Chapter 97 (Patreon)

There are two chapters left after this one. The final chapter before the break is on Wednesday.

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I decided to take an alternate path back to Jubilife, traveling with the intention of heading to Floaroma town. More specifically, I was still on Route 203, but just avoiding the areas I had seen before.

Despite Ash being in the region, the ideas of following the same path as the Sinnoh games still appealed to me. An occasional meeting wouldn’t be that bad if all I had to deal with was Team Rocket, but I definitely didn’t want to deal with them almost every day.

So, my aim was to head north with my next Gym Challenge being against Gardenia, a Grass Type specialist.

I left via the southern path of the Oreburgh valley and made my way down the route. I technically wasn’t on the main route, sticking off to the side in the off-route region, just to avoid any new trainers challenging me. While my team needed experience, I didn’t want to crush the spirits of any true beginners if I misjudged the strength of who we were battling.

My team trained whenever we camped.

Carbink worked with Whimsicott with the intention of learning the same move together: Toxic. Technically, almost any Pokémon could learn the move, but it was extremely difficult for most non-Poison Type Pokémon to learn it, so much so that some people just flat out said it was impossible. Whimsicott had the advantage of already knowing Poison Powder, and together with Carbink, they’d hopefully eventually figure it out.

Both of them would benefit from an easy way to slowly wear down their foes.

Mawile worked with Dedenne to beat proper battle instincts into him. Yes, beat. They primarily sparred.

Used to dealing with Whimsicott's pranks, Mawile was quick to shut down any attempts Dedenne made to joke around in the fight. It was fine to have fun, but he needed to learn when and how to do it properly in battle. Pausing next to an enemy to laugh at them shouldn't be considered. He did frequently go to Whimsicott to both complain and get advice, so while his antics hadn’t decreased at all, they weren’t putting him into poor positions as frequently.

Rather than training for Gym Battles in particular, Ninetales worked on her own to practice graceful movement for Contests, going so far as to act as a target for any team member that wanted practice aiming. While Oreburgh didn't have a Contest Hall, Floaroma Town did, and I planned to compete when we got there.

(More specifically, "Robin" would compete.)

I would need to retrieve Florges to practice our performance together, but I did leave her some notes when she returned to the ranch. She would hopefully create the basics herself, and then we could work together to improve it for an audience.

My last two Pokémon, Ralts and Ponyta, worked together. Ponyta outmatched Ralts with the sheer technique he used with Confusion, but Ralts was capable of more raw power. He was catching up to Ponyta, and fast.

So, I decided to have a brief conversation with Ralts just to make sure I could better help him train in the future.

"I want to talk to you about your battle strategy, Ralts," I said to him.

He silently stared at me expectantly, waiting for me to continue. Ponyta was sitting next to him, ready to step in to give advice when needed.

"How do you prefer to fight?" I asked.

Ralts smirked. It was very reminiscent of Azumarill's smirk, but it didn't quite match the same malicious intimidation factor Azumarill always had.

Demonstrating his intentions, Ralts’s horn glowed blue and he lifted up a hand, dramatically tearing a chunk of dirt and grass out of the ground. He stared at it for just a moment before clenching his fist to crunch it into a ball before letting it fall back to the ground with a thunk.

Ponyta sent a quick, nervous glance my way. Ralts had been mildly intimidating with that brief flex of his abilities, and he even reminded me of a certain evil space warlord as he did so. As I felt that, Ralts, a member of a species that can read emotions, seemed to take pleasure in my reaction.

"So you want to be on the offense," I concluded. "More specifically: you want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their trainers?"

Ralts nodded his head vigorously. Ponyta continued to nervously flick his eyes between Ralts and I.

I let out a chuckle.

"You'd get along great with Azumarill, I think. Although, I want to make sure I understand something before we start. Answer honestly, okay?"

Mostly likely sensing how serious I was, Ralts's grin faded and he returned to staring at me emotionlessly.

"Why?" I asked.

He cocked his head.

"I know that I told you that you are free to give me your motivations when you're comfortable, but I’d at least like to better understand you so I can better help you train. Are you just pursuing power? Seeking strength? Maybe just trying to prove yourself?”

I paused to emphasize my next point.

“Or is it the opposite. Do you like bullying others, proving that you’re stronger, and causing other Pokémon pain?”

At my second set of questions, Ralts stiffened then hurriedly shook his head no.

I stared at him intently. He didn’t seem to be lying, and Ponyta wasn’t making any signs that Ralts was lying either.

My expresion relaxed.

“Sorry. I purposely wanted to catch you off guard to get your reaction, there. I worry about you, Ralts. You put a lot of effort into training your Psychic Type moves, and I want to make sure you’re actually doing it to make yourself happy. I have a friend I want you to meet, I actually just mentioned her. Azumarill is hardy, determined, and one of the most battle hungry Pokémon I know.

"You're either going to get along great, or absolutely despise each other. Either way, I know she’ll be able to help you with how you’re feeling."

Ralts stayed silent as his eyes drifted downwards. I walked away to let him think.

At that moment, a shout caught my attention.

It wasn’t Ash Ketchum, thankfully, but Whimsicott, instead. He floated down from above with an excited look in his eyes and grabbed my arm to pull me the way he just came.

"Wait, what's going on? Is it an emergency?"

I got my answer when he paused to consider how to respond, and from the glint in his eye, I knew this wasn’t anything serious. If this was a true emergency, he wouldn't have needed to think.

"Fine. Give me a moment," I said.

I quickly returned to Ralts and Ponyta to give them some last instructions, then proceeded to follow Whimsicott over a few nearby hills off into the distance. Once we crested over the second one, I stopped and gave Whimsicott an exasperated look.

"...How far are you taking me?" I asked accusingly.

He floated up into the air, covered his eyes with his hand to shade them from the sun, looked out towards the distance, then floated back down and shrugged.

I let out a sigh. I should have expected something like this.

"Give me a moment to gather up the team, and then we can head out."

He held up his arms to cheer and followed me back to camp. It was late morning, so we needed to get moving anyway.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Once everyone was returned and the camp packed up, we headed off in the direction Whimsicott wanted. It took a while to get to his destination, which gave me a sneaking suspicion that he might have not been training with Carbink as much as I thought.

However, the small trip was worth it, as we reached a small hill absolutely covered with beautiful, blooming flowers in almost every shade of the rainbow. A quaint cobblestone path led up to a cottage at the top of the hill, where a woman and her Gardevoir were taking care of a few flower beds located closer to their home.

They didn’t notice us immediately, so Whimsicott and I just stood there to admire the view of the entire hill. He drifted down to hang on my shoulder and made a few happy noises at the scene ahead of us.

I regret not bringing Florges. She would have loved this.

The place was oddly familiar, though, but I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly it was.

Eventually, the Gardevoir noticed Whimsicott, sent me a strange look in particular, and alerted its trainer. As the purple-haired woman turned around she waved at us then cupped her hands around her mouth.

"Ho, there, stranger! You’re free to come on over!”

Invited, Whimsicott and I made our way forwards, although Whimsicott drifted away from me to hover over the flowers themselves. He returned when I actually reached the pair of human and Pokémon.

Considering that Ralts was on my team, I took the opportunity here to look the Gardevoir over. To put it bluntly, it was creepy. Its limbs were long and gangly, looking to be ever so slightly too long when compared to humans, and its thin body and large head gave it a doll-like, bobblehead look. The dress it naturally wore swayed ever so slightly in the wind, but it moved in the opposite direction of the slight breeze blowing over the hill. It fell clearly in the category of the “uncanny valley,” looking believable but unnatural enough to make some primal instinct in the back of my head more wary of it than usual.

So basically, it was a normal Fairy Type.

"Hello, sorry if I'm intruding,” I said. “Whimsicott seems to be enamored with your flower fields."

He said his name to wave. The trainer smiled at his reaction.

“Oh, you two are no bother. My name is Melodi. It’s always been a dream of mine to make a little piece of Floaroma town out here. You’re welcome to stay as long as you want.”

She paused for a moment.

“Wait, are you Alex? We saw you on TV! Your battle with Roark was great, congratulations on your victory!”

“Oh, huh. I didn’t expect someone to recognize me out here.”

“Just because we live on our own doesn’t mean we don’t have electricity,” she said, tilting her head to the side to gesture towards a few solar panels on her house. “Anyway, would you like to come in for tea? I don’t battle with Gardevoir anymore, but I’d love to hear stories about how your journey’s gone to get your team that strong.”

“Sure, actually. As long as I can ask questions about how you trained Gardevoir in the past. I have a Ralts on my team that I’d love to get advice for.”

With a discussion planned, I started to follow her in her house, but yet again, something nagged me about where I was right now. It was bothering me that I couldn’t remember it.

A Gardevoir and a flower field. What episode of the anime is that from?

Melodi was a polite and gracious host. Her home wasn’t the largest, but she had a nice seating area just past the front door where she served me tea and we talked about our Pokémon. At her nagging, I sent out my team, but ended up returning everyone but Ninetales due to the limited space in the room. Ninetales only stayed out because Melodi bribed her with a few treats.

I specifically talked about my time working with Professor Sycamore and a bit about Gurkinn, and Melodi talked about her Gardevoir. She had traveled around Sinnoh with a pair of Ralts sisters, taking on the Gym Challenge, but only beat a few Gyms before the season ended. After seeing Floaroma town, she was inspired by it to make her own place in a quiet spot she had discovered while traveling. While she didn’t battle, her Gardevoir did have to fend off a few wild Pokémon in the beginning, but now that her flowers had grown, they’d only ever received peaceful Grass Type visitors just exploring, as well as the occasional Combee gathering pollen.

While the conversation was pleasant, my paranoia kept acting up. I knew Melodi was involved in an episode in the anime—this place was far too familiar to be otherwise—but I couldn’t tell what. It wasn’t that her, exactly but there was something specific about her Gardevoir.

Since Melodi was kind enough as it was, I tried my own ways of digging into her situation to try to jog my memory.

"I’m wondering, do you have any pressing issues that I can help with, Melodi?" I asked. "Like, are there wild Pokémon damaging your flower fields, or some asshole trying to bulldoze your house? Maybe you have a dream left unfulfilled, or you’re searching for a rare item? What's going on with you?"

She blinked a few times and exchanged a look with her Gardevoir.

“There’s not really anything I can think of,” she mumbled.

Her eyes suddenly went wide.

"Oh! Now that you asked..." she said slowly.

I lean in closer to better here what she would say.

"Well?"

"Well, my watering can is cracked and I've been using tape to seal it closed, so if you have a way to fix that I'd very much appreciate it."

If this was the anime, I would have fallen on my back in pure exasperation.

I didn’t, though, and just continued to sit in my chair instead.

"I'll see what I can do," I mumbled.

Her can was left outside when we headed in, so I stood up and started to leave the house to get it.

Of course, nothing could be that simple.

Lost in my thoughts, after opening the front door, it took me a moment to process that someone was behind it with their hand in the air as if they were about to knock.

"Hello," the silver haired, visor goggles-wearing woman said politely. "If you don't hand over your Gardevoir, I'll burn down this house with everyone inside it."

She paused.

"Oh, and your Pokémon as well, Alex. Your Pokémon made quite the showing against Roark the other day."

Ninetales immediately used Ice Beam.

At that, everything broke into chaos.

The woman narrowly jumped back from Ninetales’s Ice Beam in a show of agility that seemed above human. She landed next to a large blue and red dragon, a Salamence, that rushed forward straight at me.

I slammed the door in its face and there was a loud thump.

“There’s a criminal outside. Run. Ninetales and I will hold her off.”

Melodi looked like she was about to object, but the ever loyal Gardevoir had no such reservations as it rushed forward to grab her and Teleport away. I proceeded to send out Whimsicott and Mawile, my strongest two Pokémon, and readied myself to Mega Evolve Mawile.

“She has a cannon on her arm that can turn people and Pokémon to stone. Your priority is never getting hit by it, no matter what. Not even blocking can save you.”

My Pokémon looked grim. A voice echoed out outside.

“Clever sending your companion away, but now that I know you’re here, I know I can sell your Pokémon for much more than the request that Gardevoir was worth. Step out quietly, Alex, and I’ll make sure to leave you one of your weaker ones to escort you back to town. The rest, unfortunately, have to go with me.

“By the way, you better hurry up. You have thirty seconds before the place goes up in flames.”

Next time I think a place I’m in is involved with the anime, I’m immediately turning around.

Mawile was staring at me, ready to Mega Evolve, but before I gave out any commands, I checked my Holo Caster.

It was no good. Hunter J was blocking my calls.

“We have no back up, no way to contact others, and an infamous Pokémon hunter—that’s a human who hunts Pokémon, not a Pokémon who hunts humans—is outside. Our goal is to fight like hell and hopefully convince her we’re not worth her time. Is everyone ready?”

Hunter J called out there were ten seconds left.

My team all nodded.

“Then let’s go.”

If only Ralts had practiced Teleporting with others. This could have been so much easier.

To start, Mawile started to glow, and Whimsicott pushed into an unlit chimney to squeeze his way out of the house. Ninetales positioned herself next to the door and waited for the form change to finish. Hunter J began to count down from five, but the Mega Evolution was finished, and Mega Mawile jumped through the window.

I opened up the door for Ninetales to run forward.

Immediately, Mawile was suddenly snatched up by a clawed, purple monstrosity that had been lurking on the roof, a Drapion, and Ninetales narrowly avoided a String Shot. I moved outside with the intention of running, only to see Hunter J had been preemptively aiming her arm cannon right at me.

A yellow bolt hit my chest as I felt my entire body begin to stiffen and my vision faded to black.

“Nice try. I lied about letting you go, by the way. I need you to tell me more about Mega Evolution.”

Everything stopped.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

"Alex! You're okay! Come on, quick, we have to get out of here!" Ash said.

Falling to my knees, I gasped for air and quickly looked around the room. It seemed to be just a normal warehouse-like room, only about a dozen feet across, filled with shelves of cardboard boxes as well as a handful of Pokémon on top of metal disks with glass cases sealing them away.

The glass surrounding me suddenly retreated back. I hadn’t even known it was there.

Ash was here, clutching Pikachu to his chest tightly, and with him, his Aipom and Turtwig were at his side. Freeing the other Pokémon was another assistant in the form of... Team Rocket's Meowth?

Thinking about that wasn’t my problem right now, however.

"My Pokémon," I said, panicked. "Where are my Pokémon?!"

I grabbed Ash's shirt before he turned away and I felt myself start to shake with realization. I didn’t see them in the room, and I knew Hunter J wasn’t beaten here. If she got away without us rescuing my team—

"Cool it, hot head," Meowth suddenly said. "Ninetales told me to tell you to stop being such a dumb idiot and get out of here. She was really specific on the ‘dumb idiot’ part. She actually repeated that a lot."

"Ninetales said that?" I mumbled, letting go of Ash.

"Well, she threatened me in order to tell you, otherwise she'd turn me into a freeze-dried—"

The room shook as an explosion rang out, causing Meowth’s hair to stand on end.

"That must be Steven! We have to get out of here!" Ash said quickly.

I was disoriented, and my thoughts were coming to me slowly. The Pokémon in the room that had been refleshified (or restoneified in the case of one bright yellow Nosepass) all looked fine, but I was wobbling back and forth and my entire body felt like it had been sunburned. Whatever technology Hunter J had used on me wasn’t intended to be used on humans even though it worked, so I was unable to properly process everything that was going on.

All I ended up doing was mumbling “Steven?” and following after Ash.

"Come on!" he shouted. "We're escaping!"

Clumsily running after him, I followed him alongside the newly released Pokémon in the room as we ran through a series of sterile, metal corridors. As we did so, I patted myself to check for the rest of my team members, only for panic to set in when I found the Pokéballs gone.

"My Pokéballs! She has my Pokémon!" I yelled.

"No, Brock has them! They're sad but fine!" Ash shouted right back.

Ash tried to turn down one hallway while running, but Meowth pushed him aside and directed everyone to go the other way.

Eventually, we ran through a door that led to a large hangar bay that contained about a dozen heavily armored trucks. However, only three of them seemed to be in usable condition since the rest of them were currently on fire.

A pair of people in white uniforms were screaming as a line of armored men shot lasers at them. Yes, lasers. That was what was causing the fire.

Upon seeing those thugs, An Absol from our group rushed forward and slammed its head blade into the back of one of them. His armor protected him from being cut, but he was slammed into the wall and the rest of the Pokémon with us attacked.

Turtwig and Aipom moved forward without Ash even giving orders. They had no compunctions about hurting these people.

My head was still spinning.

Two voices shouting at the same time caught my attention.

"Twerp!"

"You!"

With the armored men in this room knocked out, only Team Rocket was standing in our way.

"Team Rocket! What are you doing here?!" Ash accused.

The pair of them struck a pose.

"Listen, is that a voice I hear?" Jesse started.

"It's speaking to me, loud and—"

"The only voices you two will be hearing will be the mortician's if we don't get out of here, fast!" Meowth interrupted.

"Dark joke," I mumbled.

"Different audience," he replied.

With the now freed Pokémon all handled, Ash jumped into one free vehicle, I jumped into another, and Meowth jumped into the third with Jesse, James, and their Pokémon crowding in behind them. As I looked over, James's Mime Jr. saluted me as they slammed the door.

The freed Pokémon climbed into the two trucks not occupied by criminals.

There wasn’t a classic set of controls, but there was a large button that looked suspicious, and with my mind as it was currently, I just hit it without thought. A seatbelt suddenly shot forward to strap around me and the truck lifted itself off the ground to hover in the air.

“What’s with the sudden shift in level of technology?” I asked no one in particular.

The truck began to head towards an opening bay door as the other two still usable in the room did the same, but behind us, a group of new, heavily armored thugs ran into the room with their own weapons.

"Stop them!" a gruff voice called out.

The vehicle vibrated and thunks rang out from the shots hitting the back of it. However, the armor on its body let it move forward out of the room, unabated.

I saw an expanse of green trees and open hills below us. We were thousands of feet in the air.

Picking up speed, the hovercraft suddenly automatically launched out the room and towards the ground. The grunts rushed forward to fire at us from above, and a glint of attacks colliding caught my attention.

A Skarmory was battling a Salamence. No, Steven was riding a Skarmory battling Hunter J on a Salamence.

A different noise caught my attention. This one sounded like an explosion.

Looking over, the vehicle Jesse and James had got into was now smoking, and James opened the door to peer at the damage read of the floating truck they were riding.

"Jesse! It’s smoking!" he yelled.

I heard a brief “I—” from Jesse beginning to respond before a massive explosion tore their vehicle apart in a burst of heat and flame. My eyes grew wide and I thought the worst, but, of course, a group of smoking figures were launched away from us, and I even heard the classic “Team Rocket is blasting off again!”

After seeing that, I wasn't sure I was alive anymore.

The shots ended as we gained distance, and the two trucks brought us to the forest floor where I immediately leaped out to land on the dirt. The rest of the Pokémon left the vehicles as well as Ash, who immediately started to spin around with Pikachu in his arms, laughing happily.

That’s it. Ash is insane. I’m never getting involved with him again.

However, Ash’s laughter stopped as he realized Steven was no longer battling Hunter J. I saw Steven’s gray, metal bird approaching with scorch marks on one of its wings and Steven riding on top, somehow looking spotless like always.

Behind him, a massive, armored flying ship slowly faded into invisibility. Hunter J got away.

The mood dropped significantly at that sight, but Steven seemed moderately pleased with himself as Skarmory was forced to make a landing.

"Alex! You're safe! How are you feeling?" He said surprisingly cheerfully.

"I don't know anymore," I replied.

He frowned.

Ash rushed forward to give me and the ex-Champion a rundown of everything that happened. The more I heard, the more it was clear that even though this was reality and not the anime, Ash was still the protagonist of this world.

Basically, Ash and co. saw Hunter J readying herself to attack the house, but were unsure what was going on until I rushed out. She managed to turn me to stone but was forced to flee when Mawile’s Mega Evolution went berserk without me supporting her. Some metal disk took my body away, but Melodi and her Gardevoir returned and managed to recover the remaining Pokéballs on my belt, which hadn’t been turned to stone.

The group chased after Hunter J to rescue me, only for Hunter J to take an interest in Pikachu and steal him too. Team Rocket tried to intervene to take the frozen Pikachu for themselves, but Hunter J decided to steal the talking Meowth, too.

That was when Ninetales barked out a message to Meowth. She assumed he would get in contact with me.

An officer chasing Hunter J showed up, and Steven was there soon after her, in the area after hearing a radio call about her presence. Melodi’s Gardevoir was able to predict a few different possible locations Hunter J might strike, so the group split up to make sure she wouldn’t slip by.

Of course, she went to the location Ash was at.

There, Hunter J escaped with an Absol she was capturing, but Ash managed to sneak underneath one of the flying vehicles to get on her ship. From there, he used Turtwig and Aipom to sneak around (which is absolutely insane), and Steven was able to find the location of the flying ship by following the truck Ash snuck in on.

With everyone distracted by Steven’s presence, Ash was able to locate the room Hunter J was storing all of the petrified Pokémon and me, and from there, I experienced everything else personally.

And how did Team Rocket get on board? I had no clue. Ash didn’t either.

I just stayed on the ground, laying on my back, feeling awful and choosing to recover rather than think about what just happened. I feel like a plot device in an episode of the anime, and I absolutely hated it.

I hated Hunter J. I hated being captured. And I hated being in a world where things could take a turn for the worse without any warning in particular.

At least my Pokémon were all okay when Brock and Dawn caught up.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

"I don't know if I want to do this anymore," I said to Steven.

Ash and co. had left once the freed Pokémon were collected by the local police, but Steven had stayed behind. I had a touching reunion with my Pokémon, of course, and Brock was kind enough to gift me a few of his premade meals. Dedenne literally shed tears when he ate one, they were so good.

Right now, it was dusk. Steven and I were sitting around a campfire while our Pokémon either relaxed or talked among themselves. His Armaldo, which was much larger and more threatening than Roark’s Armaldo, was amused by letting Whimsicott cover it in fluff, and Steven’s Metagross was locked in a staring contest with Ninetales. I assumed they were talking somehow.

Steven eventually responded to my statement with a question of his own.

"What exactly do you not want to do?" Steven asked with a bit of levity in his voice. He was obviously trying to make this situation seem a lot less worse than it actually was, but in all honesty, he wasn’t succeeding.

"I don’t want to be important," I replied.

He chuckled at my non-joke. He stopped when he realized I wasn’t laughing.

"Ever since I got here, I just wanted to be a normal Pokémon trainer,” I said. “Someone who trains a team, visits a few regions, then retires as a Gym Trainer or something like that. I haven’t really planned ahead. I admit, my decision to specialize in the Fairy Type was pretty arbitrary in the beginning, but I genuinely love my team, and I know that was the best choice I ever made.

"But this? Constantly dealing with criminals in every region I visit? Getting turned to stone and narrowly escaping a Pokémon hunter's flying freakin' fortress? I never asked for this."

I chuckled at my own words and slumped back in the camping chair Steven provided. I made a mental note to buy a similar one in the future.

"I should have never bought that Mega Stone,” I continued. “You should have never met me. You would have gotten it yourself, anyway."

Steven took a sip from his cup of tea, then refilled it with a thermos he brought. He then held out that thermos towards me.

"Are you sure you don't want any tea? It's one of Ramos's special blends."

I shook my head no. He put the cap back on and took another sip.

"Alex, I'll be honest with you. I've purposely never asked how you obtained your knowledge in the other world to respect your privacy. We didn’t need to question the source once your information started proving itself to be right. However, I am curious how exactly you know what you know, and I have formulated a few theories on that matter. Would you like me to share?"

I waved my hand at him to give him the go ahead.

He cleared his throat before starting.

"Well, it's information from another world, as you've said. However, everything you've shared has been very surface level and provided in a rather casual manner. From that, I can tell you have no personal connection to the subject.

"In addition, your knowledge is quite broad, which leads me to believe that rather than experiencing these events in your time, you learned about them from a third party source. Perhaps even a history book or the like."

"Something like that," I mumbled.

Steven tutted.

"I'm not done," he continued. "Moving onwards, at points, you've hinted that your information may not be true, which implies your source may be flawed or different between our worlds. In addition, you have a strange focus on a few key figures in each region, as well as one major focus on a certain Ash Ketchum.

"So, putting these together, I think I’ve narrowed down your source to one possible option."

"And what is that?" I asked.

"Easy. You watched a series of documentaries that went over important events across history. Ash Ketchum was either a connecting individual or a major historical figure that they focused on. Am I right?"

I chuckled.

"You're close. There's one detail you're missing, however."

"And what would that be?" he asked.

"Pokémon didn't exist in my old world."

All the noises from the Pokémon around us stopped. The clearing went still. Everyone was looking at me.

Steven started to laugh, but once again, when he saw I wasn't laughing, he stopped.

"But... how?" he said in complete disbelief. "That's like saying you're from a world without water, or plants! I can’t even imagine a world without Pokémon, especially with the information you’ve given us. There’s no way you just made everything up, you’ve definitely learned about Pokémon from a third party source. If it’s not a history book, the only thing I can think of is—”

Steven paused.

He looked at me.

I sighed.

"Pokémon is a game series," I said. "To advertise it, they have a TV show about Ash Ketchum and his journey that's uncomfortably accurate to what’s been happening here. It's one of the highest grossing media franchises in my world."

Steven was silent.

"I know about these events because I've experienced them, but through the games and anime, not through a historical documentary. I've played as major trainers in Hoenn, Sinnoh, Kalos, Kanto, all of the regions I've told you about, and more. I knew about Team Magma because I’ve stopped them myself, same with Team Galactic, and even Lusamine in Alola. I knew Wallace would be Champion after you because that's what happened in the games, and I know what happens with Ash because I watched the anime. I didn’t tell you any of this before because my information has been turning out to be true anyway, and I didn't want to give you an existential crisis."

He didn’t respond, just choosing to stare into his tea to think. All of the Pokémon here were just watching us silently, listening intently to what I’d been saying.

Eventually, a small smile appeared on Steven's face, and he looked up to face me.

"Do you think I could contact your world about being paid for them using my likeness?" Steven asked.

I paused.

"What?"

"You said I was in these games and anime, right? Well, if they're using my likeness without my permission, I think I'm due for some form of compensation, don't you think?"

What.

"...I don't know how you're taking this so well," I said exasperatedly.

Steven just continued to smile and took another sip of his tea.

"This isn't the first time I've had someone publish something with me in it without my permission, different world or no. And I've seen artwork people have made of me on the Pokénet.” He shuddered. “Just like you, it’s nothing I ever wanted, but it at least lets me pursue my own interests with my Pokémon at my side. It’s all worth it in the end."

"So, you're not bothered that everything I gave you was from a media franchise, one aimed at children specifically? That another world is using everything that goes on here to entertain because no one thinks it’s real?" I asked.

He chuckled and lightly patted his knee.

"Oh, I am horribly bothered!” he said cheerfully. “I'll undoubtedly be kept up at night, pondering the true nature of my existence, but in truth, I'm more bothered by the thought of a world without Pokémon. It's honestly no wonder you've been so motivated to become a Pokémon trainer. You're making up for lost time."

"I feel like I’m getting a lot of mixed messages here," I said.

Steven's smile deepened.

"Then I'll give you a single one instead."

He placed his cup down on a small table he had next to him, then stood up and straightened his suit. The clearing was silent outside the sounds of his clothes ruffling, and I felt the need to sit up a bit straighter.

"Alex, on behalf of the Pokémon League, I truly thank you from the deepest depths of my heart for everything you've done. The source of your information and the world you’ve come from do not matter; it’s your actions that show who you are.

“You might not be ‘unimportant,’ but your importance is so major that the dissolution of several different criminal organizations can be traced directly back to you. You have stopped years of criminal acts from occurring, and have prevented victims from becoming victims. Not only that, but advancements in several different fields of research have been pushed forward by years.

“Everything you’ve done has made the world a better place.”

His Pokémon all cried out their names in support of that statement, and Steven casually sat back down to resume drinking his tea.

"There. Feel better?" he asked.

I wiped some tears out of my eyes.

"I do. I really do. Thank you."

"Anytime."

We sat in silence a bit, and the conversation eventually started back up, shifting to less serious topics.

"So what do you plan on doing next?" he asked.

"Getting stronger," I replied.

Steven raised an eyebrow.

"Today just shows that even though my Pokémon are decent in battle, we have a long ways to go to match up with the strongest trainers. Not only them, but I need to improve myself physically, mentally, and strategically, as well. I could travel around the region, battling in Gyms and all that, but I think my team and I would benefit from a period of just dedicated training. I’ll be honest, I’m partially motivated by not getting caught up with anything that goes on around Ash again, but I also know with how things work, I’m going to find myself doing so anyway in one way or another.

"I think... if I'm heading to Jubilife anyway, I might as well go to Canalave, instead. I can compete in both a Gym and a Contest there, and hey, Iron Island might be good to train for my goal."

"It is," Steven said. "I trained there myself, in my youth."

This time, I raised my eyebrow.

"You're in your youth right now, though."

"I know what I said."

"You should stick with Ash,” I continued. “I remember the name Alamos Town, but I don't remember if that was where the movies to advertise Darkrai or Shaymin took place. That might be happening soon, and even though at this point I know the anime is pretty accurate, it’s probably best that you’re there to make sure it goes well if one of the region’s Legendary Pokémon shows up."

Steven paled but nodded.

“So, other than whatever you choose to do with Ash, what do you plan to do, Steven?”

The way his face brightened, I knew he was about to talk about stones.

“Well, I have been staying near Ash for a while, and while he does get up to an unusual amount of encounters, most of them tend to be pretty harmless, or initiated by that Team Rocket gang. As long as I stay within Claydol’s local range, I’ll probably be headed to The Underground to mine for rare stones. Tell me, does Black Augurite ring a bell?” he asked.

I shook my head. Steven seemed mighty pleased with himself.

"Then I might have a surprise for you once you're back. Not a gift, just something to show off."

I sat up.

"Oh! Speaking of gifts, here," I said.

I reached into my bag, pulled out something I'd had for a while, and tossed it to Steven.

He looked stunned.

"I know you didn't get to meet Diancie, but this might be the next best thing. She managed to conjure it using a shard of Xerneas's horn, so I imagine it's both permanent and one of a kind. As a stone collector, this is probably extremely valuable to you."

Steven held the large pink diamond in his hands, turning it ever so slowly to take in every side of it. Despite a wild Pokémon making it, it looked like it had been cut by a professional.

Tears suddenly started to drip from his eyes. I looked away. He was having a moment.

"...Thank you, Alex,” he said. “This will be the peak of my collection."

For the rest of the night, our conversations were a lot more lighthearted as a lot of what had been bothering me was now out of the way. At times, Steven would focus on the diamond from Diancie, giving me plenty of time to think about my steps for the future.

Even with everything that happened today, I still felt like I was moving in the right direction.

===================================================
Author Note:

Alex won't be around for the Darkrai Movie (the movie set in Alamos Town), but I'm half tempted to write an interlude from Steven's perspective as he goes through it with information from Alex. I'm still debating if that's worth a dedicated chapter, though, so tell me what you think.

This chapter was based off of the twentieth episode of the Diamond and Pearl anime, Mutiny in the Bounty! There are too many changes to reasonably here, but I will mention that in that episode, Ash and co. encounter Hunter J when she steals Melodi’s Gardevoir within the first thirty seconds of the episode. This time around, Alex was there, so things quickly spiraled out of control.

Pokémon mentioned in this chapter:
Absol
Drapion
Gardevoir
Meowth
Nosepass
Pikachu
Salamence
Skarmory

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