27 Awkward Adventure (3/3)

[Words: 1724]

Reality was a game. Lora was determined to win.

And she meant both statements with complete sincerity. No metaphors or anything like that. Reality, for her at least, was indeed a game.

The moment her eighth birthday hit, something exploded within her. Unlike most other women, puberty came as fast as it could. And with it came… changes. And again, unlike most other women, her puberty was a bit different.

When she woke up that day, everything seemed… clear. Vivid. Vibrant. Like the world was once blurry and now she had perfect clarity. It was a wondrous experience, her first time seeing everything in a new light.

And then the numbers appeared, plunging that clarity into confusion and headaches.

The numbers that shaped reality. That whispered in her ear late at night. Things she couldn't -shouldn't- possibly know. Filled her mind with details about things she was curious about. Backstories of people she'd just met.

They told her that it was all a game. That everyone else was an NPC- a non-player character, and that she was the only real contender. The only real player in a world full of fakes.

Uncle Xatu shut that shit down real quick.

He explained that she was simply a psychic and that this was her power's manifestation. A particularly high level of clairvoyance. That some people had different specialties and that hers was just… odd.

She listened, but she didn't believe him. The numbers were real. The game was real. He was only an NPC, and the game told her it was the way he rationalized his worthless existence.

And he was only called uncle because she didn't know what else to call him. He wasn't her dad.

Her real parents were both Pokemon trainers. Killed for some unknown reason in a random Johtoan forest and left to rot. By whom? No idea.

Why they were there in the first place with a child of all things? She had no idea about that either.

They were on the run from someone. No sane parent would take their baby into a feral Pokemon-filled forest. But who were they running from? Why?

Xatu wouldn't explain any further than that, so she left the clan's grounds. She stole an egg from the hatchery and slipped away.

To Kanto.

With her perfect memory, studying online became a cinch. And with her Youngster License, she memorized all the Pokemon knowledge available.

Existing as a 'Player' was taxing on her energy levels, as the smaller facets of her ability were always on. Like her ability to see someone's 'level'.

Her Natu was useful to make up for that. It was why he sat in her hair all the time. To be a battery, of sorts. She saw him as more of a comrade than a battery, but potato puhtahtoh.

So she decided to lay low for a while. Use the time until the third Rookie Recruitment, in 9 months, to increase Natu's Energy Mastery.

Money was a necessity, so she made some friends that could be useful for missions while she waited. People who could be easily swayed and wouldn't question her most of the time.

Joe was a low-level NPC. He had a high CHARISMA and VITALITY, but an unsurprisingly low INTELLIGENCE.

She wasn't that good at talking to people, so she was gonna use him to recruit others. That hadn't been necessary, since Robin was already acquainted with him.

They had some sort of history, but she tried not to pry into people's backstories. It always ended up with her saying something she shouldn't know.

Robin was an odd one. She was also a low-level NPC, of course, but she had a high WISDOM and a low CHARISMA. The two sort of complimented each other.

Although she wasn't particularly smart, she knew how to get things done. She knew what to look out for, and who to look out for. Street smarts, if you will. Meanwhile, Joe knew nothing and was like a child running after a Butterfree. But he could charm almost anyone with that smile of his, and get out of any trouble if he tried.

Robin could parse a plan to get out of sticky situations, and Joe could go through with it. A perfect team.

That was until Izan showed up.

He grated on her nerves ever since she saw him. For one, he looked at her like she was a bug under his shoe the first time he saw her. She almost panicked, thinking he saw her true personality, but no. He was just weird.

Understatement on weird.

Every time she tried to get any information about him, it came up… off.

She tried getting his 'Stats', and she didn't get much. He had a high LUCK. That was it. That was the only stat she could gleam, and it gave her a massive headache for almost a day.

A fluke, or something, she reasoned. Or he too was a psychic and could block her ability? Whenever that happened, all she got back was a disapproving look from the higher-level NPC.

A bit embarrassing, to be honest.

But no, even as she tried every method she could to measure him, he had zero psychic energy.

So when they met again, she tried to look into his backstory.

Bad idea. Nightmare bad idea. Like holy shit. All that even came up was-

'Izan is a Mystic with two halves of a shattered WISH. A ???, and a WISH from WISH. His WISH half was summoned by TIME, who accomplished this with help from Jirachi.'

And the mother of all fucking headaches. A throbbing migraine that almost made her stumble and mess her up her nice girl act.

What did she learn from that besides don't do it again? Virtually nothing. But at least she knew why it happened.

He was a Mystic. A person who was blessed by a minor god. Major gods didn't care about humanity anymore, but every so often a minor god would bless someone.

It didn't happen as much as it used to, but it still happened. There was a guy a few years ago who swept the entire Kanto league with a single Pikachu. It was the reason so many people loved the little mouse nowadays. Blessed by Mew, he gained insight into every Pokemon he met. It allowed him to bring out their latent potential to the fullest.

And when he disappeared, he left the first iteration of the Pokedex behind.

So she got the warning from whatever patron god was watching over him. To back off or she'd disappear too.

Though, if she used context clues, he was most definitely blessed by Jirachi. And he was in contact with whoever was blessed by… Celebi? Celebi.

Couldn't have been Dialga. He was a major god and they were… mean.

She would've straight up died if it was Dialga. Or got sent back in time a few thousand years without memories. Major gods were brutal. And cruel.

Now though, the only thing she was curious about was the question marks. Even if everyone else was an NPC, some NPCs were destined to be great. They could keep their crummy secrets and complicated backstories.

They were all still NPCs at the end of the day. She was the only Player here.

But question marks only appeared when it was a concept she didn't know about. And considering she had an eidetic memory, she knew a fuck ton.

There shouldn't be a single word she didn't know.

Unless it was a Pokemon she didn't know about? Was he a Pokemon, perhaps?

PAIN.

"Ah, fuck." She groaned. The headaches were back. Got it, don't think about it too hard or there would be consequences.

The soothing feeling of psychic energy permeated her brain for a moment. She opened her eyes to see a disapproving stare from a little bird. Her bird.

Natu spoke.

~Perhaps you should refrain from trying to observe that… anomaly? It is clearly above your ability~ He snarked. Sometimes she wished telepathy didn't come with the psychic package.

Also, she wasn't sure if he snarked or if he was being genuine.

'Thanks.' She deadpanned in response. He was a pain in the ass sometimes, either way.

He ignored her tone and bowed as well as he could. ~I am to please, My Lady.~

She frowned. He for some reason decided that he wanted to be a butler a few months ago and hadn't let it go yet.

Well, whatever. As long as he was happy. And the blanket was way too comfy for her to snark back at the moment.

Wait, wasn't she walking down the road? Why was she suddenly laying down on a comfy blanket? She had to get-

A wave of comfort blasted her from Natu's general direction.

She knew Natu was probably worried about her and was manipulating her to go to sleep but… meh. It was working.

Sleepy times it is.

[}-{]

Izan blinked.

Joe blinked.

Robin blinked.

Without any rhyme or reason, Lora suddenly collapsed. Izan knew people could be unfit, and they were walking for eight hours already, but that was just… bizarre.

She dropped like a sack of potatoes out of nowhere. But before she could hit the ground, a tent just materialized around her, softening her fall.

He didn't even get a few seconds to process that before a green little ball of feathers hopped out. Natu stared at them like they were idiots before Izan suddenly heard a voice.

~What are you all looking at? My Lady is resting. Go find something to do in the meantime.~ He paused and then pointed one of his wings at Izan. ~Especially you, weird one. Shoo. Your presence is unnerving.~

Izan couldn't help it. He snorted.

And he thought today would be boring.

[+]<Chapter 2/3>[+]

I really hope you readers don't mind that I changed quite a bit about the Pokemon world. My version probably has just as many plot holes, but I like it this way. Anywho...

RQ: Would you rather be a Psychic or an Aura Guardian? The canon version, not fanon. For some reason, fanon thinks Aura Guardians are just broken op but if u look at the wiki, they're just sort of people with empathy kicked up to 11. And Hadouken's.