Hey, so chapter 16 is taking much longer than I had anticipated mainly because A. I'm putting a little more effort into it than some of the previous ones (More on that later) and B. because of Safari Week 2024, so uh, here's a short 4th of July special bc I felt bad about leaving you all in the dark for almost a month again. I hope you enjoy it. (Also, this one's non-canon)

(Also yeah I know I'm posting this a day early)

July 4th, 7:00 am

Joseph's bedroom

Human World

As Joseph awoke from a good night's sleep, he felt something was a little off, "Why does everything suddenly feel… Normal?"

Ignoring his newfound sense of normalcy, he jumped out of bed and stretched, it was then that it hit him, "Hold up, I'm not a Shinx anymore!"

He was overjoyed to be back home, no longer burdened by the stress of having to save the entire world from an impending threat coupled with the ever-present looming threat of being found out and subsequently murdered, "I guess that was a fun dream, it was a bit scary but still pretty fun."

It was then he heard rustling under his bed, "Uh, I haven't been gone long enough for rats to start moving into my room, have I?"

Suddenly, Cinder popped out from under his bed and started flaring up her quills, "QUIL! CYNDA QUIL QUIL!"

"HUH!?" Joseph gasped, "Cinder!? What are you doing here!? How are you even here!? Your species doesn't even exist in this world!"

Cinder kept raging in her Cyndaquil gibberish when out of the blue a tiny little portal opened up and dropped a strange gem onto her head, "OW! What's the big idea!?"

"Uh, somehow I can understand you now, I'm still not sure how."

"Oh, well then, I AM NOT A RAT! YOU HEAR!?"

Joseph threw his hands up, "Loud and clear! Now quit flaring those things up! You'll burn everything up!"

Cinder dropped her flames and gave Joseph a confused look, "Huh? Is it not all fireproof?"

"Nope, humans don't really have the means to make everything fireproof."

"Wow, they must be really stupid then."

"Really now? Last time I checked, Pokémon don't exactly have high-speed vehicles."

"High speed what nows?"

"Here, Let me just show you."

July 4th, 7:00 am

Outside Joseph's House

Human World

Joseph made sure to snag his mom's car keys before leaving his house, "Alright, prepare to be amazed."

Joseph clicked a button on the remote on the key ring and unlocked the car, he then picked up Cinder and opened the car door, once they were both in the car he made sure everyone was buckled up before putting the key into the ignition, "Glad I decided to get my license early."

"License?"

"You need a license to drive a car." Joseph clarified.

"Hold on, I'm still a little confused what's even going on here, and why did you lift me like that?"

Joseph opted to not answer as he pushed down on the gas peddle and pulled out of the driveway, catching Cinder completely off guard, "Woah! What's going on!?"

"We're driving! Just sit back, relax, and take in this world's scenery."

"Uh, ok."

Cinder sat back and stared out the window, taking in this world's rather alien landscape, "What's with all these black stripey paths? And why's nobody walking on them?"

"Those are roads, roads are for cars."

"That's… Weird… Were these 'roads' always here or-"

"Humans tore up the environment to put them here, I know, it sucks."

Cinder stared down at the floor of the car, "Wow, are we sure humans aren't evil?"

"Eh, it's more like the humans from like 40 to 50 years ago didn't realize what they were doing was bad, so now we're left to clean up their mess."

"Oh, well, that stinks, but I guess it's better than having the whole world end around you every five to ten years."

"That's another thing, because of the negligence of the previous generations the world is kinda very slowly coming to an end, well that and anytime we argue over anything war could break out, and if that happens then the world could also end."

"WHAT!?"

"Yep, humans developed weapons that can destroy whole cities in an instant."

"What is wrong with this world!?"

Joseph shrugged as he spun the steering wheel left, "Humans are fickle creatures to say the least, most are good, at least I think the majority of humans are good, but some are the worst, Fiora probably fits the latter rather than the former."

Cinder rolled her eyes under her eyelids, "I think that kinda goes without saying."

"Well, yeah, I was just unsure if there's like a reason behind her misdeeds or if she's just bottom-of-the-barrel scum."

"That's fair, I'm a little unsure of that myself… Wait a sec, if we're here, then does that even matter to us anymore?"

"I'm sure we'll end up back in the tree house tomorrow." Joseph sighed.

Cinder's brow furrowed as she raised a nubby little arm to her chin, "How would that even work?"

"I'm not sure, but considering how we just got dumped here without warning, we'll probably get dumped back the same way."

Cinder sat back in her seat, "Fair point… So where are we even going anyway?"

"Well according to my alarm clock, it's the fourth of July, so I was gonna just drive around for a bit and wait for the sunset, so I could fulfill that promise I made you."

"Wait!? Is it time for fireworks!?"

"You know it!"

"Yippee!"

*Insert Cyndaquil tbh creature*

Joseph chuckled as he continued driving, eventually, he tapped a button on the car's console, and it activated a voice search, "Where can I see fireworks tonight?"

The car's console responded with a robotic voice, "There will be a fireworks show down by the beach tonight, do you need directions?"

"Nope, that's super close to my house." He said, causing the map app to close, "Alright, let's crank some tunes."

Joseph clicked another button and music began playing, catching Cinder off guard, "Woah, this thing is a musician?"

Joseph chuckled, "No silly, it's playing recordings of songs."

"Oh, that's cool, so it's kinda like a Sky Jukebox is built into this thing."

"We call that a radio."

"Interesting…"

With tunes blaring and heads bopping, Joseph and Cinder went on a joyride, stopping at a few points of interest in the area around Joseph's neighborhood, they chatted about things like music, technology, humanity, all that stuff, and eventually, Cinder started bopping her head a little harder, "Dang, humans really know their stuff when it comes to music, I wanna add some of this stuff to a playlist along with some of my favorites from back home."

"Glad you feel that way." Joseph said with a smile, "Maybe if I ever visit your home world, you can let me listen to some of your favorites."

"Maybe once we deal with Fiora we can see if that world's Hoopa would be willing to take us back home."

"That'd be interesting, it'd be even more like living in a video game."

"How come?"

Joseph sat in awkward silence for a bit before saying, "Because your adventure was kinda the plot of an actual video game here."

Cinder thankfully was not as freaked out as she really should've been about what Joseph said, "What an odd coincidence."

"Hehe, yeah…"

"Well, this has been a nice little trip, so what do you want to do now?"

"Uh, I don't really know, I was thinking we could just chill at my house, maybe I could introduce you to my mom if she's home."

"Ooh! Maybe we can play some UNO, it's been a little while since we did that!"

"I think I'm good on UNO for a little while, maybe we could try another game like Monopoly or Cards Against Humanity or something."

"That last game doesn't seem very fair, the cards would only be after you."

Joseph chuckled as he brought his palm to his face, "That's… Not how the game works… I'll show you once we get back…"

"Oh, well now I feel stupid."

"It's not your fault, it's just a stupid name for an equally stupid card game."

Cinder sighed, "Oh, well uh, thanks for making me not feel stupid."

"You're welcome."

Joseph drove back home and parked the car back in the driveway, he walked back into the house and hung up his keys before walking back into his room, once he was back in his room he pulled out a chest from under his bed, "This bad boy's got all my favorite table-top games."

A sweat droplet rolled down the side of Cinder's head, "Oh, so that's the big metal thing I kicked while I was under there…"

"Tch, Cinder, you're little dingus!"

"Hey! It's not like I wanted to wake up under your bed!"

"That's fair… Let's just play some games."

So Joseph and Cinder played various board games for a few hours, Joseph's mother oddly enough was nowhere to be seen, but that didn't really bother Joseph too much, "She's probably working, must suck having to work holidays but anything for a living wage I guess…"

After playing games for a bit, Joseph and Cinder sat lying on the ground staring at the ceiling, "Well that was fun…"

"What time do the fireworks start again?" Cinder asked.

"It said around like 8:30, so we've still got a little while."

"So what do we do now?"

"Good point… Maybe we could walk down to the park or something?"

"Eh, sounds boring… Wait, it's technically my hatch day! Maybe we can throw a little party!"

"That's a good idea, but there's just one small problem."

"What's that?"

"I'm broke."

"Huh!? What happened to your money!?"

"Poké isn't a valid currency here."

Cinder smacked her palm onto her face, "Of course it's not! Why did I think it was!?"

"I mean, if it's actual gold then it might be worth something, but I'm not sure if that's the case."

"Eh, it's probably not…"

"Well, maybe we could just sit here, staring at the ceiling for a bit."

"That doesn't sound very fun…"

"Shh… Just close your eyes and take a deep breath."

"You do realize my eyes are already closed, right?"

"Can't you, like, close them harder?"

"I mean, I guess."

Cinder decided to take Joseph's advice, she closed her eyes in a way that didn't let her see (If that makes sense), and she pointed her head up to the ceiling, "Well… It's not very fun, but it's… Oddly soothing…"

Joseph took a deep breath, "Yup, it feels nice… Not worrying about the end of the world… Just chilling out on the floor… It's nice…"

The pair kept chilling out on the floor for a bit until Joseph's phone started vibrating, "Oh, I almost forgot I set an alarm on that thing while we were playing board games."

Cinder sat back up, "So that means it's time to go, right?"

"Yup, let's go watch some fireworks."

Joseph got up and grabbed the car keys again, he helped Cinder into the car and drove off toward the beach, as the sun set, Cinder got another good look at the human world, "Wow, the clouds look so pretty in this world! I never thought lowering the vibrancy of the sunset would make them look that much prettier."

It had just occurred to Joseph that his world and the world he was placed into had completely different art styles for lack of a better term, "Jeez I almost forgot how different our worlds look, that must've been a bit jarring for you."

"Eh, it wasn't that bad, I bet it was worse for you, going from this world's pleasant colors to effectively candy land."

Joseph chuckled a little, "Yeah… I mean, it's not too bad, but it's still strange when areas that should be pitch black are just kinda, slightly darker than usual with a little bit of a blue tint."

"Wait, it gets that dark everywhere here?"

"Yep, I uh, kinda almost forgot how dark the Glacier Continent gets at night…"

"Honestly same here, we only really went there once though so can you really blame me?"

"Nope, not at all."

"Thought so."

Suddenly the beach was in view, bringing the car ride to an end, "Well we're here, I guess I'll get us some chairs set up on the far side of the beach."

Cinder tilted her head in confusion, "Why the far side?"

"Because I don't want anyone seeing you, because if someone sees you then they might think you're an alien, and if they think you're an alien, they might call someone to come catch you and try experimenting on you."

Cinder did not like the idea of a bunch of humans experimenting on her, whatever that entailed, so she just nodded, "Understood!"

"Alright then, let's just relax and watch some fireworks before we return to a dying world."

Joseph opened his car door and got out, once he was out of the car he grabbed a pair of foldable lawn chairs from the back of the car and threw them over his shoulder, then he opened the door for Cinder.

Cinder hopped out of the car and began following Joseph down to the far side of the beach, leaving tracks in the sand as she waddled on behind him, "Are my tracks gonna be a problem?"

Joseph's eyes shot wide open, "Uh, crap…" He mumbled, "Uh, I hope not, otherwise…"

Cinder shrugged, "Eh, it'll probably be fine in the end, whatever brought us back here will probably pull us back out in time before anyone can get their grubby little hands on me."

Joseph's expression calmed, "You're probably right, it's probably nothing to worry about…"

Joseph unfolded the chairs and placed them down on the sand, once the chairs were in place he plopped himself onto his chair and started chillaxing, "Ah, feels nice…"

Cinder hopped up onto her chair as the sun finished setting, a few seconds later she heard a *BANG*, "What was that!?"

"It's probably just someone setting off their own fireworks, the beach show should start in a few minutes."

Cinder wiped her brow, "I thought it was like an explosive attack or a blast seed or something!"

"Blast Seeds don't exist here."

"Oh, well, I didn't know that…"

Cinder heard another explosion coming from over the water, she quickly turned her attention to the explosion just in time to see the pretty colors, "Ooh! It's so pretty!"

A couple more fireworks shot off as Cinder stared in awe, the sky was filled with pretty colors (And gunpowder, but just kinda ignore that.), creating an instant core memory in her brain, "Wow, I wish the others got to see this too!"

Joseph sighed, "Same here… But hey, at least I got to fulfill my promise to you."

The sound of explosions continued to ring out as more fireworks blew up, Cinder was practically jumping in her seat as the colors filled the sky. Then it was time for the finale, a huge amount of fireworks erupted from a boat far off from the beach, the fireworks exploded into a wall of red, white, and blue sparkles, and then one big firework flew into the air, exploding into a bunch of stars and spelling out "Happy July 4th".

"Woah!" Cinder exulted, "That was amazing!"

Once all the sparkles were gone, the light died out and all that was left was smoke flying through the air, "Well, I'm glad you liked it." Joseph said as he stood back up and folded up his chair, "It was nice being able to take some time off to see this with you."

Cinder giggled as she hopped up from her chair, "Yeah, I had a good time, maybe we can try to make some fireworks when we get back, y'know, so we can celebrate beating Fiora."

"That sounds dangerous… But also pretty fun… I'd be down for that."

Joseph folded up Cinder's chair and brought it back to the car, as he went to close the trunk of the car however, he was stopped by two men, one in a black suit with shades (At night no less) and one in a lab coat with thick glasses, The man in the suit placed a hand on Joseph's shoulder and asked, "We heard reports of an unknown animal being spotted on the beach, do you know anything about that?"

Cinder waddled up behind Joseph at the worst time imaginable, "What's going on?" She asked.

"S-sir! That's it!" The scientist blurted.

"What is it? Some sort of mutated ra-"

Joseph had seen the scenario play out in his head the moment the encounter started, so he decided to step in before the pair got torched, "I wouldn't do that if I were you!"

"What call that thing a ra-"

"Yep! That right there! She has a history of torching anyone who calls her that!"

The scientist pulled out a notepad and began scribbling, once he was done scribbling he adjusted his glasses and continued the conversation, "Torching? So that creature is an alien?"

"W-well, I wouldn't say that exactly."

The man in the suit rolled his eyes under his shades and snatched the notepad from the nerdy scientist guy, "Look, it doesn't matter what that thing is capable of, just hand over the rat and nobody gets hurt!"

"EXCUSE ME!?" Cinder screamed, flames flaring up on instinct.

Joseph facepalmed, "I tried to warn you…"

The two men were shocked to see Cinder conjure flames from thin air, their eyes were open so wide they looked like cartoon characters, "Uh, ok, so now it's a flaming mutant rat, what now?"

"EXCUSE ME!?" Cinder reiterated as the flames shifted from red-orange to bright blue.

"Uh, I think we run!"

The two 'investigators' ran off at the speed of light, once they were gone Joseph and Cinder sighed in unison.

Joseph shook his head as he closed the trunk, "Let's just get back to my house before anyone else decides they want to play with fire."

"You said it."

So, Joseph drove home for the night, once he got home, he set up a little bed for Cinder, "Alright, I'm tired, I think I'm gonna call it a night, I had a lot of fun today."

Cinder curled up in her bed, "Same here, we should totally do this again with everyone else some time."

"How would we even do that?"

"I don't know, maybe we could ask Hoopa or something?"

"I think Palkia would be a better bet in that regard."

"Eh, we'll ask both, how's that sound?"

"Annoying…"

Cinder chuckled, "Well it'll be worth it, I promise."

Joseph yawned, "I guess…"

"Well uh, goodnight!"

"'Night."

So uh, I hope you all enjoyed that short little special, sorry about disappearing for almost a month again, chapter 16's making good progress so far, but it's still gonna be a little bit before it's ready, I hope this holds you guys over until it's done (Even though it's kinda short and silly)

Anyway, I guess I'll throw in some replies to your reviews here too.

To KirgizovVlad: Yeah, most of the legendaries in this universe are quite different from their usual depiction and things are only gonna get more interesting as the story keeps moving, speaking of which, I think you're spot on with your second point there, we definitely need a little break from the main plot, I just for whatever reason thought that filler wasn't something that people liked, idk maybe I heard people complain about filler when talking about anime and stuff and thought "Huh, I guess filler is kinda pointless, maybe I shouldn't do that." but in reality, if things keep going forward constantly it starts to get a little boring (Both from a writing standpoint and a reading one) so uh, yeah, TLDR: Good point, expect a bit of filler. Thanks for your feedback!

Anyway, that's all for this time, next time, chapter 16 for real this time! See ya whenever that comes out, (Hopefully soonish)