Chapter 30: Dimensional Deals

Her dream was a mistake. Everything she has ever done was a mistake.

Her father was right, she was useless, no matter how many times she tried and tried again, she always failed to get anything done correctly. Everything that she has endured for all of these years, everything that she has gone through was all. For. NOTHING!

Her life had no meaning anymore, all of those promises that she has made, all of those countless times she said her dreams would be accomplished, never came to fruition. All a lie, all because of this cruel, wretched, and evil world. 

As she walked through the soft grass of the forest that she used to live in, her mind wandered back to the last attempt that she has tried to do something useful to this wretched society…

“Why!?” She asked loudly while banging on the desk with her hands, her mind filled with confusion and rage. “Why won’t you accept my plan!? Think about all of those lives out there this plan could save! People would be happy, Mister Greyson!”

The man across her sighed, the wrinkles and grey hairs showing that he was in his early 60s. “I am really sorry Miss Niijima, or should I say Niijima-san?” He said with a bit of satire in his voice. “Either way, our company, unfortunately, cannot afford your plan to come to life. We just don’t have enough funding for it…”

She shouted. “Bullshit! You can’t fool me that easily! This is the richest business company in the entire fucking state and you claim to not have enough funding for a plan like that!?”

“I know how you feel, but I’m telling the truth, we just don’t have enough money for that. We would love to put your plan in motion and help out the people in need but we can’t-”

Suddenly, Niijima interrupted him in a calmer and more menacing tone as her face darkened. “But you have enough money to move drugs while staying undetected?” The man stayed in silence, his eyes subtly widening. “Yeah, I’ve known about it for some time now, after all, my parents were one of your subordinates before they were arrested. And after some investigating, all tracks led to you.” She folded her arms behind her and looked out the window. “You know, I’ve tried having this plan be accepted by other companies, but they all rejected it. Your company was the last one I’d try, just to see what’d happen…”

Mister Greyson stayed in silence before putting his hands on his desk and taking a long sigh. “I ask that you leave my office, our conversation here is over. Don’t make me call security…”

The young woman narrowed her eyes, showing an expression of hostility before she sighed. “You know, I won’t sell you out for the cops, not like they’d do anything in the first place in this evil world… after all, just like many others, your money will make you a free man anyways…” She said before leaving the room, gritting her teeth as she banged the door.

This world is rotten, there was simply no salvation for it. It was doomed to fall because of the evil creatures that roamed around the place. They would do anything just to fulfill their selfish desires; lie, trick, gaslight, betray, and even kill , only to just achieve what they want. Human nature knows no bounds…

Betrayal stung a lot to her. Her best friend, the one that stuck with her for the entirety of her teenage life, was among evil all along. Behind her back, she insulted her, laughed at her, threw dirt all over her name, and when she found out about it, everything shattered around her. All of the happy memories she made with her, all of the laughs they had, and all of the suffering they endured, were nothing more than just an act, just for her to torture her as sadism was part of her true nature. Why was she so… evil?

Why was humanity so cruel and heartless? She didn’t deserve to be born among monsters while wearing the skin of said monsters.

She finally reached it, her favorite spot in all of Pennsylvania, the cliff close to her old home, where she could see the entire town from there. The wind was blowing as usual there, lifting her long hair a little with the flow of it. She looked up, seeing the blue skies and white puffy clouds clearly as the sun loomed over the horizon. She had to admit, one thing she found beautiful about this world was the environment and the wildlife, it was one of the best things that came out of this dying planet. 

Her lips curled as she looked to her side, finding her favorite spot she used to go to. Even after some years, that same tree she used to sit under still stood, not claimed by urbanization or bad weather. Memories flooded her mind of the several times she went there to draw, to listen to music, to play Pokémon, just to escape from the cruel life that always seemed to follow her wherever she went. But that didn’t matter anymore.

Nothing mattered anymore.

Her face darkened again as she looked back towards the ledge of the cliff, slowly walking up to it. She stopped at the tip of it, her feet becoming uneasy as they adjusted to the unstable ground. She looked down, seeing the massive drop that the cliff offered as she started taking shaky breaths. She looked up again and closed her eyes while steeling her emotions before opening her arms, leaning forward before…

She fell.

And fell.

And fell.

And fell.

And fell.

And fell.

And fell.

And fell.

…

She didn’t hit the ground.

…

Niijima-san slowly opened her eyes, only to see that she was floating in a void of nothingness. Everywhere she looked was only darkness, with no sign of anything showing up. “Where… am I?”  

Suddenly, that void started to fill in with swirling colors, making the environment around her feel alive and vibrant. Where was she? Was this… how the doorway to the afterlife looked like? 

Hello there. Welcome to the portal to the world of Pokémon.

An ethereal and booming voice rang throughout the entire space, making the young woman look around, trying to find the source of the voice.

Before I allow you to enter, I’d like for you to tell me more about yourself through some questions. Are you ready?

She hesitated in speaking as she kept looking around. “Uh… y-yes…?”

 Excellent! Let the interview begin! Let’s start with the name first, could you tell me your name?

She stopped looking around and just stared in a certain direction. For some reason, she felt some of her memories start slipping away from her mind. Nonetheless, she answered her name. “A-Alisson… Alisson Niijima…”

At that, the voice kept asking her random questions, one being more random than the others while some felt too close to her. However, something else was bothering her, every time she wanted to seek out memories referring to the questions she was being asked, she almost found no memories, like they were slowly disappearing from her mind as the questionnaire continued. 

After some minutes, the questions were finally done.

Alright, the questions are done. Normally, I’d suggest the form you would like to pick and then let you choose not only that but also a partner, however, the being that asked me to bring you into the world already said he had the perfect form for you, even though he doesn’t know you… but since he said that this was more urgent than other cases like this, I couldn’t help but oblige. But anyways, you’re all set! Let’s get you into the world of Pokémon, shall we?

A heavenly and glimmering noise could be heard behind her. She turned around to find a golden and sparkly glow that seemed to grow and grow even more, slowly starting to envelop her. Alisson braced before a white flash filled her entire vision.

…

A grunt, a shift of position, and a deep breath. After those three acts, Alisson stirred awake, groggily opening her eyes as she slowly regained control of her body and mind. She looked around slowly, seeing the new environment in front of her. “Huh…? Where… am I?”

The place that she was in… looked deserted and surreal. Across the dark dirt, several dead trees, teal-colored bushes, and some rocks felt unnatural to a place like this. In the skies, swirling vortexes of purple and blue swirled around the place along with some floating islands made of the same material on the land she was standing on. 

Another thing to note was her body. She knew she was supposed to be a human, but whatever this body was, it had paws and a tail, and humans didn’t have those if she remembered correctly. She would’ve freaked out a little about this, but for some reason, she lacked the energy to care enough…

Suddenly, a large shadow passed by her, making her hackles rise a little in defense. She remembered humans having fur, but not that much. She then looked at the source of the shadow that was descending towards her slowly. It looked like some kind of edgy floating serpent with large spikes on its sides, black tendrils ending with red tips, and a golden helmet around its head. Even though the appearance was intimidating, for some reason, she still felt so neutral about it, like seeing it was completely normal for her. Has she seen it somewhere else? Well, that might be true, because she had a feeling that she had indeed seen it, somewhere else… but where?

The large serpentine entity suddenly cleared its throat before speaking with a deep voice. “Are you Alisson Niijima by any chance?”

She nodded. “Yes… I am…”

“Good, that’s good. My name is Giratina. We can discuss more things at a later date, but right now, we are in a hurry, the entire world is at stake here. So, that’s why I need you to accomplish a mission for me, understood?”

She had nowhere to go, she couldn’t remember anything, and she couldn’t even tell what is her main goal. So she had to take the offer from whoever this Giratina is. Maybe, with this mission, a lot of her questions would be answered, and her main goal would be clear. “Alright then, I accept.”

---

“Um… John?” Whispered Claire.

“Yes…?” The Joltik whispered back, thinking if it was a good idea to do it in the middle of the class. Well, the talk of the other students might shroud the topic.

She took a small glance at the Pikachu teacher who was texting on his phone after having some things written on the blackboard. “Don’t you think that new teacher is… acting a bit suspicious lately?”

John ignored the intrusive thought in his head on a certain term and looked a little at Ark. “What’s uh… what’s the issue with him?”

The vixen looked aside, unsure if someone might be listening. She whispered more closely to the Joltik. “I keep noticing he keeps taking glances at you. When I was reading the board, I noticed that he was looking a lot at you… does he…”

The greenish tick shivered a little bit. There was no way that a teacher that just entered a school and taught students for a day and a half is that close to discovering his secrets, right? “Nah… it just makes no sense…” He glanced back at the teacher for a moment and realized the Pikachu’s black and white eye was aimed directly at him for a moment before looking back at his phone, floating idly in the air. John shivered a little before he looked back at the fire Vulpix. “I uh… I think you may have a point… but I still don’t think he knows…”

“Should we-”

“John and Claire?” Ark suddenly called, making both the six-tailed fox and greenish tick look at the Pikachu while trying to hide their nervousness. “May I talk with you two later in class?” He crossed his arms with a smirk as he landed on the teacher’s desk. “I feel as if you two haven’t been paying attention to class. I wanna see if there’s something we can talk it out.”

The ice Vulpix giggled and grinned. “Wow Claire, you’ve been acting like a bad student lately, getting called out by almost every teacher here.” She continued giggling along with her loyal friends. 

As they laughed, Taro, Amy, John, and Claire just glared at them with their eyes narrowed. Meanwhile, Cerbera just looked away, whistling a random tune as he tried not to be caught up in a warzone. 

Ark sighed before putting his phone away and clapping his paws. “Okay, that’s enough bickering, no need to make a battlefield on a classroom. I’m not gonna give a warning, just a small check, alright?”

John gulped in nervousness. His thoughts were having a civil war between themselves, tearing each other apart with claims saying that it was over for the Joltik and some others saying that it was just a normal talk with the teacher. Well, he shouldn’t worry this much, he’s been through that song and dances two times already, but unlike those times he was a student now. And with his obviously true backstory that he was a 10- or was it 15 years old…? Well, around those two ages.

After John’s internal war ended much more quickly than he expected (perhaps he was getting better at controlling his jumpy reactions), he was quickly formulating answers on his tiny spiderling brain for any questions the teacher might throw at him and Claire. 

Ark crossed his arms as he spoke. “Okay, back to class. Have you guys ever entered a Mystery Dungeon before?” All the students nodded, making the Pikachu’s head tilt a little as he thought about it. “Oh yes, now I’m remembering that you were that group of Pokémon that went to Jingle Jungle Woods. Welp, that should make this explaining subject easier.” The Pikachu started floating again, grabbing his chalk and floating to the blackboard, where John just now realized there was a hasty drawing of a map in it. It seemed that Ark may have been right, he wasn’t really focusing on the class that much… “So students, can someone tell me what this crude drawing is?” The electric rodent asked as he pointed the marker at the map.

After some hesitation, Claire answered. “It’s a… map of a Mystery Dungeon?”

Ark twirled the chalk on his paw fingers before pointing it at Claire. “Correct, Claire.” He then pointed back at the blackboard. “Today we are learning about the layouts of a Mystery Dungeon. As you may have noticed, the Mystery Dungeon layouts are quite linear, even if the outside environment doesn’t match up because of it being a kind of pocket dimension.” He floated to the other side of the board and focused on the narrow parts of the drawings. “Normally, a dungeon will have two common parts on its layout. The linear narrow hallways…” He then pointed at the wide areas of the map. “And the wide rooms, which have more space for confrontations.” He then looked at the students. “Small tip, when battling on those narrow hallways, always let the team member in front of you battle the Pokémon first, and if things get dicey, switch places with another party member so you don’t accidentally hit each other.”

The students nodded before some students spoke. “Yes, Ark!”

Ark let out a little smile before flying above the board and pointing at the drawing of a simple staircase. “As you know, every floor of the dungeon that’s NOT the last floor has stairs to progress to the next floor. However, there are some things to note, the first being that stairs only appear on wide rectangular or square areas, there were no records of them appearing in the hallways. The second thing about them is that they never teleport you to a hallway, only to a wide area, so always be prepared to fight in case enemies are waiting on the other floor.”

The students nodded in comprehension. However, John remembered something from the Hollow Forest, that tall white canine that was guarding the stairs. He raised his pointy nub and the Pikachu teacher pointed the chalk at him. The Joltik steeled his nervousness before asking. “Are there any possibilities of Pokémon guarding the stairs?”

Ark stared in silence at John before playing it off with a tilt of the head and flick of the ears. “Yes, there is a possibility of that happening, you just have to be really unlucky for that to happen.”

John nodded and looked aside, trying to not make as much eye contact with the teacher. “I see…” He then looked back at the teacher because he suddenly realized that not looking at him much will draw suspicion… like that funny hit game, A-

He shook his head from the intrusive thoughts in his head trying to make a joke to get his mind out of the tense situation. It was fine, Mr. Ark didn’t know and would never know. When thinking about something else, the spiderling realized that Mr. Ark sounded awfully like a certain name that he’d heard somewhere.

Eh, it was probably nothing.

After some time, the bell rang and the students were on the break period. John hopped on Claire’s head before leaving their seats. Before they could leave the classroom, however, the Pikachu called them. “Hey.” The fire Vulpix and the Joltik looked at the Pikachu. “I’m gonna grab some stuff in the teacher’s room. Meet me at the library, alright?”

Both of the students nodded and left the classroom, seeing the teacher make a smile before they turned away. “So um… what do we do now? If we don’t show up, he definitely will think we’re hiding something.”

The greenish spider sighed and responded. “We’ll go there. Don’t worry, I’ll think of something so we don’t get found out, but you’ll have to play along perfectly for that to work, alright?”

The six-tailed fox nodded determined. “Count on me!”

Claire walked to the library, carrying John on her head and they encountered a door unlike the rest. It was wooden and had two handles for tall and small Pokémon. Using the small handle, Claire opened the door and John was greeted with a rather cozy sight. The library was a bit smaller than John expected but was big nonetheless. Bookshelves containing a myriad of books related to history, science, theories, and novels lay spread across the wooden-made room, some Pokémon students, both big and small, sat on wooden desks reading some books that John couldn’t see the contents. In the center of the room, there was a round desk with a small yellow and black bipedal Pokémon with a huge-ass second crocodile-like mouth behind it that looked a little like a ponytail. 

John shivered at that sight before chalking it up as another Pokémon weirdness as usual. If that was the librarian, he hoped the conversation with Ark would be as quiet as actual silence. As Claire walked to find a good spot to wait, John took a couple of glances at the titles of certain books: “Fire and Water War” , “Compilation of Tips on How to Survive in a Mystery Dungeon” , “Legends and Myths of the World.”, “Mystery of the Marked Mews” , “Echoes of Time”, and “Warped Skies” , among many other titles.

The Joltik suppressed a flinch once he saw an adult title that was not supposed to be there. How did someone sneak that in with the amount of awareness that Pokémon have in their surroundings? Hell if he knew, but he had to give props to the Pokémon kid that managed to sneak that in. “Teenagers…” John muttered silently to himself.

Claire noticed that John said something but quickly waved it off, thinking that he was probably just nervous about the situation. The fire-breathing fox found a spot a bit isolated from the rest of the library and sat around a small table that was fit for her size, sitting in a hay seat and letting John jump on the table. “So… what’s your plan for when he starts the questions?” 

“Simple.” John whispered before turning to Claire. “We’ll answer normally, leaving a few details out so that it doesn’t make him discover the truth, then, if he starts asking more personal questions, then we’ll call him out. How does that sound?”

“Great!” The Vulpix beamed in a low voice before realizing something. “Wait, why are you whispering? No one can hear us here if we talk in a low voice.”

The Joltik looked aside and lied. “Eh… just trying to be extra safe in case anyone tries to eavesdrop on our conversation.”

“Ah, good point.” The Vulpix looked around before she spotted a certain book. “Oh, that’s some nice coincidence!” She said before getting up and grabbing the book from the bookshelf with her muzzle. She walked back to the table and put the book on it, letting the Joltik see the title: “Human Legends, History and Folklore in the World” . “I think this was one of the books that kinda started my admiration for humans. I didn’t know there was one here in the school library.

“Huh…” The Joltik inspected the front of the book. It was red with some purple outlines on the edges of it. It looked old, some of the materials composing it were either rusting or decaying. He then looked at the drawing on the cover, seeing simplistic drawings and depictions of a human. John said nothing as he slowly opened the book with a bit of effort with his small body. He flipped through some pages, noting that the text was written, of course, in English. “So uh… what’s this book about?”

“It’s basically a bunch of historical events, theories, and legends about humans in general. This book just showed me how mysterious humans were and I kinda wanted to know more about them!” She then looked aside a bit ashamed. “Although uh… I kinda became obsessed without really realizing.”

“Well, at least you got over that obsession…” Doubt could be noticed in the tone of his voice, but at least Claire didn’t notice. John focused on the book again, flipping through a couple more pages before something caught his eye. On a certain page, there was a photo of a sign with something written on it in a different language. The photo looked old, but what caught the eye of the spiderling was what was behind the sign, a massive abandoned and rusting factory. “Huh…?”

“Enjoying a bit of reading?”

John and Claire turned their attention to the voice behind them. The teacher, Ark was walking towards them with a bag strapped around his shoulder. John closed the book and shoved it aside as quickly as possible. Just reading a human-related book means that it would be easier to identify who he really was, so he had to just say that it was a book he found on the table and just decided to take a glimpse. Simple enough. “Hey, Mr- I mean, Ark.” John corrected himself.

The Pikachu chuckled. “Still getting used to it, I see. Well, it’s like that when you’re used to directing most of the teachers formally.” Ark put his bag on the table, sitting on a hay seat beside the Vulpix. “You don’t mind if I sit here, do you?”

It took a second for Claire to respond with a sheepish shake of the head. “Oh, no, not at all.” She said while smiling sheepishly.

“Great then!” The electric rodent beamed, adjusting himself so he didn’t sit on his own tail. “Alright, you guys remember what I’m here for, right?” Both students nodded. “Great then, let’s get this out of the way.” With a calm smile, he rested his arms on the desk and spoke a single word. “Human.”

Both Claire and John flinched with their eyes widening for a second before they regained their composure, John asking after doing a fake cough. “Uh… why did you say that word?”

Claire looked aside a bit nervous. “Yeah, uh… that was so random.” 

Ark clasped his paws and smiled gently. “It’s simple, I just wanted to get a reaction from you two, and it looks like I got a hit.” He then focused on the Joltik on the desk. “You’re a human, aren’t you?” 

John looked aside, backing away a little. “I… I’m not-”

“Don’t worry, I’m not with the guys that kidnap humans and turn them into monsters.”

Claire and John let out a surprised reaction at that piece of information being dropped on them. The Vulpix asked, stuttering a little. “H-how did… how did you know…?”

Ark smirked before crossing his arms and closing his eyes. “Remember that Scizor with antennas?” Both students’ eyes widened at that realization. “Yep, I’m his…” Ark looked aside for a moment a bit in thought. “… closest friend and partner, but unlike him, I’m with the task force.”

John looked aside, a bit ashamed of himself. “So he knew…?”

“Kiddo, next time, don’t try to make fake stories on the fly in front of a private detective.” He said before opening his eyes again. “He had suspicions, but no confirmations yet. So that’s why he sent me to watch over you. Honestly, the way you act and your entire body just doesn’t help in hiding your true identity.”

The Joltik sighed before looking down disappointedly. “Figured that was the case… and it seems that applying to this school didn’t help in anything…”

“Ah, no, it did help.” The Pikachu disagreed. “The reason why I found out was because I already came here knowing about you.” He tilted his head, his ears tilting to the side as well. “Tell me, do some of the teachers here already know about your identity? I asked one of them about you and they seemed to be covering for you.”

“Well, only two know about me so far… I can assure you they are good guys as well.” John said, looking at Ark again.

“Good.” He said with a relieved smile.

“Say…” Claire began, looking to the side before looking back at him. “What are you gonna do with this information? Pass it to Reino and the police department? Do you even know if any of them aren’t working with the bad guys?”

Ark clasped his paws with a hum. “Well, you got the first part right. However, I’m not gonna pass that to the task force. I am well experienced to know that some Pokémon there are corrupted easily with either drugs, money, or power, especially power. If what Reino told me is right and there’s a mastermind behind all of the Corrupted Pokémon, then it’s a case that requires private investigation in case police departments get bribed with money.” His only visible eye glistened with determination. “That’s why I’m working with Reino to solve this case as soon as possible.”

John found something weird about that statement, however. “Why are you in on this case if it’s dangerous as hell? Like, I know you at least have a sense of justice and all but… I think this is way beyond you and the higher-ups in your department might notice you acting on your own and take your badge away from you.”

The Pikachu stared in silence at John before shifting his position, crossing his arms. “That’s a simple answer. It’s because I’m involved in this case as well.”

Claire tilted her head in confusion. “What do you… mean by that?” 

Ark then pointed at John. “Because, just like John, I’m also a human.”

The Vulpix and the Joltik stared at the Ark for an awkward moment of silence before they both spoke in unison, conflicted and in disbelief. “What…?”

Ark smirked, already knowing that would be an expected reaction. “You heard me right.” He crossed his arms again. “I’m a human just like you.”

They still stayed in silence. John just couldn’t believe it, there was just no way he was lucky enough to speak to another human in a situation similar to him. Just what are the chances of that happening twice? Unless the number of humans is higher than expected… but John wanted to confirm if Ark wasn’t just joking with them. He took a look at Claire and saw that she was a bit stunned, however, showing no clear signs of her obsession which was a good thing. He turned to look back at the Pikachu with suspicion. “Prove it.” That made the Pikachu tilt his head, his smirk still not dropping. “Tell me, where did you use to live in the human world?”

“America.” Before John could ask a deeper question, the electric rodent continued. “I lived in Utah, but I’m actually native to India.” He crossed his arms. “In America, I worked in the police, and just like in this world, I work on the task force.” He then opened his bag and started rummaging through it with his paw. “And if you want physical proof…” He then took out of the bag a badge and put it on the table in front of the Joltik. It was a shield-shaped badge with a blue circle and a white star in the middle, that had the words “Patrolman Salt Lake City Police Utah” engraved on it. “This badge was with me when I got sent to this world.” He tilted his head. “Is this proof enough for you?”

Both the Vulpix and the Joltik stayed in silence despite the amount of proof and information presented to them. Claire looked unsure of what to say, she knew none of those locations to prove if their teacher was speaking the proof. And that badge… just didn’t look like any of the badges that she had seen so far in this world. Claire turned to John with an inquisitive look. “So… is he really a human?”

John’s mind was racing with questions, he just wanted to double-check even more to see if this was some trolling or not. But no, he had all the proof necessary, and Ark, indeed was a human. “Holy shit… I… you’re a human… like me.” The Pikachu nodded. “I… I never thought I would speak with someone in the same situation as me…”

“Neither did I.” Ark said as he crossed his arms, smiling genuinely as he did so. “But I’m glad we did, especially in times like these.” The disguised police officer put his badge away and took out his phone, seemingly typing something in it.

Claire’s heart rate was accelerating a bit. Not only has she met one human-turned-Pokémon, talked to his friend, and gone into the human world, but now here she was speaking to another human-turned-Pokémon. Everything in more than a week. Her mom was right, this cycle was about to be different in every different way and she couldn’t be more happy about it. Her tails were wagging again from excitement- wait, her obsession was getting to her again. She needed to do something to make the realization that she was between two humans go away. She looked at the Pikachu’s phone and asked. “Hey… what are you doing?”

“Texting someo- eh… you guys at least deserve to know, he won’t get pissy about it. Texting Reino with confirmation of his suspicions…” Ark explained before he frowned a little. “Huh, so soon…?” The Pikachu muttered as he looked at his phone. “Jesus, he’s getting a bit desperate…” He then put his phone back in his bag before turning to John and Claire. “Alright, I’ll go straight to the point. I didn’t come here for small talk, there’s something else that me and Reino want from you both.”

John tilted his head a bit confused. “And that is…?”

The Pikachu clasped his paws while taking a deep breath. “We need your help.” The two students tilted both of their heads in confusion. “And before you ask, no not that kind of help that requires you two to be out there on dangerous stuff, leave that to the professionals. What we want is just information.” Ark crossed his arms. “Reino said that you two might have some useful information, so I wanna confirm that suspicion.”

“Info regarding what exactly?” Asked Claire.

“Anything, really. It might help with some minor cases or something else entirely.” He looked at John. “After all, it’s proven that most of the time humans are sent here to solve major problems, so they always attract trouble wherever they’re summoned to. So, you might have something that’s been troubling you recently.”

Claire tilted her head. “If that’s the case, what was the big trouble that you wound up dealing with?”

“A mafia boss.”

The Vulpix’s eyes widened a little at how the Pikachu said something so big with a casual tone. “I-I see…”

John hesitated a little, unsure if he should share the current situation with someone else from the police. However, this was a human he was talking to. The one who would know best what to do in this situation is another human. “So… Ark… do you know the company that, like… created computers and cellphones here?”

“More like just transported our stuff to this world…” Ark commented with a huff. “I’m not sure if you noticed, John, but almost every device looks like the ones from our world. Like almost no slight differences whatsoever.”

John looked aside. “It’s the first thing I noticed when I came to this world too.”  He then looked back at the Pikachu. “And that’s not even the biggest issue… the internet is where shit starts getting real.” 

“What about it…?” Ark asked as he tilted his head. “I mean, sure, it’s just another copy from our own and for some reason, we can communicate with our world… which is cool and all but that’s still kinda weird and gonna cause a lot of backlash on both worlds once they figure out.”

Claire tilted her head. “Wait, if you already knew, why aren’t you worried about it?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure both sides are gonna take it pretty well, not like we can go to their world anyways.” Ark said with a casual shrug before the two students at each other with a frown. The electric rodent looked confused as he asked. “Why those faces?”

They both looked back at the Pikachu and John said a little hesitant. “So um… apparently, Asuri can go to our world.” That made the undercover teacher flinch a little, asking silently with a tilt of the head. “Look at the facts dude, how can they copy everything from scratch and make an exact look-alike by just the descriptions that humans gave?” John then went inside Ark’s bag, and with a lot of effort, he took out the Pikachu’s phone and put it on the table. “They took over Twitter.”

With an expression of disbelief, the electric rodent went to open the website that he didn’t pay much attention to in the two months that the internet was a thing in the Pokémon world. He opened the website and typed in the Asuri CEO’s name, Alice Mishima if he remembered correctly. And lo and behold, just in a few posts, he found a post that made his entire body shiver.

---

---

John looked at the tweet, noticing some changes from the last tweet he had seen from Alice. The biggest changes were that she now had the Asuri logo as her profile picture and the verified Twitter checkmark beside her name. The Joltik looked back at Ark’s face to see a surprised and disbelief expression. He took a deep breath and looked at John again. “Is there something more to add about them…?”

John shook his head. “No… I just got a bad feeling that they’re up to something… like, why go through all this effort to just bring technology to this place? They’re definitely hiding something…”

Claire added with a snort to the side. “Yeah, and from what John said about the Twitter owner, he would never pass ownership unless threatened, meaning that these guys are prone to use violence at any time…”

Ark just looked away in thought for a moment before looking back at the students. “That information may be useful. I think this matter is more serious than the Corrupted Pokémon…” He put his phone back in his bag and put it on again, getting up from the hay seat. “I’ll contact Reino about this, thanks for the info, Claire and John.”

“You’re welcome, Ark.” John said with a smile on his fuzz.

The Pikachu waved it off. “Actually, my real name is Mark. Ark was just an undercover name, but don’t tell anyone that, alright?”

John tilted his head a little before it clicked. Ark was just an anagram, wasn’t it? “It kinda makes more sense now…” He muttered to himself.

“Oh, I see.” Claire noted before something came back to her. “Oh wait, we forgot to tell you something.”

The Pikachu crossed his arms. “What is it?”

“If you’re planning to investigate Asuri with Reino, next week on Friday we’re gonna go to their museum in Xander Cage City. If I remembered correctly, Alice will be there.” 

The Pikachu made a thoughtful look while closing his eyes before looking back at the Vulpix. “Well then, makes our investigation easier then. Normally, I wouldn’t recommend kids-”

“I’m 20.” John corrected, interrupting Mark.

The electric rodent looked at the Joltik a bit confused and surprised before clearing his throat. “Well, sorry for that.” He would ask what an adult was doing in a class full of teenagers later. “Anyways, it’d be helpful if we worked together when we are there. Keep an eye out for any evidence that may show Asuri’s true identity, alright?”

“We will, don’t worry. See you, Mark.” Claire said as she waved her paw as John silently did the same.

“See you tomorrow guys. I still have some things to ask John.” He smiled. “It’s human stuff of course.” He said before walking away.

The bell rang once again and Claire and John were walking back to their classroom. “Hey, John?” 

“Hm?”

“I think our chances of exposing Asuri doubled, didn’t they?” Claire asked with a grin.

John smiled in relief. “Yes, I think they did.” Not only that, but he finally found someone who was in the same situation as him. He hoped that once this was over, Mark would teach him the ropes of how to be not only a Pokémon, both in culture and actions but a human-turned-Pokémon stuck in a situation like this. Which begged the question… how long was he there before him? 

Tomorrow he would ask him.

---

A long-haired woman walked through the prestige and clean hallways of the White House while holding a tablet on her arm, going fast on her heels with a nervous expression on her face. How can a simple call that the White House received just change the place from a calm and collected work environment into a chaotic hellhole?

Out of nowhere, the White House secretary received a call from the new owner of Twitter, a woman named Alice Mishima who, once researched, was revealed to have a shady profile. Then they dug a bit deeper and found some massive red flags, all in the span of minutes. 

The news wasn’t joking when they said that those photos found on her Twitter posts were not the work of photo editing software.

What made the place plunge into chaos, however, was when she said she would like to speak to the President . 

They thought that it could be a prank, however, once the secret services of the government tried to track the location of the phone call, they couldn’t find anything, even with the most advanced tracking programs in the whole world, no exact location of the caller could be found. Suddenly, one of the workers just straight out said it could be aliens searching for our leader. The Senate, of course, dismissed that idea… but what if it is aliens wanting to make first contact?

The woman finally reached the door to the President’s office. With a heavy sigh, she opened the door and looked at the man she sought out. From the looks of him, he looked like he ranged from 40 to 60 years old, even though people knew he was 55 years. The man had crispy black hair, some gray hairs being visible as well, along with a small beard. 

In the office, along with the President, there were his bodyguards on each side of the room, and some well-dressed men and women alike, their voices and faces each showing signs of panic, probably because of the recent news of minutes ago. Even though the recent news got to him, the President’s face was covered with stress rather than concern or panic, definitely because of all the talk happening in the room at the moment.

Well, definitely after the news she was about to give him, he would probably be even more stressed, concerned, AND a bit panicked all at the same time. She hoped that wouldn’t be the case.

The woman loudly cleared her throat and adjusted her fringe, shutting up the garbled talk inside the office. “Mr. President.” Everyone looked at her in silence, the President, Paul Freeman, included with a look of hope amidst the chaos. The woman walked to the wooden desk where the President was sitting before turning to one of the employees, the one in question being blonde. “Bring a screen here, now.”

“Yes, ma’am!” He said before sprinting fast out of the office.

“Marie, please tell me you brought me good news…” President Freeman tiredly said with a hefty sigh.

“Apologies for the sudden entrance, Mr. President. I come with a bit of sudden and worrying news…” The woman said while looking aside in nervousness.

“Is it the Chinese government? Just to add one more thing to my stress?”

Marie shook her head as the blonde man came back with a large flat screen on wheels. She looked at it for a moment before looking back at the President. “No… it’s from Alice.” Everyone in the room (except for the bodyguards) stiffened as they heard that name. “Apparently, she doesn’t want only to do a call with you, but a video call.” She explained as she raised her tablet. “Do you accept?”

President Freeman looked thoughtful for a moment, his wrinkly face forming a grimace as he thought about the possibilities of what this call would ensue. Despite all the ways this could go wrong, the man sighed and said his answer, ignoring the flinches of the other people in his office. “I accept.”

Marie stiffened a little but showed no signs of it. “Understood.” She looked at the guy who brought the TV and nodded to him, the man immediately turned on the big remote screen with no issue. After tapping a few buttons on her tablet, she transferred the call to the big screen, Alice’s company logo appeared on her profile picture. A woman employee put a microphone on the President’s desk and connected it to the screen.

President Freeman tensed for a moment, clasping his hands in nervousness when there was no voice on the other end of the call. He hesitated a little before speaking as the screen turned on the camera. “Ms… Ms. Alice?”

After a moment of agonizing silence that built up their anxiety, the camera on the other side of the screen turned on, making everyone who was looking at it gasp in disbelief and shock, except the President. Inside the screen, showed a figure that was slightly obscured by shadows, however, some of their features could be seen in the live feed of the video. Paws with green fur being clasped together, a piece of cloth resembling a flower around the neck, some kind of dark green mask, and her left red eye were visible through the darkness like her photos suggested. 

None of those traces looked like a good video filter or special effects you only see in movies.

They flinched once they realized that the figure blinked and spoke with their feline mouth moving, suggesting that she wasn’t wearing a costume. “Hello, President Freeman.”

The White House employees were stunned once they saw the creature speaking, even Marie looked like she froze in place. The President, trying to act like the fearless leader of the best nation in the world he is, got his act together. “So, you’re the famous Alice Mishima that I’ve heard about, a Pokémon, correct?”

She chuckled. “Indeed, the one and only, flesh and bones as well. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” She said while bowing her head.

Freeman analyzed the dark environment in that Alice currently resided. He couldn’t figure out the details, but it appeared she was sitting in a chair behind a desk in a large room. To the side of the camera, he could see another figure, but he couldn’t flesh out the details since almost no light was reflecting on them. The man focused his attention back on Alice and nodded his head. “Pleasure to meet you as well, Ms. Mishima.”

“You’re taking my presence better than expected, unlike the others I had contacted so far.” She shifted her position on the chair and rested her head on her paw, a small bit of light showing a feline smirk on her masked face. “You’re on my list of likable humans so far.”

The President suppressed a gulp, trying not to sweat in the sheer pressure of talking to another creature that for some reason knows English. She said that she liked her so that probably meant that humanity and… Pokémon kind(?) were on good terms. So he could probably ask… “What is the reason behind this call?”

Alice’s expression didn’t change, her smirk still present on her face. “Straight to the point, huh? Well, you must be a busy man, of course, so it’s understandable.” She sat straight in her chair, resting her green-furred arms on the armrest. “I’d like to make a deal. A deal to form a bond with Pokémon kind and humankind so both species coexist in peace.”

After the shock has settled, the employees and the secretary tilted her head confused. President Freeman asked. “Coexist? What does that mean? Does that mean you were living among us in the shadows?”

“Nope, we exist in an entirely different world, parallel to yours.” At the drop of that information, the people inside the room, even the bodyguards, were stunned by the new info, the President even flinched a little before straightening a little. Alice couldn’t help but snicker a little at the reaction. “I’m pretty sure you heard about the multiverse theory, it’s pretty common among human media after all.” The bipedal feline clasped her paws again. “However, our worlds are different from other universes, we share a connection. Check the internet lately?”

“She’s… right…” Marie said, the shocked expression slowly being replaced by a nervous one. “These last few weeks… there have been reports of hyperrealistic creatures everywhere on social media. We ignored it, thinking it was some kind of stunt, but… it was actually real all along.”

“So you’re saying… the internet has been tieing this world with your world?” The President asked.

The Meowscarada grinned. “Precisely. We don’t know why the internet of your world appeared to us since we thought we were the ones who created the internet originally. Now look at us, being connected by a web that’s combining the two worlds. When we discovered that, we knew that we had to make contact with the other world as soon as we could.” She lifted a paw finger. “We may be separated through different dimensions but that doesn’t stop some of us from traveling there.”

Freeman sighed. He couldn’t let the movies made by American media dictate alien stereotypes, so they should at least hear what they have to say. “Say, what does this deal entail? Will it be harmful to anyone?”

Alice responded with an assuring smile. “Not at all! This deal we’re doing is just a simple trade of technologies and such. We might have computers and the Internet of course, but there are some things we saw from your would that we would be delighted to have! Like those airplanes that can travel in the air at really fast speeds, they seem useful to cross continents without taking much time.”

The brown-skinned man nodded. “They indeed are.” He clasped his hands and thought for a moment. He remembered a little bit about Pokémon and how they work normally. He thought about the Pokémon that could teleport normally. If there are creatures like that in the world, why would they need planes? Well… unless the teleporters have a high price on their services than public planes then it would make more sense. Now… to the big question at hand… “And what do you have to offer in your part of the deal?”

At that moment, Alice let out a big grin. “Oh, many things…” She got up from her chair and started pacing in front of the desk, revealing her entire body as she walked. “You see, I’ve been researching your world a little. After all, to strike a deal with the leader of the biggest nation in the world, you must know the other’s culture to have a better understanding of their needs. And in that research, I discovered something terrible…” She stopped and looked at the camera again. “Your world is rotting.” She fully turned to the camera, a small portion of light shining on her paw as she lifted her paw fingers. “Poverty, pollution, mass deforestation, wars…” She then folded her arms behind her. “And that’s only the tip of the iceberg, I’m afraid.”

The President grimaced at that statement. The internet has been around for more than two months for them and these creatures already discovered the dark side of the world? It seems that these issues were far bigger issues to the state of the planet than what the masses had thought to be. Marie, with a scowl, asked in concern. “We know of such issues. If you state them, that means you could solve most of them?”

“Oh, we can’t solve most of them.” She then opened her arms, letting her leafy appendages extend behind her. “We can solve all of them!” The employees gasped in stunning disbelief at such a statement, even the President’s jaw dropped a little. Alice’s voice could be heard rising a little on the other side of the call. “We have the power to heal nature-” She summoned a bouquet of small flowers on her paws. “-cure all illnesses, even incurable ones, and even end wars so that peace reigns again! And as a bonus, we could even give you the art of teleportation as a method of transportation!” With a flick of the wrist, the flowers disappeared from her paws before extending the same limb toward the camera, smiling. “So what do you say, Mr. President, do you accept the deal?”

President Freeman was… stunned isn’t a good word to describe what he was feeling. It was like a wild and destructive storm of emotions and thoughts raced in his head. He didn’t know what to think about this situation, no one knew. He just got the best offer that the leader of any nation in any world would be delighted to hear, and the way to get that offer was just to offer their tech to them? No, it was too good to be true, there must be some secret meaning behind all of this, there was no way it could be that easy. Since he was the first one to calm down after receiving such news, as best as he could, he calmly asked, almost stuttering his words. “Why are you making this deal with us? What else do you gain besides our trust and technology?”

She put one of her arms behind her and lifted a finger. “Simply nothing. I only want the best for both species to thrive and live happily in the lives that they have been given. It was my wish since I was a kid.”

The President considered the Pokémon’s words for a long moment, the employees, secretary, and even the bodyguards looked at Freeman with expectancy and concern for what he would say. He took a long breath before finally saying his answer. “I… I accept your offer.”

Alice clasped her paws when she heard what she wanted. “Wonderful!” She smiled gladly before folding her arms behind her back again. “Even though the base of the plan is already established, we still need some time to fully prepare everything until we can safely meet in your world. So I would like to keep this deal we made a secret from the public for now. After all, after a deal like this, imagine what the populace would do just to hasten our preparations.”

“Not only that… it would be the cause of even more wars…” Freeman muttered to himself before nodding. “Alright, everything that was said here will only be kept between us and the other people in this room. We will vow to not say anything to no one else.” The President shot a stern glare at all of the people in the room, they all silently nodded while doing a salute. 

“That’s appreciated. Thank you, Mr. President, for this wonderful opportunity to work in tandem with your species.” She waved at the camera. “I hope this deal will expand our relations even further soon. I will contact you again once the preparations are complete. See you until then!”

“… Same as well, Miss Alice.”

The call ended and a sigh that Freeman didn’t know he was holding escaped his mouth. How could a call like that be even more nerve-racking and stressful than a meeting with the Chinese President?

Marie brushed away her fringe and looked at the President, nervous sweat plastered all over her face. “Sir… do you know if that was a good idea or not?”

The man didn’t answer and instead turned his chair to face the window. He looked outside as his mind began to have conflicting thoughts. ‘I hope I’ve made the right call. As dangerous as those creatures are… they could prove beneficial to us and America as a whole…’

He could only hope that good things indeed come out of this deal he had made.

---

The lights flickered on and Hoopa floated to Alice’s, a nervous grimace on their face as they twirled their fingers. “So… um… did you really mean all of that? Was everything you said… true?”

Alice turned away from the camera, looking at Hoopa with a warm smile. “Of course, I meant all of that Hoops. It’s the main reason for Project Wonderland to exist in the first place!” She then looked away from them as a more menacing tone entangled in her words. “However, I didn’t mean that this plan was for everyone. Some beings don’t deserve that kind of mercy, and of course, must be eliminated so they don’t even get the chance to savor the pleasure that has been offered.”

Hoopa turned away with a grimace. “I… I see…”

Suddenly, a growl made them turn their heads toward the three-headed Lycanroc with black fur, looking at a small mirror. “Enemy… big enemy…” The middle head said.

“Raphael? What’s wrong dearie?” Alice asked while tilting her head.

The three-headed canine stopped growling and looked at the Meowscarada, sitting on the ground before speaking with the right head. “Enemy… gone…” The left head spoke next. “Master… safe…”

The CEO noticed major red flags appearing around the place. Why did Raphael just growl at the mirror out of nowhere, and what was he talking about? What enemy he was talking about? … unless…

Alice shrugged and went to pet the Lyranroc on the middle head, making his tail wag a little. “Don’t worry boy, it was nothing to worry about. I’m safe and I’m not getting hurt anytime soon, got it?” The dark and fire type nodded before the Meowscarada scratched him on the chin. “Good boy, Raphael, hehehe…”