Authors note: PE - Poké-Energy

Chapter 2: To Be Young Again

I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling, on a bed that was far too big.

Frowning, I tried to sit up, but my body had other plans. Pain coursed through my chest like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my ribs, and my head throbbed like… I laid back down with a groan.

It was too painful to think.

As if on queue the door opened. I opened my eyes to see a young pink-haired woman in a nurse uniform walk in. Even in my disoriented state, I noted that the uniform showed a bit more leg than I would've expected in a professional setting.

I tried to shake the thoughts out of my head, but aborted the effort as pain shot through my head. I closed my eyes and gently laid my head back down. Staying still was good. Movement was bad.

"It's good to see you awake." The nurse said. "We almost lost you when you first came in. How do you feel?"

"I feel-" I started, before realising my voice had come out like a squeak. I gave a cough, then tried again.

"I feel like I got run over by a truck." My voice was still a bit weird. "Could I have some water?"

I heard the nurse murmur something, and I heard a set of footsteps walk away. I hadn't seen her partner walk in. I opened my eyes to check to see a pink blur just as it went around the doorway. I looked back at the nurse, who was somewhat familiar even though I couldn't quite place her.

"She will be right back with some water." she assured me.

"Thank you." I replied. Once again my voice was an oddly high pitch, but then again I did feel really thirsty. Perhaps some water would help.

"So David, what is the last thing you remember?"

I frowned at the incorrect name, but it was a common mistake so I ignored it. Instead I tried to think of a response to the question, but my mind was unusually sluggish.

"I was driving to the airport with my wife when a…" I bolted upright despite the pain it caused. "Where's Elizabeth!"

The nurse looked at me worriedly.

"You are far too young to be able to drive, let alone have a wife… I'll have Chansey check you over again, you just relax here." She shot me a smile that was likely meant to reassure me and briskly left the room.

Too young? I know being married at 24 was a bit young for marriage, but it's more than old enough to drive? I finally looked around the room, then the large bed, and then myself.

The bed wasn't too big, I was just too small.

It was with that realisation that the memories started flooding in. I wasn't just Daniel Smith, I was also David Lawson of the Pokémon World. For some reason I felt more like I was Daniel Smith than David Lawson, as if my life as the footballer had happened more recently, even though I was in the child's body now.

I was just starting to piece things together when the door opened, and a Chansey followed by Nurse Joy all but ran in.

The Chansey was by my side in a moment and impatiently passed me a cup of water to drink, before touching her stubby arm to my head. A moment later a foreign sensation unlike anything I'd ever felt before flowed into me, my headache steadily receded until it was all but gone.

"Chansey." She said tiredly as she removed her arm, and I could tell the healing had taken a lot out of her.

"How do you feel now?" Nurse Joy asked cautiously.

"My head feels so much better." I replied, putting my mouth on autopilot while I thought of what was going on. "Why didn't you do that earlier?"

"Chansey needs to remain in a good condition for emergencies, so if the patient's condition isn't critical, then we let them heal naturally with a few berries and some medicine. If Chansey had been tired when you came in a few days ago, then likely you wouldn't be here with us, given your condition at that time."

As she replied to me, Chansey rifled through the nurses pockets and then quickly started munching on said berries, already setting to work replenishing her energy stores.

"I'm going to repeat the question I asked earlier." Joy continued. "What is the last thing you remember?"

I searched my memories. Even if they felt like they happened a lifetime ago, they were still there.

"I don't know." I replied. "I remember something happened to Mum… and then I had to live in the orphanage. It was supposed to be temporary…"

As the memories became clear, I felt my heart clench.

"She died… no went missing. But eventually there was a funeral anyway"

Joy had stopped writing.

"So I tried to find her." I finished.

I was crying before I even realised. I felt a bit awkward to be honest, and tried to control myself. I could hardly remember her, and instead it was more that my body was responding instinctively. However, as I looked at earlier memories, I saw she was a kind and loving mother to David, just like mine was to me.

It felt like a bomb went off in my head as I realised that, like David, I had also lost my Mum too.

Suddenly sobs wracked my body as I realised I would never see my Mum again, and even worse at how she would feel when she received the news. We were killed by a shooting star. A FUCKING SHOOTING STAR?!

As if that ever happens? I've heard of getting killed by lightning, but never heard of anyone actually dying from a shooting star except the fucking dinosaurs, but that had apparently been a rock the size of Wales, while the one that hit us was like getting sniped from a hundred lightyears away. Could I go back? Was that possible? This world had legendary Pokémon right? Surely there was a way to get back, there had to be!

As I wiped tears from my eyes I looked at my small hands, and realised that even if I could go back, my old life was gone, along with my old body.

I thought about my mates that I'd played with at various clubs, the kids I'd coached and was looking forward to seeing grow, and knew that even if I saw them again, they would never see Daniel again.

When I wiped the last of my tears from my eyes, I saw Joy waiting for me

"Do you know where we are?" She asked gently.

"Cerulean Pokécenter." I replied numbly

"Cerulean Hospital. You aren't a Pokémon as far as I can tell." She said, trying to inject a bit of humour, "What is your name?"

"David Jones, but I want to change that to David Lawson."

She paused, and wrote some more notes.

"Why is that?" She eventually asked.

"Well, Dad's name is Emerick Jones, but I like Mum, Rosanne Lawson, more." I replied simply.

"I can't change that right now, but should have no issue starting the process. It makes sense, seeing the man hasn't even shown his face despite the circumstances..." She said more to herself than me as she wrote more notes.

"Anyway, back on topic. How old are you?"

This was actually the most difficult question to be honest. It was ever changing, and the memories of my life as Daniel blended in with my memories as David. I knew my Birthday on the 29th of June was the same in both lives. However, even as my mind struggled for the answer my mouth acted on instinct.

"Eleven, nearly Twelve."

Ah, I was truly in a child's body.

"That's correct, but you won't be 12 for another few months..."

For a moment the only sound is the scratching of her pen, and Chancy's munching of berries. The pen stopped moving, and Joy looked back at me.

"Now, I know you said you remember some of it, but do you have any idea what happened after you went into the caves underneath Mount Moon?"

"No." I replied honestly.

"So you don't remember straying well away from the cleared path recommended for inexperienced Pokémon trainers?" She asked rhetorically with a raised eyebrow, before sighing. "You were found unconscious and poisoned in Mount Moon by a Pokémon Trainer who was searching for mushrooms. A friendly wild Paras led her to your body, which had been poisoned by a Zubat's bite... Does that jog your memory at all?"

"No… sorry." I said lamely. I didn't remember that, which was likely for the best to be honest.

She looked hard at me, then sighed.

"I guess I should give you a bit more information, to make sure you don't do something so foolish again. After your mother went missing nine weeks ago while finding geological samples for Bill's research, search parties were sent out, high priority as she was privy to some knowledge critical for the Indigo League's national security. They saw evidence of her Pokémon fighting, namely some… whiskers of your mother's Raticate, as well as some spores and leaves of her Bellossom. The investigation isn't concluded yet, but there might be criminal syndicate activity involved. You were never going to find anything but trouble by going down there."

She gave me a stern look, but it softened before continuing.

"...when the Trainer found you, she quickly used an antidote and both her potions, but your condition kept worsening as she couldn't make you properly ingest them fully. By the time you were brought back here, your heart had stopped, and you needed to be resuscitated. It's hard to confirm whether your memory loss is due to Mental or Physical trauma, but you should regain your memories in time."

I nodded numbly, with too much to process. Even David hadn't known about there being anything suspicious about his mothers disappearance. Did that mean it was Team Rocket? Or something else?

Over the next half hour I was made familiar with my current situation.

I was to go back to the orphanage. It had originally been set up for War Orphans as a consequence of the Kanto-Johto War. Most of those children had aged out, as it had been over a decade since the conflict, so there was more than enough space for me. I had been excused from classes, but they were incredibly important and the sooner I could get back to school the better. Some classmates had brought in my homework, but I ignored it for now.

After she had finished explaining my situation to me, and confirmed that I had no other questions, she left. For the first time since waking up in this world, I finally had some space to take a few deep breaths and consider my situation.

Elizabeth should be here with me, if wishing upon a shooting star counted for a damn thing. And thus, my goals were clear. I would find Elizabeth, train a kickass Pokémon team, and convince a Legendary to send us back. Even though Mum would have a pretty large Life Insurance payout for her, I knew that she wouldn't trade all the money in the world for me, just as I wouldn't trade anything for her.

I didn't know how to find Elizabeth, but I could work on building a team, and that would help me on my main goal. What Pokémon would I want on my team?

I gave a yawn and relaxed my head on the pillow as I considered. I knew a strong team would help me with my goal, so something like a Dratini would be good to start with, as it would eventually become a Dragonite. An Eevee would also be good, as Umbreon or Umbreon were strong, and a Jolteon would be cool… Perhaps also a Larvitar…

- break -

6 months later

"So, have you decided what Pokémon you are going to pick after your starter?" Marcus asked me as we sat down for lunch.

I had narrowed down the choices for my first Pokémon, and so I showed him the page of my notebook that displayed my current ranking.

1. Oddish.

2. Rattata

3. Zubat

4. Paras

5. Spearow

"Huh, where's your Dratini? Don't you want a Dragonite anymore? And your Eevee evolutions? I thought you appreciated the adaptability they would give you as you filled your team?"

I rolled my eyes. "Give it a break man, it hasn't been funny since the millionth time you said it."

"Take it as a compliment." He insisted. "If I actually thought you were still that stupid, then I would pity you too much to tease you."

"Ah, so it's because you respect me that you treat me like crap? No wonder you can count your friends on one hand."

"Hey, that's not true!" Marcus said indignantly.

At his outburst I raised my hand placatingly, for once concerned that I had managed to actually offend the prickly kid.

"Half a hand! My friendship is too valuable to be spread so thinly!" He said with some sort of pride.

What was I worried about again?

He shot me a smirk as if he knew what I was thinking, the cocky brat, before continuing.

"Honestly, these are solid choices, especially when you consider the finances involved for raising your first two picks. We orphans can't be too picky with our early picks, but you should be able to find one of those to follow you. If your early Pokémon impress, then you might manage to be a bit more ambitious with some of your later picks."

It was true. I would have honestly preferred to get some of those rare Pokémon on my original list, but I had to be pragmatic on some level. However, that wasn't the only deciding factor.

There was also the issue of meta information. Although there had been many instances of reality differing from the anime and games, I knew for a fact that Professor Oak existed, that he specialised in 'the bonds between people and Pokémon', and there were already articles about his Grandson called Gary.

"What do you think Gary will start with?"

While Marcus thought of an answer, I continued to think about the story from my world. Gary was a few years younger than us, but he was already following in the footsteps former Champion Professor Oak, famously being the youngest person, at only eight years old, to have a perfect score on the youngster exam, showing he had the brains and work ethic to go along with his cockiness from the anime.

He would still have to wait until he was 10 to go on his journey, as that was the minimum age to become a trainer, and while going that young was frowned upon, passing with a perfect score so early meant that any objections wouldn't hold much weight.

Despite all the fame that Gary had, there was almost no reference to Ash, though Gary did say in one of his interviews: "While I enjoy learning about the theoretical of his Gramp's research, I have a friend that shows I have a room for improvement on the practical aspects of it." While the interviews thought it was just Gary being humble for once, as there had been no mention of any other talented kids in Pallet town around his age before or since, as someone who knew about Ash I had a few suspicions.

There were aspects in the world that were very different to the anime. For example, bug Pokémon bred incredibly quickly and were an important part of the food chain, with 98% of caterpie getting eaten or killed before becoming a Butterfree for example, with their biggest predators being Pidgeys and Spearows, though even a Ratatta might have one as a snack if it found an opportunity.

Bug-Type Pokémon, along with Grass-Type Pokémon, were mainly responsible for turning the mundane elements of this world, such as leaves and sunlight, into the type energy that Pokémon used to fight. This energy seemingly disobeyed the 1st Law of Thermodynamics - 'Energy cannot be created or destroyed', as when a caterpie ate leaves the weight of its body, its weight didn't double, and once it reached maturity its size barely increased no matter how much it ate.

"I don't know." Marcus said, cutting through my thoughts. "Oak seems like one of the good guys that is trying to reduce the gap between the people that have it easy, and the people that don't. I don't think Gary will get an eevee, because that will just piss people off and make him look privileged, so instead he will probably get one of the traditional Kanto starters, because while they get really strong, they are also very traditional... I have no idea which one of the three it will be though."

This was why I liked Marcus. A lot of the time I knew the end result, such as Gary probably getting a Squirtle, I didn't know the context of that decision in this world. Marcus, while a bit jaded, was one of the most insightful kids I had met, in this world or the old one. Next spring we were both planning to set out on our Journey, as even though Marcus was a year older than me, he had waited an extra year to try to earn a sponsorship from a gym or a professor, and save some money working odd jobs after school in the meantime. He joked that's why he had befriended me, because even though his academics had been good last year, when they had asked a friend to act as a reference, he had struggled to think of one.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone who I'm pretty sure would have been happy to act as his reference last year, if only he hadn't been too dense to notice.

"Hi Airhead! Hi Bastard!" Ivy said cheerfully.

"Hi Ivy." I replied, used to her antics. Alright, perhaps Marcus had an excuse other than being dense.

"That's no way to greet someone." He scoffed. "Besides, you are a Bastard too!"

"True…" She replied thoughtfully, before smiling. "But the name doesn't suit me as well as it suits you, you know?"

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Marcus asked nobody in particular.

"Any changes in what Pokémon you want to use as a starter?" I asked her, shifting the conversation towards something productive.

"I'm still happy with getting a Bellsprout for now, but I'm still waiting for the conclusion of your research with Bill before making any final decisions." She replied nonchalantly, sitting squeezing in between us and forcing us to make room on the bench.

Marcus let out a 'tsk' as he shuffled over, then turned to me, pointedly ignoring Ivy.. "By the way, how is your research with Bill going anyway?" Ivy threw a light elbow at Marcus, which he blocked with practised ease as he continued talking, "I haven't been out there since you begged me to help you collect enough leaves to feed the bug Pokémon. A few of those Weedle were pretty beefy before you finally let them pupate"

"I'm not really helping him with his research, he just gets me to do the grunt work that he is too lazy to do, and gives me recent research to summarise if he thinks it might be worthwhile to know." At his eye-roll, I smiled. "However, if you are asking about my own research, then I'm glad you asked, because they have nearly all finished evolving."

- break -

After I had finally received the all clear to leave the Hospital, I saw that there had been some research notes that David had brought to the orphanage. He had never read them before we merged, but while David's motive for taking it had been a mixture of grief and spite, as he had still blamed Bill, I (or should it be we?) knew now that there were criminals involved with her accident, so I didn't hold any bad blood.

It was just terrible timing and luck more than anything else.

Anyway, I had given them a quick perusal, having read hundreds of studies about the benefits of different supplements, exercise regimes, random things for university, how to motivate and teach children in a positive manner to help with my coaching, knee rehabilitation routines and how they compared to surgical outcomes, and meditation for managing performance anxiety (in sport!), but even with my mental age I still failed to understand about 70% of it. It was like I was discovering electricity for the first time, but there were a dozen different types and they all had different rules which they obeyed, and they also reacted to the users' will.

So basically, while Bill studied 'PokeScience', 'PokeScience' was basically magic.

After a few weeks, when I realised he was probably never going to ask for it back, I had brought him back his research, and while he was surprised to see me, I had taken the opportunity to ask about a few things I was interested in after reading the papers, namely how PE (Pokémon Energy) Density worked, as it seemed to be the only thing I had read that could explain why Ash's pikachu was as strong as it was in the story.

After my question he gave me a quick explanation, which was basically could be reduced to "It varies from Pokémon to Pokémon", which wasn't all that helpful. After he gave me that mostly useless piece of information, I had mentioned how the thing that had disappointed me most when I was trying to read the studies was the poor quality in which they were carried out. The speculative studies that discussed 'PokeScience' were fine, since I didn't understand most of it anyway and they were mostly theoretical, but many of the trials to determine the efficacy of different supplements and medications were completely flawed. There were constantly conflicts of interest, with DevonCorp, SilphCo and other groups openly advertising their products, no transparency with how Pokémon were selected, they might have always been monsters of their species for all we knew, no mention on other environmental factors outside their treatment, no follow-ups to see long-term effects, and of course nearly all of the ingredients of the different supplements were completely hidden as they were often proprietary formulas, meaning the whole study was basically contributing nothing to society. They didn't even have control groups! It was a complete mess to be honest.

The Scientist inside of me was disgusted. Yes, I know Sports Scientist sounds less impressive.

I was a real scientist, ok! I had the degree to prove it!

Anyway, Bill had looked at me critically after my rant, then asked how my reading, writing and mathematics were. "Good!" I'd answered, before mentally adding a disclaimer 'for a 12 year old, but probably not for a university graduate'.

He noted I have a better scientific mind than most adults, which I felt couldn't be true, until I remembered that most people barely finished Primary School, and even spent most of that learning about Pokémon and surviving during their journey, rather than building an academic foundation. He followed that up with I would have to get some Psychic Pokémon if I truly wanted to understand PokeScience, because baseline humans would struggle to understand it, but that it could wait until later in, or after, my journey.

"For now," He'd said, "I would be happy to help develop your curiosity as a scientist. If you would like to work with me, of course?"

I'd leapt at the opportunity. This was still a few years before he developed the Pokémon Storage System, which I assumed would still be invented and wasn't just a convenient game mechanic, so he wasn't as rich or famous as he would one day become.

In return for me helping him around the lab, summarising articles, and acting as a volunteer for some of his experiments, he would contribute some help towards a study of my own choosing.

As funding was limited, I discussed what I wanted to measure with him, which was isolating the impact of delayed evolution on the Long-Term strength of a Pokémon post evolution.

Due to financial constraints, the Pokémon selected were 24 Caterpie, 12 Weedle (specifically selected for good nature), and 8 oddish. The Caterpie and Weedle were easy to bribe recruit for the study, as even though they couldn't really understand human speech the main thing that they wanted was simply food and safety, not wanting to be one of the 98%

On the other hand, the Oddish drove a harder bargain, especially because they were much older than the bug Pokémon. We couldn't recruit the extremely young (and naive) Oddish, because then the experiment would go for too long, so instead we found Oddish that were already relatively close to evolution to begin with, but we would have to feed them, which was our only real business expense.

Recruiting the Oddish had reminded me of courting back in my old life. It was one of the only tasks where I not only needed to borrow one of Bill's Pokémon, in this case a Jolteon, but Bill himself, as they didn't respect me or trust me enough to come with me, so it took Bill and his Jolteon to convince them we would only be borrowing them for a while, and they could still do whatever they wanted as long as they didn't leave the area.

For all the Pokémon, we recorded their physical characteristics, such as height and weight, as well as the power of various moves. In addition, for the Caterpie in particular we tested their problem solving to see if and how much it would affect the development of psychic powers later when they became Butterfree. These tests included their ability to understand human speech and recognise patterns, with success being rewarded by extra food.

It was noted that Caterpie that scored high in understanding human speech also scored high in Pattern Recognition, and vice-versa.

We also pair-matched the Oddish of similar weight and power, and separated them evenly so both groups of four were equally balanced.

Then we gave half of the Pokémon everstones that were strapped to them using string from string-shot that was created in-house.

It all went well at the start, but I quickly remembered something I had forgotten about caterpillars on earth, which was that they eat many times their body weight each day. That was fine when they were just a few hundred grams, but their weight when they were ready to evolve was nearly 3kg.

When they were approaching that weight, but none had evolved, I begged Marcus to help me gather more leaves, as we stripped every leaf we could reach bare to keep their voracious appetites sated.

During this time it felt like I got no rest. Before School Marcus and I would use baskets to collect as many leaves as we could on our way to Bill's, feed the hungry caterpillars, go to school, then spend most of the afternoon doing the same. Bill let me take a break from helping him out of the office, and I appreciated his consideration.

Eventually, half of the bugs had pupated, which gave us a bit of respite, and a few of the Oddish started evolving in Gloom. It was at that moment I wished I'd picked a different Pokémon, because they absolutely stank. We quickly tested the strength of their attacks, and then let them free, insisted they leave really, but told them if they came back in a few months when we let the rest of the Oddish evolve then we would be interested in comparing their strength, and give them a few berries as a reward as well. As Gloom they developed an appetite for bugs, and considered bug Pokemon a particularly nutritious snack.

It was around this time that the bugs reached their final evolution. They were much more intelligent afterwards, and seemed to have no trouble understanding speech. Perhaps because of the good natured Weedle we selected, only a few of the Beedrill refused to stay, and even they let us measure their strength before they went.

It was here that we let nearly all the other bug Pokémon evolve. I say nearly, because there was a specific caterpie that I had overfed because I got distracted. Multiple times. I didn't really notice until Marcus got onto my case for favouritism, preaching my own rants academic integrity back at me. However, I didn't think it was a coincidence that it was the Caterpie that tested highest on the intelligence tests we administered when we first captured them. It was at this time I also kept the everstone on Weedle I knew to be Marcus' favourite.

Indeed, I was far from the incorruptible researcher I had initially envisioned myself as.

The main reason I did so was that I had been calculating the amount these bug Pokémon ate. Each of them ate, when in their first evolution, about 4x their body weight per day. Despite continuing to eat that much, their weight started to plateau as they reached 3kg, which begged the question… Where was all that extra energy going? The Pokémon world, with things like sudden weight gain due to evolution, didn't believe in the equivalence of mass and energy, and of course, it was possible that Conservation of Energy didn't apply to this world, but if it did, then it was likely my hypothesis might be proven that there was a logical explanation - increased Poké Energy Density.

Until they reached 2kg, they had been doubling their weight every 3 days. However, after reaching 3kg, the Everstoned bug Pokémon had only increased their weight by only ~70% in the last 4 weeks. They had eaten at least 8 times as much as After evolving, the bug Pokémon ate less than their first forms did, though that would change drastically if they used abilities and depleted their energy reserves. In fact, some I had noticed was that any pokemon, if forced to fight, quickly worked up an appetite. The one time Jolteon had to scare away some Spearow that were particularly peckish, I noticed later the usually reserved Pokémon snuck away with some of the food we were using to bribe the Oddish, which I pretended not to notice.

As the weeks passed I had kept feeding the two remaining bugs and the remaining 4 Oddish, with Marcus occasionally coming over to so we could battle our bugs that we hardly pretended were research subjects anymore, and after a month we were excited to finally see how they evolved, and how they compared to the earlier batch… except they didn't evolve.

Week after week the Pokémon happily remained in their pods, and they were as snug as a bug in a rug as the weather cooled, even as the last vestiges of Summer vanished and we instead started seeing hints of the winter to come, none of them had evolved… until I received a call from Bill this morning.