Meet Me at the PokeStop

Chapter Three

Reaching Out

Sitting at her computer trying to figure out what the hell was going on with an, apparently fourteen kilogram, she'd nicked the bathroom scales to check, Charmander on her lap. It was a surreal feeling. Thankfully Charmander understood about the dangers his tail presented and was holding it to himself again, though this time he was much more cheerful. Claire had been debating on giving him a nickname, she usually did in the games, after all. Though she had no idea what to call him.

Glancing down to the top of his head while he was watching her mouse dance about the computer screen before them, Claire smiled, every now and then he'd go to reach for the mouse, wanting to use it himself. Whether it was curiosity, or that he knew something she didn't, Claire wasn't sure. She did know that it was kind of adorable.

She was currently searching through the same website on which she'd found testimonials about the phone, hoping to find clues on what was going on and if anyone else had had the same experiences. She hadn't been lucky thus far.

Scrolling down the forum topic with a frown on her face, Claire almost missed it, a post from two days ago, asking if anyone had noticed anything 'weird' about the phones. Staring at the post, and then looking more carefully through the ones after Claire found that the posters who had been more regular earlier in the thread, had not posted again until the subject had changed.

Returning to that one post, Claire contemplated the username, ZeeFairMan, before clicking on it. His profile was sparse, and he too was apparently a new member. Poor guy probably hadn't had a straight answer from anyone and if he was in the same boat she was, well, who knew how freaked out he was. Probably about as freaked out as she was.

"What do you think little man? Should we message him?" she asked. Claire tilted her head a little so she could look Charmander in the eye as he looked up at her. The nod was so obvious and deliberate, and his little face so serious, Claire couldn't help it, she had to. "Copy that, Joker," she grinned down at him. He stared at her for a moment before grinning back at her.

"Char-Charmander!" he exclaimed happily. Well, she supposed, that answered that question.

"Alright, then," Claire gave Joker a small squeeze and pulled out her keyboard drawer. Then after considering her choices, dove right in, typing a short messsage out to ZeeFairMan.

Hi ZeeFairMan,

I'm TheShepard, I saw your post asking about any weirdness on the 'Oak Phones', and wondered what kind of weirdness you were refering to? I also noticed no-one seemed to answer you publically. I hope someone else has contacted you and the others didn't leave you hanging. Personally, I've got a brand of weirdness going on myself, I don't suppose your phone came with Pokemon Go, did it?

TheShepard

Frowning at the message, Claire tilted her head as her mouse hovered over the 'send' button, contemplating whether or not she'd said too much or not enough. She took her hand off the mouse for a second, to scrach her itchy ear and Joker leaned forward and pressed 'send' for her. "Hey! Joker!" she scolded halfheartedly. The Charmander just grinned toothily up at her as he settled back into her lap contently.

With nothing else to do for the moment, it occoured to Claire that she'd left Pokemon Go running on her phone after Joker had appeared. Pulling it, and Joker's pokeball, out of her hoodie pocket, Claire raised her brow at the words on the screen.

Hold filled ball up to screen to store

Claire looked from the ball she'd placed on her desk, to Joker and then back to her phone. "Don't worry, buddy, you're not going anywhere any time soon," she assured him with another squeeze. After hearing this Joker visibly relaxed and watched as Claire dismissed the 'Storage' screen. After that, Claire was congradulated for her first pokemon capture by the proffesor and encouraged to get out there and catch more. Claire wasn't sure she was up to more pokemon appearing in front of her just yet, she was still adjusting to Joker being real. It did make her wonder about other game franchises that she'd wished were real in the past, Pokemon just being one in a long list. With a snort, Claire dismissed that line of thought, she wasn't sure she would be able to handle knowing if other fictional entities were real too.

Pokemon Go now wanted her to catch other nearby pokemon, there was a Pidgey and a Rattata in the area from the siluettes. Nothing massively awesome, so she moved to the menus to see what else the app oftered. The in app purcheses were pretty standard, and Claire wasn't sure how much she'd use them, but the option was there. She moved on to the bag menu, just to see what she had. She had heaps of pokeballs, a couple of incense, as well as an egg incubator. Well, that would be an interesting experience.

Exiting the game for now, Claire dropped her phone next to Joker's pokeball and considered it for a moment before picking it up. She eyed it over, contemplating. Shifting the way she held the red and white ball and pursing her lips, pressed the white circular button. It shrank. Claire stared at the now much smaller ball resting in the palm of her hand. Her inner pokemon fan was shreeking with glee, but Claire managed to keep most of it inside, only a small 'eep' escaped.

"Char?" Joker was looking at her in confusion. Claire shook her head with a grin and put the shrunken pokeball back in her hoodie.

"Sorry, but that was kinda awesome," she told him.

A blip from her computer brough both of their attentions back to the present, it seemed ZeeFairMan had replied.

Hey TheShepard (nice name btw)

Yeah, no-one actually replied to my question at all, which was weird, thanks for the response. Uh, yeah, the Pokemon Go app on my 'Oak Phone' is very...weird. Not sure what else to say. How weird, is your weirdness?

Z

Claire stared at the message for a moment, trying to figure out what she could say, after all, she didn't want to sound like a crazy person. Which was probably his dilema too. Then a thought occoured to her and she opened her webcam. "Smile Joker, it's our first photo as partners!" she declared as she hugged her new friend.

Once the photo was taken Claire added it to a new message to ZeeFairMan.

Hey Z

Thanks lol

Okay so, I made a new friend today, this is Joker, my new Charmander.

What'd you pick?

Shep

AN: Okay, chapter three! Woop! Adding new characters~

I like Joker the Charmander, he's a little dude. Needed another ME ref, Claire wouldn't not.

Hope you guys are enjoying these~

Laters~

RLK