Chapter 3

"Alright. Our magic bags have a pretty much all the gear we could need for hiking, especially if what you said about clear dirt paths connecting the towns. I personally feel better with a little more food, even though this thing is already holding a weeks worth. I would rather it hold as much possible just in case. Hikers back on Earth would kill for a bag that doesn't weigh anymore no matter how many things or how big of things you put in it." Michelle finished as we sat at the bottom of Oak's hill coming up with a plan of action.

"Well. We don't know yet if there's a limit to how long something will remain fresh inside the pack, but considering it has all the same tabs in its menu as the games do. As well as adding a gear section and a food section, getting rid of TM/HMs, battle items and mail. I would assume everything would stay fresh indefinitely." Leaning back against the grass watching over Charmander, Pikachu and Pidgey playing. Poor Charmander was much slower than the other 2 and was constantly playing catch up. This brought a slight smile as I realized even this could be training his speed inadvertently. Turning back to Michelle I continue.

"Besides we have a pretty good chunk of money between us so it won't hurt splurge a little before we leave. Try some already cooked meals and see what happens when we put them in the bag and figure it out as we go." She mulls over my words and nods with a smile

"You're right. We're already well, almost over, equipped for the relatively short hike ahead. Why don't we check out a local restaurant around here for breakfast and then be on our way?" Nodding I launched myself up with a grunt and then held out a hand to lift Michelle up as well.

"Alright guys, we're going to get some breakfast. Who's hungry?" I call to our a Pokémon where they immediately pause and dart over. Pikachu made it first with Pidgey being a close second followed by Charmander at a respectable pace himself.

"Good. Lets get going!" I said and we marched further into town. I had wanted to get a jump on the journey as early as possible, but I realized there was no real reason to rush. Maybe had everything gone exactly as the show I would have went to help Ash before he caused the Spearow problem, but surely that won't happen this time right?

It didn't take long before we came across a small diner named Pattie's Diner. It sold both human and Pokémon and while we ate I asked the Pattie herself about making Pokémon food. I knew from the show it was a kibble style food, but while that would be the main portion of mine and Michelle's Pokémon's food I still wanted to add other stuff as well.

She was happy to pass on some information to new Pokémon trainers, delighted in the fact that her recipes would keep our pokemon well taken care of. While I would use her recipes I planned to tweak them slightly once I learned more about the food situation in this world. I was the cook for both me and Michelle, as well as the nutritionist for the wildlife rescue we ran back on earth. Safe to say we knew how to interact with non domesticated animals as well as tend their variety of needs.

My heart twinged a little thinking about all the animals that got left behind and what would happen to them. But I would just have to trust in our employees and board members to keep up our work. Shaking away those thoughts we soon left the diner to go to an open market that Pattie had suggested. It had everything from berries to cuts of meat and seafood.

I wasn't too worried about where the meat came from considering nobody else around here seemed to care. Maybe a little guilt as I saw a magikarp fillet for sale, but ignored it. It was the norm in this world after all and I don't know if I could go without meat. We stocked up some more on the fresh meats both land and sea as well as some chicken. Bags of rice, corn and other grains as well as bundles of many different berries, and all of it easily went inside our bags with no sign of the weight increasing or any kind of limit approaching.

It was interesting seeing all the Pokémon helping their owners setup or even run their stalls, and for some reason that made me think of Team Rocket. Specifically Jessie, James and Meowth for some reason. And then I hoped we didn't have too many interactions with them, I really didn't feel like protecting my Pokémon every week from them.

Now sufficiently stocked on pretty much anything we could need from first aid and camping gear, all the way to food for us and the Pokémon we were ready to really begin our journey. We enjoyed having our Pokémon walking beside us down the path. Back on Earth we had obviously wanted our own pets to do this with, but we practically lived at the rescue. That wouldn't be any kind of life for our pets if they had to stay at home all day. Plus for me at least the emotional connect of taking care/ rehabilitating wildlife was enough.

Pikachu walked on Michelle's left side, I was on her right and Charmander was on my right with Pidgey coasting in wide circles above us on the look out for some pokemon. I was thinking of catching at least one of every pokemon but I didn't know what I would do with all of them. Of course they could go to Oak's lab and he periodically lets the pokemon out of their balls and will take great care of them.

I suppose I could do a rotation system. Charmander and Pidgey would be the main 2, but I would swap in others the remaining 4 slots. Ya I think I like that idea. Bringing me out of my thoughts, Michelle speaks.

"Hey Jace."

"Ya?" I ask turning my head to look at her.

"How do we make money in this world? We still have plenty in our bags, but it'll run out eventually if we don't have a way to make more." I nodded at her words turning back to the path ahead as I answered.

"I guess it's like anywhere. We could find jobs doing one thing or the other, I imagine we could ask professor Oak to be a sort of research assistant and we might could get a bit of money from that. Though my plan for making money, while looking at it now was a little dumb, was pokemon battles."

"Pokemon battles?" She asked so I continued.

"Well trainer battles and gym battles specifically. You see in the games at least when you beat another trainer they gave you money, same with the gym leader."

"Gym leader?"

"Another time." I waved my hand to dismiss her question as I continued. "Anyways now that I think about it it was dumb to put full faith in that being a way to make money let alone the risk to it. I'm fairly confident in my Pokémon knowledge even with battling, but if I lose that means I would also have to hand over money."

Michelle nods as she begins thinking it over and then turns back to me.

"I think we should do that research assistant thing you were talking about. I'm sure we would learn more as well working for a professor. I would feel a lot better with a stable income, and you could still do those trainer battles without having to worry too much about losing."

I nod in agreement as I pulled out my Pokédex and pulled up the contacts list and clicked on Professor Oak's number that had been preprogrammed into the device. It brought up a FaceTime like screen before the call connected and I was face to face with Oak.

"Oh, Jace is there any problems?" I shook my head.

"No, no problems really. I just had a question for you. How would you feel about me and Michelle being field researchers for you? I'll admit this is a selfish ask for a job so that we can make a little money, but we'll definitely take it seriously. She loves to explore and I plan to catch a lot of Pokémon while we explore as well. What do you say?" He brought a hand to his chin as he thought it over but quickly nodded with a smile as he began typing away on a computer out of frame.

"You should get a pop up on both of your Pokédex's in 3.. 2.. 1 annnnd now. That pop up is just a info sheet for you both to fill out and once you finish it, it will automatically download a new app as well as install some "dev" features that are limited to researchers and their assistants. All that I ask is that whenever you come across a pokemon, one of you try to take some pictures or video of it. Even a video of battle would be helpful. If you capture it, just scan it with the Pokédex and just send the data back to me." Michelle and I both nodded as we began working through the document he sent.

"Alright we're done professor." I said

"Yes I just received the files. Okay you should have a "Field Researcher: Professor Oak" section on your profile now. This will get you in a lot of places that normal trainer would not be allowed, and it adds you to a registry of other assistants. Various Pokémon centers, marts, gym leader and even other researchers can send you a request directly. And yes each request comes with monetary compensation as well as can be denied if you don't wish to do it."

I could feel my face brightening into a smile and immediately a pop up notification came up for both our dexs.

<Request from Professor Oak- continuous: Pokemon field research and data collection>

For Jace Perry and Michelle Baker

[Accept]

[Decline]

I looked at Michelle with a smile before nodding. We both clicked accept and a thank you screen popped up. Before it had a description of the job mainly consisting of what he had already told us, but it also had a "suggestion" tab based on our location. Pidgeys and Spearows were at the top, being the closest to us and then Mankey and Sandshrew also showed up.

"How come poliwag and magikarp are greyed out Professor?" I asked

"Ah! That would be because I haven't added a fishing pole equipment box in that form yet. If you have one I can add the aquatic tag to your profile as well, though I highly recommend you have a water Pokémon before accepting any water based requests you may take." I once again nodded at his words as I answered.

"Yes we both have 2 high quality rods, so please add us to the aquatic list as well." Michelle nodded as well and soon our profiles updated again with the Land and Sea tags following our Field researcher titles.

"Very good that should be everything. You will both receive a weekly payment of 10,000 dollars as long as you are actively sending me Pokémon data. You're free to take any requests that come up on the request board. I think that should take care of your money problems?"

"Yes Professor, thank you very much."

"Of course, of course. Anything to help budding trainers along their way. Now get out there and explore! Good luck, Jace and good luck to you too Michelle."

""Thanks Professor."" Me and Michelle replied as I hung up the call. Turning to Michelle i smile big.

"10k a week ain't too shabby if I say so myself." She nods with a smile.

"Ya I feel a lot better than before, but why did he accept us so quickly?" I thought over her words a little before shrugging.

"Maybe this world is just different. I mean that lady at the diner just gave us her recipe for poke food. Lets just take it as a win. I'm sure we'll be fine." She hesitated for a second but eventually nodded and grabbed my hand in her as we started walking again. However soon we were stopped again and I was a little surprised.