggest micro SD card she had been able to find. So it had quite a bit on it.

At the moment they were just enjoying the quiet, with her buddy swimming alongside her as they kept following the river. She wasn't sure what else to do.

The familiar feeling of her throat closing up, eyes burning with the urge to cry again, had just begun to feel unbearable when she spotted the cave. The river flowed out of it, but there was a fairly wide, smooth border of rock that could be walked on to either side of it. Wanting to take shelter from the sweltering heat, she ducked into the shade the cave provided. There was a tiny little cove just inside that didn't seem too deep-she could put her feet in the crystal clear water there.

"Let's take a break here, buddy," she said, glancing over to the water to make sure her Magikarp was keeping pace. The current was weak, but to him it had been a struggle going against it. He'd gotten better over the past few days, as it had basically become a form of training, but sometimes he did still need to take a breather.

He bubbled at her, zipping over to the little cove area and beginning to slowly explore it. There wasn't much there, it seemed, but the bottom looked to have multi-colored rocks that he would probably enjoy looking at.

Vera dropped her bag to the ground with a sigh of relief, rolling her shoulders. She may be grateful that the bag was limited to fifteen pounds of what she had to carry, but that was still a lot heavier than anything she'd regularly toted around in a while. Since high school, at least... Taking off her shoes and socks so she could roll her jeans up, she dipped her feet in the cool water, flexing them slightly in an attempt to ward off the ache of walking so far in new shoes.

Letting her head drop back for a moment, she tried not to think of much at all, but as always it didn't really work.

She was running out of food, even with her Magikarp's help in finding wild berries hanging low over the river, and was no closer to finding any way out of these damned woods. Was she going to stumble around in the wilds for months until she found her way out, or would she just die out here?

She was dirty, sweaty, overheated, and hungry, and to be honest had not been prepared in the least to survive in this world. Hell, she still hadn't figured out how to set up her tent properly! God, how was she ever going to find her way out of this place?!

By this point her head was cradled in her hands, a token attempt to keep the tears at bay that failed miserably. Her shoulders shook with repressed sobs as her fingers dug into her scalp.

How was she supposed to get out of this mess? What could she even do?

XxXxX

Steven Stone wasn't sure exactly why Metagross had urged him to leave the cave, though he trusted his partner and went along with it. To be fair, he had been hunched over for hours collecting samples of the rare minerals and several gorgeous gems that this cave hosted. It was a new find, literally untouched by human hands until his own, though finding something like this in Kanto had been beyond unusual. He wasn't complaining, though.

Stretching as he made his way towards the mouth of the cave, he paused, head tilted slightly at the faint sounds of... crying? Picking up the pace, he rounded the sharp bend that separated the tunnel he'd been exploring from the one that housed the river.

The young woman-he wasn't sure exactly how old she was, though definitely older than thirteen-was being fussed over by a Magikarp of all things (and were those gold splotches on its scales? He'd never heard of anything like that) as she visibly tried to quiet herself, one hand covering half her face while the other attempted to sooth the distressed Water type. The Magikarp was lunging out of the water, trying to nuzzle what must have been its trainer.

Pulling out a handkerchief, Steven cleared his throat at he approached, causing the young woman to jolt. Vivid yellow eyes darted over to where he stepped out of the shadows, sharply contrasting with sky blue hair, a shade he hadn't seen very often.

"Here, miss," he said kindly, kneeling down to offer the handkerchief. "Are you alright?"

Judging by the tear stains on her cheeks, the state of her clothes and hair, and the utterly defeated expression she had, he guessed not, but it wouldn't do to assume.

"No," she warbled, pausing and taking a shuddering breath. Wiping her eyes with the handkerchief, her shoulders slumped as it all came pouring out of her. "I have no clue where I am. I was minding my own business, about to go to bed, and then I got booted out of my world for no fucking reason and dumped into this one, no explanation, no idea what the fuck was going on-and sure, whatever did it gave me this bag and some basic supplies but I've never been camping before in my life until now and I don't know how to navigate in the middle of fucking nowhere! My home world didn't have real Pokemon, just games and stuff, and I only had the one empty Pokeball in the bag so it wasn't like I could risk it by going after something that might be able to find me at least a direction to walk to get to civilization, and don't get me wrong I love my buddy here, he's great, I wouldn't give him up for anything, but absolutely nothing in my life has gone how I tried to plan it and I think I might be willing to hack off a limb for a shower with decent water pressure."

Steven blinked. That... was a lot to unpack, but this wasn't the first time he'd heard of people from other worlds getting transported to this one. It was rare, though, and hadn't happened in a decade or so, and that one had settled down and kept their nose clean so nothing was really heard about them since. He never thought he'd come across one.

"You've certainly had a rough go of things," he said instead of the 'what the fuck' he dearly wanted to verbalize. "Here, why don't you come with me for a bit, I'll pack up and then have my Metagross Teleport us to town. I'm sure Professor Oak would be happy to help you get on your feet, help you adjust to living in Kanto."

There was recognition at the name, somehow, and the young woman nodded. "That-yeah. Okay. I can do that. Thank you," she added tearfully, fumbling with a Pokeball. "C'mon, buddy, it'll be faster this way. Thanks for trying to cheer me up, it helped a lot."

She bent down to give the Magikarp a kiss on the forehead, which placated it enough for her to easily recall it. Sniffling, she twisted, scooping up a small handful of little treasures still damp and sitting in a puddle. Spotting a couple pearls, nuggets, and several water stones, Steven guessed that the Magikarp had brought them up from the riverbed. With those tucked away in one of the outer pockets of her bag, the young woman gathered her things and got to her feet.

"Come, my things are just around the bend there. It won't take long, Metagross has probably already taken care of most of it," Steven admitted, offering the young woman his arm. She took it hesitantly, as if unsure what to do with it, but followed along without protest. Sure enough, he found his partner already finished with packing away their samples into the specially sectioned cases and loaded into the travel crate, now working on doing the same with the tools and temporary lights they'd strung up. "Thank you, my friend."

Metagross's red eyes glimmered, the only truly expressive part of its face, projecting satisfaction and a sense of ease directly into Steven's mind. Then there was a specific twist of curiosity he'd learned the meaning of years ago.

"Perhaps I should have done this before, but let me introduce myself. I'm Steven Stone, geologist and League Champion of the Hoenn region. This is my partner, Metagross-we've been studying some of the mineral formations in this cave."

"Severa Jones, but please call me Vera," she replied, again trying to dry her face. She was still crying somewhat, but it had slowed after her little rant. Now the poor girl just looked exhausted. "And you met my buddy Magikarp. Sorry about earlier... I... It's been three days since I was snatched from home and dropped in the woods and I haven't handled it all that well."

"There's no need to apologize, given the circumstances. We'll get you to Pallet Town and arrange a nice shower or bath, and once you've eaten and rested we'll talk more about you being from another world. But know that you aren't the first and probably won't be the last, the League does have protocols for this; we'll get you registered as a citizen so you won't have to worry about that."

"... Thanks," she said quietly.

He wasn't surprised by her easy compliance-she was probably just glad to have found another human who could help her out of the woods. He wasn't sure if she'd been able to find enough to eat while wandering around, but at least she didn't seem injured, just tired.

Within another two minutes everything was packed up, and he brought Vera closer to Metagross.

"Teleporting for the first time isn't pleasant," he warned, "so you'll want to exhale about half of the air in your lungs to help ease the full-body pressure you'll feel. Ready?"

Metagross took her nod as its cue, and their world flashed white, then black, then white again around them before fading to the familiar surroundings of Pallet Town. Steven steadied his companion, waiting until her face had regained some color before gently pulling her along towards the ranch's building-Professor Oak preferred to work out here, rather than his main lab farther into town, and as such it had several dorm rooms and facilities for the various trainers he hosted overnight when he didn't want them needlessly wasting money on hotels or camping out in bad weather.

Returning Metagross to its ball, Steven entered the building with Vera close behind him.

"I'll show you where you can clean up, then go inform the professor about your arrival," he explained as he led them through the halls to the dorm's shower room. "If you don't mind, I'll leave one of my Pokemon outside the door so they can guide you to the office we'll be in after you're done."

"Sounds good to me."

Once she was safely delivered and Claydol positioned in the hallway, quietly ordered to keep its senses open to ensure Vera wasn't going to suffer another breakdown, Steven made his way to where Professor Oak normally was at this hour, dealing with the data-entry aspect of his studies of the Pokemon at the ranch.

"Steven? I didn't think we'd see you for another week at least," the old man said in surprise, spotting him the moment he walked through the doorway. The gray-haired professor was, for once, seated behind his desk as he sifted through a small pile of hand-written notes, his laptop off to one side of the desk.

"Something came up," the Champion replied, taking a seat in one of the two in front of the desk. "It turns out we have another transplant from off-world; I'd call her a Faller, but she said that when she was 'dropped' in the woods three days ago she was given some basic supplies and a single Pokeball by an as-yet-unknown entity, so that's unlikely. I have Claydol keeping an eye on her while she cleans up, poor girl wasn't prepared to have to travel, not to mention doesn't have any prior experience with camping, and will likely need to eat soon."

Professor Oak straightened, setting his notes aside. "No, that doesn't sound like an Ultra Hole was involved at all. Possibly Legendary interference, then... Though which one is the question... But only a single Pokeball? Was it empty?"

"It was, but she showed some foresight in not wanting to risk it trying to catch something that might need the help of another Pokemon to battle it... So she caught an interesting Magikarp. Not much protection at the moment, but it seems she likely caught it more for companionship than anything-it was highly affectionate and concerned about her when she had a small breakdown at the entrance to the cave I was in. At the very least, I don't think we have to worry about her in regards to her adjustment to co-existing with Pokemon," Steven added with a smile, before his thoughts brought up something Vera had said earlier. "She did claim that her home world didn't have any Pokemon, save for in games, but I suppose we'll be able to ask her more about that later."

"A world without Pokemon... I'm not sure whether to be fascinated or horrified," the professor admitted. "But you're right, that can wait. Did you get an idea of how old she is? I can get started on her paperwork once I have her name, but that would help narrow down what exactly I'll need to print out."

"... I believe she's somewhere between the ages of fifteen to eighteen?" Steven frowned, leaning back in his seat. "She has the kind face that could be any age close to those, really, I couldn't tell anything more specific than that."

"We'll ask her when she's settled, then. I can get the basic forms prepared, at least, so no worries, and get started on her trainer license. What is her name?"

"Severa Jones, though she prefers to be called Vera." Steven watched as the professor rifled through some drawers to fetch the right forms.

He had first met the older man a couple years back, when attending an invite-only presentation on Mega Evolution. Since then, after getting to know one Ash Ketchum, he had stayed in contact with the professor, partially so he could keep updated on what crazy situations the boy got involved in. He wasn't the only one, as the rest of the Champions also liked to be in the know about what Ash was up to. While it wasn't well known, Ash was already one of them, though the Orange Islands never really got publicity.

As such, Steven was well aware that Professor Oak had the most information on Legendaries and related events, and so was the best person to handle this situation. Apparently the man had done so for the past two non-Faller transplants, in order to keep them out of the International Police's grip. None of the Leagues were happy to learn that the IP had been using Fallers as bait for Ultra Beasts and getting them slaughtered in the process.

It was for the best that it had been Steven who found Vera, especially since she had no issues with revealing where she'd come from.

"And you said she caught a Magikarp as her starter... I wonder why. Magikarp have plenty of potential but they sure do take patience and dedication to raise..."

"Ah, that's because Gyarados are part Flying types, and Magikarp are thought of as easy to catch."

Both men turned at the voice, and Steven noted that her damp hair looked rather... finger combed. Did she not have a brush? She had said she was provided with only basics, perhaps whatever Legendary had brought her to their world did not think to include personal hygiene items.

"Hello, Vera, it's a pleasure to meet you!" Professor Oak greeted her warmly. "Do you like Flying types?"

Vera sat in the chair the man waved her to, posture curled ever-so-slightly inwards. "Yeah, they're some of my favorites... I mean, I like a good number of other Pokemon, too, but I typically prefer the Flying types."

"They are rather amazing, aren't they?" The professor chuckled. "Steven mentioned that you are from another world, one without Pokemon, so I must confess some curiosity as to how you know of them."

"Oh, we have video games, and TV shows. There are comics, too, and card games, but the Pokemon franchise has been around for twenty-five years so I grew up playing the games. It's one of those things you 'know' aren't real, unless... well, unless you get tossed into the world it's set in," she shrugged, sounding more than a little lost despite the air of nonchalance. "For the most part the games were divided by region, with each new release being a new region, so most kids who played got at least the basics about each Pokemon down... That's why I figured Magikarp would be easier to catch without battling; if this world was anything like the games and anime, it's generally thought to be the weakest Pokemon. And I couldn't find any others, much less ones I might've been able to convince into joining me without a battle."

"You're not wrong, for the most part Magikarp are easy to catch. They're just hard to train."

She shrugged again, fidgeting. "I mean, if you're trying to teach them new moves, I think that's true. But stuff like physical conditioning isn't so bad, as long as you don't make it complicated. They can do that easy, especially if you present it like a game."

Lips quirking up in a smile, Steven nodded. "And conditioning's the type of training high level trainers rely most on, so it's good to hear you already understand that. Was that part of the games?"

"Mm, in the later generations. In the beginning you really just battled wild Pokemon and other trainers, like a... a battle simulator? And then learning stronger moves every now and then unless you bought TMs. But in the newer games they put in these items and mini-games that raised the different stat points of Pokemon, like to increase speed or defense or attack power. It was really basic, honestly, so it was mostly fan-written stories that sort of... explored the concept of a world with Pokemon that really had me thinking about what training a Pokemon would actually be like. A lot of people in my home world would love to have a Pokemon of their own," she added, something fond and wistful in her eyes.

"Fascinating... I wish I could see some of these games, they sound better than the battle simulators most students are using nowadays," the professor mused.

"Um... If I can figure out a way to charge my phone, I do have some emulators and copies of the games on it," Vera offered hesitantly. "I kind of... use my phone like a big flash drive a lot, so I think I have most of them..."

"Emulators?" Steven asked. The word sounded familiar, but it wasn't one that came up in his field of expertise.

"It's basically like a fake game console that you run like a program on a computer, or phone," she explained. "So you can play the game files without having to buy a whole new hand-held game console. They got expensive, so that was the only way I was able to play some of the games, even after waiting a few years for things to price drop. They weren't perfect, and sometimes the games lagged and froze, but it was better than not having them at all."

"Let's see your phone, then, my dear, it's been a while since I've had to make any electronics from scratch but it shouldn't be too hard to put something together to charge it and copy data." Professor Oak accepted the slim device from Vera, turning it over as it examined it. "Hm... that's an interesting charging port... I wonder..."

While the professor started to mumble to himself, Steven turned to the young woman.

"That phone... it's similar but still noticeably different than the ones we have currently. What kind of functions does it have?" He asked. Just because he didn't really want to take over Devon Corp. didn't mean he wouldn't do his duty as the heir to find new ideas for products.

"Well, it does calls, of course, both audio and visual, as well as instant messaging and emails. It also can store data, like I said. It can browse the internet, and there are near infinite apps that can be downloaded, like games, e-readers, photo editors, drawing programs, music, videos, research, remote monitoring systems, remote controllers, maps, shopping, apps to convert between different types of files... I know there's education apps for all levels of schooling, and ones for organization... Pretty much if you can think of a computer program to do, there's a phone app version. Is it different here?"

"Only technically," Steven admitted, mind whirling. The phones of this world were currently used mainly for communication, internet access, and photos, with a new mobile PokeDex function being in the works, meant to function with the use of a Rotom. While the rest of the things Vera mentioned could be done through a computer, PokeNav, or a very expensive tablet, nobody had bothered to add those functions to a smartphone yet. "It could be done, it just hasn't yet. Do you mind if I suggest it to my father's company? Devon specializes in electronics and technology."

"It's not like I own it, and I doubt my home world will ever know," she replied dryly. "It's not like they could sue or anything. And if you already have the means, I don't think its a problem being the first to just put it together, right?"

"No, I suppose it wouldn't be."

"Vera, I believe I can have a cable custom-made within a couple of days," Professor Oak spoke up. "In the meantime you are absolutely welcome to stay here, in the morning we can work on getting you into the system and registering what needs it. If you like, you can shadow my assistant Tracey for a few days, get to know more about Pokemon through observation, and I'm sure he'll be happy to answer any questions you have."

"Thank you, sir, I appreciate it," she finally relaxed the rest of the way. "I could do that, or maybe there's some part-time work I could help with? Mostly I've just worked in restaurants and retail, but I've done some data-entry and reception jobs too, and I know my way around manual labor."

"Well, if you want to, I certainly won't object. I'm sure Tracey will appreciate any help you can give him, there are a lot of Pokemon to feed on the ranch."

"I can imagine, a big group was usually shown in the anime," Vera said.

"Really? My ranch was in the show?" Professor Oak looked intrigued by the implications of that statement, and Steven didn't blame him.

"Er... well, the main character of the anime is Satoshi-wait, that's his Japanese name, I mean Ash Ketchum. It basically follows him as he travels through the regions to challenge the Gyms," she laughed awkwardly. "So you both have been shown in it... And you're both in the games, among other professors, Champions, and the rest..."

"Hm... well, if we can accept that other worlds exists, we can accept that some of them have our worlds as stories in them... That's a very strange thing to learn, though. I don't..." The professor faltered, his eyes widening before a serious expression took over. "Does this anime show any of his... unique encounters?"

"... Yes, though usually those are released as full-length movies. I have them on my phone," she pointed to the device.

"... We'll have to come up with proper security for your phone," Professor Oak decided. "There are a lot of things that shouldn't be widely known."

"Right... Though if it helps, the movies are cartoons and probably have less detail than you're thinking, but yeah it's probably not good to risk them being seen by anyone else..."

Steven privately thought that even cartoons could give away dangerous information-the Phione Scandal came to mind-but didn't comment, instead mulling over the implications of his young fellow Champion's life being used as entertainment in another world. It was an uncomfortable concept... Ash had been repeatedly traumatized as a direct result of the majority of the incidents with Legendaries being hunted or captured.

While he couldn't condone hiding this from Ash, who also knew about other worlds since he was a Champion, he would have to see them first and then decide whether or not to advise Ash to either watch them himself or not. Though if the boy was determined to see just what these movies were, there would be no stopping him...

"Um... what region is Ash in right now?" Vera suddenly asked. "Because if he hasn't actually been to some that were in the movies yet, then..."

"He is currently in Unova, he just started his journey there," the professor answered.

Vera whistled lowly. "Okay, so, uh. There's four movies for Unova, though two of them are technically the same, just with mirrored Legendaries as the one on Ash's side. Then there's three in Kalos, a bunch of specials in the show itself, and then half of the Alola season involved Legendaries in the main plot-er. And then there were two extra movies mostly unrelated to the season that was currently focusing a lot in Galar, which had its own Legendary encounters several times before I got dumped here."

"... Oh dear."

Steven felt like a stronger phrase was necessary. "Well, fuck."

XxXxX

Vera was exhausted.

Neither of the men who were helping her had grilled her over what she knew, but the conversation had turned unsettling when she realized how much future information those men now had to decide whether to share with Ash or not. Professor Oak had said he would consult with a friend that she had belatedly realized must be Celebi, considering that timelines were kind of its thing.

She had spent a good portion of the night tossing and turning, unable to drift off due to the growing guilt.

When this world hadn't been real, it had been easy to enjoy the anime and various plot lines. Now that these people were all real... It was hard to justify calling it entertainment anymore when they could all be hurt. She knew that she had offered to let them copy whatever they liked from her phone, in the hopes that they could make arrangements to help Ash out, but still...

Finally shaking her head as she sat up, she told herself that she'd provided plenty of information, and it was up to the professor and Steven to make use of it. There wasn't much else she could do, anyways... Turning to the decently-sized aquarium in the dorm room, she stood. The bed she was using was right next to it, making it easy to watch her Magikarp drift while he slept... She thought he was sleeping, at least. There was a distinct lack of response to her moving around that, when paired with the thousand-yard stare, made her think he wasn't really awake.

Sitting down with her knees drawn up for the rest of the night had done her back no favors, but when morning arrived she got up and asked the Professor what she should feed her Magikarp, as until now he'd been foraging like he had before being caught. He provided her with some PokeChow meant for Water types, then insisted she come down and eat breakfast with him and Tracey.

To be honest, she was a little reluctant to eat without her buddy nearby, but shoved the unease down. She made sure to tell Magikarp that she was going to help out around the ranch in exchange for food and getting to sleep here for a few days before finding her way to the kitchen.

"Oh, hey! You must be the new trainer the professor was helping fix their registry paperwork." Tracey Sketchit was a fairly average teenager, with average taste in fashion-his basketball shorts and slightly baggy t-shirt being the uniform of teen males on every world, apparently. His green hair seemed entirely natural, much like her own newly turned blue.

"Yeah," she replied a second later, realizing that must be the official excuse for her hanging around. "I'm Vera, nice to meet you...?"

"Tracey. C'mon, we've got pancakes with berry syrup today, eat as much as you like!"

Accepting the offer, she mostly watched Tracey and the professor interact-Steven had already gone back to his cave, according to the professor, and would return in the evening. They clearly knew each other well and enjoyed having like-minded company, which was kind of nice to see.

Once they'd all finished eating, the professor turned to Vera. "Shall we get your paperwork finished this morning?"

"That would be great, sir," she said, getting to her feet and following him back to his office.

Professor Oak settled himself in his chair with a sigh, waiting for Vera to get comfortable before pulling out a stack of paper. "To make this easier I'll just ask you what I need to, and then you can sign the trainer waiver, League agreement, and rule book once we've gone over them, alright? Good. Now, I have your name already thanks to Steven, but how old are you?"

"That's a good question, and I don't exactly have an answer? Before I got sent here I was twenty five, but I haven't been this skinny since high school," she said, still unable to grasp that. She missed the extra padding. "I'm certain I'm somewhere between sixteen and twenty-one-ish, I missing a few scars that I got after that."

She'd managed to confirm that in the shower yesterday.

"That... does make this a bit difficult, but not too badly. I think you'll know better than I what age you would prefer, then, as you've already been whatever age you pick."

"I guess eighteen or nineteen, then? Does that affect anything?"

"Not really, though you will be more likely to be called on once you get more badges when there's an emergency-trainers are required to help League forces to the best of their ability in emergencies. While experience is a factor, age is just as much if not more so. Given that you are going to have a Gyarados as your starter eventually, you might get tagged as a more responsible and powerful trainer than most, and thus requested more often."

"That's... that's fine, I guess. Nineteen, then."

Professor Oak scribbled that down on the paper in front of him. "Good, good... Now, if you like we can put your hometown down as Pallet Town? Yes? Wonderful... I'll have a PokeDex ready for you by the time we get your phone's charging issue fixed up, so that's taken care of... As you already have a starter, I can't give you one of the current reserves even though you're entitled to a Pokemon from me, but give me some time and I'll have something for you. And as your sponsor I will automatically be put on your emergency contact list, and Steven volunteered for that as well..."

It took about two hours to go through the entire stack, partially because Professor Oak was coaching her through basic trainer regulations and the League rules she needed to know. A lot of it was thankfully logical enough that she wouldn't have any problems remembering it, but she would need to study some of the details in the next few days, especially about the various duties she would have as an older trainer, lack of experience be damned.

Among the material she needed to study was what was covered on the professional trainer exam. In this world you could be a casual or professional trainer, and the latter didn't necessarily mean competitive, just... more? For example, a casual trainer could compete in the League and even win a conference, and fight the Elite Four, but they could not officially challenge the Champion of the region regardless of the outcome. Supposedly this was to prevent kids with strong Pokemon from fluking wins and becoming the leader of an entire region's security and Pokemon-related industries.

You had to be sixteen or older to test to become a professional trainer, which came with extra privileges alongside more responsibilities. She would be expected to help out new trainers, report any cases of possible Pokemon abuse, possibly help care for abused Pokemon if the brass thought she was capable enough, coordinate with Gym trainers/leaders/law enforcement in case of emergencies or raids on criminal bases she happened to be in the area at the same time of, the local police could call her in as extra muscle or hands, and she would be expected to gain at least eight badges within a year.

On the plus side, she had access to Professor Oak's genius and advice, a bigger sponsorship stipend than casual trainers had, chances for rare Pokemon to be gifted to her after Professor Oak was done studying them, and the opportunities to get better gear in exchange for field research. Plus, two TMs every six months, free of charge.

She'd have to study really hard, though, given she was scheduled to take the pro test in a week.

Well, it did give her time to train her little buddy-who really needed an actual nickname-as well as a place to stay basically for free. She was grateful for the 'launch pad', of sorts, and now that she was no longer afraid of dying all alone in the wilds found herself eager to learn everything she could.

It was the Pokemon world, who could blame her?!

XxXxX

Smite Thine Enemies

Six users online

StoneColdKiller has entered the chat

Queen: steven! fianlly! you can't just tell us about finding a girl from another world and then log off for twenty hours! is she okay?

MorningStar: fianlly

Furred Capes Are Not Acceptable: fianlly

Queen: SHUT

StoneColdKiller: My apologies, I was busy. She's fine, Professor Oak is helping her get settled and registered as a professional trainer, and her Magikarp is as overprotective as ever

Furred Capes Are Not Acceptable: her what now

StoneColdKiller: In the span of a single afternoon she has somehow taught it Grass Knot

StoneColdKiller: It used them to trip any male who tried to come too close to her

BigZard: that's gonna be one bloody terrifying gyarados

BigZard: can you imagine being the bloke trying to go on a date with the girl and you get a face fulla ticked off sea serpent

Furred Capes Are Not Acceptable: no that's great, actually

Queen: oho, is this the fabled Dad Mode?! thought only ash was subject to this

ChosenThot: AM I GETTING A NEW NESTMATE

Furred Capes Are Not Acceptable: perhaps

ChosenThot: STVEN SEND ME DETAILS, I WANNA KNOW THIS GIRL

ChosenThot: PICKED A MAGKARP AS HER STARTER, AN UTTER LEGEND, LANCE YOU FOUND A GREAT ONE

MorningStar: i have to admit, it's an unusual choice, situation aside

StoneColdKiller: She is a fan of Flying types, apparently, the less typical the better

Furred Capes Are Not Acceptable: would she like a charmander

Queen: stop adopting all the fun kids

Queen: save some for the rest of us

Queen: ask her if she wants a togepi

StoneColdKiller: She's nineteen, a little old to be adopted as such. And this is exactly why Charles keeps teasing you all about favoritism!

ChosenThot: BIG SIS?!

XxXxX

Vera rolled her shoulders, walking out to the lake where she'd left her Magikarp that morning. Six hours of intensive studying later, she was more than ready to relax, wearing her sports bra underneath her t-shirt and a pair of borrowed shorts. Calling out for her buddy when she reached the lake's edge, she didn't have to wait long before her yellow-splashed fish popped up above the water.

"Hey, buddy," she grinned, bending down slightly. "How was the lake today?"

He splashed at her, spinning in a circle like a vertical barrel roll. Since he was doing the happy bubbles, she assumed that meant it went well.

"I'm good to swim for a while, so maybe you could show me some stuff you found?" When he nodded eagerly, she dropped her shirt on a nearby boulder and jumped into the water, giggling when her buddy nuzzled her sides and shins. "Yes, yes, I'm happy to see you too. Where to first, bud?"

Magikarp led her on a fairly large circuit of the border of the lake, and they took plenty of time to do some shallow dives, staying well out of the way of the other Pokemon. He had evidently been using his newly-learned Grass Knot to help him hide pretty rocks and stuff that he only uncovered so Vera could look at them.

It was an adorable habit of his that she really enjoyed, and did her best to encourage and indulge. He always looked so proud of himself for finding all the pretty things.

Though, to be honest, she really wasn't sure how he learned Grass Knot. She'd been trying to teach him Bounce by using a makeshift net of stretchy reeds for him to jump onto and be flung back into the water, but she wasn't complaining; it was a highly unexpected move and would be good against a lot of opponents, especially if he could master it. At the moment he was mostly using it underwater, which looked absolutely breathtaking because it glowed, looking like ribbons of light before the control faded and left a generic seagrass behind.

They swam for a good few hours, the exercise easier on Vera's body than all the hiking had been-she'd been on the swimming and water polo teams in her high school years, so being in the water felt a bit like home. Only when the sun started to go down did she finally crawl out of the water and shake herself off.

"Alright, bud, we can swim again tomorrow when I'm done studying. For now, let's just-oh!" She face-palmed. "Fuck! I forgot, earlier I came up with a few nicknames that I wanted to see if you liked."

Her buddy wriggled in anticipation, making her grin.

"I was thinking, what about Leviathan? Levi for short? That way it'll be good even after you evolve."

His eyes got wider, somehow, and he bubbled, making that odd choking fish noise just like in the anime. He jumped out of the water, twirling slightly, splashing her when he landed. Raising a hand to shield her eyes, Vera laughed.

"Alright, that's a yes, then. I'm glad you like it, Levi." Grinning, she knelt down to press a kiss to his forehead, watching him wriggle in delight, before returning him to his Pokeball. Throwing her shirt back on after squeezing as much water out of her hair as possible, Vera headed back to the lab. Tracey said he could always use some help so whenever she had time to spare she was trying to split it between bonding and training with Levi and helping out around the ranch.

In the few days she'd been here, she'd easily fallen into a routine, and knew where to go to find Tracey. She arrived just in time to be handed a large scoop and asked to use the medical charts to measure out the dry PokeChow portions for the ranch residents on special diets, then prepare the various berries and other supplements to be mixed in.

It was easy, methodical work that soothed her, and she enjoyed it. Being creative with Pokemon moves was all well and good in concept, but actually figuring all that out was tiring, and so far she much preferred the more concrete recipes she'd been taught for various types of Pokemon. Levi had enjoyed her test runs for Water types, though the blend the professor bought in bulk from a speciality shop was better.

Wishing she had headphones and music from her phone, Vera finished up and helped bring the bowls out to where they could release each Pokemon they were meant for. The rest of the ranch's Pokemon ate from either large trays or troughs, separated by intended type, and the Pokemon were so used to it they knew which ones to go to.

After the Pokemon had been fed and settled down for the night, she and Tracey cleaned up all the equipment and then themselves before heading inside for dinner. It was comfortable and quiet, though there was enough chatter to keep it from being silent and awkward, something else that soothed Vera.

Before she'd moved out of her parents' house, silent dinners had been only one step below the ones where everyone was screaming at each other.

The next few days passed pretty much the same way, with her getting up early to help Tracey with feeding the Pokemon and then studying until the late afternoon, after which she then swam with Levi for several hours before heading back to help with the feeding once more. Her mind spun with all the laws and regulations she was forcing into her brain, as well as more in-depth knowledge of Pokemon she'd probably forget the instant she finished her test.

Steven joined them for dinner a few more times, though he spent most of his time out in that cave where she'd first met him. She wasn't sure what to think of him; he was kind, sure, and she privately thought his voice was amazing, but that hyper-fixation on rocks was truly something else.

The day of her exam, Professor Oak drove her to the testing center in Viridian City, and Vera felt vulnerable without Levi's Pokeball, left behind because Pokemon weren't allowed in the facility (some zoning law, it was a poor location choice). It wasn't logical at all-Levi couldn't win a battle, except maybe against another Magikarp or a Caterpie, yet-but ever since catching him she'd felt safer when he was close by.

There were a good number of other young adults there, but for the life of her she couldn't remember a single one, and the test both dragged on and flew by. She couldn't remember a single question, or what she answered, but she was just relieved when she belatedly realized she was done and could leave the building.

She hadn't dissociated like that in a while.

Eventually she found her way back to the nearby plaza she was supposed to meet the professor at, and they drove back to Pallet Town after picking up a few groceries for the ranch's kitchen.

"I should get your results back in a few days, so until then take it easy. You can spend more time training with your Magikarp, if you like, maybe practice setting up your tent down by the lake during the day so you can get used to camping," Professor Oak suggested as they pulled into the gravel parking area for the ranch. "I'm sure there's plenty of Pokemon in the lake that would be willing to help you two train in exchange for some berries. I've got some calls to make, but I'll see you at dinner."

Thus dismissed, Vera decided not to put too much thought into anything and simply followed his suggestion. She grabbed her tent, some berries, and went down to the lake, calling for Levi.

He was happy as ever to see her, which helped her slightly disoriented and numb state of being. So they kept working on Grass Knot, and Tackle, alternating with swimming breaks. The professor was right in that for a bribe several Goldeen and Horsea were willing to help them out, either by pretending to be targets or playing games Vera made up in an attempt to help train Levi's speed and agility.

Evening found her floating on her back with Levi nudging her around the surface of the lake, though for what reason she had no idea. She let him do as he liked, occasionally talking to him about random things she saw as they floated past. He bubbled and made fishy snuffling noises in reply, so they couldn't have been anything too bad. She'd yet to hear him mad.

Hm... maybe she could-yeah no, best not piss off the one Pokemon that could evolve into a monster out of sheer rage.

He was too cute for her to want to, anyways.

XxXxX

Steven was facing a bit of a problem.

Said problem was insistently blowing up his inbox, demanding to know more about Vera, because Lance was a nosy little bastard and had the patience of a three-year-old who'd seen their favorite snack on the counter and wanted it now.

It wasn't that the blue-haired man didn't understand being curious; he himself wanted to get to know the young woman better, but she needed time to adjust to living in a new world, and did not need a bunch of overgrown children badgering her about anything.

He actually was trying to stall until the Magikarp had evolved. He'd feel better about her chances of handling the other Champions once she had a Gyarados on her side. That would make the others think twice-scratch that, it would force them to think in the first place, because they rarely thought at all when they were curious.

Sighing, the geologist made his way up to Professor Oak's office, having already noted that Vera was down at the lake again, trying to teach her Magikarp Bounce-it seemed to be going well, but he was no expert on that move. But she seemed to be doing well enough, though the professor's message about her reaction to the professional trainer exam was worrying. He's had to do some research on dissociation, as he was only passingly familiar with the term, and he wasn't sure what might have caused it. Being pulled into another world? Stress? Or maybe it was something she'd been dealing with before she arrived here, without asking her it was impossible to say.

"Steven! Back already?"

"I wanted to know if Vera passed," he explained, claiming a seat. "I had some spare time while waiting for my lab to analyse the samples I sent them."

"Oh, she did wonderfully. There were a few of the less-used regulations that tripped her up, but that's to be expected, and all things considered she scored above and beyond what I hoped she would. All that's left to do it issue her trainer license, get her set up with the sponsorship payments, and make sure she has everything she needs. Would you be willing to take her shopping? She doesn't know what she needs, I don't think..."

"That's fine. What about her phone, has that all been handled?"

"I just finished the encryption yesterday, I'm applying it to the phone's system now." The professor motioned to where the device was plugged in to his computer. "I did have to upgrade it some so it could use the signals in this world, but I found something interesting-it still has access to her old world's network. Something is blocking it from directly contacting anyone, but I was able to use its search engine to pull up information about that world."

Steven's eyebrows rose in disbelief.

Seeing the expression, Professor Oak nodded in agreement. "Yes, it's unprecedented. But I imagine it will be useful for Vera, and I made sure she can also access our internet... I am concerned about how she'll react to not being able to contact anyone from her home world, but we'll just have to deal with that as it comes up. On another note, I was able to copy over those movies she talked about, as well as the Pokemon anime episodes she had saved to her phone. It's... really something else. From what Ash has told me, I'd say they're fairly accurate. Some injuries were definitely scaled down or removed outright, though, which I suppose is because the target audience was children, though there were a few... sanitized deaths."

"That... yes, that would explain it. What did your... contact say?"

"I can give Ash and the Leagues specific warnings as they approach, but only a few at a time, because any more risks changing the timeline too far and potentially destroying us all," the older man replied dryly. "But it's better than nothing, and she did say that once each event has passed, Ash may see the corresponding movie. I'll tell him that it was brought along with Vera, but that I was forbidden via Legendary from showing them to him ahead of time. He won't like it, but I think he'll understand."

"He will. I'm sure he'll appreciate the heads up, regardless. The rest of us sure will."

"Speaking of, let Lance know that he might want to have someone infiltrate a Team Plasma in Unova."

Grimacing, Steven nodded. "I will. Was there anything else on that front?"

"Oh, no, not the movies. I did spend some time looking at the other anime series she had saved, and I must admit her world truly did have superior media. Their animation quality, the music, even the creativity of the plots, they were amazing! I'll give you copies of those, there's a few I think you'd really enjoy. But what I really found interesting was the games Vera mentioned. Here, let me pull up one of the emulators..."

It was obvious to see that the old man was thoroughly amused by his digital self as the copy of Pokemon Fire Red started up. The game itself was very simple, but it actually did out-do a good number of the current battle simulators, as it actually took the experience of a Pokemon into account via the level system. In real life Type advantages helped, but the stronger Pokemon with a decent trainer and a good set of moves could usually win without too much trouble.

Professor Oak didn't play very far into Fire Red, just enough to give them both a good idea of how it worked, but it was very enlightening, and explained exactly how Vera knew as much as she did about Pokemon. They did open up a '3DS' emulator to play some of Pokemon X, the graphics so different that Steven had to stare. That was better than the vast majority of game graphics available nowadays, and this apparently wasn't the newest game in Vera's world?

They spent longer than they should have playing the game, taking turns deciding what Pokemon to catch and what moves to use in battle; it was more fun than it had right to be.

"I think I'm going to have to share these emulators with the other Champions," Steven said at last, once they'd pulled themselves away from the third Kalos Gym. "And possibly find a way to edit them to keep out any sensitive information and release them to the public."

"I'll be contacting the other professors and checking if the habitat data is accurate, if it is then this will be a huge help when it comes to finding out what Pokemon can easily be found where.."

XxXxX

"Here you go, my dear." Professor Oak handed back her phone, which looked a lot newer than it had when she'd first lent it to him. "I've taken the liberty of giving it some upgrades, as well as replacing the casing with something a little more durable and waterproof."

He had already told Vera about how she could still access her home world's internet, and the communication restriction, but to be honest, she hadn't much cared. She didn't have anyone she wanted to contact.

"Thank you, sir," she said, giving the phone a once-over. Sure enough, the casing was a slightly different shade of gray, and unblemished, and there was a new button on the same side as the power button, stark white against the gray of the others. There was a new screen protector, too. "What sort of upgrades are we talking?"

"The ability to connect to our network, for one, so you now have two different web browsers, one for each. I've also hooked you into the League system, so you can message other trainers, get relevant trainer alerts and such, and its how you'll be contacted in emergencies. Your security has also been upgraded, and the new casing has the same nanite technology as police-force Pokeballs-if you aren't the one holding it, none of your other-world data can be seen or accessed. Speaking of data, you also have twice the total space you had before.

"I've added all the basic necessary numbers to your contacts and favorited them, along with mine and Steven's, and your camera now has a limited scanning function. It won't beat the newest models of PokeDex in terms of power by any means, but I managed to pair your Bulbapedia app with the Dex database for ease of access. Just press the white button to scan whatever Pokemon you like. You also have a new beacon function, for emergencies-it will send an alert to the nearest outpost if you're too injured to travel and need assistance."

Visibly relieved by that, Levy did a quick run-through, noting the new apps and settings. The extra storage was great, considering that she was nearing the limit of her 64GB micro SD already. Since her phone had 32 to begin with, in total she should have almost 200 now, which was going to be super helpful considering all the media she would still be able to download from her old world's network.

At some point, when she actually had the money to spare, she'd invest in an actual laptop, but for now this would do just fine.

"I've also done away with the charging port. It now uses the standard natural energy absorption as the latest phone models here, so you won't need to worry about finding a portable charger or solar panels. The headphone jack has also been replaced with the standard one here, which with an adapter can also be used to transfer data to other devices."

"You're the best, Professor," she grinned, having not even considered that. It looked like she had everything she needed on her phone now, though she still had to buy some supplies, food and medicine mostly.

He chuckled, waving it off. "Ah, no need for flattery. You're one of my sponsored trainers now, I'm happy help. So, after you're done shopping with Steven today, you'll be all set to go about your journey-oh, while you're out, make sure to buy some camping cookbooks, they're very helpful for those who have only made meals in kitchens before. Anyways, I may not have been able to get you an official starter, but give me a few weeks and I'll have something for you. It's part of my contract as the Pokemon Professor of Kanto to ensure I give you a Pokemon, you know."

"Well, give me a call when you've arranged something, I guess?" She wasn't all that fussed with not having a traditional starter, Levi had had a growth spurt as well as a winning streak against the local Goldeen, so she didn't think he'd be a Magikarp much longer. The last battle they'd had against a wild Pokemon had ended with him summoning oversized Grass Knots that looked more like eldritch tentacles and full-out yeeting his opponent across the lake. It was awesome.

"Of course, though when I do, keep a lookout for any Delibird's for the delivery. Now, I have a new ranch arrival I need to tend to, but have a good day, Vera."

"You too!" Thus dismissed, Vera left the lab at a jog. Steven had told her they would leave for Vermilion City in an hour and she wanted to give Levi a quick scan with her new patchwork PokeDex before she put him in his ball and went to meet up with the Steel-type specialist.

The scan revealed that Levi had the Swift Swim ability, meaning that she should probably pick Rain Dance as one of the TMs she'd be getting for free as a professional trainer. She had a crazy sort of idea of how to use that and Swift Swim-with the right training, apparently evolutions could retain most of their initial Ability at a slightly lower level-to teach Levi to Fly as a Gyarados, but that would be for later.

Levi was been very proud to present his Hydro Pump after her shock at seeing it on his list of moves. Apparently, he'd been working on it in secret after he'd figured out Bounce, helped along by a cheerful Poliwrath that had ambled over to introduce itself.

Having given Levi the usual proud forehead kisses and hugs, the now slightly-damp Vera went back to the lab, grabbing her bag and slinging it over her shoulder. Levi's Pokeball was clipped to a necklace the professor had given her, as she didn't yet have a trainer belt, which she was hoping to find today. The initial grant from her sponsorship had already come through, according to her trainer profile on the League app (everything League-related could be accessed from it, though what was displayed to other users was restricted to her preferred name, age, and League accomplishments), so she should be okay for funds at the moment.

Tugging at her hair gently, she made a face. Tracey had been lending her his comb, but she really needed to buy a proper hairbrush and some hair ties. Her long hair had gotten in the way far too many times for her comfort. Vera still wasn't sure to think about the fact that it was now blue, though her new eye color had been a far bigger shock; vibrant yellow, not unlike Leon and Hop from the Galar region games-er, just from Galar, now... Though hers lacked their darker, warmer undertone. No, instead they were more like if you shined a bright flashlight on metallic gold paint.

After being a brown-eyed, brown haired girl for two decades and change, it was... an adjustment in progress. At the very least, she'd discovered that it gave her irritated expressions some serious oomph. One of the town boys, who had never been a trainer, had come up to the lab to try to get her to agree to a date, but the moron had insulted Levi. Her glare had sent him walking very quickly back to town.

Levi had tripped him on the way with a Grass Knot, but that was another thing entirely.

"Ready to go, Vera?" Steven's voice drew her out of her thoughts, and she offered the man a smile. She hadn't noticed it as much back when they'd first met, but he was nearly a foot taller than she was, and it made her have to be very careful in her reactions to him.

Being de-aged had left her with a fresh wave of hormones, making dealing with handsome men more troublesome than she felt it was worth. It didn't help that Steven was really, really attractive and one of her favored types; tall, elegant, intelligent (and secretly a dork) with slender but very toned thighs. The other was tall and muscled, with pecs bigger than her own boobs, a himbo if at all possible.

"If we're Teleporting, the answer is no," she joked, shoving all thoughts of males aside.

He smirked at her, eyes bright with humor. "We are indeed Teleporting! Hold on tight!"

She accepted the arm he offered, shuffling closer as he released his Metagross. The first time she'd seen it, it hadn't really registered, but looking at the massive Steel type now, the only world that came to mind was impressive. The metal surface of its body gleamed, well-polished and vibrant. There were a few dings and scratches, but that was to be expected for a Pokemon of its level. She'd learned that high-level battles were violent, and the strongest of trainers often had Pokemon with the occasional scar or, in the case of Steel types, dented body surfaces. Such injuries would apparently heal themselves with time and diet adjustments, but it really drove home that Pokemon were powerful and not to be treated without plenty of respect.

Still, Metagross had a calming presence, and Vera didn't hesitate to follow Steven in stepping closer to the four-legged giant. She felt a little awkward in her casual 'travel' clothes, the same ones she'd first found in her bag, standing next to a Champion wearing an actual suit, but shook it off just in time for the utterly horrible sensation of being Teleported to hit her full-on.

Vera totally understood why people preferred to Fly or otherwise use Ride Pokemon, rather than Teleport. It was like being compressed down from all directions, the sheer pressure unbelievable in its power. It made her want to gasp and wheeze simultaneously, which is why Steven had told her to exhale half of her air the first time. It helped, but she doubted it was by much.

Clinging tight to Steven's arm once they were back in the regular world, Vera valiantly restrained the urge to vomit, vision swimming as dizziness flared up for a very long moment. The Champion gently moved her a few steps to one side, a flash of red echoing in her sight before he turned. His free arm came up to pull her against his chest, letting her gather her bearings without risk of falling over.

"Easy now," he murmured. "Unfortunately, you might be one of the few for which Teleport gets worse with time, not better."

"Perfect," she rasped, closing her eyes for a minute. Once she no longer felt outright sick, just faintly nauseous, she stepped back and opened her eyes again, taking in their surroundings. They'd arrived in a secluded little garden plaza between two buildings, probably a little lunch area for offices going by the tables and benches. "Thanks for the help, I think I might have actually fallen over this time."

"Any time, Vera. Are you alright to walk?"

"Yeah, as long as we aren't running in the next ten minutes or so I should be fine."

"Good." Steven hadn't actually released her arm, so she had to keep pace with him as he led the way out of the sheltered area and into the streets of Vermilion City. While it wasn't the sprawling shopping center of Celadon, downtown Vermilion had plenty of specialty shops as well as big name brands, which was where she'd have to get half the supplies she needed.

"Is there any specific order of stores we should be following?" She asked, eyeing the crowds that bustled past. To be honest she was relying entirely on Steven to guide her, as she had no idea where anything-or even what any of the stores-was.

"Since you brought your bag, let's get you some clothing and such first," he decided, veering down the next right turn. "You'll need more than just travel clothes, there's cold-weather gear to consider. And at your age there will be invitations to League events that need formal dress, as well as the more standard emergency response gear-there's specialty fabric that will protect you against the elements and minimize injuries. And that's not even getting into your city clothes, you can't constantly be in your travel clothes."

A little cowed by the sudden enthusiasm, Vera was dragged towards a clothing shop she was pretty sure she couldn't afford. She managed to get Steven's attention long enough to hiss that in his ear, and the man actually paused. Then the bastard shrugged.

"No problem, I'll cover it."

"That's not what I-wait, where are we-?!" She held in a yelp as he whirled, ushering her into a different store she belatedly realized was a beauty salon of some kind.

"Just a quick styling!" Steven chirped, eyes gleaming as he waved down one of the perfectly manicured ladies working there. "We're doing a full wardrobe, could you be a dear and help Vera here manage this lovely hair of hers?"

The woman squealed, and Vera swore she could hear a solemn death knell.

XxXxX

Hours later, a very wind-swept looking Vera clutched her bag tightly. A new bag, that was, because Steven has insisted on her getting not only a model with a larger weight limit and better automatic organization, but also storage units she could put the heaviest things in and then toss the small cube in the bag to save space. He had insisted on a lot of things. She now had a ridiculous amount of clothes and shoes and accessories. That wasn't even getting into the skin care and hair care products. What the actual fuck was with rich kids and their need to make life more complicated than it needed to be?!

And Steven, of course, was strutting along happily, having gotten his way despite her protests. Spoiled bastard...

Somehow he'd managed to get her fitted for an actual ballgown. 'For the galas', he'd said, as if she would ever willingly go to one. Like what the fuck.

She really did appreciate that he was helping her out by buying her things, but this was beyond excessive! And they'd only just barely gotten started with purchasing her trainer gear, she'd thought she'd just grab a trainer belt, some rubber frisbee-like targets that could either be thrown or propped up that she'd seen in one of the trainer magazines Professor Oak had lying around, and a grooming kit like Tracey had recommended, not... not this absolute mountain of shit that Steven was piling up!

There were weights and various accompanying harnesses and a bunch of pass cards for downloadable reference ebooks, a TM case, a collapsible camping stove and a solar-heating hanging shower thing, more storage units but these ones apparently for cold, frozen, and dry perishable foods, and a whole bunch of other shit that Vera couldn't even name, much less figure out how to use.

"S-Steven," she said shakily, catching his sleeve before he could grab anything else. Even her high school friends had never gone on sprees like this (even conceptually scaled down to account for them not being super rich). "That's... that's way more than enough, you don't need to-"

"But I want to." He cut her off and fixed her with a stern look before it softened, his voice lowering. "You came to this world with nothing. Trying to build an entirely new life from scratch is unimaginably difficult, and not something anybody wants you to suffer through; spending this much isn't hurting me financially at all, but it will make life easier for you. So let me help. Especially after all the information you provided us that can keep Ash from getting in too far over his head, think of it as our thanks."

Vera's mouth shut with an audible click, her gaze dropping to the floor. It didn't feel like she'd earned any of this, even if he said it was as thanks. A warm hand ruffled her hair, mostly held up in a bun but loose enough that the motion didn't ruin how it looked.

"Come on, it won't be much longer." He seemed amused still, but did lighten up on the grabbing stuff and throwing it into the cart, so Vera decided to let it be-she doubted she could convince the man to stop at this point.

Thankfully he was right, and within a half hour he was done and had neatly organized everything into her new storage units and bag.

"All that's left is food, and I will let you figure out what you want, I'll just carry the bags," he declared faux-graciously.

Disgruntled at the sudden switch in attitude, Vera moodily asked him to show her the nearest grocery store; she had plenty of camping recipes she could look up once she had ingredients, and a few more pots, pans, and mugs.

XxXxX

"I can't believe you!"

Steven hummed in askance, not really paying attention. He had copied one of Vera's emulators and some games to his own phone, and had been playing a game called Solatorobo while he waited for the rest of the Champions to log in to the monthly video call.

"You go on about how the rest of us shouldn't show favoritism and then you drop eighty grand on her?! How is that fair? That's practically a date you little shit-"

"Hold it, date? Steven Stone I swear to Arceus-"

"It wasn't a date," Steven interjected. "It was me helping out a friend. She literally came to this world with nothing, and it wasn't like whatever Legendary brought her gave her enough money to buy what she needed. Poor girl didn't even have a hairbrush."

"... That's fine, then," Diantha judged after a moment. Of course the movie star would agree with him, but really Vera had beautiful hair and it had been borderline painful to see it so tangled and poorly cared for.

"Enough about that, tell me what she's like!" Ash had logged in just in time to catch the topic, it seemed.

Steven thought about it, finally lowering his phone. "She's kind. Even when she's annoyed, she's not the type of person to lash out, though she will sulk if she thinks you aren't looking. She's also, to put it simply, a good person. We knew that, given that she genuinely adores her Magikarp and won't hear a negative word about him, as that Tyler boy learned."

"Wait, like Tyler Brant?" There was an... interesting look on Ash's face.

"I believe so, but to be honest I wasn't paying much attention to him after Vera shot him down. Too busy laughing and trying to keep her from spotting me when the Magikarp tripped him."

Lance cackled, because he'd been ecstatic to hear that Vera's freaking fish was so protective of her. The redhead thought it was hilarious, not to mention he was fascinated by the fact that it had learned a Grass type move in its current evolutionary stage. Which, fair, but it was also annoying to listen to the man get growly and overprotective of a girl he hadn't even met yet.

"Vera is also... Hm." Steven paused, searching. "It's hard to find a word that properly describes it, but she's... I'm pretty sure she's been hurt a lot, in her old world. She doesn't think much of herself, low self esteem, and I think she feels like she need to earn everything she has, going by her reaction to me paying for her supplies. But it goes farther than that. It's like she has to justify her existence? She's willing to work hard, which is great, but she's too willing to work until she burns out for minimal praise, almost as if she can't understand that she deserves to live comfortably."

Ash whined, sensitive as ever to those who needed help to see their worth, human or Pokemon. "Tell me she's not traveling alone?"

"If by alone you mean no other humans, then I have no idea. But I don't doubt that her starter will keep her company. You guys haven't seen that thing, I'm pretty sure its teaching itself to use Grass Knot to move itself on land like some kind of bizarre mobile conveyor belt."

"What the fuck," Ash wheezed with laughter.

XxXxX

Vera had not really known what to expect when it came to evolution. Sure, she'd figured that Levi would evolved pretty soon given how much she trained with him every day, and his scales had started to take on a faint purple-blue tint that the professor had assured her was a sign that Levi was growing quickly. After, of course, he finally got around to actually looking at her fish and then promptly delighting over the unusual scale pattern.

In any case, she'd been caught completely off-guard when Levi evolved while they were just swimming around. It was over with in seconds, first a bright white glow and then she'd been sent tumbling through the water as it was all displaced from the sudden appearance of a massive sea serpent. Levi had to gently grab her shorts and take her back to the surface, where she spent a good half hour just in awe over her buddy.

Unlike a standard Gyarados, Leviathan was a bright teal with faint gold splotches and more visible cyan and deep blue wavy markings. It gave him an almost marbled look, as if sunlight was dancing over him underwater. Every movement sent his scales rippling with light, their surface shiny and almost metallic.

"Who's a handsome boy! Yes it's you!"

... Don't judge her, she loved her buddy and he deserved to be fawned over. And all the forehead kisses, which, to her delight, he was just as eager to receive as always. He had to lower and angle his head way down for her to reach, but they could still do it, so everything was fine.

Levi bellowed happily, wriggling where he lay half out of the water, soaking up her attention like a sponge.

It was a little strange-she would have thought she'd be more alarmed at the sudden proximity to a sea serpent nearly eight times as long as she was tall, but there was... she had known that it was Levi. There was no mistaking the warmth in her chest for anything but her bond with her buddy, no matter what shape he was. Even with his new mouthful of sharp teeth almost bigger than she was.

Sure, objectively he was pretty terrifying, but that was her buddy right there! Who was tilting his head again for forehead kisses! Kisses he would absolutely receive!

Eventually she got around to scanning him with her PokeDex app, absently noting the faint whir of the new technology the professor had added to her phone, perched right behind Levi's tri-pronged crest as he happily swam around the lake's surface.

"Gyarados, the atrocious Pokemon. A tale is told of a town that angered Gyarados. Before the sun rose the next day, flames utterly consumed the town, leaving not a trace behind."

Vera snorted. "I don't think I have to worry about you rampaging for no reason, right bud?"

Levi huffed, water droplets spraying like a fine mist. He shook his head slowly, mindful of her presence, and she gave his cheekbone a firm pat.

"I know, Levi, you're a good boy. Let's see, you got a new ability... oh, and you kept Swift Swim, that's great! And your moves... wait wait wait wait wait-" Vera sat straight up, shock and glee churning madly behind her sternum. "It says you learned Fly! Is that true buddy?!"

His long body undulated, the swim having helped him get used to the new way it moved, and front half lifted out of the water, liquid streamers trailing off his scales. He let out what was technically a quiet roar but she instinctively knew to be a simple vocalization-when you were that big, most of your words were loud.

Vera quickly pulled herself farther behind his crest, hooking her knees between the points and holding onto the third as Levi's body bunched. With proper roar this time, he lunged forwards and up, and up-

It wasn't fast, or graceful. But there was no doubt that Leviathan was flying.

He bellowed happily, sort of spiraling slowly in the air like the Asian dragons were depicted in her home world, and while he didn't falter or fall his movements were clumsy and uncoordinated... but it was amazing. Already nearly fifty feet above the water's surface, they were buffeted by the winds the nearby ocean generated.

Yellow eyes wide, Vera was breathless for a long, long moment. And then the giddy laughter bubbled up, the surge of freedom and wonder and this! This is why she had always adored Flying type Pokemon, even before they became real!

It was everything she'd dreamed of and more. The powerful form holding her up, the way Levi bobbed and twisted his head as he eagerly took in the view with even more enthusiasm than his trainer...

For the first time in this world, even since she caught her buddy, Vera felt like a Pokemon trainer. She felt like somebody who could... who could do something, could be something! It was heady, intoxicating almost, and her laughter didn't die down until Levi finally decided that they should get back to the lake, lurching downwards as he made his way in ever-descending loops until he fell back into the water with a huge splash.

Vera squealed as cold water splashed her, suddenly grateful that Professor Oak had thoroughly waterproofed her phone. Even in the zippered pocket of her new capris, it was certainly soaked.

Her giggles finally faded, leaving her breathless and loose-limbed, but Levi, always considerate, swam over to the shore and lowered his head, tilting it enough that she could slide to the ground without hurting herself.

Once on her feet she darted back to his face, snuggling against his cheek. A deep, throaty rumble that vibrated his scales shook her to her bones, and she pressed a loud, obnoxiously exaggerated kiss to his cheek.

"That was amazing! You were so great, buddy, you learned Fly, you're the best Gyarados ever!"

As she gushed over her buddy, putting some elbow grease into petting him so he could actually feel it now that his scales were so much thicker and harder, Vera totally missed the small group of people who had come out to the lake just in time to watch a motherfucking Gyarados lift into the sky.

XxXxX

"It really flew," Steven said numbly, mind still processing what he had just seen. "What the fuck."

Professor Oak was practically vibrating in place, no doubt wanting to research and collect data, anything he could to explain how this was possible-there had never, to anyone's knowledge, been a Gyarados capable of actual flight. Some could levitate, the really powerful and well trained ones, or the ancient behemoths that would rarely surface from the depths of the ocean, but this... this was honest-to-Arceus controlled flight. For nearly thirty minutes.

The third member of the group was blatantly starry-eyed, his red hair ruffled from the speed he'd flown into town with on dragon-back.

"Just look at him!" Lance was grinning wildly, eyes alight with his obsession of powerful Pokemon in the Dragon egg group. "That coloring, learning a Grass type move before evolving, using Fly... Now that is a Gyarados I look forwards to battling! Imagine what he'll be capable of in a few months-no, during the next League Conference!"

Steven couldn't say he didn't feel the same way; it was always a rush to realize potential in someone and eagerly await for them to grow strong enough to be a challenge. And he was eager to see the kind of trainer Vera would be, given the influence of her home world's view on Pokemon. Since her training had already shown unprecedented results, there was no doubt more of that to come, and it was exciting to think about.

Neither Champion was prepared for the aged professor to dart ahead, hand raised high as he called out to Vera, but they just looked at each other and chuckled before following.

"-truly stunning, isn't he? Leviathan, would you mind letting me get a closer look at your side here? Goodness, look at that patterning... You've grown up into a fine Gyarados, haven't you?" The professor was laughing in delight as he fearlessly got up close. To be fair, the Gyarados seemed unnaturally friendly, rumbling happily as he displayed his unique colors and pattern.

Vera had stepped back to give the man some time to appreciate her starter, grinning widely. Her mouth opened slightly when she noticed Steven and his companion, then she started moving to meet them just a little away from the shores of the lake.

"Hey," she greeted with a small wave. "What brings you here?"

"I am wrapping up my time in Kanto," Steven explained before motioning towards his fellow Champion, "and Lance here actually came to donate a Pokemon to Professor Oak, as the Pokemon you're entitled to from him."

Vera blinked, bewildered for a split second before realization hit. "Wow, really? I just figured I'd be getting something he caught local, or maybe a common Pokemon traded from a region over or something!"

"Well, that does happen on occasion, but I heard you were a fan of Flying types, and a situation popped up where this Pokemon could no longer stay with the others in the Valley. He may not have the typing just yet, but he was so excited at the idea of having a trainer I couldn't say no," Lance smiled fondly.

Steven knew that was a lie, because he'd been one of those subjected to several rants over the past few days on how Lance couldn't find a good enough Charmander for Vera, as if he'd already adopted her despite not having met her yet. He had also been subjected to the incoherent screaming over the phone when the redhead had discovered the little treasure he was now gifting over as if it weren't worth three times its weight in gold nuggets.

And they accused Steven of going overboard...

The funny thing was, Vera had no idea how interesting she was. Part of it was definitely her origins, and as a person there were still a lot of mystery surrounding the girl, but she truly had no idea the waves her presence had caused.

Watching as Lance handed the blue-haired girl a Pokeball, Steven wondered if Professor Oak had even finished transferring the Pokemon inside, but said nothing-it would be taken care of soon enough anyways.

And then he had to swallow down a coughing fit because Vera had just let out the Charmander because that wasn't just some shiny, Lance!

The small white lizard's scales glittered like a freshly-opened geode, ruby eyes matching the deep red of its tail flame, making it pretty much impossible not to stare. Albinism in Pokemon was nearly unheard of, with only two ever recorded instances of melanism being rarer, and it made shinies look commonplace by comparison. Steven couldn't even think of a single example of an albino Pokemon in the past eighty years.

And Vera, of course, hadn't even stopped to consider any of that, instead immediately crouching down to greet the tiny Charmander (it was less than half the size of the average Charmander, though it must be healthy enough to be trained if Lance had donated it for her) with a wide smile, visibly enchanted by the Pokemon. She held out her arm and Charmander clambered right into her hand, small enough for her to hold when she cupped her palms, which she was very clearly delighted with.

And-yes, she was baby talking the Charmander, though thankfully it was subtle and not too high-pitched.

"Look at you! You are just stunning, aren't you, little tempest?" Nope, she was cooing now, the Charmander melting into a puddle of content goo as her fingers found all the best places to rub.

Steven barely realized he was snapping pictures with his phone until Lance elbowed him in the side, and he only just managed to tuck it away before Vera looked up, yellow eyes bright with glee and practically glowing in contrast with her sky-blue hair. Charmander was snuggled up under her chin and thoroughly enjoying itself.

"I'm glad the two of you are getting along so well!" Lance grinned, gaze flickering up and past Vera's shoulder as Professor Oak finally returned to the group. "Samuel can help you finish registering him to your trainer ID, but other than that he's well and truly yours. I would avoid using him at the first couple Gym, though, he needs a bit longer before proper battling."

"Well that just means we can focus on training so Charmander can blow the third Gym off its feet with how strong he is!" The tone indicated that most of that sentence was directed at the lizard himself, who growled eagerly at the idea of such a victory.

Grinning, Steven privately thought that Vera would do just fine with the little Fire type. The Charizard line was renown for their pride and often arrogance, and their love for battling, but in their younger evolutions they could get unruly and aggressive if not handled properly; it sounded simple, establishing goals and boundaries early on, but so many young trainers failed to do so and then had to deal with a disobedient Charizard until they re-earned its respect.

He also had to hold in a laugh at the look of not-entirely-joking betrayal on the professor's face; clearly, Lance hadn't told him just how special the 'starter' he was donating for Vera was.

Watching as the other two men started posturing at each other, Steven soon turned away to watch Vera run over to her Gyarados and hold up Charmander above her head so he could see his new teammate, snickering at the dumbstruck expression on the tiny lizard's face. Leviathan rumbled something that had Charmander happily chattering back, gesturing enthusiastically while the Gyarados nodded occasionally. And Vera just looked between them, beaming like a proud parent.

XxXxX

Vera was feeling a little paranoid.

Mostly because she couldn't believe her luck in receiving her new Charmander-who she'd named Zulnahlkest or Kest for short, after Googling the Skyrim dragon language-from Lance and having it be the most beautiful little lizard she'd ever seen. Albino Pokemon were a thing, apparently, and she was so glad she had Levi as her starter and very powerful protector.

Not only that, but Kest apparently had some Rapidash in his lineage, because he had the ability to alter his deep red tail flame so it wouldn't burn her if he didn't want it to. How that had happened she wasn't sure, but in the end the only thing she was sure of was that she was waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak, and her luck to balance out with some horrible event to match how lucky she'd been so far.

So yeah, she was a little on edge as she made her way through Viridian City towards the forest north of it. Early that morning she had said her goodbyes and left Pallet Town, hoping to make some good time and get a good ways into Viridian Forest before nightfall. Due to her having a pro license, she needed to get all eight Kanto badges within a year, and felt that the faster she could get that done the better off she would be. Plus, she needed badges to catch some of the Pokemon she wanted-if she ever managed to find them, that was.

Dratini weren't exactly common Pokemon. Neither were Aerodactyl or Archen.

In any case, she had never been so glad that Steven had made sure her trainer belt was top-quality; nobody would be grabbing her Pokeballs and running off with them without using her own damn hand to do it. Given that Levi was far too big to let out in town, and she was trying to keep Kest a secret until she was more experienced, both Pokemon were in their balls until farther notice.

Vera was all stocked up on supplies and Pokeballs, too, so hopefully she'd be able to catch some more Flying types in the forest. Or future Flying types, she wasn't all that picky; Butterfree were awesome and Caterpie were cute, she was definitely looking for one of those.

Viridian City was oddly crowded, making it take nearly a whole extra hour than planned to pass through it-the buses had been stuffed full and she hadn't wanted to cram in next to all those people, so she'd jogged the whole way. She'd be exhausted tonight, no doubt, but honestly she preferred that. She hadn't been properly camping since her first disastrous attempts after arriving in this world.

The main north gate out of the city was split into two parts; the highway that farther split towards the different cities, and the walkway underneath that led into the woods. There were other gates, though since there was no wall or fence they didn't actually look like real gates, but most of those were either side paths or longer, meandering ones that would take longer to get to Pewter.

During her time with Professor Oak, Vera had done a lot of research into Kanto, given that it was where she'd be traveling for certain. Maps had been stared at for far too many hours, and she had a lot of notes all stapled together and shoved into her bag. What it all boiled down to was this-she was not on a sight-seeing trip. She was going to get those damned badges, compete in the Indigo Conference as far as she could, and then she was going back to Professor Oak's to take the time to just. Think.

Nobody had ever mentioned having or finding a way to send her to her home world. Not that she wanted to, but everyone had assumed she'd be staying. Cool, fine, she could live with that. But now she actually had to figure out how she was going to live in this world-would she be a purely competitive, traveling, professional trainer? Should she find a job and get caught up on local academics before going to college?

Even if she did want to redo her college years (which was wild that she actually could, at nineteen she could redo just about everything that would affect her life), what career would she even want to aim for? In her home world she'd studied middle level education, but that was mostly because the program was overall the cheapest at the local community college, and the area where she'd lived was always in need of teachers. At this point, her research indicated that if she was even moderately successful as a trainer for a year or two, she would be eligible for tons of scholarships and grants if she couldn't afford to pay up front, and she technically could make a living just by picking a town and looking for a 'help wanted' sign.

The economy in Kanto was wild-even the really poor folk could usually get enough to scrape by without starving to death, but if you knew how to make the most of having a Pokemon-even a common one-you would survive just about anything. Not everybody had the luxury of being middle class of above, but even a single mother could manage to afford to own a small house in a smaller town, or a decent apartment in most cities. It did, of course, require a person to look farther if they weren't lucky, but many more options were available compared to her home world.

It helped that the existence of Pokemon broadened job opportunities by figurative miles. Not to mention that in many areas land was dirt cheap, and people were actively encouraged to settle down, build their own houses and raise families, as the human population was shockingly-even alarmingly-small comparison to the land the regions occupied. Unfortunately, that just made her eventual decision all the more difficult to actually reach.

With a sigh, she adjusted her bag's straps and looked around the forest path she was walking down, beaten dirt forming a wide trail that was fairly straight. She had time before she had to figure out what to do with the rest of her life.

The path she was taking through Viridian Forest was the shortest, and also the most travelled. Because she wasn't going to go hunting for 'that perfect rare Pokemon' she hadn't seen the need to use a different one; Levi would take care of her just fine for a while yet, though she really needed to work with him on defense against Electric types... And she still needed to check what moves Kest had and decide what to teach him next, depending on what her plan for facing Surge would be...

Vera was so deep in planning that she almost walked right into the Caterpie. To be fair, it was literally hanging from a String Shot in the middle of the path, from some branch above them, but Vera nearly fell over from the flailing she had to do to stop in time.

Hopping back a few paces, she blinked at the little green worm (which, amusingly, was still twice the size of Kest). Now that she was getting a good look at it, there were yellow sparks of static dancing over its skin.

"Paralysis?" Vera frowned, glancing around. No convenient explanation popped out of the bushes, so she figured it was either a wild Pikachu's fault, or something with Electro Web. With a shrug she pulled out a Pokeball and caught the Caterpie, because it seemed like a waste not to. Digging a spray bottle of Paralyze Heal and an Oran berry out of her bag, the young woman called Caterpie back out and sprayed it down thoroughly-using more would help the little Bug type's muscles and nervous system recover faster.

"Looks like you got into a spot of trouble, little one," she said dryly, offering it the berry to help it regain some energy-who knew how long it had been hanging on that string? "I know I caught you without much notice, but I hope you'll stay... I want to specialize in Flying types, y'see, and Butterfree are seriously underrated."

Caterpie stared at her for a minute before visibly relaxing, bending to eat the berry with a pleased chitter-and thankfully, Vera was starting to get the hang of understanding the tones and speech patterns of Pokemon to get a decent idea of how they were feeling. It was still easiest with Levi, but that was par for the course, he was her starter.

She let Caterpie finish eating before she reached out to gently pet it, coaxing it up onto her forearm. It balanced there easily, body curling and swaying as it got a good look at her.

"Mind if I scan you? This'll tell me more about you," she added, pulling out her phone with her free hand. Caterpie blinked, but gamely nodded. "Mm... Shield Dust is a good ability, nice... String Shot, Tackle, and Bug Bite, those are good moves too, little miss."

The little worm's eyes brightened, and she chittered proudly.

"Well, what do you think about a nickname? I'm sure we can find something good," Vera offered, pleased when Caterpie nodded. She did some Googling, still bemused by the fact that she could access her home world's internet even in another dimension/universe, and started going through a list of themes, trying to get a feel for what Caterpie liked. With Levi it had been easier, because she'd had him for a little while before naming him, and Kest had adored the idea of a draconian language from the beginning. Caterpie, on the other hand, was a bit of a mystery still and it seemed more picky than her teammates.

Eventually Vera stumbled onto Tolkien elvish as the winner for her new bug's preferred naming scheme, and they settled on Baramdir, or Amdir for short. Fiery/eager hope seemed a little odd for a bug, but the Caterpie was delighted with the name, so who was Vera to judge?

Amdir proved to be a fairly wary little thing, though she was quick to overcome any fear with a bit of encouragement from Vera. The nice part was that she eagerly agreed to start training right away, working on strengthening her String Shot. It would probably take a few weeks before it was feasible to actually do what Vera hoped to with it, but the plan was to get it thicker, stronger, and produced faster and in higher quantities. Being able to use it to move herself around quickly and in unexpected directions would be a huge boost to the Caterpie's battling capabilities. Then maybe she'd have Amdir learn Electro Web for extra oomph.

XxXxX

"Well. That was anticlimactic." Vera huffed out a laugh as she trotted over to pick up the now-full Pokeball, turning back to Amdir with a grin. "Good job, girl, that was exactly what I wanted you to do. Did you see how much easier it is to fight birds when you can swing around them and catch them off guard?"

Amdir nodded, chittering happily at having defeated the Pidgey who tried to dive-bomb her for lunch. The gleam of pride in her large black eyes was easy to see, which was understandable-Caterpie weren't known for being able to defeat anything, really. Though to be fair, Amdir had a massive Gyarados and an enthusiastic Charmander who had spent almost four hours the other night telling her how strong she was gonna be with Vera's help, and letting the little bug practice her attacks on them.

Clipping the Pokeball for her new Pidgey onto her belt, Vera picked Amdir back up and transferred her to her shoulder. That poor Pidgey had been slammed head-first into a tree after having its wings bound to its side with extra-strength String shot, and the young woman didn't want to call it back out until after Nurse Joy had checked it over. Luckily this was their last day in the forest, they'd just passed the sign for Pewter City around ten minutes ago.

The past few days had been... relaxed. Well, there had been the whole having to introduce Amdir to her teammates, and then calm her down on seeing Levi, but luckily all three of her Pokemon seemed to get along alright. Hopefully Pidgey would be the same.

The last leg of the hike to exit the forest didn't take more than an hour, and Vera stretched on seeing the sky properly for the first time in days-Viridian Forest was pretty dense with the tree tops, making it somewhat well illuminated but hard to find clear spots to see through the branches.

"Well, there's our first stop," she said, pointing at the city. Then she had to catch Amdir very quickly because the little bug started glowing brightly and nearly dropped to the ground from unbalancing as she covered herself in string. Shortly after, the glow faded, and a vibrant green Metapod was carefully held in Vera's grip. She grinned down at her. "Congrats, Amdir, one step closer to Butterfree."

Sleepy-looking eyes blinked at her slowly, but the blue-haired trainer was pretty sure there was a smugness there. After a few more minutes of checking Amdir over, Vera reluctantly recalled her back to her Pokeball-as a Metapod, Amdir was just a bit too heavy to lug all the way to the city.

Pewter City itself was another forty minutes or so to actually enter the city limits, and Vera waited until she was safely on the main roads before plugging her headphones in and making her way to the nearest Pokemon Center. That was a twenty minute walk, though it might normally be less when it wasn't so crowded. She must have arrived just in time for the lunch rush. Perfect.

The buildings of Pewter tended to be made of stone in various shades of gray, tan, and a pale brown with a pinkish-red tint. The staggered shades gave the city a less rigid look, interspersed with wood and brick and transitioning to glass-windowed office buildings closer to the downtown area, though they all had similar architectural styles. It was a pretty place, though Vera didn't think she'd want to live here for long-it just wasn't her style, too many rocks and not enough trees. She'd also prefer more water, she'd spotted a single fountain once but there was no way she could stick around a place with nowhere for Levi to hang out.

Entering the Pokemon Center, relieved at the wave of chill air that washed over her, Vera got in line behind a handful of younger trainers and one mother-daughter duo, the mother carefully holding a Meowth with its back leg in a cast. Huh. Vera had read that Pokemon Centers were also basically the local vet, but it hadn't sunk in until just then.

The line moved forwards quickly, with Chansey taking either trays of Pokeballs or a rolling stretcher with a Pokemon on top to the back rooms for treatment, leaving Nurse Joy to handle the humans or any emergency. When it was Vera's turn, she pointed out Amdir and Pidgey's Pokeballs and let the pink-haired woman know about the new catch and recent evolution-Steven had said it was polite to make sure Nurse Joys knew what care was being asked for so they could better triage if need be.

Vera also booked a room for the next two days. She didn't think it would take more than one try to get her first badge, but she wanted to be able to train with Pidgey for a day before heading off again. Especially considering the fact that, despite intending to take a quick trip inside Mt. Moon to catch a Zubat, she was going to try to fly over/around the mountain range on Levi instead of using the cave route.

Even though cutting travel time made it harder to train well enough, Vera wanted to give herself as much time to earn eight badges as possible-she could always hang out on the outskirts of town to train everyone hard for a few days before resting up for a match. It definitely meant she'd have to be smart about training, though, and structure it really well for every single team member. They would have less time for figuring things out on their own, so she'd have to be as thorough when teaching them as possible.

After using her phone to look up how, exactly, she was supposed to schedule a Gym battle (she could do so online, nifty), Vera gleefully dropped everything but her bath bag and went straight for the showers. Hot water her beloved.

XxXxX

Vera was in luck-there was an open slot the very next morning, so she'd snatched it up and woken up early to do some more research. Much like she'd expected thanks to the anime, the current Gym Leader was Brock's younger brother Forrest, aided and supervised by their father.

She wasn't all that worried about it. It was a 1st badge battle, Levi would be more than enough-she'd worked enough with him after he'd evolved to know that he was packing some serious power. He might be able to get her through Cerulean alone by the time they got there, but she'd need to spend a lot of time with Kest to handle Lt. Surge. She probably needed to catch a non-Flying type for Vermilion, too, but that was something to do later.

Entering the Gym, she was greeted by a young girl, about ten or so with peachy skin and brown hair, perched on a stool behind a desk. There were what looked to be school books stacked to one side, and the girl looked up from the one open in front of her when Vera came inside.

"Good morning! Welcome to Pewter Gym, I'm Yolanda. Would you happen to be Miss Vera?"

Right, this must be one of Brock's sisters. "Yeah, that's me. G'morning!"

Smiling, Yolanda pointed to a set of double doors on the far side of the tiny reception area.

"Forrest is ready for you, you can just go on in. Good luck with your battle!"

"Thank you!" Vera chirped, giving the girl a wave as she slipped through the double doors. Seemed like all of Brock's siblings would have something to do with the Gym at some point, though she quickly shook the thoughts away as she felt for her Pokeballs to ensure that Levi's was the first one on her belt.

She'd come to learn that each ball had a certain… feeling to it, that let her identify who was inside at a touch. She kept meaning to ask Professor Oak about it, but had forgotten so far-maybe that afternoon?

The large battlefield was well lit as she walked up to the closest trainer box, the hard-packed dirt only broken up by various boulders scattered at random. Across the field was a young boy she assumed was Forrest. The man with a striking resemblance to what she figured Brock looked like in real life must be Flint, and was standing to one side, probably to act as a referee.

Vera lifted her arm high to give a wave that would be easily seen across the field.

"Welcome to Pewter City's Gym!" The current Gym Leader called. "You're Vera, correct?"

"Yeah!" She returned, edging into the empty trainer box. "And you're Forrest?"

"That's right! You're here for your first Gym Badge-at this Gym we use two Pokemon for that, do you have the required two?"

Vera nodded, knowing she wouldn't need to use more than Levi. "Yep. Don't go easy on me, it may be my first official badge but I do have a decent amount of general experience!"

In reply, Forrest turned to his father, who raised a hand and called out the terms of the battle, telling both trainers to send out their Pokemon. She threw Levi's Pokeball with a sheepish grin, bracing for the way the ground trembled as his massive form landed heavily.

The Gyarados snorted rather than roaring, a low rumble of curiosity leaving him as he looked over the field. She'd told him what to expect last night after dinner, so once he saw the white lines he coiled into his 'ready' position.

She heard a low whistle.

"I knew your name sounded familiar-Lance was talking about the girl with a Magikarp starter at the last check in. Don't think the type advantage will make this easy, though! Come on out, Rhyperior!"

Looking at the massive Rock type through a gap in Levi's coils, Vera did her best to hide her nerves. Even though she'd gotten to see and interact with a lot of different Pokemon during her time at Professor Oak's ranch, Rhyperior was a whole other beast. Visually intimidating and definitely well-trained, if she remembered right from the anime.

Flint called the start of the match, and she did her best to focus.

"Fly to stay out of easy range," she ordered, grinning when Levi's form easily lifted off the ground to hover several yards above. They'd worked on his flying quite a bit in and above Viridian Forest, so he should be able to maintain this throughout the battle.

"What?!"

… Okay yeah, the reactions to Levi's ability to legit fly were always going to be funny as hell.

"Grass Knot!" She called when it seemed like Forrest was at a loss for what to do now. Didn't he have a long-range attack to use? Maybe not…

Levi roared-well, it sounded like one, but she knew it was more of a laugh. He flicked his tail down to slap the ground once, a barely-visible shock wave rippling across the field and causing a small halo of dust to follow, and a moment later several massive leafy tendrils burst out of the ground beneath Rhyperior's feet. They snapped closed around the big Rock type, curled tightly around its legs, before essentially judo-flipping it harshly into the ground, face-first.

Vera winced. That was a lot rougher than she'd thought it would be.

Rhyperior groaned, taking a moment to haul itself to its feet. Its movements were stiff and looked pained, but it still seemed ready to fight.

"Rhyperior, use Rock Wrecker!" Forrest shouted, and his Pokemon immediately held its arms out, red energy coating the rocks that started to gather and compress between its palms.

"Get ready for Hydro Pump!" Vera countered. Frowning, she tried to remember if Rock Wrecker needed a recharge after using or not, but couldn't be sure. Best to just knock out Rhyperior as fast as possible.

Levi dipped his head at her command, cheeks bulging as the water built up in his mouth. He let loose at the same time their opponent did, and the pillar of high pressure water shattered the boulder in the middle of the field before shooting right on through. It hit Rhyperior dead on, sending it skidding backward as it roared and tried to endure the attack.

But it looked like Levi was a lot stronger than Vera had realized, because soon enough it blasted Rhyperior right off its feet and sent it crashing into the back wall, apparently fainted.

A moment later Flint called it, and Forrest returned his first Pokemon with a rueful smile.

"I guess I should have expected that. Gyarados are no joke… In that case, come on out, Steelix!"

… For some reason, Vera didn't think any of the Pokemon battling today were first badge level.

The rest of the battle was a bit of a blur, the adrenaline rush making it crystal clear in the moment of but as soon as it passed it become no longer relevant to her mind, and lost coherency the more that moment became part of the past. She could remember enough to know that it hadn't taken long for Levi to really get into things.

Levi had a blast wrestling with Steelix, after it became clear that neither Grass Knot or Hydro Pump would be enough to put it down. Instead it turned into an impromptu wrestling match that lasted until Steelix was too exhausted to escape the oversized Grass Knots tying it down-eventually Flint had to call it, since Steelix couldn't get any leverage to battle.

As soon as her win was announced, Vera skipped over to her buddy, who eagerly ducked his large head for kisses. He let out a happy groan, the deep sound making her bones vibrate. Laughing, she rubbed the big scales on his face as he did his best to keep his wiggles to the back half of his body.

"You did so good, buddy! Who's my bestest boy?!"

Levi bellowed joyfully.

"Yes it's you!"

XxXxX

Idly fiddling with her Pidgey's Pokeball, Vera watched as the small bird zipped around the small training field behind the Pokemon Center, the weighted harness that she was training with already proving to be an excellent tool. She'd have to thank Steven for insisting on buying it.

Shaanziidun-another Thuum name, shortened to Shaan or Shaanzii when Vera didn't feel like saying the whole thing-had been happy to train once she'd recovered from her dented pride, after being beaten by Amdir. The young Pidgey was friendly, but seemed to take a lot of pride in her speed an agility, which this whole flying with weights was supposed to help her improve.

This was their last day in Pewter, and Vera wanted to get Shaan up to snuff before they hit Cerulean. Yesterday Kest had joined in the training the entire time, but this afternoon he was resting after some mock battles against Amdir, who had learned Electro Web and Harden early yesterday morning.

While Kest had a pretty awesome move set already (Ember, Dragon Tail, Scratch, and somehow Wing Attack, which made use of shaped energy since he didn't actually have wings yet), he was young and tiny, so his stamina needed working on. After Cerulean she'd have more time to buckle down and train with him to prepare for Surge-they would probably take a few weeks to camp out so they had space to really work at it.

Shaan shrieked as she started to get tired, taking more and more effort to keep working on her agility while weighed down so much. Vera had started with two extra pounds yesterday, and at this point Shaan was up to five and had improved the force of her Air Slash by a significant amount.

"C'mere and take a break, sweetie," Vera called over to her Pokemon, kneeling to unbuckle the harness and relieve her of the weight. Shaan chirped tiredly, accepting the bowl of water and some slices of Oran berry with a subdued enthusiasm. "You're doing really good, Shaan. Let's see about working on a new move in a bit, I want you to start us off in Cerulean to get some experience, okay?"

The little bird clacked her beak, eyes gleaming at the idea. While she rested, Vera turned to Amdir.

"How's Electro Web practice going? Any trouble getting the threads thicker?" She listened and watched intently as the Metapod let out a low hum, a tightly woven cord flinging itself outwards towards the nearest tree—it crackled and glowed with vibrant yellow electricity. While it wasn't all that thick yet, it was noticeable progress, and she was sure that Amdir would have it as an actual net with the improvements soon enough. "That looks really good, girl, I think weaving it like that will work perfectly. Keep up the good work!"

Amdir chittered at her, eyes shining, and continued to practice. Leaving her to it, as she'd had a break earlier and didn't need one again just yet, Vera checked on Shaan once more; the Pidgey could use another ten minutes or so just to relax and work her way through the berries, so she let her thoughts drift a bit.

With Levi in his ball for now as he was too big for any serious training here, and Kest also resting, she figured that she'd head out towards Mt. Moon tomorrow. With her first badge under her belt, she wanted to keep up the momentum, and she also wanted to catch a Zubat soon to give herself as much time as possible to train it up into a Crobat. Then she'd almost have a full team, and would save the last slot for something special. From her research into the Gyms she knew that none of them would do full 6-on-6 battles on a trainer's first Gym run, so it wasn't necessary to fill her team out entirely.

She was also hoping to save that last slot for one of her favorite Pokemon… a Swablu, Togepi, or Rufflet if possible. Or maybe a non-Flying type, she adored them but it wasn't like there weren't others she'd like to have.

Technically she could catch more than six, and Professor Oak would take care of whoever wasn't on her team, but… not yet. She wanted time to properly bond with all the Pokemon she caught, first.

Although… Vera frowned. Rufflet weren't native to Sinnoh anymore, but the Arceus Legends game that recently came out implied that they used to be, and if there really had been a Hisuian variant of Braviary, she kind of wanted one. Would taking a Rufflet to Sinnoh and maybe sticking around Mt. Coronet to evolve it let it become that ancient variant? Most of the crazy stuff seemed to happen around Mt. Coronet, it might be worth a shot. It couldn't hurt, anyways.

But not for a while yet. She'd plan to test that out after getting her eighth badge and before the Indigo Conference, either way it turned out she'd have a Braviary to act as a little surprise for anyone she battled. Maybe someday she'd set up a secondary team with the other Pokemon she wanted, maybe get a Tropius or Noibat… Or a fossil Pokemon! That would be so cool…

XxXxX

Much like she'd hoped, Levi had no trouble at all with the short flight from Pewter's outskirts to Mt. Moon-it was pretty much a straight shot, and easy to stay on route, so it was good practice for him. He was pretty winded by the time they arrived, about an hour after leaving Pewter, but her big buddy was in high spirits. She should probably make sure that he had plenty of time to fly around at least every other day, to build up his stamina and refine his ability. Even in that single long flight he'd worked out how to make the ride smoother, and keep his body and altitude steadier, too.

She praised him liberally once they'd landed, but unfortunately he was too big to fit into the caves, so he agreed to go back in his ball. This left her with Kest and Shaan to actually go into the mountain with her, as Amdir just didn't have the mobility yet.

For the sake of discretion, Vera had looked up specific entrances that had a lot of Zubat, both because that meant less trainers would be around and also because she was only there to catch one real quick before moving on.