I blinked at the bright lights in my face. My first instinct was to bring my arm up to block the light, but my hand was stopped halfway. I tried to move my hand again, but the same wrenching feeling came from my hand. It was chained down. I blinked again, confused.
Slowly my surroundings became more clear. The constant beeping next to me. The overhead lights. My hand was chained down at my side. My right hand was free to move. I wiggled my feet, but there were no restraints on them.
Okay. So somebody wants to keep me here, but they don't see me as a threat.
I used my unrestrained right hand to push myself up. Slowly bringing my hand up to block the lights, I blinked more to let my eyes adjust. A basic hospital room. The cloth curtains pulled all the way around. A nice window with sunlight leaking in. The heart monitor right next to me. The giant pink monster with a clipboard. The hospital gown.
Wait…
What?
I looked back to the creature looming right next to the heart monitor. It was pink with a white underbelly, fluffy pink ears, and was holding a clipboard while watching my every move. It looked at me with wide eyes. They were pure navy, and seemed to bore into my soul. I shook as shivers shot down my spine.
It jumped a little bit, like it was excited. It then gave a little squeak, and waddled away. Its arm parted the curtain, gave me one last look, and then left me alone in the room.
I should have been terrified. That thing was a monster straight out of nightmares. But instead I sat in my bed, shocked.
How many drugs am I on right now?
Why the fuck did I just hallucinate a Wigglytuff? And how the hell is it so damn realistic? I don't think there was a Wigglytuff in Detective Pikachu. At least not one I remember. So all I should have to go on is how Wigglytuff looked as a sprite in the games, or maybe how it looked in the anime. I only ever watched one or two seasons of the anime. But neither of those would let me hallucinate something that vividly, right?
I got my answer as the curtain parted again.
"Thank god, a regular nurse. I don't know what's going on but I feel like there must be some hallucinogens…"
I trailed off as the pink abomination followed behind the doctor into the room.
The nurse looked at me with curiosity and brought her clipboard out.
"I see. We found you with no trainer ID or pokedex, and as you know there usually aren't any new faces around here." She giggled at her own joke. "Hallucinogens might be an explanation. Can I get your name or trainer ID?"
Her words washed over my ears. They were nothing but muffled garbles.
I was too busy engaging in the middle of the most intense staring contest I had ever been in.
Those giant navy blue eyes were unrelenting. My eyes were more wide out of fear than any kind of contest. I couldn't blink even if I wanted to. For all I knew the pink wraith straight out of hell would attack me in that moment of weakness.
And then the beast showed its true nature.
I screamed as the monster took a step forward, teeth bared. It was surely going to try and rip my jugular out with its fangs.
I jumped up in my bed. Or at least as much as I could with my hand still chained to the side rail.
"Stay back! I'll only give you one warning!" I reached to my sides. Looking for a weapon. Something, anything.
"haHA!" I pulled the ballpoint pen out in front of me.
"Not one more step."
Then the pink monster opened its mouth, and began to sing.
It felt like I was suddenly enveloped in a cloud. So soft. So comfortable. My eyes began to droop and my strength started to wane. The pen slipped out of my hand and darkness enveloped me.
~~~~Starfall~~~~
Beep….Beep….Beep
My head felt groggy. Kind of like a hangover. But my head didn't hurt. In fact I felt great. Like I was surrounded by fluffy clouds. Like when I had something to do that day, so I set my alarm super early. And then I woke up 5 minutes before the alarm went off. That's how comfy this bed felt right now. I could just lay in it forever.
I slowly willed myself into consciousness. What was that beeping noise? And then memories flooded into me.
A jolt of adrenaline made me shoot up. But I was halted from sitting completely up as my hands were wretched back. They were now both chained up.
I looked up to see the nurse and pink monster staring at me. The pink monster gave me a little wave.
"What? How are you doing this?! Why are you doing this?!"
I looked down to the IV that was now in my arm.
"Is this LSD? Why are you drugging me?! I don't even have that much money!" My eyes widened as my brain came to a horrifying realization.
"Are you experimenting on me?" I tore the IV out of my arm.
The pink monster began to open its mouth again. Its ears rose into the air.
"Keep that thing away from me! Is it even real?"
I stared down at my hands.
"I've never had a bad trip before." I looked up at the ceiling. "Are you mocking me? Making me have a bad trip with something that's supposed to be harmless." The ceiling, and anything that could have existed beyond, refused to answer me.
The pink monster closed its mouth as the nurse laid her hand on its shoulder. She turned to me and smiled. "Hey hey it's okay. Calm down. You're safe here."
"What the fuck? Is that supposed to help?! You're experimenting on me and trying to stay nice?" Her big eyes were soft and compassionate, but any sufficiently sketchy nurse who was trying to trick me might have the same expression.
My face paled. "Oh shit are you trying to Stockholm Syndrome me? Lady that's not gonna work. Or is this some good cop bad cop bullshit? You pretend to be nice to get on my side, then stab me in the back later?"
I pointed at the pink monster.
"And what the fuck is that? Some kind of hyper realistic costume? It's real creepy man."
The nurse moved forward to grab my hand, but I scrambled as far back in the bed to try and get away from her. The wrist links clinked as they got caught at the end of the side rail of the bed.
The nurse looked at me and sighed. She looked down at her clipboard, and then up to the pink monster. They shared a look, and then the nurse sighed again.
"Okay listen, you must have gotten caught at the end of a really powerful attack if your memory has been screwed with this much." The nurse said slowly. Her eyebrows were scrunched together in concern.
I did not like the sound of that.
She motioned her hand to her chest. "I am Nurse Joy. I'm a worker at the Center here in Champion's Hold." Each word was careful, like she was explaining things to a child.
Nurse Joy pointed towards the pink monster. "This here is Wigglytuff. She's been real worried about you. She's one of the caretaker mons we have."
She walked up slowly, every step measured. Her eyes were full of worry. "What's the last thing you remember?"
My mind was running at a thousand miles per hour. Every word she said made my brain splatter into a brick wall. She was serious. Her face was genuine.
"So you're saying that Wigglytuff is real? Prove it."
The nurse didn't even bat an eye that I dodged the question.
Mentally I was reeling. The last thing I remember? Why can't I remember anything? Everything was muddled, murky, like I was trying to see something at the bottom of a dirty lake. Somehow I had recognized what that creature was. A Pokemon. Why do I understand exactly what that is, but fail to remember anything specific? LSD is a drug. A hallucinogen. I clearly took it before to understand that. But I can't remember what it actually felt like. What happened while I was on it.
"Okay Wigglytuff, light psychic to lift me off the ground."
The pink monster closed its eyes and focused. A pink aura began to surround it.
The monster trilled, and the nurse was enveloped in the same pink aura. She was lifted two inches off the ground.
My brain splattered against another brick wall. This time it refused to put itself back together.
I sat there watching the scene play out before me. I blinked, but the nurse was still hovering in the air.
My vision got woozy. The darkness enveloped me once again.
~~~~Starfall~~~~
Beep….Beep…Beep…Beep
I jolted awake. Again I was halted when my wrists got caught.
Memories flooded into me of the earlier encounters. I slowly opened my eyes, ready to expect the worst.
Sure enough in front of me was the pink creature. Once it saw my eyes opened, it squeaked a little bit, hopped an inch off the ground in excitement, and then waddled out of the room in a hurry.
It came back moments later, dragging Nurse Joy by the hand.
"Hey, you're awake. We can take things slow."
I slowly sat up in the bed.
Once is an anomaly. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern.
I looked down at my arm. There was no IV in it this time. I had no memories, but I somehow knew that LSD didn't work like this anyway. Hallucinations wouldn't be this consistent or confusing. Well maybe not the confusing part.
So…. I had to accept what I was seeing as reality.
"Okay Nurse, so I'm willing to concede the point that you are maybe not experimenting on me. Could you tell me what the hell is going on?"
The Nurse pulled a chair from the side of the room over to the bed. She sat down, bringing her arms over her clipboard. She looked me in the eyes, and began.
"I guess I'll start from the top. One of the rangers found you outside the wall, passed out. Now it's rare enough that the rangers find people outside the walls, but you were even more of a peculiarity. You had no pokeballs. You didn't even have any weapons. And you had no identification. Nobody survives outside the wall without Pokemon."
The Nurse reached for my hand again, and this time I didn't pull away.
"Who are you?"
I couldn't think. I couldn't speak. Pokemon were real. I had memories I couldn't place. Fire beats grass. Water beats fire. Type advantages, resistances. My head was flooding with information that didn't make sense. What the fuck was a toxic stall? And why did I get so mad when thinking about it? I looked at the pink monstrosity in front of me. Wigglytuff was normal/fairy. A good tank with a solid movepool, great coverage all around.
I blinked up at the nurse. I didn't know where to start. I suppose I'll go with the truth.
"I… I don't know."
The nurse sighed. She slowly nodded her head, accepting my response.
"Well I can't say this has happened before. Nobody makes it through the gates without a team at least at ACE Level. That's why we rarely ever get any new faces around here. But here in Starfall we accept anyone. We need to work together to survive. This isn't like the other nations down in the real world."
What? Hold on. Real world. Maybe that's where I'm from.
"Hey hold on. What do you mean by real world?"
This time it was the Nurse's time to blankly stare back at me.
"You know, the real world. Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Galar, all the regions where people and pokemon live. Sure it's dangerous in some areas in those regions, but typically the wild pokemon are friendly. Not like it is here."
I recognized those names. Kanto… Lance… Indigo Plateau. The Elite Four. Dragon Dance. I frantically looked around the room before realizing that I didn't even know what a priority move was or what it would look like. The other names brought other memories. Galar… the wild area. Hoenn… the battle frontier. I still couldn't picture anything concrete. But the emotions were there. Kingdra. Dragonite. Empty words that filled me with awe.
Okay, so I somewhat remember things that are apparently not even relevant to where I am now.
"Okay, so if those are the real world, where are we?"
She slowly stood up from her chair and walked to the other side of the bed. She pulled out a key, unlocking both of the constraints around my wrists. Wigglytuff gave her a look, but the Nurse waved it off.
Nurse Joy looked me in the eyes, and motioned with her head to follow her to the window. I had only really noticed the sunlight from the window. I hadn't actually looked outside.
I had to blink to adjust to the light. As the outside came into focus, I gasped.
Buildings were all over the place. The architecture was mixed, with some Feudal Japanese towers as well as Elizabethan churches and even some modern buildings. I blinked, trying to process how I knew that. At the edge of the buildings was a massive concrete wall, standing over 60 feet tall. It stretched out, surrounding the entire city.
Then I looked to the sky. I couldn't remember ever looking at the sky before, but I still knew something was wrong.
Violet and cerulean energy warped around. Waves of green washed about, moving the other colors out of the way.
In the distance I saw islands floating in the sky, with vines in between them. Massive forests were sprouted on top of the islands, with small flickers of movement under and between them.
"Welcome to Starfall. The region trapped outside of space and time. When Dialga and Palkia raged their war for centuries, many people were trapped here. Different people from different regions all dropped into this dangerous land to try and survive. There was fighting at first, but eventually they rallied under one Champion. Taimu. He was their only hope to survive in this new world. And together they built this wall. But that was hundreds of years ago. You see they weren't the only ones brought by Dialga and Palkia. I don't think they brought us here on purpose. Some believe this region is a prison, but I don't think so. Sometimes, when you're that powerful, weird things can happen. We just happened to be victims of two gods destroying the fabric of reality, purely by accident, because they are just that powerful. The people brought in weren't just from different regions of the world. They were also people from different times. But it wasn't just people that were brought here. Pokemon from all throughout time live in these lands. Aerodactyl flit the skies, but aren't rocky mockeries of their former glory. No, they are avian apex predators, brought straight from the time when they used to rule the skies. And they aren't the only ones."
My eyes began to roll to the back of my head as more and more information kept piling on.
Nurse Joy seemed to notice, and laughed a bit as she stopped. "Sorry. I tend to ramble sometimes. This is probably way too much to take in at once. I'll try to get the Professor to come in and explain it to you. I'm sure he would want to study you anyway."
She shook her head in wonder. She mumbled in awe. "...outside the walls.." She slowly walked out of the room, with Wigglytuff following close behind. I was left alone next to the window.
I saw someone riding a massive bird land on top of the buildings nearby. The red crown. Black tail feathers. Staraptor. Speedy physical attacker. Why did I know that? What did it mean?
Just what had I stumbled into this time?