Summary:Settling into a new reality...

Chapter 2: A New Life

Professor Samuel Oak (Three Days Post Arrival)

His new guest was, just possibly, the single oddest thing he'd ever run into. For a Professor and former Champion that regularly studied the oddest of mysteries that were Pokemon, that was saying something. Let alone when you considered that Sam was someone who had personally experienced time travel via Legendary-Pokemon-Express. Given a long life full of such colorful events, not to mention the many mysteries he'd had a hand in investigating, virtually anyone would acknowledge that Professor Oak struggling to wrap his mind around something was a big deal.

Which didn't change the fact that such was exactly the case with his new guest.

'2B' as the young woman called herself, had spilled everything about her life with barely any prompting, shortly after she'd first awakened from her unexpected faint. If he hadn't been familiar with the idea of other dimensions from reading the studies on Ultra Beasts from Alola, he'd have been worried the woman was completely insane. As it was, he'd quietly tested her with a crude device of his own design…and discovered that the trans dimensional energy radiating off of her put any Ultra Beast wormhole to shame! And that in pure spite of the fact that it had already been fading!

With that little detail confirmed, her fantastic and disturbing tale of a world without pokemon. A world, indeed, where even humanity had long gone extinct? Well, it became a lot more believable. Even if there were some problems with it. Such as the fact that the young woman remembered dying…and that she wasn't an Android. His few quick tests to confirm his suspicions that she was now fully human had, unfortunately, had the unexpected result of sending her into a ever-so-slightly catatonic state for a few hours! He was sure that wasn't worrying…probably. Daisy had handled it. She he was sure it would be fine...

Of course, as weird as it was to say, the mysteries didn't end with her change to being human. Human she might now be, but she wasn't exactly a garden variety specimen. She was Aura Active, for one thing, possessing significant reserves of aura that she could summon up as easily as most pokemon. She didn't really know how to use it once she'd summoned it, but he had little doubt that would come in time. Assuming she wanted to learn.

Just to make weird weirder, she also still possessed a degree of her inhuman strength. Though she claimed that she was much weaker than before, she was still strong enough to lift one of his Tauros herd, without using her aura. All in all, she had the potential to be a vary dangerous young woman. Which, unfortunately, was a serious problem, as she also had a distinct issue saying 'no' to basically anything a 'human' wanted. It wasn't programmed into her anymore, according to his Alakazam. But it was a train societal reflex from her old world that could become a serious issue. It would make it entirely too easy for someone with few scruples to abuse the young woman for her power…or for even worse reasons, given her attractiveness.

Thankfully, Samuel Oak was no stranger to odd situations, and he was getting old enough he could always use some more help anyway. So now all he had to do was convince the young woman to stick around for a while, to help him out with the pokemon. With enough time, he was sure they could help her over the worst of the culture shock…and then she could go on a Journey to finish acclimating to her new reality! Why, with her strength and aura, she could go to all sorts of places and learn all sorts of things about pokemon that had never been discovered before!

Yes, he was certain it would work out nicely! He was just grateful that it wasn't unusual these days for young people to wait until sixteen to go on their Journey, instead of doing it at fourteen like used to happen. Really, that change had been a long time in coming. The last war was a fading memory now, and they didn't need to push as hard to replenish the number of trainers available to keep the pokemon back from cities and towns.

Most of the kids he'd mentored had never properly understood why the age had been lowered for the last two generations, and he was honestly grateful for that. While he might champion the idea of pokemon and man working together, he was no fool. Humanity had always been on the backfoot, only able to keep the wild pokemon that would happily eat them away by developing bonds with partners of their own.

With the number of veteran trainers and powerful pokemon that had died in the last round of wars, the world had been left in a far more precarious position than the younger generations realized. During the worst years, in the most heavily weakened regions, a few towns had been outright lost as the low number of trainers failed to keep the stronger wild pokemon from overrunning human civilization.

Thankfully, things had largely stabilized. Though there were large stretches of wilderness that had changed in the meantime. With legendries freely shifting the landscape even without idiots like Teams Aqua and Magma egging them on, plus changes caused by mass pokemon battles during the wars, that wasn't exactly a surprise. Nor was it something that hadn't happened before. It was a state of affairs that virtually always carried on for a few decades any time there was a serious war, sadly. Which meant that, even if things were getting better again, there was still quite a need for trainers to travel out into those wilds, and 2B could easily become one of the few he didn't worry about when they did so.

Yes.

Yes, this was a good plan. And, really, he could always use more help around here. Ash and his grandson really had a terrible habit of catching any pokemon that caught their interest, then dumping them on him to take care of. Seriously, those two were almost twenty now! They needed to take more responsibility for their actions!

Sighing at that familiar thought, Professor Oak sipped his coffee as he waited for his guest to make an appearance this morning…

2B (Fifteen Minutes later):

2B was very annoyed at how inconvenient and inefficient being a human was. While androids could mimic many of the functions of a human body, 2B had very rarely bothered. Needing to sleep was perhaps the most objectionable, even if the male human she'd met said she needed considerably less sleep than the average human. But the dozens of other things that the Professor's daughter had cheerfully insisted were a normal care routine for a fifteen-year-old female human were obnoxious, rather than just inefficient. She could admit that the scrubbing and treatment of her body and hair with certain products actually did feel rather nice. But it was the sort of thing she'd have much preferred to a rare indulgence rather than a time-consuming daily routine!

Sighing, 2B finally finished with all the things 'Daisy' said she needed to do to maintain herself. Somehow, despite how good her sense of time still was despite the lack of an atomically accurate internal clock, she kept underestimating how long this would take. She'd kept the Professor waiting again. Which, while he seemed to think that was normal for teenager girls, was something that annoyed 2B herself greatly. So much so that she nearly forgot the grumpy looking form of the Igglybuff that had stuck to her like glue since they'd first met.

She truly was grateful to the little being. It, embarrassingly, seemed to have a better grasp of human norms than she did and regularly corrected her or helped her puzzle out new things. Giving it an apology pat for nearly forgetting it, she scooped it up and carried it with her as she headed into the lab to see what it was the Professor wanted with her today. He'd said he had a plan to help her get used to the new world she was in, and she had to admit she was curious what it was…

… …

2B considered the Professor's offer. Her? Become an assistant around his pokemon ranch and stables? As a way to learn more about pokemon, as well as people? Did she want that? Did it matter what she wanted? 2B was a combat model, not a researcher. But was that what she still was? She was, herself, human now. At least for a given value of human. Moreover, this world wasn't facing some great threat to humanity. At least…not that she knew of. Actually, she really ought to make sure of that.

"Professor? Do this world's humans face any threats?"

Professor Oak's genial smile faded just a little bit at the question. The old man sighed, considered her seriously for a long few moments, then nodded.

"I should have known you would ask that, given the story you told me of your fight and its purpose. Understand, in many ways what I'm about to tell you goes against my own beliefs…sort of. More accurately, it is the reason for my beliefs. It's not something I tell to most young potential trainers, as the knowledge does more harm than good to the bonds they might form. I'm only telling you because you've already lived a life of danger and combat. You understand, probably better than even I do, how fragile life can be and how important allies are."

Professor Oak paused, obviously considering his words very carefully. It was clear he wanted no misunderstandings here. Which, given how out of her depth she was in general, was honestly something she appreciated. Besides, she knew how to be patient. Indeed, one might say it was her most practiced skill outside of combat. Better to not rush, to make sure you had all the right intel if you could get it. So she let the kind old man feel his way around for the right words.

"Our world…it is miraculous. A wonderful and beautiful place. Something I understand all the more clearly now that you have described a far more terrible one so readily to me. That isn't to say, however, that our world is a perfect one. For that matter, it often isn't a safe one, either."

2B nodded at his words. She was fairly certain she wouldn't have believed him, if he'd claimed the world was some sort of paradise. Perhaps if this really was the afterlife, she might have. But as far as she could tell, she was still alive. More alive, in fact, than she'd ever been before. The only android, so far as she knew, who had truly learned what being human was. Or, well, started too, at least. Professor Oak continued on, pointing at the Igglybuff in 2B's arms as he did so.

"Pokemon. The creatures that literally define our world. In truth, no one is quite certain just how or why humans came to inhabit this world at all, as it seems to be us that our the most out of place, not the pokemon. While many pokemon, such as Igglybuff there, are friendly…that isn't always the case. Indeed, in long gone days, it was very rarely the case. Pokemon are, by their very nature, creatures of conflict and change. In the wild, they fight. When partnered with a human? Many of them, perhaps even most, still want to fight and grow stronger."

2B nodded along. She'd already seen a little of that. Many of the more aggressive pokemon on Professor Oak's ranch had to be stopped from fighting too often or seriously. Even only three days after arriving here, she'd witnessed some of the stronger pokemon of the ranch need to break up fights before they went to far.

"This is where the danger is. Pokemon that regularly interact with humans can be safe enough. They can be lifelong companions, protectors, and more. But the very reason ancient humans developed that relationship was because we needed to. While pokemon that train under us often grow stronger and faster than those in the wild, giving them a reason to partner with us, wild pokemon are dangerous. They not only can, but will attack humans. You have seen a map of our world, yes? How there are relatively narrow Routes carefully outlined between cities and towns?"

2B nodded, already beginning to draw conclusions from what Oak was so carefully outlining. She had thought it odd to see so little in the way of infrastructure between towns, when the general technology level of the world was fairly advanced. Far more primitive than her own reality, but advanced enough that they should have had more built-up infrastructure. Professor Oak confirmed her growing suspicions moments later.

"The Routes between cities are so well defined because those Routes are patrolled. Pokemon Rangers discourage stronger and older wild pokemon from populating the Routes. This makes it relatively safe to travel along them. Even then, nearly everyone travels with at least a single partner pokemon just in case they are confronted by an aggressive wild pokemon. Few humans have your physical strength and would be horribly outmatched by even a pokemon of average strength."

That was the threat. And it was an old one at that.

"Ancient humans here tamed pokemon to protect them from other pokemon, didn't they?"

Professor Oak nodded, smiling at her drawing the right conclusion.

"They did. Both pokemon and people quickly discovered that there were other benefits of growing close. As I said, trainer pokemon virtually always advance faster than their wild counterparts. They also benefit from being taught tactics, getting reliable food they don't have to fight for, and more. The poorly understood bonds between humans and pokemon even aid many of them in evolving, in ways that even I don't fully understand, despite arguably being the world's foremost expert on the subject!"

The old professor was quickly growing more animated, and 2B sensed if she didn't keep them on subject, he would begin to lecture on his favorite topic…again. Not that 2B truly minded. He was a good teacher and virtually everything he taught her was new to her. But they had been addressing an important question.

"So, modern trainers still serve the same purpose? Groups like these Pokemon Rangers help keep the wilds at bay, so the cities and towns are not overrun by strong pokemon?"

Professor Oak winced, deflating a bit as she brought them back to the main topic at hand.

"Yes. That is essentially correct. It's quite a bit more complicated than that, of course. Things like pollution and disruptive habitat destruction need to be managed by Police and Rangers as well. But, essentially, yes. A precarious balance exists, a balance that is regularly threatened by criminals and terrorists, egotistical fools, or simple bad luck. While most trainers don't exist purely for such purposes, the reason why being a trainer is such a cornerstone of our very society is so that both individuals and communities can protect themselves. Pokemon can be wonderful friends, companions, and allies…but they can be dangerous too. Very much so."

2B could understand that. More, she was no fool. Daisy had shown her how to access the local 'pokenet,' a primitive form of the internet humans had once used in her own reality. She had already seen news clips of pokemon being used for crime, and there had been a few quiet mentions of a war when she attempted to skim local history. Though no one seemed to like to talk much about it, even online.

Thankfully, the context provided by Professor Oak's information also helped her resolve her original question. 2B wasn't at all sure what she wanted, or if such a thing even mattered. What she did know is that Professor Oak was offering her a path that would satisfy her original purpose. She had been made to protect humanity from existential threats. Pokemon, despite her ready agreement with the Professor that they could be allies, were such an existential threat. For now, that would be enough.

"I believe I will take you up on your offer, Professor. I would like to learn more about pokemon and their influence on this world."

She could tell that he'd already guessed her reasoning and wasn't entirely satisfied, but the older man's smile was still genuine when he replied.

"Excellent! You've already met my granddaughter, who is my primary aid with the stable and ranch. Tomorrow, I will introduce you to a few of my other research assistants, who also help out with the stables a little. Even if many of them also travel to continue gathering research data. For the most part, you'll be working with Daisy, but I may have you sit in on lectures I or my assistants give from time to time…"

With her immediate future decided, 2B was momentarily content. She had no idea what would come of this new life she'd been unexpectedly granted, but she was quite interested in finding out. At the very least, it was nice to actually meet some of the species who she had been sworn to serve.

Even if she was now in the very odd position of being one of them herself…

... ... ... ...

Author's Note: That's it for now! Sort of! There are actually two more small chapters of this in Early Access on my P-atreon Page. Don't worry, all of my fanfiction is eventually free. So they'll wind up here eventually! You can check out my profile for instructions on how to find me on the Website That Shall Not Be Named here ;-). And, of course, to read my other works, all of which are much farther along!