Ch. 18

** Emily's POV **

"Hey Allister. Do you have any idea why Green, myself, and now Jake all have an active System?"

'How should I know Emily?"

"I just thought you might have an idea."

'Nope. Maybe it's just luck.'

"Maybe"

'By the way your Ninetails should be just about through with giving birth, another twenty minutes at most. Five healthy Vulpix.'

"Glad to hear it."

'By the way. Why are you still keeping the fact you have a System from your family?'

"Allister we have already been over this. You and I both know what kind of perverts have awakened the Pokemon Breeding System in the past. I don't want Green to get the wrong idea."

'When you tell him what System you have I will not be bound by privacy restrictions and can explain how you got it. No one will misunderstand.'

"Allister it's my decision when to tell someone and I'm saying not yet."

'Fine. Fine. Have it your way.'

At that moment the male Ninetails came out of the den and yipped at me putting a stop to my conversation with Allister.

"Is it over boy? Can I go in and check on your mate?"

The Ninetails yipped again before turning and going back in.

'He said yes.'

"Yeah Allister, I kind of figured that."

Getting down on my hands and knees I crawled into the small cave the two Ninetails had dug and there not far from the entrance was my Ninetails laying on her side with five little balls of fur curled up against her. As I approached she opened her eyes and gave me a tired whine. Reaching out I stroked her head.

"Hey girl. Are you ok?"

'Allister scan her and tell me her condition.'

A green light only I could see flashed inside the small cave.

'She is fine Emily. She is exhausted but that is to be expected.'

'Thanks Allister.'

Continuing to stoke my Pokemon's head I told her.

"You did well girl, get some rest."

She closed her eyes and I turned my attention to the 5 newborn vulpix. Opening my System Pokedex I scanned each one in turn. Mentally flipping past the Pokemon description I looked at the growth potential for each. The first two had a 2 star rating, the third was 3 stars, the fourth was 1 star and the fifth was also 3 stars. 5 healthy Vulpix with good potential as well as good coloring, one looked a little lighter in color but the lighting is not the best so I could be wrong. There are only two commissions for Vulpix so I'll be able to leave three with their parents. Turning to Green's Ninetails I bid farewell and left.

"Take good care of your family. I'll come check on all of you tomorrow."

Once out of the den I stood up and dusted myself off. Finished with that I checked the time, almost 2 o'clock. I had finished my work for the day so I decided to take Jake home.

** Jake's POV **

I woke to someone gently shaking my shoulder. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes I looked up to see my mom smiling at me.

"It's time to go home Jake."

Nodding I tried to get up only to find that Daisy had fallen over in her sleep and now had her head resting in my lap. I looked up at mom and saw her smile had gotten even wider.

"The two of you make a cute couple."

"Moooom. That's not funny."

Mom started laughing while I began trying to shake Daisy awake.

"Mom she won't wake up."

Mom, still chuckling, reached down and picked Daisy up. Still asleep Daisy wrapped her arms around my mom's neck and snuggled closer with a murmur that made my mom smile again. Now free I stood up and started walking back to the lab with mom.

Arcanine walked right beside mom but Growlithe was darting back and forth curiously sniffing everything. It didn't take us long to get back, the two Pokemon waited by the gate while I opened the door for mom who had her hands full with the sleeping girl. Mom went in and I stayed outside with the Pokemon, the weird feeling I get everytime I went into the lab creeps me out.

Forty-five minutes, that's how long mom was inside talking. When mom came back out she had a strange look on her face.

"What's wrong mom?"

Shaking her head slightly she replied.

"It's nothing Jake. Just some things don't add up with the story Blue told Beth about what happened to your dad."

"Like what?"

"I'm not sure. We'll have to wait until your dad wakes up. Speaking of, we'll head home and pack for a few days. I want to be settled in at a hotel in Saffron City before your dad gets there."

Arriving home a few minutes later mom asked if I needed help packing. I told her I could do it so we each went and packed a bag. I may only have the body of a six year old but I can still pack an overnight bag, six sets of cloths, pajamas, and the charger for my Pokedex. It wasn't hard. Coming out of my room with my bag mom asks me a question.

"Have you charged Growlithe's Pokeball recently?"

Her question had me confused, why would I need to charge a Pokeball? Seeing the confused look on my face was apparently a good enough answer. She waved me over and I followed. Just inside my parents room was a table with two black rectangle pads on it. Each pad had six circular indents and on one of the pads there were 4 Pokeballs. Mom took two more Pokeballs off her belt and placed them in the last two spots.

"Go ahead and put Growlithe's Pokeball on the charger Jake."

Taking the ball off my belt I put it on one of the indents and as I looked closer I saw a faint red light circling the button on the front of it.

"I guess it makes sense that you wouldn't know some things no matter how much you remember from a game."

I looked at her and she kept talking.

"You know how Pokeballs work right Jake?"

"Yeah. It has it's own internal space that can contain Pokemon and also put them in a stasis like sleep."

"Exactly and both of those functions require a large amount of energy every second. The battery on a full charge can keep it working for almost a week. So charging your Pokeballs every few days is normal."

"What about when you're traveling? How do you charge your Pokeballs between towns?"

"Solar powered chargers. Now you go play while I make dinner."

Leaving my parents room I remembered that there were a few books on a shelf in my room. Looking at the title I was mildly interested so I grabbed one and started reading. Luckily for me it was written in english. It was definitely a children's book but the contents were about this world so I made sure to memorize it. Just as I was finished reading it for the second time mom called me for dinner.

Sitting at the table mom placed a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs in front of me. Looking at it for a moment I asked.

"What Pokemon are the meatballs made from mom?"

"It's half and half ground Slowpoke and Tauros. Why?"

"It is still a little weird to think that I'm eating Pokemon. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining and it's delicious but it is still a little weird."

Mom just gave me a look and nodded and then we both dug in to dinner. When we were both finished I helped mom with the dishes, she washed and I dried. Finished with that we sat on the couch watching TV. A few minutes later mom's phone buzzed with an incoming text.

Beth: [Turn on the news there is a story about the Arbok subjugation.]

Grabbing the remote mom flipped to the news channel. Scrolling across the bottom of the screen was written "Coming up 'TOTEM ARBOK NEST DISCOVERED NEAR PALLET TOWN'."

It was a brief story with only minor details, just enough to make those watching want to hear more. Over 100 million Pokemon in the nest, Pokemon Rangers were already taking action, no risk to any towns in the area, and that the subjugation was nearly finished with zero casualties. When the story was done mom sent a text back to Aunt Beth.

Emily: [Kind of light on details wasn't it?]

Beth: [Well what did you expect? Even we don't know the full story and we have direct access to those who are there.]

Emily: [That's true. I'll be stopping by the lab first thing to check on Ninetails but after that I'm taking Jake to Saffron City to wait for Green's arrival. So I will not be able to take Daisy tomorrow.]

Beth: [I understand. Give Green my best wishes when you see him.]

Emily: [Will do, goodnight Beth.]

Setting the phone down mom flipped back to the movie we were watching. When it was over mom scooped me up, carried me to my room, helped me get ready for bed, then tucked me in and gave he a peck on the forehead.

"Goodnight Jake, sleep well."

"Goodnight mom, love you."

"I love you too sweetie."

Mom left the room and I just lay there for a bit before opening my System. My missions had already been completed and claimed so I skipped that page and opened the shop. I was stunned, there were now dozens of items available. That morning there had only been about a dozen items available but now there were all kinds of berries, Pokeballs, healing items, a few TMs and some other miscellaneous items.

The only difference between now and this morning is the number of Pokemon I had scanned into my Pokedex. Realizing the connection I looked closer at the items available. The biggest thing that stands out is that there are no ultra balls, max potions, full restores, or revives. Basically the highest quality items are still unavailable.

Moving to the Missions Tab I wanted to see if anything there had changed as well. And sure enough there were no missions available, they were all grayed out with the word 'UPGRADING' and a progress bar on each.

Opening each tab in turn I looked for other changes and only found one more. My inventory now had a 1/5 in the bottom right corner. With a thought I flipped to the next page and the next and the next. Five pages in total each with one hundred empty boxes so five hundred boxes in all. Once again not immediately useful but more space is better than less space.

Closing my System I went over the events of the past 2 weeks in my head and I noticed something. I wasn't really enjoying it, No that's not true. I wasn't enjoying ALL of it. Spending time with my mom and dad was the best time of both my lives. It was everything else that wasn't enjoyable. It felt like I was playing a part in a story where I didn't belong, again not exactly, the Jake Grady of this world belongs but not the Jake Grady from Earth. Having memories and the mentality of a thirty year old in a 6 year old body just wasn't going to work. I knew what I had to do but I was going to need help.

Opening the mini-map to full screen I zoomed in as far as I could, the markers for mom and Darkrai were in mom's room. Closing the map and looking at the clock I saw it was nearly one o'clock in the morning. Getting out of bed I slowly walked down the hall to mom's door, opening it a crack I called softly.

"Darkrai can you come to my room I need your help with something."

Closing the door I went back to my room where Darkrai was already waiting for me.

"You could have called me from here. My hearing is much better than a humans."

"I was trying to be polite by coming to you instead of calling across the house as I would for a common pet."

"Oh.....Thank you."

".....what did you need help with?"

I explained what I wanted to do, he argued with me a bit but finally agreed when I gave him the option of helping me now and then telling my mom in the morning and letting her decide if he should undo what we did. Just before going to bed I wrote two short letters, placing one in my Item Box I handed the other to Darkrai, then I went to sleep and Darkrai spent the next few hours altering my memories.