Chapter 20
Nurse Joy, Willow, Jenny holding Chester, Tecia, and Terror arrived via a teleporter transmission, feet down on Earth without a receiving pad.
“Oh!” Jacey said. “How did you do that?”
“Our ship evolved when we traveled to this Universe, making system upgrades to the teleporter,” Terror said. “We no longer have to have a receiving pad on the far side. Where’s Loxy?”
Jacky pointed down into the pit. People in the other world were still using their Pokémon phone APP to capture Grimers, cleaning up the area. Using glasses, they could see the virtual world and the real world simultaneously. Loxy was certain that Jon must be alive, perhaps hiding in a tunnel, or under a pile of rubble. An occasional shout of accomplishment could be heard, “I got em.’ There was one, nearby lament of being too late to catch a ‘Legendary.’ These voices were spill overs from the other world, sounds leaking around the Pokémon that had been summoned to battle, and through the tech that allowed them to interface with that other dimension. “There sure a lot of nice looking avatars in this area.” Was another voice. “I so want that dress! I hope this APP makes more gear available.” “I hate the price structure. I can’t come to the city to hit all of the Pokémon stops just to get new supplies.” Terror, Willow, and Joy descended down into the pit, through the chatter level, past fleeing Pokémon and battling Pokémon, and even people battling each other as they experimented with the app. “I wish we could trade with each other.” “I hear that’s coming.” “I wish there were more color teams to choose from.” “I wish more people would play instinct.”
Team Rocket approached Loxy.
“Oh, you’re injured!” Joy said. “We should get you back to sickbay.”
“I’m not leaving until we find him” Loxy said.
“Loxy,” Terror said. “If he was anywhere on this continent, my ship’s sensor would have located him.”
“Then he’s not on this continent!” Loxy said. “And you should expand your search pattern. If there was any way for him to get out of this predicament, he would have found it and taken it.”
“Loxy,” Willow said. “We have to face the possibility he was consumed by Muk.”
“Muk was captured and sent directly to the ship,” Loxy said. “You would have evidence if he was consumed. A piece of his coat or a shoe.”
“It was the biggest Muk ever on record,” Terror said. “It could have fully metabolized the entirety of him and not left a trace.”
Jenny approached. “Go to the ship with Joy,” Jenny said. “Chester and I will continue looking for him. I promise, if there’s a trail, Chester and I will find it. Really, you’re hurt and tired, and you’re not helping the search in your condition. You’re likely missing clues, and you’re putting yourself at risk of needing rescue, which interferes with the ship progressing.”
Loxy wearily agreed. “But I’m not giving up. As soon as my Pokémon are healed, I am coming back down and you can’t stop me,” she said.
“Of course,” Terror said. “You may beam back down to this pocket universe, or the other dimension with the people. Maybe Jon managed to slip over to the other side. We now have the frequency converter necessary to go to any of the side worlds that accompany all worlds.”
“Okay,” Loxy said. She went and stood by Nurse Joy.
“Three to teleport,” Joy said into her wrist band. “Directly to Sickbay.”
The transporter wave caught Loxy, Diance, and Joy and took them away in a cascade of brilliant lights and pleasant harmonics that chimed the air. They arrived shipside, in a Sickbay that many ‘Trek’ fans might be familiar with, only with addition of Pokémon accessories. A nurse for humans immediately began taking care of Loxy, while Joy took her Pokémon belt. Joy separated the ball and placed them into the medical pockets, and in no time at all, the chatter of musical chimes indicated that the Pokémon were all healed. She brought them back on a little push cart.
“All Six of your Pokémon have been restored to full health,” Joy said.
“Six?” Loxy said. “I only had five…”
Hopeful, Loxy sorted the balls, finding the stray sixth ball, and deployed it. Jon’s Medicham, Faye, arrived. Her hopefulness was suddenly depleted and she slumped, crying. Medicham captured her in her arms, holding her, petting her hair in a very comforting way, but Loxy was so full of emotions that she couldn’t communicate with her. him.”
“There, there,” Joy said. “Just let your love pour out. You’re safe.”
Loxy retreated from Faye, sat down on the edge of the medical table. “I really did love “Oh, we all did,” Joy said.
Reese entered, rushed her and hugged her up, and new crying scene started.
“OMG, please tell me you two aren’t going to be doing this for the rest of our lives,” Mentos said. “Jon wouldn’t want us crying over him.”
“We should so throw a pirate party, and like send a burning ship out to sea,” Nick said.
“Jon would probably like that,” Reese said, wiping her eyes.
“No, he wouldn’t want us polluting the ocean,” Loxy said.
“You should go pick out his favorite Pokémon, and we line up on the deck and launch a torpedo in his honor,” Joy said.
“Yeah, we could perform my favorite song, “Calling All Pokémon,” Reese said, referring to the parody song of Calling All Angels, only instead of starting off with the naming of saints, it was a list of Pokémon. “I bet Jon would love that song.”
“No! We’re not giving up on him yet,” Loxy insisted. “He’s going to show up! He and Nissa are just going to pop up when we least expect it. You know how distracted he gets. He probably just got lost. Maybe he’s on the far side of the moon. Maybe he’s in another dimension of space-time.”
“Maybe he’s in the closet playing walk the plank,” Nick offered, joining in her enthusiasm.
“Exactly! We’re not giving up! We’re going to scan the whole earth, and if we find nothing here, then we’re going to look harder and further,” Loxy said.
No one said anything. It was very uncomfortable.
“I want some privacy,” Loxy said.
“Quarters have been assigned to you,” Joy said.
“Come on, I’ll take you,” Reese said.
They walked the corridor. Loxy clearly had status here, as crew recognized her with salutes. They arrived at the door to her quarters that had ‘Jon and Loxy’ stenciled upon it. Loxy touched his name. Reese showed her in, showed her how to use the food maker, which was basically an oversized Pokémon ball; you made your order, you opened it, and inside was a plate of food or a glass or cup with drink. The large, oblong window, provided an excellent view of the Earth, with even a place to sit, but the trim around the window made it look like you were inside a Pokémon ball looking out onto the Universe. To get to the bedroom one had to pass through the lavatory. The doors were double, red and white, with the circle button in the center that went with the red side when each half withdrew away from each other. A large screen monitor was on a primary crew channel for mission updates: the number of Pokémon being transmitted to Willow was displayed on the screen saver. A lot of Rattatas were coming in. It was a rate larger than anything Loxy or Reese had ever considered.
“Maybe we shouldn’t make everything look like Pokémon balls,” Loxy said.
“Do you really want to be alone?” Reese asked. “I’ll stay.”
“I don’t want to make you cry more in your condition,” Loxy said.
“It’s going to happen with or without you,” Reese said.
Loxy sat on the couch, drew her legs in, and then fell to her side, almost the fetal position. Reese came and sat by her head. She petted her hair. Loxy thought she heard purring and looked to Reese, from where she heard the noise coming from.
“Are you doing that?” Loxy said.
“I can’t help it,” Reese said. “It’s a healing response, kind of like a relaxation response, but it strangely only happens when I am with people I really like.”
“That’s weird,” Loxy said. “I’ve never heard of a human who can do that.”
“I don’t usually feel safe enough with people to share this,” Reese said. “Even my brother doesn’t know I do this. I find it comforting, in a self-soothing sort of way.”
“It’s very comforting,” Loxy said, adjusting her position on the couch so that her head was now on Reese’s lap. The purring was suddenly much louder, rumbling through her. “Wow.”
“Maybe you should try and take a nap, and let my purring restore you,” Reese said.
“Oh, I can’t sleep,” Loxy said.
“I bet I have a Pokémon that says otherwise,” Reese said, in a very Nurse Joy sort of way.
“I suppose we could try a sleeping aid,” Loxy said. “But I don’t want to be out more than a couple hours.”
“Okay,” Reese said, patting Loxy so she would let her up.
“Not yet,” Loxy said. “I really like this.”
They sat for a few more minutes and then Loxy patted Reese’s leg, and sat up. “Let’s try the Pokémon sleeping remedy.”
Reese got up and proceeded to the computer assigned to Loxy. Pushing past the screen saver caused her to gasp.
“Oh,” Reese said. “You got him!”
Loxy rushed over to the computer to find Mega Muk. Her shoulders slump.
“There were so many Pokémon being sent up to the ship at that moment, even the computer couldn’t keep up with who got what,” Reese explained. Muk was moping in its box, looking for an avenue to get out. “Probably a mix up with system to system transfer. It seems to have sorted itself out, though.”
“Transfer it to Willow,” Loxy insisted.
“Are you sure? Not many people can claim a Mega Muk,” Reese said.
“I can still claim it,” Loxy said. “I just don’t want it in my collection.”
Reese hit the transfer option, designating Willow as a recipient, attaching a note with love, from Loxy. “Are you sure.”
“Send it,” Loxy said.
“This can’t be undone,” Reese said. Then she thought about it, out loud: “Well, it probably could be undone, based on the fact we are friends with Willow, and he might be willing to give it back if you had a change of heart, but if we were just random people on the streets who were just dumping Pokémon faster than we should and suddenly thought to our self, wait, I want that one, well, that would just be unfortunate, and a lesson learned: don’t just be giving away Pokémon without really examining your Pokémon.”
“I want it gone,” Loxy said.
Reese pushed the button. The computer asked for Loxy’s finger print authorization. She touched it, Mega Muk was transported. Right before it departed, it seemed to sense what was about to happen, looked at Loxy, and winked. Loxy was suddenly very cross with it, but before she could vocalize her soreness, she was pointing warningly at an empty box that was shrinking to reveal a score of other boxes. Reese and Loxy drew quiet, their heads tilting as they tried to make out what was in the second latest catch of the day box. They made the box more prominent. A lounge chair, with two Pokémon in the chair, their faces hidden behind a book, with Litwick offering a light, or perhaps just reading over their shoulder. The book cover revealed the title to be ‘The Pokémon Bride’ which was probably one of the most beloved fables of all time, but the updated cover had Jon and Loxy kissing.
Inside the enhanced reality environment, Jon lowered the book.
“Nissa?” Gardevoir asked.
“I feel like people are watching us,” Jon said.
“Nissa,” Gardevoir said, soothingly. She kissed his cheek.
“Litwick?” Litwick said.
“We are not singing ‘be my guest again,’ Jon said. “Meloetta is sleeping. She had a tough day. And we’re going to sleep right after this bedtime story.”
“Nissa,” Gardevoir said, snuggling closer.
“It’s my favorite part, too,” Jon agreed, and continued: "Since the invention of the kiss, there have been five kisses that have been rated the most passionate, the most pure - this one left them all behind…”
“I got him!” Loxy’s announcement was heard throughout the ship over the PA system, as she panned back to read his stats. Most recently entered the system through an Apricorn ball, transferred due to Loxy having her six…
The camera suddenly panned back, revealing that Loxy and Reese were also inside an enhanced reality environment, with James and Nick sitting next to each other, game consoles in their hands.
“We got ‘em, son!” James said.
“Yay, thanks for letting me play, Father,” Nick said. “That was a very intense game.
Much better than the last game, though. I am so glad we saved them all.”
But even that frame of reference was reduced to reveal an even larger one, and someone saying, ‘I am so glad they’re finally all playing together.’ And suddenly there was the realization that there were billions of frames of references, all looking in from different angles. Books opening and closing, movies coming on and going off, games logging in… It just makes you wonder, which enhanced reality environment are you referencing? Where are you? Are you a girl or a boy or other? What’s your name? How old are you?