Chapter 9- So Where Exactly Am I?

There weren't a whole lot of amenities in the room gifted to me at Elms lab. A separate room for a bathroom, enough space for Torrent to stretch his legs, a bed, and a desk,

But at that desk? A Pc that looked like a late 1990s model, one your grandma or other older relative has stashed away.

A boxed TV-sized monitor and an absolute brick of chassis covered the entire bottom right of the desk.

That mattered very little to me as I noticed what looked like an ethernet cord plugged into a port on the wall, this Pc was freely open on the main browser and already connected to the internet.

I had already taken a nap and filled out the citizenship form an assistant brought to me. It didn't ask a whole lot, just my birthplace, for which I put Oceanview City. The first gym town in Pokemon Glazed.

Following that were my parents' names which I easily filled in with the truth, Melissa and Jackson Connors. Date of birth, height, and few signatures. Mostly stating I agree to place myself under the league's laws and promise to do my best to further society in my own way.

Seeing as how I wasn't planning a villain play through plus the fact I wanted to be a Professor with already proven results. Well, they were simple to sign. Now, I just had to wait for whatever League representative to arrive and sign off on it. Getting my Indigo I.D. card in the process.

My Pokemon trainer exam was set for tomorrow at noon. Seeing how it was only four in the afternoon, well I had plenty of time to scour the internet.

My first objective was always to figure out what continuity this world followed.

After an hour of scouring everything from death certificates to every challenger who made it to the elite four in the last fifteen years, I had a preliminary idea.

There was no Red, Yellow, or Blue Oak. No mention at all.

There was a single trainer with a last name I recognized from the anime.

She challenged the league and made it to Bruno almost thirteen years ago. Delia Ketchum, Ash's mother, was an Elite Four-level trainer. If my math was right, she was only 14, nearly fifteen at the time.

That was the first clue I stumbled across, but it was damning.

Following that tidbit, I looked into the Oak family, and sure enough, one, Gary Oak, was born. Just about nine years and nine months ago.

Following that I looked into babies born that same year near the same hospital. Sure enough, Ash Ketchum, the chosen one, was born nine years and eight and half months ago.

'I'm in the anime. A few months before the start.' It's not the worst-case scenario, that lay with the many apocalyptic rom hacks and the manga that had the evilest version of Team Rocket.

It's one of the best, for my choice of occupation, that is. The Pokedex was invented in the last five years by Samuel Oak.

Now, there were a few inconsistencies. As the fairy type was already known. Discovered again by one Samuel Oak after an in-depth study into the clefairy and jigglypuff lines. It was called the discovery of the century, an entirely new type, gone under the radar due to the rarity of dragon and dark types on the island region.

Luckily for one Dragon training champion, there wasn't a very powerful fairy type in the entire region.

But odd things like Growlithes, Haunters, and Kadabra's evolutionary method remain a mystery. Despite the fact I undoubtedly remember Oak having an Arcanine and Alakazam. While Agatha surely had a Gengar.

Only three 'eeveelutions' have been found as of now. This was asinine in my eyes because, after a quick search, the 'elemental evolutionary' stones were most commonly found in Mount Silver, and a place called Evolution Mountain in Kanto. Which include fire, water, lightning, and most importantly, the grass stone.

The exact stone that evolved Eevee into Leafeon. I might be doing the world a favor by becoming a researcher, as some of this shit is self-explanatory.

'I won't judge too hard until I have a conversation with Elm on this subject, but come on, three stones worked, try every different shiny stone you find on Eevee at that point!' I finished with a sigh, but I wouldn't complain. This would create another chapter or merit to my name and legacy.

Another bright light? Project: Seahorse to SeaDragon was officially in full effect. Kingdra has been seen in the deep ocean, but not one confirmed catch in sixty-five years. Nobody even had the idea that Seadra and Kindra could be from the same line.

Hell, it didn't even have an entry or picture on , which was the online version of the Pokedex. This was an interesting website because it claims it is updated every ten minutes in case one of the few Pokedex spread across the region discovers new information. Kind of like a central hub where all the trainers working towards completing the dex and discovering new Pokemon come together.

It was truly an ingenious way to spread what a single trainer learns over a decade. Have twenty operatives in the field? A decade later, you have two hundred years of experience and knowledge at the tips of the fingers of the next generation.

'Surely, in a hundred years or so, there would be no mysteries left in the Pokemon world. How sad…' I hoped I was overestimating Oak's invention, but that could truly be the end goal of his Pokedex project.

Well even so it wouldn't be bad for the new trainers, they wouldn't have time to study every mon, learn every moveset, abilities, etc. It would still be a magical adventure but a more 'safe' or informed one. I'd be long dead either way, and I'd surely do my part to uncover plenty of mysteries. Maybe something so crazy that it would blow the Pokedex out of the water.

But looking over potential targets for my next research project or new team member, as it were.

I narrowed it down to a couple. Minato and Noel's evolutions would make a report each. But those were too…..easy I guess, would be the answer. Not that I wouldn't complete them, but they were more of an evitability. Plus, Noel already had what she needed for her evolution, and Minato could ask his Grandfather how he evolved.

The only thing stopping those two was time, battling, and training. Their goals would be completed by the time I reached the second or third gym, maybe even sooner, depending on how many battles we fought before then. Given that the indigo circuit didn't start for another three months, you never know what I could get up to given that much free time.

So that narrowed my list down a lot, I figured with that much extra time I could take on a more challenging trial.

My preliminary results are based on every Pokemon between Kanto and Johto.

Possible Team Members/Challenging 'Mystery' Evolutions:

1. Teddiursa

2. Murkcrow

3. Elekid/Magby

4. Certain niche 'Eeveelutions'

Yes, my list was odd, but it was numbered by difficulty.

Ursaluna's evolutionary item was probably the laziest thing Nintendo ever put out, so lazy I had it memorized by heart. The peat block: A block of mud that when dried can be used as fuel for burning, loved by a certain Pokemon…..

A random block of soil that was seemly only found in ancient Sinnoh.

Now if that wasn't a head scratcher…..

But moving on to the mini dark flyer. Well, Murkows situation was a bit on the other side of the spectrum. The dusk stone, which surely still exists, is either undiscovered or has never been categorized. I had a few theories that, with the lack of dark types, the stone is merely considered a dud by your everyday miner. Not one Pokemon in either region needed it to evolve besides Murkcrow. Honchkrow was a Pokemon that's never even been seen before, at least according to .

A hunt for a Murkcrow and the dusk stone. Could that be done in three months?

Moving on to the two 'izer' mons. Electabuzz and Magmar evolved with the same item, except it had a type variant. The Electirizer and Magmarizer. Two items that were only made to give those two a buff. Now I had a few ideas as to where I could find those items, but if I were honest. As of right now, Electivire would fit my team much better than the relatively 'slow' Magmortar.

Plus the Elekid line was probably my favorite electric line of Pokemon. Sure I was biased but bite me, Magmortar would be a next year project or maybe a few years down the line.

That left the harder, more niche 'Eeveelutions,' particularly the 'friendship' evolutions.

That was an interesting one, how could one calculate how much a Pokemon trusted you? Well, objectively, I was certain Torrent would follow any order to the letter, while Minato would stop to think for himself but still follow through, and Noel….. Hmmm, I doubt she'd follow any order, but I couldn't imagine a scenario where she would outright disobey. Did that mean I have maxed out my 'friendship' with Torrent? If he were an Eevee, would he evolve during a tough battle at night or day? Becoming either Espeon or Umbreon in the process.

I felt that the answer was yes but I couldn't be sure. Capturing an Eevee before the start of my journey should be at the top of my to-do list.

So what did I decide after going over every option? I'd go with Murkrow, as a treasure hunt would offer my Pokemon plenty of chances to battle and improve, with the side goal of acquiring an Eevee to take on my journey through the Indigo League.

Murkrow was a choice for a few reasons; the main one was giving me air mobility. There was a minor problem in the fact that Honchkrows were relatively small, usually three feet tall, and around sixty pounds.

I was in the real world now, a level 3 Pidgey could not fly me from Pallet Town to Cinnabar Island.

But what was the cutoff? Where did my old world's logic fall away in the face of superpowered animals? Sure most Honchkrows were barely three feet tall and I was a six-foot man. But could a beast that fires off hyperbeams and generates hurricanes truly not carry my two-hundred-pound self throughout the region?

A flyer was essential during a journey for so many reasons that they aren't even worth naming. But to find a Pokemon and discover a completely never seen before evolution? That was something that would make a headline just as big as Torrents.

As of now, murkrow was a Pokemon that even the most desperate wouldn't take. The Honchkrow line didn't deserve that as they were objectively the strongest flyer outside of Legendaries, Dragonites line, and the fan-favorite Charizard on this entire island. With an insane attack stat and an almost equally dangerous special attack, 120 in attack and 105 in special attack if my memory serves me right.

Outside of four weaknesses, it had three resistances and a whopping two immunities. Those two immunities were psychic and ground. With that, it more than made up for its poor defensive stats and lackluster speed.

Then came the cream of the crop, the La crème de la crème as they might say in Kalos. It's abilities.

Now, most Pokemon have a decent ability or hidden ability, but they are not all made the same. That meant when you were building a team; you might hunt for weeks or months for a Dratini that has the marvel-scale ability that, upon its evolution to Dragonite, would become Multiscale. Effectively turning a Dragonite into a literal tank, big damage, and armor. It was incredibly difficult to one-hit KO a Dragonite with multiscale.

But Honchkrow? He had one good ability, another amazing one, and a possibly ever-better hidden ability. It was a Pokemon that would be great no matter what he was born with.

Insomnia which prevents a Pokemon from falling asleep to any such move.

Super Luck doubled its chance of getting a critical hit by one stage. (For most moves, that's an increase to a chance, but for high crit moves like 'Night slash,' a chance)

Finally, its hidden ability was Moxie, which increased a Pokemon's attack stat every time it knocked out an enemy. An invaluable ability in long, drawn-out battles in the wild and or trainer battles.

That was another thing the people of this world have barely scratched the surface of, according to our very own Prof. Elm was the leading mind on the project. He had just released his thesis three years ago on ninety percent of the Pokemon in Johto and Kanto. Categorizing and naming the effect of each. Pokemon having multiple abilities were either guarded knowledge or completely unknown. It was currently the professor 'Magnum Opus', his call to fame if you will.

Which was extremely impressive as he had to start basically from scratch.

But that left the question of how certain abilities worked the way they did in the game, and that was a can of worms I didn't have the time to open yet. But an example would be, does Kadabra have two abilities since he almost always 'levitates' with his psychic energy? Effectively making him have a ground-type immunity as long as he had the energy to spare to float around.

This was speculation, as I hadn't even had a chance to test what abilities my Pokemon have. I had ideas and guesses. Like that, I was eighty percent sure Torrent had Intimdate, just from the aura or vibe he gave off. My ultimate steed just radiated danger.

But these were worthwhile questions to have an answer for if I intended to give it my all in the Indigo League.

Almost magically, a knock was at the door after my decision was made.

"Hey, Elijah. Come out and have dinner with the rest of us at the mess hall." I heard Elm's voice slowly get further away as he told me. I looked over at the alarm clock on the nightstand and noticed it read ten p.m. 'Jeez, guess they're pulling an all-nighter in this place.'

I thought for just a moment before the grumble of my stomach decided for me. Torrent long had entered his Pokeball to rest in the quiet, but I'd bet Noel was getting bored all cupped up.

I opened her ball, and as soon as she materialized she was jumping up and down on the bed in excitement. A psychic wave passed through the room just as I was about to speak, I nodded towards my meditating partner before I was nearly blasted against the wall with questions.

"Did it work? That research thingy? Are you no longer a defective trainer? When are we starting our journey?" The excited water horse jumped higher and higher with each of her questions. I wanted to warn her but I merely smirked and decided to use this as a learning opportunity for my seemingly youngest mon.

On her next hop, she smashed her head against the ceiling.

"Yes, yes the research report was a success, I was never a defective trainer, and probably in a week or two. In that order" I said patiently as I rubbed away the bump on her head.

"So soon? Where are we going first, is it a gym, please tell me it's a gym!" The seahorse, despite the earlier consequences, started jumping on the bed again.

I sighed like an old man as I caught her at the top of her jump. "Well, right now we're heading to dinner with our new friends at the lab, you coming Minato?" I asked as the yellow fox floated lower to the ground and left his meditation stance

"Always," He said with a small smile as he used his energy to open the door and float through.