Watching Professor Laventon run off, the man had some serious speed for someone of his size, Joshua takes his time to properly look around.

  Bright green grass rolls over rge hills, the ndscape is full of mountains and fertile life. Trees, bushes, and shrubbery. Though not enough to say it's woodsy or forested. Bright colorful flowers light up the area in small patches.

  There's a dirt trail leading forwards, rounding a small corner and into a clearing.

  He should help the professor, but first…

  Reaching down to his belt, he presses the release button on one of his pokeballs.

  After a brief fsh of light, Jophiel appears, tiredly wiping her eye with her hoof and lying on the ground.

  (“Beloved? What is…”)

  She freezes.

  Slowly, she turns her head, looking around at the nd.

  Then, she slowly moves her head back, meeting Joshuas’s gaze with wide eyes.

  (“Did we…?”)

  He nods.

  An absolutely BEAMING smile spreads on her face, practically glowing as a rush of emotions flood through the link.

  (“We did it”)

  “We did”

  (“We… We did it!”)

  Joshua chuckles.

  “We did!”

  She's standing up now, stepping closer as her excited eyes bore into his.

  (“WE DID IT!”)

  Joshua ughs, his own excitement being affected by hers.

  “WE DID!”

  Hysterical ughter comes through the link, not the giggles he's used to, full bellows that on the outside sounds like her bleating like a mad horse.

  (“WE DID IT, WE DID IT, WE DID IT!”)

  She starts trotting in pce, like she's dancing. He can even hear a rhythm she's building in her head.

  Deciding not to dey it any longer, Joshua opens his arms up.

  Jophiel's head snaps to him, and her eyes SHINE.

  *thud*

  She sms into him, with barely a moment to react he falls on his back as the alicorn ys on top of him, wings surrounding his body like a tight cocoon.

  Nuzzling into the burrow of his neck, she's loving into him with an inescapable joy, tears falling openly as their ughter fills the air.

  He's out of breath again, arms wrapped around her body as he embraces her with all he can.

  He kept his promise.

  They made it out.

  Such overwhelming emotions pour out of them into a storm, washing over their minds like lunatics.

  But he doesn't care.

  Neither of them do.

  “Hey, love?”

  She moves her head up, the ughter has quieted down to giggles, looking down at him, her wet eyes meet his.

  “Love you”

  Her ears perk.

  Her smile widens.

  She begins to melt.

  The link begins to flood.

  And the ughter starts again.

  …

  It took half an hour before they remembered Uriel.

  “Look I'm sorry Uri, I got distracted…”

  “Zeb-Zebstrika…”

  Uriel looks away, pouting that she missed their ‘celebration’.

  “How about this? Now that we're out, I'll make you something from my world, I think you'll like it”

  The best way to get through Stripe Horse is through her stomach, he's learned.

  It grumbles, as if agreeing with him.

  She kicks at the dirt in embarrassment.

  “Zeb…”

  As expected, she accepts.

  Joshua makes sure to hug her, God knows she deserves it too.

  “So. Before we meet with that professor guy, what's up with your evolution, Uri? It looks different”

  She looks at her hoof and just shrugs.

  Like Jophiel, Uriel had a unique evolution.

  Instead of the two lightning bolt manes, there's only one long ‘horn’ of white lightning on her head. Her fur has become a darkish blue color, and instead of stripes she has floofs of white fur around her neck and lightning bolt shaped patches of white fluff around her. Her tail also zigzags like a lightning bolt before ending in a ball of fluff.

  She looks… dragon-ish? And she's grown to be just a little shorter than Jophiel, at around five feet tall.

  He's measuring them by hoof to shoulder, which is what you're actually supposed to measure horses by, strangely enough.

  “Do you feel any different?”

  “Zeb…”

  “Besides hungry”

  She blushes.

  “Zebstrika”

  “Good. Let's see what's going on, then let's all take the best fucking nap of our lives”

  (“Agreed”)

  “Zeb!”

  Returning them back to their balls (stop ughing Jophiel), Joshua momentarily looks at the third pokeball on his belt.

  Where did he get this from? Did he pick it up from the school somewhere?

  Maybe that Porygon is in here? He wonders where they went.

  Now that he thinks about it, where's Gabriel?

  Not seeing any sign of the mare, Joshua just decides to meet his newest companion.

  He presses the button.

  Isn't Porygon-Z supposed to be batshit insane? How do you even communicate with something like that? He's about to find out.

  The light vanishes, leaving behind a…

  Blue fish dog thing.

  Its dark eyes look over its shoulders from lying zily on the floor. A smug smile gracing its lips. The Vaporeon looks back at him.

  It waves a paw.

  “Hey-”

  Joshua returns it to the pokeball without a second thought.

  “...”

  Joshua stands in silence for a moment.

  (“Are you-”)

  “I'm not”

  She pauses, hesitant.

  (“...is it bad that I'm…”)

  “Thinking about it? No”

  (“I just… cannot stop thinking about the…”)

  “Precisely why I never wanted to get one”

  (“...”)

  “I'm keeping her in her ball for now”

  (“Good idea”)

  He's just gonna… ignore the fact it spoke to him.

  And ignore the fact that he RECOGNIZES that voice.

  For now, at least.

  …

  It doesn't take long to catch up to Professor Laventon.

  He's in a rge dirt clearing, hands on his knees and panting. Looks like he was unsuccessful.

  He sighs, mumbling something under his breath before he turns and notices Joshua.

  “Aha! You've come to my rescue, my new friend from the sky!”

  He looks back out to the fields.

  “I've tried my best catching those little runaways by tossing some pokeballs their way, but I'm…”

  He sheepishly rubs the back of his head.

  “...not the best at this sort of thing, you see?”

  Turning back to Joshua, his eyes move back down to his belt, where his pokeballs sit.

  “I'd love to give you a go at it, but perhaps I should tell you a little about these three first!”

  “Cyndaquil, Rowlet, and Oshawott, right?”

  He blinks in surprise.

  “You're quite the well informed one, aren't you? From your belt I can assume you're already well versed on Pokemon?”

  …is he?

  With his link with Jophiel, he's confident in saying that he knows how Pokemon work and how they think, but overall?

  So he just shrugs.

  “Somewhat? I can't say I'm the very best”

  (“Like no one ever waaas…”)

  Stop that.

  The professor just nods and expins a little fun fact about each Pokemon to him.

  How the fuck does an owl photosynthesize?

  Then he hands over a small bag, filled with… pokeballs?

  Ye ‘old pokeballs, with a tch instead of a button and made out of wood instead of… whatever they are usually made out of.

  There's FIFTY of them?! Does he just carry this much around?!

  (“Well he did mention that he has terrible aim”)

  Still.

  Laventon seems to take his silence as a sign to continue.

  “Ah, but that won't do for an expnation, will it? I do apologize. Let me be more thorough”

  He pauses for a moment.

  “Well, actually. You have some pokemon of your own, don't you? Are you aware of their miniaturization?”

  “I'm aware, yes”

  It's a weird fanon thing that became canon, that all Pokemon can shrink their forms, but only a few can do it manually.

  “Great! And… I know we've just met, but I'm afraid I've no one else to turn to. I'd be awfully grateful if you could catch my three runaways”

  “Just the three?”

  “Yes, just the three”

  “Well alright then, I'll be right back”

  “Thank you so much!”

  Joshua walks off, looking at the weirdest design for a pokeball he's ever seen. Fiddling with one in his hand as he approaches the pond nearby.

  “If you run out of balls, do just say the word!” Laventon calls out to him.

  “He has more?!” He whispers to himself.

  (“While I will not compin about you helping someone, Joshua. I have to ask, what is the purpose of doing this?”)

  Joshua hums.

  “He asked politely”

  (“...I am waiting for the ‘and’”)

  “...And if I remember correctly, I'll be able to get into that vilge he was talking about. Would be nice to have neighbors again”

  Joshua has pyed Legends Arceus, but it's been a while. So while he has an idea of what's going to happen, the finer details and what's ‘transted’ into real life is lost.

  Plus. While Joshua isn't completely altruistic, simply helping for the sake of helping isn't a bad thing, he wants to do it. But he's not about to do anything just because someone said ‘please’.

  Huge difference between being kind, and being a doormat. THAT was drilled into his head by his mother.

  Miss you mom.

  “Ohsa! Oshawott!”

  *DUNK*

  Oshawott disappears into the ball. After a few shakes it clicks shut. There's even little fireworks, that's cute.

  Simple.

  “Oh, wonderful! You've caught a Pokemon! It seems you've quite the knack for this Pokemon-catching thing! J-Dawg! Jolly useful skill to have around here!”

  …J-Dawg?

  J-Dawg shoots a thumbs up to the man.

  (“I'm sorry, did I miss something? You just threw a ball…”)

  “Pokeballs were just invented, love. Standards here aren't that high”

  The other two are simple enough, the Rowlet broke out once but didn't try it again after getting fastballed with another one straight after.

  “Strange… you don't seem to fear them at all”

  “...should I be?” Joshua raises an eyebrow as he walks back.

  “Pokemon are wonderful and mysterious as they are dangerous, Joshua, do be careful around them in the wild”

  They aren't THAT scary.

  (“Hypno”)

  Nevermind.

  Joshua hands the pokemon back to the professor.

  “Thank you very much, indeed! Oh, what a relief to have them all back!”

  He sighs in relief before putting them in his coat.

  “You see, the three Pokemon you caught have only just arrived at the vilge to help with our research. They won't yet listen to anyone!”

  He smiles sheepishly, before he quickly switches to a bright one.

  “But I have to say, you have quite the skill in handling pokeballs. Do you have experience in this sort of field”

  “I have literally never had a pokemon battle in my life”

  “Wha… really? Now that's unexpected!”

  Professor Laventon chuckles.

  “I half expected you to be a member of the Gaxy Expedition Team, with that strange outfit and all! But it seems you really are new here! What are your pns, if you don't mind me asking?”

  Shower, burger, fries, bed. Doesn't have to be in that order.

  “For now? Maybe find a pce to re-”

  *Bzzz bzzz*

  His phone buzzes.

  Wait, his phone?

  He didn't have his phone in the Nightmare World.

  Reaching into his back pocket, he pulls out… a smartphone.

  With a white, strangely shaped case with a yellow ring. Ah, right, this was in the game.

  The Arc Phone.

  It buzzes on, a message fshing on the screen.

  >COLLECT EVERY POKEMON<

  (3/237)

  “...”

  He types out a response. The singur thing he wants to ask right now.

  >Why a Vaporeon?<

  It doesn't take long.

  *ding*

  >SHE THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY<

  Yeah that's certainly in character.

  >Do you accept refunds?<

  >NO<

  >OVO<

  Did Pokemon God just…

  Whatever man.

  It might be fun, going on a Pokemon adventure like this!

  Actually, that sounds wonderful, compared to the week he just had.

  “I'm trying to catch every Pokemon”

  Professor Laventon's eyes light up.

  And that's when Joshua remembers that Professor Laventon's dream is to fill out the Pokedex.

  They decide to team up.