Pokémon Anomalies

Chapter One:

Ziggy, Molly and Crybaby.

Spikemuth.

Harvey's room was an absolute mess. His walls were covered up with various posters of his favourite bands, movies and random pages from magazines. In the corner of his room, was a tiny bin that was overflowing with cans of his favourite energy drink. The blinds were down with only a crack of daylight poking through. Harvey was asleep, his arms and legs spread out on his unmade bed that was busy with various childhood soft toys. Amongst those toys, a real litten was snoozing beside Harvey. This was Angel, the family's pet who right now resembled a fluffy black and red pillow. A record was sitting in the player, it had finished hours ago but Harvey had drifted off half way through the second song. This blissful hideaway was suddenly ruined by an aggressive knock on the door.

Harvey shot awake as Angel opened one eye and immediately fell back to sleep - he didn't care about whatever was about to happen. Sat in his prehistoric Pokémon themed pyjamas with his hair firing off in every direction, Harvey rubbed his eyes as they adjusted to see his Mum standing in the doorway. Cordelia was a short woman with an oversized pair of glasses, she was wearing a tacky liepard Print shirt that was paired with skinny ice blue jeans and a large emerald necklace was dangling from her neck. Joy was the name of the small fletchling that sat on Cordelia's shoulders. It was just one of Cordelia's four Pokémon she kept around the house. The family first met Joy when on holiday to the Isle of Armour the year prior - she is Cordelia's most recent Pokémon.

"You need to get up!" Cordelia snapped, "Melic will be here soon."

She was right. Melic was Harvey's best friend; they had known each other since primary school and had been completely inseparable ever since. Harvey wasn't worried one bit, anyone else he'd make the effort for but him and Melic could never be upset at something so trivial. They both enjoyed an evening snooze. In fact, Harvey wouldn't have been shocked if Melic was currently asleep right now - forgetting all about their plans and he was absolutely fine with that.

"You said she was going to arrive at six. It's six. Get up. Now," Cordelia sternly continued.

"I put on my alarm for five! It didn't go off," Harvey lied. "You need to get me a Rotom Phone."

"You think we can afford that?" Cordelia looked as serious as ever, not realising that Harvey was half-winding her up. She never knew when he was doing that. As she continued glaring at her son and as Harvey kept in his giggles, the doorbell rang. "Blimey, she's here now. Get in the shower."

Cordelia rushed down the stairs like it was a matter of urgency, she swung open the door to see a shy Melic standing there.

"Hi," she grumbled. Beside her was her partner Pokémon, Freddy. Freddy was a farfetch'd, a very confident farfetch'd. To some black fur and bushy, angry looking eyebrows would be intimidating but to most, Freddy was just a small cocky creature with a bit too much faith in the power of his silly leek. "Where's Harvey?"

"Shower," Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Only just woke up."

As she said this, she ushered Melic into the house.

Freddy sat on Melic's lap as she was twiddling her fingers, with her back stiff and shoulder tense, trying her best to figure out what to say. Cordelia was laying on the sofa, completely relaxed. The room was deathly quiet other than the faint sound of the shower from upstairs. Just above the sofa was a sequined branch where a sleeping Joy was perched on top. Beside Joy was Cordelia's partner Pokémon, Sage, who was a rather large yanmega. The whole room was silver and an eyesore to anyone other than Cordelia. She was very passionate about crushed velvet.

"So how are you, then?" Cordelia asked.

"Fine," Melic gulped but she wasn't sure why. She had known Harvey and his family for her entire life, yet she still became awkward. "I got accepted into that apprenticeship. Not sure if Harvey mention,"

"How exciting! So what does that involve?" Cordelia perked up.

"I'll start small, just helping out with local Galar conservation. Cleaning up environments for chewtle and stuff, then hopefully I'll be sent to other regions. That'd be really cool," Melic was going into Pokémon Conservation, she had been into Pokémon since she was a kid. Teachers always told her that she got on with Pokémon far more than she did with people and they weren't wrong. "No GCSEs but a love for Pokémon. Good enough I suppose."

"You'll be amazing at it," smiled Cordelia.

Behind Cordelia, in the kitchen, something was rustling. Cordelia and Melic glanced at each other, baffled. Neither were sure what to do until the sound of a frying pan crashed onto the floor. They both shot up out of their seats and rushed into the kitchen.

The kitchen was being ravaged by a group of three impidimp; one was rummaging through a drawer, throwing out forks and spoons and other random bits and bobs, one was swinging from a dangly saucepan that was hung on the wall and the third was in the open washing machine, running around like a hamster wheel.

"Not again," Cordelia mumbled as she grabbed the broom that was leaning against the corner of the kitchen "Sage! It's the imps again!"

Her trusty yanmega buzzed in, sick of it. Freddy jumped forward with his leek, ready to attack and Cordelia held the broom just above her head.

"Harvey!" Cordelia yelled. "HARVEY!"

The shower was twisted off, a small pause and then the door swung open. Harvey stormed down the stairs and into the kitchen in nothing but his towel. He looked down at the Impidimp still destroying the kitchen.

"What do you want me to do?" Harvey complained, holding up his towel.

Cordelia ignored this, she started sweeping towards the intruders with her broom and Sage was trying to knock the one dangling off the wall. Eventually, it did work and the impidimp fell down, with the saucepan in hand. The yanmega managed to corner that impidimp into the corner. It kept trying to smack Sage out of the sky, but being a yanmega, she was easily able to move out of the way in time.

Melic and Freddy ran over to the washing machine and slammed the door with the pink creature inside. Melic sat in front of the machine, easily keeping it inside. Freddy stood beside his partner, standing like he was on guard of the most important artefact in history. He always took his roles very seriously.

"Grab the one in the drawer," insisted Cordelia. Harvey could already feel his towel starting to slip, he was holding it up with one hand. He hesitantly walked towards the kicking legs from the drawer and gripped as hard as possibly could at the top of his towel as he let go with his other. With his now free-hand, he started pulling at the strange leg that was thrashing about. It was easy, the impidimp came out like it was nothing and he was now dangling upside down in front of Harvey's face as Harvey was holding him by the leg. He was trying to whack Harvey in the face with the wooden spoon he just stole. At least it wasn't a knife.

The chaos had been contained but now they were ones who were stuck.

"How did they even get in?" Harvey exclaimed.

"I forgot to lock the litten door," Cordelia admitted, that's how they would usually get in. They'd only recently installed the locks and it was a success. Angel would only go out and in when there was someone to unlock the door for him. "I put up some of those steel talismans I read about. Clearly hasn't worked."

In Galar, there is an old folktale which states one can ward off tricky fairy Pokémon with steel or poisoned talismans. There is actually some truth to this. However, the one's Cordelia bought were from her co-worker, who was always getting herself involved in multi-level marketing schemes and these talismans were simply built from lead and nickel. Just as Harvey and his Mum were huffing and puffing, trying to not to say anything as they knew it would start an argument, Melic butted in.

"Easy then, we pop them outside and run back in before they can get back."

"I'm not running," Cordelia sighed.

"Can't Sage carry out that one?" Harvey suggested.

As he said this, the giant insect quickly hovered in front of the impidimp, picking it up by its head like a claw machine grabbing a big rubbery ball. The impidimp was kicking and screaming but it couldn't escape the grip.

"I'm gonna need your guys help with this one so I'll wait until you're back!" said Melic, her back still pressed against the washing machine.

"Mum, you're gonna have to at least open the door from me," Harvey was struggling even more to keep grip on the wriggling ankle and the slipping towel.

Cordelia sighed once again, and slid the large, glass back door open. Sage zoomed right out towards the end of the garden, keeping the Pokémon in her grip while Harvey strolled calmly towards her. He was taking absolute care with this towel and couldn't bear the thought of it slipping.

"Don't forget to grab my saucepan and spoon!" Cordelia yelled from the house, as she was locking the tiny door.

Harvey just glanced at the hovering Sage. As he reached the end of the garden, Sage dropped the impidimp she was holding and darted back to the house. It fell on its head as its eyes welled up with tears; it held its head in one hand as it ran away into the bushes making bizarre crying sounds, dragging a saucepan behind it. The other impidimp dropped out of Harvey's hand and followed his accomplice into the bushes, still with the wooden spoon in hand.

Cordelia wasn't happy when Harvey arrived back at the house.

"Great, thanks for getting my stuff," she said sternly.

"My towel would have fallen," Harvey was irritated now, he always was with wet hair and being forced to help with such a silly situation just made him feel so much more irked. He ignored the angry eyes from his mother and headed straight to Melic. "What are we doing? You move out of the way and we grab it?"

"Sure."

While Harvey was readjusting his towel, making sure it doesn't fall when he kneels down, Cordelia marched on forward.

"I'll do it," she said with anger behind her words.

"Are you sure? I'm happy to do it," said Harvey with a much more tightened towel.

Cordelia ignored him and crouched down, she looked Melic dead in the eyes.

"Move."

"Harvey said-"

"Move."

Melic moved out of the way as Cordelia swung upon the washing machine door. She went to grab the Pokémon inside but it slipped away. It jumped onto her face, snatching the emerald necklace from her neck and then he used her head as a step to get onto the kitchen counter. Before anyone could grasp what happened, the impidimp had stumbled along the counter in a zig-zag pattern, and climbed up and out of the window.

Cordelia stood in shock, she couldn't believe what just happened. That necklace was gifted to her by her Nan who raised her. In fact, her fletchling was named after her Nan. She turned around to look at Harvey and Melic, both not really knowing what to say. Impidimp were known for their little pranks, it's what they live off! They suck up all the negative energy that is created by annoying people up through their nostrils and keeps them very well fed, it's just within their nature. Stealing a few easily replaceable items is fine, harmless, commonplace to people all over the Galar region. But this was different. It was malicious. That's what really broke Cordelia's heart. Impidimp were home invader Pokémon, Cordelia had grown up with them always coming in and while it annoyed her, she knew they were just having fun. She didn't know how to view it this time.

"You two need to leave soon, head upstairs, I'll be okay." Cordelia insisted, though the break in her heart was evident.

"We'll get it back. Ziggy's clever, he'll find another way in and then we can demand he goes and retrieves it!" Melic joked.

"Who's Ziggy?" Harvey asked, baffled.

"That's his name," she stated like it was obvious. "I give them all names."

"What are the other one's called?" Cordelia asked.

"Well Ziggy is called Ziggy because he runs in a zig-zag. Then the one you had, Harvey is Molly because of all those gross little moles on his head and the other one is Crybaby. He always cries," Melic explained.

Cordelia headed back into the living room and laid on the sofa.

"Honestly, I'll be alright. You two go enjoy your night out," she smiled.

"Let us know if you need anything, we'll just be in town," Harvey explained as he started to head upstairs.

Melic was in the kitchen, Freddy was still standing at the washing machine absolutely on guard. He hadn't moved an inch in about ten minutes.

"Come on Freddy, silly bugger," she giggled as she followed Harvey. Freddy ran along to catch up with Melic, his feet pitter-pattering against the tile flooring.

Melic was sat cross-legged on Harvey's bed, she was sat scrolling through her fan drinking a can of Woo Loo cocktail. Beside her, was Freddy who was smacking Harvey's teddiursa soft toy with his leek.

"Do I look okay?" Harvey said as he walked into the room, his fluffy brown mullet was now completely dry and soft. He was wearing a baggy dark brown top with two togekiss wings side by side on the front as well as oversized grey jorts which were sprinkled with a few frayed orange stars. His brown, dirty trainers were covering his white socks and he had a ring on each finger; his favourite ring was the skeledirge ring that wrapped his middle left finger. A star necklace dangled around his neck as well as a barbed wire chain. His right ear had a magikarp bone earring swinging from his ear. Harvey took a look of pride in his fashion.

"You trying to pull?" Melic laughed.

Harvey didn't do anything, he just chuckled and sat down on the bed. In the middle of the bed was a pile of cocktail cans, he grabbed one and then noticed Melic's farfetch'd who was still attacking his poor teddiursa toy.

"Freddy!" Harvey said. Freddy stopped and looked at him and Harvey grabbed the toy. He had owned that toy since he was a little boy, you can only just about even tell it was a teddiursa. Its fur was tangled and twisted up but all that really meant to Harvey was that it was loved. "Leave Moon Baby alone."

"Moon Baby?"

"Yeah that's what I named it when I was literally zero, sorry." Harvey retorted.

He placed the teddiursa down and started sipping on the tiny can. Later in the evening, they would be meeting friends at the pub for goodbye drinks. Harvey and their friend Toto were both moving to university in a couple of days. Harvey was going to Circester and Toto to Motostoke. Toto was intelligent, conventionally attractive and talented in literally everything he tried and even worse… he was also a really good person. Him and his snivy met both Melic and Harvey in secondary school and they had been extremely close since. Joining them would also be their friend Rookie, she had just become a teaching assistant but had dreams of becoming a fashion model. She carried a notebook with her wherever she went and would always be jotting something down or doodling something else. Rio was the name of her litten who she took absolutely everywhere but she also had a ponyta named Farrow. Unfortunately, one person couldn't make it. This was Aard, she was currently abroad studying at the University of Zapapico in the Paldea region with her wooper.

It was almost time for them to leave and they both felt quite comfortably tipsy. They were giggling at nothing and talking about people who they hadn't seen since primary school. Harvey's room was even more filled to the brim with cans as they were each just finishing up their last couple of sips.

"Could you also do some eyeliner?" Harvey asked.

"Oh Arceus," Melic looked a bit taken aback. "I can't do it on other people."

"You do it all the time, it'll be fine."

So, Melic downed that final part of her drink and pulled some eyeliner from the bag that was resting beside her. She scooched in front of Harvey, her legs were bent behind her uncomfortably,

"Look left," she said, and Harvey did. It was going well for only a few seconds before Harvey started rapidly blinking and closing his eyes. "You can't close your eye!"

"Well you're poking me."

"I'm not."

This continued for the next few minutes with Harvey blinking and flinching and just being a complete pain to do make-up on. It was going well on Melic's side when she wasn't rubbing a bit off because Harvey jumped and it smudged. She then decided to distract him to see if that would help him settle, little did she know it was the worst question she could have asked.

"When are you getting a Pokémon then," she said quietly, focusing.

"What? Why would I need a Pokémon?"

"Everyone at uni will have one, plus you'd love it."

"Can barely look after myself most of the time. Could you imagine me with a whole other life to take care of. It'd die immediately."

"Arc forbid the idea that it might do you some good?" Melic was making steady progress now, Harvey wasn't moving at all. "You know Toto will bring it up!"

It was time for them to go. Harvey checked himself out in the mirror and then shot downstairs, following Melic and Freddy who were already waiting outside.

"Bye Mum, love you!" he said as he ran past the living room.

"Love you too, be safe!" she called out.

As Harvey made it out to the grimy streets of Spikemuth, he heard massive swoops above him. It was a Flying Taxi; Galar's taxi services primarily work in the sky as small black pods that are carried by local corviknight. The taxi landed as the cabbie called out.

"Where are you going?" he yelled.

"The Cufant's Head! Dart Street!" Melic called back.

The cabbie gestured a thumbs up towards them as Melic and Freddy jumped in first followed by Harvey.

Once in the air, Melic texted their group chat that they were on their way. Freddy sat between them, he was studying the leek that he was just oh so proud of and Harvey sat with his head resting in his hand, staring out the window. You could see a few cities over from that height and even the ocean beside Spikemuth. Not many people know that Spikemuth is technically a beach town.

Riding across the ocean was a gigantamax lapras, it was sailing passengers around the Galar region. It was only a few years ago that gigantamax Pokémon were strictly used in gym battles and they were seen as rampaging beasts but technology in recent years has allowed these massive Pokémon to work with the people of the galar region. Besides Spikemuth, Harvey had thought the rest of the Galar region was beautiful. All he could think on the taxi ride over was how excited he was to see more of his home region.

Though, he never would have guessed that in a small field elsewhere in Galar, reality itself is bubbling.