Chapter 2

Starter

Three months later…

"Ahhh! Can't you just feel that warmth?" a middle age woman asked her feline companion after stepping out on the porch of her new home.

"The first day spent under Alola's sun! It's so warm and bright here!"

A warm wind gently ruffled her long, wavy, brown hair, her lose white top, and long yellow skirt, and she closed her brown eyes and just relaxed.

"Mmm… But that's enough of that. Time to unpack all these boxes." she said, looking back indoors at the numerous boxes left from the move. Then she turned to the feline. "Meowth? Go get Mikey for me, would you?"

The bipedal, crème coloured cat mewed in response and hurried indoors, up the very short stairs and into a bedroom. In the far end, Mikey was sleeping on his bed, and Meowth walked up to him and mewed loudly.

Stretching and yawning, Mikey awoke feeling well rested after a good night's sleep, something that was well needed after all the moving and unpacking, which still wasn't done.

"Mmm, oh yeah, that hit the spot. These last three months were not what I expected when I started up the game." he mused. "Went by really quick, though, so I shouldn't complain. Still, I don't know how I kept my memories from the real world. When we played DnD, we all had our real memories blocked. Hmm, I'm sure Big T or Donnie got an explanation that's all sciency."

Meowth mewed again, getting Mikey's attention.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm on my way." he said, sitting up in bed. "You can go tell mom, I'm on my way."

The Pokémon nodded and walked out of Mikey's bedroom.

"It's nice to have an actual mom." he chuckled bitter sweetly. "We never knew who our real parents were, probably never will either. Master Splinter has been a really good dad, though, not gonna say anything else, but he wasn't a mom."

As he thought about it, and the three months he had spent with his 'mom', he realised that he never once met, or even heard about his 'dad'. For some reason, with very, very few exceptions, as the main character in a Pokémon game, you never had a dad, at least not present, and then only briefly mentioned.

"Oh well, not gonna dwell on that. Not when there's adventure to be had." he said and stood up.

That's when he saw himself in the mirror, and it left him scratching his head. He was still a mutant turtle, but he was significantly younger, not much more than ten, wearing a teal tank-top, white shorts, and red sneakers.

"So I'm a kid, huh? Never noticed that before now. Wonder why. And wonder if master Splinter or Gramps would enjoy this, being young again? Well, that can wait. Now it's time to have some fun."

Taking a good look around his room, he had his bed near the broad windows in the far end of the room. Along the wall, he had a desk with books, and next to that a TV with a Nintendo Switch connected, and there were plenty of Pokémon merchandise all over the room, ranging from toys and stuffed animals to books, magazines, and posters.

All in all, not a bad kid room, and Mikey briefly wondered what games that were on the Switch, but quickly pushed that thought aside.

"Jumping into a video game to play video games inside of it is just a bit too meta for me." he chuckled to himself.

Walking out of his room, he found himself in the combined living and dining room, which was very spacious and had, as one would expect, a dining table with chairs, and a lounge area. At the far end, he saw the front door, and on his far right was the door to his mother's room, while on his left was the door out onto the porch, from which his mother just stepped inside.

"You were out like a light, weren't you?" she said as she gave him a big hug. "You ought to be full of energy by now! And just look!" she pointed at the big windows facing the porch. "It's already daytime here! It's the complete opposite of Kanto. But then we are so far away here in Alola."

'It's the opposite of real world Chicago and New York too.' Mikey thought with a slight smirk.

"So, Mikey. Are you excited to meet some Alolan Pokémon?" his mother asked, clearly very excited herself, and she wasn't the only one.

"Of course!" Mikey said with big grin. This was the whole reason he had 'borrowed' the enchanted die in the first place.

"Meowth!" the cat Pokémon chimed in.

"That's right!" his mother continued. "I want to hurry up and meet some, too! We're living in the Alola region now! The beautiful islands everyone wants to visit! I'm sure the Pokémon living in a place like this must be friendly, right?"

"I sure hope so."

"It might not be a bad idea to go out and see for yourself just how friendly Pokémon here are. Right, Mikey? Go and get ready for a bit of exploring!"

"I thought you'd never ask!" Mikey almost cheered, and hurried back into his room, grabbing a red hat, and a black and red backpack that he saw earlier.

"I wonder how long it will take for me to get my own Pokémon."

Walking back into the living room, all geared up, his mother beamed as she saw him.

"Now you look ready for anything! Oh, but even so, Mikey…" she walked over and placed on hand on his shoulder, looking him in the eyes. "Try to be careful walking through the tall grass."

"I promise, mom. You got my word."

"That's all I needed to hear." she said with a smile. "Still, I have to admit that I'd love to have a new Pokémon around…" she shrugged and then smiled again. "Why don't you head up toward Iki Town and see what you discover in Alola?"

Meowth mewed in agreement and nodded.

Stepping outside for real for the first time, Mikey took a deep breath of the tasty air as the warm rays of the sun licked his green skin. It felt good, real good, and he spent a few minutes just taking in his surroundings.

He and his 'mother' lived in a single floor house, coloured in a few soft shades of blue, and it was situated near the rocky coast of the east most part of the island, with low cliffs lifting the land above the sea. There were palm trees and tropical bushes every where, and he could spot a larger city not too far to the west, probably only twenty minutes away by foot.

To the south, he saw a path that lead down to a large sand covered beach with some large rocks here and there, and, to his surprise, a decently sized house.

"Beach side property. Cool. Lucky dude or dudette." he shrugged, and looked to the north, behind his house.

The island grew taller in that direction, ending in a smaller mountain, and he spotted two paths on either side of his house leading to a small village at the foot of the mountain. The path to the left was smaller but fairly clear, while the one on the right was larger but rugged, with lots of tall grass.

"This place is awesome! I love it here!" he cheered, throwing his fists into the air. "Sure, the farmhouse and the islands in Lake Michigan ain't nothing to sneeze at, but they've got nothing on this tropical paradise! Maybe I'll just boot up the game like this whenever I want a vacation, but that's for later. Right now, I got an adventure to have! And I think… I'll be taking the path on the left of the house, up to that village."

With a spring in his step, he started walking up the uphill path, stopping every now and then to just take in the beautiful views he came a cross. One in particular, once he had gained some height, was of a gorgeous bay on the east side, far below the edge of the island, with a white beach and encircled by a reef.

He had no idea of how to get there, but he bet it would be a perfect little getaway for a couple of lovers. Maybe if he could convince Kate to join him in the game, and figure out how to properly get her in there as well, they could spend some time on that beach, just the two of them.

At what he guessed was roughly the half way point between his house and the village, he came across a patch of tall grass, covering the width of the path and several metres ahead.

He heard his 'mother's' warning about tall grass, but shrugged.

The Pokémon here were said to be friendly, and he was a trained ninja, so what danger was he really in? Besides, it was a kid's game. No one dies or gets seriously hurt in Pokémon.

That's when he heard the rustling of the grass, and something darted out from it, hissing angrily at him as it attacked.

"Yaaaahhhn!" it shrieked, and Mikey jumped back and yelped in shock.

The creature in question was a mammal, about a foot long, with a low built body similar to that of a weasel or ferret, covered in brown fur with a thick line of yellow fur running from its forehead all the way to the tip of its flat tail, and a similar line on its underside, going from its chin to the end of the tail. On each of its four short legs were three small black claws, and it had small round ears on the sides of its head and a round pink nose. It was actually pretty cute, if one ignored the large mouth filled with very large, very pointy, and probably very sharp, teeth that it constantly bared at Mikey.

"Um… hey there, little guy. Can I, you know, just pass through here?" Mikey asked nervously.

The Pokémon snarled and hissed, its fur bristling as it lowered itself, readying for to attack the intruder.

Mikey gulped, despite his confidence mere seconds earlier, and the small size of the Pokémon in front of him, the turtle felt rather small himself at that moment.

Before the Pokémon could attack him, however, a different Pokémon dashed in between them and faced the first one, hissing right back at it.

It was a small cat, about the same size as the weasel like Pokémon. It had black fur with two red stripes on each leg, two red vertical stripes and one horizontal on its forehead, and a red muzzle with a large, red tuft of fur on each of its cheeks. The eyes were red with yellow sclerea, and there was a small tuft of fur at the end of the tail and the top of its head.

Face with this new opponent, the first Pokémon stood down and quickly retreated into the tall grass.

"Phew! Thanks for saving my bacon, little buddy." Mikey said, breathing a sigh of relief for the rescue.

The cat turned around and glared hard at the turtle, but it was what came next that really shocked Mikey.

"I only saved you so that I can kick you butt for this!" the cat yelled in a voice that sounded very familiar.

"What?! Jun!?"

"Who the *bleep* else?!" Jun said, only to stop his outburst and blink in confusion. "What was that?! What the *bleep* was that?! And there it was again! It was like if… No… *Bleep*! Are you serious?! Am I *bleep*-ing censored?!"

"Sounds like it to me." said Mikey, which found it just as strange, but many times more fun than Jun.

"*Bleep*! *Bleep*! *Bleep*! *Bleep*! *Bleep*! *Bleep*! *Bleep*! *Bleep*! *Bleep*!"

"I didn't know you knew morse code." Mikey laughed.

"You think this is funny?!" Jun snapped.

"Couldn't you tell?" Mikey asked, trying and failing to hold back his laughter.

"Well I don't! I don't even know what happened, but I'm sure that you're behind it! So stop laughing and turn me back to normal!" Jun yelled, brandishing his claws.

"Alright, alright. I'll fix it. I just don't understand how you got in. I didn't think anyone else could be join me in the game."

"I didn't join! I was kidnapped!" Jun objected.

"Okay, I get the point. Don't cough up a hairball, or something. I'll fix this." Mikey cleared his throat, and spoke in a clear and loud voice. "Save and quit."

Seconds ticked by, but nothing happened.

"Um… save and quit? Game? I said and quit. Um, Pokémon: Ultra Sun, save and quit. Hello…?"

"Please tell me you've done this before…"

"Actually… no, not really. It seems like… yeah, I think we're stuck until I clear the game."

"Well, *bleep*."

And Mikey's off on his adventure. Sure, he hasn't gotten very far yet, but he has his starter Pokémon. (I refuse to call them 'first partner Pokémon', that just rubs me the wrong way.)
But something clearly isn't quite right, as Jun has very involuntarily joined the game. Is he the only one, or are there more, and if so, where, and what, are they?

Final note, Jun's cursing being censored is a little joke that I took from The Amazing Digital Circus. Very good, if special, show. #notsponsored.