"Pokemon" = Speaking
'Pokemon' = Thinking
"Pokemon"= Writing
"It's too damn cold!"
A car door slammed shut and a man walked out. He was about as average as they come. Short and straight black hair that was barely kept over his eyes, a decently lanky build, and a grand height of 5'8. He wore a black and grey striped sweater, black jeans that seemed a bit too big for him to be wearing, and a pair of black snow boots, perfect for the miserable winter conditions of Minneapolis. His car was beaten and had a dent on the left side, obviously having been used through the years.
The night was absolutely freezing, a bone-chilling wind screeching through the air as the man walked out. Small snowflakes fell from the sky, worsening the already unbearable cold. The bustling city had been put to a halt tonight, so he didn't see any cars crossing in front of him, let alone anyone walking around at this hour.
Shivering, he walked across the street between him and his savior on this winter night. The road was a bit icy and he almost fell while crossing it, cursing under his breath as he got his footing. The walkway wasn't much better, just well-kept enough to not completely faceplant the second you step foot on it. He trudged to the front door and pushed his way through it, almost falling from the amount of force he exerted.
"Asian Express, what can I get you?" A bored and exhausted-looking woman asked from behind the counter, not even putting forth the effort to make eye contact with the man.
He grinned, "Just the usual."
The woman's head snapped up to look at him and softened a bit once she met his gaze, but still kept the same exhausted look.
"You gotta stop coming ten minutes before we close Jett. I'm honestly surprised the cooks haven't spit in your food yet." The woman chuckled, motioning her head back behind her to the kitchen where a pair of cooks glared at him, before punching a few numbers into the register.
Jett sighed, rubbing his forehead, "I know, I know. I just get out of work at ten and it takes me a while to get here!"
He gave the cashier an innocent smile while she grabbed her phone and checked the time, turning it around for Jett to see. He grimaced when he saw 11:50 flashing across her screen, he'd been hoping that he made better time today.
"C'mon, it was my birthday like a week ago! I'm still busy celebrating!" Jett lied to the cashier, looking for a way to get out of the mess he made while making the minutes it took to make his food less awkward. In reality, he just didn't get hungry until it was too late to go anywhere else. Maybe it was his subconscious wanting to mess with the workers here a bit, he smirked at the thought.
The cashier leaned in a bit and asked, "So hold old are you now?"
Jett stiffened at this. Was this his chance to lie so he could grab a drink or two before heading home? Had he already told her his age? He thought back over the past year he'd been visiting the restaurant, coming to the conclusion that he probably had and this was some kind of test from her.
"Twenty."
She smirked a bit, noticing his hesitance in answering. "Alright then boy, your total for today is-"
"Fifteen oh-eight, I got it." He finished her sentence, having gotten the same meal almost every time he visited for the past few years. He put his card up to the device with a grimace and heard a light bell sound from the register. Money was tight these days, and a midnight meal run never helped his bank account stay afloat.
"That'll be about five more minutes." The cashier told him. He looked behind her and the cooks had already been cooking his food for a few minutes it seemed.
'The benefits of always coming in late. They always know my order and wanna get it done quick for me.' Jett thought to himself as he pulled a chair at one of the tables out and sat down. A peaceful silence fell between the two, occasionally interrupted by the chatting between the two cooks.
He scrolled through his phone, taking this time to check his feed and see what was new. The Mario Kart DLC wave 6 had just been released and he was excited to get home and play it more. He'd been on it since he got back from work, only taking a small break to get this food. He continued scrolling, most of his feed filled with videos of food he could only pray to ever eat and cute videos of animals that he'd love to just interact with.
Handling animals was something he'd always dreamed of doing but never really got the chance to do. He thought back to his childhood and the national geographic documentary he'd seen at least a hundred times when he was young, citing it as what interested him in animals. It's what interested him in Pokemon. Even once he grew up more, owning a fire-breathing dragon that was intelligent still sounded sick.
'Too bad there's no money in it.' Jett thought to himself as he heard his name get called and stood up. Chasing your dreams was a cool idea and all, but he needed money to just survive so he could try to live those dreams.
Jett pushed his chair in and made his way to the front, where the cashier had his food. His previous thoughts were wiped in the face of eating a good meal, which he hadn't had almost all day.
A strange feeling overcame him as he was halfway across the room. He stopped in his tracks as this feeling enveloped him whole. What he was feeling was near-indescribable in the worst way possible.
He felt an infinite amount of souls, crying, begging for his help. Every pain they felt, every negative emotion they felt, everything that encompassed their being while trapped in this hellscape entered him at once. The anger, jealousy, and wrath of them were everything he knew for that second, locked in a state of perpetual suffering. Emotions he had never felt were exposed to him, nothing lost in the cacophony of suffering. Absolutely nothing was held back as he stood in a voiceless scream, his mouth held open. For this second this feeling wasn't a foreign concept to him, it was what he felt every day of his life. He was born in sin, he will die in sin. Was this even a feeling? Was this his life? What was he before this?
A second later the feeling completely vanished, every trace of it leaving his body. He gasped for air and fell to the ground, feeling the carpet around him to make sure he was still on Earth. His body shook from pure adrenaline, spiked just from the experience.
"You alright down there?" The cashier asked him with a concerned look on her face, obviously worried about how he was acting.
He rose from his position on the ground slowly, looking at everything around him as he recovered from the intense ego death he had just experienced. 'What the hell was that?' Jett didn't believe in ghosts, but he might have to reconsider that after his episode.
Still, he forced a smile onto his face as he walked up to the register. "I think I'm fine, just happens to me sometimes," He said while avoiding eye contact with the cashier, as he figured his explanation wouldn't do much good.
She gave him a piteous glance before going back to counting the money they made that night. "You should run by the hospital, I don't think that's normal."
He nodded his head and walked out of the front door, his body still shaking and mind racing a mile a minute. One question reigned supreme in his mind above all others, what had just happened to him?
He couldn't write it off as a seizure or iron deficiency since he never really experienced those and he wasn't exactly a medical professional so he hadn't ever heard or seen someone go through what he just had. Maybe on psychedelics, but not stone-cold sober like he was.
Eyes widening slightly, a thought occurred to him, 'What am I even gonna tell the paramedics? That I collapsed after I had a random ego death where…' His mind trailed off thinking of what he experienced. He couldn't explain it with words, the only way for anyone to know would be to go through it as well.
"Oomph." Jett slipped and fell in the middle of the road as he walked back to the parking lot his car was in, his mind too preoccupied to be thinking about the slippery state of the road he was walking on.
He put his hands behind him to prop himself up, already grumbling curses, as a bright light approached him at a speed he couldn't possibly avoid. He heard a honk and turned behind him to see this light, not even given the grace to think about all he had accomplished before he died. He held his hands up in a worthless attempt to stop the car and closed his eyes, accepting the death that was so close. This position was held for a few more seconds before he was sure he wasn't getting hit and the car had miraculously stopped in the icy conditions.
With a small shudder, he opened his eyes, which took a few moments to adjust to not being closed anymore. Once he could see again, he was met with a pair of black eyes, looking deep into his. This creature was floating in front of him with its yellow body and what he perceived to be two red and white striped antennae. A smile was on the creature's face as he held its gaze.
He was completely frozen. He wasn't gonna move in front of this creature that somehow appeared in downtown Minneapolis. This wasn't any animal he knew of, and he really didn't want to be the first to discover it.
The creature stared at him for ten more seconds before the smile on its face grew even larger and it gave a high-pitched chirp, floating even higher than it had been as a ringing sound emitted from it.
Once their gaze broke, Jett realized something was terribly wrong with his surroundings. Namely, he wasn't in the streets of Minneapolis anymore and was instead in a dark cave, only illuminated by small cracks in the top that gave the area a bit of sunlight. The area he was in was blocked off with one entrance behind him that he took note of. He looked around the room he was in and, to his horror, it was filled with these small yellow blobs floating around. Now that his senses were working better, he could hear the light ringing they made fill up the room.
He looked up a bit more and saw a creature hovering above all the others, watching him with a jolly and carefree gaze. The bodies of the two were similar, except the larger one, which he assumed was the boss had a white and red colored body with a… tail? Yeah, a tail extending beneath it and a small yellow knob on its head. A louder chime was heard from this one as it slowly moved its way around the room.
'Wait,' Jett thought to himself as he began to finally gather his thoughts, 'I know these! They're pokemon!' His head whipped wildly around the room, making sure that he wasn't just hallucinating what he was seeing. One of the yellow-bodied orb creatures flew closer to him, confused at the panicked look on his face.
His arm slowly reached out to touch the pokemon before he knew what he was doing. The creature wrapped its antennae around his hand, curious about the strange creature that showed up in its home. He rubbed its body, eliciting another one of those high-pitched chirps he heard earlier.
'I must be going crazy. Or dead.' Jett thought to himself, the current situation he faced making no logical sense. He was supposed to be dead, a car hit him head on and now he was looking at pokemon.
'Chingling and chimecho. Those are pokemon, there's no mistaking it.' Everything pointed to what he was experiencing being fake, or maybe a dream that came from his death, and he didn't like it. He liked knowing what was happening in his life, and these past five minutes were the antithesis of that.
He finally looked himself up and down and noticed a few things, one being that he still had his Chinese takeout gripped tight in his hands, still tensed up from the experience. He dryly chuckled and opened the plastic bag, feeling that the food inside was still warm.
He then set the bag aside and looked past where the bag once blocked his vision, seeing that he now had a new belt on his jeans, furnished with two pokeballs. He glossed over it, looking into the bag that sat beside him and–
His heart skipped a beat as he processed what he had just seen. 'Pokeballs?' He asked himself, lightly touching the small spheres that sat on his belt to make sure they were as real as everything else around him. He fully palmed the ball once he confirmed that they were, in fact, real and lightly tugged on it, the ball popping off his belt and growing in size once he did so. A childish feeling of glee and excitement filled him as he momentarily forgot the events that led him to this point and his alien surroundings.
"That's so sick, they actually do that?" Jett whispered to himself, getting some chirps from the chingling that still floated around him at the sound of his words. How the balls worked defied all laws of physics established on Earth, but he wasn't gonna question it, seeing as he somehow ended up in a completely different world to his. Physics were kinda out of the picture for the time being.
While fiddling around with the ball he accidentally tapped the white button in the middle, a red light streaming from the entrance and hitting the ground in front of him once he did so. More nervous butterflies rose in his stomach as he waited for the pokemon he'd just accidentally released to materialize.
The red beam began to make its way back to the pokeball as Jett surveyed the pokemon that had just appeared in front of him.
Three pink tentacles rested on the ground below the creature, letting it stand on the ground as its other two tentacles rested to its side, reminiscent of a human's arms. A light pink cloud shape covered its neck and held the large, round head of the pokemon. Large pupils filled its two red eyes as it surveyed the trainer who had released it just as hard as Jett was, a ghostly smile etched onto the pokemon's face and small, spike-looking hair came from the top of its head.
'A frillish.' Jett thought to himself. He'd never used one in any of his playthroughs of the games; he just never really used the fishing rods in the games and never caught them surfing cause he usually had a water type by then. He knew they were a water and ghost type and were based heavily on jellyfish, which weren't the nicest animals in the ocean. He knew the pokemon in front of him was female from the pink coloration, a pretty simple fact anyone who played the games would know. Even if someone didn't, blue and pink made it pretty easy to guess the genders of the two.
A shudder went down Jett's spine as he thought of the sea creatures from Earth. A few bad experiences with them as a kid turned him away from any profession or contact with the sea and he generally considered himself to be afraid of them.
'But these are pokemon! It was a kid's game, it should be fine." He readied himself to speak with the pokemon in front of him.
"Hello Frillish! My name's Jett! I'm a new trainer in this world, and you are my pokemon!" He pointed at the frillish, who just motioned one of her stingers at herself in confusion. "Yes, you! Uh…" Trailing off as he blanked in the middle of his sentence. He had never expected to be catching a pokemon, so he didn't have a good reason for her to be coming with him in mind. "Listen, we don't really know each other or know how we got here, so how about we work together and find out?" He finished with a nervous grimace on his face, unsure of how the pokemon would react.
Frillish looked around for the first time, confused at the new surroundings she was faced with. She then stared at the pokeball in even deeper confusion for a while, her face generally unreadable but her eyes telling a different story. Jett had no clue what was going through her head as she watched the pokeball, waiting for some semblance of an answer to his question.
A light nod of her head was all Jett needed to see to know he was in the clear, tension he didn't know was building up flooding out of his spine. The past ten minutes had been confusing and stressful, and all he wanted to do was lie down and pass out.
It seemed Frillish was of the same opinion, the support in her tentacles giving way as she plopped to the ground, the three tentacles that once held her up now sprawled around her in what Jett perceived to be the frillish way of sitting. He snorted and did the same, finally looking away from his new pokemon.
The chingling that once filled the room were now all huddled into the furthest corner of the room, obviously unnerved by the ghostly creature that had appeared. They began shivering as Jett glanced over at them, a stark contrast from the joyful nature they had just a few minutes ago. He slowly crawled his way over to them, trying to be as least threatening as possible.
"Hey, it's just me, your friend Jett. Don't worry, she's nice." He spoke calmly to the group, whose jitters slowly faded.
It seemed they wouldn't move away from the corner, but he'd take what he could get. The chimecho still hadn't moved a muscle since Frillish was released, obviously watching but not nearly as tense, unthreatened by the ghostly pokemon that just appeared.
A thought crossed his mind as his hand snapped back to his belt, catching the attention of the Frillish seated in front of him who had been spaced out. He grabbed the pokeball and pressed the white button, excited to see his new team member. Sadly, the ball didn't respond to his command, staying shut, unlike the other one.
'Must be unoccupied.' Jett was already going through ideas for new team members with this pokeball. Maybe he could find a magmar, or an absol, or even a goddamn dragon! Anything was possible in this world filled with pokemon!
His thoughts came to a screeching halt as he came to a realization. "Where am I?"
Again, he surveyed his surroundings looking for any clues as to where he could be. He was obviously in a cave, but that didn't narrow things down too much. The chingling that lived in the area he had spawned in gave him a few more clues, but not many since he didn't exactly have the encounters for every cave in the games memorized. Not anywhere in the Indigo League since they didn't have chingling there to his knowledge, but anywhere else was fair game.
Also, how'd he end up with this frillish? Or the other pokeball that rested on his belt? How in the hell did he even get here in the first place?
The questions made his head hurt a bit too much for his liking after the events of the day. Right now he was gonna focus on the present and worry about the past and future later.
He looked at the bag that he'd already forgotten about, ready to pull out something incredibly useful for his situation. A pokedex would put him a huge step ahead of this world and anything like a town map or any region-specific item could tell him where he was. He'd even be fine if it was just some of the essentials, like potions and antidotes.
Hand roaming inside the bag, he felt a lot of free space. Like, empty bag type of free space. He grinned when his hand finally grabbed onto something, whipping it out of the bag to see what overpowered advantage the universe was giving him.
'A journal.' He felt a bit let down by the grand reveal. The book looked completely identical to the books he'd been using in school his whole life, down to the branding on the front cover. The top of the page read, "Property of Death's Chosen." Jett slightly frowned upon seeing this, 'Jeez, how foreboding.'
He noticed the pen that was attached to the side of the book and grabbed it, opening the journal to see if there was anything special about it. Nothing jumped out at him, it just looked like a normal, blank book. He wrote "Jett's Journal" on the top of the first page before closing it and putting it back in his bag, feeling a bit let down.
He took a deep breath in and stood up, "Might as well have a look around."
Red eyes followed him as he walked towards the only exit from the cave he found himself in, cautiously watching his every move. He turned back and motioned for her to follow him.
"Let's go, we got a whole world to see!" Jett exclaimed in excitement, ready to get out into the pokemon world and see all the locations and species he remembered all too well.
A light beam of water splashed his face as he sputtered and tried to block it with his hands, the beam slightly curving when he did so he was just out of his reach. Frillish gave a ghostly giggle from her position on the floor and hopped up, waddling after Jett, who was furiously wiping the chilly water off his face and clothes.
"Ugh, great. Now I'm wet and cold on top of everything that's happening." Jett deadpanned as he wrung the shoulder area of his shirt, Frillish's giggles only growing at his annoyance. He thought pokemon were supposed to be nice and friendly! A kids' game people, it's a kids' game!
After using a paper towel from his takeout bag to help dry him off he waved his goodbyes to the chingling and chimecho, who gave their high-pitched chirps and rings in response. He looked at the cave ahead of him. The daylight that shone through cracks in the ceiling was a blessing to his eyes right now, if it was night he'd surely be about as useful as a bat.
'I guess the saying's blind as a zubat now.' He thought to himself. He'd have to watch how he talked to other people from this world, it'd be a whole mess if anybody found out how he got here or that their world was just a work of fiction. Not a great first impression.
He walked at a slower pace than he usually did, not wanting Frillish to feel left behind. The latter was struggling to keep up with even the slow pace Jett was walking at, tripping over her limbs constantly as she tried to walk over to him.
Jett laughed at her form of walking, "Better fit for water, huh?"
Another spout of water his his face upon finishing his sentence, colder and more powerful than the last one. He stumbled a bit from the force and gave Frillish a glare, which she reciprocated. "It's a compliment! I'm saying you're skilled in the water!" Jett exclaimed, a bit miffed about being cold and wet yet again. Frillish just stood up higher with pride upon hearing Jett's compliment. He just snorted and kept walking.
The two finally exited the dark room they began in, entering a much larger one with a high roof and large cracks in the ceiling that let the light he so desperately needed to function in this cave to shine through. Light streams ran through the cave, winding across the floor he walked on as he stepped in one, water barely reaching halfway up the snow boots he still had on. Frillish splashed her tentacles in the water, soaking herself while Jett quickly stepped away to avoid the splash. Water was streaming down the walls as well, Jett scooping a bit in his hand to drink and finding it was freezing cold.
'Somewhere cold?' He checked Hoenn and Alola off his list of possible places he could be, as Hoenn was basically a tropical paradise with very few ice types and cold areas to be found and Alola was much of the same. He'd checked off half the possible regions in the world, not bad for his first thirty minutes.
Still, the cave itself wasn't much of note. The same brown, rocky walls that lined the previous room existed in this one. He observed a few geodude and graveler walking across the room from him, almost blending in with the walls. He was sure they'd be almost invisible if they stopped moving.
The two continued walking through the room, Jett taking nothing else of note from the area. He looked it over again, trying to draw some recollection of his whereabouts from his vast memory of the games.
'Nothing, still no real idea where I am.' He thought, his foot tapping the ground in anxiety and frustration. Suddenly he felt a large weight fall onto his foot, his eyes shooting down to the source of the weight.
The geodude that chose his foot as its resting spot gave a low grumble, its vocal cords sounding like they were made of sandpaper. A feeling of fear jolted down his spine, still unused to the presence of the pokemon in the cave. Frillish's laugh came from beside him, having walked up after bathing herself. She took no threat from the ground and rock type that would likely go down to her in a few blows.
Jett rubbed the geodude's head, eliciting another one of the grumbles he heard earlier. They were nicer than he'd expected, for some reason anticipating the species to be more violent and angry. Maybe Ash was right, pokemon were all good at heart.
"So how do I get this lil' guy off me now?" He asked Frillish, who shook the bottom of her limbs, this time unintentionally splashing Jett. A bit used to it now, he tried to move his leg and force it off, the geodude hugging around his leg when he did, only making Frillish gigglier.
'Well, what now?' He thought to himself, somehow out of options outside of just attacking the poor thing. Frillish took a few moments to gather power before launching a water gun across the room, hitting one of the walls. All the geodude and graveler perked up at the noise, beginning a mad dash to find out what made it. The one on Jett's leg completely forgot about what it was doing, using its arms to speedily make its way to join the other rock pokemon.
A happy gurgling noise came from Frillish after her plan worked perfectly, her two arm-like tentacles spasming in excitement. That reminded him, since he didn't have a pokedex or anything of the sort he was clueless as to what moves his frillish could use.
"Frillish," The pokemon in question turned to look at him, "Do you know what a trainer is?" She slightly shook her head and let out a gurgle. Jett grinned, his hook landing.
"A trainer is someone who, well, trains pokemon to become as strong as they can be. Do you wanna be my first pokemon even after we get out of here?" He asked hopefully, the professional tone in his voice fading to slight desperation. Frillish looked like she was contemplating his question for a minute before simply nodding, interested in his offer.
While he didn't want to let it out in front of Frillish, he was just about ready to jump around in excitement.
Moving past this, he knew he still needed more information about her. He knew that the frillish line were water and ghost type, which covered a good amount of bases for him right now. Jellicent, their evolved form, were not only strong defensively, but also a threat from a range as Marlon's Jellicent demonstrated to him many times in his playthroughs of Pokemon Black and White 2 as a kid. As a ghost type pokemon and a jellyfish, he expected her to be difficult to work with but she wasn't at all.
"You mind using your moves real quick? I wanna know them in case we get into a battle." Jett asked, generating a happy gurgle and nod.
Frillish, shaking her limbs in anticipation, decided to start off simply with a beam of water aimed at the wall across from the two. She put a bit less force into this one than the last, lest they get the attention of the graveler and geodude they had just distracted.
'Water gun.' Jett noted, subconsciously reaching for his phone to begin writing things down. He felt his right pocket and left pocket and didn't feel it there. Scratch that, he felt nothing there. It was odd to him, considering the food he left back in the chingling cave and all his clothes traveled with him. He unzipped the bag whatever force placed him here gave him and grabbed the journal from inside, beginning a move set page for Frillish.
Once she saw she had Jett's attention again, Frillish continued with her demonstration by looking up and squirting herself with a stream of water he could tell was thicker and heavier than that of water gun. The fluid she covered herself with hardened as it covered her and caused her pink skin to glisten a bit more than usual. It wasn't very noticeable unless you watched her apply the fluid to herself.
'Water sport or soak I'd guess. And since she used it on herself, I'll assume it's water sport.' He wrote the move down and looked back up to Frillish.
Her head was whipping back and forth, searching for something unknown to him. He stayed silent as her eyes widened and her tentacles pulsated, beginning to draw power from something in front of her with a light green stream. He followed the stream to a small flower that was growing in the cave, quickly dying as Frillish used her attack on it. After finishing the attack, Frillish plopped her three leg tentacles down and sat, a bit tired from using that move.
Jett thought to himself, 'Must be absorb.' He walked up to Frillish and patted her back, her tentacles straightening in surprise at the contact.
"We can wait to use that 'til you have a pokemon to drain. Obvious that one tired you out if you don't." Frillish lowly grumbled in agreement, unhappy with the pitiful but true sentiment.
Reinvigorated, Frillish launched a new attack that confused Jett a bit. She surrounded herself with a purple, almost wind-like energy. She then released this energy full force at the wall, catching Jett off guard. It materialized into a haunting amount of faces that terrified Jett to the core and had hundreds of teeth that he was sure would tear anything that faced them to shreds with eyes that he was sure were looking straight at him. The energy then came into contact with the wall, hitting it with less force than the water gun had been. Although he had expected more, he was glad that the attack was less forceful so he could attract fewer visitors.
Jett pondered to himself, 'A special ghost type move that isn't too powerful…" His mind ran through moves he'd used in the games like shadow ball and hex, but the nature of the attack and power exerted didn't equate to either move.
The move night shade then popped into his head, which he accepted as the move used. He'd never used it in the games since moves like the aforementioned two were much more useful earlier, but he could polish this move with Frillish and make it dangerous. For now, though, it was probably better as a fear tactic, supported by the goosebumps that still hadn't left Jett's arms.
He finished with his note-taking, looking back up to Frillish who was beginning to get impatient with him. He nervously smiled and motioned for her to use another move. She looked around her again and found a small boulder to walk up to.
Purple energy filled her two arm-like tentacles and she swung into the rock, which didn't suffer much damage but did retain a bit of the purple coloration. He reached out to touch it but had his hand swatted away by one of Frillish's long tentacles. The tentacle shook back and forth in front of him as if she was scolding him for trying to touch the liquid, before returning to Frillish's side.
"Poison sting?" He asked his pokemon, curious if she understood the human term for the move. Her everlasting smile grew and she nodded.
'That's so strange, she knows the name of it without any contact with humans.' While it shouldn't be logically possible, neither was the fact that human-pokemon communication only went one way. On top of that, he didn't know where this Frillish came from, maybe she had a trainer before him.
He wrote down the move in his journal before looking up again. Instead of a move, he watched as Frillish splashed more of the light stream of water over herself. Smiling at her antics, he threw his journal back in his bag and zipped it back up.
"Alright, good work Frillish! I got all that down, now let's keep moving." He told her, the jellyfish following his path.
The area he was in had three exits, one that was behind him leading back to the chingling that he made sure not to go back through. The one currently to his left seemed a bit more dangerous than that of the right, seeing visibly uneven ground and a shaky, dust-spitting roof to his left. The right one had no such defects, so right it was.
Jett kept his slow pace with Frillish walking behind him. They followed a narrow path for a few minutes, making him even more confused as to his surroundings.
'A cold area with chingling and geodude that has this type of layout? Maybe I'm somewhere in that new region.' Jett had little to no experience with the two newest installations to the pokemon franchise Pokemon Scarlet and Violet so if that's where he was, he could consider himself screwed. He crossed his fingers in hopes of finding evidence to disprove that theory.
Seeing no exit in sight, he turned to the Frillish behind him momentarily before turning around again before she noticed his glance.
'Not many damaging moves, but a pretty solid support pokemon right now. I'd love to catch a physically powerful pokemon with this ball.' He tapped the ball that sat on his belt, wondering what'd end up inside it. He had high hopes, but that was a future worry, and as he said, he needed to focus on the present.
Finally, the two came upon a large river that flowed across from him and Frillish, water moving rapidly from the left side. The other side of the river was blocked off by a wall and Jett was a bit relieved that he wasn't gonna have to cross this river anytime soon. He looked further upstream and found the source of the running water, a large hole in the wall that water fell from. His hands recoiled at the freezing temperature of the water and the sheer speed it moved at before he set them back in, cupping some up to drink. Frillish wasn't a huge fan of the cold water either, dipping one of her three lower tentacles in before sharply drawing it back and waddling away from the currents, unhappy with its state.
The two continued down the path the current carved out. Occasionally, there would be a small cavern to their right as they followed the river that flowed to their left, populated by small colonies of zubat that he could barely make out in the darkness. 'Cute, but golbat are canonically violent, aggressive blood-suckers, so I'll steer clear.'
The river never curved once in its long path down the hallway they followed, the caverns getting smaller and smaller as they went on.
Something caught Frillish's attention from one of these small caverns and she entered the darkness, searching for whatever she noticed. Slight nerves rose in Jett's stomach as he followed her into this cavern. It was dark but small, around 20 by 20 feet if he had to guess. Sharp rocks lined the walls, providing multiple hiding places for whatever force roamed here.
Suddenly, Frillish was launched past Jett's vision and he heard a splash in the river behind him. He turned around in fear for Frillish before he saw her spring out of the water and onto the ground, shaken but not very damaged.
He looked behind one of the rocks that now had a purple glow emitting from behind it and saw a steel bell menacingly rise from behind it. The two dull limbs that grew from its headpiece glowed menacingly with the purple energy he'd seen. As it rose higher, he locked eyes with the bell he now identified as a bronzong, the latter's eyes narrowing.
Suddenly, Jett was soaked. He looked behind him to Frillish, who was still looking past him at the bronzong with a mix of anger and curiosity. Still feeling the water dropping on him, he looked up and saw a small raincloud formed above his head.
'Of course, water.' Jett snarled in his mind, quickly growing tired of the feeling of constantly being soaked.
He then felt the rain clouds dissipate, and a warm feeling he hadn't felt since the summer on Earth enveloped him. The water that covered his body and clothes quickly evaporated as he relished the feeling. His complaints were washed away as well, and he looked up again to see a ball of light shining where the cloud had been seconds ago.
He heard a humming noise come from in front of him and he looked back to the bronzong. The pokemon pointed both of its arms towards the exit. Jett chuckled and bowed his head in thanks before leaving. Frillish just pouted and spat a water gun at the Bronzong, who stopped it mid-air and sent it back and hit Frillish. Her body soaked the water, dissipating upon touching her skin.
Jett noticed this and unzipped his bag again, writing a small note on Frillish's page. 'Possibly has the ability water absorb. Unconfirmed.'
It seemed like she had the ability, but he didn't have a great way to test it at the moment and he had no clue how water pokemon physics worked. He wasn't even sure that Frillish could get the ability, but it seemed accurate so he'd roll with it for now.
The two moved on again, walking further down the path until they reached a dead end. The rapid currents were flushed down a deep channel that he couldn't see down but he knew was incredibly deep from the dark, near-black color of the water. He tried to get a view of it but got no such luck, staring into the endless void of water that would surely take his life if he fell in.
On that thought, he took a few steps back so Frillish wouldn't get any funny ideas.
'This doesn't help at all, this just goes against everything I've seen. Either I'm in Paldea or some area I forgot about. Maybe Sinnoh or Kalos, but everything else is out of the picture.' He thought to himself.
One thing stuck out to Jett that was off to him, being the lack of ice puzzles and strength blocks that were usually included in the ice-themed caves Game Freak created. There just wasn't much… flavor to this place. On top of that, it seemed like it was just one floor from what he'd seen. Paldea was the worst-case scenario for him right now, but he'd just have to find more information.
Frillish spaced out as she stared down the deep abyss, lost in thought as Jett tapped one of her tentacles, getting a slightly numb feeling in his pointer finger as a result. She looked at him and began to waddle back towards the entrance of the path they entered. He turned and followed, nothing else of note to be there for in that dead end.
Following the path they took, the two saw nothing of note besides a few more zubat and geodude before rearriving in the area they had once been in. The light above them began to dim, signaling the turn of night to Jett.
"Wanna go back to the chingling room for the night? I left some stuff there." Jett said, stuff being the chinese food he was so craving at the moment. He couldn't care less if it wasn't hot anymore, he hadn't eaten in hours now. He hadn't expected time to fly as fast as it did when exploring the cave.
Frillish gave a slight gurgle in agreeance, beginning to make her way to the area they started in.
When the two reentered the room, the chingling floated to the back wall in fear. Jett just sighed in annoyance, "I thought I taught you guys this, she's friendly!"
He grabbed one of Frillish's tentacles to prove this, earning a stinging sensation in response as he recoiled his hand. The mischievous jellyfish giggled at his reaction and the chingling stayed put, not thoroughly convinced by the evidence he presented. Jett glared at Frillish for ruining his attempt for them to have a peaceful night together, who looked away upon seeing him.
Jett grumbled, "So inside the pokeball to sleep or outside?"
He held the pokeball in front of her, which she regarded with curiosity. She then tapped the middle button, surprised as the red beam that initially released her did the opposite. When the ball wiggled in his hand after Frillish returned herself, he threw it back on his belt. Pokemon released themselves in the anime, so if she felt the need to he was sure she'd be doing that.
For now though, he was relieved to see the chingling begin to repopulate themselves around the room after the ghostly presence they felt vanished. His hunger let itself be known with a rumble of his stomach, reminding Jett why he came back to the room in the first place.
He opened the box of food he had brought with him and took a bite, the chicken having none of the warmth it was cooked with hours ago.
'Hours ago…' He thought over his current predicament in amazement, the weight of what was happening hit him. 'I was on Earth only hours ago, and now I'm here. Maybe I did die, but if this is the afterlife, I'll take it!'
Optimistic thoughts about his future in this foreign world began to fill his mind as he grew giddy with excitement for the coming days. Who cares if he's in Paldea or wherever, he can just find a town pretty easily and get help there! All of the routes were around the size of a small town, and he was pretty sure cities like Castelia and Jubilife were even bigger than a few.
He took his sweater off and laid it behind his head, using it as a pillow. He'd debated using it to cover him, but the natural warmth the cave provided was enough for him, and having a pillow was a necessity. The chingling fell quiet, Jett only hearing a few chirps and sparse bells before he drifted into sleep.
Jett woke up with a start, flinging his head around to see his surroundings.
"It wasn't a dream," Jett whispered to himself as he touched his face, the chingling around him happily chirping and floating about upon seeing him awaken. He smiled and held his hand out to one, the two antennae on its head wrapping up his arm. As he scanned the room, he noticed some antennae were longer than others.
'Maybe an age thing.' He thought, grabbing Frillish's pokeball and enlarging it, prepared to throw it out before he stopped himself. He'd rather not disturb the chingling's peaceful morning, so he grabbed his bag and began to leave, taking a second to look at the empty box of food that laid inside a plastic bag. He was meaning to save some for today, but that just meant he had to leave soon, which he planned on doing anyway. 'Just gotta find the exit.'
Water splashed beneath his feet as he exited the cave, the sun just barely peering through the overhead rocks. Seems he'd woken up early for once.
Frillish let out a loud bubbly gurgle as she was released, stretching her five tentacles out in different ways as she lost her footing and fell backwards. She heard near-silent giggles coming from Jett and powered up a water gun, launching it his way as he quickly sidestepped.
"Gotta be quicker than that!" Jett, smug as could be, said as he lept a few feet away and dodged the attack.
Frillish let out a low gurgle and began to build a purple smoke around her. Jett blanched and stood still, ready to try and dodge the attack. The smoke began to seep towards Jett, the eyes he'd seen a day earlier in the attack now numbering in the hundreds as teeth began to appear randomly in the mist and strange, misshapen outlines of heads screeched. The attack suddenly ceased and the mist flowed away as if it were part of the breeze, revealing a sweaty and shaky Jett behind it.
'That was scarier than dying.' He thought, his body still not responding to the commands its brain gave.
He took a deep breath and glared at Frillish, who looked away playfully. "Those are meant for pokemon, not me!" Frillish made jabs with her fist, pointed at Jett, and made a large X with the two arm-like tentacles she had. Jett got the message, she didn't actually attack him with the move, but still, the fear it instilled could be counted as a status effect in and of itself.
He unzipped his bag and opened his journal, underlining night shade and writing "absolutely terrifying, do not use on friends." by it. If he caught pokemon, he didn't need them immediately traumatized by Frillish after a single battle.
Frillish began to splash water on herself, only solidifying Jett's idea that she had water absorb. It's a shot in the dark, but there are only so many abilities out there. He knew that cursed body was one from his torturous fights with Marlon, but none of the others.
He heard steps quickly running across the room, drawing him out of his thoughts as he looked for the source of the noise. A small blur blitzed through what his eyesight showed him as it sprinted toward Frillish. She quickly looked up and saw the source of this noise herself, opting to return to splashing herself instead of dealing with it.
Jett watched cautiously. He knew Frillish was probably strong in the wild, but this wasn't her habitat whatsoever and a lot of enemies could beat her when she had such a limited move pool and had to fight on land.
The figure appeared next to Frillish and prepared to attack her as Jett finally caught sight of it. A small humanoid figure with a grey, smooth-looking body and three brown ridges on top of its head. He instantly knew what this was. A machop, the classic, gen one fighting type that he could never fully evolve as a kid since he didn't have access to the internet to know that they evolved by trading. He reminisced on the machoke that he trained when he played Pokemon Soul Silver as a kid.
Looking back to the scene playing out in front of him, Frillish was still unbothered as the machop made its hand flat and chopped down at Frillish's body, the limb just going through her body as she giggled and splashed water on her attacker. The machop slipped after missing its mark, falling on the ground and looking up at Frillish, certainly confused about why it hadn't landed its attack.
Jett looked on equally confused. He could touch her and get shocked by her and she could use moves like poison sting, but normal and fighting moves still had no effect on them? Physics had been gone at this point, and Jett resolved to fall back on his game knowledge over logic for the rest of his stay in this world.
"She's a ghost type, nothing you do is gonna affect her," Jett spoke matter-of-factly to Machop, who jumped back upon seeing him.
Jett put his hands up in front of him and spoke softly, "Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you, and, as you can see, neither will she."
Machop looked at him warily, but the tension that Jett could see was building up left as Machop dropped its shoulders and leaned back a bit. Now it just looked curious as to who the two new faces in the cave he lived in were.
"It's good to meet you Machop, I'm a trainer and Frillish is my pokemon." Machop looked at him in confusion at his words, Frillish splashing a bit of water over at Jett at the mention of her name. He shook the water off and leaned down in front of the machop. "That means I'm trying to help my pokemon get stronger." Machop grinned at the last word, now interested in the conversation it was having.
'Now for the moment of truth.' Jett thought as he enlarged the empty pokeball that sat on his belt. He leaned in closer, less than a foot from the machop at this point.
"I have an open spot right now if you wanna join me. I can promise you'll get a lot stronger than you are now, you could even be a machamp someday." Machop's eyes gleamed at the thought of being that strong one day and getting there sooner than he would living in the cave. Conflicted, the Machop backed up a foot and held his hands up as high as he could and pointing at himself after.
"You gotta ask your family?" Machop nodded, happy it got its message across. Jett snorted, amused that the time he'd spent playing charades actually came in handy for once. 'Who woulda thunk it?'
Jett gave Machop a warm smile and asked, "You need any help?" Machop wildly nodded and pointed towards the area that he and Frillish avoided yesterday. This worked perfectly for Jett since he was gonna check that area out today anyway, so he just killed two birds with one stone here.
"Alright, let's get a move on then!" He shouted at the two, mainly Frillish, who still hadn't stopped to so much as glance at Jett since entering the small water stream. Jett shrugged to himself and walked towards the unknown area, Machop following right behind and Frillish finally breaking her trance-like state a few seconds later.
The pathway they walked through seemed a bit… less stable than other parts of the cave. The rocks beneath them weren't at all at the same level like other parts of the cave. The ground went up and down randomly and he even saw spots where the ground didn't exist, creating a pitfall for any soul unfortunate to fall down it.
He was almost sure he was in unmarked territory or an area only highly skilled trainers could access at this point. Any novice trainer could misstep and find themselves dead if they fell through that, him included if he wasn't careful from there on.
The ceiling spouted dust every few minutes and he could see small bits of rock fall sometimes. It didn't seem like there would be a cave-in but with a powerful move or any ground move that roof would collapse. He took a mental note not to mess with any ground-type pokemon in the area and kept walking.
The pathway they found themselves on was straight and narrow, unlike the others which had either lots of space to roam around in or curved and winded. No small caverns existed near them, their existence likely a result of the rapid currents the other area of the cave had.
"So Machop, if we're going to work together, we gotta get some information clear." Machop looked up at him and nodded, ready for whatever Jett had to throw at him.
"So, are you a guy or a girl?" Jett first asked, holding his left hand up at guy and right hand up at girl. The machop pointed at his left hand. 'So a guy, I'll write this stuff down later once I actually catch him.'
"Alright, do you know what your ability might be?" Jett asked, mainly as a test to see if pokemon innately knew their abilities, something that would be helpful in the long run if he never got his hands on a pokedex. The puzzled look on Machop's face gave him his answer.
"It's fine if you don't, I was just wondering." Machop shook his head, confirming Jett's thoughts. While it would have helped a lot, he wasn't honestly expecting that much. Abilities seemed like they'd just be part of their life to the holder, so they wouldn't notice anything different. Levitate users wouldn't see themselves as having the ability levitate, just the capability to.
That got Jett thinking more. He questioned if abilities were even real, because how could some pokemon have the ability levitate and others of the same species not? Pokemon like flygon or hydreigon came to mind, their wings giving the natural ability to fly but not having the flying typing.
The chingling he'd seen only confirmed his theories, since they all floated around and none were restricted to the ground. Would this branch out to other pokemon, giving them all the abilities they were listed to have in the games? It made no sense right now, he'd have to find an expert to speak with at some point.
"We can check out moves later, let's focus on finding your family right now," Jett said to Machop, who was watching and listening to him attentively, not in a cautious manner but one of curiosity and aspiration. Machop smacked his fists together and thumped his chest with a light hum, rubbing the spot tenderly after.
The ground they walked on was only getting more and more dangerous as they traveled. Frillish had a lot of trouble navigating some of the area, falling more than a few times and lagging behind the two in front of her, who already slowed their pace.
With a piteous glance, Jett enlarged her pokeball and shook it in front of her. She nodded slightly and gave him a happy gurgle, ready to get herself out of this area. A red beam encased her as she was returned, the two left hastening their pace.
They came into a large room that split off into several directions, each direction revealing a dead end when looking closely except for one that was across from the two as they entered. Machop looked excited upon entering the area, tugging on Jett's leg as he surveyed the room.
"You think they're somewhere in here?" He asked, eliciting a nod from Machop. He sighed under his breath, willing but unhappy about having to check every dead end in the room.
They started from the left and began quickly checking each room that the main cave split off into. The first two were populated by large groups of geodude and graveler, half of which were excited to see a new face in their cave and the other half scraping the ground threateningly. He figured the rock pokemon were territorial from their pokedex entries in the game and let them be, telling Machop to do the same after he attempted to karate chop one.
Upon seeing the exterior of the next cave, Machop's face formed a wide smile and he broke into a sprint, charging into the territory.
'Bingo.' Jett thought to himself.
He walked further into the area and saw the machop he'd been helping out hugging a large Machoke. Its body was a darker shade of grey than that of Machop's skin and veins went up and down its arms, showing Jett just how easily it could squish his head if it wanted to. He wore a large belt and had canine teeth that Jett could see from where he stood, even more evidence of why he shouldn't invoke a machoke's wrath,
But that wasn't even the most powerful pokemon in the area, as Jett soon understood.
A large, four-armed creature pulled Machop into a powerful hug, holding him in the air with all four of his arms. The same grey tone that machop were known for existed on this machamp, along with the belt and pure power that machoke had. Standing a foot taller than the machoke, he could tell that this machamp was the boss around here.
Machop made a strange, yet vaguely human sound with his voice, and the family of ten total pokemon turned their gazes to Jett, who stood defenseless at the entrance to the cave still. A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead as he debated releasing Frillish, ultimately deciding not to in case the family took it as a threat.
The machamp walked up to him at a slow pace, looking over his features and evaluating him. The pokemon slowly walked around Jett, observing every twitch he made and his stature. Jett didn't turn around, hell he didn't move a muscle, for the simple fact that he really didn't want to die again. He felt a finger prod into his shoulder as he slumped a bit.
'Don't expect too much there, hasn't seen too much use in years.' Is what Jett wished he could tell the machamp right now, but he kept the thought in his mind lest he show the machamp in front of him how nervous he was. He wasn't even sure why he was nervous, but he figured this happened to people on Earth when they were around animals that could kill them without any effort. So he considered it pretty normal for him right now.
He felt a pat on the back that made him almost fall flat on his face. He caught his footing and managed to not completely fall, but still stumbled forward as a result. The machamp gave a hearty laugh from behind him and the family of machop and machoke began embracing Machop.
Jett grinned and got the courage to ask, "So I've been accepted?" He turned to finally make eye contact with Machamp, who nodded and pointed at the machop he had brought. His smile grew.
"So I can train him?" He got another nod and a light huff from Machamp. Jett stopped asking questions he knew the answer to at that point, getting the message.
It took a few minutes for the family to say their goodbyes to the youngster. Machop was receiving all kinds of love and encouragement from his family as he hugged them. He began to walk back to Jett and got one more firm handshake from the machamp who allowed him to leave. The machamp then turned to Jett and held his hand out. Honored, Jett took his hand and shook it.
The two left the cave, both giddy with excitement after how well the events with them had gone.
Jett enlarged the empty pokeball that sat on his belt and took a deep breath. Machop watched with excitement, ready for what was about to happen.
"So, you want me to capture you now?" Jett asked, getting straight to the point. Machop bounced up and down before collecting himself and nodding his head. Jett held the pokeball out in front of him and Machop touched the center button, capturing himself in Jett's ball.
Machop disappeared into a red mist, leaving Jett by himself in the cave for the first time. He took the second he had alone to think about everything that had happened to him.
'You know, it started out rough but I think this is the first step towards something beautiful for me!' He thought over the trials the previous day put him through. Death wasn't fun, that's for sure, but ending up in a pokemon world was a better alternative to what he had going for himself in life. A new start, something he'd been needing for years now.
Jett released Machop, the pokemon squirming in discomfort at the feeling of being inside the pokeball and released.
Jett chuckled, "I know, it's probably bad, but soon we'll be out of here!" Machop brightened up at the thought of all the strong pokemon out there in the world, ready to get out of the cave already. Jett debated leaving now, but he still wanted to check the other areas, especially since he hadn't found the exit yet.
That issue was solved as they peered into the cave that originally sat across from the two when they entered the room and saw daylight shining through. They both ran to the exit, ready to see what the outside held for them.
Jett reached the end first since Machop's stride was too small for him to keep up with Jett's running. A dense forest covered in snow filled his vision, the trees almost reaching the entrance to the cave they had been in. He took a step outside and turned around, looking up to see what the cave that they were in exactly was.
A massive mountain was all he could see, going up for what seemed like miles from his perspective. He was sure it didn't go up that far, but it was gigantic. The top was covered by snow and he pretty easily figured out where he was from that alone.
"Mt. Coronet huh, never woulda guessed." He whispered to himself while looking at the massive peak. Nowhere else in the pokemon world would there be only pokemon up to generation four and a snowy mountain but Mt. Coronet.
Sinnoh was a lot better than a lot of his options, but it still had a problem. It was freezing, and the cold was something Jett didn't deal with well, as evident from his death. Machop reached the outside and looked to where Jett was, equally astonished by the view.
"Did they not let you leave?" He asked his Machop, who nodded while staring at the mountain in shock.
Jett walked back inside, gaining the information he needed and not wanting to sit out in the cold for any longer than he had to. He waited at the entrance for a few moments for Machop, who appeared seconds later after breaking his staring contest with the peak.
Although he could leave right now, he still wanted to check out the other rooms there were in that large cave he'd been in, as well as train up Machop a bit. The geodude made for perfect grinding material, and Jett knew they were more than willing to battle.
He reentered the large area he left moments ago, moving to the left again. He debated again to release Frillish but opted against it seeing the jagged floors. The first room he entered held no true interest to him, just another that was full of geodude and graveler wanting to fight or hug.
The next room was much more intriguing to him. The dead end he thought he saw at the back just went down in a staircase fashion, the first sign he'd seen of humanity ever touching this cave. He trekked further in but was stopped in the middle of the staircase when he saw a pokemon lurking at the bottom, awaiting his arrival.
A pinkish human-like pokemon with feet that dwarfed its huge, muscly legs, a thin torso and arms, and a forehead with three dots and a few appendages. He instantly knew this pokemon, as he'd used it many a time for its broken ability in the game. Medicham, a fighting and psychic type pokemon that could probably thrash his team as it stands now.
It stood motionless at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for Jett to walk down. Jett stood still as Machop walked up behind him, catching sight of the medicham and hiding behind Jett's legs.
"So, how am I getting through here? Negotiations? Food? Fighting?" Medicham's head nodded at the last word, something that Jett didn't need to hear right now.
'No, absolutely not. I'm not throwing two untrained pokemon into a battle with an evolved pokemon.' He looked behind him to see Machop looking back up, practically begging him to leave. Jett obliged and nodded his head at Machop, who immediately bolted back up the stairs.
Jett looked at the Medicham who gave him an inquisitive look and squinted its eyes. It was trying to deduce something from his stature, but Jett had no clue what. He figured it was some fighting type thing since the machamp did something similar.
"Listen, I'll be back one day when I'm strong enough to beat you." Medicham looked even more confused at his words but nodded anyway. Jett turned heel and left, unwilling to give the Medicham more information about himself. Some psychics in the game could read minds, and that wasn't something he needed to deal with from a wild pokemon right now.
Machop awaited him at the top of the stairs, shaken from the encounter. Jett laughed under his breath so he didn't hear. If Machop was that scared of a wild psychic pokemon, he'd have a long time before he'd be ready to face one in battle.
The two left the cavern they had been in and went to check the only one remaining. This was also different from the others, holding an enormous population of zubat and golbat he saw flying around. He heard their chitters from the cave, but here they were much louder and almost hurt his eyes with their pitch. Machop stood normally, unaffected by their high pitches.
Jett walked past the area, Machop following suit. It seemed like that cave went back a bit more than the others, but it wasn't worth running the risk of getting bitten by an angry and bloodthirsty golbat to find out.
He walked to the entrance of one of the geodude and graveler-populated caved and released Frillish, who stretched her limbs and shot a light stream of water at Jett.
Jett wiped the water off his face, used to the playful pokemon at this point. Frillish was giggling at the expression his face wore and Machop looked at Frillish strangely, wondering what possessed her to attack her trainer as she did.
Jett got the two's attention, saying, "Alright, you two ready to battle some pokemon?"
Machop jumped in the air and launched a karate chop on the way down, showing Jett he was more than ready. Frillish looked a bit more reserved but gave a light gurgle in acceptance.
"That reminds me. Machop, you mind showing me what moves you know?" Machop nodded enthusiastically, unleashing one of the karate chops Jett had seen a few times now.
He unzipped his bag and grabbed his journal, writing down the attacks that Machop used on a new page he'd started for him.
Next, Machop swept his leg under an invisible target, the limb he chose to use the attack pulsating and growing slightly as he did so, returning to the normal size after he finished. This one puzzled Jett since there were two attacks this could realistically be, low kick or low sweep. He had no way to tell between the two, so he wrote the move as "low move".
He looked back to Machop, who met his gaze with narrowed eyes that made him feel threatened. The eye contact was held for a moment, Jett finding no way to avert the intense, furious gaze his pokemon gave him. He wondered what he'd done wrong before Machop's gaze returned to normal and he happily bounced at completing the move.
'Gotta be leer, now I see how it's actually an effective move.' It didn't seem like something he could realistically use on high-skilled opponents, but it would help a lot with the weaker pokemon he'd surely be fighting for the next few months.
He looked back up and Machop wasn't using a move, but rather pointing to the entrance where the geodude and graveler were.
"Out of moves?" Jett asked, earning a shake of the head from Machop as he held up one finger. "One more, got it, you need a pokemon for it?" Machop nodded enthusiastically, happy that his communication methods were working.
The three walked into the cave, again met by a few geodude as the graveler hung back. Machop pushed against one of the geodude, who took offense to the action and attempted to ram into Machop, who skillfully dodged with a small leap. Machop grinned after seeing the attack, he just couldn't throw the first punch.
Machop suddenly closed his eyes and brought his hands together in a clasp. The geodude started another tackle, but Machop leaped above in, eyes still closed, and launched a karate chop directly on top of its head, sending it to the ground.
'Focus energy?' Jett asked himself. He didn't know what else the move could be, so he wrote it down in his journal. He threw it in his bag and sealed it, turning to his two pokemon after doing so.
"Machop, I want you to keep working on focus energy with these geodude. Frillish, can you provide support for him from the back?" The two nodded and met each other's eyes, prepared for their first battle as a team. Jett figured having Frillish on support would be helpful since wild pokemon didn't exactly have the decency to battle one on one.
Machop kept at this for a few more minutes, his eyes not opening once as he focused all his energy into his attacks and struck the geodude perfectly in their weakest spot, the top of their head. Jett figured it was close to the rocky brain they had, so it did the most damage.
Focus energy seemed the most promising out of Machop's current move pool, it could turn any normal attack into a battle-ending one. The geodude demonstrated this perfectly, most of them going down in a single hit to the powerful karate chops Machop used.
Frillish was in the back hitting the targets that Machop couldn't sense or if he had too many on him to handle, powerful and accurate water guns ripping through their defenses.
The two kept this pace for a few more minutes, ripping through the geodude that lived in the cave-like they were nothing.
A ball rolled past his vision. Jett looked over to where the ball should have rolled but didn't see it there. Frillish did the same, confused as to where her opponent had gone. It rolled across their vision again, gaining speed as he rolled.
'What is that graveler doing?' Jett asked himself, his answer coming a few seconds later.
The graveler, with incredible pace at this point, continued his rolling about the room until he lined himself up perfectly with Machop, whose eyes shot open after sensing the danger coming towards him. Jett could do nothing to stop the graveler as it shot into Machop, sending him flying into the cave's wall.
Frillish blasted the graveler with an extra powerful water gun that caused it to stop rolling. The damage was done though, Machop held its head in pain as it fell, injuries all over his body.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry Machop," Jett spoke sadly, looking over Machop's easily avoidable injuries. He knew he should have just left when he was outside, now look what happened.
He felt Machop's left arm which drew a grimace. The bone was disjointed and obviously out of place, one of the many injuries Machop had to worry about now. His ribs looked destroyed and his head was bleeding, a horrible sign for any living being. Machop groaned lowly, trying to walk but falling to one knee as he did so.
"Hey, just rest, I'll get you some help. This is my fault, I'm sorry." Jett apologized, feeling terrible about his actions as a trainer. He should have known better than to attack a hive of any pokemon with untrained ones, even if they had a severe natural disadvantage. Now, he faced the consequences of his actions.
He had to leave now, there was no stalling anymore. Jett returned Machop sadly, whispering a promise to his pokeball that he'd get him help. Frillish lowly gurgled and extended a tentacle around Jett's arm, wrapping it around just as the chingling had. Instead of a stinging feeling, Jett got a warm feeling in his arm. Frillish's gaze locked his, her eyes caring and sympathetic to the Machop and Jett himself.
Jett shook his head in disgust with his actions. "No Frillish, this isn't okay. I messed up bad and I gotta fix it before that mistake takes his life." His voice broke up at the end of his sentence, unable to bear the thought of the pokemon he'd promised so much dying on his first day of training.
Frillish nodded in agreeance and the two left the cabe they had been in, walking towards the exit.
Nothing had changed in the time they spent back in the cave, except that the sun was directly above the two now. It gave a bit of warmth to Jett in the cold forest, so he'd take what he could get for now.
'There's supposed to be a path, or a sign saying where to go, or something at least!' Jett thought to himself in frustration as he realized he had no clue where to go. Frillish saw his expression and rubbed one of her tentacles on his arm again, trying to soothe him.
It somewhat worked, as Jett's head cleared enough to remember that he really didn't have time to worry about where to go. He just had to go, there was no choice anymore.
The two set off into the dense forest, walking straight forward from the mountain to try and get as far as possible. Nothing of note was seen by the two at first, not even a wild pokemon as they were left completely alone in this dense forest. The dark green leaves of the trees and brown branches covered everything they could see, barely able to spot the peak of the mountain they had just left over them. The ground was covered in a mixture of grass and snow, neither of which Frillish appreciated as she walked her way through the forest.
Jett saw her struggling and spoke up, "Hey, I'm fine now. If you want to go back into your ball for now, I'll be able to make it somewhere by nightfall. You don't have to be worried about pokemon either, we haven't seen a single one yet."
Frillish pondered the idea for a bit, before running one of her tentacles over Jett's head before tapping the button in the middle of her pokeball, recalling herself.
'Man, I got lucky. Frillish and Machop are great, I just gotta find a center so we can continue this journey.' He thought nervously, now alone in the deep woods of this region. He'd seen no sign of civilization, no sign of pokemon being around, nothing. So he kept walking.
As he went further he was sure he was going insane. Not a single human structure or sign of life whatsoever, and he was hours into the walk. He was in complete silence, the usual sound of bugs or birds from Earth being nonexistent here. It was driving him mad, he needed some form of stimulation out here. He thought about releasing Frillish again, but she'd just ask to go back in eventually.
The hours passed as Jett continued to get nowhere and see nothing. The peak he'd once seen was completely out of his view now as he navigated the same trees he'd seen for hours and hours. He was sure he'd seen the same one a few times, but maybe that was the insanity and paranoia speaking. He'd seen a singular snover in those hours that ran away upon hearing him approach, so he wasn't alone. Unfortunately, that was worse than the other option of being completely alone. He also noticed he was getting colder and colder as time went on, the warmth that protected him at first completely gone in the thick forest he was in.
More time passed as the sun began to set over the horizon line that Jett could barely make out from the dense forest surrounding him. The cold was practically unbearable at this point as Jett twitched and shook while he walked. He hadn't stopped once for a break or anything, Machop's life of infinitely more importance than anything else. He didn't need water or food, just his friend's life. There was still no hope for him in sight, he swore the forest got even denser the further he went in. His only hope was finding a cabin in the woods or somehow coming upon one of the towns from Sinnoh.
Nightfall came and stayed for the next while, much to the chagrin of Jett, who was deathly cold at this point. He didn't want to look at his fingers or toes anymore, the frostbite he was sure already started to take its effect only growing stronger when he did. He couldn't see where he was walking anymore, he couldn't even think straight. Where was he going again? What was the point in any of this? Why wasn't he at home?
He silently wept in the night as these thoughts fell over him. He wanted to go home. That's all, he just wanted to be somewhere safe again. Here it was cold and scary, home it was warm and safe. The thoughts of safety plagued his mind as his body continued walking.
He felt a slash from behind him, but he didn't care anymore. The wind had played a few tricks on him on this walk, and he wasn't about to let the world beat him down more. He just needed to keep going, who knows what for at this point, but he knew he needed to keep walking.
Then a slash came from his front. Then another. Then another.
The feeling began to be too prevalent to ignore as Jett was ripped from his thoughts for the first time in hours, coming face to face with a pack of black, furry creatures with three red feathers for a tail and another one sticking out on top of their heads. They hissed at the human in front of them, ready for their meal.
Jett stared at them. He then looked down to his stomach, which was now leaking blood. He felt his back, which was now leaking blood. He looked up at them again, the expression on his face unreadable. All he could think about was moving forward.
Suddenly, one of his balls popped open on their own, and Frillish released herself with a hiss. Jett twitched a bit upon seeing her but didn't move. She looked back at him, tears running down her round face as she looked at his wounds.
She then turned to the pack of sneasel in front of them, releasing a night shade at them. The pack of five was scared by the images, but still clawed through them and rushed the pokemon that had just appeared.
Frillish never stood a chance. The beasts ravaged her, launching night slashes and throat chops into her body and beating it until it was nearly unrecognizable. Jett watched all of this with tears on his face, unable to do anything but watch as his first pokemon was slaughtered in front of him.
The sneasel dragged her body off into the woods after finishing with her. One of the sneasel stayed back and poked and prodded at Jett's body, who was still watching Frillish's body be dragged away in horror. The sneasel considered him no threat and left, having gotten their meal for the night.
Jett just stood and cried, unable to do anything else as he felt himself slowly bleeding out in the cold. He fell to his knees, sobbing and trying his hardest to ignore the pain that was slowly overtaking his body, both from the hours of frostbite and the attacks of the sneasel.
The emotional pain was much worse, his thoughts plagued by ways he could have saved the two and how much he'd messed up to end up where he is now. In his last moments, he thought of being at home again, watching movies with his family like he used to. He sobbed more, knowing that he'd ruined his life in both worlds now.
He thought of the warmth his parents' home gave him and it slowly began to take over his body as he laid in on the grass and snow. This feeling began to overpower his thoughts as he closed his eyes and relished the slight warmth he was getting. His vision faded into nothing as a bell he'd certainly heard before rang in his mind.
'Wait. That ringing was real. And this warmth is real.'
His eyes shot open as a thought reentered his brain. Instead of the snowy woods he'd just died in, he found himself in a cave. His gaze was matched by a pair of black, hollow eyes that floated away in joy upon seeing its gaze matched. Jett's heart pounded in his chest as his head spun around, scanning the room, taking in every detail.
He wasn't dead. And he was back in the cave where he started.
A/N: Man, I feel rusty at writing. This took me weeks to make whereas it used to take me a few days to write this much. Haven't touched this site in years but a few ideas popped into my head recently that I can't ignore. Honestly, I was expecting this chapter to come out to around 8k words but I almost doubled it, so that's pretty cool. Hope anybody that reads this enjoyed the first chapter of this story.