The twins and their Meowstic had teleported me inside an airplane and left. Well, this was a private jet to be exact, one of the fancy ones that a plebeian like me would only ever be able to dream of.

  And now I was sitting across from a blonde lady in a tan trenchcoat and an Elgyem in the private jet’s fancy leather chairs. Gengar and Banette had made themselves at home on the other side of the plane to play some of the video games available on a fancy TV, Mismagius was reading a Hoenn tourist magazine, and Winnie was enjoying a bunch of fancy pecha berry cupcakes.

  “So, you must be Azalea. I’ve heard a lot about you from Justine’s dad.” The lady said, then she showed me an interpol badge. “I’m Agent Ginger, and this is Ellie. We’re Cofagrigus’s interpol contacts.”

  Huh, which area of the Pokemon world has Australian accents? Cause Kalos people have kind of french accents, and Galarian and Paldean people have scottish and Spanish accents. Kenta had a slight Japanese accent, now that I think about it.

  Ellie’s eyes glowed blue as she flicked a hand and used Psychic to grab Rotom from my pocket. The phone ghost let out a flurry of what sounded like its version of swear words as the psychic type tapped a finger on the phone’s screen and downloaded something onto it before letting Rotom go. Rotom let out a few more angry “BZZT” sounds as it flew back into my pocket.

  Ginger chuckled and said, “You’ll be able to use what was downloaded to contact me from now on.”

  I nodded, and then Ginger kept speaking, “So can I assume that the ultimate weapon is no longer an issue?”

  I nodded again, “Uhh, yeah. We’ve dealt with that.”

  “Great!” Ginger said, “One less issue for me to deal with! You don’t need to worry about Team Flare either, Olympia told me she’s got the rest covered.”

  I raised an eyebrow. How does she plan on dealing with Team Flare? And how does getting rid of the ultimate weapon factor into that? Does Lysandre have a secondary plan for this? Then it hit me, I was only thinking about the game’s plot. Did Olympia need me to get rid of the ultimate weapon so that Lysandre would be delayed and switch to trying to use Zygarde, which would lead to the events of the anime? Then why would I need to go deal with the giant rock in Hoenn? And how do the names Claudia and Sylvester factor into this??? I’m missing something here.

  I realized I had been zoning out and that it was quiet, so I awkwardly coughed, “Ahem, uhh, soooo what’s with the private jet?”

  The blonde agent didn’t seem to mind and smiled cheekily, “Oh, it’s one of Devon’s private jets. They sent one because you’ll be working with Steven.”

  Steven? Ooooooohhh. I sat up straight, “What? Wait. Steven Stone. Like, Champion Steven?!”

  “Heh, yes, but he’s just Steven for now. Wallace is the current Hoenn Champion.”

  I gave the interpol agent a confused look, “I need to keep up with the news more, when did this happen?”

  “After last season.” Ginger answered, “You remember the whole thing with Team Aqua and Team Magma?”

  I nodded and she continued, “Long story short, people think Steven could’ve prevented the Aqua and Magma terror attacks incident from happening, which is true. It was common knowledge that Maxie and Archie, both men with a lot of money and power, had extreme views. If he was more vigilant with them, the red and blue orbs might’ve never been stolen, and they might’ve never gotten access to mega evolution.”

  Oh, wow.

  “That criticism also made it harder for him to work with the Draconids and Sootopolis on how to handle Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, and the orbs.” Ginger explained, “The Draconids lost their lorekeeper, and Sootopolis was ground zero for the incident.”

  “Hmm, but why Wallace?” I asked. I know he’s really strong but what would make him politically a better choice than Steven?

  Ginger nodded and kept explaining, “Well, aside from being one of the few people in Hoenn who are champion level, Wallace is popular and has good relations with the Draconids.”

  Ellie made some more morse code noises and Ginger nodded and pointed to the psychic type, “yeah, he's especially popular in Sootopolis. And he’s the only person in Hoenn who can best Steven in a battle.”

  Ellie tilted her head and made more morse code sounds with a zing at the end that made the sentence sound like it was a question.

  “I don’t know, maybe Norman?” Ginger replied to her partner, tapping her chin in thought, “Maybe Glacia or Drake.”

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  “So is Wallace gonna stay as the Champion?” I asked.

  “Nah,” Ginger waved a hand and chuckled, “Don’t tell anyone this, but I’ve heard behind the scenes, he’s pretty upset about not being able to attend the Wallace Cup this year.”

  Ellie raised her hand, the psychic type’s multicolored fingers flashed as she beeped what sounded like morse code. Ginger nodded with a smile and responded, “Yeah, and Steven’s finally getting some free time to dig for fossils and rocks.”

  Then I asked, “Wait, so why are we going to be working with Steven?”

  Ginger shrugged, “Steven was a vague about it since it’s not interpol business. It’s something related to someone going around Hoenn stealing keystones. Apparently Olympia told them you’d know who the culprit is.” The interpol agent gave me a questioning look.

  I scratched my head as I tried to connect the dots. What comes after Teams Aqua and flare are defeated?......... “OH!” I clapped my hands together, “The delta episode!” Where’s Brendan when you need him? Didn’t he/May originally deal with both Zinnia and the meteor in the game? Though I guess this world’s version of May is the same as the anime version since Ash was in Hoenn last season, right?

  Ginger raised an eyebrow and waited for me to explain, so I did, “There’s going to be a meteor shower, and a giant meteor is going to hit Hoenn, and it’s got a Deoxys inside it.”

  “A Deoxys?” The blonde agent’s eyes lit up at the mention of the alien Pokemon. Ellie beeped in morse code again and Ginger translated, “Yeah, two Deoxys appeared in Hoenn last season, so it might be searching for those two.”

  Oh yeah, there was that movie all about Rayquaza chasing down a Deoxys.

  “That makes sense.” I replied. I looked out the window as we heard the airplane’s engines whirr and felt the airplane begin to move.

  “Looks like we haven’t got long left,” Ginger said, “We just have one question before we go, off the books.”

  “Sure,” I replied.

  The blonde agent leaned forward and asked, “Are you a faller?”

  “Ah,” That one caught me off guard. I was thinking she’d asked me about how I disposed of the ultimate weapon. Seeing me hesitate, Ginger elaborated, “I’m just curious where you got your information from. You’re not a psychic like Olympia, so it would make sense if your from an alternate dimension that’s…perhaps set in the future? We’ve gotten fallers from dimensions set in the future before.”

  Uhhhhh, I guess I technically am a faller because I went through an ultra wormhole, but I dunno if they’ve heard about any dead people getting sent here. I ended up just awkwardly saying, “Uhhhh, well, it’s complicated…”

  “Well, if it means anything.” Ginger pointed to herself, “I’m a faller.”

  That caught my interest, “Really?” I wonder how common fallers are.

  The blonde agent nodded, “Yep.” She grinned as she rolled up her sleeves and showed me these giant ropey burn scars on her forearms, “Gnarly, right? They’re from a Nihilego.” The way the interpol agent talked about the scars made it feel like she saw them as some sort of trophy.

  Ginger then began explaining, “I’m from a world where Pokemon don’t exist—

  “Are you from Australia?” I suddenly asked. That seemed to catch the agent off guard for a moment, then she recovered and leaned forward a bit, “Yeah. Where’re you from?”

  Waiiit, someone from the same world?!

  “Somewhere in the US with, uh, snow.” I slowly answered, “Not very specific, but I don’t remember a ton.”

  Ginger shrugged, “Yeah, ultra energy and Nihilego’s poison does that to you.” Then the agent tilted her head and asked, “How do you know so much about Pokemon then?”

  I raised an eyebrow, she must’ve at least heard about Pokemon before, right? “Uhh, cause I was a pretty big fan of the franchise. I played most of the games.”

  The agent gave me a confused look, and an idea dawned on me. Wait, she could be from a different world that’s similar to mine! Or maybe she’s from a different time period? Ginger seemed to be coming to the same conclusion as me when she slowly said, “We didn’t have anything called Pokemon, at least not that I know of. Our version of a Pokemon game would probably be Digimon.”

  I raised an eyebrow at that. Digimon? “Hmm, that’s interesting.”

  “So all of your information comes from knowledge you have of the games.” Ginger stated.

  “Yep,” I confirmed and added, “and the anime, and the wiki pages. There’s a bunch of mangas for them too, but I never read any of them.”

  Ginger scratched her chin as she contemplated this information, “So we’re in a world that’s a game franchise in another world. Fascinating.”

  “Elg-yem.” Ellie then impatiently beeped, interrupting the agent’s train of thought. Ginger sighed and nodded, “Alright, Ellie.” The two got up, and the blonde agent held out a hand, “Well, pleasure meeting you Azalea.”

  I got up and shook her hand, “Uhh, yeah, thanks for dealing with the bad guys I told you about.”

  The interpol agent chuckled, “No problem. Besides, taking down criminals is one thing, dealing with a meteor isn’t a task I envy. Good luck Azalea.”

  The agent then let an Alakazam out of a Pokeball. Ellie and the Alakazam then raised their arms, their eye glowing, and then all three of them disappeared.

  I collapsed back into my seat and buckled it. Looking out the window, I could see our plane was waiting for its turn to take off on the runway. I let Thoron out to stretch his wings, and he hopped onto the seat where Ginger had been sitting.

  What the heck am I going to do when I get to Hoenn? Well, I knew what I had to do, just not how. Initially, I just thought I’d have to deal with the Giant Rock, but now a region-destroying meteor had been added to the list, as well as dealing with Zinnia and finding out what the names Claudia and Sylvester had to do with all of this.

  And now on top of all that, I’d have to work with a champion. Well, ex-champion, but that didn’t make it any better. I’d totally appreciate the help, but just the thought of having to meet someone with the sort of prestige and fame made my stomach hurt. Well he’s a person too, I’ll just imagine his head as a potato if I get too nervous. Wait, no I’ll end up laughing at him.

  At the very least, I probably wouldn’t have to wing it dealing with the meteorite or Giant Rock if I was working with someone on the same level as a Champion. I was still in disbelief at how I somehow managed bargaining with a god that seemed to have the emotional intelligence of a child followed by stealing something the size of the Eiffel Tower. I’m gonna need to add a Victini to my party if I wanna keep up a win streak like this…

  Wait, wasn’t it Brendan/May who originally mega-evolved Rayquaza to destroy the meteor? Well, it’s probably Brendan cause May I think was travelling with Ash last season. A quick Pokenet search confirmed that the May of this world was more accurate to the anime version. Brendan was her older brother. And where was the main character of the Ruby/Sapphire games? Alola. He was chilling in Alola.

  Great.

  I sighed and sank deeper into my seat. Thoron chirped and looked at me with a tilted head. I waved, “I’m good Thoron, just tired.”

  “Rufflet.” Thoron settled into a loaf position and began preening himself.

  I looked over at the ghosts who were now trying to figure out how to play a board game they’d found. Winnie was eating his cupcakes and watching Mismagius try to mediate between Gengar and Banette yelling at each other about what they thought the rules meant.

  I’ll just sleep first and worry about this later when I’m not exhausted and can think clearly. Yep.