CHAPTER 5: REUNITED

Outside Moon Continent Explorers Guild, West Coast Branch

After Alcremie and Ben’s parents went their separate ways at the town square, Ben, Lena, Ryan, and the guildmaster headed north from there. Before long, they had arrived at the local branch of the Moon Continent Explorers Guild. It stood out some distance from the rest of the town, surrounded by the remains of concrete foundations. The structure featured a brick façade, two wide open doorways, with the remnants of wooden doors rotting away on the edges, and a wide concrete staircase leading up to the doorways. In between the doorways was a plaque that read ‘Town Library, est. 1924 A.D.’, written in English. The plaque was in poor condition, with the name of the town in particular having been scuffed beyond recognition. This obviously used to be a human library, and Ryan wondered how it hadn’t deteriorated beyond salvaging like the lighthouse had before realizing that pokemon are capable of a lot more than he gave credit.

I don’t think I’ll ever look at the pokemon games the same way again, he thought. Though, now I’m curious about what happened to the humans of this world if there actually aren’t any left. I’ll have to ask someone besides Lena at some point, someone who actually knows.

The quartet passed through the doorway and into the main hall. On either side of the hall were walls constructed from stone and logs, which presumably were not a part of the original structure. In the ceiling were what seemed to be electric lights, but Ryan assumed they were luminous orbs or something.

This particular branch of the guild could get very busy, even though not many civilized pokemon live on this side of the Lairondacks compared to the east side, which had several large cities. Even still, there were not very many pokemon going about their business.

Probably most of them are out doing missions right now, he thought. Soon, that’ll be us; doing missions, meeting people, well, pokemon. Maybe someone I meet will even help me accomplish one of my goals!

“Welcome, children, to the Explorer’s Guild!” Felix announced, his voice booming in the high-ceilinged room, getting the attention of the few other pokemon in the room.

“Hey, we’re not children!” Ryan protested. “I can’t speak for Lena, but Ben and I are nearly 21!”

The lucario shrugged. “Well, sorry, but since you three aren’t evolved, you look like children.”

Ryan grunted in protest, but the trio decided that they should drop the subject.

“Anyways,” the guildmaster continued, “it’s time for the tour!” He led the trio around the main room, showing them corkboards with job listings posted to them, including rescues, escorts, and outlaws, as well as the mess hall on the left wing of the first floor, and the sleeping quarters, which occupied the second and third floors. There were also communal bathrooms on those floors, and Felix paused the tour to let the trio clean themselves up, as their matted fur was still caked with mud from the dungeon. Coming back down the massive staircase in the center of the hallway, Felix then took the newly cleaned trio to the right wing.

“Lastly, we have the infirmary. Sometimes, we will have explorers who have to heal up in here, but more often, the beds are occupied by rescued mons until they’ve recovered from whatever kept them from continuing on.”

At the moment, though, most of the beds were empty, but one bed had a small electric squirrel with mostly white fur but yellow cheeks and blue ears and stripe down its back, and it was currently asleep, snoring loudly. A floating lei and a small green pokemon with red flowers on its head and green and yellow leaves that form a skirt were currently monitoring the pachirisu in its sonorous state.

“Wait here while I get your badges,” said Felix as he left the room, “and a bag for Ryan.”

“Why can’t we just come-” Lena began before realizing he already left. “And he’s already gone. Fantastic.” She crossed her arms petulantly, leaning against the wall in wait.

Ryan, however, felt drawn to the bed with the pachirisu in it. He drew closer before the comfey and audino got in his way.

“And just what do you think you’re doing bothering our patient?” The audino asked, crossing her arms.

“I feel like… that pachirisu, it seems familiar somehow…” the eevee said. “Where did you find it?”

“On the side of the road to the Lairondacks,” the comfey answered, “but are you one hundred percent sure you know this pachirisu?”

“Yes,” Ryan half-lied. He wasn’t entirely sure that the pachirisu was, in fact, who he thought it was. It was the way the squirrel was snoring that made him think, maybe…? “But just to make sure,” he continued, “do you know it’s name?”

“I think I heard him mutter something about a ‘Terry’ earlier, but I don’t remember for certain. Why don’t you ask him yourself?” The comfey fed the pachirisu a chesto berry to wake it up, and the squirrel stopped snoring and started to open its eyes. It yawned.

“Ohh! That was a good rest!” the pachirisu said, not having noticed his unfamiliar surroundings yet. “I had the strangest dream though, that I got into an argument with my nephew, and then a portal exploded, and then, uh, the rest was a blur but, yeah, weird dream.”

Ryan sighed, knowing he no longer needed to ask the pachirisu anything. “Yep, that’s my uncle. Honestly, surprised I found him so quickly.”

Terry, who hadn’t yet realized that he was no longer a human, now took a look at his surroundings. He saw a lot of beds, some large windows that let in a lot of sunlight, and a few strange creatures that he didn’t recognize. “Ryan?” he asked. “I heard your voice but I don’t see you; where are you hiding?”

The brown fox-like creature carefully hopped onto the bed, opened it’s mouth as if to speak, and, to Terry’s surprise, it did, and in Ryan’s voice, too. “It’s me, Terry; I’m Ryan, I’ve been turned into a pokemon, and we’re in a different world from our own.”

“Pokemon?” Terry asked. “As in, that kids game about the colorful monsters?” He then added, “Pretty sure pokemon can’t talk either… maybe I am still dreaming. I think portal explosions can induce comas…”

Most of the surrounding pokemon looked at Terry as if he was insane. Ryan groaned. “You seriously don’t believe me?” He called over to Lena. “Lena. Mirror me, please.” The sneasel walked over and passed Ryan her mirror. “Thank you. Now, uncle Terry, you may want to mentally prepare yourself, because… you were transformed, too.” He showed Terry his own reflection, revealing to the pachirisu his new form.

“Okay, now I know I’m dreaming,” he said. “People don’t just… up and completely change their entire physical being!” He hummed. “Although… I am kinda cute though…”

“For the last time, you’re not dreaming!” Ryan shouted, before smacking Terry on the cheek with a forepaw, and the pachirisu yelped in pain. The eevee then realized that he had just hurt his uncle. “Oh shit oh shit oh shit I’m so sorry,” he apologized hurriedly as Terry rubbed the spot he had just been slapped.

Terry didn’t answer, his eyes wide with shock. Ben looked from the foot of the bed, confused.

“Uh, Ryan? I think you broke him.”

Ryan turned to face the litten. “Didn’t you know? You can’t feel pain in a dream. I think he finally realized that this is all real.” The eevee ducked down, covering his ears. “I’d cover my ears if I were you.”

The five pokemon all braced for a loud yell from the pachirisu, but nothing ever came. He merely had an expression that read looked like he was in the middle of an existential crisis as he stared down at his hands- well, paws.

“…I… I got nothing,” he finally answered. “No words can express how I feel right now.” He shook his head in disbelief. “No amount of research or planning could’ve prepared me for something like this! But honestly, I can’t even say I’m surprised! The portal must’ve done something to my DNA when it exploded and brought me here. I-I’m speechless!”

The other pokemon just stared at him. “What?” Terry said in an oblivious tone.

It was then that guildmaster Felix finally returned with the scarves and badges for the trio, as well as Ryan’s new bag. “Ryan! Other two! I got the things for your team! Got a name for it yet?” He noticed the scene that was happening at that moment and put a paw behind his head. “Oh, uh… is this a bad time? I can come back in a bit if-“

“Wait, how do you know my nephew’s name?” Terry asked, surprised.

“Ryan’s your nephew?” The lucario asked, and the pachirisu nodded in response. Felix continued, “That would either mean… Ryan lied about being human, or you’re a human also.” The lucario tapped a digit to his muzzle. “…and Ryan doesn’t seem like someone who would knowingly tell a lie to someone, aside from maybe to protect themselves…”

Terry nodded again. “Yeah, I can vouch for that.”

“So, you are human, then,” Felix said. “Can I ask you how much you remember from before you woke up?”

The pachirisu hesitated, and Felix waved a paw.

“Don’t worry, you can trust me,” the lucario affirmed, “but can you please answer my question?”

“Okay,” Terry said, racking his brain. “Well, besides my humanity and having a nephew, I remember working with machines, I can recall names and faces, and I also have my memories from the last two weeks, but everything before that is… ironically enough, fuzzier. Not gone completely, but definitely missing some details…”

Lena came up to his bedside now, eyes sparkling. “Machines? Do you think you could build one that can peek into my memories? I want to see if that could help me remember anything.”

“It would be more difficult when I’m what, one-fifth my usual height? But given enough time, and the necessary parts, yes, I probably could do that.”

“That would be great… if we knew where what parts you needed and where to get them… but I’m proud of you, Terry,” Ryan said, crawling a bit closer to the pachirisu. “You made it through a whole conversation and not once have you said anything stupid!”

“Thanks, but I have one thing left to say to you.”

“Okay, spill it.”

Terry took a deep breath, and said, “What da dog doin’?”

Ryan sighed. “I take back what I said.”

After a final check-up, Terry was cleared for discharge. Since he didn’t yet know how to walk or glide in this new body, he had to perch on Ben’s shoulder. As Lena went to the lighthouse to bring Ryan’s backpack back, the other three went to their team’s new living quarters. The discussion between Ryan and Terry greatly confused Ben, as many things he didn’t understand were mentioned, including ‘spatial energy’ and ‘multiverse’, so he tried to change the subject to something he might actually be able to get an understanding of.

“So,” Ben started, reclining on his bed in their shared living quarters, “Terry, now that you’re a pokemon in a new world, what are you gonna do with yourself?”

“Considering it hasn’t even been that long since I woke up, I haven’t really thought about it,” the pachirisu answered, lying down on his back and staring at the ceiling, “but, I’ve been Ryan’s caretaker since he was 12, so I may as well continue to fill that role.”

“Wow,” Lena said as she entered the room and set down Ryan’s bag against a wall. “An engineer AND a father figure? What a full life.”

Ryan was less pleased by what Terry said. At least they aren’t asking further. I’d prefer to tell them about it on my own terms.

“Oh,” the litten said. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“If what you think I’m saying is ‘I want to join your exploration team,’ then you’d be correct,” Terry answered. “Now, I don’t know how to fight yet, so I’d have to practice that, but-“

“Who cares about what you’re about to say?” Ben exclaimed. “Of course you can join! In fact-” The litten gestured towards a desk pushed against the window. On the desk sat an electric blue cloth, a badge, and a tan pachirisu-sized burlap bag on it. “-I think the guildmaster anticipated that you’d want to join up with your nephew when he left during your check-up.”

Ben helped Terry put on his gear, donning the cloth like a bandana. “Yeah, this is fine and all,” the pachirisu said, “but you know what would be even better? A pair of goggles! Goes well with both my engineering and exploring career paths!”

“Sure, we can get you some goggles,” a smiling Ryan answered from his bed as he tried to write the events of the day in a spiral-bound notebook. “I think they’d suit you. Now, we should come up with something to call ourselves-“

From the center of town, the bell in the clock tower rang out six times, indicating that it was 6 in the evening, which was when the guild’s mess hall opened for dinner.

“Oh, sounds like the team name can wait,” the eevee stated. “We gotta go eat. I’ve hardly eaten a thing since I got here, and I’m sure it’s the same for you.”

The quartet headed out the door to go eat, and Ryan smiled as he looked back at the room.

Since I found Terry so quickly, I bet the other goals will be accomplished before I can say ‘exploration’! And, I won’t have to go it alone either! Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.

After he passed all the way through, Ben closed the door behind them, leaving the room empty.