CHAPTER 27: BACK TO EARTH…?

Robert’s Spaceship

Staring out the window, Ben watched as the sky gradually turned from blue to black, and as the land and sea below got smaller and smaller, losing noticeable detail due to the distance. He let out a whistle.

“What a perspective,” he mused. “You just don’t realize just how beautiful the planet is until you see it from hundreds of miles away…”

Ryan nodded in agreement.

“Eh, I’m not impressed,” Kori said. “Once you’ve seen it from space once, it’s not that special anymore… although the commander does tend to think otherwise.”

Ryan nodded in agreement. “Yeah, now that you mention it… I am kinda over it by now.” The glaceon got down from the windowsill to go to Riley, who was still intently attempting to read one of the magazines despite holding it upside down.

“Trying to learn to read, eh?” he said, looking at the magazine. It featured information about all the latest innovations relating to space travel, and he could hardly wrap his head around half of it. “Personally, I would start with something easier than ‘Popular Space Mechanics’ but-“

“Leemee alone!” Riley said, waving him off, much to his surprise.

“Oh,” Ryan said, chuckling. “Alright then. Have fun… I guess…”

He walked off toward the bed, intending to lie down for a bit until the ship arrived.

It’ll be a while before we arrive, he thought, and I don’t know what else to do right now…

“Just a few more minutes and we’ll be there!” Robert announced from the pilot’s seat. “Martin, you may want to reillusion yourself.

Thought too soon I guess, he mused as he climbed back down from the bed. He then knocked on the door to the pilot’s cabin.

“Is it okay if I come in to see out the front?” he asked.

Instead of a verbal response, the door simply opened. It looked the same as the pilot’s cabin of an airplane back home, or so Ryan assumed, as he had never actually been in one. He hopped onto the seat that would have been for the copilot if there was one so that he could look out the front window. Standing out in the inky blackness of outer space was a space station that looked similar to the International Space Station except significantly scaled up. How he hadn’t been able to see it from the surface of the planet below, he had no idea.

“There it is… the Pernautica,” Robert said, gesturing in front of him. “Tens of thousands of humans and pokemon live and work on that ship, young glaceon.”

Ryan bristled at being called young, something he never really liked. “Hey, I’m twenty-one!” he shouted.

The man chuckled. “Still pretty young to someone like me,” he said.

With a hint of annoyance, Ryan hmphed and left the cabin. Robert just shook his head, a smile on his face as he prepared to park the ship. It gently touched down at the designated spot in the bay, and it was marked ‘Robert Padilla’s Personal Spaceship.’

“Thank you for flying with me, Robert Padilla, on my personal spaceship today,” he announced as the door slowly opened. “Please make your way to the exit and do not forget any of your belongings. I hope you fly with me again… not that those of you with a return flight have a choice…” He laughed before hanging up the speaker.

Jack came over to where Riley was still trying to read. “Come on,” he said, “you heard the man, it’s time for us to go.”

“Aw,” the eevee said, ears drooping as the sylveon wrapped a feeler around her to pick her up, “but I was trying to learn to read!”

“We’ll have plenty of time for that back at home, but for now, we need to get going,” Angela said as she began to head down the ramp. Jack then fed Riley a sleep seed to ensure she wouldn’t be any trouble while the others did what they needed to do on the Pernautica. After a flash of light, Martin took on his human illusion as everyone descended the ramp, with Robert making up the rear.

“Now, as long as you stick with Martin and I, all the passersby will just think you’re our personal pokemon and they won’t try to claim you as their own,” Robert said as him and Martin led the pokemon into the main corridor. “So, please stick with us.”

“Will do,” Terry said as the group stepped onto the automated walkway in the corridor’s center.

“Before we can go to the interdimensional portal,” the human continued, “we have to do a couple of things: I need to stop by the Command Bay so Martin can report what he learned, then we need to stop by the DNA lab so we can do DNA tests on each of you- don’t worry, it’s just a blood sample…”

“What’s DNA?” Ben whispered to Kori.

“To put it simply,” the shinx whispered back, “it’s what makes you, you. If I get a chance, I’ll explain in more detail later.”

“Then, if you’re all hungry we can stop by the food court before heading up to the portal room. There’s a lot of good restaurants there. The malasada shop in particular is to die for.” Robert paused, practically salivating at the thought. “On second thought, I think I’m hungry now. You all go to the Command Bay while I go pick up a malasada for myself; I’ll meet you all at the DNA lab on the third level from the top floor.”

Robert veered to the right on the next branching path, which had a sign overhead pointing to the food court.

“Guess that means I’m in charge of the group now…” Martin said, “though technically I was to begin with being his superior. Anyways… make sure to follow me.”

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After about ten more minutes on the walkway, a five-minute elevator ride to the very top of the ship, and a few more minutes of walking after that, the group arrived at the entrance to the command bay. After Martin inputted his code, he opened the door and let them enter. Everyone except Kori and Lena were impressed at how futuristic and sleek it all looked. Ben ran over to the meeting couch and began hopping on it.

“It’s so bouncy!” The torracat said, jumping increasingly higher. Riley, whose sleep seed had worn of by now, wrested herself free from Jack’s feeler and began to bounce as well, giggling all the while.

“Yeah, I’m… sure it is,” Ryan said anxiously. “But don’t bounce too high or you might-“

The torracat ended up bouncing so high that his head hit the ceiling, knocking him back to the faux hardwood floor, the impact causing further pain. The glaceon sighed and pulled out a lum berry from his bag, rolling it toward the injured cat pokemon across the floor.

“…hit your head on the ceiling,” he finished as Ben stuffed the berry in his mouth with one paw and clutched his aching head with the other. Meanwhile, Martin logged in onto his computer and began typing out all of the things he had discovered, between what he had managed to glean about the guild system to the bit about Transmogrium. Now comes the tricky part: does he tell the Chief that he and Kori were turned into pokemon? After all, he was worried that he might be terminated if it came out that he wasn’t actually human, even though a quick skim of the IEF regulations showed that they never once mentioned that a commander actually has to be human. In fact, the way they’re worded implies that any sentient creature could be a commander if they wanted to, and, although no longer human, he was definitely still sentient. Still, he decided he would rather not take the risk, opting to leave it out of the discussion. Fortunately for him, he knew Robert, the only other person aware of this fact, would never rat him out, at least not on purpose. With that, he saved the document and sent it out. He made a single clap and swiveled about in his chair.

“Now that that’s settled- hey, stop jumping on that!” Martin cried out, watching as the young eevee bounded into the air and pounced back down on the couch. He lunged forward to catch her, keeping her from landing on the couch again. Riley’s ears fell.

“Aw, but it was fun!” she whined, giving Martin puppy eyes. In response, the illusory human squeezed his eyes shut to resist the allure.

“Don’t give me that look,” he said, passing the eevee to Jack, who wrapped her back in one of his feelers. Riley whimpered again, and Martin cleared his throat. “Now that that’s been settled, we need to go meet Robert. He’s probably waiting for us right now!”

After Martin shut off his PC, the group of pokemon left the Command Bay behind.

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One by one, each of the pokemon, except for Riley, got a bit of blood drawn at the DNA lab at Robert’s request… after he drafted a Non-Disclosure Agreement about Martin and Kori’s transformations. After all was said and done, they were dismissed.

“We should have your DNA results ready very soon,” the technician said. “I’ll call you all back when we have them.”

“Thank you,” Robert replied as they all left the room. After they were back in the corridor, Robert asked, “Now, is anyone here hungry?”

“Oh, come on,” Terry groaned impatiently, “can we just go to the portal room already?”

“Okay, fine,” Robert said. “Right this way…”

He led them to another elevator, taking them all the way to the bottom, to the level where the interdimensional department operated. There was a large room with many workstations arranged in rows so that the people sitting at them faced a giant portal at the back of the room. The portal had a dim light inlaid spanning the circumference of the frame.

“There it is, Terry,” Jack said in wonder, “your ticket home.”

“Well, we all had fun together,” Terry said, hopping off of Ryan’s back for the last time, “but it looks like it’s the end of my time here.”

Ryan began to tear up, remembering that this is why they had come up here in the first place, and realizing that it was time to say goodbye to his uncle that had taken care of him for eight years. It may be true that he no longer needed to have any sort of guardianship, but it still stung to see him go. Terry noticed this and gave the glaceon a hug.

“I know… you’re gonna miss me… but… you were… like the son I never had, you know?” the pachirisu said. “I’ll make sure to visit as often as I can… I promise.”
After Terry let go, Ryan sat down, sighing sadly.

“So, um…” Robert said, “are you… ready to go?”

Terry simply nodded, and Robert smiled.

“Alright,” he called, “everybody, get to work! Activate the portal and sync it up to…” Robert turned to Terry. “Where are you from again?”

“Seattle, Washington.”

“No, I mean what universe?”

“Oh… Earth-1… that’s what I labeled it, anyways.”

“Okay… do you already have a portal frame on the other side?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, good. If there wasn’t, the portal activation system would have to materialize a new frame on the other side, using up more energy and taking more time. This makes the process far easier.” Robert turned back to the interdimensional scientists. “Activate the portal and sync it up to Earth-1!”

The scientists did as Robert requested, and soon, there was a swirling mass of blue energy within the portal frame, that, if passed through, opened out right into Terry’s Secret Lab, where all of this began.

Terry, who had to struggle and carry Ryan’s old backpack that had Terry’s things in it, gradually made his way to the portal. Due to his smaller size, and the bag, it took him longer than an average sized person would have. Any emotional heaviness that would have been in the air was ruined by just how long it took for him to finally reach the portal, including climbing the steps leading up to it. With one last look behind his shoulders, he took a look at Ben and Lena, Martin and Kori, Jack, Angela and Riley, and at Ryan. He then entered the mass of blue energy, disappearing into the other side without a trace. For a short time, nobody wanted to move from the spot, even though they realized that they would have to eventually.

Under a minute passed, and Terry came back through the portal, much to the surprise of everyone involved.

“You’re back?” Ryan asked. “Already? I thought you’d want to hang around back home for a while…”

“Well, I was going to,” Terry began as he started to walk down the steps from the portal, “but when I went through the portal… well, to make a long story short… when I came out on the other side… I wasn’t changed back. I’m not sure why, but even after I passed through, I was still a pachirisu.”