"Holy crap" I muttered
Opening the text, a single message appeared, hello Hikari Tanaka, as I read the text I couldn't help it, I was shaking. Sure I had just told my friends that I had a weird body made of water, but never once had I ever considered telling a soul that I had another life.
After a moment the phone started ringing a facetime with an unsteady finger I answered, what met my eyes was in all of his majestic glory, Arceus floating in space.
"Hello Hikari", gracing my ears was the magnanimous voice of a old elder.
"Sorry to have startled you but I believe now is the perfect time to introduce myself. However it seems you already know me as you were awfully rude a moment ago."
Before Arceus could say anything else I quickly propped up the phone, then started repeatedly bowing towards the camera, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry! I didn't know that it was you who sent the phone! I thought that it was another weird portal glitch thingy."
He gave a light chuckle, "yes, well it seems that you and your group have already experienced such anomalies. You yourself are one such anomaly."
As he said that one my breath hitched, "when you first came into this world I was busy cleaning up the messes of Palkia and Dialga and only noticed you a few years ago but due to your simple goal to become a pokemon trainer I didn't interfere. Instead I have been watching you, and I believe that you are a suitable candidate to help me.
Arceus seeing me still shaking, seemed amused, "no need to be afraid little one, I mean you no harm." Once he said that it felt like an invisible weight left my shoulders. Then I was confused, "so, uh two things, what do I call you and why me?"
Using his two front legs he shrugged, "honestly, I don't care what you call me, as for why you, simple it is because you are anomaly that I have decided to use you to combat other anomalies, two negatives multiplied together equals a positive."
I knew it was a bad question, but I still forced myself to say it, "and what happens if I don't agree to help you?"
Arceus seeming to expect this, gave me an evil smile, "sure I could obliterate you but where's the fun in that?" I was terrified, I didn't know what he was planning. On the other side of the screen, Arceus disappeared in bright light, and what appeared in his place was a young man.
He looked to be in his early twenties, a handsome well defined face, with dark blue hair that covered one eye and reached past his shoulders, a red military style shirt and some familiar looking sweat pants.
"LAMA!" I shouted into the phone
"Yes", he said while trying to sound as innocent as possible.
"Where did you get those pants?!" I shrieked, the pants he was wearing was came from my old high school gym clothes.
Arceus in response, the evil grin from before widened into something maniacal, "fun fact, when you came to world some other stuff came along with you. Mainly some odd bits, some pizza, these pants, a piano." then he tilted his head to the side and coughed into his fist, "your entire apartment."
As I struggled to process the implications, Arceus continued, "I must say that I have been quite fascinated by your collection of video games and computer."
At the mention of my computer it all came back to me in painfully clear details of random midnight searches, painfully simple spell checks, other embarrassing searches, my entire browsing history was being looked over by a god. It only got worse when I remembered that when I died I was still logged in and had the password written on a sticky note nearby.
My mind that just settled down, immediately became distraught, "I'm never getting married." I wailed while going into a fetal position and rocking back and forth on the ground. Arceus seemed to be enjoying watching me dying from embarrassment."
Eventually after having his fun Arceus, reigned in his sadistic side and switched to a more comforting tone, "don't worry, I haven't looked through your history yet, I only closed some tabs." For a moment he paused then as if remembering something he looked at me, "by the way why did you look up how to make jellybeans at three in the morning?"
I tried to protest by spreading my arms out, "I don't know, I was bored, it either answer a question by watching that or go to sleep, it was just one of those in the moment thoughts that pop into your, MY head."
Arceus chuckled, "you seemed to have a lot of random thoughts, probably because you had no friends."
Hearing that one, I felt offended pointing a finger at the phone, I shouted, "screw you Lama, sure I didn't have any close friends in that world but here, I have multiple, Noah, Kyra, Dawn, Lucas, and that's not even mentioning my pokemon!"
"You didn't have a single friend listed on any of your accounts." I could physically feel the weight of his deadpan expression, raising an eyebrow he continued, "you also had a surprising amount of games you can get married or have a relationship in."
"So what? Most great games you can romance someone?" That was true, most roleplaying games you could romance the characters. Arceus as if sensing what I was thinking, decided to burst my bubble.
"Don't get me wrong Hikari, most of those games are amazing, however now that you're in this world I doubt that you'll have that same problem, I mean according to your screenshots, you romanced everything."
That, I couldn't deny, after a few more moments of that, Arceus coughed and the originally teasing mood vanished and what replaced it was a more serious one, "alright Hikari, back to the main topic at hand, what I need you to do is I need you to go back in time to help the pokemon regions of old."
When Arceus changed the tone of his voice, I stopped playing around. Upon analyzing what he said I realized that I could form some connections. "you mentioned that you had to clean up Palkia and Dialga's messes, so how do I fit into the picture?"
He exhaled a long breath of frustration mixed with exhaustion, "those two, they suddenly intensified their fighting and in a moment of carelessness both of them launched their ultimate attacks at each other. When the force of those two attacks met the combination created cracks in this reality allowing outside forces into this one."
"I have spent the last several decades closing major holes, however due to their abilities of time and space, some rifts have appeared in the past, what I need you Hikari to do is go back in time and not only seal the rifts, but deal with any variants that come out of them. Should you choose not to help eventually this reality will collapse in on itself, effectively ending everything."
I could only nod, "I'll help, but no offense meant but what is stopping you from fixing this yourself."
By this point Arceus on the other end sounded so tired, "none taken, picture this, there is a giant water tank, aside from water inside the tank is also a plastic water bottle. In this scenario I am a roll of duct tape and the water bottle inside represents our world.
Suddenly the water tank starts leaking, so I start patching the holes, however the water not having any opportunity to go out, it starts to pressure the water bottle.
Unfortunately I can only spread myself out enough before I run out, Hikari, I am tired and I am running out of energy. While I have more than enough to last longer than your lifetime, but after that I'll run out. By you sealing these rifts I can gather more energy, more power. Unfortunately due to the interference of Palkia and Dialga I cannot send myself to the era in time they are, with me being stretched thin as I am, it makes me unable to act personally, however that does not mean that I don't have enough energy to open a small rift of my own to send you to help."
"So can you Hikari Sato, please help me."
I didn't hesitate for even a second, I mean I was one of the idiots living in this reality, "yes, I promise I will help you, so when can I start."
Hearing how easily I agreed, his face broke out in a genuine smile "thank you, truly, while I admire your enthusiasm, I'm afraid that for most of the rifts some strength is required, I suggest at least waiting until some of your pokemon evolve."
A notification popped up on the phone, "there I updated the world and your phone." He said
Taping the notification I looked over the single line of text, now everyone has phones, turning my attention back to Arceus, he still smiled. "Now you having a phone won't be seen as odd by other natives. Goodbye for now,"
Then he hung up, the moment he did I finally realized where I had seen him before. Tobais, that guy in the Lily of the Valley conference, the guy who had a Darkrai and Latios!
"That son of a," breathing out a long sigh, I would just ask him later. Before I forgot I changed his contact name from space lama, to Toby.
Now with nothing else to distract me I looked around and noticed that world around me was all gray. While on the call I hadn't realized it but I couldn't even feel the slight breeze of being outside. Looking further I could see some branches moving from the wind, " an isolated space?" I muttered.
Upon moving forward I passed through what felt like a barrier, the moment I was out of the space the world seemed to have returned to normal. Turning around and walking back to where I was, the space I was in just a moment a go was no where to be found. "Probably better he did that, all my screaming would have kept my group up."
To see the time I bent down to look at my watch, then I realized that it was gone, "wait what?"
Then it hit me, "if phones are now normal, most people would get one over a watch." Shame I liked my watch, but I couldn't deny that missed the familiar weight in my pocket.
When I got off the phone with Arceus it was late, "I should just call it a night." I said to myself, moving over to my tent I heard light snoring. Carefully pulling the zipper I found Piplup curled up hugging my pillow.
I sighed, "fine you can have it for the night," I muttered.
Changing into my pajamas I slowly entered my sleeping bag, but no matter what I did my head couldn't calm down, I was now working with Arceus the god of all pokemon, he would send me into the past of regions to fix mistakes caused by Palkia and Dialga and to top it all off with a cherry I had a save my reality from collapsing in on itself.
"Great, just great, oh well that's tomorrow Hikari's problem."
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With team rocket somewhere in a park In Oreburgh city
With Ash having entered Oreburgh city team rocket had to figure out their sleeping situation. Due to blowing their last paycheck on another device that failed to catch Pikachu they had the spend the night in a playground.
Luckily for them they had James's Growlithe to keep warm.
"MOVE OVER JAMES!"
"Why should I?! He's my pokemon!"
"The both of you move, I want him, I want him!"
Currently all three of them were arguing over who should have Growlithe for the night. As the Subject of their discussion, for Growlithe it wasn't even a question. Any day of the week he would pick James no questions asked.
But Meowth and Jessie chose to selectively ignore Growlithe's opinion, they both still tried to argue with James. While they argued, James's few brain cells activated as he turned to Meowth, "Meowth, why are you even here, you're a pokemon go beg for some food or something.
Jessie sensing that they could get rid of a common enemy also joined James, "Yeah, Meowth why are even here go, scrounge up some cash so we can get a hotel or something."
Meowth, realizing that they were teaming up to get rid of him, tried to stand his ground, "no I don't wanna, and there's nothing you two knuckleheads can do to make me" Meowth said while looking sure of himself.
Ten seconds later Meowth was punted out of the slide they were trying to spend the night in, courtesy of a newspaper from Jessie along with a new bruise on his face.
Ten minutes later: In the city a Meowth could be seen walking upright down the street while rubbing his slightly red cheek, "those two, I'm a make sure that I enjoy myself." But first Meowth had to deal with his stomach that was growling. While the anime didn't show it much, Meowth wasn't completely stupid. Navigating his way through Oreburgh city, after another fifteen minutes of searching, he found his goal.
"Ah there it is, the pokemon center"
The bright red building appeared like a beacon of hope for Meowth, seeing it he hesitated for a moment then started started rolling back and fourth on the ground, after a moment feeling that he was dirty enough Meowth went down and started walking on all fours. "eww, ah, this hurts, glad I can walk on two legs."
All Meowth wanted was to spend the night getting pampered by the center's staff, the last thing he wanted to do was draw attention to the fact that he was completely different from regular Meowth. Normally when he was with James and Jessie he would care in the slightest, mainly because they were battlers. Most of the time he wouldn't even get to fight, just be blasted away by Pikachu.
But alone, as a foreign pokemon in another nation, in a big city, worse case scenario he gets kidnapped by pokemon hunters.
As Meowth walked in, Nurse Joy hearing the familiar sound of the door opening looked up, as she did, what met her eyes was a stray Meowth.
"Oh my, come here little one", once Meowth was close enough Nurse Joy easily scooped him up into her arms. Most pokemon in the pokemon world all had a sweet spot for nurse Joy and wouldn't harm her. Nurse Joy, seeing Meowth's condition headed for the back.
Upon entering, she caught Chansey's attention, " Scan this one, if nothing is wrong, place this one in the wild section, Chansey."
In the pokemon center there are different sections, trained pokemon naturally behave better, while wild pokemon have a greater chance to act more aggressive around stronger pokemon.
"Chansey!", Chansey said while pulling out a cart, once nurse Joy placed Meowth on the cart, as Chansey started pushing the cart she glanced at Meowth, "you are the second wild pokemon to come in today, just before you a Murkrow came in, so please behave."
In response, Meowth nodded, as the scans finished, nurse Joy's internal guess that there was nothing medically wrong with the Meowth proved to be correct. With the scans done Chanse took meowth to another room. Inside this room was multiple pens and upon entering the only other resident looked up.
"SHINY!" The Murkrow cried as he spotted Meowth.
Chansey, ignoring Murkrow placed Meowth inside one of the other pens, "here you go, I will come by later with bath water and food, in the meantime there is a heated massage chair here, all you have to do is sit in it and it will adjust to you."
Meowth hearing Chansey was so happy, he didn't even care about the Murkrow who was pressing itself against the glass, trying to get a close as possible to the coin on Meowth's forehead.
Once Chansey was gone, Meowth eagerly hoped into the chair, there was even a small bowl of berries nearby that with ease, he popped an Oran berry into his mouth. As he did the chair started heating up as did it did it also started slowly moving his back, he was in heaven.
"130% worth it!"
Closing his eyes Meowth started to doze off, as he did he heard a faint clicking sound. Not putting much though into it he chose to ignore it, this proved to be a mistake when the clicking sound started again but this time it was much closer.
Curiously opening one eye he glance over in the general direction that the sound came from, as he did he saw that the door to his pen was open and he saw Murkrow swallowing a bobby pin.
He couldn't even react when Mukrow lunged forward, aiming for the coin that was attached to his forehead. The moment Murkrow pulled, pain came from Meowth's head. Trying to get rid of the bird, Meowth's paws glowed as he tried to use scratch.
For a moment Murkrow abandoned his effort and dodged the attack, then he started hovering, waiting for Meowth to drop his guard. Meowth on the other hand, wasn't happy, "hey! What's the big idea bub!" He shouted in pokemon speech.
Murkrow didn't even bother to respond, only focused on the shiny. As Meowth watched Murkrow he though it over, regardless tomorrow he would kicked out of the pokemon center after breakfast, this wasn't a shelter. Also James wouldn't get paid until next week, while Jessie the week after. He did not want to try to figure out how they were going to survive until then.
A new light appeared in Meowth's eyes, gaining an idea he pulled his tail towards himself. Tucked inside was the only emergency money he had, a coin with a string through it, enough to make am emergency call through a phone booth. Coin in hand Meowth covered his head with one of the blankets that Chansey had provided earlier, then he tossed the coin the air.
Murkrow, now not able to see the shiny was about to attack Meowth, when a new shiny appeared, not as bright but still shiny. Murkrow swooped in and grabbed the coin in his talons, and now with something new, Murkrow started trying to find his way out of the pokemon center.
It didn't take him long, soon the bird was flying. Meowth, while taking the blanket snuck out of the pokemon center, silently following behind Murkrow. After an hour of navigating and scrambling through the city Murkrow finally landed in an unremarkable tree.
Remembering the location, Meowth left, heading back towards the pokemon center, tomorrow he would get Jessie and James to help him.
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Author's note
Don't worry about the "missions" Arceus/Toby will send Hikari on, example for a future chapter, to make sure that the hisuian growlithe don't dissapear too fast she'll have to give them hair cuts so they can actually see.