The Type Specialist

Ninetales’s jump just barely let her catch the frisbee, and she eyed her opponent, Gallade, who had just thrown it much farther than expected. Twisting her head, she flung it as hard as she could, and even enhanced its speed with her weak telekinesis. Gallade simply smirked and Teleported to where the frisbee was about to land, catching it, causing Ninetales to sit down and huff.

Nearby, Flygon and Altaria were racing in the skies to see who was the fastest, while Azumarill easily kept up with them using Aqua Jet below. Mawile and Ponyta were having a quiet discussion with Thomas’s Pawniard, who was also a young Pokémon just like Ponyta, and Whimsicott and Murkrow were half-hidden behind a nearby tree engaged in a heated conversation about something most likely extremely worrying.

My last Pokémon, Florges, was quietly standing nearby, staring up into the sky as the sun set and the stars began to appear.

Right now, it was dusk of the Sunday just after the Conference. Normally, I would have wanted to leave Ever Grande as soon as possible, but my next stop was Kalos, which meant I would be leaving the region. I wanted to use today to have one final positive note in my journey, and was with Wally, Thomas, Marty, and Old Man Harvey as a good-bye celebration. Thomas had already celebrated with some of his Ace Trainer friends the night prior, but was more than willing to celebrate with me again today, especially since he had the entire week off as a reward for his placement.

Ever Grande City had already mostly cleared out now that the Conference was over, so the parks were practically empty. I and everyone else had gathered around a free, public picnic table, and off in the distance a few other groups of people were doing the same. While this was a celebration, it was mostly just casually hanging out, watching our Pokémon play, and having relaxed discussions. It was small, quiet, and basic. A nice way to end the season.

While Wally had already met Old Man Harvey and Marty, the three of them hadn’t met Thomas before. Since he had placed so high in the tournament, Wally engaged with him the most, pestering him for tips. Thomas took it in stride and willingly answered Wally’s questions. I could tell Thomas was happy to have someone not be intimidated by his pure Dark Type team.

Other conversations happened throughout the night, like Wally talking to Marty about Johto, and Old Man Harvey reminiscing to Thomas about how things were in his days, and I just mostly listened in, not having much to add but enjoying everyone’s company.

I made sure to buy enough food for everyone and their Pokémon, and about halfway through, when I was just casually sipping my drink and listening to Marty tell Thomas about which were the best supplements for Dark Types, I noticed someone watching us in the distance.

She was a young woman wearing a dark hoodie and shorts, and was standing under a tree. She had dark skin and had a pair of black sunglasses on, disguising her face, but I had met her once before in Mossdeep. Recognizing Phoebe, of the Elite Four, I excused myself from the conversation and headed over. Thomas noticed her as well, and specifically grabbed everyone else’s attention to distract them from the fact I was meeting with one of the strongest trainers of the region.

I really appreciated him for that.

As I arrived, a cool breeze blew around my feet in a sign that I recognized as Banette getting excited. He didn’t wrap around Phoebe like before, though, since we were in a public place, but I knew he wanted to.

“Hey,” Phoebe said. “I heard you were heading to Kalos soon.”

Her tone was relaxed, speaking as if this was just an extension of the casual discussions I was having before.

“Yes, I’m going to stay there for a few months before I leave for the next region,” I said.

She closed her eyes and nodded, lost in thought. She soon opened them back up and glanced over to Ponyta. Ponyta noticed this without anyone else seeing, and then stood up and slowly walked over, telling Mawile and Pawniard to stay behind.

When he showed up, he glanced down nervously at Phoebe’s shadow where a single red eye appeared and stared at him intensely. He displayed no emotion on his face, although his eyes were shaking a bit, betraying his nerves.

The eye soon closed and disappeared back into Phoebe’s shadow and she looked rather satisfied.

“Good. Even though he’s still pretty weak, whatever it is on your mind that protects you is strong enough that Ponyta can stop any of your surface thoughts from being read. Since you’re properly protected and leaving Hoenn, it’s time to take Banette back.”

My eyes went wide as she said that, and my shadow extended out to meet hers, connecting the two. After a moment, it snapped and a large chunk of mine disappeared into hers, leaving my shadow completely uninhabited by any Ghosts.

While I had never completely got used to the idea of Ghost Types, having Banette in my shadow was this strange sense of comfort I grew used to having. The obvious fact he would be leaving one day had caught me off guard, and while I understood I couldn’t keep him forever, I was sad to see him go.

“Do you mind if I say goodbye first?” I asked quietly.

Phoebe’s mouth curved up at the corners, creating the faintest of smiles.

“Of course. With how much you’ve been feeding him, I can tell you’ve bonded a bit.”

I bent down onto my knee to look at Phoebe’s shadow, which felt a bit awkward considering she was standing right over it. Soon enough, Banette’s doll-like face poked out to stare at me with its unblinking red eyes.

“So I guess this is goodbye, huh?” I said. My mouth was curved into a sad smile, and I tilted my head slightly as I looked at him. “I know it was just your job, but you saved my life several times over. You were a constant comforting presence, and I’m going to miss you. Thank you, for everything, Banette. I appreciate everything you did for me.”

I glanced up at Phoebe who was half paying attention, half looking away a bit awkwardly.

If this is the last time I’ll be around Banette... Screw it.

I reached into my pocket to take out the red Pokéblock I had bought for him specifically for this meet-up, spicy just like how he preferred, and tossed it at him before Phoebe could stop me. A tendril of Ghost Type energy snatched it out of the air and brought it down into the shadow with him.

“Hey!” Phoebe said a bit too loudly. I ignored her.

“One more for the road. Thank you for everything.”

With my goodbye out of the way, Banette sunk back into the darkness, probably now eating that Pokéblock. He didn’t make any movements to say goodbye, but as I stood up, a faint cool breeze blew over my feet one last time. I wiped my eyes.

Phoebe looked a bit annoyed, however.

“Seriously? He’s going to need to be put on a diet now.”

I chuckled sadly.

“Thank you for sending Banette to protect me,” I said. “Also for all of the steps you’ve been taking with Steven to protect my identity. I appreciate the effort you’ve gone through.”

Phoebe’s annoyed face softened as I said that, and she looked away into the distance.

“It’s not a problem, Alex. It’s my job after all. Be careful in Kalos. You won’t have an elite Pokémon defending you, but with the rate your team’s been improving, as well as your future practice with Mega Evolution, you should be more than safe enough.”

I said goodbye one final time, and Phoebe walked behind the nearby tree, which obscured her from view. Rather than appearing on the other side, she simply disappeared, and left with Banette to resume her duties as a member of the Elite Four.

When I returned to where everyone else was, Thomas smoothly integrated me into the conversation as if I had been there the whole time. They had noticed I stepped away, but hadn’t noticed I was talking to Phoebe. I tilted my head in thanks to Thomas, to which he subtly nodded back, and then we went back to our conversations and meal from before.

I had bought a huge amount of pizza for everyone and their Pokémon, enough that Mawile could easily have her fill without putting a dent in anyone else's shares. Although, I doubted anyone wanted mine. Everyone looked distinctly uncomfortable when they saw I preferred it with pineapple.

While I was finishing up a slice, Wally scooted over to me at the table with a curious glint in his eyes. I looked over to him after wiping my mouth, and raised an eyebrow.

“You look like you want to ask something. What is it?” I said.

He opened his mouth to say something, paused, then closed it again to better consider his words. It took him a bit to actually verbalize what he wanted to say, but as he did, I froze.

“When we met Aster, she called you ‘otherworldly.’ What did she mean by that?”

Marty, talking to Thomas nearby, suddenly quieted down, and I could tell they were both listening. Even more, all of our Pokémon around us had quieted down too, intent on hearing what I had to say.

Wally hadn’t meant to, but he just put me on the spot in the worst way possible, and I was so caught off guard I didn’t have a deflection prepared for this.

I really should have, though.

I rapidly glanced around at everyone, including Ninetales, who not-so-subtly scooched a bit closer from where she was sitting to listen better. Marty seemed excited, Old Man Harvey seemed intrigued, and Thomas just kept a serious expression on his face, hiding his emotions. Wally started to look worried, as I must have been visibly panicking.

“Alex? Are you okay? I didn’t realize this was a big deal.”

Out of everyone here, Ponyta trotted over and calmly sat by my leg at the edge of the bench. He looked up at me with a calm expression on his face, and leaned into me comfortingly.

If he’s been protecting my mind, he probably has the best read on my emotions here. He can probably tell how panicked I am right now.

As I looked around at all of my friends and Pokémon, I sighed and slumped down a bit. I didn’t have to reveal anything dangerous, and I had an established identity in this world already. I was protected, loved, and secure with my team, so did I really need to worry about hiding my past? If I considered everyone here my friend, they deserved the truth.

I locked eyes with Thomas.

“Is it possible to make sure nothing I say gets out?”

He pressed his lips into a thin line, and made some hand signals to his team of Dark Types. They stood up and made a border around our picnic table where we were eating, and the faint sounds of others in the park off in the distance were suddenly silenced.

With the layer of security he was providing, there was no way this would get out.

I stood up where I was seated to take a step away from the bench. I watched a man in the distance play catch with his Pokémon, and gathered my thoughts. When I turned back around, everyone was staring at me intently, and I knew there was no avoiding this any longer.

“I need you all to know that this needs to be kept secret. I spent a long time being paranoid about it getting out there, but I know I can trust you all. Please, this is extremely important.”

Old Man Harvey and Thomas had an extremely serious expression on their face, while Wally just looked more worried than usual. Marty, however, almost looked... smug?

Ignoring that, I pressed on.

“I... Well, ‘otherworldly’ isn’t too inaccurate of a term to describe me. Are you all familiar with Ultra Beasts?”

Thomas nodded his head, and to my surprise, Old Man Harvey did as well. Wally and Marty just looked confused.

“Ultra Beasts are Pokémon from another reality,” I explained. “Their rampages occasionally happen in Alola, which necessitates the presence of the Tapus as a defense. They come to our reality through tears in space called ‘Ultra Wormholes,’ but they don’t always come alone. Sometimes, a person comes out with them.”

Wally’s eyes went wide, and the same was true for everyone else. The exception was Marty, who spoke up before I could continue.

“But you didn’t come out of one of those,” he said. “You have to realize, Alex, your story was horribly suspicious. When you were showering when I first met you, I checked a security camera for the alley to see what happened to you, and there wasn’t any obvious tear in space. One second the alley was empty, the next second you were there. There was no wormhole, no Pokémon Teleporting in next to you, and no flash of light. You simply appeared.”

I blinked and opened my mouth, but no words came out.

I didn’t know that. My theory had been some weird variant of the Ultra Wormhole bringing me here, but was that not the case? I went to sleep one night only to wake up in the Pokémon world. What happened to me?

Old Man Harvey saw my bewilderment when Marty mentioned that, and used this moment to speak up as well.

“When you were talking about Fairy Types, you mentioned stories about them,” he said. “I looked, and outside of an occasional tall tale, they don’t come up at all outside of those in Galar. When I tried to ask about them before, you brushed me off. Those are from your old world, aren’t they? That’s why you know, but no one else does.”

I nodded slowly.

“So then Steven knows as well,” Thomas added. “It certainly helps to explain what happened in Sea Mauville.”

“This is why you know so much! You must have learned a lot about Pokémon in your old world,” Wally said, chipping in.

Taken out of my stunned silence by their words, I ended up bending over and laughing. Everyone looked at me confused, and Ninetales walked over to nudge me in the side. I laughed so hard tears started to come from my eyes, and I imagined I must have looked a little unhinged.

I was fine, though, and was done after only a short amount of time.

“Man, I must be really bad at hiding stuff if I was that suspicious in the past,” I said, wiping tears out of my eyes for the second time today.

Marty shook his head.

“Alex, you literally told me that a possible memory-modifying Pokémon was ‘nothing to report.’ You were suspicious from the beginning.”

I tilted my head.

“Wait, why did you help me then, Marty?”

He shrugged.

“Well, you looked like you had fallen into hard times, and I was in a position to help. Also, I really wanted to make sure Trubbish would be okay, too.”

Trubbish, where it was sitting next to him on the bench, squeed and then hugged Marty with its trash arms. He smiled and patted its head.

“No, but seriously,” I said, “I spent the first year of my existence basically terrified out of my mind that someone would find out and I would be captured by the government and experimented on or something. Even worse, I was terrified some criminal would catch word of my existence, kidnap me, and force everything I knew out of me without my consent. I didn’t want to endanger myself, so I kept it secret, and for that same reason, I’m going to selfishly ask you to not inquire deeper into my background.”

Wally’s mouth dropped open.

“What! That’s so cruel! You can’t just tell us you’re from another world and share nothing about it,” he complained.

“Now, now, Alex is actually being reasonable here,” Thomas interjected. “It was already more than kind of them to share their background, and I understand why they wanted to stay safe. I imagine that if Steven knows, you’ll have the proper protections in place, and with your sponsorship with a Professor, I doubt anyone would want to make a move against you.”

That... that’s something I hadn’t considered. Considering how well-known some Professors are, especially Professor Sycamore now that his research about Mega Evolution is out there, messing with someone important and making a scene would actually dissuade people from going after me.

Huh. Becoming well-known might actually help me stay secret.

Wally crossed his arms, upset, but he understood. Despite my request to keep this secret, I could tell Old Man Harvey was probably going to ask me for more information about Fairy Tales, which I was probably going to answer anyway since that was such a minor detail, and Marty just looked satisfied that he had an idea of what was going on before everyone else did.

Now came the hard part.

I turned to face my Pokémon as they stared at me, intrigued by the new detail about myself I just shared. Ninetales was already next to me, looking completely unbothered by the revelation, and Ponyta had already moved over to continue sitting at my feet.

Across from me, Whimsicott was perched on Altaria’s back, whereas Florges, Mawile, and Azumarill were simply standing a little bit aways, waiting to hear what I was about to say.

I could only hope this wouldn’t go wrong.

“So, uh, some of you might remember me telling you something like this along those lines all the way back in Mauville, after my first badge. I know we’re a part of a team, and I shouldn’t have kept it from you, but I’m sometimes too paranoid for my own good. It was cruel of me to not share something so important about my background, and I understand if you- hurggfh”

I was interrupted by Ninetales smashing her frozen tails into my stomach. I bent over and fell to my knees, then looked up to see Ninetales staring at me at eye level. She huffed, then stepped back for me to better look at the rest of my team.

Florges had her arms crossed, annoyed that I would even consider thinking this would change things, and Mawile didn’t mind at all, already shifting back to playing with her rock. Altaria and Whimsicott weren’t moving, but I quickly noticed that Ninetales had preemptively frozen them to the ground to prevent them from flying straight into me, like they were trying to do right now.

Ponyta stood up to nudge me in my side as I clutched my stomach in pain, and Ninetales was still next to me, which left Azumarill with her same angry-as-usual expression staring at me.

Azumarill looked me up and down, then took several commanding steps over to position herself right in front of me. Florges shifted her expression to that of worry, and looked like she wanted to intervene, but out of the corner of my eye Ninetales shook her head to tell her not to.

Azumarill stared at me intently, taking all of me in, then frowned.

“Zuma. Zumarill. Azu,” she said.

She held out one of her arms, flexed it, then pointed at it.

“Azumarill?” she asked.

I processed what she was asking, then cautiously nodded once.

“Yes, I’ve been using my ‘otherworldly’ knowledge to make sure you’ve been trained properly.”

Azumarill’s frown shifted to that of a frighteningly cruel grin, then stomped on the ground and roared.

I flinched from the sudden noise, and, catching me off guard, Azumaril lunged forward and lifted me off the ground, up above her head. She spun me in place while laughing, and I realized she wasn’t upset. She was hugging me.

I hadn’t realized how much using my advanced knowledge for her training would mean for her.

The rest of my team looked on, and Wally, Marty, and the rest chuckled at her antics. It was at this moment both Whimsicott and Altaria freed themselves from Ninetales’s ice and I soon found myself in a dogpile containing all of my Pokémon.

I found myself relaxing, in that moment. Fully, truly, relaxing. I was surrounded by my friends and my Pokémon, the closest thing I had to a family. I closed my eyes and smiled, taking in the warm feeling around me.

I had been nervous that this would change things. I had been a fool. A paranoid, worried fool. Despite that, I knew what I was now, though.

I was the luckiest Pokémon trainer in the world.

Despite my request earlier, I spent the rest of our time together answering questions about my old world. I kept it broad and generic, and mostly just answered broad questions about my old world’s culture. They were blown away when they heard how large the population was, and similarly blown away when I mentioned the prevalence of cars. They were a little bothered by the treatment of the environment, and I was forced to be a lot more vague again when they started asking questions about how Pokémon reacted.

That was one of the details I refused to share. The fact that Pokémon was only a franchise in my old world, and not a form of life. I had no interest in giving my friends or anyone I knew an existential crisis, even if it did mean I continued to hide details from them. It was selfish of me, but I was allowed to want to protect my friends.

Since I was being so vague, there was honestly not much to talk about, since once the big questions were out of the way I didn’t have that much to share about my other world. The conversation petered out as we simply relaxed, ate, and discussed future plans.

Wally confirmed that he would be heading to Johto for the next season, but he would have a late start since the beginning of the Johto season was three weeks ago. He planned to begin in mid March to have time to relax and visit his family before he left again.

Marty and Old Man Harvey would return to Olivine, but Marty was interested in finding some way to continue supporting me. While I did have a sponsor, one of the best ones possible, he had enjoyed spending his time marketing me and selling merchandise, and wanted to find a way to continue to do that in the future.

The League might have shut down his Pokémart sponsorship, but I doubted that would keep him down for long.

Old Man Harvey, inspired by my stories of Fairy Tales, was actually planning on visiting Galar. I told him about some basic ideas behind the stories of fae in my old world, like their mischievousness and their penchant for twisting the truth, and he greatly enjoyed hearing them. He wanted to see how my stories compared to those around Ballonlea Town, feeling that it was better to find out the information in person rather than in a book or online.

He was also more than thankful that I shared this with him, saying that “he was feeling like a young man again,” and that he was looking forward to temporarily bringing the last members of his team out of retirement with him.

Thomas, on the other hand, would stay in Hoenn, working as an Ace Trainer. He had been promoted the night prior, after the Conference, and had a number of duties he would be responsible for. He imagined that he would spend a decent amount of time east of Fortree, since there were a number of Dark Types, Absol especially, prevalent in that area.

As for my group of friends who weren’t present, Laura, Hideki, and Takao, I had found out their plans for the future earlier the day when I called them. They explained that they planned to continue to work under Brawly, with Laura also expressing an interest in perhaps leaving for a season to take on a Gym Challenge and catch more punching-based Fighting Types. However, she would stay with the Gym for now since the off season meant that there wouldn’t be any challengers, and thus she could learn directly from Brawly more often.

At the end of the night, we said our goodbyes, Wally needing to step away to hide his tears as we did so, and we all split off. While I imagined I would see most of them again in the future, this was basically it. Hoenn’s League season was over, and it was time to go our separate ways. I enjoyed my time in the region, and loved meeting new people and Pokémon, but it was over now.

It was time to head to Kalos.

My scheduled flight was in the late afternoon, and was the last flight leaving to Kalos for the next week since air travel wasn’t actually that common. It was potentially dangerous to fly between regions due to aggressive flying Pokémon, and so it was less in demand and significantly more expensive.

The airport in Ever Grande wasn’t that large compared to airports I had seen in the past, and only had a handful of planes total. The majority of them could only take less than a dozen people at a time, but, for the flights between regions like this one, the planes looked just like normal passenger planes from my old world.

A number of Flying Type trainers were also present, since they served as escorts for the planes in their journeys. Even with the precautions taken to keep everyone safe, occasionally a wild Pokémon would attack or get too close, and the escorts would need to scare off those Pokémon.

In the case of a crash, they had enough flying Pokémon on their teams to get everyone to safety. While crashes were rare, they were still far more common than what I was used to. However, the escorts’ presence meant that crashes had few casualties, if any, and generally speaking, most passengers would get out alive.

Outside of Altaria, I hadn’t flown before, and honestly the crash rates made me a bit nervous about it. The only major security feature I had to contend with when I boarded the plane was a requirement to have me place my Pokémon’s Pokéballs in a sealed briefcase. It would ensure that none of them would be accidentally sent out during the flight.

There wasn’t a big delay between boarding and take off, and soon, we were in the air. I looked out the window to see the entirety of Ever Grande shrink below with the region behind it, and before long, we were in the empty blue skies.

My window seat afforded me a great view, and I watched the pair of escort trainers easily keep up with the plane on their Swellow and Salamence. I expected Swellow to struggle to keep up, but with the help of moves, it easily kept pace, and the pair even sped up the plane thanks to the move ‘Tailwind.’

After a while, I started to close my eyes to rest, when a gasp rang out and I heard the familiar “ding” of the intercom echoing out. Nervously, I looked out the window and sucked in a breath as the pilot narrated what I was seeing.

“If you look out to the left, it seems like our local Latios and Latias decided to pay a visit. They’re one of the several sibling pairs known to Hoenn, and these in particular are known to enjoy ‘racing’ planes. It’s said that their presence means that a flight will be safe and smooth all the way through, so we might actually arrive in Kalos early today.”

The red and blue pair of Legendary Dragon Types swerved and spun in the air, disappearing from view every so often as they circled the aircraft. They flew next to the escorting trainers, who shifted positions to nudge them affectionately, but turned down their requests to play.

I couldn’t hear anything outside, but I could tell that Latias was giggling while Latios was trying its best to keep a straight face.

They continued to fly alongside the plane at high speeds, but when we started to get too far away from Hoenn, they split off to return to their home region. There were a few sad sighs as they left, but everyone was in a good mood after seeing that.

It was hard not to be after seeing a pair of Pokémon so happy.

Eventually, I closed my eyes, and closed the window to get a bit of shut-eye. This trip would take twelve hours, and once it was over, I’d be in Kalos. There was a bit of a time difference I hoped to adjust to by sleeping, but honestly, I just couldn’t manage to relax.

After seeing the pair of Legendary Pokémon, I wasn’t nervous. I was filled with energy and excited to find out what I would see next in my journey.