Pokemon : An Unexpected Journey

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Austin was in the middle of setting up the projector in the living room when he saw Alfred wheeling in a trolley loaded with an array of popcorn buckets. 

There was caramel popcorn, plain popcorn, chocolate-covered popcorn, and even ketchup-covered popcorn, alongside just plain kernels. 

Austin raised an eyebrow at the popcorn variety before realizing why Alfred had prepared so much as Lucario, Pikachu, and the rest of the Pokémon crew made their grand entrance into the living room.

"Shouldn't you all be sleeping?" Austin asked, noticing a dozing Yellow being escorted into the room by Wartortle, Ninjask, and Musharna.

"It's high noon," Lucario declared, cheerfully grabbing a bucket of chocolate popcorn.

Austin glanced at the clock. 

"12am. It's midnight, you demented old man," he retorted, earning a hiss from Dragonair as he passed an unopened popcorn bag to Ivysaur and Charmeleon.

Ivysaur munched on the kernels raw, while Charmeleon, in a display of culinary innovation, took a piece of butter, warmed it in its mouth until it melted, and then popped in a few kernels, which exploded into popcorn inside its mouth. 

Austin couldn't help but think, "At least he's happy," as he watched Wartortle and Ninjask use Shedninja's halo as a makeshift basketball hoop, tossing popcorn as the ball.

Meanwhile, Butterfree and Kitty the Beedrill were contentedly nibbling on sunflower seeds, seemingly uninterested in the popcorn chaos.

"Just put on the crappy movie," Kadabra telepathically complained as he floated into the room, bizarrely donning one of Austin's pajamas.

"I'm not even going to ask," Austin muttered, scratching Pikachu's head as the little electric mouse stretched its paws out for the ketchup-covered popcorn.

"You say that as if I was going to answer," Kadabra shot back, snagging a handful of cheese-covered popcorn for himself.

"Alfred," Austin called out, settling down as Musharna psychically positioned the sleeping Yellow onto his lap and then amusingly perched herself atop his head.

Alfred started the movie as Austin prepared his notebook, determined to note down every difference he could find in this version of "Men in Black." 

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[ A Hour Later ] 

As the movie wrapped up with a grand revelation that the universe was nothing but a collection of marbles played with by a giant Deoxys, confusion and wonder filled the room. 

Lucario, with a puzzled look, confessed, "I have never seen that Pokémon."

Alfred, ever the knowledgeable butler, cleared his throat before explaining, "Master Lucario, the creature in the movie is inspired by an old photograph taken by Apollo 11 during the moon landing. There are various theories about it—some say it was just a rock formation, others believe it was a Clefairy, and a few think it was the first extraterrestrial Pokémon spotted."

Lucario turned to Clefable, giving it a gentle poke. 

"Tell me, your moon god!" he demanded.

Clefable, caught off guard, looked desperately at Austin for rescue. 

Austin, trying to maintain order, said, "Lucario, stop bothering Clefable. That was just a very bad CGI Deoxys. Trust me, Deoxys is human-sized, not some colossal deity."

His explanation only led to more puzzled faces around the room. 

Austin, choosing to ignore the sea of questioning looks, focused on the notes he had scribbled throughout the movie.

"Let's see," Austin murmured to himself, scanning his notebook. 

"Most of the actors in this movie are different. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones aren't in it, which probably means they don't exist here. 'Men in Black' here is an indie film made by some girl named Hilda from Unova, not by Sony Pictures. The plot's mostly the same, but the characters and aliens are all different, with the roles filled by teenagers and the aliens portrayed by either CGI Pokémon or ones in very questionable makeup. This world really baffles me sometimes."

He stood up carefully, making sure not to wake Yellow as Pikachu and Chu-Chu were nestled comfortably in her hair, dreaming away.

As Austin stepped out of the living room, his mind was a whirlwind of thoughts, each one a thread leading to a different part of this bizarre, parallel world he found himself in. 

Alfred's voice broke through his musings, a gentle concern lacing his words. "Something wrong?"

"I'm just curious about something," Austin replied, pausing in his tracks. He turned to Alfred with a request that even he found a bit odd. "Alfred, do you know someone well-versed in pop culture?"

Alfred's eyebrows lifted slightly in surprise before he nodded. 

"The new groundskeeper. She used to work at a comic book shop before I hired her permanently."

"Good, bring her to me. I have a few questions," Austin said, before quickly retreating to his office. 

Inside the quiet of his office, Austin pondered the oddities of this world. It was so similar to his own in many ways, yet starkly different in others. The eruption of Pompeii in Hoenn, caused by Groudon. Legendary Pokémon as the equivalents of nuclear weapons. The moon landing, a result of a rivalry between Eastern and Western Unova. 

These parallels fascinated him. 

But why was he so fixated on these details? As he walked, Austin realized the potential of his unique position. 

By leveraging his knowledge of when each season of the Pokémon anime was released, he could piece together a rough timeline of future events in this world. It wasn't just about satisfying his curiosity; it was about preparation. He had learned the hard way the importance of being prepared for what the future might hold—lessons etched into his memory by experiences he wished to never repeat, like the incident with Raticate.

This line of thinking offered Austin a semblance of control in a world that continued to surprise him. 

When the groundskeeper walked into Austin's office, she seemed like any other person in her late twenties, except for the Rattata perched confidently on her shoulder. Austin, however, froze at the sight of the small Pokémon, his gaze locked onto the creature as if seeing a ghost from his past.

"Hello there, Sir," the woman said, offering an awkward bow that the Rattata mimicked, causing Austin to snap out of his reverie, but only just.

Noticing Austin's fixed stare, she hesitantly offered, "You want to touch?" 

Carefully, she placed the Rattata on the desk, watching as Austin, with a mix of hesitation and longing, reached out to pet the Pokémon. 

A few silent tears escaped him as he murmured, "Sorry about that, I had a Rattata once."

The air was thick with empathy as Alfred and the groundskeeper looked on, about to offer words of comfort, but Austin stopped them with a raised hand. He wasn't there for condolences; he had questions, burning questions about this world that seemed to play by a different set of cultural rules.

"Do you know who Walt Disney is?" Austin asked, hoping for a familiar anchor in this sea of differences.

The woman shook her head, a clear "no."

"What about Disney?" 

Again, no recognition.

"Marvel? DC?" 

Still, nothing.

With each "no," Austin's hope of finding something familiar dimmed, until he asked, "Okay, since you worked at a comic book store, what was the most popular comic?"

"Zubatman," she replied with a straight face.

Austin paused for a moment, his mind trying to wrap around the concept, before he burst into laughter. 

"Good one! Zubatman, eh? A billionaire playboy who dresses like a Zubat and fights crime?"

"Yes," she said, handing him a comic book of Zubatman. Austin took it, half-expecting it to be a joke, but there it was—a comic that looked like someone had decided Batman needed a Zubat makeover, complete with the style of Looney Tunes.

"Well, I'll be damned," Austin exclaimed, flipping through the pages of the Zubat-themed vigilante's adventures. 

Austin, still engrossed in the Zubatman comic, barely looked up as Alfred voiced the question both he and the groundskeeper were probably thinking: "Sir, may I ask why you are asking these strange questions?"

With a casual flip of a page, Austin replied, "Oh, I was thinking of starting an entertainment company. Thought I might snag Marvel before Disney gets a chance." The nonchalance with which he said this left Alfred and the groundskeeper exchanging a look that said, "What is he talking about?"

But Austin had more on his mind than just creating a comic book empire. 

He had noticed something during his time in Kanto. Despite the world being filled with fantastic technology—Pokedexes that could identify any Pokémon with a mere glance, PokeNavs that could navigate you anywhere, and countless other innovations—Kanto seemed stuck in the past, treating these marvels as rare treasures rather than everyday tools.

It reminded Austin of Japan's peculiar relationship with technology. Despite being a hub of innovation, certain traditional or outdated technologies remained in use, often due to cultural reasons or a reluctance to change. Fax machines still whirred in offices, and cash was king in a world moving towards digital payments.

Austin's plan was to revolutionize Kanto's tech scene, not through direct confrontation but through the power of entertainment. If he could introduce the wonders of modern technology to the youth of Kanto through comics, movies, and TV shows—perhaps a series about a heroic inventor or a futuristic Pokémon trainer—then maybe, just maybe, he could change the cultural tide.

"Imagine a world where Zubatman uses the latest PokeGear to fight crime, or where superheroes in Kanto team up with Pokémon to save the world using gadgets that kids can actually buy," Austin mused aloud, getting more excited by the idea.

Alfred and the groundskeeper just nodded along, the former with a resigned "I've seen stranger things in this household" look, and the latter wondering if Austin was insane or not.

Hey, at least the pay here was good.

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[ Author's Note: Okay, so more slice-of-life chapters are coming, with the next chapter focusing more on Yellow, and then we'll get to the therapy chapters.

But I'm writing this author's note to point out a lot of things that you probably missed in this chapter because you probably don't read the Pokémon Adventures manga.

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1- Hilda directed the men in black. This is a reference to the manga where Hilda is actually the CEO of a giant entertainment company. Hilda as in the protagonist of the Pokemon Black and White games. 

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2- Deoxys was spotted on the moon by Apollo 11. This is actually a setup for later on when we actually get Deoxys in the story. I'll expand on it, for now, it's just a setup and foreshadowing.

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3- Marvel in the real world faced bankruptcy, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996, meaning if Marvel was real in the Pokémon world, Austin could have easily bought all of Marvel.

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4- Austin is healing, as shown by when he didn't have a panic attack in the presence of a Rattata in case some of you may have forgotten.

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5- Austin wants to use propaganda to make the youth of Kanto interested in technology so that he can build a tech empire. This is also why I can say canonically Pokédexes are such a big deal, not because they were created by Oak but because Kanto's populace is not that interested in tech. Hence why Unova, Hoenn, and Sinnoh can have rocket ships, space programs, and tech that is so impressive they legitimately seem futuristic, whereas Kanto is... Oh, a Pokédex, wow! What the fuck is that?

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[ Omake Paragraph]

When a habitat with many pokemon is wiped out to be replaced by a single species, that species is usually Man. This has happened before humanity; a couple million years ago, as a recent surprise find in Rusturf Tunnel has shown, Whismur are just as capable of driving out other life and making land their own. This is made even more remarkable by the fact that this was Whismur and not their evolved forms. The low height of this natural tunnel makes it a poor habitat for Loudred and Exploud; even today, Whismur are usually seen leaving the tunnel to evolve.

One can only surmise that, given the extremely loud noises Whismur even today are known for creating and the acoustics of the tunnel, which have the effect of dramatically amplifying sound, many of the native pokemon did not die so much as escape to protect their sense of hearing; indeed, many of the species the fossil record reveals in Rusturf do not show a single member with punctured eardrums.

Yet others, sadly, are far more numerous. Zubat in particular were extremely disoriented, for they rely on echolocation, and no Zubat can hear their sonar in a tunnel of screaming Whismur. This explains the numerous Zubat fossils with punctured ears, and perhaps the Whismur cave entirely, for it is difficult to imagine such small pokemon overcoming a cave full of Zubat in combat without deafening them first. The same applies to Geodude, the other numerous pokemon in the tunnel, who did not live long enough to go deaf; the extremely loud noise was enough to shatter their bodies instantly.

A loss of biodiversity is an admittedly terrible thing, but perhaps the Rusturf Tunnel of Whismur is preferable to another cave of rare pokemon interspersed between Zubat and Geodude.