2 Chapter 1-Do I Choose You?

I had been an ordinary Pokémon fan; I played all the games to a certain point, I had memorized a good deal of the moves, as well as abilities, but even with all of these things the games started to grow boring. I remembered how excited I would be before each new Pokémon game would come out. How I would go through all the strategies I could think of. I remember all the games I threw into the back of my junk pile, (organized mess) when I realized each game wasn't as exciting as the anime I grew up watching.

Truly it saddened me more than anything to watch the hateful amount (or lack thereof) of realism in the games. My only wish was to actually take care of the Pokémon as you would in a real (even if anime themed) world. I wished there could be training that would be more personal to each Pokémon and its trainer. Over all I wished the Pokémon world would become real. Yet it wasn't, still I wanted a partner who I could walk beside as an equal. I wanted a friend...

I thought back a bit into some of my past. A bit of the early bullying I dealt with even starting from elementary. *This part is true, even about my life. So, before anyone calls out that this part is ridiculous. I know first-hand it's not. Kids don't care and they state what they feel and think is the truth. * The people who talked down to me, and sure, while not all were like that as most minded their business, I had no person in particular who was there roughing it out with me. That loneliness ate at me, and some might say surely there was someone who would talk with you throughout the day. I guessed that was true, what with the teachers, my parents and other adults being there. But people on my level, who I could communicate fully with, without having to hide things that they might dislike, or they thought weren't as interesting as a kid might, I missed out on. The best summary of my life was that, while I wasn't an emo, I definitely wasn't some happy kid either.

After I finished my thoughts on the games I played, and my past. I started to walk downstairs to go get some breakfast. My house was a three story building. It had been left after my parents' death in a traffic accident a couple of years before. The house was up on a mountain, well it was more of a reclusive log cabin admittedly than some everyday family home, but it had been here for me since birth. It has been a total of 23 years now that I thought about it, but still nothing seemed to change about this place.

I took a breath of fresh air and walked outside to the porch over the deck I had walked over time and again. I thought of how old the building was with every creak of a board or plank. I felt the familiar floor creaks with its lowered spots here and there that seemed even weaker than before. The porch was admittedly the worst for it, which brought my mind to it, but as I walked to the edge of the porch, I heard a louder creak than usual underneath me in exactly one of these dips. Instantly startled and terrified I tried to jump away, however I was a bit on the fatter side lately, having relaxed more with nothing immediately going on around my life. I found myself in a moment of need, unable to do a thing to save myself. It was at that moment of weightlessness I realized something. One, I shouldn't have been slacking on working out. Just cause my life was bad didn't mean I had to make it worse on myself. It was in that second, the porch had finally grown too old for my weight. Over its many years of life, I now found myself in a situation where mine would soon be over. Any chance of finding a friend; a partner was gone. A chance to find someone I could connect with as a romantic partner was over; I fell through the flooring of the porch and into the forest down below to my unsurprising death. My final moments of recognition brought a multitude of thoughts rampaging across my mind.

I wondered if there was a way to change what I had experienced if given another chance. Like going out and trying to reach out to others more. Maybe I could have also just tried doing that VR chat thing to see if someone would talk. Even if I doubted it would work, but it was worth considering with a small hope, wasn't it? Now I would have none...

----*--_--*-- Emotional line break-------*-_-_-_-*

I felt like I had just awoken from a nap that lasted centuries fully refreshing my mind, and as I started to gain consciousness, I had a single thought, 'Looks like I'm still alive somehow.' Looking around I noticed cotton stuffed Pokémon plushies; some were creatures that I didn't even recognize the look of. Yet, I was strangely at the same time completely sure they were Pokémon. I wanted to freak out at first wondering how long I had been in a coma, for a whole new series to come out. It was when I opened my mouth to shout that memories unlike anything I had ever experienced, started to enter my brain. They weren't mine and yet they were. It took a moment to recollect myself and confirm just who I was and the things I liked to do. According to the newest memories I had, I was Lazaro, and according to him against all logic I was now in the fictional world of PokéEarth. I was surrounded by creatures known as Pokémon, which were as real as cats and dogs in my original world.

The memories I had experienced told me a story of a boy that lived, in a region of this world called Kanto. The place "Ash" the main character of the original series came from. "Strange," I mumbled under my breath. The memories were messing with my sense of self. "Did I just reincarnate, or is it that transmigration thing, honestly I never really understood the difference." The question brought a little excitement to my heart. 'Also was my voice squeakier!?'

My disbelief was a lot stronger, but seeing as I had new memories, and I couldn't exactly just shrug off that point I decided I needed to just go through them one at a time and figure out exactly what my situation was like and how I should react to all that was happening. Searching through my mind I quickly found that in this life I was an orphan, and as such I could meet one of the professors or their assistants to get a common type of Pokémon as a starter, but those like myself, who were star students in the Pokémon Training Academy had another chance beyond just this. Any star student in the academy could gain "proper" starter Pokémon directly from the Famous Professors and a Pokédex including professor Oak basic knowledge on various Pokémon.

Though it did seem it came with some sort of attachment clause that stated professor Oak was entitled to help from trainers who accepted the device in research of various new species of Pokémon. Things such as them calling for protection in a dangerous area as they researched the life there, or maybe following leads to new Pokémon that exist and capturing them. There also seemed to be some sort of commemoration points that could be traded in for various research results, moves, unique martial arts for your Pokémon and so on. This even included certain rarer resources. Unfortunately, common stuff couldn't be found in the store. Probably so the value of the points didn't dilute from countless cheaper items getting introduced into the economic system. At the end of consideration, it boiled down to the process of "Hey!!! I'll get this Pokémon for you if you tell me how to keep my Pokémon in better health or if you give me, blank such item." 

Ash was also considered a unique star student in this world, though that may have something to do with who his father was or something. While he was terrible with theory and book related knowledge. His instincts were spot on, and his ability to communicate and understand Pokémon was a lot higher than anyone else in class. In fact, his ability shone at a level that made people feel suspicious if he had any relation with an Aura Guardian.

His story, however, wasn't the important part of this situation. Mine was, and so with that I got back to focus. Now I knew a lot of non-Pokémon watchers who didn't know a thing about this world would find themselves out of place in the hustle and bustle of this world. Especially with the sudden attitude change that could be witnessed in the majority of people compared to the world of before. Since I had personally found myself now in this place, I decided to give myself a bit of a refresher on things I needed to remember so I wouldn't stick out as much and try to improve my work attitude in the short term.

Pokémon are creatures with sentience and emotions that allow them to empathize and bond with people and other species of Pokémon. Sadly, Pokémon still have animal DNA in them, and as such are bound to show certain behaviors and aggression within certain situations. An example would be Rockruff who would lash out at people when it was getting ready to evolve. Some are even cursed to eat other certain species of Pokémon until a trainer can get them synthetic Pokémon food which is a type of food that's a mixture of berries and certain types of vegetables ground into synthetic meat. Even if this wasn't done, certain Pokémon like slowpoke typically lets its tail get cut off in order for there to be a consistent amount of meat for certain Pokémon to survive without killing being an absolute necessity in this world. It made me wonder about Arceus's attitude towards life, and how things would differ in this world thanks to that.

A Pokédex on the other hand was a device that recorded and reported information on all the discovered Pokémon that exist within the Pokémon universe or region that a person might find themselves in. Using this device you merely need to point the camera of it at a Pokémon and take a picture. The device also acts as an Id and way to trade or teleport Pokémon between two people or places that they are kept at such as day cares, professor observatories, homes, or even ranches that a family might own.

I also reminded myself that Professor Oak is the most well-known Pokémon Professor having made the first Pokédexes' himself. He lives in the Kanto region, which is where I currently live and he is considered a semi-retired man. He has officially retired but still studies new facts about Pokémon for his own enjoyment at his own rate.

Thankfully, for my own health and safety in this world I was now in, I was a top student of the Pokémon Training Academy and professor Oak had accepted to give me my starter Pokémon, which meant I would be under his people from now on. I also realized from my memories that I managed to beat Green, a certain main character of the Pokémon games, replacing him in the Pokémon elite trainer selection for this year following this world's history and that seemed to be the only major change so far. I couldn't help grinning as I thought about the guaranteed Pokédex and starter heading my way. Looking a bit more at my memories I started panicking as I realized that today was when I was supposed to pick up my new Pokémon partner. My emotions weren't stable and ready enough to make the best logical decision for a new journey, but I had no other choice but to do it now. Otherwise, I'd be left with nothing as the professor wouldn't give a starter to a lazy person who slacked off at the most important moment. I wouldn't even gain the backup Pokémon as the Pikachu that was chosen was destined to be Ash's chosen through time travel shenanigans.

Besides I wouldn't do that even if I could. Their friendship and partnership grew strong in their time together, and it wasn't right for me, an outsider, to change that. I also needed to consider the main point being that the world relied on the duo a few times especially in the movies to survive and save the world from destruction, and I surely didn't want to die (again) especially not so quickly for such a stupid reason as getting greedy. As such I decided to get the Charmander or Bulbasaur that's shown in the show. I also needed to start considering my future team. Ash ends up giving his Pokémon up a lot when he changed seasons, and I didn't want to see a Pokémon hurt because of that. Especially knowing the sentience of Pokémon. It's just not right. At least to somebody who craved that experience for themselves their entire life.

My thoughts paused and I had the stereotypical thought of, 'Why was I accepting everything so easily?' 'Why wasn't I freaking out. I was being odd, weirdly rational, and I was OK with everything that was happening. Why was I doing that? Was it because the memories had affected who I was? Did I think this world was now more my own than Earth was? Thinking about it a bit more I knew that it wasn't exactly true. I still felt things about my memories, future, and even the situation now. Earth was still where my heart mostly belonged, and while it was true that the new memories changed some experiences in ways. I still thought out and acted similarly to who I lived longest as before this merger. I was probably just in shock over everything I was learning and starting to tune certain things out.

Still the emotions from this life and potential for connections that I now had wasn't something I could just throw away as nothing either. I had nothing before and this was a new chance. I knew that, and the desperation mixed with emotions from both of these lives acted upon who I would be from now on. It was similar to how a person would react if they were stuck in the past over something that was once again brought up into their face. All I could do was hope that I could make new friends and family in this world, yet experiences also stung and that dragged up things I didn't wish to think on. I was being a bit naive in my actions and I could tell.

Usually I kept mostly calm in situations, but with the urgency at which everything was happening. I couldn't figure out how much my new younger body affected how I spoke or what stress was too encompassing for it just yet. Everything about how I was acting also contrasted in small yet subtle ways mixing in a unique manner thanks to the new thoughts. However I felt there was something more from what I had gained. Something I couldn't quite grasp yet. Almost like I had snatched something and stuffed it into my soul. Like I was more, more. I couldn't describe it as anything else. Casting the thought off for now since I had no idea how I should even try figuring out, that. I continued my train of thought on preparation for which Pokémon I would pick.

It took me a while to come to a decision, but once I had I immediately went all out planning my every detail to the fullest. I started doing all of this while completing what seemed to be normal morning routines for this life. I had decided on Charmander, because even if I needed to protect him from the rain for now I knew that he would definitely become something that I would need with his future flying ability as well as his power in fire which I could use to make campfires so I wouldn't fail trying to survive my road trips across this world. This brought up another couple notions though. I know that Pokémon in the game would only have one ability, so would that same idea respond to this world? Were they limited in what they could accomplish? The other idea I had was how far the research on abilities are in this world, because in the Anime they're not really shown but once or twice such as with Ash's Charmander and Chimchar and a couple of Gym leaders.

The idea of secrets being hidden in broad daylight made me curious about this world I was walking forward into. Interrupting my thoughts I found a lab in front of me that seemed to have an aura that had soaked into it for decades. I found that this building was a lot different than what I was expecting from my first life. Still everything made sense when you looked at the needed facilities for such a place and took in actually how large it had to be. Looking at the time I realized that I was a little late give or take a couple of minutes, but it should still barely be fine. Still, I started dreading walking into the building with a likely annoyed professor ready to scold me.

Still things would only get worse if I didn't go in, and so I walked towards death only to find a man sitting down in joy. Professor Oak was sitting on his stool in happiness watching his Pokémon that he took care of for so long, finally go out into the world on their own journeys. Looking at him I realized a bit of the pain that went into taking care of the Pokémon here. It was a little similar to being a mixture between a teacher, a doctor, and a parent all as one. Coming off slightly sterner than a normal father would be, but completely acceptable given the case. The man also had to separate with the ones that he raised just like a mother that watches her children depart the nest unsure if they'll make it. No matter the risks involved. It made me a bit more trusting of the old man past what I knew of his future and how he acted in the shows. No man who treated a young life like this, was bad all the way through. No matter who they were, or at least I believed.

"Good morning professor," I introduced myself in nothing but respect for the man. "Good morning young man," the elder smiled as he brought out two Pokéballs. A device that separated space to give a small accommodation to the Pokémon that lives inside "All the Pokémon that are left are these two little guys. He clicked on the two buttons and at once they were revealed. Charmander the Pokémon I had set my heart on, and Squirtle which made me realize that I needed to get a water type as quick as possible for a safe water supply. Looking at the options I knew I wasn't gonna take Garry's Squirtle after my decision earlier that morning. So I took my first steps into my journey.